A bit of what you fancy...!

Well, that sounds like a good thing on a Monday morning. A bit of what you fancy! I just don't know where the week went to. One hundred nappies, seven sleepless nights and a few gold medals later and here we are again. It's time for the new challenge theme over at Simon Says Stamp & Show! We're indulging in our favourite techniques and so can you! So you just have to join in the fun this week. l found it hard to pin it down one fave so I created a tag where I could revel in the joys of Grungy blues, flowers and metal. Those three always make me happy.

I love Weathered Wood Distress Ink, so I created my background using Tim's rusted enamel technique which always produces a great effect. I also used a bit of Broken China too. Just make sure your ink pad is nice and juicy when inking up your tag before you scatter on the embossing powder so it can cling well to the ink. Also use ordinary embossing powder, not extra fine or thick for the best result and texture.

I edged my tag with Walnut Stain and also added stitching around the edges which I do a lot, I know, but I can't resist! My Grungepaper roses are created used the great die from Paper Artsy. I used three flowers for each rose. I cut them out, inked them up in Weathered Wood and then thought a few dots would give a bit of texture so I embossed them with this dotty folder. Then I lightly swiped the surface and edges with my blending tool which had a little Walnut Stain left on it.

I also cut three Grungepaper leaves which are similar to these dies. You can never have enough flower and leaf dies! Whilst the flowers were drying I went digging in my Idea-ology tray and found some ball chain, a number and my Chit Chat stickers and thought of the Three Little Wishes idea. The wishes was stamped with my ever faithful peg stamps. I bashed up the number a little and added drops of pool and Espresso Alcohol ink to give it that aged look.

l hand stitched the chain at the top and bottom to secure it to the tag and glued the roses on top with Glossy Accents to really cement it in place! I felt the tag was still a bit under-dressed so I added a bit more Idea-ology with a clip, swivel clasp and muse token to the side.

There was a lone die-cut butterfly on my desk from last weeks project so I thought I would give it a good home after a bit of ink and Rock Candy Crackle paint! Then, I knew I was done...

So there you go - a bit of this and that and all of it on a tag. I hope you feel inspired to get busy and crafty with your favourite goodies and techniques,.. and then show them off over at the Design Team Blog. We're on the look for the Top Three Artists and there is a fabulous $50 prize to be won. So come on - off you go!
THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS BEEN CALLING BY! I am still very, very busy indeed as a new mum, so I'm not around so much at the moment. But I'm getting there slowly, Ruby is doing brilliantly and these fingers are itching to get going again... Until we meet again!
Sarah.

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Life is a canvas....

Throw as much paint at it as you can. I thought I'd start with a little motivational therapy on this Monday morning. Well, August has hit town, the Olympic spirit is high and QVC is selling Christmas decorations! Monday also means a new challenge theme over at Simon Says Stamp & Show where we are painting it up...

l'm just slowly getting back into my design work as I discover life with my new daughter, so any crafty time is very precious indeed. My brain is also still pretty frazzled from all the sleepless nights, so when I sat down to work on this weeks challenge, I had no idea what to make at all. Nada, zilch, nuffink!

Know that feeling? Ready to rumble but devoid of inspiration... So I did what I normally do when this happens. I surrounded myself with lots of my favourite crafty goodies and just started playing. I was toying with the idea of creating a masterboard from Kraft cardstock, to then cut into sections, but once I got going I decided to leave the background whole.

I've been doing a bit of dabbling lately with an Art Journal and really enjoy the freedom it brings... So I thought it would be a good idea to explore the same techniques and the fab Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints to create my cards. I started like this... DO REMEMBER TO DRY BETWEEN EACH LAYER. I roughly swiped yellow paint over my base with my Craft Scraper. Then I applied a layer of texture through a dahlia stencil with white gesso, stamped the Mixed Media dots in red paint and then the mini-mum flowers in yummy teal.

I wanted to add a bit more detail and contrast so I went for a bit of stamping in Archival ink... so as to create both thick and thin layers of ink, paint and colour. I grabbed my word and number stamp strips from Stuff to Say and then added some lettering with Alpha Grunge. Don't be too fussy about the stamping. Use the rubber stamps without an acrylic block. Just hold it in your hand, bending the stamp slightly and roll sections of the stamp over the surface for a more random effect.

As the background is quite busy I decided to keep the embellishment simple by using just some wording and die-cut butterflies. I stamped the wording in Saffron Yellow for the first card and Monrach Orange for the second. I didn't use all of the first sentiment... just a section. That way you get a lot more mileage out of your stamps!

The flutter-bys are cut from book pages and thickly coated with gesso for texture. I stitched around the edges before matting the cards up with three bright layers of card. A wrap of trusty parcel string and a bit of distress work and I was done!

And great fun it all was too. So why don't you join in the painty antics and creativity? Just get your favourite crafty goodies out and just start playing around... Who knows where it will lead to? Hop over to the Design Team Blog and take a look at the fab makes from the rest of the team for more inspiration. There's a great $50 spree to be won and the top Three Artists crown too! Well, that's all folks, as Bugs would say. Thanks for calling by... Sarah.

*Claudine Hellmuth COMPLETE LOT 15 STUDIO PAINTS Ranger Paint	*Claudine Hellmuth GESSO Studio Primer Paint Ranger	*Ranger Inkssentials CRAFT SCRAPER Tool Remove Paint Glue Wax ICSR23890	*The Crafter's Workshop MINI MUMS 6 x 6 Template
*Tim Holtz Sizzix Die MINI BUTTERFLIES Movers & Shapers 657209 Alterations	*The Crafter's Workshop MINI DAHLIA 6 x 6 Template	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2012 MIXED MEDIA cms125	*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps 2012 WORDS FOR THOUGHT cms132
*Tim Holtz Cling Rubber Stamps STUFF TO SAY CMS110 2011	*Tim Holtz Rubber Stamp ALPHA GRUNGE x3-1221 Stampers Anonymous	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad MONARCH ORANGE AIP31239	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad JET BLACK AIP31468
*Ranger Archival Ink Pad SAFFRON AIP31222	*Ranger Archival Ink Pad MANGANESE BLUE AIP30454

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What's on your wordesk Wednesday?

WOYWW? Well, still not a lot, but we are back on first name terms... I didn't make it last week and that felt rather strange...a bit like that dream when you realise you are walking around in your underwear at a wedding... In other words surreal and not much fun. In fact it was a big 'pile of pants' week all round. Little Ruby went on strike and gave up feeding, hubby was in France and so began a long week of very intense worries and tears - not helped by the very hot spell of weather. (This learning curve (Julia!) is kind of boomerang shaped...)

After trying every trick in the book and beyond, spending 22 hour days nursing and seeing Ruby go downhill fast, I had to make the very difficult switch from boob to bottle. All sounds very random, emotional, mumsy, hormonal stuff for some I know, but it was a horrendous 8 days. Your world becomes very small, your heart heavy and your head very full. Little babies need to come with a warning on their pert bottoms... "Life-changing, heart-wrenching miracles. Please handle with extreme care."

I have made a start on some new DT projects for Simon Says Stamp and Craft Stamper so my own dabblings are on hold at the moment. I was very happy to see the new Craft Stamper mag fall on the mat, heralding a better week. That's me in the corner there...!

I have a tutorial on metal tape inside the magazine and have created an Art Journal and some other metal goodies... Hope you like it if you are a reader.

Life is very busy indeed at the moment and it seems the days are flitting by the second. So yesterday morning I was totally thrilled and touched to receive a fabulous hanging and card from Elizabeth up there in bonny Scotland. THANK YOU so much, they are beauties. How lucky is Ruby with all these aunties?

Oh, go on then...just one more pic of my wee lassie. Here's Ruby getting into the Olympic Spirit with a GO TEAM GB cheer! On that celebratory note, I shall sign off... the 15 minutes of freedom are up! It's a flying visit I know, but it's good to say hello.
Until, um, whenever...
Sarah.