Autumn Has Arrived

I am sitting here bathed in sunshine. Can you believe that after the deluge we've had all day. It didn't just rain, it was a Monsoon!!! I hope where ever you are this Sunday you've managed to keep dry and enjoy whatever the day had to offer. I only just seem to have dried out after Friday's awful rain too. Autumn seems to have arrived with a bang this year.

Tuesday Taggers theme this week is Autumn, appropriately enough and they are being sponsored by The Craft Barn so it's definitely worth a look if you haven't joined in already.


I've been thoroughly enjoying getting back into tags again lately so I thought I'd do another. The background was done with Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Vintage Photo distress inks and sprayed with gold glimmer mist. The Crafty Individual trees were then stamped with vintage photo and a little bit of barn door sponged on top of them.


The little leaves where from the Tall Trees EI plate. I gold embossed them and coloured them with twinkling H20's before cutting them out and giving them a little shape.

Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you leave. I really enjoy reading them and appreciate them very much.

Tag It With Birds

How are you all doing in this icy weather. I hope there hasn't been any broken or damaged limbs. I don't know about the rest of the country but we couldn't step foot outside yesterday, even school was closed and that's unheard of. Every surface was just sheet ice and it stayed like that all day. We live on quite a steep hill and luckily one of our neighbours shouted a warning after they'd had to help numerous people after they'd fallen outside.

Being confined indoors was a perfect reason to craft so I got back into challenge mode and did my entry for Tuesday Taggers, which this week is a Bird Tag.


I used the free stamp from Craft Stamper this month and used colourbox chalk inks to colour the tag and stamp the bird. The swirls were from a foam set from QVC. I was quite dubious about the foam but they stamp really well and were incredibly good value for money.

Thanks for stopping by. I've heard it should be a balmy 6oC by Sunday, that sounds exciting, I may even be able to go and see what a mess my greenhouse is in, I've not been down there for weeks. It's probably just a mouldy mess-Lovely!!

Birds and Pearls

Brrr it's so cold isn't it and we've had no daylight here today, it's been dark, damp and foggy all day so apologies for the photos tonight, I've scanned one and photoed the other with flash to get the best results but nothing like taking them in daylight.

Before I get going with this post I must just say a huge thank you for your support, I was feeling really bad over that cake but I know I did the right thing. Family time is so precious at anytime but more so at Christmas.

Following my last post, I have been asked whether the clear embossing powder sticks to the mica powdered card from the original inking. I made the card such a long time ago I couldn't honestly answer 100% so I had another go last night and found out two things, yes the clear EP sticks but to get the best results with the mica powder you need to use watercolour paper. Not sure why this is but ordinary card just doesn't work. So here are step by step instructions.

1) Cut a piece of watercolour paper the required design size you want.

2) Liberally ink with versamark or similar.

3) Apply mica powders with a large brush until they cover the paper really well.

4) Ink a stamp with the versamark and stamp into the powder. This will remove it to show the stamped design (If you are really organised and have a piece of triple embossing to hand stamp the mica powdered stamp into this so as not to waste it). Otherwise clean the stamp each time before reinking & restamping into the powder

5) Sprinkle clear EP over the whole area and heat emboss from underneath to get a glossy finish.

Hope this helps.

Here is the piece I did last night and a piece of triple embossed chipboard I made after stamping the dragonfly card in the last post.


The Tag It On challenge theme this week is birds and this is what I came up with.


The tag was glimmer misted with various shades of pink. The Crafty Individuals stamp was inked in Brilliance pearlescent Ivy and Crimson and clear embossed. The little hearts were then decoupaged.

I realised after I'd finished it that the stamp is very swirly so I've added some pearls and am also entering it into the Allsorts challenge. Their theme is swirls and pearls this week. You have to be a speedy crafter at this time of year when time is so precious so hope this is ok.

Thank you as always for stopping by and I hope you are all wrapping up well and keeping warm.

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.

Tags, Bags and Flu Jabs

I am so relieved that I'm at least a bit normal, thank you all those folk who agreed with the handbags and shoes thing!!!

My friends all think I'm nuts!! To me bags are just for stuffing all those things in you can't leave the house without, purse, camera, tissues, keys, wet wipes, phone, pen, tub of mints, carrier bag and many other assorted necessities. I then end up with Hubby's keys and phone when he's got nowhere else to put them and that half drunk bottle of juice we invariably seem to have after having a coffee out. Why can't children ever finish their drinks!! It's no wonder I need something the size of a suitcase that always weighs a ton.

