A little Altered Album with a POEsie :o)

Today I am sharing a little altered album that I am entering into Quoth the Raven, Nevermore's challenge 'A bunch of Poesies'.  You can find the details here : http://poequoththeraven.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/quoth-raven-quest-33-bunch-of-poesies.html  They have some great challenges, definitely worth a look.

I started off with a small 6 x 6 inch blank album on which the cover was embossed with 'Remember', I coloured the cover with Distress Stain in Black Soot and then used Rub'n'Buff to highlight the word.  It reminded me of the line 'Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor' I stuck a royalty free image of Edgar Allan Poe to the cover and embellished it with a copper filigree corner and a small charm of a raven which I also used Rub'n'Buff on.  I die cut some flowers in black crepe paper and gold tissue paper, sticking them to the cover also.

 

 

For the inner pages I used various papers and added both printed and stamped images to fit the theme of 'The Raven'  I then tied the pages together with some black lace ribbon. 

I'm really pleased with the result and hope you like it too.

Thanks for reading :o)
Stefanie xx

A bit of texturing - Tim Holtz style!!

I wanted to share this tag with you as I'm practicing my tags to get a bit braver with them! As I recently got some texture pastes and I'd only used them once I thought it was about time to give them another go.  The best thing is that this fits in well with four crafty challenges: A Vintage Journey - Get Some Texture; Compendium of Curiosities 3 - Challenge 4 (CC3C); Crafty Individuals - Tag You're It!; and That's Crafty - It's All About Texture.

The first step was to use Tim's 'Layered Stencil' technique with the aforementioned texture paste - I can't share this technique with you as in line with the CC3C rules I need to refer you to Tim's third installment of the Compendium of Curiosities - this technique is on page 49.  I did use a variety of stamps to shadow stamp the background of the tag - including some Crafty Individuals ones.

This I then overlayed with two ovals on which I've used another of Tim's texture techniques - this time Crumpled Kraft Suede (page 40 in Compendium of Curiosities 2!).  I stamped these with a sentiment from my ever growing collection of Tim's stamps and a little heart.

A beautiful spray of flowers and a word band and it's all finished!

I'm really pleased with myself for venturing into the unknown!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:

Compendium of Challenges 3 - Challenge 4 Layered Stencil technique - here http://lindaledbetter.com/2014/06/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-4.html

A Vintage Journey - Get Some Texture - here http://www.vintagejourney.com/2014/05/challenge-7-get-some-texture.html

Crafty Individuals - Tag You're It! - here http://craftyindividualsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/we-challenge-you-in-june-to-play-tag.html

and

That's Crafty - It's All About Texture - here http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/its-all-about-texture-challenge.html

Thanks for reading!
Stefanie xx

Smeared and Smudged Members Blog-Hop

I found a great online group for swaps and challenges for Alternative, Vintage and Gothic rubber stamping recently and joined up.  Today is one of their regular member's blog-hops and I decided to get involved and join in!  The group is Smeared and Smudged - definitely worth a look!!

If you're following the hop I'll be the last stop, but if you've come to me first then the list of my fellow hoppers is below:

Black Dragon
Susan
Leslierahye
Anna
Titbelsoeur
Erin
Teresa
Shoni
Dominike
Evil Edna
The Nanny
and Me!

The theme for this hop is to alter a found object - it had to be 3D and have some stamping.  Well I love altering things!! (Had you guessed?)  I wanted to do something that little bit different so I decided that I would alter an empty underarm deodorant - definitely different eh!?  I also used 2 pieces of black corrugated plastic that came as packaging and a dense foam sheet as shown below.

So, what was I going to do with the deodorant?  Well I decided it looked a little like a rocket ship (!) so I covered it with silver-grey aluminium tape, then added a rusted bottle cap, the legs which are actually cut using the Tim Holtz Pediments die and then folded in half and painted a rusty colour and a couple of extra bands of tape - also rusted up, and then stood it all on an upturned drainage cap from a small plant pot.

Then I stamped my steampunk adventurer and a sentiment with goggles and coloured using my promarkers.

I constructed an explorer's room by covering the black plastic with some blue paper covered with compasses, and two little pictures hanging from thread.  The floor is the foam sheet which I've inked grey with touches of rusty paint.  Altogether it looks like this:

I'm pretty pleased with it as it all came together at the last minute!  Hope you like it too?

I am also wanting to enter this into the following challenges:

Smeared and Smudged's own Junk Funk Challenge - free choice of junk - here http://smearedandsmudged.ning.com/group/thechallenger/forum/topics/junk-funk-challenge-june-2014 (although you may need to be a member to see this - so - join!!)

SanDee and Amelie's Steampunk Challenges - June - shades of grey, blue and rust - here http://sandee-and-amelie.blogspot.co.at/2014/06/shades-of-grey-blue-and-rust-june.html

Altered Eclectic's altered art challenge blog - June - Anything Goes - here http://alteredeclectics.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/new-month-new-challenge.html

and

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - June altered art - here http://rheddscreativespirit.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/june-challenge.html


Thanks for reading
Stefanie x

Some recent Altered Swaps

Last month I took part in some Artist Trading Card (ATC) swaps and an Altered Tag swap.  I thought I'd quickly share what I created for them.

