Vintage Butterflies

I received my new Kraft Glassine paper in the post the other day and hadnt even thought about it before, but what do you do with it???

So I stamped some butterflies onto it and they look lovely and vintagy and then I remembered something I had seen on Hels blog the other day - an old butterfly box. I used an Ikea frame here as Ive got plenty in the storage cupboard. It's a very quick project and the Glassine paper works great for a vintage look. It's fairly dark though so I'm not sure how it would work as a card background, but I'll give that a go and report back.

Any good ideas on how to use it anyone???

This frame is goin into the Stampman Challenge where the theme is "All things Tim".

Rusty Metal Roses Frame.....

I have really got into using metal recently, it never agreed with me before but since I started making these flowers with them I've really caught the metal bug. This frame is for a few challenges and it started life with an old 6"x6" shadow box frame. I painted it copper using viva decor inka gold and as that was way too bright I never used the frame for anything so it has been sitting here for ages. But now I came across a Gingersnap Challenge with the theme "Ginger, Rust, Copper" and a challenge over at Try it on Tuesday where we are re-vamping an old frame. And I am also goin with the Spring theme at the Artistic Stamper Challenge Blog, always a fab challenge to enter and I do love their shop. So I used some rust paint on the shiny (very shiny!) frame and went a bit mad with some walnut spray and rubbed it all and that, sounds quicker than it was, I spent hours doing that!!! Much better now the frame with some shiny copper still peeking through here and there but overall much more toned down. The roses are made from Ten Seconds Studio metal using a Paper Artsy flower stamp. The swirls are grungeboard painted with rust effect paint (by Modern Masters, I love their paints!). The background is made up of layers of corrugated card and natural tone canvas. Assemble it all and add a few metal butterflies and that's what you get.

Craft Barn Challenge - Ferro and Terra

There is a challenger over at The Craft Barn and how could I know join in when we are playing with terra paste. One of my favourite products. I used it on this canvas panel and stamped into it. It's great fun, a bit messy but fun! I tend to spend way to much time on painting these kinda things, make sure I get it just right and to make sure the stamped image "pops" out enough. The roses and the butterfly have been dipped in clear UTEE, another fun and messy technique to try. Gives them a nice shiny porcelain-like finish.

Accidental ATC's are the best

Whilst trying to make the ATC on the right I also by accident made the one on the left. I used a cream card base and stamped the Ephemeral Background from Artistic Outpost on it with distress ink. As we all know distress ink stays wet for quite a while and when I went to stamp the persepective image and sprinkle it with embossing powder, a lot of the powder stuck to the distress ink. So I just brushed it all off and decided to start again. But I liked the faintly stamped image of the perspective columns and used it to create this ATC. The design I actually wanted to achieve is the one on the right, I let the distress ink background dry for ages and that time the embossing powder didnt stick to it.

I really love both these atc's as i love that column stamp. But the accidental atc is my favourite. I may have to try use that design to make a card with it, I'm just in love with it!

Even more Mothers Day Inspiration....

Here is another 2 cards for Mothers Day, in case you haven't made your yet these might inspire you, or follow the link on the right ---> to my flickr gallery where there are plenty more ideas!

These are both very easy to make, I especially like the contrast of the b/w stamping on the one on the right, very striking yet so simple.

I am entering the card on the left into the Simon says Challenge.

A very special vintage notepad

I thought to myself the other day whether you can print on sticky back canvas as I've never been very good at any other image transfer techniques (not that I've really practised a lot, I'm a little impatient) so I had a little search online and yes of course you can print on the stuff.

I tried it out straight away and printed this old picture of my mum, I love that pic. It's one of the most beautiful photos I've ever seen!

So I simply stuck this round some chipboard, glued a back to it so it looks neat and went a bit mad with the old perfect pearls mist (I think I used a bit too much). I then stamped some swirls over the top, bound the whole thing with a strong cardboard back and added some fibers and idea-ology. Done.


It is so easy to create a really personal gift like this, and a useful gift too. I'm gonna send this to my mum. And I think I just created a new obsession, printing old photos on sticky back canvas. Uhoh! Loads more notepads to come I think!

I am entering this into the Simon says Stamp and Show Challenge.

Vintage Birdie and a few challenges....

I came across a video yesterday of Tim demonstrating the new distress stains and I had not thought of using them to ink up stamps. Makes perfect sense as they are just liquid ink pads but it was so obvious it didnt cross my mind. So I gave that a go today and created that vintage background using an Artistic Outpost stamp - "Ephemeral Backgrounds" (have I mentioned how much I love their stamps at the momen?!?!). The effect works so well with this old writing, just perfect! The idea with the birdcage I think also came from a similar card from the Artistc Outpost page, I have been browsing so many blogs and pages recently I cant even remember where I've seen half the things.
By the way, the grungeboard cage has also been coloured with distress stain, I think my new favourite thing is to colour grungeboard, the liquid distress makes it sooooo much easier than colouring it with a blending tool.
So this is being entered into the Simon says Stamp and Show Challenge as well as the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

Not made any ATC's in ages.....

....until today.

Just thought the other day that I hadnt made any in so long so I gave it a shot today. I am still loving the Artistic Outpost Ephemeral Backgrounds, the telegram and postcard and fab for making vintage themed things.

I made a third one, but it's still drying so I'll share that later.

In the meantime I'll go an enter these into the Artistic Outpost Referral Program.

More Mothers Day Inspiration....

