Alpha tags E, F & G

I can't believe the month has passed again and it's time for me to share the latest batch of tags I sent in for the alpha tag swap. I have been overly preoccupied with some pending hospital treatment for my OH which was happening this week, and as a result I seemed to struggle with this batch of tags. Thankfully the treatment went very well and got the planned result pretty easily, so I have been able to relax a bit in my days off this week.

So onto my tags. The E tags to start! This was my first attempt, using the Chocolate Baroque Baroque Eggs stamps.

I coloured the egg with coloured pencils, mainly Inktense and added some highlights with Coloursoft pencils. I then covered the whole egg with a thick glaze. The background is made from embossed pale green pearlescent vellum. Disaster struck when the dried glazed egg warped and I managed to crack it when I tried to stick it down! So, I had to make a mark 2!

This time I embossed the egg in green EP and added ambossed flourishes around the edge in pearlescent powder, I added colours with various Adirondack dye inks and highlights with a white pen.

My F tag is on the theme of ferns. I used a large fern from the Chocolate Baroque Wild Meadow set, a small fern from Mini Meadow and the fern butterfly from the Crafty Individuals Elements set of butterflies.

I stamped in green versafine ink and added shading in Adirondack dye inks.I added some smaller ferns in a Jenny Bowlin Brown Sugar ink. I used Flitter Glu to stamp a couple more ferns and added gold leaf. The butterflies were embossed in a copper EP into green pearlescent vellum and cut out and decoupaged onto the tag.

Finally I chose the theme of grass for my G tag.

This is a simple one layer design. I just masked a sun and stamped various Chocolate Baroque grass stamps from a couple of different sets in black Versafine. I added butterflies from the same Crafty Individuals set I had used on the fern tag and a bird from a small Artemio set stocked by CB. I added shading with Adirondack dye and Distress Inks. Finally to finish off I added a dusting of gold pearlex powder around the edges.

I already have my plans in place for my H and I tags. Fingers crossed they go a little more smoothly!

Have a great weekend.

Elaine

A wedding card

Thanks to those that offered comments and advice about my blog layout. It was too annoying, although it seems to have been something relating to the coding of the background. I may try to reinstall it, in the meantime, I have done a quick temporary basic and unfussy makeover!

This is a card I made back last year for my lovely friend Lesley's daughter Jenna and her husband Tony when they got married. I have never met them, but the wedding had a vintagey feel, so that is what I used to inspire me. I used a framing mount as the base for the card which I painted in pink acrylic, distressed with white using a baby wipe.

The main images are a vintage photo I found and printed out in sepia, framed in a K & Co frame, I then cut out the bride and flowers from a Graphic 45 paper, arranging them all against a pink paper with soft art nouveau swirls I had had in my stash forever! The words come from a lovely Cosmo Cricket paper, left over from a sheet I bought to make a card for an anniversary card for my OH. I think it was for our 30th! (That makes me feel truly ancient!). I finished off with some peach paper roses and some cream and brown pearl swirls, which I think are Prima. I then covered the frame with some rose trim which I extracted from a couple of Primark children's hairbands! The congratulations was a little metal tag which I punched an extra hole into. No stamping to be seen at all, just collaging!

It is the most glorious day here, we have the window open, sun streaming in and birds singing their heads off. Time for me to get back into my messy craft shed for a massive spring clean, now the warmer weather and lighter evenings will be here. The shed is a complete tip with massive cobwebs! Yeeeuk!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Elaine x

New project

It's been a busy old time for me lately and I am playing catch up as usual. I have though managed to stick down the first page in a new project I have had in the pipeline for some time.

Back last year I saw an amazing collage book in Somerset Studio gallery. It was all stuck into a 12 x 12 artist's sketch book with black pages. Back last year I bought myself a similar book, which was actually a bit pricey, but I wanted to do this project as pure self indulgence so it seemed justified and my OH unusually actually encouraged me to go for it!

The idea for me was to create beautiful pages using some of those lush 12 x 12 papers that I had bought but couldn't bear to part with. It just seems so sad that they sit there doing nothing. Doing these layouts which are more collages that typical scrapbooking (which I don't really do) gave me a reason for using them and I can still look at them and stroke them any time I like!

I actually gathered all the elements of this page together last year, but in the last couple of days I did the deed and stuck them down!

Now, I love book print papers, things with a French theme and birds, plus a little subtle glitter so I was bound to fall for this My Mind's Eye paper, which I bought at the Ally Pally show a couple of years ago. I have added cut out sections from 7 Gypsies Conservatory paper and also some Websters Pages in the corners. The little girl tag and the Eiffel Tower ticket are both Crafty Individuals stamps. The word Beauty is from a quite new Chocolate Baroque set called Artistic Expressions. I added an image from a postcard, a frame from K & Co and some bargain butterfly embellishments.

