Holiday fun

I've just got back from a short holiday to Barcelona with my two daughters. We had a great time wandering around, munching tapas and sipping sangria - perfect.

Got back on Friday and started playing with a back to front canvas (working on the back to make a sort of shadow frame).





While wandering around I stumbled across a collectors market and picked up some old postcards and ephemera so used some of those on this.

For the frame I stuck tissue paper and then spread on some texture paste which I stamped then heat dried to bubble it and add more texture. That covered the staples and canvas edge and then I painted on several layers of Fresco Finish paints. I might give it a touch of rub n buff later.

I used the same paints on the main canvas through stencils and some random stamping then started layering up ephemera and pictures.

Alas, my trusty old printer decided to give up on me so this isn't finished yet. I have more pics to print (have ordered from an online photo printing service) and once those are on I have some charms and other stuff to add, but I am quite pleased with how it is turning out.

Ah well, back to work tomorrow :(

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Tagging along

I'm quite impressed with myself managing to make stuff three weeks in a row and blogging as well!

This week I have been playing with backgrounds on tags.

First was pan pastels (the embellishment is to hide a boo boo I made :o )



Second I played with fresco finish paints and crackle glaze plus the memory box poppy die which I love



And finally I had a go at "bumping" a stencil. First time I've tried this technique and my attempt isn't perfect but I get the idea now. I also stamped on some fabric as this is my new fave technique since Artsycrafts




Thanks for looking.

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Two Weeks in a Row

Hi everyone. Are we enjoying the wonderful British summer?! I think I'm getting webbed feet :o
I thought I would try to discipline myself to blog once a week so here I am for the second week in a row.
I have been playing with the shelf unit thingy that I showed you last week. After base coating it thoroughly I painted the bottom section and the drawers with Fresco Finish in claret, then a layer of crackle glaze and a top coat of vintage lace:



I left the drawer handles plain claret - love that colour for an accent shade!
Decided this was way too pink and clean looking so I set to work with various washes of Fresco Finish - pumpkin soup, claret, chocolate pudding, then dry brushing with French roast. Lots of tissue tape, stamping onto Paperartsy crackle - amazing stuff (did you play with it yet H?) and some die cut metal.



The little vases are fancy bottle tops painted and stamped with script.
Thanks for looking.


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Hello Peeps

And another six months have passed! I promise to try harder, honest.
So, what have I been doing? Settling in to my new job, which I am enjoying, and I also decided to rearrange my bedroom (which is also my craft room - in fact, it's more my craft room where I happen to sleep). Both of these things have caused a major mojo crisis as I haven't had much spare time and, when I have, I haven't been able to find anything :o
Anyway, 3 weeks ago I attended the whole three days of the fabulous Artsy Crafts weekend.
Day one was spent making a fabric book. All new techniques to me and so much fun. Here are some pics of my version:



This is the front page made using all kinds of Artsy Crafts painty, inky, stamping techniques plus . . . . . sewing! With a sewing machine! I was terrified, but I needn't have been as Lin and Leandra were on hand as always with lots of help, advice and tips to make it all so much fun.
Here are the inside pages - I still have one more to make!






The next day was more inky fun making a niche called The Sewing Room






And then the final day was spent making a fab grungy piece called Rusty Relic



I am so glad I went on this event because, as you have probably heard, it was the last ever one :(
I have attended 3 Artsy Crafts events altogether and every one has been amazing. Both Lin and Leandra are fantastically talented in their own right and together they produce stunning art and then have graciously shared that with others.
So, after spending such a fantastic 3 days my mojo couldn't help but be inspired so I have been playing again. A while ago I was given a delicious box of designer chocolates. The box itself had a clear acetate panel in the lid so I saved it to alter. Here's what I did with it




Not the best photo - taken with my iPad which has a pretty basic camera, but I had fun making it.
I went to the Craft Barn extravaganza yesterday and bought lots of new stash including this little beauty



Although the pic is tiny, he is quite a big thing in real life. At the moment he is sitting on my desk having just had a coat of gesso as I didn't want the bare wood soaking up all my paint. I have sorted through my paints and found lots of beige, white and light neutrals that have only small amounts left so I plan to mix these all together and apply as a base coat, then I will start layering on the colours I really want and will hopefully get good coverage with them. That's the plan anyway. I'll keep you posted as to how that works out. . . . . hopefully it won't take 6 months!

