Kathryn Wheel - Calendar Challenge June

Yes, late again...ah well.  This month (since I have started a new job, really) I have felt like I am chasing my tail, so I went with an Alice in Wonderland theme, mostly

'I'm late, I'm late for a very important date, no time to say 'Hello' - 'Goodbye'....'  Here are my two pages:































On Kate's last session at the Stamp Attic she made a comment along the lines of 'you don't have to start with gesso on your page, but if you don't, it's a bit like going out without your knickers.  It'll probably be OK, but you just don't know...'  So I started with gesso. In honour of flaming June, I went with a yellow and blue theme.  I dragged a hotel key card through some black paint too, just for a contrast.






When it was dry, I used a clock face mask, and a selection of Alice related stamps.

I die cut loads of pocket watches from card, and randomly stamped more of the Alice stamps on them.

Stuck them all down, and hey presto!

Hope you like

Resources

Ink and Paint

Liquitex basics: Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, Black
Winsor & Newton: Iridescent white
Distress Ink: Squeezed lemonade, Mustard Seed, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky, Mowed Lawn
Archival: Cobalt

Stamps
TJ Design: Wonderland Silhouettes
Deep Red: Mat Hatter Tea Party

Bling and other stuff
Pebeo Gesso
Tim Holtz Collection Layering Stencil: Clockwork
Tim Holtz Alterations Movers and Shapers: Mini Clock Key & Pocket Watch

Q&L - Music - Tiny Dancer

Hi all.  Time for the fortnightly quotes and lyrics challenge from the Craft Barn again.  This time it is Passion and Music - oh yes.  So, sticking to my 'I must have seen them live' criteria, I went for Tiny Dancer, by Elton John.  I think Madman Across the Water was the first album of his I bought, and I remember dancing round my bedroom to Tiny Dancer (and Indian Sunset... what a song, what an EPIC song...), I dreamt of marrying a music man...  That went well - NOT!  Anyway...

Blue Jean baby, LA Lady, seamstress for the band

Pretty eyed, Pirate smile, you'll marry a music man

Ballerina, you must have seen her dancing in the sand

 

Hold me closer Tiny Dancer

Count the headlights on the highway...

 

The Madman cover is embroidered denim, so I wanted to start with blue.  As I have been on a Kate Crane weekend (another one, at The Stamp Attic), and Kate does love a good colour wheel, I went with green. It had to be Dylusions!  I added a little Radiant Rain, for bling.

 

Dylusions reacts with water, so I used a mask or two and dabbed through it, with water, and with distress inks - that was a good effect!

Picking up on the seamstress idea, I used his Holtzness' blueprint stamps top and bottom, and reverted to handwriting (I must restart the calligraphy classes) the lyric.

 

Finally I added a couple of embellishments, a dress form, and some rain drops to act as headlights.  I love the way the glue soaks up the dylusions.

 

All in all, I'm pleased with it, so I hope you like!

 

 

Resources

 

Paint and Ink

Dylusions: White linen, After Midnight, London Blue, Polished Jade, Black Marble

Radiant Rain: Pearl Blue

Distress Ink: Black Soot, Stormy Sky

Archival Ink: Jet Black

 

Stamps

Stampers Anonymous: Mini Blueprints CMS150

 

Bling and other stuff

Tando Creative Mask: Music

That Special Touch Mask: Piano Keys

Studio 490/Blossom Bucket: Mannequin

Prima: Raindrops

Robins Nest Dewdrops: Fairy dust

Crafty Notions: Stellar Flash

Random Birthday Card

These days, I hardly ever make cards, there's always other things to do.  However, when it is a special birthday, for a special person, I do want to make the effort.  A certain someone is 60 this week - which just feels wrong on so many levels - I am clearly closing in on the same age too (a few years to go, but even so...).




I knew it couldn't be uber-blingy, and I knew it had to go through the post.  I wanted to make reference to the passing of the years...and all this led to a Kraft base card, with a little dry embossing and some mega flake.









I am a great believer that the birthday starts with the envelope, so that has a little stamping too, on the back, an aide memoire for how to open an envelope, and on the front, just a little advertisement that there's a birthday coming up.

Hope you like!  (Actually, hope he likes too!)


