Crafty Adventurista: July 2025

Tuesday, 15 July 2025

July DT Project 2 For Country View Crafts and Challenges - The Great Outdoors

Hello,

It’s time for my second DT make for July for Country View Crafts and Challenges, with the theme ‘The Great Outdoors’ and we’re certainly making the most of the outdoors at the moment with the heatwave we’re having.

The challenge is open worldwide and you can join the group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/164920247712393

You must use products from brands that Country View Crafts stocks. You can enter 5 times each month with different projects and one winner will be selected randomly. There's a fabulous PaperArtsy Summer Poppies stamp set designed by Alison Bomber to be won for the lucky winner.

I love squirrels and decided to use the Visible Image Nuts About Squirrels stamp for my project this time.

First I prepped my background with a blend of Cosmic Shimmers by laying clean water randomly down first on my journal page. Lightly tapped the powder from the nozzles over this and then blended in with the water with a paintbrush and left this to dry.

I smooshed some Distress Inks over the Visible Image Mesh It Up stencil and then spritzed with water.

I made a print with this on some paper, then did a secondary print on my journal page.

I stamped the squirrel and some acorns onto white card with Nocturne Versafine Clair ink and cut these out. I also stamped some maple leaves from Erikas Maple set and fussy cut these out too.

I stamped the city outline from Visible Image The Right Direction set with Versafine Clair Morning Mist as I wanted to give a nod to how some squirrels co-exist with city life.

Using the words ‘Evolve’ and ‘Resilience’ from Visible Image The Right Direction stamp set, I part inked in Rustic Wilderness and Stormy Sky Distress Inks and then spritzed a little with water before placing on my background.

Then I lightly splattered the background with a watered down Pumice Stone Distress Ink (smooshed onto a stamping block) and also splattered the cut outs.

I cut out a Polaroid frame from a template I got from the internet which I printed out.

For the squirrel and some of the maple leaves and acorns, I watercoloured these using Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor pencils.

I left the rest of my stamped images black and white.

Then it was a matter of compiling my picture, placing the Polaroid frame and then tucking in the cutouts around it.

And here is my second project for The Great Outdoors.

Thanks taking the time to visit my blog. I hope you’ll be inspired to try out some of my techniques and join in the Challenge - it's always awesome to see what people make for the theme.

Have a great day

Hugs

Carol

Products used:

(If something is out of stock you can always contact Susan to see if she can get it in for you)

Visible Image Nuts About Squirrels

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/visible-image-clear-stamp---nuts-about-squirrels-138541-p.asp

Visible Image Erikas Maple

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/visible-image-clear-stamp-set---erikas-maple-111730-p.asp

Visible Image The Right Direction

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/visible-image-clear-stamp-set--the-right-direction-167610-p.asp

Visible Image Dragonfly Reflection

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/visible-image---a5-stamp-set---dragonfly-reflection-148857-p.asp

Visible Image Mesh It Up Stencil

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/visible-image-stencil---mesh-it-up-149863-p.asp

Cosmic Shimmer

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer---jamie-rodgers-pixie-sparkles---peppermint-twist-30ml-147735-p.asp

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/cosmic-shimmer---pixie-burst---green-jasper-149259-p.asp

Versafine Clair
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/versafine---clair-ink-pad---nocturne-116915-p.asp

https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/versafine---clair-ink-pad---morning-mist-116918-p.asp

Tim Holtz Distress Watercolor Pencils
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-watercolor-pencils-1598-c.asp

Tim Holtz Distress Inks
https://www.countryviewcrafts.co.uk/tim-holtz-distress-ink--re-inkers-103-c.asp

Thursday, 3 July 2025

July DT Project 1 For Country View Crafts and Challenges - The Great Outdoors

Hello there,

Phew! Hasn’t it been hot!

Well, time to get into the craft room and out of the sun, as it’s time for my first DT make for July for Country View Crafts and Challenges, with the theme ‘The Great Outdoors’ as chosen by our lovely Jane.

The challenge is open worldwide and you can join the group here:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/164920247712393

You must use products from brands that Country View Crafts stocks. You can enter 5 times each month with different projects and one winner will be selected randomly. There's always an amazing prize to be won.

So, for my first project I thought I’d make a tag book with birds as my main feature.

First I chose my tags that would be the basis of the book. I used Dina Wakley 3” square tags but you could easily use Tim Holtz size 8 tags and cut them in half.

I used Tim Holtz Idea-ology Aviary Collage Paper to cover both sides of each tag. (I chose the design part I wanted and cut the paper to wrap around both sides, so it was all in one long piece).

Unfortunately my paper wasn’t printed properly, so the images are somewhat blurry. I hadn’t noticed this when I first bought it, so make sure to check your collage paper is crisply printed when buying. (This wasn’t purchased from Country View Crafts I hasten to add. I bought it absolutely ages ago and can’t remember where from :-D )

I was careful to keep the tags the same way round when covering them - with the hole to the left, as that’s my chosen way to have the spine. I used Ranger Collage Medium to glue the collage paper on and also for gluing down all the ephemera.

After that it was the fun part. Choosing the ephemera from multiple packs of Tim’s Idea-ology - Number Strips, Field Notes Snippets, Halloween 2024 (the Raven), cello sticker book, chit chat, postmarked and I used 3 Tiny Clips too to add interest.

I also added some random letters from Idea-ology Mini Marquee Letters that I’ve got.

Once I’d completed decorating the ‘pages’ I chose a word from the Idea-ology Chit Chat book and added to each page.