A Christmas Themed Tag

This month it is Zoe who has chosen the theme for the Tanda Teaser.   She decided to go with Christmas.  I should have used this as an opportunity to design the family Christmas card for this year, but I just couldn't get inspired.....I just felt like making a tag instead!

For my tag I used an off cut of mount board that the local picture framer was going to throw out!  I stamped the tag and mini tag using Tanda Christmas stamps by Sheila Oliver and used distress inks to colour the leaves and berries. For more texture I added dots of glossy accents to the berries and leaves on the tag.

To make the holly branches, leaves and berries, I used the back of a now extinct pad of paper and Tim Holtz die.  Being very absorbent card they drunk in the distress ink. I then coated them with several coats of crackle paint, which did not crackle....must have done something wrong there, but it did grab the mica flakes that I sprinkled on so not a total disaster!  When the leaves were dry I added a bit of glossy accent on top to give the impression of veins on the leaves.

I used the same distress inks to dye my seam binding to finish the tag.

I would like to enter this tag into the following challenges:

"Catch the bug - anything goes"
"Crazy 4 Challenges - Anything but a card"
"Sweet Stamp'in - All that glitters"
"Dynamic Duos - Evergreen and maroon"
"Alphabet Challenge - T is for Tags"
"Christmas stamping must be Christmas - Anything goes"
"Crafty Ann's - Christmas"
"Crafty Catz - Add Texture"
"Artistic Stamper - Anything goes",/a"
"Anything but a card - Anything goes",/a>
"Really reasonable ribbon - Winter holiday and ribbon"
"One crazy Stamper - Anything goes"

Things Mystical

The latest Tanda Teaser has been set by Zoe who has very kindly agreed to step in and share the work as I have had rather a lot on my plate lately.

So her first Teaser is Myth and Mystery, which I believe is one of her favourite subjects.  For my entry I have decided to use gliding flakes and acetate to make a fairy. 

She was stamped (Tanda Art Nouveau Girls set 1) onto acetate using stazon, then the reverse was coated with flitterglu and coated with guilding flakes. I added some Stickels to the front for her garland. The wings were stamped (Tanda Art Nouveau Girls set 1) on vellum and coloured with clearstar sakura pen before being positioned behind my fairy. The background was stamped using Indigo Blu stamps and versafine ink. I picked out the floating dandelion seeds with clearstar for a little added sparkle.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

" Creative craft challenges - Anything goes"
"Tanda Teaser - Myth and Mystery"
"fab n funky - Things with wings"
"Crafting for all seasons - Things with wings"
"Sarah Hurley challenges - Something magical"
"Charisma Cards - Things with wings"
"Simply Create Too - Anything goes"

"Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes"
"Delicious doodles - Use metal" my metal is represented by the gilding flakes
"Avadares - Make it sparkle"my sparkle is the glitter on the leaves in the fairy's hair and the sakura pen on the wings and dandylion seeds.

Splish, Splash, Splat!

The new ""Tanda Teaser" is all about throwing your paint/inks about and generally making a mess!!

And most of all having fun!

I needed to make an anniversary card for an old college friend and I wanted something a bit edgy...not mushy.  I stamped in black archival and then did a splat, splat with fired brick distress stains.  Once dry I went over the stamped image with glossy accents giving a wrought iron sort of effect.

I used the same distress stain to dye my seam binding to finish the card off.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:
"Paper Shelter- Anything goes"
"Craft your passion - anything goes"
"The ribbon girls - use ribbon or lace"
"Speedy and friends - Black and white and a splash of colour"

Revamp and Update with Tanda

For the current "Tanda Teaser" the
brief is to revisit a piece of work that you have already completed and then
update it. The first picture shows the sample I made using using the Tanda mack 2 set. This has been living in my drawer at home for a couple of years and I decided that I wanted to update it and make it a bit more special before I sent it to my Sister in Law for her birthday.

The following pictures show the finished card.....

