Yellow ...well sort of

Well I brashly announced on Twitter this week that I was going to use yellow, it isn't in my top ten favourite colours list and I knew I had a lot (and I mean a LOT) of yellow Prima flowers in the hoard. So in the quest to use up stuff to justify buying new stuff (flawed logic I know, but it justifies the buying new, doesn't it???) plus a photo of the primroses in my garden that were yellow,  I set to looking for stash.

Yellow paint, as I'd expected not a lot. No Yellow Submarine from PaperArtsy, only Zesty Zing, Chartreuse, Cheesecake and Vanilla.  Bit more of a root around found some old Glimmer Mists in Lemon Meringue and Sunflower and ooh look a contrasting lemony lime green.

Paper, umm hard again. No bright yellows but some muted soft buttery yellows, plus some contrasting greeny blues. 

Years, years and years ago I dabbled in scrapbooking but came to a monumental halt as having no children I got stuck on what to scrapbook (if anyone is interested I have some old simple scrapbooking books waiting to go to a good home) and stopped.  

Recently though the world of scrapbooking appears to have moved on and is very much more about home decor as well as story telling an event or reflecting on an emotion, what makes you happy and content using a more shabby single photo style layout. 

Much more my style and the concept of capturing and recording what makes me happy appealed, as sometimes we get way too bogged down in the muddy quagmire drudge of life (I was going to insert a single swear word here but figured not everyone wants to read that single descriptive word, it works for me but I appreciate and understand it might not work for you) and we need reminding that on the whole we should be grateful and thankful for the experiences in life that make us smile, be happy and content.

I also figured that social media (Facebook ands Twitter) are sort of virtual scrapbooking tools, a photograph, a description and I use those a lot to connect with friends and family.  The photos I take and share on twitter and Facebook are going to form the backbone of my physical scrapbooking.

So I started with a sheet of 12x12" and cut it down to 11x11"to fit into my new Kraft scrapbooking album (its a justified purchase, had to buy in order to start didn't I?). Added some Chartreuse with a brayer (thank you Ellen Vargo) and then some Zesty Zing. Added some Grunge Paste to give some texture and stamping using one of the new Hotpicks from PaperArtsy (love those collage big text stamps) in Archival Monarch.  Sprayed some of the Glimmer Mists (I'd forgotten how sparkly they are) to get a "yellowish" base layer.

And then the rest of the layout is pretty much "me" style, ripped and distressed, felt (cut with one of the new Tim Holtz dies), fabric, stitching and some stamping using those lovely PaerArtsy Sarah Naumann stamps which I think I will be using a lot in this album.

I just need to add a title and I think the title of this post will work and I might do a second similar layout with the same paper and paint and add the journalling in as to why this photo makes me happy.

Happy Easter everyone.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Shabby teasel

So I'm having some well deserved annual leave from work, not doing much just pottering around, doing some crafting, catching up on sleep and looking at the garden.  I should actually be doing something in the garden but I keep hoping that by just looking at it and thinking "those weeds need to come out" it will magically happen.  Postive thinking can only go so far. John is off from Friday and has a grand plan. 

Easter is always the start of the great gardening blitz in the UK, so it will rain of course.  If nothing else the potatoes have to go in on Good Friday.  I don't know why, folklore ancient tradition, something to do with the moon, it was always what Dad did and Pap did, so we do.  

Anyway enough of the rambling.

After the grand tidy up of the craft room the other week I found quite a bit of stuff started and not finished so I thought I'd try and finish some stuff and use some stuff (there is still a lot of stuff left and I haven't put away the Ally Pally haul).

As I've said and shown before I love taking photos and I love using my photos, so this is a mixed media piece using old stuff (the canvas) and new stuff: the Crafters Workshop stencil Specimen and the butterfly stamp from the new PaperArtsy hotpicks).

I did show some sneaky work in progress on Twitter and Instagram but here it is in its entirety.

