Take three - "weathered metal" inchies

Tando Creative is celebrating this week - third birthday already!

To celebrate, the design team has offered up a variety of projects based around the number three and there are tutorials for each of them if you want to have a go - check out the Tando Online Classes blog.

I used three inchies for my project. The Tando chippie is a lovely weight to work with and makes a great base for jewellery as it's sturdy enough that the finished piece feels quite substantial.

I've used an embossing folder and some VerDay paint to create a weathered copper finish for a pendant base. The paint is fun but you could use any technique you like to add interest to your inchies before gluing them together.

Supplies:
Chipboard inchies by Tando Creative
Tim Holtz Texture Fade embossing folder (Stripes)
VerDay paint by Ten Seconds Studio (Copper)
Patina Solution by Ten Seconds Studio
Copper wire
E6000 and Superglue adhesives

I've done a short video tutorial for this project. The YouTube description area includes a step-by-step that you could print out if you would like to have a go and find printed reminders easier to work from - just click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right of the video preview to watch it over there rather than embedded here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Inchies necklace

We're using metallics as our design inspiration at Tando Creative this week.

I seem to be on a bit of a jewellery kick at the moment! I've used three inchies and gently round the corners (I do love that tiny ⅛" on the newer Corner Chomper!) as well as punching holes with a Crop-o-Dile.

Each inchie is done with a different metallic finish. I used three coats of silver UTEE on each square and a layer of Perfect Pearls on two of them (both from the Metallics kit - one Gold, one Bronze). I pressed a stamp into the warm UTEE for texture. I've then glazed them with Decoart Triple Thick - the last time I tried this I used Glossy Accents and it really didn't work (it didn't dry evenly and it split apart in several places so the piece ended up in the bin). I was impressed with the Triple Thick in this regard, it dried evenly and with no problems.

I added jump rings to each piece, filled with more Triple Thick and then finished with a contrasting metallic colour once dry.

The inchies are joined together with jump rings and attached to a necklace chain through a little piece of aluminium tubing superglued to the top one.

The surfaces are shiny enough that it made photographing it a bit of a nightmare but I hope you get the idea!

Supplies:
Chipboard inchies (Tando Creative)
Silver UTEE 
Silver acrylic paint
Crackleglaze background stamp (Indigo Blu)
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Gold and Bronze)
Jump rings
Aluminium tubing
Triple Thick glaze by Decoart

Thanks for stopping by!

Button necklace

The challenge for July over on Tando Creative Challenges is to use texture of some sort on your project. Lots of samples have already been posted this month - I'm part of the rear guard action!

I used a big chipboard button from the grab bag, coloured it black with a Copic marker and created texture with an embossing folder for this pendant.

After embossing, the surface is dabbed with Versamark and I've added Perfect Pearls in three colours (Gold, Copper and Bronze - all from the Metallics kit) and used a length snipped from a bamboo skewer to secure a chain through the button's holes. It's simple to do - just thread the chain from the back of the button through the first hole, wrap round the skewer (I went round twice) and back down through the hole. Come up through the second hole, wrap round the skewer and go back down through the hole. Juggle the two ends as necessary by easing through the holes and round the skewer so you get even lengths of chain each side.

Supplies:
Chipboard button grab bag (Tando Creative)
So Trendy M-Bossabilites folder (Spellbinder)
Black Copic marker
Versamark (Tsukineko)
Gold, Copper and Bronze Perfect Pearls (Ranger)
Bamboo skewer
Chain

I've made my first ever tutorial video to demonstrate the process - constructve criticism very welcome! If you'd like go through to YouTube instead of watching it embedded here, the description area has a "checklist" of the steps involved that you can copy and print if you want to have a go yourself and would like a reference on hand.

There's still time to join in the challenge and be in with a chance of your name being pulled out of the hat to win a great prize at the end of the month - check out the blog and add your link if you'd like to play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Steampunk circles

We're going round and round at Tando Creative this week,  taking our design inspiration from"circles". Lots of possibilities with this one! I've used one of the jewellery shapes that's based around fused circles and gone a bit steampunk with it, adding cogs that are circular too!


