T J Blog Hop with the Rogue Redheads

Welcome to Stop #8 on the joint Rogue Redhead and Technique Junkies Blog Hop!  We are all having loads of fun with the new Technique Junkies' 3D and Fun Folds CD!

The Technique Junkies team has joined us to showcase the numerous great techniques on this new CD.  As you may know, 

The Technique Junkies Newsletter 

has been publishing rubber stamping technique tutorials since 2002. The 3D and Fun Folds CD contains 70 step-by-step technique tutorials in PDF format ñ perfect dimensions, perfect directions and great pictures for every step. 

Visit http://www.techniquejunkies.com/ for more details about the CD and the Technique Junkie Newsletter.

A fantastic group of design team members from both Rogue Redhead Designs and the Technique Junkie Newsletter, have helped put together this fabulous Blog Hop to kick off the 3D and Fun Folds CD.  Not only will the talented Technique Junkies team be hopping with the Rogue Crew today, they started hopping yesterday with Classy Cards N' Such and will be hopping again all the way through Friday one day each with PaperTemptress, Mark's Finest Papers, and Sweet n' Sassy Stamps.  Check the  

The Technique Junkie Newsletter Blog for more details.

After visiting me, you can head off to see Joanne Wardle at Made By Joanne

for your next stop.

This is a rather fun double sliding card and the template is available to Technique Junkies blog subscribers

As you will see by joining in the blog hop their site is full of creative ideas and new ways to expand your crafting skills. Why not take a look.

This is the double slide card once slid! It is a combined blog hop with Rouge Redhead stamps so I have taken the opportunity to use a stamp from the Relish Reading plate and the Floriculture plate. I thought the two inner stamps went well together. There are some great bundles available at the moment of the Rogue Redhead website shop. Do take a look and grab one!

Remember you do not want to miss any stops along the way so please leave me a comment if you are playing.

Good Luck and enjoy!

If you get lost along the way, here's the whole list of hop stops for your convenience.

1. The Technique Junkie Newsletter Blog

2. RogueRredhead Designs.

3. Jackie Kalchert

4.  Beverly G., Rogue Crew

5.Jean Franks Beck, Rogue Crew

6.Holly Brown

7.   Jane Bosi 

8. Laura Liddell, Rogue Crew

9 Joanne Wardle, Rogue Crew

10. Chris Dickinson

11.Stephanie Severin, Rogue Crew

12.   Sharon Briss, Chief Rogue

13  Pat Huntoon

Have fun along the way!

On Saturday, December 3, Pat from the Technique Junkie Newsletter will announce the winners from each company. Be sure to hop along on each day! There will be

FIVE WINNERS

On Monday, December 5th, Pat will announce

ONE LUCKY WINNER with a GRAND PRIZE

with a bundle of prizes from all of the participating businesses.

If you have been following along already you should have come from 

 Jane Bosi 

If you are only starting here, please head back to the 

Junkie Newsletter Blog

 and go from there.

If not, your next stop is the fantastic

Joanne Wardle

You won't want to miss any stops along the way 

in order to win you will need to comment on everyoneís blog 

AND Pat Huntoon's blog. 

There will be an additional chance to win by playing along in her Blog Hop!

Red, Yellow and Brown with Gingersnaps

I have just realized I have not blogged this yet!

Gingersnaps have a new colour challenge which is to use red, yellow and brown. Anyone who follows my blog will have noticed I have been making Christmas Tags in anticipation of the TH 12 tags for a while now. And here is just another one.

I started with some brown patterned paper stuck to a tag. Added red embossing to make it shine a give dimension. Created a layered poinsettia from Studio 490 Christmas set. A bit of music for the carols at Christmas. A wonderful die cut deer with branches for antlers wearing a stylish Christmas wreath adorned with a bell. A Seasons Greeting wish and a touch of holly, all finished with a sparkly red bow.

Christmas Ornament Exchange with Gingersnaps

Just look at these!

They are just awesome. I cannot tell you how thrilled I have been with this Christmas Ornament Exchange. The quality off the swaps and the love that has been put into them just makes me tingle. 

They are certainly going to have pride of place on my tree this year.

The two above are by Petra Brendensen and Suze Bain

Ali, founder femme at Gingersnaps is the main host and I was the UK host.

I cannot wait to see what the US cousins have created. 

I cannot image they will be as wonderful as these but I do hope they are.

What talent there is out there.

