Happy birthday...

...to Jack my son, who is 17 today.  Where did the time go? (and where have you heard that said before?) This is not my usual style but perfectly suitable for an obsessed drummer.

The musical notes are a Memory Box Die and the image is a digital one from KennyK.  They have quite a few music/band oriented images if you need one.

Happiness is reflective....

Sue Carrington is the inspiration for the challenge this week over on the PaperArtsy blog.  She has created the most gorgeous canvas using PA products - it's really worth a look just to see the techniques she's used even if you don't take part. It certainly inspired me to have a go!

This is a much larger area than I usually work on and I have no idea what made me grab this 8 x 10 canvas but I seem to have managed to fill it.

I stencilled using Golden Fibre Paste (Grunge Paste is on my wish list!) then painted the whole canvas with white acrylic and Fresco Cinnamon mixed together for an off white shade.  Once dry, I added Tinned Peas, Guacamole and Pumpkin Soup (sounds like a strange meal!) I made sure each layer was dry before adding the next shade in order to avoid grunging up the colours. I added some stencilling and added the "bump" technique.  (Sue's is WAY neater than my version).  Some stamping was added with a random word stamp.

At this point I went off in my own direction as I couldn't use any of the stamps Sue used.  I've had this wonderful oriental gent for years.  He's about 18 cm/7 inches high and a lovely detailed stamp.  The dies are all Memory Box and the quote is a years old label from my stash.

I edged the whole canvas with Hyde Park and added some gold Liquid Leaf gently across the top to add some highlights.  You can just see the effect here.

I really enjoyed making this, but I haven't quite decided whether it's a complete mess or it works.

InLinkz.com

Just playing..

It's still feezing here so I'm quite happy to hibernate with my craft stuff.  My Hobbycraft had some Tim Holtz dies on sale (yes really!) So I snapped up a couple including the hanging sign.  I couldn't find it any cheaper - even on the internet.

 The tag is was cut out from one of my inky backgrounds.  I put Golden's Micaceous Iron Oxide through the leaf stencil (similar to Viva Ferro).

Here's a close up on the flower. The leaves are Memory box covered in platinum UTEE.  The seam binding was dyed to match. The flower was cut from a thick felt with a Spellbinders die. I also lightly brushed the leaf  with Versamark and embossed it with some platinum UTEE as well as running the UTEE round the edges.

Birthday cards

Here are a couple of cards I made recently.  The first layout has been posted before but it looks very different with a colour change and the numbers added.  The dies are Memory Box.  I've covered the numbers with gold UTEE and only partially melted it.

For this one I've used a Gecko Galz collage sheet, corrugated card with gesso spread across it, a Spellbinders label die, Tim Holtz rosette and a couple of pieces of paper from my stash.

Die Cutting

It's taken me a while but I'm slowly incorporating die cutting more and more into my cards. The Tim Holtz On the Edge dies add a really interesting dimension to your card shape too.

The card below uses the Memory Box bird cage cut twice with the bird trapped inside.

I used the left over aperture cut out to decorate the inner using the next size up as a border.

Journalling Swap - Month 5 (July)

This month, I thought I'd share my love of making backgrounds and getting generally mess with ink  - and I do mean messy! lol.

TH Tags of 2012 - August

I've never done one of Tim's tags before but this one got to me so I had a play and came up with this.

The butterfly stamp is from Kaisercraft, the "journey" stamp Technique Tuesday,  the twigs and leaves Memory box dies. The rest is Tim stuff.

It was difficult to get a good pic of the flowers so here's a close up (which isn't great either lol)

Edit: Also entered for the Sir Stampalot Challenge which is "Take Flight."

Today's offering..

As usual this just evolved.  I've used one of my own spray ink backgrounds, Memory Box Butterfly Chain and church window Lost Coast Designs, script paper from Papermania's Bookprint paperback (really useful paper pack this), embellishment from Prima and  pearl flourish from Creative Expressions.  Some of you might recognize the words as a song title?

Grungy Tag

Over the weekend Anna Dabrowska, otherwise known as Finnabair held a UStream class.  As a long time admirer of her work, it was good to see how she puts things together so this is a tag a la Finnabair style.  I can't quite decide if I love it or hate it at the moment but I had huge fun making it which is the main thing! It's also a great way of using up stash and combining all those little pieces you've collected over the years.

... and just in case you can't see it clearly, detail of the metal in the bottom left hand corner.

Memory Box stamps

This is a tag made with one of the Memory Box stamps which also has a matching tag die.  Memory Box have built in a very nifty way of lining up their stamps and matching dies so that you get a perfect cut out every time too.  You can see the video here

The paper I've used is also from Memory Box (hooked or what! lol)

Memory Box.. again..

Just a couple more samples for you.  This one's very simple but with such a beautiful die cut you don't need much. It'll be lovely for Valentine's Day (if you do that sort of thing ...)

The word stamp I've used here is from Stempelglede.  If you enlarge the pic you should be able to see the hint of glitter.  The colours aren't great here and it shouldn't look as dull as this!.  Roll on the brighter days

In love with Memory Box

I've just recently discovered the Memory Box dies and I just love their intricacy.  I got some through the post at the beginning of the week and this week has been a perfect chance to play.  (can you see my curly hazel that the tag is hanging from?)

This is the gorgeous Vivienne (top) and Darla (base) butterflies.  Considering how intricate the dies are, they cut beautifully.

.. and this is the Cupid Heart (base) and the fab Serafina Heart (top).  Have a look at the detail below.

I can see I will be adding to my collection of these.