Christmas Countdown Day 3 - Angel Wings

Christmas Countdown Day Three

Angel Wings

The gorgeous Tattered Lace angel wings die inspired me to make this card.

The stamp is a Lili of the Valley stamp and I painted it with Twinkling H2O's and Inktense pencils.  The layers are distressed with faded chipped sapphire distress in and there is a splattering of distress spray in brushed pewter.  The snow flakes and wooden shapes where covered with the distress sprat and glittered with stickles for a touch of extra sparkle.

Supplies
Tattered Lace Dies Angel Wings (D1037)
Lili of the Valley Stamp Peace on Earth
First Edition Silent Night Paper Pad
Papermania Capsule Collection Bexley Black Doily
Wooden Stars and snowflakes HobbyCraft
Die Cut Snow Flake cut on Silhouette
White berry sprig from The Range
Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire
Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain in Brushed Pewter
Inktense pencils
Twinkling H2O's
Silver and white bakers twine HobbyCraft
White lace from stash
White cobweb fabric HobbyCraft
Stardust Stickles
White Sequins

Hope you liked today's instalment.

Happy Crafting
Anna x

Steampunk Stuff

Morning ladies and gentles:)

My Brother-in-Law is Steampunk mad and I, also love me some Steampunk too, so as it was his birthday yesterday, I thought I would indulge in a bit of card making (lol!  as if I don't do enough) and made him a Steampunk style card.

Here's the results, quite pleased with it.

I love all the texture and dimension especially the clock face which I created in Silhouette studio and cut on my Cameo, then sprinkled with copper, gold and Tim Holtz distress powder in walnut stain and heat embossed.  The numbers were created using a really old Helix plastic stencil, it's probably twenty years old lol!  Just goes to show I never throw anything away.  I mixed some modelling paste with some mica powders and some early espresso ink refill to colour it, however in retrospect I really didn't need the mica powder as you can't see it.  I spread the paste through the stencil and then covered with distress embossing powder.  Because the stencil is so thick it gave loads of dimension to the paste.  However I got impatient waiting for it to dry and blasted it with the heat gun, even though it had felt dry, it still puffed up.  It did give it a very cool appearance though and the embossing powder worked really well.

For the tag I splodged some walnut stain, gathered twigs and scattered straw on to my mat and spritz with water, then dragged a manilla tag through the inky mess and then dried with a heat gun.  I then spritzed with Mr Huey's dark calico spray and Dilusions white spray and spritzs with some water, dried and then stamped with Ranger archival ink in potting soil and inked with the same three inks I used to distress the tag.

So lots of messy, inky fun, it made a change from the girly stuff I normally do.

Supplies
Inks
Tim Holtz Distress ink pads Scattered Straw/Walnut Stain/Gathered Twigs/Brushed Corduroy
Rangers Archival Ink Pads Black/Potting Soil
Brilliance Cosmic Copper Pigment Ink Pad
Spray inks
Dylusions Picket Fence
Mr Huey's Dark Calico
Stamps
Creative Stamping Magazine free set Timeless Opulence
Craft Stamper magazine free stamp moustache and Glasses
Prima  Tempus Fugit Cling Stamps
Other
SteamPunk Antique Brass Elements from Hobby Craft
Tim Holtz Ideology Memo Pins/spinners
Papermania Chronology Collection Gears/Clock Faces and Label Plates
Manilla Tag
Tim Holtz Cor'dinations Kraft cardstock
Windsor and Newton Galeria Acrylic Modelling Paste
Embossing Powder Gold/copper/Tim Holtz distress powder walnut stain
Distress Crackle Paint Rock Candy
Tin Holtz Gears Embossing Texture Fade Folder

Thanks for dropping by, leave some love in the shape of a comment to let me know what you think.

