Get me - not crawling in under the wire! Sunday Stampers #244 and ABAC #12

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day to you and a very big thank you to all my WOYWW visitors who inspired me to carry on with a project which - if I'm honest - was a bit like pulling teeth!

Any way... 

I can't believe this is my THIRD post of the week - (OK I'm only managing this because I'm ironing on a need to wear basis!) I wanted to get my submissions in for Sunday Stampers (Endless Love) and Anything But A Card (Share the love) without having to rush (too much).

So here is my offering...

And here are some detail shots

(Handmade lace flower)

I have never done a project that has been such a roller coaster ride as this one! 

I loved my initial background stamping, but OH DEAR when I added colour to the canvas AAARGH!!! I hated it, not even my favourite crumpled tissue paper trick worked - it looked more like something from Chainsaw Massacre than Endless Love! So on Wednesday (gosh was that only yesterday?!) a coat of gesso and a rapid retreat were called for. 

After a spirit lifting voyage round the WOYWW world and some kind and uplifting reciprocal visits, I hit my craft room in a flurry of lace and flowers this morning and - in my eyes anyway - a phoenix has risen from the ashes! (or maybe that should be splashes? - groan)

Here or the (now not so gory) details

Canvas

8x8 ins Daler Rowney canvas board

Die

Sizzix BigZ / Tim Holtz Alterations - Caged Bird

Stamps

Background text - Paper Artsy Hot Picks HP1006; Tiny Harlequin - unknown

Winged heart and rose vine - Kanban Stamp 09

Inks

Images - Ranger Archival - Jet Black (second impression used for rose vine)

Background - Distress Stains - Spun Sugar, Fired Brick, Weathered Wood

Bird cage - DI - Vintage Photo

Scroll - DI - Antique Linen

Markers (for colouring heart) - Promarkers - Ruby, Cardinal  Red

Wings - highlighted with Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star

Paint

Bird cage - Hobbycraft acrylic - antique gold

Other

Embossing powder - (bird cage) Stampin Stuff - Vertigre

Cream cotton lace

Vintage brass button

Mulberry paper roses

Red foam roses

Heart shaped deco pin 

Well that's all for now, I'm off to post my links, hope you like the end result, see you soon.

WOYWW 193 - Warts 'n' All

Hello and welcome

A very quick post today as I am zooming out to do the school run in 25 minutes.

Here's my workdesk in a bit of a tip as I am mid project on my hearts submission for Sunday Stampers Challenge. I walked away from this last night feeling much disgruntled and not liking the background on the canvas I am doing - (so much so I covered it with gesso as a mark of disrespect!) Today I'm seeing possibilities and a resurrection may be on the cards.

Almost inevitably you can see Distress Inks and even this time Distress Stains and my go to tiny harlequin background stamp is making another appearance far left, apart from that it's mainly a mess of kitchen towel and tissue paper.

I noticed on my WOYWW hop last week that some of you were discussing Distress Ink swatches - you can see mine far right. You can download blank ones (updated with new colours I see - guess what I'll be doing later!) HERE - it is also worth doing this on a sheet of Kraft cardstock as the effect of the ink is different (tattered rose disappears completely) You can also download side labels for your Distress Inks at the same link (Ranger Industries).


Anyway apart from proving that I am a bit of an organisation freak (I was a Civil Engineering Librarian in a former life - old habits die hard) I hope this has been a useful visit for you. Hope to come visiting later but...

TTFN

Liebster Award

Hello again

Today I had the lovely surprise of being awarded this by the lovely Gill over at Gibby Frogett Craftations. Do pop over to her blog and see what she is up to.

ABOUT THE AWARD

This award was designed to be a blog award in the pay it forward fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to five blogs that you like that have fewer than 200 followers, to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

RULES FOR ACCEPTANCE

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog. Post the award onto your blog. Give the award to five bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers. Leave a comment on their blog letting them know that you have given them this awesome award!

PAY IT FORWARD

Here are five awesome blogs that I think you should check out:

Claire

Robin

Katie

Sandy

Lynda

Please do take the time to visit these ladies as I am sure you will enjoy their work. Lynda is brand new to blogging so I'm sure she would appreciate your support!

Here be Foxes ... Sunday Stampers #243

Hello Friends!

