Hen tag

I have used another of those pieces I had played with the other night (see post below) and created this fun tag. It's strange how pieces evolve. 

I had no idea how I was going to use the inky tag until I looked through some vintage images and was taken with this hen - why? I don't know, but it took me off in a direction that was fun to explore. 

Music paper and gold stamped clock for the cock singing in the mornings; wire mesh depicting the hen coop and a saying by Margaret Thatcher I think is great. I really quite like this.

I would like to say hello to new visitors and thanks for sharing my creative journey with me.

Also I just had to show you the parcel opened that I received from the Funky Junkie Boutique, courtesy of my good friend Terry. I still haven't unpacked all the little bags but I have had a peek - well I couldn't resist could I?

I so want to get playing shabby chic now.

Hope your week has gone well. Enjoy the rest of the day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Doodling Journal style

I just wanted to have some inky fun last night and experimented with distress stains on two different types of card and on canvas with and without gesso.

Results -

Special stamping card

Canvas without gesso

Canvas with gesso

Manilla card

I need a birthday card for my teenage granddaughter so decided to enter the Stampotique challenge - Oodles of Doodles - as it's such a long while since I have done so and made this, using the top piece of card.

Over the inky and paint layers I added an inky frame, stamped onto tissue paper and glued on, stamped the heart border, punched some extra hearts and lots of doodling round the edges, round the frame, on the punched hearts and made the birthday tag. Hey-ho complete.

Sooo good to be getting back into the swing of things.

For those who know me, hubbie is home from hospital, having had a scan and an endoscopy. Some bits wrong like hiatus hernia, gastritis and sludgy gall bladder and he will have that out in May. So we are hoping he doesn't get the awful pain back again before he has to go in and have the gall bladder out. Here's hoping!!

Have a good evening .

hugs {brenda} xox

Other challenges to have fun with -
Smudgy Antics - Anything Goes

Frilly and Funkie and my thanks to Terry

Last week I had an email from terry at 'Terry's work in progress' telling me to check out her blog as I had won a prize in her two year blogaversary draw. Well I was so excited to find that it was a $25 certificate to the Funkie Junkie Boutique. Now this little treasure trove is masterminded by Linda Coughlin of The Funkie Junkie blog and also the new Frilly and Funkie challenge blog. I had no problems spending my money at Linda's Zibbet store, oh no indeed not, in fact I spent more than the certificate and am just waiting for my lovely goodies to arrive. I have to say if you love anything lacy, shabby and vintage then do go over and take a look at what is for sale. There are also staple products like distress inks as well and the prices are amazing. Not only that I had a problem with getting through to PayPal and emailed Linda to let her know. What did she do? She sorted it all very quickly and sent me a new invoice and in the meantime whilst waiting for me to pick up the email and pay she had shipped my order out already. Now that is service, thanks Linda.

And of course A BIG THANK YOU TO TERRY as well. You are a great blogger and artist Terry. I am so pleased I have got to know you through this amazing world of blogging and I am so excited and looking forward to meeting you in person when I come to LA in the Summer.

So onto some art.

The challenges at Frilly and Funkie are fortnightly and this time round the theme is 'I'll take your word for it' and the challenge is to have the words/sentiment/saying/quote as the focal point of the project.

I have made a tag, which I think is a mix of frilly and funkiness and I hope fits the bill. I have used DP, inked and painted and spritzed with perfect Pearls mist, there is a fab vintage birdcage image, one of my downloaded butterflies and some embellishments including lace and trim with a focal quote that I found on the internet and printed out on digital backing paper. The shabby ribbon and tulle were both dyed or inked to get the colours I wanted.

I hope you had a great Easter weekend. Mine wasn't so good as my hubbie has been admitted to hospital. Just waiting to hear what the diagnosis is.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastels - Sweet Treats

I had great fun making this card. As I don't have any stamps that seemed to fit the bill for this theme, I put together a couple of digi images and printed out.

I used PPs to give me the basic colours on the images, sealed it and then went over in places with Promarkers to give some highlights and finished off with black and white pens and a brown Promarker to edge and give a bit of a vintage feel to it. The background is a paper from gcd studios Cloisonné collection. Again I added PPS through sequin waste and sealed to give extra depth.

 Like the saying LOL? I gave this card to my staff when I left school. They eat so many cakes and biscuits I thought it was quite apt for them.

I hope you can join us at PanPastel UK challenge blog and don't forget you don't have to use PPs to join in. Our fabulous sponsor The Creativity Store is again offering a PanPastel trial pack as the prize. Go take a look at their amazing prices and deals. It's where I buy mine from.

