My First Award! Thanks Sarah!

My first ever Blog Award! Hooray! I like these things because it gives you a chance to showcase people you think are talented. But first, to business.

Upon accepting this award, I am required to name seven creative things I've done lately, and since I haven't posted for two weeks, this should be easy.

I have:

1. Crocheted a sweater for my daughter

2. Tarted up an already-made card for a friend's birthday

3. Worked on my cross-stitch UFO until I got eye strain

4. Coloured an image with my new Copic Ciao markers

5. Started a new amigurumi robot matryoshka

6. Crocheted my ninth square for my partwork project

7. Begun re-organising my craft area... big job!

And now to nominate the next generation of winners! Congratulations to Stempelienje, Miss Magoo, Mrs. E. Taylor, Glittery Katie, and Nicole Maki! There are many more I would love to regale with this award, but I need to leave these winners somewhere to go too!

I promise, more crafting to come. Bombshell has some faboo challenges this month so I'm going to be completing them for sure! Stay tuned. :)

Bombshell Hop-- Metallica-rt!

Happy Birthday to meeeee.... LOL!

Welcome to my stop on the Bombshell Hop for March! The theme this month was metal, to be interpreted however you want! I chose to actually use metal on my Blog Hop project.

This is one of those inexpensive mirrors from IKEA. This one, lucky for me, was already varnished in red. I snagged that and took it home knowing it would be perfect!!

I sanded some of the varnish away and inked the bare wood with Vivid dye inks, some in yellow and some in blue.

Now for the metal part! I bought a roll of pewter art metal from Hobbycraft and I used a Bombshell stamp of a flame as a pattern for embossing. I stamped the flame on the reverse of the metal in StazOn and went over the outline of the design. Then I flipped it over and went around the outlining again. I just used a wooden tool that looks like a pencil. I used alcohol ink to give it some colour, stamped more flames from the same Bombshell set around the mirror edge and the pewter flames to give it some depth, stamped Hot Stuff with the Tattoo Font and bingo bango, done!

I originally sealed it with varnish but it didn't look right so I went over the varnish with acrylic gel medium and now the finish is matte and even. I'm happy with it.

Here's a detail photo of the bottom where the flames are, so you can have a closer look.

When you're finished, please leave a comment and follow the links below to visit the other Bombshells and see what they've come up with this month!

Now, how do you win this great prize package below....

Well you can win it by having fun Hopping along.
Here is the list of other participants on today's Blog Hop. Remember every comment gives you another chance at winning the March Prize Package.Don't forget you can also enter the Sketch Challenge and the Monthly Challenge forEVEN MORE chances to win! Kathi
Katie
Terra
MaryG
Steph
Erika
Sy
Angie
BoHoRose
Stempelientje
Cheryl
Cassie
Crafty Saffy
Meredith
QueenBScraps
Cynthia
Patti

Bombshell Sketch Challenge

I can't believe I forgot to blog this... it's my take on the Bombshell sketch of the month. Here it is!

The four panels are Core'Dinations whitewash cardstock, textured with Cuttlebug folders and sanded. I inked the outer edges with a VersaMagic chalk pad.

I used the same chalk pad to stamp the flaming heart image. I coloured it in but I can't remember what with now, it's been so long! I crumpled the motif panel and inked it with the same chalk pad again and flattened it again to stick it on the card. The sentiment is my own writing.

Tomorrow's the Bombshell Blog Hop, so expect to hear from me.

Bombshell "Booty-Log" challenge.

Hullo, long time no post. I am doing things, honestly!! Here are two of those things:

Two teeny weeny notebooks from my son's birthday party goodie bags. They are smaller than ATCs and they're great for doing up quickly. The front covers are simply covered with envelopes made of Stampin' Up white paper/card (lovely stuff) with holes punched in the right places so that they will go beyond the coil. After they were attached, I stamped and coloured them. StazOn and brush markers. Simple as that. The lighting's a bit weird- it's natural daylight, don't know what happened there. It's really blue isn't it? But then, I did colour them in blue and they are resting on a pair of jeans so... I guess it should be blue. :)

I've made something else too but it's for the blog hop on the 31st of March. Come back then and have a look!!

