We shall remember them

On this special day, I would like to give my thanks for those who gave their lives... and give their lives for our freedom's. This is one of my favourite poems, written by John McCrae to commemorate the death of a friend who had died the day before in battle and I would like to share this with you after a long absence from blogging

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

     between the crosses, row on row,

   That mark our place; and in the sky

   The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

   Loved and were loved, and now we lie

         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

   The torch; be yours to hold it high.

   If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

         In Flanders fields.

                                            Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was a soldier, physician and poet

An Heirloom and an Apology!

Firstly, sorry I haven't been visiting for a couple of weeks, (bad blogger) 

I took a little break from technology for the last 2 weeks of the Summer Holidays. Although I don't often blog about non crafty stuff, I would like to explain my blogging being a bit on and off for the last months. I wasn't well at all. I had a chest infection which turned to pneumonia and went on and on and on. 3 lots of antibiotics, repeated Xrays etc.It was all a bit scary and I had so many doctors and hospital visits and generally feeling awful. Somehow, my mojo is still being  very sporadic and sitting at the computer hurt (still does sometimes)

Now, I am planning a phased return to work and working hard on trying to improve my fitness levels and lose weight. I have found myself totally apprehensive about the return to work... I teach teenagers (subjects they don't always want to learn) and my job is quite stressful at the best of times. I am hoping that returning to work will make me feel more like my old self., but, I am really nervous and stressed by the thought.Wish me luck!

Anyhoo, I'm back even if I might not visit so often for a little while or comment quite so regularly, it'll be more regularly than the last few weeks! and I will be reading everyone's blogs (I think getting back to work is going to be exhausting as well as a bit scary)

Ages ago I gave up smoking and took to knitting to help me. I have been making a giant bed throw in the softest pure cottons. I hope it will be an heirloom for my daughter. I have done quite a lot of it (there are more strips than shown in the photo) The colours are softer than they appear in the photo, especially the Denim Blue... It looks quite Cath Kidston in reality! 

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, La la lah!

The title to this post needs to be hummed! Any one old enough to remember the band Altered Images? Clare Grogan the singer, Happy Birthday the song... now there's a memory from the early eighties! Ah, happy, carefree times. I digress!
I love wrapping presents and coordinating papers and ribbons making even the simplest gifts look pretty. As I finished the last one of my daughters gifts... I realised I had totally forgotten to make her a card (shame on me!) It's late, so this is probably the quickest card I have made in years... not a stamp in sight! just 2 pieces of free paper from a craft magazine and some dodgy freehand cutting, I like it though. 

Happy 15th Els... you are and always will be the best thing I ever made!

xxx

Kept it to one colour... couldn't find anything to disguise the Wok though! No, it's not cleverly disguised in the photo's!! Small gifts, loadsa love.

Lookie, Lookie! How Cool is this?

I know I often improvise with my crafting, but I didn't realise quite how much my daughter takes after me! She wanted to take part in her first challenge, but liked small flowers - so she found a way to make them out of the middle of Tim Holtz bookplates!
She made a great tag and spent forever getting it till it pleased her eye. She nearly wrote a tutorial too, it's a good little step by step.
Bear in mind the fact she is only 14! Please go and see her blog (link on the right) and give her a round of applause (Proud mum? What me? Oh Yes... very... very proud!) Miss Els
Signing off most proudishly! I am so behind with my crafting, strangely enough Els 'gets' creating links better than me!

xxx

A Chip off the old Blog!

My lovely, shy, artistic14 year old daughter (whose work I often publish here on my blog) has now taken a deep breath or 2, taken the plunge and started her own blog and is hoping to share some of her creations. I am so proud of her and love (and often learn from) her art. I would be so pleased if you would give her a visit and follow her if you enjoy what you see.

There is a link on the right hand side of my blog at the top of the page and a link here:

Els begins with an E

I've just crafted my coat!

