Simon Says Stamps Challenge - Tim Holtz and distressing!

Morning!! Well I made it to the NEC!!!! All on my own, with no directions or satnav (don't ask LOL) just the names of the motorways in my head!! I had a fabulous time and spent far too much (gulp) and got the biggest blisters on the bottom of my feet I've ever seen! But, the best bit was I got to meet Bev and Jacqui finally!! woohoo!!! I also met Caz and Dawn. We had a great time having a little shop and natter until unfortunately I had to leave them to it as it was time for me to head for home. Oh and I met Barbro and John on the Just Magnolia stand too and thanked them for publishing my "Kara" letters in the MagnoliaInk magazine! Anway, back to business, and our challenge this week at Simon Says Stamps challenge is distressing. All the design team are showcasing Tim Holtz products (how can we not, he is the King of distressing LOL!). I knew as soon as I saw this Tim Holtz stamp that I wanted to create a wall hanger to hang above my oh so tidy (not) craft desk!

I started with some white card and splodged some ink from my distress ink pads onto my non stick craft sheet. The colours I used were Victorian Velvet, Bundled Sage and Antique Linen. I then sprayed it with water and pressed my card into it to get the lovely soft mottled background you can see. I also added some bleached out splashes with water. (you can see all of the instructions for this and many more techniques on Tim's own amazing blog here!! I used a variety of techniques from his 12 tags of Christmas from 2009 - thanks Tim!!

After distressing all the edges and inking with Vintage Photo I set about stamping. I stamped a couple of Hero Arts butterflies in Versafine and then coloured them with distress inks. I also stamped a Magnolia swirl and a ledger stamp from Simon Says Stamp's own stamp range.

I have then embossed in gold parts of a Hero Arts letter stamp over each butterfly.

The flourish is from Tim Holtz grungeboard elements and I've painted it with Frayed Burlap crackle paint and then once that was dry I covered it in Stardust Stickles.

This great saying is from a Tim Holtz stamp set - it really makes me chuckle and it is so true LOL!!! I have stamped it with espresso adirondack ink onto vellum and then distressed the vellum with antique linen distress ink.Now for the best bit (in my opinion)!!! I have made two roses following Tim's amazing tutorial! These are so gorgeous and desceptively easy to make! The metal flowers are also Tim Holtz.
Hope I have inspired you to join us this week at Simon Says Stamp! You have to check out the rest of the DT's work - absolutely incredible! Thanks for looking! x

please scroll down for my Whiff of Joy challenge post x