Woodgrain and Alcohol...

Hi everyone and welcome. My goodness hasn't September flown by! It must have something to do with keeping busy. My first workshop at IndigoBlu HQ last Saturday was great fun and I'm pleased to report the incredibly lovely ladies who participated went away worn out, full of new techniques to add to their repertoires and with smiles on their faces. Hopefully they all felt inspired and I want to say a huge thank you to them for being so enthusiastic and supportive. If you couldn't make it this time I'm pleased to report I'll be running a Christmas card class at the end of November - more details to follow...

So as we are almost at the end of the month it's time to share my September 2014 Tim Tag. To be honest I'd been putting this one off as so many people had reported difficulties with the new technique Tim shared. In the end I just went for it and ended up rather pleased with the results (I'll let you be the judge of how successful they were!)

The key to this for me was picking the right colour and stencil. I opted for Sandal Alcohol Ink and the Woodgrain Layering Stencil. It was so exciting to see the pattern reveal as the card was dragged through the ink. The edges did get darker than the rest as the ink slid to the sides, but rather than chop them off I took Tim's idea from last month and added Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder to create that rusty feel.

Of course now it was all looking distinctly autumnal and my favourite leaf stamps from the Daydream set seemed ideal. But what to add to them? Tim had used a decorative strip die so I had a bash at cutting some leaves from the Autumn Gatherings version, but they just looked too small and out of balance. Back to the drawing board...

Having inked up some more glossy card with various autumnal hues (each with a touch of Gold Mixative) I stamped and fussy cut more of those Daydream leaves, saving the die cutting for various branches and some acorns. I do love those acorns with Distress Embossing Powder cups and Glossy Accents nuts.

Getting the card finished was straightforward from this point; inked linen ribbon added a great horizon line and stitching a perfect border. Then the rub ons provided words to live by - my better half and I were recently shocked by some news which focussed thoughts on our own mortality. Who knows what life has in store for any of us - carpe diem!

Thanks for joining me today - I'll be back on Wednesday with my Frilly and Funkie offering for the current challenge.

In the meantime take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Vintage at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome. Back again with the second post of the day (if you missed the first you'll find it HERE) and this one's a link to my Saturday offering over at IndigoBlu. Fancy a sneak peek of what's on offer?...

As this goes live I'll be running a workshop over at IndigoBlu HQ in Retford joined by some lovely peeps who (I really hope!) will get lots from today.

Whatever you are up to this weekend I hope you have a good one. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Not Too Shabby at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and thanks for joining me today. I've got two posts going live this morning and the first is over at Frilly and Funkie where there's a shabby chic card step by step on offer for you. I hope you can join me over there.

And I'll be back in a couple of hours with another post, this time for IndigoBlu - it's all go this morning!

Hope you can join me again for that, and whatever you are up to this weekend I hope you have a great one.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Compendium of Curiosities III Challenge 11 - Distressed Woodgrain

Hi everyone and welcome. Well I knew things had gotten really busy recently but didn't realise that the last time I managed to enter Linda Ledbetter's CC3 Challenge was back in July! So it is high time I rectify that particular situation... This challenge is all about the Effect Powders technique from page 52 of Tim Holtz' Third Compendium and is generously sponsored this time by Inspiration Emporium. Tim and Mario have also been very generous with goodies too - aren't they wonderful!

Out of respect for Tim I'm not going into details about how the Effect Powders technique - suffice it to say my version included the use of texture paste, a Layering Stencil, various Distress Stains and Distress Embossing Powders (Antique Linen, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain). All of this was layered onto book a page background prep'd with gesso. You'll also spy splatters of Picket Fence Distress Paint over the top.

With plenty of autumnal shades in the wood background it felt right to push on with this theme for the rest of the card. And so the clock face was covered in a mix of Gold and Black Soot Distress Embossing Powder for an aged and textured look. 

To tie in the book pages in the background I stamped on some more pages with leaf stamps from the Tim Holtz 'Daydream' set. Having cut them out and shaped them, they were gathered together to form the basis of an autumnal bouquet. Adding altered die cuts and a small book page flower helped to bring some seasonal colour and texture.

