Revisiting Tim Holtz' tissue wrap technique

My long term blog readers will remember that for 3 years I took part in Tim Holtz' 12 tags of the year until 2 years ago when he sadly discontinued the challenge. I really loved learning a technique and turning his tag ideas into cards as that is my main love and have really missed this challenge.

I am part of a Tim Holtz Addicts Facebook page and I was delighted to see that the admin have decided to introduce a monthly challenge using one of Tim amazing 12 tags techniques. For January the brief is to use tissue wrap. I am going to try to take part in this each month as it really does spur my creativity and also gives me lots of new ideas and cards to sell at Dotty's Tearooms.

I had my crafting buddy, Daisy (my granddaughter) staying last week. She loves die cutting at the moment and she got out my Sidekick to make a sweet tag. She really loves the tiny side orders that are make specifically for this die cutter.

(Sorry about the blurry photo but it was just snapped with my phone). She adores glitter so of course we had to die cut using glitter card! She made this for her dolly Annabelle!

This gave me an idea to use another of the sidekick side orders for my tissue wrap card. So when Daisy went home I left my sidekick out. 

I have a few of Tim's tissue wraps and decided to use the Postale one.

 I added some collage medium to the card and then the tissue, scrunching some areas up to give some texture as per Tim's technique. Then I added various distress paints. 

I ended up with 4 pieces from my sheet of A4 card

I decided to use the red/grey background as I thought it would be perfect for a Valentine card. At the moment I am in full Valentine mode for Dotty's and I hope to get my cards into the shop this Friday.

Using my Sidekick I cut the little envelope in red and black card.

  I also used Tim's 3D mini provincial embossing folder to die cut some black edges which I added silver gilding paste to. It brings out the detail beautifully.

I also adore Tim's swirling stars die, I think it is one of my favourite ever dies and I use it lots. 

I die cut a starry background through the tissue wrap and matted it up on top of red card stock. I also used a my new die, the 3D laurel, leaf using aluminium tape (you will see this in the finished card). 

Below is the background after I had die cut the swirling stars...you can also use the stars you cut out, no waste with this one!

It was then time to put my card together...here it is;

with a couple of close ups, showing the laurel and the cute Sidekick envelope from the Love set.

The words are from Tim's thinlits sets; handwritten love and the & is from the Holiday words set. The hearts are Tim's Heartfelt Bigz. 

and one last shot

As well as linking up with the challenge on Facebook I would like to link up my card to the following challenges;

Try it on Tuesday 1/3 something old something new my old is my Postale tissue wrap, my new is my laurel die .
Frilly and Funkie 1/3 Inspired by I have of course been inspired by the master of crafting...Tim Holtz/

Crafty sentiments 1/3 anything goes

Cuttlebug mania 1/3 new mine is my new laurel 3D die

Get creative 1/3 anything goes

Simon says stamp Monday something new mine is my new laurel 3D die

Creative moments 1/3 anything goes

Crafting from the heart 1/3 anything goes

Love to create 2/3 anything mixed media

Not just cards 2/3 anything goes

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

More love for Country View in June

Good morning, I am back already with my 2nd DT project for Country View Challenges. This is my first post today as I have my usual Monday post for Visible Image coming up too..busy, busy! I have been beavering away in my garden studio last week and the weather was ab fab. This was my crafting space first thing on Thursday morning.

If you missed my first Country View Inspiration post on Thursday you can see it here. Our theme for June is "hearts" and you can enter anything heart related. There is plenty of inspiration over on the challenge blog from my talented Teamies and all the details can be seen here. You might even be lucky enough to win the £20 voucher which is up for grabs to a random winner.

I made a very clean and simple card this time, again for Dotty's.
My cards with inspirational quotes on sell very well so I chose a perfect "heart/love themed" Visible Image quote stamp, Love you Longer.

These were my heart die cuts made from inky left overs

I used the large lacy heart frame

I also added a die cut flower and a heart brad in keeping with our theme.

Here is my finished heart card.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Creative Moments 3/3 anything goes/birthdays

Creative Inspirations 3/3 my favourite things

Simon Says stamp Wednesday 3/5 anything goes
Noor summer
Simon says Work it Wednesday 2/3 summer

I will be back...in about 30 minutes..with my Monday Visible Image DT post...eek..thank goodness we can schedule posts.

Bye for now,

Jane x

Hearts in June

Happy June everyone...we are now half way through 2017 and of course as it's 1st of the month, (pinch,punch), it's time for a brand new challenge over at Country View.
My garden finally realises that it is June and the flowers out there are precious.

