Tags Galore

I've been desperate to catch up on some tags all week and this morning have managed to do two, Wow! that's good for me. Only problem is they are both late for what they are intended for, still I'll post them anyway.

The first one is for last weeks Tag It On challenge which was Blue Moon. Sorry it's late Frankie!


I masked the moon and dabbed baby blue eyes blue gold and wisteria purple blue (don't they have fantastic names) starburst stains all over the tag and let it dry. The Crafty Individuals trees were stamped in brilliance blue and embossed with holographic powder and a colourbox dark blue and clear EP to give a bit of depth.


I then worked darker ink over the top of the tag and shaded the moon and hand drew some clouds with pencil. Lastly I went over the top of the tag with Frosted Forget Me Nots Starbust stain to get the glimmer back. For some reason this stain has lost it's blue but it's great for applying glimmer when you don't want any colour.

The second tag is a take on Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. If you haven't seen them yet, have a look, he's doing some amazing stuff again this year.


I think this was Tag 7 which was all about masking. I've used my own Santa stamp which is one I've had for ages and not really used. It's been rediscovered again this year though. He was stamped in Graphite black Brilliance and clear embossed. The swirls were then stamped with white acrylic paint and left to dry thoroughly. Peeled paint Distress ink was applied and a red pigment ink (unfortunately I don't have a red DI yet!!) and then the white swirls were buffed to remove the ink from them.

I added a gold embossed greeting but it looked terrible so I added some more swirls and gold embossed those to disguise it. I think looking at the whole thing I should have stamped the image at the top and put the greeting at the bottom. What do you think?

Well it's not a patch on Tim's who had stickles and music on his as well but at least I've managed to have a go.

I hope your week is going well so far.

Thank you as always for your wonderful comments, I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading them, they are so much appreciated.

Gothic Swirls

Hello from a very wet and dismal Yorkshire today. Will this rain ever stop!!!

I hope your weekend is going well and the weather is brighter in your corner of Blogland.

This week's Tag It On Challenge is to use an arch shaped tag and include something Gothic, swirls and scrolls. You are really challenging us now Frankie.


I Googled Gothic architectural images and came up with some beautiful drawings of buildings which I printed off. I cut out the front of a Cathedral and colour tinted it with watered down Dusty concord distress ink and stuck it onto my tag.

The swirls are from Creative Expressions and were stamped with the same ink and the edges darkened. The chipboard swirl was coloured again with Dusty Concord and clear embossed.

I must just thank all my lovely blogging friends for the wonderful comments you leave. I really get a thrill reading them and your support and encouragement is fantastic.

I have a very busy week coming up so may be a bit quiet, please forgive me and I will catch up with you all when I can.

Thank you for stopping by.

More Funky Flowers

It's perfect weather for crafting here, damp, breezy and cool. I've spent the morning making stuffed felt birds at school as Christmas decorations and now it's back to the paper!


I've managed another card with the Funky Flowers stamps. This one was coloured with watercolour pencils and then stickles added for the bling factor. Dusty Concord distress ink was wiped around the edge and used to make the matting paper. I also used silver mirri board for matting.


I had a go at the background that Jill demonstrated recently, although I didn't have the patience to make masks, but I think it worked ok. The ink was brushed into the flowers with a water brush.

The greeting is from Crafty Individuals.

Short and sweet I'm afraid today. I've got that many ideas flying around my head at the minute that I must get back to the crafting table, well after Neighbours anyway, yes, I know I'm sad!!

Thank you for stopping by and I hope your week is going well so far.

Flowers Galore

I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I know the weather has been a bit wild and woolly for some of you, hopefully things are calmer today.

We have been quite lucky. It was breezy yesterday but quite bright and today has been absolutely lovely. I even got to spend the morning in the garden tidying up all the dead leaves and cutting things back ready for the spring and it felt almost hot in the sunshine!! I don't know about you, but I always feel so much better when I've managed to get some fresh air.

The challenge over at Tuesday Taggers this week is to create something without using patterned paper. Now this is right up my street as I don't tend to use a lot of patterned paper anyway on my cards.

