Birthday Card

Made this birthday card for my aunty today, really liking this style as everything on the card was altered in some way before adding it, with paints, distress ink, stamping, sprays etc, and it just seems to give it all more depth, I really love this card, and it's not often I make things and say that!!

 

 

 

close up of the details...

 

 

thanks for looking, hope you have a lovely weekend. :)



Paperartsy 10th Birthday celebrations- 3up challenge piece

This is my piece for the Paperartsy 3up challenge which you can find on their blog

 

I was sent this.....

 

 

and these...

 

 

along with a few other bits and pieces and a colour swatch to work with.

I couldn't really think of anything to do with the canvas in a frame combo, I actually have a couple of these collecting dust in the craft room somewhere, then I thought about the box idea, and it just so happens the size was perfect to fit on the top of an MDF tissue box cover I had lying around waiting to be decorated....or rather it fit on the bottom as I flipped the box over and covered the tissue hole!

So I made it into this.....

 

 

kind of looks like a tea caddy, I like it....

I decided to make it like an "Inspiration Box"- you know when art journallers make a little box or book with word prompts in, and if they have a creative block they check it out? Kind of like that, with all different techniques and products most of us have lying around but forget to use cos we're too busy only using whatever is in arm's length (me). So I just went for it with the techniques and this is the result...

 

the whole base of the box was painted with the colours on the swatch, fresco paints applied with damp cut'n'dry foam to mix it from the dark raspberry colour at the bottom through to the nougat at the top.

 

side 1- stamping, masking, colouring with distress markers, crackle accents, rub ons, german scrap, treasure gold, rub ons, multi medium.

 

 

side 2 - frames were coloured with distress inks, treasure gold and paints. inside the frames on smoothy card (awesome) I've used parts of the stamps as well as other stamps in the Squiggly Ink range and coloured them using pencils, crayons, inks, paints, pens, and covered them with sepia accents, glossy accents and crackle accents. the little rub on is a Tim Holtz rub.

 

 

side 3 - you can't even see the base paint any more on this side, but I love it. I used a stencil, grunge paste, versafine onyx ink, lots of lovely treasure gold and a grungeboard heart coloured with fresco paint then crackle accents on it.

 

 

side 4 - my favourite- grunge paste through a stencil then stamped into (tutorial from Leandra here) and sanded, painted over with the same as the base colours, then added stamping, versafine and archival, couple of rub ons from Tim Holtz again and finally a stamped piece of tissue coloured and glued on the top, "amore" :)

 

 

Inside the box is more inspiration.... a little bookring thingy with different techniques used on the cards, so you can flip through them when you have that creative block and get ideas and inspiration!!

 

 

and not forgetting the underside of the canvas lid.....

the blue paint and stamping is the canvas underneath, and the centre of that had the little screw from the handle, it was too long so I made use of it and added all the ribbon, different charms, tokens, grunge and glittered tag, and a bamboo tile with an image transfer of Edgar Allen Poe......how random....lol I used to love doing image transfers but it's one of those things I am lazy about!

 

 

last but not least is the lid itself.... canvas was coloured with fresco paints very roughly where I knew the image would end up, the image was stamped onto 1 ply of a cosmetic tissue and then applied to the canvas with beeswax a la Hels Sheridan on C&C a few weeks ago!! I'm not keen on the lumpy bumpy beeswax so I zapped that with a heat gun and while it was drying I dropped some Tim Holtz dry glitter into it, it's really sparkly irl but you can't really capture that can you? Well I can't...lol

 

 

so that's it, I hope you like it and I loved making it, hope to get into the next 3up challenge and see what comes my way!!

 

Kaz :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Christmas Card

Hello bloggers, I've started early (for once) and made my first Christmas card!!

 

I've used distress inks, distress pens, tissue tape, ribbon, seasonal charm, perfect pearls, brads and the stamps.....I'm not sure who makes the main image stamp as I've had it so long it's just red rubber and no markings on it.

The background snowflakes are from an acrylic cylinder set by Majestix and you get five or six different snowflake stamps in it, very cool for making backgrounds or snowflake wreaths or whatever accents you want to add, I love them and they're very versatile.

 

 

Hope you're all enjoying the lovely summer everyone seems to be having, but remember, not long till Christmas!! lol :)

Happy Anniversary to my Mum and Dad!!

46 YEARS my Mum and Dad have been married today, FORTY SIX YEARS!!

I made this card using distress inks, Tim Holtz dies, grungeboard heart, real flower and jewels to finish off.

