Bird man!

So I was working on this straight after finishing bird shed as the two are linked.  As I said not only was the shed to store the bird feed but it's also a bird hide so that husband can get closer to the birds and record his weekly count for the British Ornithology Society Garden BirdWatch.  He does this every Sunday morning usually with the help of one of the cats who likes to come into the shed with him!

Husband isn't usually this Grizzly Adams like, but he was acting in Victorian thriller and needed to have mutton chop whiskers.  I hate it when he grows a beard, so was really happy when if came off and I got my less hairy but a bit of 5oclock shadow is quite sexy husband back!

Same size (11x11") and pretty much the same colour scheme and elements (they were all out the desk, so my not use them up!) I've added in some red with the fabric and Distress Ink to pick up the red of husbands bobble hat.  Really rather like the white splatters which echo the grungy stencilled circles which echo the Grunge Paste stencilling!

Right it might be time to move away from the green colour scheme. 

hugs

Jo

xx

Bird Shed

So my husband is a bit of a bird man, not the human kind I hasten to add, no the feathered variety. We have some many bird feeders in our garden that we have to have a huge (and I mean huge) delivery of bird food stuff virtually every month.  In fact it's so much that it was decided it needed its own shed that could also double as a bird hide for my very own Bill Oddie!

Homework was done and a suitable shed identified, purchased and delivered. and one weekend husband and brother put it up.  I kept well out of the way as I knew there would be a clash of egos (no, you should do it like this, no it should go like that - you know what I mean) and I figured my input would only antagonise not soothe the situation,

So now we are the proud owners of a bird shed and as you can see its fairly well hid under the plum tree so makes an excellent bird hide.

It makes him very happy and that makes me happy!

The background 12x12" card had plenty of texture added with a thin layer of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste mixed with Guacamole Fresco paint, whilst it was still wet I gently pushed a piece of hessian into it to give more texture (you can see that hessian under the photo).  More green PaperArtsy Fresco paints were added along with Glimmer Mists.

Stencilling with Hyde Park Fresco paint and stamping with Ink & the Dog Mini 59 in Green Fern Archival Ink. Lots of distressing and sanding and Walnut Ink and Peeled Paint Distress Inks to highlight the distressing and sanding on the edges.

The embellishments are as you can see are lots of fabric, tags, book text paper, chipboard, staples and the lovely little mini bird from Hot Picks 1103. I used the the small songbird die to cut the shape before stamping. 

The photo is of husband and bro adding the roof and if you look carefully you can see some finger pointing from my bro!   

The photo had filters and layers added in Pixlr and I really sanded it around the around the edges. I added some Walnut Stain Distress Ink and spritzed with water, but because its a home printed photo the inks ran when I wiped the edges with a baby wipe!  I thought "oh %$$^&*!, but actually I think it looks OK with the smudging.  

Bit like an old 1970's Polaroid picture that's faded and got crumpled in the back of the drawer and squint at it because you can't quite make out what it is but you can vaguely remember it being taken and going "oh yes that was the weekend we put the bird shed up, do you remember ?"

Hugs
Jo
xx

Peeling Wallpaper

Well i was supposed to be tidying the craft room and perhaps finishing some started projects. I didn't though because I made this from scratch instead (and possibly made some more mess).

Whilst moving the piles of paper and card and canvases and photos that are in a pile on the floor I found a square piece of cartridge paper that had a little bit I think of Blush PaperArtsy fresco paint on it.

I love distressed old decaying stuff whether that be rusty metal, peeling paint, weathered wood or peeling wallpaper, faded flowers. Even possibly bones, but I draw the line at decaying food though. 

So, lets see if we could replicate some peeling wallpaper.

I added some Sherbet and then some Nougat through a stencil (small squares) and finally some Sage through another stencil (flowers). Base layer done.

Next I smeared some Matt Medium over the paper and stuck down a couple of pages from my old trusty Thesaurus (best £5 I ever spent), let it dry for a bit and then started ripping it away. a finger nail really helps to get a little bit and then rip - just like peeling wallpaper! 

Now some sanding.  I'm quite brutal with my sanding as I want to take layers off to reveal the paint layers and the base layer of cartridge paper.  I also had a real go at the edges as well.  A thin layer of Snowflake was added with a babywipe over the text and then Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Ink.  Spraying it with water helps it to really sink into the base layer of paper and add that depth of decay.

By now I'd thought about what I was going to do with this creation.  It needed a photo and it needed some backing Kraft card as it was going in one of picture frames that I have going up the stairs.  I have a number of picture frames with large A4 prints of my flower photos and I'd been thinking for a while I needed to change the photos.  

The Kraft card has some Snowflake paint wiped on with a babywipe.  Some heavy sanding again to rough up the texture of the card. Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain Distress Inks added and some text from PaperArtsy Sara Naumann plate 5  added in the Distress Inks again.

The Photo is one of mine. I distressed the edges and the corners with the Prima Distressing tool (I love this tool). Added Walnut Stain Distress Ink to the edges and used the babywipe that still had some of the Snowflake paint on it to soften the image and make it a bit opaque, but I wiped away over the pinkest flower head to give a focal point and draw the eye in.

Some file tabs, dyed lace, more Sara Naumann stamps and of course stitching to finish it off. 

Ok, off to check the cricket score and possibly move the pile of stuff in the craft room into another slightly different pile of stuff! That's tidying isn't it?

Hugs

Jo

xx

 

Variation on a theme

Sometimes you feel on a roll, you've got so many ideas on how you want to incorporate different techniques and designs with the same elements and colours.  You can t put it all on one piece so you create another one (and possibly another one) the same but slightly different.  You like one element of the first piece so much, you want to use it again and gain but with slight difference.

This is an example of that excitement "I want to make another one, but this time ...."

Its the same photo as A study in white, but this time I used sand texture paste again, but also book text, mulberry bark and silk as the textures.  Oh and its in a frame.

 

This is destined for the hoped for Etsy shop, I figure I'll make a small number of pieces and then set up the shop- gosh what a new adventure!

Right off to Hollowell Steam and Heavy Horses Rally today with my bro.  Opportunities for more photos of mechanical things and horses and possibly donkeys.  There will probably be a tool stand as well that might have some rusty old tat (fingers crossed) as my Dad would say.

Hugs

Jo

xx

A study in white, but not pure white!

So the challenge from Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge team was white. Well that appealed to me as I love working in monotone.

I started with a sheet of 12x12" white textured card, which I painted in SnowFlake Fresco and then sprayed with Slate and Sage Glimmer Mists.  This made it grey, so I added brayered layers of white gesso over that to bring it back to a dirty white!

I then added sand texture paste on the bottom half, really roughly making sure there were lines running through it to add more texture.  Once this was dry I painted in Elephant and Concrete Fresco paint.  Some think heavy lines of gesso, a crackle stamp in Watering Can Archival and Elephant through a flower stencil.

It sat like this for a couple of days, whilst I thought about how I wanted to finish it off.

I'd chosen a photo, a colour one and rummaged in the stash and found chipboard flowers, Prima flowers lace, ribbon, trims, buttons and embossed white card. I kept moving things around deciding whether I liked the layout.

Last night I added some new lens and film to my Hipstamatic app that gives a tinotype effect and this morning in the rain I took some shots of the garden and there it was the proper photo I should be using of the white buddleia.

I furthered sanded the photo to distress it and then started sticking and stitching.    

I'm pleased and the husband likes it as well.

Hugs
Jo
xx