Sssh - Pray Silence for The Craft Barn's Q&L Challenge

Hello and welcome fellow crafters!

Time for another entry into The Craft Barn's Quotes and Lyrics challenge. (Click on the link to get all the details). This time the prompt words are silence and dazzle.

You may be aware that I'm putting together an AJ style quote book with blank spaces on my pages so that I can collect more quotes as I go along. For this challenge I have chosen the word SILENCE and a beautiful and thought provoking quote by Ruth Fishel,

"I will take time to be alone today. 
I will take time to be quiet. 
In this silence I will listen... 
and I will hear my answers"

It is VERY unusual for me to use my own handwriting on ANY layout, but for some reason today I don't seem to hate it quite as much as usual, so it is making a VERY rare appearance!

This layout has been a bit of a love/hate project. I hated the background when I first painted it. It is two colours of blue acrylic over a VERY loud and busy floral tissue paper. The paints seemed to be really grungy and produce a miserable January-esque sky colour - topical, but NOT what I wanted!

A quick spritz with some London Blue Dylusions lifted things immediately and I could see that the layout had potential. Additional background layers came from an Indigo Blu circle dot background stamp, randomly stamped in black Archival and some texture paste layered through a dotty mask. I had hoped that the texture paste dots would remain white for some contrast, but as it dried it soaked up the colour from the underneath layers - oh well... A few splats of White Linen Dylusions completed the first "go" at the background.

The die cut clouds were inked with Faded Jeans DI and adhered to the page using  Scotch quick drying glue. I didn't use matte medium as the Dylusions are water reactive and would have "run". When the clouds were dry I went round the edges of them with a Faber Castell Big Brush marker and smudged the line to blend. This really anchored the clouds on the page. The title is made from Papermania Mini Alpha stickers (keeping up with my stash busting resolution!).

Next I die cut the birds - I was originally going to keep them white, but ended up colouring them black, and stuck them to the page - this time with a smear of matte medium on the back but not on the front.  They are birds but I think this layout has a bit of a look of a Battle of Britain skyscape about it - the tiniest birds could easily be confused with Spitfires!

Finally I went in with my Paper Artsy ink splatter stamp and randomly stamped with black Archival, making sure to get some splashes on the clouds to ground them on the layout. I used a Craft Stamper freebie grungy border stamp to partially frame the page.

Close up showing: grungy border stamp, ink splats, 

FC Big Brush blending and Faded Jeans DI inking

All in all I'm pretty pleased with this layout, especially as I really wasn't keen on it at first! Please do let me know you came - I'd love to see what you are up to.

Creepy Castle Tag

I have finally finished my Creepy Castle Tag for the textured Halloween tag challenge at Our Creative Corner. My plan was to create a tag which gave a view in through the window of a long deserted haunted castle.

I started by die cutting a tag from cereal box board and inking it with Black Marble Dylusions ink then randomly stamped Paper Artsy ink splatters in Black Soot DI to add some extra interest. I die cut the window shape and applied multiple layers of Black Soot DI to the frame.

I used texture paste and That Special Touch Stone Wall mask to form the bricks and the same ink splatter stamp pressed in to the almost dry paste to add some extra texture. When the paste was fully dry I blended Pumice Stone and Dusty Concord DI over the bricks. I dried the ink with a heat tool and applied pewter gilding wax lightly over the bricks to further emphasise the texture.

I stamped partial images of spiders webs randomly over the tag to add more interest. The Beware embellishment is stamped and heat embossed and the cardstock aged with Pumice Stone DI and a paper distresser.

I stamped spiders webs and bat stamps on some seam binding with black StazOn and then inked the ribbon with Pumice Stone and Dusty Concord DI.

The tattered curtain is a piece of tulle which has been torn and inked with Pumice Stone DI.

A mini plastic skellie and some metal embellies finish the tag.

And finally, the tag in all its spooky glory back lit by flickering LED candle light!

Hope you like it. Thanks for looking.

WOYWW #227

Hello and welcome, how lovely to see you again.

The Moonshine Family seem to be all over the place at the moment with visits to University Open Days at the weekends, so I'm a bit behind with my crafting. (Still haven't stared my Dictionary J page which needs to be finished by Saturday and I haven't even thought about how I'm going to work around my TOTAL lack of TH supplies for the October Tim Tag.)

To tell the truth I've been a bit side tracked by the October challenge over at Our Creative Corner so that is what I'm playing with at the moment...

The challenge is a Halloween tag with texture, so it's out with the texture paste again. The tag on the left is my prototype, but I'm liking how they're both coming on.

I thought I'd also post a shot from the "back side" of my desk. In the foreground you can see a silicone chocolate mould, which I'm planning on using for some Melt Art embellies, the makings for some felt key rings for my craft stall and two empty olive buckets for storing stuff, on the left you can just see my dictionary which is sending out "work on me" vibes and the rest is the paraphernalia for my tag.

That's all from me, short and sweet today. Thanks for stopping by and I'll catch up with you later.

Quick update - lots of comments about the windows on my tags - they're cut with the Small Gothic Arch die from Poppystamps. MMx

Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013 - September

Once upon a time (30 or so years ago) I was a Girl Guide. I'm not ashamed to admit it, it's a big part of what has made me the independent and practical person I am today. 

When I was a Girl Guide we had a District Commissioner called Mrs Armstrong a lovely (very posh) lady for whom we all had affection and a great deal of respect. Mrs Armstrong was the lady who, apart from her role as Commissioner, tested us for our Camping Badge and the Commonwealth Badge for those few of us who became Queen's Guides. As such she was a stickler for things to be done - just so. Mrs Armstrong was  a "tough cookie" but she was also an inspirational leader whose words have stayed with me to this day. In a difficult situation she would always exhort, "Stick-ability girls! You must have stick-ability!" What she meant, of course, was that however difficult or frustrating a task is, you must keep at it until you've completed it, that you never give up.

Why am I telling you this? Because my September Tag has been an exercise in stick-ability. My completed tag is my fourth attempt at what should have been a pretty straight forward layered stencil technique (you can see Tim's Tag here). I really don't know why I had such a nightmare with this tag, but the problem came not with the layered stencils but with THE most basic step - Distress Staining my tag!

In the end I did admit defeat (I was running out of tags) and switched from DS to Dylusions spray inks and was MUCH happier with the results - I'm wondering if the root of the problem lay in the fact that I don't have a full arsenal of Distress Stains and the colours I do have just weren't working for me - who knows?

Anyway, I hope this explains the sentiment I've used on my tag, and you might notice the brass tag attached to the ribbon - a lucky find from my stash of random stuff!

I really like the effect of the honeycomb stencil on the seam binding.

I used a That Special Touch mica mask (swirls) inked with Gathered Twigs DI in place of Tim's Rays, I really like the effect of the subtle darker shade over the vibrant Dylusions. (Cherry Pie, Lemon Zest and Squeezed Orange)

Love that Cherry Pie ink, it looks great with the black stamping.

I'm pleased with the final result, so sticking at it definitely paid off!

Thank you for looking, please leave me a comment so I know you came and I'll try and visit you too.