Thank you all for joining in and sharing.

I think this has been the best exchange that I have taken part in so far.

Lets hope we can keep it up!

Just awesome! 

Do drop by their blogs and let them know.

These two are by Emma Sims and Kerry Hickton

These are the ones I sent:

                          

Grungy Monday Week 28: Thanksgiving Box

Grungy Monday Pumpkin Challenge

This week the challenge is to use Tim's Pumpkin challenge. You can see it here:

Tim's Piece for the Ranger Ink Great Pumpkin Challenge

I decided to create a hexagon box and then cover it with The Ranger silver metal which has a sticky back and so easy to use in this way.

First I cut out a card template for the box. Then I chose an embossing folder to run the metal through to create texture. I love this random circle folder. I then positioned the card over the metal and drew around the template. When cut out it was so easy to apply with the sticky background. I did cut it out slightly larger and then trimmed back.

I really liked the plain silver look and did not want to colour the box. I even decided not to run a dark stazon ink over the high points to add depth. I just liked it plain simple so the flower would stand out even more.

The flowers were punched out of metal sheet, run through a flowery embossing folder and then coloured with Alcohol Inks as Tim's video.  I really like the effect of the coloured flower against the silver box. The metal is lovely to shape too, to create dimension. Enjoyed this make.

It reminded me of a water lily floating on a pond and the circle embossing folder looks like rings in water after a pebble is thrown in.

Stampsmith: New Website

Stampsmith have a great new website which is so easy to navigate. It also includes some great tutorials and samples of work using their stamp range as well as tips and projects.
 I was very lucky to have been given this stamp sheet to use. Caravan by Jack Sherman. 

I just love his drawings and find it such a delight to use his designs. They are so fun to colour in.

The other great thing about this stamp sheet is the images are duplicated by the second image is facing the other way. Perfect for creating something like this. I thought I would be doing a load of kiss stamping, which I was not looking forward too, but to my delight it was not necessary. The image was already there.

I started by stamping in black and then clear embossing. This gives the line some edge and it is fantastically easy to colour in.

I used Promarkers to colour in, but the card needs to be thick enough or glossy, or something so the colours do not seep through to the back. I ended up using glossy card which seemed to work well.

I created little open carriages just big enough on 4 of them to carry a tea light. I have photographed it on the mantle piece above the fireplace. It does look rather fun at night. It would work well on a windowsill as the scale here may be better. But I guess I should say "Do not leave candles unattended they may be a fire risk" Especially if your window lets in a small draught.

HERE is a link to another creation I made with Stampsmith stamps and Jack Sherman's drawings.

I f you are interested there are lots more photos of the Carousel, which actually rotates, if you follow the link just above.

Sketch with Stampotique

This is my Sketch entry for the current Stampotique challenge. I have used various punches and created a half moon for Moon Girl to perch on. Added gems around the moon and to highlight Wish. Wish is part of a Best wishes stamp where I have only used part of it. 

I have just popped over to Stampotique to pick up the link and the card just before this is so similar, even the colours,  it is spooky! Must be great minds in tune again.

Asian Theme with Dragon's Dream Tag it on.

This is my Asian Themed tag for this weeks Dragon's Dream Tag it on. The edges were run around with a glue pen and then gold embossing added to give it a frame.

Silhouettes with Less is more: Week 42

I love this stamp which I think is an Outlines design. I have had it for several years now and love to use it a Christmas. I simply stamped it onto black card, embossed with Silver Pearl powder and mounted it onto white card that had been run through a Cuttlebug folder.

So this is my contribution to the LIM challenge, Silhouettes, week 42.

Grungy Monday 27

This is my contribution to Grungy Monday 27.

The background was created using the method shown by Tim Holtz: 

HERE

I them stamped onto glassine with Stazon and a Tim Holtz stamp. I then torn the paper by using a ruler to rip by and attached it over the tag. I made a fir cone from the Tim Holtz die. I found this quite tricky to do. If anyone has any clever tips on how to construct these please let me know. It took my quite a while to get it so I was pleased with it.

I finally added a charm and a big Christmasy ribbon.

Livestock Challenge with Gingersnaps

There is a new challenge just started over on Gingersnaps and the theme is Livestock. I remembered these free stamps I have had for ages and actually found them. I followed a tutorial idea from the Gingersnaps site on making inchies: Masterboard Technique by Alison Manning, who in my opinion is the master of inchies.

