Wednesday 25 June 2014

Sing Little Birdie!

Well, hello again - 2 blogs in one month - things are improving!!

I managed to grab a spare afternoon to get crafty and I made a tag using some of my Crafty Individuals stamps.  Over on the Crafty Individuals blog, the challenge this month (June) is "Tag You're It!" and the task is to make a tag using their stamps.  I love Crafty Individuals - their attention to detail is amazing and they produce some lovely images in their stamps; the hardest part of this challenge is to choose which images to use!!  I finally decided on some birdies!

 
 
I started with a watercolour paper tag that I had already coloured with the residue from my stencil used as the background for my Tim's Tag for June. The image wasn't as detailed as it was for my Tim's Tag, but it was too nice to ignore!
 
 
I stamped the little row of birds using CI-230, cut them out and then coloured them with Broken China, Squeezed Lemonade and Frayed Burlap distress inks pressed onto my mat and spritzed with water and then painted on. 
 
 
I stamped the bird house twice using CI-218 and then cut out the main image from one and just the bird and the little heart on the top from the other.  I coloured the house with Old Paper distress ink and a little Frayed Burlap and the cut-out bird with the same distress inks as I used for the chicks and then highlighted some of the colours with a flex-marker.



I coloured the heart with a Barn Door distress marker and then covered it in glossy accents.


I random-stamped a swirl from an old stamp on to the tag using Wild Honey distress ink and cut out a flourish from my Tonic Verdant Vines die and glued it to the tag.


 
 
 
 
 
 
I cut a branch from the Spellbinders Cherry Blossom die and glued this across the bottom of the tag and then put the row of little birds on the branch with 3-D foam pads.

 
I then 3-D'd the larger bird and glossy heart on to the bird house.
 

I cut the corner off a metal embellishment and then "aged" it with Shabby Shutters and Broken China Distress Paints and added it to the top of the tag.  I then glued a short length of old fine chain so that it looked as though the bird house was hanging from the filigree corner. 






I mounted the bird house on to the tag so that it looked as though the chicks were looking up a their mum for instructions.  I finished it with a bit of dyed seam binding, a few hand drawn musical notes and a hand written "Sing".
 

 
So, there you have it - my entry for this month's Crafty Individuals Challenge!
 
Thanks for looking and Keep Crafting!

Jean

Monday 16 June 2014

Tim's Tags of 2014 - June

 
 
Well, I finally found some time to play - I have been crafting recently, but mostly to meet family and friends' birthdays, enjoyable, but not necessarily blogworthy!
 
I had time today to have a go at Tim's Tags for June. I used Tim's Doily Layering Stencil and Distress Inks: Squeezed Lemonade, Shaded Lilac, Mowed Lawn, Peacock Feathers (my all-time favourite) and Picked Raspberry.

 
 I cut the whole tag from watercolour paper and inked the Stencil as per Tim's instructions. I misted it and then pressed it on to the tag. I must say, I was very pleased with the way in which the background came out - the colours were lovely and the effect was very summery - thanks Tim!


 
I wanted to do use different images from Tim's original, rather than slavishly copy his idea, but I didn't have any more of his stamps that would have fit, so I compromised by using the Rise Above sentiment from Sheena Douglass's latest bird stamps, and Tim's Butterflies from his Papillon Collection.
 
 
I don't have the framelits set, so I coloured in the second stamped images and cut them out by hand.
 
 
After I'd misted the Stencil to make the background I mopped up the residue with another piece of card and then cut out a few layers of a Spellbinders Vintage Floret die from the coloured card.
 
 
 
I assembled the flower, curling the petals a bit, and set it on some old watch parts - there is a tiny cog from an old watch in the middle of the flower too, and, although you can't see it here, there is a bit cut from a watch spring  hanging under the flower.
 
 
I then added a "messy bow" made from seam binding dyed with the same distress colours and was ready to add my top layer of butterflies, but they looked a bit dull compared to the bright background, so I gave them a great dollop (love that word) of Glossy Accents - that worked beautifully!
 
 
In these photos you can see the layering of the butterflies and their lovely gloss.
 



So, voila! My entry for Tim's June tag.
 
Hope you've enjoyed my post, and apologies for anyone who's been waiting for a second post (you know who you are - C!).  Hopefully I won't leave it so long before my next blog entry!
 
Keep Crafting!!!
 
Jean