Shabby French tag for CVC

I have a tag for Country View Crafts today made with a very quick distress ink background and the beautiful French Flight stamps and Framelits dies.

Here’s a sneak peek to hopefully whet your appetite and if you would like to see more details please pop over to the CVC projects blog.

I also posted some information about my next workshop in Flitwick which you can find here. The fabulous Chris (My Corner of Heaven), who runs the CVC blogs, has designed the box and I have used some pretty but shabby vintage Basic Grey papers with it. The whole book box is made from scratch using card and mountboard so it will be a fun day in construction and creating. I would love to see you if you can make it.

Well it’s Tuesday and we’re nearly half way through another week, so I hope it is going well and that you are getting in some creative time. I will be back tomorrow with my second ‘Nautical’ piece for the CVC challenge.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tim’s tag for June #2 with frameworks die

When I made my June tag (#1 as it turned out to be), I had experimented with different types of paper and card with the gorgeous stencil technique that Tim showed us on his blog. I showed the different ones I had made on my post and I though they all looked fabulous, so today I decided to have another play with one of them and came up with this.

I wanted to to use completely different elements than the last one and I gathered a few things that I thought would go together including the background made on canvas textured acrylic paper and decided not to waste any of it and have used it on a long card, which I think will be perfect for a wedding anniversary (I have a special one in mind for later in the summer).

I’ve used one of Tim’s ‘Found Relatives’ cards and trimmed it to fit

The flower is also made from bits left over on my desk and are coloured with Dylusions sprays which gives this wonderful bright luminosity to the card and blends beautifully with the distress inks on the background.....

..... and the remnant rubs work beautifully on both the film strip and the textured paper -  I used the ‘Botanical’ sheet for the words I wanted to use.

The 1 and 0 are plastic clock numbers and given the altered surface treatment taught by Tim in Creative Chemistry 102 last year, plus I added a spray of  dirty martini dylusions ink spray to the mix …..

…. and the trellis framework was cut from left over watercolour paper coloured with Dylusions sprays and painted and sprayed card which gives the different effects with the frame itself and the inserts.

As the background was made specifically for Tim’s June tag I shall enter it to the collection of fabulous makes appearing at the end of his post. If you haven’t seen Tim’s tag yet you really should pop over and see the fabulous step by step tutorial he provides to show exactly how to do the technique.

Sorry I am still not around much, with the sun shining more often the garden beckons plus I have been prepping and preparing for workshops and I also had the grandchildren this weekend for a sleepover (as they love to call it), so all in all life is rather busy.  I hope this finds you all well and enjoying some crafty activities.

Have a great week.

hugs Brenda xx

Believe – Positivity Journal

When Astrid came to stay I told her about my little positivity journal – it was she who had inspired it – and while we were out shopping together I bought a couple of new stamps, this gorgeous long birdcage is one of them and it wasn't long before I had a play.

Background – distress paints peeled paint, broken china and picket fence daubed onto the page and spritzed with water then dried. Next I sprayed with some goosebumps (haven’t used that for ages) dried it with a heatgun and then sprayed with white linen dylusions ink and spritzed with water, this gave a fabulous mottled effect when dry.

To create more depth I used Dyan Reaveley's basic backgrounds alphabet stamp with cornflower blue archival

and then my favourite Tim latticework stencil with broken china DI.

Now I needed some contrast so I used another new stamp

– handwritten script by inkylicious to give some more depth and added a few scraps of tissue tape.

The bird cage was stamped onto some card on which I’d used the wrinkle free technique and added some distress paints over it and I drew some white pen lines to add highlights. This was cut out edged with walnut stain and adhered to the page along with some left over trellis framework die-cut piece.

To finish I added the quote, some small remnant rubs which I distressed with my new Prima distressing tool and then some black soot marker and DI around the focal image to create shadow and help it stand out more on the page.

I am really quite pleased the way this turned out, the goosebumps created real texture and then the masks and text stamps created depth and interest over the mottled colours.

