PanPastels - Wedded Bliss

This week at PanPastel UK the theme is Wedded Bliss and I chose to do an anniversary card.

Quite simply made by using a white card that already had embossed flowers at the bottom, I gently rubbed some PanPastels over starting with magenta and white and added some brown to the edges to get that vintage look. I used one of my favourite Tim Holtz flourish stamps with embossing ink and gently dabbed magenta shade over.

The sentiment was computer generated.

There is a prize for the winner each week sponsored by Your Creativity Store, so pop over to the challenge blog to see the wonderful inspiration from the very talented DT.

Happy Sunday.

hugs {brenda} xox

Funkie Junkie 12 tags of Christmas #4

I am still following Linda's 12 tags of Christmas and keeping up, YAY.

This week Linda has given us a rustic, country styled tag and I am taking inspiration from 
1) having a stamped background 
2) I used the enamelled stamping technique which can be found on P.44 of Tim's Book 2 and 
3) I used the tattered pinecone die which I have only just purchased.

I also want to play at Simon Says Stamp and Show where the challenge is RUST.

This piece also doubles for Crafty Individuals DT piece as I have used stamp plate CI - 169 and cut out the angel figures.

Apart from the above supplies I added a holly berry frame and some holly berry DP to make another of my extended tags, a little gold bell completes the Christmas touches.

I didn't have the vintage photo distress embossing powder so I mixed tattered rose, aged mahogany and brushed corduroy together and followed Tims recipe on P.45 of Book 1.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.

I had some lovely good news this week, my 'Fall into Fall' tag was chosen as a winner at Sugar Creek Hollow. How wonderful is that? Thanks girls for your votes of confidence in my work, I so appreciate it.

I hope your weekend is a good one. I am still helping to look after the youngest grandaughters as the eldest had a complication under anaesthetic this week which has set her back weeks. At the moment we don't know when she will be able to come home. She has alot of progress to make before that can happen.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

I am back online

My blog was disabled last night because I put some incorrect details into a Google form - silly me was trying not to give my real birth date. I had to send some info back to Blogger (still Big Brother stuff as far as I am concerned) to get it back. To be honest I thought it had gone forever but here it is back about 12 hours later so I am grateful for that.

Thanks to all of you who sent a message back to me. As many people say, this blogging community is so supportive, sometimes I wonder where we would be without each other.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

hugs {brenda} xox

Funkie Junkie Tag 3

Hi All.

Today I would like to show you my tag #3 for Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas. I am doing quite well keeping up even though it’s not in the right week, but that doesn't matter. If you go take a look at Linda’s example you will see I have taken my inspiration from the colours, using brushed pewter distress stain and the marbled stain technique (see P46 of Tim's Book 2), using metal and stamping on acrylic packaging. The rest is mine lol.

Recipe

1. Background - marbled stains technique with brushed pewter, picket fence and weathered wood DSs.

2. Metal - alcohol inked with denim blue.

3. Deer - die-cut from reindeer flight in card covered with metal tape. Alcohol inked with denim, sailboat and silver finished with a light cover of white acrylic paint. Finished by edging it with a blue sharpie to make it stand out more.

4. Sentiment - stamped from mini holidays onto acetate packaging, cut out and dabbed with brushed pewter DS underneath.

5. Snowflakes – punched & dabbed with weathered wood DS, ice stickles added over the top.

6. White die-cut dabbed with weathered wood and picket fence DS.

Finished by making it into one of my extended tags using DP from MME.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.

I hope the world is a happy place for you.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -
Sunday Stamper - Snowflakes
Alphabet Challenge - Recycle/Repurpose
Stampotique - Weather (Snowing)
Pile It on - Vintage or Shabby Chic
That Craft Place - Make your own background

PanPastels - Alter It

This is my second post for today. Please scroll down to see a pumpkin card, made for FSC.


Today PanPastel UK has a new challenge and theme - Alter It / Recycle. There are a few photos for you to look at, but I want to show you the before and the after. So here is the original tin - a Christmas teabag tin in bright red and white polka dot.

Now look at it .

