Tim's January 2014 tag and a case of C.R.A.F.T.!

There was I all organised - a nice little pile of "ingredients" for making Tim's first tag of 2014! I think I only managed one last year and I'm not even sure that it made it to my blog! So, everything was ready to bring away to our caravan with me and then what happened was a case of C.R.A.F.T.,that's not what you think....when I was working our school caretaker had been to his GP, while there he had mentioned to the doc that he kept forgetting things - the doc had told him that he had a case of C.R.A.F.T - Can't Remember A Flippin' Thing! Well I've got it now! I just left everything on my desk!

I was all ready to give up on the idea but after sitting knitting a scarf for my granddaughter it occurred to me that two of the colours in the wool were exactly the same colour as two Distress inks I have here - a little sort through my boxes and I came up with this prettier version than I'd like but I did stick as far as I could to Tim's instructions which you can find here.
So here's my tag

As you can see the two colours were Peacock Feathers and Picked Raspberry and they were ink pads rather than Distress stain but considering my brain fail it doesn't look too bad!

Thanks for looking, Chris

....and back into colour!

My latest journal page began the same way that many of my pages begin - a mop up page! When my new stamps arrived at the end of last week I could hardly wait to get this set mounted and inked!
Its the Artistic Outpost set 'Bluebird' and I've wanted it for some time! 
In the set is a small text stamp in old typewriter print, I masked off the area that I wanted the image by tearing some paper to the approximate size, allowing the text to fill in the edges. I then used the stamp right way up and upside down and stamped randomly - this may seem like odd behaviour but as a child I was allowed to play with a typewriter and was always fascinated with the patterns I could make by reinserting the paper upside down and winding it through before I added more letters.

I then laid the 'hole' over the text and stamped the image using my new Potting Soil Archival ink(seen so many folk using this and loved it-it's my new favourite). Oh dear! the green patterned background did not suit the little girl! I stamped her again onto plain paper and coloured her by mixing some distress pens onto my mat and painting with a water brush before cutting her out and pasting her over the green figure! 

I then used distress markers to colour one of the birds on another of the stamps so that the bird could fly towards the little girl. All I needed then was the little quote and some music from the bird stamp. Not to be caught out again I painted a little area with Nougat PA Fresco Finish paint. 

This is the best photo I could get in fading light but tomorrow is a busy day so I wanted to post this tonight.

I would like to enter this in the following Challenge 

Artistic Outpost - Anything goes

Thanks for looking, Chris 

No colour?

I have been playing in my journal again and unusually for me didn't feel in a mood for colour.

A little bit of stencilling, and smudging of inks, some stamping - some conventional rubber stamps and some bottle tops etc., some tape, some painted lace, a chocolate wrapper, collaged stamped images. 

Halfway through doing this page I saw the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where they wanted you to use the letter 'A' so out came my lovely knight stamp - only thing is I think I threw just a little too much silver embossing powder onto his armour!

I enjoyed not using colour for a while but I think I'll give it a rest for now!

I would like to enter this in 
the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where my heavily Armoured knight stands for the 'A'

Country View Challenges where they are actually encouraging Monochromatic entries

Up!

It's thanks to She at Rubber Addict that I was reminded of this challenge at the Craft Barn! I love the idea of having a little book of quotes and this challenge wants 'Quotes and Lyrics' using the word "up" or "smile" for this first part of the challenge!

Living near the airport - not so close that we get a lot of noise -  we do see planes taking off up into the clouds.

I often find myself humming a certain song when I see them.
So what is the song you ask - sad to say, I know all the lyrics - written by Sammy Cahn - it's "Come Fly With Me" first sung by Frank Sinatra in 1957. My Dad had the Come Fly With Me LP(that's what they called albums in those days) that had songs about travelling around the World!

 I love flying, especially that moment when you break through the cloud up into sunshine so I used Stampendous Frantage - Shabby White because of the gold flecks in it, just above the quote in the little silver lined cloud.
The Inkylicious stamp at the bottom is one I hadn't used until now even though I bought it at a show last year. The background on the tag was made using Sky and Snowflake fresco paints from Paper Artsy then stencilled over with a TH stencil. Once I'd stuck on the plane(using foam squares although you can't tell from the photo!) from Tim's Remnants set it looked a bit bare so I added another line from the song using Ideaology label letters along with more computer generated words.

