Thankful at A Vintage Journey

 

It is the turn of Sandy to chose the theme at A Vintage Journey this time and she has chosen ' A Bountiful Harvest'. What a great theme for the autumn months. Sandy suggests we think about harvest; maybe pumpkins, wheat or corn; perhaps the Harvest Moon or Thanksgiving may inspire you.

For my Tim inspired card I used some of his papers for my background - I just love how they take the ink and how easy it is to distress them.

 

I cut my letters from greyboard with Tim's block talk lowercase die and then dabbed them with various distress paints (blues, greens, yellows). Once dry I gave them a spritz with black soot distress spray and edged with ink as best I could.

My leaves were cut from more Tim dies out of some scraps I had left over from other autumnal projects and I added some additional embellishments from my stash. I stamped my Stampin Up hardwood stamp on some card and cut into a circle before adding some gathered twigs DI. I mounted on a larger circle.

Finally I added some leaves from garden greens cut from kraft core and sanded a little. I added some twine and dyed some candy dots in aged mahogany distress paint just to balance my colour a bit.

I hope you like my card - there is plenty more inspiration over at A Vintage Journey for this great theme.

Thanks for looking
Nikki
xxx

The Colours of Autumn

The colours of autumn is the new challenge at Try it on Tuesday starting today. My creation is quite a clean card for me using some Stampin Up stamps and inks.

The sets used are French Foliage (retired), Kinda eclectic (the sunrise) Work of Art (the sentiment) and Gorgeous Grunge (to create the speckled background layer). I have used Hello Honey, Cajun Craze and Mossy Meadow inks.

Do hop over and see the gorgeous creations from the DT.

Thanks for visiting.

Nikki

xx

Halloween Die Cuts for Speedcraft!

It's another Speed craft day - to see what you can create in ten minutes. Donna chose the theme this time of Halloween. I don't have any Halloween stamps so used some die cuts someone had kindly done for me. This one was really quick as the dies were already cut!

I took the 'boo' and sprayed with black soot distress spray. While drying I die cut the 2 circles and my card base and matt layer. I finished off my card with some cosmic shimmer glue dots and the die cut bat.

Thanks for looking

Nikki xx

October Tim Tag - Christmas version and the series

Here is my third version of Tim Holtz October tag and the series of three! The final one is a Christmas version and my favourite. I used Tim's techniques but added the new stacked snowflakes as my focal point. I cut them from chipboard and treated with some distress stains and paints before adding a sprinkle of glitter.

 

 

I hope you like my series of tags - great to use Tim's techniques and formats but change it a bit!

I would like to submit my tags into Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge as anything goes this week.

Nikki

xxx

12 Tags of 2014 - October - Halloween Version

Version 2 of my Tim tags for October and this time I followed his theme of Halloween. A lot of improvisation as I don't have the stamps he used. My pumpkin is a die cut with some additional hand drawing and lots of ink and crackles. My spider is also a die cut - I stamped him with a crack stamp and heat embossed before adding glossy accents.

I would also like to enter into:

Artist Trading Post Challenge - Halloween

Hope you are all having a good day and thanks for stopping by.

Nikki

xxx

Halloween To Die For

It's a fabulous Halloween theme starting today at A Vintage Journey - this time the choice of Anne (I haven't met Anne but she seems to be a dear, kind lady and of course a superb crafter.)

I decided on a simple, little triptych with lots of embossing and die cuts. I used orange card and highlighted the embossed areas with black soot DI and the black card was highlighted with an orange archival ink - I love this effect

Here are a few more piccies of each panel:

All finished off with some died cheesecloth.

Do pay a visit to A Vintage Journey where you can be guaranteed some fabulously spooky inspiration from the team.

I would like to add my latest Halloween creation into the following challenges:

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - Halloween or Fall

Simon Says Stamp - O (is for Orange in my case!)

Simply Create Too - Halloween or Orange

Thats Crafty - Halloween

Happy Friday everyone and thanks for visiting.

Nikki

xxx

October Tim Tag - Version 1 - Fall

It is Tim tag time! I love Tim's tag this month but don't have all the relevant stamps. So I decided to follow the techniques and do a few versions. If I get round to finishing them I will post next week. Here is Tim's version:

So this mine is the Fall version - so I would also like to share at Frilly and Funkie - where the theme is Autumn Colours. 

My tag includes texture paste and distress sprays as Tim's, but without the stamped and masked spider first. To add some contrast and balance I added some remnant rubs.

 I decided my focal point would be some autumn leaves all painted and crackled until I was happy with them. Two pictures below, one in sunlight, one not:

I love the idea of remnant rubs on the monocle - I added autumn toned DP's to mine.

Weather not great here today so struggled to get good photos again - the sun is low it casts horrible shadows and out of the sun it isnt really bright enough!

Back tomorrow for the new challenge at A Vintage Journey.

Thanks for looking.

Nikki

xxx

Something quick...

Just a flying visit today to share a simple little birthday card - not sure about the colours but wanted to try it! I will share with:

Pan Pastel - Autumn Colours

Thanks for looking

Nikki x

Spooky Tuesday

A spooky card for the spooky challenge at Try it on Tuesday starting today. I had a piece of card I had used to mop up my craft mat with various neutral tones on it. I embossed it and then highlighted with black soot DI.
My background layer is stamped with cracks and again edged with black soot DI. Halloween die cuts added and all mounted on black card.

I would like to spook the following challenges:
Crafthoarders Anonymous - Happy Fall (or Halloween)
Simply Create too - Halloween or Orange

Thanks for looking

Nikki

x

Stampin Up Card Class

Cathryn and I have now held our first two introductory card classes using Stampin Up products. Aimed at beginners but with lots of flexibility to adjust for the more advanced crafter - and there were some fantastic creations. 

Thanks to the lovely ladies that came. Here are a selection of the cards we all made.

Plans under-way for our next class making Christmas cards and tags.

Nikki

A Sparkly Wall Hanging

I am honoured to be a Guest designer this month over at the Country View Crafts challenge blog following my Design Team Special Mention award for my Words, Words, Words project in August (one of my favourite makes so far!).

The theme for October at CVC is Sparkle and Shine - which is not a natural fit for my style! I decided to have a play with embossed twinchies to see what developed.

I cut some 2 inch square pieces of greyboard and painted them with black acrylic. I then added several layers of clear embossing powder to each one to create the shine. I masked off areas of each embossed panel (with torn post it notes) and added a further layer of versamark, this time embossing with silver glitter embossing powder to the selected areas only. (Although as you can see I wasn't in full control of the glitter!)  Originally I planned to add quite a lot more embellishment but I really liked the shiny, sparkly twinchies and wanted to keep most of them on show.

I stamped 3 butterflies with versamark on black card and embossed with the same sparkly powder. I then mounted my embossed panels and butterflies onto a another piece of card. I had a canvass I wanted to add them too - and played around with different ideas before settling on just a simple painted canvass (in silver) and edged with black.

Thanks for visiting my blog today - I very much appreciate it when people stop by!

Nikki

xxx

Distress Sprays for Speed Craft Challenge and a little exercise

It is time for the fourth Speed Craft Challenge!

The idea is simple - do anything around the theme in just ten minutes. It doesn't lead to our most thought out projects and certainly mistakes happen (see below!) but it is fun to see what can be done in a short time and I find it great to let go of having to be a perfectionist as I am up against the clock.

I chose the theme this time - Ink sprays or spritzers - and decided to try out Distress Sprays. I took a tag and added some tissue tape before stamping umbrella man in archival. I then ran downstairs to the garage to my sophisticated spray booth (ie a pizza box on a table covered in newspaper). I spritzed my tag in yellow then ran up the stairs to blast it with my heat too. Back to the garage and I had some circle shapes lying around and placed these randomly over my tag before adding some blue distress spray. Back upstairs and another blast (they dry very quickly on manilla tags - good job).

(Meanwhile the cat is looking a little bemused at my frantic stair climbing activity)

Took a baby wipe and wiped ink from the tissue taped area and quickly stamped my words and embossed (dreadful idea - some ink still damp so embossing powder not just on the versamark stamped words!)

mmmm 3 minutes left and it needed more. Some pre cut grunge board arrows were on my desk and madly I decided to emboss in gold powder. I did manage to do this before my alarm went off but also managed to frazzle my fingers a little bit and create a mess.

Ok, I confess I had to add the arrows and the seam binding after the ten minutes. Not sure I really like my tag, but it was fun and good exercise!!

Do play along and see what you can do in ten minutes.....

Nikki

xxx

Autumnal CAS

It is Monday as I write this scheduled post and it is pouring with rain and grey outside - so apologies for the rather dismal photo. Catching up on posting a few things I made a few weeks ago but haven't had chance to post!

A simple autumnal birthday card - just one layer - a bit unusual for me!

For:

Thats Crafty - Keep it Simple

Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Anything Goes

Brown Sugar - Autumn / Fall

Stamping Sensations - Warm Autumn Colours

Nikki

xxx

Trick or Treat

A little Halloween make today - my first! Never really been one for Halloween but the event is quite significant in me starting crafting a year ago. (Popped to a friend to borrow a costume for a Halloween party and saw her craft room and the rest is history!).

Lucky enough to be at a crop a few weeks ago and used the organisers fabulous range of Sissix dies and texture fades for a few Halloween makes... (sorry not sure of their names)

I would like to enter into:

Frilly and Funkie - A Haunting Halloween Challenge

Sissix - Halloween Challenge

Divas by Design - Spooky Creations

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx

Heavy Metal

Happy Friday everyone! Today we launch a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey and the theme this time is chosen by the wonderful Terry. She has chosen 'Heavy Metal' - to use any metallic product - be it foil tape, metal embellishments or paints and sprays in your Tim Holtz inspired creation.

I adore how Tim has shown us to use foil tape sheets in a variety of ways and have combined the use of alcohol inks and distress paints on my embossed foil to create this little piece. The frame was cut using his postage stamp and rectangle and then embossed. I then partly coloured randomly with black soot distress paint and once dry added my alcohol ink to the other areas. I also lightly sanded the surface to reveal a bit more metal.

My flowers were created in a similar way using a combination of Tim's tattered florals die and stampin up punches to create my layers. They were shaped and a stained pearl added to the centre.

For my background I embossed a piece of black card and then lightly inked over with a blue, chalk ink pad. I then took one of Tim's ideology pieces and coloured it in the same way as the metal foil before adding a remnant rub to some plain foil tape.

I used some glue gel to create a little space between my frame and base card to create a shadow box effect and also to add the flowers as I wanted to create additional dimension.

I hope you like it - do pay a visit to A Vintage Journey where you will find heaps more inspiration from the team.

I would like to enter this into:

Die Cutting Divas - Anything Goes

Creative Corner Challenges - Anything but a card

Altered Eclectics

Thanks for looking

Nikki

xxx