I started by colouring the frame (including the edges) black with a Copic marker and then gave it a couple of coats of silver UTEE, leaving that "orange peel" effect you get when you don't aim for full coverage. I used a bit of black acrylic paint to further highlight that texture.

I added text papers from an old book to the base piece and knocked them back a bit with a smudge of gesso. A stamped clockface stuck to a glass pebble fills the largest circle and I added a stamped swirl plus some holeless beads with some silver paint (to mimic ball bearings) to the one above. I punched a hole through the top circle for a pendant cord and added a few more fake bearings.

The teardrop shape is fill with Glossy Accents and has some tiny cogs embedded in there. They were mostly black plastic so they've been treated with silver acrylic paint. The one that hangs over the edge of the frame has a watch winder with a tiny blue gemstone stuck in the centre.

Supplies:
Jewellery Circle Pendant Straight (Tando Creative)
Silver UTEE
Black and silver acrylic paints
Old book
Gesso
Stamps from Inchie Style (CHF, retired)
Tiny cogs
2mm holeless beads
Glossy Accents
Glass pebble

If you're looking for Tando stockists you can find a list here.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Big Buttons

In keeping with the haberdashery theme I mentioned last time, I decorated some chipboard buttons from the grab bag. The large buttons are a good size and I think they'd make lovely one-off embellies on scrapbook pages, frames, memory boxes etc - you could knot a ribbon through and add a stick pin and charm for a unique embellie cluster!

I embossed the square ones with a Cuttlebug folder (Textile Texture is good for this because of the small scale pattern) having coloured them red, white and blue first. I then used a tiny amount of gold acrylic paint on my finger tip to highlight the textured pattern before triple embossing with UTEE.  

Supplies:

Tando Creative chipboard button

Distress Fired Brick, Adirondack Stonewashed and Versamark inks

Cuttlebug Textile Texture embossing folder

Gold acylic paint

Clear UTEE

I think the white round button is my favourite of all of these! For this set, I stamped the swirl and embossed with white powder and then used Distress ink to colour the buttons (using the embossed pattern as a resist). Again, they're finished with three coats of UTEE - the original embossed pattern gets encapsulated in the thick clear coating.

Supplies:

Tando Creative chipboard button

Distress Fired Brick and Antique Linen, Adirondack Stonewashed and Versamark inks

Ornamental Beauty stamp set (CHF)
Detail white embossing powder
 Clear UTEE

Thanks for stopping by!

Heritage Haberdashery

Ooops - haven't blogged for ages! Off on holiday and then just not getting back into the swing of things, I'm afraid.

Today's project is something I made for the Tando Creative demo table at this weekend's Extravaganza at the Craft Barn. As it's the Olympics and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, we played with a red, white and blue colour scheme and a haberdashery theme for some samples. I used one of the printer's trays as the base and stamped and embellished at will!

I gave the frame the sort of "tarnished enamel" look you sometimes see on old sewing machines by painting with gold acrylic and then sprinkling lightly with black embossing powder.

Except for the two 1920s ladies, all the stamps are from the Darkroom Door Dressmaker set - a lovely set of vintage style images.

I cut the little bunting flags freehand and triple embossed the die cut lettering for a glossy, raised effect. All the images are coloured with Copics and the tiny buttons are ones I've had in my stash for years that were just the right scale for this.

I cut out the thread spools and used an embossing stylus to raise the top and bottom of each one. The scisssors are gold embossed, cut out and raised up on foam pads with some pins and a stamped thimble tucked in behind - you can probably see both those things more clearly if you click through to the bigger version of this detail shot.

This was my first go with a printer'stray - it's fun to collect lots of things together for all the apertures!