I've just crafted my coat! well parts of it anyway... other large chunks of it have been added to the craftly stash of materials as I am increasingly drawn to crafting with fabric. Last week I found a really shabby coat at a car boot sale, but it was made of a beautiful thick woollen fabric and (as an ex Warbrobe Mistress I know about this stuff, having made a few cracking errors myself in the washing department) I think someone might have washed it by hand and then tried to tumble dry it!! Well, they nearly felted it!
All I know for sure is that it cost pennies and dye cuts Sizzix flowers beautifully. I also think it's amazing what some folks consider saleable... on the other hand, I bought it, so what do I know! The larger flower dye is my beloved Tattered Florals Tim Holtz Die and the smaller flower dye is a Green Sizzix original which I think is gorgeous and I love it, love it, love it!  I've cut loads of these from the coat material and shall be glittering in earnest for the next few nights. If you haven't tried this technique, I highly recommend it, it's a huge amount of fun, you will end up with unique flowers that you can colour coordinate perfectly with your projects and it costs next to nowt! Speshully if you make them out of old coats that someone else ruined! 

I fear I may have single handedly caused a world glitter shortage in the last couple of nights! After dye cutting I added Stickles and Distress Stickles to the flowers (pretty!) I've been trying to get stuff together ready to make a few  Halloween projects. Something I haven't really done much of. So far, I had marshalled up some of my old bits from forsaken projects (I'm such a squirrel), some heavy felt bottles laboriously cut from an old  Halloween gift bag (love these). I painted an empty chocolate box brown and used the Perfect Pearl mist on the background, which is now mostly covered up. I was just putting everything away for the evening, when I started playing... I liked how it all looked chucked into the box, so, I messed around a little more and 'Ta Dah'... a project, well sort of! I liked it, so I took a piccie or two and here it is.  Everything is just laid down, not stuck, so I will be able to re use them on bigger projects.  

By the way, that's real wax on the candles, I made  that for a 12 tagss of Christmas tag last year and borrowed it! I shall be entering this into several challenges.Blogger's Challenge (alter it, my choccie box)  Studio L3 (Lord Tim's Perfect Pearls Mist) and Our Creative Corner (Nature and Bling)
Technique Challenge 16 Linda's challenge at Studio L3
Bling, Bling and an item from nature Our Creative Corner
Alter It, Bloggers challenge (altered choccie box)
Tim Holtz's Website, love it!
The postie has just been and I got a lovely surprise, Craft Stamper sent me a copy of the edition that I have been published in, I am still child like in my glee at getting published. I firmly believe that we all need dreams, both large and small and that the clearer we can see these dreams, the more the universe can oblige and help them to happen. Well, this was such a dream of mine and bless Katy Fox for making it happen.

EDIT:  I have just seen a feature on the Sizzix website called 'I Spy Saturday' and am going to add this as I used so many Sizzix products here, When don't I?! Sizzix - I Spy Saturday

Tim Holtz 12 Tags - August - my 3rd post in 2 days!

When I saw the gorgeous tag Tim Holtz had made I was inspired to make this. The background tag was made using the 'faux leather' technique I learnt from Anita Houston's recent tutorial and then embossed with a floral folder. The shimmer is provided by generous sploshes of Perfect Pearls. The silhouette, I stamped with black Archival ink and cut out (oh sooh carefully) The frame is Grungeboard covered with picket fence Distress Stain. The flowers were made from burlap using Tim's tattered Florals die which I love, love love! The sentiments are Tim Holtz stickers. I love it when a new tutorial comes up each month, it is always an exciting day - thank you Tim :) 12 tags of 2012 August

Renaissance Mens! 2nd post in 2 Days!

   When I saw Anita Houston's challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, I was utterly fascinated by her idea and promptly got distracted Googling all her references and getting lost in art all evening (and watching chunks of the Olympics) I 'ummed and aarghed' about what to make and in the end decided to have a go at a canvas... not, as you will know if you follow my blog, my usual route at all. I'm quite proud of myself!

   A while ago, I bought a pad of canvas pages, I thought they might come in handy to stamp on and cut out for this and when I found the pad... BONUS! the drawing on the cover was Leonardo da Vinci's Vetruvian man (c.1487) albeit chopped up into 3 pieces... hmm... after about half a seconds thought the pad was in the photocopier providing the first piece of my homage to the Renaissance! It has been chopped up, wetted, distressed and torn and now resides proudly in the top right quadrant of my canvas looking like it has been there for hundreds of years. How lucky a fnd was that? 

