Configurations Book

Today I am sharing a project that i recently completed using the Tim Holtz small Configurations Book. I must say I love these keepsake books as you can really go to town on the external decoration and then have a lovely surprise inside.

This first photo shows the finished interior with the little matchbook mini album out of its box. The papers used were a mixture of Prima Devine and Melissa Frances Attic Treasures.

Each internal box was decorated and filled with trinkets. I chose to turn one of the boxes back to front and cover it with paper.

This is yhw matchbook album open. I used a mixture of journal cards and patterned paper for the pages.

To make sure the book stayed closed, I punched a hole in the lid and passed some seam binding through.

I secured the seam binding in place using a Prima resin piece and some of the flowers.

The lid was covered first with paper and then I applied paste through a stencil in different areas. Next I added the fliwers and leaves. I then gessoed the whole thing using a light coat and removing it in some places with a baby wipe. I spritzed the cover with gold and pearl perfect pearls mists. Finishing touches were a key, brad, butterflies and a couple of resin pieces. All edges were finished with Treasure Gold wax gilt.

Prima TV

I recently purchased a gorgeous TV from createwithkate.com. It is designed by Ingvild Bloume (hope I spelt that right) for Prima. The TV is metal and has a lovely aged finish. The back opens and you can fit a little scene inside. I was so excited I made 2 little boxes to fit inside as I want to change the scene for each season.
The first scene is for spring.

I covered the inside of the box using Tim Holtz paper stash Wallflower. I cut some pussywillow from the garden and added them. I wrapped some flower buds around one of the stems and added some larger flowers to the r.h.s. Finally I added a little nest and eggs.

For my second scene I used the new Graphic45 By the Sea papers to cover the box. I fussy cut the lighthouse from one of the sheets and added it to one side. The beach hut is a little birdhouse turned back to front and covered with paper. I used a sandy coloured glitter and added some shells and a wooden bead for a beachball.

Catch Up!

I have been really busy lately and haven't had a chance to update the blog. So get ready for a photo heavy post.

Firstly though a little bit of class news. On September 21st I will be teaching a beginners Art Journalling class in Dungarvan Co. Waterford. This will be an opportunity for all of you who have been tempted to start this creative journey, but have just been unsure where to start. On the day we will hopefully complete 2 pages and have lots of fun making different backgrounds for some more pages. If you are interested in coming to the class contact me here in the comments or on my Facebook page.

A second class that I will be teaching is a mixed media canvas. I will be teaching this as part of the 2 day Create with Kate event in Athlone on 5th and 6th of October.

And so to what I have been doing recently. Well my journal journey continues. I am really enjoying playing with all of my products and seeing what works together. The new distress paints from Ranger and Tim Holtz are fantastic! In the latest issue of Crafting Ireland online magazine I did a product review, so check it out here.

 

Another thing that I have been doing lately is art swaps. 
The first swap was hosted by Create with Kate and was an alphabet swap. We were each given a letter of the alphabet and had to send our artwork to the person above us on the list. I decided on a canvas. The letter I had was "R", and I had an idea based on a quote about rainbows.

Another project I have done is a commission for a 16 year old girls birthday. This is again a canvas with a lots of collage work on it.

So there you go, a little sample of some of my recent work!

Rabbit Canvas

 This an altered canvas that I did to enter the wonderful Grungy Monday Challenge. The canvas itself was a printed one with flowers and such like on it. There were also little clocks on it which gave me the inspiration do use the little rabbit from the Spring Sprung collection by the great Lord Tim of Holtz, the man in whose honour this challenge has been started. I used all of the techniques which he used on the tag which you can find here. I painted over some areas of the canvas with snowcap paint dabber. I then masked off the canvas using the wheels and cogs masks and sprayed with vintage photo re-inker and perfect pearls mixture. The flowers were made from grungepaper, two of them were covered first. The edges of the canvas were painted with the fab crackle paints in tattered rose, old paper and broken china. I dulled the colours down a bit with vintage photo ink. 

The bunny was stamped on grunge and heat embossed. I painted over him with the snowcap and added a little crown. I think a crown counts as a hat doesn't it? If so I can enter this into the Simon Says challenge which is all about hats.

The art letters are done using the grunge blocks and alphas.

Hope you like it!

Monochrome Thank-you Card

I have promised myself that I will try to remember to take pictures of cards as I make them and post at least some of them. This is one that I made as a thank-you for a friend in the UK. The card was edged with a punch from x-cut and inked up with pumice stone distress ink, over-stamped with one of Lord Tim's flourishes. I embossed some packaging using the postcards embossing folder, (again from Tim, are we noticing a trend here?) and cut out the oval postcard symbol. I painted the back of it with snowcap paint dabber from ranger. The paper is from the shabby chic stack by, yes you guessed it Tim Holtz as are the stamps used on the little postcard.

This is the inside of the card which was completed in a similar fashion to the front.

Feast or Famine!

You know the old saying 'It's either a feast or a famine'? That's the way I am with blogging. I will not blog for ages and then I blog twice in one day. 

I just had to show you these boxy, hangy things that I made. The one on the left is made with the Lord Tim of Holtz's configurations box in the small size. It is for a baby girl and is covered in the papers from the Shabby Chic paper pack, tissue tape around the edges a little tattered rose crackle paint and Voilà. 

The one on the right is a traditional wooden version with fixed openings and a clasp on the side. The papers are from the Lost and Found pack and again tissue tape paint and ink.