TTFN
Anna x

Tattered Lace Blog Challenge Inspiration Holiday/Vacation Theme

Tattered Lace Blog Challenge Inspiration Holiday/Vacation Theme

Well I can't believe that September has come around so quickly, here we are again and it's time for a new Tattered Lace blog challenge.  This months challenge is to create something with holidays/vacations in mind, anything goes as long as you have used a Tattered Lace die on the project.  Go check out the challenge there is a bundle of Tattered Lace Embossing folders this month.

My project was a scrapbook page, I love scrapbooking but don't get much time to do it.  I always pick up souvenirs when we go out walking, we spend most of our holidays in the Lake District, it's our favourite place.  Our holidays are of a much muddier kind than most peoples and we love nothing better than getting up in to the fells and mountains but sometimes the weather thwarts us, this was one of those times.

The photos on the layout are from our holiday last September, it was so windy and wet the mountain rescue teams were warning people to not climb the higher fells so we spent the week exploring the area around Eskdale, the photos where taken by the Stanley Ghyll waterfall.  The walk took us along the banks of the river Esk and although it poured with rain all day, we had a wonderful time.  Because of the rain, the river was in spate and the waterfall was spectacular, we walked deeper and deeper into the gorge towards the waterfall and it felt like we were going back in time, it felt like a lost world.  I wanted to capture the muddiness and the autumnal feel with this page and so used lots of distress ink.

I started with a 12 x 12 sheet of cardstock from Tim Holtz Kraft Core using the kraft coloured side for the page and peeled paint for the photo mats, I cut two frames using the TL Bloomsbury frame in pumpkin American crafts card stock and used these to frame the photos.  I distressed the page using some Mr Huey's colour mists in manilla, sunset, warm and dark calico and Tattered Angels creme de chocolat.

I stamped leaves randomly all over the page in vintage photo and gathered twigs.  The letters were cut using the Cricut and the Autumn word was distressed with more colour mists in sunset, Tattered Angels peach and candy apple, then I gave it a coating of distress crackle rock candy and when it had dried I inked it with walnut stain distress ink to darken the cracks. 

The Dragonflies were cut from TL dragonfly die in black card stock, I then inked them with Adirondack alcohol inks in gold and copper.  I tapped the dragonflies with a versamark pad and sprinkled over some blond moments savoury tropical green embossing powder, brushing off some areas so the copper and gold show through.

The oak leaves were picked up on the walk and I dried them out and gave them a coat of glue and seal, when they were dry I brushed over them with a clear wink of stellar pen.  I die cut some leaves from the Lavish Blooms leaves to finish the page off.

Happy Crafting

Anna x

Hiya, quicky update today.  Well I started Weight Watchers again lol!  So far I've lost 6.5 lbs, so pleased about that.  Had a bit of a shock when I last went to get my bloods done, I seriously need to get my sugar levels down and get some weight off!  So it has stengthen my resolve to be healthier. 

On a happier note, we are off to the Lake District again soon, so I am looking forward to getting up into the hills.  It just makes your heart sing :)

Anyhoo, enough of my waffling today's post is really about a couple of cards with totally different themes, the first is a bright and colourful under the sea theme and the other an outdoors theme with earthy tones.

This card started with me messing about with my distress inks, stamps and my gelli plate.  The background peice was made by swiping sapphire blue, salty ocean and peacock feathers distress inks onto my gelli plate and then spritzing with some shimmer spray.  I know that some people say not to use your inks on the gelli plate because it stains, but to be honest that doesn't really bother me as it's just stuck in it's packaging and I haven't used it really.  I may as well use it for something!  The colours seemed much brighter using this method.  I then flicked water and picket fence distress stain on to the inked card stock.  I recently bought Creative Stamping issue 10 and it had loads of lovely seaside themed stamps with it, I stamped the starfish and scallop shells in a random pattern onto the card and then embossed with stampendous white embossing powder.  I wanted the stamped images to pop so  I outlined them with a inktense pencil and just blended it out with a water brush. The white splatters weren't bright enough so I did some more with picket fence distress paint.  

