In my garden - shabby panel

 In My Garden

The Great Outdoors CVC #2 July

Well I'm out and about in my garden for the second challenge for July at Country View Crafts and I've created another shabby panel. I also seem to have gone somewhat French (see later info in the post about this!) - that came about because Tim has some bee images that have been labelled in French, so I clicked with it and brought out a bit of school learnt French, but checked it on Google as well :0)

So in my garden I have bees and that was true when my Olive tree was flowering a few weeks ago - there were bumblebees buzzing away and flitting like mad from flower to flower. It surprised me because the flowers are so, so small! I have lots of flowers and bushes, I have raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, runner beans, sweetcorn, roses, dahlias, fuchsias, hydrangeas and more - and I love it. I've also had lots of blackfly and slugs and snails, caterpillars, but very few butterflies and ladybirds sadly. 

Finished Panel

So the time to create this panel took longer than I had anticipated but read on and you'll find out why,

Process steps

Two pieces of paper adhered to card and brayered with white acrylic paint to tone it down.

Texture paste scraped through Tim's stencil for texture and left to dry. Water spritzed over the stencilling and walnut stain distress ink mixed with water on craft mat puddled through using a paint brush. Neat ink then painted over a few of the stencilled shapes to give variations of tones. Any puddled colour was splattered over, but most of it soaked in and can't really be seen.

Pieces for the focal point layers were collected together, much of it in bags as leftovers from previous projects. I keep lots of the bits and pieces to use for collages and toppers. The only things I had to do were stamp the bees (on leftover background) and create the text pieces on the computer. I also gathered a butterfly rub-on and embossed on vellum to add to the specimen slide.

The bees are stamped with an old Tim Holtz stamp mounted on wood. It was fabulous using it again and to give it an outing.

I layered up all the elements and lost the butterfly duh! But found a little one in the field notes snippets I could replace it with. Buuuuutttt .... I wasn't happy with it, there were imbalances - like the left side is so dark whilst the other side is very light, to me that took away from the focus of the bees and garden. So I had to have a play.........

This was what appeared. I got rid of the black flowers, added from the wildflowers dies and also added a ladybird peeking out at the bottom. Although there is a depth imbalance on either side now, I think I can live with that because now the whole piece is lighter and looks more like a garden.

Here you can see the contrasts and differences. I'm happy.

NEXT DAY

Is it a Bee or is it a Wasp?

I hadn't glued anything down before I went to bed and today everything changed!!! (Typically Me!!).

I brayered over the brown stencil texture to lighten it more, 

I didn't like the yellow on the bees (or wasps?).

Because I think this is more likely to be a wasp the French text seemed inappropriate so I made some in English.

I also stamped the panel mount with text from the Entomology set.

I added some snippets.

Now I'm even happier.

xx

Supplies

TH Sizzix dies - Specimen, Entomology, Wildflowers

TH Stampers Anonymous stamp - an old wooden stamp of a bee?, Entomology CMS328

TH Mediums - Collage Medium Matte

Th Distress inks - Walnut Stain, Wild Honey, Scattered Straw

TH Snippets - Field Notes, Curator

TH Small Talk stickers

White acrylic paint, White Gesso

Background papers and text - Tim Holtz and my own

Paper Dolls panel

 Adding to my Butterflies, Bees and Moths Creative Sketchbook

Whilst pulling together ideas and a large number of designs for a workshop next month, some made the cut and others didn't.

I'm teaching my take on Creative Sketchbooking on the 17th and 18th of July at Country View Crafts headquarters.  Thursday the 17th July is sold out but there are some spaces on Friday 18th. Bookings can be made here. 

 This was one of the experimental projects I made that didn't make the cut, but I will add it to the sketchbook later along with some other bits and pieces I have left over. It will be good to add them as they are still important being part of the creative process and decision making.

Paper Dolls panel 

Cut panel 10 x 8 cms punch rounded corners. Paint surface with gesso – dry. Using small sponge blend over a mixed colour to your liking.

Dip into puddle of hickory smoke, dry and blend same ink round edges.

Stamp bug with watering can archival ink.

Gather dolls and blend ground espresso round them and the same with snippets.

Add something to ground the girls I used the small alphabet strip.

I will add the actual Creative Sketchbook pages here after the workshop in July. 

xx

Bee journal page

A page in my new 'inspired by nature' journal. The front cover and the first page are complete and this one adds to the story. As the name of my blog suggests bumblebees and butterflies are important to me so you are very likely to see more pages inspired by them but as a retired teacher who loves learning, books have also been a principal player in my life so I just had to use this quote when I found it.

Process steps

Stamp the page with a large crackle stamp and then layer some random texture with white gesso using a palette knife.

When dry stamp the numbers with black archival, make sure they are dry before covering with a gesso wash. If it looks too white knock back with a wetwipe before it dries.

Know roughly what elements you are going to use and where they will be placed ....

.... before building in a little more texture using a stencil and white gesso. When it's dry use watery acrylic paints, dry dabble, spritz and drip some quinacridone gold, heat dry and repeat until you are happy. Then repeat again with carbon black.

Use die-cuts to create a honeycomb (these pieces were in a bits box left over from cutting a frameworks die a long time ago).

Use water soluble wax pencils or distress crayons to edge the paper and create a grungy border by using a wet paintbrush to dissolve the crayon and let it disperse along the edges of the page.

