Times gone by

Today is the start of another Fashionable Stamping Challenge and this fortnight we would love it if you could join us and submit a card or project with the theme 'Times Gone By'. Now that leaves it wide open for any type of vintage piece that you are working on, how cool is that?

I have altered a small box and made it masculine and  know exactly who is going to receive this for Christmas - but I can't say at the moment. I used two different teal coloured paints, one I mixed myself and one was an ordinary household paint. I sprayed with ancient copper cosmic shimmer mist and then stamped and added some inka gold. I finished with Decoart gloss sealer, some trim, a charm and pieces I have picked up from car-boot sales.

Stamps by PaperArtsy, Michele Marsden. My Mind's Eye and Crafty individuals.

Photo overload now - I was trying to get a selection of pics from different angles. Do you like the boat? It came from an old Monopoly game.

I hope your weekend is going well. Please pop over to see the great inspiration from my teamies and join us. You never know you could be the recipient of a fabulous stamp as the winner.

Just before I go, please pop over to Dot's Dabbles. Dot is one of our fantastic designers at FSC and has candy available when she gets to 50 followers. I am sure you will be inspired enough to want to follow and go back time and again to see her fabulous creations.

lots of luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes
Our Craft Lounge - Distressed and stressed
C.R.A.F.T Challenge - Board games/family games/ activities (does my little Monopoly boat count?)

Collage for The Stamp Man

The new challenge at The Stamp Man has been set by the fabulous Angela and she would like to see you use collage or a collage background in your work. I loved this challenge and I learned quite a bit about different styles of collage when I did an on-line course with Claudine Hellmuth earlier in the year and I also get great inspiration from Sarah at Lah-de-dah.

What is a collage? Wikipedia says -

A collage (From the French coller, to glue) is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole.

A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas. The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century as an art form of novelty.

I thought I would make a book of birds for Ken for Christmas and add some of the photos he has taken of different types of birds he sees in our back garden. He is totally an amateur bird watcher and photographer, but he loves it, so what better way to give him something different this year.

This is the front cover of the mini album and I am using TH papers and stamps.

Main Supplies -
Tim Holtz stamps - slight alterations, urban tapestry
Tim Holtz paper stacks - crowded attic, lost and found
Distress inks - vintage photo, peeled paint, forest moss, weathered wood

As you can see I have used a number of techniques to create this collage - I have inked, embossed, gessoed, stamped, glued and sewn elements together. I have bought an old book of 'Eggs and nests of British Birds' so I will be using that to complete pages and pockets for photos - so more to come another time.

Please pop over to the Stamp Man challenge to see the fabulous inspiration from the team and I hope you will join us there. As ever Jill will be providing the winner with a £10.00 voucher for her store.

I hope you have a fabulous weekend. Hopefully I will be able to come and see what you have been making and creating this week.

Take care.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Simon Says Stamp - Buttons
Just for Fun - Favourites
PaperPlay Challenges - Button Up
Cooking It Up with Katie - Anything but a card
Anything Goes - Stitching
Artistic Stamper - Make your own backgrounds
Stamp with Fun - Buttons

Add something metal

Hi Everyone.

I have a tag for you today as my DT piece for the new challenge at Divas by Design and as the title says we want you to add something metal to your card or project.

My tag has been made using household paints and gesso. The paints were blended over the tag and left to dry. Using a credit card and some sponge the darker salmon coloured paint and the white gesso were added to create texture and depth. Once that had dried I added music paper and a Wendy Vecchi art parts heart which I covered in metal that I embossed using a 10 second studio kabuka mold and added some of the paint and colours of inka gold to give it a more mottled and shiny look.

Supplies -
- TH tag die
- Household paint
- Gesso
- Art parts heart
- 10 second studio metal sheet, kabuka mold and metal tools
Inka Gold - rose and haematite
- Metal bird cage embellishment
- Downloaded, inked and glazed butterfly
- Rub-ons
- String, music score paper, ribbon

I hope we will see you join us this fortnight. Please go take a look at all the fabulous inspiration from my amazing team mates.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Sentimental challenge at Stampalot

Woo hoo, I was asked to be a guest designer at Sir Stampalot this month and the challenge theme is to have a sentiment as the focus of your project.

