Don't forget your umbrella !!!!

Hello crafty friends......................hope you have had a lovely Saturday :-)   The weather started off well this morning and then clouded over, at least the temperature had improved though. 

I had a fantastic afternoon and evening of tennis yesterday and I am still exhausted....!!!!!!!    These lads are so fit !!!!

My new tennis hero has to be Juan Martin Del Potro........................what a professional he has been this week, both against  David Ferrer and Novak Djokovic. Yesterdays match Between Del Potro and Djokavic was the best I have seen in years....at least since the Federer/Nadal match  a few years ago.....................anyway.....my post.

Below is a tag that I made for two of my favourite challenges:

 the Craft Room Challenge, which is to use the colours Blue, Yellow and Green. ( stamping in black is allowed)
Simon Says Stamp and Show, which is Anything Goes

This challenge really took me out of my comfort zone in relation to the colours used and  I also had  this make in mind for a male birthday.

First of all , using Tim Holtz wrinkle free distress technique, I spritzed water over Salty Ocean distress ink and Sunshine Yellow Adirondack Acrylic Paint placed on my craft mat, dragging my tag through it. I did this a couple of times and was delighted with the result ( heat set between layers) The Adirondack paint did not wick like Distress Paints but I kind of helped it by swirling it in the spritzed water. The Salty Ocean DI and Yellow Sunshine paint also gave a beautiful green colour.  Various TH Stampers Anonymous stamps were used to add some detail to the background, using archival ink in Manganese Blue.

I then die cut some aluminium from a  recycled drinks can, using the Sizzix TH weathered clock and umbrella man die. The umbrella man was painted with Salty Ocean DI and the clock painted with Mowed Lawn.

Once dry, I spritzed both pieces with blue cosmic shimmer mist, drying it with my heat gun. I love the effect of this on metal !  A Stampers Anonymous stamp was layered on to the umberella man using black archival ink

The adage ticket was blended with a mix of Salty Ocean and Mowed Lawn DI.

The ideaology  watch face piece was painted with a mix of both Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean Distress Paints

The sentiment at the bottom was die cut using Sizzix, Stacked Artful Words die. Once again, I blended Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean DI, but I felt that it needed something  more against the similar background colour, so  I sprinkled some clear embossing powder and then heat set it. I have not used this embossing technique for ages and still love to see the powder melt and the magic happen !!!!!

More tennis tomorrow.................!!!!! I hope that Andy Murray sleeps better than I will as I am so excited about tomorrow's final.

Have a great weekend whatever you are up to.  As always thanks for commenting they really are so appreciated. I have been a bit slow getting round to visits this last couple of weeks so apologies for that but I shall catch up. 

Crafty Hugs x

Sew Distressed !!!!

Hi Everyone................thanks for continuing to follow me. I am so looking forward to the weekend and some crafty time...........all nice and cosy in my little craft room.

Over at Simon Says Stamp and Show the challenge is What are you known for ?  I would say that I am known for my 'distress and collage' pieces. I love to create various backgrounds with Distress Inks 

( particularly Vintage Photo ) and then piece together various stamps and embellishments from my stash. My style can also be a bit quirky at times :-)

Below is such a piece............made for a colleague who had a special birthday and had recently purchased a sewing machine. 

The card is an 8 by 8.........but not an easel one !!!!. The background was inked with Vintage Photo and Stormy Sky Distress Inks, then stamped with various stamps from Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Haberdashery Set  (CMS 105) in Archival Ink.

The corrugated card was also inked with DI's and adhered with Ranger Wonder Tape.

The sewing machine above is one of Wendy Vecchi's Blossom Bucket Embellishments.

The inch tape is from my stash and one that I cut up it was also adhered with Wonder Tape. 

I halved the bobbin or spool so it would lie flat on the card, inked it with some DI's to age it. Some of Tim's stamped images were then matted on to card.

Having stamped the tailor's dummy I cut it in half and adhered some vintage lace and some pearls, as well as a dragonfly from my stash. Some Buttons were added to the corner.

I am also entering this piece in the following challenges:

Over at 4 Crafty Chicks the challenge is Buttons.

At Vintage Stamping Challenge/Flonzcraft the challenge is Vintage

Addicted to Stamps Challenge is use Material/Texture

Hope you are all keeping warm and getting very inky

Hugs

Renaissance - Correggio

Hi Everyone.............I thought I would share a piece of recycling with you. This is a piece of shelving that was left from some recent DIY in my craft room. With some fabulous challenges in mind I decided to create a piece for Frilly and Funkie, whose challenge is Renaissance Men.  I was inspired by  Italian Artist Carreggio, who depicted cherub type images. His most famous painting being " The Holy Night"

Over at the Sunday Stampers Hels challenge this week is Patterns. Having used crackle distress paint to create an aged background  and embossed patterned corners the patterns fit this challenge too. 

 Challenge 16 at Studio L3 this week is Tim Holtz Perfect Pearls Mists.  I  used this technique from CCO2, page 54,creating the corners of this piece, which gives a  faux metal effect.

  As the challenge at Fashionable Stamping Challenges is Anything Goes this week i shall also enter this challenge having stamped several images.

Having  recycled this piece of shelving, framing it with stamped and embossed corners, I am entering the challenge of Anything Goes -Frame It over at Recycle, Repurpose and Re-Invent Challenge.

As you will see below I applied Studio Multi Medium, enabling the paint to adhere to the surface. I used a paintbrush and acrylic paint from my paint dabbers. I used Sail Boat Blue paint for the first coat, then applied Picket Fence Crackle Paint, twice. Once dried I sanded the surface and then blended in Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I framed the edges in Rub'n' Buff Grecian Gold, which I applied using my fingers.

