(A Sprinkle Of) Imagination!

Hello!
A bit of a change for me today, I've been making jewellery! Not that making jewellery is a change really, I make rather a lot of it.... just don't blog it! Should really blog it more often I suppose....
Anyway, today over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination sees the start of my month long 'jewellery -fest'!!!
Here is the bangle I made....

If you pop on over to the ASOI blog , there is a step by step in picture form of how I made it....annnnnnd......if you leave me a comment over there, you could win the bracelet itself!
Have a lovely weekend,
Trish xxxxxx

Creative Expressions blog hop- part two!

Wow! Thank you for all your comments on my blog hop post!
There is still time to leave me a little message, and you'll be put into the draw for £15 worth of crafty goodies (Cosmic Shimmer products, That Special Touch masks and ,of course,ribbon!!) The draw is open until we announce the winners on Monday 8th April...
The main reason for this little extra post is to let you know that the supremely talented Kim Dellow has added a post to the hop today...with extra prizes to be won!
You NEED to check it out...its stunning!!!
Here is the link you need : Kims fabulous blog hop creation!
Love Trish xxxx

Creative Expressions Sheer Inspiration Blog Hop!

Hello!
Yay, a blog hop! I do like a good blog hop to play along with, don't you?!
So..... Welcome to the Sheer Inspiration blog hop, brought to you by the lovely folks over at Creative Expressions! If you have arrived here from Tracys blog, then you're in the right place...if not, no matter! The full list of all taking part is here:

Tracy Evans

Trish Latimer (me!!)

Jean Gursoy

Trace Metcalfe

Gillian Simson

Tracey Laughton

Shary Nettleship

Michelle Webb

Don't forget to check out our fellow DT member Kim Dellow's blog on Friday April 5th for a special surprise!

Now...what did I make? This....

The focus of the blog hop is to showcase some of the gorgeous ribbon Creative Expressions has. I have chosen the fabulous stripey Grosgrain ribbon, in the black/ivory colourway. As you can see, it didn't stay ivory for long!

I created flowers from my ribbon, here is how.....

First, cut the ribbon into strips...

Then sew the ends together to turn them into cylinders....

Next, sew along the one edge of the cylinder, using a running stitch...

Pull the thread tight, and oversew a few times to secure....

Now, you could use the flower just like this, but I like to get messy! To dye the ribbon, simple cover with Distress Stains and then dry...

When you dye any kind of fabric like this, the resulting colour will depend on what that fabric is made from. Pure cotton will give a far darker colour than a fabric with lots of manmade fibres in it. This is just a case of trying out your fabric (or ribbon of course!) and looking to see what shade is created!
I punched a circle of card to act as my flower centre. I coloured the card with the exact colour (Seedless Preserves) of Distress Stain that I used for the ribbon.....

You can see how the manmade fibres in the ribbon tone down the purple, compared to the colour on the cardstock. I love the tone on tone look, personally!
The flower is now all ready to be added to your project!
I started with an 8 x 8 piece of cardstock, and added background colour using Distress Stains in Peacock Feathers, Shabby Shutters and Seedless Preserves. Simply apply stain to your craft sheet, spray with water then dip and swish the card through the mess! I wanted white spaces, to did this a little more sparingly than usual!

The background was then stamped using the same Distress colours, just in ink pad form! I used Bubble wrap background, Chicken wire, Alphabet and a Grid from the Urban Beats plate....

I used coils of wire for my flower stems...

My turquoise flower was created in the same was as the other two, I just cut the ribbon into strips before I pulled the running stitch tight. Be careful not to snip too far if you try this, or you'll chop up the whole thing by mistake!

The leaves are actually petals from Sam Pooles fab Zentangle Flower stamp......

I added a few stripey touches to echo the stripey-ness (is that a word?!) of the ribbon.... a strip down one side..

And some 'grass' along the bottom (mainly to hide the glue where I attached the wire coils, but don't tell anyone!)

I had initially created smaller 'grassy' pieces to add at the bottom, but went with a longer strip in the end. I still used the 'rejects' along the edges though, I quite like them!
The simple words were typed and then glued on...

Phew....and here it is again so you don't have to scroll back up!

I hope you like my ribbon creation!
The marvellous people at Creative Expressions are offering a prize of £15 on each blog on the hop! To enter the giveaways simply leave a comment on each of the 8 DT blogs (listed above). The hop will close and prize winners will be announced on Monday 8th April on the Creative Expressions News blog. One winner will be chosen by Random Number Generator from the comments of EACH of the 8 blog hop posts!

 The next blog to hop to is Jean Gursoy

Enjoy!

love Trish xxxxxxx

The Mad Feeling...

Hello!
I am sharing a messy painty project over at A Sprinkle Of Imagination today.....

I've done a step by step for this, (lots of pictures!) so why not hop on over and take a look!
Leave me a message on the ASOI blog and let me know what you think?!
Trish xxxxxx

Zentangle tweet!

Hiya!
Just a quickie from me today.... whilst making the 'bloom' project from yesterdays post, a little idea came to me whilst I was cutting out all those leaves. I love using stamps in odd ways!!!

The leaves and stem were just shouting 'birds on a branch' to me!

