Coffee Time...

Hi everyone and welcome. First up I'm thrilled to be able to thank the wonderful DT over at Stamps and Stencils for picking my Floral Wreath as one of the Top 3 entries in their Spring challenge last month. Can't tell you how much that announcement made my day. And conveniently their latest challenge Trash to Treasure fits in perfectly with this next project!!! Timing eh?

So, trash to treasure... well my hubby LOVES his coffee (and tea!) and we seem to get through copious amounts of it. The upside is I get all these lovely chunky jars to alter and with the arrival of some new Prima IOD moulds 'Chez Marples' it was time to get altering...

I started by covering the jar in tissue and gesso before adding a layer of Pantry White IndigoBlu Acrylic Paint. Having pressed out some paper clay moulds I left them to dry around the jar to take on the proper shape - warning - the clay seems to want to curl up even more as it dries so you need to keep an eye on it. Upside, if you need to crack it in the end to fit a little touch of modelling paste applied with a paint brush will cover that up. I then dry brushed the whole lot with the new Pheasant Bronze IndigoBlu Metallic Paint before dribbling Rust Alcohol Ink down the sides... ahhhhhh...

It was almost a shame to cover it up but since it's Spring I figured a floral arrangement would work well. Back to the IndigoBlu Acrylic Paints; I used the new Lime Marmalade to stamp the Laurel Leaves and a mix of Marshmallow and Lemon Meringue to colour the die cut, stamped flowers (Colour Me Anenome of course!) Won't lie, it took a while to cut the leaves and shape the flowers but it was worth it right? And the colours are just perfect for the current IndigoBlu challenge 'Yellow, Pink and Green'. With a choice of stamps up for grabs to a randomly drawn winner it's well worth getting your last minute entries in before the closing date in just under a week.

This will be entered into the following challenges;
Stamps and Stencils - Trash to Treasure
Simon Says Stamp Monday - April Showers Bring May Flowers
Our Creative Corner - Gypsy Fayre (the top 3 colours have been used)

I've got so much more to share with you so please stay tuned and in the meantime take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Products used;

IndigoBlu Acrylic Paints; Lime Marmalade, Marshmallow, Lemon Meringue, Pantry White

IndigoBlu Metallic; Pheasant Bronze

Slap It On Matte

GeeSso Good Gesso White

A6 Laurel Leaves Stamp Set

A6 Colour Me Anenome Stamp

Ranger Alcohol Ink Rust

Prima Paper Clay

Prima IOD Mould - Baroque 4

Boy oh Boy at Frilly and Funkie

Hi everyone and welcome. It's my turn to host the current Frilly and Funkie challenge 'Boy oh Boy!' For this one we need you to create a vintage or shabby chic project with a man or boy in mind. Let's see those male themed creations come to life.

The winner will earn the chance of a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie, and everyone who enters and follows the rules will go into the draw for the chance to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique. And there are Top 3 Badges for three further outstanding entries, chosen by the Design Team, because choosing just one winner is so hard!

Anyone tuning into my blog recently will have noticed I'm on a mission with the Tim Holtz Dapper Paper Stack - seriously, I LOVE IT!!! Grab yourself a Found Relative and some of your favourite Idea-Ology trims and you're all set for some fun! I find myself creating a back story for these as I go and it seems to help everything flow even more. So without further ado say hello to Edgar...

As a boy Edgar helped his Pa in their mid-West general merchandise store, his favourite task to take care of the small selection of rugs. Edgar loved looking at the intricate patterns woven into so many of them, trying to work out how they were created. One time his Pa took him to the big city; the hustle and bustle, tall buildings and busy streets were wondrous but best of all was the shop window display for a high end carpet emporium. The owner had captured the magic of the Arabian nights and Edgar was in awe. Sure enough, with permission granted, he did his best to do something similar at his Pa's store with the limited supply of rugs in stock and as many pieces of glittering decor he could borrow from home without his Ma noticing. It worked! Sales soared and the range began to increase year on year as Edgar came up with new and interesting ways to display them. In time Edgar took over the store, turning it into a carpet emporium sourcing the best woven floor coverings from around the World. He even got to travel to the far shores of North Africa to hand pick ever more wonderful designs, finally getting to see for real how they were made.

