De Stempelwinkel and Guest host for Tag Along Favourite Techniues.

Well it's another wet day here in Blighty, I hope where ever you are you are either dodging showers or it is sunny.
 Today my tag is pulling double duty. You can find the write up and a few more pics over at De Stempelwinkel as it is my turn to share.

I have also been lucky enough to have been asked to be the Guest Designer over at Tag Along run by the lovely Mandy Chilvers, The challenge starts first thing Thursday Morning so I hope you will stop by and join in the fun.
The theme I have picked is 'Use Your Favourite Technique'

 I have used several of my favourite techniques on this tag, a painty cracked back ground,a little rust and some stamping on acetate with one of my all time fave stamps.
I'm also quite partial to making tags as well ;)

It would be great to see you over at both pages if you have time xx
Thanks for stopping by. x

Over at Dragons Dream Tag It On their challenge is the letter F and the colour Green.
My F is Favourite and also futility, this stamp just screams futility to me. The green is the very light Lime aid green on the bg from Decoart's americana paints.

Over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge  their theme for the week is where the cowboy rides away. Till I saw Mays fab vid tutorial this week on their blog I was unsure of entering but she has gone for 'ye old background techniques' so feel comfortable adding mine x

The Octopode Factory - Valentines mixed media boards. Honest, It's still me.

First off, a great big thank you for stopping by, and a big welcome to my new followers, It really means a lot having you here and I can't believe I have just hit the 200 mark. Thank you all so much xx. I told you yesterday that I was addicted to making these Tando-Creative mixed media boards and after the darker side of Valentines has already been unleashed, time for something a little less dark from me, and yes this is still me, honest, I know, I had no idea I could do something that might pass as Cute and Pink, do not panic, I'm sure usual service will resume soon ;-) Over at The Octopode Factory, Lily and the DT are highlighting several of the images that are great for the up and coming 14th Feb.You can find her Etsy shop HERE Both these boards have been given the same treatment as yesterday's Cupid board.I used Decoart's Faux Finish Medium to act as a resist over the Copic coloured charachters and have used Distress inks to colour and stamp the backgrounds.I have used stamps from De Stempelwinkel and Tim Holtz.Both have been sealed with Decoart's Satin glaze.

Thanks for stopping by xx

I would like to enter these into the challenge over at Perfectly Rustics, they are having a 'Show The Love' challenge, they want to see the word love somewhere on your project.

Haunted Design House - Rotten Romance.

 Welcome back, I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend?
Well today we are starting our new challenge over at Haunted Design House and with the run up to Valentines day we thought we would challenge you with a 'Rotten Romance'
 As always we want to see your darker sides come out to play ;)
We have our very own Teri of Delicious Doodles sponsoring us this fortnight and she is offering up 3 images of choice to each of our gruesome twosome.

 I have decided to keep it simple today and have done two more Mixed Media Boards from Tando-Creative I am addicted to these, they are like extra large ATC's
 For my first board I used the Grotesque Cupid image, It was printed onto 300gsm card and coloured with Copics, the image was trimmed to shape and glued to the media board. I carefully painted over the top of the image only with Decoart's Faux Finish Mediaum.The faux finish medium acts as a resist when using water based inks like distress inks. I used old paper to colour the back ground and stamped a couple of Tim Holtz classic stamps in pumice stone and gathered twigs, I also used black soot to stamp a text stamp from The Artistic Stamper, I wiped the over stamping on the Cupid off with a damp corner of kitchen towel. I finished off by swiping the edge of the board with a darker distress ink and clear embossed the card twice.

 For the second board I used the Fresh Blood image, sized it to fit the media board and coloured with my Copics, Ultra simple this time as I only added the 'Kiss Me' with the October Crow alphabet stamps from De Stempelwinkel. The whole thing was given a couple of coats of Decoart's Satin glaze.

As always it would be great to see you all getting your freak on ;) and joining us over at Haunted Design House.

My Haunted Design House ATC Swap.

Another quick post from me today. I'm sharing an ATC I made I made for our annual swap over at Haunted Design House, If you follow the link you will see our latest challenge and there is still a little time to join in.
 I made my ATC using Decoart's modelling and texture paste as well as using their Acrylic paints to add all the colour, the whole ATC was given a coat of their gloss varnish to finish.

