Tim's February Tag.

Well, not only has my mojo gone on holiday, (must be the weather) but when he did put in an appearance so that I could do Tim's tag, my lap top played up, I had to reset  it and then couldn't get onto flickr! Arrive, dear hubby from work, a few flicks and presses and here I am again! Is anyone else having mojo awol problems? How do you get out of it?

Enough Barbara, back to the matter in hand. Tim's lovely tag can be found here. I did not have all of Tim's requirements for this tag so did the best with what I have.

I used a circle and star stencil to do the backgound as Tim's technique, then chalkboarded this lovely sentiment. To compliment the words I used punched white daisies with DP Mustard Seed in the centers. The heart was DG then I die cut the arrow from my Love Struck die and made the bottom from my Vintage Lace Decorative strip die out of silver card stock.Some red twine and there we go!
Thank you so much for looking, I love your comments and your kindness in following me. I hope to be back soon and in full creative mode! Hugs x.
 

Sunday Stamper. #293. Black and Gold.

I haven't completely forgotten my inks and papers in a mad sewing frenzy. Hel's Sunday Stamper challenge called to me and as it is nearly Valentines day and hearts abound everywhere I combined the two and came up with this:



I experimented on a black Kraft tag with two stencils. The Star side is Paper Artsy Treasure Gold rubbed through and although it looks very glitzy in real life the wax was hard to rub through the stencil. Then I tried faded dots on the right side using a gold pigment pad and that made a more subdued gold effect. The rose was made with Buckram  sprayed with Dylusion yellow ink with smidgens of green for depth, then cosmic shimmer gold powder added over while still wet, dried, assembled and then sprayed with a gold sparkle spray I have had for ages. The hearts and saying are Wendy Vecchi and coloured with different DI's and added with a sticky pad. The bottom was a lot of work that hardly shows! I ran some inked card through an embossing folder, then further high-lighted the up bossed (!) parts with darker DI then embossed over the top with some glold embossing powder and die cut with the Distressed Doily on the edge die and cut down to fit. Finally some gold ribbon salvaged from a Christmas box of chocolates - all gone now and don't my hips know it!

See you soon, thanks for looking. x

Reasons for my absence!

I know I haven't been around for a week but I have been playing with my Christmas present! Dear Hubby brought me a Brother Innovis d 950 embroidery/sewing machine. I got my head around the sewing machine but was slightly nervous about the embroidery part. I attended a wonderful workshop with a lovely lady called Sue Hazell, you can find her here, and she made it all so simple. It was a lovely day with great company and she even took me to a local sewing shop so that I could buy some embroidery threads. So every minute I have had I have been playing! here are a few of my practice pieces.

 



One of my first, not centered properly but fun to watch words being sewn!

 

Thread broke on the center flower, not quite got the hang of back-tracking!

 

 

Isn't this lovely? These machines are so clever.

 

This one I had to make into a heart.
 

Talking of hearts, I am trying to make a Wiltshire one for a dear blog friend, Carolyn Saxby, who makes beautiful ones of her home in St Ives. This is a work in progress, it needs sheep on it and some hand embroidery. I made the base on my embellishing machine. Lots of room for improvement methinks!

 

 

I am trying to give the impression of the patchwork fields and hedges. I live quite close to Avebury and have plans to try and do one with the Stones on it.

I have also been in the craft room playing with inks today so will post for the Sunday Stamper shortly. Hope you are all enjoying yourselves, thanks for looking. x