With all this autumnal colour going on and stencilling and stamping in use too, I'm entering this card into;

the Inspiration Journal blog challenge - 'Fall Is In The Air' sponsored by Inspiration Emporium

The Mixed Media Card Challenge #3 - 'Autumn Colors'

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - 'Stencils and Stamps' sponsored by Simon Says Stamp

That's all for today folks! Tomorrow sees the start of a new challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, there are two new cards in the offing at the weekend (when I'm running my first workshop) and I really ought to get on with Tim's current challenge soon! Anyone got a spare 24 hours?

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Win The New Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powder Bundle!!!

Note; This is a sticky post that will remain at the top of my blog until the end of 22nd September.

Please scroll down for my latest posts on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th September.

Hi everyone. There's an exciting chance to win the new Wendy Vecchi Embossing Powder bundle over at the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog!!! Get over there now as the contest ends midnight Eastern Time on Monday, September 22nd. Results announced on Tuesday.

Want to know how you can use them? Take a look at Wendy Vecchi's own super tutorials HERE and HERE, then get on over to Frilly and Funkie and see how you can get your hands on these pots of deliciousness... you KNOW you WANT to...

Have a great Thursday everyone and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Inspired... at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome to the start of a new weekend. Over at the IndigoBlu blog it's my first turn to host a Saturday slot so I hope you'll join me and share the love.

As this goes live I'll be out and about for another busy demo day, this time at Byrkley Part Garden Centre, Rangemore, Burton on Trent, Staffordshire. I know there are already friends planning to drop by and say hi, and if you are in the area it would be great to see you too.

Whatever you're up to have a good time and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

The Colours of Autumn at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome. Today sees the start of a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, sponsored generously as ever by Country View Crafts. Astrid is our host this time and has chosen the theme 'The Colours of Autumn'. "Who does not love the beautiful colours that Autumn brings? The oranges, muted, deep reds and all the many different brown and green hues. Tim's Distress range should give you many choices. Make a project incorporating some of these colours, but don't forget this is a shabby vintage challenge, so no brights or cute please!"

For those of you who saw my Destination Inspiration 'Faux Rusted Metal Effects tutorial' you'll remember I promised to use the first of the backgrounds on a future project, so, true to my word, the faux rusted iron piece has become the backdrop for my autumnal offering.I layered it onto a piece of Tim Holtz Wallflower paper stash.

I'd stamped, stained and cut out the mini Blueprints leaves for another project (long since abandoned) and scattered them on the metal as the whole autumnal look became stronger. This then lead to the addition of twigs and acorns, both using Distress Embossing Powders, to form a seasonal bouquet. I also found a dyed and embossed ticket which fit the colour scheme.

Sometimes cards and projects are planned, sometimes they just evolve, and this was definitely one of the latter. The 'bits and die cuts box' was raided where I found washer borders cut from some Distress Embossing Powder (mixed with Silver Embossing Powder) and kraft core card. It looked a little lonely so I cut a piece of kraft core card with one of the Framelits tag dies, rubbed it with a sander to reveal some of the lower colour, and clear embossed it with some of the Hashtag stamps.

To pull the whole lot together and bring out some of the colour from the Wallflower paper I stamped and coloured a dragonfly, including stamped acetate wings, and a matching dyed seam binding bow for the tag. A little black twine and Muse Token finished the bow, and therefore the card.

As this whole card was based on the results of one of my faux rusted metal techniques I'm entering this into the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge 'Rock The Technique'.
I am also entering The Mixed Media Card Challenge 'Autumn Colors' which asks for leaves or metal - you got both!
And The Artistic Stamper Creative Team challenge is looking for 'Autumn Colours' so this definitely fits.

Meanwhile I hope you will join in with 'The Colours of Autumn' challenge over at A Vintage Journey and I urge you to hop over there to see what my fellow Creative Guides have completed.

I'm back tomorrow (in spirit only as in reality I'll be out and about doing demonstrations!) with another post, but for now have a great weekend and take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx

Please note;

The Tim Holtz Idea-Ology, Stampers Anonymous and Distress products used in this card can all be found on sale at Country View Crafts.