The first thing I did was to run a line of zig-zag stitches around the edges of the water colour paper, then a line of straight stitches around the edge of the grey matted card. I stamped the edges of the card with an ink splatter stamp from PaperArtsy using Victorian Velvet distress ink. The flowers, leaves and tag were die cut from hand-made paper using a mixture of spellbinders and Tim Holtz dies.

I've probably upset all the clean and simple fans out there, but I have to say that I am pleased with the resulting card.

I would like to enter this into the following
challenges:
"Make it Monday - Anything goes"
"Marks finest papers - shades of pink"


"Stamps & fun - Make your own flowers"
"the Crazy Challenge - Add a Sentiment"
"Sweet Stampin' - Anything goes"
"Simon Says Stamp - anything goes"

New Tanda Teaser

The next Tanda Teaser is to make something with no designer papers. I was really struggling with this card, then remembered that our friend had mentioned that he was going to buy a Jaguar, he was also trying to persuade DH to enroll on a speed boat course. So the need for speed seemed like a good direction to go in, hence the racing theme. The smaller cogs are Spellbinders dies, the large cog is a Tim Holtz die. All cogs are cut from a juice carton and coloured with alcohol inks.

The checkered flags were stamped onto white shrink plastic and shrunk to make an embellishment.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Dream Valley Chalenge - Just for Men"

"2 Sisters - Anything Goes"

"Our Creative Corner - Over the Edge"

"Rogue Redheads - Use a Stamped Background"

"Stamp Scrap Doodle - Manly Card"

"Sweet Stamping - Its A Man Thing"

"All sorts challenge - Free and Easy February"

"Hot Shot Craft - One for the Boys"

"Wags and Whiskers - Masculine Birthday"

Daisy, Daisy!

Well another fortnight has gone by already so it's time for another "Tanda Teaser". This time the theme is to use at least one Daisy on your project. I have used stamps from Tandas Flourish set, their crackle background, my dune dots stamp and a Graphicus stamp for the quote. The butterfly circles are punched. The images were stamped and distressed using spiced marmalade distress ink.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Crafts and Me - Distressed"

"Divas By Design - Wings"

"Flutterby Wednesdays - Anything with wings"

"Inky Impressions - Punches/dies"

"truly Scrumptious - All Creatures great and small" butterflies are my small creatures.

Feeling Rusty?

Do you feel rusty...I know I did...I've been trying out pilates and I have to say it is really doing the trick...I'm feeling so much more flexible. Still can't touch my toes though...my excuse is I have very long legs and a very short body, so I've got further to reach!!! Enough of that though...just came to mind coz the next "Tanda Teaser" is to use rusty colours in your creation.

My card uses stamps from Tanda...including Zoe's special Wantage girls set...I just wanted to let Zoe know it's great especially these really industrial looking impellers! My rusty cogs are recycled fruit juice cartons coloured with alcohol inks. Lots of distress inks used here....were supposed to be shades of brown, but came out a bit green...need to wash out all my blending foam me thinks!

Oh news on our little feathered guest...he/she we don't know which...after a night in the warm, a fat ball and some water...our little blue tit flew off into the wild this morning....I was half hoping that we would have a little crowd of blue tits waiting on the doorstep this evening...temperatures are due to go down to -10 degrees C tonight. Fingers crossed our blue tit makes it!

Back to the card....I would like to enter it into the following challenges:

"Charisma Cardz - Vintage"

"The Stamp Man challenges - Embellish it"

"Fun With Shapes - Include a die cut/punch"

"Creative Stamp Friend - Old Fashioned or Vintage"

"Cup cake craft - Recycle"

Beautiful Landscapes.

On Monday morning my daughter was in such a rush to catch the school bus that she forgot her PE kit...a few mins later the phone rings..."Mum can you bring my PE kit into school for second period?" So I defrosted the car and off I went chasing the school bus. Normally this is really annoying, but on Monday I didn't feel quite so cross because the frost and the soft morning light was lovely. I just had to stop the car on the way home to take some pictures! These were taken in Wichenford.

