Pretty in Pink, Sunday Stampers week 307 - Friday 16th May

Hello Friends,

I had one of those infuriating craft days today, when everything I attempted ended in disaster! Mr Mojo had decided to take a day off just when I had the chance to craft all day and really needed him here!

It was a lovely day though wasn't it? I did go outside this afternoon and do a bit of work on the old chair that I've been working on out in the craft summerhouse. Actually I finished it, there isn't much to show for all my painting and waxing, but I will post it one day soon!

Today it's time for  Sunday Stampers, for fill deets head over to Hels Sheridan's blog..this week Hels set the theme to include pink in our projects and after several dire attempts with various stamps, this is the tag I made...

I inked the tag all around the edges using Picked Raspberry and Tea Dye distress inks and then I stamped  tiny flowers (Majestix stamps) all around, again using Picked Raspberry.

The butterfly stamp is by Lavinia- I stamped  it directly on to the tag (more Picked Raspberry) and heat embossed clear. Then I stamped it again on to white card,heat embossed and added glitter. Finally I stamped it twice on to acetate. I heat embossed using WOW! Embossing powder for lots of sparkle and cut the butterfly out and glued to the tag.

To finish off, I glittered the edges using stickler and tied a bow at the top, also added some wired pearls.

Last night's Out of the Blue craft group was another big success, with lots more lovely chocolate bar wrappers made by the ladies...I will be sharing the photos tomorrow,

Bye for now,

Love and Hugs,

Carole XX

Tim's 12 Tags of 2013, April - Tuesday 23rd April

Good Evening Friends,

Wow what a lot of lovely comments yesterday, thank you all so much! I'm glad you liked the dress form - it was actually the first one I have made, it's just one of those pieces of altered art I had never attempted, but I was very pleased with the end result.

 There was a time this month when I thought I might not get my 'Tim's Tag' made for April! However, it was another of those projects I managed to finish Sunday.

First of all this is Tim's Tag.... I followed his tutorial as much as I could with the materials I had available. Full deets are here

To begin with I put a small selection of distress paints to my mat...I only have a small selection at the moment, spritzed water on them and smeared the tag through them mixing the colours. Next  I heat dried the paint and dabbed any excess with a cloth. Then I used an assortment of distress inks to ink all over the tag, flicked some water on them, let the wet inks run down and heat dried. My big problem was that I didn't have the broken china paint that Tim used - no blue at all,or anything else very colourful, so I had to use browns and greens mixed with inks (sssh!). I also had to use metallic distress stain, where he used paint. Mine isn't as distressed and smeary as Tim's because I was using a mixture of paints and inks and to be honest, I held back a bit too much - more time and I may have started over.

 I distressed the edges of the tag all round and inked with Vintage Photo. I didn't have the dragonfly stamp that Tim used and I was going to use one from another set, but then thought I'd be different and decided to use this Tim Holz 'Papillon' stamp, which I once again, thank Anne for sending to me. I stamped it with Black Archival. The postmark and tape measure are both stamps by Crafty Individuals.

In his tutorial Tim says to take a selection of metal embellishments, so I used the clock, clock hands and some brads. As instructed I 'painted' these with distress paint and heat dried.

Tim's tag uses 'Clearly for Art' for the transparent layer of the dragonfly, I didn't have any of that medium (note to get some), so I stamped my butterfly on to acetate and fixed it with a teeny brad.

For the number '4' Tim used a plastic 'alpha part'  - mine is from my box of chipboard letters and numbers that I have had for years. I coated it with blue acrylic and metallic distress stain, which I blended together.

This month's Tag was hard, but this was my 'take' on it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Love,

Carole X

Tim's Tags of 2013:March - Friday 22nd March

Tim's Tags 2013 - March

Hello Friends!

Well, my social media training day went really well yesterday...it was great to actually sit through a workshop and be encouraged to use our smartphones and tablets to tweet!

My friend and colleague from a partner Volunteer Centre, Kim was a great help - she loves doing all the foodie stuff for events, which is my pet hate - so I looked after the organising of the trainer and participants and Kim did all the food: what a perfect day!

I didn't think I was going to get my tag made this month, but I did! This is Tim Holz's Tag for us to base our creations on: you can find the details here

And this one below is mine:

Mine was totally a 'based on' as I didn't have the dies and stamps that Tim used, so I just had to 'adlib'. I had really been hoping he would use the new Easter Blueprint stamps as I have that set, but alas he chose a bunny die...but heck, I still went with the blueprint bunny!

I stamped the bunny on black card with Indigo Blu Flitterglu and then covered it with Yorkshire Dales megaflakes...it's a shame that the photo doesn't show the effect so well. I then die cut a frame using Spellbinders Labels Four Small and glued the bunny to blue glitter card before sticking it to the back of the frame.

