Crafty Boots - Snow And Sparkle

Heres a very Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year. Its my chance to set the challenge this fortnight at Crafty boots and I was hoping that by now we might have had a little snow in the UK but no we are treated to lots of rain and Wind (and not just from the brussel sprouts).

So my challenge is to show some Snow and Sparkle !

I used a black tag which I spritzed with Perfect Pearls - forever blue before Embossing the Happy New Year words in Silver and some mini snowflakes in holographic powder before finishing of with some larger snowflakes in white.

It was all finished of with a sparkly silver ribbon.

Crafty Boots - Remembrance

At Crafty Boots this fortnight it is Helens chance to set the challenge and she has done us proud and chosen Remembrance as the theme.

We recently lost a family friend so here is the card I did to remember the good times and the sad times.

Alpha Challenge - N

Just a quickie - Here's my Alpha Challenge for this fortnight N is for Naughty but Very Nice !

IndigoBlu- Chocolate Orange

This months challenge at Indigo Blu is Chocolate Orange so here is my take on it :

The background is a mixture of antiqued bronze, wild honey and dried marigold Distress stain with a couple of spritz of Tim Holtz Sunset orange color wash.

The IndigoBlu Bubbles was stamped in gathered twig (to produce chocolate oranges) and Ella Bella was stamped and then covered in flitter flakes.

The words stamp was from the IndigoBlu B.F.F stamp set also stamped in gathered Twig DI and was just right to also reflect the Chocolate element of the challenge.

Bye for now.

Crafty Boots - Autumn

Hi for the Crafty Boots challenge this fortnight we are celebrating Autumn so I decided to make something to hang in my home to celebrate this lovely time of the year.

I cut a 5 inch diameter hardboard circle and painted it with Antique linen crackle paint as the background. I then  cut a number of Tim Holtz Tattered leaves in Kraft paper and 3 in gold card. I inked the leaves using a combination of spiced marmalade, Rusty Hinge, forest moss and mowed lawn. Some were stamped with a swirl, others I embossed to give some texture.

The words were stamped in black with some leaves stamped around the edge.

To pull it altogether I decided to dig out some embellishments (and some very special gold snail buttons from Paris) that I been saving for a windy day.

Have a great fortnight but hope you havent been blown away with the wind thats expected today.

Alpha Challenge - L

Here we go my word for the Alpha Challenge at the Craft Barn this fortnight is Laundry with a twist we had to include a window.

As you can see my laundry is hanging on the line ready for the autumn breeze to dry it. In the background there are some Houses from the Dark Room Door - Home sweet Home set with the windows highlighted in glossy accents.  Bye for now xx

ATC Ladies

The Craft Room Challenge at the moment is to make an ATC (Artist Trading Card) and seeing as I hadn't used my ATC die I thought I would give it a go to make a card/ memento for my sister in laws birthday.

The cards were inked in Rust Hinge DI and the ladies from Rogue Redhead Designs - Milliner Misses were stamped in Memento - Rich Cocoa and the words in Black soot. I added swirls from a set of Indigoblu stamps to frame the pictures.

To join the three ATCs together I laid and stuck  2 rows of blue rick rack along the back, I had previously cut out three pieces of corrugated card to the shape of the ATCs and spritzed them with dylusion sprays and inked with the rusty hinge to crate textured backs to the card. The backs were stuck on covering the rick rack to create my trio of ATcs so they can then be folded into a book or displayed as 3 in a row.

Crafty Boots - Sweet Treats

The Crafty Boots challenge starting today is Sweet Treats and here are some tasty cup cakes to get you tempted. The cup cakes were heat embossed on white card before being cut out and inked in a range of pinks to reflect the background.

To make it a bit different I tied vintage lace to the tag before mounting it on silver card and then onto the front of a card to give it the final touch.


Looking forward to seeing all your tempting sweet treats, bye for now.

Alpha Challenge - G

Hi I have managed to do this fortnights challenge at the Craft Barn on time and decided on the word  Gild - to overlay with gold. 

