Compendium of Curiosities week 28 - Colourful Layered Fragments

Hi Everyone - hope your Friday is going well and that you have some lovely things planned for the weekend. I am off to the Craft show at Sandown Park, Esher tomorrow with my daughter-in-law Bev. Will let you know if we buy anything.

Woo Hoo. This week I have had a win for my CoC Masking card and a top 3 award for Stampotique Again card. How amazing is that?

This card is for my husband for Valentine Day and I am quite pleased with the outcome. It looks better IRL.

My inspiration has come from a number of challenge themes  -
Linda's amazing CoC challenge at Studio L3 - colourful layered fragments
Love and/or Valentine which can be found at Lexi's Creations, Paper Playtime, Tuesday Throwdown, Theme Thursday,
Feelings (and/or feely) at Ink on My Fingers
Hearts at Mark's Finest Papers, Totally Papercrafts,
Distressing - Crafty Purple Frog
Forgotten stamp - Crafty Catz - this stamp has been in the drawer for ages and not seen the light of day.

Please turn to page 57 for the instructions of how to make the fragment. I have used it as a spotlight over the stamped image.

Supplies
TH paper from Seasonal Stack
Stamp - Tin Can Mail by Inkadinkadoo
Ideology fragment
TH Heart Wings die
Crafts Too dotty embossing folder
Heirloom Gold perfect pearls
Glossy accents and Crackle accents
DIs - vintage photo and walnut stain
Alcohol inks - Meadow, Denim, Butterscotch, Red Pepper, Gold
Other embellishments from my box of bits
Gold distress stickles

Take care - luv and hugs xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 82 - Flowers

Can this be another Thursday so quickly? My goodness it certainly is.

Hi Everyone, welcome to another DT card for Moving Along With The Times (MAWTT). This week the lovely Hazel is hosting and has chosen the theme of flowers coupled with this sketch (above).

Well what do you think? I really enjoyed putting this one together. Again there seems to be a mixture of distress, vintage and shabby here. It is quite a big card being 6" x  7" which was inspired by Flourishes Timeless Tuesday theme this week. The main image is from a hybrid card assortment CD I have just bought from QVC and part of a set with Prima embellishments. It was a bargain hunter price so I thought I would see what it is like. The images for the main parts of cards are quite good, but of course I haven't printed it out as it is seen.

I added glossy accents to the rose images to give some dimension and used stickles on the edges. I have also treated myself to a set of Go Create dies which are wavy line cut-outs (frames) and I used the TH Alterations Regal Flourishes Texture Fades embossing folder with Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint DIs. Flower embellishments etc are from my boxes of bits. The sentiment I created in Word. The leaves, butterfly, embossed background and sentiment were sprayed with silver spray and sparkle.

Our sponsor this week is Crafty Emma's Store and this is the prize you could win.

It is an 8 Inch Label Clock Kit Including 1 inch Board Numbers.


The kit includes a thick white coated board clock face, thick board clock numbers to apply, all clock workings including hands, full instructions and battery. Just add your own layout for a unique and personalised clock. Pretty good eh?




Challenges to have fun with -
Simply Create - Punches (Butterfly)
Tellen's place - Ribbon
Fairytale - Flowers
Delisious Doodles - 3 colours (pink, green, blue)
2 Sisters - Flowers
Quirky Crafts - Spring Garden
Picture Perfect Creations - Embossing
Papertake Weekly - Ribbons and/or pearls
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday - Big card

I hope you had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend. I am off to the stitch and craft show at Esher on Saturday. Will anyone else be there? I would love to meet up with blogging friends if you are going.

Take care and thanks for stopping by to have a look.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Out of the mouths of babes and Stamper mag win

No card today just a quick catch up of news

Ella, my 4 year old grandaughter,        
"I don't know why the children have to do all the work at school Granny, instead of the adults".               Both she and Maddison, the 2 year old, stayed on saturday night for a 'sleep-over'. Oh how blessed I am with my girls.