With such lovely views I do feel quite privileged to live in the country and with this in mind I decided to set a landscape theme for the next "Tanda Teaser". I have used a mixture of stamps for my sample card, but they are mainly Tanda. First I punched out a circle from a post-it note and used it to mask the sun, then used some ripped paper with distress inks and cut and dry foam to build up the landscape. I used some indigo blu stamps to stamp the fir trees on the hills again using the ripped paper as a mask so that some of the trees looked as though they were the other side of the hill. Once I was happy with the background I removed the mask from the sun and then used the clarity stamp and weathered wood distress ink to stamp the clouds around the sun.

Then I used the foliage stamps, Tanda and Lavinia with Versafine inks in, Olympia green, Spanish moss and smokey gray.


I stamped the sentiment in Olympia green in the centre of the card. The compass was made using some thick card that I die cut, painted gold with eco paint then stamped and triple embossed with clear embossing powder. I had planned to stamp the compass into the hot ep, but it didn't work as well as I wanted it to, hence this was the next best thing.

I printed out a small section of a local map in sepia tones and folded this so that the location was legible on the front. This was then mounted onto the card and a piece of raffia was tied around the card so that the bow was positioned on top of the map.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Cupcake Craftroom - Anything goes"

"Anything goes- anything goes at anything goes"

"Crafty Sentiments - Anything goes"

"Crafty Cardmakers - Anything goes"

"Make it Monday - anything goes"

"Truly Madly Crafty - Anything goes"

"Smudgy antics - masking"

Have Faith

This is my latest Tanda Teaser card (live until next Wednesday). I wanted to challenge everyone to something different, I had realised that up to Christmas I had, sort of, got stuck in a rut with lots of colour themes for the Teaser....not sure how that happened, but I will try to make up for it over the coming months! The idea of the Teaser is to share something that represents some sort of faith, not necessarily Christian, nethertheless, my card does have a Christian theme, I made it for my husband's Uncle Joe in Canada. The stamps were from Tanda Stamps, the Background paper was from the Treasury in Kidderminster. To get the word effect I used a simple resist technique using clear embossing powder and then sponging Chipped Sapphire Distress ink over the top. All in all a quick and simple card to make.

I would like to enter this card into the following Challenges:

"Crafty Card Makers - No floral embellishments"

"Make it Monday - anything goes"

"Stamp and Create - Anything Goes"

"Truely Madly Crafty - Anything goes"

"Addicted to Stamps - Colour Blue"

"Dream Valley Challenge - anything goes"

Rose Tinted

I should have posted this yesterday, but as you might know if you read my blog, things have been a bit more manic than usual. I am more or less sorted...the alarm has been fixed, the new washing machine works brilliantly, the plumbing under the utility sink is fixed, the new printer will print (not how it's supposed to, but at least it will print) and we can make phone calls although we still need to program the phone....

So now I just have to sort Christmas!

This fortnight the Tanda Teaser is "Rose Tinted". I've had enough of Christmas cards now....got them all made and posted so I'm happy not to make another one for quite a few months! I did realise after I'd posted that I seem to have set rather a lot of colour challenges recently so I'll have to make sure I do something different next time!

My card is single layered. I have used Tanda stamps, Aquastamps (available from Tanda) and my Dune dots stamp (available from the Treasury in Kidderminster). I used stamped the padlock first then masked it before sponging distress ink over an acetate mask that I made using a spellbinders die.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

"Make it Monday"

"Corrosive Challenges - Anything but Christmas"

"One Stitch at a Time - Anything goes"

"Sparkles Forum - Anything but Christmas"

"The Crafty Pad - Anything but Christmas"



This is probably the last blog post that I will make before Christmas, so I would like to wish everyone who has visited my blog and especially those who have left comments a Happy Christmas and to say Thank you for your support and encouragement!

I hope to see you in the New Year!

Keeping it Simple!

Seriously, I need to keep things simple....Christmas is galloping towards us and I still need to make loads of Christmas cards! So I decided that one layer might be the answer....sounds easy but I have to say that it took a few experiments to get it right, but once you get the correct colour balance etc....you're off....serious batch process to create something that still looks pretty good. I still need to make the inserts but I am feeling pretty smug as I almost have enough Christmas cards done...a bit of natural wastage in the last year or so, so the address list has got smaller.