   My main aim was to try and recreate the look of a Fresco/stylised working drawing using works by the Renaissance giants Anita Houston cited (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael)  2 extra influences here... One of my first jobs was in an Architects department of my local Council and I loved the style of architects drawings (still do) the second, my love of all things Holtzy... which has now extended to those amazing new stamps by Mario111 with those awesome 'working drawing' lines. How neat are they? He has inspired my daughter and I so much. Alas, I got so into merrily chucking every art supply I own at this canvas that I totally forgot to take photo's until I was most of the way through it DUH!

   I reckon I paid homage to everyone Anita mentioned. The cherub (bottom right) looks much clearer in real life but twas a be-atch to take a piccie of with my little camera!. Also, the pointy hand (Graphic 45) is paler in real life.My piccie makes it stand out like a sore thumb!LOL. Again, the real thing is very heavily textured and, still glowing in the proud aftermath of having my first article published in Craft Stamper, I was actually so chuffed with this canvas that I squiggled my initials at the bottom of it.

   I was pleased with all my rulers...'cos I made them! They are made from an Xcut embossing folder, embossed (well, what else!) Perfect Pearled, Distressed and chopped into pieces. Some got treated with the 'faux leather' technique... I am so loving this at the moment. Honestly, I'm like a puppy rampaging thru Blogworld. I even worked in a few Latin quotes... one of which is the motto of my town!

I'm so chuffed with this canvas, it makes me miss the days when I taught crafts... Wanna go back to it so much! Ending this now. Tim Holtz has posted his August tag, tis awesome... and I want to play. I don't think I have many of the ingredients and I can't wait to improvise. I hope you all have a good day. EDITED! Yay! I just found a little silhouette stamp my daughter got at a craft fair for a pound.... Happy Dance!

This is my entry for the Renaissance challenge over at Frilly and Funkie... do go check it out, there are some amazing pieces being posted. Renaissance Men Challenge

I managed to get a better photo of my little cherub by holding the canvas up to the light in the garden. I like the effect of this, I used the mask and swooshed clear embossing ink around it and then embossed it using Ranger Ultra thick Embossing Enamel. I wish I could show the depth of this finish, the canvas is sooh tactile and chunky.

As it has one of my favourite Tim Holtz sentiment stamps in the middle (Life is the Art of drawing without an erasor) I am also entering this into the 'what do you say?' challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Anything Goes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Tim Holtz Technique Tag and Proud News

This Christmas tag was made using a great Tim Holtz technique and foil tape (do buy this book if you don't own it already, it is a brilliant source of inspiration) Out of respect to Tim, the technique will not be described here. This was the first time I had used the foil tape and it is fabby dabby doo to work with. I am entering this into the lovely technique challenge at Studio L3 and Lisa Somerville's Bloggers Challenge - Christmas in July. I am also entering this into the Anything Goes challenge at Fashionable Stamping challenges
Studio L3    Christmas in July        T!m Holtz   Anything Goes

My proud news? I've been published for the first time and I couldn't be happier. I have surely been Futterwaken down in Hove (no it's not rude! tis a dance from Alice in Wonderland) I have an article coming up in Craft Stamper... peeps who subscribe are getting their copies now, otherwise it comes out on August 3rd 

I'm on page 38, I think I shall make that my new lucky number!

 Honestly, if this is one of your dreams (um, to get yourself published, not me getting published, that's MY dream... and I'm not done with it yet, although you are quite welcome to dream me getting published AGAIN if you've nowt better to do with your time... or you are really kind... or a Wish Fairy!)  please GO for it. Life is short and wonderful things can happen if you try, but, you've got to try. Eight month's ago, I didn't even have a blog, now I look at people's work from all over the world and am inspired to dream my little arty dreams in TECHNICOLOUR. For this, I thank the blogging world so very much... off to Futterwack a bit more now.

