Frankenstein portrait

Well the lockdown is stretching out far longer than I imagined. I am finding creating and gardening are making it bearable. The weather here in Ireland is still surprisingly sunny. I dont do hot weather so I neglected the garden today and went to the attic where the breeze it cool and I can still hear those lovely summer sounds. Ive been playing with lots of textures using paste, stencils and distress crayons - more Tim Holtz Live prompts.

He uses Idea-ology frames in lots of his demos. I love the look of them but I am always more tempted by inks and stamps when I shop. The packs of frames seem expensive in the UK and I think I would be too tempted to hoard rather than use them. I do have an old disintegrated photo album which has old frame windows. I took the plunge this week and covered it in paste and crayon. I had no idea what I might do with it when I started out. When it was finished I decided I wanted to frame the anatomised head. I cut  the page into two and got out one of my favorite stamp sets, "Cadaverous," yes they are all my favorites. I love the anatomised head and he does remind me of Frankenstein. I also used a prompt from an ephemera pack and made an advertisement for an old imaginary bookshop window, propped up infront of stacks of leather bound dusty books. Everyone creates in a different way often what I make is based on a story in my head.

The backgrounds for the stamped images were made with mixed media paper. I sprayed a little  distress ink stain in frayed burlap and antique paper and then spritzed it with water and blotted the centre to create space for the foot and head.

The images were stamped with embossing ink and embossed with walnut stain glaze and then watercolored with reinker. It makes it easy to wash colour over an image. the gloss repels the ink and it settles into the white spaces.

As well as using the album pages for the first time I used some tiny 'mini metal fasteners' screw heads to attach the booksellers sign. I didn't do much to the images as the frame was so textural and colourful. I left the images simple and understated.

I loved the way the crackle paste worked along with the distress crayons it was fun to do and so forgiving if you dont like a colour it just wipes off and it blends beautifully. There are lots of oil/wax colouring sticks Gelatos, Scribble Sticks and others but these are a joy to blend with and the colour stays perfectly vibrant. I love using them.

My garden will get attended to tomorrow but today I enjoyed the studio. Hope you are all enjoying your creative space and your gardens! Thanks for visiting and stay safe and creative xox

I think this qualifies as a "A Man Thing," as that is the theme over at Simon Says Stamp this week I am linking up with their Monday Challenge.

I am also linking up with Creative Artiste's Challenge which is Anything Goes.

Creative Life in lockdown

The buzz created by the Tim Holtz LIVES is such an inspiration. Tim and Mario are creating a community during this difficult time. I have been mixing up the live demos with the Creative Chemistry classes. I have enjoyed the encouragement to play and experiment without any need to resolve into a "project." Its fun to let things slide a little, bit like working in your PJs, which is turning into the new norm these days. I have been working with tags, cutting them out of a range of papers. I have also been using instagram for quick posting but a blog seems to offer much more time to reflect on what you are up to.

Ive started to jump about a bit using the techniques I wanted to revisit rather than days in order. This is "Nostalgic Batik and then on the right Paint and Ink Monoprints from CC102. I have been playing with my stencils lots recently. I have got into the habit of using stencils to create subtle background layers by blending through them with regular distress ink but they are so versatile and can do so much more. Switching to paint or mono-printing with the negative of the stencil has been losening me up and showing me lots of new possibilities. Playing more is opening up lots of new possibilites.

The other thing I have tried to do is to revisit and try techniques I was not happy with first time around. Tim's Spritz Sparkle and Smudge Demo encouraged me to retry Smudge stamping and I was much happier with the results this time. I made one first following CC102 using regular distress ink but I also made one with distress oxide, (on right) so I could compare them. Not sure which I prefer? I actually stamped the bird in red originally and it did not stamp well so I went over it in archival black ink. It gave it a hint of 3D which I quite like. It was just stamped with a regular grid block not a platform. Some mistakes are discoveries!

I also had another go at Shabby Chic and Stencil Stamping techniques from CC102 and both of them were an improvement on my early attempts. I enjoyed playing with the skeleton from the Tim Holtz/stampersanonymous Cadaverous set. Remember the anatomised man in my last post? This was one of those sets I bought as I loved it but never made anything with. That is another good result from all the demos playing with lots of my neglected stamps. I think I used 3 sets on the yellow tag.

My favorite evening was spent stamping and watercoloring with distress markers. I got out another admired and under used TH/Stampers anonymous set,"Tiny Things." I made rows of ballerinas, fishes and birds. I loved this technique and became totally absorbed and entranced like the best of times at your studio desk.

I loved the wispy unpredictable effects of ink and water on your stamp. I would have happily carried on into the night but try not to work after midnight! Even writing this post I am thinking 'Oh I want to do more of that right now!'

I am sure for creative crafters the lockdown has given us much more time to create and all of the online inspiration has definitely been encouraging me to explore new techniques and play. I do hope you are all being inspired too.

