Simon Says.... Wendy....

...aha, the theme over at Simon Says Stamp & Show this week is to show some Wendy Vecchi stylee art. Well, of course, au naturellement indeedily, I lurve Wendy Vecchi and anything Studio 490 stylee... so I set about making a little something as an entry... and then... lo! I got a block! I know, how can I lose the old Mojo half way through playing with Art Parts and 490 stamps!!! But it happened, so, I walked away from the desk and sat and growled for a while, sulking in fact.




When I returned, the old Mojo was still being reluctant to show its face, so, being as I am a bit stubborn, I decided to crack on anyway and just enjoy myself with all the goodies I had assembled on my desk. So, Clearly For Art... love the stuff... can't get enough of it... and my little clear butterfly was looking rather splendid, stamped in Coffee Archival and all that. Then I had an attack of the sausage fingers and managed to wipe all the stamped bit off... so I was left with a rather manky looking butterfly. But! Layered over the top of a Grungeboard one, he looks kinda goldy in colour, so he stayed.




I had tried to do a bit of muted stamping on the base of the Art Part circle and bodged that too... it isn't very visible... so instead I just stamped a dictionary def. text in black Archival and that covered up that oopsie-daisy. I stamped the Spider in the wrong place, he is covered up by the Ornate Plate... all in all this is so not how I wanted it to turn out but... I kind of like it! The hand has a rather blinging bright diamond on it to go with the lacey cuff... I broke up an old brooch I got in a bag of junk from a car boot sale... I wonder if it is a real diamond, that would be cool, there are about 30 stones in the brooch lol




Check out the watch.... behind it are three Memo Pins that I have popped a 4, a 9 and a 0 behind and filled with Glossy Accents (thanks to the Wonderful Wendy for that idea!!)



I have to say... Art Parts... they have to be my favest bases to work on... I have used Distress Stains on them and corrr, they smell divine when the heatgun is drying the ink... like fireworks (mind you, I have always been a bit strange, I like weird smells, like diesel and plastic paddling pools and the inside of those big catalogues you get from Argos... told you, strange indeedily lol) So, this is my entry for the challenge... a whole lot later and a whole lot different than planned but nevermind, I had a whole heap of fun making it. Oh and I nearly forgot... all of the stashly goodies I used are available at The Stamp Attic... (just being an enabler ;o))


I best get a move on... I need to make the Sunday Stamper for tomorrow... haven't a single clue about the theme this week so be prepared that it may be a bit of a wacky one... or a repeat of one we have already had lol Thanks for looking... enjoy your Saturday! TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 156 - Red Red Wine...

Goodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all. Many thanks for all those heavenly pearly sparkly creations last week. This week is an easy theme... and it be... RED. Now, this is another one of my fave songs... I shall stick my neck out and admit that the Neil Diamond version is my fave... but I do love UB40 lots. To join in with the challenge all you need to do is make a little something, it can be anything you fancy, add in the theme and some stamping, leave a comment for me here with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can hop on over to see you. The theme will be open until 21:00 Saturday June 5th 2011. *akkkk, June already!!!*




So... this week's theme was literally chosen as I was naming my photo's... it was that bad! I spent all evening just faffing with tags and stamps and not really getting anywhere... nothing went right, so I have made a tag using the same design principle as several other tags I have made, funnily enough the old Mojo had gone AWOL then too!! I am hoping he comes home soon, I am lonely here in this Room of Stash - although I have a suspicion that he will be lounging on some sunny beach sipping Mojito's!! Anyways, enough about that old rascal and on with the tag...




I used Traditional Tan paint and a piece of Cut & Dry to make some swishes onto the tag base... zapped with a heat gun and then used a concoction of Fired Brick and Antique Linen Distress Stains to colourize it. I then very lightly spritzed Cranberry Colorwash Spray over the top... I say careful because this stuff is seriously potent and it spreads as soon as water touches it... so... a tip from Ranger U... any Colorwash on your desk etc, wipe the excess up with a dry towel/kitchen roll first... then go in with the babywipe... cos otherwise it spreads big stylee... aha, you see, I did learn a whole load of goodness :O))



The stamping is from the gorgeous new stamps from the Duke of Distress... along with some Idea-ology and a frame cut from the Tag/Frame Alterations... cut in mountboard, covered with Clear Embossing Powder and then two layers of Queen's Gold Embossing Powder - which is THE best gold embossing powder and then I plonked some Black Dabber over the top to age it. Right then... definitely time for bed... I shall be on a hunt in the morning for that scoundrel Mojo, if you see him loitering with intent, just kick his bum and send him back to me please lol Thanks for looking... have a FAB holiday weekend! TTFN

Hels x

Who's That Girl???