From The Heart for Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome to my offering for this Wednesday. Today it's the turn of the Funkie side of the Design Team over at the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog to share their take on the theme this fortnight, 'From The Heart'. The challenge is to create a vintage project that has hearts as the focal image; you could make a dimensional piece, a card, ATC or tag, as long as hearts are the main focus. And my offering is definitely just that, something created from the heart with a heart...

You'll be familiar with my jaunts around 'Blogland' getting inspiration from the good and the great of this creative planet. I'm a big fan of the videos produced by the talented team at Prima Marketing Inc - there's a whole range of styles and media on display and if your mojo takes a hike I can highly recommend you sit back and indulge yourself. The one that set my heart racing was posted by the amazingly talented Limor Webber HERE.

Armed with a tonne of ideas I set to work and got lost in the whole process, chopping up a sheet from the Menagerie collection, using the Holiday Knit stencil to apply Distress Paint and White Embossing Paste, dripping more paint and alcohol inks mixed with water over the layers, and adding a touch of stamping with Watering Can Archival Ink. This was all layered onto a piece of plain card coloured with Iced Spruce Distress Ink with the layering emphasised by adding a blended Distress Marker line along the edges.

Venise lace is beautiful and, though a shame to cover so much up, it is also great for adding extra dimension. Using the same papers as the base for your upper layers is also great if you feel a pang of guilt about covering the lower layer. I adhered the heart to some grungepaper to give it extra strength and inked/painted to match.

Final elements included lettering cut from the same paper, coloured with Bundled Sage Distress Stain and paint, a couple of fabulous filigree metal embellishments altered with the matching alcohol inks and Tattered Rose Distress Paint, a circle of burlap string, and a dyed crinoline flower (centred with one of the gorgeous gumdrops and some little pearls). As for the general colour scheme? Another of those 'Distress Mini match ups' with Iced Spruce, Tattered Rose and Bundled Sage. I LOVE Tim's combos...

That's it from me - hope you like what you see as much as I liked making it - and now I urge you to head over to the Frilly and Funkie challenge blog to check out the pieces created by my uber-talented team mates. If they don't get you in the mood for creating 'From The Heart' (and linking to be in with a chance to win) I don't know what will!

For today, take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx

Catching Up

Hi everyone and welcome. I hope you had a good weekend - for those going through particularly tricky times right now my thoughts and prayers are with you for a positive resolution.

I've got new projects to share later this week, but wanted to take this opportunity to flag up a couple of things...

First up, have you got your copy of this month's Craft Stamper magazine yet? There are some fantastic articles inside and I have to say I'm a huge fan of the Scrap365 Bonus Supplement included this month for the first time. And if you turn to page 10 you'll see I've got a Distress to Impress article included (squeal!) featuring Distress Paint sprays. Using my collection of paints this way is a favourite technique, and I'd like to publicly thank my bestest buddy Anne Redfern for introducing me to the whole concept a while back. We've shared and learned so much from each other and time spent with this wonderful lady is always treasured.

And on the subject of sharing and learning, I also want to flag up the one day workshop I'll be running on 27th September at IndigoBlu's HQ. You'll get to create your own seaside themed mini album whilst learning lots and lots of techniques and tips along the way.

Here's some more glimpses to whet your appetite...

I'm really hoping to see some friendly faces there to join me and will do my best to send you away buzzing with inspiration.

You can find all the booking details HERE.

There's lots of prepping for demos to do here (no rest for the... ) so for now I'll love you and leave you with a promise to be back on Wednesday for the latest Frilly and Funkie challenge.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

And I did it my way... at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome.  It's my turn to host Technique Thursday over at the IndigoBlu blog today and I really hope you can join me over there to find out how I put this card together.

This one is definitely 'my style', full of mixed media and layering, and it actually turned out as planned (now that's a first!!!)

Looking forward to seeing you over there.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

A Indian Summer (Part 2) at IndigoBlu

Hi everyone and welcome. Over at the IndigoBlu challenge blog we are half way through the current 'Indian Summer' challenge so the DT are serving up some extra inspiration for you. Here is a simple take on the theme...

I got inspiration for this from some projects posted by Brenda Brown a couple of months ago. The simplicity of the whole look meant the butterflies really came to life and took centre stage.