I used a neutral palette of PaperArtsy Fresco paints of Chutney, Toffee and French Roast for a really dark base layer.  Crackle Glaze and then Mocha Mousse top layer to give really big crackles.  This was washed over with watered down Nougat and then watered down Elephant to give a slightly "dirty feel" to the canvas.  All very subtle and hardly seen, but adds to the distressed aged look.

A very thin layer of Grunge Paste with Taupe was added in the middle with a little bit of texture added with the palette knife.  I mixed some more Grunge Paste with Mud Splat and used through the stencil. 

Finally some embossing of text from a new Hotpicks using Birch WOW embossing powder to complete the canvas.

I decided to image transfer the teasel using PaperArtsy Satin Glaze on linen fabric that was "BondaWebbed"  to card and then had a layer of Grunge Paste to give a smooth base to adhere the image too.  I didn't mind the "hole" where it hadn't adhered just added to the shabby look.  

Added three eyelets, distressed the edges of the card and added some Pebble and Expresso alcohol ink around the edges and the eyelets to suggest rust and mineral staining.

The butterfly was stamped on brown card in Birch embossing powder and painted in Old Gold Fresco paint.  Some metal bits for its body and Raisin alcohol ink to stain.  Around the edge of the butterfly I added some Ruby Treasure Gold which I also added in places to the canvas.  

The meccano looking peice is actually a strip of Grunge Paper painted in Brown Shed and then rusting powder added. Really happy with how that came out.  The brown of the meccano piece was echoed in the leather scallop strip and finally a tag with a strip of linen and a button.

Really pleased with the composition of this, blank spaces to rest the eyes from the texture, the colours tone through the neutral palette and there is a repeat of butterflies and holes / circles  to make it all work together as a whole.

I also finished another heavily textured peice today, I'll blog that one at some time in between willing the garden to weed itself!

Hugs
jo
xx

 

Shabby chic mini art display

I quite like using small canvases (to be honest I quite like using large canvases as well) to make my art and I've amassed quite a few and I needed somehow to display them better.

So I came up with this idea.

I got a sheet of plywood and cut it into three roughly A3 size. Gave them all a coat of birch  Eco paint,just a rough layer. Sanded it and then added soft moss rubbed on with a baby wipe and stencilled in eggshell.

Sanded them all really well to get them really distressed and reveal some of the plywood (I'd chosen a really dark sheet from the DIY store). Placed the canvases on, knocked some  nails in and voila!

The shelves have been in situ quite a while and the plywood just fits! 

I really like it, I've got a couple of gaps and I can swap the canvases around as I make more or get bored of these ones!

Simple and effective, but boy do my knees hurt kneeling on the floor to work on these boards.

Hugs
Jo
xx

Ally Pally

Well it's Ally Pally weekend and yesterday I went down on the train (so nice not to have to drive) and  had a mooch around.  Didn't really have any "I must buy" requirements but still spent a small fortune mostly at PaperArtsy!

going to shows is great (apart from spending the money), because you get the opportunity to see the products being used, get ideas, meet old friends and make new friends who all like the same stuff you do!  But the best bit for me was having the opportunity to do some demoing on the  PaperArtsy stand. It was great to show new and old PaperArtsy fans the greatness (is that a word? I don't know but it should be, Oxford English Dictionary or OED for us librarians in the know, get it added in the list!) of these products and what they can do, answering questions and finding out from people what kind of art they like to make and how they use the paints, stamps and Treasure Gold. So thank you Leandra for the opportunity, loved it!

So if you spoke to me yesterday afternoon (Saturday) about Treasure Gold and it smelling like shoe polish, which pink paints to buy, how to use crackle glaze, what's journaling all about and are you a comment maker or a lurker it was great to meet you!

Here is one of the tags I made in a steam punky Finnabair style using Grunge Paste, going to try this again, now where are all those bits and bobs?

Hugs
Jo
xx

Spring Tulips - PaperArtsy style!

Well my month rolls around fast and tonight my latest creation for PaperArtsy went live on their blog. 

If you haven't seen because you aren't a follower of PaperArtsty do pop over and have a look at what I made but also all the other great artists as well, loads of inspiration if you are at all arty!

