Spring Clean

Well I know its not spring yet but as I had a fairly free weekend I thought it was time my conservatory (workroom) had a good clean.  It took me all day saturday and I was absolutely bushed when I had finished but I was really pleased with the result and its inspired me to start crafting again.  So on Sunday I did some sewing to complete a couple of orders that I had and then I decided to have a play with my distress inks and have a go at making something that I had seen when I visited the Craft Den back in November.   With a few alterations I am very pleased with the finished result and have decided to use it for my scrapbooking class this week at Vanilla Crafts (our first one back since the Christmas break) 

I cut the shield shape from grungepaper and then used my white paint dabber on the swirl stamp, when the paint was dry I used 3 colours of distress ink to colour the grungepaper.  I then stamped the flowers in black archival ink, mounted the shield onto black card and cut out leaving a small border, mounted the photo (Bradgate Park in the snow) onto black card and placed in the centre.  The large flower was made by glueing a page of a magazine onto the scraps of grungepaper then cut out using the tim holtz flower sizzix die. I then tinted them with the same distress inks, curled the edges and placed a brad in the centre.  The numbers are cut using my large sizzix letter / number dies in black card and then glazed with glossy accents.  Calendar tag attached to the bottom of the shield and ribbon inserted for the hanger.  It measures approx 8" square.

I really enjoy getting messy with Tim Holtz products and I hope you like it the finished result as much as I enjoyed making it.