 I do not know whether other people in the UK have had problems finding an inch square punch. All the ones I have found are an inch across the diagonal and not by the edges? If anyone has solved this problem please let me know.

So the animals have been cut by hand and layered onto a 2 inch (by the diagonal) plain square punch and then layered onto a wavy edge punch. And a bit of twine added, a vital instant repair item for farms.

I was craving a wonderful stamp by Creative Individuals which has some wonderful chickens on it but I just had to let that craving go.

Grungy Monday 26

This is my Grungy Monday contribution following Tim Holtz's technique which can be seen here:

HERE

The products I used were a TH stamp, Distress inks, Rosette die, Gold embossing, music vellum, ribbons, charm and bauble sticker.

Dragon's Dream: Tag it on: Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium

A half hour play today before work allowed me to put this together for Dragon's Dream: Tag it on for their challenge of Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. So pleased I was able to meet the deadline and not forget it was Tuesday. LOL

Another great challenge.

Grungy Monday 25

I was in New Zealand when my mother died. We had just arrived after being in Australia for 4 weeks. Heading towards the Bay of Islands stopping at a campsite near a natural hot spa by the coast.

The phone call bringing the news in the middle of the night which surprisingly only woke me. Our first night in a new and beautiful country.

Creeping out the camper bus with only my nightdress on and a fleece jacket I managed to grab noiselessly on my way out. Sitting on the sea wall by the camper looking at the clear night filled with stars which look so different in another hemisphere. The sky nearly filling my whole view. No light pollution. Just astoundingly large and bright. Funny I cannot now remember what the moon was doing? What phase? But the wonder and the sadness I felt and the smallness we are in the universe yet the ability to fill so many people with so much love. I sat there and thought about so many things. About being a mother, about the miracle of life growing within you, about giving birth and the magic of breast feeding and nourishing those babes you love so completely. Did my mother feel the same about her babies? How honoured I felt to be a woman and to be given these gifts in life. About unconditional love.

I remember getting so cold sitting there on that wall. I wanted to get a blanket but I did not want to wake anyone, to disturb this sad but peaceful and special space I needed to have. I did not want their comfort at that time. I needed the universe, the stars and to swim in the immenseness of it all, to let my thoughts wander and ponder and reflect. But how cold I was.

There were shooting stars travelling across the sky from time to time. How magical that was. No need to say what symbolism I conjured in my mind seeing this phenomena.

I think I must have taken paper and pen out with me when I left the van? Or did I creep back in to get it knowing it was on the table just inside the door. If I did why did I not pick up a blanket? Not possible  without creating disturbance?  I do not now know.

I began to write my thoughts sitting on that wall below the vast sky of stars and the sea lapping on the shore.  I found it cathartic and it gave what I was experiencing shape. My feelings and thoughts were so intense. I think after filling numerous pages with thoughts I then just wanted a few lines to sum up the emotion I was feeling. And these words on the tag are what I came up with.

It was quiet the day my Mother died.

Sadness is quiet.

I thought about the sunrise for me 

and the sunset for her.

By now the first signs of a new day were showing. Once done I crept back into the van and curled up under the covers waiting to feel warm again.

Grungy Monday 25
www.timholtz.com
Distress stains, Distress inks, Embossing folder, Butterfly die, Heart die.

Show a house with Simon Says

This week Simon Says Stamp and Show a House. Well here is mine.
The house stamp is from Paperbag Studios which I stamped onto fabric and paper to create a collage look. I have also used stamps from Stampotique and Paper Artsy, combined these with paper I coloured with Acrylic inks and a sponged sun and some wiggly stitching.

Altered Poison Bottle with Stampotique

Fly me to the Moon

After much thought this is what I came up with for The Altered Poison Bottle with Stampotique.

My sense of humour is evident again! I know I have used Smile flying before with these wings but really I just love him too much like this not to use him again and felt it was just so apt with Rocket Fuel not to have him taking off to the moon. I did think about calling this "Bermuda Here I Come" but with the trend at the moment to use songs and films as inspiration "Fly me to the Moon"  won out in the end. Hope you enjoy.

Trains, Planes and Automobiles with Dragon's Dream Tag it On

I decided to use a plane on my tag for the Dragon's Dream: Tag it on challenge. I thought the post stamps from different parts of the world would also be apt. Quite a quick make but enjoyable. Almost forgot to post it as I made it last week and had not got around to photographing it. Lucky I found it on my desk!