Vintage Journey

 A little card today using a mixture of Stampin Up and  Tim Holtz stamps, inks and dies for Sugar Creek Hollow's challenge - On the Road and Simon Says Stamp - J (for journey here!). The basic idea for this  came from a card we made at Stamp Camp with Lesley Lendon on Saturday - although I have changed it quite a bit!

Thanks for looking

Nikki 

xxx

Painted Industrial - CC3C #7

At CC3C it's time for another challenge using Tim's fab painted industrial technique. This time the prize is sponsored my Inspiration Emporium. There have been some amazing projects already produced for this challenge but I'll throw this in the mix anyway!

My clock and cog panels plus the dragonfly and butterflies all use his technique. The backing for this little wall hanging is mountboard painted with acrylics and wrapped in twine.

Have a lovely day.

Nikki xxx

Dylusions and bleaching

Another project I started a while ago and have just finished ( I am determined to finish some of my half started projects!). The tag was sprayed with Dylusions ink and stamped over with the image in archival. I then used a combination of water and bleach to remove the ink from the stamped image and also flicked it over the rest of the tag. I added some punched hearts with the largest crackled too.

I would like to enter this into:

Artful times - Use a tag

Moo Mania - Anything Goes

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Time to Stain It

It is time for a new challenge at A Vintage Journey and the theme this time is chosen by the wonderful Jenny who has selected 'Just Stain It'. I have created this montage of photos to go through my process.

1. I started by adding distress stains to my craft sheet - gathered twigs, black soot and picket fence. I swooshed my tags through it until I was happy and then let it dry. Once dry I added some distress inks too - black soot, vintage photo and pumice stone.
2. I added some remnant rubs and tissue tape.
3/4. Next I embossed the tag with the clocks texture fade and highlighted areas with the same DP's as above.
5. Happy with my tags I started work on my die cuts.
6. As step 1 above I added some distress stains to my craft sheet and spritzed with water.
7. I lightly dipped my clocks (Heartfelt creations stamps and die) into the stain - trying to only partially pick up colour. I wanted them stained and aged - not completely coloured.
8. For the grungeboard arrows and chipboard text I used the stain directly from the pot.

That is just about it - of course there was a bit of inking edges etc and I also took my water brush and some stain to highlight the clock cut from Tim's paper.

Here are a few close ups:

Do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see what the rest of the Design Team have stained for this challenge!

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

A Summer Canvass

Quite a big piece for me. I started this canvass quite a while ago and can't remember exactly how I did it - I know there is paint, beeswax and probably some texture paste on there. To create that summer feel I added butterflies and summer flowers. My flowers are tattered florals, made into tea roses and dipped in the melt pot - I then painted them as I wanted to change their colours.

I would like to enter:

Craft Room Challenge - Green Inspiration

Stamping Sensations - Summer Blooms

Fashionable Stamping challenge - Dreaming of Summer

Simon Says Stamp - Mid summer  

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Things with Wings at Try it on Tuesday

We all love 'Things with Wings' and that is the theme for the next 2 weeks over at Try it on Tuesday. This gave me the chance to play with my new Tim Holtz die and embossing folder (yum!). I also added crackle paint to this one for some added texture. The green background layers are made with Distress Inks and stencils. 

I would also like to play along at:

Pan Pastel UK - where the theme is Inspired by Tim Holtz and

the new Mixed Media Card challenge - where the theme is A Touch of Nature

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Wall Art with Hels Sheridan

Good morning. Just a quicky to share this recent make at a Hels Sheridan workshop. Uses the Tando Creative 3 Panel wall art kit. It is quite big - c 16 inches tall.

Acrylic painted ombre background, added stamping and stencilling and then the chipboard branches, butterflies and flowers (all painted of course).

Not my natural style but was fun to make. I would like to enter into:

Tando Creative - Come Fly with Me

City Crafters - Use Chipboard

As always, thanks for stopping by to take a look, I do appreciate your visits and comments. If I haven't stopped by your blog recently I am sorry - give me a nudge and I will be over!

Nikki

xxxx

Industrial Canvass

A short post today, life is just too busy! I started stencilling and painting this canvass at the weekend - lots of layers that are now mostly hidden - tissue wrap, distress paints, grunge paste and ink. Then I remembered the challenge over at SanDee & amelies blog. The background seemed appropriate so I went all industrial for their inventors and inventions challenge. Fortuitously Simon Says Stamp are focussing on using a Face - so I will join here too!

Here is a bit of the background:

Have a lovely day and thanks for looking.

Nikki 

xxx

Sunshine and Showers

It's time for Tim's Tag for July. Unfortunately I don't have the dies he used so a little improvisation was needed. I did create a little story around this but it sounds silly now! To summarise; umbrella man (in his wellies) goes for a walk (with is good friend the blue tit) in the sunshine and showers. 

A few more piccies:

You can see Tim's wonderful tag here.

Thanks for looking

Nikki 

xxx

Happy Birthday with Stencils

Today is my friend Cathryn's birthday. It was the lovely Cathryn who got me into all this craft last November so I thought I should make her a card! I have been struggling with my composition on cards (been doing too many tags!) so I sought inspiration from Jenny Marples over at Pushing the Right Buttons. I have Jenny's blessing for my Jenny style card. 

