A different view

A few years ago I bought a bookatrix board, used a few times then stored it.  This morning I was watching CnC and saw the board being used for some grunge art!   Now that had never occured to me,  not sure why as there is no reason that bookatrix can'be used for altered art work.  So after a declicious lie in I set to work.

I decided to use the Hocus Pocus stamps,  so wanted an autumnal look to the backgrounds.  I used some alcohol inks on some gold mirri,  then stamped round the edges.

Part two was the middle layer.  This time I used plain orange cardstock.  A combo of Pva and thick embossing enamel helped make the fancy edge,  this time I left it to dry before using the heat gun.  I got the look I wanted!    Then to the final piece, made a good start,  bit of stamping, inking etc,  then decided I wasn't happy with it, but knew what I wanted to do.  So this piece will be finished off tomorrow.   My own fault as I was dithering over which stamps to use, one side worked, the other side didn't.   At least I have two bits done. 

Also had a lucky find on ebay,  I was after some steampunk stuff, but frankly the prices wanted for just a few pieces is a bit steep.  So I typed in watch parts,  and bingo,  seems like watchmakers have cottoned on to us steampunk fans,  lots of watch parts by the bag load!    Yeah you can be the cog dies, but you can't get the itsy bitsy ones. 

A very productive two days, swap card now made and ready to go into post,  a birthday card to make...   And must look round at the challenges, see if I can make any next week.  

All for now...    Oh almost forgot, a tip when using alcohol inks,  the dilution mix comes in a bottle, I've transferred it to a small spray bottle,  works much better that way,  and lets you clean up your craft mat as well.

It's a bit nippy out there

It is definitely time for the winter wardrobe, and after decluttering mum's wardrobe felt I ought to do the same to mine - there is actually some space in there now.

I even had a walk, which was a mistake really as my knee was very sore and gave way on me a couple of times.  But it was nice to have some fresh air, but there was a definite chill in the air.

I've not yet signed up to the Whats on your desk - yet.  But thought I'd have a practice run.  So this was what was on my desk today,  prep work for the owl calendar,  two owls stamped and waiting to be cut out, coloured,  pro markers at the ready,  my black versamark ink pad,  the bark background for the calendar, plus what I did yesterday, the revamp of the Vintage Paris picture.

Much happier with this one.  I cut a piece of cardboard,  backed it with some nice dotty paper. I made the second background the same way I did on Monday, with the radiant rains and stamps.   This time I printed out the pic of the Eiffel tower on to card and made it bigger,  I ripped the edges,   printed out the other two pics on canvas paper,   and this time used the bike die cut.  To finish it all off I used a TH sentiment stamp,  cut out of second but smaller pic of the Eiffel Tower and stuck on,  and the 3 roses,  I used the coredinations card for them.   Think this is a success.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making the calendars,  with a break to take mum to dentist,  she broke a tooth.  We got there just on time,  she seems to have lost all concept of time,  and doesn't realise that she can't move very fast.  What annoyed me was that even though the dentist is literally round the corner, she had to light a cigarette in the car! 
She had only barely lit it when we were entering the car park.

Then we had a surreal conversation about a loaf I'd taken out of the freeze,   I found mum about to put it back in!   She was convinced that the loaf needed to go in the freezer.   My weekend break seems like eons ago.    I did get some nice news,  that another arty weekend, with the same gang is planned for March next year, and at the same place.   Plus a mini weekend in Cardiff,  hopefully just before Christmas,  if the knee is up to it.

Last pic is the Owl,  just love him,  think I've got the colouring right this time,  I went round the edge of the background with a pro-marker,  the hand stayed steady - just!

No idea what I'll be doing tomorrow,  may just wait and see what happens.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Monday... ugh

Think it was the thought of what lay ahead of me that made me wish to roll over and stay under the duvet!   The days activities were: strip beds, laundry and declutter mum's wardrbobe.   There are now two large bin bags of her clothes, most of which she has not worn for years,  waiting to be disposed of.   I was ruthless,  mum put up a few arguments but I ignored them,  she still has plenty of clothes. 