Using Jet Black Archival Ink I stamped images from Stampers Anonymous TH Classic Favourites 

( SCF 007 & SCF 008) I then stamped the large image on to vellum, using DI's to age it. I also took my waterbrush and some DI to colour some of the stamped image, then layered it over the main image below, keeping some of the edges slightly upturned to create some dimension.

These corners were created using Tim Holtz technique on page 54 of CCO2. 

This is the completed piece, which is really delightful and is part of a birthday gift for my son's partner, Jennifer. They both went to Rome for Jennifer's 21st birthday several years ago and fell in love with it.

(As the main stamped image has the  french word Patisserie on it I used alcohol ink on the metal key to alter it and cover the word. )

                                  Have a fabulous Sunday and I hope to catch up with you soon

                                                             Crafty Hugs Annie xx

Clockwork Birds

Hi Everyone.............sharing a piece that I created for my DH's birthday. I just love the stamped images from Paper Artsy.

To make this piece I used recycled cardboard, covering it with multi- medium before covering with recycled book pages, which were blended with distress inks. Taking a piece of Metal foil, adhered to card stock, I ran it through a TH embossing folder on my Bigshot. I then covered the embossed foil in Denim and gold paint dabbers, sanding the metal foil once paint dried. The clock work birds were stamped on ultra smooth white card, cut out and then inked with distress inks and some gold paint  from the dabber was added to the crowns. The sentiment was also blended with distress inks.  a variety of metal charms/cogs were used and were altered with paint then wiped with a dry cloth. The metal tag was adhered with sticky pads and string attached. I used sticky pads to raise the metal background, birds and main sentiment, adding dimension. 

Wire was then twisted and placed through piercings, enabling this piece to be hung on a wall.

I am entering this piece in the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp and Show -  No Rules ! Anything Goes

The Sunday Stamper - Embellishments 

Frilly and Funkie - Make my Metal Altered

Sir Stampalot Challenge - Whats Your Crafty Passion ( my passion is Distress, Vintage and Steampunk )

Many thanks to followers old and new for continuing to visit and leave comments. 

Crafty hugs

Annie x

Alter It

Good Morning everyone. Hope you are all well and enjoying your crafty time. 

Posted below is my creative submission for the Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent  Blog Challenge  for May- Anything Goes and a plastic existence.

I have had these foil trays for ages and thought I would 'Re-Invent' them for this challenge. I used alcohol inks to colour the foil, however, getting in to the corners was difficult so I thought I would try the Paper Transformation Technique, inspired by Neil Walker of Neelz Expressionz ( click here for the tutorial) Its hard to believe that this was once just plain old copy paper !

  For my 'plastic existence' I cut out a piece of plastic from a milk carton, putting it through my die cut machine, and you can see the flowers below. I used inks on the flowers but then decided to use  Ranger Glue 'n' Seal, followed by a variety of  Adirondack paint dabbers, followed by Distress crackle pain in Rock Candy.  ( I was also changing the colour of a metal chain for another project )

 As you can see I used a variety of stamps designed by  Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi & Lynne Perella.

The large sentiment on the top piece  was designed by Chris Stern of CS Designs. I received this digital sentiment having been featured in the  Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent April Challenge . You should pop over to Chris's online store and view  her designs for yourself.  The images and sentiments are beautiful.
( As a new blogger I was thrilled to bits to be featured !!)

 I adhered some burlap around the large foil tray and added the Sizzix, TH, Word Play die cut letters, which are rusted, using rusting powder/acrylic wax from Crafty Notions. ( you also add white vinegar to the mix )

 On the bottom foiled tray I adhered  some vintage lace. The trays were then pieced together using some string.

                                       
                                         Hope you like this piece, which I had great fun creating.
I am  also  going to submit this creation to  the challenges at Inspire me Fridays- Always Anything Goes and Scrapalicious- Something Altered .

                                           Crafty Hugs as always and have a good weekend

                                                                         Annie  :)

Altered Cereal Box

Hi Everyone. Whew !  Being new to blogging I decided to make a tag for The Sunday Stampers. Don't have a clue what happened, but I have made the largest tag ever !!! Or not !!!! 

Whilst doing the breakfast dishes I had an idea to make something with one of my recycling items. (A cereal box ) And here it is. ............well second picture down.

I  did get carried away and had a really fabulous time, lots and lots of glue and ink. I scrunched up old book pages, which I inked with various distress inks, namely vintage photo and broken china.  I then glued the pages on using Ranger glue 'n' seal.  I used my Bigshot to die cut the word journey, alphabet letters and vintage car.  Using archival inks I stamped the air balloon and words , ( TH - Stampers Anonymous, Remnants and Words for Thought)  and small vintage car  ( WV- Studio 490).

I had planned to add transport, sail , drive and fly to the front of the box, however, with no room to spare I decided to add them to the back instead, along with another creative verse. I  also used Tim's flicking techniques, just  to add a bit of age/grunge.

I am really pleased with outcome, though may take some new photographs as these ones dont do it justice.

Hope you like it too. :)

I plan to submit my Altered Cereal Box to the following challenges:

Sunday Stampers - Transport

Simon Says Stamp:  Favourite Tool - I love my BigShot

Frilly and Funkie - I'll Take Your Word For It.

Divas by Design - Anything goes

Craft Us Crazy- Altered Items

Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-invent - anything recycled/altered

Papertake Weekly - Anything Goes

The Recycle, Re-Purpose & Re-Invent challenge has a bonus question. My reply is that I have been hoarding silver foil trays from apple pies etc and glass bottles, which I plan to alter soon. 

Thank You for visiting.

Happy Crafting.......................Hugs Annie x