A little sparkle on a dull day...

Hello friends, hope you are keeping well. The weather has been chilly and grey here the last couple of days, perfect weather for some crafting, - so I am in full Christmas Card making mode. I have made nearly 20 cards so far, but don't worry, I will not show them all, - today I will share just a couple made with some of my Tim Holtz stamps:

I'll keep this post quite short, as these are busy times for us all, just a few close ups and some product info:

This one uses the Holiday Greetings stamp set. The background was done with Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Oxides. I stamped some trees from a much older set in the background, using Iced Spruce Doxide.

The main stamp was stamped in Ground Espresso Doxide and then clear embossed, I also added some white pencil for snow,

The main card was mounted on a piece embossed with the Lumber 3D folder, coloured with Distress Inks in various brown tones and then I applied a layer of Crazing Medium with a palette knife, a cool trick I learn from my lovely blog friend Sara Emily from Saras Closet  After the crazing medium had dried I then rubbed in some Distress Crayon with a damp finger, to bring out the cracks. I also drew in some stars with a white gel pen and added a little sparkle with Diamond Stickles.

The second card was done in a very similar way, - the bird is from the Simon Says Stamp limited edition stamp set and was coloured with a mix of Distress Markers and coloured pencils

I then finished it with a die cut coloured with Doxides and then I added just a tiny bit of Distress Glitter in Vintage Platinum, it looks really sparkly in real life but it all gets lost in the photo.

Well that's it, hope you are all having a good week and are not too busy. I'll try and visit soon...

xxxxx

More Tim Journaling

Hello lovely visitors, today I have another journal spread to share, again using mostly Tim Holtz products.

I am having great fun using some of my hoarded Tim stash and playing with Distress Paints, Crayons and Inks.

The background was created by adhering some Collage paper across both pages using mat gel medium and once dry painting over it with Antique Linen and  Pumice Stone Distress paint. I stencilled with some heavy gesso to lighten it here and there and then deepened the colour in certain places using Distress Crayons.

Strips of washi tape and ephemera were added and some background stamping in various places.

 Here I used the numeric layering stencil and Distress Crayon to stencils, I love how when you rub the crayon through the stencil with your finger it actually adds dimenion.

The focal point became this sweet little girl from Paperwhimsy, I gave her the flowers to hold as if she is gathering them in her special garden.

Well, that's pretty much it. We are still having the most wonderful sunny Spring weather even though it is coolish, but that suits me just fine.

Hope you are all having a good week and thanks for your visit like always.

xxxxx

Vintage Christmas cards (further variations)

Hello friends! Well, here we are, nearly the weekend and that much closer to Christmas......
Today I have 3 further Christmas cards to share.

Below a short tutorial of how I made them:

All of them started with some textue paste and a stencil:

I then added colour with a mix of Acrylic paints in Titan Buff, White and Burnt and Raw Umber, I used different brands, Decoart Fluid Acrylics, Golden Fluid Acrylics and Paper Artsy Frescos, using both a brayer and my fingers.

On one of them I also used Distress Crayons to get a kind of patina effect.

Raised bits were also highlighted with Treasure Gold.

I then added various die cuts and vintage images as focal points, and that was pretty much it.

Below a few close ups still:

Below a short slide show to see them in close up

I am going to add one of the cards to the following challenges:
Countryview Crafts: Stencils
That's Crafty: Stencil it
Frilly and Funkie: Timeworn

Thanks for your visit like always

xxxxx

Altered Ipad cover

Hello all and lovely to see you drop in here!
Today I want to share an altered cover I did for my mini Ipad.

A while back I purchased this rather ugly cover with a view to altering it, but then it got put aside until finally I got out my gesso and set out to alter it to my liking.
This is what it looked like (I just remembered to take a pickie before it got covered)...

So I gave it two thick coats of gesso and when dry added some Tim Holtz Crazing medium through a stencil, a trick I saw on Paula Cheney's blog.

I also added some normal texture paste and added some texture by patting it with a palette knife while still wet.

Here is a close up of the subtle crackle you get with the Crazing medium, love how that worked!

Next a first layer of colour was added with the help of the new Distress Crayons. I rubbed them in with my fingers and then blended with a fairly dry baby wipe. Another trick I learnt from Paula.

Now for the embellishments: I covered a piece of card with Tissue Wrap and when dry, die cut it with the Tim Holtz globe die, grunged it up a bit with some more Distress crayon and then covered it with the new Tim Holtz Distress Vintage collage medium.

I layered up some ephemera bits and pieces. Some were from the vellum ephemera pack and unfortunately started to crinkle over the texture below when I adhered them with gel medium.

I also added some stencilling with black Archival ink and some rub ons.

Even the closure tab got some rub ons on it, to make it fit in with the rest.

The back was kept much simpler. I just used part of the top layer of a paper serviette, adhered it with Collage medium and then blended it into the background with the crayons again. I tiny bit of background stamping with a text stamp still in an attempt to bring it all together.

Of course it is important to make sure the side gets covered too so it all hangs together

The inside was gessoed too but I left it undecorated as I did not want anything to dirty the screen of my Ipad. If you look carefully you can see me taking the picture mirrored in the glass lol.

I covered everything in a thin layer of the Vintage collage medium  and added some shadows here and there for more depth. Well, there you have it, I am quite pleased with how it turned out, certainly a lot better than the shiny pink plastic..... I rather enjoyed the whole process, so may decide to do my phone next.

Anyway, thank you for visiting like always and I hope you are having a good week.

xxx

Inspired by 1....She Dreamt...

Hello everyone, thanks for dropping in. I don't know about you, but I so often get inspired by different blogs or things I find in places like Pinterest. I decided to start a new little blog series that I am going to call "Inspired by". The piece I am sharing today was inspired by Froebel Sternchen Susi who paints incredibly expressive faces almost every day.

During the weekend I had some time to play in my journal and decided to try out my new Distress Crayons and decided to include a face drawing.

I covered a double page in my journal with Tissue wrap and then with a thing layer of gesso.

I used a Bingo Stencil and grunge paste, did some background stamping, added some colour with a mix of Distress Crayons and then did some stencilling, wit the crayons too, rubbing the colour away with a baby wipe. Love the textural effect, definitely something to explore further.

Next I sketched a face with a Stabilo All pencil and added subtle bits of colour with the crayons and a tiny bit of white acrylic paint. I also added a few strips of Tissue Tape and more background stamping of course,

The heart was cut with a Sizzix/Tim Holtz die and then again coloured with the crayons and some stencilling.

Because I thought the girl looked quite sad, I gave her some tear drops, and finally the sentiment was computer generated and that was pretty much it.

Hope you are having a good week with some creative time in it..... Thanks for your visit like always

xxx