12 Tags of Tim Holtz - February 2015

Hello there

Just a quick post today -having always wanted to join in  'The '12 tags of Tim Holtz '  this month, with my blog up n running ,  I decided to give it a shot.

In keeping with Valentines day, Februarys tag was based on Tims simple love of making things !(n as we all know , he does it so well!) The technique - to  layer ephemera to create a patchwork inspired collage tag !

Though ,in essence, I followed Tims tutorial  which can be found here  I did choose to put my own spin on it as I didn't have all the necessary 'ingredients' in my craft stash to replicate Tims entirely .

I chose to use papers instead of ephemera  to create my patchwork arrangement n then pretty much followed the tute to create a 'shabby' kind of effect .

I opted for a cardboard heart ( using the heart wings die )  peeled back in places to reveal the corrugation, triple embossed  n rubbed with wax to highlight the corrugation lines n edges! I finished it off with a simple brad n stapled it to the tag. 

  

I used a  brass 'love ' token to wrap around a brass arrow to created my charm n all were distressed!

I added a touch of lace which again I embellished with a brass brad, opened n glued to a washer n I also attached a distressed mini brass corner!

   

Once the tag was all assembled I highlighted the word 'love' with light n shadow, rubbed the edges of the tag with a little wax , gave it a quick spritz n used twine looped back on itself to hang !   
                                   

Hope you like the creative versatility I used in making my version of Tims February tag !

 

    

 Thanks for popping by - all visits are much appreciated as are all your lovely comments ! 

 Hope to see you again soon 

Have a great weekend  !

Dare to be Unique...............

Hi there,

Time for another creative blog post me thinks but before I do I would just like to 'Welcome' all of you who have chosen to follow me n to say a big thank you to everyone who's stopped by to take a peek. It was wonderful to read so many lovely comments that were left about my blog n my first creative post !
So with me being such a novice at blogging  I will have to own up n say despite wanting to reply to each comment individually  I wasn't able to?  I did abit of poking around behind the scenes so to speak but with no joy so I do hope a few group replies will be ok  for now until I suss it out ! ( if anyone can steer me in the right direction it would be appreciated.)

Now for the creativity ........

I guess this piece evolved from deciding I was going to enter Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. A quick hop gave me the brief - Red + Pink - to be inspired by the traditional colours associated with Valentines . Are you a Red or Pink person the brief asked ? hahaha - well lets just say  given a choice   I DON'T DO RED or PINK so I decided it might be fun to step outside my usual colour palette n take on the challenge!

I had in mind that I would make a card so started with the background. For this I used Tim Holtz distress paints - Fired Brick, Spun Sugar , Brushed Pewter n Picket Fence.  I used then like you would if you were doing a wrinkle free distress technique. Once I was happy with the colour I then went in with some Fired Brick distress ink  just to give a bit more depth to the red hue . Out came the Black Soot ( well I was beginning to get a bit jittery with all this red n pink going on , lol ) to darken the edges .

Some stenciling n stamping was added randomly using Fired Brick, Barn Door n Black Soot distress inks to create more interest n  depth to the background. Then I spritzed lightly with Black Soot distress spray stain n Pewter cosmic shimmer to give a subtle sparkle .

Finally a few (3)thin strips of  harlequin tissue tape were strategically placed on the background .

After some indecision ( I'm the queen of it ) I opted for one of the stamps from the dylusions stampset- 'Strength'. After stamping with Black archival I cut the image out n added some red shading to the harlequined top, the eyes n the lips !! I drew round the stamped image on black card as I wanted to create a shadow that hopefully would make the image 'pop  when placed on the background! The shadow was adhered flat n the stamped image was offset n adhered with dimensional glue .

As I love using metal bits n bobs on my work I added some small  metal washers at the ends of the tissue tape  n some lengths of chicken wire cut in half  leaving a space free for the quote ! 

The quote I opted for was one of Wendy Vecchi's -do love the fonts Wendy chooses for her quotes/sentiments . I thought it worked well with the stamped image. A quick mounting secured with brads n it was ready to go !

Although my initial thoughts were to make a card, I did infact decide otherwise n made it into a piece of wall art instead using mountboard. I  made  a couple of holes for hanging, finished them off with eyelets n used black ribbon to hang!

n here it is ..... Dare to be Unique!! 

