It is the Journey That Matters

..... and I don't know about you but I am loving my crafting journey!

Hello! Jennie here with you today to share my first post this month using one of the lovely Lady Rose stamps by Tim Holtz to create this single layer card.  So read on if you want to see the details!

I started with a piece of glossy cardstock and my favourite Tim Holtz technique: wrinkle free distress.  It really is my all time favourite way of getting colours onto the page. 

I pressed my Distress Ink Pads (Cracked Pistachio and Victorian Velvet) onto my craft mat, spritzed with water and then kept laying my cardstock into the "puddles" and drying each layer before picking up some more ink. I love the way the inks sit on the surface of glossy cardstock creating quite a different effect than on matt card.

Then I stamped the smaller of the rose leaf stamps from the Lady Rose stamp set. I used Black Archival ink on the glossy paper as I wanted to paint the roses later in the process and it does give a better finish on the glossy cardstock.

Next, a little overstamping using some small stamps and Aged Mahogany Distress Ink.

And then a little time spent painting in those glorious roses again using the Aged Mahogany Distress Ink. I just press a little ink onto my craft mat and spritz some water alongside and dip the paintbrush into the water before picking up some ink. I love the versatility of the Distress Ink pads!

Now I had in mind all along to use the Mixed Media Harlequin die to cut the top right hand corner and I was a bit nervy doing it at this stage in the process, but I thought it would better than cutting it first and then trying to ink around the cut edges. I do think it gives a more natural finish.

And finally, when layered onto black cardstock the diamonds really do stand out!

Although this is a single layer card you could also layer over the diamonds some lovely flowers, leaves and ribbon to make a wedding or valentine's card (and perhaps a more appropriate quote!).

Thank you for joining me today.

Jennie x

Live The Dream

Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pad - Cracked Pistachio	Ranger Distress Ink Victorian Velve	Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad - Aged Mahogany	Ranger Archival ink pad - Jet black
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Lady Rose	Tim Holtz Stamps - Classic 16	Tim Holtz stamp set - Shabby French	Tim Holtz Stamper Anonymous - Classics #13 stamp set
Sizzix thinlits - Tim Holtz - Mixed media

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Special Delivery

Hello and welcome today here at Country View Projects. I have been in a bit of a single layer postcard mode this month and today I'll share the VERY  last of these pages. Promise!

I just love the Tim Holtz Correspondence Stamps and find they are so wonderfully suited to so many different projects and then ...... I got the gorgeous Classics #13 set with the lovely postbox and even more correspondence style stamps to play around with. So here is the latest journey in the single layer stamping.

I apologise in advance for the "before" and "after" photographs - obviously taken on different days and resulting in completely different colours! Even my Lightroom software couldn't make them look alike!

See what I mean !!! I started with the PostBox and a covering with a post it note before over stamping with the two lovely flourish style stamps.

I covered the registration stamp in the top right hand corner so the franking stamp would appear underneath.

Before everything got taken away I stamped the gate behind the the letter box and made my Special Delivery as bold as I could. I have used combinations of Archival and Distress Ink, sometimes stamping off to get even more tones.

I finally used more Distress Ink to make it look a little aged with the coffee stains from a Tim Holtz Layering Stencil.

You can see from the close up how well these stamps and colours all work together. A final splattering of Distress Ink also gave it an aged look.

I blended Distress Ink around the edges and then carefully spritzed this with water to give a softer and more aged edge.

Gorgeous stamp sets which can really be used in so many different ways. Can you tell I love them!

Thank you for joining me today and I hope you are having a lovely week.

Jennie x

Live The Dream

Big Ticket	Ranger archival ink - cobalt	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans	Tim Holtz Distress ink pad - Weathered wood
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Correspondence Stamp Set	Tim Holtz Layering stencil - Splatters

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Correspondence Art (again ........)

Hello fellow crafters and welcome to my first project for this month which is another correspondence art page in my single layer stamping book.

I am really enjoying hunting through my stamps to see how I can combine them on these single layer postcard sized pieces. I hope I am not boring you, but the end is nearly in sight as I now have a lovely pile of pages for my single layer book. So perhaps I'll do the covers next month!

This is a pretty photograph heavy post, but I thought I would take you through the steps I took to get the 3D look in a single layer.  My apologies to those of you who are pros at this - this is for beginner stampers who like me couldn't really figure it out until I got to grips with it!

I started with what will be the uppermost stamp on the page using Archival Ink. I stamped it again on a piece of post it note and cut it out neatly around the edges in order to cover it up for more stamping.

Next the bottle behind the word was stamped and again a copy made from a post it note and stuck down over the top.

At this stage I decided to add some text (in Distress Ink) which will end up behind both of the original stamps.

The postcard stamp was added using Archival Ink and then the lovely chappie from the Mercantile stamp set got another airing and a double in a post it note. Again I used Distress Ink to get a lighter tone.

You can see how I manage to get the stamp on the sticky bit of the post it note so it just sticks down lightly. All you need! The stamp in Distress Ink will now sit behind Mr Mercantile.

And before I took everything off I gave everything a splatter (Distress Ink) and blended some ink through a layering stencil in order that the faces and journal quote remained clean.

Then its hey presto! time when you remove the post it notes and all those lovely layers of stamping are revealed.  It amazes me every time (but then I'm easily pleased ........!).

And to prove it is completely flat ......... !

As I have said before I love doing these little postcard size experimental stampings to give me ideas for birthday cards which need to be put in the post.

Thank you so much for joining me today - I really appreciate it.

Jennie x

Live The Dream

Big Ticket	Tim Holtz Layering stencil - Splatters	Ranger archival ink - cobalt	Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Faded Jeans
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Mercantile	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Correspondence Stamp Set

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Fly Away Mail Art

Hello Everyone! Jennie here again with my second post of the month and I hope you will forgive me doing a little repeat of my post earlier this month, but I really have got rather hooked on making these little single layer mail art pages!

I absolutely love this new Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Blueprint Sketch. It is such a fabulous shade and has an amazing vintage feel about it (perhaps because I can remember the old Blueprint Drawings and Printer where I worked in the early 1970s!)

I started this page off again with the foreground element, stamping the bird in Blueprint Sketch and then making a mask from a post-it-note.

Once the mask was in place I could then stamp the underlying elements which I did using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and and stamps from the Correspondence and Shabby French Set. Layering the "stamp" stamp over the vintage photo created a darker hue and I can't wait to combine these two colours ……… 

I then added some further layers using the Splatters Layering Stencil and Vintage Photo and blended more Vintage Photo around the edges of the page. I felt the page needed something in black and so stamped the postage frank mark in Arcival Jet Black.

Finally I added some splatters using my paintbrush and the two inks used for the stamping. Again, although this is destined for my Big Ticket Book I really think this would make a great topper for a masculine card.

Thank you for joining me today and I promise I will be back with something different next month!

Jennie x

Live The Dream

Big Ticket	Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Correspondence Stamp Set	Tim Holtz stamp set - Shabby French	Tim Holtz Layering stencil - Splatters
Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous - Bird feather	Distress ink pad - Vintage photo	Ranger Tim Holtz Distres Ink Pad Blueprint Sketch

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