Resources

Substrate
American Crafts Kraft Card

Paint and ink
Distress Ink: Stormy sky, Tumbled glass, Walnut stain, Tea dye
Archival Ink: Potting soil, Manganese blue

Stamps
Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Collection: Mini Blueprints CMS 154
IndigoBlu: Wild Meadow WM1, Happy Birthday HB
VildaStamps: Time Flies V474

Bling and other stuff
Mega flake: Gin and Tonic
Flitter Glue
Triboss embossing folder: watches
Sakura Gelly roll pen: clear star

May - Kathryn Wheel Calendar Challenge

In an effort NOT to be late for the Kathryn Wheel challenge for May, here we go!!

 This one really is bling city...  The month and year are die cut, and then glued on.  Then, I started off with a wash of purple and then overpainted with some Byzantium (full of mica) and a bit of Alchemy (iridescent loveliness...).  When dry, I stamped some dots, some scripts and the ticket label outlines.

I die cut the tickets, distressing the edges of the weekdays, and stamping the weekends with the same ticket label as in the background, adding the numbers in blingy Brilliance ink.  The final touch was to add a group photo (happy boating men!) from Deviant Scrap (thanks for the link, Kate!!)

All glued down with redline tape!

Hope you like!

Resources

Paint and ink
Rico: purple
Stewart Gill Byzantium: Cerisanctum
Stewart Gill Alchemy: White Mist
Brilliance: Pearlescent Lavender, Galaxy Gold
Distress Ink: Seedless Preserves
Archival Ink: Deep Purple, Hydrangea

Stamps
Wendy Vecchi Studio 490: All About Art LCS011
Stampers Anonymous: Apothecary CMS138
ClarityStamp: Numbers set

Dies
Sizzix Alterations strip die: Ticket strip 656620, Inside Out 657827

Bling and other stuff
Cosmic shimmer dries clear

Q&L- Change - New England

The challenge from the Craft Barn crew this time was Truth and/or Change. I opted for change, as this songs takes me back to my school days.  Actually, it can't, as it was only released in 1983 (or 1984 if you go for the Kirsty McColl version) - I must have been imaging it my school days.  I was long gone by 1983! My song is 'New England' by Billy Bragg.

I don't want to change the world,

I'm not looking for New England,

I'm just looking for another girl

I love the end where he sings: 

Is it wrong to wish on space hardware, I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care

so I added that last line into the page.

  My school days were spent in Somerset.  With 20/20 hindsight, it was always sunny, the land was always lush, flowers bloomed permanently, never a care in the world.  I guess that may be why I keep returning to fairly verdant landscapes.  And watercolours.  May have to do some proper watercolour classes, before long, I guess. 

 

For this one, I used (for the first time) my inktense blocks, finely grated onto damp watercolour paper.  I used a very wet brush to create my fields and sky, and dabbed some of this off to create depth, and added more, by stamping hedgerow type foliage when it was dry, at the front, in archival ink.

 

I also stamped some butterflies, again because of the change reference, but also because I remember our garden being full of butterflies.

 

I am still struggling with white.  This time I opted for some liquitex acrylic ink, with a fine paintbrush.  It's still not as white as I would like, but at least it is there.  The others just soaked into the watercolour paper.  I did most of my colouring in with Pitt pens (india ink) - I like that you can see the archival through it, and it was still the colour on top of the inktense.

 

So thanks, Billy, for taking me back to an unreal world - I am happy with the memories that are created, so I don't want to change the world I have created in my head!

And....still managing to only use songs from people I have seen live!

 

Hope you like

 

 

Reosurces

 

Substrate Windsor and Newton Cotman Watercolour Paper

 

 

Paint and Ink

Derwent Inktense: various colours

Archival Inks: Fern Green, Sap Green, Jet Black, Hydrangea, Deep Purple, Leaf Green, Dandelion

Faber Pitt Pens

Liquitex Acrylic Ink: Titanium White

 

Stamps

PaperArtsy: HP1203EZ Botanical, HP1009 Happiness, HP1010 Poetry, HP1005 Take Flight

Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz Spring Sprung CMS084

Stampin' Up: Broadsheet Alphabet

 

Bling and other stuff

Sakura Gelly roll pen

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

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

Monthly Calendar - January

I went on one of Kate Crane's weekends last year, at the Stamp Attic, and really enjoyed it, so I have decided to have a go at doing Kate's Calendar Challenge this year - details are on her blog, The Kathryn Wheel.  I am going to start off slow and steady, so I don't burn out too early!  I am rubbish at diaries and the like, and have trouble doing anything regular, like even keeping my accounts up to date... oh dear.

