Friday 15 November 2013

'Take the challenge' - November - all my projects...

The challenge over at Faber Castell in November was to show any project you are working on and this was an easy one! Boy, do I have projects in my craft room?! ; )


This is a mould for sponge cakes but it has a small hole in it so it is useless for baking. In an issue of Craft Stamper there was an article about making candle light holders with tins, Alco Inks, glitter and sequins and this is how far I've gotten. In Sweden we use candlesticks with four candles and light one candle each Advent. A very pretty tradition! Thought that I could stick four candles in this mould and fill it up with salt so it looks like snow. Could be very pretty, or could be very tacky! We'll see! ; )



This might be the beginning of my Christmas cards, I haven't decided yet! I bought this set - for children! - because there was a mould for making envelopes, which is quite unusual to find in paper making sets. I made a bunch just to try it out! It was fun!



These are two bags - for children again! (what is wrong with me?!) - I bought at the flea market. I plan to alter them. The spotted bag is in some kind of fabric and quite cute just as it is. I'll probably just stick some flowers and charms to it. The bag with skulls is in paper and I don't like it at all. I will cover it completely.



Oh, dear. I have been cleaning in one corner of the house just to leave the things piled up in another corner in the house. The blue labels are to put on envelopes from back when I was writing letters. They will go in to my art journal. One day. The alphabet stickers are to put on a suitcase, will also be used in my art journal, one day, as well as the wine label (Peacock - a really nice white wine and with such a pretty label!). One day.
I don't remember neither the English word nor the Swedish word for the squares at the bottom of the photo. It's like a chart with colors that you take from the shop when you can't decide what color to paint with. These are white and I thought of using them for the Christmas cards. Just have to nick a few more! ; )



These are Pringles tubes which I plan to make boxes to keep candle-ends in. In our summerhouse we have a special candlestick to put candle-ends in. I guess this is something typical Swedish too because when I tried to google it I couldn't find something in English.



On top of my Katy Crane calender challenge, which I still have from may until now to finnish (sigh...), there are small wooden cutting boards. My uncle gave them to my other uncle to put into the fire but my father rescued them for me! I'm thinking of painting them black and writing some recipies in white, maybe like a chalkboard. Could be really nice!


 
And finally, this is what I started working today, inspired by what Mou showed in the November challenge. We are getting ...ehum... three kittens over the next few weeks and these are art journals, one for each kitten, to help me to find names for them. I haven't gotten so far yet but will continue tomorrow, though it's just about time to find names for them. We have one Alice, one Bea and one Curry. Thought of finding names on D, E and F, just for the fun of it! ; )

Thursday 31 October 2013

12 tags of 2013 - October

 
This was really a fun challenge! First, we don't celebrate Halloween in Sweden (unless you have kids. The American tradition has been embraced by retailers who want to increase their income and the new generation is the target). We celebrate All Saints Eve and light candles in the cemetery and think of our friends and family that has passed away. It's a quiet and quite sad celebration so it was actually kind of fun to make something halloweenie!
Second, I had to improvise since I don't have any Distress Glitter. I don't even think it has become popular here yet. I tried the different glitters that I had and found that Sepia Accents with sprinkled glitter on top and then to seal the glitter another layer of Sepia Accents worked best. In this way I was able to ink the edges. I still think that I have to try a jar of Distress Glitter when I come across one! ; )

I knew that I wanted pumpkins and leaves on my tag and I wanted to have an autumnal feel to it. And then to give it a more halloweenie feel I added the spooky trees. I wanted to use two stencils that I haven't tried yet and it got really messy. I wasted almost half the bottle of the black soot Distress Paint. All came at once when I squeezed the bottle and I accidentally unscrew the dabber and it fell on the table. The background on the tags with trees are made with Distress Stains and then Distress Paint over the stencil. The colorful tags are made with Tim's Distress Paint marbling technique, the same he used on his tag. This technique wasn't easy and I have to try this a bit more.

Here's what I tried and the solution to the right worked the best.

The tags before they were assembled. I didn't have any of Tim's mirrored
 stars, but I found some others in my stash! Really happy about them!

The tags after they were assembled. The leftovers are going to be
Halloween cards to some friends with kids that celebrate Halloween

...and 'the chosen one'! The leaves are sprayed with various
glimmer mists and then I inked the edges.
 
