These are a Few of My Favourite Things

As a relaxing end to the year, there are no challenges over on the PaperArtsy Blog- well, who has time for challenges! Instead, we are having a bit of fun celebrating our favourite products and techniques. I am delighted to have a project over there if you would like to see.

I have made a pencil case using the gorgeous floral stamps and stencils by Kim Dellow, together with Fresco paints - of course! And shrink plastic and Treasure Gold. It was very quick to make and I thought it would make a fun little Christmas gift idea.

I hope all is well with you and your families. We just got back a few minutes ago from Colin's Consultant appointment and all the test results seem to be quite positive. I think I am close to getting Mum organized for Christmas so I am looking forward to spending a week with him. I do hope whatever you are doing you are safe and happy and with your loved ones. Happy Christmas!

PaperArtsy Shades of White Challenge - Feathers and Leaves

I'm very happy to be on the PaperArtsy blog tonight with the theme of Shades of White, using lovely Darcy's beautiful feather and leaf from the Eclectica range of stamps by PaperArtsy. I was so pleased with how these turned out because it was such a joy to stamp with fabric medium and their Fresco paints onto fabric as it opened up a whole range of possibilities for future presents, and for adapting the colourschemes for people's home decor. It gave me a much needed creative boost to make other things, especially at this time of year when we need to be thinking of present ideas. I showed them to my dear friend, Mum's original carer, and she was so enthusiastic about them, it really lifted my spirits and made me want to do more. I do hope you will leave me some comments on here, or over at PaperArtsy. Thank you so much.

Some more personal things I wouldn't want to say on the PaperArtsy blog. Once again I want to apologize for being so neglectful of not just my own blog, but commenting on everyone's blogs and being out there in the world in general. I don't feel I deserve to have anyone commenting on my post. I have been finding life quite challenging again and although I probably have more time even with my commitments to Mum than people with full time jobs and big families I find it difficult sometimes to be part of the creative community when worries get on top of me. Although Colin is still feeling well in himself with the treatment, the implications of his diagnosis continue to hit me afresh. I have found it much harder being forty miles from Mum since I have felt that I am not leaving someone big and strong behind each time I leave home as I always did before. But I must try harder to get myself into a frame of mind where I do more crafting as I know it would be therapeutic for me, and I know I would find everyone very supportive and fun.

Kitchen Cupboard Art

I would love to tell you about my visit to the Work and Play Scrapstore in Tooting, the other week. My friend, Berit who volunteers there, took me, and I think all you crafters in the London area would absolutely love it! They are a charity who provide art and craft materials to the community, using donations from local businesses, in order to promote upcycling. You can subscribe as an individual or group membership for a modest fee so that you can go along and help yourself to the most amazing materials to use in your projects. There were swathes of velvet, batches of leather, books of carpet samples, images for doing transfers, chunks of wood, beautiful, beautiful fabrics. Fill a bag. My creative juices were flowing with ideas in moments.

They had a huge stack of 'paint chip tiles' which had evidently come from a company making bespoke kitchen units where you can have any colour of your dreams. I thought it would be a variation on american paint chip art to use these wood pieces, complete with their colour names, and of course my mind was on aqua for the challenge. I decided to make a triptych using three graduating shades, and I mounted them on one of their blocks of wood. I coloured a huge piece of calico (above) in shades of aqua to cover the wood and it looked really pretty.

I then used baby wipes to cover some pieces of card with various shades of aqua fresco paint and then did the same with some yellows and oranges and then some greens. I then stamped some Tracy Scott flowers and layered them up on my triptych, cutting pieces in half where they overlapped two tiles. Sorry I'm doing this away from home and I'm struggling a bit with the layout on my new tablet

I'm entering this into the PaperArtsy challenge which is Aqua. I do hope you will have a look at the website for the Work and Play Scrapstore. They are happy for people to arrange a visit to look around if you get in touch and are incredibly friendly. If you are after some unique items for your crafting or you need a decent supply for your crafting group, it will be right up your street.

PaperArtsy Aqua Challenge - Lynne Perrella Bracelet

I am delighted to have a project on the PaperArtsy Blog and I would love you to pop over and have a look. The current challenge is Aqua, and the stamps I am working with are Lynne Perrella, her three newest stamp sets. I chose to make a bracelet using some flat wooden beads, shrink plastic, and various shades of aqua Fresco Finish paint. I also used a gorgeous new stencil by Kay Carley for the little sprigs on the beads.

I pressed the shiny side of the frosted shrink plastic onto the black StazOn so that I could colour the image on the reverse using ProMarkers, and I used Aquamarine Treasure Gold around the edge of the shrunken pieces. You can just see in this photo my aqua nail varnish!

I was shocked when I came on here to type this up how long it is since I have blogged. I am just emerging from a rather up and down period in my life. After Colin's Mum had her stroke, he became ill and my Mum had her handbag stolen with doorkeys, debit card, and cash, and the house was ransacked. We felt we had no choice but to go ahead with five day a week live in care, with myself continuing with the weekend care. I set this up along with some adaptations to the house whilst Colin was in hospital. He was diagnosed with a lifechanging brain condition, but fortunately has responded dramatically well to treatment. Mum is now very settled with three regular and very compassionate carers and I have a wonderful person who can do a weekend for me now and again. Colin and I are feeling happy and positive about the future, and my anxiety levels are improving. And I'm looking forward to going to Stevenage next month and hopefully other days like that!

Would love to have a comment from you here or on the PaperArtsy blog and hope not to be such a stranger from now on.

