Alpha/Dictionary Challenge 2016 : A

A is for Aeroplane.
That is the word I chose for the Craft Barn Alpha/Dictionary challenge this time. I have a lot of aircraft related images so a great opportunity to to use up some of my Tim Holtz bits as a collage style page. Here it is :

All paper ephemera from Tim Holtz Idea-ology. The aeroplane is stamped onto white paper that was stained with distress stains, pumice stone and old paper, then cut out and added to the page. I added a small compass stamp to the passenger ticket to tie in the red and highlighted the definition. Job done, I hope you like it.

Snowflake

Well, some of us woke up yesterday to a dusting of the white stuff and for me down here in the South East of England, the day started with wintery showers, thick sleety rain. Yes, there were flakes of snow in it but I am in denial, it is too early. Sunny day today though very cold.
Jane wants snowflakes for the Craft Barn challenge so Jane shall have them. Here is my snowflake card:

I started with a sheet of white card and splodged distress stain on it, Tumbled Glass, Antique Linen and Stormy Sky. Then I spritzed it with Shimmer Spritz.
I die cut the snowflakes with Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes dies and layered them up adding a small punched snowflake in the middle and a blue gem.
A square piece of white card was run through my swiss dots embossing folder and edged with gold ink. The background paper and banners are paper from my stash, again edged with gold ink and the sentiment was from one of my Woodware sets.

Stay warm and crank that heating up if you have snowflakes where you are.

Discovery

A nautical theme for the Craft Barn challenge this week which makes me happy as I get to play with my ship stamps. This is a quick card made using one of my favourite Crafty Individuals stamps : Discovery (CI 295).

I used distress stains for the background : Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Squeezed Lemonade, spritzed with water on glossy card. Then stamped the image in black Stazon ink which has to be, in my opinion,  the very best ink to use with these detailed stamps. I stamped some rope around the edges of a 5x5 white card and mounted the panel. An easy card to make as the image does all the work for you.

From Wikipedia :
Discovery was the smallest of three ships that were led by Captain Christopher Newport on the voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia in 1607. 


I am also entering this card in the Crafty Individuals September Challenge : Anything Goes.

When is a Snowflake not a Snowflake?

.... when it's a tree.

I used distress stains, Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky and Antique Linen on cream card stock and die cut the snowflakes using Tim Holtz Paper Snowflakes dies. The result was a set of snowflakes which I arranged on a background card that was embossed with a Swiss Dots embossing folder to represent snow. I thought the snowflakes looked a bit like pine branches so popped in a crazy bird, added a Merry Christmas and some gems and this is my entry for this week's Craft Barn challenge. The challenge this week is Christmas with snowflakes and snow.

Artful Times Challenge 62 - Sewing

The first set of Tim Holtz stamps that I ever purchased was Haberdashery so it was nice to revisit that set for the Artful Times challenge this fortnight. I decided to make a tag for my entry. Everything used on the tag with the exception of the word Couture uses Tim Holtz Ranger products. The word stamp was a silicon clear stamp, see the difference in sharpness when using exactly the same dye ink. I have to say, the red rubber is far far superior.

The background was made using distress stains : squeezed lemonade, pumice stone and antique linen, spritzed with water and dried with a heat gun. I then edged the tag with vintage photo distress ink.

Using pumice stone DI, I used the "Measured" stencil and then stamped the images in black archival ink and Red Pepper Adirondack dye ink.

The Tim Holtz Sizzix On the Edge die : Sewing was used to cut the embellishment for the bottom of the tag. This was coloured with distress stains and distress ink and glossy accents added to the scissors. I added three red buttons to finish off and the stitched ribbon.

Not wanting to waste any of the stain and ink I had left on my craft mat, I made a matching ATC.

This was fun.

Have a great bank holiday weekend wherever you are.

Clouds

My second post today and probably inspired by our very wet rainy Easter Sunday.

Here is my twinchie for the Twinchie Challenge blog where the theme is "Clouds".

My clouds are hand drawn on a background scrap of card with random splodges of pewter distress stain and the raindrops coloured with Promarkers. My clouds are mean.

Sparkle Twinchie

My late in the day entry for the Show us your Twinchie's Challenge is a little different for me as its all about the words. I thought this stamp from Kaisercraft would fit the theme as it is an "anything goes" challenge with bling.

The background is Old Paper and Tumbled Glass Distress Stains, my current favourite pair for a nice translucent base.

The stamp is from a Kaisercraft set called Confidence. The words are stamped using Adirondack Earthtones dye ink in Bottle, Denim and Red Pepper and embossed with Ranger holographic embossing powder. A quick spritz of Sheer Shimmmer (frost) and the twinchie is done.

Its a bit more sparkly than the photo in real life and I think it has a sort of graffiti look to it, at least that was the idea.

TH Christmas Cards

A quick post of two of my Christmas cards using Tim Holtz products.

The backgrounds are tumbled glass, old paper and brushed pewter distress stains on Ranger manilla cardstock. The mini blueprint snowman, wreath and Merry Christmas sentiments are stamped using black archival ink and the snowflakes stamped using blue jeans and gathered twigs distress ink. Both cards finished off with some diamond stickles around the edges.
I quite like the way the snowflakes fade away when stamped on top of the metallic distress stain, I might make some more of these ..... if I have time ....
I hope you like them.

Summer Meadows

Wow! A heatwave, I do hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine in the UK right now. Here is a little card I made this weekend with a summer theme.

The background is Tim Holtz Distress stains in tumbled glass and peeled paint splodged about to make a hazy summer day in a meadow feel. A bit of antique linen distress ink is applied around the edges to soften it and then some grasses from Hobby Art "Just for You" clear stamp set stamped in peeled paint distress ink. The cow parsley is stamped in sepia archival ink and to finish it off I added a butterfly (Hobbycraft Fly Stickers).

Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone.

For Those in Peril ......

I've missed a few months of the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 but having a few days off work this week I had a go at the May technique using rub ons. I'm not keen on them but had a sheet of vintage nautical images that I bought years ago and never used so they were ideal to use to try out the technique that Tim descibes this month. Details are on his blog so I won't repeat them here.

Its as well the tag should be inspired by Tim's example as I had none of the materials used except distress stains and ink. So, the main image is from a PaperArtsy set, the rub-ons represent the sea and in particular fishermen. I didn't think the film strip tape suited the theme of my tag so I used rope instead. The distress stain colours I used were Stormy Sky, peeled paint, dried marigold and shabby shutters.

Here is my tag:

I have a number of ancestors who were seafaring folk, including my Great Grandfather who was a fisherman and a volunteer lifeboat man so it was nice to do this tag with him in mind.

All the best,

Julia

12 Tags of 2012 : November

Its the last Saturday of November and I have managed to find some time to have a go at the techniques used on Tim's November tag. This one was great fun and I bought the autumn gatherings die last time I went to The Craft Barn so it was a good excuse to try it out. Thanks to my clever friend Sally for suggesting that it can be used in the Cuttlebug without those extender plates, it works, money saved.

Go look at Tim's blog for the step by step guide and all the inspirational examples posted there.
I love the faux batik effect and fortunately I have an encaustic art iron so didn't have to ruin my regular iron in the pursuit of art!
Here is my autumnal November tag.

This is a great technique so I made a Christmas tag whilst the crafty bits were out, I might make more tomorrow. I hope you are all having a great weekend and staying dry if you are in the very wet UK. 

Happy Saturday X