Another Wendy Vecchi Tag

Another week flew by and so it's time for another make with the "fab Studio 490 Voice of Art stamps by Wendy Vecchi" available from "Creative Expressions" I used one of the tags that I painted the other week as my base and then layered up using images that I stamped onto vellum and onto cream card. The images were stamped using the masking technique and the vellum was reversed so that the ladies faced in the opposite direction. Lots of recycling involved in the tag too..the wings are juice cartons, the tag and the doily are mount board offcuts and the vellum was an advert wrapped around the newspaper.
I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Stamptacular Sunday - anything goes"

"That Craft Place - Anything but a square or rectangle"

"Clearly Inspired - go green"

"Inspire me Fridays - Anything goes"


"The Stampman - Vellum"

"Totally Papercrafts - things with wings"

"Wags and Whiskers - Anything goes"

"Simon says stamp and show - Anything goes"


The rest of the design team have been busy creating some fab projects with these stamps so be sure to go and check out their blogs too!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours!

Hope you all had a great Easter break...done a bit of travelling up and down the country....Hubby has some serious brownie points from mum having trimmed her hedges! Dad was drifting in and out of sleep all the time we were there, this seems to be normal for him at the moment.

We wanted to have a cream tea before we came home...so I followed a Delia Smith recipe to the tee...and the scones came out of the oven like charcoal blocks!...I had to make a second batch... reducing the cooking time and the oven temp...they did rise and more or less worked! Still got ribbed seriously though!...really Em should have been doing the cooking she has got a lot to learn about looking after herself between now and September!

Mum is convinced her oven thermometer/thermostat is kaput and I think I agree with her..but you know what they say..bad workmen and all that...Have to put a word in here though, because mum is a very good cook! So I do think she needs a new cooker.

Enough of that...I should be showing you my next Dt piece for Creative Expressions using the new Wendy Vecchi stamps...By the way... Thank you sooo much, Wendy, for your very kind comments on my last piece, much appreciated! This next piece is not so Wendy Vecchi is style, but I love the text and the thought that it makes the perfect tag for a special present.

I used a fiskers template to cut a pillow box out of card that I had stamped using the background ledger stamp and the rubber stamp advert stamp.



I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"ginger loft Challenge - Anything but a card"

"Craft us Crazy - Anything but a card/altered item"

"Crafty ribbons - Black and White plus one other colour" my other colour is silver

"Dutch dare challenge - fancy folds"

"For your inspiration - inspired by photo"

"Cooking it up with katie - Fun folds, flower"

Happy Easter

I can't believe that it's Easter already! Where does the time go? Not just that though...the last few months have seen me taking my eldest daughter to her Uni interviews...She has got and accepted a conditional offer to study Graphics at Falmouth University...Unless something goes catastrophically wrong she will be leaving home in a few months time. How scary is that! Seems like only yesterday she was a babe in arms.

Enough of that....the next "Tanda Teaser" is Easter. So this is my Easter card...very simple, using the cross elements from Tanda Mack set 1.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"My Mums Craft Shop - Easter/animals"

"Paper Pretties - Monochromatic"

"The Paper Shelter - Anything goes/Easter"

"Penny's Paper Crafty - Easter"

"Rubys Rainbow - Easter"

"The sisterhood of crafters - Easter"

Happy Easter everyone!!

Stand Up, Ladies, For Your Rights!

Time for another Creative Expressions creation....and this one is sooooo green....lots of recycling...and eco green paints!

The latest set of stamps from "Creative Expressions" are from Wendy Vecchi Studio 490...the voice of art...

The lady really put me in mind of the suffragette movement and I was instantly thinking of blue stockings and education for women..Hence the blue dress (couldn't see her stockings!)and physics/engineering theme.

So what are the green aspects....the cogs are all cut from fruit juice cartons...coloured with alcohol inks, the pin is from a white stuff garment I happened to buy, the chain is from a Christmas cracker that I inked with alcohol inks to make it a brassy colour. The tag and clock are all cut from mount board cut offs that I got free from the local picture framer.

I coloured the base tag with the Eco Green paints...using the crackle technique shown "here"

In case you haven't guessed it this is me...not quite a blue stocking...but graduated at York Uni in Chemistry in '87 now looking forward to a new career in 2012!

