Juliet

Hi, it's been a little while since I've posted anything other than my DT projects, or got around to visiting your blogs, so I do apologise.  Unfortunately I have a sleep disorder which thankfully, due to medication, is now getting under control, so I am hoping to start a bit more active now.

I didn't get to join in with The Stampsmith Challenge last month, which I was disappointed about, but I've managed to make a little something for their current challenge "Tick Tac Toe":

At the Port Sunlight stamping fair last week, I bought a pack of metal hearts in two sizes, so I've used one of each for this.  I started out by embossing twice in Stampendous Aged Ivory embossing enamel on the large heart, then ran it through my Bigshot.  I then used gilding wax on the raised areas and went around the outside with a gilding pen, and added a bronze pearl at the bottom.

For the smaller heart, I covered both sides with some cream card.  On one side, I coloured it with Iced Spruce DI then overstamped a SU flourish background with the same ink. I then attached Juliet and coloured with the Iced Spruce again, and added a little Distress Stickles, then attached a ribbon bow to the bottom.

For the other side, I coloured with Antique Linen DI and blended a little Iced Spruce in with it.  I then stamped the same flourish with a 2nd impression in Coffee Archival Ink, and embossed the SU word "Imagine" in gold ep.  I then edged both sides with a gilding pen again, attached both hearts together with some chain and rings, and hung with some ribbon.

I've left the back of the large heart plain so you can see it plain, but embossed.

This is a gift for a friend, so I'm really hoping they like it, as my mojo has been lacking more than a little lately!

I'd also like to enter this into the following challenges:-

Creative Inspirations Paint - Anything Goes
Eclectic Ellapu - Anything Goes
Stamping Sensations - Embossing and Texture

Right, I'm off to do some commenting, then to make a start on visiting your blogs to see what I'm missing :-)

Enjoy your week, and thanks for your patience!

Maria xxxxx

Stamp your own background/background paper - Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, I hope you're all well.  It's time for a new theme over at the Craft-Room this fortnight.  Your entries for our Postcard challenge were beautiful, by the way.  This theme was chosen by our former DT member, Nikki, before she had to leave us, and she had chosen a great theme:

Stamp Your Own 

Background/Background Paper

No, you are not on the wrong blog, I have made a card this fortnight!!!  I'm very short of cards, as I don't really make any, so I have decided to try and build up a little stash of fairly flat ones which can be posted easily, for when I need them, and this is the first:

The background paper was first coloured with Antique Linen DI, taking the ink pad directly to the paper.  I then used a SU script background stamp with Coffee Archival Ink and attached to the card blank.  I stamped the corner stamp from Stampers Anonymous Floral Tattoo in opposite corners, and "Amour" (SU) in the bottom right, with Versamark and embossed with gold ep, and edged the card with Aged Mahogony DI.

Using another piece of card coloured with Antique Linen, the Eiffel Tower image from Stampendous was stamped in Coffee Archival ink, and the flowers and petals were coloured with Aged Mahogony DI, mixed with a little water.  I distressed the edges with a tool, and a little more Aged Mahogony, and then finished with some Treasure Gold.

We are kindly sponsored this fortnight by:

click on the banner to visit the shop where you will find some fantastic crafty supplies

Please pop over to the Craft-Room Challenge to take a look at what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you, along with Pia, aka Pihi, who is our Guest Designer for this challenge.  If you fancy joining us as a Guest Designer, please add GDT after your name, or get in touch with Mervi (DT), whose details are on the challenge site.

I haven't been very active in blogland lately due to a some health problems, so I sincerely apologise for not visiting you.  I am hoping to get back into the swing of things very shortly.  

Thank you for dropping in, and for your comments, they're much appreciated.

Enjoy your week!

Maria xxxxx

A Bag Charm for Friday Ice

Hi, I hope you're all enjoying the milder weather, at long last, although we've had some rain today.  I'd also like to say a big hello to my new followers :-).

As you know, I've been dabbling with the Ice Resin lately, and would like to share a bag charm which I've made, over at Friday Ice, which posts on the 2nd and 4th Friday of each month, ...

...and this is my bag charm:

The main bezel has a bit of everything in it - some shabby embossing enamel heated, then some unheated embossing enamel along with some microbeads, then some gilding flakes mixed into the top, and then a SU brad sits in the centre.

Once it had cured, I gave it another coat of resin to finish, which also gives it a nice weight.  I attached a split ring, some chain and a key ring clip, and added some antique bronze charms and strands of thinner chain to give it a bit of jangle.

