12 TAGS OF 2012 - FEBRUARY...

Okay so I am super excited that I have at last manged to finish a piece of craft for myself....hence the many photos...lol

 This is my version of the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2012 for February....if you don't know what this is pop over and take a look...lots of techniques to learn...As you can see I definitely have not gone for a carbon copy...Most of the bits used are from my endless stash...you know those things you buy cos they are dirt cheap and might come in handy some day...well they did...skulls, stickers and metal embellishments...

 As I said in my last post Sonja and I decided to do them as a swap so I have made two...they are not exactly the same tho as I didn't have two of everything but the basic principle is the same...

Love the skulls with the black stickles and the words is a play on the Bryan Adams song which I love so much...

Thanks for looking and hopefully it won't be too long before I am back with the next one!!!

LOVELY VINTAGE FINDS...

Well now I no longer have to create for craft fairs I have a little more time on my hands and it kinda feels nice(I do have a couple of outstanding orders that need doing tho) and I am enjoying it....

 These bowls were something I purchased a few weeks ago from Nina's Apartment at the Vintage Fair in Aberdeen...love them...

 And today I picked up these little cuties, also from Nina...

They are so sweet...and they along with a few other bits and pieces look fab on my dresser...I love vintage things and hope to try my hand at painting up some second-hand things in a vintage style soon...

I have also started the challenge Sonja and I set ourselves a couple of months which was to take part in the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2012 making one tag to swap and another to keep...I won't post the pic yet as I haven't passed it on to Sonja yet...xxx

Well here is my very late offering for this month's design team kit from Simply Create...sorry it took so long and all that....

I started with a blank canvasboard and added some dressmaking pattern using ModPodge(don't worry about the creases and crinkles too much, it just adds to the texture of the background) and then coloured it in green and blue paint....

I was going to cut the bunting flags(Glitz-Afternoon Muse Banner) from the 12x12 out individually until I realised that if I cut out just that bit of it fitted perfectly onto the canvas and I love the way the paper blends in with the painted background..I did cut round the bottom row and crumpled them a bit tho for a bit more of a layered look....

I used various stamps from the DT set of Lost and Found(Union Square 'Perfect') and a couple of Stampin Up rollers which I like as you don't get the whole image just bits of it to add interest to the background....I also splattered some Stampin Up All Purpose Ink in Frost White using a paintbrush...

I made various flowers which were duly crumpled and inked using cardstock and added buttons and ribbon and pearls for the centres and hand drew the stalks and leaves...I almost forgot I did the very bottom of the canvas with Ranger Distress Crackle Paint in Antique Linen and then added some more lovely shimmery ink from Stampin Up for some added shine..

I cut out the word SUMMER using Tim Holtz Vintage Market Die and added a few little drops of shimmer ink to that to...

Thanks for looking and have a great summer everyone...I have enjoyed my roll on the Design Team very much - it has definitely given me a little more confidence in myself....

Kirsti xxxx

SIMPLY CREATE CHALLENGE...

If you hop on over to Simply Create you will notice that they have a fab challenge going on at the moment with 100 pounds of stash up for grabs...and if you hurry you still have time to enter...closing date is 14th February...

This is my entry...
I used an SVG template from Dan99 for the Cricut and cut out this gorgeous wee house...it is actually a Christmas house in his description but I have made it a lovely Spring house for my project....

I used some cardstock from a pad by We R Memory Keepers that I picked up in TK MAXX last weekend for about 7 pounds...there are some gorgeous colours in it and it has a white core so is ideal for distressing...

I overstamped the house shape with the Tim Holtz brick stamp and then punched out some mini flowers and drew on the stems...

The roof is actually a piece of the blue cardstock but I coloured it with brown ink and then ran through the Big Shot with the woodgrain texture plate(borrowed from Sonja) and the eaves are made using the Scallop punch from Stampin' Up...

The butterfly is one I had left over from a couple of cards I made last week...It is a digi one from Hero Arts that I have had my eye on in the 'real life' set but wasn't so keen on the rest of the pack so bought this one instead...

Thanks for looking....

Kirsti xx

PARIS MINIBOOK AND SUITCASE...

This is my creations from this month's DT kit...Sonja got hers the day before me and as soon as she showed me it I knew I was going to do a Paris minibook and I still had the mini suitcase from the last kit so thot it would make a great little set... The papers are Glitz by Scarlet Lime and all available from Simply Create....

I painted the suitcase with black acrylic paint and then covered it (apart from the straps) with the Paris map paper which is gorgeous! I then made lots of little flowers from punches and spiral rolls...The Tim Holtz tickets are scrumpled, inked and covered with crackle accents...I wrapped the handle with the orange thread that came in the kit...took ages getting it lined up and then used some gold buff and rub that I found in Jacqui's shed at the Save the Children event she had last year - looks fab...I also did the whole of the inside of the suitcase with this...

