Journal page for Calico Craftparts

Hello all, thank for dropping in.
I am sharing a journal spread over on the Calico Craftparts Blog today.

A mixed media background, some crackle and of course some craft part are all in the mix. Hope you'll take the time to check it out :o)
All you need to do is CLICK HERE

Thanks for coming by and have a fab creative week!!

More Christmas experiments...

Hello all and happy weekend! Following on from my last post I have been experimenting further with backgrounds and fairly quick ways to complete Christmas cards.
Today I have 3 further cards to share, - all variations on a theme really....

I'll give you a quick run down of what I did, though I forgot to take step by step photos.

The background on this one was done in pretty much the same way I described here
I coloured with Archival inks, sprays and added some Stampendous embossing powder too for additional texture. The gorgeous ivy die cuts were a gift from my lovely friend Rita. Thank you so much lovely lady!!

Here's a close up, where hopefully you can see a but more of the background. The sentiment is an old one, I think it might have been from Waltzing Mouse stamps, the image is from last year's Papermania Victorian Christmas collection.

The background on this one was done with Crackle paste and a mix of sprays. I highlighted the raised bits with Treasure Gold white fire

The pine branches were also a gift from Rita, I also used one of the new Tim Holtz punches and added some berries with a Viva Decor pearl pen. The image is from the same Papermania Collection.

And here is the last one in this set, further variation using the same techniques.

I love how these delicate ivy branches (I think they are from Sue Wilson) can be bend in whatever way you like.

Well, that's it, - 3 more to tick off my list......

Hope you are having fun with your own Christmas projects.

Until next time and thanks for your visit today

xxx

Christmas Card Experiment

Hello all and thanks for dropping by. I don't know about you, but I like making at least some of my own Christmas cards, so today I was playing with trying to find a basic design that would be relatively quick, fun to do and easy to send in the post, so no bulky embellishments.
So this is what I came up with:

The most fun was making the background panel, here you can see what it looked like:

I made it using a technique I discovered by chance. I shared it once before on the Shimmerz blog.
This is what you do: Cover a piece of dark coloured card with thick (rather old) heavy gesso. Press in the Tim Holtz Crackle layering stencil while the gesso is still wet. You can also paunce some scrunched up kitchen roll for more texture. Then add some sprays to creep in the cracks, and hey presto, background done....


Next I prepared the other elements.

A piece of Scrapbook paper (maja Design) cut with a snowflake die by Memory Boxed (Distressed Snowflake Collage) It has 4 dies, working a bit like the Tim Holtz mixed media dies. I put a bit of white card covered with glue and then Rockcandy Distress Glitter, for a sparkly effect, behind the snowflake opening.

Another die cut, - this one is from Crafters Companion.

A vintage Santa image, cut from another Maja Design paper, edged with Distress Embossing ink and then embossed with Stampendous EP in Antique Silver.

Various elements layered on top of each other and then couple of punched snow flakes finish it all off.

The whole thing was pretty quick to do, so expect to see more with variations on this theme.....

Hope you are having some creative time this week, - thank you for visiting today like always!

Seasonal Plaque for Shimmerz

Hello all, just a quick post from me today, showing a sneak peek for my latest Shimmerz project.
Hope you'll take the time to see the details....

To do so, just click HERE
Thanks for your visit like always and have a good week

Playing with Portraits and some re-visits.....

Hello all and welcome. I don't know about you, but  have you seen some of the amazing portraits people are posting these days? There are several challenges out there also....
Anyway, I am not much of a challenge player, but I did decide that it was high time to try my hand at some portraits again.
Here first of all is a recent attempt:

I have been hugely impressed with the wonderful work of the talented Froebelsternchen/Susi who posts almost daily journal pages, often including super portraits. One of my all time favourites was this one.
I really admire her loose style and faces full of character.... Oh to be able to do that, mine always look stiff and bland by comparison....
Anyway, here's a quick run down of how this spread came together:

A mop up page with some additional gesso was the start.

Some background stamping and further splatters. I had no plan in mind for this spread, I was just playing really. But then I started to see the outline of a face on the left side, so that's when I made the decision to finally try my hand at a portrait again.....

So here she is, a girl's face with an attempt of wind swept hair, drawn with a 4b and Stabilo All pencil and a water brush.

The finishing touches with some autumnal elements thrown in and some lines from a favourite poem.

When I rise, let me rise joyfully like a bird

When I fall, let me fall gracefully like a leaf without regret...

Now I am not actually a newcomer to portraits, I used to do them a lot, particular when I really got into journalling way back into 2010. So today I thought it would be fun to share some of these earlier attempts. When I look at them now, they make me cringe in many ways. Endless fiddling with acrylic paints taking hours and hours (one of the reasons I probably gave up on portraits).... stiff like I said and overly stylized..... ah well, judge for yourself. All I can say is, - they are no longer me really....

