It's Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap time again!

Hello Everyone,

Well, I've not been very creative recently I'm afraid.  A few family matters have been getting in the way recently but never mind my inks and stamps will still be there when I do get more free time.  I did, however, still manage to get my C and D tags finished for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap this month.  I haven't received my swaps yet but it's very exciting waiting for them to arrive  and wondering which ones I'll be lucky enough to get from the fab creations that have gone in our Photobucket gallery today.

Anyway, today I'm going to share mine with you and this is my C for Catkins

I started with a large tag (Tim Holtz/Sizzix tag die), patted a blue and a green Distress inkpad onto my craft mat and then spritzed with water before dragging my tag through the ink.  I then used an Archival inkpad to stamp the images from the Glorious Spring and Wild Meadow stamp sets.  I added a little colour to the catkin branch with a fine brush and distress inks and finally a touches of Stickles Diamond glitter glue here and there.  This was a really simple tag to do but I was really pleased with the little picture of the hare in his meadow.

My second tag for this month is D for Dancing Dragonfly

Er, confession time, lol!  I can't fully remember how I did this one :-)!!!!!!!  When will I learn to jot a few notes down before I send things off!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I know I started off by spritzing lightly with a mauve and a green Glimmer Mist spray onto a cream tag and then I think I added a bit of colour with Cut n Dry foam from an inkpad but maybe not.  I then stamped the dragonfly and a small flourish round the edges using a mauve Archival inkpad and followed with the little quote using black Versafine.  I then stamped the dragonfly once onto pale green vellum and once onto pale mauve and each time embossed with an interference pearl embossing powder.  I then cut them out, added a little coloursoft pencil and then added a little Stickles to the wings, spreading it out with my finger.  The wet glue caused the wings to curl but when they were dry I found by embossing them lightly with a ball tool I got them to behave as I wanted and I layered them ontop of each other onto the tag just gluing the bodies.  I added the pearls as a finishing touch. 

Once again I finished these by the skin of my teeth and for March we have THREE letters of the alphabet, eeek!  I've started with all good intentions and I've already done my E tag but knowing me, F and G will be last minute again, lol!

Until next time, thank you so much for your visit.  Take care everyone and I hope the sun smiles on you.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Another Studio 490 project for Snazzys!

Good morning everyone,

Today I'm sharing the second project I made for the Snazzys DT blog this month using the fabulous Studio 490 products.  I absolutely love Wendy Vecchi's stuff and her grungy style.  It's odd though because even when I am thinking grungy I somehow end up with something quite 'pretty', lol!  I shall have to try again and keep  my OH or Son in mind and see if that curbs the feminine side a bit ;-)  It's a good excuse to keep playing!

Anyway, here's a sneaky peek at my project and I hope you hop over to the DT blog to look at the whole thing.  I'm quite chuffed with it and think it might end up in one of my Granddaughters' bedrooms which of course, means I'll have to make another one, lol!

I need to get a crack on with my February tags now for the Chocolate Baroque Alphatag Swap 2012.  The deadline is the 23rd, Eeeeek!

Have a lovely day all and many, many thanks for dropping by.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

There are changes afoot!!! Losing Google Friends Connect!

Hi there crafty friends, it seems we are losing the google friend connect facility on the 29th of February I think it affects Wordpress and other blogging formats. I've signed up for the new Mr Linky Followers button, please sign up if you would like to stay following me :0) There is more information available HERE and thanks go to Crafty Musings Gay Peplow  for telling us about this.


Please sign up I don't wont to lose all my faithful followers and I want to continue to follow you. xx

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Snazzy's DT Blog time again ........ Yay!

Hi Everyone,

It's my week to post on Snazzy's DT blog again and boy have we had some fabulous products to play with this month.  The Bosses (Val and Don) send us the bestest stuff to play with and this month it's all things Studio 490!

I've long been a fan of the brilliant Wendy Vecchi, the Studio 490 designer in case you didn't know, since I was introduced to her fab stamps a few years ago by Lynn Robinson-Hunter and then later at a workshop with Linda Elbourne, both lovely ladies with oodles of talent.  I bought a few sets of Wendy's stamps but didn't get chance  to use them very often which was starting to irritate me because the brilliant Hels Sheridan uses all Mrs Vecchi's products on a regular basis on her blog and more recently demoing them on shows on Create & Craft TV.  For me these shows have been the best inky stamping tutorials since Glenda Waterworth parted company with C&C and Hels showcases Studio 490 brilliantly.