After adhering some burlap to a card base I smeared white Gee-Sso Good! gesso on top unevenly, heating it a little in places to make it puff up. Having repeated this a couple of times the base was set. I stamped butterflies and the sentiment from the 'Butterfly Collector' A5 stamp set onto a single layer of tissue with Archival Ink and applied it to the base with a coat of Slap It On.

The same butterflies were stamped onto acetate, again with Archival Ink before being cut out. I used ProMarkers to colour the reverse of the butterflies to add colour - remember, don't colour with these on top of Archival Ink as they will react to each other and ruin your stamping. Then a touch of fussy cutting before they were layered over the tissue using Glossy Accents. Simple staples in two corners and a spritz of Victorian Velvet Reinker mist completed the look.

I hope you now take the opportunity to head on over to the IndigoBlu challenge blog to see what my team mates and fellow demonstrators have created before joining in the fun to be in with a chance to win.

Time for me to take flight for now.

Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Destination Inspiration at A Vintage Journey - Faux Rusted Metal Effects

Hi everyone and welcome. It's been a busy few days (again) putting together tutorials, demo'ing on Saturday near Congleton (such a fantastic place and what a group of the loveliest people!) and working on projects for publication. So time has flown and I realised that the winners of the ATC draw needed announcing. I'd had 45 wonderful comments (with a few double entries) by close of play last Thursday evening, so, using Random.org the winners chosen were...

#11 Rosie , #21 Julia, #39 Sara, and #26 Bonnie!!!!!!!!!!
Please email me at buttonscraft@btinternet.com with your contact details and your ATC will be winging it's way to each of you.
Thank you everyone for taking part in my little giveaway.

Now for today's offering... I'm hosting the next Destination Inspiration over at A Vintage Journey and have chosen to tackle the creation of a couple of rusted metal effects using Distress Paints. 

Here's a card I've made using one of them, but you'll have to skip on over to A Vintage Journey for the 'how to's' and close ups.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Have a great week and take care of yourselves. Jenny xxx

A (Wendy Vecchi) Summer Garden at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome to Wednesday here at PTRB. It's the second week of the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'A Summer Garden' so the Funkie side of the Design Team are in action with their interpretations. Our host Cec has asked us all to "create a vintage or shabby chic project that depicts a summer garden, but it doesn't have to be just flowers, it could be about the landscaping or even about fruits and vegetables". I was incredibly lucky enough to be sent a sample of the new releases by Wendy Vecchi herself (thank you so much Wendy!) and was determined to press a couple of these into action for this challenge...

Where to start; well although I'm a huge fan of Wendy's Archival Reinker technique I'd only tried it on Specialty Stamping Paper, so this time I used my regular white card with Potting Soil, Gold Mixative Alcohol Ink and Surgical Spirits (Rubbing Alcohol). Brilliant! It looks just like a piece of marble and not like any other background technique I've ever achieved using other mediums, honestly. You've not seen the last of that technique...

With the base done I 'mono-printed' the new Basically Bricks stencil with Frayed Burlap Distress Paint before stencilling through it with Tree Branch Archival Ink and Crackle Paste (mixed with Potting Soil Reinker). 

With the garden wall 'built' I added a kraft core die cut garden. Although we are looking at summer gardens for this challenge here in the UK the weather has turned distinctly autumnal - hence the reason for my colour choices. Having fussy cut and clear embossed some polka dot centred daisies I decided to add a coordinating butterfly. The bow from the Holiday Art stamp set was a perfect shape for using with the reflections stamping technique in combination with the Reverse Dots background stamp. I added some twisted wire and mini pearls to complete it.

Of course a garden is nothing if it's not being admired and Miss Paper Doll was perfect for this purpose. Keeping her fairly neutral a touch of class was added by painting her skin with Tattered Rose Distress Stain and her hair with Frayed Burlap Distress Stain. And which summer beauty would be complete without white gloves and matching pearls?!

Now you need to see what my fellow Frilly and Funkie DT teamies have been creating HERE before linking up your own Summer Garden creations to be in with a chance to win. You'll find all the challenge details there too, so let's see what you can do!

Just a quick reminder to finish - the draw to win one of my 'Little Touch of Tim' ATC's will close tomorrow evening, so if you want to be in with a chance of owning one just leave me a comment on the post HERE.
For now take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx