The Twin to the Finn Inspired Canvas

This is the 'twin' of the Finnabair inspired canvas I made a couple of weeks ago, in that they are the same size and colours and could sit side by side. I have used a Crafty Individuals' image inside the gessoed Tim Holtz frame, and the Charlotte doll was made from one of my Siligum moulds and some clay. Hope you like!

Paper Artsy Portfolio and Fresco Finish Tags

I have had a fabulous day today crafting with Brenda from Bumblebees and Butterflies. I dropped her a line last night to say I was itching to do one of the techniques they have been showing on the Paper Artsy blog and did she have any stamps she could bring with her to add to the ones I already had. I know she is a good sport! Have you been following the techniques? They are having guest designers and so far have had Helen Chilton, who I have admired ever since I started stamping, and this week it is the turn of Linda Cain who has been making some stunning projects. As I am a great fan of Fresco Finish paints and have the Portfolio crayons I was dying to have a play!

For the tags I followed Helen's technique of covering the surface with Snowflake Fresco Finish and then I scribbled on the crayons. I said to Brenda, 'I'm going to do a Helen now, as I grabbed Pink, Lime, Orange, and Yellow!' (hope she doesn't mind my saying that!). It was such fun!! then I stamped in Black StazOn as advised by Helen and Leandra, and scratched back through the crayon to the white underneath to create highlights. Loved doing this! I finished off as recommended by Linda, with Diamante brads.

I am really enjoying this series of techniques and hope they will continue with it, and am entering these tags to their link.

Recycled Ballet Dancer Make Up Bag

Over on Happy Daze the challenge for this month is to recycle. How about recycling some of your Christmas cards and decorations now you have taken them down? Or maybe some of that left over pretty packaging? Today's recycling was a Tesco make up bag that had contained nail care bits and pieces and was pink and covered in white butterflies. I covered it in Tim Holtz Composer tissue wrap so that you can still see the white butterflies peeking through. I then stamped the little girl at her ballet class from the Artistic Outpost set onto tissue paper and coloured her with Distress Inks, and added some of the text from the same set, all applied with Matte Gel Medium. I finished it off with some pleated ribbon trim, some lace flowers, and a friendly plastic flower from a homemade mould, made from a piece of broken jewellery.

I am entering this into the Artistic Outpost referral programme. If you are in the US you can get their amazing array of stamps direct from them, but if you are in the UK you can get them from Happy Daze, along with lots of other unusual crafty and altered art goodies.

I hope you will join in this month's challenge, which was chosen by me!! I love to recycle; it is so rewarding.

Great Gatsby Recycled Box

I've made this box for the Happy Daze challenge which is to Recycle. I used a gift box my mum in law saved for me at Christmas when I said I was going to be making some things for this theme. I also recycled the crystal stopper from a broken decanter. I have used the lovely Prima Moulin Rouge papers and die cuts you can get from Happy Daze, together with the Artistic Outpost Great Gatsby plate.

I am entering this for the Artistic Outpost referral programme for January. You can get their stamps directly from them if you are in the US, or from Happy Daze if you are in the UK.

I am also entering this into the Eclectic Paperie challenge which is Altered Boxes.

Tweaked Yesterday's Finnabair Canvas

Thank you so, so much for the kind comments yesterday and for the very constructive help. I have made a couple of very minor tweaks based on what you said. I used a soft charcoal pencil round the edge of the frame then softened it with a paper stump then my finger, and the tiniest bit on the bird. It may be a bit too strong. Maybe another way of doing it would have been to sponge the white die cut frame in the pale turquoise before I glued it down. If you think I have completely ruined the canvas now, don't be afraid to say as I don't feel any attachment to an item once I have made it - I just enjoy the process, and on this occasion it was very experimental and I will certainly be making more and improving. Just don't eat any of my cakes ........

A closer shot of the frame and bird
 

Canvas - Inspired by Finnabair - with Crafty Individuals' Image

I've been so inspired by the beautiful and evocative art of Finnabair - Anna Dabrowska, and I know so have many others. I've been thinking for some weeks of attempting something similar on a canvas and wasn't sure I could pull it off. She works mainly with photographs, and I wanted to use something else in their place as I don't have any photos to use. Another of my fears was, would the gesso 'take' on so many different items, and would the items fall off? I was also very scared about composition. But my main fear was, how do I know when it is done, and when to stop? All you can do, I guess, is go for it, and I use very cheap canvases and most of the other bits I picked up off the floor of my craft room so there wasn't much to lose! As far as when to stop is concerned I have decided to blog it now, and I might do some tweaks, and possibly show you again and see what you think.