Stamps:
Dressmaker (Darkroom Door)
1920s ladies are from Haute Couture (Cornish Heritage Farms)

Ink:
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Adirondack by Ranger (Stonewashed)

Other:
Printer's Tray by Tando Creative
Copic markers
Embossing powder (detail black, detail gold, clear)
Mini buttons
Pearls
Tim Holtz Typeset alphabet die

If you had chance to get along to the Extravaganza for yourself I hope you enjoyed it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Kid's stuff

The challenge this month at Tando Creative is to "Alter it". Now I'm in the camp that says to be really altered, something must be changed beyond its original use rather than just decorated in a certain style. Others are in the other camp and that's fine!

I started with a child's board book picked up for 30p in a charity shop. I'm not sure I would have given it to a child (a bit too much evidence of its previous owner's snacking habits!) but it was ripe for a bit of cutting and sticking.

The pages are covered with scrunched tissue paper and then painted with acrylic paint for a textured, leathery sort of effect.

On the front, I've added a bookplate with a stamped sentiment (Time to Stamp was one of my very first purchases from Cornish Heritage Farms way back when so I'm delighted that it's formed part of the first release now that CHF has new owners).

I painted the bookplate with gold acyrlic, beat it up with an embossing stylus and added a tiny bit of brown paint for the textured look.

The little stud on the right of the plate is actually the book closure - a Sam Browne stud (that's a hitch fastener if you're in the world of Tim Holtz but a whole lot cheaper if you're in the land of leather supplies).

 I cut a niche by removing the centre of most of the pages and sticking them together. Versamark dabbed through a mask and brushed with copper and bronze Perfect Pearls adds some pattern over the scrunched tissue paper texture.

I added sketchy circles with gesso on the inner page to suggest a clock face and added the ornate chipboard hands, painted with gold acrylic. They're positioned so that the thick bit where they are stacked on top of each other goes inside the niche when the book is closed.

Inside the niche I've sponged over a clock mask, added a stamped sentiment and a "rusty" chipboard key (coloured with a copper Krylon leafing pen and then given a coat of Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder).

A bit different for me but I had fun doing it and it's certainly not going to be used by a child to learn about colours and shapes so it fits my altered requirements!

Supplies:
Board book
Keys grab bag, Clock hands, Bookplate, Bamboo mask  (all Tando Creative)
Time to Stamp and Key Expressions stamp sets (Cornish Heritage Farms)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Onyx Black) 
Versamark by Tsukineko
Acrylic paint (Dark Umber and Gold)
Gesso
Perfect Pearls (Copper and Bronze)
Distress Embossing Powder (Vintage Photo)
Krylon leafing pen (Copper)
Timeworks mask
Tissue paper
Lace
Paper roses (Wild Orchid Crafts)
Sam Browne stud
Crop-a-Dile

Thanks for stopping by! As ever, we'd love to have you play along with the challenge and be in with a chance of picking out some lovely Tando goodies as a prize package if your name comes out of the hat at the end of the month! Details here: Alter it

Inspired by Klimt

Our challenge for March over on UKStampers is to take inspiration from a modern (fairly abstract) painter and alter something.

I've altered a chipboard domino to make a pendant inspired by Gustav Klimt. I didn't look at a particular work of his, I just worked on my association of him with rich green and gold and fluid curved lines.

I didn't have black UTEE which is the ideal for this "faux cloisonne" technique so I used three coats of clear with black pigment ink and then a coat of black detail embossing powder just to make sure! The final surface is coated with Versamark and dusted with a couple of colours of Perfect Pearls, reheated to melt before pressing the stamp into the soft surface.

Once it was cool, I used a Versamark pen and added a little more Perfect Pearls to a few circles. I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of Klear floor polish to give it some sheen. This is take two - the first one had a coat of Glossy Accents on it which I left to dry overnight. This morning it was cloudy in the middle and had deep splits in three or four places - I guess it didn't like the non-porous surface!

The edges and the back are finished with gold acrylic paint and I rounded the corners with the ⅛th inch Corner Chomper.