At the end of the last post I promised you the tag for the Tag It On Challenge, the original reason we made the alcohol ink background,(the theme this week is alcohol inks and faces)... so here it is.


I cut the tag shape out of the photo paper and stamped all over with the same script stamp using Brilliance Galaxy gold. The ladies were stamped in Brilliance crimson as with the last card.


I stamped the swirl in the corners, covered the ladies with a mask and sprinkled gold embossing powder over the rest of the tag and very very carefully heated it. Photo paper buckles and bubbles really easily under heat but I got away with it... just!!!!!

I've really enjoyed playing with the inks and these stamps, they are something a bit different for me but I will definitely play with them again soon. It's been nice to get away from the Christmas thing for awhile. I've still got those cards to finish!!!!!! Keep finding more interesting things to do!!!!!

I hope your week is going well so far. Mine has been stressful, have you ever tried to get a flu jab appointment from a doctors receptionist. It's harder than getting into China!! My Mum is on the list of vulnerable people and has the flu jab every year but her surgery didn't contact her and she forgot this year. I also said it was a good idea if she has the Swine flu jab. She's on medication which means she has no immune system. Anyway, to cut a very long story short, when she rang to get an appointment yesterday, they said the earliest appointment she could have was for the next flu clinic in 2 weeks time!!!!
This is not good enough me thinks!! She could very easily catch flu in this time. After several telephone calls I ended up speaking to the practice manager who told me they hold flu clinics every day but these were totally full of chronically ill people. I appreciated they were very busy but pointed out the differing stories I was being told. She then said she had just noticed they had an appointment today at 9.30am!!! What is all that about!!

Anyway it's all done with now. Sorry to rant. I don't get upset often but when I feel an injustice is being done I can't leave it alone.

Thank you for stopping by.

Beautiful Autumn Colours

I hope your weekend was a good one and the weather was kind to you. It was glorious here. I just had to take some photos of this lovely new rose I planted a few months ago. It was from the bargain basket of our local DIY store and when I went out yesterday it was looking lovely in the late afternoon sunshine. Just shows you don't have to spend a fortune to get beautiful flowers.

The Autumn colours are beginning to look their best at the moment here, although it'll be a few more weeks before the trees provide that dazzling display that sets this time of the year alive and the lovely weather we've been having helps to make up for the dismal Summer. I love the mellowness of Autumn although I don't like the nights drawing in and the cold mornings!!

So many challenges seem to have an Autumn theme at the minute so I thought I'd get two in in one go again with another tag. Tuesday Taggers have the theme of "Shades of Autumn" and By The Cute and Girly's theme is "Autumn Glory".


My resolution of not buying craft things and using what I have seems to have slipped rather badly at the minute and I just had to give in and buy the beautiful Diamante Delights Elusive Images themeplate I've had my eye on for years, which is what I've used for this tag.


The flower was stamped out three times and painted with H20's, glitter was added and then it was decoupaged. I blended various colours of ink onto the tag and randomly stamped with various Heidi Grace stamps to create a background and then drew on the stitches with a brown gel pen.

Thank you for visiting and I hope your Monday is going well. I must apologise for not visiting all your lovely blogs lately. Spare time just seems incredibly short at the minute. I will try and get round them in the next few days. I don't want to miss out on anything!!

Autumn Trees

I really tempted fate last time by saying how nice the garden looked didn't I? What happened, we had gale force winds on Saturday that blew all the leaves off, broke down the lovely grasses and left the garden looking decidedly the worst for wear. I've put most of it right now, but it's definitely past it's best!!!! Still, looking on the bright side, at least the sun is still shining.

There seems to be lots of challenges out there at the moment which all have similar themes, so I have combined one tag for two challenges this week, hope that's ok.


I blended lots of lovely coloured inks all over the tag to try and re create that lovely misty sky you get as the sun goes down in the Autumn. It seems to be on fire and the leaves on the floor are reflected in the sky. The tree stamp was from Crafty Individuals and I inked it in very dark blue and clear embossed it.

Tuesday Taggers have the theme of Trees sponsored by The Craft Barn and the Dragon' s Tag It On has the theme of Autumn so I hope my Tag fits both.

Thank you for visiting and I hope your Monday has gone well.

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.

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.