I chose to make a tag and used my brand new Webster's Pages as the background, and my theme is ............................... yes you can see, it is to do with sewing again - just my most favourite of themes at the moment.

The sentiment is from PaperArtsy, stamped onto the background paper. The sewing machine is Maya Road painted with Fresco Finish gold and over stamped with a text stamp. I added some shabby ribbon ruffled along the top, a small hanger with ribbons, a tiny butterfly and sewed all round the edge of the tag to finish it off.

Well a big thank you to the Stampalot ladies for having me, I am off to see what inspiration there is on the Stampalot challenge blog.

Have a great November. It won't be long before Christmas is here.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Ravens

Yay it's Friday and if this has scheduled correctly, I am away for a long weekend in Swanage. Hopefully I will have my laptop and will be able to log in from time to time.

This is my second piece I have made for the Gingersnap Creations Poe month and this challenge is 'Ravens'.

I have made a second hybrid piece which will no doubt join the Horror Stories piece in my art journal.

The background I put together in Photoshop elements using images from Scrapbookgraphics, they were perfect for what I wanted and included the title and raven at the top.

 I added to it by stamping the black raven to the left and the cobwebs using TH mini halloween and I cut out the bats, butterflies and eyes (from Graphics Fairy) and added the skull charm, spider and key.

I would also like to enter this into Corrosive Challenges - Flying things.

Have fun whatever you are doing and enjoy some crafty time of your own.

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate all the lovely comments you leave me.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Poe - Horror stories

I am just catching up with the Gingersnap Creations Edgar Allan Poe month and this challenge was called Horror Stories, so here is mine.

Poe wrote a number of short stories and poems and I looked him up to refresh my memory, what surprised me though was when I looked for images of  'The Masque of the Red Death' there was Vincent Price staring back at me and reminded me I had probably seen the film in my youth when I used to go to Saturday afternoon pictures. I loved horror stories way back then - now I really hate watching anything like that, tooooo scary!!!!!!

This is a hybrid piece. I downloaded images from Scrapbookgraphics.com and used them for the base background and then added the title, charm, buttons, skull (one of my moulds) and black enamel accents with tiny red seed beads in it. I am going to add this to my journal OR if I get time I an going to make a Halloween book. I think the journal will win!

You can see that the backing paper is actually made up of layered pages of Poe's poems.

Thank you for stopping by today, I hope you are getting some crafty time to make things.

Please don't forget to add any of your Halloween projects to my linky HERE - I am going to give one of my Halloween tags away to a random chosen person at the beginning of November.

Have a great day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Free Pumpkins

Happy Monday - I hope you have a fantastic week and are not too busy with work.

I have to go into school today, in fact I have to go into Oxford to a planning application meeting at the County Council but I will be back later to catch up with all my blogging buddies and do some commenting - I am so behind with that.

I have just treated myself to some new Halloween stamps, but I wanted a pumpkin one without the face drawn in so I decided to draw my own. I have used it on this tag which has a Halloween background but is very much made with autumn colours.

The button is plastic but I managed to stamp on it and I have added lots of bits and pieces from my box of bits. You can see the Halloween images in the background on this photo.

This is my drawing and I coloured just enough of the pumpkins for my tag.

This was printed on cheap photocopy paper and coloured with Promarkers.

If you would like to take the pumpkins digi, please do so. I made it in Photoshop Elements and saved it as a jpeg file. If you use it please be courteous and link it back to me on your blog and if you leave me a message I will come over to see what you have done. Click on it and enlarge it to get the best file for downloading.

Thank you for looking today and a special thanks if you are a regular and leave me all those wonderful messages I get, I so love reading them.

Take care of yourself and your loved ones.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with - 

Ink on my Fingers - Autumn/colours of autumn.

Gingerloft - Halloween or fall.

Opus Gluei - Halloween.

Crafty Pad - Halloween.

Sugar Creek Hollow - Colours of fall.

Fashionista Friday - Halloween and/or fall.

CCEE Stampers - Fall/autumn.

Little Red Wagon - Fall.

Stampotique - Tag Time.

Deep Ocean Challenge - Fall colours.

