Give me the moon and the stars...

You know how I hate buying something that can only be used for one season, holiday or occasion so here is a quick vintage Christmas card made using some of Tim's new Halloween dies...

The moon and stars are from the new Crescent moon & stars Bigz die and the owl is a new Movers & shapers die. The moon and stars have been embossed with Tim's 'Riveted metal' texture fade embossing folder, dabbed with Copper alcohol mixative and then has black paint smeared over it and rubbed off. 

The reverse of the owl has been backed with gold mirricard and the front of the eyes has Crystal Ice Stickles over the top. It's edged with Treasure Gold.

Finished with lace and some script stamped holly gives it a Christmas feel.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your crafting whatever you make!

Chris xxx

www.mycornerofheaven.com

I’m loving Tim’s Luminaire

I’ve just received Tim’s 3D Luminary and you’ll be pleased to know that with this die the instructions are in the packaging! Actually, it’s really quite easy and logical apart from the top which is dead simple once you’ve seen how it goes together. 

Those of you who know me also know that I suffer with rheumatoid arthritis in my hands so anything fiddly and faffy is a problem. Rest assured, although it looks fiddly when you’ve cut the pieces out it really is quite easy to put together.

You can see from these pictures that I stamped the body of the lamp with a faux newspaper stamp (you can personalize it even more by using Tim’s Seasonal Catalogue 1 for Halloween and Christmas or Seasonal catalogue 2 for birthdays, Valentines, other celebrations and Thanksgiving). You can use any punch or die that makes a suitable corner decoration to add to it.

PLEASE DON’T use genuine tealights in it, you can buy the faux, battery operated tealights in most homeware stores. This is what it looks like in the evening with the light switched on…

Have a great weekend. Please leave a comment if you have the time.

Chris xxx

www.mycornerofheaven.com

Brenda Walton’s snowflake

This die is to die for! If you like elegant then this is for you – beautiful. I’ve made some charity Christmas cards and tree decorations with it and they’re gorgeous (even if I do say so myself, lol). The die is quite big so lends itself to larger projects and this one is a Christmas gift box…

The body is made from a fine, shedless glitter card with the bottom of the box and lid edged with lace.

If you’re looking for something to give your Christmas cards and projects a zing this year you won’t go far wrong with this one and at just £11.99 with free P&P it’s worth every penny.

Have a great weekend and thanks for dropping by.

Chris xxx

www.mycornerofheaven.com

Autumn is here ..

Well here I am with my favourite makes, a tag, I love the shape , they just seem right for all kinds of crafty play to me. So I have had some fun with Some of the new Halloween blueprints 2, new watercolour cardstock, Seasonal Distress markers , Distress glitter and more ! So here is my make :

 I started by adding some texture paste mixed with a bit of glitter and embossing powder I had left over and coloured with some paint through a stencil.Love the little gritty and blingy bits. I then inked the tag (when dry) with rusty hinge DI and edged with walnut stain DI.

For the main image from the fab new blueprints,I stamped onto the new watercolour cardstock, the cool thing about this is that is is doublesided...one side being textured and one smooth so you can decide what type too use. I went for the textured side and stamped using potting soil archival. I then set too colouring using Distress markers form the original and seasonal sets. Lots of spritzing, edge inking and waterbrushing ..and the image was complete .

 I added lots of flower die cuts and foliage cut from kraft core cardstock from autumn gatherings die,and sanded and inked, I also added some of the new Distress Glitter in rusty hinge. Some twirls of rusty wire nestled in amongst them .

I also added some dyed seam binding, a type charm and philosophy tag on a trinket pin at the top.

At the bottom I added a chit chat sticker in a label pull..and also on the main image I raised up the word pumpkin.

well hope you like my Autumnal make using Halloween Blueprints 2, be back soon.

have a fun and inky day!

Trace  x

Creative Chemistry from Tim

Some of you will know that on September 9th 2013 Tim Holtz announced his next set of on-line classes – Creative Chemistry 102. Those who have already enrolled in Creative Chemistry 101 will be able to sign up for this new program as he has stated that CC101 is a prerequisite for CC102. Those of you that haven’t done CC101 can still take that course.

Here are some useful links and we’ve also added Tim's product lists for each course which are linked to the items in our shop…

• Info for Creative Chemistry 102
• Registration for Creative Chemistry 102
• Info & registration for Creative Chemistry 101

Product list for Creative Chemistry 102:

Featured Supplies: Craft Sheet Ink Blending Tool Ink Blending Foam Mister Mini Mister Heat Tool Stamps/Rubber or Clear Grid-Blocks Distress Ink Distress Reinker Distress Stains Distress Markers Distress Paint – including Antique Bronze Metallic Distress Clear Rock Candy Crackle Paint Distress Vintage Photo Embossing Powder Distress Glitter Matte Glue n’ Seal Distress Embossing Ink Pad Clear Embossing Powder Antiquities Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder Sticky Embossing Powder Silver Embossing Powder Clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel – UTEE Jet Black Archival Ink Pad Adirondack Alcohol Inks Adirondack Metallic Mixative Adirondack Blending Solution Adirondack Fillable Pen Adirondack Replacement Felts Mini Brayer Ink Palette Waterbrush/Detailed Waterbrush/Flat Vagabond Machine  Sizzix Silicone Rubber Pad  Sizzix Impressions Pad Texture Fades Layering Stencils Other: Plain White School Chalk, Metallic Leafing

