A Bag and A Tag!

Hi, I hope you are all well.  If you're here in the UK, the weather has been miserable with non stop rain!

This month's challenge over at The Stampsmith is Bags 'n' Tags, with only a few days left to enter.  My 'Plan A' for this challenge didn't go to plan at all (and is still 'in progress') so I opted for emergency 'Plan B' instead........Plan B was to alter a bag - the bag I used was one of the plain brown paper ones that is used for a sandwich meal deal in school (do not laugh!!!).  So, once I'd had my lunch, I kept the bag, and this is what it looks like now!!!

I stamped script (Andy Skinner) at random, then stamped some TH butterflies (Papillon), and a CI postmark,  here and there in Coffee Archival Ink.  Some SU lace was adhered along the handles, with a SU brad attached to the one on the right.  The lovely Serena (Stampsmith) was stamped in Black Stazon then tinted with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo DIs.  Some of the flowers were coloured with Claybord ink (pink/red).  The edges were distressed then it was mounted on some natural lightweight canvas, and then onto some pale pink netting.  A TH "bliss" ticket was added with a little more lace and a pink bow to finish.  I think this looks quite nice for a paper lunch bag, do you think?  They would make really nice gift bags for Xmas too!

Here's a close up of Serena:

The back was stamped, again in script and butterflies:

and I then made a tag to match:

I wanted a bit more of an aged look to the image on this, so I stamped it onto smooth cardstock with Archival Ink then added the same DIs as on the bag, and coloured only a few of the flowers in the Claybord ink.

As The Fashionable Stamping Challenge  would like to see us 'Alter Something', I'd like to enter my recycled paper lunch bag, and Live and Love Crafts would like to see 'Lovely Lace / Terrific Trims' so I'd like to enter both my bag and tag.

I hope you like them!

Bye for now

Maria xxxxx

and the winner is.....

Hi

Just a note to let you know who the winner of my blog candy/giveaway is! 

I will be catching up with commenting later this evening, and also will be back soon with a not so little creation (and some lovely photos to share with you of a certain little person doing a bit of modelling)!

Thank you for all your suggestions for a new name for my blog - I haven't quite settled on it yet (but am working on it with your suggestions and combinations of them as well!) so watch this space for the winner of another little gift! 

Back to the blog candy, I numbered everyone's name and used random number generator to pick the winner - the person whose number it generated is.............

"The Card Man"

Please email me your address so I can post your package to you!

Bye for now

Maria xxxxx

A little blog candy...

Hi, I hope you've enjoyed your weekend.   Just to make the start of the week a little nicer, I have a small blog candy/giveaway. There are two reasons for this:  firstly by way of an apology for not visiting as much as I'd like at the moment, partly due to our recent house move (we're still unpacking 2 months on - when will it end!) and also the birth of my grandson - life seems to be absolutely manic now and I'm having serious crafty withdrawl symptoms, lol.  Secondly, I think it's time for a bit of a blog facelift - and that's where you come in!

I've been blogging for over a year now and would dearly like to give my blog a complete overhaul - a new look and maybe a new name.  I've got a couple of names in mind but would love some more suggestions, if you can think of any?

This is my little parcel, it's not a lot but you could make some nice things with them - there are a couple of things to alter (one of those famous Ikea mirrors, and a slide mailer), 5 x 1m lengths of lovely lace/trim, 2 x CI stamps, 1 x Marianne Creatable ribbon die/embossing thingy, 4 small Stampbord pieces, and a few brass charms and a couple of other things.....

I'll draw the winner by randon number, so if you'd like to enter, please leave a comment below, make sure you're a follower, and, if you don't mind, I'd be eternally grateful if you would pop a pic in your sidebar or somewhere.  It will run until midnight on Sunday 23rd September, which is two weeks away. I'll also add this in the Blog Candy Cauldron (thank you Joanna).

There will also be a second surprise gift for someone who can come up with a better name for my blog than the ones I've thought of: :-)!!!

Bye for now...

Maria xxxxx

Childhood Memories - Craft-Room DT

Hiya, over at the Craft-Room Challenge, the last fortnight has flown by and we've seen some fabulous Collage creations, however it's now time for a new theme and it's my turn to choose!  For the next fortnight we would like to see a creation inspired by:

Childhood Memories

 using rubber stamps, photos, etc, 

(but no digi stamps for this fortnight please)

We have a great prize from our sponsor for this challenge (see below) which will be chosen by random draw, and as per usual, there will be a top 3.  Full rules for the challenge can be found here.

I've chosen this theme because I've often bought stamps in the past that have reminded me of a time in my childhood, and then made or altered something which has turned out to be quite special or sentimental - and enjoyed that little trip back into my childhood at the same time!

