At last Tag No 12

At last I have finished Tim Holtz' Tag No 12. I was keeping up very well until tag 11, but a trip to Scotland and Christmas intervened and lots of fun times have meant that my little artsy craftsy corner has been pretty neglected. Part of my New Year ritual has always been cleaning and tidying and finishing things up, so finally the remaining parts of tag 12 have been put together, and I will just make the deadline for posting it on Tim's blog.

A good deal of improvisation here as I didn't have many of the tools and materials. I did enjoy stamping the tissue paper to make the flower.

As the bells ring out tonight my thoughts will go to the lovely people who will no longer be there or at the end of the phone - I will be thinking of mum and Annie and Rosemary - fondly - and grateful for all the happy memories they have left behind.

Wishing you all a very healthy and happy 2012. May it be all you wish for.

Post Christmas WOYWW

Well I hope all you WOYWWers have had a merry time over the last few days. As all the to dos had been ticked off my various lists by Boxing Day (except the ones I've had to reschedule to later in the week), I decided that it was time to spend a couple of hours at the table starting Tag No 12. At bedtime I left it for the glue to dry. Then as yesterday involved a further round of merry making, I haven't been able to get back to it to add the final embellishments.

On the left is a foiled sheet of cardboard that the shop bought chocolate log sat on. Planning to use it to die cut something at some stage.

The Glossy Accents has now been poked and prodded so much that the nozzle has totally disintegrated and will have to be cut off.

In the middle are some polystyrene baubles that will have to wait till next Christmas to be decorated. The plain one has lots of dents in it as the cat stole it and spent some considerable time batting it around the living room floor.

Have just had my lunch of turkey sandwich and chocolate log. Still got the last layer of Ferrero Rocher to polish off. A typical Burmese, Daisby the cat will never miss out on what visitors might be doing and has socialised so much over Christmas that she has slept almost every hour of the last couple of days. Peace and quiet reigns !

Now it's time to pop on over to Julia's to see what the other WOYWWers are doing.

WOYWW 133 and Season's Greetings !

Not many signs of activity on the desk this week. That's because I've been on a trip to Scotland. So tag number 12 is still not done; and there are still three gift tags, and two Christmas cards to make. Eek ! On the plus side all the Christmas shopping and wrapping is done. I've done my Christmas flower arrangement, but the tree is still sitting by the back door, and the decorations are still in their boxes.

The table has become a bit of a dumping ground again with the melt pot and the Christmas ribbons and twine waiting to be put away. On the right at the front is one of my most vital tools - an unravelled paper clip which I use to unblock the nozzle of my Glossy Accents.

If you haven't already been there, pop round to Julia's Stamping Ground blog for the links to fellow WOYWWers' postings. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

WOYWW 132

Well, here we are this dank, dark and dismal December morning. I had intended to do a big clean up yesterday to sort out and put away all the 12 tags stuff. I got further behind with Monday night's power cut preventing use of melt pot, heat gun and computer. Stormy weather often cuts off our electric as we have overhead cables, and it just needs one tree to come down. I've still got tag 12 to do, but I think this may have to wait till next week. Anyway, I did have an attempt at tidying, and got as far as putting away all the dies, and most of the stamps (cleaned, she says virtuously). The baskets may still be groaning, but the desk surface was clear. Was, until I found that my little UTEE embellies were still on the kitchen table, and I found the missing packet for the stamps set, and oh yes, I sat down and inked up some of the greetings I'd stamped trying to make up my mind which to use on a tag. and then on the far right back and front left are a couple of backgrounds I made using tag techniques with the idea of using them for Christmas cards.

Zip on over to Julia's Stamping Ground to link to the blogs of other WOYWW participants and brighten this December day.

Tag Number 11

Last night's storm caused a power cut here, so instead of working with the melt pot and posting my tag, I spent the evening writing Christmas cards by the light of the log fire and candles. Today was catch up time. I think I need a lot more practice with this melt pot technique. My tweezers kept getting clogged up, I think because initially I wasn't letting enough of the excess UTEE drip off. I found that using a metal skewer along with the tweezers helped.

