Mirror number 4

I hope everyone had a really lovely Christmas, we certainly did. It's been a busy few days visiting family and friends and, although It's been very enjoyable, I have to admit it's nice to be home.

So, I've now got a chance to show you the mirror I made for hubby for christmas. We're in the process of buying a house (fingers crossed, if nothing goes wrong, we should be moving in the next couple of months). We're planning to turn the second bedroom into a spare room, come study, come craft room so that I can stop using the dining table for crafting and hubby doesn't feel like he's relegated to the box room to use his computer. Anyway, getting to the point, we're thinking of decorating this room with a bit of a vintage travel theme, so I made this vaguely steampunk mirror with a travel theme too.

The background map is one from an ancient maps calendar we had kept with the intention of framing the individual pages. I used similar techniques to the first mirror I made, and added various clips and memo pins to make it useful for holding notes or other bits and bobs. The image of the man was cut from Graphic 45 Steampunk paper.

I used various stamps, including a Tim Holtz clock and this cute steampunk birdy from Graphic 45.

Got to finish there as I keep getting whiffs of wonderful tandoori chicken smells from the kitchen and my stomach is growling too much to type :0)

xx

Cornwall, cider and a tag!

Got back yesterday from a lovely weeks holiday in Cornwall. The scenery along the coast is fantastic, wild and windswept with plenty of rocky peaks to clamber up and admire the view from. I must have looked an absolute state most of the time with my hair whipped up by the wind!

We stayed in a cabin at Deerpark Forest Holidays which was off in the middle of nowhere (Cornwall seems to be a maze of pretty single track roads with grass up the middle). It was a lovely spot and our cabin had massive windows and a deck that looked out into the forest.  We even had our own private hot tub on the deck - lovely to relax in with a glass of wine and watch lots of little birds flitting about in the trees.

View from our cabin

Our cabin

As well as soaking up the scenery (if not the sun so much), we had some delicious gooseberry ice cream, seriously tasty beer battered fish and chips from Rick Steins Fish and Chips in Padstow, and plenty of cider (we found some that was made on a farm near where we stayed that came in what looked like a windscreen washer fluid bottle but tasted great!).

Anyway, It's nice to be back home, catch up with everyones blogs and do a bit of crafting.

I originally set out today to make something inspired by the colours of some beautiful flowers and plants we saw at the Eden Project, but I got distracted and made the tag below instead! Its my entry for Dragons Dream Tag It On challenge, which has the theme of 'Faces' this week.

I used Graphic 45 steampunk papers and stamps (loving them at the moment!) and Tim Holtz distress inks, tattered florals die, and book plates. The visage word stamp was one of the freebie stamps with Craft Stamper magazine a few months ago.

Edited: I'm also entering this tag into the steampunk challenge at Just for Fun.

Think thats enough from me for now. Thanks for looking :0)

Sarah xx

Steampunk Flower Tag

This week the Sunday Stampers theme from Hels Sheridan is 'steampunk' and, if you've read many of my posts, you'll know I love steampunk stuff :0)

I also love the Tim Holtz tattered florals die which I got recently, so when I saw this challenge, the first idea to pop into my head was a steampunk flower and I think it's worked out really well:

Using the tattered florals die the flower layers were all cut from this fab sheet from Graphic 45's Steampunk debutante range which has a wonderful dark cog background on the back. I glued the flowers to some grungepaper cut with the same die to give the petals a bit more ooomf (if you get what I mean). The edges were inked with vintage photo distress ink for definition.

The wings were cut using the Tim Holtz fanciful flight die and inked with vintage photo and black soot distress inks. I then spritzed the wings and the flowers with some heirloom gold perfect pearls which unfortunately hasn't shown up well in the photo, but looks fab and shimmery in real life.

The tag was just a plain brown luggage tag (from WH Smiths!). I left it it's natural colour and stamped a script stamp and a couple of Tim Holtz clocks, before distressing the edges slightly - all in vintage photo again.

