Sunday Stamper - Week 366 - Imagine

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy  Sunday to you all!  Thanks for your entries into the last challenge... it was nice to see some new peeps entering too, so thank you!  This week is a nice easy theme... just use the word IMAGINE.   To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something; a card, canvas, ATC, a piece of altered art... the choice.. it be yours! Add in some stamping and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me or by leaving me a link to your Pinterest or any other photo hosting site.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 21st November 2015.

My entry this week is a class sample from a few weeks ago.  As you all know, I loves Distress and especially Distress Paints... I love the freedom they give me to smoosh the colours around a project.  I used Mowed Lawn, Mermaid Lagoon, Broken China and Cracked Pistachio Distress Paints on this project... there's Ranger's Texture Paste on there too under the paints, smooshed on thru Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil... I used my magic little Stabilo All pencil to add shading around the stencilling to make it pop from the background a bit.

The decoration is made using Tim's Perspective butterfly, stamped three times, cut out so it is smaller with each layer and coloured with Cracked Pistachio, Twisted Citron and Spiced Marmalade.   I added buttons, pearls and little star gems which I coloured with Treasure Gold so they were metallic rather than just being any old colour.  I also used the Ornate Frame die, Tim's new Sprig punch (this is FAB) and Tim's Mixed Media diecuts on the canvas and the words is formed of letter from his Alphabet Thinlets dies.   Around the edge of the canvas I did my usual two tone look - I know, I do this all the time but I like the look of it!

That's all for today... I hope you have a cracking day whatever you have planned... thanks for looking and... TTFN

Hels x

It's Been A Long Time!

...indeedily it has!   What with one thing and another, my poor old blog has been neglected but hopefully things are starting to gain some equilibrium now and I can start to get back to normal service.  Thank you for thinking of me and Grim and for you safe wishes for us.  We are safely back from holibobs - what an amazing adventure we had - and thankfully weren't caught up in the horror in Sousse.  It would be remiss of me not to mention that my heart goes out to all those who were involved in that mindless atrocity.

I have had a few things going on of late - personal stuff, health stuff... not only my health but also my AlfieCat who has become ill recently, that has been most worrying as you can imagine.  He is now on medication and, fingers crossed very tightly, seems to be responding to the treatment.  He needs to have more tests with the *whispers* V E T next week and all being well they will bring goodly news for us all.

With all that going on I haven't really had chance to catch up or to get into the Room of Stash.  The canvas I am showing you here is one I made in class at the end of May (yes, I am that far behind!) and also... is inspired by my canvas I did for Craft Stamper which hit the shelves last Friday.  It is so nice to be back in the magazine!  HERE's a linky to the Craft Stamper blog where you can find details of the new challenge and other fun stuff too.

I shall away now... my Room looks like Miss Haversham's dining room... knee deep in dust and cobwebs and looking ever so slightly neglected... I need to get tidied up and clean up and then I can get inky!  Thanks for looking.. have a grand evening.  TTFN

Hels x

Bitsies and Bobsies...

...I've been having a little play with a few "leftovers" that have been lurking on my desk and popped a quick tag together.  The base of the tag came from a demo thingy I did a few weeks ago - Ranger's gorgeous Texture Paste through Tim's Flourish Layering Stencil and then a liberal spritz of Abandoned Coral, Frayed Burlap and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains.  I love how the Texture Paste just sucks that colour up.

I had a bit of a destructive session a few weeks ago - butchering old tags from a few years ago that were just sitting, unloved, in the garage.  I nicked all the embellies off them and binned the base tags... and blimey, I have a box full of embellies to re-use.  The Idea-ology Foliage came off a tag I made in 2010!  I remember I had painted the Foliage with Traditional Tan paint and then scraped off the edgey bits to reveal the metal.  It got a bit bent as I was ripping it off its original home, but hey, that adds to the distressed look! 

