Dragons Dream Tag It On #155

Whew – just made the last challenge in time – now for the next one.

The recipe this time at Dragons Dream Tag It On  is “a book of your choice as inspiration plus - Stencil/Mask, Paint and the colour green along with the obligatory stamp and tag.”

I am an avid reader – I certainly read a lot more as a child and one of my favourites was Anne of Green Gables.

I used a Stencil called Karen’s Houses on a Prima tag and a Prima Black Chalk Ink through it.  I ten got out my watercolour paints and completed the background.  This is where I discovered that the black was not “set”, even when dry!

I used a Magnolia “Tilda” stamp, coloured her with the watercolour paints and popped her up on foam squares.  Here is another view:

Not a huge amount of technique involved but I like it.

Cheers, Esther xoxo

Good Mood

7 Dots Studio have a challenge running to use their products in a layout about “Good Mood”.

I fell in love with 7 Dots Studio's papers at the workshop with Finnibair earlier this year.  We have no retailers who sell this line in New Zealand at this stage so Brenda and I got together and did an order from Australia.  I was particularly keen to get my hands on the 9th Wave collection and it was so worth it!!

For this layout, however I used a piece from the Love Is In The Air collection as the colours were just right for the photos.  I know I still have a couple of sheets from the Sunrise, Sunset collection that would have been awesome too, but do you think I could find them?

I won a free photo shoot with a local company and thankfully Liam was in a Good Mood so he was able to relax into it after an initial awkward stage.  By the end of the shoot he was totally rocking it!

I added some distress inks through stencils and inked up a wooden camera embellishment, popped on a kraft envelope with journaling on a ticket tucked inside.  The stamp is from Ali Edwards and the washi tape was some I got through Papervine.

It was good to do a layout again – my first since August for goodness sake! 

Cheers, Esther  xoxo

Starry, Starry Night

The current challenge over at Dragons Dream Tag It On is to make a tag (using at least one real stamp) that incorporates a bird, a crown, the colour blue and a song.

Initially, I had the song Lavender Blue, Dilly, Dilly …  and then the song  Blue Moon in my head but as the tag evolved, that changed again.

The owl (isn’t he cute?) was embossed onto my tag using a folder and the cuttlebug.  I used Tim Holtz’s trick of cutting a slit in the join of the folder to thread my tag through so I could get the pattern in the right place.

I masked off all but the moon and shaded it in 3 colours of Distress inks.  I popped the cut-out back over the top and used 3 of the yellow/orange colours of Distress inks for the main part and the remains of what brown/s were on my blending tool for the owl.

The crown and the stars are stamped with the crown being fussy cut.  I popped some washi along the top where there was a nice solid embossed line.

And there you have it.

Cheers, Esther  xoxo

Singing In The Rain

The current challenge at Dragons Dream Tag It On is for a Film of your Choice , some Texture, Embellishment and a Hint of Red. The one real rule is to use at least one real stamp.

I don’t get to the movies much.  I think the last one I went to was Despicable Me II, with Liam.  I figured this would be way too hard with a Minion stamp, lol (I do love those minions though)

So for inspiration I did a good old Google search for the top 20 movies of all times.  This one jumped out at me as one that I had the perfect stamp for.

I used a home-made stencil and texture past for the rain drops and when dry I inked the background with Forest Moss,Weathered Wood and Stormy Skies Distress Inks.  I downloaded some movie stills images and printed them as a contact sheet but at 40%.  I hit the nail on the head as they turned out to be the perfect size for the Tim Holtz Film Strip.  I attached the strip to the tag with two red brads.  I stamped the Umbrella Man on spare manila cardstock, cut him out, inked the edges and popped him up on foam.  I re-stamped the umbrella, popped that on foam too and added a layer of Dimensional Magic.

Here’s a closer look at the detail.

Thanks again for popping in to take a look.  Why not join in with the challenge?

Cheers, Esther  xoxo

Creating for Christmas

When I went to Scrapfest By The Sea in August this year, I saw the most gorgeous altered book created by Trina Mclune.  You can see her beautiful book here.I knew immediately that I wanted to make something similar and while spending a day with Shell during the last school holiday’s, I found the perfect book to alter.

I had intended to take progress photos but once I got started, I just kept on going.

The flower spray is a Prima vine and the Joy embellishment is one I cut from shrink plastic using the Cameo.  The Xmas tickets and Bingo cards are from a Kerri Bradford kit that I bought a couple of years ago.

I divided the pages evenly but then adjusted them a bit as some pages were ticker than others, tucked each section under and glued them in place.  Then I inked the edges with Vintage photo and added some vintage gold metallic rub as well.  When all the elements were safely glued in place, I sprayed the whole project with gold Glimmer Mist, not that you can see that in the photos.

So simple, so effective – I urge you to try this yourself.  You will love the result!

I am entering this project over at City Crafter Challenge Blog, a site new to me.  The theme for their challenge #183 is Game Night – to create a project that includes game pieces, playing cards etc.

Cheers, Esther  xoxo