Inkurable Challenge "Holly"

I know tags are all the go around this time of year and I suppose a little of Tim Holtz has rubbed off on me as of late, what can I say he is addictive!  Although I don't own a lot of his products it hasn't stopped me experiementing with a few of his techniques. 

With this tag I just sprayed an ordinary old luggage tag with Tattered Angels "Peppermint Stick", inked around the edges with the old vintage photo ink pad and dropped a bit of water here and there.  Now Holly. Didn't think I had much in that line but then I remembered an old little sizzix die cut I had tucked away in the draw somewhere that would be ideal, thanks for reminding me Sarah!  I didn't have the right colored ribbon so I sprayed that too.  Can you see the cool little rusty star at the top?  Cool hey! The rest is history.  Just ask if you need any other info.

But I digress

This little (read big) bookmark started out supposedly following in the fashion of a tutorial that my friend Janine over at Jeanysbrunnen gave. But typical of me I digress somewhat. I promise Janine I'll have another go at Oxidizing Bronze, I promise. Oh and I made it for this months Inkurable Challenge.

Well I got the first step right.

The Darkroom Door Luggage tag was painted in gold acrylic paint and allowed to dry. It was then run through the Big Shot using the tapestry folder. I then sprayed it with Dragonfly glimmermist and a home-made purple ink spray. Dry it with the heat gun and then spritz with water and gently dab away some of the top layer of ink to reveal the gold. I machine stitched around the edge adding the Tim Holtz scroll., sewed ribbon and metal corner to the bottom. Stamped the word LOVE onto a hand-made piece of paper in stazon and sprayed with glimmermist and attached by sewing. The leather flower and tassells are from an old belt and the heart is from a piece of lace. The reverse side is also another DD tag which I scrunched up and then smoothed out. Sprayed with glimmermist and spritzed with water and dried with heat gun. You can see a couple of scorch marks which were a happy accident. Stamps are Tim Holtz and distress inked around the edges.

One layer card

Now that I have a little more time I can indulge my passion and participate in this months challenge at Inkurable Stampers.

I stamped SU french flair with brown stazon onto gloss white paper. After letting it dry I sanded vertically and then horizontally until the paper had lost its gloss. Then I sponged over with SU Pumpkin Pie and Tim Holtz Distress Antique Linen and when dry I sanded it again. Next I sprayed water over and sponged off some of the ink drying it thoroughly with the heat gun and finally sanded again. Stamped the Darkroom Door Art de Fleur image and sentiment with brown stazon. Distressed the edges and attached some copper tape ( I think its usually used for stained glass windows) and fashioned a rosette flower with a bit of bling (does this look familiar Lynn?). Finally I attached it to lime green card stock.

Ahhhhhh... back to the challenges.

This month's challenge over at Inkurable Stampers is "Shabby Chic Christmas". I got to admit I had to google this one! Of course I know what shabby chic is but all I could conjure up in my mind was pink and green. So thats what I did.

My ATC was mounted on pink card stock. The background was from Webster Pages with sponging around the edges. I stamped the christmas tree (from Stampin Up's Lovely as a Tree) in pink pirouette tipped in wild wasabi and added a little sparkle. Not sure where the word JOY came from. Added a little silver charm and some velvet ric rac and a distressed pink star on top. All up I was pleased with the results. Anyone want to do a swap????

Mail Art for Inkurables

The plain white envelope was first stamped with the Stampin Up Medallion in three different oranges. Inkadinkadoo birds were first stamped in Basic Gray colour and then stamped and heat embossed with white embossing powder. Distress ink Tumbled Glass was smudged over the envelope leaving an area clear for the address. The edges were done with Not quite Navy ink. Sending sunshine from Darkroom Door and stamp stamp from Cavellini.

Art from across the miles

All the way from Belgium. Els and I organized a swap with one of our Inkurable birthday challenge. What a thrill to recieve one of Els creations and to know that a little piece of my art has travelled all the way to Belgium!

Inkurable Challenge

Red,Black & White was an interesting challenge. Not the usual colours I deal with, but then again..... what are the usual colours I choose? I'm lovin' Soft Suede (Stampin Up!) and Basice Grey, oh and distress inks, just love them too. Tumbled glass is the most gorgeous blue. Its funny how you get stuck in a small rut. So I think doing Inkurable challenges helps you get right out of that rut and onto other ideas. Here's what I did.

Inkurable Birthday Challenges

Challenge No.3
The base card stock is soft suede from Stampin up. The next layer is 7 Gypsies and lastly very vanilla. I stamped the bird in soft suede x 2 and used the 7 gypsies paper to back the oval. I used the stamp resist method and stamped the scroll in versamark and clear embossed it. I used the blending tool to blend the Tumbled Glass and Antique Linen Distress inks over the very vanilla cardstock. Finally I added a ribbon and a sentiment from Darkroom Door.
Challenge No.2
The 2x4 inch cardstock is a pale brown colour. I added a darker piece of cardstock and then another piece of cardstock in a tan colour. The tan piece was stamped with a scroll stamp and smudged around the edges with Distress Walnut Stain. I added the picture with was from Studio 45 and attached it with sanded back orange brads. I added a scrap piece of handmade paper and stamped over it with a scroll stamp and walnut ink. The star is grunge board painted with moonglow and heated.

Challenge No.1

ATC base card is purple cardstock. The next layer is water colour paper which has been stamped with Basic Grey scroll stamps and versamark. Embossed with clear embossing powder. I then sprayed over with various colours of Moon glow sprays and wiped over to reveal the scrolls. With the left over paper I stamped Darkroom Door ATC Stamps in Stazon Black and versamark and embossed in clear embossing powder. I cut out the little pictures and popped with a backing of the purple cardstock. Finally I added a gorgeous butterfly charm.

I thinks its time to share what we did after we went to Sarah's Inkurable Birthday party! We had a fantastic time with great people, conversation, party games, party food and drink, although the last two were supplied by me! It was excellent to be able to talk to all the girls who regularly submit to the blog and we even had several overseas visitors drop by. Thanks Gio and els. Some great prizes were won playing bingo and crazy captions and a trivia game, at which I was pathetic at. Thanks for all your organization Sarah!

Metallics

In between cooking and studying and doing exams I managed to fit in a challenge. This months Inkurables challenge is Metallics so here's my entry, now if only I can remember how I did the background...........

Wooden Tag was base coated in an olive green paint and sanded back. I then sprayed over the whole piece with green Matisse ink and gave it a blast with the heat gun. Next came a generous spray of Matisse copper ink and made it quite wet then blasted it quite closely with the heat gun which caused some parts to crack. Gave it another sand then stamped over it with Inkadinkadoo (I think) Rockstar. The frame is grunge board treated the same way as the base. The mask and other emphemera is from an old brooch which broke (I was devastated!).

Beautiful tail, shame about the face

Boy was this right outside my square! Sarah over at Inkurable stampers really set the bar high with the latest challenge. Soooo here is my entry.... I love the tail but the little mermaid she is NOT!