Feeling Blue?

Hi Everyone and  thank you for the lovely comments on my last project.  

What fun I had with this one.  This is more a signature piece for me, but the background was a whole new adventure!  I have not used one of the Ranger Giant Tags before and boy are they big!  I thought about making a small book, but decided to use the tag to make a hanging.   I took 6.5 cms off the bottom to break it up a bit. 

So the background:

I used Claudine Hellmuth Gesso and a Crafters Workshop Diamond template to create some texture on the tag and also glued some pieces of an old doily here and there.  I added some text with Midnight Blue StazOn Ink  and then painted a watery dilution of Claudine Hellmuth Studio Semi Gloss Acrylic Paint : Sky Blue all over the tag and spritzed it here and there with water to get a more mottled effect.  However, I did work in stages as the tag is so big and the paint actually dries quite quickly.   Once I was happy with the effect I put some darker paint in various places around the gesso. 

I blended some Vintage Photo Distress Ink in the lighter areas and then it was the turn of the Tim Holtz Tissue Paper  (again something I’ve not used before).  I just tore off strips and glued them with Claudine Hellmuth Multi Medium.  I love the way the tissue paper clings around the gesso and just disappears into the background.  Finally I dotted splatters all over the tag from watery Vintage Photo Distress Ink. 

So here is the finished tag – lots of new techniques and products for me, but I shall certainly be doing more!

Then it was down to decorating.  I used the Tim Holtz Dress Form Die and some lovely Teresa Collin’s Now & Then cardstock.  The flowers are all handmade by myself – these are the well known grungepaper type roses but I use cream card, water and scrunch them up before making the rose itself.  (I am a bit obsessed with making flowers, and if you want to see more there are some tutorials on my blog.)

Although I’ve used lace, twine and ribbon from my own stash, Vicki has a wonderful array HERE which are definitely on my wish list!  

Thanks again for looking and I look forward to coming back at the end of the month with my final project x

A chipboard ornament.

Next week is my Mum's birthday and I wanted to make her something special instead of just a card so I made this little ornament which will hang up to remind her that even though we're miles apart I'm thinking of her. 

The backing is a piece of square 4 x 4 chipboard by Tando Creative which I gessoed to create a neutral background to work on. Next I cut a smaller square of Glitz paper and inked the edges, a doily and a die cut frame and butterfly from more Glitz paper and layered it all together.  For detail, I used some Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze and painted it on the butterfly to give a gorgeous shimmer along with some stick on Prima Crystals.  The packaging from the Crystals came in handy too as a backing for the frame and the mini tag which is tucked under the ribbon. Finally I added a little birdie paper clip by Prima on the bow.

I hope she likes it and I hope you do too.

Have a good week

Jaine x

Printer tray for memory keeping

I've had this Printer tray from Tando Creative sitting on my desk for a while, and finally I found the perfect use for it! Last year we had a family vacation to Spain and the girls are still taking about it! I've made a bunch of layouts but I needed to make something special to keep this great memory:-)

I startet out by covering all the pieces with gesso before gluing them together. Then I've used different types of acrylic paint and some crackle paint from Claudine Hellmuth. I glued down some cheese cloth to add a little texture and used a stencil from The Crafters Workshop to make the birds. To give the finishing touch I used some Tattered Angels Glimmer mist.

 This is a small printer tray but it was perfect to keep small treasures in the small spaces:-)

On the front cover I added some texture using a stencil and molding paste. I then used a lot of different glimmer mists. The alphas, sun and clouds are coloured with the same colors. I also used some seashells on the front. To close my "book" I used a bracelet I bought in the town we stayed.

Hope this inspired you all to give the printer trays a closer look. This is perfect for memory keeping:-)

Stampotique bonanza!

Hello there everyone! 

I know we usually keep the blog for oodles of creative inspiration from our talented design team, but I'm jumping in today to share with you some of the new stamp designs we now have in stock from 

Stampotique Originals. 

Did you know that we now stock around 200 designs from Stampotique! 

So, grab yourself a coffee and take a seat and take a browse around. 

 

If you like quirky, then Daniel Torrente is your man! There are some fabulous new characters this time around including a teddy!

Roc Nicholas, new to our ever growing collection, but we, OK - I, couldn't resist the new designs.

Kira Nichols' designs are incredibly popular, and the new designs will not disappoint  My personal favourite, for it's name alone is 'Bacon & Ham' 

We recently started to stock Maria Sabina Raita's designs earlier this year, and now have extended the range with the new designs. 

Who's next...? 