Thank you for visiting, I love being connected and appreciate all your comments.  I have not been posting here as much but I have been posting on Instagram if you want to see more.

Valentines card

Prompted by A Vintage Journey's Challenge "Your Hearts Desire" I got out my romantic colours, Valentines to me says pinks and reds.
I tried a few stencils straight onto a cream card base creating a patterned heart stamped with some text but I wasn't happy with it. I tried it on watercolour with a coloured background and red speckles embossed in red and gold but it just seemed too flat.

The embossing called for more layers and texture and seemed to suit a more vintage design. Heading off in another direction I cut some foliage with a memory box die and used paper from my stash to create a collaged heart to cover the original design.

I embossed a graphic 45 sentiment in gold on a rich red card. I glued the heart over the foliage so it framed it and finished off with the sentiment mounted on some foam tape. A few red speckles on the heart pulled the card together.

I wonder does Valentines day get more people making cards than Christmas? Christmas is so busy  and most of us do not need stacks of Valentine cards. Whether you are making cards or not a Happy Valentines day to all.

Thank you for all your comments I do read and appreciate each of them it is good to know you are not just talking to yourself!

Link for Vintage Journey Challenge

Warm Golden glow for the Winter Chill

January seemed to be a hard month for many of us, I struggled to get anything creative done. My studio in the attic is a bit arctic since Christmas so I have been avoiding it. As the weather is not getting warmer any time soon I have dug out a heater and cosy clothing, so its back to work before February passes me by too.

To take my mind off the chill I have made a warm coloured card. Lots of distress ink, embossing powder, stencils, a lovely golden sun from Lynne Perrella and ferns - the hardiest plants in my garden.

As this card is neither wintry or valentine themed I am linking up with a few Anything goes challenges today.

I am linking up with Crafty Stamper's Take It Make It Challenge 
And it is Anything Goes this Wednesday over at Simon Says Stamp
Also linking up with Fashionable Stamping Challenges Anything Goes Challenge #143

Lovely to be back in the blogosphere again and looking forward to catching up with everyone. Hope you get a little warmth in your week.

Lynne Perrella Card

I went through some of the abandoned backgrounds in my studio. A couple of smooched distress backgrounds in deep, dark purples grabbed my eye. They were too dark for the project I had been working on at the time. I decided to bring them out now and play with gold embossing powder.

I stamped and gold embossed text all over. Then I added random areas of gold around the card. It looks almost spilled over the text.

Happy with the effect I worked on the embellishments. First I die cut some flowers from one of the plain purple pieces. I made a brown postage stamp. I stamped in purple using a Lynne Perrella stamp and finished it by edging in gold ink. I stamped coloured and fussycut a lovely lady from another Perrella stamp set and then mounted them all on the card front. I added a tiny touch of green flowers just to lift the purples a little.

I love it when I can use up the pieces I have abandoned. I am so tempted to clear them all away as they gather into messy piles on occasion. Now my hoarding is justified.

As this is so purple I am linking up to  the Mix it Up Challenge

First Card for Christmas 2018

Only those who buy all their Christmas cards think it is too early to be getting ready for Christmas.

I made my first Christmas card and my desk is covered in Christmas stamps, lots of silver, white and gold shiny stuff. I love all of the Christmas preparation and card making is usually my first task. I am trying to move away from green and red this year.

Ive used Oxide Distress in Antique Linen and a Tim Holtz stencil to add turquoise stars to the background. I used a mask to keep an area in the card clear where I wanted to stamp an image. I stamped the Lynne Perrella lady onto the card front using a mask I gave her some wings decorated with a hint of grey and a touch of blue sparkly Stickles. I also added sparkle to the stars in the background. I always get my Stickles out at Christmas and the room is covered in lots of drying, sticky, glittery decoration. I added a sentiment from Tim Holtz 'Simple Sayings" stamp set. Finally some embossing powder in Shabby blue and frozen lake (by Stampendous) and a tiny touch of gold embossing to edge the grey mount card and sentiment.

I have just noticed a bit of bare card in the corner at the top of my card which I will have to touch up.

Back to Nature Autumn tag

I have changed the look of my blog a little so I can use bigger pictures. Pictures are so central to visual work. Today I wanted to experiment with Paperartsy's infusions and grunge paste. I worked on some book pages adhering them to card and cutting out a die from the Tim Holtz Bookplate and tag die. Next I used the paste through a stencil. Once it dried I used a heavy sprinkle and spritz of Slime  infusions.

By the time I had finished the text has almost disappeared. I love the range of colours that the infusions create. The texture paste  highlighted this effect as the colours pool and swirl around the patterned surface. I did use some distress ink in olive and forest moss but most of the colour comes from the infusions. I added very little to this as I wanted to allow the texture and colour show through.

