MAWTT challenge 71 - Sketch

Good morning everyone.

It's another fabulous challenge over at MAWTT today and this week it's a fabby sketch from Kelli. I have really enjoyed using this one and decided to get away from cards and made a little bag for some sweeties or a present at Christmas.

I am really pleased the way this turned out. The image is from Crafty Individuals and the paper is a freebie download.

Firstly I made the brown paper bag and found some tutorials on YouTube, I then stamped over the paper, made the snowflake using a punch and a Maya Road diecut, which was painted with white acrylic paint and walnut DI added and then I liberally used glitter and stickles over them. When it had all dried I just added a gem sticker to the middle.

The flap has been covered with TH scrollwork border, edged with walnut stain and then painted with snowtex and glitter added to it whilst it was still wet in place which produced the mottled effect which I really like. You will see edging with walnut stain and stickles on the papers and image.

The sponsor this week is Clare (who used to be a design team member here) she is offering a selection of peel-offs as the prize this week. She says -
"Hi, I'm Clare. I am the owner of Thread-bare (www.thread-bare.piczo.com). It is a small craft business that likes the personal touch. The products I like to use are the products I sell. I am a stockist of Pepper & Friends, Daisy & Dandelion, Forever Friends, Design House Papercrafts, The Crafthouse Press Ltd & many more. I also stock Cross Stitch & Pinflair kits. I love making handmade cards & gifts too & I sell these in my Ebid & Folksy stores. I am currently constructing a brand new website at the moment & we hope to launch this in the new year."

Challenges to have fun with -
Order of the Opus Gluei - go forth and create a sweet project worthy of ooooh's and aaahhh's   My bag actually has chockies in it, but I didn't take a photo of that - does that link to the treat mentioned in the blog post?
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Shabby
Anything Goes - The letter B     Mine is B is for Bag
Everybody Art Challenege - Untraditional Christmas  Pink papers are untraditional aren't they?
Crafts and Me - A Christmas gift
Charisma Cardz - With love at Christmas
Paper Players - Anything Goes

It seems so dark now the nights are drawing in, but I guess that means more time to be inside and crafting - when I have finished my paperwork and reports etc that is.

Have a great day. Luv B xxxxx

Time Canvas

I have been wanting to make a canvas for ages and decided I would have a go at one for the CCC and Simon Says Stamp and Show challenges this week. So I have combined industrial grunge and shabby chic and I'm really pleased with the result.

I prepared the canvas by giving it a coat of gesso and in it I added the most tniest spot of aged mahogany re-inker to give me some splashes of pink. When it was dry I used the TH clock mask and went over it with a mushroom dabber. When that had dried I went over it again with gesson and another tiny spot of aged mahogany. It was then ready to start making my collage.

As you can see my theme is time and I wanted to add as many elements as possible related to the theme. But I also wanted to add things that would make it shabby too.

The bookplate sets the scene. Stamped with a 7 Gypsies rotating stamper and TH flourish. Covered in glossy accents.

Grungeboard hinge given the industrial grunge technique - see P54 of TH book The Compendium of Curiosities. I made the clockface using TH stamp and it reflects the masked clockface (same design), I inked it up and added stickles to the edge. The large cog I stamped with a Paper Artsy stamp then added glossy accents - hence the distressed look. There is another cog edged with walnut stain and some washers from my husbands tool box and a fancy disc I found in my collection of bits.

This is a stamp again from TH -  think you should be able to see what it says. Cut with a Spellbinders Labels 4 die and inked with aged mahogany and walnut stain.

The metal butterflies are from necklaces picked up from car boot sales and I have used alcohol inks on them and glued them together for more of a 3D look. The texture is snowtex spread through a plastic tray from a chinese take-away. Good use of recycling eh? I added some glitter to it whilst it was still wet.

Another metal rose with some small flowers beside it and some added lace. The texture is just tissue paper glued onto the canvas.

Down the side is some textured card and edged with victorian velvet, aged mahogany and walnut stain, then some upholstery braid down it.  I added some dangling pieces - a key on some chain, a fragment tag with part of a clockface added, a clock charm and a bumble bee. I decided as it's my first canvas like this is needed both my signature pieces on it. (Bumblebee and butterfly).

I think I will make some more of these - in fact I can see me making some for presents too.

Challenges to have fun with -

Studio L3 - Industrial Grunge

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Shabby

Craft your passion - Anything Goes

Incy Wincy - Anything Goes

Paper Playtime - Clock, ticket or tag

A Spoonfull of Sugar - Relish to embellish

Aly's Sunday Challenge - Distress

2 sisters challenge - No DP

Saturday Challenge - Anything that flies

Stamp Something - Stamp and use some pink

Inky Impressions - To add flowers

Flutterby Wednesday - Anything Goes with a butterfly, fairy or angel

For Fun Challenges - Use metal

Pixie Cottage - Sketch and/or recycle

Paper Players - Anything Goes

Enjoy the rest of your week. Luv B xxx

Christmas Snowman

Last week I so enjoyed working with the sketch at Posh Designs it was so unusual and this week there is another lovely one that I just had to have a go at.