Finally, I used the Tim Holtz hardware findings die to cut a keyhole shape (can you tell I'm slightly addicted to my Big Shot!) which I gold embossed and distressed a little to make it look a bit like metal  and fixed over the hole in the tag. I then attached the key charm to the flower on a chain from an old broken necklace.

I'm  really pleased with this - I think it's one of my favourite things I've done so far. Hope you all like it too :0)

Sarah
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

Time flies...when you're having fun!

My birthday is in a few weeks and my present from my husband was delivered on friday - a Big Shot and some Tim Holtz alterations dies and embossing folders to go with it! I was so stupidly excited that he, very kindly, let me open it early, so I've spent the weekend playing about with it.

My favourite things so far are the pocket watches embossing folder and the fanciful flight die. After a few test runs with cardstock I tried cutting butterfly wings from some of the plastic packaging  and embossing them. Here they are (some detail coloured with a promarker):

I rather like the effect. Not entirely sure what I'll do with them yet, although I have an idea ;0)

Next I found some thick speckly brown card which embosses brilliantly. I swiped the raised bits with clear embossing ink and brushed over gold perfect pearls. I absolutely love this effect - might be doing this a lot! I also tried spraying some copper mist on as well - even better - it gives a wonderful rusty effect. It'll be perfect for the steampunk cogs and gears too!

Finally, I cut some butterfly wings from script patterned paper and made a butterfly using a Tim Holtz spinner to make up the body. I added this to a piece of the pocket watches embossed card and placed them on a distress inked background to create this final piece:

I think I may have a new addiction :0) 

Steampunk ATCs

This has been a great week!  My butterfly card got into the top 10 on a challenge on the Gingersnap creations blog and... I now have 4 followers! So pleased that anyone is interested enough to follow me - thank you so much!

I just finished making a few ATCs using bits from the Graphic 45 steampunk papers. I started off with the idea of birds coming out of a top hat and I knew there was a couple of hats in these papers. Flicking through them inspired me to make the other cards.

I'd like to enter the first card into the Stampman resist techniques theme challenge. The background used a embossing resist technique - I heat embossed a stamped script image with clear embossing powder then blended brushed corduroy distress ink over it. I removed most of the embossing powder by re-melting it and soaking it into a sheet of paper,  then stamped watch and bird images with vintage photo distress ink. The lady is cut out from the graphic 45 papers as was the banner which I painted to allow me to stamp 'imagine' instead of the original text.

The blackbird ATC (below left) used a Paperartsy mini-stamp stamped in clear embossing ink covered with gold perfect pearls. The bird, roses, and clock were cut from the steampunk papers and the bird was embossed in black to make it stand out better.

The final one with the birds coming out of the hat used a Tim Holtz stamps with some lovely background paper from My Minds Eye - but spot the "deliberate" mistake in the background (oops! - I really need to pay more attention to what I'm doing!).

Oh well, back to work tomorrow, but hopefully I'll still be able to find some time for crafting in the evenings.

Sarah xx

Simple pleasures

"I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex",  Oscar Wilde.

I just wanted to share a little frame thingie I made at the weekend. The cardboard frame was something I bought on impulse ages ago and never got round to doing anything with. That is until a fantastic article on altered books in this months Craft Stamper magazine inspired me. They created a frame from an old book covered with tissue paper stamped with script to give a really beautiful shabby chic effect.

Here I used some decorative tissue paper  (packaging from an online clothing purchase!) to cover the frame. The embellishments and central image are from the gorgeous Graphic 45 steampunk debutante range of papers. I finished it off with an 'Adore' stamp and wrote the Oscar Wilde quote above on the back - very fitting I think.

I'm quite pleased with the way its turned out, although I did make a bit of a mess of the stamping - enthusiasm winning over care and attention! Now I've got a little box frame that I think would work very well done in a similar way. Just got to find the time!