Shirl's Artwork

Inspirational Vintage Tag For VSC

January 25th, 2013 by Shirl - Posted in Stamping, Tags, Vintage, Vintage Stamping Challenges

Can’t believe this is my first posting since 2012. Belated Happy New Year to each and everyone of you.

Well what better way to start 2013 than with a tag one of my fave things to make. Used another gorgeous stamp from Leo at Flonzcrafts, isn’t she elegant looking. Added a gold border around the edge of her and also used a white gel pen to add the dots. When dry I smothered with glossy accents.

The original tag had a very pale background so I inked, stencilled, stitched, painted, gold embossed and stamped over it just to give more dimension. The Eiffel Tower was stamped and also smothered with glossy accents.

Thank you Debs for your lovely comment and for reminding me that I forgot to say this is my inspirational piece for Vintage Stamping Challenges … head still fuzzy and the link for Flonzcrafts is here.

Shirl

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Surprise Us At Fashionable Stamping Challenges

December 30th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Album, Fashionable Stamping Challenges, Stamping

Our first challenge for the New Year at Fashionable Stamping Challenges is … Surprise Us. This is so easy peasy basically it’s an anything goes, you can enter whatever you like.

A few of the Fashionettes decided to have a Secret Santa with our creations from this challenge.

Joanna was the inspiration behind the Secret Santa gift so she put all our names into a hat and drew out who our Secret Santa’s are going to be.

My Secret Santa gift is for a very special person but all will be revealed when everyone has received their gifts.

I have made an altered beer mat brag book. Four beer mats have been gessoed, acrylic paint and ink added then napkin decoupage along with stamping, masking plus moulding paste … even a little shrink plastic. In between each of the four beer mats I have added four extra coloured card pages with a decorative border so that the recipient can add photos.

Can’t wait to visit all the Fashionettes to see who there Secret Santa’s are and what lovely creations they will be receiving.

Now is the time to hop on over to the FSC challenge and see what the amazing DT’s have been up to.

One very talented bunch of ladies that I have the honour to work with and I love everyone of them. x x x

Not forgetting the lovely Marina at Cottage Crafts who sponsors our challenge. x x x x

Shirl

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Mask It At FSC

December 16th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Fashionable Stamping Challenges, Stamping, Tags

Who just wants all those Christmas cards to be over so that they can sit back, relax and enjoy the festive season which will soon be upon us … meeeeeee!!!

Not one but two cards to show you today and both have been made for Fashionable Stamping Challenges who want to see you MASK IT … please don’t forget that stamping.

First card is the one I showed my class how to make. There were two techniques which they learned how to do yesterday, one was the masking and the other was how to make a lace flower. The butterfly which was stamped onto vellum with white embossing powder was then stitched onto the lace flower rather than use any glue. If I am using stitching on my cards then I tend to use this method rather than glue. I love my insides to match the outside so we used the same masking method for the inside of the card and the paper used is the same as on the front, all edges were punched with the Martha Stewart doily punch.

Now this card is my play around card and my first time of using the Flitter Glue … whoa I love it. Can see me using this more and more now. This time I made a material flower but using the same method as above, again I have used a mask for the background.

Now is the time to hop on over to the FSC challenge and see what the amazing DT’s have been up to.
One very talented bunch of ladies that I have the honour to work with and I love everyone of them. x x x
Not forgetting the lovely Marina at Cottage Crafts who sponsors our challenge. x x x x

Shirl

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Fabric Lady

December 3rd, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Fashionable Stamping Challenges, Stamping, Tags, Vintage

Fashionable Stamping Challenges is To Die For. Yes it is a fabby blog challenge but this is the theme of the challenge this fortnight, use any of your dies or punches. How easy is this one.

Made a tag for my Design Team piece, stamped the Graphic 45 Ladies Diary image onto cardstock then cut out. I then dressed her with some beautiful layers of lace, gauze and linen. Inked the edges then sprayed with Gold Glimmer Mist.

How gorgeous does she look. Used the Sizzix die … Flowers 3-D for the flower embellishments. Very plain and simple for me but I thought she deserved to be the centre stage.

Now you just have to hop on over to see what all the stampettes have made for their DT pieces … just amazing.

Entering For: Live & Love Crafts Inspiration & Challenge Blog – Anything but a card
Craft Room Challenge – Ooh La La
TSG Clear Stamps – Tag You’re it
Creative Inspirations Paint – Gift tags
Try It On Tuesday – Let’s Get Inky

Shirl

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Gorgeous Soap Gifts

December 1st, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Boxes, Stamping

Just love altering these little bars of soap they make such unusual Christmas gifts … only give to someone who would really appreciate them.

The soaps I have used are Bonne Mere Milk Soap, link here, they are 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches. It doesn’t show in the pics but you can still see the writing beind the stamped image. Stamped images are from Estelle at The Stampsmith, stamps are Juliet and Ophelia my fave images.

Below shows pics of a bar of soap which I am in the middle of decorating.
First pic is how the soap looks at the back, second pic shows how it looks when you add the stamped image to the front. You stamp the image first onto white tissue paper then adhere to the soap.

This pic of Ophelia is how she looks when decorated and all boxed up. Made the box with an acetate aperture so the image shows through.

When opened I have nestled her onto some pure linen material just for an added piece of luxury.

I have two more to show you which are just soooo pretty.

Entering for: The Stampsmith Challenge … no surprise there … Handmade Holidays
Live & Love Crafts Inspiration & Challenge Blog – Anything but a card
Pan Pastels Challenge – Gift Time

Shirl

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Something Different To Show

November 12th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Scrapbooking, Stamping, Tags

I have been making scrapbook albums ever since Amber was born (she is now nearly 15) but never think to show my pages. I have been inspired to do just that because on Sunday I went to a crop (don’t usually go to these) and made two LO pages … you know me they turned out nothing like the original LO pages which Isobel did.

