Vintage, shabby chic or distressed - Sweet Stampin'

 Morning all,

It's time for one of my favourite themes over at Sweet Stampin' right now. We're looking for your shabby chic, vintage or distressed creations. I made a card that ended up having a little of all of them...

I've always had a bit of a weakness for bookprint papers, and when they're all vintagey and distressed like this, even more so. And I thought rose gold pearls complemented them nicely, even if the one in the bottom right corner came out orange (!?) through a trick of the light.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone creates for this one!

Have a fantabulous weekend,

Sammy-x

Book print, sheet music and maps - Sweet Stampin'

Morning all!

Sometimes it's fun to use something besides a flowery designer paper for a card, no? At Sweet Stampin' we think so, so this week we're looking for your creations that feature book print, sheet music or maps!

(and yes of course you can use designer paper or stamps featuring those too!)

As using any of the above three is something I love to do, I have a stock of old sheet music, book paper and even an old atlas to use in my creations (an upside of volunteering for a charity is rescuing things like these from ending up in a landfill somewhere when they prove unloved in the shop!). Of course, because I love all three, I also had some difficulty choosing which to use, so in the end I went with all three!

So I used a page from an old book as the background, and had some fun with inks and texture paste. I then made a butterfly out of a layer of sheet music, book paper and finally old map paper to give it some dimension. (It was hard to get all the layers in one picture, but they're there!) A matching glass button, some twine and a sentiment, and my card was done.

And now it's your turn! Come share your bookish/musical/mappy creations with us. we'd love to see them!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

April challenge - Altered Eclectics

Morning all,

I can't believe it's April already. I'm sure some joker got up in the middle of the night and ripped a heap of pages out of the calendar... It's the only explanation, lol.

But I guess if it really is the first of another month, I'd better be getting on with showing you what I prepared for the Altered Eclectics challenge this month.

I took a Kraft covered notebook, some gorgeous Ciao Bella papers and elements and a super pretty digi stamp from Ching-chou kuik I'd been wanting to play with for aaaaages, and made myself a book journal.

I'm absolutely loving the vintage look, and the rusty grunginess of it. Whether or not I can actually bring myself to write in it is a whole other matter!

Now it's over to you! Please take a peek at what my fellow teamies have prepared for you, and don't forget to share your makes with us this month!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

November challenge - Altered Eclectics

Hello again!

Post number two today, to let you know we're starting a new challenge over at Altered Eclectics for November.

For my project, I rescued a book cover from work. The inner pages were coming loose, so it was getting thrown away, but the cover itself was a beautifully sturdy one, so I brought it home and turned it into my very first ever junk journal!

I threw literally a bit of everything in there, and used some gorgeous printables from Ephemera's Vintage Garden for the signature covers.

This was so much fun to do, I'm definitely going to have to rescue a few more book covers in the near future!

Now it's your turn. hope you'll come and join in with the fun this month.

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

August challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Hello again,

Back with post number 2, to tell you about the new challenge over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit. As always, anything altered art goes, and the team have put together some fantastic projects for your inspiration.

For my project, I played with a couple of Tim Holtz Burlap panels. I couldn't make up my mind whether I wanted to do a seaside or vintage themed one, so I did both!

The sea themed panel was achieved with crackle paste, distress paints and a lighthouse napkin, and embellished with various suitable bits and pieces. I have to admit I'm hopelessly in love with the Tim Holtz Typography letters, and will probably have to stock up on them before I run out and find they've stopped selling them! lol.

Some Glossy Accents make the water look rather inviting...

I love how well the crackle paste and the paint come through the napkin, without hindering the actual image.

The vintage panel also uses crackle paste and Distress paints, as well as a Stamperia rice paper clock and a handful of suitable embellishments.

I really enjoyed making these!

I suggest you go check out what my fellow teamies have made, and I hope you'll come and play with us this month!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Sammy-x

Monochrome - Sweet Stampin'

Psssstttt... there's a new challenge starting over at Sweet Stampin'... This week we're looking for your monochrome creations.

I went - perhaps rather unsurprisingly - for the "many shades of brown" option.

This card was inspired by Chris, one of my fellow Sweeties, and uses one of my very favourite stamps.

Your turn... pick a colour and come play with us!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

June challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Hello all, second post this morning!

It's time for a new challenge over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, and I made another ATB (getting quite the collection now!). As the weather has been so lovely, I decided to go with a nautical theme.

