WOYWW and Holiday photos

Well I am back to reality and a touch of normality especially with all the rain we are having today, so different to the extremely hot weather we had in California and Nevada, in fact it got to 114F or 45C at Pirates Cove near Needles on the Colorado River. That was the hottest I think I have ever been!!

So today I thought I would take my first venture into the WOYWW and show a peek of something I am currently working on, but not much of it mind, really only the embellishments I am going to use on it. The project is for something very exciting that I can reveal very soon. If you are already a WOYWWer then thanks for visiting me, if not go take a peek at all the wonderful workspaces and creations out there, hosted by Julia at Stamping Ground.

Well as I am writing this Blogger has decided it won't let me access any photos, so I shall finish the writing and come back to it later - what a bind. (OK I finally got these in by changing from Chrome to IE, don't know what is happening, but I am not the only one experiencing problems.)

The holiday photos I want to share with you are those of dear Terry and myself when Ken and I went and met up with her and Steve in Valencia.

We went for a lovely meal at BJs and as Lucy and Marjie might say I got corrupted with trying a Margarrita, actually the truth be knbown, it was my suggestion and I thoroughly enjoyed a lunchtime drink.

We then visited Michaels, because I said I had never been to one before.

Then Terry took us to Scrapbooking Made Simple, a super little scrapbook store not too far away.

The photos show us shopping and deciding on what to buy.

Needless to say I came away having spent a small fortune on bits and pieces and dear Terry bought me the Prismacolour pencils I wanted. She really is such a lovely lady and I feel so honoured to call her a friend. One day we will meet again, I hope she might come over here but that would be difficult with her dog and birds. So until my next trip to CA.

Have a great week everyone. Thanks for stopping by to see me today.

hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastel UK - Earth, Wind or Fire

I have chosen earth as the element to use for my DT piece this week and made a small standing easel.

The background was spritzed and dipped with distress inks then masked over using distress embossing ink and PanPastels. Once sprayed with spray and shine I added iridescent paste through the mask just for the grass area, sprinkled some PP shavings on whilst still wet and then gently rubbed them to blend them when they were dry. 

To finish I added the downloaded butterflies and the TH frame at the back.

I nearly made a triptych to include wind and fire, but ran out of time. Looking forward to seeing what you have made using one or more of the elements of this challenge at PanPastel UK this week and don't forget the lucky winner receives a fabulous full size sample set of Pans from our sponsor 

Your Creativity Store.

Happy Sunday everyone.

hugs {brenda} xox

Stamp Man - Alter It

The day I painted this the sun had come out after all those weeks of rain in June and July so I chose a happy, summery colour theme to work with.

Recipe -

1. Paint box all over and let dry.

2. Stamp images onto tissue paper and tear them out..

3. Tear dictionary pages

4. Modge Podge the images, dictionary text and plain tissue paper over the lid.

5. When dry add more paints around all of these.

6. Stamp flourish around the edges.

7. Glue die cut around the base of the box.

8. Sand corners and edges and add Vintage Photo DI.

Finish by adding embellishments.

Supplies -

Claudine Hellmuth paint - altered orange, blank canvas

Artemio sewing stamps

Dictionary text

Gold mirri board

Sizzix swirly strip die

Alcohol inks - butterscotch, ginger, sunset orange, copper

If you are altering anything over the next fortnight then do link it to The Stamp Man, you never know you might be the winner of a £10 voucher to the Stamp Man on-line store.

Happy crafting.

hugs {brenda} xox

Friday evening update -
I altered this box and scheduled the post because I have been away on holiday - photos will be coming -
and I have just got back this afternoon. Suffice to say, I took this with me and it now has a new home at Terry's place in California, where she blogged about it a couple of weeks ago when I met up with her - more on that too to come over the weekend.

Love sewing themes

Markers and PanPastels

Had a play with some new markers, PPs and those fabulous PaperArtsy stamps to create this little card. The background is my own digitally designed paper using elements from DigitalCrea.