A couple of tiny doodles here and there, and the transformation was complete! I cut up Chit Chat stickers into individual letters (how fiddly?!) to make the word..

In case you were wondering, the stamp actually looks like this before I cut it up...

Gorgeous by itself, but how much more useful when you can do lots with it!
Have a lovely weekend!
Trish xxxxxx

Zentangle Bloom

Hello!
My DT piece for Creative Expressions this week is a bit floral!

I've used the gorgeous Zentangle flower by Sam Poole, but chopped it up and layered it to give a more 3D feel. The background is a very simple Distress Stain 'smoosh' type affair! I swiped my craft mat with Shabby Shutters and Broken China Distress stain, sprayed a little water on them, then dipped and dabbed my cardstock into the inky mess. Once it was dry, I added just a little Seedless Preserves to the card too, not too much as I wanted a fairly light colour scheme.

I stamped the word 'bloom' using Sams mini alpha clear stamps (yes I own two sets of these so I can use two of the same letters at once one the same block rather than stamping one letter at a time!- I'm very lazy!) The word needs to be stamped before you add the flowers and leaves....tricky to position your acrylic block around embellishments, and can you imagine the hassle of trying to unstick all those bits if you make a dogs breakfast of the stamping?!
I stamped the flower three times onto cardstock that had been given the same Distress ink treatment as the base card. Cut out, then shaped and layered on top of one another...

I stamped and cut lots of leaves too, these were positioned under the flower and up the edges of the panel. I used hot glue to attach some leaves to give them a little raised dimension...

Hope you like it!
Don't forget to check out the Creative Expressions news page, not to mention all my other Teamies blogs next week....there may well be an exciting plan afoot!!!!
Trish xxxxxx

Spring Chicken!

Hello!
I may have lost the plot.....
I made a chicken...

He is now live over at Calico Crafts, so please check out the blog for some more pics and a little 'how to' !!
Stay warm....
Trish xxxxx

Butterfly Tree

Hello!
I finally got around to playing with my Distress paints.... and made this:

The whole project, plus more closeups is now live over on the A Sprinkle Of Imagination blog.... please pop over and have a look!
love Trish xxx

Live In The Moment

Hello!
The DT were given a fabulous choice of stamps this month from Creative Expressions to play with! Showcasing the new Single stamp range, so you can now buy single images rather than a whole plate! Some gorgeous stamps too, and this week I've chosen to use the Steampunk Dressform......

Now, the eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that this creation isn't very Steampunk! Which goes to show just how versatile these stamps are. For this piece I wanted a less industrial look, so got rid of any steampunk-ness! I'll explain as I go along....
The base is a square of chipboard, painted white to give a blank base. I then used Eco Green paint in purple, pale blue and lime to colour....

Once dry, I added the frame that surrounds my dress form. Another single stamp, this time from the Stamps to die for range. This one is called 'Blossoming Frame'. As the background is a little textured because of all the painty layers, I stamped the frame onto tissue and glued it down. Once dry, the tissue becomes transparent and it looks like you stamped directly onto the substrate! As it happened, this actually worked a little too well, the frame was very crisp and clear. I toned it down slightly with more paint on top. I wanted the frame to be a background, not a focal point!

The dressform was stamped onto scrap card that I coloured with more paint. To 'de-steampunk' it was easy, I simply cut off the cogs that surrounded the skirt part, and created a tiny rolled up rose from purple cardstock to adhere over the cog on the bodice. The rose got a generous dusting of Rock Candy Dry Glitter as you can see!

To add a little extra interest, I also stamped the dressform again onto acetate, and cut out the wings. Remember to leave a little flap of acetate when cutting out, as this then gets inserted into a small slit cut into the main dressform. The wings then look seamless, sprouting from the correct position!
The sentiment is from the A5 Art Sayings plate by Sam Poole. Love that plate, so useful!

Simply stamped onto a bit of scrap painty card, then cut out and mounted!
And there you have it...a steampunk dressform that really isn't steampunk!!
Please pop back next week as I'll have another piece showcasing the Single Stamps to share!
Love Trish xxx

Princess Green

hiya!
I've been getting very painty...and very green! I made this..

Loads of green paint in various shades, specifically Paper Artsy frescos in Limelight, Guacamole and Hey Pesto. I also used some Pebeo Studio acrylic in iridescent green yellow, the sheen from this is fab...you can just about see here in the corner...

I stencilled using the darker Paper Artsy shade, hey pesto...

And did lots of stamping and printing as usual!

Bit of doodling there too! I grunged up the background slightly by adding a gentle brayering of black. Gives it a nice mucky look!
My image is this fabulous Octopode Factory fairy...

Quite unlike me, I coloured it a little! Green hair (Distress Stain and a waterbrush!), and I gave her black and white stripy tights. Of course, she has to stand on something rather than floating in mid air, so I added a little text paper ledge for her to rest on....

I found a phrase in my torn up book stash that I thought just fitted her perfectly...

As luck would have it (!!) the challenge over at the Octopode Factory Challenge blog this week is 'Green', so I'm playing along!
Hope your week is going great...bit chilly here in Blackpool but at least we have no snow!
love Trish xxxxx