Home Sweet Home

Hi Everyone,

Sorry i've been missing for a while, I hurt my back last week and have had huge problems bending & twisting to get at my crafty bits and was dropping everything on the floor and couldn't pick it up again so I gave up for a few days until I felt better.

Today I am showing off my entry for the latest challenge at A Vintage Journey which is hosted by Sandy and sponsored by Country View Crafts the title Sandy has chosen is Wings & Things.  I  am entering this card which I think qualifies quite nicely with the style & techniques used.

 

The background is done using Tim's wrinkle free distress technique using Salty Ocean & Mowed Lawn DI's  the boardwalk stamp is from Kaiesercraft and is stamped with Archival Potting Soil.

The bird house is again using Salty Ocean & Mowed Lawn, but this time I used Distress Paints together with Tarnished Brass using the eroded metallic technique. The little home sweet home stamp is part of a Woodware set I have, and the little flower is punched & painted.

 



 

My Blue tit birdie is the freebie stamp from the May edition of Craft Stamper and he has been stamped with black memento and coloured with pro-markers then shaped to give a little dimension.  The Spring greens die-cut has been painted with Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo distress stain then again shaped.

 



 

The larger flower has been cut from chipboard with the smallest flower from the tattered florals, it was given a mixed coat of red & gold paint, and a nailhead centre.  

 

The leaf on the bottom of the house is a little wooden one which was coloured with peeled paint distress stain.  Here is the card from a slightly different angle.

 



   

One thing I did manage to pick up last week even with a bad back was a pinworthy badge from 

 A Vintage Journey



I can tell you I am proud as a peacock, thank you so much to all the team for choosing my entry. 

Hugs

Mo x



Get some texture AVJ

Hi Everyone,

A huge welcome to my new followers I am so excited you have joined me on my crafty journey.  I have a project to show you today that I have had great fun putting together for the current challenge at the fabulous Tim Holtz inspired challenge blog A Vintage Journey.  This month the challenge has been set by Jenny who wants us to Get some Texture into our entries.  The challenge is sponsored by, Country View Crafts who are offering a £10 gift voucher to one winner who will be chosen by the incredibly talented team of Vintage Journey Guides.
 I was not surprised that Jenny chose this title as she is well known for her love of texture in her work, pop over to her blog Pushing the Right Buttons and have a look for yourself at some of her beautiful inspirational projects.

 I am rather last minute with this one as the challenge ends today!! I think I have seriously lost a few days somewhere this week, anyway I  got to work on a canvas hanging for you using the Nautical Blueprint stamps and a fish from the Tiny Things stamp plate plus a few of Tim's techniques.

I started with a background of Tim's paint marbling, using 3 distress paint colours I squished them onto my craft mat, spritzed water and swooshed the card through it.  I held it upright and spritzed a bit more water onto it enabling the paint to trickle down the card and blend.

 

Next came texture paste through stencils technique, I used two to get the effect, firstly with the speckles stencil (top centre), and then the dot fade (bottom).

When dry I spritzed the textured areas with a little water and dropped some shabby shutters and peacock feathers distress re-inker onto the it followed by more water to let the colours mix and blend in and around the texture paste.

I stamped the seahorse, and fish onto separate card stock, I coloured the fish using distress re-inkers and a watercolour pen, followed by a coat of glue & seal to give them a soft sheen.

I used the shattered stains technique on the seahorse as I wanted a bit more texture on him. I spread clear rock candy crackle over the stamped image and when dry coloured with distress stains.  I cut them all out and shaped them on a cork mat with a large ball tool to give them shape.

 

I die-cut the reeds from the tattered pine cone die and coloured them with peeled paint stain.  I made up a solution of perfect pearls sour apple and water in a spritzer and gave the reeds a fine mist which gave them a shimmer.  I scored to add a little detail and shaped them.

The frame was done  using the tissue wrap wrinkle technique, covering the frame with glue & seal, applying tissue wrap and wrinkling as you go, and then applying paint, wiping with a baby wipe, dry and ink over with distress inks.  Unfortunately as you will see in the finished photo later, I lost the detail of the tissue wrap as I kept changing my mind on paint colours!

The bars on the top and the bottom of the canvas started life as 6 of those lovely wooden drinks stirrers you get with a takeaway brew at the service stations.  Two were laid side by side and then one was glued on top to hold all three together.  I wrapped garden twine around them and glued the ends.  Whilst I had the twine handy, I made two knotted ropes for the sides of the frame, and the metal word band at the bottom. The word band word was painted to match and secured with my tiny attacher and 3d pads. I chose enjoy the journey for two reasons firstly because I was! and two because it looked like the fish and seahorse were on a journey through the sea.