I used a 3" ATB blank from Fernli Designs, and some beautiful papers from 7 Gypsies.

Instead of using card to mat the gorgeous 7 Gypsies ephemera, I used pieces of Hessian. I always think it has a natural look that goes great with a seaside theme!

As you're reading this, I should be back on the exact beach I found these seashells two years ago. Good thing I'll be able to replenish my stock!

That's it from me! I hope you'll come play with us this month!

Sammy-x

Creative Chemistry 103 - Day 5 and 6

~~~Dont't forget to enter my CANDY!~~~

Hi all, I'm back with more Creative Chemistry 103 tags, and all caught up with class now. I've had such a lot of fun, and will keep playing and experimenting with some of these new techniques over the next week or so, so watch this space!

My Yupo was very kindly delivered by Mr. Amazon while I was at work this morning, so I sat down with my alcohol inks today and get caught up with yesterday's homework.

Technique 1 - Alcohol ink stamped resist on Yupo

This one didn't go quite according to plan... The idea was to wipe away the ink to have a white-ish ghost image left behind, but try as I might, I could only get it to partially work. I strongly suspect that the problem was with the stamp. I used one of the LOTV background stamps, and though they are gorgeous, the stamps themselves are very sticky. So most of the ink stayed on the stamp, and the little left on the background dried before I could put my cloth to it.

I think this is one I will try again this next week or so, using a different stamp to see what difference it would make.

Technique 4 - Alcohol ink texture resist on Yupo

This was fun, though in retrospect I'd have used a different embossing folder. The reason I picked this was because it was the only one I have that isn't just a repetitive pattern! lol.

Technique 3 - Alcohol ink faded layers on Yupo

Quite a lot of fun once I finally got a background I was happy with. I think I used up half a bottle of each colour, and got rather lightheaded because of the fumes! lol.

Technique 4 - Alcohol ink painting on Yupo

After a couple of goes with this, and some truly disastrous results, I admit I gave up. I'm not exactly brilliant at water-colouring yet, and this is a few huge leaps ahead of that! One day I may revisit, but in the meantime, this one's not for me.

Technique 5 - Alcohol ink liquid landscapes on Yupo

Creating a landscape was loads of fun, even if I'm not so good at this freehand stuff, lol. The sun was easy, just a single drop onto my sky, and the mountains weren't bad either. I attempted a lake and river, which is where it went somewhat south. But still, loads of fun.

Technique 6 - Alcohol ink splattered floral

This was kinda fun too. made three of them, but the first was the best, I think. Also, the only Yupo Mr. Amazon was able to provide on such short notice was the translucent one, which means my double-sided tape is showing through on the very lightly coloured bits. Bears remembering for the future!

And that was day 5. I must admit, probably my least favourite. I don't think alcohol inks are "my medium", so to speak, I just like to use them to colour things. But that's ok... I have so many others to choose from!

And speaking of favourites. The day 6 homework was to create something using our favourite technique on something other than cardstock.

Naturally I immediately went running back to collage and Distress Crayons, and used a hard canvas board as my base. I love using canvas, as it adds an immediate texture to a project...

And this is what I made:

I may just have to find somewhere to hang this... :-)

That's it from me, now I must go help my daughter pack for her NCS trip!

Have a fantastical weekend everyone!

Sammy-x

Tags - Sweet Stampin' DT

Morning all!

The new challenge at Sweet Stampin' this week is a fun one! We're looking for TAGS. You could pop a tag on a card, or make a tag, like I did...

I wanted to go for a vintage look, and chose some pretty glittered paper and assorted embellishments. The lady stamp was a magazine freebie (part of a set of vintage stamps), and I decided to have some fun with liquid pearls too.

I hope you'll come and play along!

Have a fantabulous day!

Sammy-x

September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Gooood morning bloggaroos, and welcome to September! (Really?! Where is the year going? Next people will start to throw the dreaded "C" word around!)

The end of the summer holidays are in sight! Our lot go back to school on Monday, and I have to say, I'm really looking forward to having a little time to myself! Of course, this won't happen until Wednesday, what with work and husbands and all that, but still, counting the hours! lol.

On to my September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

As I have been taking on more at work, and seem to have less and less time to get everything done these days, I decided to try and make my life a little easier. So I took a plain black A5 ring binder, and made a planner!

I started by covering the binder with burlap - my favourite material. next, I took a piece of thick card (the backing card from my pack of TH burlap panels, in fact. Waste not, want not!) and put together a cover panel.