 
MATERIAL:
INKS:
Distress Stain: gathered twigs, frayed burlap, ripe persimon, dried marigold
Distress Paint: black soot, antique linen, peeled paint, spiced marmelade, seedless preserve
Distress Ink Pad: black soot, rusty hinge, ripe persimon
OTHER:
Sepia Accents
Distress Crackle Paint: rock candy
Various glimmer mists
Sizzix die (leaf)
Pumpkin cut by hand
Glitter from Panduro
TCW252s Aspen Trees
TCW208s Mini Branches

A black Sharpei (a cheep Sharpie!!)
Mirrored stars from Tiimari
Ribbon from flea market

Sunday 13 October 2013

'Take the challenge' October 2013

This month the challenge over at Faber Castell's blog was to create something that represents your cherished secret dream. Of course I have some dreams. Some of them I want to keep to myself but I have one dream that I can share. I really like to sing and would I like to sing more! I want to sing not only for my pets! I want to start in a choir. I'd like to take singing lessions and I'd really like to sing the opera! I want to be admired. But I'm to shy. I always sing in the shower and in the car listening to the radio. I have no idea if I can sing or not but once when I sang my cat bit me in the thigh! Oh, well! ; )

When I started thinking about the challenge and what I wanted to do I saw 'The Scream', the painting of Edvard Munch in front of me. I exchanged his anguished figure with my singing diva but tried to keep the background somewhat true to the original, but with brighter colors. I wanted to make it a bit happier but still that one can see the resemblance. Did you know that Munch made four different versions of this painting? I think this only one will do for me! ; )

 
The eyelashes are painted with Stickles
and the mouth with glitter glue



The earring in shrink plastic with a secret message!
 


The first layer of the painting with gelatos.
 

MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Basic Grey: wild flowers/division b2 sta-1341
ARTEMIO: rèf 10001188
heidi grace: Day Dream Believer
OTHER:
Watercolor paper
Gelatos
Stamper's Big Brush
Gesso (transparent)
Black pen
StazOn: Jet Black
Shrink plastic
Quickutz pendant die
Glitter glue, pink
Glitter flakes from Panduro
Stickles: Black Diamond


Sunday 22 September 2013

12 tags of 2013 - September


As usual there were things I didn't have this month. This time it was Tim's stencils and the embossing paste. Luckily I already had some stencils and instead of embossing paste I used spackling paste, as always. It's a cheap alternative. It seems like the spackling paste absorbed the Distress Stain more than the embossing paste that Tim used. I just realized I used the picket fence Distress Stain instead of the picket fence Distress Paint and that explains why I didn't get the pretty resist that Tim got. Darn. When will I learn to read instructions?!
I am kind of happy with the result anyway. It's fun to play with stencils!
I didn't have the Chit Chat Stickers either so I typed the sentiment on canvas. I believe the sentiment "An artist cannot fail, it is a success to be one" suited on the canvas!

The filler, the picket fence Stain...*sigh*... and the mask.


My take on the September tag


I also got two cards with my friends favourite sentiment
'Be the change you want to see in the word'.
Perfect for her 50th birthday coming up in the beginning of October!
 
 
MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Flights of Fancy
INKS:
Distress Stains: picket fence, picked raspberry, peacock feathers, wild honey
Distress Ink Pad: picked raspberry, pumice stone, black soot, walnut stain
Distress Markers: pumice stone
Inka-Gold: Platin
StazOn: Jet Black
STENCILS:
TCW325s Mini Swirly Garden
TCW361 Tiny Circles
Pink Paisley: PP00894 Mask Flowers
OTHER:
Spackling paste
My old typewriter
Canvas
Ribbon from flea market
Metallic leaves from Panduro



Saturday 31 August 2013

12 tags of 2013 - August



 
 
I'm late as always. And Tim's right as always! Frayed burlap and pumice stone really went well together and I really liked the vintage feel to it. He also writes on his blog that stamps are by far one of the most versatile creative tools and with this masking technique I sure have to agree! I haven't masked a lot before because I have been too lazy. But it sure makes the trick!
 
