Monthly Challenge - April

 This month's theme for the tag challenge is Rain. I have used an old Non Sequitur stamp from an Oriental set. I stamped and embossed the image and then coloured it in with alcohol markers. Because the markers bleed through to the reverse I decided to cutout the image. The tag background was made by spritzing water on some broken china DO and smooshing the tag through it. I then used a small raindrops stamp from the same Non Sequitur set all over the background. I die cut the clouds and a bit of ground for the image. I thought about adding some text but decided to leave it plain.

Monthly Challenge - February

 

Playing catch-up (again) and I've managed to complete February's tag. The theme was Dreams/Dreaming and I had problems coming up with an idea until I heard a reference to Martin Luther King on TV and it all fell into place.

The text is a stamp by Katzelkraft of the famous 'I have a dream' speech. First I stamped the lady (an old stamp by Non Sequitur) on the tag with Versafine onyx black and coloured her in with Coloursoft pencils and Sansodor and a metallic gold pen for her earring. I covered her with a mask and then stamped the text. Keeping the mask on I tore a strip of paper on both sides to make a mask for the text and used wild honey DI over the remaining spaces on the tag.

Pulling the masks off revealed the tag but the space above the ladies head looked rather empty. I debated using a stencil over the background but then decided that some die cut flying birds would look better so I coloured a scrap of card with broken china DO and used a Sizzix die. 

Monthly Tag Challenge - March

 I have not managed to take part in the challenge for a couple of months but I hope I will catch up when inspiration strikes.` This month's theme of silhouettes was a much easier one.

This is part of a die cut sent to me by a friend in Australia. It's made by a company called Paper Rose and is just perfect for men's cards. The die is actually 2 men sitting on a fence but only 1 would fit so I have kept the other part for another project.

I used squeezed lemonade, ripe persimmon, picked raspberry, shaded lilac and dusty concord DIs with brushes for a blended background and added the die cut. The birds are by Crafty Individuals and the text was computer generated.

Monthly Tag Challenge - November

 The theme for November was 'Butterflies'.

I used spun sugar and tumbled glass DIs for the background and added some stamped butterflies from a Darkroom Door stamp set. The die cut butterflies are an edging die by Joy Crafts. A coordinating strip of washi tape down the side concealed the bridging strip on the die cut. The text is from the same Darkroom Door stamp set, stamped on a separate piece of card and cut to fit the tag. I added some tiny butterfly eyelets that I've had for years.

Monthly Tag Challenge - October

 

 I thought I would start off the year by completing the tags I missed in the Monthly Tag Challenge.

October's theme was 'Childhood'.

I have been an admirer of Vicki Papaioannou's channel on You Tube and in particular her mini art journal series. This tag is in the style of Vicki's art journal with whatever bits I could find in my collection.

The background paper is from a Crafty Individuals paper pad and in true Vicki fashion I added some randomly stamped text. The flowers are from a book of die cut tags I bought some time ago at The Works and the focal image is from another Crafty Individuals pad. I slipped a few of the flowers under the image and added the text from a Papermania stamp set. The final touch was to splatter the tag with white acrylic paint.

Monthly Tag Challenge - December

 Yes it's been a while since I posted on my blog. I've been travelling and then got caught up with Christmas things. I have some catching up to do on the monthly tag challenge but I thought I would try and get December's done before the end of the year.

This month's theme was 'one layer'. I started with this fun Crafty Individuals stamp called three (festive) dogs. Having covered them with a mask I added a background of twisted citron, crackling campfire and fossilized amber Oxides. I then used a TH flourish stencil with twisted citron over the tag and added a bubble stamp with Versafine smoky gray using the second and third generation prints.

After removing the masks I used a gold pen for the dog tags and a red pen for the collars. I was looking for a quirky text stamp that would go with the dogs and this was the most appropriate I could find in my collection.

Monthly Tag Challenge - September

 The theme for this month's challenge was bees and the colour yellow. Although there are many bee-themed stamps available I don't have any and I was thinking of  looking online for an image when I discovered I had some paper napkins with bees on. 