At both Country View Crafts and That's Crafty the theme is to use stencils. My background on this card was made with lots of distress inks and the Tim Holtz doily stencil. Having laid down an inky background I  spritzed water through the stencil and lifted with cloth to remove some colour. Then, once dry, laid the stencil back down to add more ink through in places. I love how this creates the illusion of depth.The same technique was used on the central panel but slightly darker. On this panel I also took another stencil and inked through.

I added some flowers, greenery and my sentiment.

Thanks for looking and Happy Birthday Cathyrn!

Nikki

xxx

Don't forget to Wave

Happy Sunday everyone. A little card to share with you today.

My Menu:

Background - Clarity Brick stencil and Distress Inks

Foreground - Clarity Stamp (sorry not sure it's name) - lightly coloured with antique linen DI then distressed with faded jeans and vintage photo. Dragonfly watercoloured with faded jeans.

Butterflies and flowers - punched from old book pages and coloured with Distress Inks.

Challenges:

Clarity Stamp July - Anything Goes

Crafty Girls - Anything goes

Divas by Design - Things with Wings

Close Ups:

Yes - the text is upside down on the bottom butterfly! Whoops

Can you guess the old book text I am using?

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Tim Holtz Dragonfly

I have just received my new Tim Holtz die with coordinating embossing folder so thought I would make a little tag today. Actually there are two as I wanted to trial embossing the dragonfly both ways - this one is actually the reverse - the other tag is yet to be finished.

Today's Menu:

Background - Salty Ocean, Gathered Twigs and Faded Jeans Distress Stains - spritzed through Tim's doily stencil. Stamped with T Holtz butterflies and script stamp.

Dragonfly - cut, embosssed and inked in various blues, browns and greens

Flower - tattered floral die cuts of some crackled card I made last week. Inked with blue archival.

Ribbon - died with peacock feathers, stormy sky and peeled paints DI's

Quote - Albert Einstein - printed on PC and mounted on mount board before stamping with woodgrain and inking up.

Today's Challenges:

Our Creative Corner - hand died ribbon and flowers

Crafthoarder's anonymous - Tags

Simon Says Stamp - Start from Scratch

Red Rubber Inspirational - Anything goes

Closes ups:

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Burlap Panels for CC3 Challenge 6

Over at Linda Ledbettter's Compendium of Curiosities it's time to alter a burlap panel. 

I have taken 2 of the little panels and altered with tissue tape, remnant rubs, distress paints, distress inks and texture paste through stencils. I then added lots of ideology goodies and some die cut arrows, cogs and wings (with added embossing powder). My little rulers are cuts from an embossing folder treated with metallic DP's and gilding wax.

Sorry about the shadows on the picture - I miss the best time to take photos during the week as I am at work all day! 

This time the challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Colours of Summer

Happy Tuesday everyone! Over at Try it on Tuesday we are welcoming the Colours of Summer. Not an easy one for me with my naturally neutral pallet but must confess I enjoyed adding a little colour! 

Lots of inky, painty fun in the background with some stencilling with Tim Holtz doilly stencil. I do like adding some tissue tape to my backgrounds too. My roses image is from one of Tim Holtz ephemera packs - but I made it smaller and added some ink. I have recently learned how to make a rose - hope you like it. A stamped and punched butterfly was added for good measure and better composition!

Do hop over to TIOT to see what the girls have come up with.

I would like to submit my summer roses into the following challenges:

Frilly and Funkie - Summer Heat

Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Flowers

Pan Pastel - Roses are a Girls Best Friend

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Kindness and Love

Been a busy week this week with work so not had much playtime, sorry if I have missed your blog posts.

Finally had a little play - been exploring distress stains and distress paint backgrounds and this one I started a while ago. As the current theme over at Dragons Dream is to use the letter K and hearts I found this great saying - actually it is one line of a saying. I also used tissue tape and remnant rubs for my background and focussed on butterflies.  I would therefore like to join the fun at Tag along too where the themes is Natures Glories.

My background hearts are die cuts stamped with Tim Holtz script  and stained to match the tag. The swirly heart is another die cut I also stained. (Thanks to Chris from My Corner of Heaven for this one!)

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xx

Stampin up Blog Hop

To coincide with the new catalogue at Stampin up we are doing a little blog hop, sharing ideas with items from the new catalogue

My cards focus on the new 'in colours'. These two cards use the fab 'lost lagoon' ink and cardstock.

My final card features two other new colours - 'Blackberry bliss' and 'Hello Honey'. I have used the cardstock here along with some of the designer paper series - Moonlight. (I haven't added my sentiment yet!)

Please follow the arrows to make blog hopping easier - although I have incorporated all the blogs included below.

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Hoppers:

Lesley Lendon 

Louise Sims

Nic Parr  

Cayleigh May 

Lauren La Fey 

Kate Skelton 

Angela Cormier 

Tracy Hart Lawrence 

Lynn Clifford 

Emma Goddard 

Christine Widdowson 

Sara Thornton-Bryar 

Cary Buckham 

Pip Todman 

Joanne Penny 

Nikki Acton 

Cat Herrington 

Fiona Whitten