Layered Bee - Where have you been?

I have used a cork tile as my substrate for this project creating a collage using the Tim Holtz Layered Bee die and embossing folder.

More details are over on the Country View Crafts Project Blog if you have time to pop over.

You will see how I created the dimensional wings for this gorgeous creature.....

... and other effects to create some texture.

Thanks for stopping by today to take a look at my ‘Where have you bee’n?’ tile.

hugs brenda xxx

Time Flies at A Vintage Journey

I seem to be repeating this statement over and over again and I really can’t believe how quickly time passes, even more so as I get older (funny that’s just what my Mum used to say too).

Today sees us start another leg of the journey and it’s Chris who is asking us to think about time – her brief is about - ‘Anything relating to the passing of time which includes Tim's products - stamps, dies, Idea-ology etc. This is down to your interpretation of how quickly time passes and how you can demonstrate it but we want to see Tim's techniques too please. The world's your oyster’.

So a bit of Tim technique, a bit of Tim stamping, a bit of Tim embellishing, ok so this is what came out of it all.

I am afraid I didn’t take the cue about time passing, instead I did a literal interpretation, more about time flying. So I have altered a clock and added one of Tim’s pocket watches.

I had great fun shabbying up this watch with antique linen distress paint and using a clock face stamp from Mini Classics and some painted cogs and hands. I also stamped the long list of words from Stuff to Say and added the Timeless sentiment.

The bird is from Nature Walk, stamped with vintage photo, walnut stain and weathered wood distress inks and I painted in some broken china and edged with walnut stain and a brown permanent pen. It seemed rather flat so I added some details with the brown pen and then gave it a coat of clear distress crackle paint.

The background was made using Tim's clock face embossing folder where I rubbed walnut stain DI over it before running it through the Big Shot with some oyster coloured card. It then had layers of antique linen and broken china DIs and some light mists of water, making sure it was heat dried in between each new layer.

The clock was taken to pieces and given three coats of Decoart chalk paint starting with  and adding some candle rubs in between which allows me to rub away parts of each layer to expose the original wood and the other colours of paint. I also rubbed in some walnut stain distress ink.

I continued working on the clock case by adding some TH remnant rubs and distressing them with the stiff brush he uses, then I dry-brushed with some of the lace chalk paint, then used the three colours of paints through Tim’s harlequin stencil – this really shabbied it up.

To pull the inside together I used distress paint over some small metal cogs and adhered the background, watch, bird, cogs and words into the clock case.

Once I had found a small piece of chain I had the focal part of the clock and the remit for the challenge theme – Time Flies.

This made a real change for me to upcycle and alter something, haven’t done much of it lately and this was great fun. In fact I think it’s good enough for the conservatory and dust free to as all the parts are behind glass.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Bright Future – Crafty Individuals

I just fell in love with this turtle stamp when I found him tucked inside an envelope on my return from holiday at the end of May, what a lovely surprise especially as I had only just seen real live turtles on a beach in Hawaii a few days before. 

A week later I made this tag for Crafty Individuals and I am a bit late posting it. I think this ought to go in my Positivity Journal don't you?

The background is broken china distress paint brushed onto the tag and flicked with water, I added some bubbles and sea greenery (using the bump technique) to give the effect of being underwater.

The turtle was stamped onto watercolour paper and I coloured him in with my new watercolours.

The small sentiment is part of the stamp set and the larger one is computer generated.

The leaves were inked through a Dylusions mask.

I'm off on holiday to Lanzarote soon with all the family and am looking forward to some quality time with them all. This time it's a pool and beach holiday so no turtles to find here.

I hope your week is going well.

hugs Brenda

4 more altered playing cards

Hello Everyone, it's been a fabulous week here at the Brown household with Ken's birthday Thursday and our 40th wedding anniversary on the same day. Last night we celebrated with the children and grand children having a lovely meal out together and tonight we celebrate with a few friends and neighbours by having a summer garden BBQ. We just hope it doesn't rain after all the wonderful hot sunny weather we had in July.


 Today I thought I would share four altered playing cards that I have been making (you can seer the previous 4 here that I made in March if you haven’t caught up with them yet)

Although I followed the ideas and techniques from Stephanie Ackerman, I am using images and collage pieces of my own. 

I save quotes and make my own sheets and print out to use in albums, on cards and mixed media projects.

I won’t share the process steps in respect for Stephanie and her online class, but suffice to say I am enjoying making these and having fun exploring some mixed media techniques.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

hugs {brenda} xx

Scrapping in my Journal

Hi Everyone I am really pleased to guesting again at PaperArtsy tonight. When Darcy asked me a few weeks ago what I was making I told her it would be something around ‘scrapping in my journal’ as I wanted to use the really zingy colours in the Fresco Finish paints range with photographs. This is not quite how I imagined it then, but I am pleased with the fabulous bright background mixed with my more normal vintage style. I think it has worked really well. Before anyone asks lol, the photo on the left is me (looks as though I was about 3-4) and the photo on the right is my Mum holding me.

Please be warned this is a long post, but I hope you will stay with me to the end.

So to start off cut two pieces of card and using low tack tape secured them together. Cover both pages with a layer of gesso to seal the card.

Rub London Bus, Tango and Zesty Zing Fresco Finish paints over the page with a few mists of water and a wet babywipe to help blend them. Heat dry.

Then spray with Goosebumps to create some texture and again heat dry. I then  used two of my spare spray bottles and mixed a watery London Bus in one and the other with Zesty Zing and sprayed over the pages heat drying between each colour. Lastly I finishes with a couple of sprays of White Linen Dylusions ink spray.

To add some interest to the pages I stamped with the Hot Picks 1301EZ set using three different brown archival inks.

I began to collect together some strips of hessian, canvas, card, and lace to create some textures and I also die-cut some of the PaperArtsy Chatsworth paper using the Tim Holtz Courtyard frameworks die. I used the Fresco Finish paints again but this time I watered them down in little mister bottles and sprayed them over to blend the colours.

And so the pages started to take shape.

I painted and sprayed the die cuts and pieces of card to make the sentiments.

I cut out some butterflies that I have ready downloaded in a small box and I pulled out some rusted elements to see how they would fit in.

I also sprayed some strips of embossed canvas and gathered some other pieces and a snippet of hessian together..

The colour of the frameworks didn’t fit in the way I thought they would so I sprayed them with watered down FF chocolate paint as well.

Next came the assembling and I started with some tissue tapes before gluing the strips down and adding the photos.

For the penultimate stage I added some dylusions ink to the London Bus spray to deepen it a bit more and covered the photos, spraying in three areas and heat drying. I then added some splatters of walnut crystal ink. Of course I got carried away here and forgot to take any more photos till nearly the end.

Lastly I cut the pages apart, cropodiled the holes at the right places and finished with some chatty words that I make up myself and print out.

The pages are now inserted into my growing ‘scrapping’ journal.

I love how the vintage meets journal style, it’s a bright and busy background but the vintage seems to be right at home too.

Thanks for staying with me through a long post.

I thought I would also share with you tonight that it is Ken's birthday today and I want to wish him many happy returns of the day, but it is also a very special day in that we got married 40 years ago on his birthday in 1974 and I am just wondering where have all those years gone???? Needless to say we are looking forward to many more happy years together creating memories.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xx

Tim Tag for July

I love seahorses and the summer so this tag was a delight to make and I followed Tim’s guidelines almost to a T.
You can find Tim's instructions on his blog with a list of supplies he used and a photo step by step - I am linking this up to his July post.

So we have the beautiful crackled seahorse and the fabulous watery and bubbly background ........

...... the distressed jute ribbon, the spring greenery with a completely new lease of life …….

…. and the textured sand to hold the sand dollar and starfish.

Another of my favourites – well I think they all are actually, not sure how you would choose a bestie, just depends on the moment in time doesn’t it?

It’s going to be a great week this week in the Brown household, Thursday will be the special day, with things happening Friday and Saturday …… ooh tease I know, oh and I’m guesting as well on Thursday at PaperArtsy, so keep an eye out for another post from me then.

In the meantime have a great week yourself and hopefully some creative fun too.

hugs brenda xxxx