... I said it would be worth popping back today didn't I? I am still laughing my socks off still at this photo of me. It was taken in one of those naff photobooth jobs that always make you look a bit deranged and always always take so long to eject the developed pics that in your impatience you end up scratching or smudging the image.



I can even remember where this was taken... in the photobooth in the main Post Office in City Square in Leeds... for a school bus pass. I had totally forgotten about this photo until my Dad arrived on Saturday morning with said pic... he had found it and thought I might like it... well, Grim whipped off up to his room and did some computer wizardry and came back down about 47 seconds later with the original photo and this one, resized and touched up *there is a joke in there but I am soooo not going there lol* Here's the original...



So... I decided to alter a photo frame I picked up in AC Moore while I was in Baltimore... Ellen was enabling me so much over there you know, first Michael's, then Queen's Ink and then AC Moore... like I needed any persuasion lol. I picked out my fave colour from the photo to co-ordinate it in with the frame... so it is brown from my eyes... meaning I got to play with Crowded Attic and Vintage Photo Stains and Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mists. I cut the paper to fit, splodged some Trad Tan paint onto it and then made lots of splattery dots of Vintage Photo... I wanted them to look at bit like freckles seeing as my old fizzog is covered in them in this picture (they are a bit more bleached out nowadays... caught up in the wrinkles lol)




But first... a very near calamity struck in the Room of Stash... I am still shaking from the experience. I had finished a pot of Traditional Tan paint last week and went to get a new pot... and... couldn't find it! I knew it was in the drawer... it had to be, I would so never not have a second pot waiting for me... but I rummaged and rummaged and huffed and puffed and started to panic... and then I remembered! When I was doing my tidying jaunt the other week I put the paints in colour order in the drawer... ok, ok, lesson learnt... serves me right for being a dork lol



So... a little trip down Memory Lane... actually, is there a real Memory Lane somewhere?? Does anyone know??? Maybe I should whizz off and consult Mr Google Earth. Wouldn't that be funny if you lived on Memory Lane... you would be forever taking trips down it lol Oh and I really am wondering why on earth I was sporting a Cliff Richard hairstyle... a mullet no less!! Well, it was 1985 so I guess I can be forgiven lol UhOh... making myself laugh.. not a good sign so that must be the signal for me to say... thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Fine & Fresco 490...

...cor blimey, did I ever say that I lurve all things Wendy Vecchi? And that I love that new PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint? Am sure I did at some point... well, what better way to spend an evening that playing with two of my favest things.



I used PaperArtsy flower dies to cut some Metal on Card into flower shapes and then coloured these with Fresco Paint... using Cut & Dry to apply it... it goes on a treat to any surface... and I am sure it is magic because if you paint card, it doesn't make it buckle and if you paint metal, it sticks! Clever stuff indeedily.



So... the flowers were ready to be stamped... usually I would use the Hot Pick flowers but I fancied something a little different so I used some of thoese fab backgrounds from the 490 range... stamping in Coffee Archival and then drying with a heatgun. The base of the tag has been crackled and then overstamped with a 490 script, stamping with Distress Stains... Dusty Concord in the this case... but the Stains go marvellously over the paint... just give it a whizz with a heat gun and it is set... see, magic and clever!



Oh and while I am on the Fresco 490 roll... I shall show you a snippet of a little DT piece I made for the Stamp Attic... all the deets are HERE... I made a bottle! Well, actually, I didn't make the bottle, Mr Diet Coke did that but... I did the jazzing up of it. Anyways... I shall love you and leave you.. I have an appointment with the Room of Trash today... yes, I still haven't tidied and yes, I am going to do it... really, I am... I know I keep saying it but I shall... my halo has slipped ever so slightly and it is choking me a bit lol Thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Full Steam Ahead Sir!!!

... I have always wanted to say that... so I just did lol So, I have some new stamps to play with... and I lurve them lots already... so much that they are probably going to become my new faves. They are the Steampunk set from THE Duke of Distress and they really are rather splendid... and I got them from The Artistic Stamper :O)) I was going to try and speak like a Victorian for this post but, by jingo, it is not as easy as one thought it would be... nah... I am better off speaking like me... even though you probably only understand every other word it is easier for me to waffle on... you know, in my own voice.



