A Little Peek at... Art Journaling

Today I'm sharing a little peek at an upcoming blog project, this time, some Art Journaling...

I haven't felt inspired to journal for a while, but last week I had something going around and around in my head, the best way of getting it out was to grab some paints and inks and get it into my journal!

I used Ranger Ink Distress paints, Ink Sprays and Derwent Liner Pens along with my Doodle Doll stamps. I'll show the full project in a few days.

Thank you for dropping by today!

Sarah x

Paint Resist Christmas Cards

Today I'm sharing two Christmas cards I made using Tim Holtz Christmas Blueprint stamps and Tim Holtz / Ranger Distress Paint dabbers. Both cards I've kept very simple but I love the alternative colour scheme!

For this first card I uses the Snowflake stamp from the set, I stamped it onto a luggage tag using Perfect Medium and embossed it in clear embossing powder. While that cooled I cut a kraft card mat for my card blank, covered it in frosted film and rounded the corners.

Once my embossing was cool, I misted the tag lightly with water and took Paint Dabbers in Broken China, Picked Raspberry and Mustard Seed (I know it looks like more than 3 colours, I overlapped and mixed them onto the tag!) I Started with the Picked Raspberry down the edge and then blended the blue and yellow in from the other side.

I allowed the colours to overlap as I went before taking some kitchen towel and wiping the excess off in a circular motion to blend the colours even more. once it was completely dry I added some vintage style glass glitter from Stampin Up on part of the edge (Glossy Accents works perfectly for adhering this!) and some dots of Liquid Pearl to embellish

This card uses the Christmas Tree from the same set but using the exact same technique, here is a little close up...

I love working with these paints and the colours are gorgeous!!

I hope you like my alternative Christmas cards and I hope your preparations are nearly done, as I'm at Create & Craft for the next two days I finished mine today (eek!) I'm so relieved we have everything and I even got to stroke a pony on the way out of the supermarket (the local riding school was raising funds outside) I'm starting to feel very Christmassy :o)

Than you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral Challenge!

Today I'm sharing my entry for the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral Challenge! I've actually only ever entered one other challenge before (by my lovely crafty friend Fab) can you believe that?! but as soon as I saw this one, an idea came to me and I just had to do it! So here is my altered vintage wooden spool...

I don't often craft with flowers, I'm not really a 'flowery' type of girl, lol, but I'd had in my head, a picture of metal flowers, I tried cutting them from aluminum but I couldn't mould them as much as I wanted to so I had the idea of covering grunge paper with one of the Ranger foil sheets before die cutting with the Tim Holtz / Sizzix Tattered Floral Die, and that worked a treat! Once cut, they looked exactly as I'd pictured all along (and how often does that happen?? lol) Here are a few more close ups...

I wanted the metal finish to be more aged and not too bright and shiny so once I'd made the flowers up, I dabbed a tiny bit of the new Distress paint in black soot onto my craft sheet, misted it with water and then used my finger to dab it onto the petals before drying with a heat gun. I then finished them off with a dab of crackle accents to make them even more vintagey (yes, it's a word! lol) and the tiniest hint of Rock Candy stickles. Here's a close up...

The vintage fabric label is from Rico, I scrunched it and aged it with Distress stains in antique linen and tea dye, then done the same to a ticket. I added a layer of crackle accents to the ticket and then cracked even more after by re-scrunching (also a word... ;o) )

I joined the label and the ticket together with a little paperclip and added one of the tiny game spinners and a vintage glass button, tied through with some cream button twine

I didn't do an awful lot to the vintage spool (available in my shop) just added a touch of tea dye distress stain to the edges and the coated in rock candy stickles before drying off with a heat gun. I added a length of twill ribbon around the centre, plugged the centre with a scrap of the grunge paper that was left over to create a little step for the doll (also from Tim Holtz) - I love broken and disembodied dolls (weird, right?) so had to include this one! I filled the gap with Beacon Adhesives 3 in 1 glue and held him in there for a few minutes until it dried around him, then added blobs of Beacon 3in1 around the cotton reel and to the bottoms of the flowers to secure them in place around him on top of the cotton reel.

I finished it with a hint of rock candy stickles on the dolls hair...

Thanks for bearing with me through that epic post! I hope you liked my creation.

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

p.s. scroll back for the DT call details and new Create & Craft TV show dates! :o) x 

Watercolour Rose Card with Derwent Inktense

Todays card is not my normal style, but B wanted a Birthday card for his Aunt so I made one that I knew she would like, and I really enjoyed making something I maybe wouldn't have normally...

