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

Q&L - Miss

Hi there!  This fortnight's Quotes and Lyrics from the Craft Barn challenge is 'Miss'.  I have loved Elton John's music for ever, and one of his earliest hits just came rushing at me for this:

I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife, it's lonely out in space on such a timeless flight

and of course, it gave me a change to go mad on the bling front!

This year, my book is A3, so I do have masses of space to go large.  I used as my base the shiny side of centura pearl, and painted it with water, before spraying it with several colours of Dylusions.

I cut a circle out for my earth, using the hole as a stencil to rub some iridescent blue luminarte powder through, extending it slightly larger, to give my 'earth' a corona.  The earth was painted up with fresco finish paints, and then sprayed with goosebumps, to make it a bit bobbly.

I stamped that lovely Tim Holtz lady in archival, and then smooshed her through some watered down distress ink, doing the same sort of thing for the words, only in this case, the DI was watered down with cosmic shimmers.



















It's hard to believe that this single was released in 1972 - OMG...

Hope you like!



Resources

Paint and ink
Archival ink: Cobalt, Cornflower Blue
Distress Ink: Dusty Concord, Stormy Sky
Dylusions: London Blue, Vibrant Turquoise, Black Marble, After Midnight
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish: Pea Coat, Toad Hall, Hyde Park, Nougat

Stamps
Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz: Classics no 5 SCF005

Bling and other stuff
Goosebumps
Luminarte: Iridescent blue
Cosmic Shimmer Mist: Pearl, Astral Mystery

Back to class... The Art Society - Soar

Hi there.  I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions, but I have been thinking that I would like to do more different things, learn more, try more, and most of all, use some of the stash!! 

I have always been interested in Christy Tomlinson's style, and when I saw she was doing an online class this year, I thought 'Aha, that's for me!'  So, along with Kate Crane's calendar challenge, and The Craft Barn Quote's and Lyrics challenge...hmm...we shall see, and a few classes with Kate and Andy Skinner, and I have to fit Just Scrapbooking in...Aaaargh!  But such fun...  I wonder, will I be able to fit work in?

It's not appropriate for me to do a step by step on this, but I will add a few photos.  It isn't a copy of Christy's but it is in the same style, but perhaps a little more blingy - of course!!



Just checking everything fits.



Painted book pages



Spellbinders dies cuts, sprayed, of course, with cosmic shimmers



Butterflies and peacock feathers!  Match made in heaven



 

Normally, pink would be my colour of choice, but...



...cream looked so much better!  Still needed some bling, tho

Just a touch of Alchemy on the butterflies, and on the letters...

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate: Liquitex 10 x 8 canvas, book pages,  Stampin' Up papers: Springtime Vintage

Paint and Ink
DecoArt Traditions: Prussian Blue
PaperArtsy: Pea Coat, Nougat
Archival Ink: Cobalt
Stewart Gill Alchemy: White Opal

Stamps and Dies
Stampotique: Amy Wilson Alphabet
Spellbinders: Peacock Feathers S4-429

Bling and other stuff
That special touch Mask: Butterfly
DecoArt Americana: Decoupage Matte
Daler Rowney: Glaze Medium
Cosmic Shimmers: Pearl, Twilight black

Twilight Canvas

I have had this post sat sitting in draft for a month or so.  I have had the canvas sat sitting on the side for a month too!  It needs a frame, and I think I may have found one, but I'll get this posted as is for now, and follow up with the frame...at some point...!

I picked up a 'paint your own canvas kit' recently in a sale.  I ummed and ahhhed for a bit, but thought that the mdf cutouts were probably worth the price on their own.  So I bought it, knowing I would do something with it at some point.  I also bought a magnolia version, which is still in the cupboard.







So, as you may know from elsewhere on this blog, a few months back, I attended a Kate Crane workshop, and I have her DVDs.  In Bold Backgrounds she uses Dylusions to create some pages, and I really liked the effect.  So...  the canvas was already primed, so I used three colours fairly close on the colour wheel, and sprayed liberally.  Then I cleaned up the work surface!  I had a tiny bit of two colours of Primary Elements left over in spray bottles, so they went on as well.