Cowardly Lion, from Janet Klein.  Janets last set of designs were Alice in Wonderland, 

this time it's The Wizard Of Oz.

Another growing collection is from Jo Capper-Sandon. Dare I say it but I think this double dandelion is one of my favourite stamps. 

France Papillon is one of the new designers fro Stampotique, 

and we are really pleased to be stocking her designs. 

A lot of the new designs include words and phrases,

 which we've popped into a separate section on the website.

ATC's

Paula here today, and I'm bringing you a set of ATC's but the design/idea can be scaled up and made into cards or even a small canvas.

 

The base for the ATC's is a Gelli Plate made background, basically I've used Picked Raspberry Distress Paint brayered on to the plate, I've then pressed a large alphabet stencil on to it - and that's as difficult as it gets!

I cut the background sheet up into ATC sized pieces (which is 3.5"x 2.5") and then over stamped in Brushed Corduroy Distress ink using Tim Holtz stamps, I also inked the edges of the ATC's too. The feathers, are Jenni Bowlin rub ons which are the easiest ones to use, you more or less place them down and gentle press and they come away on to the project.

The image is by Stampotique and it's been stamped on to a scrap piece of the background.

 

So, this Gelli Plate background was created using a mix of Rusty Hinge and Mustard Seed Distress paint - and the pattern is a piece of textured ribbon, think it's called grosgrain(?)

 

Items used that can be bought from the shop;

Distress Paint: Rusty Hinge, Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry
Distress Ink : Brushed Corduroy
Stampotique Originals (Face stamp)
Tim Holtz Stamp Sets: Mixed Media, Curiosities
Jenni Bowlin Rub-ons: Feathers
Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Chitchat Stickers
Brayer
Alphabet Stencil

 

to you

Hello everyone!

Sometimes I lock in myself studio to make some projects but I can't find any inspiration. Usually I put some products on my table and start to making something not thinking about what I'm doing. Today I would like to show you one of these projects!

I used a small chipboard sheet as a background. I glued some pieces of Bazzill Paper – Antique Newsprint and Glitz Design Yours Truly paper. I used some Dylusions Ink Sprays and a lot of glue and white paint to add some texture to my picture. I wanted a lot of different textures that's why I added some microbeads and Ranger Liquid Pearls. I stamped some Stampotique stamps using Archival Ink Jet Black. For some dots I used white Acrylic Montana marker and orange Dr.Ph.Martin's Bombay India Ink. I also used a black gesso from Claudine Hellmuth. The last thing: I glued Prima bulbs – love them!

I don't know what I will do with this piece. It can be a great cover for a mini notebook or for a small art journal. I can add some ribbon or string and hang it or put this picture to a frame. I will see!

Magda x

Little birdie brooch.

Always about this time of year I have an obsession with birds and birdhouses as we have them nesting in two of our nest boxes in the garden plus 5 Housemartin nests on the side of the house. They fascinate me and give me heaps of inspiration for journal pages and paintings but I thought I'd do something a little bit different and take them off the page by making a brooch.

I used a piece of Claudine Hellmuth sticky backed canvas, cut out the house shape and painted it with Adirondack dabber in Citrus. I backed it onto a piece of felt, trapping some tulle in between, went around the edges with the sewing machine and added the Tim Holtz tissue paper off cut and a piece of lace trim.  

The bird is from Prima and I added a touch of light blue paint to it and stitched him on. 

The little bottle which is from a Tim Holtz Idea-ology corked vials packet, holds a piece of lace, some mini mini shells and a twig and is held on with some stitching. (I also added a small blob of glue to hold it in place and stop the stitching from coming undone).

I wouldn't normally show you the backs of my projects but I have to show you this neat brooch pin by Finnabair as part of a packet of Vintage Mechanicals. Ok it's sewn on a bit squiffy but as I said normally I wouldn't show you this side :)

You could make one of your own and instead of making a brooch why not stick the canvas to a tag as it's already sticky?

See you next week

Jaine x

Follow Your Heart

Hello!
Yep, me again!
Today I want to share an inky panel (yes inky...only a smidge of paint was used in the making of this piece!!)

I wanted to create loads and loads of texture, so I glued down various 'bits' onto an 8" square chipboard panel before I started in with the colour. Corrugated card...

A cardstock stencil (Jenni Bowlin)

Along with a bit of old book page here and there. I scraped texture medium through a stencil too...

