I dream of rosette flowers....

 A late post from me this weekend after a very busy few days!  I can't believe it's Sunday evening already, where did the weekend go??

I have a rosette flower story to share with you today. After falling completely in love with the snowflake rosette Alterations die at Christmas, I was rather hankering after the less seasonal version so I could start putting that on lots of things too!

I had a voucher for the craft store so managed to pick it up at a reduced price, headed home to try it out on the Vagabond and poof! Disaster!  Smoke started coming out of the sides of the Vagabond and that was that!  The retailer was very good and collected it and replaced it with a new one but it did take a little while, which is a long while when you have a brand new die to play with (I haven't yet figured out how to run these long dies through the Cuttlebug, any tips anyone?) but at last it came back and here is my first play with the rosette flower.

I put the flower together as in this youtube tutorial and used some spray inks to colour it, accenting with some Distress Ink and a sponge applicator around the edges.

The background tag was coloured with Spring Distress Inks and Dusty Concord and then stamped with Indigoblu script, Stampers Anonymous harlequin pattern, Inkadinkado swirls and a word stamp from Andy Skinner (I just wanted the word 'Dreams' so covered the other words on the stamps with the flower). 

I embellished with some Studio FX chipboard swirls which I sprayed with blue spray ink and then distressed the edges in brown, and added a pearl pin and some brown twine to finish off.

Hope you had a great weekend and got some crafting in, I'll be aiming for some this week for sure!

Gayle xx

Layered tag... and a change of plans!

Hi and welcome! It's Saturday and although I should have been winging my way up to Birmingham for the ICHF show the weather has put paid to our plans :/ but thank you Scrap 365 for the tickets, it was a great prize but just not meant to be this time around!

My post this week is my old favourite, tags of course!  This has more layers than I care to remember :) I nearly chucked it away!  I was persuaded to keep on adding layers (thanks K!) and I like the way it came out :) 

I used a vintage image at the bottom of the tag, some torn paper on the edges, some tissue tape and just layers and layers (and layers and layers - you get the idea!) of Distress Ink and Distress Stain.  The stamps are mainly Stampers Anonymous but I have some Andy Skinner text in there, and some butterflies from Craft Stamper magazine :)

 Yes, I managed to catch some rare sunshine in this pic and couldn't resist sticking my tag right in the beams!  Always love how everything looks that bit different in the sunshine :)

Don't forget to check out our Twitter, Facebook page and Facebook chat group to see if you're a winner of a RAK for Craft Month this March... it could be you!

Have a great weekend and wrap up warm :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Steampunk altered tin

So, like many of you I'm a bit of a hoarder for things that I might be able to incorporate into some crafting at a later date; it's taking up a lot of room!  This tin of cough sweets is actually one of the smaller items but it's a start ;)

 The background is embossed card (Tim Holtz Gears embossing folder) coloured with frayed burlap Distress Ink and tarnished brass and antiqued bronze Distress Stains, and a bit of black Archival to dirty it up a bit :)  I put washi tape around the rim of the tin (not sure what make!) and added an Ideology gear with a little brass coloured charm.

The gentlemen are from the Stampers Anonymous steampunk set, with a Papermania Chronology cog stamp edging the bottom of the tin.  The images are stamped in coffee Archival so the ink didn't run when I coated the top of the tin with Mod Podge to seal it.

Thanks for visiting today!  I'd love to hear what kinds of things you collect for crafty 'recycling' :)

I also wanted to mention that there are just two days left on our charity auction to raise money for Save The Children - we've got items signed by the actor Kevin McKidd to bid on, so please share and retweet and get the word out there, auction ends Monday!

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Love love love

Feeling very prepared this year as I managed to make a Valentine ahead of time!  I've had the Stampers Anonymous Love Struck set for a while now and it seemed a shame not to use it for purpose as it's here in my drawer :)

Apart from the flourish, all the images on this card are from the same set, stamped in coffee Archival and coloured with Worn Lipstick and Fired Brick Distress Ink.  The flourish is from another Stampers Anonymous set.

Just a reminder, two more days to share your Valentine projects with us - go to this post and leave a link to your project (card, layout, mini etc etc) to be in with the chance to win some crafty goodness :)

Happy scrapping!

Gayle xx

Thankful for Thanksgiving

Hello TST!  Soooo loved the Thanksgiving posts last weekend, hope our US friends had a wonderful time :) I am posting today with an autumnal thankfulness themed tag because even as a Brit, how can you not join in :) I was very lucky to be nominated by my TST companions as a honorary American so I decided I need to indulge my love of pumpkin and make something autumnal to show my gratitude for the honour (honor!)

I had shortened this tag for reasons unknown (suspect I needed the bottom piece for something else!) but I wasn't going to let that stop me ;) I coloured the background with yellows. oranges and red (some of my favourite colours) and stamped the images on top in black Archival and blue and red Distress ink.

The flower is a combination of Alterations tattered florals and tattered poinsettias, with a brad centre and some marmalade Distress stickles.

The centre flower is a paper Prima flower in its original colours; I felt the blue matched the background colours so used it as a centre piece.  I also wanted a caption to bring everything together so I typed one out on my Dymo :)

I've also posted at The Stamp Attic today so I'd love to hear your comments if you have any :) hope you've had a wonderful weekend :)  I am off to a Melt Art class tomorrow, hopefully I will come back with some lovely things to share!

Gayle xx

Razmatazz!

Good morning! Happy Saturday! :) My tag to share this week has this lovely Wendy Vecchi top hat by Blossom Bucket, I really liked the thought of adding a bit of razmatazz to to my tag LOL

The background stamp is from the Stampers Anonymous Remnants set, with some masking tape underneath which I stamped with a background from their Steampunk set.  Lots of lovely layers of inking, topped with some picket fence ;)

I added some film strip to the top and bottom with some gold Stickles, and a pin, bingo piece and button from my stash (not sure where they're from LOL) and some red ribbon.

I also posted at The Stamp Attic yesterday (here's a sneak peek) so stroll over there and leave me some love if you like it :) thanks!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Gayle xx

Up, up and away...

Happy Friday peoples!!  Hurrah hurrah for the end of the week :) although I am working the weekend so not quite, but I'll get there ;)

I have a tag to share with you today using this marvellous balloon stamp (love this!) from the 'Remnants' set by Stampers Anonymous - I've used this before in this class with Hels who showed us how to layer it like this, but I covered the pieces with Tim Holtz tissue tape first and then inked them, really liking the effect :)

I've also posted at The Stamp Attic today so here's a sneak peek, please pop over and leave me a comment if you like it :)

Have a gorgeous weekend!  Happy scrapping ;)

Gayle xx