Imperfection is a Delight .........

...... or if I had the letters I wanted to say "Delight in Imperfection".  And this is a good example!

Today is the second week of the Anything But a Card Challenge "Let's Get Messy" and I sure did with this! 

It started as a bit of an experiment in terms of what I could layer on a tag with Claudine Hellmuth Mixed Medium (the lace was a bit heavy but it worked). As an avid flower maker I sometimes end up with flowers made from colours of  cardstock which never get used so I picked up a bundle of flowers of varying hues and a grey looking flourish and added those too. 

I covered the lot in gesso to see what happened and I got this which I quite liked.

Then I spritzed it with some home made sprays - Stampin Up and Distress Ink Re-Inkers in green, pink and yellow. But I am not a delicate person and I was so heavy handed it looked garish and awful!  So out came the gesso again and I covered it all up.  And I do get messy - the gesso manages to go everywhere.  Even the phone upstairs (where my craft room is) has a lovely white sheen .......

I sprayed more carefully this next time with just the green made from Stampin Up Certainly Celery Re-Inker (really loving this colour) and this time I liked it.  Then what to do with it!  I added a few butterflies and some more scrim and pearls and the Chit Chat letters.

And that's it!  I do hope you will join us over at Anything But A Card.  This is a great challenge and the chance to really just get stuck in with those supplies. Lots of fun!!

This is my last post for six weeks, although I have a HEAP of scheduled posts.  Tomorrow morning I am on a very early flight to Kirkwall in Orkney and then bus over to Stromness where Terry and Mrs Muir (the other woman in our lives) are waiting for me.  He had hoped to  get as far as Lochinver on the west coast but has had the wind against him for the last two weeks.  So I will have to do the sail around Cape Wrath (think of me!).  Then we shall spend six weeks sailing around the West Coast of Scotland.  

I shall be able to pop in now and again when I get WiFi, so I hope you will bear with me in terms of commenting - I seem to attract such a lot of spam I need to keep moderation on.

See you in the middle of August !! xx

Indulging Myself!

It seems a while since I have posted although I have been working on a huge number of projects which will be scheduled posts while I am away.  But I wanted to welcome more new followers - it really is wonderful to be able to share this amazing crafting journey with you.

In May I was invited to be Guest Designer at A Sprinkle of Imagination and I have only shared sneak peaks of the three projects I made.  So if you don't mind indulging me I am going to post the whole piece, but please do not feel you have to comment again!  I would just like to have them on my blog for my own interest and future inspiration.

My first project was an oriental tag using Graphic45 Bird Song Papers.  I made a Wrinkle Free Distress background after masking a sun. The birds took a bit of cutting out but they are quite spectacular.  I made a little blossom vine and a black fan to complete the embellishments.

My second project was completely different and more my style.  I used a Ranger Giant Tag to make a hanging and acrylic paint, distress stains, gesso and Tim Holtz tissue to make a background.

I really love this hanging and have it close to my desk.  The background was a completely new adventure for me but I really enjoyed it.

For my third project I went back to the Graphic 45 papers - I had one further sheet and the labels left from the initial sheet so the challenge was to make a scrapbook page from these very oriental papers with a very non-oriental photograph of my friends Cath and Marian at Centre Parcs in Thetford!

It was a clean and simple layout with very little inking.

Thank you for your previous comments and for visiting A Sprinkle of Imagination and leaving comments there.  I really appreciated it and also for the lovely invite from Vicki to be a part of her blog for a month.

I hope the weather is warmer with you than it is here - it is still freezing and grey but at least not windy or wet today.  We have certainly had enough rain over the last couple of days!

New Challenge Blog

Wow am I thrilled to be able to tell you all that I have been invited to be a Design Team Member of a brand spanking new challenge blog launching on 5th July 

Click the link HERE to hop over to the challenge blog and a wonderful celebratory give away. 

I do hope you will join us in having some fun.  There are some wonderful monthly challenges coming up with mid month "twists" and a fantastic Design Team with a wide range of styles which should appeal to everyone.

What a fantastic time I am having!!

Jennie x

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Celebrating Father's Day

The current challenge at ABAC is Dear Old Dad or something Masculine - a very fitting challenge given today's celebration of Fathers. Click the link HERE to go to the challenge post and some lovely pieces from the Design Team and HERE to go to today's Design Team pieces.  You will no doubt have  made your Father's Day pieces by now but there are some lovely ideas for presents (thinking ahead to birthday's as well!).

Sadly my father is no longer with us but I think he would have liked this vintage hanging.  

I used the Sissix Ornamental Die to cut a piece of mountboard which I then embossed with a (favourite!) Sissix embossing folder.  I covered it all with gesso and then sprayed it with some home made sprays made from Vintage Photo, Stormy Skies and Blue China Distress Re-inkers.  

The colours looked lovely when wet but kept drying rather dull.

So I decided to cover it all with Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I didn't get a full coverage but I love the way it has gone into the grooves and missed here and there.  

I rather like this chap from the Crafty Individuals Miniatures Book People and Places and they fit so perfectly in the frame from the Sissix Tag and Bookplate Die.

You still have another week to enter into the Challenge - anything with a masculine theme except of course a card!  

