A stitch in Time.......

Goodly day all
I'm literally last minute with posting this ! To be honest, last minute doing it too but i'm sure you will understand why when I tell you that the new fortnightly challenge over at The Stamp Man is....... Stitching! Not really my strong point and with one thing and another I kept putting it off! (no real surprise there)

Still I got there in the end with this book

 I had an Andy Warhol moment and took for of the Hero Art's engraved flower images and gave them the Andy colour treatment with copics before putting them together and making holes and taking thin blue ribbon and sewing as seen. I used the same ribbon to bind it too.

See, real ribbon! (Just in case you did not believe me!)

Have a great afternoon and do pop on over to join us!

Stampbord at The Craft Barn

Hi there
Just a quick heads up. It's my turn over at The Craft Barn where we are looking at Stampbord this week. Firstly Gio followed by Chris and now me.......
This is what I've done for you. There is a bit of a write up over on the blog here with more details so do pop on over and say Hi!

Until later, bless you in your creative journey.

Matchbox swap update

Hi there
Just wanted to give a quick little update for those participating in the matchbox swap.
So, Sarah, Neet, Jozart, Mickie, Aj and Jude; this is for you
I have emailed all of you with the details of the person you are going to send your altered matchbox to. You can send them whenever you are ready to but please have them in the post by 15th August!
I have not told you who you are going to receive from so that it will be a surprise for you.........
Have fun creating !

WOYWW 112

Good morning
I'll warn you now that my desk is not very exciting this morning and rather messy but here goes anyway.....

I've been busy with about four different things that I had to move out of the shot so all you see is the detritus of creativity which is never that great! On the left there is an ATC folder that I want to make a cover for and on the right there is the beginning of an accordion tag book.
The most interesting bit is in the middle;

What do you think of this lovely rusted metal reel? OOOOOOOOh, where did you find that? I hear you ask.
It is actually a cardboard Papermania ribbon reel that I have given the rusty metal treatment with paint and a bit of Inka gold. Isn't it fab?
So that's my space; what's yours looking like? Join us at Julia's place at Stamping up for the wonders of WOYWW.

Grungy Monday 17 - Rock Candy

Hi there everyone.
I've piles of unfinished work all over the studio at the moment but I did find time to finish this tag for the Grungy Monday challenge over at Studio L3 hosted by Linda.
This week is one of my all time favourite products - Rock Candy Distress Crackle!  Tim's post and video is HERE if you want to take a look.

I started this tag ages ago but then did not finish it so I can't remember all the colours but there are browns, greens and purple distress stains in there .......
I took this and added mica gold 912 to it which is a lovely green gold and stamped using Mini Muse stamps from Stampers Anonymous.
Everything was then liberally slathered with rock candy crackle and left to dry! When dry I used barn door distress ink and blending tool to highlight the crackle and wiped off with a damp cloth.

I rubbed the mica gold over the back of a mini domino to highlight the dragon and attached to the tag and some gems added a bit more sparkle! To keep with the oriental theme that had developed I added a piece of chain with the oriental charm to the bottom.

Some of the crackle up close; it gives such an amazing texture doesn't it? I just love the stuff!
Hope you all have a lovely day and enjoy your creative journey........

Journal page and Katzelkraft tease.

Hello there all you lovely people
Hope you all had a great weekend; I've been in my studio since early this morning so am making the most of my mojo while he is with me!
I have a project I'm sharing over at the Katzelkraft blog. Here's a teaser so I do hope you'll pop on over and take a look and leave some love via a comment! (Katzelkraft stamps are sold exclusively in the UK at The Craft Barn as well as direct from France)

I've also been adding to my journal so here's the latest page

Some days I feel that time just flutters by fleetingly and is lost, hence the butterflies and the sentiment about time. Butterflies in flight are interesting to watch too; he seem to flit here there and everywhere randomly, seemingly with no destination and sometimes my creative journey feels like that. (Not necessarily a bad thing!) I inked and masked the page with various distress inks and stains. I used some Tim Holtz tissue tape and also added some hand-scribbled details.

On the left page I added a tag stamped with an ATC ticket stamp and some tissue tape. The felt butterfly I think is papermania (I have this habit of removing packaging and then when I come to use it I can never remember where I got it from!) I added some fine glitter to the body.

Some of the detail of the right hand side.
Hope you all have a blessed and creative day

This is for you Pitaylor!

Hi there.
I just wanted to answer a question from the above person but you have not left any means of contacting you so hopefully you will get this!
The stamps from Katzelkraft that I used on my journal page and referred to in my previous post are not yet on the Craft Barn site but if you phone them they should be able to order them in.
They are all on the Katzelkraft blog though!
The link for Kopelli is HERE
The link for Vinci vitruve is HERE
The link for Mouettes is HERE
The link for Femme au Chapeau is HERE

All of those are the new ones I ordered (Though Vincent is not a new Katzelkraft stamp)
Hope that helps

WOYWW? 111

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening and goodnight; I think that should cover all the time zones of the magic carpet trip that is WOYWW; hosted as always; over at Stamping Ground.

