Testing my memory

I'm still in catch up mode with my posting and I'm struggling to remember which colour scheme we swapped in which month because I have left it so long to blog.

I think October was lime with a touch of pink. My backgrounds are both made with ink sprays. I am still using on old Dylusions lime spray with mica in it which is very vibrant. On one side I used and alphabet stencil and on the other I spritzed my craft mat with ink and water and squished the paper around in the resulting puddle.

Now I look at this picture I am more certian this was October's tag because I have used the same die to cut the flower as I did for September's. This suggests they were made close together as I'm not very good at putting things away - but once I have I tend to reach for what is at hand before going to get something specific back out.

The little birds were stamped onto some remnants of Blonde Moments paper and cut out. The stamp is a Karantha one.

It looks as though there was some splattering going on too - I think there was an article in Craft Stamper around then using spatter techniques.

New Year again...already!

Once again New Year is upon us - so best wishes for a happy and creative 2014 to everyone.

As usual I am starting out filled with good intentions to be crafy and blog more regularly whatever setbacks come my way this year.

Fortunately I have a few of last years tag swaps and the annual 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza to share with you so I should manage to keep going for the next few weeks whilst we get back to normal routines.

And casting my mind back, September's coloured tag swap was red with a touch of green which I approached with some trepidation. It is not a combination I find easy except for Christmassy things and it took quite a lot of messing about before I was even vaguely happy with the results.

I started out with bright red (scarlet) corrugated card. You can just see bits of the original colour peeping through. I ran it through an embossing folder first and then heat embossed the ridges with Versamark and clear embossing powder. The result was too red so I rubbed some cranberry coloured paint into the crevices (see what I mean about Christmassy). I think it then ended up too pink but it was too late to go back. I added a bit of pistachio green paint in places to match with the flower embellishments. The large green flower was die cut from scrap card and coloured with spray ink. The red flower started life white and was also sprayed with ink. The middle is a sequin.

 

Whilst I had the spray inks in my hand I used a stencil to make background paper for the reverse of the tag. I think there is a flourish and a script stencil in there somewhere. On top I layered some hand made (not by me I have to admit) papers and a die cut in the hope that flowers would make it lass Christmas like.

Nature hanging book

A long time ago - before the summer holidays started - I mentioned that I was doing a hanging book page swap with a nature theme. Each participant had an assigned colour - so that in the end we all have a page in each colour of the rainbow. The luck of the draw had given me orange to work with. After my difficulties with orange when it was the colour for the tag swap I was more than a little concerned but I am reasonably happy with the end results.

I used an old book page from an encyclopaedia of shrubs as the background coloured with Distress Inks. I used the wrinkle free method to get overall coverage and then stencilled using Cut'n'Dry foam and stamped to add pattern. The stencil is a Crafters Workshop one called Tie dye but the swirl pattern reminds me of a nautilus shell and makes a brilliant tiger pattern too in black over orange.

The image is from Crafty Individuals layered onto some hand made paper. I sneaked in another die cut (still enamoured with these) and embellished with other natural bits and pieces including wheat courtesy of the birds who throw the birds seed about in the garden so it grows like weeds.

I now need to think about how I'm going to hang all my pages when I get them - off to search for a nice stick I think.

Back to the daily routine

Hard to believe but its back to the daily routine tomorrow after what has been a post GCSE extended summer break. You'd think having a few days off work now and then to make sure my son didn't take route in a chair in front of the telly would have given me time to craft and blog but the amazinbg weather has instead got me out in the garden growing things.

So with apologies for being an absent blogger, here are my August tag swaps - yellow with a touch of orange. Lots of lovely spray ink and stamping on one side - Dylusions and Distress Inks using Stamp Man and Paper Artsy stamps. On the reverse I've used up assorted images from Artchix sheet and stencilled texture with Distress Crackle paint and Distress Ink.

It is red with a touch of green next which sounds quite a scary combination to me!