The background is painted in Paper Artsy Squid Ink and Ella Bella from Indigoblu and a couple of the swirls are gilded using Indigoblu Flitter glu and flakes. I also gold embossed a couple more swirls and the word dream to and a little more gold (although myself and my craft room are well and truly gilded).



I did do the last fortnights challenge but was a little late with my blog so I thought I would add it in here so here is my Zebra page, you can just about make out the Zebras (well horses I had to cheat) in black and white. I was a little limited on words I'm afraid.

Last Days of Summer

The Crafty Boots Challenge this week is set by Freya and she has asked us to reflect the last days of Summer. As we have had such a lovely summer this year I didnt want to frighten it away too quickly so I wanted to show the beautiful blue skies we have been having and the fact there seem to have been far more butterflies around this year than there have been for a while.

The stamps are from Chocolate Baroque stamped in gathered twig, The background mask was a Creative expressions one and the background was made up of broken china, brushed pewter, and some mystic pearls.

Enjoy these last days of summer and join us at Crafty Boots.

Alpha Challenge - O

The Letter is O at the Craft Barn this last fortnight so I have just managed to squeeze this one in.
My Word is October - Tenth month of the year. To reflect this I decided it was time to break out the tattered leaves and autumn colours along with some lovely words from P.D James.

The leaf stamps were all from inkadinkado and the die cuts were Tim Holtz tattered leaves.

Christmas at Crafty Boots

Its Christmas oops no its not just getting ready over at Crafty Boots.

I decided to use my IndigoBlu FlitterGlu and as last time I made such a mess I decided to do a trio of tags while the glitter was floating round my room.

This FlitterGlu is really effective on black card so I just used the glue, flakes and black card to make these simple designs all finished of with a scrap of ribbon.

Knights of Old

Over at Dragons Dream TIO #147 the recipe to use this week is Waste/ rubbish, male and chipboard .

As we had just spent a few days away in York I wanted to try and use the castle gate stamp that I bought in a shop there called Make Your Mark.

The tag back ground was a combination of brushed corduroy, tarnished brass and mustard seed distress stains that I applied to my craft mat before swishing the tag through.

The stamp was stamped in gathered twig Distress ink which I also edged the tag with.

The chipboard element is the shield which I embossed using a section of  Tim Holtz embossing folder which is hard to see but is the K and the Crown, I inked the shield with mustard seed and the gathered twig before brushing on some gold perfect pearls.

You maybe saying where are the male and waste ingredients well the words knight and Knighthood were ripped from my redundant dictionary and inked before being stuck to the bottom of the shield.
The tag was finished of with a fleur de lis brad colored with alcohol ink and a scrap of necklace chain through the top.

Alpha Challenge - D

Dressmaker is my chosen word for the Craft Barn Alpha challenge this week.
The background is Distress Stain - picked raspberry. I used stamps form IndigBlu "sewing mends the soul " and heat embossed them in black.
The model and reels are from the Tim Holtz Sewing room die which I stamped with a swirl and the words Sewing mends the Soul in picked raspberry and dusty concord.

Die Cuts for Craft Boots

Helens challenge at Crafty Boots this fortnight to us was to use die cuts in some form so as I was needing to do an 18th birthday card I thought it was an ideal time to get my entry done ready for the challenge.

I also thought that as it was Helens challenge and she loves using Paper Artsy fresco paints I should also try and use these so here we go.

The Die cuts used were the Tim Holtz Tag and his Gadget and Gears.

I swiped the tag using a baby wipe with the colours London bus, cheesecake and squid Ink ! Once it was dry I roughly stamped cheesecake and London bus grids. The frame was a pre cut cardboard one which I painted with the same colours. The 18 was stamped onto Kraft paper trimmed and then coated in crackle paint.

The gears were also cut from Kraft paper and I used the edge of a credit card swiped through the paint to apply the criss cross affect.

The stamped words were from the IndigoBlu stamp set Grand Tour III just right for someone stepping out on the next adventure into life.