 
As Always, Tim used stuff I don't have, for example the mask sheet from idea-ology. I used a scrap piece of paper to stamp on and then a temporary repositional adhesive. And since his metal embellishments are rather expensive in Sweden I made my own metal tags by stamping into UTEE. I love this color, platinum, since it looks like metal. I have been using this UTEE a lot before, but I think I'll use it even more now when I know I can make fake metal tags with it! ; )
 
 
This wasn't the last time I used frayed burlap and pumice stone together!
The masks positioned on the tag and the inked background stamp
My take on the August tag
And as usual, I made a few!
The one at the bottom is my new bookmark.  


MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Boundless Flight, French Market
My Mind's Eye: Lost & Found: Item #LF1067
INKS:
Distress Stains: frayed burlap, pumice stone
Distress Ink Pad: walnut stain
Distress Markers: barn door, mustard seed, faded jeans
StazOn: Jet Black
Embossing ink
OTHER:
Crafter's companion: Stick & Spray
Epiphany Craft Tool
Suze Weinberg's UTEE: platinum



Thursday 1 August 2013

Reach for the stars!

As always, I get a lot of leftovers when I'm creating. I liked the sentiment I used for the July tag challenge and wanted to use it for something different.

The red stars from yesterday were painted over with Distress Paints to make them more yellow. I added some micro beads to the stars to make them really shiny and to make them pop out.  I arranged the stamps on the acrylic block and inked them up with three different shades of yellow, used the second impression after misting the stamp with some water. Typed the sentiment on my old typewriter and cut out the words and glued them to the card. Voilà! A batch of cards suitable for many occations!


Seven cards made in less than 1 hour!

 
Close-up!
 

MATERIAL:
INK:
Distress Stains - mustard seed, (barn door, fired brick)
Distress Paints - mustard seed, wild honey
Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, mustard seed, squeezed lemonade, scattered straw
STAMPS:
Autumn Leaves - flourishes v:1
DIES:
Sizzix - 38-0241 Star
OTHER:
Cardboard
Crackle Accents
DecoArt - Weathered Wood - Crackling Medium (used it as a top coat)
Micro beads
My old typewriter!
 

Wednesday 31 July 2013

12 tags of 2013 - July

 
I'm super late for this challenge. July hasn't been a creative month for me.
I decided to use the same colors as Tim Holtz. I have never thought of using red and blue together since that combination is very American, and I'm not! But actually, I liked the color combo this time and decided to have a go at it. Tim acknowledged the fallen Prescott firefighters with his tag and I guess the colors also covers the 4th of July. This is my hommage to USA!
I also made a Swedish tag, just for the fun of it! And some small ones, as usual! Which comes in handy since I have a lot of birthday presents and thank you gifts to prepare at the moment.

I have finally bought some Distress Paints, this time I lacked the Distress Rock Candy Crackle Paint! Tim Holtz will ruin me! I tried to use an old crackle paint I found in my stash but it didn't work so I used Ranger's Crackle Accents. I don't think I got exactly the same effekt as Tim, it looks so icy and nice, but it was the best I could get for now. I skipped the metal charms and the tissue tape but added some lace and confetti.


My finished tag!

The not so very icy star!

My tag in Swedish colors!
My small tags!

MATERIAL:
INK:
Distress Stains - faded jeans, chipped sapphire, barn door, fired brick, mustard seed
Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain
StazOn - Black
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - City Central
Kaisercraft - CS838 Numbers
DIES:
Marianne Design - COL1325
Sizzix - 38-0241 Star
OTHER:
Cardboard
Canvas
Crackle Accents
DecoArt - Weathered Wood - Crackling Medium (didn't work, used it to get more shine on the star)
Lace and ribbon from flea market
Staplers


Friday 14 June 2013

'Take the challenge' June 2013

I came across another challenge when I browsed the net the other day. Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft has a blog where they share tips and techniques on their products, amongst others Stamper's Big Brush Pens and Gelatos! Which I like a lot!

The challenge is here:
"It's the end of the school year. 2013 is almost half way through for all of us. In this time, we have all learned one thing or another. What one important lesson have you learnt this year so far or what one theme has stood out for you?"

