Sunday Stamper: All those Years Ago.

Wow what a week! Firstly my dearest number 2 daughter caught that very nasty gastric bug and my dearest grandson was very ill too. My son-in-law was in hospital having a painful operation on his nose and so I pitched in to do what I could. Then I caught it, then Hubby caught it and now dearest number 3 daughter is being gloriously sick. It's quite horrid but over with now and Ryder was laughing at me this afternoon. However the silver lining was I have won Hels give-away in the Sunday Stamper challenge and so have the glorious book to look forward to reading. Thank you so much Hels, you are a very talented star!

For the Sunday Stamper challenge this week in which Hels asking us for something vintage I have managed a tag.


The background was embossed with Tim's woodgrain folder and painted with picket fence distress paint which was sanded back when it had dried. I got this technique from the Funkie Junkie's twelve tags of Christmas. Absolutely wonderful tags she makes, my woodgrain does not look as good as hers, please check it out if you are one of the few who doesn't know about her! Next I embossed Tim's Christmas folder and cut out the Christmas Wishes which I coloured with mowed lawn and pine needle distress ink. Next came Tim's blueprint stamp of the soldier, (I had to have these!) which I coloured with my distress markers and fussy cut. Next was Tim's snowflake die (what would I do without his products) cut from some vintage coloured star paper and then spread photo distress stickles on top. I used walnut stain around the edge of the tag, threaded some old beads onto wires and used red and green sari ribbon and there you are, vintage enough I hope!
Well, I am off to try some soup, still don't feel like eating a proper meal. I do hope you are all well and dry. Looks like keeping warm will be our next challenge! x

Sunday Stamper: Faces.

Seeing Hel's challenge I went and rumaged amongst my stamps to get out my faces, but then I saw this Paperbag Studio's image and fell in love with her again as I hadn't used her for a long time. I just felt she went with my new Dylusion stamps of words for Christmas and had to use these ones!

She is placed on Bo Bunny paper that I overstamped in gold acrylic with a garden flourish of Tim's, then overlaid with a Prima pearl flourish and garnished with a burlap bow with co-ordinnating lace. The little lass was coloured with Distress pens and cut out to fit the circle. The background of the card was distressed with Wanut Stain.

 

I think I must find a little girl now to send this to as she makes up her mind how to be before Christmas, she'd better choose nice or Santa won't visit!

Hope I get some more crafting done this week, so see you soon! Keep dry. x

Sunday Stamper. Birds.

Just in the nick of time I finished a journal page from the Kate Crane workshop I attended recently. I had always wanted to put birds in it and then the bluebird of happiness came to mind. It's good to think that after troubled times you can look up and find a patch of blue sky and suddenly everything is not so grey. Here in my garden of bright Dylusion inks and butterflies and birds he comes flying in! I used an assortment of stamps and can't remember all of them, but the bluebird is one of Tim's and the bird tables I have had such a long time with no name of origin left.



 

 

Put your sunglasses on! I love the brightness of dylusion inks, great fun to use. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for looking. x

Tags of 2012 November.

Gosh November half way through already! Not sure I will be able to get my head together to start Christmas but the Tim Holtz November tag was as brilliant as the man usually does and lets us celebrate the end of Autumn. As usual I didn't have all his lovely bits but really enjoyed how this one came out.



He has inspired us to use the batik look by resist embossing and then colouring the back before ironing away the embossing powder. I don't have his lovely stamp set so I used a part of a corn stalk stamp I have, it was not as big as Tim's but worked well. Then I used November from his Seasonal stickers down the side. I only have the winter die strip so used part of it with some punched leaves and an acorn. I found the piece of burlap in my stash and it is under there but a wee touch too small! When I had finished I realised my bits were not balanced so added the 3D corn stalks and liked  the effect. I am learning such a lot by doing the tags and I love this technique. To see Tim's challenge and his lovely tag go here and enjoy the master at work!

 

I'm still at sixes and sevens as they say but when I can I love to splash about with my inks and papers, it lifts the spirit. Thank you so much to  those lovely lovely people who left such comforting comments, you are all so kind. x

Thank you and Sunday Stamper: Blue

Firstly, THANKYOU for your lovely comments they meant a lot. Mum died peacefully this week. I am not feeling as I thought I would, I'm a bit lost and at times function normally and then get lost. My mum was ill for a long time so she is at  peace now.

I managed to concentrate for a few hours at a workshop the other week and wondered if my journal page would qualify for Hels' challenge for this week. As you can see I have used blue as an accent colour. Thank you Kate, I learnt a lot and to Wendy at the Stamp Attic for the lovely workshops she puts on.

 

Not my usual style but I have always admired the way Kate Crane produces such vibrant colour and I realise now that I must be patient and make it up in layers! The dolls body was the outlandish bit for me and the other journal tag could have been 'I don't have a thing to wear!' but it was lovely to play with all the stamps Kate bought for us to play with. I have made her shoes sparkly with a sakura pen but it doesn't show in the photo.

My mum would have laughed so at this, she always enjoyed drawing and looking at my offerings.

I think I must try and do some dreaded 'H' word things now as my home has been sadly neglected. Love to you all x

Difficult times.

Hello dear blogging pals. The reason for my absence from my favourite challenges like Sunday Stamper is because my dear Mum is losing her fight with cancer. I get an odd spell of crafting which is helping no end from the sadness, hope to post something soon. 

Do me a favour, tell everyone you care about what they mean to to you, life is so precious. x