Moonlight and sunset

It's been ages since I entered any challenges so today I've done two tags for two of my favourite ones. Firstly, the Dragons Dream Tag It On theme this week is the whole of the moon. This is what I came up with:

The background started off with baltic blue fresco finish paint, crackle glaze and a top coat of black with white for the moon. The tree (from a Kanban set) was stamped with embossing ink and heat embossed with Moon Glow midnight sapphire obsidian powder. This is such a gorgeous deep shimmery blue and very fitting for the moon theme. I used some blue patina perfect pearls to add shimmer and stamped the tim holtz birds in black archival ink.


Hels Sheridans Sunday Stampers theme is blue and orange so I decided to create a similar tag with more of a sunset theme. 

The tree is the same dark blue embossing powder as the moon tag, and the background detail is done with the same blue perfect pearls as before, brushed over the pattern stamped in clear embossing ink. The background is wild honey and fired brick distress stains and ink. I know the blue doesn't show up too well in the photo so this one shows it a wee bit better.

I really enjoyed doing these and I'm starting to remember why I like challenges - they're fantastic for giving a bit of focus to my work. And I love seeing everyone else's fab work :0)


While writing this post I came across a great quote from Allen Ginsberg which I will leave you with.


"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness"


I like that sentiment


Sarah
xx

Wish upon a star!

It seems to have been ages since I entered any challenges and I know I won't have time for anything next week, so I made this tag to go in three challenges at once!

Firstly, it's for Grungy Monday where we have to use the Tim Holtz technique from 12 tags of Christmas 2010 day 10 (see linky here). This also means I can also enter Simon Says Stamp and Show, where the theme is show a Tim technique.

So I started off playing around with a couple of backgrounds and some embossed acetate/plastic packinging . Then I started thinking what I could do with it (working backwards as usual!). I added a few embellishments and realised that the whole thing reminded me a little of celestial charts - probably more to do with the colour than anything else - and so 'wish upon a star' seemed fitting... perfect for Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers wish theme this week.

The tag base was roughly painted with baltic blue fresco finish paint and I tried to rub some off before it dried to give it a more grungy texture. I then sprayed it with some blue/turquoise perfect pearls mist which has given it a wonderful petrol sheen (unfortunately it can't really be seen under the acetate, but I'll definitely be using this paint/pearl combination again). The tag and acetate were cut with Tim's large tag die and the acetate was embossed with a the retro circles embossing folder. The clock faces are cut from some Tim paper stash - I really loved how these looked with the circles on the acetate!

I stamped 'wish' and 'a' onto paper and used with bits from a 'make your own brad' set, and although you can't see it too well in the picture, 'upon' and 'star' are stamped around the edge of two of the clock faces.

So my wish for this week is that all the senseless violence spreading around this country ends soon. They were interviewing two teenage girls on the radio last night who hoped the riots would carry on because it was 'good fun'!!! It really makes me angry how mindless it all is, but I'll stop there before I really start ranting.

That's all for now. Stay safe and stay inky :0)

Sarah
xx

Dark dreams

Just a quick post tonight to share a card I've made for Sunday Stampers at Hels Sheridans fabulous blog. The theme is 'back to black' in tribute to Amy Winehouse and also seems very fitting with the tragic events in Norway.

I guess what I'm trying to say with this card is that if things seem dark right now,  you have to keep dreaming of a brighter tomorrow.

The main panel on the card is three strips of grunge paper embossed with Tim Holtz texture fades, coloured with distress inks (broken china, victorian velvet and dusty concord), and swiped over with black soot distress ink to cover the raised bits. The colour scheme was chosen to match the variegated thread I used to stitch the three pieces together. I then sprayed with some heirloom gold perfect pearls mist.

The book plate was cut from black card using the Tim Holtz tag die and painted with rock candy crackle paint which seems to have given it a bit of a leathery look. The white card in the centre was coloured lightly with the same three distress inks then stamped with 'Dream' in black archival. The finished book plate was fixed to the main panel with foam pads and some more of the pretty thread.
The butterfly and bird were cut using Tim Holtz movers and shapers dies and again painted with the rock candy crackle glaze. This time I added a little bit of colour with some metallic rub-ons.