The lovely mermaid image is by Wee Stamps and I coloured her with promarkers and then glittered her with a stardust pen and waterfall and eucalytus stickles. I mounted her onto American crafts cardstock and added some liquid pearls.

The scallop and starfish were cut from the mermaids and pirates cricut card and as luck happened this cart was the free cut for this week on the cricut website :) I then gave them a bit of a sand, added some shimmer spray and then covered them with rock candy crackle paint.  I like how vibrant this is.  It really made a change from the usual pinks and lilacs I usually use for girly cards :)

This second card I made in Mat for my OH's birthday, I've only just got around to photographing it lol!

All the peices were cut from the outdoor man cart, I combined 2 of the scenes on the cart to give me a forest scene with a mountain in the background, we are walking fans and love to get out into the Peak District and the Lake District and as we'd just got back from a fabulous week in the Lake District, this was perfect, he loved it!  All card stock is American crafts and cor'dinations, sanded and inked.  I used some See'Ds texture stamps to add some texture to the path and the area under the trees.

Well that's all for today, I'm off to drink my tea and make some cute gift card holders Tami White just posted on her YouTube. 

Happy crafting
Anna x

A Few More Odds & Ends I Forgot To Post

Ok, so I said I hadn't done much crafting lol!  When I've gone through my photographs I realised I had more than I thought!

My first attempt at an art journal page, this was so much fun!  Lots of stamping, sketching, and colouring with my promarkers.  I drew the poppies on marker paper and then coloured with promarker and cut them out.  Really would like to do more of this!

A cute card for one of my lovely colleagues at work, image from  All That Scraps
coloured with promarkers

 

Red Nose Day charity bake sale poster, I had so much fun making these silly red noses!

OK! My Bad - Not Posted In 2 Months!

Well here we are in August and I just haven't got around to posting for 2 months!  Haven't done an awful lot of crafting as I've been so busy.  A week in the Lake District in May, plus a week at home with Mark.  Lots of charity events at work including a 10 mile walk last month right in the middle of the heatwave we've been having.  I have another week in the Lake District coming up in September and it's not coming fast enough!

Ok! So here are a few odds and ends I've worked on over the last few months.

Just something silly while trying out my new flex markers :)

A sympathy card, not something I enjoy doing, stamped and coloured with distress markers

This was a bit of a challenge lol!  I had a request for an 50th birthday Elvis themed card, as the lady in question was having an Elvis themed birthday bash.  The actual card shape was made by welding several shapes together in the cricut craft room, the gorgeous photo I found on line and the roses are from I am roses I think.  Overall I think the black and white worked really well :) 

I am the designated charity champion in our store, along with another colleague,  so each month we have to come up with a different charity event.  Aprils was a breakfast hamper raffle, I make posters for all our events this is Aprils. It's always fun to try and come up with a different theme each month :)

These three are all coloured with promarkers, first and last images are from Wee Stamps and the center one is from  All that Scraps

This next card was for my Dads birthday, the ships wheel, sentiment and ship stamps are from Crafters Companion, the stamp used for the wooden panel background is by Bo Bunny I think, the texture for the wood was created by dragging ink pads over the cardstock and the I stamped the boards over the top.  The scene was created using Tim Holtz distress markers on watercolour paper.  The brass plate is from Docrafts.

 This card was for father's day for my Dad, I used the south western cart on my cricut and used a cut downloaded from the cricut project site, I love how vibrant this is :)

Card for my brother-in-law, he is a keen photographer and when out and about taking photos he has what we call a NO! Dad hat lol!  As his kids always shout NO! DAD!  when he puts it on, so here's a cute bear wearing a No! Dad! hat lol!

A quick scrapbook page of our night out bowling and then a meal at an all you an eat Chinese buffet YUM!  Shame I've just started Weight Watchers again lol!  Pics of my hubby, Sister, her hubby and kids :) 

A quick scrapbook page of the Easter goodies I made, the cookies were so good!!