The background was easy enough with my honeycomb layering stencils and fossilized amber, spiced marmalade and crackling campfire DOs. I found a quote that gave me the chance to use some TH wildflower dies which I coloured with alcohol markers.

I fussy cut a bee and added it with the computer generated quote. Yes it's quite busy but then so is a bee!

Monthly Tag Challenge - August

 This month's theme is Oriental. This tag is my second attempt. The first was a collage of various rail tickets, menus etc from a trip to Japan in 2005 but it didn't look right so I started again. The background was blended fossilized amber DO with candied apple DO blended over a trellis stencil. I randomly stamped some small flowers over the background and added a few dots of peel-off waste. I used Spellbinders oval and scalloped oval dies on some paper bought from the Japanese equivalent of Poundland called 100 Yen Shop.

I made the knot with some Mizuhiki cord following online instructions. The oriental text is a sticker and the title and the main image are by Simple Expressions. I gave the lady a colourful obi and added some variegated fibres.

Monthly Tag Challenge - July

This month's tag had the fun theme of fashion with a requirement for some embossing. I kept thinking of the David Bowie song ('Fashion, turn to the left, fashion, turn to the right') and once the earworm embedded itself  only another song could replace it so I turned to Madonna ('Vogue, strike a pose'). This Dina Wakley stamp from her essential silhouettes collection fitted the bill.

I stamped it several times with my stamping platform and Versafine onyx black to get a crisp image, clear heat embossed it and then masked it. The background is a TH stencil in spiced marmalade, crackling campfire and candied apple DOs. It looked a little plain after removing the mask so I added some splatters of red acrylic paint, die cut some stars of various sizes from metallic card and added a heat embossed sentiment.

Monthly Tag Challenge - June

 Playing catch-up with the monthly tag challenge. June's theme was Celebrations with a requirement for some red, white and blue. 

The dies were mainly by Crafters Companion from various sets. I die cut the word and inlaid it into the tag. The confetti and balloon strings were also by Crafters Companion. The cake and stand are a very old Cuttlebug die (coloured yellow as a nod to the lemon jubilee pudding).

Monthly Tag - May

 

April was a busy month for me - not on the crafting front but life seems to be opening up again and we have had family from abroad to stay and friends for dinner (yay!). May is shaping up to be equally busy so I was relieved that inspiration for this month's tag came quickly.

I have been following a YouTube channel by Cori Dahmen called Creating with Scraps and at the start of the year she did a video on collages and clusters which you can see here . I collected some of the bits on my desk together and had a go at making some clusters. One of these is the focal piece for this month's tag, the theme of which is bits and bobs.

This is what I started with - it's a collection of bits that were remnants from other projects which I inked, embossed and stuck together onto some music manuscript. The flower is a TH wildflower die cut coloured with alcohol pens and with Glossy Accents on the flower head. I added some washi tape, gems and a scrap of stamped text.

The above is what I thought I might use for the tag (in the end I didn't use the leaf patterned paper). I think the sheet with the red splodges was protective wrapping in a parcel and I had used it to mop up some ink. The lacy trim was a leftover piece from a TH die cut that matched the green patterned paper on the cluster.

I stamped some flowers onto the sheet and a Crafty Individuals text stamp and glued it to my tag blank. My cluster went on top and I added the lacy trim at the bottom.

The completed tag:

Monthly Tag - April

I've managed to complete my tag in record time this month! The theme was Time and it had to be monochromatic so I decided to use various shades of grey.

I started with hickory smoke and weathered wood DIs on a plastic sheet which I spritzed with water and smooshed my tag blank through. I added a Dina Wakley stencil called little birdies with a blending brush and some hickory smoke DI and some text in the background with weathered wood. All the stamps are from an old Paper Artsy series called Ding & Dong. They are all mounted on foam so I went old-school and used my stamp positioner to get the best placement. I stamped the main image in Versafine smokey gray and stamped the clock face a second time on a scrap of card. The hands of the clock are separate stamps and I tried to stamp the time as 4.23.