Only one more tag to do, and then I hope to make some more cards playing with some of the techniques from this year's tags. For all the details on how number 11 is made, visit Tim's blog.

12 Tags of Christmas - 10

I wasn't too sure about whether the technique to decorate the facets was going to work for me. The only suitable pictures I had were on old gift tags made of card. And was my adhesive tape going to be OK? I had visions of the images rubbing off. Well, it worked a treat. I used Crafty Individuals and Elusive Images stamps for the background topped with distress ink and Glimmer Mist. The "Merry Christmas" is Inkadinkado. See Tim's tag and all instructions on his blog.

Number Nine

It's a cold and frosty night here so it's good to be sitting by a roaring log fire, and posting my tag, the ninth of Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas 2011.

I've used Dark Room Door's Floral Background stamp. I don't have the candle die, so just cut out a shape from grungeboard. Love the foliage die. I've used white acrylic paint and Peeled Paint Stickles on the leaves, and drops of Dimensional Pearls for the berries. I'm planning to do this tag again, but next time I will try painting the candle with melted wax to see what kind of effect I can get.

Tag 8

Tag 8 from Tim Holtz is a Christmas steampunk one. Love the stamp set so was happy to use it here. Another fun tag.

Tag 7 !

I have to confess there were few mutterings over this one. Well, quite a lot actually. I don't have the dies and wanted to stick with the holly rather than change theme completely. The sensible thing would have been to draw holly leaves and cut them out, but I had in mind to use a Cuttlebug holly spray embossing folder.

I duly inked, scrunched and embossed the glassine paper only to find out that it was really difficult to distinguish the embossed lines from the scrunching. I'm not the world's most patient cutter-outer at the best of times, so after a deal more muttering the glassine went into the scraps box, and I decided that the holly would be embossed and cut out before it was coloured and scrunched.

As I progressed through the next stages I was a bit dubious about how it was going to turn out, but suddenly it all seemed to come together. Bravo, Tim. Another great tag project. To be found at Tim's blog.

WOYWW 131

At first glance my desk may seem only slightly untidy with some of the tools and materials used to create yesterday's tag still in evidence. But on closer inspection you will see a range of Versacolour teardrops pushed to the back under the tiered baskets. They are still there because I haven't finished the work on the stampbord squares for the memory books. Then there's the baskets. So handy for accommodating all sorts of bits-n-pieces instead of me taking the time to put them away. Will now take me ages to sift through them and get the items stored away in the right place. The dies on the shelf need tidying up too. Then there's the floor space around the desk. We won't even go there !

Check out Julia's Stamping Ground blog for links to lots of other tidy and untidy desks. Happy Wednesday.

Tag Number 6 !

I wasn't too sure about this one when I started, even although I love working with metal. However, by the time I'd got all the paint on, I was really pleased with the look and was worried that the EP might spoil it, but of course, Tim was right. The EP really did enhance it. He was also right about the choice of acrylic paint. I tried a bright red one and a dark green one but they turned out to be too watery, so I covered these parts with Cranberry and Lettuce, and used the black and gold dabber paint on the other sections, and the effect was much better.

Unfortunately at this time of night I can't get the light right for the photo, and the camera battery is drained, so I can't persevere ! The Cranberry and Lettuce have been darkened and enriched by the Walnut Stain, but aren't as dark as in the photo. I chose velvet ribbon in the same green as I thought it looked good with the rich colours.

I usually like to do something on the reverse of a tag since it is always all smudged with ink by the time I've finished, and I like to make a few of these type of tags to attach to gifts. People seem to appreciate them and keep them as bookmarks or to re-use on gifts. This one is spotty resist against Cranberry Adirondack. The gap in the stamping makes it look distressed and also gives me a space to write in ! The little garland was made in the same way as the tag, but I decided against using it here. I need to re-do the bottom part as I put my thumb over the Dimensional Pearls holly berries before they were dry ! Then it'll go into that box of scraps.

Thank you, Tim, for another fun tag. Photos and all details here on Tim's blog..

