Dance to the music of time

I haven't played along at Tuesday Taggers before but I saw through Gez's blog that this week's challenge was to get messy - too hard to resist!

As the challenge is being sponsored by the Craft Barn, I thought I'd take the opportunity to play with some Viva Decor products as they stock a fab range of them and they're perfect for messy projects! This week's SCD challenge gave me the theme of time for my ATC.

I decided to add to the obvious watch/clock theme with some sheet music indicating something about the timing or speed of the music, too. My clock face is done on shrink plastic and the little cog and wheel are old clock parts. I thought the circuit board could be part of a timing device, as well!

The texture at the bottom (which I've mostly covered up!) was done by stamping the harlequin backgrounder onto chipboard and heat embossing with UTEE - I gave it three coats. Then I laid aluminium tape over it, sprayed with Glimmer Mist and once it was dry I rubbed over with a buffing block to expose the silver tape. The top bit that has the more organic texture is Tera with a heat gun applied to make it bubble - fun stuff!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Textured Harlequin backgrounder
Circuit Board backgrounder
Time to Stamp (Rummage Bin line)

Paper:
Chipboard
Vintage sheet music

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Tera paint by Viva Deco (Kenya)
Precious Metal paint by viva Decor (Copper)
Black acrylic paint
Aluminium tape
UTEE by Ranger
Shrink plastic
Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels (Red Maple and Vintage Brass)

Tuesday Taggers invited us to show our messy hands or workspaces too - I only managed a picture of one hand since I couldn't get them far enough away from the camera to use the timer and have the picture in focus! Note the tasteful crusting of Tera right down on the heel of my hand - no idea how that got there!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend is going well!

The key to an ATC

I'm squeaking in for this week's challenge on Something Completely Different. The object of the month is ATCs and this week's theme is keys.

I seem to be slightly obsessed with the Adirondack colours Pool and Stream just at the moment. I had new toys to play with too - Viva Croco paint - which was turquoise so the inks came out again.

The butterfly body was made by wrapping thin wire around a fairly chunky needle to make a coil. I left one end free before starting the coil and then threaded the other end back up through the hollow so I could make antennae. I used a tiny blob of Glossy Accents to finish them with a slight bulb on the end.

The crackle paint is lovely stuff. Not for the crafter in a hurry though, you can expect to wait at least a couple of hours before you get those fabulous deep cracks all done and dusted.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Key Elements (All Things Considered line)
Key Expressions (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Chipboard ATC
Scrap of Simply Smooth

Ink:
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger - Pool and Stream
Versafineby Tsukineko - Onyx Black

Other:
Croco paint by Viva Decor - Turquoise
Black acrylic paint
Jump rings
Beads
Key charm
Fishing swivel
Leafing pen by Krylon - silver
Thin wire (recycled from the "cage" on a bottle of Rioja!)
Glossy Accents by Ranger
Crop-a-Dile

Thanks for stopping by today!

Never a cross word

A pun, just for Kathy! I love all kinds of word games and can remember spending hours playing Scrabble as a child.

When I shared a house with other students while at University, we often had a newspaper crossword on the go, leaving the paper on the kitchen table for everyone to have a go at when they felt like it. Some of those crosswords were on the go for months simply because while we could all do straightforward ones, the cryptic clues were a killer! I've heard that you can train yourself to "think cryptic" and solve even the most fiendish ones though so when I got my hands on the Crossword Scrapblock I thought I'd team it up with this great Edison quote about how hard work rather than inspiration gets you there in the end!

The lovely printed tag came in my Bubbly Funk Forum Secret Santa parcel so thank you to my Santa - Caroline! I trimmed it down a bit to fit my card size (5" x 5") better and to make the butterfly hang over the edge.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Crossword Scrapblock
Motivational Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
Simply Smooth Vanilla (CHF)
Tag (unknown - may be K&Co?)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukinkeo (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Border punch by Fiskars (Threading Water)
Sewing machine and thread
Sprial clip (Creative Impressions)

Thanks for stopping by, hope your day has only crosswords and no cross words!

Watercolour Distress

My turn to post the tutorial over on the CHF Be Creative blog - we're focusing on watercolouring with Distress inks this week with this lovely grape image. Hop on over for the step by step and a chance to win the Fruit Basket stamp set {here}!

Stamps: Fruit Basket (Shady Tree Studio line at Cornish Heritage Farms)

Paper:
140lb hot press watercolor paper
Simply Heavy Chocolate

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Milled Lavender, Dusty Concord, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Walnut Stain, Weathered Wood)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread
Dew drops by Robin’s Egg
Paintbrush and water or waterbrush

Thanks for stopping by!

Carved jade!

No I haven't branched out into semi precious stones - I've been playing with polymer clay!

This pendant resulted from stewing ideas from several sources. I've been reading Donna Kato's beautiful book The Art of Polymer Clay - Creative Surface Effects. The shape of the clay piece is influenced by some of Donna's pieces.

Desiree McCrorey makes beautiful faux ivory pieces and I wondered whether it would be possible to use the technique with other colours of clay to create different effects.

Finally, Julie Picarello does amazing things to turn polymer clay into gorgeous jewellery. I was particularly taken with her curved brass tube bails and wanted to try something similar.

