Last Chance for Crafty Individuals' October Challenge ......

Over on the Crafty Individuals' blog you have until 11 pm tonight to enter the October challenge. This is my Hallowe'en themed contribution. I used a reversed deep canvas which I painted black and then framed with Crafty Individuals' mauve background paper. I stamped the Hallowe'en image and embossed it in black and then coloured the crow and the church with Pro Markers in shades of grey. I then filled in the crow with an embossing pen and clear embossed it and sponged Distress Inks over the whole piece in Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, and Spiced Marmalade and glued it into the recess. I lightly glued some fake cobweb inside the aperture and around the frame. I took a Poundland skeleton apart and you can just see the hand sticking out. I filled in the skull eyes with Glossy Accents mixed with red alcohol ink. I used a Sizzix embossing folder for the bats and carefully cut them out and dotted them around the cobweb, and finished off with a large spider!

Crafty Individuals' October Challenge - Christmas Joy

Over on the Crafty Individuals' blog the challenge is to make something depicting what October means to you, be that Autumn, Hallowe'en, or Christmas preparations. I decorated this little photo frame using Crafty Individuals' background paper and the gorgeous Angel stamp. I embossed her in black and then filled in the wings with an embossing pens and embossed them in gold, to make the whole image stand out.

All the details of the challenge are here, and you have another two days to join in. It is well worth doing so as there is a brilliant prize, plus you can claim 25% of any Crafty Individuals' purchases just for joining in. I think that's amazing!

Lynne Perella Greenhouse inspired by Liz Borer for Paper Artsy

Phew! I don't know how long it took the original artist, the very talented Liz Borer, to make her glorious items as Guest Designer for Paper Artsy this week, but it sure has taken me a long time to make my version. I started on Wednesday. Wednesday last March, that is. It must take even longer when you are the one designing the item. I have based my house on two of Liz's projects, taking elements from both, such as shrink plastic, the house with its compartments, the decorated bottles, and the mauve colour scheme. I don't have any Paper Artsy Hallowe'en stamps so I decided to use Lynne Perella and I toyed with the idea of using them in a spooky way but having made a few Hallowe'en projects this year (I've got one more in the wings) I thought I would leave the spider's web alone this time.

I started out with a cardboard house shaped box from Tiger, and painted it with Little Black Dress with Pansy for the back of the sections. I embossed some pieces of Paper Artsy metal with a cogs embossing folder for the roof and rubbed it with Little Black Dress. I used Thorndon Hall mauve paper for the outside panels. All the stamps are Lynne Perella or Lin Brown Eclectica and all the flowers are on shrink plastic apart from the tulip in the large right hand section which is clay.

I have edged the compartments with the Tim Holtz Tattered Lace die on black card and all the embellishments have been rubbed with Ice Fire Treasure Gold. I was going to glue the feather from the Lynne Perella set to the background but decided it looks pretty popped inside the little bottle. The Pansy backgrounds have been stencilled with grungepaste mixed with more Pansy through two different stencils, Mini Vine and Roman Letters.

I am entering this week's challenge here.

Under a Steampunk Spell

Over on Unruly Paper Arts I have a tutorial on a spooky canvas made using the Steampunk Spells papers by Graphic 45. I used some Tim Holtz arch dies from Eclectic Paperie and Claudine Hellmuth canvas and transferred the paper onto the canvas pieces. I then decorated the canvas with stencils and steampunk embellishments. I hope you will like it!

Indigo Blu Challenge - Things with Wings - Hallowe'en Owl Shrine

On the Indigo Blu blog they are having a challenge to make something with wings. Last month I was lucky enough to be picked and it is such a generous prize - I chose two A5 plates, Hocus Pocus and Sarah's Choice. I thought the Hocus Pocus one would be fun for Hallowe'en as I don't have many suitable stamps and this one has an interesting mix, with a beautiful owl on it. I thought he would fit the bill as my 'things with wings'. I'm a big fan of Indigo Blu as the stamps always stamp up beautifully, and Kay is so sweet and helpful when you meet her at shows. I watched her Create and Craft shows on television last week and jotted down lots of tips and techniques to try and there are some new release stamps I have got my eye on!

