IF YOU WANT SOME FUN

pop over to Heather's blog and join in this months ATC challenge - Victorian men and pink.
One of the comments on my woyww post this week suggested that this really was a challenge. I must agree. I was so out of my comfort zone with this one as I have never really been a fan of Victorian stuff and definitely not men's cards etc.. However, not one to be beaten I've given it a go.

This one arose from my 'naughty' side. As you can see I stuck a man's head on a 'cheeky' Victorian lady and made it into a simple burlesque show.

I used a couple of nestabilities to cut the frame and acetate for this card. I alcohol inked the acetate to give it a pink hue. The rest speaks for itself.

A bit of grunge for this one. I used Tim's paper from his shabby vintage stash, his swirl stamp and distress inks. The dictionary paper is from the page Tim gave me at his workshop in February. Nothing complicated again except I used wax over the image and added a sprinkle of beadazzles whilst it was melted - not an easy task believe me.

It was a fun challenge despite the subject, so why not have a go yourself. You may just be surprised at what you can create.

BLUE CANVASS

Had this little 4"x4" canvass for some time and wanted to make it into something 'nice'. I tried hard and came up with this.

You would not believe how long this has taken me.
The base canvass is covered first with Claudine Helmuth's traditional tan paint before being sprayed with Craftynotions walnut and delphinium inks. I used Tim's tissue tape around the edges and then randomly distressed everywhere with walnut stain and frayed burlap inks.

I sprayed and dabbed the flower ribbon with the same inks and left them to dry. The rossettes are the new mini ones cut from Tim's papers and layered on top of a grungepaper cog, again cut using Tim's gadget gears die. The wings are from the heart wings die covered in gold dabber and then rubbed over with pool dabber so that the blue went into the embossed areas which I had done after the gold had dried.

I made the tear drop bead and the pin at the bottom with the round pearl. The swirl is grungepaper cut with the elegant flourished die and then sprayed with delphinium and highlighted with beadazzles. The philosophy tag was covered with pool dabber and wiped over so that the colour only went onto the words.

Before I assembled it all, I stamped some butterflies using DIs but they didn't come out very well. I then went round the edge with a Copic multi liner pen and added some rock candy crackle paint.
Considering I didn't have a clue what I was doing, I reckon it's ok. Another fun time anyway.
I think I will enter it into the Sunday Stampers challenge this week which is to use embossing folders which I did on the wings - Tim's Dot Matrix no less.

SIZE MATTERS!

Size really does matter. It's my first time at this too. Never experienced this before. The best bit was, I enjoyed it and it was quick!
Ok, I can hear some giggles out there. All of the above is true. I've made my very first INCHIE.

The Tim workshop forum have decided that we should all make an inchie and put them in a mini album as a big thank you to him for the fabulous time we will have.

I was quite daunted at the thought of making something so 'fiddly'. I find it difficult at times to hold tiny bits in my fingers, that's why I use tweezers so much, but I managed it.

The base is grungeboard covered in a piece of Tim's vintage shabby stack. I distressed all round with aged mahogony and edged it with walnut stain. The little butterfly is from some I already had in pre-cut grunge, which I painted with cranberry and gold paint dabbers. I used fired brick distress powder on the game spinner and red stickles on the brad. The swirl is from Tim's corner stamp from his clear set 'the journey' and the beads are bedazzles. The little piece of grosgrain is from a length I bought from Finishing Touches in Totnes some time ago.

All in all, for a first attempt that is, I am satisfied with the result.
Someone said they were adictive. Hmm! we'll see.

SCD - OF THE SEA

I have had a good time this month joining in with the SCD challenges.
All have had the basic theme - Torso - with a twist to it each week. This weeks is the last and is 'of the sea'.
I thought this may be easy until I started. Not one single stamp with anything like a sea theme in my drawers.
However, not to be beaten, I came up with this.

Again, my camera is not responding to close ups, sorry.

The wording at the top is covered in glossy accents ans a few beadazzles so is not easily made out but is a torn piece of dictionary definition re. ocean, a large section of sea.

The 'sea angel mermaid' is stamped with teal Stazon onto card and then cut out. (and you thought she was just a fairy didn't you?) The whole of the base mountboard is coloured with various alcohol inks which I tapped on. I then went to town with sticking my gorgeous Brixham mini shells, moss, seed beads, beadazzles and stickles to the base. The little 'mermaid' is sitting amongst them trying to have a rest!!

I had my jiffy bag ready to send off my swaps after having completed this one, but will have to look for a box now 'cos this won't fit. Thank you SCD for this months fun. I wonder what September will bring.

TAKE FLIGHT

Here's a look at the chunky page I made yesterday - Take Flight.

I used alcohol inks on this one, which I blew with a can of air, to get the 'messy' effect. The butterflies are grungeboard which I coloured with distress inks (correction, I used Adirondak paint dabbers) before drawing some veins on with a fine nib pen and adding some distress stickles and bedazzles. The body is an ideology spinner.

The little leaves are grungeboard and I used crackle paint over them. The metal flower is from my stash, coloured with alcohol inks and stickles. I used one of Tim's 'splodgy' stamps, the 'fly' bit from a stamp I bought from the Artistic Stamper and 'wings' from a set of Wendie Rhodes stamps. A bit of fibre and a metal butterfly later and the page was done.

