Fish supper

So I have my art journal out on the table whenever I'm painting, so I can use the excess paint and clean my brush a bit.

Today I've been working on a new piece (A4 size) to go in one of the frames on my stair wall and this page in the journal is the mop up of that piece.

It feels good to use the journal and use up some of the "extras" like the water colour paper and the second ATC.I cut and made just in case I didnt like the first one!

The background is is various PaperArtsy chalk finish blues with some stencilling and stamping with blue shades of Archival Inks.  Walnut Stain Distress Ink added and spritzed with water to give the water marks.

 

The ATC was made from a scrap of blue card, some book paper with Inky Pool as a first layer and then Blue Ice and Inky Pool as a top layer.  A crackle stamp from Blu Indigo in Watering Can Archival and then the PaperArtsy fish stamp embossed in black.  Distressed the edges and then two layers of clear embossing to get the glass effect.  When it was cold, I created the cracks by bending the card.  

This was stapled to the watercolour paper and before I stuck it down I used a water soluble and ordinary brown pencil to scribble the square.

I think I'm going to enjoy using this journal in this way, quite quick using up scraps as I create bigger pieces. Still not sure whether I'm ready to write personal stuff in it yet though!

 

Hugs

Jo

xx

Linen and Tweed

This has been on my "to do " list for some time.  I love making these fabric wreaths from old wire coat hangers and ripped strips of cloth. It's a bit time consuming but really simple.

I cut the hook of the coat hanger (well John did if I'm honest) formed it into a circle and joined the ends with sellotape.  I then wound tissue tape all over the circle. 

 I cut a load of 5 inches by half an inch strips and just started knotting them on the coat hanger.  This was an old piece of course linen I had,  but I often use old duvet or table cloths from the charity shop. Its usually faded, soft and cheap!

The heart was made from some of the most gorgeous Donegal Tweed fabric from Fabric Affair that I got from the Festival of Quilts. The company is run by a lovely mother and daughter.  I spied then very early on when I arrived at the show but was determined not to spend any money (that didn't last long I can tell you).  I was admiring the gorgeous colours and the texture of the tweed (and linen) and I joked about what a good daughter I was taking my mother out for the day!  Anyway at the end of the day I'd still got some pennies left so I thought blow it and went back minus my mother who was having a sit down.  The lovely owner remembered me and asked what I'd done with my mother. she laughed when I said she gone to have a sit down as I'd exhausted her!

So I bought a bundle of lovely earthy toned tweeds. They are so thick and soft and absolutely gorgeous. They are going to be at the Ally Pally Knitting and Stitching Show and I might have to save my pennies again. 

I stitched the heart with embroidery thread, not too neatly (it's ages since I've done embroidery, I need to practise).  Added a bow of some fine threads of hessian and a button.  The heart is attached with a length of suede ribbon.

All in all a complete texture overload, all in my favourite earthy neutrals!

Hugs

Jo

xx

  

Dont pulp it, paint it!

So I got back from hols and even though I took some crafting stuff with me, I was really itching to get back in my craft room (it's really the spare room, but it has a few status issues and likes to call itself "the studio") and "make something".

I have quite a few old books in my stash, one of the perks of working in a library, we occasionally withdraw stuff and my colleagues know to give me the nod if any hardbacks are going.  This one is a thin poetry book.

I took the paper book jacket off to  reveal the pale blue linen of the cover.

I started off with Honeydew all over, not solidly as I wanted to build up light layers of colour to give depth. Then mixed Toad Hall and Beach Hut and layered that on.

I used a candle to rub over the covers to act as a revisit and added another layer of the Toad Hall/ Beach Hut with a touch of Mermaid added to move it more to a blue green rather than green blue colour. I used the heat gun to dry this and melt the wax which I then rubbed off to reveal the lower layer. I also sanded it lightly as well in places.

Using the large numbers backgrounds stamp from PaperArtsy I stamped in Cobalt Archival and embossed in a Blueberry Wow embossing powder. I then added a layer of gold leaf in the middle of the book. YOu cant see a lot of it, but it just pops through here and there for another layer of texture.

I dry brushed Honeydew, Claret and French Roast around the edges as well to add to that grungy, shabby decayed look.

Over this I did add a stamped image of the winged lady from the PaperArtsy Letters L3 plate and then added a layer of Crackle Accent and left that to dry.

Umm, that didn't work to well as it completely covered the stamping, but gave some good raised crackle texture.  So I played around with this, sanding it, picking at it, spraying with inks, metallic glaze and finally French Roast Fresco and Treasure Gold. It looked OK but still needed something in the middle.

Hunted around in the stash and found some leather and felt. I sewed one layer of felt to the other, stuck the leather on top of this and painted a chipboard heart and added some Frantage embossing powder in wine (if you click on the photo you can enlarge it and see the detail)

The back was done in a similar way in terms of the paint layers and stamping, but nothing else added.

So what shall I do with it? Well I think it will eventually become an art journal, but what I'll do is keep it on the work desk and when I'm painting and I have excess paint I'll just paint a page, just like I've done here!

Hugs

Jo

xx