A special thank you

Recently I made a small garden caddy and dear Astrid left a lovely comment and said about how she had some ideas brewing to use the design, she made some fabulous creations which you can see Here and Here with a couple of the caddy die-cuts I sent her. Also recently she altered a wooden planter to make this incredible piece that I adore. For some reason in the past couple of years I seem to have an affinity with chickens - don't know why!! - and this gorgeous cockerel really caught my eye.

So having asked Astrid where he came from, look what arrived in the post for me.

A wonderful collection of napkins, which is what Astrid used for her box. You can see there is such a variety which will be useful for so many projects, including that wonderful rustic chicken.

I also received a very special bit of Astrid's art, this gorgeous tag. 

I feel so lucky to have such wonderful blogging friends who support you when you are dealing with problems, who share their fun and creativity and their supplies lol.

Thank you Astrid for your generosity and your kindness.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Blog address

A couple of people have got a message through to me to say that they cannot get access to my blog. I recently changed my url to www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com  but my blog is still hosted at Blogger. If you are experiencing any difficulties it might be useful to clear your cache or change the address in your blog reader (if that's possible??). If this doesn't work try accessing it from the Country View Challenge blog where Chris has a link under my DT project.  http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/challenge-4-june.html
Thanks for reading.
hugs {brenda} x0x

Tag It at PanPastel UK and Reverse Masking

Its been an extremely busy weekend post wise with two yesterday and again two today, I would love you to take a look at the previous ones if you have time. My vintage cabinet card album and tutorial, shabby chic configuration style box and tag card.

So Welcome to my second post today which is for PanPastel UK and the theme for the challenge this week is ‘Tag It’. I have made two tags and a tutorial for you (I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s one) which demonstrates one way of using PanPastels to create a reverse image when using a mask.

My tags started off brilliantly for this theme, but half way through I was thwarted at every turn. Let me explain.

I made 2 tags to show how you can create the positive and negative images using a mask with PanPastels (See video tutorial below for the explanation to get to this point.) Because I had used pans through the dotty mask I needed to seal it so I could continue working on it. The only problem was I had also stamped with black archival ink and look what happened.

The ink bled. The tin doesn’t tell me what is in it (it is soooo old) but there must be some acetone or similar to do this. So the question was do I start again or do I try to retrieve the situation. Always a problem solver I set about making changes to the tags by first giving a light wash of gesso. But this wasn’t strong enough so I coated the text areas with white acrylic paint. The writing still showed through so I then decided to add picket fence crackle paint, Guess what?

Yep all the crackle flaked and fell off. Still not to be outdone, I gave those areas three coats of acrylic paint (learnt this in Andy’s class) and covered it again with the crackle paint.

Ah that’s better, most of it stayed on this time. So I set about adding the elements to finish them off and actually I am quite pleased with the outcomes. Not what I had expected, but then I never finish with what was in my head originally lol.

Here is the tutorial if you would like to try the reverse masking technique I have devised. Have fun.

I believe you learn from your mistakes as well as your successes, so I hope you have learnt something from my experiments. I certainly did.

Supplies -
PanPastels, Gesso and masks from Your Creativity Store who are our regular sponsor
Sizzix vintage mini telephone and typewriter dies.
Ideaology and tissue tape.
Tim Holtz crackle paint
Fixative

Well it's been a busy week getting four posts ready for this weekend but I hope you have enjoyed some of them. Thanks for taking the time to join me. I will be off in about an hour to the Craft Barn again and Lucy (True Colours) is coming with me. It was lovely to meet up with Julia (Julia's Stuff) and Alison (CraftyTrog) on Friday and I hopefully will see them again today. I also had a lady called Glennis introduce herself to me who is one of my followers who has come all the way over from New Zealand, that was an amazing experience, I might see her again today too. And then there was the lovely Gio all the way from Italy. She is demoing so I will definitely stop by her table.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tag Time for FSC

It's Sunday and another new challenge at FSC today and this time we are asking you to use a tag on your project.

I have made a little tag book and am so loving the rub-ons technique that Tim showed us on his blog last month, I have used that again for this project. I have used all Artistic Outpost stamps and will enter this into their June Referral Program.

Supplies -

Distress Stains - wild honey, pumice stone, antique linen, crushed olive, tarnished brass, rusty hinge

Distress inks - iced spruce, dried marigold, walnut stain,

Remnant Rubs - Tim Holtz - words, numbers, elements

Stamps - Artistic Outpost - Route 66, Diesel Punk

As the rub-ons resist the ink and leave some white on the card I have again used my white pen to highlight some areas on the stamped images to lift them and to balance the white areas on each page.