Quality Time, thanks to Tim Holtz!

Good evening!!

I've had some lovely quality time with my son this evening and it's thanks to Tim Holtz and his new book, A Compendium of Curiosities. It was offered on QVC in the UK on Tuesday as the Today's Special Value and it had a bunch of supplies with it. I decided in the end to buy it so that my son and I could do some crafting together. You see, my son's first love of crafting was inspired by Tim Holtz. He was first exposed to Tim and his techniques at the age of three and he still to this day doesn't know the original function of dominoes- to him, they are for inking, stamping and glossy accenting!

But I digress.

We did the first technique in the book which involved some swiping of ink and some spritzing of water and some pressing on of paper etc etc (if you really want to know, get the book!). My son chose the colours of ink- in this case, fired brick, dried marigold, mustard seed and brushed corduroy.

For my tags, I used the same four

original colours and then added some Dusty Concord. I have to. I can't stay away from purple- it's just not my way!!

Technique done, we decided to hit the tags with some glimmer sprays. Mine are in huge bottles. They are Moon something-or-other sprays and I added a whole bunch of distress re-inker to them to make them more interesting. I made a large set of them and I can't remember for the life of me which ink I used in each combination, but my son chose Medieval Gold to over-spray his tags.

I chose the Wild Iris spray for mine. What can I say? The purple continues to exert itself, tranforming my effort into something quite different from my son's. It was very interesting to see where each of us branched off from the starting point of the same four inks.

After heat-setting the sprays, we stamped onto our tags with VersaFine. My son chose a set of train stamps that I also received today from QVC. Trains are his greatest love, and what took him away from crafting with me as much as he used to. It's nice that he can combine the two this way.

I stamped with some swirls and a stylised dragon, taking the opportunity to use the Sepia Accents and Rock Candy Stickles on the dragon and sepia and glossy accents on the swirly leaves and more Stickles on the flower heads.

It's still drying out in a safe place but this is what it looked like when it was wet. :)

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to use mine for yet but I plan to attach some decorative fibres to my tags. I may find some for my boy's tags too and maybe they will become bookmarks or card toppers... or perhaps I will attach them all to a book-ring and keep them as mementos of quality time spent with my son.

Thanks Tim for the inspiration- your new book is fabulous and I will enjoy walking through the rest of it with my son.

Bombshell Hump Day Hop!

Just in the nick of time, here I am with my take on the Bombshell Hop Challenge which is entitled, "Mama said knock you out!" Basically, dust off the punches, die cutters, etc, and use them on a Bombshell card.

My card has a heart cut from an old CM cutting system, which is just as good as I remember it. I don't know why I stopped using it. It's the most reliable shape-cutting tool I have!

The burgundy strip is punched on both sides with a Threading Water punch by Fiskars.

I'm double-dipping this month. This card is also for the Bombshell Sketch Challenge. Naughty, Naughty... Very Naughty!!! :) This month seems to have got away from me.

Don't forget to comment on my card and hop on to these other ladies as well. Every comment you leave is an entry in the Bombshell Prize draw!

Thanks for visiting!!!

PerkyNihilist
BoHoRose
Patti
Stempelientje
Meredith
Erika
Angela
Cheryl
MaryG
Kas
Kathi
MissMagoo
Gabby
Steph
Kelli
Kim
Angie
Sunghee

Blog Candy.... postage bomb!!!

I have received my first ever blog candy win today from Miss Magoo. Wow!!! That's a lot of stuff. Seriously! When the Fed Ex man came, the first thing I saw (besides the lovely Bombshell on the postage label) was the stamp and how much it cost to send it. Freaky!!!

Miss Magoo has fantastic blog candy because I think she's trying to trim down her stash at home and has lots of stuff to give away that in some cases hasn't even been opened. I have got a box of booty but I think it cost her more to post than it did for her to buy all that in the first place! I am paying her back for that postage...

Please, if I win any blog candy in future, please send it surface mail if you're in the States or Canada. You don't need to spend extra so that it gets to me faster. I'm happy to wait 6 to 8 weeks if it means you're saving mucho dinero.

Thank you so much for my beautiful blog candy, Miss Magoo!!!