Hi Everyone,

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything but sometimes life just gets in the way of crafting! It has taken quite a few weeks to get our overgrown garden tidied again following a months holiday. Add a couple of trips to the hospital and preparing for some fabulous visitors and where has the Summer gone?  In terms of weather, we haven't really had a summer in the UK but that's the way of weather. Circumstances beyond our control.

My last post detailed my prize of some steam punk stamps from Chocolate Baroque, and I thought I would post the tag that I made with some of them. This is for the Chocolate Baroque Tag swap and depicts the letter T (for Time Flies).

I coloured the background using two colours of blue ink pad and then over stamped the small clock images with Versafine Smokey Grey ink. I then stamped the clock face 3 times with Brilliance Victorian Violet ink and the wings twice with dusty concord distress ink, adding a little colouring with Copic Markers. To assemble the tag I decoupaged the first two sets of wings which I had separated from their original stamped image, discarding the centre and added the first two clock faces. The third clock face which I had clear embossed was then added and finished off with Glossy Accents to represent a glass case. The boot and winged gears were stamped on to white card using Adirondack Faded Jeans ink pad. The words time flies were stamped on to the background also using  Faded Jeans Ink. The final touch was a sheer blue ribbon. 

I was really out of my comfort zone with this, but hope the recipient will like it.

I will try to be a little more regular with my posts in future, always supposing I have something interesting to share!

Happy Crafting

Gill x

Wow!

Wow! I can't believe that I have received an e-mail from the Chocolate Baroque Design Team with the news that I have won a stamp in their random draw. How lucky is that?
I am working on some new projects at the moment so until I can show you the outcome I will leave you with the picture of a recent card I made, again with a Chocolate Baroque stamp (floral spray). 

This is my first attempt at colouring with Copic Markers. The centres of the flowers have been enhanced with glossy accents.


Happy Crafting


Gill x

Simplicity is the key

Once again I needed a card urgently, this time  for a friend who is ill. I sorted through my box of off cuts and with the help of one of the Eastern Grasses stamps from chocolate Baroque this is the end result. A very simple stamped image in Versamark onyx green, clear embossed before matting on to a toning background card and then adhered to the white main card with foam pads. Both pieces of card stock used are textured. Sorry I can't remember the make, but as I said in the beginning, they were all old off cuts. The finishing touches were 3 green pearls and a sentiment stamped and then punched using two punches from  Stampin' Up.









Happy Crafting.
Gill x

SHABBY CHIC BOX

Whilst trawling through You Tube videos recently, looking for some Tim Holtz demos I came across some shabby chic doily flowers created by  Juliana from Iluvvintagescrap.com and decided to see if I could re create them as I love shabby chic. I thought they were quite successful so then went on to alter a plain card fibre  box on which to mount them. Firstly I primed the box and lid with white gesso, then covered them in 2 coats of white acrylic paint. I then covered the inside of the lid and the inside bottom of the box with a piece of peach coloured script paper  acquired years ago from a magazine give away. The edges of the lid were then sanded  to give a vintage look.


The flowers were made with the Tim Holtz tattered florals die and a good quality printed paper. A double sided paper would be good for this although not entirely necessary  After cutting the flowers I punched the edges of the larger flower with a Martha Stewart lace punch, then  I spritzed them with water and crumpled them in my hand. After opening them out I set them with a heat gun. This makes the paper stiffer and enables the flowers to keep their shape.
I then Layered the flowers together with Tombow glue in graduated sizes, using several layers of each size from the largest down to the smallest near the centre and alternating the gaps between the petals. To make the centre, I found I had a few pearl buttons in my button tin and also some sparkly flowers in my stash as well as some paper roses which I attached with silicone glue to raise them up slightly and also to take  account of the shank on the back of the pearl button.