I decided to make a wooden shrine and a number of things went Pete Tong along the way! I did the shrink plastic owl a couple of times as I painted the background and the owl, which looked lovely and I will use it on another project but it just didn't stand out enough as a focal point, so I redid it in plain black and white. I measured it carefully to get it to fit within the art mould frame, which I made up in clay, painted in various shades of brown, and highlighted with Ice Fire Treasure Gold.

 

I wanted my colourscheme to be Hallowe'en colours of purple and green but the purple background gave me a problem of other things not standing out against it. I mixed green paint with my Kroma Krackle for the base of the shrine and patiently left it a couple of days and all was fine, but once I had added the Ice Fire it was more gold than green, although very pretty, so I didn't really have any green in my project. I used more Ice Fire on the photo corner charms and the edges of the shrine as I had nothing to lose by this time! The spider got some too! I then found I couldn't do the gold embossing I had planned around the side edges as my ep was a true gold, so I used some orange K and Co trim which is really pretty, and decided on orange as my additional Hallowe'en colour instead of the green.



On the left hand panel of my shrine I embossed the 'Magic' wording with purple shimmery embossing powder and on the right hand panel, the spider and its web. I applied Croco Crackle in Blackberry through a Harlequin stencil in several places over the shrine and once it had cracked, applied a little Treasure Gold. I then stamped the script from Sarah's Choice, which is lovely, in Galaxy Gold Brilliance, which is a soft gold which goes well with the Ice Fire, to fill in all the gaps. I embossed some bats on black card using a Sizzix embossing folder and carefully cut them out and stamped them with the script in Galaxy Gold for a little twinkle.

I stamped the words 'A friend is like an owl, both beautiful and wise' in shrink plastic' and positioned them under the pumpkins which added a pop of colour. To finish off, I added some fake spider's web around the frame and dotted the bats around the piece.

Tulips Inspired by Joanne Wardle for Paper Artsy

This week on Paper Artsy, Joanne Wardle is back as Guest Designer with clean and simple cards, concentrating on die cuts. I haven't got any of the Paper Artsy dies so Petra kindly lent me her tulip die with the matching Lin Brown Eclectica stamp set, which I love. I made two very similar cards, both cutting a stencil to smear the grunge paste through, but on the one above I used it directly onto the card. On the one below I die cut the card and smeared the grunge paste through the stencil on the inside.

I am entering the challenge here.

Castle Street - Inspired by Alison aka Butterfly for Paper Artsy

I hadn't intended to do a second challenge entry for Paper Artsy at all. Then last night it was a toss up between Bruce Forsyth and Alison aka Butterfly - no contest really! Although I did have a sneaky half hour with Sarah Millican! My craft room lured me back in for the evening as my favourite of Alison's three projects this week had been her incredibly imaginative, quirky, and downright mad Dollshouse Street. I love Alison's work and I think this is her best ever and I think we should see more of her mad side - let it out!

I really wanted to try Alison's technique of using the side of a piece of card and some Frescos to do the sky in horizontal strokes and the grass in vertical stokes. I was afraid in my hands it would look like a child's painting but it is surprisingly impressionistic. You have to be quite free and not think about it too much. I used a piece of mountboard where Alison had used a wooden piece from a child's toy. Alison had used the Doll range of stamps from Ink and the Dog but I only have one set so I decided to go with Lynne Perella, with the addition of the Mini Script 26 and Hot Pick 1009.

I started off by stamping all the Lynne Perella stamps I have in Coffee and Sepia Archival on white card stock and then desconstructed them. Alison had houses and I had castles!! So I fussy cut around turrets, and for the other shapes I used a mixture of dies - squares, arches, and a shield for a gherkin building! I also cut a set of Tim Holtz Pediments, some in plain white card, and some in shrink plastic for the smaller buildings, and stamped these with script. I then played around with placement of my pieces.

