Saturday 16 November 2013

Q is for....Craft Barn Challenge

I was hoping that the dictionary would have the land of my birth in, but no, so I opted for something that sounds vaguely Harry Potter, and reverted to trigonometry!  Q is for QUINCUNX and QUADRANGLE this Craft Barn Challenge.


I started with the same Centura Pearl square as usual, and painted it up with Stewart Gill paints. 













I used a watermark pen and some detail black embossing powder to create the quincunx, and also to highlight the edges, being the quad.  I quite like the effect where the powder stuck to the still damp paint in places.




















I stamped the flowers on the offcuts, and painted them up. I added a pearl when I stuck them down on the quad.















As usual the tag has the two definitions on, with the wooden letter and a ribbon, to match all my other pages.

Hope you like!



Resources

Ink and paint
Stewart Gill Byzantium: Cardinale
Stewart Gill Alchemy: White Hot
Archival ink: Jet Black

Stamps
Sheena Douglas A Little Bit Sketchy - Always Floral SS-SD-FLOR

Bling and other stuff
Stampin' up: Adhesive pearls
Stampendous Embossing Powder: Detail black
Versamark: watermark pen

Sunday 3 November 2013

Orange - a la Rothko...

...or maybe not....!  Just a little something for my old boss... and it is significantly smaller than Mr Rothko does.  Have to say, I'm not much of an abstract lover, but I did quite enjoy making texture in the lower two panels, with the heavy gel.  But I don't think this will be selling for $hundreds of thousands any time soon.
 





Mr Rothko, panic not.  I am not taking your crown!










Resources

Canvas board

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish: Autumn Fire, Haystack, London Bus, Mud Splat
Heavy Structure Gel
Iridescent Medium

Saturday 2 November 2013

N is for... Craft Barn Challenge


 
This week's letter in the Craft Barn Challenge is N.  Today being an auspicious day, that is, Newcastle beat Chelsea 2-0, my mind went immediately to Newcastle.  However, it isn't in my dictionary.  But... Northeast is, and, of course, Newcastle is in the Northeast.  Hence my photo of the Angel of the North, being a good representation of the land of my junior school days.  Even tho she wasn't there when I was at school; she came many years after I left, but I still love her!
 
 
As well as N being for Northeast, it is also for Numbers, and because that had a fantastically long definition (too long for the space I wanted to fill) I chose Numeric, which gave me a chance to use this lovely embossing folder.
 
So what did I do?  First, the bingo card:  I coated one side of the embossing folder with Peacock Feathers Distress Ink, and pushed it through the Big Shot Pro with my usual Centura Pearl cardstock.  When it had dried, I tapped 3 different colours of Brilliance lightly over the top.
On the other leaf, I half embossed the circles (which looked a bit compass-y to me), and painted a layer of South Pacific over it.  When that was dry, I dry brushed some gold lightly, in a north-easterly direction, milud.     I painted up the compass in the same colour gold, and added a rhinestone at the 'wrong end', and glued it to point to the north east of course.   My photo of the angel was distressed around the edge, and some more of the gold paint dry brushed along the scuffed edge.
There you go!  Hope you like!
 
Resources
 
Paint and Ink
Distress Ink:  Peacock Feathers
Brilliance: Lightening Black, Starlite Black, Coffee Bean
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish: South Pacific
Stewart Gill MetaMica: Bright Gold
 
Bling and Other stuff
Sizzix Embossing Folders: Bingo and Grungy Circles
Stampin' Up: Self adhesive gem
Tando Creative: small compass

2 Books

I have recently been on two different book related away days, one with Kate Crane (Junk Journal at the Stamp Attic in Wantage), the other with Linda Knight (Just scrapbooking, Envelope journal at the lovely Roseland Mews in Menheniot).

Neither of them are finished, as this will take some time, but I think that there is enough done to show off the general ideas!

So Kate Crane first.  Wow.  We were given a list of junk to bring along - cereal packets and the like!  Not the usual kit list to be sure... 


We started off by cutting all our pages to size, and gessoing some.  The front cover (the heaviest weight card) had Kate's paint treatment, which was such fun.  I used colours that complemented the papers I had brought along to use - Pea Coat (my favourite!) and Hey Pesto.  To accent, a really bright pink (not sure what make) and good old black. 

The spine is sticky back canvas, painted black, with polka dots in my colours. 








I brought along some papers I have had for ages, and wanted to use DCWV, Vintage Blue - there was a nice range of designs and colours, and some matching chipboards.





Kate also gave us some prints of some Gelli prints she had done, which you will see on my sister's skirt and wings, also on the house on the front cover.  (She didn't know she had wings...!)  If you're thinking 'why is there a white stripe across that page', there isn't, it's the gap between two half pages.  Not quite sure what I am going to put on the page behind yet.  But that is the point of a journal.













The 5 things I love page is one of Kate's pages, adapted.  I don't have 5 secrets!  So these 5 tags cover my favourite music, food etc.   I made the washi tape ages ago, but the colours seemed to match.











Also using Kate's painting technique, I painted up one of the gesso'd pages, in Orchid, Autumn Fire, and Pea Coat, and used a comb through it when nearly dry.  Like this effect...














I completed a couple of pages using a couple of ideas from the Finnabair workshop a month or so back.  One piling up the embellishments and then painting over (with the same Paper Artsy paints).  The other using Kate's painting technique, Orchid again, with black calligraphy ink - she's right, it doesn't jump out, it's just 'there'.  The Finn bit is the three strips of paper, and the tinting of the photos.




Then a week or so later, Linda's session down at Menheniot.  I got an exclamation along the lines of: 'Ruth, this isn't like you, it's so clean!'.  Hmm.  I can flex my style!!  OK, so I had some nice papers I wanted to use...


The basis of this book is what I used to know as Deed Envelopes, back in the day.  They used to hold the Epitome of Title - the lord only know what they get used for now, with registered land!!  Anyway, a bunch of these envelopes, glued together correctly (manic laughter off - I struggled with the 'correctly' bit!) and then painted up, or, in my case, covered with some nice papers.  This gives you a nice pouch for 4" x 6" matts - and a further hidden pouch, under the flap, which will also take a 4x6.





Yes it is nice and neat - so far, but there is still plenty of inking and stuff that can be done to mess it up! 




The photos you can see here are of Eden, a place I love - quite appropriate, as it's just down the road from Menheniot.  The colours in the Thai silk pennants are 'my colours' and I think that their brightness contrasts nicely with the muted tones in the two paper stacks I used (DCWV Mariposa, and Cloud 9 Hannah's Story).   And butterflies are ALWAYS good.

So I will go through my photos of my two trips to Eden and fill this little photo book up, with a few extras of St Michael's mount and St Ives.  Seems only right for a Cornish book!

Hope you like!