Vintage Neutrals

PaperArtsy challenge Topic 9 : Vintage Neutrals.

A great topic and some fabulous inspiration on the PaperArtsy blog. For my project I decided on a tag and my inspiration was Alison Bomber's beautiful tag which you can see under the above link.
My tag is nothing like Alison's apart from using Tim Holtz paper dolls for the focal image. I have used one of Alison's lovely quotes from the Dreaming and Doing set (Eclectica EAB07).

I started with a painted background with Chutney and Tikka Fresco paint which looked too dark so I knocked it back with some watered down gesso. Still too dark so I dry brushed chalk fresco paint on top of that. Then I used a Kay Carley stencil (PS061) to add some leaf fronds. The paint I used was Irish Cream.

I tried a bit of crackle glaze which worked a little but not very well, I will need to practice.

I added some flowers from ESC03 by Scrapcosy stamped with watering can archival ink and stamped the quote on a Tim Holtz die cut wood plank which I had painted with chalk and white fire paint. A couple of brads and a button to finish it off.

The photo looks a bit blue, that's the photography, there is no blue on my tag!

A great topic again and a chance to use some paper dolls. I am quite pleased with this one.

Handmade Matchbox

PaperArtsy Challenge Topic 8 : Boxes.

Last weekend when I saw the PaperArtsy challenge inspiration, the example that caught my eye was the matchbox art. I have never tried making a box so retrieved my old envelope punch board that has been gathering dust on the shelf and searched the internet for instructions to make a matchbox. I found a good one and made a test box out of kraft card. The test box worked so became my final box.

Here is the You Tube video I found:
http://www.ddstamps.com/dd_stamps/2013/12/another-box-using-the-stampin-up-envelope-punch-board.html
Thanks to Diane Dimich for the instructions.


I decorated my box with Jofy images from stamp sets 13 and 24, stamped directly onto the box and stamped onto old book pages. What to put in the box? Well, it is always useful to have a few gift tags to pop on presents so I made three matching gift tags.

Here is my matchbox project.

I decorated the inside of the box.

.... a view of the front of the match box.

.... and the three tags.

That project was a good way to relax after spending the morning tackling the wilderness that is my garden on such a hot day. 

Until next time, have a great weekend everybody. x