Sunday Stampers 166: Wish You Were Here.

Hels challenge on Sunday Stampers this week is 'Wish' so I thought I would dust off my Artistic Outpost 'Fortune Teller' set and make a tag, because don't we all wish that we could have  lucky reading!

Firstly I used distress dabber Spun Sugar as a base. Then I inked up the big background stamp from the set in Victorian Velvet and distressed the edges with Aged Mahogany. The fortune teller was inked in archival on white card and coloured with copics and adorned with some different shades of pink crystals and a gold leaf pen. The crystal ball was stamped in Stazeon to some perspex packing and backed with sticky pads for dimension. 'The Future is bright' was inked and stickled as were the Wish Adage tab and the Palm Reading ticket. I must admit the veiled curtain to the side of the lady was a challenge to stick down and doesn't show to well in the photo, the beaded trim is the pelmet to her booth and I punched the distressed edge of the tag with my Martha stewart punch.

Fun to do! I am now trying to do the stamping with bleach project in this months Craft stamper, so hope to post again soon, unless it is too disasterous to photo! Happy Sunday to all! xx

The Stamp Attic, Amazon and a Fiddle Fart!

Here is just a writing entry. I wanted to tell you about three lovely people. For my birthday in May I had a Vagabond from my DH. Unfortunately on Monday while my dear friend Sally was visiting I was showing it to her and it went poof ! I wrote an email to Wendy at the http://www.thestampattic.co.uk/ and within half an hour she had responded with a lovely email telling me she had contacted Sizzix and a new one was wending its way ready to be collected. Today I had another message from her telling me that it was sitting waiting for me. Now that is service! I think the Stamp Attic is an amazing shop and every time I have met Wendy nothing has been too much trouble. She even made me a cup of coffee the first time I visited as I came from a way! Thank you Wendy, you are ace.

Also for my birthday I had a kindle from my dear Mum and Dad, such a lovely surprise. It too developed a fault with the screen but the great folk at http://www.amazon.co.uk/ dealt with me instantly and sent me a replacement there and then. How about that for another piece of great British service?

The third thing to say is that I have won some blog candy on Helen's blog  http://itsallfiddlefart.blogspot.com/ so thank you so much Helen! She has a real eye for a bargain and should be nominated as a 'green' crafter as she doesn't waste anything!

So there we go, three lovely people.

Enjoy the sun everyone, but keep the brolly handy!

Sunday Stampers week 165: Waterloo Sunset

Must be the heat, but I had a whole day to myself at the weekend and couldn't do a thing!  Then I had a while in the craft room today and came up with this tag for the Sunday Stamper challenge:


Firstly I distressed a tag with barn door, wild honey, mustard seed and weathered wood stains and pads. Then I stamped in black archival Hero Arts 'Silhouette grass'. The poppies were made from an old (very old) Craft Stamper free stamp and bedazzles were glued in the centre after I had painted them with red watercolour paint. They were adhered with sticky pads for dimension. The little pink felt butterfly was added for balance. Then I coloured a punched picket fence black and added a shaded grass trim at the bottom. The saying is an old stamp I love which reads:
'On a beautiful day in the early part of June, I saw the most spectacular sunset'
and seemed an apt statement. I sprayed heirloom gold mist over the tag and highlighted areas with viva gold paste for extra shimmer. Suitable ribbons and thread from my stash to complete.

My dear friend Sally called in today as she was 'down here' visiting her sister. So she has her July card and I can post it here!


It is made up of toning pieces of paper from the Prima Aurora collection and a friends stamp by Hero Arts on the left upper corner. I distressed each piece with walnut stain ink and stamped several random images. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch plus button to match. I made it three fold to hold a matching ATC for her.


Sally lives near Crewe and I am excited as I am spending three days with her next week. We have so much planned, and I shall blog some of our exploits!
Isn't the weather lovely? Hopefully you are all enjoying yourselves and not working too hard, see you all soon!

Sunday Stampers 164. Back to Black.