I started with using some embossing paste through a TH stencil and then began layering pictures and ephemera. a metal word band tied on with twine, and some letters to spell out "Planner" also got added, and I used my gold leafing pen (Rust-oleum. AWESOME pens. They actually make things look like gold, unlike most other things) and went around the edges, and finally added a little faux stitching here and there.

And of course I added some small talk phrases, and finally attached a keyhole/lock embellishment to the side.

That was the outside done.

To cover up the folded over pieces of burlap on the inside, I cut some pieces of TH paper to cover the inside covers. (that's a lot of "cover" for one sentence, lol)

Finally, I used some thick card and collaged some scraps of TH paper onto it, to make a cover page for the planner. The great thing about using a ring binder, is that next year I can simply remove the 2015 pages, and add new ones.

And finally, the pages themselves look like this:

They were printables I found online, which mostly suited my purposes. The other side of the sheets was left blank on purpose, so I could do some journalling too if I wanted to.

That was my project this month, but I hope you'll come play too! The theme, as always is Anything Altered Art Goes.

And I'll be back mid-month to show off another little project, along with a tutorial, so see you then!

Have an awesomesauce (that's in the Oxford dictionary now, you know!!) day!

Sammy-x

Anything but a birthday - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning everyone!

First of all, there's still a day or so left to enter my candy if you haven't done so yet. See the sticky post at the top of my blog.


So, I was away at Standon Calling festival last weekend, dressing up as a cowgirl, teaching folks to sing "I Shot the Sheriff" and entertaining lots of little deputies, cowboys and Indians with wild west related crafts. Luckily the weather was absolutely glorious, so no mud to contend with!
I did over-do it a bit, so have spent most of this week in bed, but all in all, I'd say it was a success :-)


Now then, on to this week's challenge over at Sweet Stampin'. The theme is a very easy Anything but a Birthday so there's no excuse not to join in.

I took the opportunity to have a play with one of the fab Tim Holtz burlap panels that I'd picked up a little while ago. LOVE them. Because they are wood underneath the burlap, there's no distortion that you might sometimes get when using a canvas.

Everything on this panel, besides the twine, is TH. Paper, tissue tape, ephemera, sentiment, metal bits and of course stamp, markers and inks. There's also some Distress paint on the sides of the panel to add some interest.

Soooooo much fun to make, and definitely one I'm keeping for myself!

Hope to see some of you enter the challenge this week, and I hope to come visit your lovely blogs soon too.

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

May tag

Hi all,

Just thought I'd swing by and post my May tag for the 12 tags of 2015.

LOVE the tinted photo technique this month, but I decided to go the Abandoned Coral route, rather than the green. I also grabsied myself a pack of the photobooth images when I was at Art From the Heart the other week, as I'd fallen in love with them as soon as I saw them displayed on Tim's blog. Of course I may have picked up one or two other items while I was there... *cough*

I was quite pleased actually to find that a lot of the stuff on my tag this month is TH. Obviously my shopping trips are paying off, lol. The burlap is from my stash (I bought a metre of it a year or two ago, because I use so much of it!) and I finally found a use for some thick card stickers that have been sitting in a box not getting used for the past couple of years!

Next on the shopping list... Ephemera packs! ;-)

Hope everyone is well. I've finally got my PC sort-of sorted now (after a nightmare of a time on Wednesday trying to get it to co-operate), just need to start setting everything up again and install vital programmes, etc.
I shall prevail! Hehe...

Have an awesomesauce day, and a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Anything but a card - Sweet Stampin' DT

Hi all,

I know it's not my week, but how could I resist letting you all know about the "Anything but a card" theme over at Sweet Stampin' this week?

To get you all started off, here's some bookmarks in two different colour ways.

The dotty and harlequin background stamps are from Visible Image, the text background from The Artistic Stamper and the postcard, balloon and penny farthing stamps were magazine freebies. The colour has of course been done with distress inks, and the quotes I typed on my PC and printed out.

So, fancy making something that's not a card this week? If you do, don't forget to come share it with us!

Have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

July challenge - Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Good morning folks!

Would you believe it's the first of July already!? I have to admit that realisation of this fact has thrown me into a teensy bit of a panic, as I have a gazillion things to get done this month somehow, and I'm jumping from pillar to post trying to decide where to start!