Just before Christmas I sent off an entry to the freebies section for the December Stamper Magazine and guess what?????? I won some stamps - woo hoo. Really nice steampunk Christmas stamps from The Artisrtic Stamper. Aren't I the lucky girl? Only problem is I haven't had my next magazine as they have had printing problems. All the ones for the shops are out, but not for those who have a subscription, pain.

It's the funeral tomorrow, all arrangements have been made and errands run. Just hope it goes smoothly now.

I'll be back soon.

Take care, one and all, and thanks for stopping to read this.

Have a good week.


luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Compendium of Curiosities week 27 - Distress Misting Masks

Good evening Everyone
The lovely Linda is hosting CoC challenge 27 over at Studio L3 and you can find all the details of how to do the masking technique on P60 of the Compendium of Curiosities. I used the sketch from Simon Says Stamp (flipped 90 degrees to the right) and also included the theme of masking at Simon Says Stamp and Show and Stampotique. The colour palette of brown, blue and white at Creative Inspiration, use coffee filters at Gingersnap Creations and use lace at ABC challenge and Shelly's Images.

I am really pleased with how this turned out. This will be another page for Mum's book when I get to make it. Butterflies were her favourite flying mini beast, so this piece is dedicated to her.
Supplies Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire, Walnut Stain, Vintage Photo
TH Flourish Mask
Tattered Angels butterfly stencil
Heidi Swapp butterfly mini mask

Papermania butterfly vinyl

TH dies - Fanciful Flight, Tattered Florals
Martha Stewart  border punch and butterfly punches
Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Aqua lagoon
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist Creme de Cocoa and Coffee Shop
Dovecraft Funky Vintage paper
Shabby flower made from coffee filter papers, DIs and glitter
Lace, papers and glitter card from stash
Sakura glitter pens

Other challenges to have fun with -
Ooh La La Creations - Bling
Polly Craft - New things (I have had Fanciful Flight for a little while but it is the first time I have used in on a project)
Stampin B's - Die cut
Fairytale - Flowers
Delicious Doodles - Use 3 colours
Stampin for the weekend - New and Blue
2 sisters - Flowers
Allsorts - Teal Blue and Brown
CES - No DPs

Have fun and thankyou for stopping by to take a peek.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Stamp Man - Challenge 14 Distress

Well here is something a little more different from me this week. I am hosting the challenge at the Stamp Man for this fortnight and the theme is 'Distress', so I have had great fun for nearly a week putting this one together (in between other things that is). I began, thinking I was going to make a card, but like many ideas things change as you go along and I ended up with a framed picture. Couldn't be more different could it?

I wanted to incorporate the "sketch" at Totally Gorjuss which is simple and elegant and  "Wings" from Sentimental Sundays and Stampin Sisters.

I have layered papers where I have embossed, stamped, inked, foiled and stickled to my hearts delight. Distressed did I hear someone say? Not me! Once I had chosen my elements to embellish, that's when I decided to make this into a framed piece and so I carried on.  I took an old frame apart, I shabbied the card inner piece and used the Vaseline paint resist technique with acrylic paint and distress inks. Again I stamped, made die cuts and flowers and cut out vintage pieces to add. I even bought a new music stamp to play with on it.

Supplies

Tim Holtz stamps - Weathered Textiles, Mini Classics, Shabby French

Paper Relics stamps - Fairy Jar
Distress inks - Victorian Velvet, Tattered Rose, Fired Brick, Scattered Straw, Mustard Seed, Vintage Photo, Pumice Stone, Weathered Wood, Tumbled Glass.
Alcohol Inks - Cranberry and Gold.
Embossing folders -
TH dies Elegant Flourishes and Heart Wings
USArtQuest - Mica Tiles
Gold foil
Perfect pearls - Heirloom Gold
Crackle Accents
Sakura Glitter pens
Papers - Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby stack and oddment from stash
Vintage images from downloads

Other challenges to have fun with -
Ann's Creative Nook - Hearts
Die Cut Dreams - Quote
Oooh La la Creations - Bling it on
Totally Stampalicious - Mix it up
My Partner in Crafting Crime - Something New
Crafts and Me - Paper tearing
AIF - Anything Goes
Stampinsanity - Let it all hang out

Have a wonderful weekend and hopefully some crafty/artsy time.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

The Magician's Helper - Dezinaworld

Hi everyone, it's almost the weekend - yeh.

