Shabby Chic - Grungy Monday

I have just found a new challenge site that I love. At Studio L3 there is a weekly Tim Holtz technique challenge. This week it's "Shabby Chic". I remember one of the tutors (my friend Liz) showed this technique at a workshop a couple of years ago. And when I tried it I was hooked.

I have used it as the background for this little bird hanging. I am going to re-do the bird as I am not happy with the finish. If you haven't already tried this technique, check out the tutorial on Sir Tim's blog and be inspired.

Shabby Chic

Also check out all the inspiring samples on Linda's blog

Less is More - Week 17 Pick a Square

Well this is definately a very minimal card. This challenge is always a tough one for me but one I quite enjoy. Hop over to see lots of other lovely samples at Less is More
This week we have to pick a square from the 5 square plan. And this is where we place our image. I have boringly gone for the centre. I have chosen to make a faux batik glass tile. This is a fab Tim Holtz technique which is a kind of reverse resist. Firstly you build up several layers of alcohol inks on o memory glass tile (this is a 2 x 2 inch). Let it dry then ink up your stamp with an archival ink. The colour doesn't matter as the oil based ink lifts the alcohol ink to give a negative image. Stamp the image ( a solid image works best) and immediately buff with a soft cloth or kitchen towel, to reveal the image. When it works it is lovely.

Turn the tile over so the alcohol inks are underneath and stick to a light colour (white works well) to see the batik effect. I did this technique once at a workshop and it went down quite well. The stamp I have used is from a Stampin Up set - Just Believe. The technique is on the first Tim Holtz DVD for any one interested.

Here it is on the finished card. As it is a messy technique I tend to make a few of these at a time.

Wedding Day - Woodware DT

Well here is my first post for the Woodware Design Team. This week the theme is "Wedding Day". I have used a stamp from a Magenta Cling set CSET25 "Retro Romance". This is a lovely set - very modern and great for wedding cards, engagement, anniversary etc.

For the pink version I have embossed the heart square using white embossing powder, then DTP (diect to paper) over the top with a couple shades of pink. You then wipe off with kitchen towel to make the image pop. I have glittered the heart with fine crystal glitter and added a few pearls. The fern leaf is a favourite punch called Evergreen also available from Woodware stockists.

Here is a little more detail of the heart square. I also sponged the white flower tips with Brilliance Orchid pearlescent ink.

I think this would also be a nice design to use in Wedding stationary. Here is a different colour using the same resist technique.

Why not check out the Woodware Blog to see what the other DT members have come up with.
 We would be delighted to get feedback. This is just the start!!

Crafty Individuals - Free as a Bird

It's my Wedding Anniverary today. We just got home after a nice meal and I have just found out  that I was a winner in the Crafty Individuals "Free as a Bird" challenge. I am absolutely delighted. I really enjoyed this project. I have been a fan of this stamp range for several years and stocked alot of them in my shop. So thanks to Isabella Norris for chosing such a perfect challenge and for choosing me as one of the winners.

There were some fantastic entries, so if you haven't already seen then why not hop over and check them out.
Crafty Individuals Blog

The Stampman Challenge - #23 Recipe

This fortnight's challenge from the The Stamp Man is "Recipe". It is based on a bingo card idea where you have to chose either a vertical line, horizontal line or a diagonal line.

Blue	Embossing powder	Stitches (real or faux)
Torn/ripped	Ribbon	Red
Die cut	Homemade background (no patterned paper)	Sparkle and bling

I went for the top horizontal line i.e. Blue, Embossing Powder and Stitches. My entry is pretty simple. I stamped the background paper with Cobalt blue. I created some faux stitching around the edges by pricking the holes through my Tim Holtz rular and then used a navy blue pen to join up the dots. I find this far easier than trying to drag my sewing machine out!!

My umbrella man was coloured with dark blue ink, stamped with a script stamp then triple embossed with clear embossing powder. My clock was stamped in the centre by cutting a nestability circle the right size and stamping through the hole in the paper.

The sentiment is a Tim Holtz stamp and currently my favourite.

I love my umbrella man. I have also just finished a note book with him on the front, along with the same sentiment. This was for my friend Elizabeth's birthday.

Woodware Design Team Blog - Starts Today!!