The stamps and paints produced by PaperArtsy are some of my all time favourite products to work with with and Mr & Mrs PA are the nicest people as well!

Until next time.

hugs
jo
xx

Roses on a brick wall

Well I said there would be more roses (I know I said it ages ago, but better late than never) and here they are! 

I started off with a small canvas that had PaperArtsy Chartreuse (from the Lin Brown Limited Edition) paint all over. I then stamped some tissue paper with one of my favourite PaperArtsy collage stamps (I basically love all the Ink & the Dog collections and often leave them uncut to use as a whole plate in this way) in a green ink.  Painted the back of the tissue paper in chartreuse and glued this on and ripped away (see top right, a happy mistake as it wrinkled and tore as I was gluing, so just helped it a bit more!) in places and scrunched it up a bit in places as well. 

Over this I added a thin layer of Grunge Paste, not neat and certainly not smooth!

Once this was dry I added more Grunge Paste through the bricks stencil and left to dry.

Now for the painting. 

Lots of light layers to get the look of aged bricks using the Seaweed, Chutney and Tikka paints.  I really wanted the keep the definition of the bricks, so I used quite a dry brush technique (squirt a blob of paint on your craft sheet, add paint to to your brush, work it in a bit by dabbing on your craft mat and then wiping of the excess on kitchen roll) and basically dabbed the paint on. 

I jut kept adding layers seeing what gave the best look and used a little bit of Little Black dress to touch the edges of the bricks as well. 

I also added a bit of Tikka around the edges of the canvas to edge it and give that look of staining you often see on walls.

The roses were made in the same way as the blue roses from my last PaperArtsy post (ok I'll be honest they were spare ones left over!) and I added a Lin Brown sentiment on a scrap of linen in plum ink and some Vintage Photo Distress ink on it to, well - distress!.

I have to say this includes some of my favourite techniques to make shabby distressed art and I'd quite like to replicate the tissue paper and brick stencilling on a much larger canvas with a whole bunch of trailing leaves and flowers or use as a background for some of flower photographs, and I could image transfer them ...

Arggh, to many ideas not enough time!

hugs
jo
xx

Dark Heart

Sometimes you just need to go dark and grungy.

This has actually been made quite a few weeks but I just haven't got round to blogging it (lazy madam I know).

I felt the need after I'd been doing quite a bit of design work for PaperArtsy to just let rip with paint texture, metal treasure gold and embossing powder, no stamping and no real plan in mind apart from the idea of the embedded heart.  


And to be honest that's just what this canvas has.

It was thoroughly lovely just scraping Grunge Paste on, slapping Fresco paint on, sprinkling Frantage embossing powders on and stippling Treasure Gold on to make a lovely textured piece.


What do I love about it? Well:

The texture, I just love Grunge Paste (have I said that before - yes loads of times Jo and you know it!), I love how it can be a thin layer, a thick layer, smooth or pitted depending on the "look"what you want to achieve.

The heart, cut from Grunge Paper using my favourite PaperArtsy die it was sunk in the Grunge Paste, painted and embossed and then edged in Oil Pastels.I heated these and they melted to give definition and another layer of gloss, when you heat the oils they sort of melt and sink in and intensify the colour.

The splodges of London Bus Fresco paint add some pop and give a matte contrast to the high sheen of the Embossing powders and the dull metal of the Old Gold Fresco paint.

The linen and hand made paper scrap combo to add another texture. the stamp is one of Lin Brown's new ones and I think it really echos the art that even when your  heart feels dark and hidden , somewhere every day there is a chink of light, of happiness, of joy to make the heart beat faster, for it to sing and emerge from the darkness and remember that life is worth living. 

Very profound I know but art should say something and it should come from the soul, doesn't have to mean its a tortured soul, happy souls are good as well!

Right well no crafting for me today I have lovely family visiting for lunch so its all about cooking (still crafting really as in creating and still from the soul).  I'm trying a nw recipie today, Jamie Olivers Empire roast lamb, its been marinating all night and is about to go in the oven - wish me luck!

hugs
jo
xx