Butterfly Dreams

Finally the 'Jade' products I ordered arrived today, so this evening I have spent time in my craft room creating my entry for this month's challenge over at Bombshell Stamps (nothing like last minute)!  I received the Butterfly Dreams set this month and knew that I wanted to use these but Ms. May really did challenge me as she set a colour (grey, jade, gold, silver, white) and a texture (dry embossing, scrolls, scallops, satin ribbon, metallic glitter etc.) theme.  Now I had nothing 'jade' in my craft stash except for a couple of hat pins so in the end I purchased a pot of Cosmic Shimmer ultra thick embossing crystals and a Copic marker to use on my project, I tried for a sheet of Bazzill card stock too but it was out of stock in the end.

So apart from the Bombshell Stamps, Copic pen, Cosmic Shimmer embossing crystals and the hat pins, I used the Tim Holtz tag and flourish dies, Cuttlebug divine swirl embossing folder, silver gems, Angelina fibres, white and gold card stock, brown, silver and gold ink, Sakura gold shimmer gel pen, a grey promarker pen, Tim Holtz rock candy distress crackle paint, Tim Holtz crinkle ribbon, Tim Holtz embossing ink, a gold wax pellet, gold and silver ribbon and double sided foam.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

'F' is for Friendship

The eleventh letter in the The Craft Barn alpha challenge is 'F' but with the additional challenge to use a word between FE and FR so I have chosen the word Friendship.

I started with the usual piece of 6x7 inch white card stock and punched the 2 holes on the correct side of the page so that I can eventually add it my book.  I glued the dictionary page to the card stock and inked the page (excluding the word and definition) with the Tim Holtz tattered rose, seedless preserves and picked raspberry distress inks. I spritzed with water, dried and went round the edges with a Dylusions flower stencil to remove some of the colour before drying again.  I stamped the Creative Expressions tatty button girl twice, a small Tim Holtz butterfly 3 times and then created an edge using the Prima brick wall stamp.  I coloured the images with Promarkers and added black pen lines and gold Ranger paint dabber round the edge of the page, plus a few splats of picket fence distress stain over the brick effect.  Next I die cut the appropriate Tim Holtz alphabet letter and stamped my chosen word onto black card stock.  Finally I doodled around the word and definition and covered with Tim Holtz rock candy distress crackle paint.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

Purple, Blue and White

I have been in my craft room this morning and managed to complete my entry for the Tando Creative May challenge which is to use the colours 'Purple, Blue and White'.  I bought a new set of stamps during a trip to Birds in the Barn a couple of months ago and thought that they would work well for this challenge.  It is always worth popping by to take a look and join in with the challenge and this month they have a DT call too (are you tempted, I am...)

I started with a Tim Holtz die cut tag which I coloured using Tim Holtz faded jeans, salty ocean and seedless preserves distress inks.  I spritzed the background with water, heat dried, added black pen lines to the edge and then stamped 3 of the Katy Sue Designs Limited Fabulous Shoes collection 2 images.  I stamped the main image onto white card stock, added the dragonfly and then cut out using the Spellbinders lacey circles before colouring with blue and purple Letraset promarkers.  I used a Sakura glitter pen to add sparkle to the outside of the shoe, the edge of the leaves and the dragonfly wings on the background and then covered the flower and dragonfly wings on the circle with Ranger glossy accents.  To finish the main piece off I added colour dots with the promarkers and a faux stitching with a black pen to the edge of the circle and attached it to the tag using double sided foam tape.  Next I added a clear stone to the centre of the flower, 3 gems to the background and 3 colours of bakers twine through the tag hole and secured using 3 Tim Holtz tiny attacher staples.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

A photo of Lily

This morning I completed a tag for the Out of a hat creations weekly challenge #61 - 'Use a photograph'. I used to look after a little girl called Lily and I love this photo of her. Unfortunately I don't see Lily anymore but she's never far from my thoughts.

I decided to create a tag and started by cutting a Tim Holtz die cut and a Jenni Bowlin heart journaling card in white card stock and inked both pieces with barn door and festive berries distress ink and then spritzed with Dylusions post box and white linen spray inks.  I added a faux stitch to the edge of the heart and stamped a Prima script before edging both pieces with the black Ranger Acrylic paint dabber.  I cut a heart border and 3 butterflies from Martha Stewart punches and added red ribbon, I used the tiny attacher to hold the top piece in place. I added 3 red clear beads, a Tim Holtz sentiment plus a Stampin'Up sentiment added using 2 Stampin'Up punches.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x

Wedding Card

I was asked to create an A5 Wedding card for someone at work and the colours I have used are based one the Wedding website the couple created and are white and duck egg blue (I really hope this is what they are continuing through the day!).  I am also going to enter today's post into the current challenge at Frilly and Funkie which is called 'A Time For Weddings' and asks us to use white and one other colour.  Although my card isn't typically vintage I think the additional colour is.

I didn't have any duck egg blue card stock so instead I used a Letraset promarker on white card stock to introduce the colour behind my blocks of white card stock.  I printed the words in grey ink on my computer and the flowers are white Prima paper ones which I again coloured with the promarker and spritzed with the Tattered Angels marshmallow glimmer mist.  I used the Sizzix primitive hearts die, swiss dots cuttlebug embossing folder and added ribbon and clear gems to add a little more interest.

Thanks for looking!