To finish the tag I inked some string and tied the chain on using this before mounting it all onto a card to give it a finish.

Hope you can join us in our challenge this week. x

An IndigoBlu Christmas

This month the IndigoBlu challenge 6 is Christmas in July! That posed a little challenge to me as at the mo I do not have the privilege of owning any specific Christmas stamps from IndigoBlu but I did not let that deter me.
I originally imagined creating a Sexy Santa but that didn't quite come to fruition but something along the lines instead.

The tag was swished in distress stains fired brick and brushed pewter to give a marble affect. Once dry I roughly stamped the back ground using the IndigoBlu 'bubbles background' in fired brick DI.

The tailors dummy was cut using the Tim Holtz sewing room die which I stained in the brushed pewter.

The corset of course was from the IndigoBlu 'sewing mends the soul' set. I stamped this on plain card then cut it out before covering it in plumbers Foil tape. Once covered I used red pepper alcohol ink to colour the foil before re stamping the corset in black Stazon.

Having dug out my Christmas ribbons I created a black lace skirt which also has some sparkle on it before attaching the bodice on top.

To finish of I found some Christmas berries a bell and some twine.

Its obviously not a traditional Christmas tag but hopefully the IndigoBlu followers will let me get away with it. :0)

Trio Card

My lovely cousin and her husband celebrated their 3rd anniversary recently so I decided to try and do a card with 3 different tags on (one for each year). I took inspiration from a Paperartsy tutorial which used as it happens a masks and paints which fits just right with the Dragons Dream Tag It On challenge with the final ingredient being some ribbon.

As you can see I used a variety of stamps on each tag and  the masked backgrounds (which you cant see from the photo were also all different), the same 3 fresco paints were used on the tags but in different combinations.

The ribbon was stained using distress stains. 

Alpha Challenge - T

Yes this fortnights Alpha challenge at the Craft Barn is the letter T and I chose Town - a large collection of houses.

The background was distress stain faded jeans followed by some Dark Room Door houses stamped in walnut stain.
The houses were cut using my Tim Holtz townscape die in both white card and black. The white ones were coloured using Distress Inks to add a touch of colour to my little town.

Still loving the challenge bye for now. xxx

Music Hall

I decided to get my Airondack alcohol inks out to see what sort of a mess I could make this time and ended up with this tag / card for a friends birthday.

I splashed various colours of inks on to my craft mat with some alcohol solution and then swiped a glossy tag through the mixture. Once it was dry I applied distress inks picked raspberry and peacock feather to add a little more colour.

Once this was all dry I heat embossed using black powder the beautiful lady from the IndigoBlu Music hall range and then stamped the advert and swirls in black soot DI.

To finish off I tied some vintage lace through the top and slightly inked a wooden heart the says "Women are made to be loved not understood" before mounting the tag on purple card.

I am entering this into this weeks Craft room Challenge #56 - Heat Embossing

Bye for now. xxx

Dragon Tag

The Crafty Boots challenge - Animals was set by the lovely Bev this week and it was her final challenge for us as she is busy doing lots of other lovely things and activities with her crafts, her scouting, her school governing, her family and even her job! (She wears me out just talking about it all xx)

Without further ado her is my Dragon Tag - to be honest I had to dig high and low to find any sort of animal so for me it really was a challenge, I hope you are luckier than me at finding one in your collection.

The tag was covered in fired brick distress stain before being stamped with the chinese letters in gathered twig and the edges stamped with a border stamp. The dragon were embossed in black.The words were stamped on to Kraft paper before being cut out and glued on.

Happy crafting xx

Alpha Challenge - Y

Here is  my Y page for the Craft Barn alpha challenge this fortnight the added twist was we had to use yellow, so seeing as my choice of Y words was very limited and I had to be careful not to touch my half a dozen X words for when that sneaky challenge hits us I opted for Yellow -

I dug out all my yellow inks and paints and even my dylusion spray to get a mixture of yellows on to the page  with the added touch of a yellow tag with the daffodil embossed on and some yellow brads.

