Seeing Red at The Stampman

Evening all!  Finally made it online lol!  I'm cutting it close aren't I!  I've nodded off a couple of times as the bed is soooo warm and my lad has got in making it even more attractive to cuddle up and zone out.  Had to stay awake as I was bidding on something on ebay and wanted to make sure I got it lol!  I don't use fancy bid thingies I like the thrill of the chase :)  Got one of the dance mats for the wii the other day but no game so I was looking at the game for it with an extra mat as Ethan loves playing with me so finally got it yay!

Anyhow over to my challenge for you at The Stampman this fortnight and I have set you a task of using RED, either a little or preferably a lot..

I had a little play around with techniques the other day and used sponges to put fired brick and black soot distress ink onto card then dipped an old toothbrush into bleach then flcked the bristles which is the piece I used at the back.  I used parazone which is a tad harsh lol!

The embossed piece I swiped the inkpads direct to the card, they came out much darker then dried t with a heat gun and used the divine swirls cuttlebug folder and the image is from my new set of stamps which was part of my birthday treat off OH and thats Aspects of Design 60 - Classical Instruments.  I've stamped and embossed with moonglow midnight ruby then using the blending tool added distress ink from the outside inwards and any bits I went over I bleached out.  Its mounted on silver holographic card with some black organza ribbon and sticky gems to finish.

Hope you can come over to the challenge and show me some red!

Here's the backing one I showed other day, ink up your card then dip an old toothbrush in some bleach and pull the bristles back over the card.  You may want to tap off excess bleach first or you get big blobs like this (or you may like that!)  WATCH YOUR CLOTHES!

I'd also like to enter into the following challenges...

Crafty Catz - SOmething new (Stamps)
Gingersnap - Spicy supply challenge - Ribbon
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything goes

A Royal Wedding

Its a ROYAL WEDDING over at Crafty Cardmakers with the choice of using a red, white & blue theme OR a wedding theme or you can go the whole hog and do a red, white & blue wedding theme!
For this I used a Tilda stamp coloured with promarkers and derwent coloursoft pencil and went with the first option of the red, white & blue theme.
Papers are by Bearly Mine Designs and the blg blue flowers I just got from QVC outlet.  One of the ladies at the craft group in warrington I've just started had a pack on her table so Sarah hot footed it up to QVC to get us the last 2 bags lol!
I've used a couple of tiny butterfly punch outs, one is covering the mistake I made colouring the sleeve in blue when I wanted it white.  Got a bit stuck after I'd put the bottom flowers on and the image so thought "What would Tracy Payne do?" and thought of a swirl so I added that and another couple of flowers and its balanced out OK.  The swirl is a Tim Holtz elegant flourish die cut which I glittered with stickles also glittering the flowers.

So hope you can join in over at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight for a Royal Wedding!

Would also like to enter into...

Stamp with Fun - Birthday
Just Magnolia - Happy Birthday
Paper romance - paper flowers

Anything Sir T!m of Holtz goes at The Stampman

Theres a new challenge at The Stampman this fortnight and we'd like to see Anything Tim!  For this I used quite a number of Tim's products, I don't have any stamps so improvised!
I started with a box canvas Ive had for about 3 years lol!  I built up some colour with distress inks in broken china and wild honey which make a lovely green when mixed and dried with a heatgun between coats.  I've added streaks of acrylic daubers again drying then used the flourish die cut as a stencil and applied gold painty swirls.  The corners are distress crackle paint and I've literally thrown some white pearl paint on and heated till it bubbled (I was outside in the sunshine with my heatgun btw!)  Added some black dots with sequin waste.

The embellishments are quite personal.  The key is from one of my MANY house moves when I just want to stay put.  The mini domino is from my huge collection of various shapes and sizes, I'm always looking in charity shops for old ones :D  The flowers I pressed myself, they're proper naff but I love them coz they're so naff.  The buttons were white and I altered them with distress ink and I had to add the shrink plastic at the bottom to give Janey and Jill a laugh.  I'm RUBBISH at shrink plastic and these were an attempt (or 3) of shrinking one of tim's flourishes.  I thought I'd include them as well why not, I'm rubbish at it and this canvas is quite personal.  I dont have a lot of altered nick nacks and this is my first go so be gentle lol!

Heated acrylic making it bubble and giving texture

The crackle paint, thrown on paint and naff flowers :)

And my rubbish shrink plastic, I thought they deserved a place :)

Tim Holtz/Sizzix flourish die (Used as stencil and rubbish shrink plastic)

Distress Inks (Broken china, wild honey, vintage photo)

Adirondack acrylic paint daubers (Pearl, gold, sailboat blue, black)

Alcohol Inks (Raisin, Meadow, Slate)

Tim Holtz Distress crackle paint (Antique linen)

Shrink Plastic

So come on girls and guys, drag that Tim stuff out and show The Stampman what you're made of!

Its Tim Holtz at The Stampman

For the next fortnight the challenge over at The Stampman is Anything Christmas Tim Holtz!  The DT have made beautiful samples usng lots and lots of lovely Sir Tim products and it should get you into good practice when he runs his famous 12 tags of Christmas challenge soon!

For this I've used a Tim Holtz Holiday Collections stamp on Poinsettia Red/Gold starburst stains which I sprayed lightly with bleach across the centre.   The background is also starburst stains sprayed with black webbing (Its an aerosol so only available in the shop) and I've used the Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bigz elegant flourish die.

Hope you can come over and play, remember anything Tim Holtz (thats a LOT of stuff!) and Christmas goes!

I'm a day late putting my post up as I'm getting a lot of headaches lately.  Was going to do it when I got home last night but I went shopping and found out Diva Fever from X Factor were performing live so came home with an absolute raging one but they were worth it haha!  They were my favs to win as I've got a very clear camp taste in music!

Would also like to enter into...

ABC Christmas - X is for Xmas
Caardvarks - Christmas and using die cuts

Crafty Cardmakers spotlight on Embossing

The spotlight challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers this fortnight is to use DRY EMBOSSING.  The spotlight challenges look at a style, technique or product and show various ways of using them in designs so come and pop over to see what the team have created!

For this challenge I used the divine swirls and script texture embossing folders.  The script is on the rainforest green card which is edged wth a gold acrylic dabber and I also used a Tim Holtz elegant flourish die from The Stampman on a sheet of red metal I've had for yeeeeears which I also embossed with the script folder.
Image is called Wintergreen which is from Crafts & Me here.  She's coloured with promarkers and I've used the metallic gold promarker on the hair blended in with the pastel yellow and gold promarkers.  (Tip: Colour the pastel yellow and gold first, add the metallic gold and reblend with the pastel yellow and gold)  I've used a sakra stardust clear pen on the fur bits, stickles glue on the snow on the trees and flowers and a white gel pen for the dot detail on the clothes.  Papers are from Bearly Mine Designs from the Christmas fun set which you'll find here.  Cutest little tag is from Stamping all day which is embossed with detail gold.  Flowers are plain white from Wild Orchid Crafts with stickles glitter glue for sparkle.

Any questions just gimmie a shout and thanks for looking x

Would also like to enter into...

Christmas Card Challenge - Photo Inspiration
Crazy 4 Challenges - Square Cards
Fairytale - Anything goes
One Stitch at a Time - Winter Wonderland
CRAFT - Dry Embossing
One Stop Craft Challenge - Embossing
Lexi's Creations - Anything goes
ECP Challenges - Red
Whoopsie Daisy - Christmas
A Spoonful of Sugar - Relish to Embellish
Charisma - With love at Xmas
Little Red Wagon - Red
Stamp & Create - Tis the season
Tip Top Tuesday - Christmas