After a long awaited visit to The Stampman a few weeks ago I treated myself to Kay Carley's Funky Flowers stamp set and at last I've managed to have a play with them. After watching Jill on C&C recently I had lots of new ideas to try out.


I stamped out the flowers and coloured round the edge of them with the Sakura stardust pens and then spread the colour with a water brush. It certainly makes your pens last longer and I love the soft effect. I then used one of the single flowers to stamp all round the edge in orange. This was then matted onto some printer paper that had Shabby Shutters Distress ink wiped all over and then stamped on in the same colour to create a background paper.


Around the main card I used a stalk and leaf stamp from the Funky flowers and stamped in Brilliance pearlescent rust and galaxy gold.


I made the flower embellishment by stamping two of the single flowers in different sizes and cutting them out. They were coloured with watercolour pencils and some stickles added. The leaves were punched out of the distress ink BP and I added some extra stamping to darken them.

Tiny jewels were added to the corners to finish things off.

I'm learning lots of techniques for card making from all your lovely blogs and am beginning to find putting them together much easier so a big thank you for all your inspiration.

Thank you as always for stopping by.

Such A Glorious Day

Doesn't the sun make you happy?

After a week of cloud and cold we woke up to the sun streaming through the curtains this morning and nothing to do but enjoy it, a rare luxury!

I had my first load of washing out but 10am and then my lovely Hubby took us out for a delicious lunch. I'm still full to bursting now, even after spending the afternoon gardening. There hasn't been a cloud in the sky and I've had my camera out taking lots of photos hopefully to scrapbook. Everything always looks so much better in the sunshine and set off by beautiful blue skies.

So down to crafting. While the dragon is on holiday we have ages to create a tag for her so I thought I'd have a go at the Tuesday Taggers challenge, which this week has been set by the very talented Mrs Jill Stampman and is Sepia. I've been missing my tags, so this was an obvious place to start.


I sprayed the background with Treasure Island Aqua Moonshadow Mist, what a fantastic name it has. This gives the sepia look but with a green glimmer, (I hope that's not cheating, but I love to get glimmer in somewhere).

I then stamped the Crafty Individuals stamp in Walnut distress ink and pulled in some of the colour with a waterbrush. I wiped a spare piece of card over the overspray of the mist on the craft mat and re stamped the image on this and used chestnut Whispers ink to colour it with the waterbrush, cut out the flower and the pod and decoupaged it on the original. The chestnut ink gave a slightly redder colour which I thought gave the poppy a bit of aged colour! The Walnut Distress was then rubbed round all the edges just to finish things off. Very simple but I'm quite happy with the results for once.


Thank you for visiting. I hope you are all having a great weekend and the sun is shining for you too.

Framed

I hope your week is going well so far. I just want to know where the sunshine is they promised us from today onwards. It's been cold and grey here but dry so I suppose we need to be grateful for that!

On our crafty trip to Harrogate the other week, amongst all the lovely things we saw that provided bags of inspiration, the one that stuck in my mind was on the Once Upon A stamp stand where they had made decorative frames by putting different shaped Nestabilities together. They were fantastic and another use for these wonderful must have craft items. My sister took some photos for me for future reference but I had to have a go as soon as I got home, so these are from memory.


The first one was sprayed with turquoise, meadow green and gold glimmer mists. The green layers were cuttlebugged with the textile folder and denim distress ink rubbed over to highlight the embossing which was then used to stamp the swirls on the turquoise layer and then clear embossed. I then dipped the edge of each layer in clear ink and gold embossed to give a random frame.


The dragonfly was stamped on acetate twice and cut out with stickles added. I then cut out just the wings on the second one and attached them with silicone glue. Two holes were put through the top with the crop o dile and brads added and gold wire put through to create a hanger.


The second was layered up in the opposite way with the scalloped square as the base and the red layers were run through the cuttlebug. I used Candy Apple Red and Suede Glimmer mists and ran Walnut ink distress ink around all the edges and used it to stamp the swirls. The flower was sprayed with gold glimmer mist and the gems added. As usual with glimmer mists the photos don't do the glimmer justice, they really do sparkle.


Now I've got my hands on the photos I shall have another go but I think the sky's the limit with these, you could do anything, the only problem is it makes you want lots of new shapes to play with.