It may look as intricate as those carpets but this tribute to Edgar came together really easily. I stencilled the background with white gesso and added some simple stitching. On top, layers of ephemera, a Flash Card, an embossed Kraft Core Coredinations card 'rug' and various touches of metal. You can find links to a full list of ingredients at the end of this post.

The rest of the Funkie side of the DT have come up with amazing projects of their own so make sure you hop on over to Frilly and Funkie to see them. Then it's your turn to get make something with a man in mind to be in with a chance to win. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

I'll be back with more Dapper fun soon, but for now take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Paper Stash, Dapper	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Fasteners - Dapper TH93263 (February Pre-Order)	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencils - Measured	$6.39 Core′dinations Kraft Core By Tim Holtz - 4.25x5.5" Paper Pad	Sizzix® Texture Fades™ Embossing Folder - Diamonds by Tim Holtz®	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Found Relatives	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack, Emporium	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack - Thrift Shop	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Ephemera Pack - Expedition	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Flash Cards, Elementary
Tim Holtz Idea-ology Industrious Stickers Frames & Trims	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Word Bands	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Linen Ribbon	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Timepieces	Tim Holtz Idea-ology Findings Game Spinners	Ranger Tim Holtz Hickory Smoke Distress Ink Pad	Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Marker - Walnut Stain

A House of Small Treasures

Hi everyone and welcome. Here's a sneak peek of the altered wooden house frame I'm sharing on the IndigoBlu blog today. I've had fun using the brand new Metallic Paint colours on this and there's lots more to see, so I hope you'll hop on over and take a look.

Hope you have a great week ahead and take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Making Mistakes is Fun!

Hi everyone and welcome! Yesterday I shared the first of several cards made with the new Tim Holtz Dapper Paper Stash HERE. It's always encouraging to get lovely comments and one caught my eye in particular; Paula Cheney - "fantastic! I only wish there was steps out to see exactly how you created that background! Can't wait to see what else you so with the Dapper paper stash". Now this is not a lady you say no to and bearing in mind how many fabulous tutorials she shares regularly on her own blog One Lucky Day it's only fair to reciprocate.

So here goes, warts and all!... Start by spreading translucent embossing paste onto your piece of Dapper paper. As Tim's stencils are designed to work with tags this will take two passes to complete and I let the first side dry before applying paste to the second side.

Once the paste is dry blend Distress Ink all over your paper to reveal the stripes.

Choose your focal image (in this case a young lady from the Found Relatives collection - I cut around her to remove the background) and begin building the Ephemera elements around her inking the edges as you go.

I add thick card behind the initial 'bundle' so further layers can be added underneath more easily when you glue it onto the background.

Start building the design on your embossed background; I like to use scrapbook layout designs and principles to do this, even on 6x6 cards, as they are well balanced and freely available on the Internet.

Flash Cards are fabulous for adding a bold word or two to any design but they have a shiny surface so altering their colour with Distress Inks is not so effective. Fear not! Distress Crayons were made for tough jobs like these! Translucent and creamy, they are perfect for blending over the cards (I went for an uneven 'grungy' look here but you can go softer and more colourful if you want!) And if you go wrong they are water reactive so just take a baby wipe to them and start again!

They are also useful for adding shading around focal images to help them stand out on layered or patterned backgrounds. I use my Detailer Nib Water Brush with the Black Soot version a lot to paint a small line, and since they're water reactive if you go wrong you can blend them out!

At this stage I stood back, looked at the overall design, and had a change of heart about the lines/blue in the background. Panic not! We can't all be perfect and there's always a solution from which new lessons can be learned! I cut away the background carefully (it's also reusable!) and grabbed another piece of the same card (thanks for including two of each in this stash Tim!!!) Spreading more translucent paste, this time going back to the trusty Tiles stencil, I then reached for the new Picket Fence Distress Ink pad. Awesome! It's translucent so you may want to blend a few layers on to get a lighter look and I used a baby wipe over the paste tiles to remove traces of pigment ink from them.

So, with a little Archival ink blended around the borders and some essential Idea-Ology finishing touches (Dapper Fasteners, a Word Band and some Linen Ribbon) here's the new finished card...

And here's a couple of close ups...

I'm SO much happier with that background! and thrilled to have tested out the Picket Fence Distress Ink too.

