Another hot summer day for crafting

Today it is time for my 2nd DT inspiration post for Country View. I am the hostess for this month's challenge and I chose the theme of Hot Summer Days. Think holidays, seaside, picnics in the countryside, ice cream, relaxing in the garden, summer flowers...I think you get the picture.

You can enter any craft, there is no limit to the number of times you can enter or the number of challenges you can enter. It really is my kind of challenge blog

My first DT post is here, if you missed it.

My tiny garden is still blooming beautifully and provides so much of my summer crafting inspiration.

I decided to use the same stamp but create a very different card. This time I went for a very CAS (clean and simple) design but I still used hot summer inks to colour it with.

I stamped and white embossed my Wendy Vecchi stamp onto mixed media card.

 I used the same summery distress inks as for my first card

 but this time I watercoloured the image

I matted onto deep pink card, inked the edges and added a stamped sentiment....simples!

Here is my finished CAS card.

I would like to enter it into the following challenges;

CASology watercolour

                                                           Crafty cardmakers 3/3 summer

The artistic stamper 2/3  anything goes
Paper Creator 1/3 keep it simple
Less is more use something tactile mine is the embossing which gives a lovely edge to the flowers.

I have sorted through my Tuscany holiday photos and I will share more soon but here is one to whet your appetite....a really hot summer day in sizzling Sienna.

If you would like to enter my challenge over at Country view with you own hot summer days craft projects this is the link. I would love to see what you make.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

My August garden and some Wendy Vecchi inspiration

My garden pots have been a source of joy and inspiration for me all summer. My colour palette has been bright and bold and a change from my usual pastels.

I don't often make tags but sometimes as Wendy Vecchi suggests, I just want to "Make Art". I needed an excuse to use the brilliant rose mask stamp again which we were given 2 weekends ago at the workshop.

I also wanted to enter some fun challenges so I went down to my garden studio this weekend and got out some bold bright distress inks .....and a stencil and coloured up this tag.

I used this great PaperArtsy stamp as I think it is a very cool sentiment. That background has a lot of zingy colour in it...I love the fushia pink tones. I wanted a frame for my tag so I used Tim's ornate frame which I bought recently. I added lots of greens and a touch of brown and lots of crackle!

 This is the gorgeous Wendy Vecchi rose stamp we were given at the recent workshop. I stamped it a couple of times on mixed media paper and coloured it with distress inks.

and this is what I put together

 I added an embossed edge which you can just see below

 and some layering to the rose and glossy accents to the centre and on the leaves

I would like to enter it into the following fun challenges;

Rubber dance....August challenge   I think my colours match and I even went along with the theme of in the garden.
 
Artistic stamper anything goes

Mixed  media world gorgeous textures

Allsorts favourite colour this is my 2nd entry so I have used my second favourite colour which is green

Country View Crafts summertime

We love to create anything goes mixed media

Dies R Us the great outdoors

Emerald Faeries favourite colours mine are the green and yellow used on my tag.

Words to scrap by Book inspiration mine is The Good Earth

So this one was just for me...to remind me that whatever is going on in life we need to bloom where we are planted. I really try to. I am very blessed in life, surrounded by a wonderful loving family and with my sweet garden to potter around in my leisure time I can never lack joy from mother nature or fail to be inspired for my creativity.

Enjoy the week ahead,

Remember to bloom where you are planted ;0)
Sending sunshine...there's been lots here this afternoon.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Crafting with Wendy Vecchi

I had the most amazing day on Sunday in London attending none other than the uber talented Wendy Vecchi's Make Art in England workshop. For my non "art" blog friends Wendy is a Ranger designer and colleague of Tim Holtz and this was her first visit to England. I booked this workshop so long ago and could hardly believe it finally arrived. It was the most amazing sunny hot day in London and we were grateful for the air conditioning in the hotel conference room which served as the workshop for the day. Wendy was very patient having photos taken with everyone .............including me.

As well as being uber talented Wendy is such a sweet kind person and a great teacher. The project she had designed for us to made was an art box to contain 4 tags which would also be made during the day. This is Wendy showing the blank box on her left and her finished version. She had used brown tones for her sample.

We spent the morning embossing, inking and stencilling our own boxes. We were able to choose our own choice of colours.

These were the finished pieces. Wendy put them all on display to show how different things turn out.

It was great to see how plain boxes turn out so differently ,so many colour variations.
This is mine......I went for green and browns for the base colours.

 and here is  the top once I had inked up and glued on the flower decoration.

These tags are the 4 originals made by Wendy as her samples to demonstrate the various techniques. Interestingly she cuts the ends off her tags to make them less rectangular, I really think it works well.

It was so lovely to catch up with new and old blogging friends. Brenda, in the middle, who kindly sent me the next 3 photos. as my camera battery died before the end of the day and Suse with me.

Julie of Juliz Designs who I met for the first time

We were all kept very busy but lots of time for chat ;0) 

Lots of concentration going on here. Below are some of the ladies from Brenda's AVJ design team.

 Wendy gave us all a little button as a keepsake.....I will treasure this...

So here are my finished pieces with my own interpretations and add ons.  Wendy says she is always delighted to see how her ideas get translated into so many different ways. 

I love the rich colours on my box, I'm really glad I went for green as the base. Lots of stenciling and blending with archival inks. The gold embossing paste gives such a gorgeous shine.

On the top I added dots from a stamp and red to the flower pieces...it reminds me of a strawberry. 

and here are my tags 

Tag 1. I used blues and brown to make a distress ink background. I added a couple of stencils to the background. Wendy gave us the faux granite cup and saucer die pieces to which we added the white "dots". The little tea spoon was awesome. I also added some remnant rubs.

Tag 2. We were given this brilliant rose stamp and cut out and layered it for dimension. My version of this tag is quite different to Wendy's original. I used blue and red archival  ink and rubbing alcohol to make the background.

 Tag 3. The tree is a stencil, I love this and it's on my wish list. The little shed, door, flower and bird were put on tape to raise and layer.

Tag 4. Using Wendy's art parts. The background is distress inks.  I added a daisy stamp to the glove and added a pop of red too.

and one Arty shot of them all together

I would like to enter my box and tags (if they are allowed) into the following challenges;

Rhedd's Creative Sprit anything altered goes I am entering my altered box

Frilly and Funkie thing with wings my tags have plenty of wings!

Artistic stamper anything goes

Mixed Media World stencils there are lots here including the great small cross one I used on the box. Wendy also showed a great technique off setting the stencil and adding colours in tag 3 at the bottom.

Fussy and Fancy things with wings

Penny Black and More summer flowers

Try it on Tuesdays use stencils I lots and one if my favourites is the tree stencil...it's on my wish list

Papertake weekly anything goes

Love to Create anything goes mixed media

Thanks for stopping by. I am truly blessed by the friendships I have made via blogging. The crafting day "Making Art" with Wendy is a day I really treasure. I loved what we made but if I had to choose a favourite it was the actual box and tag 1...how cute is that cup, saucer and tea spoon! Thanks to Wendy and her team.....she really did  inspire me to "Make Art".

Back on Thursday with my final GDT piece for Noor...

Bye for now,

Jane x