Tissue Tape Tag Two

This tag was made with the little girl tag stamp from Crafty Individuals, CI 101, coloured again with Pro Markers. I highlighted her sweet face by using one of the moulds I made from a Tim Ornate Frame, made up in Pewter friendly plastic, and added a dangle of pearls from the Primark jewellery, and some fibres. Just finished off with some buttons to pick out the colours used.

Tissue Tape Tags

I really enjoyed watching Tim Holtz on QVC Craft Day on Tuesday; the demos were really inspiring and I picked up lots of tips and ideas. In particular I wanted to try out covering tags with tissue tape. If I had to nail my colours to the mast though, I am definitely more of a Crafty Individuals girl than a Tim Holtz girl, so I thought I would combine this idea with their pretty and delicate stamp designs - sort of Tim meets Jean!

 

This is the first one, and there will be loads! 

This turned out to be a great way to use up card stock in colours you don't like, as just a little of the colour shows through the tissue tape, in this case pale blue. I have the Tim Holtz Alterations die which cuts the tags (mainly because it has the lovely book plates on there also) so because tissue tape doesn't adhere very firmly, I wrapped the ends around the back, then cut another identical tag to stick to the back. This makes it more robust but also covers any ink you pick up on your work surface along the way (not that I would be messy ......!). I found it worked best to have the tissue tape running in different directions.

I stamped the beautiful butterfly image (CI 061) and coloured it with Pro Markers. I am finding that the thicker end of the pens is lovely for colouring the backgrounds - do you do that, too? I then tore around the image and added some fibres, and then friendly plastic butterflies and a rose I made from the moulds of the Primark jewellery - do you think I have got my money's worth from my cheap jewellery yet, hee hee!

Queen of Hearts Frame

I felt in the mood to make something girly using some lovely beaded trim I got on e bay. I used one of the small collage frames from Crafty Individuals, and painted it Bronze. I cut a piece of the trim carefully around the design and stopped it fraying with a dab of glue and adhered it to the top of the frame. I dabbed a little Mustard Seed and Tattered Rose Distress Ink on a 2 inch Stampbord tile to match the Spring background paper and stamped it with the Queen of Hearts stamp CI 139. I sanded around the edge of the tile.

The embellishments are two more of the moulds I have been making. The rose is from the Primark jewellery I bought the other day, and the heart is from a Tim charm.

Gingersnap Creations Challenge - Sapphire Frame

Today's challenge launch on Gingersnap Creations is to use Jewel Colours in your crafting. I adore jewel colours, and today I have chosen Sapphire. I actually made the papier mache frame a few months ago, but I liked the colour and texture so much I didn't want to add anything, so it has sat there for a while. I had painted it with a sapphire blue Precious Metal paint, and then used Bronze Croco Crackling Colour over the top, to allow the sapphire to show through the cracks. Whilst it was wet I applied some torn pieces of sapphire Angelina film and then heat gunned it.

The beautiful blue glass perfume bottle, with a silver filigree flower and cap was a gift many, many years ago from my sister in law, but has been too beautiful to use, So I made a mould of it before I used it, so I can re-create it:-


The butterfly was made from this roll of butterfly packing tape which I bought for a £1 in my local Tiger. There must be hundreds of butterflies on the roll, in about five different designs. I popped one on acetate and one on grunge, cut them out and layered them and curled the petals.

 
Here's a closer shot of the background. It looks quite turquoise here, but it really is sapphire blue. I decided the perfume was going to be 'Violette Flor', so I popped this rub-on perfume label behind it.

I made some more moulds from the jewellery I bought the other day in Primark, to make two copper friendly plastic roses for the bottom corners, and added some of the chain and pearls.

