A Doodly Twosome

Hello all!  Alison (butterfly) here again, this time with a pair of tags which are not quite in my usual vein - though they are in some of my favourite colours!

I used the new Alphabet Soup by Neil Walker as my starting point.  I clear embossed the background onto a tag.

Then I sprayed lots of lovely Dylusions colour onto it, and dried it with a heat tool.  I love the squiggly doodly lettering.

The next step was to cut Umbrella Man with the Sizzix die (did I dream it, or did I read that he's been discontinued?  In any case, he's still available here at Artistic Stamper for now).

I hadn't really planned on making two tags, but as soon as I'd cut him, I realised I had the makings of a 'positive' and a 'negative' version.

For the backgrounds, I just blended on various Distress Ink colours from grass to sky and gave both tags a good old spritz and flick with some water.

The words are all from the fabulous Journalling Words #5 set.  I stamped them onto another inky tag I had lying around on the desk, in a combination of Mowed Lawn and Peacock Feathers, and clear embossed the result.

I cut them and inked the edges and mounted them on padded tape for a little pop of dimension.

I altered a couple of Muse Tokens with Distress Paint, then sanded back to the metal underneath.

As soon as I saw the silvery detailing, I wanted to echo it on the rest of the tags.

So I used some silver gilding wax to edge the words and the tags themselves.

I ended up adding quite a lot of silvery sheen to the embossed Alphabet Soup too because I really liked the look of it.

A couple of twirls of metal wire finish off the tags at the top.  It's just some more of the rescued wires from some spiral bound notebooks that were being thrown away... 'waste not, want not', as they say!

And that's pretty much that... I hope you like my doodly tags.

Thanks so much for stopping by - I always love to hear what you think.

Oh, and we'd also love it if you came along to play in our July challenge By the Seaside - can't wait to see your creations.  See you again soon.

Ingredients used

Artistic Stamper Stamps:  Neil Walker Alphabet Soup, Journalling Words #5
Sizzix Umbrella Man die
Dylusions Sprays - Polished Jade, After Midnight, Cut Grass
Distress Inks - Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Broken China, Faded Jeans, Gathered Twigs
Versamark Ink Pad
Clear Embossing Powder
Idea-ology Muse Tokens
Distress Paints - Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass
Manila Tags
Foam Pads
From my stash - gilding wax (but these are similar) and wire from a spiral bound notebook

Christmas Surprise by Emma

Hi everyone...

Hope you've all had a great week and looking forward to the weekend. Well, if you're looking for inspiration for your Christmas cards or gifts, then I hope that I can inspire you with the piece I'm sharing today ~ my little altered matchbox, with a big surprise when you open it up! As always, I hope you love it...

To begin with I made my own matchbox from kraft card, measuring approx 7 x 11.5cm in size. I then cut pieces of cream card to fit the outside of the box, inked them with Old Paper DI and stamped each piece with the Music Background stamp. I distressed the edges of the paper with Walnut Stain DI before attaching them to the outside of my box. I then added a Idea-Ology Hitch Fastener on the front of the drawer, to enable you to pull the box out of the cover easily.

I then cut more cream card to fit the base and the sides of the box and again inked them with Old Paper DI before stamping the Santa image from the Mini Christmas 1 stamp set onto the base card. 

I coloured the image with Distress Marker Pens and then inked up the Snowflake stamp with Tumbled Glass DI and stamped the flakes onto all my pieces of card before attaching them to the inside.

I then raided my own stash of dies and used the Festive Greenery and the Tattered Pine Cone die from Tim Holtz for Sizzix to die cut card and coloured each individual die cut with Distress Inks, adding highlights of Rock Candy Distress Dry Glitter to each piece. I then added these to decorate the inside of my box, together with a small Bottle Brush tree and some fake snow before finishing the inside with a couple of Tim Holtz Chit Chat stickers.

To decorate the outside of my matchbox, I used the Tattered Poinsettia die from Tim Holtz, again from my stash and made a large bloom from cream card, inked around the edges with Distress Ink and spritzed with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists. 

