Coming of Age

Hi Everyone.............................I just want to say thank you to you all for continuing to follow  me in my little crafty corner and for leaving such kind comments. They are really appreciated. 

Below is a canvas that I made for a friends daughter's 21st Birthday and for my first DT piece at Craft Room Challenge. I just gave you a sneaky peek the other day, promising I would pop back with the 'How To' and here it is.  

The Completed Canvas

I did take a photo of the embossed centre piece but it was rather fuzzy so I have not posted it. The card was brown and I ran it through my Bigshot using Tim Holtz Embossing die. I inked with walnut stain DI to age it and then distressed the edges with my  TH Distressing tool. I took some treasured Gold Gilding wax and highlighted some of the emboss words like Blanchard and Paris  

The canvas is  9" by 12" and was already prepared so I adhered some torn book pages, adhering them with Glue n Seal.  Once dry I took Tim's new Bubble Stencil and a CW Butterfly stencil, covering them  with texture paste.

The numbers are from Tim Holtz  Sizzix Wordplay die and I adhered two together to give a more raised effect that you can view later :-)

A closer look  at the numbers which I adhered with Glue n seal

Once dry I took Distress paint in Broken China, misting with water as I just wanted a wash, enabling the torn papers etc to be visible. 

Once dry I took Vintage Photo and  edged the canvas to give definition, particularly to the stencilled areas. I also applied Treasure Gold Gilding wax in Sapphire, Renaissance and White Fire, creating more definition. 

Distress inks were used to stencil Tim Holtz Dot fade on the background and also CW Art is  stencil 

Alcohol Ink was applied to the metal Ideaology plate and  an old key from my stash. 

I also used Glossy Accents in the centre of the plate over the stamped image.

I love the facial images and sentiments in the TH Stampers Anonymous Classic Favourites set

 ( SCF005) I swiped with Distress Ink and then used Distress Markers on the lips and eyes

The little Butterfly was in my stash and added further dimension along with dome Adage tickets :-)

The recipient was absolutely thrilled, which makes it all so worthwhile.

This week at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge it is 'Anything Goes' where I would like to enter this project.  

Thanks for dropping in

CRafty Hugs xx

Travel Tag

Hi Everyone...........I am so happy to be joining in a couple of challenges - namely Fashionable Stamping Challenge and Our Creative Corner.

As many of you know I have been in Hamburg for several weeks, returning home last Sunday. My husband is doing really well in his recovery, particularly since we returned home. This week we have been attending the doctor and hospital so I was delighted to find some crafty time this afternoon.

Hamburg is a beautiful city and I have been fortunate to have been there on numerous occasions to visit family and friends. My Tag is reminiscent of our journey in Hamburg, which is a huge Port, where they continue with their ship building industry. There are also some fabulous buildings and many  stunning towers.

 For this project I recycled some CC cans, which I then die cut using TH Artful Dwellings Bigz Die. Once cut I ran them through the Bigshot again, using  TH embossing folders, then dabbed alcohol inks over the embossed aluminium.  

Using the wrinkle free distress technique I applied Gathered Twigs, Salty Ocean and Rusty Hinge DI to my craft mat, spritzing with water before swiping my large tag through twice. ( drying the layers before re-inking) I then picked up some of the blotches that were left and again dried them with my heat gun before edging with Walnut stain DI

Below you can see a close up of the aluminium. As I mentioned, Hamburg is a large Port, so I placed some fabric netting, a piece of bark and an anchor over the metal dwellings. These embellishments were picked up in a fabulous store  in Hamburg called Depot. ( think this shop is also available online ) The netting was in fact  a table runner and the anchor was part of some long twine ribbon used to decorate parcels or home decor. The bark was also for home decor but when I  happened upon this store I had some crafting in mind and knew I could use them differently. 

The stamped images are from TH Stampers Anonymous range and I used some twine to finish.

Over at Fashionable Stamping the Challenge is  TAG  TIME and at Our Creative Corner the challenge is to use the  RECIPE provided by DTM Jenny ( aka Buttons, whose blog you can find HERE)

For this project/challenge I have used Fabric ( A), Metal ( B) and Inks ( C)

Thank You so much for dropping by  and taking time to leave a comment. They  really are truly appreciated and I would also like  to say thanks once again for all the messages of support and best wishes received over the last month. 

