Did ya miss me!

How vain am I!
So I haven't posted for over a month - bad girl.  My excuse - well we had a week away in the sun (read books, ate nice food, drank wine and beer, got in the pool occasionally, used up a lot of suntan lotion and watched people) and work has been rather busy. To try and keep on top of things, meet deadlines and create myself some time to dedicate to big projects I've been working late and working at home in the evenings.  I know, I know work life balance etc etc but Friday saw me finally break the back of most of it and I didn't bring any work home for the weekend - hurrah!

In amongst this constant slog of work I did manage to make this for my hubby for his birthday.

It's a 12x12 canvas which I painted in a denim blue paint, stuck downs some bits of torn book pages around the edge, colour washed over the top in a darker shade of blue , rubbed back bits with a baby wipe and sprayed over the top in places through a swirly stencil with a tattered angels ( I have loads of them I must use them up) glimmer mist in a silvery blue to represent the sea.  I put tissue tape around the edge and swiped a pale blue over the top of it to tone in and add an edge to the front of the canvas. 
I love using tissue tape in this way as it covers up any spills and seepage from sloshing paint around on the top (I'm a messy crafter)!

The central panel has come out really well, it feels and looks like old leather. It's a piece of old crate paper so it's quite heavy anyway.  I painted over in a dark midnight blue paint and then some crackle glaze and then a watered down pale blue.  I've now got the hang of this old crackle glaze and it's about getting the top layer of paint to the right consistency (single cream) and enough of it to give a good but not too thick layer - practice does indeed make perfect(ish).  

Some text was added in brown ink - very subtle (which means you can't really see without looking very closely - but I know it's there and I know it adds to the look and feel of the piece) I made sure I added some paint to the reverse of the square as I knew I wanted the edges to curl up a bit.  Finally added some stitching rounds the edge to anchor the piece.  The longer it dried the more it began to feels like leather rather than paper.

Finally the fishes,  these were the starting point as my husband loves fish - to look at and eat on occasion!

I knew I wanted to use metal and puts lots of texture on using embossing folders, paint and alcohol inks. I also wanted to bend and shape them so they didn't sit flat on the paper. They sort of worked and if I'd had more time I might have roughed um up a bit more.

And the arrangement - well I'm a pisces, so they had to go that way!  He really liked it and now we are just trying to work out where to display in the house!

So, leave a comment if you like, it's always good to hear praise and constructive comments (honestly I can take it - I've been staff reviews for the past fortnight so I'm well versed in giving and taking constructive feedback on performance).

Hugs

jo
xx

So who would you recommend?

Hi everyone,

I like blogs, they are a fab invention (I know when they work) because they allow me to see other people fantastic art work, get ideas and inspiration and read little snippets about their lives, what makes them happy and what makes them sad.

I do follow a LOT of blogs ranging from crafting, sewing, interior design (great for colour ideas), food and the odd work related one as well.

But as I was blog hopping the other day, posting and reading comments I thought which blogs would my virtual friends recommend I go and visit?????

So bloggy pals, your challenge if you wish to accept  - who would you recommend? Leave me a message and I'll go and check them out.

This is my recommendation, Lovely Clusters by Rachel, beautiful photographs with superb colour combination suggestions  http://lovelyclusters.blogspot.com/ - enjoy!

jo
xx

So this blogging lark is about staying in touch - right?

I know, I know, I know, I am a bad blogger but I have been manic at work and most evenings I can be found on the sofa snoring and drooling by about 8pm.  (Sometimes my husband leaves me there sometimes he attempts to wake me up and suggest I go to bed).

Plus my mojo appears to have gone into hibernation for most of that time as well, so projects I was working on just wouldn't come together and sat on my desk forlornly looking at me every time I poked my head round the door and stared at them.

But last weekend it popped back to say hi and gave me the necessary light bulb moment to finish something.

Ages ago I made an A4 canvas that now hangs my living room on one side of a large frame of some black and white photos of ironwork.  It all looked great if somewhat lopsided, it needed a partner on the other side to balance up the composition. So I started painting and stamping an A4 canvas in similar colours (stone, reds, rusts and brown). That fab papillon stamp was used with some distress embossing powder to add some butterflies and text.

I distressed some handmade paper, sewed round the edges and stuck that down. I wanted add even more layers so cut some ATC's painted and stamped them, I really liked but they didn't go with the background canvas - um stumped.

As I said I'd got various projects on the go in the craft room that individually weren't quite working, but then the aha light bulb moment happened and I though what if I take the picture frame from that project and put it with the canvas A4 frame from this project??????

Yes colours worked. It had already been painted in PaperArtsy fresco paints and crackled (finally getting the hang of this) so I added some tissue tape around the edges and stamped a small PaperArtsy script stamp in my favourite mushroom over the top.

The flowers are Tim Holtz tattered flowers and I used my glue gun to give some height between the layers. the stems I made from florists wire wrapped in tissue tape and some expresso colourwash wiped over then to ages.  Leaves were made with some fab brown gingham checked ribbon. 

With the last bit of 12x12 paper I'd made the flowers from, I distressed the edges and concertina folded it up and stuck across the frame to hide the bottom of the stems. The label was made from a Tim Holtz die just to further hide the stems and balance out the flowers at the top.