I attached the flower to my box and added die cut holly leaves, inked with Iced Spruce Distress Ink and rusty wire coils, smeared some Rock Candy Distress Stickles over the top of the leaves and then die cut the number 25, painted it with PaperArtsy Snowflake Fresco Finish paint and covered the numerals with Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  

So, that's it from me for today...thank you so much for stopping by and I'll look forward to reading your comments! Don't forget we still have our Christmas challenge running until the end of the month, so if you would like to enter, with a chance to be the lucky winner, then just click HERE for all the details.

See you again soon...Emma x

Voyage by Emma

Hi everyone...

It's that time of the month again for me to share my latest post with you all and today, I decided to make a travel journal book cover. As always, I really hope you love what I've made!

To begin with I recycled some old cardboard packaging to form the cover of my travel journal, which I primed with gesso before painting it with Distress Paints. I always think it's a shame to cover up the background because I loved the look of all the colours of Distress Paint blending together but it had to be done as I don't think a painted background would've been of much interest!!!

Once the background was dry, I set about making my tags, which I swished through some Brushed Corduroy, Stormy Sky and Spun Sugar Distress Stain that I had put on my craft mat. I then blended the edges of the tag with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and added some Tumbled Glass DI through a Crafter's Workshop Stencil. Next, I added some interest to the tags, (which again got mostly covered up) with the following stamps: the ruler from A Stitch In Time by Katy Fox, Calligraphic Mat 12, Swirls, Splats and Dots and the Ink Blot Background.

Once the tags were complete, I attached a Idea-Ology File Tab to one of the tags, which I altered with Alcohol Ink and placed a Chit Chat Sticker inside. I added hand dyed seam binding to one tag and paper string to the second before attaching both tags to the background and die cut some cogs from chipboard using the Sizzix/Tim Holtz Gadget Gears die which I painted with Distress Paints and then added around the edge of the tags.

Next, I stamped the compass from the Tim Holtz Classics 1 stamp set onto Manila card and coloured it with Distress Markers. I inked and distressed the edges of the card and added it to my cover, together with the "Voyage" wording.

I stamped the stamps from the Katy Fox Carte Postale stamp set and added these to my cover. Then blended some more manila cardstock with DI's and stamped the quote from the Traveling Words stamp set and attached it to my cover with a Hinge Clip.

I finally added some Idea-Ology Mini Gears and tied a piece of paper string around the cover to complete it.

So, that's it from me for today and don't forget you still have plenty of time to join in with our Autumn challenge and the whole team are looking forward to seeing what you make and enter. For details, just click HERE.

Thank you so much for stopping by and I'm really looking forward to reading all your comments...see you again soon!

Emma x

The Secret Garden by Emma

Hello everyone!! For my second post of August, I thought it would be nice to hold onto Summer as long as we could...so, I decided to make this canvas featuring butterflies and flowers. As always, I've taken lots of pictures to show you all the details and I hope you love what I've created...

To begin with, I covered my 7" x 5" canvas with Tim Holtz Composer Tissue Wrap before adding the colour using Distress Paints. I chose Picked Raspberry, Salted Ocean, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen and once applied over the top of the wrap, I gave them a good spritz with water before allowing them to drip down the canvas. Once I was happy with the way it looked, I added Black Soot around the edges and applied Picket Fence onto one of the Swirls, Spots and Splats stamps from the A5 set, to add some texture.

Next, I added some small torn off strips of Sketchbook Tissue Tape onto the canvas and applied some drips of white acrylic paint, which completed the overall background to my piece.

To make the roses, I used Tim's Tattered Florals die from Sizzix and then coloured each of the die cuts with Salted Ocean and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks before making them into dimensional blooms and giving them a quick spritz with Biscotti Perfect Pearls Mists, to add a subtle shimmer.

I stamped the gorgeous large butterfly and some of the smaller butterflies from the Insects and Butterflies No.1 stamp plate onto a piece of white card and coloured them with Distress Marker pens, adding "dotty" highlights to the wings of the smaller ones, using a white pen.