So it was a relief to turn my attention to crafting,  and then to get distracted from my original aim,  your fault Julia, to go look at the Make My Monday challenge...  before I knew it I was on Google looking for old images of Paris, and found these lovely images.   Think it still 'needs' something, but can't figure out what!  

I had a lovely time making the background. I used the radiant rains,  then splattered (a lovely word 'splattered') some on to bubble wrap,  then some dylusions....  felt the urge to use the flourish stamps.  Since bikes are associated with Paris the lady on bike got used, plus the post mark stamp.   I knew the gaps would be filled with the images so didn't want to go too mad.

I then cut some spiral roses,  inked them up, stamped them,  and glued,  they had to dry,  on TV,  held together with some useless clothespegs, well they are useless as actual clothespegs, but great for crafting.    Background was drying... and I was twiddling thumbs, so made dinner,  Cottage pie,  all ready to go in the oven later.   Yes, multi tasking! 

These are the images I got from Google, printed onto canvas paper,  and I cut two silhouettes.   Then it was a case of sticking it all down.  Maybe it needs the man?   I discarded him, but now I'm thinking that he ought to be there.  


The cottage pie was delicious by the way.  Just not liking this picture very much...  needs some twiddling with.

Think I prefer the ad hoc layout pic I took with the bits and bobs than the finished article.   Note to self,  chuck things down in future and see where they land. 

Oh well there is always tomorrow...  

Barking...

So nice today to just relax, feel as if I've been on the go all week.   I didn't manage my 'lie in',  and was in two minds whether to go to a country fair.  In the end I compromised, and tidied up the garden, pruned all the rose bushes, and after doing all that I was too sore to go anywhere.  But need to get jobs done as I have a date for my operation,  so guess I ought to slap some paint on the hall! 

My intention for the afternoon was to use my other new owl stamp and make a calendar.   I remembered I had this embossing folder,  so once the card was embossed I inked it up, then applied the Radiant Rains (Julia they are on the CnC site, and you will like them!)  I used the copper and gold, which when well with mahogany and rusted hinges inks.  So left that to dry, on top of TV,  a great drying place!   And turned my attention to the background.

I used a metal leaf charm as a template and used various inks,  autumnal colours, round the edge of the card, cut to the shape of the finished piece. Then dragged more ink over it in a random fashion,  you can just pick it out at the edge of the pick, which also shows my lovely owl,  a friend has just seen it and reckons it is an Irish owl! 

I cut the flourish with the Marianne dies,  and inked it,  it is pearlescent card, so wasn't taking the ink as I'd liked, but it was working as a branch..

And here he is, in all his glory!   I stamped the owl on to super smooth card,  used pro markers to colour him,  then used UTEE on him to give a glazed effect.  The rose buds are from the Marianne range of dies, they come as a spiral die,  I inked, coloured and embossed them.  The sentiment is from the Hocus Pocus set (Indigo Blu), and it was finished with a mini calendar.

With all the inking it took all afternoon,  I needed to make the 'bark' pop, so just matted and layered it.  I like the owl because of  his quirkiness.   He's part of a much bigger stamp, Woodware range.  I like the rusty hinge ink,  TH range,   but you do need to be careful as it can be a very strong colour, so there was lots of dabbing.  The whole thing is stuck onto a piece of chipboard,  which is for a book, but I've used to make the calendars.

Yes I was at my desk!  I am so happy with it,  and it will be even better once I get the stash all sorted, it is a bit of a jumble at the moment, so I need to do some sorting out this week.   The desk seems to have made all the difference, which sounds silly,  but just having everthing to hand makes life easier,  plus the stash isn't being spread round the room anymore.  And at the end I just close it all up!   Brilliant.

Hope you've had a good weekend,  not managed to make any challenges this weekend... again!   Tho think the Owl may qualify for a few.    Thanks for stopping by,  it is much appreciated.

Introducing - my craft desk!