Let's take a look at mine straight away.

So, this is the usual overview shot. Those astute may notice that the clear plastic drawers of last week on the right have been replaced with a wooden one (Oh, you didn't notice?!)

On the left are some of my "Treats" New amazing Katzelkraft stamps. Then some new Tim stamps.I had not seen the ATC labels stamp before, they are so so perfect for backgrounds and the larger labels had been on my "I need this" list for a while. ("want" can be substituted for "need" if required. I started a tag straight away as you can see..... and yes, I succumbed to the dinky little tape dispenser, actually Susan told me I HAD to get it, along with some tissue tape. I didn't want to argue and say no to her, after all we were at The Craft Barn and it's rude to make a scene in public so I just put it in the basket...... along with the pen nibs too.

And I've been looking for these face moulds for a while so was pleased to see them in Hobbycrafts.

In the middle there is a journal page, some stamped images ready to be used and a gorgeous owl that my daughter brought for me from Portugal. I love the colours, and mosaic detail.

Then I thought I'd show you the shelf behind me.

Pretty full of stuff that it easy to get to, but what I wanted to show you was this............

These rolls of "ribbon" are actually made up of tree bark; amazing textures which can be stamped on as well as inked. I saw it in an upmarket high street store on sale and just had to get it. I used a small piece on my journal page here if you want to take a closer look.

And, just a reminder, it's the last day to join in with my matchbox swap if you want to. Details HERE.

Have a fun creative morning, afternoon, evening and night all!

"Girly" with Tim Holtz and more

Good morning all
You will have to forgive me if I don't make sense today as I crawled into bed at 3am after fetching my daughter from the airport............
It's Tim Holtz week over at The Craft Barn and I'm kicking things off with this soft and pretty notebook.

Not what we always think of when thinking of Tim Holtz but what do you think? All the step by step details are here so I hope you'll pop over and take a look!

Then it's new challenge day over at Try it on Tuesday where it's all steampunk.

 Using the Tando cogs mask and Dreamweaver crackle I did this box. I just love the texture and colours so kept the top simple with just a gear and flower.

 I love the way the tag came out; it's all distressed and shiny with Inka gold. I made the beaded dragonfly , again keeping things simple to show all the lovely textures.....

There's plenty of fab inspiration over at the Try it on Tuesday blog so hope to see you there!
Be blessed in your day.

New Stamps..........

Hi there everyone
Hope you are all well. I was really excited when the postman delivered my new Katzelkraft stamps this morning so of course I had to play straight away!This is the new Ethnic plate KTZ 99. As soon as I saw them I just knew I had to order them!

I have had this little book for a while now and decided to use it. I stamped some of the images randomly on the cover in brown. and also some onto the inside cover and coloured in using distress ink in frayed burlap, forest moss, wild honey and fired brick.
The silver charm was attached with string.
Here is the first inside page too.....

I coloured the inside cover with distress stain before adding the peacock feather and some free hand doodles.
I stamped various images from the plate onto the page in distress ink in brown and green and used the blending tool to soften and add more colour. The centre panel is bark ribbon....

Isn't it amazing! I stamped onto it with brown stazon and added colour with distress ink and Inka gold. I used a watercolour brush to do the verse.

I think this is an amazing set of images; great for a whole load of projects.
Katzelkraft are sold in France or in the UK exclusively at The Craft Barn.

I also have to say thank you to Jo from JoZart, who sent me this lovely charm; totally unexpected!

Bless you Jo, you made my day when I opened it!; it is hanging in my charm cupboard looking lovely!

And, before I head off back to my studio, Look......

 My pumpkins have flowers!

 So do my courgettes!

And my chard is doing well too!
Hope you all are having a good time, be blessed in your creative journey........

Grungy Monday #15

Yay, it's weekend; well for some of us it's a workday, but hey, I don't mind....... Hope you are all well and have some crafty fun planned.
Over at Studio L3 it's time to visit 2007 in the Tim time machine for a closer look at one of my FAVOURITE techniques- Rusty enamel.

Using weathered wood Distress ink and vintage photo I enamelled the main tag. I added the embossed and stamped base section to this.

Umbrella man was die cut out of thin chipboard , inked with vintage photo and stamped . I then used 3d glaze to highlight and added some vintage watch bits to him while wet.

The cogs and gears are painted with modern masters bronze metal reactive paint before adding as seen.

I like the way this tag turned out, hope you do too!
Have a wonderful wonderful weekend.........

