#12tagsof2015 by Tim Holtz

Hello dear reader,

It has been a while since I crafted and even longer that I have blogged.

The June tag of the #12tagsof2015 by Tim Holtz was the perfect opportunity to write here again.

As I don't have the dies he used I had to improvise. As luck would have it, my hubs surprised me with the coffee blue print stamp set (among other sets), so I used one of the coffee stamps to make my tag.

I love the way it turned out.

Until next time... I hope I get the time to blog more often ;-)

Take care,

Frederique
Xxx

a Firefly challenge

A friend of mine is a big fan of the show Firefly.
I never heard of it befor she mentioned it and it was featured
in an episode of the Big Bang Theory. I still have no clue.

This friend showed me a piece of memorabilia relating to the show,
and I immediately thought...I have to replicate this in paper.

So I did. Well I tried hahaha. It took me a few tries and I
am not sure....but my friend, Megan, loves them. So in a way I
was successful hahaha.

I had to look up information on Pinterest as I didn't
know how or what or anything.

These will only make sense to Browncoats, as
fans of the show are called. ( yaay for pinterest hahaha)

This was my first attempt. I cut the tag and the piece on it to the desired
shape. Thee background is copper and the front piece is brass.
So I stained both in the respective colours with distress stain.
With an alphabet set I stamped the lyric on it and attached it to the background
with brads. Then I flattened them with my little Tim Holtz hammer.

I made this tag the same as the other one, only here I used paints instead of ink.
I still wasn't totally satisfied as the original is a metal plaque with the
lyric punched or stamped into it. So it is more dimensional.

So I had to think of something dimensional.......EMBOSSING PASTE!

This is the closest I came to the original. I cut two pieces of grunge board,
as that is chunkier than plain card stock. I painted the back with the copper paint
and then after it dried, I covered it with embossing ink and heat embossed it with copper UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). It took a few layers as it kept bubbling up.
The smaller piece I covered with a thick layer of gold embossing paste. I let it dry for a short while and then stamped the lyric into it while still soft. This created the effect I was looking for. The ink however did not show that well, so after it was all hard I traced the letters with a black fine marker. I punched a hole in it with my Big Bite and put a black eyelet in it and voila!!

They are on their way to you Megan!!!!

thank you for dropping by and until next time....take care.

Love,

Frederique

Raindrops keep falling on his head...

Thank you for stepping by,

I made this from a blank manila shipping tag. I stamped the umbrella man in coffee archival ink and covered it with a mask. I make masks of most my stamps.

Then I stamped the raindrops in white stazon ink and then inked the tag using faded jeans distress ink and a blending tool. The white stazon works as a resist and the mask protects the stamped man. Then inked the edges of the tag with walnut stain distress ink and added the bow. And once done removed the mask.

To make the drops pop a bit more I went over them with a waterbrush to lift a bit of the ink off. This brought out the drop just a bit more...

I love love love the stamps by www.designsbyryn.com.

Until next time,

Take care...
Frédérique
Xxx

fluffy bow tutorial

Today I want to share how I make the fluffy bows on top of my tags.
I tried explaining it in various facebook groups as people kept asking,
but it is easier with visual back up I guess hahaha.

I made a tag out of ledger paper and embellished it a little bit
and stamped the sentiment on it. But the focal point is the bow in this case.

 I stained the ribbon in the colour abandoned coral. The February colour of distress.

 I cut a shorter piece off the ribbon. About 1/4 of the length.

then thread the shorter piece through the hole of the tag.

 Then I wrap the ribbon around my hand to create loops.

 I slide the loops off my hand..

 Put the loops on the shorter ribbon.

 And tie the loops down with the shorter piece of bow. This might take some practice...

 And then tie a bow and that is that...

is 

My finished tag with fluffy bow...

Until next time and thank you for stoppong by.

Take care

Frederique
xxx

Limited edition Stamptember stamp..part one

Hello there,

Thank you for visiting my blog.
Today I want to share a tag I made with one of the limited edition Simonsaysstamp Stamptember blue print set from Stampers Anonymous.
I was very fortunate to get a set as a present.

The manilla tag I inked with the wrinkle free distress technique using Victorian velvet and cracked pistachio distress stains. After that I used wild honey distress ink and a honey comb stencil to create another layer on the tag.

While the ink was still damp I sprinkled frosted crystal embossing powder over it and heat embossed it.
I stamped the stamp with black stazon ink directly on the tag and twice on watercolour paper.

I coloured in the ice cream and cone with distress markers and a water brush and cut them out.

I glued the complete ice cream on the stamped image on the tag and then glued another scoop on top of that.

I stained the crinkle ribbon with the victorian velvet, cracked pistachio and wild honey stains and dried them and made a ribbon on top.

Thank you for stopping by and until next time.

Take care.

Frédérique
Xxx

Natural fibres tag

Welcome to my blog,

Today I want to share how I made a tag for a challenge where I had to use natural fibres.
I inked a shipping tag with distress stains using the wrinklefree distress technique by Tim Holtz. You put some stains on your work surface and swipe the tag through the stains until you have the colour effect you want.

I ripped a piece of linen fabric to size and stained that with frayed burlap distress ink and wrinkled and dried it. I glued it down with my glue gun. I cut pieces of various natural twine and made bows and glued them down using hot glue.

I cut the dried up flowers out of our hydrangeas yesterday and saved some. I dipped them in molten UTEE and then coloured them with alcohol ink and glued them down with hot glue.

To make it speak I stamped the sentiment on the linen with stazon ink.

As a finishing touch I sprinkled some frantage embossing powder on the tag and heated it.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. The hydrangea part was an experiment that I had been putting off for ages, because I thought it would not work. But yaay!!!

Until next time,

Take care and until next time.

Frédérique
Xxx

Gift tags for sale

Dear reader,

I finally opened my little Facebook shop to sell my gift tags.

I use little manila tags and stamp the sentiment with black stazon ink. I stamp a background image with embossing ink and heat emboss it with antiquities frosted crystal embossing powder.
I ink the tags in different colours and ink the edges with some dark brown distress ink, this gives it more depth. I finish the tags with a piece of ribbon so people can attach them to flowers or a gift. I have a few in the selection now, but I will add more once they are done. 

They are in a set of six and can be any colour and background texture you want. I have various texts to go on them. A set of six tags, with ribbon, cost € 4,- excl. postage.  International postage is € 2,-  per set and domestic is € 1,- per set. Payments go via PayPal only.

I am happy to say that the first sets of tags have been sold already.

Take care and thank you for your visit.

Until next time,
Frédérique
Xxx

A bling and grunge tag

Hello dear visitor,

In this post I would like to share with you how I made a grungy yet blingy tag.
I started out with a manila shipping tag, as I usually do ;-).

I stamped a certain "net" like stucture on the plain card with embossing ink and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder.

The next step was to ink up the card with distress ink.

That way the embossed image magically appears  i stamped the sentiment in the middle and it just looked too plain.

I had a very good deal online for bling a little while ago so I thought to use some of that to sass up the tag. I put little rhinestones on all the "crossing" points of the embossed image.

It surprised me to be honest that I liked it as much as I do! And going on comments made on facebook, I am pleased to hear it is liked. I might make some more in different colours.

I finished the tag with a stained fluffy crinkle ribbon bow in similar shades as the tag.

Well that is it for now...keep your craft on!

Take care and until next time.

Frédérique
Xxx

step by step tutorial for staining crinkle ribbon

Dear blog visitor,

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post.

The other day I was asked how I make my ribbons match my projects. It is a technique I learned watching Tim Holtz and various other artists.

So here a step by step explanation of how I do it.

I start by cutting a piece of crinkle ribbon, my favourite ribbon of all time.

I choose the colours I want to use, most of the time two or three different ones. You can also use distress stain or even distress markers.

I swipe some on my craft sheet. You can also use distress stains or even the markers.

You then spritz water on the colours until you have bigger droplets.

 This is the effect you are going for. If you want stronger colours, you just use more ink and less water.

 And then you just drop in your crinkle ribbon!

You play with it until you have the desired effect.

If you want it really crinkly you can squeeze the ribbon in your hand. Be careful though because if you squeeze too much you end up with one muddy colour....

If you like the colour effects you can dry it with your heat tool. Don't be alarmed when you see steam coming from the ribbon, it is heat resistant and will turn shiny once it dries. If you think the colours are too bright, you can squeeze the ribbon in a paper towel to get rid of some of the colour befor heating it.

And this is the end result. I didn't use much ink, so this is coloured very lightly.

So now you can always match your ribbon and bows to your project.

Thank you for your visit and keep your craft on.

Until next time, take care.

Frederique

Perfect pearls birthday tag

Hello dear blogger,

This is a very simple yet flashy tag hahaha. I used a black shipping tag and stamped some images and a sentiment on it with perfect medium. I coloured them with various perfect pearls. I stamped the harley davidson name on the ribbon with stazon ink to finish it all off.

I put it all together and saw that it was just not right...it was lacking something.
So I stamped the tyre track and route 66 emblem in embossing ibk and clear embossed it. That looked much better!

The Harley lover loved his birthday tag :-)

Until next time, take care.

Frédérique
Xxx

A few projects of January

Dear visitor,

I made a few simple tags this month that I like to share with you.

I am in a stamping phase at the moment. I plan to use my stamps more as I am a stamper at heart, but strayed a bit and used a lot of embellishments and ephemera the last couple of months.

So I am going back to basics hahaha.

Until next time,
Take care and keep your craft on ;-)

Frédérique
Xxx

A simple stamped tag

Welcome dear reader,

I decided to sit at my desk and see what happens...this tag happened....
I took a manilla shipping tag and inked it with pink shades of distress ink using the wrinkle free distress technique. I then stamped various textures on the tag with archival ink. I inked up the edge with walnut stain distress ink and my trusted blending tool.
The small tag is even simpler. I stamped the image on it with stazon ink and wrinkled it a bit and then inked over it with walnut stain distress ink and my blending tool. I distressed the edges and inked it again.
I punched some holes and added some eyelets with my big bite and the tag was done.
I stained some crinkle ribbon with peacock featers distress stain and dried it to make the bow.

Sometimes I get so caught up in embellishments and die cuts that I almost forget to stamp. In my heart I am a stamper....ever the stampaholic ;-)

I hope you enjoyed this written tutorial.

Have a wonderful day and take care,

Frédérique
Xxx