A Timmy Type Challenge

Over at Artful Times we are wondering what has gone wrong in that we have very few entries these days.  Only three for our last challenge so this time we changed from what we intended to something which might encourage more people to join in.  Something in the style of Tim Holtz.

Here is what I did following Tim's recipe for this month's tag challenge as closely as I possibly could. Didn't have Distress Paints so used my Adirondack ones but in the same way as he did.  Not as bright a background, maybe I will try again with some brighter colours.  Now I need to buy some TH Distress paints, not sure why I never did as Distress Inks are my all time favourites.

Didn't have the masking material so just used a paper mask and used these three butterflies - a mistake choice as they get swamped with the lettering.  Try again later with something else.  Used the texture paster and embossing powder and left it overnight - did not think it would work.  And if it did - what about the embossed butterflies now bare when I heated the gold powder?

So I set to and made another tag with the left over paint on my sheet.  This time I mixed some Mica Powder in with the Texture Paste - result came out very dull.  Now why has this not come out brighter?

Anyway, both are in the TH Style and the bottom one is great for a "letter M" swap sometime as it has "measure", "Men", "letter M" and contains "Mica" powder - cannot ask for more.

Hope people join in with us as we are getting quite despondent.  If you want to see what Wendy has done pop along to our blog and follow her link.

Incidentally I was very careful heating the embossing powder on the first tag - and the butterflies did not dull.  Phew!  Something went right!

WOYWW 303

Here we are again - Wednesday and it is snoop time.  The day of the week when eager crafters upload their desks and bare all to the world.  Mine does not have anything interesting on it but in the bottom left corner you can see my birthday cards from the other week.  I'll show you the ones I got from my crafting friends just to showcase their talent.

Starting top left and working left to right: Helen, Dot, Christine, June

Jacqui, Lynn Hardy, Janet and Margaret MacB

Freyja, Dolores, Darlene, Ann B, Mo

Jeannnie, Chris S, Carmel, Samski

Nicki, Gill, Leo, Wendy K

Wendy C, Renate, Paul, Enid, Joyce (nearly 86 years old)

Because I was away on my birthday, and the following weekend, I have only just taken them down - do you blame me?

Oops!  Just realised I have not included my desk - still, better to have the good stuff first eh ...

Birthday cards as mentioned bottom left (commercial ones on a separate pile) Mini Misters ready for spraying my canvas, Monkey and Katie having a chat I see, canvas waiting to be finished, book about to be covered with tissue paper so work will be done soon.

At the moment I am sorting through my clothes.  I had a good spending spree when it was my birthday and bought too much so have now removed the equal amount from my wardrobe but need to look at what has been put away for summer.  Some fit, some don't and some have such memories that I hate to pass them on to the charity shop.  I don't like having to say it but I have put some brand new clothing in the bag and now need to find a charity shop that I can unload at without walking miles with a big bag that does not sell everything for 99p.  I object to that when there are perfect condition M&S and brand new clothes in the bag - am I wrong?  Is it better to let it go for 99p?

Anyway, must go and look through the six big bags on the bed waiting for a trying on session.  I was exhausted yesterday going through the two big suitcases.  It's hard work trying clothes on,  especially when they don't fit and you get stuck in them!  See you later at the stamping-ground for a good old nosey.

WOYWW 302

Flying around - again - trying to get my post done the night before the official WOYWW time because I have to go out in the morning and then I am expecting a friend of mine for the day.  Hope we get time to craft.  Mind you, before we do I think I need to continue to tidy up my desk area.  I have undone my bag from weekend (Harrogate Show with Oyster Stamps) and put my Distress Inks back and my Finnabair stuff is all packed up in a bag ready to be taken out when I next do some samples (can't wait to play again).

There are some delicious smells wafting in from the kitchen as I am getting a casserole ready to just warm up with some veg when she gets here.  It has been so cold up here in the north that I thought we needed something to warm us up a bit.  I have eaten so much this weekend though that I need to stop my nose twitching at the slightest smell of food.

Here is my desk in all its glory - what you came for?  Right?

You can see Monkey has his arm around Katy Koala up there, or is he stopping her getting in my jar of Cola Bottles?  On the deck are my Rynn Flower Stamps waiting to be used with a coaster set which I must do for one of the samples for Tracey.  To the right of the coasters are two new stamps bought at the show - really cheap - the big one was the most expensive at £2.50.  Behind that is my "indulgence'.  I have been wanting to buy some of the tiny Distress Inks and a tin to put them in for simply ages and I finally plunged at weekend,  Well, what do I work weekends for? To feed my habit of course.

The 'FabScraps' box is full of charms, ideal for the Finnabair stuff I have been doing and at only £14.50 a box a great bargain.  Not sure how many Oyster have left as I sold quite a few at the show. Then it is just the usual stuff, foam squares for my Distress Tools, the tools themselves waiting to be put on the carousel, an empty box that did house my Distress Inks that I took with me and just peeking in on the left is a canvas I started at the show.  Hopefully I will get that finished 'quick sticks' and then I can show it to you.  If you missed my previous Finnabair things you can find them in the previous post and a couple of posts last week.

Hope Oyster have a good show at the NEC this week but that they don't sell every single thing of Finnabair as I need to get at least one more weekend in playing/showing what is on offer.

Prayers for all my dear friends who are suffering one way and another with illness and hope they are having a good day.  Today my thoughts are with dear Shoshi who, hopefully, will be having her surgery later.

