Star of Wonder

Hello and welcome all, with an especially big welcome to the new followers - I am so glad you decided to jump on board, and I'm so grateful for the support of each and every one of you!

It's time for Tag 12 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas - but don't cheer too soon... I've not done Tag 11 yet!!

But we've still got until the 17th to get all 12 made and posted to qualify for the prize draw generously sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  All the details are here - you'll have to go it some if you've not already started, but I reckon it's possible!

I took my inspiration from Linda's original number 12 in a number of ways: I've used the double tag layered look; and I've adhered pretty slavishly to the techniques and stamps used for the background, though I've changed up the colours pretty drastically; and in the absence of a die-cut bauble and a poinsettia, I've substituted a wooden star and a Christmas rose... and once I'd got that far, things kind of went off down their own track!








So I've used one of the Tim Holtz flourish stamps on my large tag, though I don't have the splendid large flourish.  And I've used the gorgeous Book Cover stamp on the smaller tag.

I used it just the other day on my Year in Poetry, and thought to myself, "I really must use this more often," - it's simply lovely!

And all that stamping got embossed in silver, before I started inking up the blues.  There are actually layers of Stormy Sky and Faded Jeans, but I really majored on the Chipped Sapphire - to get the maximum contrast with the silver.






My attic room (living-, bed- and craft-room) is all blues - so I have a little tree up there each year, and the decorations are all blue, silver, white and natural wood - so this feels very natural to me as a Christmas colour combination.

The greeting across the centre is an Artistic Outpost stamp from the Sleigh Ride set.





The star is a wooden ornament that I've altered.  My mother brought it back from the Czech Republic along with a bunch of other things she thought might be fun to play with.

I lightly inked it with Chipped Sapphire before adding some Rock Candy Dry Glitter - gorgeous frosty sparkle.  It's a very grim, grey day today, so it's hard to do it justice in photos.

The flower is another of the white paper roses I got for peanuts at The Range.  First of all, I edged it with Chipped Sapphire DI.  Then it was a toss-up between some more Dry Glitter or a new experiment.

I'd seen Trace over at inkypinkycraft make a "ceramic look" flower, and I wanted to give it a try.

Since I haven't got a melt pot, I smooshed the rose into my Distress Embossing ink pad (which I'd recently re-inked so it was plenty juicy!), and then dipped it into clear embossing powder.  It took a while to get it all melted (interesting smell), but I'm pretty happy with the result.






The whole thing still needed something... and that's when I started getting merry with the greenery - or should I say "bluery".  I'd succumbed to the TH Festive Greenery Decorative Strip Die, and this was its first outing.

I started with the idea of just having a couple of holly leaves, as Linda uses on her tag, but things got a little out of hand!

I took dark blue card and stamped my Wow music stamp onto it, using the Colorbox Platinum dewdrop pad.  It's subtle but it's there!

And I ran it through the BigShot - twice, because that's how much card the stamping covered - and once I had lots of pieces, it seemed a shame not to put them to use.

So I got to work with the clear embossing again.  I can't tell you how much difference it made - the card got not only shinier but darker in colour - and now, I think, the die-cut pieces really pop on the tag.

(That's a raindrop you can see on the photo below... time to call it a day on trying to get decent photos, maybe?)

The holly berries are Idea-ology long attachers with an extra drop or two of silver alcohol ink for extra shine, and the gauzy ribbon is left over from my brother's handmade wedding in August.

It has also had a brief encounter with the Chipped Sapphire blending sponge just to link it in with the other pale elements on the tag(s).

So, 11 down and 1 more to go.  Like everyone, I've got a lot on at the moment, so I think it's going to go right to the wire.  What can I say?  I've always been a deadliner!

For now, I'll leave you in peace, but with a festive spring in your step I hope!  Thanks so much for taking the time to drop in, and I'll see you soon - here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland...

O, star of wonder, star of night!
Star with royal beauty bright!
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light! 
From We Three Kings by Reverend John Henry Hopkins Jr.