Rockin All Over The World

This forthnight at Crafty Boots it was my turn to select the challenge. Music plays a big role in lots of peoples lives so I thought it would be good to try and celebrate by doing something to show your favourite song, musical event or musical instrument. But anything with a music theme is good.

Above is my tag for my most favourite song that I have enjoyed since being a teenager, at my wedding and even playing to my babies 18 years ago to keep them happy (so much so that they took my husband to see Status Que for his 50th birthday this year ).

To give texture to the tag I covered it in gesso and let it dry before using cut n dry foam to dab paper artsy fresco paints on top. Once dry I stamped the world map in distresss ink.

The worlds were cut using my Tim holtz die and then coloured with paint and distress ink with the water element being lightly spritzed with Dylusions spray.

Hope your enjoying the summer here in the UK we are having a lovely few days of sunshine.

bye for now..

Summer Colours

Here is my tag for the IndigoBlu forever 21 challenge 5. I was lucky enough to win the random prize for challenge 4 so thought I should try and use at least one of the lovely stamps I won this time.

The background was made up of squeezed lemonade, shaded lilac and picked raspberry distress inks applied a number of times along with a spritz of dylusions calypso teal.

The swirl was from the Music Hall set, With love from the Enjoy Life set and finally Ella Bella one of my winning choices (isnt she beautiful), they were all stamped in clear embossing ink and embossed with fine black powder.

Thanks for stamps and the challenge.

60 !!!!

At Crafty boots this fortnights the challenge is - Anything but a Square, so I decided to post a birthday tag that I recently made for a neighbor from when I was at home.

The back ground was made by using cut and dry foam to apply mustard seed, faded jean and peeled paint distress ink to a tag on top of black script writing stamped in black soot.

The car  and dapper gangsters are from the PaperArtsy Hotpicks set HP1206Ez and were stamped on Kraft paper before being cut out and lightly inked.

The car is very apt as the birthday boy oops gentleman is a car enthusiast and has just bought himself an old Jag to  do up and it also brings back memories as he use to drop me off at school in his pride and joy Rolls Royce at the time.

Looking forward to seeing all your entries for Anything but a square.  Bye for now.

Alpha Challenge - B

Got this one in quick this fortnight didnt want to wait until the last minute again. So for the Craft Barn Alpha challenge the word is Beehive - a box or case or other hollow vessel for holding bees. 

I used Zesty zing and cheesecake Paper Artsy paints as the background, and in the flesh the pages look even more full of color with the stamps from Chocolate Baroque black embossed on top with added touches of rusty hinge DI.

Have fun.

Alpha Challenge - U

U is for Umbel - a collection of small flowers - My word for the alpha challenge at the Craft Barn  this fortnight, I have just about got it done in time (3 hours to go).

My dictionary is very old and has limited words so  I spent more time deciding on a word than actually doing the page, but I was determined to do it as I have already missed one challenge due to being away for work.

I have never heard of an umbel so this challenge is definitely widening my vocabulary.

Bye for now and hopefully see you sooner rather than later with teh next word :0)

Crafty Boots - Butterflies

Hi all, this fortnights Crafty Boots challenge is officially Pink Butterflies and I just about achieved this with the fact I dusted my butterflies in pink perfect pearls.

The background cogs and butterflies are from my Chocolate Baroque set - Steampunk Butterflies and were stamped in chipped sapphire or black soot DI.

I also used stormy sky, tumbled glass and faded jeans distress ink.

The words are from Indigo blu - Enjoy Life set.

Hope you can join us in this challenge go on you know you want to :0)..

Enjoy Life

I love Indigoblu stamps and in the last month or so indigoblu have started a challenge just for stampers using their stamps and this time I have managed to get around to making something especially for the Forever 21 - challenge 4 - Backgrounds Galore

Around the edge of a white tag I clear embossed the swirls from the Music Hall set. On to my craft mat I swiped strips of picked raspberry, brushed pewter and salty ocean distress stains and spritzed with water before swiping the tag through the colors until I got the desired affect. With the pink and blue I used cut n dry foam just to re emphasis the edges.

