ROCK YOUR BOOK.

With his Book of Ruination workshop, Andy gave us a bonus class - Rock your Book.  This is my first effort.  All the rusty bits stuck in the rock.  My craft room is fast being taken over by modelling paste, texture paints, plaster, bitumen and all sorts of other stuff.  Oh, and a few skeletons in the mix too.

RUINATION...

I am totally enjoying my 5th online workshop with Andy Skinner.  This one is called 'The Book of Ruination' and we've learnt yet more techniques to use in our altered art.  If you're in to this kind of stuff, you really should sign up for one of his workshops.

These are my first 2 projects.  The skelly had a bit of a rough time.  His suffered purple poison and the knife is still sticking out of his chest too!!!!  I think I rushed the inside of the book a bit, so might add something else or do it again.

This is already hanging on my wall.  I used one of those cheap MDF plaques you can get and used the same techniques as the book.  This one however, is finished better as the 'holes' are more prominent, as they should be.

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!!!!!

Yeah right!  I don't think so, lol.  Aren't you all fed up of freezing, 'cause I know I am.
This week it's #161 over at I ♥ PROMARKERS and our theme is Spring. Our sponsors this week  are the fabulous MARIANNE DESIGN and we welcome a new sponsor VISIBLE IMAGE. Both sponsors are offering 2 stamps to our two winners.

I wanted to try something different this week as I really didn't want to colour an image, so I thought I'd colour my die cuts instead.  I like the concept, but perhaps not the execution lol.  Dies are by Marianne and the corner stamp is by Dylusions.

TIM HOLTZ TAGS - MARCH

Here's my take on Tim's tag for March.  I thought I had a good stash of T.H. stuff, but I had hardly anything that he used for this, so had to improvise.

First off, I've got no movers and shapers, so I used a Photoshop shape for my bunny, saved it as a jpeg and then imported and cut it on my Cameo.  Then I used a nestie to cut the outer frame. My substitute for his tinsel bunny was flock, but then I decided to use micro beads instead.  I hand cut the grass from a sheet of paper that was actually a T.H. pad and as I had no metal flowers at all, I used a stick pin and some pearl sprays, but I coloured the pearls a bit with a Promarker.   I made the greeting banner myself too, just eyeballing the size and shape and then I used a rub-on word.
To be honest, I'm not that keen on this one, but as I promised myself I would do one each month, here it is.
Entering into:
Tim Holtz Tags of 2013 - March.

DistRESS IT UP!

Inspired by a vid I saw on YouTube, I've been stamping, inking and thoroughly enjoying myself.  I used stamps from LaBlanche, Elusive Images and Andy Skinner. The stencils are by Dylusions and the whole lot was coloured using my distress ink pads, the details being done with T.H. nibs.  Not much else to say really, lol, but it's been a massive change to do something bright and colourful without a Promarker in sight.  It's already stuck up on my wall.  I've also nearly finished my 1st and 2nd projects from my Book of Ruination workshop and with any luck will get my T.H. March tag done this weekend too.

And yeah, I know it's not Steampunk...but I wanted to use that stamp ~ so I did, ha ha.

Entering into:
MY GRAFICO #147 - Anything goes.
HOTSHOT CRAFTS #15 - Anything but a card.

WINK! WINK!

It's week #160 over at I ♥ PROMARKERS  and this week the theme is everybody's favourite again, Anything Goes.  So, as long as you use Letraset pens on your project, you can enter what you like.   We have two sponsors this week too so there'll be two winners.  J & C CREATIONS who are offering  a £10 voucher and CRAFTY SENTIMENTS who are offering 3 digi images.

For my card I used the Crafty Sentiment image 'Having Fun' from the Manga category.  My papers are from the MME pad Fine and Dandy Girl. The bunting was a strip of paper with a bit of fussy cutting.  I used a spellbinders die to back the image, a Cheery Lynn die that I cut up to make two swirls, a MS punch for the blue borders  and the sentiment is one of my own.

I've been playing with paints and stuff again as I'm doing the new ANDY SKINNER online workshop, 'Book of Ruination' and having great fun, albeit making a cock up here and there lol.  I'm also playing with my new LaBlanche stamps and distress ink pads and I still have my Tim Holtz March tag to make so hopefully, I'll have something else to show you soon.

Entering into:
CHARISMA CARDZ #11 - Die Cuts.
ADDICTED TO STAMPS #37 - Use Markers.
BEARLY MINE #78 - Anything goes.
TUESDAY ALCHEMY #52 - Anything goes.
MAKE IT MONDAY #132 - Anything goes.