Up Up and Away

What a way to start a Monday morning. I was drinking my tea, minding my own business listening to the radio when dear old Terry W made his announcement about leaving the Breakfast Show. Now I know this is not earth shattering in the scheme of things but I am one of those people who was brought up with Tel in the'70's, he then accompanied me to work in the 90's and since 2001, when I became a stay at home Mum has got us going every morning with many a smile. He will be sorely missed in this household. Mornings will never be quite the same. We wish you well Terry.

Now down to crafty things. The theme for this weeks Tag It On challenge is Up Up and Away. My first thought was hot air balloons, but I have no stamps of them so I'm afraid I resorted to the trusty dragonflies again.


I glimmer misted the background and then stamped the Stamptivity lady in dark blue brilliance ink. I silver embossed some more of the flowers on the same stamp on the bottom, embossed some dragonflies on scrap card and cut them out and attached them and then added a bit more foliage in black down the side.


Freya has also done a tag this week with a different lady from the same sheet. She painted her background with cosmic shimmer watercolours and stamped just the lady (missing of the rest of the stamp) with crimson brilliance and the butterflies with the Marvy shades of sunset blending blox.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Craft at Last

It's taken awhile but at last I did some crafting today.

We came back from hols last Wednesday feeling full of life and brimming with good health and by Friday my lovely hubby was struck down with a horrible cold and decided to share it with me over the bank holiday so although the creative juices were flowing the body wasn't willing. Thankfully we are both much better now and something has been created. Goodness I've missed my stash.


This weeks Tag It On challenge was to create a bookmark with any theme but using at least one stamp and I've just managed to scrape in. I really enjoyed doing this and will use it now instead of the old plant labels and shopping receipts I usually use.


I cut the bookmark from an old cereal packet so painted it with olive green acrylic paint to get a good base to stamp on. The swirls were from creative expressions and were stamped in both white brilliance and peeled paint distress ink. The quote was from my old faithful elusive images inspiration themeplate and the flowers were petaloo foam flowers that had a bit of a swirl stamped on them in crimson brilliance.


I must also say a big thank you to Anne who has a lovely blog well worth a look. I won her 100th post blog candy while I was on holiday and she has been very patient with me, for which I shall be eternally grateful. Anyway, her candy arrived this morning, which was a beautiful handmade notebook and I shall certainly make very good use of it. Thank you again Anne, I love it.

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.

Dots and Swirls

This weeks Dragonsdream TIO challenge is Pink swirls and dots to celebrate the anniversary of the moon landing and the eclipse earlier in the week.

Because it's been such a wet start to the summer holidays here we haven't been out much so decided to do some crafting yesterday afternoon and Freya asked if she could make a tag too, so we have two entries this week.

Both were cuttlebugged with the swirls folder and then sprayed with pink shades of glimmer mist, Freya had three and mine had two. I think hers probably came out best to show up the embossing. (Freya's is the one below)


She then stamped a creative expressions swirl down the centre and finished off with some star and dot brads.

(Mine is the one below) I stamped round the edge with a different creative expression swirl using pink and crimson brilliance inks. Different sized holes were punched with my crop o dile and glitter paper stuck behind with the holes outlined to make them stand out a bit and I then added different sized brads for two different types of dots.
I'd lost the embossing by this time so I tried to highlight it a bit with brushed out felt tip.


I have to be honest and say I'm not sure about the end result but the moon's surface is a mishmash so it probably works ok for what it is supposed to represent.

Freya thoroughly enjoyed joining in the challenge and I'm sure it probably won't be the last time during the summer. It made for a nice afternoon of crafting together.

By the way, those of you waiting for cake pics. I will post them after the weekend when the recipients have had time to see and eat them!!!!

Tag It On Challenge

The theme of this weeks Dragonsdream Tag It On challenge was to create a postcard. There have been weeks when the theme of this challenge has made me think about what to do for a few days, but this one had me completely stumped. Tags I understand but postcards!!!!, so I decided to have a break this week.

I was blog visiting a few days later and I saw Debbie's postcard and it was really beautiful. It also made me realise that I probably could do something worth entering, it was only like doing a big tag.

Then on Friday I started with an absolutely streaming cold. Reading everyones blogs I know I'm not on my own and along with everyone else you are so loath to go anywhere because everyone is so frightened about Swine Flu, even though YOU know you've only got a heavy cold. We were due to visit my Mum in Law for lunch yesterday but I quarantined myself and stayed behind so had several hours to myself and even though I didn't feel my best decided to have a go at this postcard.