Mothers Day & New Challenge Blog!!

Hi Bloggers, today I found a new (ish) challenge blog- Country View Crafts Challenge Blog.

And since I am about to blog my Mothers Day tag I made for my Mum I thought I'd enter it into the first challenge which is "Pick and Mix"

 

I've used salty ocean distress ink on this, and then swished some picket fence and broken china distress paint over the top of it.

I added some tissue at the top, the music one...and smooshed over that too

 

Then I stamped with picket fence distress paint using indigo blu honeycomb background and dried with the heat gun.

I edged the tag using inka gold in blue...added the die cuts, millinery flowers, beads at the bottom and the pendant thing at the top. I collect old and broken jewellery for things like this, love using them on tags.

Hope everyone is having a fabby day, and it's not too snowy and icy where you are, cos it is here!!!

 

Kaz :)

 



March Tag

This is my effort for the Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013- March.

I don't have most of the stuff Tim uses so just had to do my best!

 

I used the movers and shakers loveheart instead of the bunny, and I hand cut the grass at the bottom. Painting the flowers with distress paint is something I will do again, love the look it gives- it really does look like enamel or something.

Don't have the tattered banner die (yet) so just used a cardstock phrase at the top instead.

This was made into a card for my Aunty's birthday so was put to good use!

 

Kaz :)



Sunday Stampers and tattered florals anyone?

Hello lovely blog people, I have finally managed some crafty time and made a tag for two challenges!!

Sunday Stampers where the theme is TEXTURE and also a Tim Holtz blog challenge that you can find HERE

So I started with my tag and painted it with Distress Paints in Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed and Barn Door.

I edged the tag with Picket Fence distress paint and stamped with it too, using the Tim Holtz stamp with the criss cross pattern on...

I then spritzed from high up, just a touch of Dylusions ink in Black Marble.

I stamped the Artful Sillhouette in Black Archival Ink, then I overstamped it with white Distress Paint, just a touch, to give it a shadowy feel and take away the flat matt black look.

Now for the tattered florals!!! LOVED this part, I die cut these flowers from everything I could find, material, acetate, paper, grungepaper, vellum, handmade paper, glitter paper, acetate with glitter on, everything!! I also did the same as Tim and covered my grungepaper with tissue, I used the musical tissue he has.

 

I ended up with 13 tattered flowers, all waiting on the right project!! There are only 12 in the pic though cos one was on the floor!

I decided to paint some of Tim's flowery ribbon stuff, and also a piece of ribbon for the top of the tag, so I spread some distress paints onto my craft sheet, spritzed it all with water and smooshed the ribbons through it, dried it with a heat gun so it didn't blend too much and look muddy. Customised accessories for my tag!!



 

 

 

So I added my accessories, added the tattered floral and decided to add texture onto the lady sillhouette (scaramoosh scaramoosh...)

I painted some Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint onto the lady using a small brush. The brush inside the jar is a little too wide for this.

 

Whilst waiting for that to dry (or start to dry so I could blast it with the heat gun) I stamped Tim's ticket stamp and the phrase "Art is a shadow of what a person is thinking" which I thought was perfect for the shadow/sillhouette stamp! I distressed it and added it to the flower using a pin.



 

 

Once the crackle paint was dry I gave my lady a crown, made her a Princess...and added some gold rub 'n' buff to the cracks to accentuate them

I also added some black german scrap pieces to the sides of the tag.

 

 

So that's my tattered floral, I chose this one cos you can see the musical notes, which I like, loved the colours in this one too.

 

 

And my texture is the lady sillhouette princess person......crackly texture....lol

 

et voila, the finished tag.

 

 

I have LOVED this challenge, and getting messy with the distress paints was fab, I can see me needing every colour of these, they are just SO versatile!

Hope everyone is well and good :)

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Kaz :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





Twiddlybitz!!

This is a Twiddlybitz shadow frame I've made for my Mum's birthday, hope you like it. :)

 

 

Kaz :)



What's on your workdesk Wednesday

This is my lovely tidy workdesk today.....lol

The wooden thing is a drawer from my "Book of Secrets"- online workshop that started today (check it out on my sidebar)

And the blue thing is a twiddlybitz shadowframe I am making for my Mum's birthday on Friday, dunno what's going in it yet but I'll worry about that later....

click here to see everyone else's workdesks today!! (LOVE looking at other people's craft spaces!)