First up is a set of ATCs created for the ATC UK Swap group on Facebook, they hold a themed monthly swap in which you create up to 5 ATCs - send them to the swap host, the lovely Sue and she sends you a random selection to the same number in return.  The theme for May was Black, White plus One other colour.  I started with an A4 piece of black glittered card which I cut down to the correct size (2.5" x 3.5") and rounded off the corners.  The next layer was cut slightly smaller from some black and white cardstock which I then inked over in a bright pink, the pattern seemed quite Art-Deco to me so I chose a Mackintosh inspired rose stamp for the centre and also coloured this in pink.  Finishing touches were a small pink metal rose from Maya Road and a diagonal strip of pink gems across the bottom right corner.  The theme for June is Owls so I'd best get my thinking cap on for that!

The second swap group that I joined in with is hosted by Sara Jo at Crazicards Swap Group, again on Facebook, for this I did 2 x ATCs and 2 x Tags.  They do also do a postcard swap monthly but I just couldn't find my mojo for that this month.  The themes were Two of a Kind for the ATCs and Purple for the Tags.

As I still had some of the black glitter card I thought I'd use that up and this time I added pairs of items, so a pair of Kings, 2 x jigsaw pieces, a domino double 6 and then a strip of a musical score washi tape topped of with 2 x flowers, one white and one brass.

I have to admit that these are my first tags ever and I was really nervous sending them in - in fact I nearly backed out (!)

The first one has a base layer of a simple craft tag which I ran through a butterfly embossing folder and then inked over (this was actually to test my die-cutting machine after Phil had fixed it for me - it was originally and electric one but the engine failed so he converted it to a manual) then I simply layered 2 smaller tags on top and added a simple sentiment embellishment and the flower.  I was really pleased with the flower, it's made from stamping 4 different sizes of Heartfelt flower stamps, colouring them in, cutting out and then layering them up, once the glue holding the layers is dry it is dipped into a Melt-Pot containing molten, clear UTEE - gives a lovely finish.

The second layer had me racking my brains all the way through.  As the theme was purple, I started with a purple script piece of cardstock attached to a craft tag,  Again I layered this up, this time using a cream script paper and then some purple as the top layer.  More embellishments this time, a Journey metal tag, a small hot air balloon, a button and a metal filigree corner.

June's themes in the Crazicard swaps are: Tag - Summer Holiday; Postcard - All Buttoned-Up (I think I will try the postcard this time as I love buttons!); and for the ATCs - Architecture.

Not for any Challenge Blogs this time, just for the pleasure of taking part :o)

Thanks for reading
Stefanie xx

Everything's coming up Roses

I've been wanting to do this project for ages, but wanted to do it right, and use it to enter a couple of challenges too, then I saw that this fortnight's challenge on A Compendium of Challenges was the wonderful Tim Holtz Tea Rose - Page 65 of Compendium of Curiosities Volume III - great I thought - flowers - just what this needs!!  Then I realised I needed a specific die to create the roses; a die I didn't have and that was out of stock in just about every online craft shop I tried.  But, guess what, one of my besties (Sarah :o) ) had the die and agreed to lend it to me.  It took me a few practices but I got the hang of it in the end and I think I may just have to go out and buy the die myself!!

There are two other blogs which also have a flower related theme this month; Craft All Day, where I buy an awful lot of my supplies, including the 'box' that is the main focus of this piece; and also Vintage Stamping Challenges, which I like to enter when I can as I am still new to stamping and like to push myself a little.

 So this is the box before I began - I saw it as a mini-greenhouse draped in flowers - well that was my plan - I think maybe a little ambitious, but I'm really pleased with the result.

First of all I painted it white and then when dry I stamped with grass and flower stamps, adding in a few little creatures too - a cute hedgehog, snail and blackbird ooh and a bench!

By then I had realised that it would be a great size to store my seeds in, so I stamped 3 x labels, for Herbs, Flowers and Veggies and a central label too.

 The last step was to create my climbing roses :o)  So I used the die as per Tim's instructions and made some roses and leaves, I had already stamped along 2 sides of the lid with some small climbing branches too which I think gives a bit of depth.  I stuck 2 half terracotta pots to the lid and added the roses.

And there it is - just by the skin of my teeth too - I think I'm down to the final hours to link to the CC3C!!

The challenges I'm entering this into are:

Compendium of Challenges3, Challenge 3 - Tea Roses - here: http://lindaledbetter.com/2014/05/compendium-of-curiosities-3-challenge-3.html

Craft All Day - Flowers, flowers, flowers - here : http://craftallday.blogspot.com/2014/05/challenge-6-flowers.html

and

Vintage Stamping Challenges - Summer Blooms - here : http://www.flonzcraft.com/vsc/?p=1499

Thanks for reading
Stefanie x