Thanks for visiting and I hope you are enjoying a lovely Sunday wherever you are and whoever you are with x

Pastel Blooms

Hello everyone - I hope you are all enjoying a lovely sunny day and a special warm welcome to new followers - I really appreciate that you want to be part of my crafting journey.  

Today I have my second design team piece of the month at Country View Crafts Challenge which this month is Die Cuts.  

I do hope you have been over to visit as there are some amazing pieces from the Design Team and our winners from last month.  Click the link HERE for some wonderful inspirational pieces.

I used a heap of dies to make this card!  

I think these are some of my most favourite dies but the doily die takes a lot of patience to knock all the little holes out!  And as you know I make loads of flowers from these Donna Salazar Bitty Blossom Dies.  I can certainly recommend a visit to the Country View Crafts Shop as they stock an amazing range of dies - I have quite a number of my wish list!

I chose a light colour palette - I seem to be making a number of wedding cards at the moment - and sadly I am nearing the end of these lovely papers from K & Co. which I have had forever. 

Thanks for looking and I'll have more to post soon x

Make Your Own Happiness

..... well I certainly do!  

A quick post to share a simple vintage ATC which fits in fabulously with the current challenge at Artful Times. 

Click the link HERE for some lovely inspirational vintage pieces from Von and Neet and also some super entries.  

Experimental photography on this post as my son has been encouraging me to use my camera on Manual as photographs of my projects are always out of focus somewhere.  I think I may be getting the hang of it, but I daren't tell you how many photos I took!  

I hope everyone is enjoying some warmth as it is freezing here!  Please send some sunshine this way .......

ABAC : Dust Off Your Old Supplies .........

Dust Off Your Old Supplies is the current challenge at Anything But A Card  - something I think we could all join in! I found some amazing things lurking in the backs of some of my craft drawers.

When I first started scrapbooking I was a great fan of Basic Grey (I still am, but thankfully I have moved on!)  I used to buy the packs of paper and inside each pack was a set of letters and probably like the rest of you I have a few (hmmmm .... more a stack) of these sheets and I never know what to do with them.  

Having got into gesso lately I thought I would stick them on a tag and put gesso over the top of them.  Not being a haphazard sort of person (wish I was!) my letters and numbers are pretty uninspiring but even though they were different colours the gesso covered them all.

I then sprayed the tag with Dylusions Sprays:  London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise and Pure Sunshine.  Gorgeous colours and yep I had matching hands!  I inked up a small text stamp and dotted it here and there and basically that was it. 

I actually really like this as a background and will certainly do it again, perhaps even on a scrapbook page.

I didn't want to put too much decoration on the tag as I really liked the effect, so just a small collage of scrim, hemp, string, lace and ribbon.  The lace and ribbon were inked with the Dylusions Sprays.  The handmade flowers were in my box and were pink, but the inks are so strong they cover most things!

You still have another week to enter this wonderful challenge, so why not get into your cupboards and stash and look for something you haven't used for a while. And of course you can make anything you like as long as it is not a card! If you need some inspiration then click the link HERE and have a scroll down the Design Team pieces and some wonderful entries and click the link HERE for a second week of Design Team pieces.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend x 

Definately Living the Dream ............

My first post as a member of the Country View Crafts Challenge DESIGN TEAM!!  

I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to join the wonderful team with Chris, Brenda, Trace and Gabrielle after my guest appearance last month.  My life is just so exciting at the moment!!  

And this month's challenge is DIEs - let's see what you can do with them?  

But before I explain how I made my hanging, here is the link to the Country View Crafts Challenge Site and I hope you visit to see the other wonderful Design Team pieces - amazing inspiration!  You can't not want to get your dies out!!

And keep checking through the month as there are posts every few days with new ideas for this wonderful challenge.  And I'll be back later in the month with another one too!

So to my hanging:  my favourite of all dies is the Tim Holtz Sewing Room Die - as you know I just can't get enough of it!  And the beauty of dies is you can cut so many layers at one time which is perfect for this 3D layered look.  I had seen it on Pinterest and have really enjoyed doing this myself.  

First of all I made a background for my hanging from some mount board (offcuts from my local framer) and used the Tim Holtz Wrinkle Free Technique using Seedless Preserves and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks.  I then embossed some text using white detail embossing powder.

 These are the dies I used(all very much favourites!)

I cut two dress forms from white mountboard and then cut one in half. 

After giving them a bit of a brush with Vintage Photo Distress Ink I stuck one of the halves at right angles onto the dress form.

Not a great photo, but you get the gist!  

Then I cut multiple layers of the dress part (you need four per section).  I folded them in half and again brushed them with a bit of Vintage Photo and then glued the folded edge and stuck them into the two sections.

It is a very effective technique and one you could use with many different dies.

Decorating was just fun!  Bits of lace, ribbon, small flowers and the net leaves were cut with the Tattered Leaves die and then zapped with a heat gun. They shrivel beautifully but burn very easily!  Be warned! 

I hope this gives you some ideas.  You can easily make a full 3D version by sticking the other half at the back and filling all four sections.  Here is one I made last year after seeing an example on Pinterest.

I do hope you will have a go at this challenge - I am sure everyone uses their dies in so many different ways.

Thanks for looking x