Card for my nephew, used the robots cart and played around with embossing boards and folders to get some additional texture.

 There is more to come, I just have to fiddle around with the photos so they don't take forever to load!

Scrapbook Pages and Valentines

Forgot to post these last month.

Firstly a double scrap book page, I kind of made a resolution this year to do at least one scrapbook page a month, so this was last months.  We went for a walk in the Peak District, it was freezing cold and the ground was frozen solid, the wind was blowing the rain horizontal and we were walking in the clouds!  But!  We had a fantastic time, the Peak National Park is one of my favourite places.  I used the Cricut cart Camp Out, SU and AC cardstock and SU skeleton Leaf stamps.  I used distress inks to add texture and some See D's texture stamps.  I did a little journalling on the computer and printed it out.

Here's the gift and card I made for my OH for valentines.  The mug was made using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2.  The cute little monkey was cut from Create a Critter.  The Card was made in Cricut Craft Room from the Love You A Latte  cart, I weld 2 shapes together to make the card, added the sentiment and stamped with coffee beans from a Fiskars stamp set.

Happy Crafting
Anna x

Mothers Day Cards and Clearly for Art Modelling Film

Quick post today, three cards made for Mother's day.  

All three were made using background papers printed on my new Gelli plate.  Stampin Up Tea Shoppe stamps, See D's Alpha stamps, Kaiser Crafts Sentiment stamps and American Crafts cardstock. 

This is my finished brooch made using Clearly for Art modelling film, coloured with alcohol inks and finished with a layer of Distress Rock Candy crackle.  The seam binding and lace were coloured with promarker and the button and metal piece from my stash.

Happy crafting
Anna x

Parisian Boudoir & Sunny Days

Parisian Boudoir

Well I was supposed to be updating yesterday but had a migraine and couldn't  bare to stare at the monitor, so here goes :)

This is card was cut on the cricut, the actual card is made of two mats, the back one scored about 3/4 of an inch down to create a fold and then glued to the front.  Then I cut a pink mat, black mat and then a lighter pink.  Both pink mats were stamped with TM distress ink in picked raspberry with a stamp from the SU Sale-a-bration Bliss stamp set and the edges inked with the same ink.  The smaller black mat was embossed using the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder.

The frame and dress form were cut from the Sophisticated cartridge using the Font 1 function this gives you a framed monogram.  The Back was cut in the dark pink and I also cut a frame in a piece of pink foiled card stock from the DCWV Blackcurrant stack.  The R and parts of the dress form had black diamond stickles added to them and then I applied 2 layers of glossy accents to the R.

 

Supplies

American Crafts card stock in cotton candy and taffy

Black cardstock 

TH Distress ink pad picked raspberry

scrap of DCWV blackcurrant stack foiled dots

Hobbycraft black glitter ribbon

Pink organza ribbon

rhinestones

Stickles black diamond

Glossy accents

Cuttlebug swiss dots folder

Sunny Days

This card was stamped using the simply soft and happiest birthday wishes SU hostess stamp sets.  the background paper is from First Edition Paper J'Adore stack and the spotty paper is from First Edition Paper Boho Chic.  I did a bit of rocking and rolling when I stamped the sentiment lol!  To get this two toned effect ink up your stamp with your lightest colour then take a darker ink pad and roll the edges of the stamp so it just inks the out side edges.  To finish off the card I just added some paper twine and a button, a sunny warm card, just the thing to cheer you up on a cold snowy day :)

 Supplies

Card blank

SU simply soft and happiest birthday wishes hostess sets

SU so saffron and pumpkin pie inkpads

First Edition Paper Boho Chic and J'Adore

American Crafts Cranberry cardstock

Cuttlebug swiss dots folder

Button

The Works paper twine

Hi crafty friends, well we seem to have a bit of a holiday themed update today :)

Halloween Candle

Supplies
Candle
Inkadinkado Stamp set: creepy Crawley #98303
Black organza ribbon
Adirondack Black archival ink
Stampendous Disco Black embossing powder
White tissue paper

I actually decorated this candle a few weeks ago but never got around to taking any photos, so as I was testing out my new light box I thought I'd take a few.

