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Archive for June, 2011

Imagine

Posted in Cards, Grungy Monday, Simon Says Stamp & Show on June 29, 2011 by craftytrog

This week’s Grungy Monday Challenge is Alcohol Inks. You can see Tim demonstrating them here.

I used citrus, purple twilight & pool alcohol inks, from the brights range, to create my background. I die-cut the word Imagine, using Tim’s mover & shaker die, then matted it on black cardstock. Then I stamped images from Tim’s Artful Flight plate.

I recently saw on someone’s blog (wish I could remember whose!), a technique which involved alcohol inks on clear packaging, which was then glued to a book page, using studio matte medium. They then die-cut flowers from it. I used this technique for the flowers on my card. There’s a quarter of a flower in the bottom right, as well as the layered one top left.

As this week’s Simon Says Challenge is to show a word, I’m entering my card there too.

Thanks for looking! xx

23 Comments »

Stampsmith Challenge – Friendship

Posted in Cards, Stampsmith Challenge on June 28, 2011 by craftytrog

Lynne has chosen the wonderful theme of ‘Friendship’ for the Stampsmith Challenge. It was perfect, as I needed to make a card for my best friend. For the background, I used wild honey & fired brick distress inks, spritzed with heirloom gold perfect pearls mist. The main image & the quote are by The Stampsmith, & the little flower is by Innovative Stamp Creations. The bottom edge is die cut using one of Tim’s On The Edge dies. The ribbon is coloured with fired brick distress stains.

Thanks for looking xx

22 Comments »

Sunday Stampers – Words

Posted in Cards, Sunday Stampers on June 27, 2011 by craftytrog

I made this card for my little friend Sean, whose birthday was yesterday. I know I don’t normally ‘do’ halloween, & it’s not exactly that time of year, but Sean loves it. I used Tim’s seasonal stack for the background. I cut the letters using Sissix roundabout, which is a nice chunky font. After gluing in place, I covered the letters with black enamel accents. I used glossy accents on a few of the images too.

I’m entering my card for Hels’ Sunday stampers challenge.

10 Comments »

Art Journey – Bookmarks

Posted in Art Journey Challenge, Bookmarks on June 26, 2011 by craftytrog

I know! Two posts in one day! I shall regret it when I’ve nothing to post on tuesday! Lol! But, I wanted to join in with the Art Journey challenge quick, before it finishes.

So, here’s my bookmark for the challenge. I covered a piece of grungeboard with little scraps of symphony tissue tape, inked it with aqua & citrus alcohol ink, sponged a thin layer of gesso over this, then stamped the words from Umbrella Girl plate with black archival ink.

I stamped umbrella girl on white card, cut her out, then glued her on my bookmark, grounding her on the word ‘LOVE’. I coloured her using broken china distress ink.

I inked some ribbon with broken china distress stains, scrunched it, then stamped the flourish with black archival. I glued a strip of the ribbon to the bottom of the bookmark, then threaded the rest through an eyelet in the top.

Since I took the photo, I’ve schmooshed rock candy distress stickles all over my bookmark, to hopefully stop the tissue tape from lifting. It also adds a nice sparkle of course!

21 Comments »

Tim’s 2009 Tags

Posted in Uncategorized on June 26, 2011 by craftytrog

This week on Kathy’s blog, we’re creating Tim’s tag no. 2, from 2009. As usual, I’ve made a matching Christmas card.

I don’t have antique linen distress EP, so I used old paper instead. The distress inks I used, were old paper, fired brick, forest moss, & walnut stain. I didn’t have enough of Tim’s foliage to make a 3D flower, so I just layered them instead. The ribbon is inked with vintage photo distress stain, then scrunched.

Thanks for looking! x

11 Comments »

Inkurable Stampers – Spots, Dots & Circles

Posted in Cards, Inkurable Stampers on June 25, 2011 by craftytrog

Here’s a card I made for this month’s Inkurable Stampers Challenge.

First of all, I made some inky backgrounds, as taught to me by Neil at a recent show. Here’s his tute! Then, I die cut some flowers using Tim Holtz’s Tattered Florals die. I stamped a dotty background (The Artistic Stamper) on two of the flower layers.

For the leaves, I covered a scrap of grungeboard with some Symphony tissue tape, inked it with meadow alcohol ink, then hand cut two leaves.

The background is made with alcohol inks. I stamped the dotty stem (Inkadinkado) & greeting (Tim Holtz), using coffee archival ink, then clear embossed them. I inked the edges with the coffee ink, then clear embossed those too.

I took a 7 x 5″ kraft card blank, & stamped more dotty swirls from the Inkadinkado set around the edge, using the coffee ink. Finally, I glued my background, flower & leaves in place, adding a silver button to the centre of the flower to finish.

Thanks for looking!

Alison x

16 Comments »

Textures on Canvas

Posted in Artwork for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team, Canvases on June 24, 2011 by craftytrog

Here’s a sneaky peek of my latest piece on The Artistic Stamper creative Team Blog.

Thanks for looking! xx

14 Comments »

Leaving Card

Posted in Cards, Simon Says Stamp & Show on June 23, 2011 by craftytrog

I made this card for my young work colleague Chris, who is moving house tomorrow, & is also off to university next term. We have opened up the newsagents & marked up the newspaper rounds together for nearly 3 years.

Chris usually goes off on his bicycle to deliver papers, after marking up, which is why I used the Darkroom Door image. Althea News is the name of the shop, & I cut an image out of one of our leaflets. The background is real newspaper, the football page, that Chris likes to look at. He also plays football. I brushed gesso over it, before stamping & embossing my images. I inked the background with walnut stain distress ink, & added 3 metal brads, before mounting on a kraft card blank.

The metal brads qualify this card for this week’s Simon Says Stamp Challenge, which is metal.

20 Comments »

Tim’s Christmas Tags

Posted in Cards, Tags, Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas on June 21, 2011 by craftytrog

This week on Kathy’s blog, we have moved onto Tim’s 2009 tags. Here’s my version of his 2009 tag one, plus my matching christmas card.

Thanks for looking! x

15 Comments »

Grungy Monday 12

Posted in Altered Art, Grungy Monday on June 20, 2011 by craftytrog

I’m delighted to be one of the guest designers for this week’s Grungy Monday Challenge! Hosted by Linda Ledbetter, this fabulous weekly challenge celebrates the techniques of Tim Holtz and this week’s technique is taken from April 2008, and can be found on Tim’s blog here.

I decided to use Tim’s technique on an altered CD, & was very pleased with how it turned out. If you look at Tim’s post, you’ll see how I did it.

Please bear in mind that although I have used products similar to those Tim used, there is absolutely no reason why you can’t try this with the things you already have in your craft stash!

The other guest designer today is Linda, please be sure to check out her fabulous blog, her work is amazing!

By the way, if you love Tim’s grungy style, you’ll definitely love the All Things Tim yahoo group! They even have a Grungy Monday file area where you can upload your work for the group to admire, and in turn, you can gain ideas and inspiration from the other group members. Why not give it a look, it’s free!

So, here’s my CD, & thanks for looking! xx

42 Comments »

Willow Sculpture

Posted in Uncategorized on June 18, 2011 by craftytrog

I just spent a wonderful day learning different willow sculpture techniques. I went with my friend Marina, with whom I, & another friend Chris, made a 12 foot willow man two years ago. You can see him here. We had no training before we made him, so we thought we’d go & see how it’s done properly! Lol!

So, back to today. We started off learning how to plait willow, and created a snail out of our efforts. Later in the day I tried offset plaiting to get a lovely curly effect. I loved that!

Then we made a simple star shape, and also learned a very useful willow knot. After that, we made fish & incorporated a simple figure of eight weaving into that.

After lunch, we were able to make something of our own. I chose to do a freeform sculpture, starting with the basic fish shape of before.

All in all, it was a lovely day, with a very nice group of ladies & Alan, our patient tutor.

17 Comments »

Dad’s Day Card

Posted in Cards, Grungy Monday, Simon Says Stamp & Show on June 17, 2011 by craftytrog

Linda’s Grungy Monday challenge this week had us using Tim’s January 2008 technique of faux batik. I used a numbers background stamp by PaperArtsy, & bundled sage DI. Then after the embossing stage, I used peeled paint, vintage photo & walnut stain. The rugby team image is also by PaperArtsy, stamped with coffee archival ink, inked with vintage photo DI, & I distressed the edges to fit in with the Simon Says Stamp & Show Distressed/torn edges challenge too.