BRUNNHILDE

Hellooooooo there.  Hope you're all well.  First I'd like to say welcome to my newest follower.  Unfortunately, blogger hasn't put them in order so I don't know who you are.  I'm glad to have you though.

This weeks challenge #158 over at I ♥ PROMARKERS is 'Anything but Square'.  That can be a bit of a challenge as square cards seem to be the norm for most of us at the moment.  Our sponsor is DOCTOR DIGI who has some really fun images, you should take a look if you've not seen them already.  My choice for this week was the very handsome lady, Brunnhilde.  Being a great fan of Opera, I couldn't resist her.  I had a plan - my card was going to be totally music themed, but somehow I went completely off track and ended up with this, lol.

Brunny is mounted onto 2 Spellbinders dies.  The flowers and lacy semicircles (large sunflower doily) are done with Cheery Lynn dies. (I absolutely love them). I used Marianne dies for my leaves and a Martha Stewart punch for my borders. The papers are from the divine pack from GCD studios 'Paris Nights'. Finally, I accented a few bits with some pearls and added one of my own sentiments.

Entering into:
CHEERY LYNN #70 - Doilies.
LITTLE RED WAGON - Get in shape.
THE PAPER SHELTER #102 - Punches and dies.
NUTCRAFTERS #38 - Something beginning with B.
CRAFTY SENTIMENTS - Pretty in pink.
CUTTIN' & STAMPIN' #9 - Use flowers.
PARTY TIME TUESDAYS #110 - Die Cuts.
TUESDAY THROWDOWN #137 - Lace and doilies.
CREATED WITH LOVE #31 - Anything goes. HONOURABLE MENTION
WHOOPSIDAISY - 2 patterned papers.

A4 MINI BOOK

I recently took part in a swap where we had to make a mini book from one sheet of A4 paper and this is what I came up with.  I absolutely love this idea.  There are only a couple of pages but they're a perfect size to decorate or put a photo on and they're brilliant for scrapbooking when you need a multi photo layout without cluttering up your page.  All of it was stamped...not a digi image or Promarker in sight, lol.  Any detail painting was done using distress ink.

I don't often give a supply list but I'm going to this time as it's quite extensive for a small project.
I used a double sided paper but actually forgot to write down what it was, lol.  It's plain on one side and striped on the other in shades of brown and cream which is visible inside the pocket and the back.
Other stuff:
Distress Ink Pads 'Brushed Corduroy and Black Soot'
Ranger Archival ink 'Jet Black'
Americana Antique White acrylic paint
Decoart one step crackle.
Tim Holtz...Ideology Chitchat
..................Adage Stickers
..................Salvage Stickers 'Lost and Found'
..................Paper String
..................Custom Fasteners
..................Masks 'Compass and Timeworks'
Crafty Individuals image
Stamps:
River City Rubberworks ~ Zettiology ~ Studio 490 ~ Stampers Anonymous (Tim Holtz collection) ~ Dylusions ~ Kanban ~ 7 Gypsies ~ Indigo Blu  and Andy Skinner.

After I'd cut and folded the book, I inked every page with the brushed corduroy as the paper was far too pale for what I wanted.  The little crackles on the background are done with an Andy Skinner background stamp, just bending it in my fingers and stamping randomly. The two cogs were painted and crackled and then I basically just got to stamping and sticking.

Entering into:
SO ARTFUL CHALLENGES (March) ~ Shades of brown.
MEMA'S CRAFTS (March) - Anything goes with a pocket twist.
ONE CRAZY STAMPER (March) - Anything goes.
HOTSHOT CRAFT #15 - Anything but a card.
INSPIRE ME FRIDAY # 98 ~ Anything goes.

PRESSIE TIME!

It's week #157 over at I ♥ PROMARKERS and this week's theme is Lace and Pearls.  We have two sponsors this week too, MARIANNE DESIGN and STITCHY BEAR STAMPS, so there'll be two lucky winners next week.
The Stitchy image I chose to use is called, would you believe...FLUFF, lol.  Sorry, it just makes me chuckle.    It makes me think of my late Dad, he called everybody's girlfriends or whatever 'bits of fluff'.  Bless him.  Talking about my dad, he's been gone 13 years and not a day passes that I don't think of him and miss him.  He would have been 90 today so a drop of whisky is called for in his memory methinks.

My dotty background was done using a 6" Embossalicious folder. I used 2 Marianne dies to cut the black frame and a Marianne clock die.  The black lace and pearls are from my stash and I did a computer generated sentiment. The pearls on her bodice are done with White Opal liquid pearls.