Before I sign off tonight I'd just like to send my blogging friend Brenda lots of love for her surgery tomorrow. My thoughts are with you Brenda.

Thanks as always for visiting.

Texting In Purple

The theme for this week's Tag It On challenge is a purple tag with lots of text.

I had a lovely play last night, not really knowing what I was going to do just getting some inks and stamps out and seeing what happened. I had the idea of books and letters unlocking all sorts of things and was going to include a key and key hole but decided in the end to just add the key hole as the key was too big.

The only ink used was Dusty Concord distress ink. I added lots of water for the pale background and then went over a tattered angels mask with it at full strength. I stamped an Elusive images stamp that had very ornate writing on around the edges and then a Crafty Individuals stamp in the centre in black. The key hole was also from Crafty Individuals and I darkened it with more distress ink to make it stand out a bit.

For once I was quite pleased with the results and knew when to stop adding things, a rare event for me.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your Tuesday has gone well.

Crafty Sunday

Yet again I sit here typing listening to the rain. Still mustn't grumble, we had a wonderful day out in The Lake District again yesterday and the sun shone all day. We had planned to visit Sizergh Castle near Kendal, trying to avoid the really popular areas as the traffic was very heavy and we didn't want to sit in the car all day when the weather was so nice.

Unfortunately, the castle was closed on a Saturday!!!! How daft is that. Well let's try Levens Hall I suggested, that's only 5 minutes away. Guess what, that is closed on a Saturday too!!!! Not to be put off we headed for Lakeside and the Aquarium and had a really lovely day. We had lunch overlooking the lake, saw a steam train, enjoyed the Aquarium and then went to look round the other side of the bay where we could see lots of people and discovered Fell Foot. This is National Trust parkland with lovely access to the lake, the children were all paddling quite safely while parents picniced on the grass. There are lots of boats moored and beautiful views, well worth a visit if you are ever in the area. We had a very welcome pot of tea and yummy cakes sat outside on a terrace right on the lake enjoying the last of the afternoon sunshine. Pure Bliss. I had to be dragged away for the drive home!!

We were so glad we made the most of the weather yesterday because it's been wet, windy and cool all day here. Perfect crafting weather and for once I had a really productive afternoon.


For weeks now I've been trying to find time to enter the Tuesday Taggers challenge, but just somehow always ran out of time so this week when I saw it was Swirls and Curls I was adamant I would have a go and so here is yet another tag!!! I promise something different next time.

I used part of a tattered angels mask to get a swirl on the edge and over sprayed with sapphire glimmer mist and the stamped round with a swirly inchy in faded jeans distress ink and then again with my favourite Heidi Grace swirl in black. The wording was from elusive images and the chipboard swirl was inked with brilliance pearlescent orchid and a dark pink chalk ink.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and lets hope the sun is back tomorrow.

Decluttering The Garden

My Dragonsdream blog friend Frankie invited me to look at her slide show of her beautiful garden last week. I had a lovely time browsing and was very envious of the order and space she has created, which shows her stunning bamboos, maples and wisteria, all my favourites. It looks a serene and calming garden, unlike my own jungle stuffed with as many plants as possible.

Why am I telling you this, you might ask, well I went into the garden on Saturday afternoon, very dischuffed with what I saw and decided to go a bit mad and actually take out some rather large overgrown plants so that I can actually see what is flowering and looking beautiful. By Sunday teatime, a very large honeysuckle smothering a lovely red climbing rose had gone (I still have one up another archway) and replaced with a pale pink climbing rose and a lovely but totally unpratical golden hop up an obelisk had also bitten the dust. Other plants have been dug up and divided and everything cut back and tidied up. My brown bin is full to overflowing but the difference is amazing.

After digging, climbing ladders and heaving out giant roots I had not an ounce of strength left after tea to lift any craft tools until tonight so my tag for Frankie's Tag It On challenge has been very last minute this week.


Her theme is Passion so I have done my take on it and my tag represents my passion for life. Lovely fresh, bright colours and dragonflies which somehow seem magical when you see them hovering in thin air in their brilliant suit of clothes.

