Shimmering Butterfly

Hello everyone, so happy you decided to visit today.

Well it almost is the end of the month and today it is my turn to share another project on the Countryview Challenge blog.

Beautiful butterflies to me always seem to herald the coming of Spring, and with this wonderful season now having officially started here in the Northern hemisphere I decided to create a card with a butterfly as the focal point.

The background was created with the help of Distress Sprays, using the so called salt technique. For those who don't know the technique, - it's very easy, - you spray any kind of sprays quite randomly, making sure your paper is quite wet. Sprinkle with some coarse salt and let dry naturally. I usually make a few backgrounds at the same time and dry them over night.

For this one I added quite a bit of gold mica spray as well.

Here you can perhaps see how the salt creates wonderful random patterns.

Once my piece had dried, I cut it to size and stamped one of the stamps from the Tim Holtz Classics 14 set, first with white paint, straight onto the background, and then again in black, on another piece of sprayed card. I cut the central piece out and adhered it to the card background.

The butterfly was cut from another bit of sprayed card with the Tim Holtz Butterfly duo Bigz die, it has a matching embossing folder, and adhered to the centre together with a pen nib. A word band and some background stamping, finished it all off.

Most of the products used for this card can be found at Countryview Crafts, and for UK people there is never any postage to pay!!!

Thank you for visiting and I hope you like my card!

Tim's March tag

Hi everyone and thanks for coming by!
Today I am sharing my version of Tim's March tag:

I followed Tim's techniques pretty much exactly. I just used different colours and embellishments, even though the main stamped image is the same. All the techniques can of course be found on Tim's own blog here
The paint colours I used were Vintage Linen, Wild Honey, a bit of Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo.
I don't have the new word layering stencil, so I used an old one and instead of using gold detailed embossing powder I used copper.

I chose some copper coloured embellishments to go with it, A token with the word Cherish and a Roman numeral, adhered over a bit of Ideaology measuring tape.

I left the embellishments quite minimal, because the butterfly image is quite prominent and I don't wanted my tag to get too busy....

I wanted to deepen the colours of my butterfly a bit further and used a Faber Castell Big Brush pen for that. I also went around the edges with Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.

I also created a few little splats by sticking a brush into some Peeled Paint Distress Stain Spray and then flicking it across my tag.

Regulars might remember that I made a booklet to keep my tags in this year and each month I create a new page background for that month.

I try to convey the mood of the month or match the colours of the tag. The March page is a double page, - here is the other side:

I enjoy making the backgrounds to these pages almost as much as I enjoy making the tag itself.

For those new to my blog, the link to the original booklet description is here if you are interested to see how I made it.

Well, thanks for visiting today. It's going to be pretty quiet around here for the rest of this month as I am off to the States for the next 10 days, but I hope to at least visit you all occasionally.

I am adding this to Tim's March Tag challenge
Thanks for coming by like always

Collection Folio Journal part 2

Hello everyone and lovely to have you pop in here.
A while back I showed a Collection Folio Journal I was working on and today I am sharing the latest additions.

All of these little projects are really like pages in a journal, just for fun, just playing with stamps that have not been inked for a while, or bits and pieces flying around in my scrap box because they were left over or recycled from other projects. This is TIm Holtz Tissue over card inked and painted with Distress paints mostly. The stamp is from Paper Artsy.

Here is the other side. The vocal image here is a stamp by Limor Webber by Indigo Blue. Stencilling and stamping in the background is with Andy Skinner stamps and stencils.

A tag, cut from white card with the Tim Holtz die, old book paper, Distress Paints in Picket Fence and Antique Linen, there is some brown Gelato on there too and the heart stamp is also from Limor Webber. I just love her stamps! I stamped it twice, once on the tag and then again on a piece of card inked with Plum Archival and then I just cut out the heart to make it pop. The little guys at the top were images I have had in my stash for years, no idea where they came from...

This is just to cover the back of a previous piece, using very similar techniques. The butterfly was from the Tim Holtz mini butterflies, something went wrong, it slipped while I was embossing it. For that reason it was flying around on my desk, but I decided to embrace imperfection and use it here.

Here you can see how I have glued it into the waterfall thingy that comes with the folio. I always try to match the strip with the piece I am adding to the folio. I will glue the water fall into place only right at the end, so that  in the mean time it is easier to add pieces.

Here is the other side, again matching the strip to the main piece. Somehow there seems to be a kind of butterfly and steampunk theme going on through this whole folio. This was not a conscious decision, it just seems to be happening. I guess I am just trying to integrate my feminine and masculine side....
Here finally is the tag page inside the folio strip

I am trying to make each individual element hang together somehow with the other elements, so that ultimately when it's all glued inside the folio, the different pages all look cohesive.

Thanks for dropping by like always and hope you will have a great week!

Happy Pie Day or the Wonder of Number (it will take abaout 5 minutes to read.....

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping in!
Today is a post a bit different from my normal ramblings....
Yesterday was Pie Day. Something that usually I would take no notice of at all, until a friend send me this link: Pie Day
Check it out and be prepared to be amazed!

Happy Sunday all!

A trio of Tinies

Hi everyone and lovely to see you here.
Another quick post from me today sharing 3 ATCs I made for a swap with the lovely Maria from Maria's Knutsel Plezier.

Maria showed some ATCs on her blog a while back and invited readers to do a swap with her. Now my whole crafty and blogging journey started really with swapping ATCs, but it has been years since I last did a swap, so this felt like fun.

I had quite forgotten how small ATCs really are, and yet it's amazing how much you can fit on.
Each one was done in a slightly different way, but mostly involved adding some texture with stencil, working with paints and inks and then adding ephemera and some embellishments.

Paints and inks are mostly Distress, but I also used some Decoart Media Line paints and on the one above some scraps of old book paper as you can see.

The one above was done using Distress Inks only. Most of the additions were little scraps from my scrapbox that lives permanently on my craft desk and alsys seems to get fuller rather than emptier....

Anywaym, that's it for now. Here's hoping Maria will like them.

Thank you for visiting and have a fantastic weekend!!

Of Squirrels and Flowers

Welcome everyone and thanks for dropping by.
Just a quick post from me with my next lot of samples for the Sheena Douglas shows today (Thursday) on Create and Craft.

New Embossing folders and a re-visit of the stamps and dies that came out earlier in the year.

The same folder, but used in a very different way.

Yet another sample with the same embossing folder, but this time in combination with one of the brand new stamps, one of Sheena's stencils and a bit of hand painting in the background.

The shows take place at the following times:

8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm

That's it for now, thanks for visiting like always and enjoy the weekend when it comes!

Sheena Douglass Perfect Partners

Hello everyone and thanks for dropping in.
I am still slightly overwhelmed by all the comments I received on my last project, both here and on Facebook, thanks so much for that, so much appreciated.

Today I am showing you the first set of cards I made for Sheena Douglass's shows which are due to take place on Thursday March 12 on Create and Craft
Shows are taking place at the following times: 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 4 pm and 7 pm, and if you love Sheena Douglass stamps, trust me, you don't want to miss this! New stamps, dies and embossing folders. Ok, so here are the first few of my samples, - I'll be showing more as the days go on.

An easel card, using some of the new stamps and dies. I also used an embossing folder, but that is hard to see on this one. The great thing is, the folders match some of the stamps, so you can layer them up over each other.

For this one I just used an embossing folder. This one has a matching stamp too, but I did not get that one. The great thing is though, If you colour the embossed image, it pretty much looks like a stamp. The flowers and leaves are all made using matching stamps and dies.

Finally, a box, again using one of the folders, stamps and dies. I particularly love the different flower and leave dies, they are so versatile and can be used for so many different projects.

