Grungy Monday 20 - Distress Stickles

This is the last challenge from StudioL3 for a few weeks as Linda is going away on a cruise with Tim (how jealous are we ...)!!! I bought a set of the Distress Stickles a while back but have to admit I've not used them much (except for the Rock Candy which is an amazing product) so this was another great challenge for me:

For the background I inked the tag with Distress Inks, embossed with the wood grain alterations folder, applied Pumice Stone straight from the pad then Pumice Distress Stickles over the top. I die cut umbrella man, inked him straight from the pad with Stormy Sky then dabbed Tumbled Glass Stickles over the whole surface with my finger (very satisfying!) The quote is by Stampers Anonymous and the little stamp in the corner is from my under-used but much loved Darkroom Door set. That was a quickie wasn't it! I'm off to finish my samples for IndigoBlu. Enjoy the rest of the summer! JulieD x

Grungy Monday 13 - Last Minute, Yet Again

I've got no crafting done this week until now so this last minute attempt at Grungy Monday 13 from StudioL3 may be a bit rushed but I've had a go! The Tim Holtz inspired challenge this week was to create a piece using alcohol inks - I love them and have used a variety of colours on a piece of embossed metal and the same felt to colour the background which is a piece of white gloss card:

The cogs are chipboard which have been coloured with purple InkaGold then silver and black embossing over random patches of versamark. I've stamped the fragments with Fuchsia StazOn and a Stampers Anonymous stamp then backed the whole thing with black gloss card which in the flesh is gorgeous - black high gloss, just my thing! I've just realised what a terrible photo it is - you can barely see the bling on the metal or the colours of the background - it's actually much more vibrant than this. Must dash! Have a great week. JulieD

Grungy Monday - Faux Batik!

Long time no blogging ...

After my determination to get blogging regularly, I've still managed to leave it eleven days! Oh well, there's always next week, and in my defence, I've been busy making samples for IndigoBlu, still invigilating, we had the Whit Friday walk of witness yesterday (which is a really big event round these parts) followed by the Brass Band Contests and I've been on a school trip to a farm with my youngest's class this week too so all in all a busy week or so! And that's not counting my job at the Stamp Pad and being a taxi service to two small people...

Anyway, back to crafts! This week on the StudioL3, Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday challenge, we're doing remelting embossed images with an iron! I have also used a technique which Tim refers to in the Compendium of Curiosities as Blended Batik (basically the same but using embossing ink instead of distress ink). Here's my creation:

As you can see, I've given up trying to use entirely TH products - I ran out of stamps I hadn't used pretty quickly so although the image of the buildings and the overstamping in brown are all Stampers Anonymous, the main image is from a gorgeous set I bought earlier this year by Darkroom Door. The image of the buildings was stamped in blue distress ink (Tumbled Glass I think), clear embossed then inked over with a variety of distress inks. I then ironed over the image with a sheet of tissue paper over the tag so that the embossing powder remelted and came away from the tag. As I wanted to stamp the 'Splendid' image at the top, I attempted to do the technique again but using Versamark instead of distress ink - it works but leaves a waxy finish as the versamark is left after the embossing powder has been removed - I liked the effect though! I added the brown stamped images of clocks and documents, ribbons and clock charm.

Hope you like it - I'll be back soon (hopefully)!! JulieD x

Grungy Monday 8 - Brushless Watercolour

On the last minute again for the next installment of the Tim Holtz inspired Grungy Monday challenge which the lovely Linda over on Studio L3 has been organising for the last eight weeks! I've finally got round to sitting down to create this week's piece - I was worried that I wouldn't be able to manage this challenge as it involved Adirondack Dye Inks and I've only got two (Cranberry and Espresso) so I wasn't sure it would work but here it is:

It's quite feminine which is a first for me! The technique is to ink up the stamp with two or more colours of the dye ink and then spritz with water before stamping it. I like the blurry imperfect look this produces. The stamp is a Stamper's Anonymous one and the background paper is from Tim Holtz's Vintage Shabby pad which I've distressed with worn lipstick and brushed corduroy distress inks. I've added tissue tape to the outside of my stamped panel and added more of the Cranberry Adirondack ink with a sponge. The middle piece of card is inked up with various distress inks and a blending tool before flicking water at it and blotting with kitchen roll - I love that technique! I've added fragments using Glossy Accents then stuck Idea-ology nibs to them with Pinflair glue plus a coulpe of pieces of ribbon and a matching Idea-ology Accoutrement. Grungy and girly! Enjoy. JulieD  

Grungy Monday Week 4

These posts are like buses - you wait all week then two come along at once ... Well this week's Grungy Monday challenge over on Studio L3 was to use distress inks and texture fades together - much as I love getting messy, I'd never tried this technique before as I wasn't sure how much work it would take to get my texture fades clean! It was pretty painless! As always, the technique is based on one demoed by Tim Holtz . Here is my creation:

I cut the tag in half and with a folder inked up with shabby shutters and mustard seed, embossed the top half then inked up the Texture Trade folder of the car with walnut stain and debossed it - just for a change, to see how it looked (that's actually a lie - I inked up the wrong side of the folder but I was really happy with the result!!) I then added a few highlights to both halves using both a blending tool and adding ink straight from the pad. Oh, and it all got a good squirt with Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist (one of my current well-used crafting items!) My fave part of this tag is the ribbon - it is white satin ribbon which I have splooshed (!!) with broken china Distress Stain then stamped with black archival ink using a Stampers Anonymous stamp - I was really pleased with the effect! The ribbon covers the join and I added a fragment charm, tissue tape (enhanced with tumbled glass Distress Stickles) and a Stampers Anonymous quote. Another thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours! Thanks Linda! JulieD

'It's In The Mail' - ATC Swap

Thought I'd do a quick post with this month's ATCs for the UK Stampers'  swap:

For the first, I wanted to use the idea of a love letter so I called it SWALK. I created it using a La Blanche stamp and Plum Archival ink plus velvet ribbon (one of my favourite items!!) and an embossed and inked grungeboard heart. The middle ATC is a simple one with an inked background which I have roughly painted over with metallic acrylic then stamped using a Stampers Anonymous stamp. The ATC on the right is an alcohol inked background with a Clarity postage stamp design stamped onto it then a Paperartsy post card stamped inside - the hardest part about that one was cutting round the edge to make it an authentic postage stamp - very fiddly but worth it for the finished effect! Hope you like them. JulieD