We are known to our friends by the look in our EYES (Dt post)

We are coming to the end of the month folks and let me just tell you, it couldn't have gone any slower for me! I wont go into detail but lets just say the process of this tag pretty much sums up my month.

As you know if you have been following, I received a lovely set of goodies from JB Crafting Supplies at the beginning of the month which included the fun stamp set from Indigo Blu called 'Take the time'. In it there was this eye stamp which I had seen on several different sets but always not a clue on how to use it.

This time, however, I came up with an idea right away to try and use it layered with several fades of black. Ive only ever done this with leaves so it was a really new thing for me. I had the idea that I would stamp on my tag multiple times without re-inking every time. The plan was to stamp the eye again on a piece of vellum and layer it on top.

So that's how this tag started out. I stamped my eyes, (<-lol) and surprisingly the layout turned out well. The I took a few colours of distress inks and inked around the tag. Unfortunately once I had blended them on they lost a bit of their vibrancy and the tag wasn't quite as bright as I would have liked it to be. Anyway, I left it as is and continued with the tag. I tried to bring a bit of colour back into it with a couple of drops of dylusions and then also spattered it with some picket fence distress paint.

Once I had (supposedly) finished the base tag, I cut a tag from a piece of vellum and started working on that. I stamped my eye stamp onto the front and inked the vellum to try and bring a bit more colour to the tag. The stamp was not popping out as much as I wanted so I painted the back of it with white.  I then tried to adhere the vellum tag to the front of my base tag as it wasn't showing as much of the background so I wanted it pressed right up against the base. In the end I was very unhappy with the finished result so I pulled off the vellum tag and scraped that.

Now to try and salvage the base tag! A few parts of the tag had been pulled off when I removed the vellum piece so I just covered those over again with a bit of distress ink and it was completely gone.  The eyes were blending too much into each other so I chose to use a bit of white gel pen to fill in a few of them. I filled in the whites of the eyes on some and then just the reflection on others.

By this point I was beginning to be a little happier with how it was going. However, it was not to last.

Let me give you crafters a small piece of advice.... NEVER PUT ANYTHING DOWN!......EVER.

Im sure some of you have experienced this before, especially if your craft desk looks anything like mine but I have had several things go missing this month! And the very annoying this is, it goes missing right after Ive just had it in my hand! I put it down and *POOF* its gone! So remember when I said I have been working on this since the beginning of the month? Well its because I had misplaced my white embossing powder. I had a plan, and then the white embossing powder was gone.

So I tried to improvise. I tried using a coloured embossing powder. I thought maybe a reddish orange would go with this. Well I was wrong. In the process I also didn't stamp correctly. So I had a very not pretty slightly hidden in the background, orange sentiment. Go me. :/ Well I tried to fix it with my white gel pen. I outlined the sentiment. Another big mistake! So now I had royally screwed up my tag. It looked horrible. By this point I had had enough and set it aside until this past weekend when lo and behold, I FOUND MY WHITE EMBOSSING POWDER!

Now I have the task of figuring out how Im going to salvage this tag! So I thought I would try and remove some of the embossing powder. I used my heat tool and a sheet of paper to try and melt off what was there. This really didn't work and mostly smeared the white gel pen. then I thought I would try and blend some black onto the tag in that area and emboss over it with the white. However, as I should have known, the embossing and the white gel resisted and it looked horrible. So I tried using some archival ink over the area and then blending with the black distress ink... Nope. The embossing took the archival ink but it just made the sentiment look shiny. Until I used the distress ink, then it just wiped it off.

After all of this I gave in and decided to use the traditional method of covering a mistake... Just cut a a bit of card, inked it up with black soot distress ink (I pressed it directly into the pad which left white bits and then I blended some over it to give it the grungy look) and white embossed the sentiment onto that. I mounted that onto a slightly larger piece of white card, and stuck this on top of the damaged area of the tag. To tie it into the rest of the tag even more, I splattered a bit more white distress paint over it and inked the edges of the tag with black soot distress ink.

My tag is finally done! Just like this month. Honestly I actually like the end result. Lesson to be learned here|: Don't always give up in the first round! The possibility to get better only ends when you give up.

Hope very much that your month was a good one and fingers crossed for me that next month is even better!

See you then!

Sam.

Final DT piece using IndigoBlu stamp

For my last DT piece using the IndigoBlu stamp I decorated a candle.
I stamped the image onto tissue paper using Archival ink, coloured the flowers using Cosmic Shimmer watercolours - I like the metallic look of these watercolours. I hope you can see this on the enlarged photo of the flowers.
Transferred the image to the candle by placing the tissue paper onto the candle - making sure there were no crinkles. Wrapped some greaseproof paper around the candle, making sure the tissue paper was still crinkle free, holding the greaseproof paper tightly around the candle. Using a heat tool gradually heat the image, being careful not to heat too much.
I then made a milk carton box using card, then covered with the lovely Graphic 45 card. Punched a hole in the top, then tied together with some green ribbon.
I have really enjoyed using this stamp, and the card for these projects.
Here is what Julie sent me this month:

Thanks for stopping by - hope you liked my project,
Bev xx

Time tag (Dt post)

Hi to all of you crafters out there!

I have seriously been having fun with this months lovely goodies, and I have yet another tag to share with you all!

{And just a quick little note before getting started, I apologize for the disclaimer on the bottom of my pictures. I am trying out a watermarking app for my phone and have yet to decide it I want to purchase it or not!}

For this tag I decided to go with some warmer colours. I used mustard  seed, barn door, wild honey and vintage photo. I inked the tag starting with the lightest colour and then surrounded it with the darker ones. I stamped the background with some script stamps and postal stamps very lightly with Walnut stain and then threw a few droplets of gold shimmer water onto the tag which I then blotted off. I have a small obsession with tim holtz products so again I used one of his dies to cut my hexagon strip out of the same beautiful graphic 45 paper from last week. I did not do any inking on this, though in hindsight I might have brought some darkness around the edges.

 

I chose several stamps from the Indigo Blu stamp set 'Take the Time'. I have a small obsession with keys, locks and of course CLOCKS and watches, and I loved the sentiment that came with this set.
First I chose the cogs, the sentiment, the advertisement and the watch and laid them onto my tag to get an idea of placement. I always try to do this if I can as it gives me a starting point to go by. I decided that I wanted to use the watch as a focal point so I stamped that onto some white card twice for colouring and layering. I blended in the same colours from the tag into the centre of the watch, adhered it to the other stamped image with some thin foam adhesive which I then covered with rock candy crackle paint. You can use any crackle medium for this and I probably should have used crackle accents myself as the crackle on this meant that I lost a lot of the detail in the watch.

I stamped the advertisement stamp directly onto the tag with embossing ink and then blended over top of it with gold pan pastel. I also used the embossing ink and gold to line the edges of the tag.

 I stamped my cogs directly onto the tag  as well and then stuck my die cut and watch on top. I added a small ball chain to look like the watch was attached to it. This I glued with glossy accents for extra strong hold. I used glossy accents one more time to stick down a cogs charm behind the watch to add some more interest to the tag.

I wanted the sentiment to show up but I also didn't want to cover all the beautiful background work on the tag. So I stamped and embossed with black embossing powder onto heat resistant acetate. I stuck small bits of foam adhesive to the back hidden behind the letters and stuck this to my tag. I finished the whole thing off with a bit of cream lace.

I hope you like the finished result. I wish I had played around with placement a little more but over all I am happy with it.

Happy Crafting to you!

Sam.

 

 

DT post

Hi everyone! Well what a lovely weekend - for a change. Hope you are all enjoying this glorious weather!
For this weeks project I decided to try something a bit different.
I cut out some lining material, measuring the size of the image first, to make sure I had enough  material to make a little bag.
I stamped the IndigoBlu image onto the lining material using rusty hinge distress ink. I ironed it to make it colour fast.
Out came my trusty sewing mahine. I picked out some dark brown thread, picked a design and sewed around the image to make a frame.
I then turned each end over, making sure to leave enough room to thread some lace through for a tie.
Sewed up each side, threaded lace through to tie up the bag.
This could be used as a lavender bag, a bag to keep jewellery in - whatever you like really.
Hope you like it - thanks for stopping by,
Bev xx

Patterned Paper card! Graph45 & IndigoBlu (DT Post)

Hey there again!

 

We are into our second week for the month of lovely crafting with supplies provided by the lovely Julie at JB Crafting Supplies.

 

For this card I decided to just go crazy with the beautiful papers provided (Graphic 45) and the sentiment from the lovely Indigoblu 'Take the time' set. I did some layering and inking and ripping and embossing and got this beautiful result!

 

 

 

 

I started with this beautiful graphic45 paper which was cut down into quarters. I die cut a clock with one sheet and embossed the other with my clocks embossing folder. Since the paper was larger than my embossing folder, I had to run this through twice. I wanted to ink over the embossed sheet to bring out some of the details of the embossing but because the design on the folder didn't quite line up when embossed twice, I had to be careful not to ink too much. Before I did this I tore around the paper so as not to have any crisp cut lines and then I inked vintage photo around the edges. I stayed mainly on the outside of the paper but I did bring in the ink slightly just to bring out the texture of the paper. I adhered this to my card.

 

I then took my die cut clock and inked around the edges there to make sure that stood out a bit against the business of the background. I mounted the clock with a full die cut piece of foam adhesive just so that it would lay flat and not curl up in areas. I recommend die cutting the piece already attached to the foam as it wasn't easy lining it up afterwards!

 

With the clock hands, some people arrange them at a significant time or some at the usual 12, 9, or 6 etc... I decided to line mine up visually and just filled the space after placing my sentiment.

 

The sentiment was stamped with the IndigoBlu stamp in archival ink onto white card. I did a mixture of inking and soaking of the paper to give it some age. Unfortunately this made me lose a lot in the sentiment visually so, after I dried the paper with my heat tool, I decided to take my white gel pen and fill in the main words to pop it out a bit.  I inked around the edges a bit more and stuck it down to my card.

 

Lastly I added a few metal embellishments to the top corners and my card is done! Personally to me it has the feel of wood chip art. I am not one for using patterned papers but these are beautiful and Im very pleased with the final result. I hope you are as well!

