"Bingo" Wall Plaque/Hanging - Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hi, wherever has the sun gone?  Sadly, the rain has returned over the last few days here.  Another fortnight has gone by, and it's time for a new theme at the Craft-Room Challenge.  This fortnight, it's Mervi's turn to host the challenge and she would like to see us playing:

Bingo

As tempted as I was to use brown, lace and pearls, I decided to go with blue, rubber stamping and butterflies - I don't use either blue or butterflies very often so I though it would be a bit of a change for me.  Having very recently acquired some left over mdf from the builders in work, who very kindly cut it into very neat, useable pieces for me :-), I decided to make a wall plaque/hanging:

An undercoat of white gesso, blue and cream chalk emulsion and a good few pieces of sandpaper created the shabby base.  I'm really pleased how this turned out.

I used stamps from TH/Stampers Anonymous (the smaller size Papillon - the butterflies were masked for the background stamp) and Stampin' Up for the sentiment and foliage on the corners.  All stamping was done in black archival ink and the sentiment was embossed in white.  I've used a TH word stick, a paper flower and some chain to embellish, and used a dark metallic rub on wax just along the edge.

The butterflies were very lightly coloured with Stampin' Up watercolour crayons in colours from the Regals collection (I love these crayons).

Our very kind sponsor this week is

who is offering the winner a Hollyhock stencil, a pot of Stencil Dimensions Glossy White Paste, and a paste spreader.

Please drop by the challenge as the rest of the Design Team have made stunning creations for your inspiration, including our Guest Designer this month, the lovely Von of Messy Me - if you would like to join us as a Guest Designer, please add GDT after your name and our lovely Mervi will be in touch with you soon.

I'd like to share my wall hanging with Stamping Sensations in their August challenge, as their theme is Winged Things And A Touch Of Vintage, and also Tok Bobok challenge, whose theme is Vintage.

Thank you for your visit, as always, and enjoy your week.

Maria xxxxx

Vintage Stamping - Craft-Room Challenge DT

Hello, I hope you are all well.   Oh my, the weather is HOT (here in UK)!!!  It's also forecast to last the week.  It's great if you're lucky enough to get out in the garden and just relax.  We had some amazing entries into Zoe's "Blue & Yellow Make Green" theme over at the Craft-Room Challenge, but unfortunately, a few didn't meet the challenge criteria.  I found it really inspiring to see the very different creations using just the same three colours.

This fortnight, it is my lovely friend Julia's turn to be our hostess, and she has chosen the theme of:

Vintage Stamping

(No Cute Creations Are Allowed This Fortnight)

I do love vintage, and decided to use an mdf frame for my creation:

After an undercoat of Gesso, I painted my frame with two different shades of chalk paint, did a bit of stamping here and there with some shabby dots and script, and applied another light coat of paint.  I got a bit carried away, lol, and did a bit of sponging over the top to get a mottled effect, but this has more or less covered the background stamping.  The border has a bit of dry brushing with light over darker, then a bit of Walnut Stain DI blended through with a wipe.  Edged with Walnut Stain and Metallic rub-on, it gave it a lovely worn look.

The gorgeous dress was stamped onto cream card, then again onto fabric and pieced over the one stamped on the card.  This stamp, by Stamps Happen, was one of the first I ever bought and I absolutely love it.  There is another similar one called "Vogue" that I would really love, so I must keep an eye out for it, as they'd look great together.  The other stamps are by Stampin' Up (corners, title, & shabby dots), Oxford Impressions (remaining 3 stamped panels), and Stampers Anonymous (almost invisible background script!).  The edges of the main stamped panels have been smeared with Walnut Stain DI, then Colonial Metallic Rub On.

This was finished off with a couple of pieces of lace, some tissue tape, and a vintage metal flower trinket (Prima) with an Eiffel Tower charm hanging from it which was mounted onto some script-stamped muslin, and a piece of the same fabric used for the dress (Laura Ashley).

Our very kind sponsor for this fortnight is:

(click to view)

who manufacture chipboard in all sorts of shapes, sizes and themes.

Our Design Team have created the most gorgeous projects to inspire you for this fortnight's challenge, along with our Guest Designer for July, Helene aka 2amscrapper from Lotsa Scrap - please visit her blog as she is a very talented lady.

Thank you, as always, for dropping by and enjoy the rest of your (sunny) week.

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

My First Notebook...

Hi, I hope you're all ok, and managing to get some crafty time this weekend.  It's forecast snow here in Manchester for today and tomorrow, I believe, with severe weather alarms showing on the weather forecast for the North/North West, but we're not quite as cold as further up north.

