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.

insect in a box

Just a quick post to join in with the latest Paperartsy Topic. I am sure I must be in good company with many crafters when I remember all the tiny things I made for and with matchboxes as a child. I was delighted to see the Challenge on the Paperartsy blog was Matchbox art this fortnight.

Of course I was busy and this is a last minute rush to enter. I made a new bug box with some Graphic 45 Nature's Sketchbook paper, Seth Apter's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder and Tim Holtz stamp sets.

I used one of the beetles I had made when my new Entomology dies arrived.

I love this nature themed paper and have been saving it for special project. This little box is perfect way to use a little of it. I was so happy to see it's shine once the embossing layers were built up. It makes the paper seem even more precious, like jewels and without any gold for once! I really enjoyed this little break from the Christmas card making.

Link to the Paperartsy Challenge #21 Matchbox art
also to:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge which is Anything Goes this week.

Blue houses made with Artful Dwellings die

Christmas is definitely coming now. Christmas lights have been turned on and Santa is in his grotto in town. I have started making my presents now which are increasingly handmade. I think the older I get the less interested I am in buying more 'stuff' for people or myself. There is so much mass produced nonsense available and things all start to look the same in the shops. A handmade gift is always unique and has much more meaning. You are giving your time, sharing your imagination and creativity. You are sharing your sense of that person as you make something that is just right for them. I think it is time well spent and much more fun than Christmas shopping.

I usually come up with ideas for a few types of  gifts that suit lots of my friends and family. I have started off with an accordion that can be a decoration for Christmas, an elaborate card or an all year decoration.  Once its folded up it is also is very easy to post. This is great for people overseas. Having lived in England Australia and Canada I post a lot at Christmas.

I used the Tim Holtz Artful Dwellings die to cut coloured card stock in a range of blues. Each house shape was cut individually using a piece of card accordion folded so it lay just inside the edge of the cutting blade on both sides. This way the top and bottom cuts through but the two side edges are left intact to produce a connected continuous row of houses. Once I had lots of the four different shapes cut out I had a stamping feast. Using lots of blue inks including, Versamark Momento, regular Distress, Archival and  Powder Puffs chalk ink.

The edges are all distress inked to finish off. I think I might add some treasure gold or silver to some of them to make them more festive. I didn't want them to be Christmas themed as it seems a shame to have to put them away most of the year, I think the blues give them a wintery feel.

The rows are all the same shape but I overlapped them and glues different shapes together to produce a few sets that were longer and mixed up the house shapes. 

I really enjoyed making these and it gave me a chance to use lots of lovely stamps that have been neglected, I think I will do some more Christmas coloured sets next and use lots of my Christmas stamp sets. My non crafting friends often complain about the Christmas preparation and think I begin  very early but I think anyone who enjoys crafting knows it is a joy to have such a wealth of reasons to spend more time at my desk. Hope you are getting lots of time at yours too.

I'm linking up with:

Happy Little Stampers  November  anything Goes With a Die Challenge. This challenge always gives me a great prompt to get out my old dies.
and Frilly and Funkie whose latest challenge is "Tis the season for gift giving."

Fairytale Christening Album

I have not been very organised with my posting lately but I have been making lots of albums and gifts and this week is a bit of a catch up on the blog.

A friend asked me to make an album as a gift for the christening her daughter’s new baby. We talked all about her daughter’s favourite animals and interests and colours. I have had fun weaving in lots of the elements from our conversation. It was challenging to mix the strong blue with the soft turquoise, lavender and mint. I hope it worked and the new mother will eventually enjoy telling her little girl about the things she loved when she was a girl.

The album uses the vivid blue for all the pages and then a range of other paper from my stash. The album is covered with 'Deer Forest' paper from Websters Pages, 'Royal Christmas' collection. It seemed very fairytale like and I have used it throughout the album.

I think this blue star scattered paper is perfect for any magical or childhood project. Its 'Jolly Jack-O-Lantern' from the Graphic 45 'Happy Haunting' Collection I also used a star punch to make the cream cardstock fit the design. I printed out lots of images from my own collection of  illustrations. I have always collected magical children's books with illustrations that I think are beautiful.

This envelope/pocket is decorated with polar bears which was one of the things my friend said her daughter loved.