I started by spraying the tin dark brown with one of those cans you get from the DIY shop. I painted it with the PaperArtsy crackle and when dry with PaperArtsy Snowflake Fresco Finish. I didn't worry too much about the middle as I knew I was making a paper sleeve for it. Lurve the crackles that appeared. When it was dry I rubbed Burnt Sienna Tint Panpastel with some other browns round the edges. It stayed beautifully. But to make sure it was going to last I sprayed with DecoArt acrylic sealer.

Next I used a snowflake mask, champagne dazzle Versamark (that's the one I said changed the colours slightly and makes them look a bit more vintagy) and some brown and cream pans to create this sleeve  I sprayed it with gold spray and sparkle to get a gorgeous glittery effect.

I also used the mask etc to make a piece to go on the lid.

To finish the tin I added some music paper and used the new Tim H snowflake rosette mini die and added a snowflake on each side, these were also made of music paper. 

With a piece of ribbon glued around the lid I now have a new toffee tin for my sideboard at Christmas. 

If you are altering or recycling something this week, please share it with us at PanPastel UK and pop over to see the fabulous creations from the DT. 

Each week one lucky person drawn from the entrants receives a starter set of pans from our fabulous sponsor = Your Creativity Store.

Have a lovely day and don't forget give someone a hug.

cyber hugs from me {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Alphabet Challenge - Recycle / Repurpose

Out of a hat creations - Christmas in October

Simon Says Stamp - Glimmer and sparkle

Craft Room - Alter It

Sunday Stamper - Snowflakes

Anything but a card - Shiny, sparkly, blingy

Just to let you know I made Fab 4 at The Play Date Cafe with my 'Fall into Fall' tag. How wonderful is that? xxx

Pumpkins - FSC - Shades of Autumn

Well I have two posts for you today. This is the first for Fashionable Stamping Challenges, the other later this morning is an altered item for PanPastel UK.

I haven't played with my FSC sisters for quite a while, but feel that I can commit time to this amazingly creative team again now that the evenings are drawing in (so I can't get out in the garden) and I am not looking after any grandchildren either, the youngest is now in school full time.

I loved playing with this pumpkin stamp from Paper Artsy (one of the new sets I picked up at Ally Pally).

The pumpkins have been embossed with mustard seed, dried marigold and aged mahogany distress embossing powders and then I played with the new Graph'it markers and a white zig pen to fill the spaces and blend the colours into the embossing powder.

I used the bookcover 2 embossing folder, copper paint dabber and various shades of DIs. When I blended the DIs across to the image although I started light in the middle and got darker to the outside, I lost the definition of the pumpkins. To restore it I used my TH water brush and took out some of the colour which created that lovely mottled look and then ........... used my prisma colours over the embossing powder to give me more light and dark and therefore depth.

 I think this looks like a painting now.

What do you think?

(My daughter thought they looked more like apples so I have tried to put more shape into them).

This is one of those cards that came together so easily and didn't take as much pondering over as some of the other projects I do.

I hope we will see you for this challenge - don't forget this is a stamping challenge and digis for the main focus are not accepted, so lets see your inky designs. Pop over to Fashionable Stamping Challenges to see the rules and the challenge post.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this with me. If you leave me a comment, I thank you sincerely for taking the time and for giving me some feedback.

Have a great Sunday.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Sugar Creek Hollow - Give thanks for autumn

Try It On Tuesday - Lots of Layers

PS - Don't forget my PanPastel piece will be next up a little later today.

Christmas is a comin', Christmas is a comin'

I know, I know, it's still early but I have got it in my head now, so here we are.

I had a play with my PanPastels again this week and made some Christmas tags. 

(At the top of this photo you can see a sneak peek of my PanPastel challenge DT piece coming up on Sunday).

Really easy - using kraft card, die cut the bauble shapes using Tim's Carved Ornaments.

Stamp using embossing ink and Crafty Individuals plate CI-241 snowflake stamp.

Dab white PanPastel over the top and gently blend a creamy tint and then a dark brown around the edges.

Spray with a glittery sealer.

I made a message label in PSE for the back and added some threads.

I think I might use brown paper for wrapping all my presents this year and these will be a great addition to them.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

hugs {brenda} xox

Challenges to have fun with -

Out of a hat Creations - Christmas in October

Sweet Stampin' - Vintage

Christmas tag for FJ no. 2

I have made my second Christmas tag for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas challenge, although it is for Linda's first challenge week - I'm just catching up. She has now posted her third one, so I still have one mare to catch up but not lagging behind too much lol. 