 You can click on the image for a more detailed view of the mess! lol

 

Happy Crafting!

Kaz :)

 



Hi bloggers, not getting much time to create at the moment due to sick kiddies, but wanted to show you my possibly finished second page in my altered book.

Paris is the theme on this one, just love Paris I do- going to Disneyland Paris with the kids in June which will obviously have to include at least one whole day in Paris and maybe a night cruise too, we'll see how tired we are at night!!

Anyway, this is page two.....

 

I've used acetate, paperartsy image from a postcard thing, stencils, paint, ink, gold leaf, distress inks, rub ons, stamps.....stamps are from Tim Holtz, and I was going to write other names there but I think they were all Tim Holtz stamps I used!

I'm hoping to sign up for a journal class Kate Crane is part of and it looks fab, 21 different teachers, imagine the talent!! click HERE to check that out!

 

this is a close up of both pages....

 

 

Oh I used alcohol inks too, on the acetate, then spilled the alcohol mixative into the middle to give it that "window" to see the french book page. I bought Graham Masterton's book, The Manitou from Amazon, and when it came it was in French! So I kept it for things like this. Can you imagine a french person doing the same? A page from The Exorcist in english......lol

Hope everyone is well and good, happy crafting!

 

Kaz :)

 

 

 

And the winner is........

drum roll.......

 

after doing a random number generator with all the names from facebook, then all the names from here.....I have a winner of the Cuttlebug, die and texture folders.

 

 

and the winner is......

 

Rosalee!

 

Well done Rosalee, if you can email me your details I'll get your prize off to you this week.

 

Thank you everyone for entering, I will be having another giveaway real soon so stay tuned, there are stamps galore to go as well as crackle glaze, utee, Tim Holtz stuff and loads more.

 

Thanks for following me too. Hope you have a lovely rest of the weekend!!

 

Kaz :)

For my Valentine...

I've made this card for hubby, and deliberately made it so I could enter it into Frilly and Funkie's challenge blog cos I love the stuff on there, the DT make gorgeous stuff and all of the entries I've seen are beautiful too. I had to make a card for him anyway, so why not make it suitable for this?!

 

 

The main image is from Stampington and the rest of it was lying around on my desk, don't feel like it's totally finished, but then I'm like that with everything!! Hopefully he'll like it anyway.

Happy Valentines day to everyone when it comes!!

 

Kaz :)

 

Altered Book, first page....

This is my first finished page in my first altered book, I have kept the book to the cover, this page, another page, and then the rest is glued together with an aperture cut out. The theme of the book is Je T'aime, just things I love, one of them being Paris (coming in page two of the book) and the main one being my kids! Hubby will have to get a place in my next book, or maybe in the aperture page, I've no plans for that at the moment!

So this is the page.....

 

 

The quote is "A Mother's love is whole no matter how many times divided" and I got that from a photo someone posted on Facebook! I thought it was fitting for someone with four kids! And it's very true.

I used the pages of the book that I had cut out to make the aperture, tore them up and made the heart, and there are so many other things I did to it, you can see that anyway, stencils, sprays, inks, paints, stamps, charcoal, you get the drift. I really enjoyed this, and hope to do loads more books; I've already thought of lots of different themes, and I have been collecting books like this to use for years! Big, hardcovered books. Fab for altering!

 

This is another view cos you can't see the gold on the first one.....

 

See it at the top left? It's gorgeous and shimmery, and the whole red part is like that. When you move it, it shimmers in the light. That was Cosmic Shimmer in Amber, just love that spray!

 

In the spirit of love and hearts and Valentines challenges....I've decided to enter this into Simply Create Too's challenge of Love/Hearts.

and also My Mum's Craft Shop's monthly challenge which is Valentines/Hearts

 

I know it's not very "Valentines" but it's a page created with much love, and there is a heart there!!

Hope you all have a fabby, crafty day wherever you are and don't forget my Cuttlebug Giveaway is drawn this Sunday, you have to be in it to win it!!

 

Kaz :)

 

 

Bag Lady.....

So I've had a few of these bags in my craft room for aaaaaaaages, got them from Hobbycraft for £1 each....very cheap. And then I seen in Craft Stamper's February issue a decorated bag using TAP. So I had to try it, and I love it!! I will most definately do this with the rest of the bags, they will make lovely gifts.

 

This is the bag flat, the middle, yellow part is where I stamped my collage on the TAP.