I've used some Elusive design stamps and distress inks which have been applied to the stamp randomly. I stamped onto some spare paper first, spritzed the stamp with water and then stamped on the tag and I love the watercolour effect you end up with. Some Kay Carley swirls were stamped round the edge with whispers blue ink and then the dragonflies were stamped onto vellum, cut out and painted with glimmer mists, which makes them curl beautifully (thank you Brenda for this tip, I love the effect). I applied a bit of diamond stickles to their wings for a bit of bling. The wording was done on the computer.


I really will try to be a better crafter this week. I have several teachers Thank you cards to do, so no excuses!!!!

Yet Another Tag

Well it's week 9 of Dragonsdream Tag It On Challenge, the weeks are just flying. This week the theme is Eternal Goddess "think earth colours, ancient goddesses etc".

Well we've had some difficult challenges over the weeks and yet again I was stumped as I had no stamps that fit the bill so it was another trip over to Mum to raid her stamp store. She came up trumps again and I did have an idea of what I wanted to do. Late on Friday I spritzed, stamped and embossed and wasn't sure that I liked what I had done so slept on it, not literally you understand.

By next morning I was certain I didn't like it. Take 2. This one was better. I coloured the background with watercolour pencils, printed an earth image from the Internet and cut it out. I stamped just the head from the stamp using Faded Jeans distress ink and embossed with clear ink. It was coloured with the pencils again. I added the little swirls, a bit of glitter to look like stars and some white dots just to highlight the swirls a bit.

Once again I have been thoroughly challenged and the family had a lot of input into this weeks end result. My mojo was running a bit low I think, so thanks to them.

Still Decorating!

Hello there. I hope you have had a lovely weekend and the weather has been as good there as it has been here.

We are still decorating but the good news is the wall paper is all off-Hurray!!!, the paintwork is rubbed down and we are ready to start putting things right again. Thank goodness for that. I might actually get some proper crafting time in a few days.

In the meantime I've got another tag to show you using another Crafters Workshop stencil. This one is Mini Windsong and is one of my favourites.

I inked the background with a coarse mesh-like fabric using Dusty Concord and Faded Jeans distress inks which gave a speckled effect. The stencilling was done with Faded Jeans and the flourishes were stamped with Crimson Brilliance ink which I then wiped round all the edges just to soften them.

I stamped the wording on a separate piece of card and cut round it and then stuck a piece of burgundy organza ribbon on top and put it all on the tag at a jaunty angle just to be different.

Well I'm off to indulge in a bar of chocolate my kind Husband bought me, a treat for all our hard work, yes I will share it and I hope those of you just starting the Easter school hols like us have a relaxing time, lets hope the weather holds.

Worn Out

I think it must be something about spring being in the air, but we have decided to go mad and start some much delayed decorating, which entails scrapping off wallpaper that has been painted over at least 3 times-Nightmare!!!

I spent the morning helping out at Freya's school, my usual Wednesday stint but then have being scraping all afternoon and am now far too tired to even think about crafting.

I did make some more tags though a few weeks ago so I thought I would share one of those.

I inked the background for this one with Dusty Concord distress ink, using a very coarse foam, then went over a glimmer screen with Peeled Paint. The background text was stamped with a redder purple, not sure what colour now, but the edges were more Dusty Concord using Heidi Grace flourish stamps as was the main text using the Artylicious Inspirations stamps.

I triple embossed the chipboard swirl with cosmic shimmer Tropic Moss Blaze embossing powder which has a fantastic depth to it giving a verdigris effect.

Well it's a cup of coffee and an early night for me ready for an early start in the morning!

A COMPLETED CARD AT LAST

Well after a weekend of snatched crafting I have at last completed my Mothers Day cards. I always seem to struggle with card making and they take me ages whereas I can do Scrapbook Layouts quickly, not sure why this is. Anyway, I took the inspiration for these cards from the latest edition of Do Crafts Creativity magazine.

I stamped the flowers with gold Brilliance ink and clear embossed them. They were then painted with Twinkling H20's, which gives a lovely pearlescent effect. The greeting was made with coloured peel offs. I then matted the 4 squares (each one being 4cm) on dark green card and then the whole onto the Distress inked backing papers I made previously.

I hope both my Mum & Mum in Law like the finished result.