For both cards I stamped the holly stamps in Versafine Olympia Green, the berries and other red stuff is stamped using festive berries (one of the limited edition Distress inks).

On the Merry and Bright card I've dusted the berries with glitter to add a bit of frosty sparkle. Serious glitter attack...I'm covered in it....the kitchen counter is covered with it and now I think it just might be an added ingredient to this weeks bread batch...so we will all be sparkly on the inside! LOL!

I'm entering this card into several challenges

"Make My Monday - Christmas with flowers/foliage or snowflakes"

"PanPastels UK Challenge - Frosty and Bright"

"Quirky Crafts - Clean and Simple"

"2 Sisters- Let it Sparkle"

"Allsorts - One Layer Card"

"Phindy's Place - Christmas Cards"

"Wags and Whiskers - Christmas theme"

Oh and I should have said that these cards are for the current Tanda Teaser over at "Tanda Stamps Blog"

Traditional Red and Green for Christmas

Just a quick post....by the end of this week I will be another 5 days behind, perhaps things might get a bit more sane next week! Fingers crossed!

Card was made using Tanda stamps, Copic Markers and Distress Inks.

An experiment........

Ok so this a little experiment....I 'm not where I usually am and I am relying on an iPad and a very, very dodgy wifi to do this. Hubby got me an iPad for my birthday in the summer....really it was a pressy for the family to take away on holiday or out when we are away from home.....so there's me trying to learn what I can do with the thing.....so can I post a blog from this thing? I started this before I left home by saving the picture in a draft post, so now I'm adding the text.

It looks like it's going to work, but I have no idea how to put links in, and not sur the wifi here is up to it!

My card is the next Tanda Teaser, Sepia tones....this is the first of my Christmas Cards this year and uses the Tanda Dot and strip Christmas set.

My next Christmas card here is very likely to be made using the Stylish Christmas set from Creative Expressions.....my fingers are seriously itching I have to say! Probably the only reason I want to go home!

Watch this space.......

Tanda Teaser - Packaging

Hi, just a few mins to put together a post on the "Tanda Teaser". For the next fortnight the theme is to use packaging somewhere on your project. For my card I used the Spellbinders cogs dies to cut cogs out of fruit juice cartons. I then coloured these with alcohol inks. The inks used were distress inks and the banners were cut using the Tim Holtz die. The motorcycle and the crackle are Tanda stamps. The sentiment was stamped using individual letter stamps.

Having just checked out "the Feline Playful blog" I have seen that this card can be entred into two challenges.

Firstly "Just for fun - use something from the kitchen">

and secondly "The Southern Girls Challenge, slugs and snails something for the men/man in your life"

Silver and Blue

The next Tanda Teaser is to use Silver and any shade of Blue for your project.

For my card I stamped the heart panel (Tanda Romance set 2) in Versamark and then heat embossed with silver ep. I then painted over this with turquoise brusho ink. I used the same ink to colour some hand made paper (for the tag) and a short length of seam binding. (The seam binding takes the water based ink just as well as alcohol inks....it just takes a little longer to dry).

I cut the stamped panel out and mounted it onto hand made paper then I wrapped the seam binding around this and tied a bow at the front. This was then stuck onto a DL card. The sentiment was stamped using Tumbled Glass distress ink.

The tag was embossed using the divine embossing folder and the numbers were cut from mat silver card using Tim Holtz Vintage Market die. Having cut out the numbers I covered them in glossy accent before sticking them onto the tag.

I made this card for my next door neighbours....it was their 25th Wedding anniversary a couple of days ago. I would like to enter this card into the "Stampin' B's - Anniversary Challenge"

Tanda Teaser - Monochrome

Hi just popped on to let you know that the next "Tanda" Teaser is Monochrome. My card uses Tanda stamps, spellbinder dies, my Dotty Stamp (exclusive to the Treasury), and Distress inks (Weathered Wood and Stormy Skies).

I punched holes and inserted eyelets using my Crop a dial and used white parcel twine from Ikea....not sure if you can still get it as they didn't seem to have any wrapping stuff last time I was there. The background for this card was done using the compass mask from Tim Holtz and Weathered wood distress ink.