I used some gold and terracotta embossing powder to create a defined edge. I die cut some tiny leaves from the Tiny Tattered Florals framlits set  and finished off with some dark brown Autumn plants from my garden.

This tag is partly inspired by the challenge over at A Vintage Journey where they prompt you to use natural objects, colours and themes this month. It is hard not to be conscious of nature at the change of seasons so much shifting colour and form in the garden as everything bursts its borders and dries out or turns rich browns and golden colours.

The tag is finished off with a quote from Van Gogh.

I am linking up to A Vintage Journey where they are challenging you to get  Back to Nature
Also joining in with That's Crafty Forever Autumn Challenge

Baby Blocks all Wrapped Up

Just putting up the baby blocks as a few people wanted to see them finished.

Yes I only finished two sets, I left the third until we visit that baby as I was itching to get out my embossing powders.

Linking up to WOYWW at Stamping Ground

Deep Sea Collage

The latest paper artsy challenge is "Baked Texture" which inspired me to get out my embossing powders and play. I love using embossing powder. it is like a form of alchemy turning dull grains into molten reflective magic. I love the unpredictable and invisible process of applying virtually invisible Versamark and then coating and melting the granules to discover what will happen this time. Anyone who has visited me much knows I love the new baked texture powders by Seth Apter and Emerald Creek. I only have Deep Sea and Vintage Beeswax but I have mixed in a few of my other powders to create different effects. First I covered the baseboard with a few scraps of sea themed paper and Paperartsy fresco paints in blues and greens. I misted a little dark green from an old ink spray that usually produces big splotches. There are a few dark speckles on the final piece but most of the base colours are not very visible and I didn't take photos, sorry. I was only intending to play a little when I started out. I have include lots of pictures of all the effects and details.

I knew I wanted to use the beeswax and deep sea. I had the blue book spine and the shell and two fish scraps. I tore out several nautical pages from an old almanack. I also inked a piece of seam binding and stamped some text onto it and I used one tiny piece of design tape. I stained and glued down some pieces of the book paper and then applied some rock candy in some areas to create crackle . While it dried I stained and embossed some of the book paper fragments.

Each piece of book paper ended up with a very different look with all the various media used. The top fish is sitting on a piece that had 3 coats of beeswax. The bottom one is on a piece stained with distress stain.

This piece has only one coat of the vintage beeswax. The pale blue under the beeswax is a touch of blue distress stain. You can see the deep sea baked texture clearly here at the top.

All the heating the embossing demanded was too much for the rock candy and some of it flaked off. You can see the effect above in the bottom left hand corner. It just added to the sea texture so it looked quite good. I used a coat of beeswax then a coat of the sea embossing mixture to create a deep blue sea under the bottom fish. The 'Sea mixture" is lots of Deep Sea Baked texture, a pinch of Wendy Vecchi Fern green and Sky blue and a slightly bigger pinch of Ranger Antiquities Verdigris. 

I love the way different elements float and emerge in and out of focus. The different coloured layers all affect each other just like underwater. The Deep sea under the Vintage Beeswax is much greener. The blue area at the top of this picture is  Deep Sea baked texture under the Vintage Beeswax and on top of blue distress stain. It is very hard to describe any collage without using terms associated with water drift, float, swim all work so well to describe the way the elements and layers sit together and move between each other. 

In this section the gilt publishing company name on the old book spine glimmers just under the fishes tail. I had not noticed when I began that the publishing house was called Nelson! The book paper lists the tides and Rear and Vice Admirals in keeping with the nautical theme.

I wanted to use antiquing cream to emphasise the cracks in the rock candy and create a contrast to all the creams, greens and blues. Red Oxide ended up suggesting coral which was a pleasant surprise.

I thought the whole panel was too dark so I added a touch of white. After randomly sprinkling in a few spots I added individual specks of white from a pot of Stampendous Frantage to create bubbles for the fish.


Adding this to:
Paperartsy challenge #14 Baked Texture
Country View Crafts Challenge Sun Sea Sand
Emerald Creek Great Outdoors #ECAUG2018
That's Crafty Animal Magic challenge

Embossed Magic Card

My second embossed card uses my all time favourite Vintage Beeswax embossing powder. This powder adds a yellowy translucent tone that ages any paper perfectly it looks textured and all the bumps catch the light beautifully.

I used the same technique on this card as the robin egg card but this time I used the Seth Apter/ Emerald Creek's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder on the raised embossed areas. It completely changes the tone of the paper. It is much darker and richer looking. The beeswax has a very different effect to the normal clear powder I used on the Robin egg card. it really does add a yellow wax encaustic look. Adding a single layer on the 'Magic Garden' element gives it texture as well as deepening the colour  of the paper.

