A Heart of Twigs

I have been having a fantastic and very messy time playing along with the very lovely and talented Junelle Jacobsen as she takes us on a journey of Wild Abandonment!! This is a three week on-line art journaling course which you can find here. There are so many amazing ideas and techniques its hard to know where to start, but I am really happy with these pages that I made last night.

I am using an old cookery book and having removed some of the pages, and gessoed  the beginning of the book, I am loving every moment that I'm getting messy.

Junelle has a beautiful blog, and there are just the most wonderful pictures of lambs from her farm on there at the moment.

A Sneaky Peek

This is just a very short post with a sneaky peek of my second project as guest designer over at The Artistic Stamper Creative Team.

If you would like to see more please pop over to their blog, where there are some great ideas and inspiration to be found.

A Little Ruffled

Another great technique this week over at Grungy Monday (can't believe its number 38!) where the lovely Linda has asked us to make something using the method Tim Holtz has used for his 2nd Tag of Christmas 2007. You can find full details on his blog here.
I messed up about 6 tags before I got one where I was happy with the painty embossing stuff, so that 's why I'm actually having a Grungy Friday.

After the embossing bit, using one of the first stamps I ever bought (that lovely Stampers Anonymous tree), I coloured my tag with Weathered Wood, Stormy Sky and Broken China Distress Stains and stamped the birds from the Anthology set by Tim using Archival Ink so it would stay put over the embossing. The stamped words are from the Stuff to Say set. 

To finish off my tag I used some Salvage Stickers, mini photo film, and tiny attacher staples to fix this to the tag. I made a tissue tape ruffle and wound some twine around this before attaching an Ideology button.

March 366 Journal

Kate Crane's 366 Journal challenge is such a brilliant idea, and a great way to journal a bit each day. A week of March has almost gone, so time to put the finishing touches to my pages for this month.   I must admit I'm writing in my pages  at the end of the month, but for March there are some days coming up which are hidden under a small tab.

I used  one of my favourite colour combinations of turquose and green this month. Actually this page hasn't quite worked out as planned, but with a bit of collage first aid I think I've rescued it. The gessoed pages have been sprayed with Dylusions ink sprays  and then I've stamped onto the background using Archival ink. The collage elements are images and some lovely handmade paper from Artchix.

The small tag covering 17th and 20th of March is made using a resist method. I stamped the Wendy Vecchi tree onto an ATC using white acrylic paint, and used Distress Inks to colour the background.

There are some little blobs of lime green acrylic ink and mist from the spray inks that have landed by accident on the tree flap, but I think I'm OK with that.

 I have again had feline help, so am posting a couple of pictures of Professor Schroedinger aka Ding Ding and Princess Matilda Tanglepaws aka Tilly. I'd feel a right numpty calling out their posh names!

Tilly (Seal Point Ragdoll)

Ding Ding ((very tired after getting crafty)Seal Point Tabby Ragdoll)

More Pink Pinecones!

Help. I think I've got an addiction, but it's not a bad one really. Somehow I just can't stop making those little roses from my Tattered Pinecones die, and now have a little box just full of roses and rose buds in varying shapes and sizes.  Luckily for me I can use some of them in the challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show this week, which is Bottles.  I had a little think and came up with the idea of using an Art Part stand to make a table to put my bottles (which make handy vases for my roses) on.

First of all I  got some Ideolgy bottles from my stash and aged them following Wendy Vecchi's fabulous instructions. I used Matte Glue n' Seal  which to my impatient mind took forever to dry, and then Rock Candy Crackle paint, which took even longer to dry, but what a fantastic technique. It is so worth the wait.  I coloured the bottles with Stormy Sky and Peeled Paint Distress Stains and aged by working Coffe Archival Ink into the cracks.

Whle waiting for the glue and crackle paint to dry I assembled my Art Parts. I used the small spool from the sample pack (or is it a cake stand?). It's covered with Shabby Vintage paper, sanded the edges and Inked with Vintage Photo.I wound some leaf ribbon up the support and also wrapped some vintage lace around the base. 

The roses are also made from Shabby Vintage paper and inked on the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. To make the roses different sizes just roll up more tightly or loosely, and cut the spiral from the die cut paper to a shorter length. (I used some of the off cuts from the spirals to make individual petals).  The stems are made from rusty wire.

To finish off I used a tiny frame from Artchix that is aged with black acrylic paint that has partially dried and the is dabbed off with paper towel, the picture it is framing is from the Lost and Found paperstack. At the base I used a vintage pen nib aged in the same way, and scattered some of the individual petals around.  To give you an idea of scale the whole thing measures 6 inches from base to the top of the tallest rose.

Pink Pinecones

Roses and diamonds. What more could a girl want?

The theme at the Sunday Stamper this week is diamonds, so after several false starts and lots of changing of mind about a colour theme I have made a card, though it's definitely hand delivery only as its a bit dimensional.

I've used Vintage Photo Distress Ink to lightly colour my card and then applied some more through a diamond stencil, The lines were a bit hard so I softened it all up by spraying with water and blotting with kitchen towel. Next I stamped some little diamonds going the other way from the Mini Muse stamp set. The sentiment is from the Stuff to Say set also by Tim.

Next I got out my BigShot and cut out some Tattered Pinecones and some leaves from the Autumn Gatherings strip die. I used paper from my Vintage Shabby paperstack.
The edges of everything are lightly inked with Vintage Photo, and I then curled my pink pinecones very loosly and just glued the base with hot glue, so they unfurled and looked like roses.  The leaves are light green on the other side, and this is what I was going to use originally, but I liked the vintage dictionary better.

The card is finished off with some diamonds from Maya Road, and an Ideology bookplate.
Now I'm off to have a little wander around blogland as its raining and I'll just have to delay getting the lawn mower out today. Oh dear, what a shame!

Aaargh!!!

This is how I felt as I was trying to make my tag.  Tilly who is usually the well behaved of my two fluffy ragdoll cats decided that the only place she could possibly sleep today was on my desk. And lots of tiny bits of paper were just made for wafting round with her tail. If I put her out and shut the door she just miaowed until I let her back in, so I had to put up with feline assistance.
I was sad to hear that there will be no more 12 tags of Christmas, but 12 Tags of 2012 inspired by Tim Holtz's fabulous art work seems like an excellent substitute.

This months theme is mini paper mosaic. Tim has made a lovely butterfly themed tag. Unfortunately I don't have that die and having tried some drawing and cutting out, decided to use my Tattered Florals die and make some flowers instead.

I inked my tag with Tumbled Glass and Bundled Sage Distress Inks, and then stamped the foliage from the Urban Tapestry stamp set as my background. The edges of the tag are distressed and linked with Vintage Photo, and then I stamped the sentiment using Archival Ink.

The flowers are made following the butterfly instructions on Tim's blog, but I've used Old Paper Distress Embossing Powder as my grout. You can't see on the photo, but those little bits of paper covered with Glossy Accents glow like little jewels.
My tag is finished off with a tissue tape banner, and some leafy ribbon climbing up the edge.

Raven Mail

I 'm so excited to have been invited to be guest designer this month for The Artistic Stamper Creative Team . I have posted my first piece today and here is a little peek.

If you would like to see a bit more, pop by the Creative Team Blog, where you can find my collage on canvas.