It is small but perfectly formed,   and is a bit like the Tardis for space,  my craft desk.   It finally arrived yesterday at 4.45pm,  by 7pm I had half of it built, then I sensibly stopped as I needed to add the hinges and sliders, so felt that was best left to the daylight hours. So today I was up with the larks,  and in the supermarket early,  then back home, quick cup of coffee and then finished putting it together.   I thought I'd need to measure were to put the two sliders,  then I spotted the pilot holes, phew.    Had it all done by lunchtime, which meant I could Christen it with a craft session! 

Of course had to fill it with the craft stuff, though there is still loads of room for more crafty stash.  I need also to really sort out what I've got,  I'll start doing that next week.   It was just so good to have a permanent craft space,  I've kept my mobile table,  that's good for keeping other stuff on while I'm crafting.  The inks are on the shelf,  divided them into their colour groups! 

The flip down top takes the craft mat nicely,  may try to fix it to the table, not permanently as I like to remove it for brayering.   Not everything is properly sorted,  just put all that has been hanging around in the room into it.  I may even be able to find things, which will be a minor miracle. 

I'm still in wonderment that I managed to put it together so easily, usually there is one mistake!  I decided to use 'no nails' tape to fix the back boards on,  better than guessing where to bash in the nails. 

So it was time to craft!  I used my new Indigo Blu stamps, Hocus Pocus,  I fell in love with this set because of the owl, and the two sentiments.  I'd already had a play with them, but just stamping them on some paper, fooling around with how to decorate the backgrounds.   I also like to stamp the stamps,  they always seem to work better once they've had their first coat of ink on them.   The desk provided a nice firm stamping area,  another plus.   You can actually see the finished piece, but it took an hour or so to get there.

Here is the finished piece.  I used two pieces of card,  sorry 3 pieces!  I stamped the small picture, one with the owl, first,  on to a piece of card just big enough to take the stamp.  I brayered the sky using denim from the adiorondac ink range,  I used a mask for the owl, moon and castle.  I wanted to bring the little owl to life,  so using some quickie glue I drew round the outlines of his feathers, then used gold embossing powder,  leaving the glue to dry with the powder before using the heat gun.  To give a bit more depth I added the copper radiant rain,  a very watery mix,  just flicking it onto the image,  and used a pro marker to add depth round the neck area.  For the castle I mixed two dylusions, purple and blue,  again used a watery mix,  and brushed over the brayered sky.   For the second background,  I brayered some yellow ink, then stamped over it using the arched window,  for the sky I used the purple/blue dylusions combo, tried to get a streaky effect and managed it.  The branch was a happy accident as it covers up a slight mistake,  then I added the birds and the sentiment,  just matted the owl onto some gold card to make it pop.   Very happy with this,  the gold embossing isn't standing out well in the photo,  but it does IRL. 

The best bit was at the end, when for the first time there was no need to pack everything away in boxes,  rather I could just have a quick tidy, and then close the desk.  

Up and at em...

Before turning my attention to crafting I first defrosted the fridge/freezer, and of course as usual mum wondered why she hadn't bought a frost free version... !   Next on list of things to do was finish off decluttring airing cupboard.  We have the good fortune to have a walk in airing cupboard, but that also means that it can become a dumping ground. I dug out the unwanted stuff,  a friend is having a fair soon, and she wants stuff to sell fortunately!  Also removed a large bag of unwanted stuff... now earmarked for the tip.   Felt very good about my mornings work,  to complete the set I contacted a local music shop and asked if they bought djembe drums,  chap said to bring it along and he'd take a look.   Djembe has to go so crafty desk can fit in room.  Felt very virtuous! 

And so to crafting... while being distracted by some rather nice goodies on the DB show,  liking those pastel things and the pastes!   Meanwhile back at the craft table,  I made the background above, similar to yesterday,  and then used this lovely paper which got stuck on to a very stiff piece of card. 

I knew what I wanted to do,  which sometimes happens, but doesn't always work.   Then I chose my bits and bobs,  a frame, silhouette of a ladee,  small tag and then set about making my first rosette.  Looked a bit daunting, and it was fiddly, made mistake of making first one too wide and not long enough, but chopped it in half.  Next problem, no hot glue...   so superglue to the rescue!