Firstly a big hello to Tonya, Marlou and Liz who have joined my creative world recently. It's lovely to see you and if I haven't visited you yet I will soon.

Those of you who read my posts fairly regularly know that I love many different styles but particularly vintage and I have been itching to play with Photoshop Elements more. I still need to do some training with it but playing helps.

I have made this using a background, frame and image that has come from the lovely June at Dezinaworld and I have had fun experimenting with light and colours to make this simple piece.

I am entering it into June's Spotlight challenge which runs weekly starting on a Thursday. You do not have to use her images and the challenge is open for any kind of art. The theme this week is 'Magic', so my framed lady is called The Magician's Helper.

Just to let my regular reader's know that Mum's funeral is next Tuesday, so I am busy making arrangements and clearing her flat with the help of all my family. How lovely it is to have such a close knit family and to have them and dear friends to fall back on. I have to say that my team mates at MAWTT have been fabulous and keep sending me messages of support and keeping a close eye on me - thankyou girls for your cards, messages, kind words, love and help through all of this. My thanks also to those of you who have been thinking of me and leaving me messages that also give me strength and a feeling that the world can be such a wonderful place where people you have never met can still make you feel cared for and loved. It really is an amazing feeling.

Lastly to finish on a brighter note - it is my first blogaverary at the end of this month and I am busy gathering together a small blog give-away. Stay tuned for more info during the next week.

I am back tomorrow with my Stamp Man post which I am hosting for the first time.

Sleep well.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

MAWTT Challenge 81 - Dream

Hello Everyone I hope your week is going well.

It is my turn to host the challenge over at MAWTT this week and did you know that it is "Make your dreams come true day" today. So I chose the theme of DREAMS this week which can be interpreted in any way you like.

I have this fabulous TH stamp that I hadn't used and it fitted perfectly, I just love the sentiment of it.

I made this using ribbed kraft card for the main background and used a Tattered Angels mask and text stamp, edged it with DIs and stickles and overstamped the TH birds on a wire. The sentiment has DIs over it and mounted onto black card. I have included a glossy accents covered butterfly, TH Dream ticket which I mounted and ink distressed, a ribbon flower I made with a button added and a pin and beads behind it and attached a glossy accents covered heart with a small pin. The last little element was cut on the cricut. I found out how to do the flower on the internet with wired edge ribbon and it is great fun and so easy to make.

Supplies-
Stamps - TH Visual Artistry Life's Possibilities
DIs - crushed olive, peeled paint, forest moss, frayed burlap and barn door.

Diamond stickles.

Thanks for stopping by and thankyou for all the lovely comments you give me, they are soooo appreciated.

Have a great Thursday.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Challenges to have fun with -
Sweet Stampin - Try something different  (the ribbon flower and using ribbed kraft card to stamp and ink up)
Sentimental Sundays - Anything with wings
Stamoin Sisters - Wings
Whoopsi Daisy - No DPs
Die Cut Dreams - Quotes
Tuesday Throwdown - Background Stamping

Stampotique again

Welcome.

I have loved playing with my new Stampotique stamp and had to ink her up again. I used the sketch from Sketch Saturday and themes from Stampin' for the weekend - new and blue, Basic Grey - dots and spots, Creative Inspiration - Use something New,  Craft Your Days Away - Anything Goes, and Paper Cutz - metal.

The result.