I'm entering this in the following:
As Tag 12 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas
To Die For at the Fashionable Stamping Challenge
Frilly and Funkie's challenge to Make it a Tag in the festive spirit
At Dragonsdream Tag It On the challenge is Christmas
Craft-room Challenge also want us to Make a Tag

Face Up To It

Hello all, lovely to have you stop by today.  It's the start of a new challenge at Fun With ATCs, and the theme for this fortnight is Faces.  There's some amazing inspiration from my fellow Design Team members, so do pop over and have a look... and then, why not play along?  Here's my starter for ten...

I ended up with quite a simple ATC in the end, as I felt the amazing Think and Wonder stamps from Artistic Outpost stamps could really speak for themselves.




I haven't used the whole of the stamps, of course... to isolate the faces, I inked up the stamp and then used a cloth to wipe away the areas I didn't want to have on the ATC.  

They're stamped in the blue from the ColorBox Archival set called Coffee House, with - in places - a hint of Seedless Preserves DI dotted onto the stamp too.










There's also some Seedless Preserves blended into the background of the ATC.  And once done, I spritzed some water into my fingers and flicked it onto the ATC, in the Tim Holtz spritz and flick (can you see why it's called that?!) technique.  I like the gentle mottled aging you get in the main image from the water spots.








The embossing round the edge is done with Stampendous Frantage Aged Silver embossing powder.  I love the slightly variegated colours within it.

I also added the same powder to the Idea-ology Foliage to create a flower that would really blend in with the rest.









So, come and have some Fun With ATCs with us... even if you've never tried the ATC format before. Just take a card 2.5 by 3.5 inches, and start to play!

That's me for today (except for the quotations of course), so for now I'll love you and leave you, and look forward to meeting you again, whether here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland!


I think your whole life shows in your face, and you should be proud of that.
Lauren Bacall

Strangers are exciting, their mystery never ends. But, there's nothing like looking at your own history in the faces of your friends.
Ani DiFranco

I'm entering this in Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers over at Ink On My Fingers, which by a fortunate coincidence, also has the theme Faces this week
And also in the Artistic Outpost November Referral programme: Anything Goes, using at least one AO stamp

Bewitching White

Hello all, delighted to welcome you to Words and Pictures today; it's great to have your company.

I'm sharing a card with you today which is inspired by The Stampsmith Challenge this month, which is to work in Monochromatic White (using at least one Stampsmith stamp).  

This was a real challenge, and I'm not sure I've cracked it yet - so I hope to play again before the end of the month!  But for now, here's my White Witch...

It's stated in the challenge that of course you will need to stamp in a colour other than white, but I'm not generally inclined to meekly do as I'm told!

So I had a couple of goes at using white embossing powder on the bewitchingly beautiful Serena.  I thought it looked pretty cool, but then of course you need to stand there altering the angle of the card the whole time in order to be able to see it.

In the end I conceded that they were probably right about using a colour to stamp with - and I stamped her using the blue from the  Colorbox Archival Coffee House set.  

Much better - now you get to see her properly.  I find this stamp absolutely enchanting - I'm serious about Serena being bewitching!








The sentiment is stamped in the same ink.  And one of the things I'm really pleased with is the subtle sparkle in the background.

It's a simple spritzing of Tattered Angels Chalkboard Glimmer Mist in Chalk...

... and you'll spot that the Tim Holtz paper distresser has been in action on the edges everywhere!

The next layer up is white card embossed with the Tim Holtz Distressed Frame folder - and here's where my monochromatism started to get in trouble.

I just couldn't make it work in pure white... so I put some of the same ink onto the craft mat and, using a water brush, I added an extremely diluted wash of it onto the frame.  It really is almost white...








I've used the delectably delicate Madera Corner die from Memory Box and glued only in places so that you still get some extra dimensionality from the branches.





Between Serena and the Distressed Frame, there's a little paper doily and some frayed cheesecloth.



Those who know me and my work well will be able to imagine how hard it was to refrain from getting out the Vintage Photo - or at least the Antique Linen - to do some edging on the doily, but I decided to be firm with myself, and left it in pristine white.