I used a rich chocolately kanban paper for the rosette,  I even managed NOT to stick myself to it using the superglue.  I randomly put some versamark on the frame and used some gold embossing powder,   did the same for the ladee... next up, more versamark on the embossed strip of music notes,  and some perfect pearls were added.   Rub and buff would have been nice, but you have to go with what you've got.

So that was all my bits and bobs done.  I was getting seriously tempted to order the pastes DB was demoing,  the looked lovely,  had the bigger kit been on easy pay I'd have gone for it.  Splodemat man was there,  guess I'll have to get me one of those mats,  my current craft mat has seen better days and my blending can, er, leave something to be desired at times.   Was also liking the stencils... so much stash and so little cash :-(

So to the finished piece. which  I rather like. 

I then checked my emails,  paypal had deleted my card!  Yikes,  but only because I'd failed to put the new one on... doh.  So did that and realised that the money I'd earned from my craft sales was still in my pp account... oooh...   yes of course I spent some of it!   Chose some dies,  and still got pennies to spend!  

I have decided to invest in a hot glue gun. I was using one on my art weekend and it proved very handy.   I love my pinflair, but some stuff needs to be stuck down rightaway and superglue is just too risky. 

Well tomorrow I'm off to the recycling centre to get rid of the stuff from airing cupboard,   off load other stuff on to friend for her fair,  supermarket shop,   via argos for hot glue gun - they want 18 quid for one on CnC, are they nuts?   Do I care if it is pink, nope,  just as long as it sticks things down I don't care if it is dayglo yellow.    I had the same feeling about the storage thing for the pens that they were flogging,  my reaction was: why?   A friend has converted an unwanted CD rack to take her pens,  mine are in a clear plastic bag.  Some crafter emailed to say she had 17,000 stamps... even DB was gobsmacked,  my thoughts were - she has actually counted them, and where the hell does she keep them all? 

On that note...   must see how many challenges I can enter this piece?

It's October!

Think the mojo is back on track,  I hope though I think I was going a bit OTT with the dylusions and flowers, though I bought a spiral rose from ebay!  Decided to have a week without them.   So today I limited myself to a stamped background using the distress inks.   It was nice to get back to some stamping.   I used Tim Holtz, Indigo Blu and Kaiser,  which seem to be my favourite stamps at the moment.  Though tomorrow I want to get out the Barbara Gray stuff.

So with the background done I then had to decide what would go on it.   I messed around with a few ideas, some worked, and some most definitely didn't.   I was going to use some beads,  but the thought of hauling the storage box down from the wardrobe kind of put me off! 

So it was back to the stamps.

Well some stamps, one embossing folder and a tag.  I stamped embossed then layered the clock with some UTEE, left it rough looking,  my Umbrella man made an appearance, and using some metallic tape I embossed the music score.  Then stamped a mini tag, and inked the edges with some tattered paper.

Tried them all in different arrangements but it wasn't working.  So I cut up the music score,   there was an idea lurking in my brain,  just had to prise it out.

Finally after a lot of messing the pieces fell into place.. phew.

I tucked the music score under the tag,  and added some ribbon, along with some bakers twine.  It was a bit fiddly trying to tie the two together.   It was by sheer coincidence that umbrella man ended up in front of the lady on bike!   I do like happy accidents,  though I think my work generally consists of happy accidents.

Felt satisfied with this piece, which is for my journal, along with some writing. 

I've even been writing poetry which is something I've not done for years.  I also tend to stay away from the rhyming stuff but for some reason that is what I wrote.  Very suprising, I posted on a FB group I belong to and it went down very well.  So using Craft Artist I have just printed it out with a nice layout.

I've put this in my AJ,  next to my reflections picture.  All the work going into the journal is just rough stuff,  as I do wish to revisit a few projects and improve on them. 

I've been having a look round the challenges,  I will try to enter a few this week.  And it is swap card time, so have to think up an idea for that,  tho this time it isn't a card or tag, just whatever we want providing it has some embossing on it. 

I'm itching for my desk to arrive, then this bedroom can be sorted out properly, I really don't like how it is at the moment. Plus the bed is alongside the radiator,  mum is insisting on the heating going on,  so I'm boiling.