Pocket Watch Frame

While having a mini clear-out (very mini) the other day I found this small frame that I had bought years ago in my cross-stitching days. It's roughly 3"/7cm in diameter and I thought it had been lying around empty for long enough. I cut a circle with a framelit die which was the exact size of the outer diameter. With my ink dusters, wild honey and broken china DIs I made a background. The bird is from a Fiskars set which I stamped and masked. The cogs are by Papermania. I wanted to add some flowers and flourishes on the rim of the frame but couldn't get them to stay on effectively so I coiled a small strip of card and stuck it onto the base as a support for the large flower. You can see what I mean in this pic:

The flourishes are also supported by this coil and it allows the embellishments to 'float' across the bottom of the frame giving more depth.

Quotes & Lyrics - Hurt & Travel

This fortnight's words for the Craft Barn's Q&L Challenge are knowledge and hurt. I decided to use this quote because although hurt tends to be a negative word this quote is quite positive.  I made a background with some stamping paint, mists and stencils. I used my new Tim Holtz courtyard frameworks die and added some white dots to highlight it. The chipboard letters were stamped with a background stamp and added in a curve.
I'm sorry I have not been able to look at and comment on everyone's entries for a few weeks but I do hope things will improve this week.

I have managed to get up-to-date with this challenge at last. The word choices were flower and travel and I could have chosen either but for some reason Sweet Dreams by The Eurythmics stuck in my head. I love to travel and the lyrics seemed appropriate for me. The background is broken china and peeled paint DI (to represent land and sea) smooshed onto a sheet of acetate and spritzed with gold shimmer spray. I did each colour separately and dried in between to prevent the colours becoming muddy. The lady image is by Hampton Arts and the world sights are by Katzelkraft. The lettering was done with an old-fashioned alphabet stencil and then I added dots to the letters.

UK Stampers ATC swap - April

This month's theme on the UK Stampers forum was the thought provoking 'nothing to do with age'. I wasn't too sure what that meant but it was clarified as being things that old age shouldn't prevent one from doing. Sometime last year I purchased a greeting card book from my local charity shop. It was a folder with a pocket for every month and space to write birthdays for that month. Each pocket contained cards and envelopes with black & white pics of old people. I used one of these images for my W for Wrinkles DPS in the Craft Barn dictionary challenge last year. These images were too large to use on an ATC but on the back of each card was a smaller reproduction of the image on the front which was the perfect size. I used wet watercolour paper and sponged picked raspberry, shaded lilac and squeezed lemonade DIs through a stencil and added some gold shimmer spray. Some lilac ric rac, a few die cut leaves and rolled flowers from some background scraps finished off the ATCs. Although you can get dies to make these rolled flowers they are easy enough to make. I punch a circle (@1"), pencil in a very rough spiral and cut it out - it doesn't have to be perfect. Then I start to roll from the outside with the help of a thin pair of tweezers. A blob of PVA at the end (which is the base) and they're done.

Katzelkraft Stamp Offer

As you know I'm a big fan of Katzelkraft stamps. In case you missed it there is a fabulous discount of 30% on all their stamps at the moment. Just type in the code PAQUES but be quick as the offer ends on Sunday. You can browse through all the stamps here . Happy shopping!

Quotes & Lyrics - Truth

I've fallen behind with the Craft Barn's Quotes & Lyrics Challenge but I decided to try and complete this fortnight's page and then catch-up later. The 2 words chosen are truth and change. When this challenge started I decided that whenever I could it would be nice to use an appropriate quote stamp that I had so it was fortunate that when I saw the word choices I remembered an old Elusive Images stamp set called A Thing of Beauty.
Last week at Ally Pally I watched a demo on the Paper Artsy stand by a lady whose name I don't know. She built up a wonderful background with layers of book paper, Fresco paints and grunge paste. My background is a nod to the various techniques she used. The main image is a stamp by Inkylicious and the background has been created with Impress inks, stencils, Ferro paste and stamps. I used the cap from a bottle for the rings and the edge of an old credit card for the stripes. The splats and background text are from a Sheena Douglass set called Ageing Beautifully.
Edited to add: I have no idea why the face image is so blurry. Please click on the pic and you should see a much clearer image. A Wall of Fame winner!

New Stamps!

I'm blowing away the dustballs from my blog and posting 2 very similar cards made with stamps from a recent trip to the Alexander Palace stamp show. I've been occupied with the illness of a close family friend and have had no time for crafting but I did manage some me time last Sunday. It was a gloriously sunny day and it was great to get out and indulge myself in my hobby. I saw this quote stamp on the Inkylicious stand and it resonated with my current frame of mind. The grasses are from the same company. I used my ink dusters and DIs for the background. The birds are by Crafty Individuals.
While the stamps were out I made another card with a slightly different background.

I hope I can get back to posting on a regular basis and can catch up with the challenges that have fallen by the wayside.

UK Stampers Postcard Swap - April

I haven't had much crafting time recently as other aspects of my life have taken up a considerable amount of my time. I did get a short time to make a postcard for UK Stampers' postcard swap. This month the postcard had to have a crown on it. My immediate reaction was to use Alice Palace's crowned bunnies but then I thought I would go in a different direction with Tim Holtz's crown mask. I used that and some scraps from a Tim Holtz washer die and sprayed various inks over. I stamped KTZ's text background in ripe persimmon DI and an Elusive Images stamp in Archival teal. I stamped the butterfly from the image stamp onto scrap card and added it. The sentiment is from the Artistic Stamper's journaling words 3. As the postcard has to go through the post naked, embellishing is usually a problem. I bought a couple of Sew Easy rollers in a sale a while ago and decided to try one out on this as a means of adding some texture. I only have the rollers - no handle- but it was easy enough to use to prick out a pattern which I then stitched with some embroidery floss.

A new month

Sorry not much to show at present. It's been a traumatic month and crafting has had to take a back seat. Hope this month is better (but I doubt it).