Speaking of which (pardon the pun) a few weeks ago I met a lady whom I have been talking to online, emails and the like and she was really surprised when I started talking... she said... and I quote... "ooooh, you talk like a Northerner!" So, I sat there a few minutes and started wondering what she had thought I sounded like... because, you can't get someone's accent from blogs and words on the t'internet... which has now got me to thinking... when I read the lovely comments left here by peeps that I haven't actually talked to in the real, I read them in my own voice... so, if you don't mind, can you please leave me a comment and tell me what accent your voice is? Then, when I read it, I can read it in that accent. **Wonders if Hels is actually losing the plot here?**



Anyways... my tag... as I said, the new Steampunk stamps... I lurve them... and I lurve Distress Stains.. so I put them together... the Wild Honey/Vintage Photo combo is getting a bit over used methinks... so I am banning myself from using them together for at least...erm... a day (ahem) but even so... they are a goodly combo. The ickle ruler is a strip from the Crowded Attic stack, stuck to mountboard, cut, inked, hammered, I added an eyelet without an eye... can't remember what they are called rofl and some Idea-ology... and glued some Ball Chain on. The sentiment is also a Duke of Distress stamp... one of my other faves lol



Cor blimey! Have you had weird weather today? This morning was bright and sunny and then it went as black as your hat and thundered and lightninged... and then sunny... and now we are in the middle of a storm! I am sure I am a witch you know... whenever we are going to have a bad storm or the weather is going to be freakish, I always get heaps more pain... like my old bones know that it is going to be bad. Right... best go, I have a broomstick to polish (rofl!!) Thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x

Al Fresco...

...corrrr blimey... those Fresco Finish paints... lusciousness in a bottle or what!! Now, I have had a few colours to play with ... and I am soooo lucky because Wendy from The Stamp Attic sent me some more to play with for my DT thing. They arrived yesterday and I got playing straight away... trying different colours with the Crackle in the middle of them... this one is a rather lovely combo... Little Black Dress and Moonlight... subtley mauve... like I said... lush!!!


I love that Sewing Room die... you know, I said when I first saw it that I would never use it and wouldn't need it... ahem... famous last words... thing is, I say that about loads of stuff and end up having to have it lol



Right... time to get cracking on more crafty stuff that is waiting attention... you will be pleased to hear that my room is still impeccably tidy.. I have been clearing up after each make...oh and I have even been washing out painty Cut & Dry foam... and paint brushes too!! I know! Whatever next?? Baking?? No, that is taking this domestic goddess malarkey one step too far rofl... Anyways... thanks for looking... have a goodly Friday! TTFN...

Hels x

Style 490 Stylee...

...indeedily... time for me to play with my favest stamps and stashly goodies... namely Studio 490 and Art Parts from the one and only Wonderful Wendy Vecchi. Now, alas and alack, I have only got two of the latest sets of stamps, so I haven't got the stamp that goes with this dressform Art Part... but I improvised and attempted to make it look like it's velvet covered...




Mmmm, well maybe a bit more work needs doing but I like it... the Art Part was covered with a dabbled layer of Trad Tan paint and then boshed with Fired Brick Distress Stains... then heat dried... and then I used my fingertip to smudge the ink a bit... actually it does look a bit better in real life lol I used a Memo Pin with a little Mini Safety Pin attached to it to dangle a Tassell.




The background of the tag was stamped first with Snowcap Pigment Ink - using the large bubble background and the small dots background stamps (more 490) and then I made a smooshyness of Stains on the craftsheet... Fired Brick, Spun Sugar, Wild Honey, Broken China and a smidge of Dusty Concord for goodly measures. The little bobbins were a gift from Ellen when I was in America... I wound some Twinery twine around and added more ickle Safety Pins and then made them look a bit mucky with Walnut Stain Distress Stains. So... that is that really... a quicky inky tag...oh and all of the 490 stamps and stashly bits are available from The Stamp Attic.


I think I might enter this into Simon Says Stamp & Show... are we allowed to enter twice I wonder... well, I shall try... cos this week the theme is... TAGS! How cool... seeing as that is all I ever seem to make!! Actually I am fibbing because I am in the middle of a biggy project... not a tag in sight but lots of delish 490 goodies... I am not sure how long it will take to finish... it is growing every minute so soon it will be too big for my desk rofl Anyways... time for me to get back to my desk and more inkyness... ahhhh, this is the life!! Have a goodly day... TTFN!

Hels x