For the ‘DAD’, I used Tim’s Vintage Market die-cut letters, & covered them with sepia accents after inking with walnut stain DI.

Thanks for looking xx

22 Comments »

Grungy Man

Posted in Altered Art, Artwork for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team on June 16, 2011 by craftytrog

Here’s a wee peek at my latest offering over on The Artistic Stamper Creative Team blog. I do hope you’ll hop over and see the full piece.

Thanks, Alison xx

11 Comments »

An Altered Card

Posted in Cards on June 15, 2011 by craftytrog

I needed a quick anniversary card, for my mum & dad, I’m ashamed to say! This month is just whizzing by! Anyway, I had a card that I’d already made, it just needed a couple of alterations & additions!

Here’s the original, & below is the revamped card.

12 Comments »

Just For Fun on Christmas Saturday!

Posted in Cards, Just for fun challenge, Tags, Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas on June 11, 2011 by craftytrog

Yep! It’s time for another Tim tag & card from me! This week, we have finally got to the end of 2008, & Tim’s Tag 12.

So, here are my tag & card, with a few slight changes from Tim’s original.

As usual, I’m entering these for Kathy’s challenge here.

And this week, on the Just For Fun challenge, Sam has set the theme of ‘All Thing’s T!m’, so I’m entering that too.

23 Comments »

Bloom

Posted in Artwork for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team, ATCs on June 9, 2011 by craftytrog

Here’s a peek at my latest piece for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog. You can see my ATC here.

Thanks for looking xx

10 Comments »

Clean & Simple?

Posted in Cards, Stampotique Designers Challenge on June 8, 2011 by craftytrog

Clean & Simple is Joanne’s challenge over on the Stampotique blog this week. I’m hoping this card will count. There’s a fair bit of white space, as much as I’m capable of! Lol! I got the idea of framing Peggy with distress stains from Sam’s blog.

22 Comments »

Don’t Look Down!

Posted in Grungy Monday, Simon Says Stamp & Show, Sunday Stampers, Tags on June 7, 2011 by craftytrog

I went to The Craft Barn Extravaganza at the weekend, where I was fortunate to see the talented Neil Walker demonstrating a fabulous background technique, using copier paper, distress stains, UTEE, & rub n buff. I couldn’t wait to try this myself, & used wild honey & fired brick stains on the background to this tag. Instead of rub n buff, I used lava green Inka Gold.

I inked a die-cut Umbrella Man with rusty hinge & walnut stain distress inks, stamped Tim’s background from the Steampunk plate, then covered him with glossy accents. I inked a 3/8″ strip of paper with fired brick DI, then used it to print the phrase ‘Keep going don’t look down’ with my dymo printer. I highlighted the words with black ink, & added glossy accents to them also.

I hope you like my tightrope-walking Umbrella Man! I’m entering him for 3 challenges, Grungy Monday (distress inks), Sunday Stampers (favourite stash), & Simon Says (a tag).

Thanks for looking! x

26 Comments »

Tim’s December Tags, 2008, Day 11

Posted in Cards, Tags, Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas on June 4, 2011 by craftytrog

It’s Christmas Saturday again, & time to make Tim’s 2008 tag no.11. This one has a cool background technique, using distress inks & a mini rubber brayer. As usual I made a matching Christmas card for my collection. The phrase that I used is by PaperArtsy, I thought it went perfectly with the snowflakes theme.

If you decide to join in, don’t forget to link your creation over on Kathy’s blog. It doesn’t have to be a Christmas creation, you just need to use the same techniques as Tim.

9 Comments »

Grungy Monday 9

Posted in Altered Art, Grungy Monday on June 2, 2011 by craftytrog

It’s taken me three days, but I finally finished this little hangy piece for Grungy Monday Challenge No. 9! This week we had to take inspiration from Tim’s Christmas tag 2007, Day 10.

Thanks for looking, & don’t forget to nip over to Linda’s blog to see some fabulous inspiration & all the other wonderful entries!