Getting Messy With Tim's 12 Tags of 2013

Good afternoon followers, friends and blogland in general.  I have had a fabulous weekend catching up with Tim Holtz 12 Tags of  2013, this was a challenge I wanted to do every month but somehow I got behind and thought I would not catch up.  I have not been too well this weekend, sore throat and cough, so it was an ideal opportunity  to sit down and do nothing but craft and enjoy.

I did manage January, February and March as they came along so had April through to September to do.  Here are the tags I created, had so much fun and am now ready for the October tag which should posted on Tim's blog tomorrow.

 

 

I hate feeling under the weather and not being able to do everything that needs doing so another day of resting and hopefully I will be feeling better in a few days, off now to check my dictionary and hopefully start my Craft Barn Alpha Challenge "G" page after a little light lunch..  

Bee Happy in Your New Home

Good morning blogland, another month and another challenge over at The Crafty Bloggers Network, here is my DT post for this week's Inspiration Monday.  Pop over and take a look at the other inspirational cards from the other members of the DT.

This month is kindly sponsored by  Kris at Imagine That  pop over and take a look at the fabulous digi kits she has on offer.

the winner will receive 3 digi sets of their choice

Our theme is

 "Things with Wings"

I have taken the images from the Bee kit to make a new home card, using the bee hive as the house and sunflowers to add interest .  My things with wings are the little bees buzzing around the hive.  I printed the greeting and flittering bees onto a white card blank,  I coloured part of the card with broken china distress ink before adding the bee hive and then the sunflowers which had been edged with scattered straw and spiced marmalade distress ink.  The center of the sunflowers was filled with glossy accents into which I placed 6 seed beads.  A clean and simple card without too many frills.

The insert was printed on the computer using elements from the bee kit.

 

Dry and Heat Embossing and lots of colour

Good afternoon blogland, the weather here is dull and miserable but a good day to get some crafting done.  Here are a few cards I made for birthdays and anniversaries I have coming up over the next few months, now these are out of the way I may be able to concentrate on Christmas cards.  Like a lot of you lovely ladies I usually have my birthday cards made early in the year and Christmas cards finished by September, but not this year.  Where has the time gone?   Maybe it was getting the new puppies this year that put me back, or was it all the holidays my other half booked and dragged me away on lol.

So here is what I have been beavering away at over the past few days trying to catch up.

First my son's card made using a spellbinders embossing folder, distress inks and treasure cold.  The stamps are Tim Holtz Road Trip (I have added a "Rout 66" stamped image too, after I had taken the photo).

 

Next my dauter-in-law's birthdy card, I used a flourish stamp she bought me as a Christmas present, embossed and coloured the card with distress inks.  The image from Lavinia Stamps was stamped in black, embossed and coloured with promarkers.

Next my Sister-in-law's 60th birthday and an anniversary card.  Not very good photos (much too dark) the weather is not playing ball!  Craft and cream card stamped in brown, a little ribbon and bling, die cut and sewing.

Well that's it for now, off to play around with some Tim's Tags, all the messy stuff is out so it may turn out to be a very messy afternoon.

Keep off the Grass

Good morning all you lovely ladies out in blogland, today I have my Craft Barn Alpha Challenge post,  the letter for this fortnight is "G" and I have chosen grass for my word.  Again I am chasing my tail, just back from holiday and so much to catch up on.  I managed to complete letter "Z" but didn't get it posted in time, my "G" page will be sneaking in at the last minute.

 

My page was first stamped with the flowers and grass using Paperartsy Jofy 11 stamp set with black archival ink, the grass and flowers were coloured with Promarkers.  I covered the definition with masking tape and coloured the page with distress ink in various greens, cut out the "G" which was coloured with Promarkers, doodled on and placed in the grass.  I made a sign using kraft card and a free woodgrain stamp, stamped Keep of the Grass onto it and placed that in the grass too.  A little white pen was added to the flowers and some of the grass, tape removed and page finished.

Not too happy with the colours but they are green and a brighter deeper shade may have covered the already coloured grass.  Never mind at least I am in time to enter my page for this fortnight.

Hope to be back soon with some other things I am working on, mainly birthday cards for next month and November, not even thought about Christmas cards yet!