Just a quick reminder!

Just a quick reminder.....the current "Tanda Teaser" , Ribbons and Bows ends tomorrow morning when the next Teaser goes live...so if you have the time to pop over we look forward to seeing you there.

See the Tanda Teaser for the details of stamps used. I used distress inks to stamp and colour the images and glossy accents on the main image....which was stamped on card die cut using nesties. The ribbon was from fantastic ribbons.

Relax!

Creative Expressions are doing a monthly challenge and the idea is that you use their stamps, other than that anything goes...I think that Tatty Button counts so I am entering this card into the "August challenge". For my card I have used Tatty Button and the button stamps...in addition to this I have used my dotty stamp, the running stitch from Tanda mini stitches set and the brick border from Tanda Architectural elements.
Tatty, the wall and the buttons were all coloured using copic markers....a serious amount of masking before using the distress inks (Weathered wood and Pumice stone) and the dotty stamp....then glossy accents on Tatty's lips and the buttons

I spoke to Dad today and he is a little better, he says he doesn't notice the difference but Mum has so fingers crossed.

3 days left to join in with the Tanda Teaser!

Thank you for all your kind comments, private messages and phone calls re my Dad. He has had a bad week but has rallied a little this weekend. My brother is going to fly over from Boston to see him and I will be going down to stay with them next weekend. Needless to say blogging has taken a bit of a backseat lately.

Crafting has still been happening though....still need to make all those birthday cards etc....so, as I haven't blogged the last "Tanda Teaser" ,this is a little reminder that if you want to join in the teaser runs until Wednesday first thing. You just have to use acetate somewhere on your card. As well as acetate I used coke cans...cut out using spellbinders dies and coloured with alcohol inks. Over on the "alphabet challenge site" M is for Metal this week...so this card counts, but as I had blogged this card previously on the Tanda site I thought I should probably blog one I've just made...

My Brother in law will have been married for 10 years in August, I was going to do a gooey lili of the valley anniversary card until I checked out what the gift was supposed to be for 10 years...turns out it is tin or aluminium.


Bit of a result there so their card is a metal fest....two coke cans and one tomato puree tube, some alcohol inks, embossing folders, Tim Holtz dies and a bit of glitz and hey presto! Metal Fest!

Helloooooo

Ooops! haven't posted here for ages! Sorry,I just had to prioritise the Tanda Blog when time was short.

Quick update so far...Em has had to postpone her op date...she wants to be able to swim on holiday, but apparently if she cancels the date she was given, government rules say she has to go back to the gp...to be referred back to Dudley hospital to get another date....how ridiculous is that! She isn't an urgent case so the op date had been already deferred since the original consultation...no fault of Ems that the dates now fall in the time when all families with kids are looking at going on holiday and postponement takes it outside what is permissible?!

Dad is getting weaker by the day, and mum hasn't been well too...so they are struggling... apparently the hospital cannot get the right size needles for biopsy dad needs..this has been going on since the beginning of Jan....where are the government guidelines on this?!

Creative Expressions are looking for new design team members...so I thought I might just have the weekend to prepare for this...then...DH has a serious nose bleed....we ended up in A&E on Friday night!!!!...Not a good time to hit A&E!...DH had to stay the night as they couldn't stem the flow...I got to bed at 2am...and obviously didn't sleep..then back up to hospital in the morning. Had to leave him there as I'd promised to do my bit for the village gala painting faces...DD2 rowing Sunday morning...loads of washing to do....where did the weekend go? Now can I get something made to fit their challenge and get it posted by 5pm?....maybe/maybe not


Today I made a card for one of our nephews and thought I would share it...just had to play around with Tim Holtz dies and fruit juice cartons! thanks to Meikoningin for the juice carton tip....for some reason I don't seem to be able to paste her link here...but if you go to the tanda steampunk teaser challenge you will find her in the comments. Her work is fab so you really should visit!

I decided to enhance the metal effect by triple embossing my juice carton embelishments, this added to the thickness, helping to enhance the effect.