Today saw the Woodware blog kick off. It is a challenge blog for anyone that wants to have a go. This week the theme is Wedding. Francoise Read was the first to post her sample. I never thought I would end up on a design team with someone like Francoise. I have admired her work since I started stamping! My first sample goes on Friday. Please have a look if you have time Woodware Blog
I only had time to make a birthday card tonight that should have been in the post today. It is for a friend who likes fashion so I thought this would do. The stamp is a newish one from Crafty Individuals which I love and not a single bird in sight!!!
Anyway I thought I would share it with you.

Less is More - Butterflies

Even when I am busy, I love this challenge because you have to keep it simple. As soon as I saw that the theme this week was butterflies, I knew straight away which butterfly stamp to use. This is an old Penny Black image from their Brush Strokes range. I used 3 coulours of brush markers directly on the stamp and spritzed with water to blend the colours. For the border, I masked off a strip and blended Stormy Sky Distress for the background colour and over stamped with the same colour. The sentiment is from Stampendous.

Less is More - Take Two

Less is More - Butterflies

Following a couple of comments from the ladies at Less is More I quickly re-did this card and you are right!! It doesn't need the border. It is actually quite difficult to really embrace the "Less is More" concept. I will try harder next time!!

A Card for Catriona

What a hectic week it's been!! I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation this weekend. Last night we were through to Dundee to be with my daughter Catriona for the opening of this year's Degree Show at Dundee College of Art. She has just finished her degree in Fine Art. It was a really good night and we all went for a meal afterwards. Her theme was Hollywood Icons so I tried to make a card to fit her theme. As usual I was rushing at the last minute, but she seemed to like it!!

Card for Catriona

Now I need to get the thinking cap on for her graduation card for June!!

Here is a photo from the degree show of proud Mum, Catriona (in about 4" heels!!) and my niece Nico who came through from Glasgow to be there for Catriona.

A Little Bird

This week I have been busy at work and not feeling much like crafting by the time I get home. Never mind, we are of to Harris in two weeks time for our holiday. We were there last year and enjoyed it so much we are going back to the same place. Plenty of beautiful, quiet beaches, lots of wildlife and hills as well. What more could you want. And we take the dogs. They love going on holiday!!

I was asked to make a friendship card for someone, so I made this with one of Crafty Individuals bird stamps. The only brief was that the recipient likes blue so hopefully this will fit the bill.

Circle Journal

This post is really to confirm the members of our circle journal group. I think the final list is :

Linda Turner, Liz Urquhart, Lin Connolly, Liz Young, me, Maggie Higham, Sue and Erin Veitch and Isobel Hynd. Margaret Clark - we are probably not starting until September if you want to join in.

Lin - could you please e-mail me at siobhanfyffe@gmail.com  I don't seem to have your e-mail address and it would be good to catch up!!

What I would suggest is that we meet late August to discuss how to get started. Myself, Lin, Linda and Liz were all members of the last group so know the score. So we can bring our journals along to show the others.

I would suggest we keep the format 8x8. That seemed a good size before - not too big or too small. And you could start thinking of a theme. Try to pick something that interests you, but also one you feel the others would enjoy as well. Here are another couple of pages to give you an idea of the sort of things we did before. This was my efforts for Jean's journal. Her theme was "Oriental Dolls". Jean gave each of us a stamp to us. I ended up with an odd looking one called "Zen"

The Stampman Challenge

I have just won my first challenge!!!! Wow, I am delighted!! It was the Resist Technique. I used a ghosting technique for my resist. I thought it was too simple, especially when I saw some of the other fabulous samples.
http://recoveringstampaholic.blogspot.com/2011/04/ghost-resist-butterflies.html

This is a sneeky peek of one of my cards for the Woodware design team
Siobhan

Less is More Challenge - Week 15 Embossing

This weeks challenge is a single layer card with embossing. I don't know about you, but I find single layer cards more challenging. You can't hide behind layers of nestabilities and embellishments. So good to get back to basics now and again. 

Painting with Powders

Stampendous Agapanthus

This is one of my favourite stamps from Stampendous. I have been raking through my stamps to see what are still available from Woodware to use for the Design Team challenges. I came across this one and thought I would share it with you.

The sentiment is from Penny Black. I love word stamps and again this is one I use alot.

Umbrella Man

Blogger seems to have losts a couple of posts that I put up earlier this week. I entered this tag for a challenge, but it disappeared!! Probably me doing something I shouldn't have. Anyway here's the tag again.

