Break out the Art Parts!

Well, just for those of you who mentioned the Art Parts in the Ally Pally Stash pictures, I decided to break open the pack!!

I spent some time after my hairdresser left this afternoon (re-done highlights and a haircut) reading Wendy Vecchi's 3rd book that I got at Ally Pally.  I didn't want to read it too closely straight off, as I wanted to glean some ideas without copying one of Wendy's designs completely.

So, after dinner and whilst Liverpool were only drawing again, I got to work:


I started by covering one of the square frames with tissue tape. It's a bit more fiddly to do neatly than it sounds (or maybe, I'm just ham-fisted!)
I sealed it with a thin layer of matte medium (and then proceeded to get it stuck against a piece of paper towel while the glue dried....

At the same time, I covered the base to the frame with a piece of paper from Tim's Lost and Found paper stack (this is the back of one of the alphabet pages - or is it the front, lol?) and stamped a Wendy sentiment on it in black archival.   you can see in the top corner a butterfly - I stamped this (Wendy V) onto a reject piece of a tag from my Monday Compendium challenge (wasn't happy with the colour but here I like it!)

The finished piece. As I can never cut the antennae out from these butterflies very well, I decided to make them with some thin wire. (wire work isn't my strong point, so they're not twisted very well!)

The flower is also from one of my new Wendy sets, stamped in black stazon on grungepaper and then just sprayed with a DI reinker (spiced marmalade) and some perfect pearl powder. Finally I added a type charm from my idea-ology stash.   I couldn't get any close ups because the flash is bouncing too much off the tissue tape!

You get 3 of these square frames (these are about 3 1/2 inches square) and 3 rectangular ones in a pack - I paid just under £7 which at the time I thought quite a lot, but maybe not when you think about it, it's only just over £1 each - and they are quite sturdy and great fun to use!

What On YOUR workdesk? What's on mine? Tags...

Been busy making some tags again (Tuesday, as I have to prep this the evening before) so they are on my craft mat.

I am so NOT going to say "how is it Wednesday again" honestly!

The tag on the left is my entry to Tag Tuesday and the one on the right is just for fun, stamped with Paperartsy stamps.
Since we last met (over at Julia's for the gorgeousness that is WOYWW (what's on your workdesk Wednesday, in case you didn't know) I have spent a small (i.e. large) amount of money at Ally Pally and bought a huge amount of stash - I can't resist showing it here again in case you missed it!

I've managed to play with some of it already, and almost found a home for most of it around the living room!

You missed a great day, or, if you were there, wasn't it packed?! I met Cardarian who must have won the prize for travelling furthest to be there! It was lovely to see you, hope you enjoyed Ally Pally!  There were some great demo's - most of them by fellow WOYWWers!!

Hop on over to Julia's to catch up on all the other great workspaces on show.

Tag Tuesday - Calendars/Dates

This week's Tag Tuesday challenge is to use calendars or dates on your tag.  I took a small tag and coloured it with tea dye and old paper distress inks, added a piece of Tim's Lost and Found paper stack (which I distressed with the tonic paper distresser) some Tim's stamps and tissue tape.

CCC meets SSSS - wrinkles are distressing

Once again, my fave Monday challenges have allowed me to combine a piece of work - and, don't all faint but it's NOT a tag....

Linda's Compendium challenge is set on page 33, and this is one of my favourites and one I use a lot. Simon Says Show us your Distressing/Sanding, so I've done both.

I started with the compendium challenge which I can't tell you how I did it, but I used chipped sapphire and fired brick inks and in the top 'layer' of colour I added some perfect pearl/di reinker mix for a bit of shimmer.
I used part of a large tag (oh, I said it wasn't a tag, didn't I!!) as the base for this. Stamped some Wendy stamps and a Tim text on the card.

I hope this doesn't give away too much from the technique, but you can see it better here before it's behind the glass in the frame!!








For the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge - and I have had this in my head all day at work, trying not to forget my idea!! - I took a frame, gesso'd it, covered it in a thinnish layer of terra in a neutral colour, which I heated quite close to get some bubbles; then added some ferro (I used steel) to partly cover the terra, and some Inka Gold paint (goop as Lin B and Leandra call it) in steel blue, which I applied watered down with a paint brush, again leaving a patchy (distressed!) finish.

Think it may be time to get a new craft sheet soon!

I used an ornate plate from my idea-ology stash that I sanded down to expose the base metal and placed this over an adage ticket which I coloured with fired brick distress ink, tying in with the CCC piece.  Finally I used a word stick and some foliage to which I added some alcohol ink straight from the bottle (thanks for the tip, Linda, on Saturday!)

I'm not 100% happy with the "picture" in the frame so may change that another time, not sure that it really matches the frame.  Sorry, the photos seem a bit wonky!

Once again, both challenges have some fab prizes on offer, so make sure you check them out. They should be linked above, and also in my side bar.