So this was a cheap candle from Wilkinsons, I stamped the bat on to white tissue paper with black archival ink and embossed using disco black embossing powder.  I then cut out the bat roughly and used some pritt stick to temporarily hold it down while I used my heat gun to gently warm the wax so the tissue 'disappears' into the wax.  I just finished the candle with some black organza ribbon.

Flower/Ribbon Embellishment

Supplies
1 yd white seam binding
1 yd 1/8 peach organza ribbon
1yd white lace
8in gold bead trim
large pearl for centre

Here's a lovely flower/ribbon embellishment I made following this tutorial by cynthialoowho, I didn't have tulle so I used some seam binding, lace and some organza ribbon.  I didn't wrap the bead trim around as I couldn't get it to look right so I cut about 8 inches in to 4 pieces and hot glued them to the back of the flower, I added a large pearl to the centre. I love how this came out, it's so pretty :)

Christmas Candles Scrapbook Page

Supplies

1 sheet of 12 x 12 patterned paper

Cream, red, light green, dark green and yellow card stock

Ribbon from stash

Glossy accents

Stickles 

Distress markers

Distress inks, Festive berry, peeled paint, antique linen 

This was made using the new Cricut cartridge A Quilted Christmas, as soon as I saw it I knew I NEEDED it lol!  This is the project that is at the front of the handbook that comes with the cartridge, I have to say I'm loving the new style of handbooks, much easier to find things.  I am going to be making a lot of projects with this I can tell you, I'm also thinking of making a quick video review of the cart for my Youtube channel, so keep your eyes peeled for that :)

Anyhoo, that's all for today

Happy crafting

Anna x

New Video on Youtube

Here's a video showing my Halloween mini album Hope you enjoy
Happy crafting
Anna

Home decor, vintage fun and Rock Candy

Hi, back again with a few bits and bobs.  Firstly a altered frame and kiddies plastic dress form I got from a Girl Talk Art mag, I had to make a new stand for it as the part of it was missing lol!  I painted it with black acrylic, glued on strips of torn paper from the DCWV black currant paperstack and stippled more black acrylic to make it look like lace, then added small roses and lovely trim I bought years ago, from my stash.

This is the frame , I picked it up in Poundland, added some Wild Orchid Craft roses, small roses, pink feathers, acetate butterflies and a hand made flower and butterfly which I made with some Tim Holtz trimming, miniature roses and pearl trim.  Added a beautiful pin, silk tassel, and some prima bling to finish it off.  Matted and layered a quote on to some black cardstock and the black currant paperstack as I couldn't find a piccy I wanted to add in there.  The flourishes around the quote are from MCS.

Supplies

Dress form

Plastic dress form

Deco Art crafters acrylic in black

beaded and fringed trimmings

small tea roses in fuchsia

DCWV black currant paper stack

black satin ribbon bow for back

miniature cream rose from Wild Orchid Crafts

Black diamond stickles for base and top of dress form

Frame

Black damask frame from Poundland

small tea roses in fuchsia and pale pink (I think I bought the fuchsia roses from Hobby Craft and the pale pink ones from Works)

DCWV black currant paper stack

miniature cream roses and white roses from Wild Orchid Crafts (sorry I don't have the numbers for these)

pale pink feathers

Prima pearl and lace swirls

Rhinestones in clear and black

ribbon rose in pale pink

Tim Holtz Trimmings 

Pearl bead strings 

Acetate butterflies from Works in mixed pinks

Finished Frame and dress form to match the deco in my loo lol!