I inked it all over with Whispers Whisper Blue and then went round the edges with chestnut brown. I used an Elusive Images french set, can't remember the name now, for the background which was inked with various whisper inks. The address was done with whispers Royal blue and then distress faded jeans to get a shadow effect. The swirls were a Heidi Grace set and the stamp of the lady was from Crafty Individuals which I enlarged slightly by scanning it in to the computer first and then printing it and adding the same colour inks before sticking it on. The swirls were coloured with colourbox ink and the flowers were from prima. Small gems made the centres.

Thankfully this afternoon I'm feeling much better and my nose has stopped running at last so I shall be able to go back into the world tomorrow, which is good because Freya has to go to school for her last day of term, one day, I ask you!!!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you've had a lovely weekend.

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!!!!

Say It With Flowers

The theme for this weeks Tag It On challenge is Say It With Flowers. The theory behind it being to celebrate the fact that we always enjoy receiving flowers. As a flower lover I love having them in the house, but usually have to buy them myself, as readers of my blog know, I have a Hubby who doesn't buy flowers feeling they are a waste of money. He does buy me other things I hasten to add.


I, however, buy flowers for other people, either when they are poorly, feeling sad, or just to say thank you for something so I have based my tag this week on that. I've kept it simple with a lightly inked background of vanilla whispers and a loose rose stamp which was from Lakeland in the good old days when they sold craft stuff. The roses are painted with cherry red glimmer mist. I choose roses because I did get a bunch of red roses from my other half on the day we got engaged! See, he can be romantic! The tag was cut free hand and added with some red organza ribbon.

Thank you as always for visiting.

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.

Treasures

Before I start today I must just say thank you to all my lovely readers for the comments you left about the cake in the last post. I was blown away by them. You gave me an idea for a future post with your comments about the sugar roses looking real. I am just about to start some more for a wedding cake for the end of July and they are really easy to make so I shall take some photos as I do them and show you all so you can be amazing your friends and families by trying them for yourselves!!

I also forgot to say, the lady whose cake I mentioned can be seen here. If you like cakes it's definitely worth a look.

Now back to crafty things. The theme for this weeks Tag It On challenge was "Treasures". What did we consider to be treasures in our lives? That was the brief and the tag had to contain at least one stamp as usual.

Mmmm long thoughts on this on. Family obviously was my first treasure, but that was hard to represent so I decided on my garden and flowers which as most of you know are my other passions (along with crafting).

I started on a tag and stamped some flowers and was merrily bowling along when I suddenly looked and it was so similar to other things I had done I stopped and began to think again. Doing flowers and nature was just too easy, I need a challenge so I rethought and this is what I ended up with.

The tag was run through the cuttlebug using the agapanthus folder which I had pre inked with colourbox chalk. This represented my flowers. I added the little gems for interest and the butterflies for a bit more nature. I then stamped on the words which all mean something to me.

-I treasure my memories of lots of things, people dear who are no longer here, happy holidays and events and just little things that make me smile.

-I treasure the Joy I find in my family, my crafting, the lovely countryside we live in or just hearing a favourite song on the radio.

-I love my lovely hubby and beautiful daughter and all my family very much and treasure them all.

-And lastly I treasure the dreams for the future, we all need to dream!!

Once again Frankie challenged us very well.

In The Style Of Tim Holtz

This is the theme of the challenge over at the Simon Says challenge. I am slowly being sucked into these challenges, Oh Dear, but when Tim Holtz is involved I find it very hard to resist.

I decided on another Tag. For me these seem the easiest medium when you just want to play and this is what I came up with.

I used a technique that Tim demonstrated on his fabulous blog where by you stamp your initial image using white acrylic paint. I chose a grungy heart. You let this dry and then spritz your colour over the top. I've used Turquoise and Suede Glimmer Mists with a hint of Gold. I let this completely dry and then inked round the edges with the trusty chestnut whispers ink. When you wipe the sponge over the painted image it wipes off any colour on top revealing the image underneath.


I stamped part of a Prima build your own swirl down the side and an Artylicious Inspirations stamp for the words in black pigment ink.

Lastly I stamped the heart again on a piece of scrap card and cut it out. It seemed a bit heavy so I decided to cut the middle out too. It was then painted with the turquoise glimmer and diamond Stickles applied. I attached it with a brad for added interest.

I don't think I've quite got enough things added to it to be completely like Tim's wonderful creations, but I love the colours and when the light catches them they really shimmer, the photos don't quite do the glimmer mists justice.


This challenge was a great excuse just to mess about and see what evolved. Great fun.