The butterfly had been stamped a few weeks ago and coloured with Abandoned Coral and Aged Mahogany Sprays... I wasn't happy with it at the time so I chucked it to one side... but for this tag, perfect match colour wise!  I added an Idea-ology Lock with a Resin Rose to the centre... popped him onto an Industrious Sticker frame (which I changed the colour of with a smidge of Treasure Gold and Alcohol Ink) and I die cut the word (Tim's new thinlets) and popped that on with another couple of Resin Roses and voila, a leftovers tag finished.

That's all from me for today - I will be back tomorrow with a new CC3 challenge entry... wait til you see what we're playing with this week!  Thanks for looking, have a goodly day!

Hels x

Tim's 12 Tags of 2015 - March

Oh! La! La! And... thrice!  Have you seen Tim's latest tag of 2015?  CLICK HERE to be whisked off on the back of a giant blending tool to visit his blog and see the gorgeousness he has created... I think, dare I say it, that this is my favest tag of all of the 12 tags!  The whole process of making it was soooo therapeutic... and my offering here is actually the second one I made. 

 The first is more or less exactly the same as Tim's (except it is lacking that certain je ne c'est qoi that Tim always manages to put on any of his art IYKWIM)  So, I have my "original" one and I loved making it so much, I decided to have a play and make one in the same style but using a few different things instead.  Plus, that butterfly... he is knackered poor thing!  I used him in a class last weekend so you can imagine how much ink his wings now have!

Anyways.. I won't be divulging the "how to" on this tag - tis up to thee to get thyself over to Tim's blog - I can tell you that I used his new Watercolor stamp set for the butterflies and my Distress Paint colours are: Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, Scattered Straw, Picked Raspberry and Abandoned Coral.  The gold embossing powder is my FAVE ever, my "go to" gold embossing powder, which is Ranger's Queen's Gold.  IMO, it is the perfect tone of gold... I also used it to alter the 1/2 and the ickle star... then smudged a bit of black paint over to age it up a bit.

Whilst I was in the midst of creating my tags, I got all excitable and remembered I had forgotten (*ahem*) to make my February tag... so I cracked on and made that too... I shall be back tomorrow with that one - whilst it is a smidge late it is better to be late than never right?   I shall away now, I have a project nearly finished on my desk for the next CC3 Challenge.  Have a great evening... thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Demo Time...

Cor blimey, blink and it is Wednesday already!  Anyways... a super speedy post to let you know that I will be demo-ing at the NEC tomorrow and Friday for Craft Obsessions which is Stand E20.   How fab.... I am going to playing with all things Tim Holtz and Ranger.... bliss!  I have had a little play to make up a few samples with some of the goodies I will be using and here is a tag I put together: 

I used Ranger's Texture Paste through Tim's Holiday Knit Layering Stencil - I will be the first to admit, when I saw the Stencil I thought "mehuh... not fussed" until I used it!  Oh la la! INDEEDILY! Which goes to show one should never judge a stencil by its packaging!  How cute is this little design huh?   Texture paste looks amazebobs through it and I have also been playing with inks through it too... so delicate!   Tis me new fave!   The rose is made from the Tattered Florals flower and Merriment Papers and the leaves are a combo of Tim's Holly Branch and his new Thinlet Greens... which I also LURVE!  That holly bough is so dainty... did I say... I loves these new dies?

The background, once the paste had dried, was coloured with a combo of Fired Brick and Antique Linen Distress Spray Stains... these are FAB to work with and I love the fact that they react just the same as all the other Distress products.... water reactive to get cool effects!  I am one happy bunny!   So, if you are going to be at the NEC please do pop by to see Brenda & David on the Craft Obsessions stand... and me... I will be the one covered in ink and smiling biggly!   Thanks for looking.... TTFN!

