Circles

I've decided to participate in another July blog challenge, this time belonging to The Artistic Stamper and the theme this month is 'Circles'.  Talk about leaving it to the last minute, the challenge closes in a few hours so I'd better get typing and linking!!

I started by cutting the small and large Spellbinders Lacey circles and then cut full circles using the inside of the largest size as my template.  Next I used Stampin'Up seeing spots rubber stamps with black ink to create the circles on my background, and applied Tim Holtz summer seasonal distress inks.  Using the lid of my Adirondack acrylic paint dabber I applied 3 circles of Tim Holtz picket fence distress stain.  Finally I added a few circles of gold paint dabber and edged the background circle in gold.  Once I was happy with the finished piece, I put the circle into the Cuttlebug spots and dots embossing folder and ran it through my bigshot.

Next I stamped Creative Expressions tatty button and used a couple of Tim Holtz spring seasonal distress inks along with a couple of other shades to colour the girl with my water brush (I'm loving this technique at the moment).  I used Ranger glossy accents on her dress and a Sakura white gel pen to highlight her hair and shoes.

For the sentiment I used one of the Stampin'Up circle of friendship stamps, coloured the background in the same was as before and covered it in glossy accents.

I stuck everything together using silicone glue to give the circle some depth and added a couple of pins behind the sentiment and a piece of twine between the 2 sides so that I can hang the piece.

 I created the back of my circle hanging piece using the same techniques and products as the front.

I also decided to use the same idea to create a birthday card for one of the Bramford girls who I craft with, (hopefully Carol will receive the card in the morning before seeing my blog post!)

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

We're All Going On A Summer Holiday

The theme for the July Happy Daze Blog challenge is 'We're All Going On A Summer Holiday' and I've finally managed to get into my craft room to create something, this time I am going to enter a card.  I love the seaside and beach huts and always enjoy spending some time there during my holidays.

To create the card I started by stamping one of the Docrafts Michael Powell Stamps, I recently received a set as the subscription gift for Craft Stamper Magazine.  I used a number of different Tim Holtz distress inks and a water brush to colour the image, I then ripped around the image and inked the edges with brown.  Next I ripped a piece of white tissue paper just bigger than the image and again inked around the edges and mounted both pieces to the front of a card.  I used a gold glitter pen to highlight the sand and Ranger glossy accents on the beach huts (although these do not show on the photo).  Finally I stamped a Tim Holtz sentiment and attached some twine.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

Carol's Workshop - Cheese box

I've had a very busy week and only managed to get in my craft room once to make a couple of cards for birthday's this week.  As I can't show these until after the birthdays, today I am sharing an item from a workshop hosted by Carol last year.  I didn't actually attend the class but instead I had a kit to complete at home.

I started by painting the outside of the medium cheese box with white and black Adirondack acrylic paint dabbers, I kept the brush fairly dry for this.  I then added Tim Holtz tissue tape around the outside of the lid and a strip of lace to the top.  I made the flower from the stamped images in the kit leaving the dark stamp edge in place and added seed beads into the middle making sure they attached to the silicone glue.  I painted the hand embellishment in gold dabber, threaded the remaining beads onto wire and wound the string around the hand shape.  The Tando bookplate was coated with the black and gold dabbers and once dry covered with Tim Holtz distress crackle paint clear rock candy, then rubbed over with Tim Holtz distress ink brushed corduroy once dry.  Finally, I cut out the stamp sized image from Graphic 45 paper and assembled all of the elements.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

Art from the Heart

Once a month the Kesgrave Craft girls meet for a couple of hours but recently our group has been more about the chat than the craft, so for the June meeting Jacqui set us a project to alter an mdf heart.  I hadn't really thought about what to take until about 15 minutes before so I picked up my Tim Holtz cargo storage case and a parcel that had just arrived from Art from the Heart.  Now I have a love of all things Dylusions but as I want everything I needed to prioritise my purchases so the parcel contained the 6 5x8 stencils plus Stampotique twinkie stamp which I have been wanting to get my hands on for ages.  The content of the parcel was wrapped in red tissue paper, twine and a red and white spot wooden heart and so my idea was born.  I am going to enter this finished heart into the current Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge - Depth of Distress.

I started by painting the edges of the mdf heart with a Ranger adirondack pitch black acrylic paint dabber.  I then cut two hearts from white card stock just smaller than the mdf heart.  For the front heart I covered the heart with Tim Holtz tissue tape then used Tim Holtz distress inks festive berries, barn door and picked raspberry to distress the background.  I used the Dylusions diamond of a boarder stencil with snow cap dabber, the dotted flowers stencil with the pitch black dabber and the letter jumble with festive berries distress ink.  Once dry I outlined the diamonds with a black pen and just inside added a line with a glitter pen, I added glossy accents over the dots and I used a white pen to highlight the letters.  I also made a dash line border around the edge of the heart and used the Tim Holtz tiny attacher to add film strip ribbon across the middle.  I added liquid pearls to the top right and black Ranger stickles to the top left of the heart.  I attached the heart from my AFTH packaging to the top centre with glossy accents.  Next I stamped twinkie on some white card stock and using my water brush coloured him with gathered twigs, faded jeans and mowed lawn distress inks before covering him with Tim Holtz Distress crackle paint rock candy and fixed in place using sticky pads.  Finally I added an appropriate hand written sentiment.

For the back of the heart I wanted to try a new technique and stamped the Prima brick wall, Kaisercraft bubble wrap and PaperArtsy mini 56 to the second white card stock heart.  I then covered the whole piece with Claudine Hellmuth multi-medium gloss and covered it with the red tissue tape that my AFTH package came wrapped in and then covered again with multi-medium.  Once dry I added perfect pearls powder to the top right corner.  Finally I used multi-medium to paste both card stock hearts to the mdf shape and added the twine from my package as the hanger.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x