Tim's tag for July

Hi everyone, I'm back from my fabulous holiday in France, where I climbed a mountain to watch the Tour de France  pass by - I have the blisters to prove it and it was marvelous! So for Tim's fab challenge for this month I thought I would adapt his tag to celebrate Chris Froome's fantastic win for Sky and Britain!

To see Tim's great tag see here where he acknowledges the fallen fire-fighters of Prescott with a patriotic tag using some great techniques. Here is my acknowledgement of the great win by Chris!

 

Firstly I made the brayered background as per Tim's instructions. Then I die cut the Eiffel tower which is near the end of the race but decorated it with two little Union Jacks. I then stamped two bicycles and the words 'you're a star'. The label has well done Chris by a patriotic button and an arrow and a star given the same crackle treatment as the Eiffel. The No 1 comes from his rub-ons and the ribbon was stamped with the same 'you're a star' quote. I downloaded the Tour emblem and glazed it with Crackle accents to match.

I have to tell you all, I was on the telly! We stood near a hair-pin bend that was favoured by the camera, so when we staggered back to the chalet to watch the high-lights there we were!

 

They went by so fast that I didn't catch Chris but here is one of his fab team mates. There were so many people there, it was like a carnival.

We stayed at St Jean du Alps that had the ruins of an Abbey nearby. Beautiful! What more can I say.
 

We walked here early one morning with dew in the air and the sun coming up.

 

Stunning lakes where we sat with our dearest grandson while his mum and dad chucked themselves down mountains on their bikes!

 

Absolutely fabulous meringues, look at the colours in these! They tasted divine.
Back to work today, it goes so quickly. Hope you are having a good week too!

Sunday Stamper: Build me up Buttercup.

I have my dearest friend Sally coming to stay and so braved the sauna/craftroom to try and tidy it up a bit before she comes. Unfortunately my new Eiffel Tower die cutter yelled at me and as I am going to visit France this year I felt beholden to try it out! So sorry dear friend, the room is still in a pickle!



Firstly I swished a tag through Mustard Seed, Walnut Stain and Bronze distress stains and then overstamped Tim's French Postage stamp in coffee archival. Following this I ran the tag through the French embossing plate and used Brushed Corduroy distress ink over the top and round the edges.  Next stage was to die cut two Eiffel Towers and a Fleur de Lis and lay them on the embossing plate and send them through the vagabond. After this I coloured the Eiffels with Bronze stain and Walnut stain ink and layered them up over the impressed images. The Fleur was painted with bright yellow acrylic fluid paint and then high-lighted with Viva gold paste.

 

 

The Obelisk and Metro and flag came from a Personal Impressions stamp set and were coloured with distress markers. The Tour de Eiffee came off an old post card.

I have had my lunch and must brave the H word before I start work again later. I will try very hard not to get way-layed, but I'm making no promises. I blame the heat, it's doing things to my 'best intentions'! Keep cool one and all. x

Now don't laugh!

I really am not designed for the heat and the craftroom is like a steam room and so I really have not been able to do any papercrafting. I've tried but everything looks wrong and I can't finish it so I thought I would just show you my first attempt at rust printing! I have recently subscribed to Linda and Laura Kemshall's DMTV and have been enjoying their video lessons. If you have not already discovered their beautiful work and blogs please start here  because their art work is fabulous! Rust printing was one of the lessons and here are my pieces of fabric waiting to be included in my first attempt at an art quilt.

 



 

I have little piles of fabric I keep stroking now. I have made patchwork bed quilts and wall hangings in the past but am excited about the prospect of making an art quilt. I am determined to do this methodically and not rush in as I usually do. I'm working on some sketch books of ideas at the moment and will post a view of these when I think I have done something you may like to see.

 

Well done Chris in the Tour, I have just sat in front of the tv with a fan full on yelling my head off at the end. Goodness knows how they manage to ride like that up mountains, I felt ill just looking at them! Talk about modern day gladiators, it was marvellous! Hope you are all surviving in the sun, hope to be back soon with something papery and crafty! XX