Rusty Faceted Heart card - Brenda

I had a craft day with a friend recently and she brought over her new die which creates this fabulous heart shape and is one of the new range from Sizzix and Tim Holtz for the Chapter 1 release and out and in the shop now. I also used the fabulous new wildflower stems and fun large funky florals dies from the same release and the stacked deckle frames which I think were released last year.

To me there's nothing nicer than creams, whites and browns together and to help achieve the look I layered together (from the bottom) card , patterned paper patterned, faux shabby floorboards created with paints and inks and a deckled frame on the top.

The wildflower in the background was cut from media paper, acrylic watercoloured and distressed whilst the funky florals were cut from a piece of leftover card from sometime when I had experimented with layering acrylic paints to achieve the shabby look.

The faceted heart was also cut from a left over rust effect piece of card that has been lying in my bits box for ages - this box can be a mine of fabulous inspiration sometimes when an oddment and a die just fit together so perfectly.

The die cuts the multi-faceted shape with score lines which need to be folded and pushed into shape to get the design. You can see the wonderful height and dimension and as a card it is best given to the recipient by hand as it wouldn't survive the post in just an envelope.

I love the way the neutral palette becomes shabby with the textures and the scuffed floorboards, I must make some more pieces to be ready to use for more new creations.

Here you can see the top of the heart and how the rust enhances the contrast in the colour palette.

The same here with the lower part of the heart.

I'm looking forward to experimenting more with the heart shape to see how else I can use it.

Thanks for stopping by and if you like the new dies please go to the Country View Crafts shop website and search for new products for January 2019 to find them or click here.

See you again soon.

hugs Brenda xxx

Enjoy Every Minute

I have the new Distress Inks and couldn't resist trying them and this tag was born!
I started by adding Cracked Pistachio to my tag...

Then I spritzed it with water and dried it...

Then I added Cracked Pistachio again. I wanted the colour to be deeper and this is a good way to do this!

Then I used Abandoned Coral Distress Ink to a die cut heart...

To add the sentiment I stamped each word individually, blocking the rest of the stamp with a post-it note...

Then all I needed to do was to stamp the scallop on the bottom and cut around it; add the stalk and blocks in the background. For the leaves I added some Cracked Pistachio to a little left over card and stamped the arrows. Around the tag, leaves and heart I added Black Soot Distress Marker. I mounted the tag on black card and that was that!

Thank you, as always for popping by!

Gabrielle

InLinkz.com

My True Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day! Do you celebrate it? In our house I make David a Valentine's token and he forgets (!) - but we have an anniversary just before so we tend to celebrate that! This year I made this little token for him! The base is mdf which I applied a few coats of Beach Hut paint on. When it was dry I sanded the paint all over, but especially the edges. I then covered it with Gathered Twigs Distress Ink and spritzed it with water and dried. This makes the whole background look aged.

I stamped a heart onto a piece of grungepaper with red paint and, whilst wet, clear embossed the shape. When cool I cut the heart shape out and then I added a second coat of clear embossing (using clear embossing ink). There are natural pits created in the embossed surface that I love and so I rubbed Gathered Twigs Distress Ink into them to highlight the texture.

I die cut some wings from grungepaper and lighted added white paint. Then, when dry, I sanded them and added more Gathered Twigs Distress Ink at the edges. Then I assembled the heart with a little ideaology.

I stamped a large background stamp on the background and highlighted the word 'love' with some white dots. I then added some words and my valentine was complete! Thanks for popping by today!

Gabrielle x

InLinkz.com

#iloveyou

I get asked lots and lots how I make my heart with leaves that I use probably too often! The short answer is I use Wendy Vecchi stamps which involves a lot of fiddly cutting out on the leaves. However, now I am in possession of a fabulous brand new die I thought that you might like to see another version using Tim Holtz dies!

I first came across Country View Crafts when buying Tim Holtz dies and they are still my go-to place for anything Mr Holtz, and, well, everything! The heart and arrow is from the Love Struck die and the leaves from the new (and utterly indispensable!) Garden Greens die. I'm not trying to spend your money for you (!) but if you don't have this die yet you won't be disappointed when it arrives...! A tip - when using grungepaper (like I did) for the leaves, cut one set of leaves with the grungepaper facing one way, and then the other set with the paper the other way up. That way the nap of the paper will be the same!!! The heart was coloured with Barn Door Distress Ink and the arrow with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The leaves were sprayed with Lime Green Dylusions Ink and a little Peeled Paint Distress Ink added to the tips. I lightly stamped a number stamp onto the leaves using Fern Green Archival Ink.

The flowers are the smallest flowers from the Tattered Floral die and Jumbo Tattered Florals. They were painted white and then Barn Door Distress Ink added to the larger one and then stamped with the ruler stamp from the Artful Tools set. Round the edges of each flower I used my Barn Door Distress Marker and then secured them with a brad.

As I'm using dies I really love to use the banner die and it works really well with the new Hashtag stamps! For the background I covered an ATC with white paint and stamped the ruler stamp when it was dry. I dries it throughly and then sanded it down and edged it with my favourite Vintage Photo Distress Ink!

I hope you liked my alternative version of my heart and leaves - feel free to show me your versions!

Gabrielle x

InLinkz.com