2nd Star on the right, Straight on till morning

Before my current career, I worked for 7 years in Wardrobe Departments in the Theatre, mainly based in the West End of London, so I love a good bit of theatre and spectacle!  It goes without saying that I  absolutely adored Olympic Creative Director Danny Boyle's glorious Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday night. It was an absolute triumph for the creative arts. 

My 'best bits?' Oh, so many... The smokestacks rising atop idylic England, Sir Kenneth Branagh's reading of Caliban's speech, the Queen and James Bond! (How awesomely sporting is she?) Dame Evlyn Glennie leading the thousand  Drummers and super best bit... the Olympic Cauldron itself, a total triumph for the charismatic (and rather gorgeous) designer Thomas Heatherwick.... google him and you will read for DAYS!

So this little tag is my tribute to the Olympics... and it was a BEAST to take piccies of, just couldn't capture the gold and silver!

The 'faux leather' tag was inspired by Anita Houston's brilliant video tutorial yesterday (I think you should have got that phone to ring again Anita, it could've become a trademark!!) This is a really amazing technique which was taught to Anita at Ranger U by the God of Grunge himself, the amazing Tim Holtz and I liked it so much I used it straight away to make 3 backgrounds... the one on the right was then used for this tag. This picture was taken before I pounced and ironed! Here is the link to Anita's Tutorial post:  Faux Leather Tutorial

I used a mixture of Tim Holtz stamps to create the background, all stamped with Ranger Jet Black Archival Ink. The 3 gentlemen and those funky circles both reminded me of the opening ceremony and seemed to be the right ones to use. The rising sun seemed a fitting tribute too (Oh, what an old romantic I  turned out to be)

I used brads and Glassine paper to create my own Olympic sign... couldn't quite get that blue right though, but I am strangely proud of my little creation.

I added one of my own reinforced burlap flowers and gave it lots of gold around the edges (my tutorial to make these is here:)   My tutorial The bike reminded me of those extraordinary winged cyclists going around the arena towards the end of the show and also is there to represent sports generally. I had so much fun making this (well, when don't I?) I just had to take an extra photo showing our colours...

I am entering this into a few of my favourite challenges
The ever inspiring Sunday Stampers Challenge 'gold' Fields of Gold
Anything goes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges - Happy One Year birthday to you (so annoyed I didn't see the DT call for the New Challenge... I would have been brave and applied. I love this site, it is always squished full of inspiration and has an amazing DT) do check them out if you are not yet familiar with them. Anything goes and Anything goes at: Simon Says Stamp

Gloriana, Olympic Barge has arrived at Tower Bridge

Normally, as you know if you visit my blog, I only blog my crafts, however History is in the making here. As with the Queen's Jubilee it is so important I wished to proudly record it.The Gloriana rowbarge with the Olympic flame on board has arrived at Tower Bridge and is heading over towards the floating Olympic rings moored on the Thames. There, 22 year-old Amber Charles from Newham who was part of London's Olympic bid aged 14, will carry the lit torch. 

Did you know? That torch  has 8000 holes in it representing the 8000 miles that it has travelled and the 8000 people who have had the honour of carrying it... How cool is that? 

Now where's that little flag we got for the Jubilee? I shall find it and probably wave it while I watch the ceremony... 

Who will carry the torch on it's very final leg to the cauldron? Care to take a guess with me? Here's 3 of mine James Bond? (Daniel Craig) Harry Potter? (Daniel Radcliffe) Well,  what about a Wild Card guess? there was a great episode of Dr Who some years ago with David Tennant carrying the flag into the Olympic Stadium... you never know! After all it is directed by Danny Boyle 

This has bought a proud tear to my eye, soft thing that I am!  Looking forward to the ceremony this evening, proud to have seen the torch in Hove. Good Luck to ALL Thanks to the BBC for their great coverage today, fab live feed, using 'Heroes' (David Bowie) as background for one of the montages is a nice touch too... I may update this post during the day

A proud family moment - we got to see the torch for real

Mini Tutorial - Non Fraying Burlap Grunge Flowers

I  had a little moment of inspiration and thought I'd share!