Dance in the Rain

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2011/05/tag-week-one-for-boys.html 

Woodware Design Team - Update

I have been busy getting a few samples made for the launch of the new Woodware blog. There will be 6 of us each posting on a different day for each weekly theme. So I have been rumaging and digging out Magenta and Stampendous stamps that are still current. We kick off on the week beginning 23rd May. Francoise Read will be the first team member to post. I will be posting on Friday. So hopefully lots of nice samples coming your way. I will put a link on my blog to get you to the Woodware blog. It's all quite exciting and new!!

I made a tag tonight using the new Tim Holtz umbrella man which I bought at the Edinburgh show recently. I love this die and think I will use it alot. I will post it tomorrow, as I need good light to photograph it.

In the meantime here's a little something I made earlier.

Dreamweaver Stencil and white paste

White Rabbit - Old Stamp

Help!! I need to stop the world and get off for a while! I am sure we all feel like that at times. I don't know how some people can say they get bored!! Obviously not crafters. 

No time to finish anything today, though I seem to have several things on the go! Here is a card I made a while ago for my daughter's birthday. She likes Alice in Wonderland. I have a few ideas for her next birthday, but can't say too much as she sometime's looks at her Mum's blog. I just spoke to her tonight. She's been busy over the last few days setting up for her degree show. She is in her final year at Art College in Dundee. Tomorrow all the students have to stay away while their work is graded. We don't get to see the final display until a week on Friday. She has worked hard and I am very proud of her. I will see if she will let me blog some of her pieces after the degree show.

The white rabbit is from a set I bought from the Stampman years ago. And the new is the Martha Stewart border punch. This I bought recently to replace my old one that got used to death at workshops I did at Stampaholics. So it's new again. Hope that counts for the Try it on Tuesday challenge.
http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2011/05/card-something-old-something-new.html

 

 

 

White Rabbit

 

 

 

 

 

 

       I 

Poppy Challenge

http://thestampmanchallenges.blogspot.com/

Well this week kind of went in a flash!! I didn't get much time for anything much. However when I saw the new challenge for The Stamp Man I thought I would have a go. Janet who picked this topic is one of the lovely people I met at the retreat I went to in March. I have been meaning to make some poppy cards to send down to her. So this is the first!!

I decided to go with a more subtle approach. I stamped the poppy (Crafty Individuals) with black Stazon onto acetate. When dry I applied three colours of alcohol inks on the back (Stonewash, Denim and Bottle). When this dried I applied Versamark on top and brushed with Interference Gold Pearl-Ex. You can't see the shimmer so well in the photo, but this technique does give a lovely shimmer and as it's under the acetate you don't need to fix it.

 I then layered it up with some soft greens and embellished with lace and a vintage button.

Free as a Bird

Thank you for all of you that posted encouraging comments on me getting onto the Woodware Design. I am looking forward to the challenge. It means alot to me that people take time out to comment.
Talking of challenges, I was asked by a neighbour to make a house warming gift for her friend. She had seen an Ikea mirror I had altered and thought it would fit the bill (no pun intended!!). Her friend likes bird watching so I decided to kill two birds with one stone (yes I know!!) and enter it into this month's new Crafty Individuals challenge. 

Ikea Mirror Clock

http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/crafty-individuals-challenge-may-2011.html

After stamping some background images I used a grid technique to create the sections. I used a selection of Crafty Individuals stamps to fill in all the areas. I also used stampboard to create a couple of glazed tiles and a Hero Arts stamp for the clock face.

It will be a clock when I find the clock mechanism and hands I have somewhere in my stash!!  In the meantime I added a couple of Tim Holtz game spinners.Hope you like it.

Woodware Design Team

I have just found out that I have been accepted onto the Woodware Design teams. Woodware is one of the companies that I bought from when I had the shop. They are UK distributors for Dreamweaver Stencils, Stampendous, Magenta, Woodware stamps and much more. As I love all of the above, I am looking forward to being part of this team. Also members are the very talented Francoise Read, Jane Gill and Stamping Caz. One of the other members is Debbie Frost. I don't know her yet but I am sure she will be talented. Many of my customers will remember that we were lucky enough to have Francoise at Stampaholics to run a couple of workshops. I love her work.

I am a bit nervous about working with such talented crafters, but I will do my best. We kick off later in May with a different theme each week and each team member will post on a different day.

One of my favourite Magenta stamps - the Onion Flower

So wish me luck!! And now I am going to settle down with a cup of tea and do some stamping. I have been asked to do a mirror frame by my neighbour, so I better get a start on that!!