And a very warm welcome to my new followers and those lovely ladies checking in from WOYWW, thank you for all your kind comments and for taking the time to visit.

Here, as promised, is my finished tunnel book on the animal theme set by Hels for this week's Sunday Stampers Challenge - and this was a challenge as I really don't have many animal stamps in my stash! (Apologies for the awful photos there's something weird about the light here today)

And some close ups - can you spot the squirrel hiding in the trees?

Here he is...

A shot showing the construction

Sort of showing the spritzing on the background

I came across the idea for this tunnel book in Cloth Paper Scissors' Bucket List issue and thought it would work well with the Gorjuss foxes stamps (I had originally intended to do a small canvas - but liked the idea of the Gorjuss girl peeping at the foxes from behind the trees; the 3D nature of this project was ideal for giving the depth I needed to make the peeping idea work).

This was a fiddly but fun project (which owes much to the amazing engineering properties of the paperclip here - click on the photo to enlarge and you'll see what I mean!) and would make a lovely and different card for some one you love VERY much (it squashes down to about an inch thick - but perhaps one for hand delivery!)

Top tips for this one

• use a bone folder to make your accordion folds
• to make the folds even start in the middle and then fold each half in two, then each quarter and so on
• crease each fold both ways - this stops the cardstock curving in on itself
• work out your page designs on scrap paper first then flip over and transfer your design to the back of the cardstock

And now for the details...

Stamps

Girl and foxes - Gorjuss "The Foxes"
Woodgrain - Kaisercraft woodgrain
Sign - Stamps Away C1081
Squirrel - Habico Vintage Corners

Inks

Background - Distress Inks (DI); Scattered Straw, Peeled Paint, Bundled Sage, Forest Moss spritzed with water to give additional texture (I wanted the look of dappled green light coming through the forest)

Woodgrain - DI Gathered Twigs
Inking on trees - DI Tea Dye
Girl and foxes - Memento Rich Cocoa
Sign - DI Antique Linen to tone down the bright white cardstock and Papermania pigment ink
Text and brad - Adirondack Alcohol ink Pitch Black

Markers

Copic Ciao and Sketch, Promarkers

Other

Kraft cardstock, super smooth white cardstock, Dovecrafts Back to Basics Vintage Christmas 6x6 paper stack
Spruce tree die - Marianne Designs Creatables LR0136


I'd love to know what you think...

Have a lovely weekend

WOYWW #192

Hello again Worldwide Workdesk Wanderers and welcome to my workdesk here at Moonshine Manor.

If you want to know more about WOYWW hop over here to get the low down!

So what's going on? Well... the tag I was working on last Wednesday is finished (you can find it here if you're interested) and I am currently working on my project for this week's Sunday Stampers Challenge. The theme is animals (so I'm struggling for stamps straight away!) A quick browse through my stamp catalogue showed that I didn't have many options on this one and have ended up using a Gorjuss stamp called "The Foxes" - for obvious reasons!

On the desk you can see the end of the planning/construction stage of a sweet little tunnel book which I am just about to illustrate with various stamps and die cuts, at the moment it is held together with paperclips and lo-tack tape, one sneeze and it's so much scrap paper! Please do come back on Saturday if you want to see it finished.

At the back of the desk you can see the art journal page I started at an art journaling class I went to for the first time last night. The Class is held at Crafty Bunch in Telford and run by Kaz Hall (The Little Shabby Shed) who designs for Dylusions. I had a fabulous inky time, making my first pages with a Dylusions ink background. I can't wait to go back next month and I will post a pic of the pages when they're finished.

That's all from me I'm off around the Workdesk World now - thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Stampers Challenge #242

Hello!

This weeks challenge theme is WISH - which is Hels' word for 2013. You can join in the Sunday Stampers Challenge here.

As I said in my WOYWW (What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday) post (here) I was very much inspired by the new Craft Stamper magazine which arrived this week, so my project, my first tag of 2013, is my take on Christine Dark's beautiful "Cut and Collage" wall hanging (pg 8 March issue of Craft Stamper) with a little bit of  Penny Bennington's charcoal shading (CS pg 28) thrown in. Thank you ladies!

Some close ups

I love the effect of the Inka Gold on the edges of the butterfly

This piece really evolved as it went along.