Stamps: Bubble Border (Lost Coast Designs)
Paper: Chipboard domino by Tando Creative
Ink: Brilliance by Tsukineko (Graphite Black)
Other:
Clear UTEE by Ranger
Detail black embossing powder
Perfect Pearls by Ranger (Forever Green and Sunflower Sparkle)
Gold acrylic paint
Versamark pen and fine paint brush
Corner Chomper
Klear floor polish
Jewellery findings

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring flowers

It's time for my contribution to Tando's March challenge where the theme this month is SPRING! We'd like to see an actual spring or two in your work.

I immediately thought of spring flowers (I'm always one for a pun if there's one to be had!). My flowers are mounted on springs from a big selection box I keep with my crafty supplies on the basis they might come in useful. I then added extra springiness by coiling green craft wire to make some foliage for my arrangement.

The "vase" for my flowers is actually one of the shapes from the hot air balloon set. I added a small cog (this really is just one cog, I split the thickness in two as I didn't need it to be as substantial as Tando chippie always is) and painted with silver acrylic paint. Before the paint was fully dry, I pressed scrunched up kitchen foil over it to texture it. A bit of watered down black acrylic paint gave it the final touch.

The piece has a little stand at the base that's made with epoxy repair putty - super-useful stuff! You can usually find it in the pound shop too so it won't break the bank. I used it to attach the springs to the piece as well as it's strong and easy to press objects into when they're a tricky shape and/or potentially have a small contact area if you're trying to glue them down.

Supplies:
Hot Air Balloon grab bag and Cogs grab bag (Tando Creative)
Paper flowers
Springs
Green craft wire
Silver and black acrylic paints
Screw head brads
Spellbinder snowflake dies
Epoxy repair putty

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget there's a fab prize up for grabs in a random draw at the end of the month if you fancy putting a spring in your step and joining the challenge - details here.

Off the page

It's a new month so it's time for a new challenge at Tando Creative Challenges! Our theme this month is "leap off the page". There's a photo board if you'd like extra inspiration but I just went for interpreting the title and making a project that didn't start with a piece of paper.

I keep my collection of random die cuts in an old chocolate box. For years it's just been exactly as it was when I finished the choccies! I decided to give it a makeover and set to work with chipboard shapes, die cut lettering etc.

I used the clock and hands plus a partial cog. The bit I trimmed off the side of the clock face was used at the bottom of the lid. Some rubber washers and microbeads added a bit extra texture and lettering cut from cereal packet cardboard was used for the quote.

I glued everything down and then covered with a scrumpled sheet of tissue paper, giving everything a good soaking with slightly watered-down PVA glue. Once it was dry, I spray painted it black and then added some metallic blue, metallic turquoise and silver acrylic paints. Finally, I used silver Rub n Buff to bring out the edges and textures even further.

I think the effect of the tissue paper "rounding out" the edges combined with the sheen of the acrylics gives the appearance of something rising up out of a pool of oil or something!

I like the way the quote suggests that feeling when you're "in the zone" that you lose all track of time and just enjoy what you're doing. I thought an exploded clock went well with that idea, too!

Check out the Tando Creative Challenge Blog for details of the challenge if you'd like to play along and be in with a chance of picking out a prize of lovely Tando chippie or masks to play with - it's a random draw of all players so your chance is as good as any other entrant!

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter's butterflies

It's challenge time at Tando Creative - our theme this month is "Ice White" and there's a photo for inspiration. You can check it out here if you'd like to play along and be in with a chance of a lovely prize in a random draw of all players.

I used an ATC base - the chipboard is perfect for this as you need a thick layer of gesso and a lighter weight base tends to buckle with the moisture and weight of it. Once I had a thick layer of gesso, I spritzed my stamps with water to help them release and stamped to leave textured impressions. I left if overnight to dry and then added a couple of extra snowflakes heat embossed with white powder so that there are both debossed and raised snowflake impressions.

I took inspiration from the silver pot in the picture and used silver for the sentiment. I didn't have an appropriate stamp so to get the words I wanted, I printed on an inkjet printer and quickly covered with detail embossing powder.

Glass glitter around the edges and a white rose finish it off.

