CC3C - Challenge 17

Hi all,

Woodlands and Tinsel twine is this challenge so onto page 60 of the compendium of curiosities.   I didn't have any tinsel twine and couldn't get any as my local craft shop had sold out so its just the woodlands for me!

I decided to use a canvas but turned to the backside so it was like a shadow box.  I covered the sides and edges with some of the Postale tissue wrap and then painted over with Turquoise Paperartsy Fresco Finish chalk paint and some white gesso.  Once this was dry I added some snow to the bottom edge and again set this to dry.

The background was a piece of card  that I stuck strips of tissue wrap to and then painted with broken china and spun sugar distress paint and overstamped snowflakes with white gesso once the paint was dry.  I then used a stencil to add Santa and his Sleigh with versa mark ink and then embossed with black embossing powder as I wanted a really dark image.

The houses were from Tando and are made from thick cardboard. I painted them using more Paperartsy fresco paint in Cherry red, Pea coat and Turquoise and Green gold Decoart acrylic paint.  Once the paint was dry I assembled the houses and added them to the piece.

I coloured the trees using Tims technique and added some snow to them.  These were added to the piece once everything was dry.  I then added some more snow around the base of the houses and trees and onto the roofs of the houses.

I painted some flourishes with Decoart liquid gold acrylic paint to get a lovely soft gold finish and attached them to the frame.  Using the Signmaker Alpha Parts I put the text at the top of the frame.  This piece will now be added to our decorations in the living room, I think!

The Curiosity Crew has provided some stunning examples of this technique and you can see them at Linda Ledbetter's blog so click here to see this fabulous work.  Also thanks to the Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring this challenge.

A very Happy Christmas to all and all the very best for 2015.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 16

Hi all,

This challenge is the Layering Stencil, Embossing technique from page 50 of the Compendium of Curiosities.  I'm trying to get into the Christmas spirit so here we go:

I used the technique with the Christmas stencil to add the word believe, then using some pine needles distress ink to add the holly. To enhance the holly I used a micron pen to outline through the stencil.

I added festive berries and pine needles distress ink to my craft sheet and spritzed with water then smooched the tag through the ink puddle.  I then went round the edges of the tag with a little more festive berries distress ink and walnut stain on the very edge just to give a little more definition to the tag.

Using the Christmas stencil I added the words merry and season with walnut stain distress ink.  I then stamped the happy holidays sentiment from the Tim Holtz Tree Blueprint set and stamped the tree above the sentiment.  I also stamped the tree three times onto some spare card stock with pine needles distress ink and blended out the ink with a damp paint brush.  The tree was then decoupaged onto the tag, and the baubles added.  Instead of the stamped loop to hang the baubles I added a wire loop to each bauble.  A silver star decoupaged on the top of the tree completed this part of the tag.

Taking one of the woodland wreaths I spritzed it with shabby shutters and evergreen bough distress spray stains and set aside to dry.  Once it was dry I added some red gems, a decorative bow and dabbed on some DecoArt snow-tex and , when dry I stuck the wreath onto the tag.

A messy bow of seam binding coloured with evergreen bough distress spray stain and some charms finished the tag.

As usual the curiosity crew has provided some fabulous inspiration for this challenge, click here to browse this wealth of wonderfulness. Also thanks to The Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 15

Hi All,

Challenge 15 - Cabinet Cards.  I didn't have any of these so I hastily ordered some and now I'm wondering why I didn't spot them earlier.  I had great fun with this challenge as I dug out the bag of old photos that I got from my Mum.  I photocopied the original onto photo paper to use in this project so that I still have the original, just in case!

Now I have a confession to make, my husband said that Caitlin, my daughter, would like this as she doesn't have any photos of herself at age 2.  This still won't help as this is Me!  He didn't realise that this was not his daughter, although at that age we are quite similar,  made me laugh anyway.

To make my cabinet card I inked round the aperture and the edges with walnut stain distress ink. I then stencilled some multi sized dots, using gold embossing paste, onto the sides of the card and covered with glitter and set aside to dry.   When the paste was dry I drew a little loop on each circle  to make them into baubles.  