I used two stencils and sprayed water through, and a touch more ink.  I wanted to create a frame, so used the leaves stencil (also Dylusions) as I knew I had the matching stamps.  I scraped gesso through the stencil. Two things here.  One: the gesso was a little runny, so the edges aren't as sharp as they might have been.  Two: I suspect the base wasn't entirely dry (nothing new there!).  This meant that some of the dye got pulled up into the gesso, so it isn't bright white.  At the top, where it was on the African Midnight colour, it looks like I stamped with bleach!  A happy accident!

Then (and I did wait for the gesso to dry!) I stamped with the matching stamps around the edge.

Meanwhile, the dandelion clocks needed to be painted, so I mixed a dark green acrylic with black and slathered it on, making sure I got in between the petals.
















So far, so good.  Next step, the frame and joining the two things together!  Watch this space (but don't hold your breath...!)

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate: 12 x12 canvas
MDF flowers and leaf

Paint and Ink
Dylusions Ink Sprays: African Midnight, London Blue, Fresh Lime
Primary elements (in spray): Black Emerald, Wisteria (probably!)
Liquitex basics: Phthalo Green, Mars Black
Archival Ink: Jet Black, Olive, Fern Green,

Stamps
Dylusions: Around The Edge DYR34421, Doodle Parts DYR34582

Bling and other stuff
Pebeo white gesso
Dylusions Mask: Leaf Flourish small DYS38382
Tando Creative Mask: Harlequin MSKHRLQUIN
Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Bubble THS002

S is for...Craft Barn Challenge

Well, it's December!  Where did THAT go?!?  This fortnight the letter set by the Craft Barn Challenge is S.  So small a page, so many different things to get on there!!

I decided on S is for: Skyline, Smoke, Sisters, Shimmer, Stamp (of course!!), Stencil, and Stars.  Will my tag be big enough??!

I started by cutting a base of Centura Pearl, which would fold out.  I laid down a roof tops mask - oops, stencil, and then London skyline stencil, and smudged a little distress ink to give me a sunset.  I laid down the other half of both of those stencils to provide a dark outline.

I added tiny drops of stickles to be stars, almost shooting stars in the sky.



On a separate piece of card, I stamped my sisters in versafine, and painted over with Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints.  Definite Shimmer, or Shine!  This is attached to the front flap.

In my usual way, I added my definitions to the tag, which has the letter added, and it slides down between the base page and the picture.  This time I had to use BOTH sides of the tag!!

Hope you like!


Resources

Paint and Ink
Distress inks: Black Soot, Stormy Sky, Chipped Sapphire, Weathered Wood, Spiced Marmalade, Worn Lipstick
Versafine: Vintage Sepia
Brilliance: Mineral, Lightening Black

Stamps and Masks
ClarityMasks: Rooftops, London skyline
Darkroom Door: Friends Collage Stamp DDCS001
Amy Wilson: Alpha stamps

Bling and other stuff
Stickles: Star dust
Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour paints: lots of them!!

L is for...Craft Barn Challenge

Bit late this time, but here is my entry for the Alphabet challenge.

This week's letter was L, and I had to include a window.  Went for something fairly straight forward, which is Landscape - which seemed appropriate for a pair of French doors!

Having cut the card to allow for the 'doors', I masked off the windows, and then, out with the trusty brayer.  I created the hillocks with various shades of Adirondack, and some torn paper.

the sky was done in the same way, with the sun, distress ink mixed with cosmic shimmers (of course!!)

All the stamps are Clarity - the trees are all brilliant!

Hope you like!

Resources

Paint and ink
Adirondack: Juniper, Lake Mist, Lettuce, Stonewashed
Big and Juicy: Waterfall
Distress ink: Mustard Seed
Archival (Wendy Vecchi): Potting Shed, Fern Green

Stamps
Clarity:  trees, 3 different ones!

Bling and other stuff
Cosmic Shimmer: Pearl mist

Glitter for little girls!

I made this for one of my colleagues at work, well, more specifically for her little girl.  We were talking about how girls do gravitate to pink after a while, and I felt the need to do something in pink!

So here is the door hanger I made for Rosie.

Back (or front?)





















Front (or back)?

The background colours are mainly Distress Inks, and I used a stencil or two. 












I stamped and embossed the fairies and the word, and distressed the edges.  I added the foam letters, and then over painted with some lovely Galactica paint.  Have I mentioned I love this paint?  So much, I had to buy some other colours...  mmmmm.