I didn't think this needed many embellishments, I think the stamps speak for themselves.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Doing anything nice? I shall be at the Craft Barn today for their Extravaganza weekend going to catch up with some friends. I will let you know who I saw when I get back.

hugs {brenda} x0x

UPA - What is shabby chic in art and craft RAQ

Welcome to Bumblebees and Butterflies, this is my second post today and if you haven't seen it yet I would love for you to scroll down one post to see a cabinet card album I made for Country View Challenges.

However over at Unruly PaperArts this month the focus is on 'Shabby Chic' (SC) with lots of information and inspiration during the month from the columnists, plus there are two Reader's Art Quests (RAQs) around the theme, one is' pink, cream and brown' SC projects, the other is 'SC in 3D'.

For my RAQ project I have used many elements to achieve the shabby chic look I wanted in a 3D dimensional project..

Pastel colours - mint green, pale pink, white, cream and walnut stain.

Flowers with glitter and butterflies with script stamping over them.

Some sewing elements keeping it feminine and a crackled heart.

Distressing the balsa wood box which has been painted white, rubbed down and brown distress ink added to give it an aged feel.

The pretty shabby paper has been edged with walnut stain to create the old and worn look.

Butterflies.

Pretty bottles and a cherub frame.

Tickets and cream roses.

Although not shown on these photos this box also has a slide-in lid which will keep all the cubby holes dust free whilst it is on display. Such a neat thing and it was a workshop I did last week, we barely had 3 hours to do it in, but the ladies took home the last little bits to finish it off, they loved what they made and they did a magnificent job.

I would like to enter this into the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week, 'Into The Woods'.

I hope you have a great month of June and that the weather is kinder to us all in the northern hemisphere.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Using die-cuts at Country View Challenges and Tutorial

Hey it's June already and that means a new theme at Country View Challenges. This month it was chosen by  Trace and she would like to see your projects using die-cuts

It's not often I am really pleased with what I have made, but I am today. This is a cabinet card album made with Tim Holtz dies Vintage Cabinet Card and Mini Cabinet Card.

This shows the front cover.

Here are the pages and ……..

the finished album.

Please don’t tell hubby he is the star of the show today, he has seen the album but doesn't look at my blog lol.

I have also experimented with using Windows Live Writer which is where the white base edge on the photos has come from - don't know why????? I am sure I will learn more about it as I go along.

So do you want to know how I made the album? My readers will know that I promised to work on some video tutorials, but no you won’t hear my voice as I have made this first one using photographs rather than a video camera. Still got to get that one organised!!

I hope this works ok.

I want to say a huge thanks to Chris who helped me learn how to get this video done, she went through every aspect with me both side by side on her laptop and then over the telephone too. Thanks Sis I appreciate all your time.

Thanks to you too for visiting today, have a great weekend and a fab month of June, I hope I will see you over at CVC during the coming weeks.

hugs {brenda} x0x

12 Tags of 2013 - second entry

The sun is shining its a beautiful morning and here I am, as promised, with my second tag for May and linking to Tim's 12 tags of 2013 where all the details can be found and where Tim demonstrates the techniques and shows how he put his tag together. There is also some amazing inspiration with the other entrants too, lots of beautiful colour, styles and designs, I always marvel at the different interpretations and I often say to myself, 'why didn't I think of that?'. 

Tag - Unforgettable

So you know what? Again, at first, I was not overly happy with what I had achieved with this tag, I liked the mix of stamps (still do) but I overdid the background and I didn't put enough rub-ons on. The effects were quite dull and drab.

What I did do though was have an inspirational moment as I was drafting this post and went back and added some white pen to lift some of the areas more. Yay, love it now, it looks so different. Shame I didn't get a before and after pic.

This is much more a shabby chic interpretation and I love the colours. By the time I had finished this tag made me very happy.

 Supplies used -

Distress Stains - Antique Linen, Weathered Wood, Brushed Pewter, Tattered Rose.

Distress Inks - Bundled Sage, Iced Spruce, Tattered Rose, Antique Linen

Archival Ink - Black, Blue Violet

Stamp sets - PaperArtsy HP1005, Stampin' Up Nature Walk, Artistic Outpost Ephemera Backgrounds

Rub-ons from my supplies

I am entering this into the Artistic Outpost Referral Programme - I am not sure it will qualify as it is not mostly AO stamps but the background one is.

I am off doing an alcohol inks beginner's masterclass today. I have designed a little book everyone can keep their samples in which will serve as an aide memoire for the future.

Have a wonderful day and rest of the week and if you are celebrating something special have an amazing time.

hugs {brenda} x0x