New Challenge Blog

Just found a great new challenge blog here - Craft Your Days Away - now that is really what I like! The first challenge starts on August 7th - so make a note of it in your crafty diary!


Please take a minute or two to go and have a look.

Thanks.

Challenge for Jude and Carol

A couple of weeks ago, while chatting on Card Making World with Jude and Carol, I suggested a challenge using the flower stamp from a recent Craft Stamper magazine. The challenge was eagerly taken up by both Carol and Jude. What was the challenge? To make three completely different articles using the stamp - one of which could be a card. Jude, unfortunately did not have the stamp, so carol and I both sent her a heap of stamped images to use in the challenge.

The first article I made was an altered tin. I painted the edges of the tin with copper coloured paint (Adirondack Paint Dabber) first. Then I took some metal, stamped the image 4 times then embossed it from the wrong side to get the raised image. I also embossed a separate image for the add on flower. I painted the metal the same colour, but on the add on flower, I used a pearl paint as well to get a lighter image. I used a bright yellow copic to colour the centre of the flower then added some kindiglitz for sparkle. I mounted some leaves (cut with the Cricut) and glitzed them then added the flower with mounting foam to make it stand out from the tin. The metal strip was fastened to the tin with DS tape and tied with fancy yarns from my stash.


The card was made from a bright pink card base that I found in my stash of goodies, layered with an off-white paper that I punched to provide a fancy edge, then stamped the flower image 3 times with worn lipstick distress ink and embossed with clear embossing powder.
The lace edging was a piece of white cotton lace that I coloured using the worn lipstick distress ink then topped with a ribbon. I have not added a sentiment as I couldn't find a place to put it without it appearing too much!!



The third piece for the challenge is a pair of ear rings.
I stamped clear shrink plastic with black stazon ink, cut the flower images out then coloured with a pinky-coloured copic. I shrunk the images which then came out at about 1.5cm across. I added the beads and silver coloured findings to make the ear rings. (They actually are the same length - the picture is a bit off centre!)

SENZ

Well, it was SENZ weekend here in Christchurch and it was the place to be for stampers and scrapbookers!

Lots of displays by retailers from all over NZ and lots of classes and demos for people to attend. Some of the Crafty Girls met up yesterday for a guided trip around the retailers and went home very happy with lots of goodies and a lot less cash!
I bought a few things, as you can see from the picture at the left - some darkroom door stamps, clear stamps from Kaisercraft, some plastic face moulds, distress embossing powder, a leaf punch and some other stuff!

Today, I went back again to do a vintage clock class. Mel and Ali from Kaisercraft in Australia were running the class and they were just lovely.

This is the clock I finished at home - it always takes longer to do something like this for the first time. The clock is a pre-designed set available from Kaisercraft and is made from MDF. Covered the square base with Kaisercraft paper and distressed around the edges with Walnut Stain. Others painted around the edges, but you know me and my penchant for distressing!! Added pearls to the edges which had been coloured with alcohol ink to make them look a bit more vintage. The keys and the numerals were cut with a cricut then coloured with walnut stain DI and painted with Distress Crackle paint. The frame was covered with another KC paper and the edges again distressed. I cut the flowers from another sheet of KC paper, rolled the edges and distressed, then shaped them a bit so they would stand out from the base. Glitzed with gold GM and attached using glue for the bigger flowers and foam mount for the smaller ones. The photo mount has some beautiful cotton ecru coloured lace along one side and the keys are attached with ribbon. The pictures in the photo mount are from a Victorian Birthdays CD that I sort of adapted to provide the sepia look.  Of course, it looks so much better in real life than in the photo and I am quite pleased with the end result. Thanks Mel and Ali!
The other great thing that happened was that I won a prize in a draw in the class and came home with some lovely goodies from Kaisercraft - Thanks Kaisercraft - I shall really enjoy using them all.

ATC Book Part 2

This is the second part of the making of the ATC book. It shows a couple of ways of putting the book together.



Enjoy!
Please leave a comment when you have tried making a book and a link to your blog or a picture!