Stamps:
Grunge Flakes (Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous)

Paper:
Chipboard ATC (Tando Creative)
Cryogen White (for sentiment strip)

Other:
Gesso
Versamark ink
Detail white embossing powder
Detail silver embossing powder
Inkjet printer
Deko Ice Glitter by Efco (Crystal)
Rose (Wild Orchid Crafts)

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Joy

The December challenge over at Tando Creative is "Winter Festivals" - whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, Yule etc or just the beauty of your surroundings at this time of year.

I combined a wavy twinchie and a medium sized wonky tree to make a little festive brooch. The twinchie has been painted black, beaten up with an embossing stylus and coated with Rub n Buff. I painted the tree with pearlescent acrylic paint and then added a garland of hot pink microbeads with Glossy Accents. Silver microbeads add more texture at the base.

I made the sentiment piece by melting a little UTEE on a non-stick sheet and pressing a stamp into it and "antiquing" with some black paint. I glued it in place to finish the piece off.

Supplies:
Wavy Twinchie and Wonky Trees grab bag (Tando Creative)
Black acrylic paint
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)
Siver UTEE
Sentiment from Season's Greetings stamp set (Technique Tuesday)
Microbeads (hot pink and silver - acrylic nail art supplies)

If you're doing last minute crafting, why not enter the December challenge and be in with a chance of winning a prize?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Tim Tag 9

Part of the festive season run up for many papercrafters these days includes Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. I haven't been playing every day but I've had a go at the odd one or two. Here's my take on Day 9's tag.

I used Tim's double embossed technique for the background and the idea of a festive light source for the focal point and changed just about everything else! As my colours were darker, the whole thing was in danger of looking a bit dour so I added some torn cardstock snow layers to the base and kept my wording white rather than black.

I hand cut some holly leaves and spiky fronds to make a festive foliage arrangement for the top of the lantern and added a silk ribbon bow and some gems for a pop of red.

The lantern itself was coloured black with a marker and then had the tiniest scraping of Rub n Buff added to give it an antiqued metal finish. A tiny bit of gesso snow finishes the top.

Supplies:
Chipboard lantern from Lantern Set (Tando Creative)
Perfect Paisley Scrapblock stamp (retired CHF)
Typeset alpha die (Alterations/Sizzix)
Tim Holtz Distress ink (Peeled Paint, Fired Brick, Vintage Photo)
Cuttlebug die cut ornate corner
Rub n Buff (Gold Leaf)
DCWV cardstock
Copic markers
Gesso
White cardstock
Glamour Dust glitter
Glossy Accents

Thanks for stopping by!

Let it snow!

It's challenge time again at Tando Creative. There's an inspiration board to work from this month with blues and browns.

By this time last year I think we were already thoroughly sick of snow but as it's unseasonably mild at the moment, I thought I could risk a snow-themed project without causing the horrors!

I've inked the white board of the frame with Brilliance and stamped the snowflakes on the chocolate brown backing with the same ink. A stamped and inked wavy domino is attached with jump rings for the sentiment and a cheery snowman finishes it off.

Connecting smaller shapes together is a fun way to use chipboard and lots of the pieces in the Tando range share measurements in one direction or the other so it's easy to coordinate.

Supplies:
Karen's Frames - Gothic Arch and Wavy Domino (Tando Creative)
Compliments of the Season stamp set (Waltzingmouse Stamps)
Dancing Snowman stamp (CHF, retired)
Brilliance by Tsukineko (Sky Blue)
Versafine by Tsukineko (Vintage Sepia)
Coloured pencils
Jump rings
Crop a Dile

If blue and brown tickles your fancy, there's still a week left to enter the challenge and be in with a chance of winning a lovely Tando prize (you get to pick the goodies!) - details of the challenge are here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Dragonfly dreams

Carol's been doing a class on the Tando Creative Online Classes blog over the last four weeks. I've played along but, of course, I've done it my own way! Carol used the six inch square frame, mine is the one that's about 88mm square.

As I started out with a smaller frame, I've simplified quite a lot to avoid a very "busy" finished product. I used a lot of Carol's class techniques for the various elements, though (and added a bit of "me" as I went along!).