I used a #10 Tag,which I  backed with Tim Holz Ideology Seasonal (Easter) paper, not really intending to cover it up so much, but never mind! 

Tim used a die to create the grass, but I cut mine freehand using Coredinations paper, which I sanded and to which I added a little Mustard Seed distress ink for highlights.

Before fixing the framed bunny to the label, I tied the pink ribbon around it and then tucked it in behind the grass. Finally I used some die-cut and punched flowers to decorate.

The sentiment is by Creative Expressions, die-cut using Spellbinders Fancy Tags.

Thanks for stopping by!

Love,

Carole X

Winter Wishes - Saturday 22nd December

Hello Blog Friends!

Well we all made it through yesterday, so all the effort we've put into making those Christmas cards wasn't for nothing! :)

After the hair salon yesterday, I came home and started making the labels for the family presents I had wrapped on Wednesday (they've all got temporary post its on..that won't do will it?)

I have photographed some of the wrapped gifts and that will  probably be my last pre-Christmas post tomorrow, but today's project is my design team make for the new Emergency Crafters Challenge: Winter Wishes ...just make something wintery - can be Christmas or  not; have a go as there is a prize!

This time I have made a tag (any excuse to make a tag)....

It's a large tag, which I covered in paper from Dovecraft's Back to Basics Vintage Christmas..I aged it a bit more by inking the edges with tea dye distress ink. The image is a stamp by Crafty Individuals, which I stamped on black card with versa mark and heat embossed with snowflake tinsel powder (in the same way as my Sunday Stampers tag this week).

I then added some gold edged satin green ribbon and a  Spellbinders snowflake die cut.

I had decided to take a few days break from any crafts after Christmas - Tom is home anyway, so I doubt there will be much chance to disappear to the craft room! I really do so enjoy making cards and other crafty items for Christmas and because I (like many of you) start in the summer, I do find it hard to adjust back to  non-Christmas makes - but I've already got quite a few commissions for January and Amy (my friend I do the workshops with) arrived last night with a bag full of goodies for me to 'play' with to prepare for our first workshop of the year at the start of February, which will focus on Valentines/love..I've looked at the stamps and stencils but so far my mojo is still seeing Santa's and Reindeer! 

Well we are almost there now friends aren't we? Only a few more sleeps!

Carole X

Sunday Stamper week 234 - Tags!

Good afternoon friends in blogland!

It's a late post for me today, but I had made my project for this week's Sunday Stampers and wanted to upload. This week Hels (Sheridan) has set the theme of tags...whoopee! I am way way into making tags...love them...and for the main family and best friends' presents, I have been making tags...so good to make a project that will get used straightaway!

I used  a large parcel tag and covered it with some gorgeous paper I have in my stash..you can't see it in the photo, but it's dark blue, has 'Merry Christmas' imprinted all over it and is all shiny and satin (feels gorgeous, I use sparingly).

The stamp is a bit of a mystery because the original packaging has disappeared! I'm pretty sure the little set was free with a magazine, but who it's made by is a mystery, hidden somewhere under the piles of stamps and papers currently surrounding me in the craft room..ooops!

Anyway, I stamped it on black card with versamark ink and then heat embossed it in snowflke embossing powder mixed with a little cosmic shimmer glitter jewels. I roughed up the edges a little and mounted in on some blue glitter card - then gave the edges of that a bit of a scraping too. 

The little set with the deer stamp also has a  border stamp, so I stamped and embossed this along the bottom edge. Then I cut a snowflake from Spellbinders 'Create-a-flake four- and a little flourish from Ironworks Motifs - I cut this with the blue glitter card and some wax paper and have used both on the tag.

To finish I added some ribbons and gems...thanks for stopping by!
Carole X

Sunday Stampers week 230 - Weds 6th November

Hello Blog Friends,

I'm later posting today, because it's my no work day...hence crafting day...and I wanted to get my project for this week's Sunday Stampers made!

This week Hels has set the theme of  'blue' for the challenge, so to be seasonal, I thought 'ice blue' and made this large tag/hanger...

 First of all I cut a large tag shape from linen effect card and stamped a snowflake randomly all over it with Perfect Medium. Then I inked all over the tag with a mix of these distress inks: Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Faded Denim..these creates a resist against the stamped images (which in reality are much more defined and visible than the photo would have you believe!).

I then cut a piece from a double-sided adhesive sheet, peeled off one side and stuck it to a sheet of card, which was used to cut the snowflakes from Spellbinders Snowflake Pendant 2010. The die-cuts were then dipped into Clear Micro Glass Beads before sticking to the tag.

A wide piece of seam binding was then cut in half to give it a frayed finish and I stamped 'Jingle Bells' along it with Broken China distress ink. To finish off I added a Vintage ribbon double bow and some little bells!

Hope you like this and thanks for stopping by...I am hoping to finish off my 'general' Christmas cards this afternoon...wish me luck!

Carole X