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

Eye of the Tiger?

No, not another music page, but some jewellery I made, this time for myself.  I love Tiger's eye, mainly because I remember my mum wearing the most preposterous cocktail ring, which she got out in the Gulf.  Unfortunately, when I got burgled a few years back, this was one of the things that disappeared.  Completely irreplaceable, but I can use the same stone and give a little smile to myself...




Anyway...  Because I NEED to have my glasses on a chain ('on and off more often than a whore's drawers', as my mum used to say..) necklaces don't really feature, but glasses chains do! This is where I started, combining organza ribbon, suede and rose gold findings with a couple of red tiger's eye beads.

Then I moved to the bracelet, same components, but with rose gold chain too.

The earrings use the rose gold findings with tiger's eye beads.






Finally, the brooch - lots and LOTS of tiger's eyes, mounted on copper coloured wire, with some wire coiled on the gizmo, and included within the design.  Thanks to Louise Jacobsen for the idea, from her wirework course at Jewellery Maker last week.  She used this for a ring, but it works brilliantly for a brooch.

Q&L: Fame - Life's been good

Hi there!  The challenge this fortnight was Unique and/or Fame.  I was struggling, then the good old iPod did it again...  Life's been Good by the Eagles (or Joe Walsh), and yes, I have seen them a couple of times!  I'll be able to stick all my old ticket stubs into the book at the end of this!  So here is the verse:

It's tough to handle this fortune and fame

Everybody's so different, I haven't changed

It's a difficult one to illustrate, this, so I didn't!  I went for abstract.

My A3 substrate this time was watercolour paper.  Because I wanted to move the acrylic about on the paper, I gave it a coating of Matt Medium (which I managed to squirt all over my trousers, my T-shirt, the floor, before I got it on the paper...), and then used the Eclectica limited edition Paper Artsy paints in blocks, with a smidge of Nougat, for graduation. 

My Kate Crane/Kathryn Wheel stamps turned up yesterday, so I used two half circles on the lower edge, and outlined them in white. 

In keeping with the fame theme, I stamped stars in metallic Brilliance around the edge, leaving a gap for the words.

Added the words, and details of the song/band, and hey presto!

Hope you like!

Resources

Substrate
Winsor and Newton Cotman Water colour paper

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy: Tikka, Chartreuse, Chutney, Nougat
Distress Ink: Black Soot
Brilliance: Mineral

Stamps
Hero Arts: Life of the Party Stars

Bling and other stuff
Edding 751 creative: White Marker
Pitt Calligraphy pens: Black
Winsor and Newton: Acrylic Matt Medium

First Jewellery Commission!!

The other week my sister sent me some beads, and said 'make me a bracelet and earrings with these'...OK.  Chums on FB seemed to like them, and so I got a commission, 'something like that, but really dark purple'...  Hmm.  So, trawled through a few bead shops (now, THERE was a hardship) and used a couple of techniques from Louise's wire-working class at Jewellery Maker last week, and came up with...  (the flash wasn't right... better piccies below...)

The bangle on Memory wire is agate beads - big ones - with flash silver spacer beads.








The link bracelet, with matching earrings, was a bit more interesting.  I made the enhanced figure 8 links from silver plated wire, and attached 'charms' to them.

I used head pins and eye pins to hold the beads, which are a mix of onyx, tourmaline, and agate.

The clasp is also silver flash.






Matching earrings with tourmaline and agate, on 925 silver shepherds crooks.

One small matchbox made with a Sizzix die, and 3 gems...Voila!  My first commission - one happy customer, and maybe the start of actually USING and selling what I buy, rather than stroking it!!

Hope you like!

Swarovski bracelets

I have to say, I have another addiction forming....  Swarovski crystal kits... oh dear...






It all started fairly innocently with a simple magatama bead bracelet kit















...and before I knew it I was trying a ring kit














then I tried a Catherine Wheel necklace, this time with some right angle threading
















Then a flat rope bracelet using the Swarovski crystals, and another, this time with some amazing Jet AB magatama...






HELP!!!!!


I'm not sure that vodka is any less dangerous...


With thanks to Shiney Rocks - they are WAY too local....!!

Q&L - Knowledge - Two Roads by Chris Rea

This fortnight's challenge from the Craft Barn was Knowledge and/or Hurt.  Took me a bit of a while to find a song from someone I have seen live, that I wanted to do... then I came across Two Roads by Chris Rea, and I have no idea why I didn't think of it straight away!  This was on the 'On the Beach' album (yes vinyl...) and I saw Chris live probably 5 times during 86/87.  I even got his signature on one of my programmes... Oh yes, I started my stalking career many years ago!

So, Two Roads, and the lyric goes like this:

Ain't it funny how you never can tell? 

It always seems to hit you when it's going so well

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Now it's lawyers at midnight and the learning begins

 

I put my old favourite Centura Pearl through the big shot in an embossing folder, then used Distress ink across it, to highlight the texture. There are several layers of stamping across the top of the texture, to add a bit more depth. 

 

I took a couple of book pages (knowledge, after all, comes in books!), and used some watered down acrylic, before I stamped the lyric on the pages.

 

I gave the page an 'edge' with my Pitt pens, just to finish it off.

 

Hope you like!

 

Resources

Substrate: Centura Pearl
 

Paint and Ink

Distress ink: Worn Lipstick, Stormy Sky, Evergreen Bough, Iced Spruce
Archival Ink: Cornflower Blue, Cobalt, Venetian Orange, Tree Branch
PaperArtsy: South Pacific, Snowflake

Stamps
Katzelkraft: Woodgrain
Hero Arts: Music Background CG479, Printer's type lower case LL762
Artemio: Roman capital peg stamps


Bling and Other Stuff
Sue Wilson A4 embossing folder
Faber Castell Pitt Pens: various
 

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

April - Kathryn Wheel Calendar challenge

Over half way through April, and I finally do my Calendar page!  Busy month...  Anyway, here are my pages.

 

I started by painting the pages with fairly runny gesso, and then brushing through with two shades of green, with added iridescent shimmer (not enough, methinks).

While the paint was still wet, I used a plastic tube to make circles/bubbles, some right through to the white, and some through as far as the lime green.

I cut the card for the pockets, and while still flat, stamped the decoration in archival ink.  I used red line tape to stick them down.  I used the same card to cut the daily ribbons from, and numbered them for April, adding SAT and SUN (so I could work out which go in which pocket).

I doodled (yes freehand DOODLED!) April, with a little very basic zentangle - it's not really my thing. And then, out with the various white pens to add a little perspective to some of the bubbles.

Hope you like!








Resources

Paint and Ink
PaperArtsy: Limelight
DecoArt Traditions: Phthalo Green-Blue
Windsor & Newton: Iridescent white
Pebeo Studio White Gesso
Archival Ink: Jet Black, Dandelion, Sap Green

Stamps
Prima: Stationer's Desk, Finnabair dots

Bling and other stuff
Faber Castell Pitt pens - Various
Pilot super colour pen - White
Sakura gelly roll - Starlight

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

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

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

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!