I would like to enter this into the following Challenges:

"Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday-Recycle upcycle"
"Fun With Shapes - Time"
"Inspire me Fridays-anything goes"
"Stamping for the weekend - Anything goes"
"Gingersnaps - copper, ginger, rust"
"Whimsey Inspiration - No Patterned Papers"
"Craft Us Crazy - Anything but a card"
"Pixie dust studios - Numbers"...Hopefully Roman numerals count!!?
"Southern Girls - Cards with sentiments"
"Simon Says Stamp and Show Inspiration - Studio 490"
"Lets ink it up - Distressing"

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 Wendy Vecchi Stamps

We have been treated to another set of "Wendy Vecchi stamps" to play with and they are
beautiful! When Ryan emailed us all to
show us what the "Creative Expressions" design team
were getting this month I could see that they would go perfectly with the Wendy
Vecchi stamps that we were sent a couple of months back.

For my card I have used the lacy background from the
first set (Sentimental Art) and the lady and background ledger stamp from this month’s set(The Voice of Art).

I stamped the lady in smoky grey Versafine onto a circle
die cut. I masked her and then stamped
the ledger over the top in pumice stone.
When I cut the mask I left a small border around the lady so that the
ledger would be thrown even more into the background. The edges of the circle were then distressed
with pumice stone distress ink. The next
circle was cut from smooth white card using a spellbinders die, this was then
distressed with chipped sapphire distress ink.
The next layer on the card was stamped using Versafine and the lacy
stamp and then distressed with pumice stone.
The bottom layer was stamped in Cobalt blue archival ink using the
ledger background. By stamping it on the
diagonal I was able to stamp around the edges without any obvious
overlaps. The bottom two layers were
stitched together and then I chose a fancy leaf stitch to stitch the seam
binding across the bottom third of my
card.

The tag was cut using the same set as the blue circle,
just a smaller die. I then cut it into a
tag shape using a scalpel and metal ruler.
I stamped this with the lace stamp in pumice and distressed the
edges. The sentiment was stamped in
chipped sapphire. The ribbons are seam
binding dyed with chipped sapphire distress ink. The flower is made with hand-made paper using
a spellbinders die. The leaves and
flourish behind the flower are cut using the heartfelt dies that we were using
for the last month.

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

"bunny Zoes Craft - shabby chic/vintage"
"Made Especially for you - Distress"
"Stamps & Fun - Make your own flowers"
"the crazy challenge - add a sentiment"
"secret crafter - shabby chic vintage"
"Gingerloft - Happy Birthday"
"One Stitch at a time - anything goes"

While I’m here I thought I would share some pictures from
our little trip to Zell am See. Zell was
really pretty so here are some pictures of the lake and the town, and some of the skiing.

Sorry things have been a bit quiet here...I've been away for the last week and I'm still catching up!

This is my next Creative Expressions Dt piece using the heartfelt stamps and dies. I used a versamark ink pad to stamp the images then used chalk to colour the images. The background was made using the rose bud stamp. The seam binding was dyed using Victorian velvet distress stains and the leaves were made using one die cut from the heartfelt die set cut in two. The main rosebud image was stamped onto an oval cut from the spellbinders lacy oval set.


I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Crafty bloggers network"

"Love to Create - anything goes"
"Make it Monday - anything goes"
"Simon Says Stamp - make your own background"
"sparkles forum challenges - Mothers day"

Cosmic!

This is a bit of an experiment....so I'm not sure how this is going to turn out...pictures may appear in strange places.

This is my 3rd DT piece for "Creative Expressions"using the heartfelt bella rose stamps and dies. I stamped the rose and leaves onto black card with versamark and then dusted them with cosmic shimmer mica powders. I then fixed the powder by using cheap hairspray. I distressed the edges of my card with a thread cutter and then swiped a gold Krylon pen over the top of this to give a really distressed look. I also sprayed the stamped card with gold mica powder. I layered my card up with cream and green vellum and seam binding dyed using a bundled sage re-inker.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:
"Birthday Sundaes must use green"
"Let's Ink it up - Show us your flowers"
"Allsorts Challenge - Say it with flowers"
"Raise the bar - going green"
"Aud Sentiment Callenge - Happy Birthday"
"CCEE Stampers - Flowers,flowers, flowers"
"Do you stack up - Go green"

Heartfelt Mother's Day

My next piece for Creative Expressions features the Heartfelt Bella Rose Bold stamps and matching dies. For my card I die cut 6 rose buds in a fairly smooth, but absorbent card stock. I inked up my stamp using some Marvy le Plume pens that I've had for ages...roll on the arrival of the new Distress Markers...(need to save my pennies big time!). I then pressed the die cuts onto the stamp. I found it easier to get the die and stamp lined up this way. I then coated the rose buds with glossy accents and allowed them to dry. I didn't spritz the stamp with water before stamping because the glossy accents makes the ink bleed....can you guess I what you see here is my second attempt? Just thought I'd save you making the same mistake!
>My card base is heavy duty acetate. I stamped the tiny rose bud randomly around the outside in Saddle brown staZon. When making an acetate card you need to be careful to line things up so that each side of the acetate is perfectly covered. To do this I used the Spellbinders Lacy Oval die cut out 4 times. I distressed and stamped these ovals in Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink.