CLOWNS

Anyone who knows me, also knows that I cannot draw for toffee! I didn't own any stamps, up to today, that resemble anything like a clown or a circus come to that, so trying to achieve the Sunday Stampers challenge #93 - Clowns, was near impossible. (Check out the Ink on My Fingers link in the side bar).

However, Jennie at the Artistic Stampers shop came to my rescue by quickly dealing with my order for the Tim Holtz Random Gatherings stamp set. I finally completed the challenge using one of the 4 stamps.

I decided to make an ATC, mainly because my swap box is very bare, but I used mountboard instead of card. The new distress inks formed the base before I stamped the image. I then mixed some red Perfect Pearls with water and sprayed all over the card. I went over the word with a gold pen, re-stamped the image on scrap card so I could cut out the clown's faces and the strong man's leotard. The weights are coloured black with Copic and the stickles at the top is gunmetal, the beadazzles are jazz and the middle clown's hair is cut from some fancy fibres.

After problemating since Sunday (is that a proper word?) I've done it. Hooray!

MY MELT POT SAMPLES

I've just been on Facebook to see what Suze Weinberg has been up to at the other workshops she was doing before the NEC show, and found out that she was only in Burnley. I wish I had looked earlier because she was working with beeswax, which is what I wanted to learn how to use in the melt pot. She did tell us however, that really you should use a removable project pan for this technique. Anyone know where I can buy one??

I hope the photo I've taken comes out clearly, - not uploaded it yet - 'cos all my piccies have been rubbish lately. Anyway, here goes:

The first thing we tackled was the small frame. We cut a picture to fit and simply poured clear UTEE into the inside of the frame. Once dry, this can be removed to use again and the embellishment can be used on any project, including a jewellery piece.

The large oval face was fun to make. For this you need a greased cookie cutter which you simply place over an image and again pour clear UTEE into the cutter. Once dry, remove the cutter and trim around the picture. I love this sample.

The shiny mis-shaped piece on the right is actually made from a CD! Heat a CD with a heat gun, stamp an image onto part of it using Archival ink or similar, then cut out a shape. Add a few drop of To Dye For to melted clear UTEE and using metal tweezers, carefully submerge the piece in the liquid. Lift horizontally and allow the excess to drip off before placing on a craft sheet to cool and set. This is gorgeous.

We then added some black UTEE to our pot. The picture of the men is trapped between 2 pieces of memory glass. We then put each side into the front edge of the liquid, dragged it forward, lifted it for a second or 2 before continuing all round. This made a fake frame. It actually looks really good too.

The larger of the frames was fun but had I taken more notice before I began (sometimes hard to watch everything at once in a workshop) I would have known to use a rubber stamp with a lot of deep detail to it. Choose one with detail, place a frame over the part you wish to capture and pour the UTEE into the frame. Allow to cool and set for few seconds before removing from the stamp. You could ink the stamp first to give a different look. We then brushed Perfect Pearls over the image and added stickles and beadazzles.

The fun bit came when we each chose from Suze's bag of trinkets, an image with which to make a mould. I first picked out a cat's head - wonder why I was drawn to that? - but then I saw a white face and immediately thought of masks with feathers and semi-precious stones etc, so I picked that. We then blended together the 2 parts of the mould and pour substances and once ready squeezed it round our trinket. This substance is similar to the stuff dentists use to make impressions. It's ready to remove if a nail print does not make an indent. Then we simply poured UTEE into the mould and waited for it to set before removing the mould which can be used over and over again. I absolutely love the face that came out and will be chuffed to use this mould again.

We then added some colours to our pot and once melted simply poured the lot onto our craft sheet and quickly placed cookie cutters into it. It dried really fast and some lovely pieces appeared. Suze gave us all a brooch fastening so that we could super glue it to the back of our favourite piece and hence we made jewellery too.

All in all a really good time was had by all, plus we got an extra hour's class. Can't wait for QVC craft day next Tuesday, when Suze, along with many others, will be demonstrating her techniques again.

3 CHALLENGES IN 1

Firstly, I hope the picture is clear enough. I've tried with 2 cameras but can't get anything decent in this wintery daylight.

The Copic Colour Challenge #47 requires the use of these 3 colours:

B97 - Night Blue

YG07 - Acid Green

W-5 - Warm Grey no. 5

Even though I didn't have any of these colours, it gave me the excuse to go and get them!!!! I know. Anyway, I managed the top and bottom colours but it seems that the Acid Green is not a Ciao pen but another Copic type which A. I couldn't get and B. costs about £4+. Instead, I substituted that green for YG06 - Yellowish Green.

As I really need to make some ATCs, I decided to do that instead of making another card.

The background is a Tim Holtz component ATC stamp which I stamped using Old Paper Distress ink. I then used the Copics to highlight and colour the stems, bullrushes, flower heads and butterflies. A few beadazzles, a Sakura glaze on the bullrushes and a light distressing round the edges, finished the ATC.

As I have used 4 NEW items - the Sakura glaze pen and Copics, I am also entering this into the Craft Garden challenge for this month. Aparently, multiple entries are allowed.

Also, I have used 3 OLD items - Tim Holtz stamp, beadazzles, Distress ink,

and at least 1 NEW - Copics

therefore, I will substitute this ATC for one of the others I made for Heather's 'Out with the Old, in with the New' challenge.

Phew!!