The Twelve days of Christmas ......

Graphic 45 make some wonderful paper packs and 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is no exception. Beautiful double-sided papers to make loads of Christmas greeting goodies.  I have made a start with a selection of Christmas cards but as I come to the end of the stash, I have used up the smaller off-cuts to make some really sweet Christmas Tags.

After covering some regular 6" x 3" manilla tags with Graphic 45 stock, I used memory box Foral Square die cut and then painted using PaperArtsy old gold metallic acrylic paint. This gives such good, even coverage (and dries pretty quick too!)

I gave the edges of the covered tag a quick brush over using vintage photo distress ink, added two of the die cut floral squares and then added a few Mark Richards red metallic studs - some small and some a little bigger.

I stamped some JOFY holly leaves onto some of the Graphic 45 paper, cut them out and added a small red bead to each them. Finished off the tags with red ribbons.

A quick way to use up some of the 'bits left over' and back to Birds in the Barn for more goodie supplies.

Merry Christmas xx

A Little Box for Caroline .....

This is a little wooden box, about 3" x 3"

I gave it a good coating of PaperArtsy Squid Ink

Once the PaperArtsy Acrylic Paint was dry, I then applied a thin layer of Crackle Glaze. 

Once the crackle Glaze was dry, I then added a cover of Nougat  Acrylic Paint. It this layer that determines the effect if the cracks: thick layer gives you big cracks; thin layer gives you fine cracks.

I stamped and cut out some flowers and leaves using Lin Brown stamps, added some gold embellishments with fine lace and purple beads around the middle edges.

Happy Birthday Caroline x

there's no place like home....

This is a project that I have been working on and off for a few weeks now. It is a box frame and has all sorts going on.

Inspired by Hels Sheridan, this is a box frame about which is about 48cm x 20cm. There is some stencilling and stamping on the background with some grunge paste embossing through my faithful crafters diamond workshop stencil.

The houses are cut from Tim Holtz's artful dwellings. To add some interest, I die cut a couple from a fine corrugated board, the others are painted with PaperArtsy Fresco Limelight, South Pacific, Pumpkin and Brown shed. 

Some embellishments that I bought sometime ago came in a simple wooden tray which I have altered. This becomes the boxes which are stamped spring summer autumn and winter from JOFY mini 15 stamps.

The rest is just a selection of embellishments that add interest with size, texture, depth and colour.

With this type of project, I always find it's better to do a bit ... then leave it. just dip in and out until you feel happy that it's looking how you want it to.

....which is why they, for me, tend to be a while in the making.

x

Anniversary Book .....

I fancied making my Brother and his Wife a shabby vintage anniversary card. So I dug deep and referred to a class that I did with Hels Sheridan a while ago. A book made from corrugated cardboard.

Right now, my favourite colours are Hey Pesto, Limelight and Brown Shed acrylic paints from Paperartsy. I gave all the pages few layers using these plus a helping of Vanilla.

As it was an anniversary card, I had to be sure that there was a guy page and a girl page.

This is one of the inside pages.
Grunge Paste through one of my most frequently used masks Plus old faithful script stamp.

I used exactly the same paints for the front cover and the back cover. Once they were all stamped and dried, I used my brand new 'cropadile' to punch evenly spaced holes through each page. Then with two rings clips, assembled them all together,  decorated with some co-ordianting ribbons.

I am entering this into Hels Sheridans challenge this week ... Every Day I Write a Book.

Dare to Dream .....

Every week, the talented Hels Sheridan sets a themed challenge. Week 260 theme was I dreamed a dream -- and that was to create a piece that featured 'Dreams'.

My hanging this week is my entry to Hels challenge.

I wanted to use a number of layers for this piece.

The base is corrugated cardboard with a painted tag on top which had been coloured with Hey Pesto and Brown Shed and stencilled with PaperArtsy Snowflake (opaque) and Smoked Paprika (translucent) acrylic paints. I sneakily slipped another layer of red/brown colour paper in between these two, just to give some more depth.

A smaller piece of corrugated board coloured with Brown Shed and Honey Dew was the next layer and then on top of that was my stamping.

I coloured some torn paper with a blend of Honey Dew and Hey Pesto acrylic paints with a hint of Brown Shed around the curled edges. I used a Tim Holtz stamp.

For anyone who is familiar with this particular stamp, you will notice that I have introduced a gap in the text. 

what if your FEARS and DREAMS exist in the same place............... ...... would you still go there ? 

I did this by inking the words I wanted to use and masked off the others with tape. 

I then repeated the exercise for the bottom words, but leaving a gap between the first and second stampings. I thought that this emphasised the question more and made it a bit 'darker' and even haunting - which is the effect I wanted for this piece.