 The fish were given a few glossy accent air bubbles

 The die- cut reeds were complimented by real seaweed, shells and a little message in a bottle which unfortunately for the sender is going nowhere stuck in the sand.  The sand is basically a few blobs of glue with antique linen distress embossing powder sprinkled on it but not heated, just left to dry.

Here are a few close ups

 

 

 

and a final look at the finished project

 

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone for your encouraging comments on my last post, and if you have got this far, Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today.

Hugs

Mo x 

June Tag

Hello Everyone,

Just a very quick post here to show you my June tag entry, see Tim's original Here where he shows you exactly how to create the effect.

 

 I chose to use just three colours through the Dot Fade stencil for my tag, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, and Picked Raspberry, but when this is spritzed with the water, the colours blend and it looks like I have used many more.

 

 

 As the Swifts are flying high as a kite in June, I thought it fitting to use this lovely bird from the Bird Feather Plate for my main image.  I also purchased the Random quotes plate with the intention of using the same sentiment that Tim has on the original, but as happens so many times when crafting, I changed my mind! same stamp plate different quote.  

 

 

 My cog started out one colour, before I decided to 'leave ordinary behind and use all three colours this time using distress paint.  I found the numbers brad just the right size for this cog, and then the cog sort of developed into a sun with little dots of paint making the sun rays. 

 

 

 The ribbon was dyed scrunched and tied with the same technique as described by Tim.

 

 

 I distressed the edges of the coloured card with black soot before attaching it to a tag and going around all the edges of the tag with Gathered Twigs.

 

 

Believe it or not I did use all three colours again on the bird, but with the water they are so subtle its difficult to pick out the Raspberry, I quite like it soft though as it does not lose the detail. 

 

 

 

Here is my little atc for June, same techniques but this time using the Classics 17 Plate and the Lattice work stencil

 



 

 And Finally a nosey at my atc hanger so far half way there already!  

 

 

Hope you enjoyed your visit, please do leave a comment, they mean so much

Bye Bye for now

Mo x

Lighted Tea Roses

Hi Everyone,

The new Compendium of Curiosities Challenge has us turning to page 65 of Tim's book 3 and making Tea Roses. To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  The challenge is sponsored by the Inspiration Emporium this time, so you will have a chance of winning a Gift Certificate to spend there, also, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize, so you have two chances of winning.   Now, as ever with the Compendium Challenge I am not allowed to give away the how to steps (you have to buy the book for that which you can HERE ) but here is my entry for the challenge plus the how to's I can show you.

 

I decided I wanted to make something a little different, and was inspired by some of the lovely little table lanterns available at the moment for summer bbq's or weddings. The luminary die-cut had been lying around my desk for some time (well since Christmas actually) just awaiting some tlc.  I bought a little battery T light to go with it
 

 

 There were one or two area that I had not perfectly matched when putting it together and I wanted to keep the luminary white so.....
 

 

 I applied Wendy Vecchi studio 490 White embossing paste to the whole of the outside which covered the gaps in the corners and gave a lovely stone look.
 

 

 I die-cut, and coloured some spring greenery, I used Peeled paint and stain on different leaves to get a slightly different finish.

 

 

 then used a pokey tool to get some detail on the leaves.
 

 

 I used Vintage Photo DI onto the edges of the leaves and also very lightly onto the dried texture paste on the lantern.  The longer Spring Greenery was glued to the four corners.
 

 

 A couple of coats of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint was applied to the small inner platform and the roof and then a small ring pull was added to the centre.  This is only for decoration in this case, but it does give the option of allowing the luminare to be hung with a chain or ribbon.
 

 

I coloured some Vintage ribbon with a mix of Aged Mahogany, Scattered Straw, and Victorian Velvet Distress stains/inks spritzed with water on the craft mat.

 

 

 The ribbon was secured on one corner with a glue gun, and then twisted and glued to the next corner until it it all the way around the base.
 

 

 I got to this point and realised I had not painted the inside! so I very carefully used a paint brush and Brushed Pewter distress paint all over the inside.  (of course this step is easier before the roof is on!).

 

 

 Back on track! I made 6 roses initially for the project not knowing really how many I would use. Here is a clue as to the colours I used.

 

 I glued four of the roses back to back around the flame of the tea light.  I made a small hole in one more rose and glued this on the top, the tip of the flame was secured in the hole.
 

 

Finally the scored rose leaves were added in-between the roses I opted not to add acetate window panes and instead have the rose leaves free so they would hang out of the window apertures.

I made three more roses for the corners of the base to complete.

 

 

Enjoy a few more photos from different angles

 

Oh! one more thing... the little night light.... yes, it still works even though the roses surround it.

 

 

Thank you as ever for your visit today

Mo x