Entering into:
DIVA'S BY DESIGN - Anything goes.
ANYTHING GOES CHALLENGE #87 - Make it manly.
BEARLY MINE #75 - Anything goes.
CRAFT ROOM CHALLENGE - Something for a man.
CREATIVE CARD CREW #30 - Birthday.
OSAAT #152 - Use a digi. WINNER
DIGITAL TUESDAY #199 - Birthdays.
PARTY TIME TUESDAYS #109 - Anything goes.
TTCRD Feb 26 - Mar 4 - Anything goes.
MAKE IT MONDAY #129 - Anything goes.
MY GRAFICO #146 - Anything goes.
PINK ELEPHANT #188 - Anything goes.
613 AVENUE CREATE #8 - Anything goes

UNDER THE WEATHER.

Whether it's weather or feeling poorly, either way I feel sorry for you.  I'm blurdy freezing.   Anyway, time for another card over at

 I ♥ PROMARKERS (#156) and this week the theme is Four Legged Friends.  Ok, I admit, mice aren't everybody's friends, lol but I think they're quite cute.  The ones I see are frozen though 'cause my Royal Python LUVS them, ha, ha.  Our sponsor this week is  J & C CREATIONS with a £10 online spend up for grabs for our winner.

I don't think I've made a get well soon type of card before, but I just adore this Paper Shelter image.  This is  my second attempt at a card with it mind, my first was a bit too 'in your face' for my liking.  And, I think my lighting was wrong 'cause the shadow on the foam mounted mouse look a bit strong.  My papers are from a Teresa Collins pad called Sweet Afternoon .  I have used Cheery Lynn, Nellie Snellen and Lea'Bilities dies and an EK Success border punch (although most of the border's hidden).  All I used then was one brad and a computer generated sentiment.

Entering into:
CRAFTING FOR ALL SEASONS #46 - Dies and Punches.

LADY ANNE'S (3rd Apr) - Anything goes.
CRAFTING BY DESIGN - Anything goes.
PENNY'S PAPER CRAFTY #115 - Anything goes.
TTCRD #2013-8 - Anything goes.
HOUSE OF GILLI #50 - Anything goes + pastels.
DIGI MAKEOVER #76 - Anything goes.
MAKE IT MONDAY # 128 - Anything goes.

LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS!

Another week, another I ♥ PROMARKERS card.  This week, #155 is all about the girls.  We want to see all your lovely, frilly girly cards.  Our fabulous sponsor is SATURATED CANARY.  Who doesn't just adore Krista's images eh?   For my card, I used the image 'Honey'.

My papers are from Kaisercraft and are left over pieces from a scrapbook layout I've just done.  Honey was cut out and mounted on a 'nestie' circle.  The corner die is my favourite Memory Box and the lacy oval and leaves are Cheery Lynn.  Lace  and blossoms from my stash.  Anyway, not much else to tell you so that'll be that, lol.

Entering into:

CHARISMA CARDZ - Anything goes.

CRAFT US CRAZY #37 - Show us your favourites.

DELIGHTFUL CHALLENGES - Frilly. WINNER

LADY ANNE (20th Feb) - Anything goes.

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS - 3, 2, 1. TOP 3

DEEP OCEAN #45 - Letter B (bunny and blossoms), although I may be stretching the theme a tad, lol.

PARTY TIME TUESDAYS #107 - 3 & 3 VIP TOP 3

SHOPPING OUR STASH #89 - Birthday.

TUESDAY THROWDOWN #134 - Anything goes.

TIM HOLTZ TAGS - FEBRUARY 2013

My take on Tim's February Tag.   Not much else to say really, lol.  You'll have to go to T.H's blog  to see what techniques were used for this month.  Oh yeah, I used the first of my 'old' stamps from my box (previous post).

I wasn't too sure about this one, but I actually love the vibrancy of the red distress stain.

Entering into:
Tim Holtz tags of 2013 - February.

IN WITH THE OLD!!

I'm always grateful for new followers, but sometimes, more than others.  Today, I'd like to thank Calamity for becoming my new follower as I then found her fabulous blog in return.  She does some stunning work.  Today she used a gorgeous corset stamp but couldn't remember who made it.  I knew I had it, so I went rooting through my box of old wood mounted stamps to find it.   Not only did I find the corset, but also shed loads of other gorgeous stamps that I used to love and completely forgot I had.

I have three drawers full of unmounted rubber and clear stamps and tend to use these, but having re-found this little treasure trove, I shall be going through them and using them again.  With about 800 stamps in total, I suppose it's hard to remember all the ones you have and even harder to actually use them, but I'm going to set myself a goal to use at least half of these old ones in the next couple of months.