A close-up of the pink one. Those little socks were my little girls when she was born. How cute are they?

Curiosity Box - At Last!

I'm sure you are all well aware that the great and glorious Lord Tim of Holtz was teaching at a wonderful Paper Artsy event in Newport Pagnell last month. I was one of the Golden Ticket holders and happily toddled off to be inspired by the Master himself. I spotted him on the Thursday evening when I arrived at the hotel and very nearly wet myself with excitement. My D.H. was with me at the time and broke into gaels of laughter at the sight! 

Anyway I have posted the lovely project which we made in the morning session already and I thought I would share the final pictures of my finished project with you. What a project, such fun to make and what a way to make four hours disappear almost instantly. 

Some close-ups of the details. The transparency has a little battery operated tea-light behind it. Clever idea eh? I will be using this idea again methinks. The little bottles are filled with beads, pen nibs and other bits and pieces. The little cage has a bird charm attached.

You can just see the faux printers blocks which spell the word Tim. The clock is pointing to 2.00pm (the time of the class) and there are two other blocks which make up the date 2011.

My little lady has a skirt made from a flower folded in half and tied around her waist and she has a lovely metal wing. All in all I had the most fantastic day and found the great man himself to be quite lovely.

Artsy Craft Day with Lord Tim!

A picture of me with the man himself. He was so lovely. 

I asked him to pose with my two 'Flat Pack' friends!

This is the box which we made in class, it was gorgeous. We got bags full of lovely goodies to fill them with and wonderful, funny tuition along the way.

SImon Says Stamp and Show

This is a mirror that I started a long while ago and have just finished. It is a 20th Wedding Anniversary gift for my DH. I am entering it into the wonderful challenge at Simon Say Stamp and Show. This week is T!m Holtz inspired! As he is my absolute crafting idol this was no trouble at all.

I covered the frame with paper which a friend gave me. I made some flowers from grunge paper. The large one was embossed using one of Tim's texture fades, sprayed with a mixture of tattered rose and vintage photo  from a mini-mister, then swiped with fired brick and finally touched with Perfect Pearls gold. BTW the ticket says Trust not Rust. I added a photo from our wedding day into a memory frame and added a metal tag.

In one corner I added a metal picture corner. I just love these and use them sparingly. You can just see in the corner of the mirror a little fragment with a calendar from August, the month of our wedding.

I then added some of the lovely metal numbers. I used tea-dye and vintage photo distress embossing powders  to these to give them an aged appearance. I also added a Love key and some butterflies. Et Voilà, a Tim inspired mirror frame.

A Piece of Jewellery

This is the first piece of jewellery that I have ever made. I used the 1.5" memory glass from Ranger. The image on this side was stamped onto an alcohol inked background on glossy cardstock.

The image on this side was stamped directly onto the glass with olive stazon and then triple-embossed.

I didn't have any of the lovely memory glass frames so I had to improvise a bit. I backed the second image with glossy cardstock as for the first image and then stuck them together using glossy accents. I then embossed a couple of layers of gold around all of the edges to finish them off. I stuck the jump ring on with glossy accents too (not so sure how long it will last) and hooked another couple of jump rings through that. I finally added the chain. I don't think it's too bad for a first try. I do wish we could get Tim Holtz supplies here in Ireland more easily, then we wouldn't have to make do.

Using up those paper scraps

I have been inspired by Deanne over on Quirky Boots, ( http://deezkatz.blogspot.com/2010/02/offcuts.html) to use up those scraps of paper that are lying around. As I have a big thing for Tim Holtz and his Grungepaper roses, I thought I would use the scraps to make some of these.

The cherries and orange tinted one are grungepaper covered with Jenni Bowlin paper and edged with distress ink. In fact I distressed all of the edges. The other flowers were old K & Company papers.

I can't remember where the reddish papers came from. I have lots more flowers punched out ready to be assembled.

A card for a teenage boy

This is a card which I made a while ago. I had a few scraps of paper left over from a LO and thought that they would be perfect for a boys card. I can't remember the name of the Paper Company but the papers were; Factory, Warehouse, Cog, Market street and Industrial Loft.. I also used some cream cardstock which I distressed with 'Mustard Seed' and 'Scattered Straw' distress inks.

The numerals are from the same range and I also used a rub-on for the wording. The envelope which you see in the background was distressed using   'vintage photo' ink and the fab Tim Holtz masks.

A Birthday Card for Emma

This is the birthday card which I made for my niece Emma. She is 19 today. The papers are Coredinations and K & Company. The image peeking out from behind is a stamp I got from Dimension Fourth of a mouse with a cupcake. The 'E' is Grunge board letter inked in versacolour Raspberry and embossed with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing powder in Tea dye. Various trims, lace and ribbon from the stash.

The rub-on on the inside is also K & Company, from the Que Sera range.

Crafty Creations Challenge #32

This is my entry for the Crafty Creations Challenge #32. The challenge was to use an embossing technique on your project. As I am probably the only person in the crafting world not to have a dry embossing system of any kind, (yes this is really true people, not even a light box!) I have decided to get the heat gun out and use these great papers from my stash. I have used pink card as my base and layer up the hearts and skulls on a shimmering shocking pink paper. The font is a download from Dafont. The skull, wings and crown are Tim Holtz grungeboard shapes which have been embossed with the base colour and then had a couple more layers of UTEE added. Finally a pink ribbon added to one side.