Enjoy your day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with
Cute card Thursday - I want candy
Papercrafting Journey - Photo Inspiration

Fashionable Stamping Challenges - A nautical theme

I am quite pleased with this little card. I used a stamp which is inked up for the first time, I won it at Our daily Bread challenges last year sometime. It is called Keep My Lamp Burning.

I missed the last challenge at FSC due to pressure of work so I am really pleased to join the girls again this week. Please go take a look at the wonderful inspiration they have provided again, their work is truly stunning.

The inky background is made using a product called Goosebumps with distress stains. I wanted to achieve a frothy sea effect background. I stamped onto the background with Stazon, but it didn't take as well as I expected so I stamped another image on white card, cut the lighthouse and compass out, painted it, heat embossed it and stuck it on. 

Using provocraft dies I cut and inked the shells. I don't know what I will use the card for so I will add a sentiment later.

Thanks for stopping by today, have a wonderful weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with
Crazy 4 Challenges - Blue, white + 1 (mine is brown)
Bloggers Challenge - to die for
For Your Inspiration - photo challenge
Creative Craft World - Blue theme
Desert Island Crafters - 3 from a list (no glitter, die cuts, brown)
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Anything Goes

The Stamp Man - Vellum

My first week off and I have so enjoyed getting inky and experimenting again.

This is my DT piece for the Stamp Man this week which is to use vellum. Jill kindly sent us some bits and pieces including this stamped image on blue vellum, so it became my focal image for this card. 

The pink flower is also vellum which I made from 3 circles. I think I might do a tutorial for it at some point, although I guess most people will know how to make it..

The butterfly is made from 2 Martha Stewart punches punched in white card and distress stains then a glitter embossing powder added.

Please come and join us and show us how you use vellum on your projects. As always Jill will be givng the winner a £10 on-line voucher for her shop.

Supplies -

Tim Holtz - Vintage Shabby Paper Stash

Distress inks - Victorian Velvet, vintage photo, walnut stain

Distress Stains - Broken China, Chipped Sapphire, Walnut Stain

Vellum

Embellishments - mosaic tiles, tiny tag, vintage brad, vellum flower, lace, doiley

Martha Stewart butterfly punches

Have a wonderful Easter and happy crafting.

hugs {brenda} xox

ATC - The joys of Spring

An ATC today, made just because I wanted to and also because I am still trying to use up scraps. 

The background was made when I did my demo day at The Art of Craft and I just finished it off with small vintage images from my box and then generated the sentiment on the PC.

Enjoy.

hugs {brenda} xox

Altered box - Shabby Chic

Here is an altered box I designed for a workshop a couple of weeks ago at The Art of Craft. Simply painted with acrylic paint and TH crackle paint - sanded at places where there would be some wear after a period of time and vintage photo DI added to those areas to age it.

The stamp is from the Shabby French collection by TH, images downloaded from the Graphics Fairy and then butterflies, buttons, flowers, leaves and beads added to the lid and some ribbon and lace round the lower part of the box. I love how this turned out.

Unfortunately I had to take the photos at the shop with no natural light so they aren't a true reflection of the colours, but I think you can get the feel of it.

Hope your week is going well.

hugs {brenda} xox

Just to let you know regarding size of photos etc and filling up your Picassa web album (see my post below), I have tried both my normal large size I save my photos as and re-sizing to the 800 x 800 pixels you are allowed free if you purchase additional space and the 500 x 500 pixels for the current free space.

If you click on each photo here you will see the difference it makes to enlarging your pics.

Hope this makes sense to you - if not read the Picasa guidelines on their web.

Picasa Web Album problem

Am I the only one being told I can't upload any more photos because my free 1 GB storage is full?

 If anyone has experienced this before please could you let me know how you solved the issue without buying more storage? It is obviously to do with photo size and I just gaily save at a large size as I was told by a blogging friend that my pictures didn't enlarge if I didn't!!!!

All help welcomed.

Many thanks.

 hugs {brenda} xox

PanPastels - Easter Week

Hi All

This is my DT contribution for the new PanPastel UK challenge this week where we want to see your Easter project. SO come on show us what you have been making.

Mine is a vintage Easter card using an image from the TH seasonal paper stash layered up with paper scraps which have had PPs added to either blend the colours in more or as in the case of the green background used with versamark and a stamp to create the crackle background.

More of my cheesecloth with the flowers as well and a small sentiment printed on the computer.

We look forward to seeing your Easter creations; remember you don't need to use PanPastels on your work but of course we love it when you do.

Don't forget My Creativity Store sponsors us with a fabulous prize of a sample set of PPs but they also have extremely competitive prices so don't pay the earth - go take a look at what they do.

For now.

hugs {brenda} xoxox