Cats - did someone say cats!

Not my usual style - but when someone has cats for their challenge I had to join in being a bit of a cat lover. Not sure Tim Holtz quite designed his stamp to go with cats - but heh!

I will share my cards at:

Craft Room Challenge - Cats

Fussy and Fancy - Pets of Favorite animals

Here is the real one - Frankie - a complete pain but adorable.

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

August Tim Tag

This one was a challenge but here is my attempt. I followed Tim's version as best I could although didn't have everything he used. I didn't manage to get the intensity of colour with my distress stains and the big mistake was my stamped image choice - should really have been something with more solid black rather than just lines!

Love all the techniques though and the super grungy effects.

Thanks for looing

Nikki

xxx

My first ATB - Hip to be Square

My first ATB! Thanks to a lovely friend for sending me a couple of samples of the wonderful Eileen Hull die, so I have been able to have a play.

Fortuitously it is 'Hip to be Square' at Frilly and Funkie - so I will throw by box in there.

I edged my white card with black DI before adding my layers. I decided to use a gelli plate print I had sitting around, so cut this to size and added black archival to the white edges. I had also been playing with some textures in autumnal colours so took one of these and die cut my leaves. My little butterflies were also from a prior project - a variety of embossing and inking on grungepaper and Tim Holtz paper stash leftovers. I took some little white flowers and spritzed them until I was happy!

I can see that these little things could get addictive - mine is quite simple - but was fun! Had a few issues photographing though.

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Stamping fun

A flying visit tonight - made this for a couple of challenges and only just realised the deadline for one is in half an hour! So terrible photo under indoor lighting - will take a better one tomorrow.

A friend passed this stamp onto me - don't think she ever used it, wasn't sure I would - but seemed like a fun little card for the right man!

I would like to enter into

Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Make us Laugh

That's Crafty - This is a Man's World

Sunday morning edit.... some improved piccies!

Nikki

A little something

It is time for another challenge at A Vintage Journey. Our theme for the next two weeks is chosen by Alison of 'Words and Pictures' and it is to make ATC's.

For each one I decided to use lots of layers, created via stencilling or stamping and distressing of course. Most of the papers are from Tim stashes (leftovers) - they are great for inking, distressing etc. Similarly my die cuts and punched butterflies are from his papers.

My intention was the ATC's would be a pair but not sure they go together that well!

Have a lovely day

Nikki 

xxx

Compendium of Curiosities Challenge 9

It is Challenge 9 at CC3C - with the focus this time on page 63 of Tim Holtz's fab book - 'Stamps and Framelits'. As usual great prizes up for grabs courtesy of Tim Holtz and Inspiration Emporium.

 I wanted to use my recently acquired 'French Flight' stamp and framelit set but decided to take a slightly different approach than I have used it for to date. I decided to go geometrical with my Eiffel Tower stamp and framelit. I was originally going to have the butterflies fluttering around the towers, but it just seemed to ruin it - so kept it simple.

My background is kraft card with stamps from Papillon and the above mentioned set. I then set about my Eiffels!

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Speed Craft Challenge

Morning everyone and welcome to the first Speed Craft Challenge! Ingrid came up with this idea to see what we could make in 10 minutes - just 10!! Eeeek.

The rules were to craft for only 10 mins, although you could get your supplies ready in advance. I chose my favourite Stampin Up stamp sets:

Work of Art

Gorgeous Grunge

Papillon Potpourri - plus the matching butterfly punch.

I got my supplies together:

Set the timer on my phone and started to make a mess! I came up with my grungy card and even had time to mount it. Total time - 9 mins 48 seconds! Now of course if I were to make this again I would be a bit a more precise and considered - but great fun seeing what 10 minutes brings!

Do hop over to the other Speed Crafters this morning to see what they have created in 10 minutes!

Ingrid - Ingrid's Crafts Corner

Donna - Artfully Challenged

Keren - Kerenbaker's Blog

Nikki - A2A - Addicted to Art

Pamellia - My Little Craft Things

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Using up those scraps!

At Try it on Tuesday we are 'Using our Stash' for the next two weeks. Quite an open theme - but my interpretation was to use all the bits lying around that were leftover from other projects or made but never used!

I started with the tag from some Tim Holtz paper that I had cut out for something but it didn't work! So I decided to create a collage around this. The background is corrugated cardboard. Lots of painting, stencilling, inking, stamping and gluing!

It's quite therapeutic using all the bits that are lying around and making them into something - give it a go!

I am entering this is into Simon Says Stamp - Anything Goes.

Thanks for looking

Nikki xx

Feminine for Clarity

The challenge over at Clarity for August is 'Feminine' - not my natural style!

All Clarity stamps used on this one, the Clarity butterfly, Edelweiss, Gandhi quote and the foliage from the Clarity journalling set. 

I would also like to play along at Pan Pastel - Bold and Bright challenge!

Have a lovely Sunday.

Nikki 

xxx

Butterfly Love

It is Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey today, where the DT create Tim Holtz inspired tags. Oh and it's the winners post too from Jenny's 'Just Stain It' challenge.

I started my tag with a distress stain background - I did a few of these a while ago and can't actually remember what colours I used - except it was blues, browns and probably some evergreen bough. I laid Tim's doily stencil over and spritzed with water to create some bleaching. The background was finished with the Papillon butterlies and some script (is this all hidden now!).

To embellish I took some bits off my desk. A sheet of stars I had embossed with clear embossing paste over an already dry embossed sheet. I cut my heart and added more colour with distress inks. I had some frameworks lying around too - again coloured to match the theme.

My butterflies are stamped and punched (Stampin up products). My favourite thing at the moment is to layer them and staple them together.

That's about it - a bit of splattering and edging and a few punched stars.

Thanks for looking and do check out the other tags at A Vintage Journey. 

Nikki xxx

Words, Words, Words

I am going to keep this brief as I have a lot of photos - sorry! I decided to make a book (4''x 4'') for the latest challenge at Country View Crafts - Word Play. A book seemed the most apt format for this challenge. My theme is on writing - Letters, Postcards, Journals (or diaries) and Books - so there is a page or double page for each.

I started with kraft card to construct my book and then worked on the backgrounds for each page (lots of inking with distress inks and stains, stamping, embossing, splattering etc!). Once they were all done I constructed it and then set about embellishing each one with the theme it related to. Ok, ironically for my Words project- I will let the photos do the talking!  

My kraft card and page backings

Front cover

Inside Cover

Double page 1 - Letters

Double Page 2 - Books

Double Page 3 - Journals and Diaries

Double Page 4 - Postcards

The Back Cover

A few close ups:

I will also play along at:

The Artistic Stamper where anything goes for August.

EPlay - Embossing

Thats Crafty - Stamping Ground

Tando Creative - Lovely Layers

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx