Only you can give flight to your dreams

Hello all and welcome, thanks so much for dropping in! Today I have a journal page to share, created just for my own creative fun and pleasure.....

I started with a double page on which I had just rolled off my brayer after doing several gelli prints.

Next several strips of scrapbook papers were adhered randomly and then covered with a watery layer of gesso

I then added texture through one of Tim Holtz's layering stencils and when dry I added some sprays of Distress Spray to deepen the colour in places. Below you can see the left side. the clock was added with the help of a piece of a paper napkin. It tore in one place, so I fussy cut a little butterfly from an old G 45 paper and glued that over the damaged spot.

An here you can see the other side a bit better. Another image from a G45 paper layered over some chip board, lace etc.

Another little butterfly from the same paper, with a bit of rusty wire across his wings.

The text was computer generated.

Below some more close ups. The whole spread just evolved, when I started I really had no clear plan in mind at all. I think the mistake on the clock actually set the theme for it all...... We can always learn from our mistakes......

Well there you have it. I love it when I get time to just play and I had fun doing this page.

Thanks for visiting like always and stay inky!

Guest Designing at Mixed Media World....

Hello everyone! I am happy to be able to share a project with you that I created for the wonderful Mixed Media World challenge blog. I was super excited when the lovely Ingrid Kristina, the owner of the blog, invited me to be guest designer there, so here goes:
I just love the current theme of using something made from wood as a substrate and decided to alter a little triptych/photo frame that I have had in my stash for ages.

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I am going to use it to display various pieces of art, changing them regularly to reflect the season we are in. My current piece hopefully gives the feeling of the last of late summer. I could have made a more Autumnal piece, but just received some new stamps from Inkylicious and really wanted to have a play with those…The frame started looking like this:

I gave it a coat of gesso and when that had dried added a mix of crackle and normal texture paste with the help of a palette knife. 

I used a variety of brown and buff coloured  Decoart Media line paints, Burnt Umber, Titan Buff etc until I was happy with the results. I wanted a fairly neutral, tree bark sort of look. I also added some Ground Espresso Distress Spray  to add more depth to the colour and to seep into the cracks. I then highlighted the raised bits with Decoart Metallic Lustre in the colour Champagne.

Below is a close up, so you can see the effect a bit better.

At this point I decided I wanted to embellish te frame with some rusty bits, so cut two dies with a Spellbinders die, this one is called Ironworks Accents.

I cut them from Kraft card and then rusted them with the help of some rusting powder and vinegar added some colour with some more Decoart paint and adhered them to the side panels.

Next I started to work on the card I wanted to fit in the middle. I took a piece of card I had created with the help of a gelli print. I have had this for ages, and I am sorry I don't quite remember what colours I used for the original print, but I do know a memory box stencil and an Andy Skinner background stamp were involved.

I cut a bit to fit the size of the aperture in my frame and stamped one of the stamps I wanted to use in black archival ink.

The sunflower was another stamp, I stamped it three times, fussy cut different parts and layered them one on top of the other to add depth and then added some micro beads to the centre using gel medium. I coloured it with Distress markers.

I stamped the first stamp again too and fussy cut and coloured just some of the leaves and adhered them over the original stamping to add more depth and colour.

And here you can see the finished card. Both stamps are from Inkylicious.

Here finally is the whole finished frame. It came with a clear acrylic front, held in place with some little clips in the back, so that it is easy to exchange what you want to display.

Well, that's it, thanks for visiting like always, and thank you so much Ingrid for inviting me in the first place. Happy creative weekend to you all!

It's never too early for Christmas - a card for Shimmerz

Hello all, and yes, I know, I know, it's only October, but...... if you have loads of Christmas Cards to make, - it's never to early to start.

Here's a sneak peek of one I made using some lovely Shimmerz sprays and paints. To see the full card with instructions, all you need to do is click HERE.

Thanks for dropping by and happy Wednesday!

xxx

Fairy light lantern for Calico Craft Parts

Just a preview day today, so I hope you will take the time to hop over to the Calico Blog for a bit of autumnal inspiration....

Hope you having fun with your own creations, I love this time of year!

Thanks for dropping by like always and have a great week!

Textured heart canvas for Countryview Crafts.

Hello everyone, welcome to friends and followers alike, today I am sharing a project created for Countryview Crafts where the challenge theme this month is "Add Some Texture"

I love an open kind of theme like that, there are so many possibilities to add texture. For my second project this month I decided to alter this little canvas. I'll show you some step by step photos below:

I started with a gessoed canvas and added texture paste through a variety of stencils. The heart was created with a home made heart mask with a stencil layered over the top.

Next I added some random bits of book paper to add more texture to the background.

Time to add colour, I used a variety of paints, both Distress and Decoart Media Fluid Acrylics in warm autumnal colours. I also used some burnt umber brown paint to create some splats around the heart to emphasise it more (not sure that was such a brilliant idea, but hey ho, once it's on it too late).

Here is a close up of the heart, I spent quite some time getting the colour in the recessed bits, (I mixed a variety of red and brown paints to get the shade I was after) and applied it with a small brush. I then dry brushed the raised bits with white paint to bring them out a bit more.

Some random background stamping and strips of tissue tape added another layer of texture, or if not texture then at least some further interest, I also added some white splatters to lighten it all up a bit.

Some words created with the help of Tim Holtz chit chat and small talk stickers and a few doodles with a white pen finished it all off.

I'll leave you with a few close ups:

Adding shadows always helps to create more depth, I used a Stabilo All pencil for this

Some of my favourite words coming straight from the heart :o)

Some rather messy highlights with a white pen around the numbers, just to bring them out a bit more.

The finished piece all done. Hope you like it.

There is still plenty of time to play along with our challenge, so if you have not done so yet, I hope you'll decide to play along. Apart from having fun with playing with texture, you could also win a £20 voucher from our generous sponsor Countryview Crafts.

Hope to see you there!

Have a great weekend

xxxxx

Autumnal tag for Shimmerz

Hi everyone, hope you are doing well and are getting some creative time!
I'm here with a preview of a tag project over on the Shimmerz Blog

If you want the low down on how I made this, - I created a detailed step by step, so all you have to do is CLICK HERE

Hope to see you there and thanks for dropping in here of course like always.

Autumnal Inspiration for A Vintage Journey

Hello lovely friends and visitors! Thanks for dropping in! Today I have a "Destination Inspiration" post to share over at A Vintage Journey.

To see the full project and a detailed step by step, all you need to do is click HERE

Hope to see you there and happy travels!!

Autumnal Splendour (oh no not another little book)....

Hi everyone and thanks for dropping in.
Another little mini book to show you I'm afraid to say, but this one is quite different from the last....

I think minis are my favourite type of project to do, and whenever I find a new way of putting one together, I just have to try it out, I just can't help myself. The original design for this one is by Laura Denison, you can find a video of how to put it together HERE.
It's made from envelopes, which means there is a pocket on the side of each of the pages, so plenty of space to keep whatever you want. I am going to use mine to store of my some of my Autumn projects, some of which I'll show today and some at some later stages so as to not make this post too long.

I'll give you a quick run down of both the cover and the insides:

I used two paper collections through out, DCWV Tattered Time (12 x 12) and Prima Timeless Memories (A4). I used the various papers as my base and then played around with stencils, inks and background stamping. The colours I used throughout where all Distress colours: Rusty Hinge, Dusty Concord, Hickory Smoke and Ground Espresso, I used both the inks and the sprays.

The focal image is a really old Tim Holtz stamp, still one of my favourites.
The book is held together with large die cuts, such a clever idea that, I used the Tim Holtz Layered Leaf die.

As you will see, all the inside pages are pretty similar, for the page on the right I used Ranger Clear Texture Paste through a Tim stencil, to act as a kind of resist.

Here I used another Tim stencil, or in fact two and background stamps from Indigo Blu, and Carabelle Studios, plus some old text and number stamps

Here as you can see, more resist work with the clear texture paste, and again using background stamps and stencils.

And here the final double page. More of the same, I also did some stamping with white acrylic paint, to lift the page a bit.

Like I said, each side has a large pocket, I will show the art work I will keep in there at some later stage, for today, just two small cards/tags:

Here you can see them on the first page, held in place by the leaf, - such a clever idea (Laura did some with snow flakes and all sorts of different large dies, I just love the idea).
And here a couple of close ups of the cards:

The main stamp here is from Inkylicious, mounted on a piece of gelli print.

This stamp is from La Blanche, - I just love that bee, it really does not need much more I think.
Well, that's it, sorry for this being a bit photo heavy, like I said, I tried to keep it short (ish), - more to follow at some later point.

I would like to add this project to the following to challenges: Frilly and Funky Autumn Splendour

And the Craft Stamper October Technique Challenge

The theme there is to use one of the techniques from the front cover strip, I think I almost used all of them and I just LOVE the new look Craft Stamper!! Well done Trish Latimer

Well, that's pretty much it. Thanks for your visit like always

Your comments are always much appreciated!!