I shaped the wings of each of them and added twisted wire for their antennae. I then arranged my dimensional blooms, added some die cut leaves using a die in my stash and the butterflies onto the canvas and finally, attached the Butterfly Words quote using an Idea-ology Memo Pin.

So, that's it from me today! Thank you so much for taking the time to pop by and visit and I can't wait to read all your comments. Don't forget you still have time to enter this month's challenge which is all about Postcards, Travel and Holidays and we'd love you to share all your wonderful creations with us!! All the details of the challenge are HERE.

See you all soon and hope you have a wonderful weekend full of creativity!

Emma x

Love Art...Love Life ~ by Emma

Hello everyone!!

Hope you've all had a fabulous weekend, so far and the sun is shining for you... Today, is my first share of this month and for my post, I decided to make a little ATC sized gift card holder. There's lots of pics to show all the details and I really hope you all like what I've created...

To make this card holder I began by cutting pieces of chipboard to size and mounting it onto a piece of Manila cardstock which measured 22.5 x 10cm. When placing the chipboard pieces onto the Manila cardstock, I left a very narrow gap between each of the pieces, where I would need to score in between to make the folds of my folder. I neatened each of the edges by folding the Manila cardstock onto the inside of my folder and sticking them down with a strong adhesive tape, before covering the inside of my folder with a piece of Kraft cardstock.

Once the booklet folder was complete, I covered the outside of the folder with my favourite Weathered Wood, Antique Linen and Frayed Burlap Distress Paints, blending the colours of paints together until I was happy with the look. I then dabbed some Picket Fence Distress Paint onto an old lid and stamped randomly over the surface of the cover to create the rings of paint. 

Once the paint had dried, I then used the large ledger stamp from Katy Fox's Numerical Plate and stamped random areas of the cover in black Archival Ink before punching a small hole into the front cover, where I then threaded through some seam binding, dyed with Distress Stains and which has to be long enough to wrap around the entire folder and then tied.

Once the outside of the book was complete, I then moved onto the inside and to begin with, I made a small pocket from some more Manila cardstock and stuck this onto the middle section of my folder. I then die cut lots of cogs from chipboard using the Gadget Gears Sizzix die from Tim Holtz and stuck these onto each panel of the folder and then once again, covered the entire surface with Vintage Photo, Antiqued Bronze, Picket Fence and Black Soot Distress Paint.

Once the paint was dry, I then used a smaller stamp from the Numerical Plate and stamped down the spines of my folder.

I added some Treasure Gold onto the cogs and around the edges of the book to age it and then to finish the inside of my folder, I added some old screws and bolts that I had in my crafty stash, together with a Prima embellishment, again from my stash.

To decorate the cover of the folder, I stamped the Goose Grease image onto Manila card, coloured it with Distress Marker pens and blended the surface of the card, with Old Paper Distress Ink. I distressed the edges of the card and made small tears into the card and then used Walnut Stain DI on them. I then mounted the image onto a piece of kraft card and attached it to the cover of my folder, together with some pieces of Idea-ology, which I highlighted with Treasure Gold and some Film Strip Ribbon.

Finally, I added the word "Love" down the outside spine of my folder and then used an Idea-ology Journalling ticket and stamped a Tim Holtz quote onto it before adding it, with a Starbucks gift card to the small pocket inside my folder.

So, that's it from me for today and I hope I've inspired you with my little giftcard holder. I'll look forward to reading all your comments and thank you so much for stopping by to take a look at what I've created.

Don't forget you can still enter our monthly challenge which this month, is all about Postcards, Travel and Holidays and we would love it if you would join us and show us what you've been creating!! Click HERE for details.

See you all again very soon and have a lovely day...Emma x

*Edit* ~ Chipboard measurements as follows:

2 pieces x 9.5 x 7cm

2 pieces x 9.5 x 2cm

1 piece x 9.5 x 3cm