The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Tag Five

A great technique today from Tim Holtz using clear plastic packaging and alcohol inks, and plenty of improvisation required from me. None of the packaging that I'd kept was big enough, but I dug out a sheet of heavy acetate from the cupboard. The stamp I chose was one of my favourite Christmas ones from Elusive Images a few years back - swirls and holly. Don't have a leaf die that can cut grungeboard, so improvised with one that can cut thin card and got as far as painting it when I realised that using it would obscure best part of the stamping. However, I remembered seeing in my box of scraps a die-cut garland I'd made from card and metal for some other project. I love when I find a use for some piece that wasn't quite right for the original project. I had planned to do the bonus tag in Tim's post as well, but there are not enough hours in this day. Something to try another time !

Call in at Tim's blog (link above) to find out about the techniques and see a huge array of Day 5 tags.

The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Day Four

Tag number 4 completed very much as Tim's. Great fun. Lots of drying time needed for this one.

The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Day Three

I'm lagging a bit behind with the Tags already, but here is my copycat version of number 3. Great fun to make, and it looks a lot better than the picture shows. Can't get the light right. Didn't have the card that Tim used for the foliage, but have some of the Distress Collection which substituted OK. In fact these sheets were extra distressed. I bought them last summer from a local shop which also has a garden centre, and the wind blew them out of my basket and into a puddle. They dried off a bit buckled, but perfectly serviceable for this ! The beads came from the January sales as I knew they'd be perfect come 12 Tags time. I don't have the recommended felt to make the ink pad, but as last year, I used the kind of synthetic felt sold at our local patchwork shop. I got it to cut up for my alcohol ink applicator. I've done lots more stamping with this pad, so I can use the pieces for backgrounds for Christmas cards. Have just realised I've forgotten to add the bell, and I think I'll put a little frosting on the foliage !

I enjoyed the techniques on Tag 2 so much that I decided to make some cards using the same materials, and am pleased with the results. They are only small 4" x 4"s.

A photo of Tag 3 and full illustrated step-by-step instructions can be found here at Tim's blog.

12 Tags of Christmas - Day 2

Loved making this tag. I used a piece of the music page from the original Kraft Resist pad and am so impressed with the soft effect of the Picket Fence distress stain on the paper with a little Peeled Paint, Festive Berries, Iced Spruce and Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist smudged on top. In fact I've decided to make the background for a batch of cards in the same way. I die-cut the snowflake, snowflake edge and mini reindeer from grungeboard and canvas, smooched with Picket Fence distress stain and dabbed on Diamond Stickles. Was quite pleased to find a piece of spotty grungeboard which was ideal for the snowflake edge. A rummage in my brads box produced some white sparkly ones.

To see Tim's inspirational tag and instructions, and lots of other takes on the tags from people the world over, visit Tim's blog.

The 12 Tags of Christmas 2011 - Day One

Well, here we are on the first of December, and one of the pleasures of the run up to Christmas is the chance to join in with Tim Holtz' 12 Tags of Christmas project. A tag from Tim each day from 1 to 12 December. Last year I managed to complete them all and hope to do the same this year although various commitments may mean that I will lag a bit behind, but I will try to do the full set this year too. Tim's 2011 tags can be seen on his blog together with full instructions. My approach is to use these as an inspiration, and to enjoy new and old ideas and techniques. I suppose I tend to end up doing a fairly similar version, but not always; and of course there is always a fair degree of improvisation required when I don't have the suggested tools and materials.

So for tag number one I had the foliage die and the Iced Spruce ink and a similar embossing folder and the rest was improvisation ! I have discovered that I can probably make quite a respectable pine cone using my Sizzix rose die - two die cuts joined together and with lots of extra indentations cut into the petals; but for this tag I really wanted to use the lovely little cones that I picked up on a walk in the woods last winter and squirrelled away in the Christmas embellishments box. I discovered that I have nearly run out of Rock Candy Stickles (Ranger, please pack this in half pint bottles !), so I have used Frosted Lace.