Anyway, the DT were all sent a set of Wendy Vecchi stamps, a sample bag of Art Parts and a sample pack of Clearly for Art and Gillian kicked off the month with her three fabulous pieces last week.  Now it's my turn and here is a sneak peek at my first submission.

Do I get you with the butterfly sneaky peek Mama Pez? Lol!

Please pop over to the DT Blog and have a look at the whole piece.  It's actually quite a change from anything I've made before I think and I so enjoyed making it.  I'm nearly finished on my second piece for this month and I think it's going to be my favourite 'cos I'm really chuffed with it so far (eeeek, perhaps I shouldn't have said that till it's safely finished!) and I'm really surprised that my projects aren't turning out at all grungy as I thought they would.  Anyway, let me know what you think, good or bad as long as you're kind, lol!

I'll be back later in the week with another sneak peek of my next project.  Until then hope you all have a good week and no return of the freezing temperatures of last week.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx
 

A Personal Challenge for Me!

A very happy Friday to all you lovely people,

I hope the sun is shining as brightly for you as it is here.  It's absolutely perishing though with a thick white frost on everything and my little water feature in the garden is frozen solid.  I bet it ends up cracked when it thaws out.  Oh well, these things don't last for ever do they and I was amazed it survived last winter's hard weather.

Over on the Chocolate Baroque Guild Forum (link in my sidebar) a lovely lady called Margaret has organised an Alphabet Tag Swap for Guild members this year.  I've only entered a couple of one off swaps in the past and this one is going to be hard for me to keep up for a whole year.  Obviously it's not compulsory to do the tags every month but now I've started I really want a full alphabet so I'm going to do my best.  Today I'm going to share the first two tags I made.

Here is A for Asia

I used the Paisley Elephant set of Chocolate Baroque stamps to make this tag with a Distress Ink blended background using (I think) Dusty Concord, Rusty Hinge and Bundled Sage.  I can't remember what I stamped the background with because like a numpty I forgot to jot some notes down before I sent the tags off, Doh!!! but I think it was the Dusty Concord and Bundled Sage.  I stamped the lovely fan onto Shrink Plastic for an embellishment and the elephants were stamped with Flitterglu before applying Crafty Notions gilding flakes.  I have to say that Flitterglu does give you all the nice fine detail of the image but I need to get some of the proper cleaning stuff from IndigoBlu because it's a b.....r to get every last bit off the stamps and I'm a bit fussy about cleaning my stamps, lol!

My second tag is B for Bottle

My immediate thoughts for the letter B were either butterfly or bird as I have loads of Chocolate Baroque stamps to fit but I wanted to find something a little out of the norm for me and then remembered these little used bottle stamps.  For this tag I built up layers of Distress Inks on the background by pressing the inkpads on my craft mat and spritzing with water before wiping the tag through and after drying between layers I finally tapped the tag onto the ink globules to create little spots.  Again, I think the colours were Pumice Stone, Spun Sugar and Victorian Velvet.  I stamped the shelf and the table directly onto the tag using black Versafine and then the table again onto card, cut it out and applied it with 3D foam.  Some of the bottles were stamped directly onto the tag and coloured and some were stamped onto card, cut out and coloured before attaching with 3D foam.

All the images came from either The Dressing Room set or My Lady's Boudoir set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque, of course.

Once I got into them I really enjoyed doing these tags but I have a feeling a few letters of the alphabet are going to be a bit brain teasing to find a subject let alone one I have Chocolate Baroque stamps to fit (even though I have hundreds of CB stamps, lol).

REMINDER !!!

Before I finish today (to get on with some h.......k, lol) I just wanted to remind you that over on the Snazzy's DT Blog there is still a week or so left for joining in with our first ever challenge.  There's a lovely prize up for grabs and the theme is 'Love/Romance'.  If you're not into the slushy Valentines type of creation, there's always the love we have for our family and special friends or even beloved pets.  We'd love you to join in and add to the lovely gallery some of our visitors have already started.  Hope to see you there so I can visit you back!

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you again soon.  I'll show you the gorgeous tags I received yesterday when I've had time to take pics.  Thanks for popping by today and keeping me company.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx