Discovering new things

Wow.....making this blog was difficult! Computers don't like me and the feeling is mutual, but right now the comp and I are managing to maintain a civil acquaintance - and so far it seems ok.....though improvements will be made!

   I have already got a dolls house blog, but work on that has slowed down - well, stopped. On here I will be doing all kinds of art and crafts and I am sure the dolls house items will sneak in at some point. I wasn't sure what to do for my first blog post. I make and do so many projects (with varying sized breaks in between) and I have done so much over the last 12 years since my mother-in-law handed me a fabric painting kit with the words "You can do it". 

   Should I do a new project or focus on the older and catch up a bit?

   After much wondering, while waiting for the computer to get it's act together and do as it is told for once, I have decided to do as I do in my art and crafts life, dip in to whatever and see what happens. So I picked the latest project. My sister-in-law introduced me to the wonderful world of inks and the genius Tim Holtz. I have never really liked stamps and inks....I got some for my birthday about 8 years ago and they haven't been used for the last 7 years and 10 months. BUT......the stamps that are gathering dust in the art cupboard drawer are NOTHING like these!!!

    They are BLISS! The colours are wonderful! I am so in love with the 'Peeled Paint' ink...I could just sit and look at it all day (I might be admitting to too much there!) 

     I adore the autumn inks. I never would have imagined that I would adore orange but it is gorgeous, and blended with the purple it gives the most amazing sunset colour - and before anyone notices and says anything about the lack of names for the orange and purple - No, I don't know the names for the orange and purple in the autumn set....and I am too involved in doing this to find out. I know I knew the 'Peeled Paint' ink - but like I said it's a special relationship!!!!!!!

   Ok...I have hit another problem mid- blog post...I wanted to upload just the picture of the CSI scrapbook challenge - but photobucket is having a tantrum. So if you want to see what guidelines I was following I am afraid you will have to click a link - csicolorstories and scroll down and find it

    I loved the colours - and after hunting through the scrapbook photo collection I found some B&W pictures of Jakey when he was a baby. Perfect! And with my ever patient sister-in-law helping me with inks and diecuts I got everything ready to tackle my first grunge page. People who have seen my scrapbooks before will not recognise this style as being mine at all....I usually go for very simple layouts and to be honest they are easy layouts to do. This was a real challenge to layer and not tear in the wrong place! And it was also difficult to get it to a stage I liked...until I got my decorating chalks out (my version of inks....for now)







I inked some card with Tim Holtz inks (Peeled Paint and a yellow - no, I can't remember the name!) with the wrinkle free distress (I am probably getting all these details wrong! I am sure Ally will correct me;o)

    Then I cut flowers from the card.  Ally found some lovely B&W flowered paper and she showed me that this can also be inked in matching colours and die cut. All the flowers were mixed up to create this wonderful variety of blossoms.



I stained some ribbon with Peeled paint ink and the heart brad was coloured with alcohol ink to match.




Here you can see the wonderful ink effect on the flower card diecut. The brads in the center of the flowers were also stained with alcohol ink.








The metal attachments are my usual thing - so that is still keeping in my usual style. I encountered the tattered edge of the green outer border by accident. I caught the edge with a fingernail and it tore slightly. Swearing silently and cursing my lack of care I remembered that I was SUPPOSED to be doing this as a messy grunge page. So then I began scratching away at the edges...and got a bit carried away. Suddenly I could see the orange from the other side and that did not look good. So I grabbed a pair of scissors and scraped away at the orange tinged edge and found it took the edge of in a nice 'neat/tatty' way.....so then I took the scissors to the rest of it and even scraped along the paper itself in places. I love it when I learn something accidentally!

    So there you are....this is the first grunge style scrapbook page I have ever made. I loved doing it! Apologies if I haven't explained it all very well....I will make the excuse that I am still overwhelmed by the Tim Holtz experience - It definitely is one of the best crafts I have ever done and I will be doing more!