Compendium Challenge No 4

The weather we're having at the moment is causing the garden to be neglected and making it especially nice to be dry and warm indoors getting painty inky fingers. Today I've been putting the finishing touches to the little book and mini suitcase I had lots of fun making at Linda Elbourne's workshop at the Craft Barn yesterday. Will do some photos when the glue has dried.

I also had a play with the Faded Layers technique from page 43 of Tim Holtz' new Compendium of Curiosities book - the challenge set this week by Linda at Studio L3. I've opted to make an envelope again and have used the new Spring distress inks and Aquamarine Archival. Spot the deliberate mistake - I've written the wrong page number on my tag !

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week Three

We're already at Week 3 of Linda's challenges taken from Volume 2 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities. Visit Linda's Studio L3 blog to see lots of lovely examples of this week's technique from  page 46 - Marbled Stains. Eclectic Paperie are kindly sponsoring the challenge with a gift voucher.

I used Pine Needles, Tumbled Glass, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey and Picket Fence Distress Stains. I've chosen to use the Tim envelope die again and have decided to do so where possible with all of these challenges, so that I will end up with a pile of envelopes each with a label inside describing the technique. Then I guess I'll have to make a box to hold them all !

The colour of the envelope suggested to me that I should fish out my Artistic Stamper peacock feather stamp, and I've used Indigo Blu glue and their Yorkshire Dales Mega Flakes to decorate the envelope.

A woodpecker has always been a regular visitor to the feeding station outside my kitchen window. I had a marvellous opportunity the other day to get a great photo as he was this side of the feeder showing off his lovely plumage, but of course my camera was not to hand, so this is the best I have managed so far.

Woodpeckers are omnivores and known to attack the nests of small birds such as bluetits, taking eggs and newly hatched babies, so it always amazes me that the other birds don't seem at all perturbed by his presence at the feeders. Yesterday I couldn't get the camera out quickly enough to capture him peck violently at a bluetit who had dared to alight on the peanut feeder beside him. The woodpecker continued feeding by hammering against the peanuts with a tuft of bluetit feathers stuck in his beak, and the bluetit was apparently unhurt but had opted to eat from the nearby fatballs instead.

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week Two

This week Linda over at Studio L3 has invited us to try out the Faux Patina technique which features on page 58 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2.

I wanted to try out my new TH envelope die on glossy card but thought the card might crack. However it worked a treat and in fact has made quite a robust envelope. The flowers are Tim metal ones and the colours I've used are Stream, Lettuce and Sailboat Blue with Pearl mixative.

Compendium of Curiosities 2 - Week One

I was delighted to hear that Linda at Studio L3 was going to start a new series of challenges based on Tim Holtz' recently published Compendium of Curiosities Vol 2; and happily, my copy of the new compendium, ordered back in February, has arrived in the post just in time for me to join in the first challenge. I loved doing all the challenges set by Linda from Vol 1, so hope to complete all those in number two. Simon Says Stamp is sponsoring this challenge with a US$25 shop, so am keeping my fingers crossed for a win some time soon !

This week's technique is how to make custom foam stamps, and comes from page 66 of the new Compendium. It's a technique I've used before when making some of Tim's Christmas tags. Here I've made a stamp of one of my favourites, dear old Umbrella Man. I'm not a great one for Union Jacks and monarchy, but as this year is a special year with the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of 60 years of the Queen's reign and gives us an extra public holiday, and is also the year of the London Olympics, I couldn't resist the Artistic Outpost and Crafty Individuals stamps, and a flurry of red, white and blue inks and pastels. I guess amid all the doom and gloom of these times of recession, a bit of celebration will do us all some good.

I used Chipped Sapphire and Barn Door distress inks on a mask for my background. Umbrella Man is stamped with my foam stamp and Versamark and coloured with red Pan Pastel. The rest of the stamping is in black and crimson Archival. The little gold crown is embossed in the wonderful Ranger super fine gold EP. The whole tag is covered in Paper Artsy's Satin Glaze to fix the pastel.

WOYWW 137

When I'm going to be using paints, I usually decamp to the kitchen where spills can be more easily wiped up. So this morning, this is the sight that greeted me. I had been making a birthday card using metal tape and acrylic paints as Tim did in Tag No 6. Finished card on the left.

Front right, a packet of tissues. Have gone through several of these as I have a dreadful sniffy cold. I feel OK, but this is day seven and I am fed up sneezing and blowing my nose, and having red flaky skin at the side of my right nostril. Ugh ! The crumpled white paper in the middle is kitchen towel - not a used tissue !

Also on the table is a journal. When I am using paint, I usually smear the leftovers on to a journal page for future use as a background. I've now got pages and pages of backgrounds, so am hoping to actually finish them this year.

For more What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday photos and tales, hop on over to Julia's !

Happy Wednesday !

WOYWW 136

Wednesday is the day when everyone meets up at Julia's to see whose workdesks are on show.

On mine this week are some New Year cards I'm making to take along for the folks at our local Stamping Club. Plan to add the embellishments later today. Still a couple to make using that piece of Kraft Resist that has to be inked and sprayed some more. The smudges of white on the craft mat are from the painted grungeboard snowflakes and there are gooey bits from the Stickles.

To the left of my desk are these shelves which could do with a good old tidy up although surprisingly I do know where things are ! There are various boxes and sets of drawers containing embossing powders, scraps of card and embellishments, and there are loads of things I've collected for altering.

Happy Wednesday, everyone !

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.