I started off with a greyboard tag (cut with a Movers and Shapers die) which I coated with a thin layer of gesso. I then stamped with a Prima text stamp and Jet Black StazOn at the top left and bottom right to give my first layer (you can JUST see this top right of photo above).

Next came a layer of white tissue paper which I crumpled up and them smoothed out and adhered using matte medium - I wasn't too careful how this was laid down as the extra wrinkles gave more texture.

When this had dried (with a little help from ye olde heat gun) I lightly inked all over with various Distress Inks (listed below) and applied some Vintage Photo around the edge to "frame" the tag (Top Tip - thanks Hels!).

Next came the floral stamp, again in Jet Black StazOn. As I don't have any Distress Markers I used Ranger pen nibs to colour the floral image with more Distress Inks. At this stage I had an "Oh no I don't like it" moment, as the inks I'd chosen for the flowers (Mustard Seed and Picked Raspberry (duh)) were too vivid. Thinking  a step ahead I decided that I could tone the colours down with another layer of tissue but that it would give a nice effect if my die cut elements also had the crumpled tissue texture. So I adhered the butterflies with glue stick and then added another layer of crumpled tissue as before.

When this layer had dried, I stamped the butterfly wings with my tiny harlequin stamp in Saddle Brown StazOn. Next I painted the butterflies with slightly diluted Folk Art acrylic in Berry Wine. When this was dry I went carefully around the edges of each butterfly with a charcoal pencil and then used my fingers to blend the charcoal back - this really made the butterflies pop off the page - but the wings still needed a bit of "something" so I rubbed some pale gold Inka Gold around the wing edges, antennae and bodies - perfect!

Finally I printed the text out on the computer, cut it in to strips, lightly inked with Antique Linen to soften the bright white, and ran a Ranger Archival coffee ink pad round the edge for definition. A glue stick, foam pads and a bit of lace finished the project. I do hope you like it!

Those all important details

Stamps

Text - Prima #555146
Flower - Paper Artsy HP1109
Harlequin - unknown

Ink

Background, Distress Inks - Tumbled Glass, Chipped Sapphire, Wild Honey, Vintage Photo
Flower, Distress Inks - Forest Moss, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry
Images, StazOn - Jet Black and Saddle Brown

Paint

Plaid Folk Art - Berry Wine

Chipboard

Butterflies - Crafty Bitz

Other

Greyboard, Inka Gold, cotton lace, staples

And finally, because we were discussing how tidy or otherwise our desk are on WOYWW here's a picture of my desk at the end of the project - bit of a difference!

Thanks for looking.

Having a little proud moment...

I've just found out that I was made a Featured Artist for my "These wings were made to fly" project over at the Anything But a Card challenge. I'm SO thrilled!  It really is nice to be picked for something like this as it gives your creative confidence a massive boost!

To save you scrolling through all my posts (although please do if you feel so inclined!) here is a pic of the finished project and if you want to see the details and a mini tutorial the link is here

I must confess that I'm itching to do another altered dress form soon -  it was such a fun project to do, I think I'll go shabby chic with the next one as I do love the vintage look, mind you the possibilities are endless aren't they?

On a completely different note I just wanted to share with you some Colouring In Therapy I have been doing over the past couple of weeks or so. My lovely Mum and the Mini Moonshines gave me some Copic Markers for Christmas and I have been having a very soothing and relaxing time practising my colouring technique. (At the moment Colouring In is my go to stress buster. I simply ink up a stamp (Molly Blooms being my absolute favourite for this) and colour my worries away (OK Copics aren't cheap but I'm sure they're better for me than chocolate!)

Here are my first efforts - and even if I do say it myself I don't think they're too bad for a beginner!

The faces of the next two images were coloured using Promarkers (before I got my Copics) and although they are nicely shaded the complexions are a bit washed out looking. (The clothes are Copics.)

I LOVE this Molly Blooms stamp! The jeans are coloured with Promarkers and everything else is Copics. You can see that the complexions are much warmer with the Copics.

A couple of close ups of Molly with wings just to show how using a white gel pen really adds fantastic highlights to the finished piece. (The red of the heart and candy cane are Promarkers)

If you've ever looked at other artists cards and coloured stamped images and wished you could do it too - you can! There are loads of colouring with Copics/Promarkers tutorials on YouTube and at the end of the day - if it all goes horribly wrong just re stamp your image and try again - it's only paper and felt tips!

Hope to see you soon