 As the photo was a little small for the card I cuts some patterned paper to size and cut an oval, smaller than the one in the cabinet card, inked with walnut stain distress ink, and placed the photo behind it.  On the back of this I put some plain card which I will write a message to my daughter on.

For embellishments I cut some of the Festive Greens in various shades of green and also added some pine needles distress ink to give some shading.  I also inked through the holly die to get the veins in the leaves.  I also added a little snow using DecoArt snow-tex to the edges of the branches.

The stocking and present at the bottom are metal charms that I painted using Pebeo Vitrail paint to give a stained glass effect then added some of the Ranger Mixatives in metallic silver and gold to highlight the details.  The bells in the top corner are from Tims Christmas adornments.  I painted this with various alcohol inks and the gold mixative.  A messy bow made with vintage red organza ribbon was mounted on the foliage then the bells added on top.

The large bauble was cut from textured gold card and mounted onto some red card that I had sealed with matt glue and seal.  I then filled in the red parts with the Pebeo Vitrail paint to give a glassy look to the bauble, before the paint dried I sprinkled a few red micro beads into the gaps for some extra texture and finished with a small bow.

As this was taken the Christmas I was 2, I still remember the teddy, I decided to title it Christmas Past.  I used the Holiday words dies to cut the word Christmas from the same textured gold card as the bauble and the letters for "Past" from green card and stuck them on the bottom.

As always thanks to Linda for organising the challenges, check out the inspiration here from the Curiosity Crew, and a big thank you to Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring this challenge.

Lyn

12 Tags of 2014 - November

Hi All

First of all Thanks to all those people who visited my blog and especially to those who commented.  Having just about got over the shock of being chosen last month, (my husband scraped me off the ceiling!)  its time to do the next tag for November.  This is an autumnal tag using those lovely rich fiery colours.

I smooshed spiced marmalade, barn door, crushed olive and rusty hinge distress paints onto my craft sheet and spritzed with water and then dragged my tag through the paint, as I got a bit carried away with the amount of paint I had enough for three tags so some for another project.  Once the paint was dry I used the speckles stencil to put some versa mark ink onto the tag then used the sticky clear embossing powder to get some sticky patches on the tag and then rubbed the gold transfer foil onto the sticky patches.

The tag was then embossed with the embossing folder from the layered leaf, with a little vintage photo ink on the folder before embossing to give a bit of shadow.

Having just had a delivery yesterday I happened to have a cardboard box that I could grab to alter, usually my husband is the recycling ogre and nothing is allowed to stay in the house if its not to be used immediately.  I have hidden the rest of the box just incase I need some more cardboard, shh! don't tell him!  I stripped off some of the surface of the cardboard and then inked with walnut stain distress ink.  I then splattered with both the walnut stain and tarnished brass distress sprays.  I love these sprays but I don't half make a mess!  I then cut the tattered leaf from the cardboard.

Having gone round the aperture with walnut stain distress ink I glued cardboard, centering  the aperture over the embossed leaf on the tag and cut the cardboard to match the tag.  I then went round the edges and some of the exposed ridges with some Pebeo empire gold gilding wax for a subtle sheen.

I then looked at the leaf that had been cut from the cardboard and couldn't bear not to use it, so I inked with a little spiced marmalade and barn door distress stain to give a hint of colour.  I wanted it to look like a leaf that had been lying on the ground for a few days.  I then put it in the embossing folder,   having swiped with burnished brass distress stain first, and embossed it.  The stain gave the type of sheen you get from some woodland moulds.  I then attached it to the bottom of my tag as if it had just fallen there.

To finish the tag I added some twine to the hole at the top and some remnant rubs, then wound some glitter twine round the tag with a philosophy tag attached.  A little bit of picket fence distress stain on the tag made the word a little easier to read and some gold bead string was added.

I love the colours of Autumn but hate the fact that the wet and windy weather is not far away.  I think I'll just stay indoors and craft, seems good to me.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 14

Hi All,

This challenge is coloured crackle, see page 53 of Tims Compendium of Curiosities.  At a recent craft fair I purchased some Christmas 'Words'  These are made of MDF and have a small stand so they can be used as table decorations, this seemed the perfect technique to alter them so here we go...

