Spin me round again and rub my eyes

No aims, objectives, rhyme, reason, grand plan or little idea with this one, just a bit of semi-random messing about :)

I wanted to try out some stamps I hadn't used a lot, I wanted to have a go with my tiny attacher, which I'd never used and I wanted to incorporate some words of a song I've been listening to lately by Imogen Heap. (love her! So creative and innovative, hear the song here if you're interested). Oh, I also wanted to investigate tissue tape masking, a la Wendy Vecchi.

So, there you have it - I achieved all those things, and no one was hurt in the process, a great result all round! :)

"Alive"

Over on the Simon Says Stamp & Show Challenge blog today the new theme is "Distress Inks". I've had the song "Alive" by the Psychedelic Furs going around in my head for several days now, so hopefully this will help me to forget it! :) Although I think this piece works on it's own, the lyrics might give you a clearer picture of what was going through my head as I created each tile. Start from the top left corner and work left to right :)

"One time, just for a moment, I had time on my side. I felt like one in a million, I fell out of the blue. I feel dumb, I can't speak, I feel blind, I can't see. All my life. Some days are wide as the ocean, sun goes down and it's gone. I'll be sad when it's over, I'll be down when it's done. For once in my lifetime I'm not sad. For once in my lifetime I'm not down. For once in my life."

The background tiles were distress inked and some were water-stamped. Glossy accents were used to create tears on one of the tiles. I hope you like it, as ever, click on the image for a larger view :) All comments appreciated! :)

Our ever-generous sponsor Simon Says Stamp is offering a $25 gift voucher again this week! The winner will be chosen at random from those who enter the challenge, so why not give it a try?

Twinchie Time

I wanted to have a play around today with a lot of different techniques, mainly because I'm working in unfamiliar surroundings right now, with unfamiliar stuff, and wanted to put it all to the test :) Twinchies were the order of the day as there was no need to produce larger pieces, it was the process that was important rather than the end product! I hope you like em, click on the image to see a larger view :)

Less is More Tag

Another day, another tag!! (Hopefully any german readers will enjoy that pun! lol)

Once again, more new stamps that I'm trying out for the first time (I'll try to remember where they're all from, but I always forget!)

I started out by colouring the tag with Dusty Concord and Dried Marigold distress ink, applied from the ink pads with an ink blending tool. I then spritzed the large dots background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms with water and stamped it on the tag and left it to dry.

I used a wet baby wipe to remove a lot of the colour from the bottom section of the tag, then applied Mustard Seed distress ink to that section with my ink blending tool. I then stamped the rulers background from Lost Coast Designs, with black ink.

The bubble wrap stamp is from a Paperbag Studios plate, and I stamped with with Dusty Concord ink (see how much darker it stamps compared to the areas where I applied it with the blending tool?)

The Less is More stamp is from a PaperArtsy sheet, and I stamped it in black and highlighted areas with a white pen. The shoes stamp was a gift from a friend, so I've no idea where it comes from! I stamped it separately, then used a water brush and Spiced Marmalade distress pad to paint the orange colour into the white area. I used a grey promarker around the toe of the shoes to make them pop a little more. I then cut out the image and stamped the Less is More stamp across it's bottom left corner, then lined it up with the phrase already on the tag and stuck it in place.

The arrow is from the same Paperbag Studios sheet as the bubble wrap (I think!) and it was stamped in black and highlighted with white pen. Finally I used a scratches stamp from Tim Holtz's Slight Alterations set and stamped it with Milled Lavender distress ink around the edges of the tag to finish it off.

I hope you like it, I had a lot of fun making it! :) Click on the image to see a larger view.

Tag Memories

I found this image on my phone today, taken at the end of a holiday last year. I'd taken basic craft supplies with me as I knew the friend I was staying with would be at work a lot of the time. These were all the 6"x3" tags I'd made for a tag book during the trip. They've been seen on my blog individually before, but never all together like this. I thought it was a fun pic, with a different feel to it when they're all seen as a big group, so I thought I'd share it with you! :)

"Numbers" 4x4 Challenge

Ok, ok!!! Yes, yes, I know it was a bit obvious to use this Tim Holtz numbers stamp for this challenge, but stop going on about it! :o) Seriously though, it's a perennial favourite of mine, so I make no apologies for returning to it again.