Once all the background bits were on and dry, I lightly sponged with gesso to give me an all white base to add the colour to. I used a mixture of Bombay Inks and Daler-Rowneys for this, two shades of green to begin with. I sprayed a little water and blotted some inks away to give the mottled effect. Once the greens were dry I went in with the most fabulous ink, silver pearl by Daler Rowney. All the silver effects you can see are that ink! You only need a little for the translucent shimmer, but then you can build up layers for a more opaque silver look. I haven't used this in an age, and can't fathom out why! Love it.
Anyway, I felt the greeny silver look needed a little more colour, so went for a bright red 'halo' circle!

Now this IS paint! Dash of Red by Claudine Hellmuth. This paint is versatile too...the edging is the same shade, just a thin layer so the colour is a more muted almost dark pink. I covered the cardstock with three layers of the paint to give the depth of red I wanted before stamping the text and punching out the circle. The Stampotique figure (Mela- possibly my favourite Stampotique) was then placed in front of her halo..

A Remnant Rub on phrase finished off the panel...

This is definitely one of those 'note to self' pieces, in this case use more inks!!!!
Hope you like it,
See you soon
Love Trish xx

Bird Song

Well hello from the wild and windy North!   My name is Jennie and I am absolutely thrilled to be here this month as Guest Designer alongside such an amazing Design Team.  Thank you so much Vicki for inviting me.

Today I am sharing an oriental tag showcasing these two wonderful birds from the graphic45 Bird Song Collection.

I inked up a Size 10 tag with  Ranger Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade,  Rusty Hinge and Fired Brick.  I made a mask from Post It Notes for the sun  and used a Crafters Workshop Leaf Mask in the lower part of the tag.  I then stamped some Chinese Text (a Craft Stamper Freebie many moons ago!) in Fired Brick.

I fussy cut the birds from one of the labels on the sheet and used foam pads to give a little definition.  Then it was all about decorating around the birds.  All these pieces came from the graphic45 Tranquility sheet which is full of labels, stamps and borders.  It really is a quite beautiful sheet to use.

I made a little fan from some Chinese paper in my stash  and added the srim and blossoms.  Again just some old tiny white flowers I found in my stash which benefited from the addition of some stamens. 

I had a lot of fun making the tag as “oriental” is not something I normally do, but graphic45 papers are always wonderful to work with.

Thanks for looking and I look forward to seeing you later in the month with another project.

Jennie x

12x12 LO

 

Paula here, today I'm showing a very simple and clean 12x12 layout...........

 

 

It's funny how some things can come together, and this layout had a funny start in life - Well, the lovely paper you can see is a double sided paper called "Aura" from the Finnabair Sunrise Sunset Collection. I cut a piece from the reverse of the paper and I was left with a strip missing, anyhow this side of the paper was laying face up on top of the paper it's layered on, which is called "Scallop" from the Glitz Design Uncharted Waters Collection, and I thought, that looks interesting - then I slipped the chevron paper where the gap was, and basically that's how this page came together!

Ingredients;
Base paper - "Scallop" by Glitz Design from the collection called Uncharted Waters
Chevron paper and the cut out who, what, where, when - Color Me Happy 8x8 Paper Pad by Glitz Design
 

Blue?

Hello!
I made a tag.... a BIG tag!! Not the hugest Ranger have to offer, but the next size down.....

I've done a little (yeah right!!) step by step so you can share the process.... are you sitting comfortably?!
Firstly, I covered the tag with white paint. I knew my colour scheme wouldn't work with the manila colour of the tag possibly showing through!

Then it was on to adding the blue. I've deliberately applied the paint so the 'grain' shows through, i.e its a bit stripy!

Of course, Distress paint can be applied very smoothly too. Just not today! I then splatted with a little water to add to the texture.

This is a simple colour scheme, so all the background stamping and printing was done with white paint..

Circles, dots and parts of a harlequin were used. Next, the 'pop' colour. Bright red in this instance. Rather than just doing more stamping, I mixed in the paint (Dash of Red by Claudine Hellmuth, my favourite red!) to the texture medium, and then scraped through a stencil....

As you can see, the top bit went a bit smudgy, but I actually rather like the grunged up look! Was very tempted to see whether I could grunge up the other bit to match, but decided it might totally mess the whole lot up, so didn't!
At this point I thought it needed a bit of black, so more background stamping...

These are fab Jenni Bowlin stamps , small, unmounted and perfect for this sort of thing! Next step was a bit of stitching....

Round the edges to 'frame' the tag, and then a couple of random bits for more texture. Now we're ready to add the image...

Another moody Stampotique lady! I added rhinestone stars....

and used some alphabet stickers to create the word...

Blue letters to bring the whole blue tag together!

See you soon!
Trish xxxx