I managed to get some time yesterday (one of those pj days :-)) to make my first ever notebook!  It's a little 4 x 4  one - initially I thought this size would be way too small but have definitely changed my mind to "very handy":

It was a very basic and easy one, just a trial run really, but I love how it's turned out:


I covered the outside of the book boards with some dp, and the inside with SU butterfly-themed text paper.  I stamped the script from the TH Papillon set with Distress Stain in Tarnished Brass, on the front and back, then punched the 2 sets of three holes. 

The sentiment is also a TH one, stamped and embossed onto a piece of card cut with a Spellbinders die and coloured with Old Paper DI, then edged with a little Bundled Sage and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  I used a gold Krylon pen around the edge of the die cut and also around the edge of the book boards, and added some green crocheted trim on both the front and back.  The large butterfly I've had for a few years, and although I love it, I never seemed to make the right creation that it would work on, but I though it was perfect for this one.  A SU brad on the front, and a piece of ball chain with a key attached for decoration was hung from the top "o" rings to finish it off.  The inside pages are a coordinating shade of a green.

There is another one in the making soon!

Bye for now

Maria xxxxx

Paper Tape

Hi, as promised, I'm back with my calendar entry for  Week 5 of The Craft Barn Calendar challenge.  The theme for this particular week was 'paper tape'.  I had a whole lot of fun doing this, tried a technique I'd never used before and even quite like the result!

Using Jane's technique for inspiration (she used this on Day 2 of Paper Tape week), I covered my piece of card in masking tape.  I didn't have any smooth tape, having finished a roll about two weeks ago (I wish I'd saved some now!), so I improvised and used general diy masking tape which has a bit of a texture to it.  Tearing little pieces off and layering them over my piece of card, I covered the whole piece then sprayed it with Walnut Ink Crystals dissolved in some hot water, and allowed the ink to have a good roll about all over the place, seeping into all the nooks & crannies, then I mopped up the excess.  Once it was dry, I stuck some lovely wide washi? tape across the middle of the piece of card.  The Stampers Anonymous/TH images were stamped onto Kraft cardstock with Coffee Archival Ink and then cut out, and the calender was mounted and attached.

I then used the same tape around the edges of the mdf block, bringing it around the front, then mounting the whole paper-taped piece onto the taped block.

I've backed the whole block with Kraft cardstock. I'm hoping to upload Week 4 at the weekend, along with Week 6, then I will be up to date!

I'd also like to enter this into the Eclectic Ellapu Challenge who have a theme of  It's A Vintage Thing.

Bye for now

Maria xxxxx

Add/Use Some Fabric - Craft-Room Challenge

Hi, I hope your week has started well.  Another challenge over at the Craft-Room has just been launched and I'm really excited as it was my turn to choose the theme!  I decided to go with Add/Use Some Fabric, as I'm sure you've noticed by now that I do love my lace, and enjoy stamping onto fabric now and then as well.  The usual rules apply (check out the blog for full details) and a winner will be chosen at random to win something very nice indeed from our sponsor (more details about that below!).

I decided to use fabric throughout my creation, so the sewing machine was recently hunted down, along with the instruction booklet (I do miss my ancient Singer), and the dust blown off.   Now, the only things I have made in the past are several pairs of curtains, and a roman blind which I was extremely proud of - I even put a dangly trim along the bottom and that was before my crafting days!  Sound familiar, lol?

My first question when the machine was found was "where are my pins, cottons, and various other things?", so the idea of a wall hanging quickly changed to a little sewing bag/pouch (I was warned by Dave that, whatever happened with the sewing machine, it wasn't his fault - as if I would blame him!): 

The Front

I used some artist canvas, cut two pieces the same size, and frayed them around the edges.  I didn't colour this as I wanted to keep the colour and texture as it was, but give it a bit of a vintage look.  I stamped directly onto the canvas using a stamp plate from IndigoBlu, "Sewing Mends The Soul".  I then stamped the sentiment on one of the offcuts, layered it onto some Laura Ashley fabric and attached to the front of the bag.  I added some gorgeous cream cotton lace trim across the top and about two thirds down the front.

The Back

Stamps from the same plate was used for the back, apart from the needle book one which is from a Tim Holtz set. The sentiment was done in the same way as the one on the front.  Once all the stamping was done, and the additions sewn on, I stitched twice all the way round (not very straight though, lol).

A pin holder

The needle book was stamped twice onto scraps of fabric, then layered on top of each other and attached just across the top, to use for odd pins & needles.

And here it is in action:

 You will thrilled to know that our challenge this fortnight is sponsored by:

click to visit their store

who are offering a prize to one lucky winner, although we don't have the full details as yet so it will be a nice surprise!

I hope you have a great week, and I'm looking forward to visiting your blogs to see what you create!

I'd like to enter my sewing bag/pouch into the following challenges:-

Bunny Zoe's Crafts - Anything Goes (Ch 24)
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Anything Goes
Out Of A Hat Creations - Vintage Lace

Take care

Maria x