Blue and Ochre - Clay Flowers and Ellen Vargo for Paper Artsy

I am delighted to have this canvas made with clay flowers and Infusions, and Ellen Vargo stamps, over on the PaperArtsy blog. I'd be thrilled if you popped over to have a look and leave a comment either there or here!

Infusions with Shaving Foam for PaperArtsy Challenge

I was doing some experimenting for another project - more on that later - and hit on a fun technique but it was too much to incorporate the pieces into what i was doing. Ages ago i did a blog post for PaperArtsy using that old chestnut, shaving foam, and as the key to infusions seems to be different mediums i thought i would revisit this. I covered a baking tray with foil, shook the can well, and evenly spread a thin layer of foam, and then sprinkled with infusions. I then ran the brayer up and down, and then onto some pieces of canvas board. I then used up any excess on some card 'as you do'! There was a lot of texture on the canvas so i stamped into it with some background stamps, you can just see on the blue one, and left the panels to dry naturally.

The yellow piece of canvas here i thought i could use as a quick piece for the Infusions challenge. I covered some pre-made flowers with Tim Holtz crackle glaze and then sprinkled with Infusions. I used a Hot Picks flower stamped on acetate and painted from behind with frescos and a favourite Lynne Perrella tea cup lady stamp.

I am entering this into the PaperArtsy Infusions chall2017-topic-3-paints-withenge.

Gelli Plate Infusions Cards for PaperArtsy Challenge

Thought I'd do a quick post for the PaperArtsy Infusions and Paints challenge whilst I'm at Mum's, hence the tiled coffee table. I'm definitely not very expert with Infusions. I had my friend round to craft on Thursday and all my playing around was a mess. Then yesterday I decided to play with a small round gelli plate I hadn't used yet. I brayered on some cheap white acrylic paint and then sprinkled on the Infusions. I used orange county, the sage, are you cerise, and a bit jaded. I used a very small spritz of water. Then I used stencils, LB005, KD034, and another one I had with tiny circles. It was loosely based on an amazing blog post Ellie Knoll did for PaperArtsy.  I used some old square card blanks I didn't like very much as I was just playing and 'stamped' the gelli plate directly into the centre. Well, nearly the centre. Then I repeated the process until I had something I liked. It was glorious fun!

Then this afternoon Mum and I have had a lovely time. I got her some fabulous new colouring books and I'm going to wrench them off her later. So she's been happy whilst I've been getting some jobs done and finishing these cards off with some simple stamping in black archival. I used LB22 and LB29, and the feather from EDY09. Don't you just love that feather!

I am entering the Paperblog.paperartsy.co.uk/2017/02/2017Artsy Infusions and Paint challenge.

Mont St Michel at Sunset for PaperArtsy Orange and Pink Challenge

So, this is what happened! As soon as I saw the new Lynne Perrella stamps, my favourite set was 036, with the beautiful woman's face on the island. It immediately made me think of Mont St Michel. This is a very special place for us as we pass it on our route to our place in Brittany and as it sits on the border of Normandy and Brittany it is my ' are we nearly there yet' place. The timing of our crossing normally means we pass by at sunset, a time when many photographers have captured its beauty. I had already wanted to do a sunset for the challenge as this is what orange and pink brought to mind. The French translation is the lying down of the sun. I love that.

I didn't have much time to work on my project for PaperArtsy's blog as the stamps had just come off the presses by the time I needed to be finished so I ran to Col and showed him the index sheet on-line and said, 'look, I'm going to do Mont St Michel!'. He looked blank and said, 'I think they need to adjust your medication again'. I thought if I explained he would see it, and stop teasing, so I said, 'look, this is the island with the humble buildings at the bottom and the sea, and the woman with her innocent and reverent beauty represents the abbey at the top of the mount, she is our abbess. I'm going to call her Adela'. He said he just didn't get it and no-one would know it was Mont St Michel. I totally lost my confidence and had no time at all to play around with ideas or designs.  But it was still in my head. Probably because I love the stamp and I love the moment of driving past there when I am tired after a very long journey, and I know dinner and bed are near, and it is such a magical sight with such a wonderful history.

I used an 8 x 8 inch canvas board from PaperArtsy and prepared the background with Infusions. I raised the lady up on foam pads in relation to the other buildings and used a large number of other Lynne Perrella stamps, some of which I stamped up several times and cut up into pieces. The ramparts at the bottom are made from 033 and the abbey is from 006 as is the castle. I used the church from 033 whole but also made it into little houses. I had intended to paint the rooves brown and all the windows glowing yellow and I may re-do it like this for comparison as I feel this is how it looks as you drive past at twilight, but Colin advised, if something is meant to be surreal, i.e. the face, don't then try to go for realism.

And does he like it now it's done? 'Course he doesn't!!

I am entering this into the orange and pink paperartsy challenge.

Feathers and Fan - New Lynne Perrella Stamps for PaperArtsy

The newly released Lynne Perrella stamps for PaperArtsy are absolutely gorgeous and I'm delighted to be on the PaperArtsy blog using two of the three new sets. I have made a fan for the current challenge, which is to use the colours Pink and Orange, which I have combined with Fresco Gold. I would be delighted if you would pop over and leave me a comment.

I mention in the post that I had had a plan for the third set, LPC 036 which is an exquisite set and is my favourite of the three. Colin had thought my idea was crazy and I had immediately lost my confidence of making it for PaperArtsy's blog but I have now completed it so I will upload it when I get back from my weekend at Mum's. After all, I can make myself look daft on my own blog!!! That's what it's all about!