Then assemble your pieces to create your design.

xxx

Eileen Hull HeARTfelt Journal When Rust and Nature Collide

How lovely it is to be back sharing another of the journals from the lovely Eileen Hull. If you missed my vintage mixed media one you can find it here. This one is still mixed media but more in the timeworn style I enjoy using.

The inspiration for this journal came about by sitting in the work room looking out over my back garden and thinking why don't I document the changes of the seasons in the garden and use this three sectioned journal to do it.  So the seeds were sown (pun intended lol).

I'm not sharing all the process steps with you today as I will be teaching this at Country View Crafts on the 11th May and at Let's Be Creative on the 24th May but suffice to say we will be covering some simple aging techniques using the DecorArt Media range of fluid acrylic paints and mediums .......

..... on several of the layering elements for the front cover.

Including this beautiful textured butterfly ......

.... and these very realistic looking bees.

I will go through how to paint and put the covers together ......

.... and making some crackle panels to create the background for the covers.

We will put all the elements together .....

.... and stain some seam binding ribbon for the ties.

The workshop time will be taken for making the journal and the decorative elements on the front cover, so there will not be enough time to make any inserts for it. If you sign up and attend either workshop and would like to bring papers the double pages need to be 81/2 inches across and 81/4 inches long with the 81/2 inch sided folded to make pages 41/4 x 81/4. We will have a long arm stapler ready to make your pages into signatures, or you could bring them ready sewn and we will have elastic ready for you to add your inserts when you have finished.

I have made three inserts for my one ......

... and will use them to record the changes in the garden over the the year. Insert 1 for Spring; insert 2 for Summer and insert 3 for Autumn and Winter combined.

Thank you Eileen for giving me this opportunity to create alongside your team and a huge thank you to the lovely Anne (Redanne) who sent me the journal covers to use. I should also say the journal die has a closure and a label to cut as well although I have not used them yet, I will cut some labels later to add to the three sections of the inserts.

You can find some of Anne's gorgeous journals HERE and HERE.

Susan at CVC has the journal die on pre-order at the most amazing price which you can find on her website so if you are interested I would get in quick so she can pack you one off as soon as it arrives, oh and I should tell you the price is fantastically affordable for this xl scoreboards die.

Thanks for taking some time out to stop by my blog today. If you have any questions please ask them in the comments section below or email me - the address is on the sidebar. I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you at my workshop if you can make it.

Have a wonderful weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Celebrate Spring

I am trying to get some cards made for my box and thought I would challenge myself to find a set of stamps that hadn't been used. I have a small tub of stampin' up stamps that never see the light of day and I chose the Nature walk set - now I think I may have used one or two of these many moons ago but I used a fair few of them to create a card that will be perfect for a man. (Hmmm I may know someone with a birthday in July who would like this).

I stamped the images on card that had been dipped in distress inks and found a piece of notebook style paper in my collage box and cut the celebrate from Tim's thinlits dies.

 I used Bisters in Tim's flourish embossing folder to create the background - you can just see some of the flourish pattern showing.

I didn't want to add embellishments because of posting but I am pleased with the collage feel it has to it.

Whilst I had the bisters out I played with a couple of more backgrounds and you will see those cards another day. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda xxx

Fall from Summer

It's my turn to post over at A Country View Crafts today

The foliage in the garden has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.... . September is dressing herself in showy dahlias and splendid marigolds and starry zinnias. October, the extravagant sister, has ordered an immense amount of the most gorgeous forest tapestry for her grand reception. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes

I had a leftover tag with picket fence distress paint resist and what looks like picked raspberry, dried marigold and scattered straw distress inks or stains. It has a lovely summery feel to it and decided I wanted to create the feel of summer turning to autumn when the colours begin to change and the gardens and countryside are a wonderful blend of the pinks through to reds and orange and into autumnal gold and browns.

More details and photos are on the CVC project blog if you would like to pop over and see.

Thanks for stopping by today.

hugs Brenda xxx

By all these lovely tokens 

September days are here, 

With summer's best of weather 

And autumn's best of cheer.

Helen Hunt Jackson

Summer canvas

I am sharing the summer canvas we made at Pickwell Farm workshop yesterday. It is a mixed media canvas and perfect for teaching on a bright sunny day - we were so lucky with the weather.

We had fun with the layered butterfly .....

.... layered dragonfly .....

.... and layered bee. These were finished using oil pastels and distress stains.

Leaves and flowers were scrunched, spritzed and also coloured with distress stains ......

.... and the clock was shabbied and glazed with gesso, crackle paint and embossing powder.

All the elements were added to the mixed media background consisting of numerous layers of gesso, paint, stains and texture paste.

The group of attendees worked hard all day to finish their beautiful canvases and it was lovely to meet old friends and new participants to the workshops. 

Whilst demoing the stages and techniques I was able to get a second canvas finished which has been left at the shop.

You can see the similarities and the differences, mainly the flowers as I didn't take myself  a set and we found some in the workshop I could use.

The next date has already been put in the diary for the 3rd October and details will be available on the Pickwell Farm website later in the year.

I have two more workshops to prepare and prep for this week, but I'll see you soon. Have a great Band Holiday weekend.

hugs Brenda xxxxx