I decided to finish the art journal I started on some time ago. I haven't bought a proper art journal yet so my art journalling is on watercolor paper. What I've been trying to focus on these first six months of 2013 is not to get dragged down. There are some changes in my life and I'm not very happy about them. It's so easy to let those dark thoughts take control and make your life miserable. I'm trying to "fly above it" in order to get some distance and that is my attempt at trying to stay sane. I think it works! Even though it feels like I'm on the edge somedays I've created someting in bright, happy colors! Here's my take on the challenge:





The background is made with gelatos. I used masks and carpentry filler (instead of embossing creme) and then a layer of gesso. I painted the bird with Stamper's Big Brush Pens and then I used some ink sprays and destroyed the bird! So I cut out a bird from a patterned paper instead but then I accidentally glued on the wrong side! Decided that it was the grungy look I wanted for my poor, damaged bird, painted another thick layer of gesso over it and heated it with my heat gun in order to get the bird even more grungy. Used Stamper's Big Brush Pens again and some rub ons and finally some black ink to distress the bird even more. It took a while to make this since all my mistakes, but in the end got the result I wanted and I'm pleased with the outcome.

MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Heindesign P-07191211

INKS:
Dylusion Ink Spray: Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime, White Linen
Adirondack Color Wash - Stream
Acrylic color
OTHER:
Stamper's Big Brush Pens
Gelatos
Donna Downey Studio -  Artist Stencil #922436, Poppies and Peonies #922122
TCW - 3818 Mini Quatrefoil, 361 Tiny Circles
Carpentry filler (instead of embossing creme)
Posca - Black
StazOn - Black
Fiskars - Rain dots - self adhesive accents
Pencil

Monday 3 June 2013

12 tags of 2013 - June

 
 
It didn't take long to make this tag since I almost had everything Tim used. For a change! I still haven't bought the Distress Paints so I had to use ordinary acrylics again. I don't get the same result as Tim, but I still like the outcome of it. But I do have the Distress Markers! I liked the Distress Markers tutorial a lot. I haven't used them as much as I tought I would so I'm glad I got to use them in this challenge.
 
I started to stamp and color the image with my Distress Markers. Then I colored the tag with completely different colors so it didn't match the watercolored image at all. So I had to make a new watercolored image!
 
I used my new 325 g/m² aquarelle paper instead of the 200 g/m² I normally use. It was a big difference! I'm so glad I dragged it home from France! I have forgotten the repacking of the suitcases at the airport because my suitcase was to heavy!! (Hope the person that had to carry our dirty underwear in their suitcase has forgotten about it too!!)
 
For a bit of structure I added Crackle Accents on the butterflies wings and stapled the watercolored image to the tag.
 

 
This is my take on the June tag
 
Close-up
 
Here's what I did with the rest of the tags
 



MATERIAL:
INK:
Distress  Stain - evergreen bough
Distress Ink Pad - gathered twigs
Distress Markers - blue, green and beige/brown colors.
Making Memories - Scrapbook Colors - Fresh Anthology - Marine
StazOn - Black
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Urban Grunge, Boundless Flight
OTHER:
Crackle Accents
Seam binding
Staplers

Thursday 30 May 2013

The leftovers from the May tag!

I always get leftovers when I'm creating. Instead of throwing them away I've tried to make something of the leftovers from the 12 tags of 2013 challenges. I found it hard to color the tags for the May challenge, they didn't turn out the way I wanted. I'm not very happy with these tags but I decided to make some cards with them anyway.
 


Monday 27 May 2013

Inzpira & Sizzix challenge!

The second tag I made following Tim Holtz 12 tags of 2013 tutorial ended up with really, really pale colors, strangely enough! I didn't know which one to use in the May challenge because I liked both of them. Then I saw the Swedish magazine Inzpira's challenge and decided to participate with my second tag there. The challenge was to make a card in pink, brown and turqoise with the theme 'fantasy' (imagination). My take on that theme is the round tag with the sentiment 'she knew that it was her destiny to create'.