Altered Dictionary Challenge at The Craft Barn - Letter "Z"

Good evening followers old and new, friends and blogland ladies, a very quick post from me tonight.  I missed the last Alpha Challenge letter "Z" over at The Craft Barn because I was away on holiday. I did my "Z" page but was unable to post it, no chance of downloading a photo to my tablet and no facilities to download the finished page if I had, the wifi connection was terrible.  

So here is my page just so you know I did it, my word was  za-pa-te-a-do.

Flamenco dancers and stamping of feet.

The page background was coloured with picked raspberry and black soot DIs with white acrylic paint swirls using a Stampendous swirl stamp, the flamenco dancers were from the internet,  printed and fussy cut.  My "Z" was coloured with DIs and stamped in black with the swirl stamp.

Now onto the next Alpha Challenge letter "G", less than a week to go so I will have to get my skates on, hope to see you soon with the finished page, as well as some other projects I am working on.  Also hoping to get round to visiting some of you lovely ladies to see what you have been up to.

Lavinia Add A Flower

Good morning bloggers, followers and friends I am writing this post from a very autumnal Devon Sat relaxing in the caravan.  I have been working on my card for the  Lavinia Stamps challenge, this month's challenge Is "to add a flower".  My flower is in the stamped image, with a few more thrown in on the stamped and embossed background.  I love this stamp and have done another three similar cards in different colours for birthdays coming up next month.

A 15cm x 15cm card blank was made using white pearlescent card from The Papermilldirect,  it was embossed with flowers and leaves from a Hero Arts set using embossing ink them embossed with silver pearl embossing powder.  The stamped image was coloured with Promarkers and cut out using a Spellbinders die.  Using distress inks in squeezed lemonade and salty ocean I coloured over the stamped background, the image was attached to a doily and then to the card.

 

I do love the resist technique, the pearl embossing powder was a surprise find in my box of old powders I don't think it had been used before.  An insert was added to the card (no photo sorry) I used matching pearlescent paper, stamped the flower in the bottom righthand corner and embossed it, then coloured it as the backing on the card.

Well back to relaxing, the weather is changeable but the peace and tranquility is wonderful.  See you all soon.  Will try to return any comments but the wifi is a bit hit and miss, only hope I can get this post entered into the Lavinia Challenge.

Papermill Direct Autumn Design Team Call

The Papermill Direct have a design team call out.  I just love their card and use it in all my projects from card blanks, stamping and colouring, cutting out with my Silhouette and for matting and layering.  How could I not try get onto this great design team.  Pop over and take a look at  the blog,  the DT work is fabulous.  As you may know I am away for three weeks and making a new card to enter in the challenge is impossible so I have to enter a prevously made piece of crafting which I hope is acceptable.

The theme is Autumn so I am entering my Autumn twinchies and twinchie holder.

I cut out 4 twinchie bases (2" x 2") from white linen card and coloured them with distress inks in autumn colours.  4 twinchies were cut from acetate and stamped with black Stazon using Tim Holtz Mini Stamps, the acetate was fastened over the coloured twinchie.  To find out how I created the autumn twinchie holder click HERE for My tutorial, I used white linen card for the wallet and some lovely vellum paper for the inside pockets, as yu guessed from  Papermilldirect.

I hope you have time to have a good look round my blog and enjoy  looking at at my work, your comments are always welcome and much appreciated.

Warm Wishes with Cocoa

Good evening followers, friends and everyone out there in blogland.  A quick post this evening to enter a card into the Imagine That Digis by Kris Challenge, using Penguine Coocoa which for this month only is offered as a free download.  This is a fantastic challenge if you buy the image for the month's challenge and enter you get the image for the following month's challenge free, pop over the Kris's Challenge blog and take a look.

Here is my card made using the Penguine Cocoa image and sentiment.

I made a 15cm x 15cm card with kraft card, matted and layered patterned papers from my paper box and added some sewing round the edges.  I thought the papers were ideal for the image and sentiment, I think they were a freebie with a mag.  The image was printed out and edged with distress ink then layered onto kraft card. bakers string in pink and green was tied round and the image fastened over the top with sticky pads,  the sentiment was also edged with distress ink and mounted on kraft card.  I finished off highlighting the hot chocolates on the backing paper with glitter.

