Love Shines

Hello all, and welcome to the second post of the day!

It's that time of the month - new challenge themes to play all over the place.  If you're looking for my contribution for Our Creative Corner, you'll find it here.

But right now, it's time for a new challenge over at Country View Challenges.  Our lovely host, Doreen, would like to see you all Sparkle and Shine this month.

My team-mates have produced some fabulous inspiration for you.  Some of them have gone Christmassy - perfect for the sparkle theme - but mine were made well before leaving for New York... it never occurred to me to think of Christmas back in July!

I'm not generally that sparkly, but I had lots of fun with both my projects.  First up is this jumbo tag full of the lustrous shimmer of gilding and even some hints of glitter.








I started with one of the inserts from the Tim Holtz stencil packaging as my tag background.  (As the whole thing got heavier, I mounted it on some thick card to make the whole thing sturdier.)  Since it has a slight sheen already it seemed like a good start for a shiny project.














I mixed a couple of drops of Walnut Stain Distress Re-inker with texture paste on my craft mat and applied the mixture through the Tim Holtz Gothic stencil (I think this was the very first thing I did with it when it arrived through the letter box on its release!).












Love the clean edges and great dimension.

Later it got a good dose of White Fire Treasure Gold…














… making it gleam from the dark background.
















The main focal image is the Found Relatives' baby, cut out around the top, and perched on the clock frame.

She's mounted on some padded tape for that pop of dimension.









Since the Found Relatives cards are quite glossy, even the baby adds some sparkle and shine when she catches the light!

I think the clock frame is one of the Tando ones (or perhaps I cut it using the Tim Holtz die - can't remember any longer).






It's had several layers of embossing powder applied - some plain gold and some Frantage Aged Gold in there I think.

I heated the layers until little extra bubbles of texture started to appear, to add distressed texture.














There are some Gothic book pages layered into the mix…












... as well as a Prima journalling ticket providing extra detail just behind the baby.













The flowers are from various sources - there are some Prima ones, and some that I won in a blog candy ages ago.

I'm guessing I got them on offer, as I don't usually indulge in Prima flowers…

I have to admit I'm slightly in love with the texty print on a couple of these!














Some (I think the blog candy ones) had quite a glittery finish.  Even after I did some altering with spritzes of ink and distressing of the edges, the glitter is still providing an extra touch of sparkle.











The Ornate Plate has had a fingerful of White Fire Treasure Gold applied to it to highlight all those lovely decorative ridges.  And the words pretty much stamped themselves!

When I added all the splatter later I made sure I covered the internal panel so that the words wouldn't get obscured by the flying ink.













There are some more golden metal accents in the shape of one of the large Idea-ology keys (also White-Fired!)...












... and some of the Finnabair Roman Numerals, echoing the numbers on the clock.

It was pretty much an afterthought to add some of my dried leaves (yup, that would be White Fire Treasure Gold they've been gilded with) to the mix.












I think they give quite a good hit of dramatic diagonals to the composition.












And the splatter is done with Dylusions sprays, taking the spritzers out and flicking the other end at the tag.













Even the topping has a touch of shimmer to it… no idea any more where I picked up this satiny ribbon, but it was perfect for the job here.











So that's my gleaming, golden, glittery, gilded make for you, sparkling and shining in the sunlight.

Do hop over to Country View Challenges to see how my team-mates Sparkle and Shine, as well as to check out all the challenge details and rules.









As usual, there's a prize voucher provided by our generous sponsor Country View Crafts, so do come and Sparkle and Shine with us this month.

Thanks so much for dropping in.  I should actually have some time today to do some visiting in Craftyblogland - I'm really looking forward to catching up with what you've all been creating.  Happy October everyone!










Oh, and if all that gilding is a bit rich for you, you could check out my rusty offering for Our Creative Corner from earlier today!

It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born.  This is not necessarily cause for alarm.  The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.
Elinor Goulding Smith







Ingredients available at Country View Crafts:
Idea-ology Found Relatives
Idea-ology Word Keys
Tim Holtz Gothic stencil and the packaging from a Tim Holtz stencil
Idea-ology Ornate Plate
Texture Paste
Walnut Ink Distress Re-inker
Dylusions Sprays - Ground Coffee, Melted Chocolate
Treasure Gold - White Fire

Green and Serene

Hello all, and welcome to a serene Sunday here at Words and Pictures.  I have to say, I'm far from serene at the moment - pretty much everything is hotting up on all fronts - so making this tag was truly therapeutic.


It uses Artistic Outpost stamps, mainly from the gorgeous Serenity plate.  It was one of the first AO stamp sets I bought, and I'm still just as in love with it.


