Snails pace

I had a couple of days off last week to make a long weekend and on Friday I crafted and finished off some started but not finished projects that had been lying around.  So I've got quite a few posts ready to go and its only Sunday so there might be some more finishing of projects and posts!

So this is the first one.

I'm really loving taking early morning snaps on Instagram (jomyhill if you want to have a look) at the moment, I love May as everything in the garden starts growing and appearing at an alarming rate, its a bit like a teenage growth spurt and you cant keep up with it!   The rose is absolutely full of buds and I'll have to start dead heading soon.  Just need my floppy straw hat, trug and secateurs and I'll feel like Vita Sackville West gently ambling through her white garden at Sissinghurst (must go back soon).  

So one morning I captured this snail gently nestled in a Valerian (they self seed like nobodies business, mostly pink, but occasionally I get a white one - bliss I can be Vita again!) 

I printed the photo on glossy photo paper, cut it out and added a layer of Rock Candy  Crackle Paint. (I have a bit of love/ hate relationship with this one in terms of getting cracks, don't think I put a thick enough layer on) and left it to dry.

I'd made the background a little while ago, I wanted to do something texture on white so used some Grunge Paste through a damask stencil and some Dreamweaver Crackle on  a 12x12 sheet of textured white card.

Took out my green palette of PaperArtsy fresco paint and started lightly adding some colour.  I wanted to keep it faded and light and lots of shadows on the Grunge Paste to add depth.  I also got out my coloured Distress Ink pads and used Evergreen Bough over the Grunge Paste (um quite liking these again, might have to have a play).Also added a little bit of stamping in Olive and Fern Green Archival.

Now for the embellishments and layering. Stitched some fabric strips down, hunted out some scraps of toning green and yellow card / paper for under the photo distressing the edges of course.  The stamps were from the Sara Naumann Eclectica range and the butterfly from Lin Brown Eclectica range.

Some flowers, washi tape, metal bits and bobs from the bag of stash, staples and some Craftworks candi finished off the layout.

So why snails pace?  Well I think I'm a really slow crafter, it can take me quite a while to think about the composition, find the right stuff to add to the composition and place it to make it look good, draw the eye, allow it to linger and slowly wander around the page. bit like a snails journey through life really!

I'm going to enter this for the June Sketch Challenge on Scrapmag 365.  Its almost the same, just a little bit of artistic licence on the photo placement!  I really like the simple composition of this sketch and may use it again as I really like all that white space top and bottom.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Molten hearts

Well this will be a short post just to show you what a I did (really Jo, that's not like you, do you think you can really be that short in your description?).

I'd been playing with the Dreamweaver crackle paste and covered a square of 7x7" card.  Love the really fine cracks it gives and the bubbling where I heated it. Added various brown PaperArtsy fresco paints lightly so as not to cover the cracks, some Archival inks in blues, some Glimmer Mists in reds and blues and finally some Treasure Gold.  Lovely shimmery distressed decayed leather look.

The base card was 11x11" plum colour, sprayed with the red, plum, blue and cold Glimmer Mists and stamped with a large text stamp in Plum Archival and Darcy's cogs which were embossed with a burgundy embossing powder.

Stitched the small card onto the big card.

Slathered some Grunge Paste which had been coloured with Squid Ink over the middle in as strip, dried it a bit and then added LOADS of Frantage and WOW embossing powders to get that thick molten metal mineral look I wanted to stamp the stamps in.  I first inked up the Darcy heart (I used both sizes) with black ink, heated a section of the powders to melt them and then stamped the stamp in it, leaving if for a bit to set and harden and moved on to the next.

Finally I painted some twinkling H2Os in a red over the hearts, it sort of sank into the hollows or sat in small splodges on top.  Wasn't what I was quite expecting, but I like it and I think it adds to the grungyness. 

Yum, yum yum!

hugs
jo
xx

Sara Naumann inspired or how many stamps can you get on a page!

Ive always loved Sara Naumann's Eclectica range from PaperArtsy and when she posted this great idea for using the stamps with photo's on the PaperArtsy blog this week I had to give it a go.

I've got quite a few of my photo's already printed, some I've altered using online programmes such as Pixlr, Instagram or Hipstamatic, they all give great filters, borders, sizes and effects.  It can be quite addictive!

 

So the instructions from Sara were really simple and you can read them and watch a great video here.  I thought about creating a book, but I'm really enjoying using my 12x12 scrapbook album for creating and storing so a 12x12 (well 11x11" so it fits in the book!) it was.

I started with the photo and the tissue paper.  Rather than stamping all the stamps in black I went with ones that I wanted to frame the photo in black and the others in Pale Ochre and Monarch Orange Archival.  In hindsight I still find the black to prominent and I wish I'd gone with my gut instinct and used Watering Can for a more softer look - I can always try again cant I!