I fastened an insert inside with Cocoa printed in the bottom right hand corner and the  wording "Warm Winter Wishes are sent your way on this your very special day". 

Off to finish packing, will be away for a while but hope to post one or two things over the next two weeks, if I don't manage to comment on your wonderful blog posts while I am away I will catch up with you all when I get back.

A few crafty things we made at grandma's house

Good afternoon blogland, all my lovely followers and friends.  The reason for my absence here in blogland was I have had my grandchildren Evie 6, Jacob 8 and Sophie 6 staying over for the last fortnight, and although I tried to do some crafting during that time my efforts were scuppered by three children wanting to use my inks and stamps, and demanding my time.

I did allowed them to use my distress inks (under supervision) and gave them a box of freebie stamps to play with.  As the end of the month was approaching I was trying to get my twinchies organised for the September challenge so gave them some twinchies and let them get on with it.   A great messy time was had by all including grandma.

I promised them I would put their work on my blog when I had time, unfortunately Evie took her work with her when she left before I had time to photograph it but I did get a few of Jacob and Sophie's things

  

Sophie's twinchies, she loves glitter and butterflies I thought she made an excellent attempt at background colouring , and the design for the butterfly was all her own.

 

Jacob's twinchies, fabulous bright colours and two tone stamping.

Her we have some paper owls using grandma's pretty papers and friendship bracelets which are not finished yet, this will be something to finish on their next visit.

I am now frantically trying to catch up with all the tasks on my desk which need urgent attention, we are away over the next three weeks so I am off to pack a bag of goodies to take with me, will be blogging if I get a good Wifi signal while I am away and hope to catch up with some serious crafting. 

Buzzing Around With With Some Things With Wings

Good morning to all my followers, friends and all in blogland, the grandchildren have gone now and I am back to normality although the house is rather quiet.  

Today I have my DT card for The The Crafty Bloggers Network challenge.  This month's challenge is kindly sponsored by  Kris at Imagine That  pop over and take a look at the fabulous digi kits she has on offer.

the winner will receive 3 digi sets of their choice

Our theme is

 "Things with Wings"

 

This month we are lucky to have the Imagine That Bee Girl/Boy digi kit to work with, I used the honeycomb and bee papers from the kit, sentiments and the coloured image of the boy bee.  The honeycomb paper was sewn onto black card and an oblong of the bee paper with the flight lines was matted onto an oblong of black card and sewn down.  The image was added to black card and the edges coloured with distress ink in mustard yellow and honey then sewn round.  The elements were attached to the card along with the greeting which was cut using Spellbinders circle dies.

The insert was made by layering a cream insert with honeycomb paper and a sentiment from the Bees Set.

The Crafty Bloggers Network DT have made some amazing projects this month, pop over and take a look at what they have come up with and check out the challenge.

I will be back later with an indulgent post with the things the grandchildren made, I promised them I would put their work on my blog for them to see and did a special post just for them.

Autumn and Autumn Colours Twinchie Challenge

Good morning followers, friends and twinchie lovers out in blogland,  Here I am with my DT post for September's Show Us Your Twinchies Challenge which is Autumn and Autumn Colours, I hope you will pop over and join in with a twinchies or two.  For anyone new to twinchies a twinchies is a 2" x 2" piece of artwork, simple or complicated the choice is yours.

This is a fabulous time of year with all the beautiful changing colours and rich autumn fruits , the challenge this month's could be Autumn images, trees, leaves, fruits or to use Autumn colours on your twinchie. 

Here are a few DT twinchies inspired by this very colourful season. 

I coloured 4 twinchie bases with Autumn colours using distress inks, Tim Holtz mini stamps were stamped onto an acetate twinchie with Stazon in black and this was fastened to the coloured twinchie. 

I made a special Autumn twinchie wallet to hold all my Autumn twinchies, coloured with distress inks and stamped with the Tim Holtz stamps.  The acorn was cut out and the bottom half stuck down with sticky pads,the lid slides behind the acorn to fasten it.  You can find a tutorial on how to make the twinchie wallet HERE.

I also made a few twinchies to use on cards using distress inks and copper, gold and silver embossing powders.

 

I am looking forward to seeing your Autumnal twinchies and I will be back later in the month with some more ideas in the midway-reminder post.