Once it was dry I stamped in black stazon the beautiful words from my enjoy life set.
This was quite  easy and enjoyable  to make and the backgrounds using different stamps to clear emboss and then the swiped colors can make all sorts of effects.

Alpha Challenge - FE-FR

I missed out on the last Craft Barn Alpha challenge as I was away for work but have managed to get this fortnights challenge done. After having a flick through I decided on Foxglove - digitalis: a narcotic plant.

The pages were covered in bundled sage distress stain before using seedless preserve and picked raspberry to stamp the foxgloves from my Chocolate Baroque Honey Bee set and words from one of my Hot Picks Paper Artsy sets

Celebrate

At Crafty Boots the challenge is to create something for a celebration. So below is a special card I made for an engagement using my new Chocolate Baroque stamps.

I stamped the honeycomb using white paint onto the white card and once dried inked the card with mustard seed distress stain. Using the honeycomb stamp again I used vintage photo distress ink to add another layer. The edges were lightly inked with rusty hinge to add a bit of warmth.

The beehive, large flower and the word dream were embossed using fine black embossing powder.

I stamped and embossed a bee on a separate piece of card then inked with the mustard seed and rusty hinge before cutting it out and attaching using a foam pad to give a bit of depth.

Have fun celebrating.

Alpha Challenge - A

Advertise  / Advertisement are the words I have chosen to reflect for the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge this fortnight.

I dug through my stamps and found that within my Indigo Blu collection I had a raft of advertisements including the Yorkshire evening post set which I stamped and then heat embossed in black as the background. The others were all stamped onto Kraft paper and lightly inked with vintage photo as were the dictionary pages with a little white paint around the edges and around the words.

Not sure Ill get to do the next 2 challenges on time due to work but hopefully I will be able to catch up afterwards.

Bye for now.

Stamped Character

This fortnight at Crafty Boots the challenge was to use any stamped Character that you have or can purchase via the Crafty Boots shop.

The tag was very simple to do and quick to make, the background was made by swiping a tag through a mixture of mustard seed, dried marigold and brushed bronze distress stain. The character was stamped in memento ink - cocoa and clear embossed. The character was re stamped on Kraft paper and the dress was cut out along with her boots, both were lightly inked with Vintage photo Distress ink before the hearts were clear embossed on the dress as well.

Have fun stamping.

Alpha Challenge - W

The Craft Barn Challenge is W (with Circles) this fortnight and as you can see I chose the word Windmill.

The page was stained using Crushed Olive, salty ocean and mustard seed.the circles were created using fresco paint - cheesecake and the top of a glossy accents bottle.
The stamps are from Creative Expressions Create a scene. Unfortunately I couldn't find any words or sayings to tie in with my theme this week so plumped for just the word.
Bye for now.

Recycle at Crafty Boots

This fortnights challenge at Crafty Boots has been set by the lovely Gabrielle aka Crafty_Thoughts and she has challenged us to recycle something be it a previous project / tag / card or anything else that can be reused. I have tried to do a bit of everything and came up with this creation.

I have used a large tag and covered it with words and descriptions from the letter r pages of a dictionary that is no longer used but I kept back the first letter and also the word recycle.

Once the background was dry I roughly stained it with picket fence and bundled sage and then added some forest moss DI.

Around the edge I glued some garden string that I found lying in the greenhouse on my currently rare trips out in the cold which I then also inked up.

The corrugated backing behind the letter and description was part of some packaging which I cut and inked.

The metal lid background to the heart and leaves(which were taking of an old tag that was lying around) was from a spam tin which I painted in distress paint.

And to finish it all of I attached an old piece of chain from a broken necklace with more string through the hole in the top.

I hope this will give you some ideas and inspiration to try and redo an old project or create a new one from bits lying around that would normally just get thrown away.

Thanks for stopping by xxxxx.