Would have produced a better photo if I had waited till morning, but by then I hope to be concentrating on Tag Number 2. Now I'm off to hoover up the glitter which I have managed to spread everywhere !

WOYWW 130

Plenty on the go on the workdesk this fine Wednesday morning. At the back on the right are two maze books folded and glued and ready to be decorated as 2012 memory books. At the front is another along with various die cuts that I am going to use in the decoration. I recently enjoyed a workshop at the Craft Barn where we made an Advent maze book, so this is the inspiration for the ones I'm now working on. On the right is the makings of a calendar. The shape I believe is called a dodecahedron. I started it at Stamping Club, so will now get busy inking, stamping and gluing to finish it. In the middle is some Stampbord. Two pieces are inked, stamped and clear embossed ready to go on a Christmas card, and the third piece is stamped ready to be coloured with the little Versacolour pads and stamped again.

If you fancy a snoop at some more desks, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground to collect the keys to work rooms the world over.

WOYWW 127

I'm afraid my desk is looking a bit dismal for all you WOYWW visitors. Not a lot to see at all, I'm afraid. On the top tier basket is a little exploding box that I made some years ago to contain some family photos. I searched it out to remind myself how it is made as we are doing more at our local stamping club.

However, fear not, the work space will not remain so dreary for long. That's because last night I unearthed the Christmas stuff. I've been in denial about the approach of the festive season, but if I'm to get any cards, tags, decs or crafty gifts made, I'd better get a wiggle on. It should be quite fun rediscovering the stamps and bits and bobs in these boxes.

The craft desk has been somewhat neglected these past few days as I've been busy with the autumn clearing up process in the garden, and doing creosoting and repairs to chicken sheds and runs to make sure they're sound and weatherproof for the winter.

I've been well and truly inspired in the gardening department by my latest visit to Sissinghurst. The gardens closed at the end of October, but I was lucky enough to be able to be part of a group who spent a day with the head gardener seeing the work that goes on at this time of year. A couple of gardeners were busy in the borders, cutting back, digging out, digging in compost, and in the picture below planting wallflowers and verbascum.

Another gardener was hedge cutting. The little box hedges are done, and they are now working on the yew. They work to specific measurements with spirit levels and plumb lines, and the results are stunning. The left hand side of the hedge had been done and you can see the crisp lines.

We also spent sometime with the gardener in charge of the lawns. A challenging responsibility with in excess of 185,000 visitors. You can see here that this lawn has been scarified and treated with selective herbicide. It will have new seed and fertiliser applied, so, come the new season, it should be vigorous and green.

In one of my summer visits I saw the cardiocrinum giganteum (Giant Himalayan Lily) that had flowered for the first time, and mentioned it in a WOYWW post. Here it is again in autumn with its enormous seed pods.



To visit more work desks, pop over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog. Happy Wednesday.

WOYWW 123

Another Wednesday morning. A cloudy sky, but enough sunshine and warmth to make it a pleasant day. Time to pop over to Julia's to collect the keys to a whole load of work rooms across the world.

This week sees my table remarkably clear. That's 'cos I had a tidy up after putting the finishing touches to the desk tidy which was the project at Neil Walker's most enjoyable Sunday workshop at the Craft Barn. I'm either going to have to have a bit of shuffle round to be able to accommodate it on my postage stamp desk top, or place it on the adjacent surface. Attached on the right hand side of the tidy is a little notebook with a new cover to fit in with the general look.

On the other side the flower and cat embellishments are made from clay cut with cookie cutters and coloured with Butternut Fresco paint. The cat's stripes are stamped with Venetian Orange archival ink.

The little clay cat is to remind me of my lovely Charlie who is missed so much. It's just over two weeks since it became clear that his medication was no longer dealing with his health problems. I always get so attached to these furry friends, so to lose one is very upsetting. Here he is in the garden where he loved to snooze in the sun, or stalk mice and shrews. A shy but very affectionate boy. I think his fifteen years were really happy ones.