I decided on a tag book for the inside and since I bought SCAL the other week I have been having much fun cutting out all manner of shaped...I cut one size for the background from the black cardstock and added some green too and then I cut a slightly smaller size out for the top layer...There are so many photographs I had to collage them in Picasa... Basically the book is about a trip to Paris that Allan and I went on in February 2008...I actually won it!! I was feeling sorry for myself one Saturday night and went to bed early with a Magnum Ice Lolly and my book...there was a code on the stick which you had to text in and since it was only 25p I thot I would have a go (you have to be in it to win it as they say) so imagine my surprise when I had a text back immediately saying I had won....Was so excited...I texted Allan (even tho he was downstairs) and I don't think he quite believed me til I had the email confirming I had won a weekend to either Paris, Barcelona, Reykjavik, Cannes or Rome...we chose Paris as we were allowed to fly from Aberdeen!! It also included all transport, hotel and 250.00 spending money!!!

Unfortunately I lost a lot of photos when my PC crashed and these were some of the best ones that were recovered but I really like my wee memento of this weekend and would love to go again...

Hero Arts Launch Party & Simply Create Official Relaunch

Come along to Simply Create in its new home 59 Main Street, Alford on the 22nd of January between 10:30 am and 3:30 pm for a fun filled day with Kath Stewart in the "Create Station" demoing our beloved Hero Arts stamps and have a play yourself with some of the new stamps from the 2011 catalogue.

And as if that wasn't enough receive 10% discount off ALL Hero Arts stamps purchased and ordered on the day.

Go on, you know you want to...(I really have to stop saying that...haha!)...it promises to be a fun packed day with Kath as she is such a laugh and such a talented lady!!!

I for one am hoping that Morgan's football matches don't start back for a few weeks yet... with him playing on a Saturday now it really scuppers my crafty weekend plans...lol...xxx

A LITTLE CYBER CHAT AND A CANVAS...

A couple of weeks ago Darcy asked me if I fancied joining in with her and a couple of friends for a little Cyber PJ Party....sounded like a great idea...so I thought while I was chatting I would make something as well and this tutorial popped into my inbox the other day from Scarlett Lime....I didn't follow the tutorial exactly, in fact I veered quite a bit off-course...Darcy's friend Rosie joined us and so did Sonja...Wine and chocolate mandatory...lol..we had a great chat about all sorts of stuff and had quite a few laughs as well...I had a great evening...thanks girls... I am really rubbish at remembering to take stage photos when I am making projects so this is the only one there is...for full instructions see the tutorial...I decided that I didn't want to do a Christmas Tree as I wanted to keep mine up all year round so I opted for a house theme...First of all I stuck down various papers with gel medium and then I used a couple of Tim Holtz masks(btw, does anyone know how to clean the back of these so they are sticky again...one of mine is all gunked up) and sprayed with Dylusions Sky Blue ink...I then used some white paint with my brayer and rolled it up from the bottom...I don't think the ink was quite dry tho as it smeared a little but I did like the effect this created...

Sorry that's where the stage photos stop...lol... I enlarged a couple of Dyan's Downloads house shapes and a few of the other little doodles that were round them..stuck them all on and then started adding rub-ons(I don't have many rub-ons that are not alphabets but I found these hearts and lines of squares which I thot were quite sweet...I also have a sheet of 'fuzzy' white ones which I think are fab...these were used on both of the roofs...

I printed out 'HOME IS THE PLACE TO BE..." using my dymo label maker...

I also stamped this little Glitz bird(from my Simply Create DT stash) onto tissue paper and adhered it so it goes of the from and down the sides of the canvas...I love this technique as it means you can 'stamp' anywhere...

I finished of with a line of glitter down the edges of the roofs but unfortunately you can't see this in the photo...I am very pleased with the end result and maybe I should drink a bottle of wine everytime I craft...lol..

DECEMBER 365 CALENDAR...YES YOU DID READ THAT RIGHT...

Well who would have thought after just finishing November I would have had December all ready and waiting...but shock - horror - gasp - here they are!!! It's the last month of this fabulous challeng wich was started by Kate over at the Kathryn Wheel...why not start your own one since the New Year is just around the corner...it was great fun... These are quite straightforward pages this month - scraped on some Holly Berry acrylic paint and then scraped some gold over the white spaces that were left...I then used a piece of non-stick cooking mesh that I picked up in Poundland for...well a pound and sprayed though with some Pomegranit Dylusion Ink...gives a fab effect don't you think!!!

I had in my head that I wanted to use Christmas baubles for my days when I remembered I had a pack of Christmas Blonde Moments papers lurking in my paper store so I cut them out and arranged on the page (they are a little small so in hindsight I should have maybe scanned them and enlarged them)...I used another Blonde Moments sheet and cut out the santa, reindeer, snowman, trees and Christmas pud and edged them all with gold embossing...I think I am in need of a new Versamark pen and a new Stazon pad as both seem a little dry... The rosette in the corner was done using my new Hougie Board which is great for this...I was going to buy the Tim Holtz Rosette die but then I seen a YouTube video using the board and I thought that would be better as you could make different sized ones rather than just the one size from the die...it can also be used for loads of other things to so all in all I think it was a slightly better buy...

I stamped the numbers using Autumn Leaves Messy Dates and the words using MSE Multi Retro...

All done and ready to start next year!!!

NOVEMBER 365 (and on time too!!)...

This must be some kind of record on my part...lol...finished this month on time... I think there is about 5 layers of paint on here in my quest for the perfect colour of icy blue...wasn't happy with it but in the end but after scraping on some white paint with an old credit card it looked better...I then had the idea that I wanted to do sequin waste squares for my days but after cutting out a stencil from the Cricut and overlapping it with the sequin waste and daubing all over with my splodging tool and some distress ink this didn't pan out the way I had hoped so instead I cut out squares from a huge sheet of white tissue using my paper cutter (very slow and tedious) and glued them on instead and then I 'stitched' round them with a black pen...you can just still see the inked dots thru the tissue paper...

I added lost of swirls round the edge with Versamark at the top of both pages and embossed them with Kaleidoscope embossing powder but this didn't show up too well with the Versamark..

I used a Tim Holtz stamp on the inside edges and embossed in white and I also stamped and embossed various snowflakes in the same way...

November is stamped using black Stazon and the same kaleidoscope embossing powder and this shows up much more sparkly than with the versamark...I think I may need to get a re-inker for my stazon tho as the powder didn't sick very well to some parts...I borrowed these stamps from Sonja who got them when she visited NYC recently (lucky moo!!!) and I just love them..have been on ebay hoping to get myself some but to no avail...will have to keep looking...

This is a better view of the versamark/kaleidoscope stamping and embossing....as you can see from my squares the children have been very busy this month and I have been very busy running them around...lol...that's November finished then..have started prepping December pages and the question is will I finish them in time for tomorrow...Can't believe there is only one month left of this wonderful year long challenge by Kate over at The Kathryn Wheel...wonder who will carry it on into next year???

OCTOBER CALENDAR PAGES (AT LAST!!!)...

Well here we are more than half way through November and I am just finishing my October 365 Calendar pages...check out the challenge over here on Kate's blog.....can't believe there are only 2 months left...wonder how many from the original list are still keeping up and will finish at the end of the year!!! I started out with them at the 'beginning' of October (honest!) but I just couldn't get into the groove with them....I have re-painted and re-inked these so many times that I just ended up going for what was on the page yesterday after Sonja beat me to posting hers!!! I tried to use stencils and masks but nothing seemed to work...I splatted and sprayed with Dyan's new Dylusions Inks....

I cut and distressed the little squares and then skooshed with some ink (orange hands to contrast with the green that was still there from Sunday's outing to Simply Create, but that's another story!) and then used all the Halloween stamps I had and stamped each one with an image in Spiced Marmalade distress ink....

This is what it looks like before writing and the images show up really well....

The images are from Lisa's Altered Art which were downloaded last year, some of which I added crackle accents to (I am really liking this at the moment)...

The little witch is also from Lisa's Altered Images but I thought she looked a little lost sitting in mid air and then I remembered Judy had used Tim Holtz's wall stamp on one of her her cards the other week which works a treat-it's amazing what you have that you forget about til someone else uses it!!!....the bird frame is a Unity and I did the date with the Dymo label maker....Not my favourite one but still quite please with how it turned out...

Now I wonder if I have time to start November's pages or should I just get going with some more stuff for the craft fair at the weekend....Kintore Primary School, Kintore - 10-12.30pm...come along if you live in the area...it promises to be a busy event!!!!

DT PROJECTS AND CHICKEN PIE...

Bet you thought I had forgotten all about these?!?...well not exactly..don't know what the matter is with me just now - just not been in the mood for crafting at all the last couple of weeks (did get some more stuff done for the table on Saturday but that's been about it!)... These are the bits I have done so far and I am in the middle of another project and have something in mind for the left overs...I have to say I struggled with this snowman stamp as he is just too cute and I don't really do cute but he looks kinda nice all grunged up!!!

It is also so long since I have really done any cards that I just thought simple would be better...

I printed of a 5"x5"ish photo which I altered with the time machine feature in my photo editing, I then distressed it er....slightly, well I couldn't not...lol...wrapped some twin around it and added a button. I cut a piece of the Merry Christmas paper from Echo Park and then er.....distressed the edges with my wee sharp Timmie tool and a Stampin Up border punch...

I used a cranberry paint dabber to er...distress the edges of the kraft cardstock and added the patterned paper and photo....Cut out the @ using the Cricut and it's actually had about 5 different effects on it and guess what? I ended up back at the original...always the way isn't it... For the Christmas Time I cut this out using the Cricut but had a brainwave before using the cut out letters and decided to use it as a stencil instead with a lettuce paint dabber...I like this very much, finished of with some bobble ribbon and buttons with twine (Kath's influence at work there). Will try and get the rest finished by this weekend and will also try to keep up in future!!! But in the meantime why not pop over to Simply Create and see what the rest of my teamies have been up to (much more productive than me!!) or better still why not pop over to Alford and take a look IRL....

Mmmmh Jamie Oliver Chicken Pie was definitely much better tasting than his Wonky Summer Pasta which was a disaster but to be fair I was trying to sort something important out on the phone at the same time as cooking...not a good idea!!!