By the Sea

I absolutely love to be by the sea, so when I saw that Vintage Seaside was the theme for the latest Frilly and Funkie Challenge it was the perfect excuse to play with these new Tim Holtz stamps I just HAD to buy! This is my challenge entry. I was particularly inspired by Jenny Marples.

It's all done with Distress Inks - a splattery watery background created by mixing my own mist with Reinker and then watercolouring with the inks onto the stamped images and die cuts.

I loved making this and these might be my new fave stamps (at least for this week!).

Stamps: Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous - Nautical Blueprints; Innovative Stamp Creations (netting)

Bright Bunnies!

Playing outside my comfort zone again today with these gorgeous Crafty Individuals bunnies and Dylusions sprays. This tag really isn't very me so unsure how I feel about it.... I think it might be OK!

I am entering this for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Artsy Stamps. I guess these might not be considered artsy but they are by an artist called Alice Palace and they are certainly not realistic images, so I'm going with it.

Bye for now!

Monochrome with IndigoBlu

This tag is my entry for the current IndigoBlu Challenge - Monochromatic. I've been meaning to have a go at the ombre effect for ages (yes I know I am a bit behind the times!). I used three pink shades of Distress Ink (Spun Sugar, Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick) over a white embossed resist using the Bloomin' Great set.

This tag is for a very dear friend who's been a total star over the last few difficult months. 

Hope you like :)

Stamps used: IndigoBlu Bloomin' Great

Scrap Heap Challenge

Sometimes I feel creative but need a bit of a kick-start to get going. Looking around blogland I found the Our Creative Corner Challenge blog with the theme 'Love Your Leftovers' - the perfect challenge I thought!

This literally took me half an hour and I limited myself almost entirely to the contents of my scraps drawer. The stamped image was left over from a project I did years ago, the paper and scrap of music text were from my paper scraps and the card backing is from a board backed envelope I had lying around from earlier in the week. The flower was from playing with the Tattered Pinecone die - it was just plain white card so I sprayed it with a little ink. Even the leaves, glass pebble, coloured seam binding and butterfly were leftovers from other things. The only 'new' stuff is the Tim Holtz ticket and pieces of Tissue Tape.

I think this stamp of a little girl is beautiful - she looks like she's sitting reading in the garden, hence my ticket choice. Sounds like bliss to me!

I think that fits the challenge! This was really fun and I will definitely be doing this exercise again.

Entering this for the Our Creative Corner Challenge this week!

Stamps/products used: Rubber Stamp Concepts (girl), Stampers Anonymous (foliage), Idea-ology Adage Ticket and Tissue Tape.

Inspired by IKEA!

It was a beautiful weekend here and on Sunday I sat in the garden watching the bees feast on our rhododendron flowers. I think the sun made me get out the bright colours out and I spent a happy day in the craft room yesterday and made this, featuring my fave all time stamp, Stampotique's Big Bee.

Inspiration sometimes comes from unexpected places and the inspiration behind this piece was some packaging material that came out of IKEA furniture..... My strange mind saw this and thought - honeycomb! So of course I squirreled it into that box of stuff marked 'too good to throw away!'

I sprayed the packaging with yellow and gold spray inks before tearing it off the backing and into pieces. Love the organic look! My bees have acetate wings covered with Stickles and White Fire Treasure Gold on the reverse so they really shimmer. I also added a domed body to give them some extra dimension. My original concept for this piece didn't include the sunflower - the SSS Challenge inspired me to add that detail and I think it finishes the piece really nicely.

I'm entering this into some challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - theme Botanical

That's Crafty Challenge - theme Krafty (kraft card, which I used for my banner plus the packaging card is kraft coloured too)

Country View Challenge 15 - Nature's Glories

Stamps/products used: IndigoBlu stamp (sunflower), Stampotique Big Bee stamp, Wendy Vecchi Studio490 stamps (hexagon and sentiment), Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Mustard Seed, Rusty Hinge, Gathered Twigs, Stickles- Platinum, Treasure Gold - White Fire.

Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge 2

I really enjoyed the first round of Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge, based on Sir Tim's new book (and even better they picked me for a mention - see below). This challenge from Vol 3 is working with Distress Glitter. Totally different style of tag this time - I even tried to add some colour!

At the risk of creating a sense of deja vu... I only have two colours of Distress Glitter. And I have to confess I only have those because they were half price when a local shop closed. I don't generally 'do' glitter - I am not a very girly girl at all. I've also never opened them (hangs head in shame...).

Due to the facts shared above, I ventured into this challenge with some trepidation. I started to play and although the glitter is much less blingy than 'normal' glitter, it still felt a bit overbearing to me. As I was playing I decided to disregard Tim's instructions (I know - sacrilege!) and instead I rubbed the glitter back quite hard before step 4. I LOVED the softer result - phew! Challenge saved!

The key on the left (gold) shows the method in the book and the silver one shows my variation. The glitter (Pumice Stone) is over a bed of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint so the metallic shows through where the glitter coverage is thin. The photo doesn't show it well, but it does still sparkle, though it's much more subtle. It also has the most gorgeous texture.

This time the challenge sponsor is THE FUNKIE JUNKIE BOUTIQUE so great prizes up for grabs again! Make sure you play along!

Just before I go I was super chuffed to be given an 'Honorable Mention' for my tag for CC3C1 - thank you to the Curiosity Crew for this wonderful honour! Made my day :).

Stamps/products used: Distress Glitter - Pumice Stone; Distress Ink - Barn Door, Broken China, Peacock Feathers; Tim Holtz Layering Stencil - Doily; Tim Holtz stamps - Visual Artistry and Distressed Damask; Sizzix die - Key and Keyhole; Kaisercraft stamp (grid).

Tim's Tags - May 2013

On a bit of a crafting high today as Sir Tim himself pinned my Compendium of Curiosities challenge tag! High praise indeed - am very chuffed with my little self and this put me in the mood to spend some time in the craft room. So, thought I'd have a go at Tim's Tag this month - I really liked the collage style and had a little something in mind that I've been wanting to make for a while.

Here's my version - not, as you can see, a tag! I made a little door hanger for my room. I managed to use a couple of my precious Idea-ology bits plus some of Tim's papers and die cutters and Tissue Wrap. I went for a cream on white kind of thing so it was a mare to photograph (plus the skies are black here today).

The metal embellies are treated with Pewter then White Fire Treasure Wax which makes them look tarnished. OMG I love this stuff!!! Hope you like my 'tag'.

Stamps used: Artistic Stamper Katy Leitch (splatters), Studio490 (butterfly), Stampers Anon Tim Holtz Distressed Damask

My lovely new stamps!!!!!!!!!

Been playing with some of my lovely new stamps from The Artistic Stamper (if this post makes you inclined to spend Jennie's doing free postage at the mo). These are my silhouette stamps and (if I do say so myself) I LOVE them!

I used them to finish off a Distress Ink storage unit I got from Pink Tulip Creations. I love this - it's small and compact and it holds 40 inkpads. Where has this been all my life??????????????

After painting with fabby soft green Honeydew paint from PaperArtsy (one coat no less, hat's off Leandra - this paint ROCKS!), I decorated the top and sides with panels of paper stamped with Artemio feathers. You can't see it in the pic but I finished them with a bit of Emerald Treasure Gold which makes them beautifully iridescent like real feathers :).

The panels on the top and sides feature my lovely new stamps :).

Hope you like them too :).

K xxx