Phoenix Inspirations

It's a long time since I got all grungy and inky but today seemed the right time to do it again. My Tim Holtz Grungepaper has been lying forgotten on my shelves for too long now. I also had some Idea-ology Film Strip Ribbon for Christmas and I have been dying to use it. Here is my Creation This card started life as a tag to which I added a flower and swirl made with grungepaper, coloured with Distress Inks. The heart and wings are also grungepaper and they were attached using staples. I then added a small sentiment attached with a paper-clip and some of my new Film Strip Ribbon. The card base itself was just a 5" x 5" cream card square on to which I stamped a heart (Stampin' Up - Simply Said) with Tattered Rose Distress Ink. This was then inked with Brushed Corduroy. I added the polka dots by inking up one of my embossing folders with Fired Brick and stamping that directly onto the card. The brown card was torn, crumpled and spritzed with gold Perfect Pearls and then...

That being Tim Holtz of course - but you knew that didn't you? And of course you all know of the fab new challenge blog now into it's third challenge over on Simon Says Stamp and Show . So this week it was All Things Tim Holtz Inspired and I am very late in submitting my entry on account of all inspiration leaving my head and going on holiday! Any how this is what I have managed to come up with. It's a tag inked with Brushed Corduroy DI's and then spritzed with gold mica powder. A piece of torn ledger paper has also been added. On top of that is a pair of golden wings and a heart cut out of grungepaper and a grungepaper rose coloured with Tattered Rose DI. There is some Rock Candy Distress Stickles on the rose too and a couple of florishes also coloured with DI - Peeled Paint. (Would have added a Memo Pin and a sentiment but haven't got round to ordering them yet!) Thanks for taking the time to look - have a good Bank Holiday Weekend - Jacqueline xx.

...I decided to make something for ME. I make loads of cards and papercraft items and more often than not they end up being sold or used for family and friends. So as I said this is for me My diary/organiser has disintergrated in my handbag and all my pages have got ripped and dogeared. So I have made a new one. I painstakingly printed off various pages - ('cos I have customised it for my own personal needs), and made dividers. The covers are made of grungepaper coloured with Tim Holtz distress inks - Tattered Rose and Brushed Corduroy. I then sort of used a technique I saw recently on Wendy Vecchi's  blog where she colours her grungepaper flowers white before colouring them with ink - I used white acrylic paint instead of a white ink pad. So after colouring the flowers white I used some Stampin' Up ink pads to colour them, I then stamped over them with various stamps from my stash. As you can see I attached the flowers with jumbo brads - I thought that if I just glue...

...........THE Wendy Vecchi. For those of you not familiar with THE Wendy Vecchi - please click here  - this link will transport you quite effortlessly over to the blog of the lady herself. Take a look - it's quite breathtaking. So on to my poor imitation This is for this week's challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp & Show  blog. The challenge is to create a piece of art in the style of (THE) Wendy Vecchi. Now unfortunatly I don't yet own any of her stamps so I had to improvise. I used chipboard for the base, an old wooden cotton reel (I know spooly things are what's proper - but they were out of stock) grungepaper flowers and a few bits of bling. The foliage was cut on my Cuttlebug. Oh and the butterflies were punched out of grungepaper with a Stampin' Up punch. I also used a S'U stamp (Flight of the Butterfly) to put the polka dots on the flowers and butterflies. All were coloured with Tim Holtz Distress Inks and spritzed with mica powders. Thanks for...

This is a project which has been a long time in the making. It has been in the back of my mind for absolutely ages and should have been finished for at least two challenges, but somehow it just didn't happen. I reckon I was subconsciously (yikes - big word!) waiting for this NEW challenge blog to begin. The new blog is Simon Says Stamp and Show.  It encourages art work in the style of Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi and other vintage greats. This week's theme is 'Things with Wings' So - my wingy thingy was made with a mini canvas (4" x 4") and I painted it with a turquoise acrylic paint. The frame was then rubbed with Brushed Corduroy distress ink and gold acrylic. I then used some Stampin' Up stamps to give some foliage detail. The roof is made from chipboard and Grungepaper coloured with DI's again and Grungepaper flowers and leaves. My bird is also Grungepaper cut with a die in my Cuttlebug and I also put it through an embossing folder before I coloured...

Hi folks - hope you had a good weekend and didn't get too much rain. I managed to dodge in and out of the showers and I got quite a bit of weeding done. Managed to get some crafting in too - making something special for my big family lunch tomorrow. And also squeezed in a bit of time to make this - I needed a new keyring for my keys and thought that my Grungepaper would fit the bill perfectly. So I drew around some chipboard flower shapes onto the Grungepaper, cut them out and coloured them with my distress ink pads. I then punched holes in the middle of the flowers and put them all together on a jumbo eyelet (Stampin' Up). Before closing the eyelet I used a piece of Grungepaper to make a loop through which I inserted a ring binder clippy thingy (will change that though as soon as I get my Tim Holtz Idea-ology D-Rings through the post). Thing is - now I have made it, I don't want to put it in my handbag with all the rubbish that accumulates in there. Think I will have to ca...

How many of you like me have drawers,shelves, boxes where stuff gets shoved  placed carefully 'cos you are going to do something with it later - but then never get round to it and those drawers, shelves and boxes just keep getting fuller and fuller? Well I decided I was going to do something about it 'cos I have all three - drawers, shelves and boxes........... Now just lately I have have been inspired by a couple of blogs whose work is just fabulous and it has really got crafting mojo working. One such crafty Goddess is Hels Sheridan  and she has a kind of challenge that she sets on a Sunday called 'Sunday Stampers' This week is 'Believe &/or Journey' and this week I think that I have actually produced something worthwhile. This is what it looked like before It started life as a pretty boring looking book, one that I think I had given to me ages ago and I didn't know what to do with and so threw   oops no placed carefully in recepticles mentioned ...

It's that time of the week again - if you don't know what I'm on about, go see Julia  and all of the other WOYWWers at The Stamping Ground. I'm a bit late posting this morning - had to finish the above card and get it posted ASAP - my baby brother reaches the ripe old age of 40 this week so I have been very good and made him a 'grown up' card for a change! So my desk is a teeny bit messy today. Also I would like to show you a piece of art I have just made. I have been blown away lately by many peoples projects using all the various ditressing techniques. So I dug out my Distress Inks, bought some Grungepaper and had a go. As you can see I have been inspired by the lovely Linda E - I followed her rose tutorial from her blog. I now have Fired Brick coloured fingers! Have to go now - half way through decorating the bedroom but I will be back later to take a look a your desks - bye for now - Jacqueline xx.

Hi folks, this is just a short post sneaked inbetween housework and gardening and all those other little things I should be doing instead of playing! This is a piece of work I started last week for the Alter it Monthly  blog. I've lurked around it before and always said to myself " I really must take part" and this month I have. The theme is "Home Sweet Home". I 'altered' a 4"x4" canvas using Distress Inks (Brushed Corduroy, Peeled Paint and Fired Brick) and some scrap pieces of chipboard. The letters are Cosmo Cricket - I was able to reverse them and colour them. I cut the house freehand and (although you can't see it) there is a piece of an old laundry ticket behind the windows and doors which I also filled with glossy accents. The rose is made from Grungepaper and I followed Linda's tutorial here  (left hand column). Hope you like it - Jacqueline xx.