All Things Tim at The Stamp Man Challenge blog

Good afternoon all
Yes, it's a new challenge over at The Stamp Man Challenge blog and this time Jill has chosen one of her favourite subjects; Tim Holtz!
My favourite too so I enjoyed this one. I know a lot of you are big fans as well so do pop on over and join in the fun.
There are great inspirational projects from the team on the blog and here is mine in more detail.

Using a wooden box I painted it with bronze paint and aged with blue patina. This gives a really interesting effect. I also added some gilding wax for added shine.
I used Tim Holtz Mini Classics plate to stamp flourishes around the box and taking a pile of bronze UTEE created the medallion with the clock stamp to decorate the top. The paint is so gorgeous I did not want to cover it up too much!

Inside I painted it black and added another stamped UTEE embellishment to the top inside lid.

I then made a little journal/notebook to fit inside. The covers are stamped with various stamps from the plate and I used distress ink in Faded Jeans, Worn Lipstick and Chipped Sapphire.
I used glossy accents to highlight the lion.

The inside cover.
Hope you all have a fab day and a lovely weekend.
Be blessed in your creativity today.

Vintage ATC

Good morning peeps
Waking up to glorious sunshine when I expected rain is always a plus point in my book; don't you agree? I thought I'd take this moment to share a couple of things . Firstly there is my take on vintage for The Stamp Man's ATC swap do pop on over there if you would like to join in the fun.

Keeping it simple, I used my new texture trade embossing folder, Katzelkraft cog stamp, distress ink and a vintage tape measure.

Then, yesterday, one of the things I finished was this birthday book. Again, this was an exercise in texture!

I cut out the flourish from card and using the negative and Dreamweaver crackle paste added the flourishes. I used the flat of the palette knife to add paste onto the rest of the cover too and left to dry.

When dry, everything covered with various shades of distress stain and a generous layer of clear Rock Candy crackle glaze.
The flower is tattered floral Kraft Glassine paper, finished off with a wood embellie and large brad coloured with alcohol ink copper mixative.

So, I'll be back later today with my project for the new challenge at The Stamp Man so until then; be blessed in your creative journey.

Playing around .......

Hi there
Been a busy and productive day in the studio trying to get on top of a few things. I sometimes think I don't do deadlines well but sometimes it all seems to work and I catch up! (even if only for a moment)
I can't show everything yet but I have done this tag while working on something else that was drying

I used a white tag that I used to "mop" up from my craft sheet. I added more inks and stamping in blues before stamping the small script over it in black and the pen nibs too. The book-plate is metal with TSS texture wheel added and some black paint. The sentiment inside is a piece of scrap stamping that was lying around. Butterfly, Tim Holtz movers and shapers with some gems and glitters

I'm pretty pleased with the end result, especially as it is mostly using bits and pieces that were lying around! It also ties in with Hels Sunday stampers this week as the theme is flying and that's what butterflies do....... so I'll pop it into that challenge.
Enjoy your day and I'll see you later!
Be blessed y'all!

WOYWW 110

Good morning everyone.
I look forward to Wednesday because of WOYWW, don't you? Who would of thought that it would become one of the highlights of the week, but I know I'm not the only one who looks forward to peeking around the globe...... It all kicks off  HERE

So. onto the desk

 Not too messy this week because I have not had too much time. I've been working on the books I show'd you last week....

As well as the books I altered the book at the front which has an amazing texture.

I've also been playing around with a "marbelling" technique with alcohol inks (details here at Andy Skinner's blog) which is fun. I love the subtle colours of these, you get brighter colours on white card too.

Lastly, there are a couple of bits from a bootfair this weekend, don't you just love the necklace!

So there you have my desk; let's have a peek at yours! Be blessed in your journey today.
Ps, don't forget the matchbox swap, I'd love it if you joined in! Details  HERE

Let's talk about the birds and the bees.

Yep, it's them birds and bees over at Try it on Tuesday for tag week! Well I thought I'd take it literally so I did a double tag using 3 bee stamps, a bird embellishment and beeswax......

The base tag is inked and stamped with Tim Holtz stamps and a bit of wax too. The top tag was inked and then stamped with the bees all over. Wild honey distress stains to cover before adding some beeswax, heating    with the heatgun until fairly melted and adding a last piece of wax onto it. a scrunched tissue flower and bird embellie all ready to be "pollinated" to finish. Do pop on over to the Try it on Tuesday blog to join in the fun.

I was also playing around a bit and altered this telephone number book

I just love the texture! It started out with modelling paste, stamped into, then inked etc. Then stamped into and covered with rock candy crackle. That then "pulled" the paste away from the surface in places which was not good! So I covered everything with a dilute PVA glue to seal it. That worked, but didn't feel great to touch so I added more rock candy and rub n buff in ruby, gold acrylic paint and the book plate to finish!
Bit of a marathon job but the finished texture is AMAAAAAZING!
Hope you all have a good day.
Ps don't forget about my matchbox swap, details here.