Picking up the colours from the photo I used London Bus, Tango and then Cheesecake Fresco (in that order) paints on the soft yellow card stock.  I used an old credit card to scrap the paint onto give that shabby look. 

Using Sienna Archival Ink I added more of the Eclectica stamps.  The Sienna looks really bright when wet, but once dried it faded to this lovely soft terracotta colour.  I edged the card in Rusty Hinge Distress Stain and stuck it onto some really old paper (I love that I'm starting to use up my paper for this scrapbook) edged in Rusty Hinge. 

Stuck the central panel on with foam squares just to raise it up a bit and then around the edges I melted some WOW  Gold Satin Pearl embossing powder and some Fran tage ochre colour fragments to add a different texture and tone.

The tag was cut from spare card, inked with Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo Distress stain and then the music stamp and  the reflections stamp added.  Some hemp string added for yet another texture.

Really pleased with how this turned out and it's definitely a technique I'll try again with more of many photo's.  I do wonder whether the middle layer of card stock needed some black stamping to mirror the stamping on the image, but I worry whether it would be too much and distract from the central panel, but at the same time it might anchor it all. We'll see I may add in later after I've lived with it a bit. 

Hugs

Jo

xx

Fish cakes

I made a card, I don't have anyone to send it to, but yes I made a card!

Actually I made a card to have a go at potato printing for the Craft Stamper, Take It Make It Challenge. 

I selected my potato, didn't have many big ones in the cupboard and this was at 6.00am, so that dictated how big my stamp would be.  I knew I wanted to do a block stamp and then a "shape" over the top.  It needed to be a simple shape so fish it was!

Carved the shapes and let them dry a bit to let the moisture and starch evaporate so they would hopefully give a cleaner less sticky stamp.

Taking some card I cut a 6x6" square and added a rough layer of Lake Wanaka and then Beach Hut PaperArtsy Fresco paint.  I stamped the ship from Hot Pick 1202 in Aquamarine Archival Ink in the middle and then second generation stamping around the edges a bit to fill in the gaps and add some texture. 

Then I took my oblong potato stamp and used it with Space Cadet Fresco paint.  Then using Ice Blue I stamped my fishes.

I needed to reduce the size of the card so it would fit on a square Kraft Card blank. 

I then distressed the edges and used Peacock Feathers and Vintage Photo Distress Ink along the edge, added some stitching to frame it and then stamped fish using WOW Primary Lagoon Embossing powder and the letters from Words Plate 2 from PaperArtsy. 

Quite quick and reasonably "clean and simple" for me!

And why fishcakes? Well, fish and potato of course!

Hugs

Jo

xx

Adventures in texture

So, you know me, I like to create stuff that has a lot of texture and and it quite toned possibly muted in its colour scheme.

Well here is another one!

Crackle does fill me with delight, all that texture and shabbiness.  I'm a great fan of PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze but at Ally Pally Leandra showed me two new products she was selling: Golden Gel Medium Crackle Paste and Dreamweaver Crackle Embossing Paste.   they are very different to Crackle Glaze as you don't need paint as a bottom layer to see the cracks (I called it the jam sandwich, paint, crackle, paint at Ally Pally). You get the cracks and then put colour on the top and the colour (ink or paint) sinks into the cracks and makes them darker. Think tonal rather than contrast. Both need thicker layers than you would with Crackle Glaze and the Golden takes an age to dry, but the effects are quite stunning and I like. 

So this one, I first of all created the central panel with the Dreamweaver on a thick piece of Kraft card. Once dry (about an hour but you can speed it up a bit with a heat gun but you may get large pieces of cracked rather than fine lines of crack). Colour wise I think its its Squid Ink, Archival ink in Maroon and Magenta Hue, plus some Glimmer Mists in Bronze and Purple.  Some stamping with the new Hot Picks 1301  in Maroon and some eyelets sanded and stained with Stream Alcohol Ink. Some Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold sanding and stitching.

If you zoom in on the photo you should be able to see the cracks. It ended up quite leathery especially as the Kraft card was so thick so that sort of dictated what I'd do with, a bit industrial.

The 12x12" card was cut down to 11x11" to fit in my happy scrapbook. and was brayered with Cinnamon, Chocolate Pudding and Toffee Fresco paints, just randomly. French Roast and Chocolate Pudding were used over the metal plate stencil in the corners and then over that Mushroom through the Tim Holtz ruler stencil. A bit of sanding to knock it all back.

Stamping using Potting Soil Archival and the number stamp from Vintage ID09 and then the cogs from Hot Picks 1107 were stamped and embossed using Bark WOW embossing powder. 