I have added a little bit extra to my card and I have used the sewing machine as well.

 I love snowflakes as much as I love butterflies, and I enjoyed making this one.

  





The image is a freebie from Just4fun crafts. Thankyou Jennifer he is lovely.

I have used Snowtex on the snowman to give him some texture and Ice Diamond on the icicles. Other sparkles include glitter, star dust stickles and sakura glitter pens. The DI used is walnut stain and the ticket is from Miss Cutiepie.

I am sure you can see how I have translated the sketch, I am really pleased with the outcome.

Enjoy your day and take care. Luv B xxx

Challenges to have fun with -

Posh Designs - Sketch  (Tues)

ABC Challenge - G is for glitter  (Wed)

Simon Says Stamp - Punches and diecuts   (Wed)

Stampavie - Christmas   (Wed)

Fussy and Fancy - Winter Wonderland   (Fri)

Bee Crafty - Christmas   (Sat)

Mark's Finest Papers - Holiday card   (Sat)

Ellephantastic - Blue   (Sat)

Crafty Pad - Stitching   (Sun)

Pollycraft - Chill Time   (Mon)

Crafty Cardmakers - Stitching  (Mon)

Halloween Witch and Pumpkin

I thought I would post these pics of trick or treaters who came to my house last night.

Of course it's my grandchildren who arrived for dinner after they had been out collecting their candy. You just gotta love 'em eh?

OSAAT challenge 37 - Anything goes Christmas - Christmas Crackers

Happy Halloween, I hope the day is going well.

Today is another OSAAT challenge and this week it is to make anything that fits with the theme of traditional or modern Christmas.

I got a gorgeous fairy bear image to play with by JLJ Designs and decided it would be fabulous as part of a set of Christmas crackers for my grandaughters - so of course there had to be some pink in it.

There are several sponsors this week with some lovely prizes up for grabs.

Easycraft are giving a £10.00 voucher.   http://www.easycraft.com/      

I am Roses has some flowers to give away. http://www.iamroses.com/

Michelles scrapbooking and more is giving a $10 voucher.   http://www.michellesscrap.com/

So go on over and look at the fabulous inspiration from the OSAAT Design Team.

 

I have to say I bought the crackers but I added the pink ribbon and the image plates.

The fairy bear was coloured in Photoshop Elements and then I added shading by adding colour with Promarkers. I also added glitter to the wings, then cut the image out and set it on a grey Nestabilities Labels 4 plate.

I am going to look for some 'PINK' challenges to enter this in to as we all know it is breast cancer concern month and it is something we all need to be aware of.

Enjoy the rest of your day and the week ahead. I will not be around much again for 4 weeks as I will be working almost 24/7, but come the second week in December I will have finished and be back to visiting as well as creating and making.

Take care. Luv B xxxx

Challenges to have fun with -
Craft Your Passion - Add glitter/sparkles
Papertake Weekly - Sparkly and bright
A Spoonfull of sugar - Diecuts and punches
The ABC Challenge - G is for Glitter
Simon Says Stamp - Punches and diecuts
Stampavie - Christmas
Southern Girls - Glitter 
Alphabet Challenge - Angels or fairies
Fussy and Fancy - Winter Wonderland
Totally papercrafts - Bling it on
Bee Crafty - Christmas

The Stamp Man DT

Well I couldn't believe it when I got an email this week from Jill at The Stamp Man asking me if I would be a member of their DT. What a surprise - and of course I have said yes. I am soooo excited to join in and be part of the exciting team and creations that are made.

I just love the work of the design team, they are such a talented group of ladies and I am in awe of the projects and cards they produce. I shall do my best to keep up with them.

Those of you who know me are aware that my job commitments at the moment take up most of my time and will until December but Jill has said that I should only dip in when I feel I can and not to feel pressured to join in with everything straight away - how kind. But of course I have already looked to see what is coming up. And that is one of the lovely things about this challenge blog, the themes are given some weeks in advance so you can plan to take part, which is a great idea. I hope you will come with me and join in, the challenges are fortnightly, therefore giving you plenty of time to make something.  The current challenge is to make a card for a man, the next theme coming up is Christmas.

Check out the challenge blog http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/
and the shop http://www.thestampman.co.uk/catalog/  there are a number things that are reduced.

I have also been given a spot as Guest Designer for a Canadian stamp company called Scrolls Work. This won't be until next June, so I have plenty of time to be ready for that. They produce some lovely vintage and steampunk stamps and the P&P is reasonable to England. I have of course ordered some to have a play with. Oh dear more money, but while I'm earning ........... Another exciting project though and something to look forward to.

Woo hoo what an interesting and exciting few days.

It's Friday and the weekend starts here - I must away to my bed as I am going out with a friend tomorrow and won't be around now till either much later tonight or Saturday sometime.

Take care and have fun.

Luv B xxxx

Compendium of Curiosities week 19 - Extreme Masking

Well I actually got to play with this TH technique earlier than I have been doing, in fact last week I made the deadline for entry by 2 hours, call that near the mark or what!!!