The colours she requested were lavender, mint green, turquoise, strong blue and green. Quite a lot of colours to get to work together! These pages use some of Prima's 'Meeting a Fairy paper' from the Nature Garden Collection. I loved this paper when it came out so I bough plenty the delicate colours  fit the magical feel of the album and it works well with lots of the colours in the album.

Another request was for unicorns. There is something about unicorns that seems to appeal to most small girls. This is an illustration from a book my own daughter loved as a child,* with all those turquoise and greens it blends in beautifully. Other illustrations are fairytales and a musical maiden to reference the mother's musical talents.

Penguins and butterflies were another request. These pages use a piece of paper from DCWV Mariposa I have had this small piece of paper for years but it was so pretty with a slight sparkle to it I wanted to save it for a special project. I think the little pointy hats give this page a fun feel.

This page has a sweet vintage penguin illustration on a flip tag I used more stash paper. This colour is 'Island Mist Vintage.' Its Bo Bunny Double Dot, I love this paper and bought a lifetime supply of it in almost every colour it is so good for vintage projects and great for album pages. The paper for the main page is by Basic Grey and matched it perfectly.

I though these pages might be dull as they had no patterned paper but I really enjoyed adding touches of pattern and they are now some of my favourite.

I love this jolly moon and the little book with little pocket and belly band. Gnomes were also requested as they are part of the Norwegian culture where this new baby and family lives. I have put in lots of gnomes throughout mostly as tuck spots.

More pages using the cover paper and lots of Grimm's fairy tale images. One forms a pocket and the other a little booklet.

The album has lots of different pockets, envelopes, tuck spots and bands to hold journaling and photographs. I asked for some family photos of all the female line and scanned them to use on some of the tags and mats. Once the new baby pictures fill this album it will have images of four generations of the women from this family. I love the way albums connect families together through time.

The album ends with more twinkle twinkle stars and another jolly moon, a flip pocket page, a little gnome tuck spot and penguin booklet.











I am linking this post up with Mini Albums Monthly as its a long time since I joined in with these lovely ladies.
Also with A Vintage Journey who are inspiring all of us to use our paper stash.

*The Book "Unicorns Unicorns" is by Geraldine McCaughrean. Its a beautifully illustrated book that tells a magical tale about why the Unicorns did not make it onto the Ark.  

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.

Imagine Autumn

It feels much longer than three weeks since I had inky fingers. I had to look after my Mum for a while so normal life was on hold. Very strange not blogging or even getting time to check in with everyone blogs. Back to normal now so straight into stamping again Yay! I love Autumn, I still swish through all those crunch leaves. I have got back into the swing with a card for A Vintage Challenge's Autumn Splendour.

I made the background with heavy watercolour cardstock and used oxide inks to add a base colour. Then I used several Inkylicious plant stamps which I clear embossed to give some texture. Ive also inked some speckles and text and of course used some gold embossing powder. This is Ultra high Wow and Ive added a little Paprika to it (also from Wow) The background is mounted on a Kraft card base.

Next I made a handful of Autumn leaves using Sizzix, Susan's Garden 'Woodland leaves' dies. I cut out a few sets in Kraft, yellow and rust card and then smooched them in lots of browns and greens and some Spiced Marmalade inks I used both oxide and regular distress. I scrunched them up a bit to add shape to them. Once they were dry I stamped veins randomly onto them using my old Tim Holtz Falling leaves stamp set.

I then tried a paper doll but I was not happy with it as there was no contrast for all the brown tones. I  have taken out all my Christmas supplies this week. After rifling through them I decided these two fairy sisters would add a little colour and allow me to bring out the magic of this season full of change and beauty.

Even better all the work to create them was already done. I made these for our tree two years ago. They were created on the computer then printed out onto card and the wings decorated in Stickles.
These two were one of my favourites. It is nice to give them a special woodland setting all of their own.

Now my fingers are really colourful and I am a happy bunny. Off to visit all my neglected friends in the blogosphere now.


Linking up with:
A Vintage Journey Challenge Autumn Splendor
The Artistic Stamper  8th year Challenge Inktober
Country View Crafts Plant-tastic

Entomology stamps and framlits card

This is my first card using the Tim Holtz Entomology Framelits and stamps.

