Blooming gorgeous!

I'd put aside sunday afternoon for crafting time, but my mojo appeared to have slunk off into a corner, so I ended up watching most of the Grand Prix with my husband instead. What a cataloge of pit stop errors it was - I feel really sorry for Jenson Button and Paul Di Resta.

Anyway, eventually I put my mind to making a flower card for the Try it on Tuesday challenge and this is what I came up with:

Lots of wild honey, fired brick and vintage photo distress ink, Tim Holtz Papillon background stamp (and butterflies on acetate) and a big grungepaper flower. I like the contrast of the orange shades and the black background. Having nicely red and orange stained finger-tips for the rest of the day was quite cheering too.

I do like the finished card, but it's less original than I'd like. It's definitely been strongly inspired by all the gorgeous things I've seen other people doing - guess that can't be a bad thing really.

xx

Altered tin

After tea the other night I spotted the empty tin of moroccan spice mix we'd used and thought it would be perfect for altering. After soaking it for a while to get rid of the spice smell (not entirely sure I succeeded) I set about to prettify it.

I used some Anna Griffin paper to cover the sides of the tin, distressing the edges with vintage photo distress ink. The flower on top used some of the same paper plus some grunge paper, cut with the Tim Holtz tattered florals die, again inked with vintage photo.  Before attaching the flower with the a decorative brad I stamped a flourish in black stazon on the plastic center.
Finally, I stamped some flower images in black stazon round the edge of the tin lid and added some brown ribbon to finish it off. 

Simple but pretty.

Thought I'd enter it in the Try It On Tuesday challenge which is altered boxes this week.

xx

One for the boys

I really love my new Big Shot, especially using the Tim Holtz steampunk dies and embossing folders, so I don't really need much of an excuse to use them at the moment. The theme for  the Dragons Dream Tag it On challenge this week was 'texturise it'... so obviously the embossing folders had to come out!

I started off cutting a tag from thick dark brown card, embossing it with a cog pattern, and giving it a rusty metal look with gold perfect pearls and copper mist. I then cut some cogs using the steampunk on the edge die and the gadget gears die and layered them on the tag. I stamped a few images and sentiments onto aluminium foil with black stazon ink (stamps from Making Memories), cut them out and covered the 'discover' one with Diamond glaze for a glassy effect.

I was feeling a bit creative with my photography this morning and propped the tag up against a flower to photograph - felt it needed a feminine touch :0):

I wasn't sure about using the on the edge dies without the special on the edge cutting pads that seem to be recommended, but so far I've not found any problems using them with the standard pads.

I'd also like to enter this into the Try It On Tuesday challenge this week which has the theme of 'one for the boys'. I know my hubby loves all this steampunk stuff so it seems a fitting entry.

Sarah
xx