Well, goodness knows where last week went as I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep through it! So I was determined to do the Sunday Stampers this week. Hels has called for us to use Back to Black in memory of Amy Winehouse, so here is my contribution.

I used Black soot distress ink with a sponge applicator over the tag,especially the edges and then used the Time stamp all over it. The black swirls are I believe from Prima, I've had them ages and lost the packing. The Prima rose could not be made better by me, although I was tempted to turn it to porcelain with my melt pot but felt it looked better as it was. Then I covered some grungeboard with  music tissue tape and cut out a star. The words 'The Song Lives On' were from one of my letter sets edged in black promarker. The lower edge was cut from sheet music and then a border cut with a Martha Stewart edge punch. Black and white ribbon to finish.

A tragic end to such a young spirit, my heart goes out to her family.

Sunday Stampers 162. Flight.

Hi peeps. Here is my entry for Hels Sunday stamper, which was anything that had wings basically. I guess this may be a bit of a cheat, as it has wings on it but is not a plane or a bird or a winged insect! In fact I am not quite happy this has a right balance, so if anyone wants to tell me how I could have composed it better I would be grateful!

I took some 7 gypsies Conservatory paper and adhered it to a large square card. Then I painted gesso over the top and when dry added scrim and a square of muslin, which I machine sewed on. The edges were aged with walnut stain distress ink. A piece of the same range of paper was then rough torn and distressed using bundled sage and walnut inks. The young girl in the hat by Paperbag studios was black stamped on another piece of the paper, which is lovely as it is double sided, and distressed again with the same inks. The sentiment is by crescendoh and stamped on another scrap from the collection, but I did not feel happy with it hanging vertically so I cut up each word and adhered it to some sage green card. Her wings are grungeboard coloured with brown acrylic and distressed with gold viva paste, then heated to give slight dimension. Then I raided my button tin for each of the remaining corners.

I offer it up warts and all - do you think I should have layed it on a smaller card or had another coloured layer on the background?

Sunday stampers - The writing on the wall.

As my head is always in a book of some description I was happy to make a tag for Hels Sunday stamper challenge which for this week is writing. I love writing of all descriptions, eclectic to the core that's me!

I glued a sheet of dictionary to a tag, covered with a layer of gesso and then when it was dry painted

yellow and pink acrylic over the top and smeared some off to reveal the text. Then I used a tim stamp of text to the opposite edges and distress inked some mountboard letters with walnut stain and edged them with gold viva paste. I rolled up dictionary papers stapled in the middle and adorned with muse tokens to spell speak  down the side and a small tag with a sentiment from crescendoh stamps went underneath. I then stained some tissue tape with spun sugar and pleated a ruffle on the bottom, some matching ribbon and there we are!

Before I go I thought I would make you smile. My dear friend Sally lives too far away for a regular get together, but we send each other a card and atc or tag every month, it is so good to look forward to the packet coming!  Here is her July card from me, I can post it in safety as she has already received it! If you are reading this Sal, get a blog going, you make lovely cards!

The background is a project from craft stamper magazine, where I stamped cream and white card with text and tore it into strips along with some sheet music. Then I layered alternate strips and washed over gesso. I love this stamp, applied a shadow to the outside and then adhered it with sticky pads. I'm the one in glasses but in years to come I hope! I stamped vintage and added a philosophy token and a handbag charm to complete. Well, Sally said she laughed anyway!

Another shot at pale!

I am not one to give up easy, so here is another go at pale using one of my all time favoroute stamps, Percinni's Muse by Stampington.

Some butterfly wings, scrim, patterned parchment, punched lace, distress ink, old book pages, lace and some butterflys. It is in silence that the muse sings the loudest and in this very noisy world I have grown to love silence but it is very hard to find. However, I should not like it all the time and am grateful for my hearing aids. How else would I catch bird song and the beating of butterfly wings? Do you create in silence or do you need your favoroute music or the sound of the home beating behind you?