Crafty Individuals Bird Cage Frame

Crafty Individuals now have a Blog! Isn't that great news! I have made this little papier mache frame using one of their new collage stamps, CI301. I coloured the stamped image with Pro Markers and added glossy accents to the butterflies. I made silicone moulds from some of the jewellery I bought in Primark the other day - the bird from the ring, some flowers, and the butterfly. For the birdcage I used the Tim Holtz Alterations Bird Cage die on shrink plastic, which I have done quite a few times before, but this time I used the shrunk piece to make a silicone mould, then made it up with friendly plastic. That way you can have whatever finish you like on the piece. I used metallic rub ons on the flowers and birdcage, and mica powders on the bird and the butterfly.


The stamped image was exactly the right size for the centre of the papier mache frame. I painted it with acrylic paint and then added some crackle paint, and then different shades of Silkies. I stuck some torn pieces of Angelina film to the wet paint and heat gunned it. Then I splodged some glossy accents in places and sprinkled on some mother of pearl flakes, and some Deko Ice which I coloured with alcohol ink, to match the project. I added a glass nugget to the centre of one of the flowers, then superglued all the pieces in place, including a piece of brass chain for the bird cage.

Shopping Trip Part 2 - Primark

These are the other part of my shopping trip. I was so pleased that Minxy put me on to buying jewellery from Primark for craft projects. It is a great source of dangling bits for wall hangings, and for charms and resin flowers which you can take moulds of so that you can make them up in different finishes. And it is very cheap!

Shopping Trip for the Tin Man!

You know I said the biggest problem was getting a funnel for my Tin Man? Well, of course I will see them everywhere now!

I went into town (more of that later as I bought some bargains for other projects!) and asked on the off chance in the kitchen shop if they had tiny metal funnels. They are very helpful in there and they know me a little as I keep sending students in for meringue non stick craft sheets! Anyhow, I spied these cake decorations! I couldn't believe the axe, wish I'd seen that a few days ago, but why do people want one for the top of a cake?! The tiny candle holders would work well for the hat on a smaller version of the project, and for a larger one I thought I could take a mould of the two horns for future use, and then chop the end off for a funnel shape. The shoe would be perfect coloured with red alcohol ink or pro marker for a Ruby Slipper. The daft thing is, I don't know why I bought these as I am not planning a similar project, so let me know if they are any use to anyone!

Gingersnaps Crown Challenge - Is she a Queen of the future?

This is my entry for the Gingersnaps challenge which starts today, for you to use Crowns in your artwork. I used this image from Lost Coast Designs and I always think this little girl looks very petulant. I think she might be going through that phase of elbowing her friends out of the way to get to her favourite toys. When they come round to play with the dressing up box she says, 'it's my house, so I get to wear the butterfly wings dress with the crown'! I decided she is a bit of a diva and wants to be Queen when she grows up! The words are from a set by Art Journey (the set with the image of Michelle from the French Resistance as I call her!) and you can use the background stamp in one piece, or cut out individual words as I have done here - I thought the words, 'Girl Today, Queen Tomorrow' went with my story for her!

The crown is from the Tim Holtz charms, made into a mould with Siligum then made up with clay and gold mica powder. The ribbon is coloured with ProMarker and sandwiched between layers of mountboard cut with a Nestie. The inner layer is a piece of home-made background paper cut with the next size down of Nestie.

The dangly bits are a pair of earrings. I got a necklace and earrings for £2 as I wanted the necklace but I don't have pierced earrings so I knew I could use them on a project. The butterfly is an Anita one. I don't use a lot of bought embellishments but I think these can't be beaten, and they are so well priced.

The all-important crown a bit closer up!

Thank You for the Tin Man Kind Comments!

Thank you so much everybody for the kind comments on the Tin Man!

I mentioned I had been very unsure of how to tackle his face. Well, I was surfing tonight and I spotted what look like ideal faces if I wanted to do a similar project again - Yes, I know, always wise after the event! It is these Sarah Lawrence charms from the Fruit Pixie, either the Oval Face or the Moon Face. Might have to get some!

The Tin Man Has a Heart!

