Little Things AVJ ATC challenge

Hi Everybody,

Hope you are all well and I guess slowly getting back to normal after the holidays. 
I am as ever cutting it a bit fine with my entry for A Vintage Journey this time but there is a reason for this.  You know how it is when you create  something and you feel it is not quite right, well that is what I did with this challenge but more about that later.  The very wonderful Alison is hosting the challenge this month, I am sure most of you know her and have seen her work, but for the very few that haven't have a pop over to her blog HERE  and prepare to be amazed.  The title Alison has chosen this time is 'A little touch of Tim ATC's only' click here HERE for the details.

 

So as you can see I have been playing around with my Tiny things stamp set again and decided that it would be the perfect match with this sentiment together with the fact we were dealing with quite a small area also. I did take a few photos along the way so you could see how I put them together.

 

First  I used Pumice stone to distress 4 blank atc cards 

 

Then used Pumice stone again through the Splatters Stencil

 

 

I used Black Embossing Paste through the Chevron stencil

 

 

Whilst that was drying I stamped the sentiment onto some of Tim's Wallflower papers and cut out.

  

I chose a few die-cut arrows and coloured them with distress stain

 

 

Then I stamped a few chosen Tiny things stamps again onto Wallflower paper and tore carefully around them, I watercoloured these in with stains and then used Glue & Seal over the coloured image which makes the colours pop more but also enables you to remove any other medium that gets onto the image where you don't want it.  

 

 

I liked the way they were coming together, but they were a bit clean!

 

 

so I got out my Timmy spritzer and black distress marker and gave them a  few spritzed black speckles.  You can see I have also gone around the arrows and the wording with a Stabilo All pencil to make them stand out more. 

 

 

If you look closely at the ballerinas dress, you can see I was able to remove the black speckles from it with a wet wipe because I had protected it with glue & seal.

 

 

Here are a few close ups

 

Now to the ones I did and was not happy with.  Don't get me wrong, I quite like the idea and the colour of them, but I just did not feel they were as Timmy as the others.  What do you think?

 



 

I would like to give both of these sets of atc's to a good home, so, if you like them leave me a comment and let me know which set you like, I will do two seperate draws for them next week.

Thank you for popping in today, and for your lovely comments on my previous posts.

BBFN Mo x 



August Tag Simple Pleasures

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I must apologise for being a little quiet over the last couple of weeks.  Like most people August is holiday time and we have been away camping without any Internet connection - shock! horror! - not at all it was bliss! being at one with nature and having the time to actually appreciate the simple beautiful things that surround us this time of year, blooming flowers, birdsong, butterflies, dragonflies all of which go virtually unnoticed in the modern world when we so easily get wrapped up in social media, work, deadlines etc.  Now back home, and dangerously close to end of month deadline, I have based my August tag around my thoughts from the holiday, finding joy in the ordinary simple things in life, boring to some maybe, but oh so relaxing. I have used the same techniques that Tim has with his original which can be viewed Here together with all the step by step instructions.

Here we have my sweet little bird surrounded by butterflies and flowers.  I did a few photos along the way and of course a few close ups, so here we go.

 

Firstly I applied tissue tape onto the tag

 

 

Stamped the bird with black archival

 

 

I added some more tissue tape and a butterfly stamp

then used texture paste through 2 different stencils 

 

Swooshed the tag through the distress stains on a craft mat then added a little more stain to fill in the gaps.  I used any left over stain on the mat to colour the ribbon.

 



 

I used the speckles stencil to add blue and brown speckles

 

 

I made a label for my sentiment using the simple sayings frame stamp as I didn't have any vial labels.  I cut this out added the remnant rubs and colour with stains.

 

 

I cut out a few flowers from some of Tim's Wallflower papers

 

 I inked up the edges, went over them with multi-matt medium and when they were dry, shaped them layered them up, and added some metal embellishments and stitching. (see later photo)

 

 

I sewed on the sentiment and the photo tape with my sewing machine

 

I also sewed through one of the flowers to add some texture and added a couple of metal foliage which has been altered with distress paints

 

 I added my 'rust' as Tim did with Vintage Photo distress EP and an industrial metal strip on the bottom.

 

To make some of the stencilled textured numbers pop out I went around them with a stabilo all pencil to create a shadow (a great technique I learnt from Hels Sheridan). I also used the pencil to outline the bird and his eye as it was getting lost amongst the notes on the tissue tape.  The ribbon was tied in a Paula Cheney bow (love these) and the butterfly in the centre of it is one of loads cut from the butterfly frenzy die.  The extra butterfly and the birds twig are remnant rubs.

 

 

 



 

another look at the finished tag

 

Of course I was also making my little matching atc  for my collection made in exactly the same way, just with different stamps and stencils.

 

 

Thank you as always for popping in today, I do hope you like them.

Mo x 



Gothic Butterfly AVJ Just stain it

Hi Everyone,

Firstly hello to my new followers, welcome aboard.   I am so excited I can hardly keep my feet on the ground following my July Tim's tag win with Bees Knees  and my pin worthy badge for Dies and Distress at A Vintage Journey, it has been a wonderful weekend.  

 

With new challenges come more new projects and today I am showcasing a piece of wall art that I have had great fun putting together for the new challenge at the fabulous Tim Holtz inspired challenge blog A Vintage Journey. This time the challenge has been set by Jenny who wants us to Just Stain it, basically use the distress stains in different ways on 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 received Happy Mail this week from my adopted big sis Anne and it was the new Gothic stencil whoop! whoop! I just love this and you can see straight away that I have used it on the background of this project.

 

 At first glance my stains are not that obvious as there is lots of texture in my project.