Hats

Made some ATCs for a swap and for the LTD challenge this week, but I may have missed it again!!
The theme was Hats or Crowns.
I used alcohol inks to colour the backgrounds, added some lace, stamped some hats and handbags, then added peeloffs that I had attached to other papers then cut out. To finish, added some bling on 2 corners and peel of corners on the others.

ATC Book Video

The idea for this came from my friend Carol, in Hamilton, who sent me the instructions for folding the pages. A few weeks ago, I made a little book to keep ATC swaps in. Since then, I have thought a little more about this, redesigned the pages a little and produced another book. 

Part 1 of the video describes how to fold the pages for the book. Each page is made from a sheet of A4 paper and folds into a mini-book of 4 pages, each with a pocket that will hold an ATC.



The second part show some ways to put the pages together to make a book. This will be uploaded in the next day or so.

Thanks for looking - please feel free to leave comments.

Tag Challenge

This month, the Something Completely Different challenges are Tags and the theme for this week is Hearts. This tag was cut using my Cricut, giving a slightly different shape to the normal luggage type tag. I distressed the tag using Weathered Wood, Barn Door and Stormy Sky Distress Inks, then stamped the heart images (a giveaway with a card making magazine) in Barn Door. I stamped the heart with words again and cut it out, then misted that and the tag with Cosmic Mist. Attached the heart then added a heart shaped brad and a heart shaped button tied with raffia. The fibre at the top of the tag is one from my stash given to me by Sue at Wantage.

In Stitches

Papertake Weekly Challenge this week was In Stitches. Had to have some sort of stitching on the card - real or fake!

This card has stitching stamped around the edges of the layer. Used the Cuttlebug to emboss the small squares on the front, and added ink to the edges to provide some depth.

Narrow ribbon wrapped twice around the centre and finished with a half bow.

Missed all the challenge dates!

Over the last week, have been diligently doing lots of challenges, then I missed most of the submission dates for one reason or another, but decided to post them anyway as I have used a few new stamps!

These two skinnies were inspired by the SCD challenge, which was a skinny with a theme of flora and fauna. I used my blobs on sticks stamp (courtesy of Wendy at the Stamp attic) on both, the butterfly and cat were from Tanda sets, the flowers were from a set I had bought ages ago and the little birds were from a little set designed by Sue Law. 5 more new stamps used!

This box ( top measures about 4.5" square) was inspired by a tutorial that I received by email recently. The top and bottom are supposed to be cut from Nestabilities dies, but I used a similar shape on a Cricut cartridge - Songbird. The box has sides 2" high and I stamped the new CS stamp around the outside of the box. I coloured 3 of the flower stamps and layered on the top of the box, adding leaves, again cut using the Cricut.
Added some distress ink around the edges of the top and bottom to give a bit of depth and hide the card sandwiched between the papers on the top and bottom. Sparkle on the flowers and leaves added with Kindyglitz.

This card was made with a sunflower stamp that I bought (as part of a set) in the UK. I coloured the flowers with copics and distressed the edges of the layer and the card with Scattered Straw DI.

The Last Wantage Challenge

At last I have finished my altered tin. Sue Law provided us with a lovely stash of fibres, buttons and beads, stamps and a yeast tin with the challenge to do something with it. Well, it sat on my desk for ages before I finally gained some inspiration from an article in the CS magazine.

This is the tin that Sue provided in the stash. It is not that big, but provided a big headache for me in knowing what to do with it.

So, I had some sheet metal that I cut to fit around the tin in two pieces. Punched holes down both sides of the metal then embossed it in the Cuttlebug using the Swirls folder. I then painted the tin and the metal with a couple of coats of gold paint. When that dried, I attached it to the tin by using some of the fibres that Sue had included in the lovely box and lacing both sides around the tin.

Then I had to decide how to decorate the tin. I stamped some Tanda flowers onto card, embossed with gold,, cut them out then used coloured Kindyglitz to provide some colour on the petals. It needed something else as well, so I cut some swirly leaves with the Cricut and the Home Accents cartridge, glitzed them with sparkly Kindiglitz and attached to the tin. Added the flowers and hey, presto..... This is the result:

The photo does not really do it justice, unfortunately. However, it is finished just in time to enter into another challenge - the Allsorts Challenge for this week is Embossing, so it fits!

So, Sue, I finally did it!!