So, I first painted the word and the base with white gesso then, using a combination of dusty concord, salty ocean and broken china distress paint I crackled and coloured using the coloured crackle technique.  Once the crackle was dry I fixed the word to the base.  I seem to have got quite a nice crackle this time, I think it depends on the thickness of the product.

Using some of Tims woodland trees I coloured them using the evergreen bough distress spray, turning my fingers green at the same time, and left them to dry.  When the ink was dry I used a sort of dry brushing effect to put some snow on the trees, I also added a little glitter before the snow was dry.

Once all the pieces were dry I added the trees and a snowman, that I had on the Christmas cake last year, and a small robin to the piece.  Then I added more snow round the base of the pieces, trees and snowman and alone the tops of the word as though it had been in a snow storm.

I painted some chipboard snowflakes with broken china distress paint and sprinkled some glitter into the paint before it dried just for a little festive sparkle.  These were then added to the word here and there.

This is the first of my Christmas preparations done but I now know what I'm going to do with the other two word plaques that I purchased, Noel and Santa.

As usual there are some stunning examples from the Curiosity Crew, Thanks Linda for the chance to see such fabulous work.  Also thanks to The Funkie Junkie for sponsoring this challenge.

Right where did I put the  distress crackle paint....

Lyn

12 tags of 2014 - October

Hi all,

I love this time of year, all the warm colours of the leaves, (much better than just green!) and misty mornings.  Although we don't make as much of Halloween in England I do like all the imagery and definitely the colour scheme.

I decided that you cannot have Halloween without witches so I wanted to put one on my tag, the witch on Tims Carved Halloween stamp set was perfect but as she is on a broomstick she has to fly!

 After stencilling the spooky words with grunge paste I set the tag aside to dry.  From the Carved Halloween stamp set I stamped the witch, pumpkin and two spiders onto some spare card.  The spiders were embossed with clear embossing powder and cut out, quite a labour of love I can tell you.  The witch and the pumpkin were coloured using distress markers.  The pumpkin was then triple embossed with clear embossing powder cut out and some dimensional tape put on the back.  The witch was cut out, her pumpkin lantern and boots were embossed with clear embossing powder and a long narrow strip of acetate attached at the top of her hat.

I then die cut the cobweb decorative strip using some black card and swiped the picket fence distress stain over the whole thing waited a couple of seconds then dabbed with a tissue to get an uneven finish.

I then took the dry tag and spritzed with wild honey, barn door and dusty concord distress spray stain and dried with a heat gun.  I then sanded lightly over some of the grunge paste letters to get some of them a lot lighter.  A light dusting of walnut stain distress ink over some of the other letters to give variations in tones and I then inked round the edgers of the tag with the same ink.

I attached the various pieces to the tag and attached the other end of the acetate strip to the bak of the tag so the witch looks as though she is flying across the tag.

 A few small text sayings and a bat from the Apothecary remnant rubs completed the front of the tag and a piece of crocheted black ribbon tied at the top to complete the tag.

Thanks Tim for the inspiration and hope you like my interpretation.

Lyn

CC3C - Challenge 13

Hi all,

What a week, in fact what a fortnight, I was asked to make the wedding invitations for some friends wedding and today I finished them, phew.

So onto the challenge,  Ive had this IndegoBlu Christmas stamp since last year and I just love it, I think it will be on all my cards this year if I ever get round to making them!  I decided it had to go onto the book front as I'm going to try to do some Christmas Tags this year and will need somewhere to put them.  So here it is:

I stamped the sentiment into the panel on the front of the cover and coloured the stag at the top, then decided to colour the fancy panels on the cover too.  I then added some gems to the corners of the panels.

I then die cut some trees and a lamp post, added some snow using a white pen, and attached them to the cover.  Some sons flakes die cut from silver mirri card were also added to the cover.

A selection of ribbons with some festive charms were threaded through the holes in the side of the cover.  I intend to do something with the inside but time has caught up with me so that is a job for another day, perhaps over the Christmas period.

Many thanks again to Linda Ledbetter for continuing to inspire along with the Curiosity Crew  and to the Inspiration Emporium for sponsoring this challenge.

I am now going to lie down in a darkened room with a very large glass of red wine after a very fraught two weeks!

Lyn