I found this lovely book in Paperchase.  The paper quality is just fantastic, and I like the craft (or Kraft) covers, which I will decorate at some point.  The pages are c 9 1/2 inches square, or 24 cm.  Slightly cream or ivory.  But , oh so thick!









I decided January had to be green - my garden is sooooo lush - I don't mean that in a bristolian sense, more a verdant sense!  All the rain, already!  So the main part of the background is dylusions sprays, in cut grass, fresh lime and then some pure sunshine (I wish).  It wasn't quite what I was after, so I added a little white linen, which provides a little mistiness in the background.

Then out with the stencils, I love the Tando harlequin trellis, it's great.  Then Tim's Bubbles, with Picket Fence distress stain.  And an umbrella or three from the lovely Mr Skinner - very appropriate!

Then I stamped my hedgerow in - cow parsley, I think. First and second generation in two colours of Archival ink.  I also stamped the small bird from the same set on a separate piece of card, and attached it top right.

Elsewhere on this blog, I mentioned that I discovered pearlescent acrylic ink - still loving it!  Probably could have done with the Jan being a little more black, but I still like it.  There's a little doodling in black micron pens, a tippex pen, and a glittery sakura pen.

Then I drew my grid for the calendar entries.

Right, first (and only!) resolution of the year - do this every month!

Hope you like!







Resources

Paint and Ink
Dylusions: White Linen, Pure Sunshine, Fresh Lime, Cut Grass
Archival: Monarch Orange, Sepia
Distress Ink: Mowed Lawn
Distress Stain: Picket Fence
Daler Rowney FW Pearlescent Ink: Black

Stamps and Masks
Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz - Nature's Moments CMS001, Bubbles THS002
Tando Creative: Harlequin
Andy Skinner for Tando Creative: Accessories

Bling and other stuff
Tipp-ex pen
Micron pens
Sakura Gelly Roll pen, glittery pink

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

Orange, Red and Yellow - Tando Creative

I am honoured to have been asked to create some items for Tando this month.  It's my first time as a designer for someone, so please, I'd be grateful for any feedback!

So this week's theme is Orange, Red And Yellow.  Immediately I saw this, I had a vision of a Russian icon...a triptych, if you will! 

I started with the Triple Arch Layered Frame, but I wanted to make it more dimensional.  Instead of layering the three cut-outs on top each other and on top of the base, I wanted to layer one cut-out on each side of the base, and create a pair of buttresses so it could be freestanding. I used a couple of the inner arches, cutting them in half.








I scraped modelling paste through a mask over the cut-outs, and set aside to dry.

Everything was then painted, both sides with DecoArt paint, using light buttermilk, Quinacridone Gold and Transparent Red Iron Oxide. 






















While it was drying I stamped my images onto tissue paper using Versafine ink.  Then that was dry, I painted the back of the images with cosmic shimmer watercolour paint in Rich Gold.


 When everything was dry, I stuck the tissue paper images down, and then glued the arch cutout over the top on one side.  I clamped it and went off to do something else.  When it was dry, I turned it over, and did the other side.  When THAT side was dry, I added the words (from Tim's chitchat stickers) and painted some persimmon H2O over the top of the whole thing, and glued my buttresses in place.  I used Inka gold on the edges and the modelling paste, then I lightly added some midnight gilding wax, to age it a little.  Here is the finished article!







Side 1











Side 2















Edgeways on, for the effect of the buttresses!










Resources

Substrate
Tando Creative - Triple Arch Layered Frame

Paint and Ink
DecoArt Americana: Light Buttermilk
DecoArt Traditions: Transparent Red Iron Oxide, Quin Gold
Versafine: Habanero, Satin Red

Stamps
PaperArtsy: Ancestors Plate 3 (ANC3), Ancestors Plate 1 (ANC1), Clockwork Birds (HP1107EZ), Enjoy the Good things (HP1206EZ)
Darkroom Door: Art De Fleur Vol 2

Bling and Other Stuff
Inka Gold: Gold  (there are other colours!!)
Creative Expressions Gilding Wax: Midnight
Luminarte H2Os: Persimmon
Cosmic Shimmer Watercolour Paint: Rich Gold
DecoArt: Modelling Paste, Faux Finishing Medium
Crafters Workshop: Mini Tile Texture
Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Chitchat stickers