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 327 - Hazy Shade of Winter

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Indian Summer Sunday to you all!  Thank you all for your fabby entries to last weeks rosey challenge - it was great to see all the different roses you used.   The theme this week is ADD SOME SHADING.  You can interpret the challenge how you like: add texture paste for dimension, use your colour pens to add shading, make your art really 3d so it creates shade... the choice, it be yours!  To join in with the challenge is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy.  Add in the theme AND some stamping *this is THE important bit guys, please remember your rubberstamps!*  and then hop back here, leave me a comment with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can come see you.   If you haven't got a blog, you can join in via Facebook (just tag me name) or by emailing a small res.pic to me.  The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 4th October 2014.

My entry is a tag that I added some Ranger Texture Paste to, pasting through Tim's Diamonds stencil and then once the paste was dry, I used Shaded Lilac, Tumbled Glass and Milled Lavender Distress Paints to add colour.  I used water to smoosh the paints around and get a nice marbley effect.  Once dried, I went over the tag with Vintage Photo Distress Ink to tone the colours down a bit and make it a little more vintage.

Next I coated the tag with Glue & Seal - this provides a nice waterproof seal and also means that if I goof up the next step, I can simply wipe it off and start again... (plus I like how it takes the Vintage Photo into the brush strokes, adding a little bit more texture) and the next step is adding the shading!  Using a Stabilo All pencil and a Cut & Dry Nib, I added shading around the diamonds and smudged the pencil out.  Of course, it is the Sunday Stamper so I added a smidge of stamping - using my old fave Harlequin stamp and Jet Black Archival to add a little bit of interest to the edges of the tag.

I make no secret of how much I loves embellishmentising stuff... and I had lots of fun building up a few layers of embellies - using up scraps that have been kicking about on the Shelf of Dusty Doom - yep, that shelf above my desk that is full of stuff I get out to use and then don't use and then am too lazy to put back where I got it from so it gets popped onto the ever burgeoning Shelf of Dusty Doom!  The ribbon was coloured with the same Distress Paints - I love that they colour material without making it all crunchy and stiff.  The butterfly is a Studio 490 image - I actually stamped and coloured this fella months ago and didn't use him when I intended to... see, throw nowt away ever... it will all come in handy!

That's all from me for today... it is the BTCC from Silverstone today so I shall be cheering and shouting GO PLATO as usual!!!   Thanks for looking, have a very goodly day!  TTFN

Hels x

Curiously Assemblaged...

Gooooodly Morning to all you Compendium-ers!  Today sees the start of a brand new Compendium of Curiosities 3 Challenge.  To see all the details on how to join in with the challenge, CLICK HERE.  Also, if you pop across to Linda's blog, you will see all gorgeous creations that my talented teamies on the Curiosity Crew have made... well worth taking a cuppa and a packet of Digestives :O)    The challenge is sponsored by the The Funkie Junkie Boutique this time... so you will have a chance of winning a very generous Gift Certificate to spend there.  As ever, Tim & Mario have very kindly donated goodies for an extra prize... which will be awarded to the "Curiosity Crew's Choice"... so you have two chances of winning fabby prizes!  If you haven't got your Compendium book just yet, you can order a signed copy directly from the man himself... HERE.  And... Linda has also done a FAQ page for you.. HERE it is... all the info you will need is listed there.   This week we are turning to Page 33 of the book and altering an Assemblage Clock.  Now, as usual with the Compendium Challenge neither I nor the Curiosity Crew will be posting the technique instructions and participants must not do so either. We all want to encourage people to buy Tim's awesome book; giving away the instructions wouldn’t be fair to him. Linda will have no choice but to un-link any entries that don’t follow this rule. 

