Dragonsdream Tag it on -Podgy's tags

Hello there, today I found a really great challenge blog, it's all to do with tags, which is fab as we're having a bit of a tag mad phase at the moment. The blog is http://dragon-dragonsdream.blogspot.co.uk/ and the challenge is in the form of a recipe, the recipe for this challenge is DON'T FEAR, oooh scarey. The ingredients are to work with a scary image, a crowd of purple and textures.

Well, scary images are subjective aren't they? So I decided to use what scares me most - BIRDS, eek, it's the wings, and the menacing looks they give as they cross my garden looking for dropped crumbs, not to mention their huge beaks which could probably peck a bear to pieces in minutes!

Anyway, back to the challenge....

First, the crowd of purple. I thought I'd struggle with this as we don't have much in the way of purple stash. Luckily I found this lovely glimmer mist.




Of course, for a tag challenge we need tags, pre made today although we do posses a lovely Sizzix tag die too.



Down to 'bears'ness. First I spritzed my tags with not only one crowd of purple, but about a football stadium full of crowded purple!


I then waited (im)patiently for the tags to dry. If you use mists, a good idea to make drying time whizz by is to either nap or munch!


Next I had to find a scary image


Eek, birds.


Stazon is a great ink for stamping over the top of mists, it also has the advantage of smelling almondy, mmm, food.


Next I stamped some mini images on a scrap of purple card.



And carefully cut them out, minding my delicate paws.



I glued the mini images to the decorated tag. I used one of the stamped mini birds as a mask, right hand corner of the tag



And stamped directly over the mask with more scary bird images.


Oh my goodness, i've just realised, I've been showing my pants!! How em'bear'rassing!




Ahem, back to the tags (once I've adjusted my trousers).

One scary bird tag, with crowds of purple.







Hmm, I forgot one ingredient- texture. I added some netting to one corner.



I also wanted to play with our new stamps




And I thought the clock headed person looked scary enough for this challenge. So, along with some more purple mini stamped and cut images,


I made this too.


What fun. I'm looking forward to the next challenge, that's if I can get back on here before any of the other pesky bears!

With love from the bears 🐻

What's on Your workdesk Wednesday

While pawrusing the 'net for ins'paw'ration, we came across this blog. http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/ Now this is just our kind of thing, a legitimate reason to make as much mess as possible....

Here is our desk




Here we are midway through making some charity cards. We've had to add a mini fold away table to the left of the picture, to hold blank cards and the previously made toppers box.

On the craft mat is a card in progress, made using our circle and scallop Nestabilities dies and some Prima flowers.

We also have the folder full of alphabets and sentiments lounging up against the silver magazine and ideas file to the back of the desk, and all our pro markers are waiting patiently to be used in colouring white sentiments.

Our Fiskars trimmer and extra blades are almost always taking up space on the desk whenever we're crafting. It's probably our most used tool.

Note the 'here's some we made earlier' cards on the window sill.

I guess it's not too messy really, for bears!

With love from the bears 🐻

Tag Time

Hello there, Horace back with you to show you my new purchases from Papermaze craft shop in Otley
A huge brown paper bag...




Oooh, looks good








Let's empty the bag and see what we bought




Wow, What a lovely lot of stash, glimmer mists, a Crafter's companion Mask, and two distress inks. Also shown is a bag of luggage labels which were bought previously, but which will fit in perfectly with my recent purchases...
Tag art, Horace style..
Take your glimmer mists, inks and mask... Oh, and lots of scrap paper to cover your desk, this is going to be messy!




Line up your glimmer mists




Take out a couple of tags and you're ready to play.




First, ink your tags with the distress inks, then choose a colour of glimmer mist, and spray through your mask, onto your tag




Take away the mask, and dab at the tag to remove the excess mist




Voila




Build up the mists by using different colours and spray randomly over your tags




Now choosesome art work. Furry paws do not produce good artwork, but I searched the Internet for art deco images, and printed out these




Use some stazon ink to stamp random patterns onto the tags, once all your mist and ink has dried












Here are the tags with distress ink, mists and a stamped pattern on top




Goodness, this is all rather tiring, a little nap is advisable in the middle of your project.




After your nap. Choose some more background stamps, here are some our lovely friend Florence bought us from Ppaermaze




One you've finished your stamping, clean the stamps off with a wet wipe, and dry with kitchen towel




Now, add your chosen artwork to your tags. Here are mine




I might use these in our art journal which we started recently.

Wilbear's Wonderful Toppers

Hello there,

Wilbear here with a quick post to show you the toppers I made with some Jolees stickers donated by a very kind friend of ours.




I made these to replenish our pre made toppers box, which the other bears seem to deplete on a regular basis, I wouldn't mind but they never make more to keep the box topped up.

Here are close ups of two of my favourite makes




I thought my comic sentiment was a great idea. Have a purrfect day goes so well with this cat picture




Our good friend also sent some foam die cuts, and I thought up this amusing sentiment to go with the whale. the blue wavy card was made with our Fiskars cutter and Scallop blade. I thought it made a good wave effect.

Hopefully I'll actually be able to use these myself, rather than the other bears raiding the box again!

With love from the bears 🐻

Podgy's perfect papercraft

On pawrusing one of our many craft magazines this month I came across this project.


'Ah ha' thought I, this is perfect for my tea stained pages from my previous post.

First I cut myself some tags with my Sizzix die


Then I selected some brown card


And made two envelopes, which I embossed using my Cuttlebug Swirl embossing folder.


I then had a little looky through our ephemera box, there are lots of previously cut or stamped treasures in here. I chose some stamped and cut butterflies, we don't actually own these stamps, we borrowed them from our crafty friend, Florence.


We keep all our ephemera in see through bags, so it's easy to see what you have when you're looking for inspiration for your latest project.


Next I raided our own stamp box, and found these lovely Papermania stamps.


Once the tags had been cut and the embellishments chosen, I ventured over to the ink and misting drawer. I had a feeling this was going to be a rather messy project.


So, now I was ready to actually start my creativity.

I inked up one of the Papermania stamps in Whispers brown ink. It's a good job my paws are dark, as the brown ink can really stain!


I stamped the image directly onto one of my cut tags.





I stamped the second tag in a complimentary theme, and added these to the envelopes.


Now I needed some smaller tags, Again I chose some stamps from the Papermania pack and decorated the tags, again in brown inks.


From the ephemera bag I selected some die cut flowers, these are from a Tim Holtz die, but I'm not sure of the name of it, as we cut them at a Papermaze crop last month.


The flowers were inked and distressed, then layered up


I then chose a coordinating piece of patterned paper, this is also from the Papermania range. I inked and distressed the edges of this, oh, and tore one of the edges for a more shabby look to my cards.


Then it was time to assemble my various bits and pieces.


This is where my previously tea stained papers came in handy. I selected two, tore the edges, and inked and misted over the text, to produce an even more aged effect.

The aged papers were adhered to blank cards, which had been decorated with the Papermania patterned paper as the base.


Then the tags in envelopes were added, and on top of that, all the ephemera I had chosen.

Here are the finished cards



And a close up. A good luck card


And a happy birthday card.


And plenty of aged papers left over to make more cards later.

With love from the bears 🐻