A few weeks ago, one of my US forum friends was using an American set of stamps with a Wizard of Oz theme and it set me thinking what wonderful imagery the story has. I thought it would be a romantic idea for Valentine's Day to make a Tin Man, the thought behind it being that even he has a heart, and if you can find it, it is a precious thing.

I was away until the end of last week so I couldn't do anything to put my ideas into action, but they really started to take hold, so I had to make this otherwise the ideas wouldn't go away. The starting point was that I wanted his body to be made out of one of the blank 'Mint Tins' you can get, by Creative Expressions, and I wanted to have layers of watch parts and cogs, with a red beating heart in the middle! Recently I mentioned to my Mum that I love to use old watches and did she have any. The next time I saw her, she had collected 11 complete watches from family members. She doesn't understand what I want them for, but it was lovely that she humoured me!

As a back-drop to my Tin Man, I used a Wizard of Oz film poster inside a reversed canvas. I wanted the edges to look like a Yellow Brick Road, so I painted it yellow and used a stone wall mask, with some Vintage Photo on a tiny piece of foam, so I could just 'outline' the edges. I added some cogs, cut from a Tim die, mainly to cover the rough corners of the cheap canvas.

You can see the brick work here - used a stone wall mask

For the little tin, I flattened out square silver brads and glued them down the front like a placket, with rivet buttons. I made a shrink plastic heart and coloured it red, then a shrink plastic stop watch, and adhered these and added a little piece of ball chain. Inside, I did one layer of cogs and watch parts at a time, waiting for the Glossy Accents to dry overnight, and then added another shriink plastic red heart amongst them.

His working parts on show! I put the cogs and watch pieces in, in stages, leaving each layer of Glossy Accents to dry overnight. His neck says 'Stainless Steel' and is part of a watch clasp. I added a silver ribbon bow tie!

I had a lot of self-doubt about the face as I wanted it to be right. I had the idea that the Tin Man looked a bit 'simple' (Col said I should look in a mirror to get it right!), so I made the face out of clay and added some extra for the nose and poked my little finger nail into the clay at the edge of his mouth to give an upturned look. Once it was baked I painted it silver, added googly eyes, coloured the mouth red, and added a silver bow for a bow tie. The funnel was such a saga! I searched high and low in the house as I thought I had a metal perfume funnel somewhere. Eventually I found this Estee Lauder one, but I wanted a silver one. I did an extensive and fruitless search on e bay, and also tried Boots, Superdrug, etc. This was probably the most time consuming and problematic part of the project. In the end I decided on the copper one I had found in the first place. Colin said, 'but isn't it an expensive perfume one?'. Well, that wasn't going to stop me! I thought the funnel was important to the overall look, especially if the face wasn't quite right. I wanted smoke coming out of it but Col thought that was overkill. I positioned his head where the O of Oz is on the poster, to form an O.

Head made  from Fimo and painted silver, added a red mouth and googly eyes!

I wanted the arms to be from a lady's metal watch strap, and legs from a man's one, each divided in half. The feet are the two clasp pieces, and the hands are the buckle end of a lady's leather watch strap. He only has one finger sadly, but that is enough to hold his axe, which was fashioned from a roasting tin and a coffee stirrer! Colin had the idea of cutting some semi-circular disks from the rest of the roasting tin to link the arms and legs to the body, in a suit of armour sort of way, and this made such a difference in pulling it together.

Axe fashioned from roasting tin and coffee stirrer. Heart pocket watch from shrink plastic, with a bit of Glossy Accents and some chain.

He had a heart hidden away in there all the time!

An angled view

The final canvas, with cogs at the corners

I hope you have enjoyed this bit of fun, and my metaphor for St Valentine's Day. It was fitting that Col helped me so much with this project, as he helps me with everything in life. I hope that, even if you have a Tin Man, you have found his precious heart!

Postscript - I am entering this for the Simon Says Stamp 'Anything but a card' challenge, and also Dezina World, and the Stamp Man Hearts Challenge. I am new to joining in Challenges but Jack suggested I join Theme Thursday's Challenge which is Crazy!

Happy Valentine's Day! A Card for Col

This is the card I have made for Col for Valentine's Day today:-

I used a piece of red heart tape across the middle of a white A6 card blank in a landscape orientation, and then added various different kinds of hearts, at different heights. There is a shrink plastic one saying 'To the One I love', and art moulds made up in friendly plastic, together with some wooden hearts and heart gems and padded hearts. The one third from the left is a Tim charm made into a mould with Siligum, then made up in clay with a dusting of mica powder. I added a bit of dangling chain to grunge it up a bit. It is really a bit girly for Col overall, but he wouldn't want to have an un-girly wife, would he?!

And a sneak peek ........

What could this be? 

 I am posting this today as a sneak peek, for the sole reason that it has a Valentine theme, but it isn't finished yet! So I am wondering if you know what it is going to be? If you can't guess, I might post a clue!

Another Charm Piece

When I was making the piece for Gingersnaps Charms challenge, I made this one as well. I wanted to try out using tissue tape to cover one of these little Crafty Individuals containers. I love the designs of tissue tape and the idea behind it, and the range of uses, but I get frustrated with it as it sticks when you don't want it to, but not when you do. It was fairly quick though, to cover the whole thing, and I then blended on a little Fired Brick as you need a strong colour on tissue tape as it comes out quite muted, and then sealed all the edges with watered down PVA.




I decorated the sections as before, adding some little children and love themed charms. The butterfly was made by stamping a butterfly onto book text twice then adhering to a piece of laminate left from laminating a stamp image sheet. When it was dry I cut them both out and layered them together. I filled each of the sections with glossy accents and left to dry overnight.

The back, showing the tissue tape more clearly

Charming - Gingersnaps Charms Challenge

Today's challenge on Gingersnaps is to use charms in your creation. The charm at the top is an Art Mould, made up in gold friendly plastic.

I used the Baroque Sizzix die to cut two pieces of mountboard and two pieces of Vintage Shabby paper to give strength to the hanging and so I could sandwich the dangling charms in place, and neatly finish off the back. I used a selection of charming Art Journey children stamps, some of which I borrowed from Alison when she was here last week (thanks Alison!). I used some of the words on the background, then the images for the inside of the container, which was from Crafty Individuals.

I finished it off with some german scrap, again from Crafty Individuals, and an ABC charm.

The baby themed charms are hanging from a clothing tag, sandwiched between the layers of mountboard

A close up showing the Crown mould

Gingersnaps Challenge - Kings and Queens

Over on Gingersnaps today they are starting a challenge, featuring Kings and Queens in your artwork.

I thought it would be fun to depict the Queen Bee as my entry. I used a mask from Creative Expressions on the card blank to represent honeycomb, put it through the Cuttlebug, then inked it up with Distress Inks to highlight the embossing. I cut a Baroque shape from mountboard and inked this up, and stamped it with the frame and the word Queen from a Pink Paislee set. There are three sizes of bee so I used the largest to depict the Queen Bee and highlighted her body by using Deko Ice in Amber. I used the small bee all over, including some secondary stamping. I wanted the sense of bees crawling over the honeycomb. I also inked through some sequin waste.

The crown is a Tim Holtz charm which I pressed into some moulding silicone to make a mould, then made it up with clay and gold mica powder. I finished it off with a few adhesive gems.

Birthday Card for My Renaissance Man!

This is a card I have made for my lovely Col's birthday today:-

The stamps are from a gorgeous Katzelkraft da Vinci set which my dear friend Pauline gave me for Christmas, apart from the Mona Lisa which is a Tim Holtz one. I used both da Vinci and Calligraphy papers from Joanna Sheen, and then made the Mona Lisa and the round plaques with shrink plastic.

Leonardo, Vitruvian Man, and one of his drawings, on shrink

Mona Lisa on shrink plastic