Strip Dies - Friday Focus !

This is just a short post to let you know that it's my turn to do the Friday Focus over at Frilly and Funkie and today I'm focussing on strip dies !

This is one of the cards I've made using the strip dies and to get more details you'll need to hop over to the Frilly and Funkie blog.

Alter it !

It's time for the next challenge over at The Fashionable Stamping Challenge and this time the lovely Joanna has chosen 'Alter it'.

When Lin Brown closed her shop I bought one of the boxes that had a mixture of all sorts of different things in it. I'd completely forgotten about this and when I was trying to tidy and create some space in my craft room (which I failed miserably at!)  I came across this little shadow box that was part of the contents. I started by painting it with Stone Fresco Finish.

Then I painted the back panel with Elephant and Blood Orange FF using a baby wipe to blend the colours. I've used the Mini Marakesh stencil and Blood Orange FF then stamped the swirl from the PaperArtsy Hot Pick 1005 stamp set using Elephant and Squid Ink FF.

I stamped the sentiment, which is from the Hot Pick 1024 set, then assembled the box frame. I used the Mini Marakesh stencil again this time with Grunge Paste and when it was dry painted it with Elephant FF. I used the Crackle Glaze over the top, which is what you can see shining in the above photograph.

For the top layer I used Blood Orange, I really like the contrast of the colours when it crackled. I then stamped over it with the Stampin' Up Sanded background stamp using black Archival ink.

 

I've brushed some Classic Treasure Gold around the edges before adding the flowers. These were made from Kraft Glassine Paper which had been painted with Blood Orange FF. I then used the Tim Holtz Tattered Flowers strip die and cut out several flowers from the painted paper. I've used a brad in the centre and covered it with petals from the inner flower (something that the very talented Laura did a tutorial on) and added a little metal embellishment.

 The metal leaves and the pearl stick pins have also been brushed with some Classic Treasure Gold.

I've got a lovely day lined up for today as I'm spending it at one of Lin Brown's workshops, so there will be lots of paint and stamps involved ! Just what the doctor ordered !

I hope you get chance to join us for this challenge.

Wedding White plus a colour !

It's time for the next challenge over at Frilly and Funkie and this time the lovely Rebecca has chosen Wedding White plus a colour. Before I get into the details of today's post I'd also like to say 'hi' and welcome to my new followers it's great to have you here !

Here's what Rebecca has to say about the challenge:

Wedding season will soon be in full swing, it's time to create something that will convey your well wishes to the newly married couple. Weddings are breaking out of the 'all white' theme, so think cards, plaques, scrolls, albums or something 'out-of-the-box', in white plus a colour!

So, did this get me scratching my head or what !  I'm really not a wedding white kind of person so when I first looked at this challenge my mind went completely blank ! Then I got to thinking about all the different parts of a wedding and that led me to thoughts around how important memories of the special day and the honeymoon are.

 

So, I decided on a little book to collect those memories with a theme of Paris. I started by joining 2 pieces of card together and scoring at 9cm intervals. The front and back covers were covered using the stamp from the Tim Holtz Papillon set. I used the Doily die and stamped the centre of it with the Fabulous Flourishes stamp. The frame on the front cover is made using the Tim Holtz Tag and Bookplate die and the word Memories is a Chit Chat sticker. 

This is what the book looked like when it was finally assembled.

I made little pockets for every page so things like tickets and receipts can be tucked in them. I followed a sort of story in my head for the order of the pages. Starting with the beginning of the journey and I've used the Tim Holtz Ticket Die and stamped the centre with the ticket stamp from the Tim Holtz Going Somewhere set.

I've used a mix of stamps and on these two pages including Katzelkfraft, B Line Designs and Artistic Outpost. At this part of the story the couple have arrived in Paris and are taking in the sights !

These final pages are made using mainly Artistic Outpost stamps and at this part of the story the couple are about to come home and have just remembered to send their postcards !

So, after having a slow start I really enjoyed making this project and it is mainly white, right ?

I'm also entering this project into:

•  Artistic Outpost - Anything Goes 
• The Artistic Stamper  - Words
• Our Creative Corner - Anything Goes 

I hope you get chance to join us for this challenge.

PaperArtsy project #3 !

This is my third and final project for my first week as guest designer for PaperArtsy. I hope you've enjoyed my first week as much as I have ! Here's a sneak peek of tonight's project, you'll find all the details over on the PaperArtsy blog.