WOYWW

The things at the front of the workdesk this morning were deposited there yesterday when I had a tidy up of the kitchen table. Periodically I set up there when I think I am going to be messier than usual. In this instance I was playing with various new goodies from the recent Ally Pally Big Stamp show, and having a go at a technique shown by Lin Brown of LB Crafts involving Viva Terra, the potentially messy bit. Love watching Lin's demos. Always so inspirational for me.

My favourite Ally Pally purchase was some Pan Pastels. Now I already have pastels in stick form in my Box of Colours, so I told myself I didn't need more, but these Pan ones seemed different, so I decided to dip my toe in the water with four colours. Trying out what Lin had shown us was lots of fun and I loved the effects achieved. The stick pastels in my box don't work for these techniques, but it did make me experiment with my neglected palettes of chalks which also produce some pleasing effects. And of course, as you can see I have added some new colours to my Pan Pastel stock.



For the chance to peek at workdesks across the world, call in at Julia's. Happy Wednesday.

WOYWW & SSSS

Who said it was allowed to be Wednesday again so quickly? However, it does mean that over at Julia's Stamping Ground you can grab the chance to have a good old unashamed snoop at other people's workspaces.

Later this week is our local stamping club meeting, so I have been working on my double page spread in a circle journal with an inchies and twinchies theme - trying not to leave it to absolutely the last moment.

One way or another, the pages have been embossed within an inch of their lives, so it certainly fits this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show where the theme is embossing.

The background of the left hand page is last week's Grungy Monday theme - clear embossing on distress ink with more DI applied on top - in this case Tumbled Glass and Walnut Stain. The swirl is embossed with a Ranger gold powder, and the Stampbord pieces are clear embossed on top of Tumbled Glass and Coffee Archival stamping with Magenta and Inkadinkado stamps.

The right hand page has brown metal inchies embossed first in the Big Shot and then with hand tools, and then sanded and coloured with Stream alcohol ink, and another set of inchies made from card, stamped and clear embossed. There's a metal embossed bird and another two birds and a cage all treated with EPs, and the background is stamped with a Tim flourish embossed in Cosmic Shimmer Lapis Black Aurora.

Grungy Monday 15

This week Linda at Studio L3 has directed us to one of Tim's Holtz' 12 Tags techniques for the Grungy Monday challenge. You can find instructions here on Tim's blog.

I decided to go along with Tim's choice of background colours - Shabby Shutters and Vintage Photo. I used these same colours on the fragment of torn card. Can't remember where I got the stamp. In the little square I again used these colours plus Walnut Stain to stamp with a Paperbag Studios stamp, and then I coloured with Tea Dye DI. The cage and bird are of course cut from Tim's dies. I used the background technique again on the card that I cut the bird from, and its eye is a clear sparkly crystal coloured with Rust AI. The cage was painted with gold dabber, then embossed with Tea Dye Distress EP and rubbed with Vintage Photo DI. The rose is made from white card coloured with Tea Dye and Walnut Stain.

This week's vase of flowers from the garden. Generally speaking when choosing roses for my garden, I went for beautifully perfumed repeating roses. However, at one point I rescued some 50p roses from the waifs and strays section in a garden centre. They may not have a perfume, but they certainly are prolific and have sweet little flowers which last extremely well in a vase.

And also in the garden some of the babies who are now six weeks old. They are feathered up, except for their backs, and could leave mum, but she doesn't seem to have got tired of them yet. At this age the feathers on their hocks and feet are a bit out of proportion to the rest of their bodies, but they will grow into them eventually !

Tag It On 86: The Age of Chivalry

I loved the theme of the Dragon's Dream Tag It On challenge this week: The Age of Chivalry. It set me thinking of illuminated manuscripts, French medieval literature and courtly love. I have to confess though that only one stamp sprang to mind for use on this theme and that was the background manuscript one from Elusive Images; so I had to trawl through my boxes and draw up a short list. The ones that made it on to the card were the Crafty Individuals border one, the Elusive Images unicorn and the Cherry Pie Belle Ferronniere.