Whilst I was in Hamburg I was thrilled to find that my Cabinet Die Card made the Top 3 at Stampotique Challenges.............Woohoo !!! 

Crafty Hugs

12 Tags of 2012 : July

Hi crafty friends.........hope you are all well and inky !!. I certainly am !!. Here I am at 'the cow's tail' submitting my take on  Tim's tag for July.  ( phew !!)  No matter how hard I try to be organised these days  I just don't seem to be on time !!!. "Better late than never as they say" x

 I had great fun with the techniques Tim used, particularly alcohol inks and a straw, as I did not have an air can. I also found that blowing from directly above the alcohol ink enabled me to achieve more coverage.  Really fun technique....Thanks Tim :-)   I cut out my  alcohol inked piece using a sizzix bigz tag die then folded it to make a pouch, where I could hide a sentiment. I used the distressing tool around the edges and inked with a mix of vintage photo and walnut stain DI's. I used a velcro dot as a fastener, placing a cog over the hole of the tag. 

My main tag was 'smooshed' in various layers of distress ink placed on my craft mat and sprayed with water, drying each layer with a heat tool, as advised by Tim. ( Inks used were vintage photo, mowed lawn and picked raspberry)  I then used stamps from Stamper's Anonymous Classic Favourites, creating further dimension using same DI colours.

I also ran the edges of the tag through the  Picked raspberry DI on my craft mat, creating a  nice coloured edge, adding walnut stain to give more definition once dry.

The pouch was  then adhered to the main tag as well as an Ornate Plate.  

I also used the same DI's on the ribbon, layering colour but drying in between, which gave a tie dye appearance as you can see in the photograph. 

                     
                      A small tag was die cut and sanded then edges were distressed as per Tim's design. Once again I stamped with Stamper's Anonymous Classic favourites using Archival Ink. Idea-ology embellishments ( Philosophy Tags and a Game Spinner)  were added to complete the look.

I am also entering this tag in Simons Says Stamp and Show Challenge this week. The challenge is 'What do you say ?'.

I hear two hungry cats eeking !!! so I better go and see what they want.................no doubt some food !!

(They are both so fussy about their food these days..........any advice on how to manage this would be helpful x )

Take care and thanks for dropping in. Your comments are welcome and I will always try to get back to you.

Crafty Hugs

Annie xx

Pocket Book- July 2012

hey everyone.......................pc up and running and I am back in Blogland. I really missed contact with you all, particularly my regular crafty friends. 

My craft room is looking great but I still have lots of crafty bits to sort out. ( Phew)

Below is a pocket book that I made for my mum's birthday. It is a pocket book inspired by Tim Holtz. I found 2 of his Distressables books and matching card stock when emptying my cupboards.  The book using this technique is numbered 5262 and the tutorial to make the pocket book is on page 43.   I used the TH Distressable cardstock from my stash to make the book. As there was writing etc on the papers I used, and it folds in half to make the pocket book, I  had to layer stamped images to hide the fact that some of the pocket writing was upside down.  The stamps/images I used were from Oxford Impressions, 'April in Paris' Range. 

Metal frames were from WRMK and purchased some time ago. I cut out letters/sentiments and photographs from the Distressable papers to create dimension, placing them in the metal frames and covering with Ranger Glossy Accents.  Once  dry  they were layered  on top of the pockets. 

An Idea-ology Time Piece was also used , depicting the month of my mum's birthday.  Tags were placed in the pockets and were stamped on both sides,  layering various images ( as seen in photographs below) To complete the look I added a pin and ticket as well as a metal clip, with a small tag saying 'Happy Birthday'. All of the metal frames/corner pieces and the clip were altered by using  TH Alcohol Inks.

Instead of making an envelope I altered a paper bag by layering/ageing Distressable card stock and  inking the bag with Distress ink in Walnut Stain. 

Mum absolutely loved her birthday card and I really enjoyed making it. Hope you like it too. 

As this card has many layers and the metal was altered using alcohol inks I am entering the challenges at Simon Says Stamp and Show and Frilly and Funkie. They are may favourite challenges and worth visiting for the fabulous inspiration from their Design Teams.

Crafty Hugs to you all. 

Annie x

                                                ( Doesn't the key look fabulous layered on some other distressable papers and then coated in Glossy accents)    :-)

                                                     'THank You' for visiting, please leave a comment to let me know of your                   visit and I shall get back to you as soon as I can x