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New Year, New Me

Well, it's been over 6 months since my last post and, to quote Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the face of all the world has changed I think. For quite a while now work has been ....... uncomfortable, and this intensified around the middle of last year (seems strange saying that!). This meant that i had very little spare time and when I did have some I wasn't in a very good place so didn't get any crafting done. Anyway, right at the end of the year I was head hunted! I was offered the post of Executive Assistant to the CEO of a group of companies, and so when I returned to work after the Christmas break I handed in my notice. I start my new post mid-February, and it's like a huge cloud has lifted! I am in a much better place now, so much so that I have actually made something this weekend! I used one of my fabby Christmas gifts, the caged bird die from his Holtziness the Tim, and I am blogging about it with my other fantastic prezzie - my iPad :0 so I'm not sure how this will work!


Wishing you all a Happy New Year x - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I'm still alive !

Bet you wondered about that! I haven't had any time, energy or mojo lately which is why I have been MIA. 

My curiousity was piqued by all the smash book talk and then I found this in Paperchase:




The pages inside are lined, plain and graph paper plus these little beauties:

A clear plastic 4 pocket divider

A clear plastic single large pocket

This is quite a useful card pocket

 and a lovely zipped pocket!






My idea was to open the wire binding, take out all the pages, make some of my own pages with PP etc, decorate the covers, then put it  back together again.  So far I have deconstructed it and decorated the front cover

I had some old world map wrapping paper so I stuck that to the inside with glossy accents so it showed through to the front.   The atlas cover was from my stash and I fixed that to the outside of the cover.

Inside the front cover I painted the back of the map with some Honey Dew fresco finishes (love that paint), stamped some Artistic Stamper travel stamps over it then went to town with travel themed bits and bobs from my stash.

Once I've got around to sorting out what I'm using for my inside pages and puting it all back together it will be a travel journal (just in case you hadn't guessed!)

I found these fabby things in Muji:

I love the little hand paper clippy things, and the pen holder will be useful.

Anyway, at least I seem to have got my mojo back.  All I need ow is a  bit more time to get it all done!

Various bits and pieces

I realise my blogging has been sporadic at best lately.  I'm not in a very good place right now due to one thing or another (mainly one thing) but I won't bore you with that.  Suffice to say my mojo is largely missing right now.  I have not been idle though, gentle readers, perish the thought!  I have been doing some bits and bobs of yarnery and stitchery that consists of following designs by other people thereby utilising their mojo while mine is off wandering.
I learned to knit and crochet when I was a child and have done most kinds of both crafts.  One branch of knitting eluded me though... lace. I can crochet lace no problem but have never got around to even trying knitted lace (i.e. shetland/orenburg/estonian).  My first attempt to rectify this lack was made 4 years ago during my chemo/radiotherapy treatments.  Needless to say it did not go well! Trying to focus on new and complicated techiques while your brain is fried by chemical and radiation poisoning is not really a good idea.  So, on clearing out some dark corners of storage cupboards I came across the patterns and yarn and decided to try again.  Here is where I have got so far:

This is one a third pattern repeats of the edging, and there are 49 repeats in total for just the edging.  It's taken me over a week to get this far, so I figure at least a year just to comlete the edge.  I think I'm doing ok, although I think the vine pattern may have gone adrift a couple of times by the look of it! It is intended to be the Magikal Earth Shawl by Sandy Terp and this is how the finished article should look

 
I have a long way to go!  In the meantime I found the level of focus and concentration needed for lace knitting was so high that I needed something simple to fit in between, so I took up the crochet hook and did a simple shrug for DD which I completed just yesterday

Finally I did get around to some papercrafting.  I decided I needed somewhere to keep cards I had made.  I had intended to use an empty cereal packet  but DD had a tidy session and threw them all away! I therefore scoured the net and found a tutorial from Inking Idaho which almost fit the bill. I wanted something a bit bigger though so I started with some 12 x 12 cardstock then covered it with some old K & Co papers from my stash

So, lots of little bits and pieces keeping me out of mischief.  Hopefully my mojo will come home soon and I can get really inky and messy!
Hope everyone is keeping well x