The final top layer of the tag (made ages ago) and the heart were another experiment.  I recently bought a felting pad and needle to use wool roving's.  So I'd punched some roving onto felt and cut out a PaperArtsy heart.  It looked good, but "too clean" as I'd used pale roving. It need to be aged and distressed, would rusting powder work? Well lets give it a go and see!  So dabbed Versamark over the heart put the rusting powder on and liberally soaked it with vinegar and left it to react and dry.  It took ages as I'd really soaked it! It didn't give the rusting as I'd expected as it had sunk into e felt but it did make it dirty which I liked! On top is a scrap of linen, a safety pin stained with Alcohol Ink and a bit of the rusted paper the heart felt had been sitting on. 

Finally I stamped the live, work, create stamp from Hot Picks 1301 in the bottom left corner.  I first stamped in Blush fresco but I didn't press hard enough and the stamp wasn't crisp, so added a bit more blush in the area (repeated it in the other corners to make it look deliberate!) and stamped in Aquamarine Archival. the blue echos the Stream Alcohol ink used on the eyelets and the staples, but it may be a bit too bright and draw your eye to it rather than the whole thing, what do you think?

 

I'm really enjoying working in this 11x11" size and putting in my happy scrapbook (or is it a journal???), cuts down the amount of canvas lying around the house!

Right for once it is a glorious bank holiday here in The Shires and I think yet again I need to do something in the garden rather than just willing it to happen! If I do some strenuous digging and weeding it can replace a tortuous session in the gym today. 

Hugs

Jo

xx

  

Gelli delight!

Well inspired by Pam over on the PaperArtsy blog this week I thought I'd get my Gelli plate out and give it a go. Goodness me it's addictive! I also wanted to do some more scrap booking and this lovely photo of beach huts taken at Southwold very early as the sun was rising last summer (or it could have been the summer before actually)  was the one I wanted to use for my happy moments scrapbook (the happy moment is Southwold and the seaside).

I picked a whole range of blue fresco's and just starting putting paint on taking prints, adding more paint and stencils, taking another print etc, etc, etc! The spare paint on the brayer I just brayered on more paper to give more stuff to play with, told you it was addictive!

I then took my Ellen Vargo Eclectica stamps and followed Pam's instructions for adding the circles. I also embossed the fine scribble circle to make it stand out more as I'd gone very tonal with the mono printing and it was all very subtle.

I've fiddled and faffed around with scraps of paper, fabric, embellishments and finally came up with this layout which I'm happy with.

I added some extra stamping using Jofy seaside stamps of beach huts and some of the Hotpicks sea themed stamps.

You can't see much of the Gelli print under it all, but hey ho! 

Hugs
jo
xx

Faded rose

Texture, mixed media, tactile, monotone, these words when combined with art make me happy and when I can create art that uses all these elements it makes me really happy.

Yet again this is another one of my photos of one of the roses in my garden, it was taken last autumn and I couldn't believe the faded almost papery orange colour on the rose as it slowly died. I've used it before and I will continue to use it in my art as it is one of my most favourite images. 

For the image I took some card and painted it in soft creams and stamped some text in Watering Can Archival. I then image transferred it eh rose using PaperArtsy Satin Glaze.  One I'd rubbed off the backing paper, I put one coat of glaze on, dried it and then scrunched up the card and then added more layers of glaze.  Finally some Vintage Photo Distress Stain around the edges.  

Words cannot describe how pleased I was with this, the bits of image missing the hole on the side, the creases. It looks like an old photo that has been lying in the bottom of the box or drawer, lost and forgotten. Contented sigh.

I really wanted to make something with a lot of fabric so stuck some linen to felt using bondaweb and then hessian on top of the linen. I also used strips of different fabric to make the central fabric panel as well. 

The large panel had Grunge Paste scraped on and then through a stencil around the edges as I knew everything else would be be in the middle of the fabric so no point in stencilling there!.

I wanted to keep most of the canvas quite neutral but pick up some of the colours in the image transfer to tie it altogether.  Toffee and Irish Cream Fresco paint were added in places and a little bit of  London Bus watered down plus some Hey Pesto.

The book panel at the back used twinkling H2Os (another old collection lurking in the back of the cupboard) they gave a fantastic colour wash that I then sprayed over with watered down nougat to soften and a little bit of watered down Hey Pesto. 

Lots of stitching (once I got mum to sort my machine out, thanks mum) alcohol inked staples, eyelets, flowers, tags. tissue paperleather, felt and string (lots of texture!).

At the moment this is clipped to a large A4 clipboard, it might stay like that or I might (probably should) stick to a canvas in order to add the stairs gallery. 

I can see myself using this image quite a lot, I have three more of these cracked and distress transfers, perhaps I should make some smaller canvases and start and Etsy shop???

Hugs

jo

xx