Pop along to our Queen of Desks, Julia, and see who else is posting and what they are showing. Guaranteed Fun!

A Bit More Finnabair

I have just been so busy of late and tried to do some Finnabair type things last week ahead of the show at Harrogate and then found out the show was Friday/Saturday and not Saturday/Sunday as usual - so I lost a day.  Just got back from an overnight stay in York - but more on that one later.

This is one of my canvas samples that I was going to finish off at the show (other work in the posts before this one)

I used the ColorBloom sprays for the background and used some water to dilute them once I had sprayed.  Hard to believe it is Deep Teal and Glistening Waves that I have used - the water has really worked wonders at making it such a light background.  One of Finnabair's stencils (Grungy Grid) with her 3D Opaque Matte Modelling Paste completes the background apart from the strips of Designer paper which I have stuck on following the lines of light emitting from the stamped image. These then have an orange line painted underneath them as does the torn edges of the image and the other little bits and heart.  I used Spiced Marmalade with touches of Fired Brick to liven it up on the heart and on the butterflies too.  The images are all Finnabair and are all stamped and embossed.

I was going to carry on with this canvas but Tracey thought some people might like a "less is more" canvas and so we left it as it was and it went down to Oyster Towers with the gang on Saturday.

A small canvas I did also had the butterflies on - more or less same colour scheme I am afraid and this time I went over the circles on the butterfly wings with Sepia Glossy Accents to accentuate them a bit. These are double butterflies and they graduate to a deeper shade with more of the darker ink applied.  They have wire antennae attached.

Side View:

This stencil is called Ripped Fishnet that I used for this one.

Will leave it there for today and see what else I can come up with. Am so far behind with blogging that I need to play catch up for at least a week.  See you later.

Artful Times - Challenge "A Tag with a Pocket"

Must confess, I forgot all about writing this up on here, my own blog.  I have been so busy and literally had five weekends away - on the trot - so have been a bit like a 'headless chicken' as they say.  I had Harrogate show coming up this last weekend, or so I thought, but whilst I was away celebrating my birthday I discovered it was not to be held Saturday-Sunday as per usual but Friday-Saturday which meant I had one full day less to prepare some samples.

So come Thursday and time to set off for Harrogate I suddenly realised it was Challenge time. A quick hasty look on the admin blog revealed I had done this tag and so I set to and did a quick post.  Turns out I forgot to add Mr Linky and Wendy rang me whilst I was in a hotel in York!

Anyway, late I know, but here it is

I used a Tim Tag that I already had cut out, made a pocket from a rectangle of cardstock which I coloured with my Distress Ink, folded it on two opposite sides like a fan (two valley and one mountain fold on each side) stamped my image, covered the whole lot with Versamark and put UTEE on, heated it and added another coat, and another so that it came shiny like a tile.  This was then stuck down on the main tag which had been stamped with hieroglyphics  and two smaller tags made to fit inside it.

Neither of these have been coloured in as I know who is going to be the recipient of this and I know that she loves to colour in.

I hope we get some entries for this challenge, I am sure it is not too difficult to make a tag with a pocket.  Wonder what Wendy has done?  Pop over to Artful Times and have a peep, then join us please.

Day 2 at Harrogate with Finnabair Goodies

This is a scheduled post, has to be as I am not taking my computer with me and get in a pickle with the iPad and Blogger together.

Just to show you the first canvas I did, which is very "Pink" and in your face, so will include the coasters I did during the last show as they are much more subdued.

This one has the stencil 'Chickenwire' in the background (a favourite of mine) and then I have used the Prima Colour Bloom Spray Mist Boysenberry as the background colour.  I found it a bit strong so I watered it down by spraying some clear water over the top.  After that I just added torn strips of paper, metal embellishments, wooden embellishments and more paper along with a circle of lace and then two circles from the Finnabair sets.  Finished off with the image and some tiny beads and a couple of butterflies.

At the last show I was painting coasters and here are three with images from the sets of Finnabair stamps.  I brought lots of coasters home with me and spent a full day putting Gesso on them, front and back, so that I could decorate them at the show this weekend.  Some of you may have seen me decorating them, some of you still have that "treat" to come LOL.  Anyway, here are the three stamped up, no colour as yet

What's next?  Well there is still a large and a small canvas to come so do pop back as they will be uploaded soon.  And who knows what will come out of the show ....

See you at Oyster Stamps stand or later on my blog.  Cheerio!

Finnabair Goes to Harrogate

Been a busy few days getting things ready for the Harrogate show. Must admit I had forgotten it was Friday and Saturday when it is usually Sat/Sunday so we had booked in at our usual hostelry (via a hotel booking website) and found problems changing the dates.  At the time of writing we have not a clue what is happening and might have to stay an extra night.  Doh!

Anyway, since returning from our little weekend for my birthday up north I have had a hectic two days producing samples.  Here is one of my Finnabair tags and two cards, which I did at the club in readiness for the show, when we had a workshop with my bestie, Paul.

First the tag:

-

Using the 'Don't Forget to Fly' and a circle from 'Trust the Magic' with a tiny butterfly popped proud on her head - all coloured with Twinkling H2o's.

Using the figure image from 'Now is the Right Time' and a diecut frame on a background shaded with Fired Brick and Dried Marigold Distress Inks.

Again the colour comes from a mix of Distress Inks and the images are from the 'Don't Forget to Fly' set.

I will leave it there but upload more another day.  Don't want to overload with pictures do we.

Hugs and hoping to see you there (I'll be on the Oyster Stamps stand remember, so do say hello).