I shall enjoy doing more of these pages when I get home as they don’t take too long but they keep you focussed and involved allowing Mr Mojo to do his job.

I didn’t get to create a Creative Guide project this week for the new challenge ‘All about Him’ chosen by Anne, but I hope you will be able to pop over to ‘A Vintage Journey’ see what the other amazing Creative Guides have made for you and to get some wonderful inspiration for cards and items for the men in our lives.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Make A Wish – Wallflower card for CVC

This is card three in my Wallflower collection (one more to come) and I just adore the colours on this one – in fact I know exactly the person who will receive this for his birthday later in the year, he loves his birds (the feathered ones that is) so this fits perfectly.

Again I have used a 6 x 6 cut from a 12 x 12 from The Wallflower paper stash and I also used Tim’s new Courtyard Framework die, although there’s not much of it left to see, it just peeps out from behind the love sentiment.

Other supplies used -

Spellbinders die from my supplies

Movers and shapers LOVE die

Cash Key

Stamps – simple sayings

Tim Holtz paper string

Feathers, rusted heart wings and raffia from my supplies

I would love it if you popped over to see the card in fuller detail over at Country View Crafts Updates blog.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Have a wonderful; weekend.

hugs Brenda xx

A Vintage Journey–Step 1

For the opening challenge of ‘A Vintage Journey’ I wanted to make something very special that I could keep as a memento of this special adventure. These are the covers of one of Tim’s large configurations books and  I have a great idea for using the inside for a future challenge so watch this space.

The front page cover represents the creative journey we travel and Tim's world wide teaching, sharing his love of all things vintage and his ideas, techniques and projects.

I began  by painting. blending inks through Tim’s masks, crackle painting and stamping the outside of the box, just along the edges as I knew I was going to cover most of it up.

Then with Tim’s papers in hand I chose a 12x12 with the world on it suggesting travels and journeys and altered this with the masks and stamps. I just love Tim’s new latticework mask.

I gathered dies, ephemera and stamps together that would fit with the scene and started to make my dimensional details. The ruler was made a while ago using a faux leather technique it looks really grungy doesn’t it?

I used some of the vintage photos from Tim’s Lost and Found paper stash and inserted them underneath the openings of his picture wheel and then chopped up sections from the film strip and added over the top, the centre was made using a stamp from Classics #1 and a vintage brad from my supplies.

You can see the globe and camera made from movers and shapers dies, a Tim rosette and clock also from the Lost and Found papers.

The Framework dies are fabulous and I used the chevron one here just because it reminded me of tyre marks and the Route 66 is from the Thrift Shop ephemera pack.

Some metal ideaology, remnant rubs (one just poking out from behind the pointy finger) and chit chat stickers all played their part.

And the title letters were die cut using the typeset strip die, adhered to the paper and covered with glossy accents to make them pop.

The inside cover represents my fabulous teamies who are sharing this journey with me, you can see each of our photos inserted into Tim’s film strip using the mini filmstrip strip die.

Again I gathered the elements together that I thought would go together for this page.

Here I used another of the Framework dies, this one is called lattice and by cutting it several times from different papers I have lots of different coloured rhombus shapes to use and I inserted three of them here.

Enjoy the journey is from the stacked artful words strip die and you can see an arrow from the industrious stickers.

The pediment and key were both die cut using chipboard and then aged using distress embossing powders.

The hotel badge is another piece from the ephemera pack.

I couldn’t resist this elongated photo of the Creative Guides.

The very back page, which won’t be embellished so it can lay down flat, but still reflects the travelling theme.

So now the book is done, I will need to think of what is going into the body of it, but ideas are emerging lol.

My special thanks to Alison, Anne, Annie, Astrid, Candy, Chris, Jennie, Jenny, Terry and Trace for all their help, guidance, support and love whilst getting 'A Vintage Journey' ready to publish today, we have been super excited for weeks waiting to share our projects and begin our travels. I hope you will be able to join us sometimes.

Have a great weekend.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Anna Quindlen