 The background started with water being spritzed onto an 8" x 8" piece of thick card and then a mix of Stormy sky, shabby shutters and broken china and brushed pewter distress stains swooshed over it then dried.   I used texture paste through the stencil, right around the edges to make a border (this had to be done over a few drying sessions so I could match the pattern up without it spoiling).    When it was dry I put some stains into spritzers and spritzed the same colours as before over the texture and dried.  Finally I dabbed it over lightly with Blue Hydrangea and cactus green stayzon to give more colour over the silver near the edges.    

 

 



 

 The Butterfly was cut and embossed from cream card with the layered butterfly set and I used stormy sky distress stain all over it and dried it thoroughly.  I used Versafine to dab lightly over the raised areas and then sprinkled frosted crystal antiquities over it and embossed with a heat tool.  I dabbed broken china, shabby shutters and stormy sky over the butterfly, which gave it a lovely mix of colours and the ink caught over the raised embossed areas and made them darker.  This looked nice, but the detail was being a bit lost, so again I decided to use the brushed pewter stain to pick out the raised areas.  I spread some distress stain on a craft mat and rolled my brayer  through it a few times until it just started to get tacky, I then rolled it over the raised areas and this caught the detail.

 

 

The centre plate that the butterfly is mounted on is a piece of sticky backed natural canvas over mount board and I used the brayered stains technique (Tim shows the technique Here on his July 2013 tag).  The edges were darkened using Pumice Stone stain.  I used two smaller pieces of canvas to use for the sentiment which is stamped with Hydrangea archival Ink.  A piece of Tim's linen ribbon was stapled to the canvas using my tiny attacher and the sentiment hid the staples.  I frayed out the edges of the linen ribbon to soften the effect.  I originally wanted 'Butterfly' somewhere on the project but then decided to use just the first and last letter using the alpha chips edged with pumice stone stain and glued into place in such a way that it looks as though the rest of the word is under the butterfly.   The body is decorated with one of Tim's metal arrows.

 

 

I found this frame at a car boot sale ages ago and it has been hanging around (as things do) waiting for the right project to fit into it.  It was just bare wood and I ran over it with antique linen stain to bring it more in line with the colour of the canvas and then rubbed a little Picket Fence stain over some areas with my fingers and then did the same with  pumice stone stain over different areas and to blend in with the darker wood grain.

 



 

Distress stains are so versatile and can be used in many different ways on your projects. Check out my friend Anne's inspirational post Here to give you a few more ideas.

 

Thank you as always for your visit an lovely comments

Mo x

July Tag Bees Knees

Hi Everyone,

Here today to bring you my take on Tim's July tag and this month I have dared to be different.  I have made quite a few seahorse projects recently and so I decided to follow the techniques Tim showed us but using the lovely new Layered Bee rather than the Seahorse.  You can see Tim's original and step by step HERE but this is my version.

 

Well I did say It was different! I think he is the Bees Knees! (thus the title of the post)  and if you want to grab yourself a brew, I can take you through the make up of the elements. 

Firstly I coloured a tag exactly how Tim explains in his tutorial, I just used different colours of paint and stains.  I cut the bee and the honeycomb from card and a pair of wings from shrink plastic.  I also ran a piece of thin acetate through the big shot with 2 die cut honeycombs to get the honeycomb imprint onto it and cut it to the shape I wanted

 

As Tim did with his seahorse, I coloured the bee with distress paint (mustard seed & black soot) I was a bit messy getting the paint on the wings but these were going to be cut off so it did not matter.

When the paint was thoroughly dry, I embossed the bee with the folder

Then using a piece of cut n dry and BS paint I carefully picked up the embossed areas

 

Then I decided to mask off the legs and paint them again so they were wet enough to hold the frosted Chrystal antiquities.  I then heat set it with a heat tool

 

I gave the whole of the body part of the bee a coat of rock candy crackle paint

 

I gave my embossed wings a dab of stonewashed alcohol ink

 

 Edged them with a permanent black marker and then stapled them together with my tiny attacher

 

Then attached them to my bee on the back.

 

The acetate honeycomb got a coat of butterscotch alcohol ink.  I put it onto the white card just so you could see it on the photo better, and I liked the fact it showed the pattern of the ink up more so I decided to keep it that way.  I glued it onto the white card and cut around it.

 I painted the honeycomb with scattered straw distress paint and sprinkled it lightly with antique linen embossing powder (as Tim did with his sand dollar)

 

I ran around the edges with a distress pen and glued the honeycombs together 

 

Next I mixed the 'sand' or in this case the beeswax and used my finger to poke it into a couple of the honeycomb gaps.   I glued the honeycomb to the tag and mixed a little more of the sand mixture to add some detail and soften of the edges. I shaped my bee a little and used 3d pads to attach him to the tag.

 

 

Here are a few close up photo's (I know you like them!) to see the detail better.  Here we see the detail of the wings and honeycomb centres

 

 

Crackled bee and textured legs

 

Exhibit No 07 for July of course stamped with potting soil archival onto distressed card stock.

Not forgetting my little atc for July.  The Bee has been die-cut from white shrink plastic, coloured in and shrunk down (Carefully!) he is so sweet! you can also see sandy (waxy!) corners.
All the stamps used on the atc are from the classics no. 12 set.  the honeycomb here was stamped using antique linen dp and had ep sprinkled over.

and of course could not let you go without your monthly view of the atc display very pink and yellow may I add, I might see if I can get a touch of blues & greens in there next month.

One last look at the tag

Thank you for your visit (if you are still with me that is!) hope you enjoyed the step by step
Mo x