In real life, the gilding flakes look gorgeous encased in the resin - I'm trying a few different things out to see how they look, as I'm finding out that some things look better than others.  I have another bag charm to ready to share with you soon, and a couple of other pieces of jewellery.  I'll also be back on Tuesday with my DT creation for the Craft-Room Challenge.

It's the start of the weekend so I hope you enjoy it and get some crafting time to yourself.

Thanks for dropping by, I really appreciate it.

Maria xxxxx

Enjoy Life's Moments - Craft Barn Calendar

Hi, hope you're all enjoying your weekend.  A very short post this evening as I'm still feeling a bit under the weather - I decided during the week that I would do my best to enter the latest challenge over at the Craft Barn, and as Week 1 closes tomorrow, I had to get my skates on and finish my entry:

Click the pic to visit

It runs for 12 weeks, and you can either make a complete calendar each week or one month of your calendar per week, following the weekly theme - I've opted to make a complete calendar each week.  Week 1's theme is Vellum, not my favourite crafting material at all to be honest which is why I've not used a lot, so here's my entry:

I thought it would be nice to make some simple, free-standing, vintage style calendars for small gifts at Xmas from the larger mdf offcuts I recently acquired.- it can't be bad if I'm saving money AND recycling :-)!  Choosing a green, pink and white colour scheme, this one has been gessoed and painted with green acrylic, Melissa Frances dps were used, along with a TH on the edge die.  The lovely young girl with the kitty is a Stampsmith rubber stamp (Dave thinks she's scary, lol) and I've tinted her dress with a water-based marker - she is edged with glass glitter and matted onto white patterned vellum and embellished with a handmade ribbon rose topped with a sparkly stone..  The calender is matted onto pink vellum, and some little decorative hearts added along with some pink ric rac.

This one is about half an inch thick and quite weighty - I've used Tim Holtz Tissue Tape around the edge. 

I've finished it all off by edging the front with Inca Gold in Platinum.

Unfortunately, I had to take the photos inside as it had gone dark, so I may take them again tomorrow to show the colours better.

I'd also like to enter this into the following challenges:

Alphabet Challenge Blog - R for Recycle, Repurpose
Simon Says Stamp - Glimmer & Sparkle
Shopping Our Stash - Go Green (use green or recycle - my main colour is green and I've recycled mdf)
Crafty Bloggers Network - Anything Goes
Anything But A Card - Shiny, Sparkly, Blingy (I've used Glass Glitter around the image)
Vintage Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes


I do apologise for not getting round your blogs and commenting very quickly these days, life still seems to be manic with a baby in the house, but I would like to thank you for your continued lovely comments and for bearing with me - I really do appreciate it.  I also have a few new followers, so would like to say hello to you:-)!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Maria xxxxx

Precious

Hi, the weekend at last, and it's been a long week, I'm full of a cold and feeling really sorry for myself, so you'll be relieved that this is a short post, lol.  We recently had some joiners in work and when I saw them using mdf, my little eyes lit up, particularly when I saw the scraps/offcuts they were chucking to one side!  Not wanting to waste an opportunity, I asked them if I could have these and they were happy to oblige.  They kindly left them stacked up in a corner for me to collect later, and there was quite a nice little pile when I got there. All smallish pieces in different sizes, but definitely useable.

This is the first one I have had a dabble with is quite simple, measuring about 3.5 in wide x 4.5 in high:

A couple of coats of Gesso on the base then distress inks in Fired Brick, Dried Marigold and Scattered Straw.  The Art Journey image was stamped in Jet Black Stazon then, using a waterbrush, I removed as much of the colour from the image as I could to try and give the illusion of some depth, although this is more pronounced in real life.  I have embossed around the edges in Aged Gold embossing enamel and stamped "Precious" in Jet Black Stazon directly into the enamel whilst it was still molten.  This piece is just under half an inch deep so I have used TH tissue tape around the edges, touched with some Fired Brick (not visible).

Before I go, here's the first of a few pics of my grandson, who is now 9 weeks old (hasn't he grown!) - it seems that he has been doing some modelling for Tricky Little Stitches, would you believe!  Here he is showing one of Karen's little numbers off, the Little Leo hat (Karen is the sister of the very talented Marie of Baileyrosy):

Soooo cute!

I will share another with you next time :-)


I'd like to enter this into the Shopping Our Stash Challenge, whose theme is "Go Green", as I've recycled the mdf offcut, Creative Inspirations Paint as they have an "Anything Goes" theme, and a 3rd entry into the Fashionable Stamping Challenge's "Alter Something" theme.

Don't forget that the Craft-Room Challenge also have a current theme of "Alter It" at the moment.

Enjoy your weekend.