I stuck the top three layers together but before mounting them on to the red/brown paper layer, I wrapped around some really neat thread that I found in my ribbon box. I really like this 'cos it's interesting and has lots of 'hangy' bits. Then I finished of by sticking the rest of the layers together.

The flower is from Tim Holtz's tattered rose, made from book pages which I coloured. Then finally added a few embellishments and Treasure Gold.

This is one of my favourites - the layers give it some depth and the textures some dimension. Now to enter Hel's week 260 Dreams challenge !

x

Secrets in the Garden ..

At last, we have a had few nice spring days and the sun has decided to come and join us.  A bit of gardening, tidying  up, trimming back and discovering things that had been hidden for a while.

My secret garden hanging started life as a flap from an old delivery box. I cut one of the flaps down to be just shy of  a 7" x 5' canvas board then started to pick away at some the edges to reveal some corrugated areas. This creates some texture and interest to the piece. I coated the edges with a little bit of PaperArtsy hey pesto, holly and smidge of snowflake, not too much - just enough to give a 'white-washed' look.

I used a really old foam script stamp - had it for ages, can't quite remember where it came from and used caramel archival ink to create some contrast against the greens.

Thank you to Lin Brown once again. I coloured up some of the flower stamps with pacific blue and red bus - straight onto grunge paper. Same with some of the leaf stems, keeping with Hey Pesto and Holly dabbed here and there to give some dimension, again straight on to grunge paper. Oh its worth mentioning that I used the smooth side of the grunge paper for this project, it seemed to stamp better with the acrylic paints. But both sides can be used - its up to you. 

I then cut the leaves and the flowers out and arranged then on the painted corrugated board. I didn't add anymore paint as I really liked 'the grunginess' of the look (is that a word?) 'tis now!

A few more elements: twirly paper covered wire, metal lock and key element and painted wooden letters  all play their part in my secret garden hanging.

It was easy to glue the decorated card to the Hey Pesto painted canvas with cosmic glue and a  twisted handle from a carrier bag does a perfect job as a hanger.

Guess my secret garden isn't a secret any more ..............

Happy Secrets .......
x

Aunties Birthday ......

It was my Auntie's Birthday and I really did want to make her something special. So I had a shifty around and suddenly, there it was, inspiration! ....and where was I getting this revived mojo from? Hels Sheridan of course and her box canvas May blog.

This gave me oomph! I needed to get going - and this is what I ended up with several hours later ......

I found a 4 x 6 box canvas in my crafting stash. Gave it several layers of PaperArtsy Fresco acrylic paints jumping between Hey Pesto, Limelight and HoneyDew. Then some PaperArtsy Grunge Paste with my diamond shaped mask to give some dimension and texture.

I rummaged around my stamp draw and found a lovely little butterfly and flower stamp from KaiserKraft. It's such a delicate, fine lined stamp - really pretty. Using black versafine, I stamped that on to some single ply tissue paper (just like Hels did - she is clever thing!. Then using a generous helping of diluted matte medium, stuck bits of the stamped tissue reverse side down, here and there on the box canvas, picking at the edges so it looked more natural.

This technique can take a while to dry ( I can remember this from an altered tin class I did at the Birds in the Barn ages ago). A heat gun can be used, with caution - be patient!!

Once dry, I went back in again with my paints to blend it all together but this time adding some London Bus around the edges. I really love these greens and reds together - hmmm yummy!

Then I started to build the layers up: anything you fancy goes and I settled for some plasterers scrim, a pretty floral die from Memory Box and then the beautiful flower heads and leaves from Lin Brown - they are so good and I have had sooooo much fun playing with them. The small Vivienne Butterfly die again from Memory Box finished off the other corner nicely.

A few shiny embellishments along with 'Beautiful' 'Day' JOFY stamps just about did it. I felt very pleased, so much so I made another one -

.... same technique, just different colours and embellishments and some treasure gold.

a day with JOFY

What a great day with the talented Jo Firth Young at the Birds in the Barn, Great Tey.

Stamping on canvas can be a bit tricky, so it is always great to learn about the different techniques that clever peeps come up with. JOFY being a very, very clever peep, used cardboard, stripped off some bits around the edges to show those little fluted bits, then used that as the base.

We painted the cardboard with PaperArtsy acrylics then stamped, painted and cut out some of Jo's flowers from some of her very own JOFY stamps. 

The fab arrangement was then mounted on the canvas (which had been given a quick lick of fresco acrylic paint)

The group's collective efforts. Well done to everyone and thank you to Jo.

I am now off to have a play and be creative with cardboard.....
watch this space!