Done in June 2010, an attempt at a half profile.

I called this one Ode to Motherhood, I think I created it on Mother's day, - so sentimental (always a problem of mine)

The last portrait of that period. I quite like the background on this one and the bird, which also took a long time to draw......

Anyway, there you have it, - playing with portraits, warts and all. I am going to enter the first one into Susi's challenge Art Journal Journey where the theme is Inspired by Autumn Colours.

Thanks for your visit today and indulging me into a trip down memory lane...

Homespun Christmas for Calico Craft Parts

Hi everyone, thanks for dropping in today.
Sorry, it's been a bit quiet here, but I have had other things on my mind.
Anyway to day I am sharing a couple of Christmas Cards on the Calico Blog

If you want to see more, all you need to do is click here.

Have a good week everyone and thanks for dropping in!

Mixed Media Monthly Texture with Indigo Blu

Hello all and thanks for dropping in, possibly even for the second time....

If you are interested my first project today can be found HERE

This project, - a card and matching tag, was created for the Mixed Media Monthly challenge blog where our theme is "texture".

 What's more,  Indigo Blu,  are our incredibly generous sponsors this month! 

And just look at what you could win if you play!!!

Well, on to my project, - here it is.

I'll give you a quick explanation and some step by step photos of how I put this together.

I took a 6 x 6 piece of card and did a gelli print using three colours from the Indigo Blu paint range, Frosty Sky, Hot Cocoa and Townhouse Teal. I also added a tiny bit of gold paint from my stash.

When the paint had dried a gave it a few sprays of Ground Espresso and did some background stamping, both with the teal paint and Ground Espresso Distress ink, using two of Indigo Blu's background stamps, Honey comb and Crackle Glaze. I also added some stencilling using one of their new stencils, Laurel Leaves and some Wendy Vecchi Gold embossing paste.

Next I took one of their Christmas stamps, the Tear Drop Bauble and used it with Flitterglu and Mega flakes on a Teal painted piece of card and a black piece of card.

After they had been stamped and gilded I fussy cut them to use as embellishments for my card.

I also added mega flakes around the edges of my card.

To add more interest to the background I also stamped the large text stamp from the Enjoy Life set, straight on the the background with Flitter Glu and then used the flakes again for that lovely shimmer.

A sentiment stamp from my stash done on black card, finished it all off.

The tag, a size #8 Manila Ranger tag, was done in a very similar way. Again, I did a gelli print and some stencilling and background stamping for the background.

I then finished it off with some more stencilling, using the same stencil and gold embossing plus another bauble and sentiment to finish it off.

Now the great news is, - if you decide to play along with our challenge, you could be in with a chance to win a fantastic selection of Indigo Blu stamps and products, so do check out all the details. There is of course also some fantastic inspiration from my teamies.

Thanks for visiting like always and have a great creative month!!

Blue Christmas for Countryview Crafts

Can you believe it's November already? Where has the time gone....
Over at Countryview Challenges the lovely Doreen has chosen "The Colour Blue" for our challenge theme this month, - here is my make:

With Christmas coming ever closer, I decided to make a start on my Christmas cards. Even though blue is perhaps not a traditional colour for Christmas, I always love it for Christmas cards, specially when combined with silver and some sparkle.
Here is how I went about putting it together:

I took a piece of 6 x 6 Christmas paper that had a subtle blue tone already, I then inked around the edges with Distress Inks in Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire. I also did some background stamping using Ground Espresso and a text stamp from Artistic Outpost as well as the delicate branch which is by Inkylicious.

Next I cut a piece of white card, coloured it with the same inks and then used various stencils to create some layers in the background. I then ran it through the Tim Holtz Seasons Greetings embossing folder and highlighted the raised bit with Decoart Metallic Lustre in Champagne.
Here is a close up where you can see the back ground a bit better.

I cut and embossed a couple of snowflakes with the Tim Holtz Snowflake duo and matching embossing folder. Inked around the edges lightly with blue, then again highlighted the raised bits with the metallic lustre.

And now all that was left to do was to put it all together.

Well, that's it. The finished card is 7 x 7 and fairly flat which will make it good for posting.

Do check out the projects my teamies have created, so diverse in style, and of course plenty of inspiration to hopefully inspire you to play along with our challenge. All you need to do is click HERE
If you decide to play along you could even win a £20 voucher from our sponsor Countryview Crafts

Hope to see you there, happy November and thank you for visiting here today.

I will be back later with another project for Mixed Media Monthly.