The basic frame preparation is just as outlined in Carol's first session - I chose not to heat the paste to make it bubble though.

Week 2 and I started to go off piste a bit! I did the basic technique with the stand (although I used a large background stamp rather than a swirl) and sort of followed the background insructions. My main difference was that I sponged gesso through my mask and chose a much smaller scale pattern (the sequin waste mask) to go with my smaller project. I only partially outlined some of my sponged dots.

Week 3 was easy for me - Carol made lots of fab embellishments but I decided the smaller frame couldn't handle very much so I just made the dragonfly! As I wasn't doing all the inchies and fragments etc (actually this frame is not wide enough to take them) I decided to add some extra textural interest by doing the beaten metal effect around the top right. To achieve this look, just bash the heck out of the chippie with an embossing stylus and then very lightly apply Rub n Buff.

The final week brought all the elements together. Again, I simplified and just stamped onto my prepared background, added a little bit of white gel pen to the plant's flower heads and attached the dragonfly with some florist's wire so that it floats free of the frame.

Supplies:
Square frame with stand and Bug Set 1 Sml (Tando Creative)
Sequin Waste mask (Tando Creative)
Plant from Nature Plate 1 (Indigo Blu)
Sentiment from retired CHF set
Crackle stamp
Black and green acrylic paints
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Silver Leaf)
Pearls (coloured with a Copic marker)
Perfect Pearls (Forver Green, Forever Blue, Patina Green)
Opalite inks (Orchid Ice and Cypress Frost)
Versafine ink (Onyx Black)
Distress inks (Tumbled Glass, Brocken China, Bundled Sage)
Inkssentials white pen by RangerClear embossing powder
Gesso
Florist's wire

If you fancy having a go at you own version, all of Carol's instructions will stay up on the blog so we'd love to see you any time! Thanks for stopping by!

Boo!

Our theme this month for the Tando Creative Challenge is "spooktastic" - why not come and play along and be in with a chance to win the prize this month (details, including a link to the rules to be eligible for the draw are here).

I think mine is probably more cute than spooky but it's Halloweeny either way!

I used a cut down Tetrapack (the brick shaped sort, not the square section one), painted it black and cut a window in the front. Using vellum in the window means it can be used as a lantern (battery operated tea light is safest since there's paper involved!) or you could fill it up with Halloween treats and use it as a gift bag. I embossed the spider web and accentuated it by using a white Posca pen on the back of the raised lines.

I used an embossing stylus and "drew" grooves in the pumpkin then added darker color there to accenuate the texture. I added a bit of acetate coloured with a black Copic behind his features so they show black in daylight but let light shine through if you use it as a lantern.

Supplies:
Pumpkins Small (chipboard by Tando Creative)
Empty Tetrapack carton
Black spray paint
Vellum
Webbing embossing plate by Fiskars
Copic Markers
Chipboard letters
Florists' wire

Thanks for stopping by - we'd love to see some of your spooktastic creations in the challenge if you have chance to play before the end of the month!

Say what?

The chipboard speech bubbles from Tando Creative are great fun to use with character stamps to have them "say" the sentiment on a project and provide a touch of dimension at the same time.

This is a birthday card for a boy celebrating his seventh birthday - very simple with just a stamped image and the chippie speech bubble coloured with a Copic marker and stamped with the birthday greeting. A bit of inking through the smallest holes on the sequin waste mask finish off the image panel and the chippie. I couldn't resist a little Kaz-style doodling for a border.



Speech Bubbles Small (Tando Creative chipboard)
Sequin Waste mask (Tando Creative)

Little Guy and So Happy stamps (CHF stamps - retired)
Versacraft Spring Green ink
Brilliance Graphite Black ink
Copic markers
Copic Multiliner
White and black card

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn harvest

It's challenge time on Tando Creative and this month's theme is Rustic Charm. There's a prize on offer - the winner can choose from this fab list!

I cut one end off a large journaling block and inked it in green. The rest of the block is inked in two shades of blue with a torn paper "cloud" template. I turned the green piece around and stuck it down as the ground for the tree to sprout from.

