Look What I Found!!!!

Hi Peeps,

I have to admit that I am not the tidiest of people, in fact, my Room of Stash is actually a complete tip for the majority of the time...however, I took it upon myself to tidy away a little bit today as I have just taken receipt of some faaaaab new stash (I used up my Christmas pressie money... honest!!!)







And, whilst rummaging (another word for finding space for said new stash!!!) I found this little tag book. I made this a few months after I first started stamping - so by my reckoning I made this in June 2007 - some of the stamps I used I got for my birthday that year and I was also borrowing a Paisley stamp from Andrea and she had got me one for my birthday....so it is dated more or less.









I was really chuffed that I found this - I have a tendancy to make things and give them away to friends and rellies, so rarely see what I have made in the past. To be honest, I am really excited to see that I have learnt so much about stamping and now use lots of different techniques that would have looked a lot better in this book. Masking for one, as there are a lot of overstamped things....and the use of colour too....I have always shied away from using lots of colour and brown really is my comfort zone :O))






This little book seems to be a bit of an homage to Tim Holtz seeing as the majority of the stamps, inks, paints and other bits n bobs used on it are by Ranger or Stampers Anon! Also, I had been fortunate enough to stand and watch him demoing and I had sort of copied all the techniques he used!! I see that on a couple of the pages I have used some cork - goodness knows where that came from, probably a TSV from QVC as there is also some Mica on one of the pages and I seem to remember getting that in a HOTP kit :O)) Wonder if anyone else who got that kit actually used the cork too? LOL







The book was made months before I got a Bind It All too! I must have used a Crop-A-Dile to punch thru the spine of the book as there is no way I would have done that with a handpunch. And the use of string too...that is something I haven't used for ages, so I may just start using that again!!






Anyways, I thought I would share this with you all....and I am off to have another rummage to see what else I can find that I kept for myself....perhaps a few ancient ATC's and 4x4's? :O)) Then again, perhaps not LOL







Thanks for looking - oh and BTW, I am also just in the middle of making something for tomorrow's Sunday Stamper challenge so please do call back in the morning to see what the challenge will be....it is a nice one, I promise!

Hugs Hels x

Inky & Messy Tag Book

Hello again.

I have finally got a spare five mins to upload piccies of a Bind it All tag book I made over Christmas!




I got some Distress Re-Inkers for Christmas, so I had a really messy time playing with them!





The tags are just plain cream luggage labels which I have dipped into inks and then dried, stamped on and bound them together.






The technique is really easy to do. First of all you will need a non stick craft mat, some Distress ReInkers, a water spritz OR Glimmer Mist (or the like) and some luggage labels.




The ReInkers come in a little bottle that has a pippet in it. Simply fill up your pippet and drop a few little inky droplets on to the craft sheet. Repeat this with as many colours as you want to include. Then use a spritzer to add water or mists to the inks. Dip your luggage label or tag into the inkyness and then keep dipping until you have the desired effect. I usually dry mine with a heat gun but if you haven't got one, they will dry naturally.






I then inked up the images I wanted to use and stamped all over the dry tags. I had inked both sides of the tags so they could be stamped on both sides too.





I added a few embellishments and some covers to the book and there it is, finished!

As ever, thank you for taking time out to have a look at my latest creations.

Hels x

A Folded Tag Book

Hello peeps,




I made a little book for a friend using a large tag which I folded over to make a flap, adding a clasp as a closure and then adding pages to make the book.

I decided to use a black and white colour scheme. The tag is a massive one, so I had plenty of room for the pages :O))




I started off by measuring the dimensions of the tag once it was folded. I then cut down another tag to make a front cover for the other part of the clasp. The tag has a large hole in the top of it, so I covered both sides of the folded flap with patterned paper and then attached the clasp to it.

I then got to work on the decorating! As I was using only black, white and silver colours, it was easy to co-ordinate the designs. I used various papers from my stash including Junkitz and Blonde Moments. The silver clasp was bought this weekend at the NEC show....I have been looking for a little clasp like this, as it has its own pointy feet so it is simple to attach to the card as the feet act as an anchor and only need to be pushed through and then bent backwards.






I used a selection of stamps for this project including ones by Penny Black, Catslife Press, Tim Holtz Collection and Invoke Arts.





You will see that there is a little addition to one of the pages...this is not black and white, so it does stand out a bit but it is actually significant to the person whom the book is made for!

Thanks for looking....Hels x