My fave style is vintage/shabby/distress but being on the ILPM design team, I use a lot of digi images and 'cute' stuff.   I wonder how many of these stamps are suitable for colouring with Promarkers and how many I can actually use for my DT cards???  I think I might start though with my T.H. tag for February.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY..

I really don't know where time goes.  It's our I ♥ PROMARKERS challenge blog's 3rd birthday.  I joined the team at week 8 and I remember making the most appalling card and being highly embarrassed.  Hopefully, I've improved somewhat since then, lol. It's pretty obvious then that our theme this week (#154) is Happy Birthday and our sponsor is LETRASET with a pack of Promarkers up for grabs.

I used one of my favourite Tilda stamps and made the raindrops with liquid pearls. My background was Robo cut and mounted over a sheet of red paper.  I used a Spellbinders die cut to mount my Tilda on and a Cheery Lynn die as a bit of a border behind it then I finished off with a strip of white mesh and ribbon from my stash. The sentiment was from Sentiments 4 You.

Entering into:
LADY ANNE'S (20th Feb) - Anything goes.
MAKE IT MONDAY #126 - Anything goes.
BEARLY MINE #72 - Anything goes.
CLEAR IT OUT - Red/White/Anything goes.
CRAFTY SENTIMENTS - Anything goes.
LEJ DESIGNS #39 - Anything goes.
TTCRD (11th Feb) - Anything goes.

LOVE IS ALL AROUND.

Well, I suppose it was inevitable that I'd have to make a lovey dovey card at some stage.  Almost as bad as Christmas cards I think, pmsl.  Anyway, the theme at I ♥ PROMARKERS this week (#153) is love and our fabulous sponsor is MARIANNE DESIGN.  I was going to use Mo's freebie (the love thief) but as I figured there'd be shed loads of them floating around, I went for something completely different.  This is very CAS for me, but I actually quite like it.

I cut the Marianne die twice, one black one white and layered them atop a black mat, border cut with a Martha Stewart punch.  It's all mounted onto a white card base. The stamp is an old wood mounted one I've had for years.  I cut each letter square out and mounted them with 3D sticky dots.  There's a minimal amount of Promarker colouring on this and I applied diamond glaze to the letters and that, as they say, is that!

Entering into:

GINGERLOFT #56 - Love is in the air.

ABC #14 -  Valentine's day.

ARTISTIC INSPIRATIONS #26 - Love/Anything goes.

CRAZY AMIGO - Red, black and white.

DIE CUTTING DIVA'S #100 - Anything goes (must use a die cut).

SHOPPING OUR STASH #87 - Love, Red.....etc.

TUESDAY ALCHEMY #49 - Anything goes.

CREATIVE CREATIONS #2 - Keep it simple.

MAKE IT MONDAY #125 - Anything goes.

CREATIVE INSPIRATIONS PAINT - Anything goes.

JUST CHILLIN'

Ooooh, I'm a bit late with my I ♥ PROMARKERS card this week.  I've been busy scrapbooking and looking after my mum.  It's challenge #152 and it's an Anything Goes week.  We have a new sponsor too, and that's J & C CREATIONS with a £10 spend for our winner.

I used 2 digi images from the fabulous Make it Crafty.  Whimsical log and Sitting Jane.  Jane is added with 3D foam pads.  Papers are Basic Grey Kioshi.

Entering into:
MAKE IT MONDAY #124 - Anything goes.
SIMPLY CREATE TOO #29 - Anything goes.
STAMPIN' FOR THE WEEKEND - Something Girly.
HAPPY CAMPERS #9 - Flowers and something digital.
PAPER CRAFTING JOURNEY - For a girl.

LAYER IT UP

Well, another week gone by already.  Time really is zipping past.  My gorgeous Grandson was 3 yesterday and it still seems like yesterday that he was a babe in arms.

This week's I ♥ PROMARKERS challenge #151, is to use lots of layers on your projects.  Shouldn't be too difficult, as most of us do anyway, lol.  Our sponsor is DI'S DIGI'S with a $10 spend for our winner.

For my card I used a brand new LaBlanche stamp. I stamped twice and cut out some bits to layer up.  I've had a couple of these stamps for absolutely ages but never used them, so this is a first outing for this one.  I have one with a horse on that's still in its wrapper too.  I really must stop buying stamps just to put in the drawer, lol.  The papers are from the gorgeous Glitz 'Vintage Blue' pad,  a M.S. deep edge punch, my own sentiment and lace and pearls from my stash finished it off. I used a limited number of Promarkers on this, but they match the papers perfectly.