I do like what I've ended up with... but I have to admit, I'm not quite sure whether it counts as white on white.  Having really enjoyed the challenge, though, I'm willing to give it another go, and see where it takes me next time!











Thank you so much for stopping by... I hope you've enjoyed my White Witch, and if she's now got you in her thrall too, hop over to The Stampsmith and have a look at all their beautiful stamps.  I promise you'll find plenty for your Christmas wishlist!

I'm entering this in Monochromatic White, using at least one Stampsmith stamp, over at The Stampsmith Challenge.

The first of all single colors is white ... We shall set down white for the representative of light, without which no color can be seen; yellow for the earth; green for water; blue for air; red for fire; and black for total darkness.
Leonardo Da Vinci

White...is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black.
G.K.Chesterton

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
Mae West

Friendship Tag

Hello all, a very warm welcome to you all, and an especially big welcome to the new followers - it's an absolute pleasure to have your company for the journey.

I've got a little something today using a Stampsmith stamp which delights me... she's called Serena, and the piece is inspired by this month's Stampsmith challenge Bags and Tags.  It's a tag in a bag!

I used a tissue bag which actually came as part of the packaging in a delivery from the Funkie Junkie Boutique - waste not, want not, you know!  It's quite shiny so I wasn't sure how well it would take the images, but I'm delighted to say it worked very nicely.

I think it's such a beautiful image that the only stamps I was prepared to use alongside it were from my favourite floral set, the Autumn Leaves silhouette branches.  I like that they're slightly thorny, not straightforwardly 'pretty'.

Serena is stamped in Color Box Archival in Khaki Green, and the stems are in Ranger Coffee Archival.

As well as being shiny, the bag is also translucent, so there's a lovely ghostliness to the image... according to the light she's either there or not quite there, a quality which I love!








On the tag inside, the Serena image is stamped in the same ink, but this time onto tissue paper.  I did some wrinkle-free distress on the tag surface using Bundled Sage and Frayed Burlap, so there's a textured inkiness already there... and then I glued the tissue-stamped image down, getting some actual wrinkles involved as I did so.






(I tried to keep Serena's face relatively wrinkle-free, however - a girl's got her pride after all.)  I love this technique which I discovered while playing recently.  It gives a great vintage look, almost like fabric.

On the reverse of the tag is another Stampsmith stamp, this time a quote very close to my heart.  I've always loved it and was so happy when I saw that it was available - it's pretty time-consuming to stamp such a long sentiment letter by letter!




Again, I've stamped it on tissue paper, and before sticking it I blended some Bundled Sage over the tag first.  I edged the tag with Frayed Burlap, and I also wiped it lightly over the creased surface of the tissue paper to highlight the wrinkles a little.


The tiny rusty heart here, and the one on the outside of the bag, are cut from some rusty experimenting I've been doing as part of the Andy Skinner Timeworn Techniques course online.  (You can see the results of another experiment here, and there'll be more to come I'm sure.)

In fact the tiny tags are also backed onto the rust, but I forgot to turn them over so that you could see.  And on the back of the large heart it says "LAUGH", since that's the most important thing for me within a friendship...  The words are stamped with another of my £1 alphabets - incredible bargain buys from The Range; I have three different fonts.





I attached them with very fine burlap twine, as the piece seemed too delicate for the bulkier regular one.


I loved making this, so I'm thinking it may not be my last entry in this month's Bags and Tags challenge!


I'm entering this in the following:
The Stampsmith's September challenge Bags and Tags with a Stampsmith stamp
The Fashionable Stamping Challenge at the moment is Anything Floral or Handmade Flowers
Simon Says Stamp would like us to Put a Stamp On It
Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stamper challenge is Stamped Flowers at Ink on my Fingers
It may not qualify, as I didn't actually buy the bag, but it did come from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, and so I would like just to share it at the Sunday Share at Frilly and Funkie
Another go in the Heck of a Challenge inaugural Anything Goes

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
Henry David Thoreau

Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer.
Anonymous

Friendship exists, clear and absolute from the beginning.  You don't make friends, you recognise them.
Isabel Paterson