February done too....

Yes, I'm feeling quite pleased I've managed to finish February too in the Calendar 365 Challenge. I won't go as to far to say that I'm that organised that I have my March pages all ready and waiting .......because I haven't. I'm sure I'll get there, I did last month. I think March will be a little crazy and I'm not sure if 1.5" squares are going to big enough to record it all but I'll try. I've also been enjoying a bit of experimenting using some tags. I covered one with a book page and inked using distress inks. I then cut out a butterfly image and added some wire antennae and some decorative red pearls. I painted some white gesso so I could stamp the butterfly quote from The Artistic Stamper. The second tag uses distress inks which have been spritzed with water. I die cut the button shapes from grungepaper and painted with acrylic before finishing with glossy accents.

A bit more experimentation...... I have to say that I have found die cutting grungepaper a bit tricky so for this flower using Tim Holtz as inspiration I hand cut the flower shapes. First I covered the grungepaper with a book page and then drew my flower shapes and cut out. I added a bit of ink around the edges and a metal flower and brad at the centre. I thought it would make a pretty brooch so I added a brooch fitting to the back and have been wearing ever since.

Onward and upward into March........

Inky Fingers

This weekend I had a great time at the alcohol ink workshop at Pickleberry Papercrafts. We learnt lots of different techniques taught by Jennie which we made into a sample tag book. Here are some of my favourites. I love the effect of the metal embossed in the cuttlebug embossing folder and then inked and my favourite was the double stamping technique. We used the text stamp as the background and over that stamped the image which allows the background to show through. We also got to ink and decorate a tin. I chose to ink mine in bright raspberry and watermelon with a splash of metallic silver. The text, butterflies and lace are all stamped in black archival ink over the top and all come from The Artistic Stamper The new lace stamps are really gorgeous and one just happened to fall into my shopping basket along with the new sequin waste stamp.

While I was at the Pickleberry shop I just had to pick up some grungepaper. I thought I'd try some out on a birthday card so I ran some through the cuttlebug in the textile folder and inked with faded jeans distress ink. It's hardy stuff! I'm looking forward to trying out some more techniques with it.

I'm glad to say my fingers are now looking normal. I was worried for a while that I would be wearing the Ranger look for ever more :-)