A bit more of a close up of the frame and bird but difficult to see
 

The main image is a particularly gorgeous one from Crafty Individuals from one of their Miniature books. One of my aims was to try to keep this as the focus and try not to drown it, despite all the other bits I was adding, as I know this is a tendency of mine. Another thing Colin has pointed out is that I am scared of white areas, so I was aiming to keep a lot of white. I was also aiming for maximum texture, but in the background rather than highlighting it as I normally would, which felt strange. One of the things I may tweak is that you cannot really see the bird on the bird cage (top right) or the ornate frame surrounding the lady, and I have an idea for this which I may re-blog but what do you think? Do you think it matters?



The bottom portion showing the raised areas done with a stencil

Love to know what you think of this first attempt at a new style for me. I will definitely be doing this again and trying to improve. I can see it being very addictive. Thanks for your thoughts!

Recycled Shower Gel Bottle

Over on the Happy Daze blog today I have decorated an old Miracle shower gel bottle using a set of perfume bottle label stamps by Lost Coast Designs. 

This is what the empty bottle started out like:-

The challenge over on Happy Daze this month is to recycle - such a great time of the year to recycle I always think, with all those pretty bits of fancy packaging left over from Christmas. Do join us, as you could win a great prize!

 

Crafty Individuals' Mixed Media Canvas Board

I have Petra to thank for this canvas as she came round for a crafting session and kindly brought lots of brand new goodies for me to play with - Ferro, Puff Paint, Treasure Gold, and Liquid Gold - and gave me a huge piece of Tim Holtz Melange Tissue Wrap. I am a big fan of the tissue wrap but I hadn't come across the Melange which has gorgeous butterflies and other imagery on it. I wanted something to slap it onto straight away that would give me scope to try out the other products as well so I grabbed a really large canvas board, which is bigger than A4 in size and completely covered it. Petra recommended mixing the puff paint with the ferro and I applied it through a new distressed harlequin stencil I recently got from Happy Daze, although I think I will use a greater proportion of puff paint next time so it is more dimensional. The whole thing was really experimental as I've not really used any of these products before. I then painted the diamonds with the Liquid Gold and blended the Treasure Gold in two colours over the top. It has an amazing sheen and shimmer but I hadn't known it would just go in the gaps and the Liquid Gold would resist it - as I say, experimental!

That was before Christmas and at that stage I didn't know where I was going with it next! So I picked it up a couple of days ago and added a couple of images from Crafty Individuals' 'People and Places' and used another of the images as an image transfer on a Poundland coaster. I used CI 347 which is the row of Butterflies and added some pearls to them. I applied some modelling paste around the edge of the images and smeared some bead gel in places over the canvas. I chose Distress Ink colours to go with the colours in the CI images and sponged them over the whole canvas and the bead gel. Finally I sponged black ink around the edges.

Thank you so much Petra for all the goodies to make this!

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year!


I hadn't intended to blog today but I notice a few of you have blogged favourite pieces you have made in 2012 in your New Year postings, and it makes for some wonderful eye candy! So I thought before I went to bed I would have a little look back over my blog. What an uncreative year it was for me! I can't say it was completely because of practical hurdles. Once we were settled in our temporary accommodation I quickly got some crafting bits around me, helped by my very kind friends, but I couldn't get myself into the right frame of mind. I really loved the normality of having people over to craft again and thank you so much those of you who came over as it meant so much that you didn't abandon me. But all I really did was have a crafting dabble and a chat as my head was full of building problems and decisions and dealing with the insurance company and worry and there didn't seem to be space for any creative thought. So really nothing clever was made in the whole of 2012. So instead of showing you anything very artistic, I thought I would show you when I think I might have got my sense of humour back:-



As Zoe quipped, they were going to a Black Tie and Tails party!

Looking forward to being much more creative in 2013 - hope it's a good one for you all!