I don't know how long I'll keep up with this challenge but for now I'm really looking forward to the next two words! 

Thanks for looking, Chris

WOYWW 242

I don't seem to be doing very well in linking to Julia's Wednesday fly around the world for free 'Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday' so far in 2014! 
Oh! I started keen - I could show the photos I took but never got around to showing you but today I've made it and this was my desk yesterday before we went to babysit(huh! they're not babies any more - x-boxes and computer games are the favourites these days - whatever happened to Thomas the Tank Engine and dolls?)

Not a lot going on, some book pages drying so that I can tear them up for journal pages and best of all - new stamps - I can't resist a  bargain.

I have been playing quite a lot in my art journals in between waiting for stuff to set or dry! 

Here's one

 Done on a background made mainly of mop up inks then doodled on - the quote is an Artistic Stamper one.

So, we are off to the cinema - to see American Hustle we think, last week we went to see 12 Years a Slave, some harrowing scenes but a fantastic film!

Hope to get around to visit when we get back, Chris

A little tag book

As I mentioned in my previous post I was thrilled to find that Julie Ann of Magpie Heaven had a GD spot on the Paper Artsy blog. The gorgeous box and it's contents were just amazing ...but all that work...and I don't get on well with larger projects(short attention span!!!)However over the three days I came to realise that what I really love are little books and Julie Ann's little book was something that set me off on my little tag book!
As you may have seen one tag was stolen for something else so I had to set to and make another! I used a combination of linen and muslin to stamp the images 

As you can see it was still here at this point

I then covered the backs with some of the lovely mambi papers...

..and stamped them using a combination of stamps from LPC011, LPC012, LPC013

I also added more text using Minis 23,23, and 76

As you can see the new tag is now here and the backs have been joined together using this part of an image on the LPC013 set

I think it made a pretty good hinge!

As you can see I have actually used some of my stash of embellies - you know the ones I say I'll use - one day! 
Maybe this is my start as I mean to go on moment....we'll see!

So Thank you Julie Ann for the inspiration!

I am going to link this to the Paper Artsy blog

and also enter the following challenge

as I've got around to using some of my hoard - Our Creative Corner - No more Shopping Sins

 Thanks for looking, Chris

One thing led to another....

For some time now I have been inspired by Julie Ann at Magpie Heaven so I was thrilled to see Julie Ann's project on Paper Artsy's blog this week! However, it was a bit beyond me...or so I thought! I am not so good on larger projects but by the third post when she showed her little tag book I just had to have a go at a tag book at least!
So I started to prepare some tags!

 Then what does she do? She goes and becomes a member of the design team over at the Dragons Dream! So....one tag is removed!
It's no secret..I too love the Paper Artsy Lynne Perella collection.
The challenge is to use text - tick! ...I did add a little more though. I stamped the image from LPCO13 onto some linen and stuck it on - use a real stamp - tick! Added some lace and pearls then came the difficult part - use the letter L! By now we had decided to take a break up here at our caravan - fortunately ages ago I had brought some rather garish letters up here (a lot of my craft stuff up here is with the intention of playing with my granddaughter so stuff I wouldn't normally use is stashed under her bed) A crawl around on the floor and I came up with the letter L - tick - although it wasn't really suitable for the tag. 
A few weeks ago I found this paper pad at TKMaxx - photographed it intending to show it off but never got round to it.

 The papers are gorgeous, some foiled, some embossed and I had brought some pages up here knowing they would come in for my own projects. I carefully drew round the letter L and stuck it onto the garish one - hmmm, ok but I felt the need to link the L to some words - so, out with some pages I'd torn out of the King Arthur book that I rescued from hubby (it was on it's way to the charity shop) I have a folder of pages from books that are kept at home.
So, after all that rambling here is the tag

 So what happened to the tag book? You'll see tomorrow if you'd like to come back.

Meanwhile I would like to link this to 
Dragons Dream Tag It On Challenge
Simon says Monday Challenge - Anything goes
CountryView Challenges - Monochromatic

Thanks for looking, Chris