Not sure if there is enough rock candy to really qualify this for this weeks Grungy Monday ('rock candy stickles or paint'), and it'snot come out very glossy, but I'll enter it in anyway. Would have been better for last weeks theme of grungepaper/board :-( but nevermind. Check out Tim Holtz's rock candy how to  here.

That's enough for now, thanks for visiting.

Sarah
xx

Tim, Tags and Flying Time!

This week has gone past in a flash, so time flies seems a fitting theme for the first tag I want to share.

This was my first attempt at this weeks chosen technique for the Grungy Monday challenge  - Tim Holtz's rusty /faux enamel effect - see the details on his website here.

I used walnut stain distress stain over the tag and stamped a PaperArtsy image in vintage photo distress ink. I then covered the tag with clear embossing ink to do a slight variation on the rusty enamel technique. I used vintage photo over the top of the embossing. The butterflies were stamped from the TH Papillon set in stormy sky distress ink and clear embossed again with vintage photo over the top (same colours were used for the little Time Flies tag and the scrollwork at the bottom).  The butterflies and the sentiment were stitched onto the tag. I love the little metal leaf which actually came from a pair of earrings from Tesco.

I like the finished result, but I didn't think it really came out as a rusty enamel look... So now for number 2, again using a feast of Tim Holtz distress inks, alteration dies, texture fade embossing folder,  stamps and the rusty enamel technique.

This time I used crushed olive and forest moss distress inks to colour the tag, then clear embossed and went over the top with vintage photo. Then I stamped the birds in black archival. I stamped the Tim Holtz sentiment on white card, edged with crushed olive ink and matted onto black card. The little flourishy bits were cut from the on the edge scrollwork die I also used for the first tag. The flowers were cut with the tattered florals die, embossed with a flourish texture fade folder and coloured with the same distress inks as the tag, with a little additional black soot around the edges. I then attached the whole thing to a piece of white card, also edged with crushed olive, and finally onto black card. I love the colour combination of the crushed olive and black - it really zings in real life (is that even a word?)

I decided to enter the first tag into the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge ('show some stitching') and Sundays Stampers ('flying').

The second tag will be entered into Dragons Dream Tag It On ('Project Tim Holtz') and Grungy monday ' Tims faux rusty enamel technique')

Going out for dinner tonight so I better go and scrub the ink off my fingers.

Hope you're all having a good weekend :0)

Sarah 

xx

Where flowers bloom

When we got back from holiday last weekend our front lawn was a sea of beautiful flowers - white clover, daisies, and what my Dad tells me is birdsfoot trefoil. Unfortunately our neighbours are very keen gardeners whose lawns are always perfect - literally they go round the edges with scissors! - and have been known to moan to our landlord when we don't keep the garden as neat as they'd like. So the pretty flowers had to be mown :-( It was almost heartbreaking, but I'm sure they'll grow back pretty quickly.

I took this photo before we got the lawnmower out (sorry for the quality - I don't think photography is really my strong point):

Anyway, this inspired me to make a flowery tag. I coloured an ATC sized piece of white card with butterscotch and stream alcohol inks, edged it in vintage photo distress ink and stamped 'Where flowers bloom...' a few times also in vintage photo. The stamp was from the flower fairies lavender set by Crafters Companion, which I got as part of some blog candy from Craft Stamping Magazine. When I first saw it I didn't think I'd use it as cutesy isn't really my style, but I've ended using it a few times now.

The flowers were cut from grungepaper using the Tim Holtz tattered florals die and coloured using alcohol inks (butterscotch, and wild plum) and distress inks (wild honey and vintage photo). I also stamped a Hero Arts script stamp over them using various different inks. The letters spelling flower were stamped in black in the center of each one.

I curled the petals a little and mounted them to the background card using foam pads. The whole thing was added to a plain kraft tag and to finish it off I added some ribbon and an acetate butterfly (stamped from the Tim Holtz Papillon set in black stazon and coloured with wild plum alcohol ink).

I think this tag fits the new Sunday Stampers challenge over at Hels Sheridans blog. The theme is writing and this tag has both the script stamp on the flowers and the phrase stamped on the background.
And the current challenge at the Stamp Man is alcohol inks so I'm going to enter it in that too.
Oooh and not to forget the Grungy Monday Challenge at Studio L3 where the theme is also Alcohol Inks - check out Tim Holtz's demo here!
...And finally Simon Says Stamp and Show - A word!

Thanks for reading and I hope you're having a good Sunday

Sarah
xx

Playing with metal

Hope you're all having a nice sunday.  It's gorgeous hot, sunny, weather today here which is great but I'll have to keep this post fairly short as I think I'm melting with a hot laptop on my knee.

I've wanted to have a go at something using metal and alcohol inks so the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge this week ('show some metal') was the perfect opportunity.

I started off cutting 4 squares of copper metal and embossing them with some Tim Holtz embossing folders. I coloured them with some alcohol inks - 2 with a single colour of ink and the other 2 with a mixture of the two colours, rubbing the colour off the raised parts of the embossed design. I mounted the four metal squares onto background paper and added an ideology book plate with the stamped word 'smile' (a paperartsy stamp).

I made this the right size to fit into one of these 3 inch box frames, but I haven't got one handy at the moment so it'll have to be on hold until I can get one. I'm thinking of painting it dark brown and distressing with gold / copper colours.

I'm also going to enter this in the Sunday Stampers this week which has the theme of words.

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

Sunday stampers - Love theme

Last sunday, the Sunday Stampers theme on Hels Sherdians blog was 'Love' - using the techniques and products that we love (can't believe how gorgeous her printer tray is!). I thought I'd have a go at something a bit different so I made this LOVE hanging using some of my current favourite bits and bobs.

I started off with chipboard letters and covered them in some wonderful papers from the Moulin Rouge range by Prima. This is one of my favourite ranges at the moment as I love the decadent style and the beautiful shades of blue and deep pink in this range. I inked the edges with stormy sky distress ink and used a Tim Holtz grungy text stamp to add some more detail to the L and O. I used glossy accents to add texture to the spotty paper on the V.

I'm currently a little obsessed with birds and butterflies, especially the butterflies and moths on the Tim Holtz crowded attic papers. I cut out a few butterflies and a bird stamped from the Tim Holtz urban grunge set and added these to the letters. Finally, I inked up a butterfly in stormy sky and stamped a swirl over it in gold (you can't really see the design but it gives a nice gold shimmer at certain angles).

Finding a way of fixing the letters together with what I had in was a bit of challenge, but I quite like the way its turned out with the pink wire that matched the pink in the Moulin Rouge papers.

Whats cool about the chipboard letters I used is they came in square pieces so they leave square frames to do something with as well. I'm thinking I might but some little photos in the letter spaces. Hopefully I'll have the time next week and will be able to show you the finished piece.

Finally, this weeks tip of the week is don't craft on the sofa - or at least don't use squeezy glue bottles! I squeezed the glossy accents bottle a little too hard and it went all over my hands then dripped onto my jeans and the sofa, Oops!

xx

Embossing on a sunday

I've been having a lovely relaxing sunday, basking in the glorious sunshine though the windows and making some ATCs.

I have a drawer full of embossing powders but haven't used any of them for ages - mainly because its very difficult to do heat embossing on a lap tray in front of the telly :-(  However, the latest challenge in on the Stamp Man Challenge blog was embossing...and I just got the Tim Holtz compendium of curiosities book... so I was inspired to have a go at some new techniques.

Here are two ATCs I made (I think I like the red one best!):

I'm going to enter them into the Stamp Man challenge and I'm also going to enter the blue one into the Sundays Stampers challenge (although it's definitely not a patch on the gorgeous tag Hels Sheridan has made!)

To make the background I stamped the script and embossed it with clear embossing powder, then inked over the top with distress inks. I created the hearts from some Maya Road chipboard hearts and the triple embossing technique described here (thanks to Vix for the fantastic tutorial). I love the texture it creates. The blue heart was using some moonglow embossing powder and has produced a lovely shimmery effect thats maybe a bit hard to see in the photos.

On an unrelated note, tip of the week is that glossy photo paper and rubber stamping don't mix - unless the aim is to spend 20 minutes scrubbing your stamps to get rid of the layer of paper now stuck to them!  Ooops!  Should I have realised that would happen?

xx