Tracey x 

Wedding Invites

Last month before my holiday, I was busy making Wedding Invitations for my Sister's forthcoming big day later this year.  To start with I had help from my friend Lynda who came round for an evening and we ran a small production line and Lynda's help was very much appreciated.  I ended up making 21 day and 100 evening invites.  I believe all or most of the invites have now been sent so I thought I'd show you what design I came up with, even this simple creation took quite a while with the numbers involved.  The photo isn't great but the photo of the evening invite was even worse (I really must work on my photography skills)!

I used Papermania plain and textured cream and gold card stock, Cuttlebug stylized flower embossing folder, Tim Holtz tattered rose distress ink, Tattered Angels marshmallow glimmer mist, and double sided foam.  The wedding and evening invitation stamps were inherited from my friend Clair who had made her own invites a few years ago and they came in very handy.  I printed the inserts in grey ink on cream paper.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

Eyes Without a Face

My body clock woke me up at my normal working week time this morning so I headed into my craft room nice and early and completed a tag for the Out of a hat creations weekly challenge #60 - Eyes.

I started with a Tim Holtz tag which I spritzed with water and then Dylusions inks in green, orange and yellow, the inks started to run so I let them run down the tag.  Once dry I spritzed the tag with more water and dried again.  I used one of the Dylusions eyes to stamp an edge round the background and then covered the whole tag with Tim Holtz rock candy distress crackle paint and rubbed brushed corduroy distress ink into the cracks.  Next I used a different Dylusions stamp, this time the eyes with glasses, I stamped it 3 times, cut out and coloured with Letraset promarkers and I added glossy accents to the eyes.  I stamped my sentiment which is from a Billy Idol song and has been in my head since the challenge was set on Thursday, I added a black pen edge and rubbed the brushed corduroy distress ink to soften the white card stock.  Finally I added a ribbon.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

'K' is for Kitten

The tenth letter in the The Craft Barn alpha challenge is 'K' and I have chosen the word Kitten.

I started with the usual piece of 6x7 inch white card stock and punched the 2 holes on the correct side of the page so that I can eventually add it my book.  I glued the dictionary page to the card stock and then stamped the kitten, feather and 3 dragonflies before inking the page (excluding the word and definition) with the 3 Tim Holtz Autumn 2011 Distress inks.  Next I placed a Dylusions stencil on each edge of the page and removed the colour with a baby wipe before spritzing the page with water, once dry I replaced the stencil over the areas and added a black line through the stencil before adding a white line inside each square.  I used Letraset promarkers to add colour to the stamped images and as always added the appropriate Tim Holtz alphabet letter and stamped my chosen word onto black card stock.  Finally I doodled around the word and definition and covered with Tim Holtz rock candy distress crackle paint and added black and white pen lines around the page.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

A Postcard from France

I managed to spend some time in my craft room again yesterday morning and one of the projects I completed was for the Out of a hat creations challenge 59 'A Postcard from France'.

I cut a piece of white card stock 6x4 after checking postcard measurements on the Internet and then used various suitable Tim Holtz stamps along with distress inks and water.  To finish the postcard I attached it to a piece of brown card stock cut just a little larger in size.

Thanks for Looking!
Tracey x

'A' is for Adolescent

The ninth letter in the The Craft Barn alpha challenge is 'A' and I have chosen the word Adolescent.

I started with the usual piece of 6x7 inch white card stock and punched the 2 holes on the correct side of the page so that I can eventually add it my book.  I glued the dictionary page to the card stock and then covered the whole page (excluding the word and definition) with water and Dylusions ink sprays in varying purples, pinks and white.  I added Tim Holtz black soot distress ink around the edge of the page and then added black and white lines and added the same around my word and definition before covering it with rock candy distress crackle paint.  I added some picket fence to tone down the colour and stamped the Stampotique prom queen and hanging hearts and coloured using Letraset promarkers.  Next I added the appropriate Tim Holtz alphabet letter and stamped my chosen word onto black card stock.  Finally I covered areas of the page with a Dylusions stencil and removed some of the colour using a baby wipe.

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x

Hearts and Swirls Picture Frame

Well I'm back from Vegas and finally had a chance to get into my craft room this evening so I've created something for the following challenges:
Out of a hat creations challenge 58 'Picture Frame' (also incorporating last week's challenge 57 'Hearts and Swirls' as I missed joining in).
Inspiration Emporium May challenge 'Don't Quote Me'.

I started with an old frame that I purchased cheaply at a crop and covered it with two layers of Claudine Hellmuth gesso, I couldn't wait for it to dry naturally so I dried each application with my heat gun.  Next I spritzed the frame with Dylusions inks in red, white and black and again dried before stippling with Tim Holtz rock candy distress crackle paint to create the texture.  Once happy with the effect I again heated with my heat gun.  Next I stamped and cut out a Tim Holtz sentiment, plus die cut a Tim Holtz swirl, I inked both with red and black distress inks.  I attached the swirl to the top corner with glue and attached the heart on top with double sided foam.  Finally I added 3 pins behind the heart.

For the inside I cut a piece of white card stock the size of the hole and stamped a background with Stampotique hearts and PaperArtsy swirl stamps.  I spritzed with the Dylusions red and white inks followed by water and dried.  I printed a photo of me with my Mum and Dad and mounted it onto white card stock, I also stamped the same sentiment as above and then added the heart from Tim Holtz on top.  I attached both of these pieces to the background and inserted behind the glass. Finally I added glossy accents to the heart (which isn't dry in the photo).

Thanks for looking!
Tracey x