I die cut the tag from manila cardstock and clear embossed the manuscript stamp. Then I applied Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain DIs with a blending tool. The rest of the stamping is in Coffee Archival, and the colouring in DIs and Inktense pencils.

I really wanted to use the little Elusive Images silhouette castle, but it didn't fit in, so I ended up putting it behind a facet. My plan is eventually to put all my tags in an album instead of just having them pile up on a shelf. So the facet can go in the album along with the little rose I made from card coloured with Tea Dye and Walnut Stain.

Sunday Stamper and Simon Says

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show a Flourish, and the Hels' Sunday Stamper theme is Writing, so I decided to use these themes in a birthday card that I have just been out to post. The Tim background stamp is one of my favourites, and is appropriate here as my friend is French. So it's a clear EP resist against Dusty Concord, Weathered Wood, Broken China and Spun Sugar Distress Stains, spritzed with Pearl Glimmer Mist. The flourish is cut with a Sizzix die from Coredinations card and painted with silver dabber so that the texture of the card still shows through. The metal flower is from one of those useful pieces of Primark bling that you can take to pieces and have lots of bits to use as embellishments. The glass was a die-cut from silver holographic card, and has been in my bits and pieces box for years. It looks much better coloured with silver dabber, and has a textured finish.

Grungy Monday 14

Well, one way or another it has been quite a Grungy Monday. The day started with a large flock of sheep taking a wrong turning. I guess the adventure began with just one or two of the little woolly creatures taking a diversion, and the rest followed like a load of ........ well, sheep. Anyway, they left the road, came all the way down our little lane and took a left into my garden trampling my seedlings in the process. The farmer and his dozy collie took some time to catch up with them, during which time my old cat was looking very grumpy and irritable having had his snooze in the sun interrupted, and having to put up with a huge chorus of loud baa-ing and bleating. Looking on the bright side, they did leave quite a number of little gifts which I shall collect tomorrow and put in a pail of water to use as liquid fertiliser at a later date. It's good stuff. My old neighbour used to swear by it when replanting her cyclamen corms, and each year would send her hubby down the fields with a large bucket.

The rest of the grunginess was indoors and involved me following Tim Holtz' directions to create a resist for a Distress Ink and Perfect Pearls cocktail in order to join in with Linda's Studio L3 challenge. My first attempt was using Black Soot/Pewter, Pumice Stone/Pearl and Fired Brick/Gold. I had a feeling that things weren't going to work out. These colours did make a gorgeous background, but as they were so dark, I had to do my stamping in White Adirondack, and I just didn't like it on the tag which is now consigned to my scraps box. However, I will use the rest of these mixes on a book cover.

My next attempt involved Victorian Velvet/Blush, Faded Jeans/Gold and Worn Lipstick/Pearl. There were also a few squirts of Dusty Concord added to the mix. The background text stamping doesn't show up very well in the photo. The rest of the stamping is in Faded Jeans, Stormy Sky and black Archival, and stamps used are Tim, Paperbag Studios and Wendy Vecchi. The flower is a Tattered Floral stamped with a WV checked design stamp and spritzed with the Victorian Velvet mix, and the ribbon is coloured with V Velvet too.

WOYWW 108

"What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?" asks Julia at Stamping Ground for the 108th time. Well, see what's on mine.

The alcohol inks are left over from my work on Tuesday on the Grungy Monday challenge. The assorted die-cuts I have fished out a of bits-and-pieces box in the hope that some might be part of a journal page collage. The glue gun I had plugged in yesterday morning to use to attach some flowers to a tag. Only I got distracted (not unusual) and some minutes later ended up with a large blob of molten glue on the craft sheet. Speaking of craft sheets, have you noticed how clean mine is? That's because this is a new one, and a jumbo one at that. Covers the whole table. The old one was horribly stained, or should I say beautifully stained, and had bits snipped out of its edges where I'd got a bit reckless with the scissors. I've kept it for use when crafting on the move. In the middle in front of the wire basket is a tag which is a new attempt at last week's GM challenge, the one using clear EP as a resist to acrylic paint on Tim papers. Still to be finished. Oh, and the two white porcelain containers sitting one inside the other are always to hand. Originally I thought I would use them as water pots when painting, but they now have a different and important purpose. I keep a baby wipe in the bottom one. I often find that when I've used a wipe, it's not messy enough to throw away, so I pop it into one little bowl and put the other bowl on top. The wipe stays moist ready for use another day. Waste not, want not !