I added a few extra swirls and squiggles and coloured some tiny pearls with a grey alcohol marker. 

Monthly Tag Challenge - March

 

This month's theme for the tag challenge is 'Circles' and bright colours. I wanted to pay homage in a small way to the people of Ukraine and the terrible things that are happening in their country.

 I used the Crafter's Companion spots and dots rotation stamp with Impress lemon yellow and Versafine majestic blue. Although you normally use 4 colours with these stamps I used 2 but double-stamped the second blue and yellow for a slightly darker image. I know the blue is not quite the correct shade but it was as close as I could get.

Having cut out my tag shape (8x12cm) I wanted some sunflowers on the tag as they are the national flower of Ukraine. I don't have a sunflower die but I have a Sizzix Bigz daisy die that I cut 4 times and layered to create my sunflower. The die has 3 different sizes of daisy, this was the smallest but I used the centre of the largest die for the middle. I coloured these with a brown alcohol marker and then stamped a speckle stamp over that in black for the seeds.

The leaves are from a Lisa Horton variegated leaf die and I embossed the veins with an old Cuttlebug maple leaf embossing folder.

I didn't know what to put on as as wording for the tag - there really are no words to describe the plight of the Ukranians. I debated adding 'Slava Ukraini' which means glory to Ukraine but then remembered I had a stamp (coincidentally part of a sunflower stamp set) which I felt was appropriate. I stamped it in the same blue and yellow to give a shadow effect and mounted it on foam pads. Some yellow and blue ribbon finished the tag.

Monthly Tag Challenge - February

 

I have struggled with this month's theme which is 'Romance'. I wasn't sure what to do - maybe I'm getting to old for romance or just being cynical about the hype that seems to engulf Valentine's Day nowadays. I finally decided to go for the supermarket version of romance which consists of hearts, flowers, chocolates and a bottle of fizz. 

The background is mustard seed, worn lipstick and peeled paint DIs blended over a web stencil by Pretty Quick. I added a stamp with random numbers and a dotted strip stamp which are both by Paula Pascual. The heart ballons are a die cut coloured with alcohol markers. I stuck the strings down but left the balloons to float freely for some dimension. The other die cut is from a set I purchased years ago for a wedding card which I raised on foam pads.

I added the sentiment and edged the tag with red ink to finish it off. I hope next month's theme is easier!.

Monthly Tag Challenge - January

This month's challenge was to use a favourite poem and the colour yellow. I initially thought of 'Daffodils' by Wordsworth but don't have a daffodil stamp. I have a sunflower stamp but no favourite poem for it.

My choice was 'Still I Rise' by Maya Angelou. You can read the whole poem here and there are some very powerful YouTube clips of the author reciting the poem herself.

Having chosen the poem, I had an image in my head of how to depict it but getting it down on paper was difficult. I knew I wanted to use the hot air balloon which is an old wood-mounted rubber stamp with nothing on it to show who it was made by. Having stamped and coloured it with alcohol markers I put it on a sky with clouds background with tumbled glass and mowed lawn DI for the ground. I added some Crafty Individual birds and some hickory smoke DI to the background. The eyes by Hampton Arts are second generation stamping with hickory smoke.

In my head I had a picture of negative words floating in the background but I didn't want to use my horrible handwriting and none of my many alphas - stamps or dies - were small enough. I finally found some old peel-offs where the letters are @3mm tall. Only problem was trying to pick short words that I still had letters for which is why I used idle instead of lazy (no Ys left and I'd already used up the X's making Ys). The Y from 'ugly' is partly hidden behind the balloon because I had to use an upside down K. I coloured the letters with a grey marker to tone down the shininess. 

Before adding the balloon and verse I splattered some poppy red Twinkling H2Os over the tag and made a few cuts into the edges of the tag.

Not exactly my original image but I'm happy I made use of what I had.