I guess the July challenge at Rhedd's Creative Spirit is a good start, no?

As you'll all know by now, it's an "anything altered art goes" challenge, and this month I altered a wooden bottle carrier I chanced upon in a local charity shop recently. It was rather plain and boring looking... Like this:

But it had potential! So naturally, it needed to be played with. It wasn't quite tall enough for wine bottles, but then I figured it would be great for 35cl bottles of Whiskey. Which basically gave me the direction to go in, as my dad is somewhat of a whiskey lover, and it gave me a nice little project to work on for him.

So I started off with some map paper from DCWV and covered the front, back and sides, and then wrapped an awesome vintage bicycle ribbon I won at Crafty Ribbons around the handle. My dad used to race, so it seemed the perfect ribbon to use!

I used some complementary washi tape to cover up the joins in the paper and add a little interest, and paper-pieced a Papermania "dad" stamp, which I fussy-cut and attached to the front of the carrier with red mini pegs.

Naturally, it needed the whiskey too, to finish it all off! lol.

And there we have it. A fathers' day/birthday/whatever pressie for my dad. (We only see each other once or twice a year normally, so we just hand over pressies as and when, rather than on specific occasions. Saves a fortune on postage!). We should hopefully be going up to see my parents end July/beginning of Aug. so I'll be able to present him with it then :-)

Now then, my fellow teamies have created some utterly gorgeous items for you once again, and there is another fab prize up for grabs!

So what are you waiting for!?

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Sammy-x

Back in time/vintage - Rhedd & Rosie's DT

Good morning everyone!

I must once again apologise for my absence. We spent a few days in London over the half term holidays, and I'm afraid I'm still recovering (or at least trying to!) from that. The kids had a really great time though, even though it was pretty wet and miserable for the most part!

Anyways, on to the new challenge at Rhedd & Rosie's! The theme this fortnight is Back in time/vintage, which is one I always enjoy, but I think I kinda surprised myself here by not sticking to my usual palette of browns for the vintage theme! lol.
In fact, I fancied doing something completely different, so did a centre step card, which I hadn't done for over a year!
And, there's absolutely no stamping whatsoever either! *shock*

Now, I couldn't stay away from all my favourite things, hence the lace and flowers and general shabby chic feel...
The image was from a vintage flip pad I picked up in the Works last time I had a voucher to redeem. It has both portraits and flowers, and is well worth the 99p even without a voucher! lol.
The dies I used to frame the portrait are from Crafts Too, and I picked up the butterfly pegs in Samuel Taylors. Flowers are of course WOC, and the lace is from Hobbycraft, and probably my favourite lace I own. I will likely cry when I run out! lol.
And I can't for the life of me remember where the resin roses are from. But I loves them :-)

Now, my fellow teamies have created some stunning eye candy for you all, as always, and there's a fab prize up for grabs for the lucky winner!

So pretty! I'm just imagining all the pretty shabby things I could make with those gorgeous papers! So off you go and join in, you know you want to!

Have an awesomesauce day!

Sammy-x

Great crafty day out!

Hi all,

I'm not here with a DT project for a change, and this post isn't even scheduled! *shock*
I figured I'd do a quick update while I'm actually feeling ok, starting with yesterday's trip to LOTV for the 10th birthday celebrations.

It was a brilliant day out! So lovely to see so many familiar DT faces there, and  to finally meet the super lovely Mary J! Each of the lovely ladies was demo-ing all day long (when not busy chatting instead... some seem to have the ability to multi-task and do both at once. Most impressive! lol), and I picked up yet more things I now want to try. Like playing with shrink plastic... Why is it that every time I see Lou at work, my shopping list grows another foot or two? lol.

Of course, I also got some lovely crafty bargains while I was there too, including 2 dozen Promarkers at half price, and a heap of stamps (naturally) and other goodies. Admittedly, half of said purchases were impulse buys, but I don't regret a single one of them. Never do, lol.

I also met some lovely people while queueing (the queues were somewhat on the long side, so plenty of time to chat!) including someone whose blog I've been following for ages, but didn't realise who it was until I got home! lol.
All in all a really brilliant crafty day out, and the LOTV team did a stellar job! They were rushed off their feet all day long, but kept things running smoothly nonetheless.

In other news, I thought I'd give an update on the pain situation (it being while I'm not around much at the moment). Yes, the pain is still from my wisdom teeth. Apparently, my mouth is really small (how often does one get told that, lol), and there's no room for them. Though they broke through partially about 20 years ago, they've started making a proper break for it these past couple of years, and now things are coming to a head, as they are crushing my other teeth together and they're starting to crack under the strain. (which in turn exposes nerves and provides us with the most excruciating agony imaginable! Honestly, I prefer childbirth!)