This was made for the 4x4 Friday challenge, the theme this week being "numbers". The other image I used was from Paper Bag Studios, and is another image I find myself never tiring of.

I hope you like it, click on the image to enlarge it! :o)

So Salsa Turquoise Tag

4 blog posts in one day? It's practically unheard of! What can I tell you, I must be in a "crafty" mood today!

The So Salsa tag challenge today was to use the colour turquoise. I decided that I didn't really have any turquoise ink, so was going to try to complete the challenge using a mix of broken china and shabby shutters distress inks. Then I remembered that I had an Ancient Page ink pad in a turquoise colour, so problem solved! Or at least it would have been.... when I sat down to make the tag, I forgot all about the Ancient Page pad, and used the distress inks instead. Ah well, we all make mistakes, me more than many! :oD

Click on the image to enlarge it, I hope you like it!

Edit:
To answer your question Christa...
Boy and girl stamp - Paper Bag Studios
Ribbon stamp - Perfectly Clear Stamps - Ribbon border
Jumbled letters and binding strip - Just for Fun stamps (I think)

Sunday Stampers - Sisters

Sunday means Sunday Stampers, my friend Hels' weekly challenge. The theme this week is "Sisters are doin' it for themselves", so the Paper Bag Studio stamp I used on this tag was just crying out to be used!

Not too much to say here, lots of stamping and masking and blending of inks. A quick word about the main image though... It was first stamped in Fired Brick distress ink, then the stamp was cleaned and inked with black versafine. I used a wet baby wipe to remove all the ink from the background parts of the stamp, then used a stamp positioner to restamp over the red original, highlighting the sisters in black.

I hope you like it! Click on the image to enlarge it.

It's a housing boom!

Just when you say to yourself "I haven't made any little houses ever in my life", what happens? All of a sudden you've made 8. Isn't that always the way?

3 more for the "little boxes" swap. I must say, I'm really enjoying making these! I'm going to have to slow down, or I'll be sad when they're all done! :oD

I hope you like them, click on the image to see a larger view.

Wednesday Stamper Squares Challenge

This weeks challenge on the Wednesday Stamper blog was "squares". I took a sheet of printer paper and cut a 1in square out of it, to act as a window. I then used this window to stamp onto a 6in x 3in tag.

Each image was stamped using black versafine ink, and then hand painted.

I ended up making two windows, as the ink started to soak through the paper on the first sheet. I think they look quite interesting in their own right, so I have included an image of them here.

I hope you like it! :o) Click on any image to enlarge it.

Heartfelt Tag

Another day, another challenge to be faced! :o) Or, in this case, a pair of challenges - The Wednesday Stamper (theme - include the word "art" - it's there if you look hard enough!) and Theme Thursday (theme - "girls").

I've been wanting to use these song words on something for a while, they're taken from "Strange and Beautiful" by Aqualung. My initial plan was to make the tag sleeve from vellum, and that's what I did. It looked fine in real life, but when photographed, it was somewhat difficult to read what the words said, so I remade it in paper.

The tag itself features stamps from Lost Coast Designs, The Queens Dresser Drawers and Just for Fun stamps. The pencils were stamped first in black Versafine, then the detail painted in with a water brush and distress ink pads. They were then masked, and the two girls faces were stamped and painted. The faces were then masked and the background was coloured and spritzed with water. The splatters, stitches and Identification Check stamp were then applied with black Versafine. Finally, the edges were slightly aged with walnut stain distress ink pad applied with cut'n'dry foam.

I hope you like it! Click on any image to enlarge it :o)

Um.... 5 More Triangular ATCs

Well, I enjoyed making the last 5 so much, I thought I'd make 5 more! This time, I didn't have the sense to make two of them point-side down, so they'd be easier to photograph, so they're split into 2 images here. Click on either to enlarge them.

Nothing groundbreaking to say about these really! In the second, the word "bored" is deliberately spelled that way! Honestly!! :oD The 2 stamps used in the 4th are some that I had made for me as a one-off.

I hope you like em! Ta for taking a look! :o)