Sunday Stampers - Black

Hels left us a challenge of just "black" for the Sunday Stampers challenge today. Wide open theme. Where to start?  With some of my new stash??? Hmmm.

I have had one of those post-show days (got too much new stash to play with, don't know where to start days) and in the end I decided to go totally monochrome and just use black, so took a small tag, black soot distress ink which I then sprayed with the black star copper crafty notions spray.

When that dried, I added some tissue tape and a Paperartsy flourish (though it doesn't really show up) and two of the Paperbag Studio stamps from a couple of weeks ago. The only colour is a yellow gel pen to represent the light shining out from the window. (hoping it will shine on my lost mojo).
If I can, I will do a "proper" entry later this week, Hels!

Whilst I was thinking about the Sunday Stamper challenge, I had a go at a Lin-style tag (see yesterday's post from Ally Pally for the real deal!)  with the TSS dress form mould I bought yesterday - I didn't like it at all when I first did it, but it's kind of growing on me now. In fact it looks better on here than it does next to me!

I had the devil of a job with my spray bottles, they wouldn't pump at all for ages, and then the ink just dripped out of the nozzle (I bought them a few months ago, and they were ok when I first got them, so I don't know!!)  I've used raspberrilicious and kingerfisherliscous.

I also forgot to refine the metal round the dress form before I made the "tape sandwich" and wasn't going to blog it at all. The ruler (tape measure?) came out ok though!

I was going to use a green spray I have, but couldn't get it to work at all (and still have the remnants in a paper cut on one finger that still won't wash out....)

Oops, I did it again!!

Oh dear. I have had a lovely day at Ally Pally at the Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show, but - as if you didn't know - I spent quite a lot (ahem, always been good at understatement!) and bought LOTS of fab fab goodies.

So many that I couldn't get them all in one shot to show you. I was up and out early to get there for the doors opening at 10 - in fact got there so early (boy was it COLD this morning!) I had to stand in queue an hour - mind, it meant I was 4 from the front of the queue.

I made straight for LB Crafts cos I wanted to get one of the "Lin Pins" (available to the first 15 if you spent £25 on Paperartsy or Ten Second Studio products) and if possible, some of the Tim Holtz bead chain (£25 on Tim products). So that was already going to be £50......  Ok so steady yourselves.  It DOES look quite a lot, I admit!

Some canvasses, metal, papers and card blanks, Studio extra time.

On to shot 2.
LOTS of stamps, Art Parts (yay) Wendy's new book, a gorgeous shadow box to alter/fill and  all sorts of bits and bobs. Hope you can see them ok. Maybe I should have split it into 3 piles....
That TSS mould is amazing.  The dress form is to die for (and there are some fab patterns - including the ruler, see below) on the other side. (double sided, see - so it's good value for money.....)

There was so much more I wanted, but I did show SOME restraint, honest!

Here is that tag that Lin made me using it (and a 2nd one on a piece of grey board stuff (like the backing to paper packs)

The background is done with the Craftynotions sprays including that new one I bought. (black star copper - yum yum).

Are they fab or WHAT!  I can't wait to play with this.

At the bottom you can see the Lin Pin and Paperartsy badge I got.

I also met Cardarian one of our WOYWWer's  who had come from Slovenia.... it was lovely to meet you. Hope you have a safe journey home!
And it was lovely to meet Alison and Kay  again too.

I also took a couple of pictures around Ally Pally itself. This is the view from outside across London - it is on the top of a very high/steep hill (hence it's use in the early days of television for the BBC transmission)

And this is inside, of the Palm Court at the entrance to the show. Stunning building!
It was such a bright sunny day, (after the cold of first thing) - lovely.

Ok, I've refuelled, so I may try and have a play with some of this new loveliness!
Have a good evening, peeps and thanks for indulging me with my shopping!

Life's a b ....no! - a Garden,

Been playing with my jumbo tag that was on my workdesk yesterday.  Coloured it with dusty concord and tumbled glass, spritzed with some reinker/pearl mixes first, (one with dusty concord, one with broken china) then took out my Paperartsy stamps from Hotpick 9.

I love these flowers. I stamped it several times onto the tag using black archival, then a couple onto a scrap piece of card which I cut single flowers from and coloured using victorian velvet, before sticking onto the tag images, purely for a bit of interest - I didn't want to hide too much of the shimmery background!

Used the distressed looking background stamp - the broken lines - in dusty concord, and a couple of sentiments - Life's a Garden comes from the Hotpick set, the other you probably recognise as a Wendy Vecchi.

Now I'll let you into a secret. The first flowers I stamped and stuck on, I coloured in yellow. Thought it would be a good contrast - NO NO NO. Tried to cover the yellow with purple. You guessed it, MUD.  So went for mark 2!!

Not sure if it needs a ribbon or something?  What do you think?

I had trouble scanning this one!