Suggested Surfaces: #8 Manila Tags #8 Black Tags Alcohol Ink Cardstock Distress Watercolor Paper Idea-ology Grungeboard or Chipboard  Metal Foil Tape Foil Cardstock Idea-ology Alpha Parts Idea-ology Silver Tinsel Twine Idea-ology Corked Vials, Corked Domes or glass pieces Idea-ology Fragment Charms or clear acrylic pieces Assorted Idea-ology Metal Charms or Findings Other: Black & White Inkjet or Photocopied Photo

Product list for Creative Chemistry 101:

Suggested supplies: Craft Sheet Ink Blending Tool Ink Blending Foam Mister Mini Mister Heat Tool Stamps/Rubber or Clear Grid-Blocks Distress Ink Distress Reinker Distress Stains Distress Markers Distress Crackle Paint Distress embossing powder Distress stickles Clear embossing powder Perfect pearls powder Archival ink Ink Palette Waterbrush/Detailed Waterbrush/Flat Vagabond Machine Texture Fades

Suggested surfaces: Tags/Manilla Tags/Kraft Specialty stamping paper Sticky back canvas/Natural Watercolour paper Grungeboard or chipboard Kraft resist

If you need any help or have any questions please contact us via the SHOP.

A little bit of Eclectica³

We were lucky enough to attend a PaperArtsy all day workshop a few weeks ago and this is a piece I started there and finished at home….

The base is a basic splat and blend technique using Fresco chalk acylic paints. The decorations have been made using Lin Brown's Eclectica³ range for PaperArtsy which includes stamps, dies and, JUST IN, her fab chipboard shapes!

The flower base has been stamped with a script stamp (any) and the flower head using one of the stamps from the Lynne Perrella LP18 collection. The tulip stalk was stamped using her stamp set ELB03 and the tulip head is grunge board cut from her Tulip 01 die.  I added a few stipples of Claudine Hellmuth white gesso on the background to lift it a little.

With a couple of eyelets and a little paper wire it becomes a great little wall hanging.

Have a great week,

Chris xxx

Trick or treat

The shops are filling up with all things Halloween and I have these fabulous background stamps, Seasonal Catalog 1, which feature a background stamp for Halloween and Christmas. I wanted to create something that would easily translate into a card, as so many of you are card makers, and that would be quite simple as I'm still struggling with my oh-so-slowly-mending elbow!

On a large tag I used various Distress Inks to cover the background using the darker colours towards the edge (Antique Linen, Old Paper, Frayed Burlap, Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs) and then sprinkled with water. I stamped the Halloween image using Wendy Vecchi's new Watering Can ink and I used Spiced Marmalade to colour in a few of the images.

I added a few Remnant Rubs, a skeleton, some ribbon and two sayings attached with a Tiny Attacher. I doodled a border to draw the eye towards the background. I hope this has helped to start to get you in the Halloween mood!

Gabrielle

A bit of vintage sparkle

Well This is a weird one for me as I have made a card , but using the pop n cuts die which is a new one for me...I need some more time to experiment but am sure the possibilities are endless...I know I can use this with my beloved tags...

So here is my make today a pop n cuts card using the yummy new distress glitter from the man himself, Tim Holtz. I just had to give this a try as I am so not a shiny glitter person , but boy this does not disappoint.

So the card :

and the inside :

Well this die is really easy to use and would be a versatile addition to any collection...cannot wait to play with tags and Halloween for this die! So I kept the colour palette to antique linen and frayed burlap, with a hint of vintage photo and also used the new potting soil archival. (I will list links for all products at the end ).

For the inside I cut away part of the insert using the butterfly on the edge die and embossed using texture fade. For the area behind this cut away I inked with Distress and stamped these gorgeous Papillon butterflies. 

The glittered butterfly using antique linen distress glitter and wow this stuff is cool, shiny but in a good way!

What is cool about this is that you can heat it and ink it! now that is clever...a link to Tim's blog can be found here. So I die cut a movers and shapers butterfly, applied glossy accents and then the glitter. I then heated with a heat tool and then inked with walnut stain DI...clever eh? 

But I also added this glitter to some long fastners to create my flower centres...

The quote on the pop out centre is from warehouse district set...an all time favourite of mine!

I completed this piece with layers of torn cardstock (which had been inked and embossed) and some tiny butterflies.

Well hope you like my make ...have a fun and inky day!

Trace x 

All supplies are linked above x

Just a simple bauble…

Today I'm blogging just a simple bauble to demonstrate just how effective these lovely Spellbinders heirloom baubles dies are! When you look at them they don't seem very exciting but their simple shape lends itself beautifully for stamping and decorating without the interference that the more intricate designs have.

I used a simple script stamp (any will do), some lace, ribbon and craft gems for the front...

and Tim's Classics #9 stamp set on the back. These make great tree decorations as well as the most obvious for your cards and other crafts.

Have a great week,

Chris xxx