Below you can see Susan's ATC, she was my swap partner this year so if you get time please head on over to see her work. She made a lovely ATC using an image from Aurorwings. you can find her on Etsy and the link will take you to her FB page.

I'll soon be adding all the ATC's to a folder on th HDH site, the ones I have seen so far have been brilliant. And if you took part and have not sent me a pic, Please send me a photo soon. ;)

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge their challenge is 'A is for....'

my A is for ATC

De Stempelwinkel - Pillow Box

Sorry for a quiet week, But lot's going on, more to come in the next week or so ;)

Today I am sharing my De Stempelwinkel make.

I have been playing with getting my paint to look like distress inks again and have made a little pillow box.

If you have time please pop over and take a look, there you can see more pics and a quick what I did ;)

You can find the De Stempelwinkel Shop HERE

De Stempelwinkel - Matchbook.

Thanks for stopping by, Just a quick teaser of a pic today, It's my turn once again over at De Stempelwinkel and I have made a match book using the Tim Holtz die.

If you have time please stop by, you can see the whole piece and a few more pics as well as a quick whats what of what I did.

xxx

In case you don't know De Stempelwinkel, they are not just a blog, they are a bricks and mortar shop in the Netherlands.You can find the shop HERE, As well as selling stamps by companies like Cherry Pie, Fusion Arts and Non Sequiter they also have a vast range of their own stamps,thousands of stamps covering all interests from Steampunk - Alice in Wonderland.

Tim's 12 Tags of 2014

Morning all. I'm sharing my take on Tim's first tag from his 12 tags of 2014 if you follow the link you can see Tim's inspiration and his step by step on how he has made his Jan tag.

After a great day's crafting with Neil Walker yesterday we both set about tackling Tim's first tag of the year.

I have tried to put my own little spin on Tims tag whilst still aiming to remain true.

For my tag I used a Tando-Creative Mixed Media Board, these are made from chip board/gray board and are brilliant for using paint and various mixed media products as they hold up much better than straight paper.

For my background I used Decoart American Acrylic paint's, I used one of

Andy Skinners stencils for my numbers and coloured some of their modelling paste with some paint and used The Crafters Workshop Shabby Harlequin stencil.

 Instead of the Sizzix pocket watch I decided to go a little more 3d and used Tim's ideology watch and added one of his clock faces to the inside with a couple of his compass hands.The chain was added and the watch was glued to a couple of circles that had been die cut.
The top circle was covered with sticky foil and embossed with one of Tim's embossing folders, this was aged with some black acrylic paint.
To finish off I added some chit chat stickers and a couple more pieces of ideology.

The plan this year is to do all of Tim's tags with my own little twist, let's see if I can follow through.

 Thanks as always for stopping by. I'm going to be linking this up to Tim's play along.

I would also like to enter this into the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. they are having an anything goes challenge.

We're Back.... Haunted Design House's First Challenge Of 2014 -- New Blood

 Well it's that time again, after our little break over at Haunted Design House we are back ;)
If you want to get your creep on we would love to see you joining in with our twisted little family.
 Like last year our challenge will last for two weeks, Our theme this fortnight is 'New Blood' Head on over to HDH to see what our DT have created for some inspiration.
 It is up to you how you interpret our theme, all we ask is you let your darker side run wild ;)





Ok, Lots of pics to follow.
For my make I decided to breath new life into a project I started about a year ago and never got round to finishing. All that had been  done was colour the little lady to the right and give the tray some colour.
Both of these lovely ladies are from Stampotique and have been painted with Distress inks, they have been sealed with faux finish medium which acts as a resist so I could stamp and colour the backgrounds also with distress ink. Ok here come the pics, Sorry folks ;)

 Ok, enough photo's ;)  thanks for sticking with me x
Hopefully some of you may just get in touch with your darker side, trust me it's fun lol.
There are pretty much no rules over at HDH the only thing is NO cute ;)
Thanks for stopping by xx

I would like to enter this into a couple of challenges.

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge are having an Anything Goes Challenge.

De Stemplewinkel, Some Simple Stamping With Paint And Some Media Boards

Morning all, Just a quick teaser pic of my make over at De Stempelwinkel today.