The dress form was coloured with the markers and I used a blender to create the mottled effect which gives it a fabulous vintage feel to it. As I had stamped onto cream card I used PPs to colour in the bottom half. 

Again the markers were used on the cotton reels and I finished them off with a Sakura glaze pen to make the colours stand out a bit more.

A simple card but I think it looks quite effective.

Hope you are having a good week.

hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastel UK - Add decoupage

This theme had me stumped for a while as I could think of two ways to add decoupage, the layering of images where you buy decopage sheets or the art of decorating an object by gluing papers onto it often with special paint effects or gold leaf.  So I decided to make my own coloured and patterned tissue paper to cover a photo frame and this is what I came up with.

Here is the tissue which was covered lightly all over with PanPastels and then I stamped with Archivla ink over the top.

Using decopatch glue and strips torn from the tissue I covered it and then made the background paper and added the dress form, clock and other embellishments.

This is the background paper before it had the PaperArtsy mini stamped on it.

Come join us at the PanPastel UK challenge this week and you could be in with a chance of winning a set of pans from Your Creativity Store.

Happy Sunday.

hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastel Create a scene

This is the last in a set of three PanPastel UK challenges where I have kept the theme of pages for a book.

The scene came about whilst focusing on the idea that school's out and the summer holidays are upon us. With the beach and water integral to my pages last week I carried on with that idea and created this sea scene, both above and below the water line.

The mermaid, boat and fish are all downloaded vintage images and the background pieces are still from the larger piece I made and showed you three weeks ago.

I coloured the mermaid using PPs and added some white to the dots and added some bubbles from the fish.

This is the finished book from the last three weeks DT pieces for PanPastel UK. I love it and and will try to link pieces in the future in this way.

If you choose to join us this week we look forward to coming and see what you have created and you might be the lucky winner of a great PanPastel set from Your Creativity Store.

Have a wonderful Sunday wherever you are.

hugs {brenda} xox

FSC - Summer Ice Cream Colours

Strawberry, Vanilla and Caramel

I have a little set for you on the cat walk today in my summer ice-cream colours - two cards and a note book.

The note book was made by stamping onto tissue paper which I then used to cover some chipboard pieces covered with distress stains. I added a few bits and and bobs and used the Bind-It-All to complete it.

The cards were made in a similar way, this time covering a piece of card with the stamped tissue paper, then blending DI round the edges. The bunting I made using DS and DI on canvas, the button card I downloaded and re-sized sewing a button onto it. Some shabby ribbon, tape measure, lace, gem brad and PC generated sentiment finish it off.

Hope you can come and join the Stampettes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges this week, do take a look at their amazing pieces for inspiration.

Materials used -

Stamps - Haberdashery by Tim Holtz

Distress inks - Victorian Velvet, Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Walnut Stain

hugs {brenda} xox

Stamp Man - Precious Medals/Metals

My 'Precious Metals' DT piece this week for the Stamp Man is a bound journal with the theme of gold to it. I have stayed away from the Olympic medals, just because I didn't have any inspiration for it. But any metals will be fabulous to see on your projects. The lovely Angela is hosting this week so do pop over and see the amazing samples from the team.

The frame on the front of my book was cut from gold metal sheet, put through an embossing folder. painted with brown acrylic paint, sanded down and gold inka gold rubbed into it. I then added some aged gold embossing enamel on the edge and some on the front and back cover too.

The inspire phrase was cut from gold mirri board stuck onto greyboard and die cut.

I found the words to Spandau Ballet's song and printed out onto paper for the opening of the book and of course other gold can be added when the book is made up.

Just some of the pages 

Jill is offering the winner a £10 voucher to spend at the Stamp Man On-line Store, you never know this could be you!

Supplies -

Mixed papers for pages and front cover

Bind It All

Sizzix dies - Ornate frame back #3, phrase inspire

Stampendous aged gold embossing enamel

Chocolate acrylic paint, inka gold

Distress inks, aged mahogany, walnut stain, gathered twigs

Metal sheet

Cracked embossing folder

A selection of masks

Have a great weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox