Shabby Butterfly album cover

Hello everyone. Over at the Countryview Challege blog our theme this month is Shabby Chic. For my second project this month I altered a wooden butterfly album cover.

The wooden butterfly started out looking like this:

I covered it in gesso and added some stencilling with a Crafters Workshop stencil:

I also added some crackle paste in places, for the inevitable crackle that I love on projects like this:

I then added colour with various Decoart Media Fluid Acrylics until I was happy with the result. I also used some white Antiquing Cream to add to the shabby feel of it.

The flowers cluster was created on top of a Tim Holtz Mixed media die cut. I also added some cheese cloth, a little stamped butterfly, some twine and a pen nib. The flowers were coloured with the same paints and edged with a bit of gesso and some treasure gold.

The sentiment iS from the Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers and that is pretty much it.
Thank you so much for dropping in today, I always really appreciate your visits and if you like Shabby Chic, do check out our challenge and play along!

Nostalgic Christmas for Countryview Crafts

Hello everyone and happy December!! I don't know about you, but I for one am really looking forward to Christmas. (Probably specially because I am going to visit my grand children in Australia)...

The first of the month means a new challenge over at the  Countryview Crafts Challenge blog, and this month I got to choose the theme, and of course it had to be Christmas, so as I love vintage projects I chose the theme "A Nostalgic Christmas"

I made a tag card, by making a first and second tag and connecting the two with a lace ribbon. On the first tag I made a simple background by blending Faded Jeans and Gathered Twigs Distress Inks. I then stamped some snowflakes with Coffee Archival ink.
Here are a few close ups of the first tag

 A snowflake created with two Spellbinder dies layered on top of each other, glittered with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.

 Two layered hearts, the bigger one coloured with Brushed Pewter Distress Stain and then glittered in the same way. A smaller one made with a Sizzix Movers and Shapers die, old book paper onto card and some Tim Holtz letter stickers. I also added a little ticket, made with a Tim Holtz stamp from the Odds and Ends set.

A pine cone cluster, the pine cones were made using the Tim Holtz pine cone die. I added some Vintage Photo Distress Glitter to them for a bit of sparkle.
The second tag was more of a mix media creation. My DH gave me a full set of Gelatos, last year for my birthday and I have hardly used them at all, so thought I would give them a go, just for fun.

I started by covering my second tag with Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap and some Tissue Tape and then covered that with a thin layer of Gesso, rubbed on with my fingers for better control.

Next came the Gelatos and some back ground stamping. Love how you can just swoosh them all over your project and take them away again with a baby wipe if it gets too dark.
Also added some background stamping.

And finally a sentiment layered up with some Spellbinder dies.

And here you can see the two together, I was pleased to see how well the colours of the Gelatos matched the Distress colours on the first tag.

Thank you for visiting and hope you will play along with our challenge!

Nautical Voyage for Countryview Crafts

Hello everyone, it's a busy day here again in my little place in Crafty Blogland. If you want to see what I made and shared earlier today, just click HERE

For this post I am sharing my second project created for Countryview Challenges,where the theme is "Nautical".
I created a card, and it was quite a challenge to come up with something, as really at the time I made it I did not have any supplies that fit the theme. (Since then my lovely blog friend Julie sent my some wonderful die cuts and some little shells, thank you so much Julie!!)

Well, nothing like a challenge right, - so I decided to create my own stuff.
I started my creating a background for my card. I cut a piece of manila card and inked around the out side with Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks.

Next I printed an old map found at the Graphics Fairy on some tissue paper. This is a bit of a fiddle, but if you adhere the tissue with some low tack tape to some printer paper, you can run the whole thing through the printer and this can make for some great backgrounds.

I adhered the map to my card with Glue 'n Seal and then inked around the edges a bit again.

As you can see, I was not quite careful enough and the tissue, which is of course very delicate, tore a bit, - ah well, embrace imperfection, I knew it would partly be covered anyway later on.
 Now for some embellishments:
A "rescue ring", made from a ring of card, cut with two Nestability dies.

I coloured it with Fresco paints, added some shadow with Distress Markers and wrapped some twine around.
I had a little chip board compass rose, I think t is from Tando Creative. I coloured it with Picket Fence crackle paint and then inked with some Walnut Stain Distress Stain and ink.

For the center of the compass, I created another piece, made by stamping the compass stamp from the Classic 1 set by Stampers Anonymous onto some metal foil coloured with Espresso Alcohol Ink in Jetbalck Archival. I then cut out the center.

Another bit of metal, coloured in the same way was run through the rivetted metal embossing folder to add another layer to the card.

Finally a little bottle, cut with the Apothecary Movers and Shapers die from Kraft card. I then coloured it first with Tumbled Glass Distress Paint and then various Distress Markers.

I love how you can give a flat piece like this much more of a 3D look just by the way you colour it and add shadows. These dies are designed so cleverly..

I stamped the word Voyage from the Classics 1 set and added that as my sentiment..
Her are some details still of the finished card:

The bottle, a little metal clock and two glass pebbles on a piece of dyed cheese cloth.

The compass and ring all layered up together.

A Philosphy Tag altered with some Tumbled Glass Distress Paint.

Well, there you have it, a nautical card made with mostly home made embellishments. Hope you like it, and if you have not done so yet, why not play along with our challenge over at Countryview Challenges!

Thank you for visiting and stay inky!

Distress Ink	Frayed Burlap	Vintage Photo Distress Ink	Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Nestabilities	movers and shapers	Classics 1	paperstash
philosophy tags	Tumbled Glass

InLinkz.com