Image stamped on TH paper edged with sparlky embossing powder and over inked. Dark blue papers were run through embossing folder and the bottom one had blue foil added to some of the spots. The sentiment is a digi from Scrap n Fonts.

Supplies
Prom Queen stamp (Stampotique)
TH paper Vintage/Shabby Chic set
Basic Grey background paper
Miscellaneous embellishments from my stash












Other challenges to have fun with-
Tuesday Throwdown - Embossing
Creative Cottage - Something New
Stampin' B's - Old and New (New stamp for Christmas, papers and embellishments old)
Stamp Insanity - Metal
Simple Doodles - Embossing
Mark's Finest papers - Embossing
Scrapbook Sisters - Anything Goes
Rainbow Lady - It's all new to me
Cute card Thursday - Out with the old
Crafty purple Frog - New Goodies
Delicious Doodles - New
Anything Goes - The letter C  CROWN

Thanks for looking and have a great week ahead.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

Art Journal Day 3

Make a zebra pattern print block then play in your journal. Milliande Day 3.

Oh boy am I loving playing with 'art' again. I've kept this fairly simple compared to what Milliande has produced (see link above). She made her print block using rubber and lino cutting tools, and yes I have got some tools somewhere - and I mean somewhere - but I don't think I've got lino or anything like that. So brainwave!!!! Remember that TH tag before Christmas where he showed us how to make our own stamps using foam???? Well that's what I did. I have just bought some funky foam sheets from the range and hobbycraft. They are only 2mm thick but I thought I would experiment to see what happens and it is fantastic. Look what I created. My own zebra print block.

I used acrylic paint on black paper and stamped the block several times, I also laid out 4 strips of masking tape on my craft mat and stamped over them with black stazon.

1.

On photo1 you can see how I drew between the shapes with white pen, this brought all the blocks together and gave it some continuity. I used a black pen and painted with white acrylic paint over the masking tape.

2.

Photo 2. I overlaid some of the masking tape over the printblock stamp and used a crafty individuals diagonal stamp top and bottom. The frame is from Invoke, stamped on white card with the centre cut out and overlaid and positioned to pick out the letter Z perfectly. I used white and red acrylic paint to fill in shapes and edged the frame with stardust stickles (well I just had to have a bit of bling in it somewhere didn't I?) Hmm pretty neat eh?

3.

Photo 3. I laid the last pieces of masking tape together, very irregularly and then continued the lines and shapes using oil pastels.

This last photo shows the double page spread and the black side unfolds. When laid back again it reveals photo 2 with the Z captured in it.

I'll be interested to see what you think.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox

New beginnings, new stamp and COCC #26

Hello everyone and welcome

I have been itching to play with this new stamp that my husband bought me for Christmas. I had been looking at the Stampotique stamps all last year and wasn't sure how I would use them, yet they intrigued me and at last I have plucked up courage to experiment with them. I am pleased with the simplicity of this and the effect I have achieved. I had several challenges in mind,

Stampotique - to use punches/die cuts

Studio L3 - Rusted Grunge

Simon Says Stamp and Show - Your newest stamp

Unscripted Sketches -  old sketch #13     

Prom Queen by Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente has been stamped onto patterned paper and coloured using promarkers. Diecut and stamped pieces have been given the rusted grunge technique (see P45 of TH Compendium of Curiosities for how to do it) and stickles added to edges and crown. The sentiment is my own created in Word.

 

Other challenges to have fun with -

Creative Inspirations - Use something new

Mark's finest papers - Use something new

One Stop Craft - New beginnings

Paper Sundaes - Something new

Pile It On - Brand spankin' new

Creative Card Crew - New beginnings

Try it on Tuesday - New beginnings

Creative Cottage - Something new

Simon Says Stamp - New beginnings

Dutch Dare Card Challenges - Something New

Hope your week is going well - take care and have fun.

luv and hugs {brenda} xoxox