It's great being able to spend the whole day crafting again and with a rehearsal-free week ahead even more time to get crafty!!
I am just loving Artistic Outpost stamps at the moment, I created this card using the Happiness stamps of theirs.
It's just one of many Mothers Day cards I've been making today, some turned out great, others not so, but it's a question of taste I guess.

I am entering this into the Stampman Challenge - Mothers Day & Floral Theme as well as The Artistic Stamper - Spring has Sprung Challenge.

Last ever Compendium Challenge :(

Sad times, it's the last of the fabulous Compendium of Curiosities Challenge. But what a fab time we had.
So for the last entry I have made a little grungeboard bracelet. I just embossed and die-cut the ends of some grungeboard and painted them, then sanded and inked over.

I stitched the pieces back together and here it is wrapped round. Unfortunately I couldnt take a picture of it around my wrist, I was home alone so it proved rather difficult.

Many, many thanks to Linda for such a fab Challenge it has been great. Thanks for all the effort you put in, commenting on everyone's project and sorting out the prizes too. Thanks so much!!! Wish we could do it all over again!

Something blue, something new, something metal

As mentioned before I finally got to play with some metal over the weekend. Well, I had the tools and everything here for a while now, like half a year but never really managed to create anything worthwhile with it. I have always admired the Paper Artsy projects using metal and I've been inspired after seeing a frame at a recent Artsy Crafts Event. I embossed some blue metal and sanded it to make the script "pop".
The flower was made from silver metal with a flower stamped on, cut out and made into a rose type flower (with my added extra bits in the centre). Check out the Paper Artsy videos on You Tube, there is a great tutorial for making your own.
The little shadow box frame has just been coloured with Viva Inka-Gold Paste, I love that stuff.

This is being entered into a few challenges. First of all there is The Stampsmith Challenge where the challenge is to use something new. And as it's my first proper metal project I reckon it qualifies. Also the Simon says Stamp and Show Challenge where the theme is Metal. And last but not least Happy Daze have started a challenge on their facebook page. It's a fab shop I have been ordering a fair few stamps from recently and they also stock the metal and Viva products I used on this projects.

Mothers Day is approaching fast

It's nice having time to be making cards again. I seem to have neglected that a bit recently, always working on frames and mixed media stuff but after all my obsession with stamping started with card making.
So as Mothers Day is approaching fast I got making on some cards. Inspiration for this actually came from the Stampin Up gallery on flickr. I love browsing all the galleries there for a nice card idea.

I am entering this into the Artistic Stamper Challenge where the theme is Spring this month. Can't say it feels like spring outside, still soooooo cold. But hey, I'm off to work now and I certainly don't see much daylight in my job.

New Art Parts and catching up.....

I've just had a 2 day weekend, it's amazing, everyone should try it! Oh hang on, it's just me who normally only gets 1 day off a week. Bugger.
So I finally had a full day crafting today and I managed to catch up on a lot of things like my magazine contributions and Alter it monthly. And got a chance to play with some metal (more of that later in the week) and also had a little play with the new art parts pocket watch, when I first saw it I knew I had to have them! It's amazing. I used an Artistic Outpost image here and filled the whole thing with UTEE afterwards and sprinkled some beads on top. I really like these, but still not quite sure how to display them. Any great suggestions please leave a comment. Maybe stick a few on a canvas and display them on the wall?

I also managed to bring my Flickr Gallery up to date and got to put all new pictures on my Website next. Still keeping busy and plenty more overtime hours at work to come but at least I feel like I'm on top of things again. Yeah!!!

Also really wanting to do more workshops this year, maybe artsy crafts or something to do with art journalling. I'll have to do my research and get planning!!

MEN - AFFIRMATIVE

As the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge is slowly coming to an end I really am trying to make the effort to join in even though crafting time is rare at the moment. But I am loving this challenge and have learned so many new things from taking part. Techniques I wouldnt have tried otherwise even though I had the compendium sitting here on the shelf.

So I got the super chunky fragment out for this one and stamped onto it the 3 men, I laid some aged music paper behind them to give it a little contrast from the dictionary paper. I added some filmstrip ribbon here and old stamps and a theatre ticket from Tim's sticker sheets. Where the dictionary paper reads " Affirmative" I coloured it on top of the fragment with alcohol ink. Works like a marker pen, just spread some ink and then wipe away til you just got left what you want highlighted. The hand is stamped in acetate and glued onto music paper.

I like this collage technique, I should do it more really. Plenty of fragments waiting to be transformed.

I am also entering this into the Ephemera challenge at Simon says Stamp and Show.

CANDY WINNER

Morning guys....

this has o be just a quick post as I am still rather busy at work even though the show has now opened and it went well, we are now rehearsing all the covers and it doesnt leave much time for crafting and blogging (yet again).

So I popped all the names from the candy post in a hat and the lucky winner is .....

........ Annelies.......

Congratulations!!! Drop me a line at anikraft@hotmail.co.uk and I'll get that in the post for you asap!

Thanks everyone for all the lovely comments!

xxx

Alter it monthly - March Theme - TIME

This month the theme over at ALTER IT MONTHLY is Time. A theme that has been done many times before and will be done many more times in the future, cause it's just timeless.
It's a particular favourite of mine and I have many ideas and thoughts on that theme but just not enough time to craft......

So I decided to make a clock, very fitting I thought. I used Terra texture paste for this and stamped into it. I dried it with a heatgun, quite closely so it bubbles up and gives an extra bit of texture and bumps. I then painted it quite roughly with Precious metal paints. I then rubbed over some silver Viva Gold paste, so I basically used all Viva products. I just love them, they are fab.

Come and join in this month's challenge with a chance of winning a great prize too!!!