It's not the first time I've played with layered tags, but I've seen lots around and about a lot recently.  (Can I find any of them now to share a link with you?  Can I heck!)


In any case, when I started playing with Tim's wrinkle-free distress technique and ended up with enough ink on the mat for two tags (only semi-accidentally), a layered tag was the obvious next step.











I seem to have a real blue-green thing going on in celebration of Spring, and I also find them such soothing colours to work with.

As well as Distress Inks, I used a bit of Bundled Sage re-inker on the mat for a shot of more concentrated colour.











The large tag is then treated very simply - just a stamping of the beautiful homestead image in Olive Archival, and some raggedy edging created with the TH Paper Distresser.








On the regular tag, I added some of the music manuscript from the Ephemera Backgrounds, and embossed the sentiment using Wow Vanilla White powder for a soft look.

At the bottom I trimmed the tag slightly (so as to clear the image beneath) before using the Doily Lace punch from Martha Stewart. 











It wasn't showing up brilliantly against the tag beneath (very similar colours of course), so I used some more embossing powder to highlight the edge.








The final tag uses a brand new die I bought with some recent winnings (I've been on such an amazing roll - never been this lucky in my whole life!). 

I'm not really a Magnolia crafter (though I do find some of the creations jaw-droppingly gorgeous), but this little Vintage Tag from the Magnolia Doohickeys range caught my eye a while back, and I've given in at long last!










For this one, I embossed the flower swirls, in a couple of different colours, and then blended DIs over the top.  

Then I added some more embossing powder to the lacy bit at the bottom to make it pop.








Crinkle Ribbon dyed with Distress Stain, and tied together with some paper ribbon finishes the whole thing off.  

I'm very happy with the layered look, too; for some reason it just makes me happy...













And by the end, I was breathing a little more deeply and, I think, even smiling a bit.  Which is really what this whole crafting business is about, isn't it?!













Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by today.  

I hope all the Brits enjoy their Bank Holiday weekend (my nose will be at the Dollshouse Museum grindstone pretty much throughout... altogether now: aahhh!), and that you all have a wonderful week ahead.

The sole art that suits me is that which, rising from unrest, tends toward serenity.
Andre Gide

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
Thomas Szasz


I'd like to enter this for the Inspiration Journal's May challenge Don't Quote Me

Bottle of Butterflies

Hello and welcome (back) to Words and Pictures.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

I'm sharing an Altered Bottle today - and altered from clear glass to green too -  so without further ado... here it is on the right, my Bottle of Butterflies!

This project was kick-started by the photo prompt over at the Shabby Tea Room challenge this week:

I loved the delicate pinks and strong greens, and also I started to crave pink lemonade really badly!!

The colours reminded me straight away of the Pink Paislee London Market collection.  I've got it with me as I've been planning to alter one of the Ikea Moppe chests of drawers with it to go in the spare room here, which is all pink and rosy.  Haven't got round to it yet... three days to go - what odds would you like to give me?!

The B of B didn't really get started though until I was washing out one of the glass bottles from the light evaporated milk we like to put in coffee.  It doesn't come in bottles in the UK, so none of this would have worked out there!

The bottle is quite small (holds less than a pint, I'd say), and has lovely fluted ridges towards the top.  Unfortunately it's clear glass, so my first desire was to see if I could transform it to green.

I haven't any alcohol inks yet (well... that's to say, I do own some, having just completed an ebay purchase, but they're on the way to my UK address, and will almost certainly be there before I am... no good to me here, though), so I had to figure out a way of getting the colour to stay on the glass surface.

I have some Peeled Paint in a Re-Inker, so the very concentrated form of Distress Ink, and I tried dabbing it onto the bottle with some paper towel.  It looked sensational... but it wouldn't stay there.  Every touch wiped some away, and left me very green-fingered (and I don't mean in a good gardener type way).

Having seen how it looked, I wasn't prepared to give up though... so I resorted to my old favourite when I can't get colour to stay where I want it - emboss it on!!

I got plenty of Peeled Paint back on to the glass (no problem with it staying wet to hold the powder), and then tipped clear embossing powder over it - making sure I had the paper there to catch it underneath (been there, done that, spent hours trying to sweep it carefully off the craft mat!).

I then started to heat it, VERY carefully, as I wasn't at all sure that I wouldn't end up shattering the glass (though it's pretty thick).

I started with one hand held in front of my eyes, just in case... and in the end resorted to putting on my sunglasses, as the closest thing to protective goggles that I had (note to self: maybe buy some protective goggles?).  In any case, disaster didn't strike, and I was thrilled to end up with a glossy green glass bottle, in the bright tones of Peeled Paint.