On the other side of the hanger, I added loads and loads of flowers, which I had sprayed with cosmic shimmers, and some diamanté sparkles.  And another coat of the Galactica. Just in case there wasn't enough glittery stuff on it...

Hope you like, and more to the point, I hope Rosie likes...





Resources

Substrate: Stamps Away: Door hanger
IndigoBlu: Perfect Stamping card

Paint and Ink:
Distress Ink: Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick, Iced Spruce
Archival: Jet black
Stewart Gill: Galactica: Flamenco

Stamps and Masks
Lavinia: Fairies and words
Tim Holtz: stars
Dylusions: leaf flourish

Bling and other stuff
Stewart Gill Embossing power: Interference Red
Cosmic Shimmers: Pearl mist
Perfect Pearls spray: Interference Red
Prima Flowers: Essentials no 9
Stampin' Up: stick on gems
Papermania: Alphaminis

J is for...Craft Barn Challenge

In my world, J is for the green-eyed god: Jealousy, Jade and Jewels. 

I got out my melt pot, and made some jewels with various colours of UTEE.  I think I made a fairly muddy fire opal, a piece of dark jade and maybe a ruby or a garnet...  I did discover that a tiny pot of Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder with glitter in it is GORGEOUS, and I wish I had a bigger pot!

I reverted to my standard card, Centura Pearl and stamped two eyes, not a pair!  They have been coloured with watercolour pencils, making the eyes really green. 

The background was done with wax watercolour crayons, and a waterbrush.

When the Jewels were cool, I glued them to the background, and created my tag in the usual way, and glued on the definitions.  The ribbon or yarn is a fantastic yarn I bought back along, and is not yet calling to me with any particular pattern!

Hope you like!

Resources

Ink and Paint
Archival Ink: Watering Can
Pentel Arts Aquash wax crayons
Faber Castell Colour Grip watercolour pencils

Stamps
Stampers Anonymous: Classics #5 SCF005

Bling and other stuff
UTEE - Mixture of Cosmic Shimmer and Ranger Clear
Crafty Notions Jewel Tones: Ruby Red
Cosmic Shimmers: Lapis Black Aurora, Bright Gold, Silver Shine, Tropic Pearl, Steel Blue Aurora
Best Flexible Molds: Caboshapes1 (PJ038)
Karantha mold: Square Pyramid, Cabochon

Larger Than Life - Tando Creative

The only guidance for this week's challenge for the Tando Creative blog was bigger pieces rather than minis.  Well, this take on a dream catcher measures 30" from top to bottom!  Biggest thing I have ever done!

I started with 3 sheets of 12x12 Tando chipboard, and two metal rings, 12" and 7" diameter.  I used a couple of different star dies to cut the stars out of the card, and then painted them up to give them a good base coat.

Then I blinged them up, with mica (what else?!) and when that was dry, I used a star mask, with translucent embossing paste.  When that dries, it is amazing the effect it has on the paint and mica below.  It pulls the mica up into itself, and holds it in suspension, almost.

(the difference between the embossing paste when it's wet (white in the picture above) and dry - clear in the picture on the left is amazing!)

I had this silver furry ribbon in my stash, along with the beaded wire.  I glued the stars together, trapping the silver 'fur' in between the two layers, and then wound the excess round the rings.











I then wound the beaded wire over the top of the fur, which will hold the tinsel in place, and also used it to create a hanging loop at the top.

The smaller stars hanging from the bottom had the same treatment, but with slightly different colours.  When dry, they were glued together, trapping the end of the tinsel in between.

One (large) post-modern dream catcher!  (or a Christmas decoration, perhaps)

Hope you like!











Resources

Substrate
Tando Creative chipboard sheets
Metal rings

Dies
Sizzix Originals: Stars#2 654995
Sizzix Alterations Bigz: Star Bright 3D 658265
Sizzix Big Shot Pro

Paint and ink
IndigoBlu English Cottage Acrylic paint: Grandma's Teacup, Park Lane
Adirondack Paint Dabber: Silver

Bling and Other Stuff
Crafters Workshop Mask: 12x12 Punchinella
Dreamweavers embossing paste: Translucent
Luminarte Primary Elements: Majestic, Wisteria
Cosmic Shimmers Mica pigments: Silver
Perfect Pearls Mist: Interference Red