My entry this week has been one of those ideas that has been abuzzing about my bonce for yonks - well, ever since the CC3C started actually.  I knew the week we were going to be altering our Assemblage Clocks and I actually planned ahead a little on this one!  I know!  Forward planning and all that!  This post is very photo heavy as there are lots of little details on my clock, so please do feel free to put your feet up and grab a choccy bar :O))

I have seen a fair few altered Assemblage Clocks around and all of them are delightful but I wanted to make something slightly different... something very natural and organic.  The brainwave started out when I picked up a half dead hydrangea from the local Lidl store for a couple of quid at the beginning of June.  The plant had some lovely flower heads all over it but it was really on its last legs... needed a big glug of water and unfortunately, the flower heads were too floppy to revive.  So, I cut them off!  Not only was I promoting new growth, I was also setting aside said flower heads for usage in my clock!  I set them out on a bench in the back garden and hoped they would dry out and skeletonize (new word!) ... which is exactly what they did!  Hurrah! Now I had some "bones" for my clock decorating....

As well as the plant, I also have had this little birdy sitting on my windowsill in the Room of Stash for absolutely yonks.  She was attached to a little log and she was supposed to be being altered in the stylee of the other altered birds I have done over the years... but as per, I haven't got around to it.  She was a bit big for the clock but minus log and minus glass for the clock, she fits perfectly.

So, the altering!  The whole vision I had in me head was one of an old discarded alarm clock, sitting in a hedgerow, covered in rust and reappropriated by Mrs Blue Tit into a little place for her to call home.  The clock comes in a bright silver tone and whilst this is ok, it wasn't anything like what I wanted so once I had removed the glass frontage,  I set to with some Ranger Texture Paste and Alcohol Inks.  I started by mixing up Ginger and Rust into the Texture Paste and popping it onto the clock with a palette knife.  I then used the same AI's along with Butterscotch and Pebble mixed in, applying with a felt pad and in places where my tool wouldn't fit, I used the palette knife to smudge the inky felt into it.  Directly dropping Rust and Ginger AI's onto the paste made it really rusty and a wee sprinklage and Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powders added some extra texture to it.

For the inside I mixed Walnut Stain and Frayed Burlap Distress Paints and painted this one, drying with a heat tool and then adding more of the Texture Paste inky mix and repeating the process I used for the outside.   I wanted to add something pretty for the background so I chopped up some Wallflower paper, stamped my usual diamond stamp (gotta get it in there somewhere!) and then blended some Vintage Photo DI around to mucky it up a smidge.  I wanted to add a few words so I used Chit Chat stickers to make a little phrase to sit inside the clock.

Mrs Birdy was a bit bright - as normal, I forgot to take before pics... ooopsies!  I used a sanding block and took off some of her painted coat and then using the same mix of Distress Paints as before, I lightly painted over her and wiped off the excess... once dried, I added Distress Inks to make her tone in.  

For the inside decoration, I nipped into the garden and snipped up some old twiggy and leafy bits, picked up some feathers, foraged for pebbles and seed heads and of course, grabbed some of the hydrangea heads, they had gone exactly how I wanted... skeletonified!  I then made a circle nesty shape from some grasses and started building up her nesty abode.  Of course, she has to have some eggs so I pinched a few pebbles from the garden, painted them with Weathered Wood DP and lightly spritzed them with a Sharpie Marker and the Distress Spritzer to add some speckles.   Finally, I added some more nesting material around the edge of the clock... the ivy across the top was actually a piece that we cut back at the beginning of the summer and it was missed when we picked all the cuttings up... I was chuffed to see a real spidery web and a dead peel bug stuck to the end of it!  Can't get much more realistic than that!

That's all for now - don't forget, you will have two weeks to enter the challenge... and a bat at the chance of grabbing the Crew's Choice prize which is a mahooosive haul of stash donated personally by Tim & Mario... so if you are joining in, remember to comment on all the Crew's blogs and you will be in with a chance of winning that too *believe me, this is one gigantic pile of goodies*!   I will just say a big thank you to every one of you who has taken part in the challenge so far, it has been great to visit your blogs and see your wonderful interpretations of the challenge themes!  Thanks for looking, have an inky inspirational day!  TTFN