Anyways, several trips to the dentist later, and the conclusion is they need to come out. Unfortunately though, I seem to have a resistance to the local anaesthetic they use, and I can still feel the pain very acutely after they have dosed me up, so this is not working. So, I have to see a specialist at the hospital, and will likely have to be put under for multiple extractions (as they're all coming out. "May as well" was what the dentist said, lol). So, now I am waiting for the appointment to come through, which they said could take up to two months. That time is up at the end of next week, so I'm getting rather antsy, as I'll have no idea how long I then have to wait for the actual appointment (this wait is for the letter advising me what the appointment is!) or how long after the letter i'll have to wait for the procedure.
I have been in almost constant pain now for about three months, and there are honestly times where I am losing my mind completely.
Luckily, the pain has only been a mild throb the past couple of days, which is such an incredible relief after some of the agony of the past few months! My crafting is basically done as and when the pain allows me, and I schedule posts similarly. I feel horrible not being able to visit and comment as much as I'd like, but for the time being I'm having to put DT commitments first when I do feel up to it.

Phew! Sorry about the essay! Well done if you managed to stick it out through all that! lol.

I'll throw in some tags I made a while back while I'm here:

 I've tried triple embossing on these next two. That was my first time trying that technique, and I LOVE it!

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend! Speak soon!

Sammy-x

Travel - CraftyHands DT

Good morning all!

It's time for another new challenge at CraftyHands today, and it's another theme I'm really fond of (it's certainly been a week for them!), Travel.

The starting point for my card was easy, as I'dfound a couple of decks of playing cards in a local charity shop some time ago, the backs of which had lovely vintage balloon images on. I absolutely had to buy them, with crafting in mind, naturally, especially as the packs were as yet unopened, and therefore in pristine condition! I've been wanting to use them on something for ages, but hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I was very glad for the excuse to do so now.
I decided on one of the two designs for my card topper.
I then dug around in my stash for some travel themed papers, and found some that I thought complemented the image in a pack from Crafty Bitz.
I still wasn't 100% happy though, so I did a little extra stamping on them with some of the Bon Voyage stamps from Docrafts, and also cut the sentiment from the accompanying paper pack.
I used Kraft card as a mat, and finally added two small buttons as simple embellishments to finish it off.

And there it is. One travel themed card.

(Just for a laugh, I thought I'd do a search for the cards online, and it looks like I missed a trick... Turns out they are a vintage set, and I could probably have made quite a bit more than the 50p I paid for them had I tried to sell them... This link is for an earlier ebay auction for a used set. I wonder how much they would have gone for before I opened it all up! lol)

Anyways, enough babble from me. It's time for you to go take a peek at the other DT creations, and then come and join in the fun. You know you want to! And of course, as always there is a prize...

Hope you all have a great day!

Sammy-x

Tag it! - Rhedd & Rosie's DT

Good morning everyone.

And it seems it's Wednesday again! I'm beginning to think the other days are going MIA and it's just a series of Wednesdays in a row. It would certainly explain why this year seems to be flying by so quickly!

Either way, this particular Wednesday sees a new challenge over at Rhedd and Rosie's, and the theme this fortnight is Tag it. Meaning we want to see a tag *on* your project, not just a tag (but it could be a tag on a tag if you like!)

I used the opportunity to have another play with my Distress Inks, and made both the tag and the card I put it on as per Mr. Holtz' instruction. I'm rather pleased with how the tag came out actually, and I figured it would work nicely with the neutral look of the hessian. I do love playing with these neutral colours, and am really fond of the vintage look it produces.

The background stamp on the tag is from LOTV, and the Big Ben stamp and stamps used on the card are all Papermania. The sentiment was made with Tim Holtz chitchat words, and I added some card candi and pearls to finish it off.

So there you have it, a tag as topper for a card.

As always, I urge you to go take a peek at what the rest of the teamies have created for you, and as always there's a fab prize up for grabs:

And once again I shall be terribly jealous of the winner! lol.

Hope to see your entry soon!

Have a brilliant day!

Sammy-x