    I love making my own fabric flowers, you can produce them so inexpensively. Neutral fabrics, like Calico's and Burlap's (like sacking) are fun to use, but die cut Burlap seems to fray really badly. I found my T!m Holtz Tattered Florals die cut really beautiful Burlap flowers that promptly fell apart when I tried to shape them, Burlap is an extremely loosely woven fabric.

   I have found a solution (there are most likely others and like everything else this has probably been done already, so forgive me if I am re inventing the wheel here!) Some of my followers are extremely experienced bloggers and crafters, others, less so. I have decided that I shall start sharing a few really simple tips with the blogging world, I really hope that you like them and would love to hear your comments...

Here we go... it's short and sweet!

• Firstly, dig out some PVA Medium and a large paintbrush.
•  Place a large piece of burlap on top of a plastic cloth, or similar.
• Paint one side of the burlap with the PVA and allow to dry completely, remember to wash your brush afterwards.
• Die cut your floral die of choice.
• Try stamping the burlap with Archival Ink to add interest. Or... press into a matching/toning Distress Ink.
• Play with the layers and  petals till you achieve a pleasing effect.... then fasten with a Brad or Button.

Note... The more thickly you apply the PVA, the more  you will be able to mold and shape your flower petals.
Ta Dah! Pretty, unique, inexpensive flowers, totally customisable for your own projects.

xxx

xxx

xxx

xxx

Fashion, Beep Beep, Fashion!

   Well! little did I know when I started making this tag, that a song would get lodged in my head and would end up changing the making fairly substantially. Recently, there have been a series of David Bowie concerts and documentaries on the BBC and I've watched them avidly as Bowie was such an influence on me during my teens and twenties. Still love his music now actually. Well, as I was hunting out the glitter card and my T!m Holtz dress form Die, the classic song Fashion (1980) popped into my head and got firmly fixed there, it's still there, I even Googled the lyrics! I tend to roll with these things, so I wrote chunks of them all over the tag and totally changed what I was going to do. I'm delighted with how this tag turned out and I'm still quietly singing that song... 
    I started with a plain white tag and covered it with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink using a blending tool and then flicked it with water a la T!m Holtz. The background was then ghost stamped with a Rogue Redhead Designs Stamp and Picket Fence Distress Stain (I am totally hooked on stamping with this at the moment) I hand wrote lyrics all around the edges of the tag and added 3 T!m Holtz dress forms. I wanted to keep the tag simple as it didn't seem to need much else in the way of adornment. 
   I am entering this into several challenges, one of which is new for me. It fits nicely into Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge 'More than words' as well as the Die Cut challenge at another of my favourite sites, Bloggers Challenge. I am also entering this into the Analogous colours challenge at Make My Monday (Oh yes, I now know what the word analogous means!) and the Hey Girl Challenge at the lovely Simon Says Stamp And Show.
   It's been another lovely warm day down here on the South Coast... Summer is outside the building! I had such fun making this tag and I was so pleased with the outcome, I'm still thinking of songs... mmmmm.... might be the B52's next, that, or GOTYE... or both!




sunday-stamper-week-215-more-than-words
bloggers-challenge-die-cuts
Make My Monday Challenge
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Hey Girl

xxx

xxx

Another use for a Dyan Reaveley House!

After finishing my first Christmas project yesterday, I had one remaining Dyan (Rainbow) Reaveley house cut out... Now, waste not want not. Whod've thunk that it would turn into a cute slinky little dress? (Um, not me probably) creating this tag  made me smile, I hope it makes you smile too! Just realised, she looks quite '80's' with those shoulder pads!

Dyan Reaveley Christmas Village!

Inspired by seeing all the new Christmas items from CHA (have you seen the fabulous photo's on T!m Holtz's blog? totally inspirational!) I actually made my first little Christmas offering this dull and dreary afternoon down on the South Coast of England. I surprised myself actually! normally, I wait months before doing anything Christmassy.

