Words, Words, Words

Hello everyone, welcome to you all and specially also new followers, it's is wonderful to have you along for the journey here!

I am very excited and honoured to share a project with you that I was asked to create for a guest design spot over at the Frilly and Funky blog, where the challenge right now is Words, Words Words.

To find all the details of the challenge and the theme, all you need to do is click HERE

I decided to make an accordion card using the Tim Holtz Vintage Cabinet card. I started by cutting three of the bigger ones from grey board to form the back drop for my card. I then cut three further ones out of Tim Holtz Kraft resist paper, but then decided to make the central one into a frame with a bit of the Tim Holtz Trellis Frameworks die cut pieces in between the background and the top layer.

I cut another cabinet card from manila card, created a background using the Spritz and Flick technique in Antique Linen, Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks. I then altered the trellis with the help of Wow Verdigris embossing powder and Walnut Stain Distress Embossing Powder and glued it between my background piece and the frame of Kraft resist that had been inked with Weathered Wood and Frayed Burlap Distress Stains first.

Next I stamped one of the birds from the Artistic Outpost Birds of a Feather set onto smooth stamping paper, fussy cut it and then coloured it with Distress Markers and Watercolour pencils.

The other two background panels were coloured in the same way with Distress Stains. I then cut two further small cards from manila card stock and inked them with spritz and flick and some stenciling using the same colours of ink as on the central panel.

For the  panel on the left, I stamped the nest from the same set in Coffee Archival, masked it, then used some background stamps and coloured as described. I also wanted to add some spritzing with the new Tim Holtz tool, but instead of making the thin splatters it was meant to do, it made some big blobs. I nearly scrapped it but then decided to embrace imperfection and just live with it.

For the panel on the right I chose the lovely vintage girls from the same Birds of a Feather set, also stamped directly onto the panel, masked and then created my background using the same colours and techniques.

The last step was to adhere the three panels together with strips of card and to embellish with some die cuts, flowers and a butterfly to cover up the worst of the blobs.

The hardest part really was to choose the one word for my creation. In the end I decided on the word soar, one of my "words of power" for 2014. It was simply cut from one of the little Tim Holtz adage tickets.

Well there you have it. The whole piece became rather darker  than I had intended, but sometimes we just have to live with what comes out of our hands I guess and perhaps soar above it.

Thanks you so much for visiting and please do check out what the amazing Frilly and Funky design team have created over on their blog

Just Three Colours for Our Creative Corner

Hello everyone and so lovely to have you drop by. Can you believe it is February already? Time flies when you are having fun, and I must be having fun, for it really seems to be flying at the moment.

I'm here for the second time today because the first of the month means a challenge at The Artistic Stamper (see post below). But it also means a new challenge for Our Creative Corner and this month, the lovely Jenny from Pushing the Right Buttons has set the challenge for us, namely to use just three colours in our projects, Brown, Purple or Plum and Blue. Absolutely no black lines allowed.

Well here is my attempt:

I have to be honest, purple is a colour I hardly ever use, though I love brown and blue as any regulars will know. So, trust me, this was a real challenge for me. I decided to make one of my all time favourite projects, a paper bag with a tag inside. The tag is a #10 Ranger Manila tag, and the bag is just the right size to hold it.

I created the bag by layering up a distressed piece of DP, which I had crinkled up first, I then lightly rubbed a Pumice Stone Distress ink-pad over it to highlight the wrinkles.
Next I stamped an Artistic Outpost stamp in Plum Archival ink on white card and then lightly inked over it with Seedless Preserves and Pumice Stone DI over it. The latter to tone down the purple a bit. .. (I just couldn't help myself, - purple is a really hard colour for me...)

The next layer was an Inkylicious stamp. I stamped the butterfly twice for more dimension.

Finally I embellished with a piece of lace, a rosette made with the Tim Holtz Rosette strip die and some flowers and leaves, including the pine branche from the Tim Holtz Tattered Pinecone die.

For some strange reason I started a new love affair with Diamond Stickles, I just had to rub it along the edges of my different layers. Not used Stickles for ages, maybe the purple started to affect my brain....

Anyway, onto the tag:

I coloured the background with Pumice Stone Distress Stain, the Seedless Preserves DI again, this time toned down with both Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap DI. I then stamped the text stamp from the Tim Holtz Papillon set it Picket Fence Distress Stain and embossed a part of it with one of the Sizzix strip texture fades which I then high lighted with some Treasure Gold in Pewter.

The vocal stamp is from Inkylicious again, coloured with Distress Markers.
Finally the embellishments:

A piece of hand died cheese cloth, a butterfly from the Papillon set stamped twice in Potting Soil Archival, a stamped ticket from a Tim Holtz set and some little flowers and leaves again.

The ribbon at the top is died seam binding, using Pumice Stone Distress Stain and a bit of Seedless Preserve Distress Ink.

Well, there you have it, a tag in a bag. Please do go over the the Our Creative Corner blog to see what my wonderful teamies have created, I promise, you will not be disappointed.

 Of course we all hope you will play along with our challenge! Not only will you have the chance to be our top talent and have your work featured on the OCC blog, you could be one of our top three, and since we now have spotlight sponsors, you could even be in with a chance to win a fabulous prize!! Hope to see you there, all you need to do is click HERE
Have a great creative month and see you next time!