Happy New Year

Happy New Year 

   One of my final projects of the year and I'm really very pleased with it because I managed to both use many of the techniques that I learnt during the epic Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas and I used most of the gorgeous crafty bits that my wonderful daughter unexpectedly bought me for Christmas. 

   While we were in Hastings on our (much looked forward to) pre Christmas jaunt, we were wandering down the hill after visiting Hastings Museum on a dull and drizzly day  when the heavens opened up and let fly an absolute downpour of sleety rain, drenching us to the bone in seconds. Undeterred (but temporarily rendered Grinch like at the the prospect of Christmas shopping  in such grim weather and having just  slipped   over spectacularly on one of those metal utility thingies on the pavement,  landing flat on my backside in the street, hurting pride far more than bottom!) we popped into a store called ESK seeking shelter  from the apocalyptic elements.

Click on any photo for a larger image

 
















 

   Fortuitous or what? This unassuming store turned out to be an absolute Aladdin's Cave of eclectic goodness! My daughter,  quite undeterred by looking like a beautiful wet dripping swamp thing, managed to buy most of her remaining Christmas presents in less time than it took me to stop gently steaming  (yes, both literally from the icy rain and mentally because of falling over in the street)

   Then she found a craft section... honestly, it was like a scene from the film Hot Fuzz! One second she was with me; the next she appeared to be 20 metres ahead! I seriously considered the possibility that she might have vaulted over a display to get there before me!

   Wow! she went through it like Taz of Tasmania! by the time I negotiated my way round the stacks of product piled up chest high in the aisles and caught up with her, she was looking incandescent with pride, triumphant and furtive (never an easy combination to achieve) she had found stash for me!

   These were not secret presents, she gave me choices, we do not get to buy crafty stash often these days.. so each purchase is considered and relished, but there were no changes to be made, she sees colour and tones through artists eyes and her taste is infallible. 

    She was clutching.... A huge Anna Griffin lace stamp, a pad of Rich Cocao Memento Ink, 2 Stickles (Pink and Platinum) taupe embossing powder and a pack of gorgeous Shabby Vintage paper in soft pinks and browns by a company I had never even seen before, Craftworkcards. Knowing from the steely look in her eye (my side of the gene pool) that resistance would be futile, I gracefully allowed her to buy this huge haul for me. Knowing  these pressies had been purchased with money saved to buy herself a Christmas outfit, but instead, happily spent on me....made producing this tag the most happiest crafting experience ever!! God bless my loving daughter.

Wearing the hat!

I am entering this tag in the Sunday Stamper Challenge -week186 - Do anything ya wanna do
and the:
Simon Says Stamp and Show A Tim Holtz Themed Tag!

12 Tags of Christmas - day 5

Wow! what a technique - go check out Tim's tutorial if you haven't already - it is AWESOME

As ever, lots of substitutions here, but with such fun results.

I didn't have a large solid stamp so I used fired brick distress ink directly onto a foam block and then used the embossing distress ink directly onto an old Tim Holtz stamp (the one that looks like peacock feathers) My stamp was covered in Stazon ink and somehow when I stamped it onto the foam pad it lifted off a lot of the Stazon.....soooh when I stamped it onto cream card lots of the black came out. Weird, Yup!  I loved it.

I added a favourite hobby craft stamp of Santa flying through the sky.A light dusting of embossing powder was followed by a quick blast of the heat gun. Lastly, I scribbled a little snow with an embossing pen and then used snowfoam white embossing powder.

I think I will use this technique again and again....I may also invest in some stamp cleaner!

12 tags of christmas...tag 1

Something truly inspirational is going on at the moment.....people from all around the globe are crafting together..all because of Tim Holtz..(and Mario) I don't own a single item of the supplies, but am proud to use what I had to take part in such an amazing project. thanks Tim x

I only started this blog a few days ago - I'm so happy that I did! Happy Holidays to anyone who finds this post - yours comments would also let me know I am not blogging to myself! 

Decoupage Box - my first

A few weeks ago, Woman's Weekly Magazine printed a special collector's centenary issue. In it they included a facsimile of their first ever magazine which was printed in 1911.

I liked the magazine so much that I bought another one and used it tocreate a collaged background to decorate a box. . I love ephemera and vintage images, so I used lots of bits and pieces that I'd never found a use for and created the box that can be seen above. The union flag dress form was dye cut using the Tim Holtz dress form and was originally a flyer for a play. The flower stamps is one of my favourite images to use - it was a Craft Stamper freebie.

Now my daughter has a pretty box to keep her images for collage (hers are stunning!) until she is ready to use them. This was a new type of project for me and I was happy with the result.