 Well, for this little fun project, I re purposed a very sturdy black box that had previously held Paperchase Christmas Cards (yeah... I know, I should make all my own cards, but after Christmas they are so irresistibly inexpensive) I  stamped a dotty background onto the top and sides of the box directly from the end of my Picket Fence Distress stain... I love the shape that it makes... I got quite carried away, but I loved it :)I used lots of glossy accents, glamour dust (the most versatile glitter ever) and non traditional Christmas colours to scribble colour the cute little houses (these are so cool) with Promarkers. I used a Picket Fence Distress Marker to make it snow.

I will add a sentiment later, I enjoyed making this even though it is totally different from my normal projects. I'll try anything these days! grungy, shabby, jolly... bring it on! I will probably use it for one of my daughter's Christmas pressies, we both adore little boxes and tins. 

Blogging really broadens the horizons artistically, I think it is because those of us who blog get so much exposure to the gorgeous things other people make, that maybe we widen our own boundaries without even realising it!


Welcome to my newest followers and thank you so very much  for following - I always try to visit blogs and come visit you back if I can (some of you don't have links to a blog)

I am entering this into the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, I think it has a 50's vintage feel going on. Anything Goes

and... Spritz and Flick! Sounds Like a Harry Potter Spell!

Fun, Fun, Fun!

I am really enjoying being able to take part in the challenges using T!m Holtz techniques over at  Studio L3 and am loving the book (thanks Anita x) Anita Houston  there will be no stopping me... Yay! This weeks challenge is sponsored by the ever generous Simon Says Stamp. Just in case you are new to stamping and have no idea who Tim Holtz is, here is a link to one of the most enjoyable web sites EVAH! T!m Holtz

This tag was made using the Spritz and Flick technique... I really love this technique, it looks so effective and you never know quite how it will turn out. I recycled and embellished the heart shaped tag to go onto my background and my colour choice was inspired by a small tag (you can see it in the third photo) sent to me for my daughter by my friend Sue. This Life  That tag, is one of my daughters favourite possessions, she fell in love with it as soon as she got it. I have the best bloggy friends in the world

Sorry for such brief posting... Blogger is still playing me up a treat :(  Every time I add a photo, it immediately alters any text I have written to look as if it is a caption... leaving my background a different colour to my text. It is really annoying, I have had to remove my lovely pale blue background to lesson the effect of it. Until I can figure it out, I will have to employ BREVITY! Aaarrgh... not good xx If any one can advise me... I would really appreciate it

xxx

I am entering this into the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and also Letss get messy and iknk (or inky in my case) over at the ever lovely: Fashionable Stamping Challenges

The Olympic Torch in Hove

Quite the Cavalcade actually! (There were many more vehicles than in my photo's here!)


There are certain things that if missed, you are aware  the opportunity may not come round for a long long time and the Olympic Procession is one of them. We were lucky that the Olympic torch came through Brighton and Hove and quite a crowd (including us) turned out to cheer it on despite the weather. Bought a lump to the old throat and a tear to the eye...  It was well organised and such a good tempered crowd. I'm so glad we braved the elements to go a have a wave. I wish luck to ALL the athletes who take part xx

She Sells Sea Shells by the Sea Shore!

After a short dry spell earlier, the persistent rain has set in again down here on the South Coast of England. I think this influenced a change in the tag that I started making earlier. This morning, before going out, I  cut out a large shell from some beautiful papers sent to me by my friend Sue and gave it the thickest coating of Glossy Accents... after coming home in the pouring rain.... my shell ended up getting turned into a mermaid! Although I tend to veer towards the grungy and shabby in my crafting, there are moments when I  come close to cuteness... well, why not!

I kept to the same colour palette that I used for my felt and calico tag the other day, I find blues, greens and neutrals so peaceful and calm... a little bit of tranquillity.

The tag has several layers and I cut out a frame and used Whitewash Coredinations card behind it. I altered the Tim  Holtz metal clock face (thank you Anita) and the pen nib 'body' of the butterfly with an  Adirondack Paint Dabber (Pool). I also used this to stamp the Tim Holtz lace stamp, which reminded me of waves. The rest of the stamping was done with brown Memento Ink.

Sorry my text is all bunched up together and not in between the photo's. I have been having some real problems with blogger, I had to remove my pretty background and everything! I am entering this into this weeks challenge at Frilly and Funkie for altered metal: Frilly and Funkie
and the Mermaid challenge at Unruly Paper Arts

xxx

xxx

Dream a Little Dream with Me!

   Something a little different for me here. This tag is stamped onto Calico, using a mixture of Memento ink and Distress pens. I attached the calico tag onto a felt tag which I had cut out (with some difficulty, it kept getting smaller because it was hard to get it straight!) I wanted to create a layered effect I was so excited to use the Tim Holtz stamp for the first time. I got it at a recent Craft Fair along with a few other TH stamps that were greatly reduced as they had been used to create samples. Considering the fact that I am such an avid stamper, I don't actually have many stamps, due to the Mortgage Companies insistence that I pay them each month! so this was a hugely exciting afternoon for us. I also used an ATC sized Tim Holtz stamp to create the worn look to the tag and add further layer's of interest. I loved the idea that the tag had been around so long that it had got blotty and inky. This tag looked really sweet using some of my daughter and I's 'beach finds as a background. I love living so near the sea, there is always something to hunt for. Recently, my daughter and I have spent ages looking for pieces of sea glass, it is so exciting to find even the tiniest piece of rounded glass with the pitted surface. Most of these have taken at least 30 years to have become worn into that shape!

I am entering this into a few challenges: Texture Challenge at Frilly and Funkie

Dreamer Challenge at Hels Sheridans lovely lovely Sunday Stamper

Say it with words at  Bloggers Challenge

Layered at Simon says Stamp

14 years old - talented? Oh yeah baby!

This Tote Bag is one of my daughter's projects (nearly finished) and I think it fits perfectly into the texture challenge at Frilly and Funkie and the Silver challenge at The Sunday Stamper. 


It is her first challenge entry and she is very excited about it. She designed the padded Love Birds herself, they are made from felt and padded with wadding. They remind me of Portugese love bird images.  


Each button and decoration was sewn on and fastened off individually. Many of the buttons had personal significance from Els' own clothes when she was younger, or in the case of the Union Flag, a memento of the Queens Jubilee this year. 


The decorations on the black bird were Els first go at machine embroidery and they worked really well, she found machine embroidery exciting and a bit scary too!


Ooh, I nearly forgot to mention, customising bags is one of my daughter's new hobbies. I am also entering this into the Silver Dream Machine challenge over at Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper Challenge Silver challenge

I  love the flowers in her hair and check out that collar!


 Frilly and Funkie

Tim Holtz Inspiration July - Several Projects

This month the technique chosen by Tim Holtz was such fun to do! it made me feel like a big kid, I couldn't stop making the backgrounds!

 First, I wanted to try and make something using red, white and blue with the 4th of July in mind, but really had to improvise with my materials as I lacked red and blue alcohol inks, the right paper and 'spray air' ( lol, pretty much everything really!) I was very happy with the end result though.

The second version I made was overstamped with Picket Fence Distress Stain to produce all the little stars in the sky - It looked like a Firework Display to me - again, I was very pleased with it. With the forthcoming London Olympics, this seemed quite timely :)

I had 3 alcohol inks that I had bought as a set - I love the richness of the colours - I used them on photo paper and created frames to use on other projects.

The background on the left hand side was made using gold mirri card. It looks very lush and dramatic in real life. The one on the right was made using much smaller dots of alcohol ink and blowing through a straw so hard I thought I was going to turn inside out!!! I've added Rock Candy Distress Stickles onto it.

I am looking forward to getting more alcohol inks in the near future as I think I will use this technique  again and again. It is one of the most versatile I have found in ages... as ever, thanks to Tim Holtz, he is such an amazing source of inspiration and encouragement.

Do visit Tims site - there is so much inspiration there. There are so many video's that are fascinating to watch.

Tim Holtz - July Challenge

I am also entering this into this weeks Blogger's challenge celebrating the 4th of July
Bloggers Challenge
simplycreatetoo.blogspot.co.uk - Country where you live challenge (my images of London)