Totally Gorjuss Design Team - My 1st challenge #238

Challenge #238 - stitching, real or not.

Check out the challenge here.

Welcome to my 1st Totally Gorjuss Design Team challenge!!

First I thought I'd tell you a bit about this fab design team. Each week there is a theme but.... no rules!!! Yey!!!!!! NO RULES!!!!

Which means, each week you can enter anything in to the challenge, a card, box, altered art, a 3D project, mixed media, anything.... Just link it to the theme and as long as its "Totally Gorjuss", you are away!!!

So come on, join in, have fun and create!!!

The theme for this challenge is: stitching, real or not.



Here is what I created for the DT:

Bits and bobs I used:

IndigoBlu A5 'In stitches' stamp set. 
IndigoBlu A6 'Sewing Pattern'background stamp.
Kanban 'Measurements' stamp.
Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
Docrafts 'Vintage Notes' crochet flower.
Pearl hat pins.
Doily.
Lace.
Hessian.
Buttons.

Thanks for popping by today, be sure to leave me a crafty comment. 

I would like to enter this creation into the following challenges:

The ABC challenge - M is for monochromatic

IndigoBlu - #16 Monochromatic

That craft place - ribbon/lace

Some news......

And now for some news.....

I have recently been offered a place on a fab design team called Totally Gorjuss - "Totally Gorjuss For All Things Gorjuss".

(Click on the link above to go to the challenge blog.)

I start my challenges in the next week or so.... So stay tuned....

Mother's Day Plaque

Hi folks!! I recently showed you the car I made for Mother's Day this year. I also made my mum a MDF plaque.

Here it is... 

I used a selection of Visible Image stamps and had a play with the melting pot for this project.

The Visible Image stamps I used were the Plaid Background, Grunge Polka Dot background, the rose from the Isabella Lost Love Set and the Large Butterfly.

I sanded a MDF plaque and gave it a coat of gesso then painted it with neutral emulsion paint. 

I stamped the Plaid and Grunge Polka Dot stamps directly on the MDF and stamped the rose from the Isabella Lost Love set and Butterfly stamp on to cosmetic tissue. 

I placed the roses and butterflies on to the plaque and painted bees wax over the top and then painted the entire plaque with the wax. I then brushed the front with Mica Powder to give the wax a shine. 

I printed the sentiment out on to white card, cut it in to sections and inked around the edges. I dipped the card in to clear UTEE in the melting pot and left to dry. 

I die cut some flowers using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die on to patterned paper, layered them and added black glitter to the centres of the flowers. ]

I added the sentiment sections and a metal butterfly embellishment. To finish, I added some black paint around the edge of the plaque and threaded some jute string to the top. 

Thanks for popping along today. 

CRAFT STAMPER - "Take it, Make it Challenge" - May 2014

I am a huge fan of Craft Stamper Magazine and often play along in the Take it, Make it challenge but have never actually entered the challenge. Weird I know!!
So this month, I decided to actually add my entry to their blog.

This guidelines for this months challenge included: all entries must feature stamping done with a hand carved potato and feature some real stamping. When I first read this months challenge theme I did a double take. My 3 year old daughter came home from nursery the same day and told me she had been painting with potatoes!! She told me how much fun it was and she had loads of enthusiasm telling me how it all worked! That evening I was carving the potatoes out for myself.

We have all done potato stamping at some time in our life, and I loved the fact this challenge took us right back to the basics. 

For my potatoes, I went with a bee theme. I bought the beautiful metal bee embellishments a while ago, which are pretty big and always think what I will use them for. Because of this embellishment, I wanted it to be the main feature and create a couple of simple potato stamps to work with.


Here is what I created...

I carved my potatoes, one with a honeycomb shape and one with circles which I thought looked like a bees body when stamped. 

(After I carved them I left the potatoes for a couple of days which in potato printing land, sometimes, isn't a good thing as the potatoes go dry and 'go off'. But, on this occasion I wanted this to happen so the potatoes dried up slightly and created cracks and splits, again to assist with a more vintage feel when printed.) 

I played around a lot with the potatoes trying out different compositions and pattern layouts along with different colours. (You can see the tester pieces under the main card). I decided to use distress inks rather than paints to create subtle images. 

For my final background I stamped the potatoes using Squeezed Lemonade and Dried Marigold Distress Inks then stamped over the top with the Honeycomb Background stamp from IndigoBlu using Frayed Burlap Distress Ink. 

I added a strip of Kraft Card which I stamped the honeycomb background on to and heat embossed it using gold embossing powder. I also rubbed ink around the edges and dipped it in the gold embossing powder to create a border. I added a strip of muslin cloth which I dyed with Distress Ink. I added some bits of hessian under the strip and a larger piece at the bottom for the metal bee embellishment to sit on. 

I stamped the 'bee happy' sentiment on to Kraft card and created the border as before, added the muslin and hessian and added a metal square embellishment in the corner. I also added a strip of gold beaded ribbon to the bottom corner of the card.

To finish, I stamped the honeycomb stamp round the edges of a larger piece of Kraft Card, heat embossed it with the gold powder and added the card front to the background. 

All in all, I loved this challenge, going back to basics and playing around making different patterns from something so simple yet effective.

Thanks for popping by and I hope I have inspired you to raid the spuds!!!

PAPERARTSY #3UP CHALLENGE 2014!!!

WOOHOO!!!!! 

I have been luck enough to be chosen again for the Paperartsy #3up challenge 2014!!

I took part in this challenge last year and it was amazing. So this year when the chance came up again, I couldn't resist.

Here is a sneek peek at what I have created for this challenge but sssshhhhh. To find out more information and to see my creation in more detail, go to the Paperartsy blog. You will also find out about all the other participants and see what they did for this challenge.  

I will also be blogging this creation in more detail so stay tuned.....