Maria xxxxx

Alter It! Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, it's time again for a new theme over at the Craft-Room Challenge, and hope you enjoyed our Childhood Memories.  This fortnight, it's the lovely, and very talented, Julia's turn to choose the theme, and she has chosen:

Alter It

Now, those of you who know me will realise that this is probably my favourite type of theme - I love using bits of wood and mdf, and stuff like that.  My DT piece has actually changed three times now, lol, so I will share the first two with you at a later date.

My creation was made from one of those pieces of wood cut from a tree with the bark around still around the edge, commonly used for house plaques, something I got from Julia when she had the shop:

 I've had it for quite a while and was saving it for the right project, which I decided was to be a wedding gift:

Painted in alternating coats of white gesso and cream acrylic and sanded back, I stamped some script with Picket Fence distress stain here and there.  Just a touch of Stampendous Aged Ivory embossing enamel was added either end, along with a tiny amount of Walnut Stain DI around the edges.  A touch of Milled Lavender was added to the three large roses on the left, as purple was one of the wedding colours, then on some white muslin fabric, before attaching onto the plaque.  

To the left, I coloured some white card with Old Paper DI and stamped a Hero Arts letter script in Stazon Stone Grey then edged with Vintage Photo.

The central piece is a Stampbord ATC coloured with Old Paper DI, stamped with a SU swirl background stamp, and a piece of an old book page added.  Some SU lace was added across the top, the beautiful Stampsmith Wedding couple image was stamped on glossy card in Stazon Jet Black and mounted onto it, along with intertwined wedding rings.  I added a beaded trim (Dunelm Mill) across the bottom then attached to the plaque.  

The sentiments "Remember This Moment" and "Treasure These Memories" (Kaisercraft) were stamped in Versamark on Kraft cardstock and embossed in white, torn out, and edged with Walnut Stain DI then attached in their respective places.  A bunch of small roses was bound in lilac ribbon and attached to the right.  

I hope the happy couple like it :-)

Our theme for this fortnight is sponsored by:

 (click the image to visit their store)

who are offering a fabulous prize for the winner of our random draw!

Please pop over to the Craft-Room Challenge to see what the rest of the Design Team have created to inspire you - they are truly amazing.

The Fashionable Stamping Challenge have a current theme of Alter Something, so I would like to enter my plaque into this, and also Sweet Stampin Challenge Blog who would like to see Vintage.

Have a great fortnight!

Maria xxxxx

Buttons & Bows - Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, I hope you are all enjoying the warm weather if you're here in the UK!  I love the heat but it's a little muggy at the moment - we could do with a good thunderstorm I think.  We had wonderful entries to the Sport Challenge over at the Craft-Room (check back next Tuesday to see if you are our random winner or in the Top 3), but it's now time for a new challenge and this time it was Debi's turn to choose the theme - please check out her blog to see her beautiful creations and style.  She would like to see us using:

Buttons & Bows

I decided to recycle the back of a picture frame and make a little hanging:

I used some torn dps from MME Lost & Found "Blush" paper pad along with some Kraft cardstock, added a cord bow onto the dress form of the dp, in the bottom left corner, and stamped a chandelier which you can just see behind the sentiment.  I attached some beautiful SU vintage style lace down the right side and I then threaded some buttons together with pink cord and attached on top of the lace.  I repeated a little lace with a button across the two other corners.  The Kanban dress was stamped directly onto the base, and then again onto some of the leftover dp and cut out (cutting out is something I very rarely do, lol, as I find it hard to be neat!).  I popped some pads into the middle of the skirt to give it some dimension, and added some cord around the waist.  I stamped the sentiment onto Kraft then mounted onto some corrugated card, recycled from a parcel, to which I'd added some Aged Ivory Embossing Enamel.  I also added a little of the embossing enamel around the three bare edges.  Some brown ribbon tied into a bow and attached with a glue gun, and an odd earring attached to the bow.  I did a little crackle stamping onto the Kraft (around the dress), and masked off and stamped different parts of a TH stamp here and there. Some cream twill tape was threaded through two holes in the top to hang it from.

You will be very pleased to know that this challenge is being sponsored by Liz Welch from:

who is offering this fantastic Friendly Plastic prize:

Please click on the Rarebird icon above to go to Liz's website where you will find lots more gorgeous things.

If you'd like some more inspiration, please pop over to the Craft-Room Challenge and check out the fantastic creations made by the rest of the DT, as they are absolutely gorgeous.

I would like to enter my hanging into the following challenges:-

Crafts & Me - Ribbon & A Bow
Creative Inspirations Paint - Favourite Colours (mine are Cream, Pink & Brown together)

Phindy's Place - Button It
The Vintage & Beauty Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
 
Enjoy the rest of your week!

Take care

Maria xxxxx