Once I'd decided which papers from the collection I wanted to use, they pretty much worked themselves out in terms of which order the stripes wanted to go in.  The paper's nice and sturdy, which means it was quite easy to get it to encircle the bottle.  

I knew I wanted the word BUTTERFLY, obviously, and followed the nice arching of the word from underneath as I cut that strip.  That's over to the left here.





 I also wanted the butterfly itself from that same sheet, and his stripe needed to go at the top, as I wanted his top wings to float free of the strip of paper.

The gorgeous pink music manuscript, with composers' names and lovely swirly music cover embellishments, wasn't quite pink enough once it was set against the other stripes, so I put some ink from my Spun Sugar Distress Marker with some from the Tattered Rose ink pad onto my acrylic block and blended them together onto the paper to give it an extra embarrassed blush.

The two pink butterflies are cut from that same music sheet, and - in a reluctant concession to 'girlydom' I added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles, and some sequins to tone in with the overall colour scheme.

The little silver charms which make up the bodies of the butterflies were one of my best, best bargain buys: they came from The Works, who were selling packs of 6 craft embellishments at 59p a pack, but then at BOGOF (I'm not being rude... that's Buy One Get One Free), and then came an extra reduction to four packs for £1 - that's 24 silver charms for £1.  

Sadly, this was at the beginning of the year, and I idly picked up a few packs thinking they might come in useful for something dollshouse-y for my mother.  If I had only known what obsession was about to hit me for six, I'd have bought up the entire stock!!

The flower is made with a couple of the cardstock tattered florals I bought ready-cut from ebay.  I gave them a coat of pale pink acrylic, and then stamped them with my much-loved Prima 'wallpaper' stamp, the Alla Prima background - little flowers and leaves.  

It's stamped in Ranger Archival Sap Green (appropriate given the plant stems in the photo prompt!), but it's very delicate, and hard to see in the bright sunlight which has suddenly flooded the Czech Republic again today.  The whole thing's also got a generous spritz of Perfect Pearls Mist in Pearl.

The bow is made from the white gauze ribbon which I get for free every time I buy a box of the plain cream cards and envelopes I like, again from The Works.  They're a great base for cardmaking, and they come tied up all prettily in yards of this white ribbon.

I did my trick of pulling it through, pressing it under my thumb, against the Tattered Rose ink pad, to get that nice blush onto it (and onto my thumb).  

I've also used some of the Tim Holtz tissue tape - the butterflies from the Sketchbook set - right at the top of the bottle, pressing them into the ridges of the screwtop, and then giving them a swipe or two with the blending tool pad I use for green - which by now has a combination of Forest Moss, Bundled Sage, Sap Green and a bit of Peeled Paint all embedded into it.  I didn't even add any extra, just used up some of the spare ink soaked into the sponge!

You can get a better idea of the colour here.  I also wanted a sort of double bow affair... so, having placed a button (pink acrylic to the rescue again) as the centre of the flower, I added a couple of extra lengths of the ribbon, so that there'd be an additional 'layer' to the bow.

I'm so glad the sun came out for the photos of this one... it really allows that green glass to glow.






Thank you for spending some time here at Words and Pictures today - especially if you've given up some sunshine to be here!  I didn't realise that once the sun came out there'd be such a conflict between my desire to soak some of it up, and my desire to continue crafting.  Anyone who knows me, and my sun-worshipper tendencies, will understand what a statement that makes about the power of this addiction I've developed!






I'm entering this in the following:
The Shabby Tea Room challenge: Oh - So Pretty In Pink
Simon Says Anything Goes at the Simon Says Stamp challenge blog
Buttons and Bows over at The Craftroom Challenge
At the Anything Goes challenge there's a suggestion - Let's Not Be Square
A Muse Studio who are inviting us to have Triple the Fun, with at least one flower, one ribbon and one button on the project.

I'm making another entry to Top Tip Tuesday (for whom I'll be making a Guest Designer appearance shortly, thanks to my Big Top... watch this space) and their Circles challenge.  They also invite you to add a tip.  My first thought was: When using sequins... don't!  But I suspect that's not quite what they're after.  

So I think I'm going to go with my glass altering technique, with a strong Health and Safety caution: Make sure you have heat-happy glass - eg. would it withstand boiling water being poured into it?.  Apply Distress Re-Inker (for the concentrated colour) to the glass.  Add clear embossing powder and heat VERY CAREFULLY - protective clothing may be advisable.  No joke. 

Butterflies are self-propelled flowers.
R.H. Heinlein

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
Rabindranath Tagore

And to all my followers, old and new, an Irish blessing:
May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches,
Today, tomorrow and beyond.