Coffee and cream with a hint of chocolate

Hi Everyone - happy Sunday

I got this DT piece made by the skin of my teeth. This is for Fashionable Stamping Challenges who this week want to see anything that has a coffee and cream and even a hint of chocolate for a focus. Don't forget anything goes as long as you follow the challenge theme and include some stamping on it (sorry digis are not allowed).

My large stamps are both from the Inkadinkado Xmas Ornate clear set and the snowflake background I stamped using Reindeer Flight and Mini Holidays by Tim Holtz.

The large snowflake is a Woodware die-cut chipboard shape covered with distress stain and glitter and I added a star, flower, glintz, doiley and ribbon from my stash. I also used Nestabilities Labels Two for the greeting.

Want to know what the brown bag looked like before I altered it?

Hope you will come and join us at FSC and please go take a look at what the amazing Stampettes have made to inspire you.

I am on half term now, although I have to go into school on Monday and I am teaching a class at The Art of Craft on Wednesday. So Ken and I have booked into a nice hotel in Swanage for a long weekend from Thursday. I just feel I need it after the Ofsted inspection at school.

Take care and thank you for stopping by to take a look at my work today.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
I haven't visited my old friends at MAWTT for a long time so my first challenge is -
Moving Along With The Times - Vintage.
PaperPlay - Use black.
Winter Wonderland - A vintage Christmas.
Totally Gorjuss - Pastel Christmas.  -  I hope this counts!
Secret Crafter - Wrap up warm.
One Stop Craft - No designer paper.
Lili of the Valley - Bingo  -  mine is ribbon, flower, gem.
PanPastels Challenge - Glitter and Glitz.

Night Time at The Stamp Man

The lovely Michelle has chosen 'Night Time' as the theme at The Stamp Man this week and this really challenged my thinking and creativity.

I thought I would do some brayering, but when it came to putting ink on the card I decided to blend it instead. I masked off the sky and moon, blended DIs and then dried it ready to mask off layers for the ground, again blending DIs.

This photo shows the scene without any embellishments

 I stamped the birds and trees with archival black, sprinkled water over and dabbed it off to get a snowy effect and then splattered some white acrylic paint and water over the top of that. I am quite pleased with the effects.

I then made the tree similar to TH tags of Christmas 2010 and added the ticket and button.

Supplies -
DIs - peeled paint, pine needles, forest mnoss, walnut stain, antique linen, dried marigold, tumbled glass, stormy sky, chipped sapphire.
Distress embossing powder - peeled paint
Die - TH pine tree, TH ticket strip
Stamps - TH reindeer flight, TH QVC mini collection, TH odds and ends
Pinflair snow dust


I hope you will pop over to the Stamp Man blog to see all the other wonderful creations from the team and hopefully you will be inspired to have a go too. Jill will have a £10.00 voucher ready and waiting for the winner as chosen by the design team.

I was really excited to see that I have been chosen as a Ginger Gem again for my 'Shared Moments' card at Gingersnap Creations - such a prestigious award and thanks Shar and girls for choosing me.

Thanks to you all for taking a peek at what I have posted today. If you leave me a message and a link I will be able to pop over to see what you have been creating too.

Have a fun day.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
ABC Christmas Challenge - U is for unused stash - the tree die and antelope button, both left over from last year.
Fab n Funky - Distressed or torn.
My time to Craft - Punches and dies.
Sweet Stamps - Lots of layers.
Try it on Tuesday - Taking to the skies.
Ooh La La Creations - Let It Snow.

Shabby Halloween

Something I made on Sunday - just because I wanted to.

I had a great lunchtime out with Lucy at the car-boot sale and bought a few bits and pieces. But Lucy had bought me over some lovely lacy trims and I just wanted to use some. Thanks for the lovely things Lucy.

I cut a tag from the TH die, downloaded this image from the Graphics fairy and changed it to a sepia colours. The muslin is a roll I have and I used double layer. I glitzed some of the image with glamourdust and added the trim, dangly and ribbons.

Have a wonderful week. I shall be working at school everyday and have to catch up with my own private school improvement work as well in the evenings. At least it is half term next week, so I will get a bit of time for me.

Take care and have fun.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Paper Sundaes - Halloween or Fall
Pollycraft Monday - Girls
The Crazy Challenge - Halloween
Gingerloft - Halloween or Fall