For June at Country View we have a really lovely theme...hearts..I have made 2 cards for this theme and today I am sharing part card 1.
I chose some summery D'Oxides for my background and added a sprinkle of water. My background reminded me of ice cream.

 I then add some heart stencilling

 I used an old Lili of the Valley quote stamp which I love using for birthday cards and die cut it.

I used an inky mop up piece of card and die cut some hearts using my Cheery Lynn hearts frame

 I just used the large outside frame for my card...you can see what I did with the other die cuts on Monday when I share my 2nd DT project.
Here is my card, finished off with a heart brad and a couple of sequins. It has already sold at Dotty's
😊
There is plenty of inspiration over on the challenge blog from my talented Teamies and all the details can be seen here. You might even be lucky enough to win the £20 voucher which is up for grabs to a random winner.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Simon Says stamp Wednesday anything goes
Pixie's snippets playground wk 283/4
Creative Moments 1/3 anything goes/birthdays
Creative Inspirations 1/3 my favourite things mine are the amazing Distress Oxides and this old but fab Lili of the Valley sentiment stamp.
Happy Little Stampers watercolour anything goes
Simon says Work it Wednesday 1/3 summer

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope to see lots of you joining in with the fun during June.

I am back again tomorrow with my next guest design piece for the new STAMPlorations challenge. I hope to see you again then.

Bye for now,

Jane x

K is for.....................

Thanks so much for you lovely comments from my jewellery post last time. If you missed it this is the link here. If anyone lives in the South East of England, I do hold jewellery parties in the London/Surrey/Kent/Hampshire/Sussex areas. If you are interested in either hosting a jewellery party (you receive 10% of the takings to spend on my jewellery and I organise a free raffle piece of jewellery) or in coming to one of my Open Houses do email me. My address is on my side bar.

 For this fortnight the dictionary challenge over at the craft barn is asking us to use the letter K.

OK ;0).....I thumbed through my vintage dictionary and found that I had used a lot of my K pages in previous mixed media work! I wanted to use kite, that was missing or kiss..that was also just a hole in the page...so then I found KEY!

I cut it out and decided I would try to incorporate all the definitions.
I also decided that I would use the phrase...."key to my heart" and that immediately made me think of love and hearts so that is where I started.

I used some spray inks and stencils to make some card for cutting out some hearts and some musical "keys" too....I have decided the music score is in the key of F major ;0)

I then started to make some background stamping in my art journal. I found another music score stamp from my LOTV grunge stash I won 3 years ago. There is also a great key stamp and a heart. I also wanted to use my new "Dear Ruby" sentiment stamp as it is composed of parts of real love letters.

 I did some random partial stamping using black and sepia archival inks.

 I also added some texture paste through my TH heart die.

I thought I took more process photos but obviously I got carried away with my creating so this is where the photos end.
I used some hot summer colour distress inks to blend a background and then put everything together.

Here is my finished Key AJ page

 lots of textures and layers.

 I hand wrote the phrase with gold pen.

and added a key charm instead of writing the word.

I would like to enter my AJ page into the following challenges;

The craft barn alphabet challenge k,mine is for key
As you like it  1/3 favourite die and why I love heart dies and the Cheery Lynn heart cut out die is one of my faves as it makes a lovely border around other dies...in this case a MB stitched heart.
A Vintage Journey texture or embossing paste I used TH texture paste through my heart stencil.
Crafting from the heart 1/3 anything goes
Cheery Lynn sizzlin summer colours my cut out heart border die is part of a CL heart set.
Our Creative Corner a beautiful mess
Rhedd's creative spirit June
Love to create 1/2 #13

We have still be getting lots of showers amongst the sunshine here but boy is my garden looking lush. I really need to cut the lawn but the rain on Sunday scuppered that. Never mind I am just loving seeing my pots bursting with colour.

Thanks for visiting me today and for your kind comments. May I also extend a very warm welcome to my latest follower. Thanks for joining me on my creative journey.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

Dies for hearts

No my post title is not meant to make you think you need to leave this world for hearts! Far from it, but it involves 2 different  types of dies.
As you know I use a lot of dies in my paper crafting but did you know that you can also create your own dies to press form shapes in silversmithing?

Die forming has been the new project since my silversmithing class returned in January after the Christmas break. The first thing I had to decide on was what shape to design. I decided that a really useful shape is the good old heart. I wanted to work in copper and brass as sheet silver is so expensive and just for experimenting these cheaper metals are good to experiment with.

I sketched a heart onto paper and cut it out in 5mm copper and perspex.

My photos are not the best as they are taken with my phone but you can get the idea.
I stuck the 2 pieces together and had to carefully file the "die" until I had very smooth surfaces.
This took a few weeks.......
Fast forward.
Once the die was made I was able to have a play with my metals and textures. A "sandwich" of acrylic, metal and the die is put into a press.
This is the press....it is huge!

