Journal Book Cover

I've had a play day!

Inspired by my friend Rebecca I decided to create a journal cover,

 well it's suppose to be an album. But, As you are all aware Journals can be made from almost anything.
  

   I began by Using texture paste through a mask, my favourite one. (This week that is. LOL).

 

I then glued several plywood numbers, shapes and gap fillers. Some of which were made from moulded paper clay.

 

Everything was then covered with yummy black gesso.

 

Rusted metal embellishments were used with flowers and cap tops to create the main focal point with smaller flowers and beads to add interest.

Clear gesso was painted over the whole design including the flowers  to prepare it for colouring.

Silks paints were used to add colour to the project, they give a super, yummy shimmer to the design and work fantastically well over the black. 

 

To finish I added treasure gold, need I say more.

Here are  just a few more close ups!

 

 

 

 

 

Bye for now.

Birdhouse Canvas No 2

Okay, I have to admit I do like these little bird houses.

They are just so much fun to look at, with that said here is my second slightly different birdhouse  project.

The project began  in the same way by layering strips of paper instead of squares.
 This was stuck into position with soft matt gel medium, followed by adding texture through a circle mask using texture paste plus a the addition of random stamping.
The House was painted white again and a roof was created with corrugated craft card, this was coloured with distress ink and treasure gold for a bit of bling.

Circles of brown wire and an old plywood die cut also inked up in brown were stuck into position.
 

The flowers (shop bought) were then stuck into position along with a couple of homemade rose buds.
Shading was added using distress ink pads and water to create shading and puddles of colour for depth.

Not forgetting the little dove of course, I found them in the wedding section of a craft shop and I couldn't resist.

 

A little closer.

Bye for now.

Friday 16th January!

Happy Birthday to me!

Not quite a Half Century, but not far off either.

Hubby had day off to spend with me and do what I wanted to do, unfortunately being a week day there were the usual weekday things to do including taking one of our two cats back to the vets first thing for another expensive X-ray ( all back to normal now, fortunately, lumps reduced and no removal of any digits or legs). Phew!

So, I got up organised the girls breaky, had a swift card and gift opening session (which included 

Dr M Boots-fur lined, Books, Crafting tools from prima and Luminarte primary elements powders).

 Girls went off to school, cat to the vets. I also had a spa voucher, on first look the only places that excepted the voucher reasonable near were in Birmingham, so I changed the search and managed to find somewhere a little more convenient to get to, I am now booked in for Thursday for a Shellac nails session, not done one before so definitely a treat. 

After booking the session Steve and I had a look around a few shops then back home to collect the cat, collect girls from school and take the eldest one to the dentist for brace adjustment followed by 

visits from friends and relatives before going off to the pub for a meal.

All very nice, had a great day.

Here is a picture of my gifts, one of which was a homemade journal by my friend Rebecca, http://craftin-artasia.blogspot.com/ Very, very lovely.
 

TTFN
x

Sue

Birthday Birdhouse Canvas

On Thursday my crafting friend Rebecca came around for a pre-birthday craft day.

I cannot claim it was my creation as I saw something similar on one of my blog hopping expeditions.   partiesdescrap.blogspot.co.uk December 2014. I was really drawn to them and decided I would like to do my version. I took the opportunity of  doing so when on a visit to The Range of all places, I came across lots of lovely little bird houses made from thin plywood.

The plan was set in motion and I waited for my crafting bud to come and play too.

We began by prepping the bird houses, by removing the back overhangs to enable them to sit flat on the canvas.
 

 

Next we cut lengths/strip and squares of different co-ordinating papers and stuck them on the canvas with matt medium, a coat of the same mat medium was layered over the entire canvas to seal it.

When that was dry white gesso was painted over the surface and knocked back with a baby-wipe to enable some of the papers design to show through.

The mini bird house was painted white too, dried and a tile effect roof was added for interest.

I then added texture paste through a mask again to add interest  to the project followed by random stamping with black archival ink.
 

 

 The house was stuck into position along with flowers and other die cut embellishments.

Distress inks were depressed onto a craft mat and water added to use as water colour  inks.

 Dylusions spray inks used in a similar manor to add shading around the house  and colour to the flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, is my friend Rebecca's Canvas, complete with lovely pink flowers.

Fabulous canvas Rebbecca.

 

 

 That's all for today.

x 

Update: I am entering this project into The Craft Barn Challenge for this week - House.
I know the post is a little old but I wanted to share the project and as I only spotted the challenge at the last minute I thought I'd give it a go.
 My attempts at linking blogs are a bit hit and miss so hopefully this has worked. 

 

 

 

 

 



Good Times

I've been having a ball ! 

 I've got paint, art basics sugar and all sorts of things stuck to my fingers and erm, every surface in the  craft room (dinning room).

I began by painting an 8x8 box canvas with black gesso, two coats was enough.

I picked a circle background stamp then using pale pink and blue green paint I stamped the two colours onto the canvas.
 

 

I had chosen a piece of good quality scrapbook paper from my stash which had various designs on one sheet and was double sided, bonus.  I decided to cut out parts of it and arranged it around the edges, the rest was cut into strips approximately 1cm width, various lengths.

The paper was stuck down with mat gel, a layer of gel was applied on top of the papers and painted areas to seal it.
 

Pale pink sugar was mixed with mat gel and put through a mask, the effect was that thinner areas became transparent and glittery, areas where the paste was thicker became opaque.

 

Black paint was wiped across the raised edges of the sugar mixture and also a small amount around the photo perimeter.
 

A mixture of  hand made paper clay flowers, pre made paper flowers and a paper clay frame which was cut down, coloured and stuck into position along with a few swirls.
 

A title of Good Times was added as the girls looked happy and I felt it was worthy of the title.

Georgie however wasn't happy with the photo, teenagers if it's not a selfie it's not good!!

 But I like it.

  

Here are a few close ups!

  

Hope you like it too.

January 2015

Today is the last official day off for my girls, I don't count the weekend as time off, as in, holiday mode because this is when uniforms have to be checked and sorted, shoes cleaned (located) and loads of other weekend type of stuff. It is also when the little peeps announce at the last minute they have an abundance of homework they should have done but conveniently forgot about.

This is also the point when I remind them that I had asked everyday for the past two weeks and that Sunday at 9pm in the evening is far to late to start an eight page essay.

 

Anyhow, hubby is now back at work and I thought the girls may want to do or make or go out together. I was obviously dreaming because as I type they are online playing Xbox Live Minecraft.

 

So I've been playing again in the front room, just a quick scrapbook page inspired Finnabair , Anna Dabrowska is a very  talented artist, I had a great experience  taking part in one of her workshops organised by The Artist Trading Post in Derby recently.

 

I began with an 8"x8" square, using two distress ink pads I pressed them in a square formation on the paper and diluted the ink with a water spray to let it dribble and puddle across the page, such fun as no two pages will ever be the same.

 A touch of text  stamping was added from the dribbles of distress  ink that remained on the craft mat, as the two colours had mixed it was slightly darker not unpleasant tho.

Using a couple of masks and cut and dry foam archival ink was used to create a random pattern.
 

Ready made white paper flowers were also dunked into the  leftover  watered down colour solution, added to a few previously die cut leaves, twigs and a photo of course, then stuck down with my new super sized glue gun. The edges were distressed and inked with a little black soot distress ink and that was it.

 

It actually took more time to write this blog page than to do the project.

All good fun !

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

My New Years resolution is to do something arty every week, wow, now I've announced it to the world the task I've set myself seems massive, I will do my best to keep it up.

I've been doing a lot of blog hopping recently looking for inspiration, getting up to date with recent posts by people I follow and people they follow, etc. I came across a few new techniques that appeal to me and so I'm going to try out a few.

However, that said I do like the old faithful methods  and to start off 2015 that is what I've used.

Here is the first journal page of  the new year.
 

 I began by sticking various pieces of leftover papers on the next free page in the art journal book which I started back in November at a France  Papillon workshop. Various other bits of fabric and canvas were stuck down, the colour was neutralised with a light coat of white gesso in preparation for spraying colours onto. 

My chosen colours were, well,  rustic.  My inspiration was a left over rusted embellishment  which had lovely orange rusty bit on, I do love a bit of rust and have lots of paints, powers and patina sprays to recreate rust, I've even tried vinegar and salt.

Moving on, the word imagine was die cut a couple of times from mount board, then stuck together for a more robust 3d image and glued in place.  Water relative spray inks were used
along with a few silks paints to intensify colours in various areas of the project. A touch of random stamping with a text and circles stamps added a bit of interest.

To finish I used a little Spanish Topaz  treasure gold wax on the wording and used old faithful Dymo with strips of  core card which was sanded back to reveal the rest of the text. This was stuck down along with the metal bit and a charcoal pencil added the shading along the edge of the page.

 Mission completed for the first week.