Sunday 23 March 2014

Craft Barn Q&L - Flower

I don't know who is picking the words, but I do want to thank them!  I am digging out some fantastic albums albeit on the new fangled i-thingie...So this time, on the Q&L Challenge, we had a choice of Flower or Travel - I had a great one for Travelling - but I am not allowed to conjugate, apparently (thank the lord...), so I went for Flower, and came up with Children's Crusade, by Sting.

The children of England would never be slaves
They're trapped on the wire and dying in waves
The flower of England face down in the mud
And stained in the blood of a whole generation
 
Midnight in Soho, Nineteen eighty four
Fixing in doorways, opium slaves
Poppies for young men, such bitter trade
All of those young lives betrayed
All for a Children's Crusade
 
I also thought it was quite apt because this year is the centenary of the start of the First World War. 


So, I am still going for A3.  The background is a variety of Distress Stains, aiming for the darkness of the battlefields, highlighting the edge of trenches.  It fades down to green with the graves in the foreground.
 
Over on the right I have my Soho bar, and a few syringes lying in the doorway.
 
 
 
I also made up a decoupaged poppy, to link the two scenes.  I used Viva Precious Metal paint in Crimson, and it is pretty heavy in the mica stakes!
 
I wanted the writing to be in white, but I am going to have to try even MORE ranges of so called markers.  I ended up using sharpies, as they worked fine on the Distress Stain.  Didn't have a white one. That will have to be rectified!!
 
Hope you like!
 
 
 
Resources
 
Substrate
Centura Pearl
 
Inks and Paints
Distress Stain: Vintage Photo, Black Soot, Frayed Burlap, Weathered Wood, Picket Fence, Old Paper
Archival Ink: Jet Black
Brilliance: Starlite Black
Viva Precious Metal Colour: Crimson
Liquitex Basics: Mars Black, Titanium White
 
Stamps
Papermania: Build a poppy
Craft: Art Nouveau numbers
 
Bling and other stuff
Sakura Pens
Sharpies

Sunday 9 March 2014

Q&L Craft Barn Challenge - Road

The challenge from the Craft Barn this time was Road - this one wasn't at all difficult!  As anyone who reads my Facebook page would know, I am mad, verging on hysterical, about delAmtri, and Justin Currie in particular.  So, it had to be:

Be my downfall, be my great regret, be the one girl that I'll never forget
Be my undoing, be my slow road to ruin tonight

Be My Downfall is possibly one of my favourite songs ever.  But don't get me started...



So, back to several old faithfuls on this.  I started off with my brushos - incredibly intense watercolour pigment, which I blotted off to get a sunset sort of a feeling.  Then out with the lovely Clarity masks, London and rooftops.  If you look closely you'll see a few too many London Eyes in there!!



I added a road for the bus, and then realised that the 'tail-lights have gone out of sight' so, didn't need it!

I stamped out my letters using various fonts, and added some handwriting, including the attribution.  It needed a frame, and the Dyanne Reavely circles reminded me of the tail lights, so went with those.

Hope you like!


Resources

Paint and ink
Brusho colours - whoops - tidied them away!
Distress Ink: Chipped sapphire, Black soot, Walnut stain
Archival: Hydrangea, Red Geranium
Brilliance: Mineral
Big and Juicy: Waterfall

Stamps
ClarityStamp: Letterbox alphabet
Stampotique - Amy Wilson Alphabet
Dylusions: Around The Edge DYR34421
Hero Arts: Printers Type lower case
Artemio: Helvetica/Ariel? Upper case

Bling and other stuff
Cosmic Shimmer Mist: Pearl, Astral Mystery, Bronze Blush
ClarityStamp: ClarityMask - London, Rooftops
Copper marker pen
Black fine liner

Saturday 8 March 2014

Wire wrapping

I am intrigued by wire wrapping. I need to get myself a stronger jig, I think, but not bad for a first attempt!

A glass bead wrapped with .4mm copper wire


1mm copper wire.  Got a bit more guts for bending!

Another glass bead - the hole was so big all the smaller beads I was using for decoration slipped inside!

 


Think these are my favourite!  Using the .4mm wire, lightly hammered, then wrapped with more .4mm with beads threaded on, using rose gold ear hooks.

 
 An attempt at a bangle.  The idea's Ok, but more practice required!


Sunday 2 March 2014

Calendar Challenge - Kathryn Wheel

Well it's March already.  It's still flippin' cold here tho, but I do spy some green shoots out there, t'other side of the glass.  You don't think I'd be going OUT there?  Are you mad?!!


















Anyway, Kate Crane's Calendar challenge beckons, so I set to, with some of the gorgeous JOFY limited edition paints.  mmmm.  I got JOFY's Bloom and Grow stencil out too, and used some more paint.  While I was at it, I stencilled, using the bubbles mask, also PaperArtsy, but Lin Brown this time.





I stamped my circles for the days using a measuring cup, and coloured in the Saturdays and Sundays with a little mica powder - it needed bling...


Then out with other JOFY stamps, for the daisy, the butterfly, dragonfly and bunting. A little distress marker colouring in, and more mica powder!

Hope you like!

Resources

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy: Dolly Mix, Dusty Teal
Archival Ink: Jet Black, Deep Purple
Distress ink: Mowed lawn, Picked Raspberry
Distress markers: Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves

Stamps
PaperArtsy: JOFY13, JOFY14

Bling and other stuff
LuminArte: Iridescent blue
PaperArtsy Stencils: Lin Brown PS001, JOFY PS008
Sakura Jelly roll pens: Various

Q&L - Age - Don't stand so close to me

Hi all, time to upload my entry for the Craft Barn Q&L challenge which is marriage (not doing THAT one) or age.  I opted for The Police, Don't stand to close to me, which contains the lyric:

Inside her, there's longing, this girl's an open page. 
Book marking, she so close now, this girl is half is age
This was fun, and I was very glad of the A3 layout!  Started with colouring the centura pearl (non-shiny side) with layers of distress stains.

I created the depth with pretty much a PaperArtsy fest!  There's lines (which made me think of an exercise book from my school days), there's text, the numbers around the edge, and that great circle, which looks spookily like vinyl...  The pen nibs are a very old clearly impressed stamp - I may have to use that more, I think.  And the ferny bits around the bus stop are a Claritystamp.

Whilst searching through the stamp stash, I found that lovely 'longing' stamp - she does look significantly younger than him, and also the 'serious charge against a gentleman' which tied in nicely with 'the accusations fly'.


When I wrote out the lyrics, I tried to make 'her side', the orange side, more standard school handwriting, and the green side, his side, a bit more grown up, in fact like mine, so not grown up at all!



Hope you like!


Resources

Substrate: Centura Pearl

Paints and Inks
Distress stain: Dried Marigold, Tattered Rose, Wild Honey, Bundled Sage, Frayed Burlap, Evergreen Bough
Archival Ink: Watering Can, Potting Soil, Fern Green, Orange Blossom
Distress Ink: Pumice Stone
Distress markers (various)

Stamps
Clearly Impressed: J6221 - Writing set
ClarityStamp: Hedgerow flower bunch
PaperArtsy: Background 6 BG6, At home 2, Gentleman Plate 1, Hot Picks HPXT01, HP1102

Bling and other stuff
No bling!  Again!