 

 The surrounding stamping is done after the transfer using stazon, and I also did some wee additions using Dylon fabric pens.

I added beads, button and ribbon and a customised bag charm, job done! I love it!

 

I've used stamps from Paperbag Studios, Stampington, Lost Coast Designs, Tim Holtz, Printworks and probably more I've forgot about.

 

Hope you're all having a fabby day!!

 

Kaz :)

 

 

 



Hels Tutorial and fabby workshop news!!!

So I tried to do a tutorial, turns out I am VERY messy when it comes to spraying black ink of any kind, you should see my craft table!! Anyway this tutorial was on Hels' Blog, click here for the tut- Hels' one is gorgeous obviously...but this is mine....lol

 

 

Hey, I did my best, honest. I just found it tough going with black spray and black gesso and made so much of a mess of it that I had to start again (thankfully Hels thought of that and had us seal it before spraying!! lmao)

This is going to the lovely Bev who has helped get me back into crafting......how did she do that? Only by finding a fantastic craft shop around the corner from her, called the Craft Den- and they do workshops there, with the likes of Andy Skinner, Kate Crane, Jean Hardy, and Hels Sheridan!!! So Bev booked into a Hels' workshop in April. And we got to talking...and I said I am coming down there (Scotland to Sheffield) for one of these workshops....turns out there is one in July with Hels, so off Bev went to find out the details and book us a place.

Not only did she book us the place, but the lovely lovely lady that owns the Craft Den has a room!! With a four poster bed no less!!! And I am staying there!!!!!! It just doesn't get any better does it??! SO looking forward to meeting Bev, we've known each other on Facebook for years- and obviously a workshop with Hels will be fabby- and if the journey is ok and my family manage without me for one whole night, which they will, I will be back down there for more workshops with the aforementioned fabby crafters!!! How exciting!!!

Anyway, I have a two year old who is ill so I should stop gabbing on here and go see to her, have a fantastic day, and remember and checkout my giveaway!

Kaz :)



THE SUNDAY STAMPERS

 

 

 

This is my first entry for The Sunday Stampers over on Hels' blog, and the theme is "Endless Love"

 

So I made a card, what's more romantic than Paris? Love and Paris just go together perfectly. I've used stamps from TJ Designs and Stampington and also used my jumbo rollagraph for the background, just love playing with that!

 

 

Hope you are all well on this cold, snowy Sunday (in Scotland anyway) and if you haven't seen already, check out my giveway on the post below for a Cuttlebug machine!!!

 

Kaz :)

 



Tag and a giveaway!!

Made a little tag, craft room is almost finished, just final organising to go, but I couldn't resist having a play last night, so here's the tag

 

 

The background is made using a cuttlebug....which brings me nicely to my giveaway!!

 

 

Which is a Cuttlebug machine!!

What you will receive is.....

Cuttlebug machine

1x A plate

2x B plates

1x C plate

1x set of five Embossing Borders folders, "Organic Flourish"

1x Emboss/Die set, "Celebration Stamps"

1x Emboss/Die set I don't know the name of, it's a little bird and a leaf!

1x Sheena Douglass Embossing folder, "Ivy"

 

The cutting plates with this have been used once, this morning! I meant to use my own to keep these brand new but forgot, and made some samples for you to see the die and embossing folders you will get!!

The little stamp set is cute, the die is a square stamp shape and you can emboss a choice of four designs onto that, I've used the Love stamp and the little pram to show you.

The bird is also die cut and embossed, turns out you cut first then emboss.....HA who knew? Not me....lol

Anyway, in order to win this fabulouse prize you have to do three things.....

 

1. follow my blog- THIS blog, not my facebook page. You can do so on the right hand side of this post where it says "followers"

2. share this blog or post, whatever is easier for you, share it anywhere, on facebook, twitter, your own blog, just share!!!

3. leave me a comment to let me know you've done that, and that's it.

 

I will do a random number generator on Sunday 17th February and post HERE to let you know who won.

 

Good Luck everyone!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013

These are my January and February tags for the Tim Holtz tags of 2013. The challenge for me was that I didn't have most of the stuff to make these using the same techniques as Tim does, especially with the February one! Make do and mend it was then....and these are my efforts!

 

 

January

 

 

 

February

 

 

It's great to be blogging again, been a while so I'm looking forward to catching up and seeing what everyone's been up to!!

Kaz :)