I used green, translucent and a pinch of pearl clay to mimic a jade or malachite look. I think it worked although I'd probably use a higher proportion of translucent clay next time. I found that placing a piece of conditioned clay onto my stamp and rolling across the back firmly with an acrylic rod gave me a deeper impression than just stamping down onto the clay would have done.

Buffing the clay piece once baked gives you more textural contrast between the high spots which take on a sheen with the buffing and the low spots that are out of reach.

The copper tubing came from a model shop that sells supplies to miniature railway enthusiasts and special thanks go to my dad for hints and tips on tube bending!

Supplies:
Sculpey Premo polymer clay (green, translucent, pearl)
Tiled Scallops backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Copper tube
Copper Wire
Copper findings
Rubber cord

Thanks for stopping by, hope you get your week off to a great start!

Winged beauty

It's a while since I played along at either Something Completely Different or the Crafty Secrets challenge in the SCS member company forum so it was nice to have the chance to combine the two and play a little catch up.

The item at SCD this month is ATCs. The Crafty Secrets challenge this week is "anything but a card" so an ATC fits nicely! The SCD theme for the week is "wings" so I pulled out the Altered Art set and used the wings to make a vintage butterfly with assorted gems for the body. Accents from the French Mail stamp set and a little lace finished it off.

Penny saver: look out in charity shops (goodwill stores if you're in the US, op shops if you're joining me from down under!) for old sheet music. I got a book for 75p that will last about as long as me, I reckon! You even get to choose a section where the spacing and shape of the notes fits your project!

Stamps:
Altered Art and French Mail (Clear Art Stamps by Crafty Secrets)
Weathered Wood backgrounder (Cornish Heritage Farms - retired)

Paper:
Vintage sheet music
Simply smooth vanilla (CHF)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)

Other:
Copic markers (Eggshell, Brick Beige, Chamois)
Gems
Krylon Leafing pen (Copper)
Corner Chomper
Vintage lace

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a great weekend!

Keep moving!

Remember learning to ride a bike? How many people had their dad running behind them with a broom handle lashed to the back? And who resisted the temptation to look behind and make sure he was still holding on?!

I wanted to capture that wobble with one of the vintage style bikes in the "Bicycle life" stamp set and pair it up with the great quote from Albert Einstein (also in the set) - Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving. I stamped on a copper plant label for an authentic metal look. The wobble comes courtesy of a spring - this is the sort know as an "expansion spring" and it's quite stable until you give it a little push!

I thought it would be a shame not to demonstrate the full daft potential of this (I confess to being easily amused but I could play with this for hours!) so I challenged myself to learn how to use the video function on hubby's phone and here is my very first movie. OK, so I'm not about to win any Oscars for direction or cinematography but I hope it makes you smile!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Bicycle Life (All Things Considered line - releasing Tuesday 15 Feb)
Textured Harlequin backgrounder

Paper:
Simply Kraft and Simply Heavy Black (CHF)

Ink:
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Jet Black)

Other:
Fiskars circle cutter
Copper plant label
Heavy cardboard tube (mine was the inner from a ball of fancy yarn)
Spring



Thanks for stopping by - hope your day is not too wobbly!

Spring Song

Perhaps it's because I have always been an avid reader but as soon as I saw this stamp I thought "Perfect bookmark!". I guess it's just the proportions of the image.

I decided to go with the delicacy of the image by using inks as watercolours to give a soft and subtle look to the colouring. I'm a great reader of fiction, I really don't get on with biographies etc, and what is fiction but dreams, really?

This really doesn't take a lot of time or materials so I think it would make a nice little gift for things like teacher thank yous. You could even slip one inside a book you were giving as a gift to make it even more personal.

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Spring Song (February Stamp of the Month)
Motivational Centers (Mona Lisa Moments line)

Paper:
140lb hot press watercolor paper
Simply Heavy Black (CHF)

Ink:
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)
Various Tim Holtz Distress inks by Ranger (as watercolors)

Other:
Sewing machine and thread

Thanks for stopping by!

Say it with...

...goofy looking aliens? I'm not sure that's going to catch on as a marketing slogan.

Some of you know that I really struggle with cards for kids. I've decided the best approach is get a kick start of some sort so today I went to Kathy's Waffle Sketch file and her Say it with Flowers sketch. I wasn't sure that a little boy celebrating his fourth birthday would necessarily appreciate all things floral so I went for stars and an alien instead.

The little stars are punched, the big one and the arrow are cut freehand. The alien is stamped on the same DCWV as the top of the card with just a little shading added with a Copic and his eyes filled in with the Inkssentials white pen.

I'm still not quite sure about this - although I quite like the card, I think it came out a bit "old" for its recipient. Ah well, I guess it's as much about the parents at that age, eh?!

Stamps (Cornish Heritage Farms):
Little Guy (Kim Hughes Collection)
Birthday Centers (Mona Lisa Moments)

Paper:
Simply Heavy Chocolate (CHF)
DCWV

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Stazon by Tsukineko (Timber Brown)

Other:
Fiskars squeeze punch (medium star)
Sewing machine and thread
Fineline marker pen
Inkssentials white gel pen by Ranger
Copic markers (Putty and Tender Pink)
Sandpaper

Thanks for the sketch Kathy and thank you for stopping by, hope your weekend is star-studded!