Vintage Journal

Hello,  another page in my little Vintage journal, again using a family photo.  This is another of my Grandfathers Aunts.  Just look at that beautiful dress, although I'm not too sure how comfortable they were to wear.

As this photo isn't in good condition, I wanted the page to have a time worn look and started off on a gessoed page with Old Paper and tattered Rose Distress stains, before using DecoArt Crackle paste through TH Doily and Lace stencils.  When the lovely cracks had appeared I smudged Antique Linen Distress crayon over and took back slightly with a baby wipe.  Some random script and floral stamping done with Frayed Burlap and the words are cut from a TH stamp.

Alice is written on the back of this photo, so  I'm thinking she could be the mother of my Great Aunt Alice whose picture you can see here.

Thanks for calling in and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Avril xx

Vintage Flowers

Hello,  well, the washing and ironing is done and the garden tidied up after the growing spurt while we were away, so a little play to get motivated again.
I'm still determined to keep using neglected stamps and this Stampendous Jumbo Rosehip stamp was bought after seeing an article in Craft Stamper in March 2015!  there are two stamps in the set and the smaller one had been inked up once.  Plain and simple and coloured with Wilted Violet and Evergreen bough Distress inks.  The base layer used the smaller stamp, inked with Frayed Burlap.

We had a lovely city break in Budapest, the weather was hotter than I'd imagined - 30 degrees on Friday.  It's a beautiful city and with lots of green spaces and a wonderful park with lakes at Vajdahunyad Castle on the Pest Side.

The Parliament building is fabulous

A wonderful Central Market selling fresh produce to souvenirs

Buda Castle

And most importantly, somewhere nice for coffee

Well, if you didn't get bored and are still with me, thanks for visiting,
Avril xx

Natures Beautuy

It's time for a new challenge at Try it on Tuesday and for this fortnight the theme is 'Natures Beauty'
As I love to see flowers, this was my choice, but you could have trees, leaves, scenes, the choice is endless.

I've used the cone flower from Tim Holtz Flower Garden stamps on a blended Oxide background of Iced Spruce, Bundled Sage and Wild Honey.  I've used embossing  paste through a Wendy Vecchi stencil, and sprinkled on White EP, which was heat set when dry.   The stems were stamped onto the card base and a few extra leaves added and highlighted with a white gel pen.  Two of the flower heads were added with foam pads.  The sentiment is from PaperArtsey (Jofy)

The rest of the team have some fabulous inspiration for you so please head over to the main blog where you will also find the challenge details.

I've scheduled this post as we're having a short break in Budapest, hopefully the internet will be good and I can catch up as I put my feet up after a days sightseeing.

Thanks for calling in.

Avril

Party Time!

Would you believe - DD actually bought a Birthday card last week because she forgot to tell me her little box was empty!

So, another little play using some freebie stamps and sentiments that came with a magazine recently,  I've used a Flonzcraft stamp, fussy cut and layered onto an Oxide background that had been made with Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio and Twisted Citron.  A quick and easy card and nice and flat for posting so I made a couple and just changed the colours, well at least her box isn't empty now.

Thanks for calling in.
Avril xx

Spring Flowers

A couple of days of sunshine and then rain and grey skies today, but the sunshine had me sorting out my flower stamps and I came across these IndigoBlu daisy stamps that came free with some magazine and as they hadn't been inked up, thought I better do something about it.

I made a background with Wilted Violet and Faded Jeans and some stamping with Denim Adirondack before  using embossing paste and a script stencil. I added White EP and heat set when dry.  I've got a box of empty tea bags that you add your won herbal mixes to, so I tore one open and stamped the Papillion script.  The flowers were stamped and embossed with clear EP, fussy cut and coloured and adhered with foam pads.

I've made a DL sized card which I enjoyed, feels like you're making a tag!

Thanks for calling in, Avril 

Animals

The new challenge at Fashionable Stamping this month is 'Animals'  and thanks to a crafty friend, I was able to borrow the Tim Holtz Crazy dogs.  

He was stamped, coloured and fussy cut and adhered onto my Oxide inky stencilled background with foam pads.  The sentiment is from an Art Impressions set and so are the fussy cut balloons, which were also added with foam pads.  I attached thread to two and adhered to the dogs collar and drew the 'floating' balloons string.

There's some fabulous inspirational makes from the rest of the DT, so please pop over to the main blog where you will also find  details of our Sponsor,  InkArtDesigns, who is offering one lucky random winner a stamp from the shop.

I'm entering this at:
  Addicted to Stamps - Balloons/Bunting
  That's Crafty - Going Round in Circles

Thanks for calling in,
Avril xx

Recycle Something at TioT

 Hello, it's time to do your bit and Save the Planet and 'Recycle Something'.  That's the new theme at Try it on Tuesday this fortnight.

An easy one for me as DD is always giving me boxes to decorate and as these boxes (8" x 5") have a lovely textured linen look, I don't always want to use papers or heavy paints.

The first was covered with a couple of coats of watery PaperArtsy French Roast.  I then used embossing paste through a stencil for the bow and words.  When this was dry, I reapplied the stencil and painted with Tarnish Brass.

The second one was simply stencilled with Distress ink through the Flourish stencil.  I coloured the dress of this paper doll to match the stencilling and placed her to hide the make of the perfume.  I added a coat of sealer to protect the delicate stencilling on this one.

The rest of the DT have some great inspiration for you, so please pop over to the main blog, where you will also find the challenge details.

I'm entering this at: Country View Crafts - Pimp it Up ( reuse or alter something)

Thanks for calling in,
Avril xx

Pink Flower

Hello and Happy Easter, and it's also April Fool's Day - I think it's fooling me - where have the last couple of weeks gone, they certainly weren't spent in my craft room, it's nearly 2 weeks since I was here.

I did manage to finish this card a couple of days ago, well really it just needed putting together as the background was made during a recent play with Distress Crayons, stencils and there's also some background stamping.  I've stamped and fussy cut a PaperArtsy flower head and teamed it with a stem from the TH Flower Garden set, again both watercoloured with crayons.

Just a short post - while I've got the time I need to catch up on some DT comments or I'll be getting the sack!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend and hopefully the weather won't be as bad as they're forecasting for tomorrow.
Avril xx