To decorate the box,  I glued a length of white rose  lace around the edge. I tied a bow in peach ribbon and attached it diagonally across the box lid and then added one large and one small flower on each side. A further addition of two silk open work daisies was made. The plastic words love and forever were glued to the diagonal spaces top right and bottom left and the final addition was a paper dove resting on the larger flower.

This is a new venture for me and I hope you like it. Thanks for stopping by.

I needed a wedding anniversary card quickly this week, and here is the result.
I used a light blue pearlised card that I had had in stock for a long time, and covered it with a vellum wrap in white with a silver pattern. I scallop cut the right hand edge using my Woodware finger guard trimmer,then added 3 silver baby's breath flowers tied with a light blue ribbon with silver polka dots. The stems were hidden using a very plain and simple stamped and embossed message. The finishing touch was a blue butterfly in the top right hand corner. I do hope you like it.

I feel a little like Victor Meldrew today! I don't believe it! I wrote a post last week and saved it to draft as there were some facts I wanted to check. Today, I added the missing information and pressed publish expecting to see the words and photographs. WRONG! It's disappeared into the ether somewhere so I am having to start again.

I have had a busy crafting week with some deadlines to meet, the main project being the May Tags for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap and several  birthday cards for family and friends. I will post details of these later, but first want to share with you my tags from February.

C is for Cottage

The Cottage stamp is from the Chocolate Baroque set called.............. I stamped the cottage twice, once on the card I was using and the second time on a low tack mask. Using the mask to cover the cottage on the card, I blended the background using blue Memento and  Adirondack ink pads for the sky and several green Adirondack pads for the hills.The trees and shrubs were printed using stamps from the Teeny Tiny Meadow set from Chocolate Baroque. Using a water brush I pulled out colour from the stamp outline and added a little blue colour for the window frames and front door.  the card was then mounted on to gold card and then onto the brown tag.

                                       

 D for Doorway.

The doorway tag was made from beige card stock. I stamped the doorway twice, firstly on piece of beige card the second time on low tack paper to make a mask. I then blended the skyline and hillside using the stamps as detailed for the cottage, adding the little trees from the Teeny Tiny Meadow set.Covering this up with the archway mask, I stamped the tag with the stone fragment stamp from the Chocolate Baroque Echoes of Italy set. This gives a stone wall effect. I cut across the top and bottom of doorway of the first arch, and then down the middle, scoring the sides and folding back a little way. I then attached the archway over the garden scene and finished off the tag with some wisteria from the Chocolate Baroque Wisteria Lane stamp and a butterfly that had been in my stash for years. Thanks for stopping by to take a look and happy crafting.

I began this blog in December 2011 in order to submit some cards for a challenge called White Christmas run by Chocolate Baroque. I fully intended to keep the blog going thereafter, but lost heart as I didn't like the title and have been really busy crafting since then.
Having now changed the title I am now inspired to try again and will hopefully be a more regular correspondent.

This year I am taking part in another of Chocolate Baroque's challenges, namely the Alphatag Swap. This involves making 26 tags throughout the year(one for each letter of the alphabet)to be swapped with other participants so that by the end of December we should all have a complete alphabet. It has been quite exciting and very challenging with inspiration sadly lacking at times. Here are the tags from January.

The amethyst card was cut using a Sizzix die then spritzed several times with a Cosmic Shimmer spray  to give depth of colour. The smaller label was  from a Nestabilities die and was edged with a  Victorian Violet Brilliance ink pad before matting on to silver Mirri card. The larger label was printed on the computer before again being cut with a Nestabilities die using my cuttlebug and matting on to Silver Mirri card. Two purple heart shaped gems were added before mounting onto the tag over the top of some purple ribbon. Further lilac and purple ribbons were added to finish off the tag.

Tag number two was cut from some dark beige card and mounted with a corrugated diamond in a lighter shade. Edwina the bear was stamped form an old Elusive Images set and lightly coloured with markers. The head and rear paws were stamped again and decoupaged on to the tag to give some dimension. The tag was finished with some brown and cream spotted ribbon.

Happy crafting!