Monthly Tag Challenge - December

 This month's theme (no surprise) is Christmas with a free colour choice. I decided to do the inlaid die cut technique as in my previous post and used the poinsettia die from TH's mixed media Christmas die set. I used the same method as before with a double sided sticky sheet to slot the pieces in once they had been coloured. If I'd taken a minute to think about how many tiny berry pieces there were I might have changed my mind but I persevered. The holly berries have been coloured a slightly deeper shade of red to the poinsettias. I gave the berries a little texture with glossy accents and the poinsettias were brushed with Wink of Stella for a little sparkle. The background is broken china DO splattered with some water. The sentiment is by Tattered Lace and some tiny glitter card stars completed the tag.

Monthly Tag Challenge - November

 The colours for this month's tag challenge are blue, green and silver. I had been colouring in a few more of these Hunkydory die cuts and by pure coincidence had coloured a silver outlined one with blue and green alcohol markers so it was a no-brainer!

I'm trying to use some of the older bits and pieces in my collection (I can't really say 'use up' because I don't think I'll ever get to the end of some things but every little helps). The background patterned paper is from a pad I bought years ago in The States. I stamped a Paper Artsy text stamp with Versamark and heat embossed in silver. I found a very old border embossing folder (Quikutz maybe?) and used it on some blue vellum which I stuck onto some blue card cut with deckle scissors. I embellished the border with some silver gems and added the die cuts. I embossed the edges of the tag with silver and highlighted the centres of the die cuts with clear Nuvo drops. Finally I added some organza ribbon and eyelash fibre to the tag hole.

Although it's not a Christmas tag it has a Christmassy feel to it.

Monthly Tag Challenge - October

 

This month the theme is Autumn with colours of red, yellow and green.

I used a very old oak leaf stamp with a Kaleidacolor autumn leaves stamp pad on some kraft card as a background. I scribbled some Gelatos in red, yellow and green onto a scrap of kraft card, blended the colours with a waterbrush pen and punched out some small maple leaves. These were stuck onto a scrap of TH Halloween paper. The Hero Arts ginko leaves were stamped with Versamark, gold heat embossed and cut out. The quotation is an old one that I got in a grab bag years ago. Some gold metallic dots and gold ribbon completed the tag.

Monthly Tag Challenge - September

 Stencils, washi tape and peel-offs oh my! This month's theme is Birds with blue, green and brown colours and I managed to use some long neglected supplies - these days even using a few centimetres of washi tape is an achievement.

The 8cm x 14cm tag was stencilled with 2 TH stencils and peeled paint and brushed corduroy DI. I used a Sizzix die to cut the birds into the tag and backed it with some blue card. A small piece of washi tape was added and edged with gold peel-off lines. The words are cut from a Sizzix Hunky Dory strip alphabet coloured with a brown alcohol marker as was the strip attached to the top of the tag.

Monthly Tag Challenge - August

This month's theme is Sugar & Spice with pastel pink and green as colours. I remembered I had an old paper pad called Kitschy Kitchen which had the quote 'Sugar and spice and everything nice' on it so that set me off on a culinary themed tag. The gingham background is from the same paper pad and I ran it through a falling flowers embossing folder (click on the pic for a better view) before edging the quote and the tag with bundled sage DI.

The cupcakes are from a very old (2006) set called Build-a-Cupcake by Banana Frog. I stamped the components with Brilliance coffee bean, heat embossed them and then water coloured them with DIs - spun sugar, scattered straw and tea dye. I added some pink heat embossed 'sprinkles' to the larger icing.The cherries were coloured with embossing pens and heat embossed. The icing on the large cupcake and the smaller cupcake were raised on foam pads. The original cherry on the larger cake had a much bigger stalk and after sticking it down I realised it didn't look quite right so I gave it a smaller stalk and repositioned it which left a bit of an 'oops' mark on the tag which I covered up with some strategically placed sequins coloured with an alcohol marker. Some organza ribbon finished the tag.