Try it on Tuesday - Christmas is Coming

Hello Everyone!

Day two of vacation with my Mom. Thank you so much to everyone who stopped in and left a comment yesterday. I really appreciate you doing so, even when I haven't had a chance to visit you this week! What a wonderful and loyal group of crafters you are! I promise to visit everyone this weekend after my Mom leaves, until then, I am signing off! Many thanks and wishes to all of you, have a fabulous week! hugs :)

PS...You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find popsicle sticks in this city in the winter time!! GEEZ!

It's time for another fantastic challenge at Try it on Tuesday! Thank you to everyone who entered our Home Made / Handmade Gifts challenge, there were so many gorgeous projects, it was really hard to choose favourites!

This time around our theme is a simple one...CHRISTMAS IS COMING. I hope to see you all there!

This card is pretty simple, not too much to explain. The wood planks are cut from heavy card stock, painted and treated with a home made crackle paint technique using DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic paints Tropical Blue and White. I topped off the planks with some White Liquid Applique (cool stuff...it puffs up when you heat it).

The sentiment is from a Joy Crafts stamp set Happy Holidays.

I made the round embellishment with a music note stamp and Tim Holtz Peacock Feathers. I punched it out with a circle punch, edged it with Gathered Twigs and popped an epoxy sticker on it to give it a glossy dome look.

The pine branch was done with a Cheery Lynn Cutie Fringe II die and the cinnamon sticks are made from Kraft card stock and distressed with some Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs.

I am entering my Christmas card into the following wonderful challenges:

- Simply Create Too - Challenge #75 - Snow! Snow! Snow! or use all white

- Crafty Catz - Challenge #256 - Winter Theme

- Deep Ocean Challenge Blog - #91 - Shabby Chic

- Kort O' Mania - Challenge #119 - Anything Goes as long as it's Christmas

- Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 286 - No Designer Papers Allowed
- We Do Dobadoo - Challenge #19 - Christmas
- Come and Get It Challenges - Winter
- Love to Create Challenge Blog - #143 - Color Inspired

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Crafty Cardmakers #128 - Distress It - Cardboard Christmas!!

Hello Everyone!

It's time for another challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers! Lin is our hostess for this challenge and she has chosen the following theme for us CHALLENGE #128 - DISTRESS IT. So she would like to see LOTS of distressing on your project.

It's Monday morning which means my Mom arrived last night, yipee! Right about now, my Mom and I are drinking Christmas flavoured coffee and planning our day of crafting and Christmas movies. I wish you all a wonderful day!

One lucky winner will get £12.00 to spend at either in store or on line at Woodware Craft Collection. The Woodware design team will be playing along with our challenge, so be sure to hop over there and check out their lovely creations! There is also a $12 gift certificate for Di's Digistamps up for grabs.

CRAFT HOARDERS ANONYMOUS started a new challenge last week and I've been racking my brain trying to think of something different to do. The challenge theme is BOX IT UP, so you can make a box, alter a box or make something using a box. I have made boxes, decorated boxes and made all kinds of things out of boxes, but the one thing I haven't done is make a CARD out of boxes, so that's what I decided to do.

The base and brown layers are made out of the cardboard dividers from a wine glass set box. I needed a box that was brown on both sides, so my standard pizza box wasn't going to work this time around. I inked the cardboard up with Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs. The light coloured layers are cut out of a cake box  That cardboard was white on the inside and the outside, but when I cut it, the guts of the cardboard was darker, so it had a fun effect when I distressed the edges. I put two thin coats of Gesso on the cake box layers in opposite directions to give it a little texture so the inks would stick.

This card is going to my wonderful brother Jim for Christmas, so I decided to go with a darker, more masculine colour palette. Everything is done with a combination of Tim Holtz distress inks Walnut Stain, Gathered Twigs, Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive, as well as Ranger Archival inks Potting Soil and Fern Green.

I had to reach deep into my stash to find some of these old, forgotten stamps!