What I have decided to do is dedicate a separate blog/page/whatever … left the problem with Andrew to work out … told him exactly what I want it to be like and he can work his magic behind the scenes. Have already loads I can show but … always that niggly little but with me … it’s the photographing … going to have to get over this laziness of taking photos, if you could see all the work I do but just too lazy to take the piccies.

Anyways you will be pleased to hear the first lot I am showing are for my son and grandson. Yes I do make things for them … just not very often. Alex is 12, my only grandson, we have a little joke between us. I am always saying … “who is grandma’s favourite grandson” and his reply is always the same: “Me, I’m the only one grandma”. Definitely wearing thin with him now! When he was little he loved it, that was before he realised why I could say he was my favourite.

No pics on the layout as yet because there are so many to choose from and I want the right ones. I have made these two LO’s so that they carry on from each other when put side by side.

The next lot of pics are just close ups. They also show the stitching in more detail and the stencilling with the inks.

This bottom pic shows what they look like side by side.

Isobel’s original layout which I thought was amazing.

Shirl

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Musical

November 7th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Album, Fashionable Stamping Challenges, Stamping

I posted an album a few posts back … you can see it here and here … this is another page from it. Works out perfectly for my DT piece at Fashionable Stamping Challenges – Musical.

Used the See D’s stamps called Let’s Make Music which I think are discontinued now but you can see all the set here. Stamped the piano which I coloured with watercolours then added Diamond glaze. Also stamped the word concert, cut the letters individually, then added down the side of the album page.

That gorgeous Mozart picture was ripped and torn from a music book, added a triple layer of gold embossing powder which was then stamped into whilst still molten.

Lots more pages to see another time but please have a look at all the Fashionettes/Stampettes creations because once again they have created amazing projects for your inspiration. Marina from Cottage Crafts sponsors FSC every fortnight with a prize for the winner of the challenge.

Shirl

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First Christmas Project Of 2012

November 4th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Album, Stamping, Vintage, Vintage Stamping Challenges

It had to be girls … couldn’t hold out any longer … my first Christmas thingy of the year.
Definitely not a Christmas girl, love Christmas itself … all the festivities, …the eating … lolling around and watching the box … drinking (couldn’t possibly comment on this one) … but and it’s a huge mega but … don’t enjoy making all those cards.

As luck would have it we have our second new challenge starting at Vintage Stamping Challenges which is a colour challenge, Red, Green, Blue & Purple. Phew no brainer if you ask me how perfect was this project for the challenge. Flonz crafts is sponsoring VSC and the winner gets $20 to spend here on all those gorgeous stamps. I used this adorable stamp for my front cover which reminds me of forbidden love … what a hopeless romantic is me. Very lightly coloured with my copics.

Certainly enjoyed making this gorgeous album with Eve from Crafty Queens … she is based in Dublin and has an event once a month. Total heaven to chill out, just sit there and let someone else do all the work, just sit and make … love it to bits. It is even more appealing because Eve is one of the nicest crafters you could meet.

We only made the album all the embellies, stamps and dies were added at home – here is the finished piece but as per usual mine is a bit different … can’t quite totally get to grips with the just copying bit 😯

To be fair I have only changed it a little, Eve made the front larger than the pages inside and she also had some plastic wallets inside.
No plastic wallets in mine and I also came home and used my Bind It All … which hasn’t seen the light of day in decades, not even going there with the dust … to change the front cover. Made it smaller so the pages inside are in line with the album. See what you think

I also made the closure different. Made a sturdy tile shape by glueing two bits of chipboard together but before they were glued I added the two pieces of cord. I will be showing an inspirational piece later in the month of the inside and I have used this elegant lady here for the first page. Totally in love with these stamps.

Shirl

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Another Page

October 27th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Album, Stamping, Vintage

Saturday and brrrr that’s cold … looks like winter has started but on the bright side at least it’s dry.

Some more pics of Amber’s album and how it looks when opened.
On the left is the hard chip board cover and on the right is the start of the pages … eh, only one at the moment. Behind the tag and twine Amber can slip in a photo if she wants plus she could add a little photo on the other page … between the dresses.

There will be four pages by the time it is finished and each page is double sided … eight pages in all with lots of hidden pockets for tags and piccies. Also included will be envelopes and these are for the journalling/photos. Love this album because you can work on the pages before you add them.

When you have finished a page simply add by gluing to the spine, then make two holes with the cropadile before adding the ribbon. The picci below shows how it will look on the outside. When completely finished there will be four bows showing … might even be lace … not sure yet but that is the beauty of this album you can change how you want the spine to look when finished.

The above pic is the page when opened again she can add a photo behind the twine, also there is a pocket behind the corset. Come back tomorrow and you will see another page added, this time showing one of the envelopes.

Shirl

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More Album

October 24th, 2012 by Shirl - Posted in Album

Thought I would show you the before and after photo of Amber which I put into the album today.
First is the original photo which I edited in GIMP. Second photo is after editing in GIMP, exported it to png format so it would have a transparent background

Third photo I added additional layers within gimp eg., the flourishes and sentiment. Because I wasn’t happy with the colour of the ‘joy’ in the sentiment the fourth photo is showing a change of colour.

Fifth photo is inside the album but because I printed onto photo paper the finished product was too stark. So a little tweeking of … alcohol inks, blending solution plus going around the edges with a gold pen everything came together nicely. See what you think?