I am also joining in with the other Linda at Studio L3 for the Compendium of Curiosities challenge which is to use distress markers. Tim has 2 techniques in his book on P.50, I used the second, adding my own take on it of course.

I drew inspiration from Linda's gorgeous tag wanting to use the metallic distress stains and the marbling technique as explained on P.46 of Tim’s fabulous book, ‘The Compendium of Curiosities’ – Book 2.

I used picket fence, tarnished brass and vintage photo to create the background then added some peeled paint DI before flicking with water and drying. Don't ya just love these gorgeous Christmas Blueprint stamps by Mario III?

Using coffee archival ink I stamped both the Christmas tree and snowflake from the set and stamped the Christmas tree a second time, colouring it in with the distress markers and cutting it out. I added the baubles to the tree instead of to the side. The die-cut letters are the typeset strip die covered with glossy accents, I filled in the baubles with this too.

Some other bits and pieces to finish off including pleated tissue tape covered with the tarnished brass DS. I also painted the metal pieces & tree bulb with the picket fence and tarnished brass DSs, drying them with the heat gun as they 'pooled'. Another look I really love.

I have to say I wasn't happy with the tree at first, it stood out far too much, so I also painted it with the picket fence and tarnished brass DIs, it now blends far better with the rest of the tag whilst still being quite prominent.

You can see I put some snow round the branches too.

Linda's 12 Tags of Christmas is an inspiration challenge and there will be a winner drawn at the end of the 12 weeks for those who have entered each one. There is plenty of time to take part as each tag challenge will remain open until the 17th December, so no excuses if you miss any. The sponsor is The Funkie Junkie Boutique, which is Linda's fantastic on-line store where she stocks lots of fabulous products to produce vintage, shabby chic projects.


Other challenges to have fun with -
Sweet Stampin' challenge - Vintage
Anything but a card - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy - my die cut letters and baubles are very shiny with glossy accents over them.
That Craft Place - Make your own background
Crafty Mess challenge - Distressed / aged



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Sadly I needed to make a sympathy card today. We had a phone call from Ken's sister on Friday to say her husband was in the Atkinson Morley hospital having had a huge brain bleed, he passed away Sunday afternoon.

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Have a good week and as my friend Joyce says, make sure you give your loved ones a cuddle when you next see them.

Take care.

hugs {brenda} xox

What's on your Workdesk? Wednesday - Just

I know I'm a bit late today for WOYWW #174, but I have been to my sister who lives over 60 miles from me and got back to pick the little grandchildren from school as the eldest is back in hospital and will probably be in for a while again. Since her big op she has been sick (physically) and the doctors don't seem to know what's going on. I hope they get it sorted soon.

As my desk has everything piled on it that was on the floor, ready for hoovering, I thought I would show you some of the shelves behind my chair. Not that interesting I know but maybe the next picture will be.

If you visited me last week for WOYWW #173 you saw part of a canvas peeking out and many of you said you would like to see it finished, so this is it.

It was the canvas we made at my workshop on Saturday and the ladies just loved it. 

Text paper and scrumpled tissue paper texture for the background, patterned paper squares edged with glitter, The Eiffel Tower image and die-cut and some embellishing.

Ooh, la, la.

I am entering this canvas into the Make My Monday challenge of Paris.

Happy WOYWW, hope you have had a good day if you are in the UK or ahead of us in time, and having a good day if you are behind us.

Please pop over to Julia's lovely blog at the Stamping Ground, she who organises and hosts this great opportunity to visit people's work stations all round the world. If you haven't yet ventured into desk hopping I have to say it's great fun.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox

My Give-Away Winner

Just a quick post to congratulate the winner of my Give-Away. 

I used Random Org to select and as you can see the number generated from 46 entrants is number 2 and that is .........

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KATHYK of PURPLE PRINCESS DIARIES

Congratulations Kathy.

I hope you enjoy the new supplies and if you send me an email (address on my sidebar) I will get these in the post to you.

A huge thank you to everyone who took part.

Watch out for another give-away coming soon as I have just reached 600 posts and I thought that should warrant another pressie for some-one.

I have been out all day today but I am now gonna feed the grandchildren and then once I have dropped them home I will get onto WOYWW.

See you soon.

hugs {brenda} xox