Hope you've enjoyed your visit n hope to see you again soon !

I would like to enter this piece into the following challenge

SimonSaysStamp Monday Challenge Red+Pink

As I have used stencils on this piece I would also like to enter it into

Craft Stamper Take It Make It -February challenge

When the Heart Speaks......

Hello Everyone

Well, last month saw the  birthday of my lovely Niece n  as she has appreciated my 'creations' in the past I thought I might make her an altered art piece for her bedroom to accompany her other gifts- gotta spoil ya Nieces !!

Having checked out her bedrooms colour scheme n knowing I love her loads I decided on altering a wooden 'heart' plaque!  As for how exactly I was going to alter the heart, well,  I wasn't sure as I had a few ideas in mind but no real design planned n not really knowing if it would be worthy of 'gift' status when finished I guess it was a case of trying n seeing n hoping it all came together in the end !

So here's what I did ........... A coat of gesso to prime the surface ready for whatever medium I was going to use ! After some thought I quite fancied the idea of crackling as it's a technique I haven't done in awhile n as the heart was a decent size I thought it would show the technique off well .Bearing in mind the colours of my Nieces room I chose to use Cream crackled with gold acrylic paints.

Once dry , using a couple of stamps (dotty  n very fine detail script) I  randomly stamped on to the crackle using both antique linen distress ink n archival coffee ink (stamped off onto paper first to lighten the intensity of the colour) .  Now  time for some stencil work so using my dotty stencil n gathered twigs distress ink I very gently worked the ink through the stencil to create some subtle dotty areas on the crackled surface of the heart .
Do love using stencils so out came the grunge paste which I mixed with some cream acrylic paint like I'd used for the main colour of the heart n this time using my bubble stencil I randomly created  areas of bubbly dimension onto the heart. To add a bit of sparkle I sprayed the heart with cosmic shimmer n rubbed some gilding wax around the edges then polished to give a lustre finish!   

Now ,  time to embellish........I started with the quote! After rummaging through my stash I found what I thought was the 'right' one  -  Using coffee archival ink I stamped the quote onto cream card stock cut to size, ragged the edges  n inked them up with gathered twigs distress ink n a light touch up of gilding wax.  I then manipulated the card slightly  to give it some dimension.

On to the flowers n leaves - I wanted 3 of each so  I made them using the  Itsy Bitsy spellbinder die n a Martha Stewart leaf punch. I  inked the edges of both flowers n leaves  in the same way as the quote panel but without the ragging ! Oh nearly forgot - the butterflies ( can't forget the flutterbies lol) . For those I used a Martha Stewart butterfly punch n inked them up in the same way . 
After some 'faffing' around  with the placement of the embellies I finally decided on the arrangement n set to adhere them firmly onto the heart! 
Finally, I twisted some gold wire  for that extra touch n  placed them amongst the flowers n leaves , made some liquid pearl trails from the butterflies n  made a hanger with some cream decoration ribbon !  

 

I have to say it was a lovely feeling to see that my 'trying n seeing ' had actually come together in the end!

                                                                                 My Niece loved it ! 

                                                    Thanks so much for stopping by to take a peek!

                                                                      Hope to see you again soon!

                                                 I would like to enter this piece into the following challenges

                                                   Art with Heart Challenge February: Projects to Love

                                                     Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: H is for…
                                                 Craft Stamper Take It , Make It February Challenge 
                                                       Winter Blooms challenge - Frilly and Funkie     

Here Goes.................

Hello ! 

Thank you so much for visiting ! 

Its seems to have taken an age getting this blog of mine up n running (only myself to blame!) 

Being a real perfectionist, it seemed that whatever progress I was making with it, it just didn't compare with all the other blogs I've seen n admired!  Being a real technophobe definitely didn't help either, as every wall I hit, I threw the pencils out of the tin n questioned why I was even doing it ???
But after having a good long chat with myself, which went something on the lines of  'stop being so hard on yourself', 'everyone has to start somewhere' blah blah blah (ya get my drift) and of course  picking up the pencils (hahaha)  it's finally up n running! 

Please bear with me though as as it's all one big learning curve for me at the mo and I know I will be tweaking as I go but hopefully this won't put you off checking in every now n again to see what arty/crafty fun I've been getting up to! 

Thanks so much for taking time out to visit today. Hope  you'll pop by again soon ! 

Amanda