This is one of the background stamps I bought at the Doncaster show last weekend, I LOVE it lol!  Just stamped with espresso ink on very vanilla card stock, I stamped it twice and cut out some of the bobbin labels, coloured them with promarkers and distressed the edge with antique linen.  Added a pin which I coloured with a promarker, seam binding coloured with antique linen and some home made glimmer mist, mounted on early espresso and Sahara sand card stock and finished with a handmade flower.  Very simple and quick.

Supplies

Stampin Up cardstock in Very Vanilla, Early espresso, Sahara

Stampin Up ink pad in Early espresso

Stampin Up Tea Shoppe stamp set for sentiment

Distress ink pad in Antique linen

Promarkers in sandstone, khaki, pastel beige, ivory

buttons

heart pin from Wild Orchid Crafts

seam binding

Just Rite BG stamp Grandma's Attic

Flower Shoppe Cricut Cart for flower

Burnt sienna promarker, Adirondack copper mixative, espresso alcohol ink to colour flower 

I have never attempted any of Tim Holtz 12 tags but love looking at them so thought I would give one a go.  Very pleased with how this came out and I'm thinking I may use this as a starting point for my special Xmas cards this year.  I am in LOVE with Rock Candy crackle paint, the deer is so pretty in RL, I also did a deer in alcohol inks and used rock candy over the top and it looks awesome, I may post piccies later.  

I followed most of Tim's directions except I stamped my snow flakes with distress ink pad instead of the stains as I couldn't get a nice impression, I also stamped some more snowflakes with SU white craft ink rather than the stains too. I spritzed the tag with home made glimmer mist rather than water.  I didn't add white paint dauber to the acetate as I didn't like the way it looked, so I added stardust stickles instead and also added them to the grunge paper reindeer and snow flake along with some frosted lace stickles too.

Supplies

Distress Stains in tumbled glass, weathered wood, picket fence

distress inks in weathered wood

Stampin Up craft ink pad in whisper white

Distress crackle paint in rock candy

Grunge paper

Stampin Up card stock in very vanilla to cut the tag or #8 manila tag

rhinestones mini silver sleigh bell, beads and wire to make a snowflake (I used an old Xmas decoration I got off the front off a House Beautiful mag )

Jump rings

acetate

TH Sizzix alterations snowflake border die ( I don't have this so I made a border on my gypsy using snowflakes from the Winter Wonderland Cart and a rectangle from the Gorge and Basic shape cart and welded them together)

Reindeer cut from Gypsy Wanderings, if you don't have a gypsy you could use the reindeer from Winter Wonderland or one of the other cricut carts or the TH Alterations sizzix die

Buttons

Organza ribbon in white, ivory and aqua

Dovecraft tea party bakers twine

Stickles in frosted lace and stardust

peal glimmer mist ( I made mine with a small amount of Deco Art dazzling metallics white pearl mixed with water in a mister)

small beads in silver, clear and pearl

Inkadinkado Snowflakes stamps (large snowflakes and snowflake flourish)

Papermania sleigh stamps (small snowflakes)

 Deco Art crafters acrylic in white

 

So there you go, it seems like a lot of supplies for 1 tag lol! But in actual fact you could do this with what you have lying around.  I used grunge paper but you could use chipboard (cardboard as we call it over her in the UK)  from a cereal packet.  I used white acrylic paint to paint the snow flake and reindeer before crackle glazing them. Buttons, ribbons, beads, acetate, cardstock and embellishments I had in my stash.

I like to use what I have, as much as I would love the Tim Holtz dies, I don't have the money or space for them and this is why my cricut is invaluable to me.  For what I pay for maybe 2 dies I can buy a cartridge with dozens of images, add in the Gypsy and the Cricut Craft Room and SCAL (Shame Provocraft were too greedy for their own good, they should have endorse SCAL rather than bring a law suite against them!) and I can come up with anything I want :)

Anyhoo enough of my waffling, i must get my desk cleaned up, I can't move for crafty junk lol!