When my rosebuds were dry I curved them carefully so as not to crack the glossy accent coating. I worked out my positioning first then stuck two leaf flourishes (one cut down)(dark green pearlised card) so that they would be under my bouquet. Then I mounted 5 rose stems on the front of the card using silicone glue to form a bouquet. I chose to use silicone glue so that I had time to move them around and it also gave me time to poke in the sprigs of foliage...(The foliage was the spiky leaf die cut up)(again dark green pearlised card).

I also stuck a single rose bud on the inside of the card and finished the card with a tag tied on with an organza ribbon.

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

"Classy Cards and Such - Flowers"
"Clearly Inspired - Anything"
"Crafty Catz - Punches/Dies"
"The Stampman - Use colours of spring"
"Stempelsonne Challenge - A Flower for You"
>
"Wags and Whiskers - Spring or Travel"
"Crafters Companion - Spring"
"Cup Cake Craftroom - Spring bouquet"

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"

Heartfelt Creations

We just received the products from "Creative Expressions" for this month's DT makes. This month we have the brilliant "Bold Bella Rose PreCut Set" and the "Bella Rose Dies" from Heartfelt Creations.

I had a couple of presents to wrap at the weekend and thought that these stamps would be perfect for making hand made wrapping paper. I used some brown parcel paper and then selectively inked up my stamps with Marvy brush pens. It took ages to do but I was quite pleased with the result. Once stamped, I sprayed the sheet with gold mica similar to cosmic shimmer....(I'm just using up what I've got in the draw). The shimmer just gave the paper a lift making it a bit more special. I had to iron it when it was dry just to straighten the paper out a bit.


The tags were stamped using the same pens, but this time I stamped off one image first, then sprayed the stamp with a fine mist of water before stamping onto semi absorbent cream card that I had already spritzed with gold mica, this gave the very slightly fuzzy image that I wanted.

I wrapped the presents with the paper then tied the tags of with raffia which I layered with the die cut leaf flourish.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

"Corrosive Challenges - Another Dimension"

"That Crafty Place - Anything goes"


"2 Sisters - Anything goes"

"One Stop Craft - Colour on Craft"

"Allsorts Challenge - It's your choice"

"Stempelsonne Challenge - A Flower for You"

"Fun with Shapes and more - Package"

Paris Revisited

I had to make a birthday card for one of our French friends and wasn't sure what direction to go in. He is not very well and is confined to bed so a sporty card would probably be a bit insensitive. One of his great loves is good wine, but I'm not sure if he's allowed to drink so again a wine themed card could be insensitive.


He has always been very patriotic so in the end I decided to use the Just Rite Cling stamps that I got from Creative Expressions a few months ago. I chose a cream/brown/turquoise colour palette. I didn't want the card to look too feminine so I chose to make brown flowers using scraps of brown parcel wrapping paper. The flower centres are brads. I also had some scraps of DP left over from my first hidden message card and some scraps of vellum to use up so these were incorporated into the card too.

I distressed the edges of the elements in my card using frayed burlap distress ink....unfortunately my blending foam is still giving a green tinge so please ignore this, it is supposed to be brown. The dies I used for the flowers, leaves and the main focal point of the card were all Spellbinder dies.

I dyed the seam binding using brusho ink which turned out to be a very close colour match to the combination of tumbled glass and broken china that I had used to colour the main focal point of the card. The words, postcard, stamp, Fleur de Lys border, Eiffel Tower were all stamped using Coffee Archival ink. The post mark was stamped using Black Ancient Page.

I would like to enter this into the following challenges....
"Fashionable Stamping - Monochromatic plus one other colour"

"Creations by Gill M - Colour challenge"

"Card Crafters Circle - Use Die Cuts"


"Daring Card Makers - Postage Mail"

"Fabulous Friday - Brads or Eyelets"

"Stamping for the weekend - Photo inspiration"

"Totally Paper Crafts - ribbons and or bows"

"Delightful Challenges - Use your scraps"

"Do you stack up - Layers"

"Southern Girls - so distressed"