I was tempted to emboss the little boy but I didn't want every element to have similar tones. I also left the book paper fragment with just a hint of green ink and no embossing. I have had a great time experimenting with the resists that embossing offers Vintage beeswax really is magic! I am off to play with my Deep Sea powder now . . . watch this space.


Im linking this to Paperartsy's Baked Texture challenge

Robin Egg Embossed Card

I was playing around with embossing this week and made a couple of cards. In the first I finally used the egg stamp Yey!

I have also used an embossing folder that I have had for ages and never tried out. I was prompted by both Paperartsy's Baked texture challenge and Vintage Journey's resist challenge. It all turned into quite a stash project. I started with patterned paper from my stash. I stamped some text to add detail to the green and cream open spaces on the paper. I embossed with the folder adding a little extra embossing with the folder at the bottom to make a longer piece. I used 2 coats of versamark and clear embossing powder to create a resist and then inked it with gathered twigs DI. I love the grungy, gritty effect created where small particles of embossing powder have stuck to the debossed areas and resisted the ink.

The snippet of book paper is from an old encyclopedia. Luckily I still had the bird entry

I avoided the bottom section with the embossing powder so the ink covers it all and creates a darker area giving a different effect. The card is finished off with my stamped fusycut egg, a coloured scrap of book paper and a pensive young lady from Tim Holtz Paper dolls. These colours all relate to the colours of the egg and the card is mounted on cardstock called - "Robin Egg." How appropriate was that!


Joining in with
Vintage Journey's challenge How Can you Resist
Artistic Stamper's challenge Anything Goes

Embossing folder used is Anna Griffin 'Aviary'
Stamp set Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous 'Bird Feather'
12 x 12 patterned paper by Bo Bunny 'Et Cetera - Watermark'
Robin Egg cardstock is by Kaisercraft

Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold Lynne Perrella Card

Working my way through the many backgrounds I have made for the Paperartsy topic 13 Challenge which was to use this colour combination. I would not have naturally been drawn to these colours but I am now thinking that they would make lovely Christmas card colours. This is the first finished project to come out of lots of painting inking and embossing.

I had a sage coloured piece of cardstock which I embossed and edged with gold embossing powder. The paler 'mint' piece is coloured and stencilled with crimson pearl Brilliance Tsukineko ink.  I then stamped text using the same ink. 

One of my favourite Lynne Perrella ladies is stamped onto another background piece and fussycut out. This piece is book paper painted with green and cream paint. The top of the lady's foliage was a little off the page so I stamped a tiny crimson house from another stamp in the set and placed it on her headdress to cover this. 

I finished off with some design tape from Tim Holtz. This piece has text in just the right colour I love this mention of "Medals for Chrysanthemums." Seems appropriate for this very floral lady, she certainly looks determined enough to win in life. I also edged this piece in lots of gold embossing powder emphasising the torn edges.

Finally joining in with Paperartsy's Topic 13 Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold  Challenge.

Oxide Ink birthday card

Got out some of my oxide inks to make a quick birthday card with a Crafty Individuals stamp set I love using. This card is intended for an Irish friend whos turning 60. Hares have a special place in Celtic mythology and are seen as magical and wise animals. In my mind anyone reaching 60 has the right to be considered very wise. The hares in these stamps are quirky but suggest the intelligence I equate with these animals.

I did start photographing the process while I began with smooshing oxide ink onto my mat and misting and dipping. I made a few extra pieces at the same time to use for my hares and sentiments.

Then some stencilling. I stencilled circles and then wet them and removed some ink to get a subtler effect.

At this point I got distracted and forgot to photograph for a while. I added some numbers using a stencil and Peacock Feathers oxide ink. Next I stamped a some random text in Manganese Blue archival ink. Happy now with my background  I stamped plants at the bottom in Potting Shed  Archival ink. I used the same ink to stamp the two lovely hares onto one of my spare background pieces and then fussycut them and edged them in brown distress ink. I had a little fun creating some embossing powder from a mixture of ancient antiquities Verdigris and Frantage Aged Aqua embossing enamel. I love the large white pieces that create a kind of splatter and it has also has blue glitter for a little magic. I stamped sentiments on more of my spare background peices and edged them with the embossing mixture. When I arranged them I decided it looked far too busy. Instead I used a small circle die to cut a hole in my card. Then I mounted the card on a larger peice of teal cardstock.

I die cut number 60 from spare smooched paper and glued it into the teal circle. The finished card front is attached to a pale blue card base and the sentiments are all stamped inside. It looks a little like hares are gazing up at a blue moon.

After choosing hares for their magical qualities I had to join in with the August challenge at That's Crafty whose theme is "Animal Magic."

I also think hares are quite wild enough to join in the "Wild Things" Simon Says Stamp Challenge this Monday.

Finally as the number 60 was the whole point of this card I am playing for the first time with Stampotique and thier current Challenge - "Number It"

Animal magic
Wild Things
Number It