I'm sharing a very quick how to stamp with paint project and a couple of simple alcohol ink media boards.

If you have some time it would be great to see you over there x.

Octopode Factory, Clowns

Morning all, Sorry for the post heavy week, lots has been going on recently.
I'd like to start by welcoming my newest followers, thanks for joining me x
 Today I am sharing a couple of Lily's new images from The Octopode Factory. She has just released 4 clowns.
I have used two of the images for these Tando-Creative mixed media boards .
 This is the last of my recent Gelli Plate prints, I have had so much fun using it I will be getting it out again soon I am sure.
 The back grounds have been created with various Crafters Workshop stencils and Decoart acrylic paints. The prints have been cut to size and glued to the boards, The Octopode images have been coloured with Copics, fussy cut and glued to the prints. the Alphabet stamp set is from De Stempelwinkel and is the October Crow font. (from the movie)
Both boards have been coated with Decoarts Triple thick glaze.
 Thank you so much for stopping by. I love having you here.

I would like to enter these guys into the challenge over at the new challenge blog Open-Minded Crafting, they are having a use a new toy or technique. The new clown images are my new toy and the Gelli plate is still fairly new to me.

Guest Dt member for Tuts And Comments - Clean and Simple image transfer tutorial

Another tease post from me today.

I am happy to say I have been asked to do a guest spot over at Tuts And Comments, They are a new tutorial blog with a great DT, if you have time it would be great for you to stop on by xxx

Thanks to Rick, Mon and the rest of the Ladies for having me x

De Stempelwinkel - Gelli Plate Mixed Media Boards

Afternoon all, A bit late with my post today and will keep it brief.

I'm sharing a couple of teaser pics from my makes over at De Stempelwinkel

If you have time it would be great to see you over there where you can see the full pics. xx

Have a great Sunday xx

Steampunk Nelly take 2

 Welcome back and thanks for stopping by? I hope the weather has not been to bad where ever you are? It has been a tad wet here over the last few weeks.
 Now today I am sharing my Steampunk Elephant take 2 with you, I first posted this a couple of weeks ago but the stamping just did not quite work for me and as this was an Xmas present I really wanted to be 100% happy with the result and this is what I came up with.
I decided to add a couple of torn sections showing the inner workings of my clockwork Nelly and re did the paint job to cover the stamping.







The elephant has been painted using Decoart acrylic paints and the cogs etc are some watch parts, some charms and cut card.
The elephant itself is from the Charity The Elephant parade
their aim is to raise funds and awareness for the Asian Elephant.
Each year they visit different cities through Europe with outside exhibits of large painted elephants the designs are from various artists and celebrates, I think they are doing Cardiff later this year.If you get the chance to see them it is well worth the day out.

 As always, thank you for stopping by. Have a great weekend x

I would like to enter my Nelly into a couple of challenges.

Over at SanDee & Amelies Steampunk Challenge, they are having a 'Use Your New Stash' challenge. The Elephant is new and I have just got the watch parts.

Punkyou Girl are having a Steampunk challenge.

Class News and a Happy 2014 Everyone.

Happy 2014 Everyone I hope you all have a fantastic year ahead of you.
 Now for some news I was hinting at just before Xmas.
I will be giving my first classes this year. This is all very new to me and I will be working on adding a tab to my blog soon with class details and where and when classes will be taking place.I have been lucky enough to have been asked by Di of Tando-Creative to put some class ideas together using their kits and to be an affiliated tutor,(need to think of a catchier title ;-) )
 The first dates have been booked in by Lisa over at That Craft Place , That Craft Place is a bricks and mortar shop located in Eastbourne, they also have a very active group on facebook HERE and a challenge blog. HERE
 The first class will be held on the 1st Feb so if you are around and can make it it will be amazing to have you come and join me. If you want more details feel free to contact me or follow the links and give Lisa or Danny a call.

So far these are 3 of the classes I will be offering, I am still working on putting the others together as we speak ;)
The classes will focus on Decoart products and various mixed media techniques.
I will do my best to keep my Facebook and blog up to date with what's happening and where.
Feel free to come and join me on Facebook the more the merrier ;)
 Thank you all for stopping by and making 2013 an awesome year for me.
I hope you will stick with me and I can not wait to see what 2014 brings for all of you.