Moments

At Simon Says stamp and show the challenge that is about to close is anything goes, so as I was playing around with a tag yesterday I thought I would enter it here.

The background is a piece of fancy corrugated card that was wrapped around some lovely mustard I brought back from my trip to France last week which I roughly dabbed with paper artsy paints - beach hut, mermaid and nougat. Once dry I roughly sanded it and darkened with gathered twig DI.

The TH clock face die was cut from Kraft resist paper before being inked with brushed pewter distress stain. The words were from the delusions stamp set - The right words. Which were inked in black soot and then dabbed with the brushed pewter with the excess being wiped off, because of the shine you cant seem that well in the photo but they say "Its better to take a risk than miss a moment of magic".

50 Years of Family

Many of my family and friends will know that my parents have just celebrated 50 years of marriage they are an inspiration to us all. To celebrate we had a fantastic dinner and afternoon tea with friends and family on their actual anniversary with lots of special touches.

As my gift to them I created a Family album with photos of special moments right from their wedding day up to and including the special celebration.

I decorated a a pre cut book that made up the word family and within each page I included special words photos and memories so they can both sit and remember those special moments captured in time. The book itself was painted in gold paint and embossed with gold hearts with antique lace inked slightly separating each letter. Cream pages were cut, stamped and edged in gold ink before the photos were added and it was all threaded together with some gold ribbon (the ring binders just were not big enough).

I am entering this into the Craft room Challenge - In the Library as it is all about books.

Alpha challenge - Letter R

R is the Craft Barn Alpha Challenge letter this week and as you can see from my page I chose the word Rotate :- wheel shaped, to cause to turn , revolve around an axis.

The background was inked in dried marigold stain before using a Special touch cogs mask and spiced marmalade distress ink and a touch of rusty hinge.The cogs were cut from Kraft Resist paper using the Tim Holtz gadget gear die. The gears were inked using rusty hinge, spiced marmalade, ripe persimmon and walnut stain before they were rough embossed with walnut stain distress embossing powder.

The words that go just right come from the dylusions stamp set -  the right words. - Every now and then life needs to be turned upside down to get back to the right way up.

Easter Diamonds

The challenge this fortnight at Crafty Boots is to include Diamonds and as its Easter weekend I wanted to see if I could incorporate them into an Easter Tag?

The tag background was made by swiping my tag through a mixture of squeezed lemonade, mustard seed, shabby shutters and salty ocean distress inks spritzed with some water. To enhance the colours I used cut n dry foam and the different inks.

Once the main background was done I took a square mask and turned it on its corner and swiped the various inks over it in different patches to give the background diamonds.

Happy Easter all, lets just hope spring arrives soon....

Alpha Challenge - letter P

The Craft Barn Alpha Challenge this week is the letter P. After searching through my dictionary I decided on the word Pocket, so I created 3 adding faux stitching and put a ticket,  a penny and a hand in each one:-

The dylusions stamp I used in the background and in the top left said " You can't have everything . Where would you put it?" and I added the words " In Your Pocket of course" Just for a bit of fun. Bye for now see you next week hopefully xx

Flower Tag

At Crafty Boots Kerry has set a special challenge so please visit her blog to find out all about the origin of the Flower Challenge this fortnight.

It was our Amys 19th Birthday in February along with her dads 50th and her great uncles 75th and my Mum and Dads 50th wedding Anniversary to name but a few of the events going on so January and February were busy months for making things but an ideal opportunity to get some of my design team challenges complete.

The tag was colored using : Distress inks Peacock feather, evergreen bough and scattered straw.

The words were from my Indigo blu - Enjoy Life stamps and the grasses at the bottom from Personal Impressions - Flower silhouette.

I used Tim Holtz tattered leaves floral dies. The leaves were colored in the evergreen bough and then script was stamped and clear embossed. The daisy has a combination of scattered straw and mustard see DI with a touch of picket fence distress stain and some WOW white embossing powder.

I hope you can join us this forthnight and show us your lovely flowers in all shapes and sizes.