This is what I have created:

 My mum is from Southern Ireland and each year, we went to stay with my Nanna for our summer holidays.  She lived in a little village with twice as many little pubs as streets, and the beach at the bottom of the front garden (my sister and I spent many a day either on the beach and paddling in the sea, or climbing over the rocks to reach the harbour).  My Nanna was a very small and gentle lady, and with a beautiful voice, she always got up to sing an Irish song in the pub.

So, when I spotted this Chapel Road Artstamps - Whistle Boy - at Port Sunlight last May, I had to buy it.  I've stamped the main image (and The Blarney Pilgrim) in Stazon Stone Grey and lightly coloured with Inktense, and the Tando bird has been coloured with Rub n Buff (Old Gold).  The Tando Mini Theatre Stage (from Crafty Individuals) has had a couple of coats of Gesso then various shades of green Distress Ink added (along with lots of water sprayed and flicked) and some green Perfect Pearls - they used to say no two shades of green are the same in Ireland.  I've done a bit of background stamping using more green Distress Inks, using script (SU) and crackle (CI) stamps.  The little TH bottle is filled with some fine gold stuff, the nearest I could find resembling sand - if I could've bottled the gorgeous smell from the sea when you opened my Nanna's front door, I would have!  Slainte is embossed in gold (and means "(good) health", and is used as a drinking toast).  I've edged the whole thing in more Rub n Buff to finish and added some little roses. 

Our fabulous sponsor for this challenge is:

 who are offering a great prize - thank you!

I hope you find the time to join us, and look forward to seeing your Childhood Memories creations, and hearing what's inspired them.  For more inspiration, please check out the fantastic creations by the rest of the DT.

I hope you like my little memory piece (and that you're still awake, lol!).

Enjoy your week!

Maria xxxxx

p.s. Don't forget, I have a little blog candy here!

Collage - Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, it's time for a new challenge over at the Craft-Room, we loved seeing what you created using your Charms & Pins during the last fortnight.  For this challenge, it was Esther's turn to choose the theme (check out her fantastic creations on her blog!), and she has chosen :

Collage

A fantastic prize for one lucky person, picked at random, is up for grabs- see below for full details, and also the Craft-Room Challenge blog.

Now, this theme really stumped me, I have to say, as collage is not something I generally do (and neither are canvases for that matter!).  After much consideration (and then some more!), I opted to try a sort of napkin collage on canvas, and this is the result:

The canvas was gessoed a couple of times then painted with Docrafts Acrylic paint in Linen.  I adhered a couple of torn pieces of a print of very old official letter to the canvas then started with the napkin:  the one I used was a floral one I picked up in Ikea - it has beautiful big pinky red flowers.  I split the napkin into layers and carefully tore round the edge of a couple of the flowers.  I applied Multi Matte Medium to the back of the flowers then carefully laid them over the letter pieces on the canvas, going over them again with the MMM.  I then made a wash with Gesso and water and painted this over the canvas to fade the text and flowers a little.  On the plain unprinted layers of the napkin, I stamped all of the images (except the corset advertisement) & sentiment and adhered them in the same way as the napkin flowers.  I then added a touch of Stampendous Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel (I love this!) around the edges of the canvas and underneath the sentiment, some pale pink ric rac around the edge of the canvas with fabric glue, and some handmade ribbon roses (if you're wondering why all my handmade flowers are this style, it's because they are the only flowers I can make, lol!) on top of the embossing enamel, underneath the sentiment.

For the corset advertisement I used some SU text dp and brushed with a little gesso.  Once dry, I stamped the image and added some colour to it with Inktense pencils, then backed it with black cardstock to make it a little more rigid.  I then attached it to the canvas using sticky pads.  A metal scissor charm was added, to finish it off.

There are some fabulous napkin creations around, but I was really inspired by Joanna from Under A Creative Spell - she gets the most amazing results using napkins, so thank you Joanna!

All stamps used are by Indigo Blu:  from the "Sewing Mends the Soul" plate, & Harlequin stamp.

This fortnight, we are sponsored by:

(click the banner to visit their online store)

who are offering this fantastic FlitterGlu prize to one lucky random winner:

I hope you'll join in with us, and if you would like some inspiration for this challenge, pop over to the Craft-Room and check out the fantastic creations by the rest of the team - they're fabulous!

I'd like to enter my collage canvas into the following challenges:

Anything But A Card - Always Anything But A Card (use a stamp)

Ladybug Crafts - Anything Goes

Anything But A Card - Anything Goes
The Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Anything Floral/Handmade Flowers

Enjoy your week!

Maria xxxxx