I used one piece of design tape on the left of the cream card front the whole surface was then covered  with brown Paperartsy fresco finish paint. I rubbed it back a little to allow the tape to show through in some areas. Next I used the crackle glaze over the whole card, let it dry and covered it in a coat of eggshell fresco paint. Once the paint had dries and the crackle effect was visible I stamped images onto tissue paper and collaged them on top of the painted surface. I wanted more crackle so I added decoArt Media crackle Glaze over the stamped areas. When this had air dried (after dinner) I rubbed over antiquing cream in Raw Umber and Red Oxide. I removed most of this colour and then used regular distress ink in Forest Moss, Vintage Photo and Rusty Hinge to create an aged wood look and bring out the crackle more. I intended to cover most of the centre of the card so all my attention was given to the edges.

I layered the card with; some of the label embellishments I made earlier and some of my new coloured bugs.

I love the luminescent colours on the largest bug.

The text stamp is stamped onto a piece of old book paper. I folded, rolled and scrunched it up a little inking the edges to suggest a page from an old note book. The card is matted onto some rust coloured cardstock and a brown card base.

I am linking this up to the current More Mixed Media Challenge Anything Goes + Brown

Experimenting with Wax Collage

I requested a Ranger melt pot for my birthday last year. I made a project for an exhibition in a mad rush but I have not experimented since. This year as my birthday approached again I felt I really should get it back in use. I used a piece of off cut wood donated by my husband. I coated it with two layers of encaustic gesso. next I lay out my design.

I put down the first layer of wax let it dry and then fused it by gently heating the layer to bond it to the layer below. Then I dipped the piece of encyclopedia paper  into the wax and lay it down onto the surface and coated it in a layer of wax. As soon as this was done I remembered of course the wax made the paper translucent and both sides showed through so it just made a confusing mess.

Just sharing the real process, warts and all! Well the good thing about wax is you can melt it off and start again. So I got rid of this layer and remembered I wanted to try some collage using stamped tissue. The next hour was spent choosing and stamping a collection of nature images onto some regular tissue. I tore all the edges so it would blend into the background more easily. I also wanted to try and experiment with colouring the layers. At this point I became engrossed and took no more pictures. I used oil pastels and rubbed them onto the now waxy board. I Next put a layer on top of the pastel. This did not work well, the pastel pooled giving a patchy effect. I melted and scraped this off and then tried watercolour paint but that just resisted the wax and sat in dots on the surface. I scraped it off and then put all my blue stained wax into the pot. this melted into a nice coloured wax which I used for the rest of my layers.

By this stage I had learnt a lot but was not happy with the results. I wanted a more even surface and the blue over the images made the images disappear too much. The lace embedded in wax was the only element I loved. I do like the colour but I want to achieve a more mysterious effect. Of course at this point it is all learning and I am happy with experimenting with wax for many hours to come.

I decided to go ahead and post and share this experiment. I have requested a few more off-cuts to try again and will post the next experiment.

Scrapcosy card

This card is an opportunity to use a stamp set by Scrapcosey/Paperartsy.  Scrapcosey (or Raquel) has some great videos on her blog and YouTube using infusions and embossing powders I love her cheerful friendly tone and her stamp sets have lots of vintage illustrations which I am drawn to. I love the vintage plant illustrations in this set and all the map elements. Not sure what it is about old maps that makes them so popular. Perhaps it is the sense of a time when the whole world presented an opportunity for adventure and exploration. That and the great skill in all those illustrations full of tiny details. 

My favourite stamp in the set is the flower. The watercolour paper on the whole card was first lightly tinted with spun sugar distress ink. After stamping the two decorative oval map images I played around with some tape to mask a central area that resists the green ink and creates three distinct areas. I stamped some of the map and plant images in sepia and potting soil archival ink. I also used a small Latin text background stamp to add more texture to the side panels. I used Ranger Rock Candy Crackle paint on the two side panels leaving the surface of the centre matte. This highlights the lovely flower image.

I like the way the rock candy distress crackle changes the colour of the Sepia archival ink I used. It is a darker and almost red under the shiny surface. 

The finished card front is mounted on rust coloured cardstock and a card base made from green cardstock.

I can't remember when I last made something with no embossing round the edge!

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