The twigs are gathered from my garden and tied with raffia at the base. Stamped apples and a tag hanging from a branch finish off the tree and the whole thing is finished with a "rusty wire" hanging loop. Always keen to make use of what I already have rather than buy new supplies, I used florist wire coated with Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder to make the rusted wire.

Supplies:
Large journaling block (Tando Creative)
Autumn Harvest and School Primer stamp sets (both CHF, retired)
Tim Holtz Distress ink by Ranger (Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Bundled Sage, Vintage Photo)
Adirondack dye ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Copic markers
Natural raffia
Tags Trio dies by Spellbinder
Twigs
Florist Wire
Distress embossing powder (Vintage Photo)

Rustic charm is perfect for autumn projects - why not check out the details of the challenge here and come join us to be in with a chance of winning the prize!

Thanks for stopping by!

Go wild with Tando Creative!

The challenge for August on the Tando Creative Challenge blog is to Go Wild! With a prize up for grabs, why not let your own creative juices run wild and play along with us? The theme is totally open to your interpretation and you don't have to use Tando products on your entry (although if you do you'll get a double chance in the prize draw).

Kaz, Karen and Angela have already shared some fab samples with us and this week Carol and I are going wild too. You can see Carol's project as well as this one of mine here.

I haven't quite decided what this is destined to be! I might make it into a mini book cover and then again I might just give it a little stand and have it on a shelf.

I started with a sheet of the Tando greyboard which is really sturdy. I gave it a spritz with water to help the embossing along a bit and ran it through my die cutter in a Texture Fade folder. I used acrylic paints to give it the appearance of baked earth - the plains of the Serengeti, perhaps! Dark brown was rubbed all over the sheet, making sure to get well down into the embossing and once that was dry I used a sand colour over the top, keeping it just on the higher spots.

The leopard and map of Africa are stamped onto plain white cardstock, cut out and stuck over the base. The leopard's head is raised along the top edge on foam pads for some dimension.

Stamps:
Leopard profile (CHF, retired)
Map from Safari Set 1 (Tanda Stamps)

Paper:
Tando Creative greyboard sheet
White cardstock

Ink:
Adirdonack by Ranger (Espresso)
Distress ink by Ranger (Vintage Photo and Black Soot)

Other:
Copic Markers
Tim Holtz Texture Fade - Cracked
Acrylic paints

Thanks for stopping by! You can check out all the details of how to play along in this month's challenge here - we'd love to have you play along!

Beaten metal

Somewhere in a box, I still have a copper spoon for a tea caddy that was one of the first things I made in metalwork classes at school - I've always loved the beaten metal look you get from that repeated tapping with a hammer to shape the piece.

I haven't been back to metalwork class though - just playing with chipboard again! Apologies for the fact it's a Christmas project but I've had this idea in my head since first seeing the book plates at Tando Creative and the only way to get it out of my head was to make it!

I covered the book plate with Rub n Buff and then gave it a good clobbering with the fatter end of my embossing stylus to leave little indentations all over it.

I stamped the sentiment on an oval of cardstock trimmed to fit the back of the plate and then added a thin layer of glitter for a bit of festive shimmer.

The stamped Santa is cut out and attached to one side of the frame and the other is finished with pearls (the larger central one covering the hole that would usually be used to attach the book plate to something).

Supplies:
Chipboard book plate (Tando Creative)
Holly Jolly Christmas and Season's Greetings stamp sets (Technique Tuesday)
Adirondack ink by Ranger (Espresso)
Versafine ink by Tsukinkeo (Satin Red)
Copic markers
Deko Ice glitter by Efco (Crystal)
Pearls (including tiny ones for acrylic nail art)
Cryogen White cardstock
Rub n Buff by Amaco (Gold Leaf)
Florist's wire

This is the last of the technique pieces that Carol and I have been doing over the last couple of months - do pop along to the Tando blog to check out Carol's piece too if you have the chance.

Thanks for stopping by!