Hero Arts - Envelope Pattern & Music Collage Background / JustRite - Ornate Corners / Tim Holtz - Blueprint stamp and die set / Stampendous - Christmas Background / Kaisercraft - Twig & Berry Postmarks / TJ Designs - Holiday Trinkets / Pink Paislee - Snow Village / Aladine - Calendar / Technique Tuesday - Hello Santa Banners / Inkadinkado - Special Delivery Tag

All of the little tags were actually made from leftover bits of paper that I had made for my Vintage Travel Bag contents. Lots of Tim techniques and products to get that aged, vintage, distressed look!

The inside is all finished and ready for me to glue in a little sentiment panel. I stamped the JustRite corner stamp in all four corners to make a nice frame. Merry Christmas Jim!

I am entering my Vintage Christmas Card into the following wonderful challenges:

- STAMPlorations - November Challenge - Stamps and Layers
- Craft Hoarders Anonomous - Challenge #20 - Box It Up!
- The Artistic Stamper - November Challenge - Christmas is Coming

- Little Red Wagon - Challenge #264 - Layer It Up
- Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week 286 - No Designer Papers Allowed
- Red Rubber Inspirationals - Challenge # 147 - Repeat Yourself  (use the same stamp at least 3 times)
(I used the JustRite corner stamp on all 4 corners, inside and outside as well as on the pocket - 9 times in total)

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Vintage Christmas Cabinet Card - in Shades of Metal

Hello Everyone!

So my camera and I had another disagreement! I wanted all the shimmer of this card to be visible in the photographs and my camera DID NOT! We negotiated for several hours and finally met half way at "sort of see the shimmer". I guess my point is this...this card is almost entirely metallic or shimmery in nature, I just couldn't seem to catch the beauty of it in the images.

For those who recognize the bit in the center, this is the panel I created with my Distressed Metal technique.

For the back panel, I started with a Prima stencil called Orbs and sponged on some Tim Holtz distress inks Crushed Olive, Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint. Then I spritzed the entire panel with Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow Mist - Silhouette Silver (which looks like pewter).

I mixed up a batch of dark brown homemade texture paste using DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic Burnt Umber paint and applied it through my Prima Flourish Damask stencil and then while it was still wet, I covered it with Stampendous Aged Bronze Embossing Enamel. When the paste was dry I heated up the powder and melted it. Lastly, I spritzed some Lindy's Stamp Gang Moonshadow Mist - Burnished Brass and Incandescent Copper and allowed it to dry in all the recesses.

Linda Ledbetter has a challenge based on all of Tim Holtz's techniques from his book Compendium of Curiosities 3. I have been dying to try my hand at one of her challenges, but I just keep missing the deadlines. Her current challenge is to use of of Tim Holtz's Cabinet Card Frames, so I decided to use one as the frame around my ornament panel.

I applied a couple layers of white Gesso and then a really super thick layer of Rock Candy Clear Crackle Paint. I rubbed Tim Holtz Gathered Twigs stain into the cracks. I spritzed it with Moonshadow Mist Buccaneer Bronze, then dabbed on some white gold acrylic paint and some Tim Holtz Antique Bronze distress paint and a touch of DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Champagne Gold and Copper paints.

The corner pieces were made using crafter's clay and a Martha Stewart mold. I painted them with Picket Fence Crackle Paint, rubbed Gathered Twigs into the cracks, spritzed with Moonshadow Mist Silhouette Silver and dabbed with DecoArt Champagne Gold Dazzling Metallic paint.

The poinsettia was cut from Tim Holtz Tattered Poinsettia, spritzed with the Silver spray, embossed and then highlighted with DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Champagne Gold and Copper paints. I added 3 rusted bells in the center. This was one of the hardest bits to catch the shimmer of...all that red you see is actually metallic copper, very gorgeous in real life.

The current challenge over at The Artist Trading Post is Stencil Mania, and I really wanted to try something different for this challenge. Soooo, I pulled out one of my favourite Tim Holtz stencils called Holly Bough and put it to good use.

I whipped up a batch of home made texture paste in green and applied it through the stencil onto a piece of scrap card stock. I used my palette knife to add the texture on the surface. When it dried, I fussy cut around the texture paste and voilà, I had myself a 3d holly bough! I edged it with some Gathered Twigs and highlighted it with some white gold paint.

Here is a close up of my middle panel. The stamp is from the Tim Holtz Christmas Blueprints 2 set and I stamped it using Ranger Archival ink Jet Black. Again, this panel is actually copper...I know an artist shouldn't blame his/her tools, but...stupid camera!

I am entering my card into the following wonderful challenges:

- Artist Trading Post - Stencil Mania
(stencils used - Prima Orbs, Prima Damask & Tim Holtz Holly Bough / stamp used - Tim Holtz Blueprints)

- Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities 3 - Challenge #15 - Cabinet Card Pocket

- Suzy Bee's Bloomin' Challenge Blog - #55 - ATG With a Twist - Make It Vintage
- That's Crafty Challenge Blog - Anything Vintage
- Wednesday's Creative Inspiration - Challenge #290 - Take Your Pick
(choose Brown & White colour combination OR do something Vintage Style - I chose Vintage)

- Mixed Media Card Challenge - November - Challenge #5 - Christmas
(I used bells as the center for my poinsettia)

Well My Mom arrives on Sunday, YAY. so I will be pretty occupied for the next week. I have posts going up on Monday and Tuesday, but I won't be around to visit everyone's blog. I wish you all a wonderful week and I promise I will check in after Christmas with my Mom is over! Until then, big hugs! :)

Crafty Boots GDT - Remembrance

Hello Everyone!

Today I am here as a Guest Designer for the wonderful challenge blog Crafty Boots. When the lovely and talented Dionne contacted me and asked me to be a Guest Designer, I was honoured. When she told me the theme is REMEMBRANCE, I just knew I wanted to do something special for my Mom.

When I was five years old, the farmhouse we lived in burnt to the ground and we lost everything. My Mom always tells me, of all the things they lost in the fire, the loss she felt the most were the photographs of me as a child. There were no digital cameras back then, no Facebook pages, no cell phone cameras and no internet cloud to retrieve photos from. Every single photo she had of me was lost that day.

I have collected some copies of photos from extended family and put together in this frame, so my Mom will have something to remember my childhood. I hope you like my make!

I really wish I had taken a shot of this frame before I started working on it, it was horrible! It was shiny, it was red, orange and brown and it had the worst retro geometric pattern...ICK...straight out of the 70's!!

First I sanded the shine off so my products would stick. I used Mod Podge and wrinkled tissue paper to make the base texture. I used two different Prima stencils and some home made texture paste to add some flowers and flourishes. When that dried, I applied a layer of Rock Candy Crackle paint in various areas. Then the fun part began!

Tim Holtz stains Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain, Tim Holtz sprays Antique Linen and Vintage Photo, DecoArt Paints Burnt Umber, Cinnamon Brown, White Wash, Bright Yellow, Flesh. All I can really tell you is that I added some of this and some of that until I liked what I was looking at. Lots and lots of dabbing, rubbing and spraying!

Lastly, I used a Rubbernecker crackle stamp to add some darker cracks in the areas that I missed with the crackle paint.

Guess what??? I got a new flower die set! WOOHOO! The peach flower here was made from my new Joy Crafts flower die and coloured with Tim Holtz Dried Marigold. The two smaller flowers are also from two other Joy Crafts flower die sets and they were coloured with Hero Arts Soft Blossom and Tim Holtz Wild Honey. The leaves are from La La Land.

The butterfly is an exclusive Frantic Stamper die. I covered it with clear crackle paint and then coloured it with distress paints and rubbed Gathered Twigs into the cracks to accent them and it looked fantastic, BUT...it was so flimsy from the workout, I was afraid it would be too fragile, so I added a layer of UTEE. Unfortunately, the UTEE masked the wonderful texture I had achieved. Sad face!! Lesson learned, next time I will add the UTEE to the back of the butterfly so it doesn't affect the appearance.

Some of my Mom's favourite accents...pearls and butterflies!

I am entering my frame into the following wonderful challenges:

- Artist Trading Post - Stencil Mania (stamps used - crackle stamp for texture and a sentiment stamp set)

- The ABC Challenge - X is for Xtra Special

- Allsorts Challenge Blog - Week #285 - Anything But A Card
- The Crazy Challenge - #184 - Your Favorite Technique
( I love the tissue paper technique, it's a great way to add texture while covering up existing patterns)
- Fussy and Fancy - Challenge #127 - Pairs or Two of a Kind
( I have 2 peach flowers, 2 pink flowers, 2 yellow flowers, 2 decorative pins, 2 wired bead sprays and 2 butterflies)

- Country View Challenges - November - Bugs, Bees and Butterflies

- Altered Eclectics - November Challenge - Anything Goes
- Eclectic Ellapu - November Purple Team - Leaves and Foliage

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

12 Tags of Christmas Event

Hello Everyone!

I have just been so busy getting ready for my first Christmas (which starts in 9 days), that I'm afraid I have fallen behind with my bloggy visits. I promise I will try and visit everyone this weekend! Bad Pammie!

UPDATE: to clarify, not my first Christmas ever, but the first of two Christmases that I celebrate every year. Sorry for the confusion. Boy Mrs Duck ,you really like to keep me on my toes, don't you! lol

Something that seemed to keep getting pushed back was finishing this tag. I made it for The 12 Tags of Christmas Event that Loll and Friends are hosting. I have just squeaked in under the wire as the event ends tomorrow.

Sorry I couldn't get there sooner Loll, but better late than never! lol

For the background, I used the shaving cream technique with Tim Holtz re-inkers Antique Linen and Brushed Corduroy. This is one of my favourite techniques, but I don't get the chance to use it very often. I lightly covered the tag with VersaMark and UTEE, but before heating it, I took a brush and dusted off some of the UTEE, making it lumpy when I heated it up.

Next I spritzed it real good with lots of Tattered Angels Gold Glimmer Mist so that it pooled in the recesses. I let it dry then wiped off the excess.

The letters are from Spellbinders Lowercase Alphabet set, the gold flourishes are from Spellbinders Venetian Motifs, the itty bitty red flowers are from Memory Box Floral Delights.  I added some red stickles to make them shimmer.

Here's an odd coincidence...I used three different types of foliage. A die from Impression Obsession, a die from Marianne Designs and a punch from Martha Stewart...all three of them are named "PINE BRANCH". What a hoot!

The book was cut out from Spellbinders Labels 7 and stamped with Brushed Corduroy ink using an Impression Obsession Newsprint stamp.

I am entering my card into the following wonderful challenges:

- C.R.A.F.T. Challenge - #285 - Christmas

- Delightful Challenges - Happy Holidays
- We Do Doobadoo - Challenge #19 - Christmas
- Divas by Design - Photo Inspiration (I loved the red and green with the brown tones - so festive)

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.

Distressed Metal / Porcelain Tutorial

Hi Everyone!

As promised, I am back today with a tutorial on how I did the distressed metal technique on my handmade Winter Wishes charm. This is actually the same technique that I used to create the porcelain effect on my poinsettia in the second photo...although I have perfected it a bit since then. It's a little photo heavy, but then, all my posts are, so what the hay! If you want to see more of these cards, you can just click on the photographs.

For the record, this was something I did completely by accident, I didn't learn it from anyone else. Odds are that somebody out there has already discovered this, but as far as I know, it's a technique of my own invention. I hope you enjoy!

#1 - Cut out your shape first using whatever colour paper you want the cracks to be. For the purpose of the tutorial, I used black card stock for high contrast, but my Winter Wishes charm was made using silver card stock.

#2 - Add two coats of UTEE. One coat will NOT work, the UTEE needs to be fairly thick.

#3 - Add a coat of coloured embossing powder. The one on the left is pewter embossing powder on black paper. The one on the right is white embossing powder on white paper (this is for the porcelain).

They look very cool just like this, but it's the next step that will blow your socks off!

These are the same two tags!!

#4 - Add a layer of UTEE over top of the coloured embossing. Heat it until you can see the coloured embossed layer underneath start to separate and move around. That's where all the fun is!

#5 For the porcelain sample on the right hand side, I added a little Black Soot distress ink onto the white layer before adding the last layer of UTEE and then heated it lightly. I smudged it too much in the sample, but I think you get the gist.

Now I will just show you some samples of what I played around with.

The one on the left has 1 layer of pewter embossing powder, the one on the right has 2 layers of pewter embossing powder. I used 2 layers of pewter because the powder was really fine and I didn't get great coverage with the first layer.

The one on the left has black paper backing, the one on the right has white paper backing, but both use the same embossing powder. You can see how changing the colour of the paper REALLY changes the look of the effect.

For this next one I used Stampendous Frantage Aged Gold Embossing Enamel. The one on the left is before the final layer of UTEE, the one on the right is after the UTEE. What a difference! Of all the embossing powders that I tried, this was my favourite! I will be ordering more shades of this stuff! (what a plug!)

For the next one here, I sprinkled on a little bit on silver and gunmetal glitter before adding the final layer of UTEE. This is a great way to get extra sparkle, especially for Christmas!

For this one, I embossed the paper first. I used one layer of detail gold embossing powder on a gold paper backing. Super fun effect. You want a thin coverage of coloured embossing powder for this one, or you wont't be able to see the pattern.

I think next time, I will antique the embossed pattern a bit before adding that first layer of UTEE, I think it would add some amazing depth.

I think this next one is my favourite! I used an aqua coloured paper backing and combined gold and copper embossing powders for a really unique take on a patina! I should have added more copper in the middle, but I think you get the idea!

For this next one, I used a white pearl embossing powder on a pale gold paper backing. Before I added the UTEE, I gently sponged on some white gold paint around the edges. So amazing, the UTEE made the paint bubble a bit, giving it a really fun texture.

In the second picture, I bent and twisted the tag to bust up the UTEE and give it all the cracks. Fun thing all on it's own and it could be used just like that, but I took it one step further...

...I rubbed a bit of distress ink in the cracks and then took my heat gun and made the cracks disappear. In the image below, you can see where the ink left marks of the cracks, but the actual cracks are gone. HOW FUN IS THAT!!

WHAT DIDN'T WORK:

- The UTEE will not stick to glossy or coated papers and it will not stick to metallic paints. The matte paint seemed OK though.

- Super chunky embossing powders do not work. They are so thick that the UTEE was burning before I could melt all of the layers enough to move the coloured layer around effectively.

- Regular clear embossing powder is just not thick enough. It's not that it DIDN't work. It just takes soooooo many layers that I would never have enough patience to actually bother with it.

- Cutting out your shape MUST be done first! Any distressing do first as well. Trust me, after you have 4 or 5 coats of embossing powder on there, it's not going through any die cutting machine or being altered in any way...darned things are thick!

- To prevent cracking, make sure you are keeping your piece straight as it cools off. If it curls up, like it wants to, then it will crack when you try to straighten it out.

Here is one that I did using ivory coloured paper and copper embossing powder. I stamped the image into the final layer while it was still hot using Ranger Archival ink and a Tim Holtz stamp.

I will be back next week with the card that I am making using my wonderful copper ornament panel.

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial. I will add it to the Tutorials Page at the top of the screen so you can easily find it. Don't forget to come back and let me know if you give it a go, I would love to see your results!

That's it for today. Thank you for stopping in and for all the amazing comments. I read and appreciate every single one! If you have any questions, please let me know.