Of friends and dies and just good fun....

Hello all and thanks for dropping in. Today I would like to share another couple of Christmas cards with you.

Last week I was lucky enough to visit two of my craft friends, the lovely mother and daughter pair, Rita and Annie. We decided that we would all share some of our Christmassy dies and do lots of diecutting, and that's what we did. Well apart from also sharing some wonderful food, courtesy of Rita, and lots of chat and laughter of course.
Anyway, then Annie set us the challenge to all post a project using the dies we had cut by Wednesday  October 5, so here you go, yay, I made two and am posting a day early lol.
Below some close ups:

As I knew it was mostly about the diecuts, and no real stamping involved, I did a kind of mixed media background, using scrapbook paper, stencils and texture paste and colouring with a mix of sprays and inks.

The dies were mostly coloured with Distress products, Crayons, Markers and Inks.

The words are Tim Holtz dies, the lantern was from Sweet Dixie I think.

I love these little ivy corners, - they are Marianne Creatables.

I always admire people that decorate both the out -  and inside of their cards, and with so many ready cut dies available I decided to do that too for once...

Card number two, was done in a similar way, this time using a little image as a focal point.

A bit more collage work on this one, but still plenty of dies too. The image is from last year's Papermania Victorian Christmas collection.

I edged the image with Stampendous Ancient Silver embossing powder, the ticket is a very old Tim Holtz stamps. The dies are mainly in the background.

And here is the inside of this one, apart from the sentiment the whole thing was again put together using various dies.

The ornament is a Marianne Creatable again, I love how these come out when embossed. I actually own that one, so I know it will be used a few times this year....

I think the pine branches are from Sue Wilson, I coloured them with Distress Crayons and Inks. The poinsettia was in my stash, left over from last year.

Well, that's it, - I hope I have inspired you a bit to take out your own dies, and thanks Rita and Annie for a fantastic day!!

xxxxx

Dies and Distress for a Vintage Journey

Hello everyone lovely to see you and sorry it has been pretty quiet around here, but as it so happens, this is a scheduled post as I am currently in Australia, visiting my lovely grandchildren. Even though it is winter here I am having a wonderful time. But, onto my project:

It's time for a new challenge at A Vintage Journey where the lovely Annie chose the current theme Dies and Distress.  You can read all about it HERE

I decided to alter an Ideaology Assemblage Clock, using lots of Distress and Dies to do so.

I started by taking the glass out of the clock and covering the whole outside with Gesso. I then added some texture past in various places, applying it with my fingers, just to grunge it up a bit.Then I  painted the outside with a mix of various brown and Black Soot Distress paints.

Of course I got so caught up in the process that I completely forgot to take pictures, but above and below you get perhaps a bit of an idea of what it looked like...

Next I worked on the inside of the clock

I took the back off the clock and used it as a template for a piece of card that I had run through a clock and gears embossing folder. I carefully cut out the circle and then inked all over it with a mix of Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks. Then I took a piece of ordinary computer paper, stamped a sentiment from the Way with Words set in Jet Black Archival and when dry crumpled it up, flattened it out again and then distressed it with the help of Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

I took a little metal wing from my stash, covered it with Versa Mark and then used Walnut Stain and Tumbled Glass Distress Embossing Powders to create a kind of patina effect. I also used some Verdigris Antiquities powder by Ranger and a bit of Wow Copper EP. I then embellished it further with a flower created with Tattered Florals and a Spellbinders die and some little flowers from my stash.

Now to the outside: On the right I used the mini inkwell and feather die, coloured with Distress Markers and inks. I draped some swirl leafy diecuts around it.

On the left I added some die cut leaves and a little stamped butterfly, fussy-cut by hand as so far I don't own any butterfly dies small enough for this, but the Butterfly Frenzy Decorative Strip die would of course be perfect for this...

The leaves were inked with Peeled Paint Distress Paint and then I went around the edges with Vintage Photo DI.

The top of the clock was further decorated with another die cut as well as a few smaller flowers and further leafy swirls.

Well, hope you like my altered clock and that I have given you a bit of inspiration to play with some of your own dies and Distress products. Make sure you go over to the A Vintage Journey blog, to see all the amazing projects my team mates have created. And of course we all hope that you will play along with our challenge. You could win a £10 voucher from Countryview Crafts and be in with a chance to be chosen as one of our 3 "Pin Worthies". Thanks for visiting today and see you next time!

Assemblage Clock	Texture Paste	Distress Paint	Distress Paint
Distress Paint	Steampunk set texture fades	Way With Words	Distress Markers
Archival Ink	Distress Ink	Vintage Photo Distress Ink	Walnut Stain Distress Ink
Peeled Paint Distress Ink	Spellbinders Blossoms 5	Tattered Florals	Mini Feather and Inkwell
Spellbinders Foliage

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