As it's almost All Hallows Eve I decided to use spooky Halloween colours - purple, orange and black which meets the deets for Flutterby Wednesday as I have used butterflies as well. The extreme masking technique is explained on P.61 of TH's book and this meets the requirements for the challenge at Studio L3. If you would like to see more inspiration from the man himself then go take a look at his blog HERE.

The small butterfly masks are Papermania vinyls and the larger one is a Tattered Angels mask and I used repositionable spray on it to keep it in one place.

Stamps are a variety by TH and the DI's used are dusty concord, spiced marmalade and black soot. I made my own spray using aged mahogany and faded jeans. The whole piece has been edged with black soot DI and black diamonds stickles.

I have added bats and black butterflies to give this more of a traditional Halloween feel to it. The butterflies are all MS punches and sprayed with spray and sparkle. The bats are a Quickcutz die.

I made another of the metal roses, but I have to admit it looks more like a pine cone, which actually fits this better. I used copper ten second studio metal sheet, die cut the flowers using a Marianne Creatables die, stuck the metal flowers to black card then put it together using a clear, soft glue which takes a while to dry, but allows you to position each layer as you want it.

I shall use the pine cone effect again when doing autumnal designs.

Lastly I added brads and ribbon to make this into a piece which I will hang on the front door on Saturday, ready for any Trick or Treaters.

 

Challenges to have fun with - I can't believe how many Halloween challenges are still about, so this will fit quite a few of them.

Raise the Bar - Orange, black and purple.

Stampin for the weekend - Halloween/Fall

Crazy 4 Challenges - Halloween

Creative Inspirations - Halloween/Fall

Drunken Stampers - Halloween

Aly's Sunday Challenge - Distressed

Cupcake Inspirations - Halloween theme

Kaboodle Doodles - Bats

Ooh La La Creations - Scary stuff

Paper playtime - Halloween

Pear Tree Designs - Halloween

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Spookay

A crafty little place - Make it spooky

Crafty Creations - Halloween/Autumn

Little Red Wagon - Halloween

Simon Says Stamp - Punch 'Em

The Wild Flower Patch - Halloween

Penny's Challenges - Black, Purple, Orange

AIF - Halloween

Dutch Dare - Halloween

Paperplay - A Haunting We Will Go

Pixie Dust Studio - Happy Halloween

S2G - Trick or Treat

Shelly's Images - Tic Tac Toe - mine is the right hand column of brads, distressing, flower

Have a great Halloween.

Luv B xxxx

MAWTT challenge 70 - Card for a child

It's Thursday and another fabulous MAWTT challenge and this week the talented Shell has chosen the theme which is to make a card for a child. The prize this week is some digis from La La Land and they very kindly sent us some images to play with this week. Do pop over to the main challenge blog and look at the wonderful creations from the rest of the team.

I chose this cute image and made a Christmas card.

I made the base of the card with the image using Photoshop Elements and the papers, trees and sentiment  are from The Shabby Princess. The only extras are some shading using promarkers over the top of the image already coloured in digitally, Flower Soft, glitter, DI forest green and crystal stickles.

I love the technique of colouring in my image on the computer then adding promarker shading over the top. It's fabulous experimenting with colours over colour.

Challenges to have fun with -

Stamp Something - Use a digi

Totally Gorjuss - Sparkle
The Crafty Pad - Christmas
Craft your Passion - Add glitter/sparkle
Crafty Cardmakers - Digital Plus (I have used 2 digi papers, digi image, digi elements (trees) and digi sentiment)
Papertake weekly - Sparkly and bright
Creative Belli - Flower Soft


I hope the week has gone well, especially if it is half term week for you.

Take care. Luv B xxxxx

I made Top 3 this week

I am so pleased my OSATT Celebration Christmas card made Top 3 at Scrap Creations this week. This is the card with the amazing sketch I followed from Posh Designs and the recycled cardboard backing.

Thankyou Kristen and special thoughts and prayers for you, for Ethan and for his family.

B xxxx

Compendium of Curiosities week 18 - Pink

I didn't think I would get anything done this weekend as I have been away with the family to Ramsgate, but I have worked on this since being home tonight. It's not a wonderful photo as I have had to take it under a lamp, but maybe I will get a better one up tomorrow so you can see the true colours.

I have a wedding to go to next year in Cyprus. Richard, who is the eldest son of my good friends Margaret and Bill, is getting married to Sal and I have promised them a guest book for the wedding day. It will be a small and quiet wedding with a big reception for the rest of the family and friends when they get home.

Sal wants hot pink for her book, so that's where I have started. This will be used to embellish one of the pages. 

I know it's very different and not the usual vintage style I like, but I have used the dabber resist technique from the Compendium of Curiosities. The heart is a cuttlebug die, wings from a TH die and the butterfly is a MS punch. The flower I made from a punch too and inked it using worn lipstick which I also used on the background with spun sugar and pumice stone. The colours of the book will be pink, white and silver.

Please pop over to Studio L3 for the challenge and to see what amazing entries there are. Thankyou Linda for keeping this going, I just love looking every Monday to see what is coming next.

I hope you all have a good week.

Take care. Luv B xxxx