In addition to the free-style grasses I also stamped the grasses and birds from HP 1009 in brown and green although I don't think this was strictly necessary. I edged the whole piece in Sepia and then finished off with some Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

Button Doll Canvas Inspired by Alison aka Butterfly for Paper Artsy

Over on the Paper Artsy blog this week, it's been the turn of one of my favourite people, Alison aka Butterfly, as Guest Designer. When Alison was up last time I was in France so I didn't have a chance to join in following her wonderful inspiration. This time she has been using the Doll plates by Ink and the Dog which are such fun! I decided to copy her 6 x 6 canvas as my challenge entry this week. I pretty much did as Alison recommended except where I didn't have the same stamps, as I don't have the feather, so I stuck with the Doll plate. I used the same neutral colour palette which I found hard as I do like my colours.

My favourite part of Alison's make was definitely the buttons which were such a great idea, and I will definitely do these again. Thank you so much, Alison, for bringing us such great inspiration!

Canvas Inspired by Jo Myhill for Paper Artsy

On the Paper Artsy blog this week they have a new Guest Designer, Jo Myhill, and I have had a good mooch around her beautiful work! I have not had much time to play over the last few weeks and have either not joined in the challenges or have done a rushed job. It's been a combination of being in France then being poorly, getting behind with things, and Mum worries. Over the last couple of days I have had a dabble and made a canvas using image transfer which was one of the techniques Jo used in one of her lovely projects. She had transferred a photograph of a flower onto a piece of fabric as a focal point on a canvas. I didn't have anything suitable to use so I decided to transfer some Paper Artsy Thorndon Hall paper onto canvas using the same method Jo described, with Fresco Satin Glaze, finishing off with Gloss Glaze to get rid of the remaining scuzzies and brighten the colours. It's best to use the papers that do not have text as it will reverse it although if it's just for a background and you want a grungy look I don't really think it matters too much personally.

I thought I would do a bit of a comparison between some inexpensive canvas paper I bought on e bay which I stuck down with the Satin Glaze, and some expensive Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas which you just stick straight down, which was quicker but I didn't think there was much difference in the results. Above you can see the two Fredrix pieces centre and right, and on the left I have stuck a piece of Thorndon Hall onto a piece of canvas board with Stain Glaze. Below you can see a piece using the Sticky Back Canvas.

I then prepared my 8 x 8 canvas using Frescos and a daisy stencil and Treasure Gold in Ice Fire.

I used a couple of the Fredrix pieces of canvas. I love the texture and feel of them! To get the rough edges I cut a slit then tore them which was really easy.

I stamped the Letters and Numbers in Snowflake around the edges.

For the leaves I used a stencil with some grunge paste and then cut around the shape it left then highlighted with Treasure Gold in Ice Fire and glued the pieces in place.

I stamped a selection of flowers on sticky back canvas. I was experimenting so I painted the canvas with Frescos but some I stamped with Frescos and some I stamped with black Archival. I painted the dots in the centre on some and added shading. I cut into the petals quite deeply and roughed up all the edges with my scissors to emphasize the canvas. I backed some onto grungepaper to give them some movement, then I backed some onto packing acetate for the same reason but a cheaper outcome.

This was another experiment. I bought some of the gorgeous resin embellishments from Leandra at Ally Pally and coloured them with Ice Fire. On the left are some of my own clay embellishments and on the right, the resin ones. I think the resin took the Treasure Gold slightly better. Bearing in mind the cost of moulds, clay, UTEE, etc, I don't think it is worth making them myself as these were such an amazing price and variety. A brush gets into all the grooves.

Finally I stamped Garden of Dreams onto a torn piece of the remaining canvas transfer. Again it was easy to tear around the words in a straight line. This is the assembled canvas with the resin flowers in the centre of the canvas flowers.

I am entering this into the Paper Artsy challenge which is here. I am quite pleased with this. Not totally, but then I never am. I think it benefitted from spending a bit more time this week on all the individual elements before pulling it together. It's a shame with photos you never quite get the texture as the canvas is so much nicer than plain paper.