LOOK - CLAUDINE HELLMUTH ACRYLIC PAINTED LOOS

I wonder how many pots of Classic Teal and Dash of Red they took???

A W.I.P.

Well I think it's in progress but I hoped it was finished, however, looking at it, I think it's lacking 'something'.

May find some words to add a bit of depth, we'll see.
Anyway, not much crafting going on here because 'peg leg' and I have been extremely busy all week putting up new fascia boards, power washing the paths, etc. etc. We are having the outside walls coated with an insulation render starting tomorrow, so this little tag just 'happened' in a few spare moments the other day.
I wanted to use the Studio paints I have and make something really bright for a change.

The houses are by Claudine Hellmuth. I used a white dabber on the sponge stamps and over-stamped the clear version using barn door distress ink. However, the base of the tag was the most fun. I used 3 colours of Studio paint, dash of red, yellow pastel and classic teal and mixed them around before painting the tag all over. I had some grungepaper on my shelf that I had die cut some swirls from, so I used that as a stencil together with the teal paint. The little circles are made using the top of paint dabbers.

I really like these paints and hope to gradually have them all so I can make bright backgrounds. Also, I downloaded the mixing chart which gives examples of how to make 51 colours with just the 15 pots.
I found some red voile, some red sticky netting and some white bobble ribbon plus a little key charm which I painted with white dabber, to finish off.

However, as mentioned at the start, I'm not sure it's finished and may just be a Work In Progress.

WOYWW #99

It's that Wednesday again. You know, the day that comes around quicker than any of the others in the week. It's also the one that turns us into snoopers and encourages us to sneak into fellow crafter's rooms and have a nosey in their cupboards, on their desks and admire their craft tools and wips.. Want to join us? then pop over to our leader, Julia, for all the info.
Mine is like this today -

Not a lot different from last week or any other come to that. I'm one that just has to clear away each time I use something so that I have room  to work and also so I know where to find that something the next time I need it. One reason I can always put my fingers on my 45yr old Fiskars scissors you see in this photo.

In between other things over this past week, I have actually made another page for Toby's album. I'm ahead of myself with this one because it's for his birthday on the 24th May which is when I'll blog it. It turned out nice but should have had the photo you see on the shelf in it too, however, I decided to use an on the edge die from Tim's range and ended up cutting the photo in half!!!! I was destraught as I hate cutting his photos.  I played around with some Claudine Helmuth paints and distress stains yesterday to make backings for ATCs. This is how they turned out.

I like them very much. No idea what I will add to them but they are for my stash so only time will tell. The idea was launched this week by Hels, you know the lass who is whizzing off to Ranger U tomorrow! She did a bit of splodging and splashing of paint and ink and the idea appealed so I had a go too. My mind boggles at the thought of what she will get up to when she comes back and what fabulous creations will be aired. I can't wait and wish her an amazing trip. Keep us informed of everything along the way Hels. xx
Well today is going to be busy. We are replacing the fascia boards with plastic today in readiness for having the outside walls re-rendered next week with a polymer resin material which will be covered with ----- crushed sea shells. Well I do live near the sea! Actually it's an insulation product discovered by a firm called Testa Teres which should give a 50%+ reduction in heat loss.
But how can your 'peg leg' be doing that today after having a double hernia operation yesterday, I hear you asking. True to form, the NHS decided to ignore him by not sending a letter or phoning him with details to go in for the op. So much for having a date. We are now back to waiting and wondering what is going on. On the up side though, the motorhome passed it's MOT (2nd time of trying) after having to have a new stainless steel exhaust made because you CANNOT buy a replacement one for our van. Just another little problem of late.
Thanks for reading this far - if you have - I had better get dressed and go climb a ladder I suppose.

SORRY ABOUT THESE PHOTOS

They are really blurred. Sometimes my camera behaves but other times it plays up and does just what it wants despite being on the correct setting.
Anyway, I played around yesterday and came up with these.

The words are from Tim's 'stuff to say' stamps and are the bottom few from the long stamp - imagine a journey of creative stuff ideas and things to discover.
The flower is one from the pile of stamped pieces I had laid out on Wednesday. The background is dark green card covered with Claudine Hellmuth classic teal acrylic paint. I love the way it turned out. What a fabulous colour. The rest speaks for itself.
This next one took an age.

I already had the base card made from dabbing up spare ink on my craft sheet. Again the flower is one made earlier - I like having a stock of stuff already made to just grab and go.
The time consuming bit was making the bead loops. I used Tim's ruler to mark equal holes at the bottom of the card before taking a really long length of copper wire, adding different beads and threading backwards and forwards to make the loops. A strip of black lace over the top and voila. I distressed a length of tissue tape, tore it to pieces and stuck it to the card together with the rose, a pre-embossed black tattered flower and some punches branches. Job done.
Off to try my hand at some metal flowers now.

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.

THE HAPPIEST CRAFTY WEEK

It's right, this just has to be the happiest crafty week I have ever had.

All the wonderful goodies from Tim Holtz and Ranger, a workshop with Suze Weinberg, the most amazing QVC craft day ever and my Compendium of Curiosities arrived today whilst I was at Lindsay Mason's demo in Chorley. What more could a girl ask for?????

WELL HOW ABOUT THIS

Lindsay got Tim to make this just for me. I am so honoured and excited.

Not only that, but Claudine Helmuth sent me the mini canvass and

Rachel Greig sent the flower post card.

You can see my grin all over the country, it's that big.