Happy Wednesday, folks.

Grungy Monday 13

This week's challenge at Linda's Studio L3 is to use alcohol inks as demoed by Tim in this five minute video on the Ranger website. And how about this, it's only Tuesday and I've completed this Grungy Monday piece. Am off to polish my halo.

I've long been a fan of AIs, and I use them quite a lot. For this challenge I decided to have a rummage through all my inks, and play around with the ones I had perhaps used less. As it turned out, I realised that I don't use the range of lights as much as I could. So today I chose Cool Peri, Willow and Pink Sherbet to colour the background, the roses and the ribbon. The edges are coloured with Black Soot DI and the stamps are Stampfrancisco and Tanda in Black Archival. I don't know where the quote came from: it's just one of those stamps in my Words & Phrases box without a label !

I was quite pleased with how this had turned out as I was planning for it to be a friend's birthday gift tag. The colours look good on the glossy card background. Just a shame my photography doesn't capture the effect. However, I'm not alone in this. Recently I saw a display of artwork which also appears on a blog, and was so glad to have been able to see it in real life to appreciate the textures and colours and dimensional effects that the camera had not captured.

Grungy Monday 12

A bit behind again with my Grungy Monday challenge over at Linda's Studio L3, but better late, as they say....

This week we're visiting Tim's Technique Challenge dating back to April 2008. For this I chose some of the blue paper from Tim's Vintage Shabby pad, raw umber acrylic paint and a Lost Coast stamp. Couldn't get card to go through my Dymo, so ended up using the black tape that was already in there, covering it with acrylic paint and then sanding the paint off. Wish I could have got a better picture of it.

I know I'm going to be trying this technique again. I want to try with paper that has several colours on it as Tim did, and I want to experiment with getting some kind of card to go through my Dymo. Thanks, Linda, for another fun challenge.

WOYWW 107

Another Wednesday and time to slip over to Stamping Ground, the HQ of Julia, Inspector-in-Chief of Desks.

I have a mini-mess this week. Mostly stamps I've been playing with and haven't put away, because I'm going to play some more. Or at least, that's my excuse. There's also a couple of die-cut butterflies that I've embossed with UTEE and plan to stamp and embellish. There's also a die-cut jalopy that I'm painting, and a background I've embossed and coloured with AIs. The plan is that the jalopy and background should be part of a birthday card.

As I've inflicted a mess on you, I'll make amends by showing you some pics from my visit to the gardens at Sissinghurst yesterday. The White Garden was looking beautiful as usual. Didn't take any views of it this time - only snaps of individual plants.

Delphinium.

Eryngium, a favourite with the bees.

Foxgloves.

And in another part of the garden a plant that I'd never seen before. A cardiocrinum giganteum or Giant Himalayan Lily. Apparently they've waited years for it to flower, and there was great excitement among the gardeners as they saw it was about to bloom. I understand that they die after flowering leaving behind some offsets which then take three to five years to flower. Patience definitely required with this lady.

Happy Wednesday all.

Grungy Monday 11

All the details of the batik technique in this week's challenge from Linda at Studio L3 can be found here at Tim Holtz' blog. Many thanks, Linda, for another fun challenge.

For my piece I've used Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain DIs, and Lost Coast and Crafty Individuals stamps.

In my vase this week are Aloha, Shropshire Lad, Albertine and Madame Isaac Pereire, and the winner in the perfume stakes is the lovely Bourbon rose Mme Pereire, the vivid pink Rosa on the right. However, I do love Albertine too. Her blooms are loose and blowsy, very characteristic in shape, but she is a vicious minx ! The fallen petals from last week's vase of roses are now in a basket in the living room still giving off their rich scent.