Clearing up and GC88, Coffee and Cream, Take 2

Recently they were selling different sorts of storage boxes and containers at the discounter's. As I need space to put all my crafty things in, I bought another large set of boxes, and a box with lots of little drawers - meant for screws and nails etc - and thought they would be a good idea. They lived for the first few days in the car, as I needed to think about what to put where. Then I put them into the hallway, where I was able to fall over them regularly for a few days. And then - yesterday I got down to work! Now I have a set of three boxes, which take a load of stuff that was flying about, neatly stored, and I have written lists to hang on the wall, reminding me where I have put what. And In the little set of drawers I have been able to put most of my inks and cut and dry foam for blending. Looks much better than having them spill about all over the place. I have even organised the inks in colours, so I will be able to find them easily.
I am soooooooooooooo proud of myself!
So after I had recovered from the tidying, I rewarded myself with making a card for a friend. As it turned out to be browns and creams, I have decided to enter it into the Gingersnaps *Coffee and Cream* challenge as a second entry. The background script stamp is one of my faves, but it was languishing in a dark corner till I discovered it again yesterday....along with several other forgotten treasures!

Thanks for looking, have a good day, and take care of yourselves!

Saturday Freebies

Here are some more pics to download and use as backgrounds for your work. They have been taken from a German Magazine from 1899, *Häuslicher Rathgeber*. I have several complete sets of these, for 1899, 1900 and 1901. They are very heavy tomes, each containing 52 editions, with the newest scandals, fashions, and also knitting and sewing patterns. And of course, adverts for everything one needed for daily life in those times!

If you click on the pics, it will take you to a larger image, which can then be downloaded. Thanks for looking, enjoy the images, and have a great weekend!

Crown Tag

I have made this tag for the *crown* challenge over at Gingersnaps - GC91
I have used a large manila tag, distressed with TH inks in gradient colours, and then stamped the background with a script stamp in forest moss.
The heart, crown and wings have been cut from chipboard using a TH die, distressed to match and stamped with *love* in different languages.

The charm is a metal one from LaBlanche, I tore the face out of an image and glazed it with glossy accents to make it more durable.
Was, as always , fun to make. Thanks for looking, have a great day and take care of yourselves.

A Mini Book and more.....

Yesterday I made a mini book from two of the remaining coasters. I glued some striped black and gold embossed paper to the reverse of the coasters, and cut the pages from watercolour paper, which is thick and always has such a nice feel to it. The page edges have been inked in gold, and each page has some flourishes stamped on one side in archival black, with some added quotes and hand doodling. I put it all together with the bind-it-all, and like the results. There is still room on the pages for some notes or little pictures, so the recipient can use it. I am going to send it to a good friend in England, because I think she will appreciate it.

And there were still 2 half-finished coasters on my workspace. On one I added a heart and some flowers, in keeping with the Valentine theme...

And then I decided to go crazy on the last one, which of course, is MY all time favourite!

Thanks for looking, big thanks to all who take the time to leave a comment, and have a great day, whatever you are up to!

GC90 - Charms

This is my entry for the GC90- Charms Challenge over on Gingersnaps.
For this I wanted to try something different. I used my lovely Mona Lisa stamp with archival black and clear embossing powder to make the picture. I mounted this onto a piece of black card and then onto a postcard stamped with my script stamp in black. For the charm I added a cheap earring, 2 pairs for 1€ at the Euro shop.

Then I inserted the photo into a newspaper template - dowmloaded from www.presentationmagazine.com - on Power Point. I changed the text and headlines, and made an article about ML. I scanned and printed this in the usual way, and my ML Newspaper was finished.

It was, as usual, fun to make, and now I am wondering how to mount the finished *newspaper*. Thanks for looking, and have a great day!

More coasters for the art exchange

I have really enjoyed making these coasters, so I think I will be getting my paints and brushes out more often in the future.
For these coasters I used structure paints in gold, silver and copper, metal foil - the silber foil was the aluminium seal from a coffee-tin!, stazon and colour box inks, and bits and pieces from my workspace.
I have chosen four for the art exchange, and the rest will find their way to other destinations.
It was great fun to make, I love making a mess, and liked how they turned out,too.
Have a great day, and thanks for looking!

GC87 - Tea Bag Template, Take 2

This is my second take for the Tea Bag Template challenge over on Gingersnaps.
I managed to use up a lot of scraps for this one. The tea-bag has been cut from a scrap of pink cardstock, then stamped & inked with Victorian velvet, and turned into a little love-letter. The spotty card was part of some packaging, *Dream* was on a shop card I received some time back, the pink ribbon and the heart were from different Xmas present packaging, and the braid and pink paisley paper were also left overs from other projects. The tulip has been stamped onto a scrap of a cardboard box, clear embossed and then re-embossed with perfect pearls before cutting it out and sticking it with foam pads to give it more depth. The TH wings have also been cut from cardboard, covered with scrap paper and glazed with mod-podge. The red card was out of one of my many almost forgotten stash boxes - anybody else ever discover things they never knew they had??
Anyway, everything together made a Valentine easel card, was quick and fun to make.
Have a great day you all, thanks for looking, and take care!