So it now hangs in place in the living room and balances out the composition.

Right the best of the sun seems to have disappeared already and it's only 9.00am, so I am forced to retire to my craft room and play with new goodies from LB Crafts ands make a birthday present for a friend.

Have fun everyone.

jo
xx

When do you give up?

So you start a project and it's going really well and then you hit a wall and you look at it and you think:

• I don't whether I like this
• I don't know if this is going to work

What do you do?

• Carry on
• Put to one side and do something else
• Throw it away

Can't decide - humph!

jo

xx

Oak leaves

I have been itching (not literally but you know what I mean) to blog this but as it was a present for a friend at work and I know Sarah does occasionally look at my blog I couldn't show you until she'd seen it.

I bought the Paperartsy oak dies at THAT event in February and I knew I wanted to us them to make a wreath, Sarah's birthday seemed an ideal opportunity to test the idea as she loves nature (a quick look in Brewers Dictionary of phrase and fable tell us that the oak was sacred to the druids so even more appropriate for Sarah)

I painted a square canvas with lots of green and blue and then  thin washes of white ove the top. I then added some some perfect pearl powders over a text stamp and used an old credit card to put some lines of paint on as well to give it the usual texture look.  Around the edge (which you can't really see, but trust me it is there)  I put some tissue tape and rubbed over some green and blue distress ink.

Then down to cutting the leaves, I selected some card in shades of browns and greens and started cutting, it was quite theraputic cranking that old machine (no vagabond for me - yet)  and I ended up with lots of them! 

Some I stamped with the corresponding stamps, some I inked with distress inks - but they still looked a bit "flat" So out came the embossing folders!  Yes that worked,so I added some more distress inks to empahaise the raised bits

I cut out a ring of corrugated card to act as the base and then started gluing the leaves down with the trusty hot glue gun, started with the large ones first and then moved on to the middle ones and finally the small ones.  When it was dry I sprayed some antique gold at a great height to lightly dust the leaves and then glued to the canvas.

Finally a raffia bow to complete, I ummed and aahed about adding a button in the middle of the bow, but in the end decided not to and I think it was he right decision

I think it was fair to say Sarah was chuffed with it and I really enjoyed making - want to make one for myself now!

jo
xx

Late ....AGAIN

Good morning blog world! It's another sunny if very windy day here in the county of squires and spires (we have lots of churches and lots of gentry, hardly any National Trust as the families have enough money not to have to sell them off).  My dear hubby is still in bed nursing sleeping off the effects of too much sun yesterday at the rugby.  Yes we won resoundingly well and are in the finals which will be in Cardiff in about 3 weeks time.

Right enough blithering about rugby and back to crafting.

So last week's Sunday Stamper challenge was wings and I had every intention of taking part, I'd got an idea formed but first of all I needed to complete the other project I'd got on the go based on the big piece of art I created last weekend, this time it was going to be blue.

Big blue ended up in the bin on Friday.

I just couldn't get it right it had layers and layers of paint on it and it was virtually rigid when I peeled it off the craft sheet. It was hard to "chuck" it away but the right decision.

So back to wings.  I really wanted to make a naughty angel with one of the Stampotique grungy girls and some Tim effect rusty wings.  I'd got an old frame knocking around painted white. so I thought I'd use some of my new stash purchases - fresco paints. So slapped some London night on over the white and then used some of the crackle glaze with guacamole over the top. Um not a great success no crackling, bound to be operative fault as everybody else has had roaring success (possibly not a thick enough layer).  So instead rubbed this all back. most of the green came off apart from a few streaks and it went back to the original white undercoat - I liked it and I think the fresco paints helped a lot.

Stamped Missy in black and embossed her, then inked her with some DIs (mustard seed and marmalade - yuck what an awful edible combination but great colour wise) using the old craft mat and water technique. Carefully cut her out and put her to one side. then started on the wings using Tim's techniques, didn't use grunge paper but a quite thin card which burnt at the edges a bit quite liked) and curled nicely.  Added in a bit of brick red with the antique photo DI.

Embossed the metal background and put some London night over the top and made a tag for Missy to sit on, usual thing, paint, ink stamping, distress edges, ribbon and some tiny staples.  Put it all together with hot glue gun. 

Another recent purchase was the ATC die, so cut one from grunge board and stuck an ATC sized piece from Crowded Attic.  I hadn't realised that the further back you go in the stack the smaller the pieces just right for ATC's - the man's a genius or I am an idiot - what do you think?  Rubbed it back to get that nice edge and then stamped another piece of spare card with the phrase.  Then to complete added in the ha ha ha down the side of the frame.

So Missy is too late for the challenge - but hey she did say she wasn't a good angel, so whatever!

Have  good day wherever you are.

jo
xx

Oh when the ...

Hi,  Just a quick postie his morning to say I have made something but time has run away from me (AGAIN) so I can't blog it just yet.

Why?  well we are off to Milton Keynes to watch Northampton Saints (rugby) beat (see the optimism here) Perpignan in the Heineken Cup semi finals.

Big question is though - long sleeve or short sleeve?????

Byee (overexcited, let's hope there isn't tears before bedtime)!

jo
xx