 

The stamp is an old one by PSX, I've had it for around 10 years but I still love it :o) I stamped it with Staz on Ink onto watercolour paper and coloured the image with Derwent Inktense pencils before distressing the edges and inking the background with Tim Holtz Distress inks in Tea Dye and Walnut stain. I then masked off the image with another one I had stamped on scrap paper and lightly flicked with water before blotting to create the aged effect. Here is a close up...

Today I have been working on some design revisions and some new illustration work in between phone calls and emails! This evening I have some more illustration to do and some writing. I'm really hoping to get back into my studio in the next day or so, its far too long since I crafted and I have the urge to scrapbook!

Thanks for dropping by today!
Sarah x

A Cricut Nativity!

One of my favourite projects this Christmas season has been my Nativity scene frame that now sits in pride of place on my mantlepiece - I know this will be a feature of my Christmas decorations for years to come!

Supply List - Cricut Expression 'Winter Frolic' Cartridge - Provocraft, Tinseltown CD - Sarah Hurley, Frame (from any homeware store), White Acrylic Paint, Promarkers - Letraset, Precision Pen - American Crafts, Distress Stickles (Broken China), Stickles - Stardust - Ranger, Coated Card - Rymans, Sticky Dots

This was really simple to make, all the pieces you can die cut from your Cricut Expression (on to white and colour in like I did or using up your scraps!)

Firstly I sanded the frame and painted with two coats of acrylic paint - I made the paint quite watery as I didn't want a completely even finish, I like the Shabby Chic look!

I then set that aside to dry and covered the back part of the frame in snowfall paper from the Tinseltown CD, I cut the hills from a scrap of brown card and added those in front. I then die cut all the pieces from the cartridge (I cut most of these around 2.8 but depending on the size of your frame you may want to change this - the squares on the mat will help you see what size you should be cutting, it makes it so simple!) I cut everything from white card then coloured with my Promarkers.

Once the shapes were all dry I layered them together using Sticky Dots (they are great for sticking down the fiddly little parts of die cuts!) and added features using an American Crafts precision pen in brown.

I then arranged them onto the backing to get the look I wanted. Once I was happy I glued them all into place and tucked the back back inside the frame. I then added the Christmas Trees and the Angel to the frame. I used Stickles to make the Angels cloud and wings sparkly and to add baubles to the Christmas Tree. I then printed the banner and added to the top - done! Such a fun project :o)

I hope your Christmas preparations are coming along nicely, not long to go - eeeeeeek!

Sarah x

A Tinseltown Christmas Birdhouse

I had one tiny birdhouse left and I've been waiting for ages for a suitable project for it. With all my little leftover pieces from recent Tinseltown projects, a little idea came to me and I jumped out of bed at 1am the other night to get it done before I forgot!

Supply List - Tinseltown CD, MDF Mini Birdhouse, Range Paintdabber - Snow Cap, Stickles - Icicle, Glossy Accents, Promarkers, Prima Brick Stamp, Adirondack Inkpad - Raisin, Cocktail Stick, Strong Double Sided Tape

I first coloured the house using Promarkers (I didn't want to wait for paints to dry!) I then cut a scrap of the green scalloped paper ribbon from the CD and glued it around the bottom using glossy accents. I then cut out a tiny reindeer and tree and found one of the flag greetings I hadn't used.

I stamped both sides of the roof using a Prima brick stamp and an adirondack inkpad in raisin (it bleeds slightly but I loved the effect!

 

I then used the snowcap paint dabber and squeezed it quite firmly onto my craft sheet to get lots of paint coming out and dabbed it on the top and edges of the roof for snow. I the scraped it around the edge of the base to get a big build up of paint to look like piles of fallen snow - I set this aside to dry overnight.

In the morning when this was dry I added the tree and reindeer using glossy accents. I then used some strong double sided tape (the red one) to attach the flag to the cocktail stick. Then to attach the flag to the house (you can't do this with the house standing up I found out!) I marked on the cocktail stick where I wanted the roof to go then laid the cocktail stick on some scrap paper, adding a dot of glossy accents where the mark is, I then laid the house on top and stood the glossy accents bottle on top to hold it down while it dried.

Once everything was dry I added some stickles to the snow to make it sparkle!

I'm going to use it as a tree decoration (when B finally digs the Christmas Tree out of the loft!) Now I'm thinking of other things I can make for my tree :o)

Sarah x

p.s. Thank you for all the great feedback on the Inspiration Gallery - I'm so glad you're all loving it!!

Basically Bare Cards

Today I'm sharing the two cards I've made for Basically Bare this week...

Supply List – Chipboard Heart & Wings – Basically Bare, Felt Frame – Basically Bare, Pearl & Snowcap Paint Dabbers, Glossy Accents – Ranger, Basics Paper – Basic Grey, Tinsel Ribbon – MME, Seam Binding – Crafty Ribbons, Glitter Star – Paper Cellar, Rub-on, Corner Rounder Punch, Double Sided Tape and Extra Strong Tape from stash.

Supply List – Felt Bird Stackabellies and Canvas Banner – Basically Bare, Rubber Stamp – LOTV, Papers, Postcard Embellishment & Greeting – Tinseltown Craft CD by Sarah Hurley, Tea Dye Distress Ink, Icicle Stickles – Ranger, Cricut Expression with Built in Cartridge – Provocraft, Promarkers & Flexmarkers – Letraset, Black Memento Ink Pad, Card Blank, Double Sided Tape, Bleedproof paper & Adhesive Pearl from Stash

For more details and lots more pictures and close-ups please pop over to the Basically Bare blog and take a look!

Sarah x

End of the Week....

......and to be honest it'll be a relief! With one thing and another this week has not been a great one! and I'll be glad to see the back of it (not that I'm usually one for wishing my life away) anyway, I've decided every day is another chance for a clean slate and i'm trying not to let things get me down. I've been through worse than this and know that every bad thing has led me to a better thing, even if that has taken some time, I have to remain patient and be grateful for the many good things I do have. I'm digging out my copy of 'The Secret' tonight and giving it a jolly good read!! it always picks me up and refocuses my mind. If you haven't heard of it, try it! Its a great book on the Law of Attraction by Rhonda Byrne, and will help you to think positively, not that by sitting back and imagining I have a Bentley outside I imagine one will suddenly appear!!! But by thinking positively it helps you to deal with problems more constructively instead of being worn down by it all as I was this week!

Now onto crafty stuff! My sneak peek for tomorrow is almost ready! can't wait to show it and get some feedback :o)

Secondly, I was asked on my blog and by e-mail yesterday the best place to get Promarkers - at the moment Hobbycraft are having a half price sale and I hear on the grapevine that they have just re-stocked! So make sure you get to your local one or to their website quick and order up - you won't be sorry!

Once you've got them have a look at Debs blog as she has posted a fab Promarker tutorial with the Woodland Whimsies designs - love the cute feathery effect on the owl - will definitely get round to trying that this week! if you want to get your hand on the owl design, you can get your CD here!

I also managed another Layout - can you believe it! thats two in as many days!! some kind of record for me recently!

This one was done with a past Studio Calico kit and some lovely Adirondack inkpads from Ranger.

Now I must get on with that sneaky peek!

Sarah x

Mini Portfolio

Last week I made a mini portfolio from a lovely Crown shaped Kaisercraft book - every time I tell people what I do they say "ooooh, lets see" so I thought if I had a tiny portfolio I could carry in my giant Mary Poppins style bag I could actually show them. It also gave me an excuse to break out the Ranger distress crackle paint (tattered rose - my all time favourite!) it works so well on wood and I loved the final effect. I printed some pics of previous work and even managed to squeeze in some ATC's as they were a perfect fit!



I also managed to use some of my lovely Melody Ross textile tags as they had lovely sentiments like "I make Stuff" which fitted in perfectly.

Right now I'm working on some Scrapbook Layouts for samples and for myself - I have sooo many photo's to scrap, this is what happens when you fall behind! I'll post some pics soon. I'm loving the new Cosmo Cricket lines, Material Girl and Garden Variety - they're actually not so new now, Ive had them for a few weeks but only just got to the stage where I could actually cut into them!

Tim Holtz Fever!!

Everyone seems to have Tim Holtz fever at the moment, including me! Finally got my mucky little hands on his lovely book yesterday (Karen at ScrapShed finally relented and let me take it home - she wouldn't let me have it before in case I took it to Stitches and tried to get it autographed like an embarrassing groupie, mwahahahaha!) now I've devoured it all and of course seen the fabby demo at Stitches on Sunday so over the last day or two I've been stocking up on lots of things that of course now I've seen I actually literally cannot live without!! Like my lovely new Tim Holtz Stamp Binder - if you ever see this "in the flesh" you will not be able to resist - lush!!

Also now have new stamps so of course need lovely new ink pads and as Karen needed some swatches to show off the colours I got to play with them all first - yay! you can see in the pic I managed to once again get myself in a right old mess and have fun creating them, here's me "demoing" the new colours

My favourites are Rusty Hinge, Crushed Olive and Chipped Sapphire (which isn't purple as it looks on the packaging but actually a lovely dark blue, like a night sky)

You can see that the packaging (below) is not a great representation of the colours - they are much much better in "real life"

Think my overall favourite is still the old walnut stain, I just LOVE it! Right I'm off to get some new samples made up and try all the techniques in the book I haven't yet tried!