 The press is wound down by hand and the  force created presses the sheet metal through the die.

Above are 2 shapes I created in brass and copper with the die. I textured the copper using textile in the rolling mill.

I love this textured copper.

I was able to invert or evert the heart depending on the effect I wanted.
I had great fun playing and below are a few more pieces.

I have some plans to turn these into pendants. I also plan to try soldering 2 hearts together to create a 3D pendant too. Our class is on half term for 2 weeks so I will keep you posted with what I make when we go back,

So my card today has to involves die cut hearts doesn't it. It's another case of when 2 crafts collide I think.

This is a Valentine's day card I made for my Etsy shop which is for sale here.

It's very CAS for me but I liked this simple design with the striking colours. Red, black and white is such a great colour combination.

Die cuts can be so effective. After coming up with my design I just stamped and embossed a simple Clearly Besotted sentiment in red and added a ribbon.

I would like to enter my card into the following challenges;

Pixie's snippets playground  3/3 #214  I used a snippet of black card for my die cut and a snippet of ribbon.
Whimsy stamps with love
Crafting from the heart  2/3 anything goes
Try it on Tuesday  2/5 a fine romance
Artistic Inspirations 2/3 anything goes/twist of Valentine
Noor UK  love
The Ribbon Girl  3/3 with love
Papercreator must be love
The Artistic stamper love my sentiment is stamped
The Craft Barn  triplets I have used 3 colours, red, white and black
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday  have a heart
Creative Inspirations  hugs and kisses
Creative Corner  1/3 Valentine's/love
That's Crafty  1/3 love

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you have your Valentine's cards bought or made....only one more weekend to sort things out. I can't show the one I have made my Hb yet as it's a Guest design post for one of my favourite card challenges...you'll have to wait until 19 Feb to see it.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend, we are off to Southampton to catch up with Daisy and Co...I can't wait.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

A promise fulfilled

If you remember I wrote this post about the promise I once made my daughter many years ago that I would happily make her engagement cake. Tom proposed to her at the summit of Scout Kinder in the Peak District on 11th December last year. We were due to have a family celebration the following weekend but this was cancelled due to the heavy snow we had during the coldest winter the UK has endured for 30 years.

They decided they did not want to miss out on a celebration and last weekend they finally held their party to which I took the promised engagement cake.

Well here it is................

My theme was red hearts on a white cake.

I spent days cutting out a multitude of different shaped hearts so that I could have a play with some designs. I also decided that as well as a central plaque I wanted to make a heart "explosion" which would come out of the cake. I attached sugar paste hearts to wires which I then "corkscrewed" using a pencil. Some hearts were also painted silver with edible food colouring.

Now whilst working on this I had one of those "light bulb" moments and decided that to make a permanent reminder I would add a  special twist to the cake...I would make a precious metal clay silver heart pendant which would match some of the icing hearts I made. I had great fun making this at home, rolling out the clay and firing it with my blow torch.

I then polished it and added a silver jump ring.
Here it is next to one of the icing hearts.

I tied a red ribbon to it and hid it amongst the "explosion " heart spray I made.  I also bought a silver chain to hang it from.









The evening before the party I made up my traditional (and very simple) all in one sponge recipe. It was left to cool overnight and the next morning I sliced it open and sandwiched it together with a thick layer of home made vanilla butter cream and my favourite shop bought raspberry jam. I like strawberry jam with a plain vanilla butter icing but Milly loves raspberry so that is what I used. I never scrimp on my fillings as I like my cakes to taste as good as I hope they look.

I then had the task of putting my plan together.Luckily it all went well and after a few hours concentrated work it was finished.

If you look above you can see the silver heart hidden amongst the heart explosion.

I then put it carefully into a cake box (always essential if you are transporting cakes anywhere) and we drove down to Essex with it in the boot of the car.

Milly and Tom were delighted with their cake and Milly was so touched by the special pendant. We had a wonderful party and everyone enjoyed getting together to celebrate their engagement. I nearly forgot to capture the cake cutting moment so apologies that the photo I took is not brilliant. Tom was wearing a hat as it was a "hat and slippers" party -  it is not his usual apparel! And yes together with that lovely dress Milly really is wearing slippers!

Milly spoke to me the next day and said she had been wearing her pendant on the chain and loved it. I think my idea of a reminder in silver was good as by then there was also virtually no cake left.........she is the biggest fan of her Mum's home made cakes ;0)

Wishing the pair of them a lifetime of love and happiness and here's to 28.7.12

Bye for now,

Jane x