Entering into:
DIVA'S BY DESIGN - Make it girly.
MAKE IT MONDAY #123 - Always anything goes.
CRAFTING FOR ALL SEASONS #43 - Something new.
CRAFTS AND  ME #116 - Something new.
FRESH BREWED - Anything goes.
FRILLY AND FUNKY - Follow your muse.
ONE CRAZY STAMPER - Anything goes.
TANDO CREATIVE - Feeling blue.
CRAFTERS CAFE #12 - Anything goes.

TWEET TWEET!

My crafting buddy Lynda, sent me this adorable little bird house as part of my secret santa.....

 .....so, using a combination of Marianne & Cheery Lynn dies, Americana paints, crackle mediums and distress inks, Promarkers and Marvy's..this is my altered version.

The house was painted with Americana Milk Chocolate acrylic paint.  When dry, a coat of Americana Weathered Wood Crackle medium was applied.  When that was dry, a coat of Buttermilk was applied and when that was also dry, I inked it gently with Walnut Stain distress ink.

The bird on branch is a Marianne die.  I cut them on Grungepaper and then inked the bird with Fired Brick distress ink.  The branch was coloured with a brown Marvy pen and the leaves with a Forest Green Promarker.  The fence and flower are Cheery Lynn dies.  The bird at the front has been doubled up, cut off the branch and then attached with a double height foam square so he's 3D'd.

To do the roof, I painted it with a couple of coats of  Deep Burgundy.

  When the 2nd coat of paint went on, I used my heat gun to help dry it and blister the paint in places.  

When dry, I applied a small amount of Ranger Picket Fence crackle paint and finally swiped with Walnut Stain ink when it was all dry.

I really enjoyed doing this.  It's not often that I actually use my crackle mediums but I might use them more often now.  I really like it.  Hope you like my little house.

Entering into:

613 AVENUE CREATE #2 - Anything goes.

ANYTHING BUT A CARD #10 - Things with Wings.

CHALLENGES 4 EVERYBODY #11 - Anything goes.

DREAM VALLEY CHALLENGES #48 - Anything goes.

THE SQUIRREL & THE FOX #35 - Anything goes.

ALLSORTS #189 - Dies and punches.

INSPIRE ME FRIDAYS #91 - Anything goes.

DIVA'S BY DESIGN - Anything goes.

CRAFT MY LIFE #3 - Anything but a card/LO.

TIM HOLTZ TAGS - JANUARY 2013

I've been meaning to join in this for the last couple of years but this year I'm determined, so I sat down this afternoon and did this one for JANUARY.  You've gotta love T.H. and you can see his tag HERE.  Most of the stuff I've used is Tim Holtz, but my sentiment  is Zettiology and the hand is Indigo Blue.  The distress ink pads I used were Faded Jeans and Crushed Olive.

NEW YEAR FROM HELL!!!

Happy New Year to all my blogging buddies out there.  I really hope you had a better start to the year than I did, lol.  Today is the first chance I've had to catch up with a bit of blogging or anything else really.  My 2 year old grandson came down with the Noro Virus.  My mother swiftly followed and then me the day after.  The noro knocked mother for six and I had 3 ambulance visits and they finally took her into hospital for a night on the third visit.  She's diabetic and hadn't eaten as the virus had weakened her so much so she had 2 hypoglycaemic attacks too.   Anyway, had to get the doctor out to her again yesterday as she's so weak and she's now in bed with a hight temp and a chest infection.  As for me, I'm finally feeling OK, ha ha.  God help me if that little lot's an omen for the whole of 2013!!!!

Anyway, on to the matter in hand.  A secret santa and the ILPM challenge.  A couple of pics of a cantilever box that I made for my crafting buddy Tina as her secret santa.  I filled it with all sorts of goodies too...from socks  to sewing thread to die cuts and ribbons.

 This weeks challenge #150 over at I ♥ PROMARKERS is all about tags.  Either a standalone tag or a tag on a card.  I pretty much threw this one together on Monday afternoon, just to get one done.  We have a new sponsor this week and that's POLKA DOODLES.  The prize is an amazing CD with shed loads of stuff on it.  Take a look HERE to see the details.

ENTERING INTO:
DIVA'S BY DESIGN - Anything goes.
MIDWEEK MAGNOLIAS #43 - Tilda on a Tag.
PENNY'S PAPER CRAFTY #109 - Anything goes.
THROUGH THE CRAFTROOM DOOR #52 - Anything goes.
CRAFT YOUR PASSION #144 - Vintage/Shabby Chic
CREATED WITH LOVE #23 - Anything but a card.
CREATIVE CREATIONS #1 - Anything goes.
MAKE IT MONDAY #122 - Anything goes.