 
MATERIAL:
INK:
Distress  Stain - wild honey, picked raspberry, evergreen bough, broken china
Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, rusty hinge, evergreen bough
StazOn - Black
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Flight of Fancy, Life's Possibilities
Basic Grey - Aviary
OTHER:
7gypsies - steampunk rubbings - numbers
Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers
Round tag
Pink Paisleee - Christy Tomlinson - PP00899 Coffee Filter Words
Ranger - Crackle accents
Ribbon from flea market


Sunday 26 May 2013

12 tags of 2013 - May

 
 
May has been a busy month with sowing seeds, taking cuttings and repotting but here's my May tag finally. As usual I didn't have all the stuff Tim used, and since this tag was about rub ons I just needed to have some. I went to the the annual scrapbooking fair in the beginning of May and I found two (!) sets of rub ons to chose from! I don't think rub ons are very popular in Sweden yet. But neither did I think that I would use rub ons and even more like to use them! This was certainly a fun tag to make.
 
 
As usual I used the same colors as Tim. It's a good practise to use the colors that I normally don't use. I made a few tags as usual and all of the tags turned out different (take a look at this really, really pale one here!)
Instead of a enameled tag I used a metallic flower on which I punched the sentiment 'expect miracles', suiting the month of May as everything seems possible in this lovely month of the year! Instead of the film strip I stamped on the same transparency film I used on the April tag.
 




MATERIAL:
INK:
Distress  Stain - wild honey, picked raspberry, evergreen bough, broken china
Distress Ink Pad - walnut stain, rusty hinge, evergreen bough
StazOn - Black
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous - Flight of Fancy
Basic Grey - Aviary
OTHER:
7gypsies - steampunk rubbings - numbers
Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers
Metallic flower (with Alcohol Ink and some acrylic paint to make the sentiment stand out)
Ribbon from flea market

 

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Sunday 7 April 2013

Butterflies and wings

I just couldn't stop creating yesterday, I had so much fun! I also wanted to use up the stuff I got left from making the April tag. Here's what I ended up with!






Saturday 6 April 2013

12 tags of 2013 - April


OMG! I can't believe that I have missed these tutorials and challenges! I'm a big fan of Tim Holtz's stuff so I really don't get that I have missed all of this. Unfortunately, I learned that I really need to have the Distress Paints as well! ; )



Since I don't have the Distress Paints I tried to use ordinary acrylics and even though I kind of like the outcome of my tags, I didn't get the same result as Tim got with the Distress Paints at all. I tried to use about the same colors because I liked the color scheme om Tim's. I really loved the turquoise in Tim's tags so I tried to mix my own turquoise. I didn't succeed very well!


 
 As you can see, the acrylics didn't react with water at all. And the acrylics from Making Memories had almost dried so I tried to dilute them with water. God, I need those Distress Paints!!  ; )



Here are my tags before the stamping. I tried to use the same Distress Ink Pads as Tim here as well and that was a real challenge. Rusty hinge is my least favourite color of them all! But I'm glad I did. It's nice to think outside the normal sometimes. I can't make everything pink or purple & orange. The butterflies are painted in a somewhat solid color and then I have distressed the edges with walnut stain.



I didn't have any Clearly for Art as well so I used some transparency film and cut some butterflies out of it.




Here is my tag. I cut a tag from a can and punched 'fly away'. The heart is filled with 3D glaze and micro beads and it also has a sentiment 'free spirit'.


 
 A Close-up of the wings of the butterfly. I like that the acrylic paint on the wings of the butterfly began to bubble when I dried it with my heat gun!



I never make one when I'm making something. I'm clumsy and I often destroy what I'm doing. It is also convenient to have a piece to try things out on. This time I managed to finish all four of the tags I made! I just attached them to a white cardbase, I don't think the cards need anything else.



 This was such a fun challenge! I also adored the tag for March. I think I will have a go at that one as well!



MATERIAL:
INK:
Making Memories Scrapbook Colors: marine, avocado, country blue, sky

duga liquid metal: Dynasty pewter, Classic copper, Olympic gold
Distress Ink Pads: walnut stain, iced spruce, rusty hinge, evergreen bough
STAMPS:
Stampers Anonymous: Urban Grunge, Boundless Flight, Artful Things
OTHER:
Making Memories: Butterflies Metallique Reverie, no 36025
Metal embellishment from PY Hobby
3D Crystal Glaze
Arkwright - Transparency Film for Computer Printers
Can
Jump rings
Staplers
Manila tag
Flower ribbon from Panduro
Seam binding