The bird comes with its own matching die, it can be coloured in so many different ways. Here I coloured it to make it look a bit exotic and would match my background.

Well, that's it for the first installment. Like I said, there will be more in days to come.

Don't miss the shows!!

Thanks so much for visiting and see you next time!

Collection Folio Journal in work in Progress

Hi everyone and lovely to see you here!
After having completed a little folio  from my stash for A Vintage Journey two day ago, I was excited to see that the Compendium of Curiosities 3 challenge blog's current challenge was to use a collection folio. I had been hoarding one for ages, so this was the perfect chance to have another go.

This one is in a very different style from my previous one, and even though it is the smaller size of the two folios Tim Holtz has brought out, it is way bigger than the last one I did. Now one of the things I vowed I would do this year, is spent more time journaling and playing just for my own fun, and this was the perfect opportunity to have just another play. I am going to treat it as a journal, and there are still many more "pages" to fill.

I am not going to do a full step by step for this project, there are plenty of tutorials and videos out there on how to do it. I'll just show  pictures, and  tell you a bit of what I used.

The front was made with a piece of paper from the Hometown collection by Ken Oliver. I love the colours and played around with the paper with texture paste, stencils and dies from Tim Holtz's new Mixed Media thinlets dies. The butterfly was cut from a really old Prima collection. Here are some close ups:

Stencilled through one of Tim's stencils.

Two pieces of honey comb, die cut with the mixed media die.

An altered bit of Dusty Attic chipboard, I used Decoart paints, Antiquing Cream and Treasure Gold.

Here is the flap to close the folio. I used another piece of the same paper and added  two pieces of the Trellis die by Tim. I then added two metal pieces from my stash to embellish, again altered with Decoart products:

I left the back of the folio quite simple

This is a piece of paper from the 7 Dots Studio North Country collection. I used my Indigo Blue stamps by Limore Webber (through out this project here and there) and used a mix of Cracked Pistachio and Pumice Stone Distress inks, to match the colours of the Hometown papers more.

Here are the side flaps, all done in similar style. I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but it's just more of the same.

Now to some of the "pages" of my folio journal. I photographed before adhering them to the inside of the folio's waterfall thingy (can't remember for the life of me what Tim calls it, but it's so clever).

A die cut piece of chipboard. For the front I covered it with texture paste and while wet stamped into it with various stamps, then coloured with Decoart paints, and decorated with various bits and pieces from my box of scraps. I was really just experimenting and having fun, that's what journaling is all about for me.

The back of the same piece, collaged and stamped. Such a great way to use up some of these bits and pieces I always seem to be collecting.....This is what I love about projects like this. No pressure, just fun.

More collage fun with scraps, and below the inside of the same Kraft card card, (I had two of these in my scrap box, leftover from making Christmas cards), so now I have finally put them to good use.

Like I said, the inside of the same card, this one is a Paperartsy stamp, the background was book paper, gesso, Gelatos and some Kaisercraft texture stamps.
And another double sided card of the same size:

The front

And the inside.. The stamp is from a Lynne Pyrella stamp set, stamped on tissue and then adhered to an old book page and colour added with Gelatos. Oh, used some gesso too.

Here finally is the front and the back of a little tag  still:

And here finally you can see it all inside the folio, that is getting quite fat now....

So far though, I have only filled two of the inside waterfall flaps, so there is a ton of space for more "pages" still, but those will be shown on another day soon I hope.

One of the things I really like about these folios is, that because of the elastics, which are of course removable, you can either have the side flap on top (like in my first picture), or tucked inside, like here, so you can see the butterfly better.

I am adding this to the Compendium of Curiosities challenge #23, which this time is sponsored by the
wonderful Inspiration Emporium 
I am also going to add it to the Simon Says Monday challenge where the theme is "A Hint of Clover". Well there is plenty of clover green here, so I think it will qualify...

Well that's it for now, thanks for dropping in have have a great week ahead!