That's it for today but I'll be back with more Dapper cards soon and something completely different tomorrow so I hope you can join me for that.

In the meantime enjoy what's left of the weekend and have a great new week, whatever you're up to. Take care of yourselves, Jenny xxx

Don't Resist Dapper...

Hi everyone and welcome! Well, what a start to the weekend. I discovered I've won a prize of Decoart goodies from SanDee and de amilie's Steampunk Challenge! Thank you so much to Claudia and Sandra for such a wonderful surprise. So I guess that means that you will finally be seeing some Decoart inspired projects from me coming up in the future...

On to today's offering; after much deliberation I ordered the Tim Holtz Dapper papers - deliberation because I have lots of paper stacks already so did I really need any more? Well no, but the designs are just too awesome and those new Dapper stamps are hitting the stores soon, so...

I've had massive fun playing creating cards, all of which have been designed with men in mind. The personal card stash is seriously depleted and male themed cards are always sadly lacking so these papers are absolutely ideal. They provide a starting point, coordinating with lots of the Tim Holtz Ephemera packs, and you can still get a fabulous look by layering them up with no other media involved. For me to be happy I need to create the backgrounds, to use some of the techniques that have been collected from so many designers over the years, and these papers allow for that too.

Taking inspiration from Zoe Hillman's last card and the current Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge - Try To Resist I used the Tiles Layering Stencil and some translucent embossing paste over one of the papers before blending Ground Espresso Distress Ink over to make the squares pop. Again, the fun for me is in working out what looks right when layered over these backgrounds, raiding my Idea-Ology stash and altering it where necessary to make the colours work together. I would recommend if you go for the Dapper papers that you invest in the matching fasteners as they can add a beautiful coordinating accent - you'll spot one in the centre of the flower to jazz it up.

As you might have guessed, once the ball started rolling with these papers I was hooked, and to date there are another three male themed cards to share with you. Just as well I'm hosting the male themed challenge 'Boy oh Boy' over at Frilly and Funkie right now!

OK, off to write more posts and play more. Thanks for stopping by and take care of yourselves, whatever you're up to this weekend. Jenny xxx

Spring Is In The Air at A Vintage Journey

Hi everyone and welcome! It's time to unleash a new challenge for you over at A Vintage Journey - and Spring Is In The Air; our host Sandy wants you to leave those winter blues behind. Make anything that says SPRING using pastel colours. It is your choice, a card, canvas, 3D or a tag, etc. but remember it should be in one of the vintage; shabby; mixed media; art journalling; industrial or steampunk styles that we favour. Once again we are sponsored by Country View Crafts and the winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend with them.

I love Spring. It's by far my favourite time of year; the days are getting longer and lighter, the birds sing, the buds and blossoms appear and there's a real sense of optimism in the air. I'm celebrating this wonderful time with a floral garland and a couple of fun ideas for using your Distress Crayons.

Having given the canvas a coat of black gesso I stencilled through the Prairie Flower and From The Garden stencils, poured on some Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain and (when dry) scribbled over the Peacock Feathers and Mermaid Lagoon Distress Crayons. Then I misted on a little water and went back in with a brush to blend it all together. It gave me a fabulous pastel look and also meant I could go back in over the top with the same Distress Crayons (and some Twisted Citron) and add extra colour/detail.

You can paint with your Distress Crayons, either by applying a good amount directly to the paper and drawing out the colour with a water brush, or my favourite way is to use my water brush directly onto the crayon to draw out some colour with which to paint the embossed flowers. This also means you have control over the depth of colour achieved so you can make it softer or stronger.

The little flowers were layered over embossed leaves, and you may notice I also allowed some dilute black gesso to run over the top of the blended background to break it up a little. Here are some close ups...

I'm entering this into the following challenges;

The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #23 - Dimension

(with Wendy Vecchi as the Special Guest Artist and two of her stamp sets up for grabs it would be rude not to!)

The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Challenge - All Things Distress (that would be the crayons then!)

Country View Challenges - Spring

Stamps and Stencils - Spring is in the Air

Creative Artiste Challenge #13 - Anything Goes (Stencils/Flowers)

Now I urge you to hop on over and see the Spring projects my fellow Creative Guides have conjured up to delight and inspire you, and then it's your turn! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with to celebrate this wonderful season...

Take care everyone, Jenny xxx