I just wanted to ask are people finding when they load my blog that the background is now floating in a reduced size with the text superimposed over the top? I look at my blog on three different computers, over time this floating thing has happened in turn on each of the three computers. I think I may have to finally abandon the background I have had ever since I set up my blog which will be a wrench and also delve back into the new blogger template designer which I really don't like very much as it doesn't seem to do what I expect. If anyone has any good ideas of how to get over the problem I would love to hear from you!

Have a good weekend

Elaine x

Alpha tags C & D

Thanks to manging to keep up (so far) with the Alpha Tags challenge, I have a couple more things to show you.

My C tag was made using a cog theme. I used cog stamps from the Chocolate Baroque Steampunk Christmas set to be found here. I inked my tag with DIs, and then stamped my cogs in russet archival ink. I embossed some of the cogs in a rusty Judikins EP that I really love, and added some large bronzey brads before decoupaging them onto the tag and adding some metal cogs. The edging is cut using a Tim Holtz die (again embossed in that lovely rusty finish, courtesy of my very kind crafty friend Judith) (as were the metal cogs). So far I have had to beg and borrow things for three of the four tags I have made so far - it's a good job I have indulgent friends. I finished off with a piece of fraying sari waste. I was a little sad this tag wasn't a bit more exciting, but I made this tag when my chest virus was pretty full on and I felt a little lacklustre.

My D tag is based on diamonds and led me to my theme Diamonds are a Girl's best friend. I used a Crafty Individuals diamond stamp for the first time. I embossed it onto black card using a Stuart Gill marcasite EP which gives a coarse black finish with silver glittery bits.

I cut out some of the diamonds to make the pattern more obvious. I wanted the feeling of luxury and decadence for this one, so I cut my tag out of red illusion film which is like shot silk. I cut a very fine flourish out of black glitter card using my lovely new Memory Box flourish die for the first time. I added computer generated words, backed with more glitter and added tiny gem highlights, a gem flourish and a black glass flower from a Primark earring! I added a black velvet ribbon.

Again not the best photos, but I had to take pics quickly to get them in the post for the deadline which I just made.

I need to get on with the next batch of tags very soon. There are three to make this month, so no time for me to be a slacker this time around!

I am looking forward to seeing which tags pop through my letterbox for the swap very soon.

Elaine

Artistic Expressions

Chocolate Baroque are launching a gorgeous new set of stamps today called Artistic Expressions you can buy them here. There will be some lovely samples coming up from my DT team mates very soon on the DT blog linked to my side bar.

I think most of us stampers like a special word to add a focus and there are so many choices here. The sister plate Artistic Affirmations is a real favourite with me and my DT colleagues.

Go over to Glenda's blog for the giveaway here! Leave a comment and keep your fingers crossed you are the lucky winner!

I am a bit poorly at the moment with what seems to be a chest infection, so I am a little fallow on new projects to post at the moment.

Have a good weekend

Elaine

Alphatags B

Here is my second tag for the Chocolate Baroque Guild alphatag swap. By the end of the year those taking part will have a whole alphabet of tags from other members which will be a real pleasure. I wish I had a better picture but I struggle so much to get photos in day light before I need to post things off.

This is a mini version of the canvas I did a while back. I used the Honeybee set. I stamped in black archival, watercoloured and shaded with DIs and made bees which were decoupaged on, using Angelina fibres for the wings and highlighting the bodies with Glossy Accents. I highlighted the wings of the smaller bees with white pen.

Better buzz off to work now!

Elaine x

Alphatag Swap - A

This year I am taking part in a tag swap between members of the Chocolate Baroque Guild. There are almost 30 of us taking part. The idea is that we produce a tag for each letter of the alphabet using mainly Chocolate Baroque stamps or stamps and other products sold by them. My theme for A was architecture.

Like a lot of us, I struggled to get a good picture at this murky time of year, so I have posted a couple of pics here. One darker which I think shows the detail a little better.

I started by stamping the arch from the Echoes of Italy stamp set  and then sponging a brick effect onto my tag around the arch using Versamagic chalk inks. I then embossed the gate onto some Crafty Individuals Italian themed paper and cut it out and decoupaged it onto the main image. I added shading onto the bricks of the arch with Coloursoft pencils. I cut out the little road name from the same Italian themed CI paper and added a thin embossed border around it to add definition. I added the words from a Beeswax stamp.  That isn't from CB, but it was so perfect I couldn't resist! I finished by punching lots of little leaves from the same paper pad and gently inked the edges with DIs and added them like they were trailing down the wall. My final touch was a piece of sari waste ribbon.

I am not sure who got my tag, but I hoped they liked it as much as the one I received from Mickey which was also an architecture themed tag using the antiquities plate from CB.

Thank goodness it is Friday

Elaine