Insects and Butterflies - Full post

Hi everyone!

I was so thrilled and very proud to have been invited to be Guest Designer at The Artistic Stamper in February. I am adding this post to my blog because it serves as a creative diary for me and I like to keep track of what I have made - so there is no need to add any comment and I apologise for what will be a repeat post for many people....

 

My first creation for the Artistic Stamper started out as just some packaging - plain corrugated cardboard. I now save every piece of cardboard intending to turn it into something. Torn cardboard packaging might be a very humble beginning - but it can turn into a very beautiful creation.

I wanted to create a very earthy, grungy creation and started by tearing the corrugated cardboard and leaving some of the edges looking very torn and ragged.

I dry brushed Gesso all over the cardboard and then began to just randomly spray Adirondack Colour wash over it using the Butterscotch and Espresso colours. After drying the spray I began to dab the cardboard with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

The Adirondack spray gave a lovely textured effect and the result was very much looking like rotted wood - sounds disgusting- doesn't it? - but it was a really lovely organic looking canvas - which is just what I wanted.

Here you can see the wonderful speckled effect created by the ink sprays

The base of the hanging was randomly stamped with the Calligraphic mat in Potting Soil Archival ink

 

I made three panels as decoration for the hanging .One was stamped with butterflies using Coffee Archival ink. The images were then masked before being stamped with a script stamp. I blended some Distress inks over the stamped image - Brushed Corduroy, Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo. I then dabbed some embossing ink over the panel, covered it with UTEE and melted it to resemble glass.

After a second layer of UTEE I put it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. After this it was much easier to bend and snap. I then dabbed it with some Walnut Stain Distress ink to highlight the cracks.

 This panel was wrapped in twine which was then tied into a bow

The other two panels were covered in Gesso and then dabbed with Distress inks like the base.

Waxed Kraft paper was ripped into strips and used on the panels

The butterfly quote was stamped with Coffee Archival ink and edged with Walnut Stain Distress ink. I purposely caught the edges of the stamp with the archival ink to give a more vivid edged effect

The Tim Holtz Bookplate was used with a chitchat sticker attached to a piece of card covered in Gathered Twigs Distress Ink

This panel was covered with a calligraphic script in Potting Soil Archival ink

This panel was stamped with one of the Insect and Butterflies stamps in Potting Soil Archival ink and the calligraphic stamp was used around this image.

Burlap sheets and trimmings were used to decorate the hanging, along with crochet lace that had been dabbed with Vintage Photo Distress ink

 

Several paper flowers were soaked with watered down Distress Stain in Frayed Burlap and Vintage Photo.

Tim Holtz Hinge fasteners were used at the top of the panel and twine was tied around then so that it could be hung up.

 

The hero of the story

Hi everyone!

   Today I will share with you a very nervous walk into the world of Journaling. I LOVE Journaling pages, but I never felt that I could do it. I did try it once and I created a very awful looking journal page and I just put it aside thinking "that isn't for me". I decided to stick to tags and altered items and lots and lots of flowers.

    Even though I love doing all that I kept seeing other people's Journal pages and just wishing that I could do something even slightly as wonderful.....Hey....I'd be thrilled to create just one that is bearable to look at!!!

     I had seen some pages that had sparked some ideas and decided one day to just try it again...and follow one of my favourite bloggers advice to me which was not to get too caught up with 'techniques' - stick with basics and just have fun.....and that is what I did...

     And....I quite like how this turned out. Occasionally I look at it and the perfectionist in me cringes at the crooked placement of a stamp or too much gold or too much paint splatter....Perhaps it is too grungey and messy?.....but the fun that I had makes me like it - because on this piece I really didn't let myself think. I just collected a few Distress stains, sprays and stamps and had them there in front of me and just flew with any idea that came into my head....never really stopping to think "Shall I do that next?, What is the plan here....?"....and so this is what happens when I don't think!

I got a double page from a book and covered the middle of it with Gesso. I marked out where the photo from the TH Salvage Stickers would go and cut an aperture out with a craft knife that was slightly larger so it would have a text frame.

I applied texture paste with the TH Burlap stencil around the pages and dried with a heat gun.

After applying the Gesso I decorated the page with some torn strips of a book page and some Tim Holtz Script tissue tape from the Hobgoblin set, and the travel tape.

   I then applied some lace strips to the page and when they were glued I began to colour the pages.

First I sprayed the entire page with Dylusions Melted Chocolate and dabbed with a tissue afterwards. This removed the colour from the gesso but the lace and texture paste absorbed the colour. I then dabbed the pages with Brushed Corduroy DI to add a warm brown colour, adding Walnut Stain around the edges.

     I then began to add some stamped images using Coffee and Jet Black Archival ink. I used several stamps from the Haberdashery set and two quotes which gives the title of the journal page. The title looked too vivid when stamped, so I lightly brushed across the archival ink with a dry brush to add some streaks and blend it in slightly.

 The other stamps came from a Paperartsy set called Letters.

I then began to splatter some paint...I splattered some Picket Fence DP with a brush and dried it with a heat gun to create bubbles - I love the grungey look that paint splatter has when you heat it too much.

Then I sprayed the entire page with a very fine mist of Adirondack Espresso ink.

 I added a pearl button....

 a grapevine heart...

                                                            a brass wire heart

and a pen nib that had been covered with Classic Gold treasure gold

.....and then I decided that more gold was needed on the page so I began to apply Treasure Gold to highlight the lace and parts of the pages.

And there is my Journal pages - I do hope you like it!

Baby Blue

Hi everyone!

    I was so happy to share the baby album I made for my best friend, I would like to share another creation that came from the photos left over. I got several sizes of photos printed up as I didn't know how many I would use and had some left overs...and decided to make a canvas with them. Choosing my two favourite photos, I decided to make a pastel blue canvas with some vintage brown tones.

   First I marked where the photos would go, had a play around with embellishments to get a plan. I added some torn pieces of text paper to the canvas

.....and then stuck the embellishments on 

...and added some texture paste through stencils. 

I covered it all with Gesso before spraying with Calypso Teal Dylusions spray. This was dabbed with a tissue to leave a gorgeous turquoise colour.. I also added a spritz of Melted Chocolate Dylusions spray .

     My favourite script stamp was added using Potting Soil Archival ink 

Everything was sprayed with watered down white acrylic paint and a spritz of Adirondack Espresso.

 A bit of White Fire Treasure Gold was brushed to highlight texture 

  Some chit chat stickers were edged with Vintage Photo DI and the gorgeous photos were put into place.

 

Thanks so much for being here! Hope you like it!