 

Sam.

 

 

 

Supplies Provided by JB Crafting supplies:

 

IndigoBlu - Take The Time

Graphic 45 - Olde Curiosity Shoppe Collection

 

 

2nd DT post using Indigoblu stamp

Hi - bit late this week with post as been ill in bed - but better now.
What a weekend here nothing but rain & cold - brrr!
I found a poundshop notebook - covered the front with black card, cut a piece of Graphic 45 paper - Olde Curiosity Shoppe Collection - slightly smaller.
Stamped the image onto white card using rusty hinge distress ink. I coloured around the edge of the image with burnt sienna pan pastel.
Measured some brown coredinations card to frame the image, cut out an aperture using my Grand Calibur.
Adhered the image to the frame. Found some brads in my stash for the corners. Adhered the frame & image to the cover using foam pads.
Found a heart in my stash which I think looks ok.
Coloured a strip of white card using the burnt sienna pan pasetels, stamped the word notebook using rusty hinge DI. Cut the letters out & adhered down the side. Popped a few white pearls in the centre of some of the flowers.
I like how it has turned out - was going to give as a present but might keep it! Can always do another!
Hope everyone has a good week - whatever you are doing.
Bev x

Getting back to what I do best! Dt post

 

 

Its May! What a lovely time of year. Its when all the flowers are supposed to come out! Last week I was particularly excited to receive my lovely dt pack! It took me all of 2 seconds to get some ideas in my head of what I wanted to do. Of course, as usual, nothing went the way I planned it but I still love how this weeks make came out!

 

I started off with my tim holtz tag die which I covered with some modelling paste that I had coloured up using some gold and green paint. I received some lovely patterned papers from Julie and I knew that I wanted to use them with this fun frameworks die by tim holtz. Among the papers was some graphic 45, some core-denations cardstock and some kraft card that was lined like notebook paper. I cut these several times along with some mirror board by tim, so as to have a mix of hexagons to work with. Before the modelling paste had dried I pressed a few of these paper shapes into it and pushed down slightly to get a bit more texture.

 

I put my tag to the side and while the modelling paste was drying, I took some liquid pearls in corresponding colours and created a few different size pearls and shapes on my non stick craft sheet.

 

Then I took some plain paper flowers that I had and coloured them with matching ink and gold paint watered down with gold shimmer spray.

 

I left my tag, my flowers and my embellishments overnight to dry before moving on. I rarely do this as I get too excited about wanting to see the finished product but when you are working with so many things that can easily be smudged or altered with inky fingers or pressure, its best to leave them to dry as long as you can. A heat gun works at times, like for example my flower, but using the heatgun on modelling paste can cause it to bubble and that was not my desired effect for this tag. On occasion I do use the heat gun and purposefully cause the bubbling for texture. This also works with paint. However today I was sensible and left it alone!

 

Once my tag had dried along with all the extra bits I created, I moved on using some lovely pan pastels I had been provided with. I used a mixture of light gold and bronze which I sponged over the entire tag. This really gave the bumps and ridges of the modelling paste some emphasis. Sadly, it was not easy to capture by camera but it was gorgeous! I think I sat staring at it for a little while afterwards!

 

To finished it off, I added a bit more mirrored tiles, a rub on (which tbh I could have done without) and I created my own sentiment using Tim Holtz chit chat stickers which I edged with distress ink. I also added the flower which I had inked up the night before and my liquid pearl embellishments.

 

To finish the tag off I threaded a bit of ivory lace through the hole at the top. When I first did this, I pulled the lace a bit too tight and ripped it right out of the tag! As frustrating as it was, I wasn't prepared to redo the tag so for a quick fix I stuck some thick cardstock to the back of the tag along with the tiny bit of tag that got pulled off. I then punched a hole where it was previously and CAREFULLY rethreaded!

 

 

I hope you give modelling paste with pan pastels a try as I think it was my favourite thing about this tag! Don't forget to stop by and have a gander at my make next week as well!

 

See you all then, and happy crafting!

 

Sam.

DT piece

For this weeks DT piece I was sent an IndigoBlu stamp - Elizabeth Bennet. I love the image.

I stamped the image using IndigoBlu flitter glue, then applied Colourful Thoughts gilding flakes in variegated copper.

I coloured the flowers using Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints in Lavender Shine & Lava Red.

The face was coloured using PanPastels in burnt sienna tint, with a little burnt sienna on the cheeks.

I ripped around the edge of the stamped image & used PanPastel in burnt sienna to distress the edges.

Tore some smaller strips to write the quote on & used the burnt sienna around the edges again.

Ran some coredinations card through my Grand Calibur using a Die'Sire embossing plate - gothic script & rubbed over with sandpaper to highlight. Edged the card with flitter glue & gilding flakes.

Onto some white card I applied the burnt sienna tint all over, then went through a mask with burnt  sienna.

Matted the image onto the green card, then matted this onto the patterned card. 

Stamped the image again & coloured & cut out the flowers just to finish off.

Thought it would make a nice wall hanging so punched 2 holes & threaded string through.