More Playing With the Dark Side

I thought I'd have another play with the darker colour palettes and went with making a card instead of a tag. It's all part of the Discover Your Style course I'm on. I'm doing great on the theory side of the homework but have fallen behind with actually making stuff. And the more stuff I make, the better understanding I'll have of my style.

And before you ask, no I still haven't figured out my style yet. Plenty more weeks to go. I have such an eclectic taste but maybe that's because I haven't settled style-wise.

Anyway, learning from the tag I made in the previous post, I added some sewing and distress ink to shabby the whole thing up whilst still keeping with the principles of design and CAS styles.

And now that I've posted this, my guess is that when I next check my emails, my inbox will have this week's new lesson. It's a brilliant course but boy there's a lot of homework lol.

Px

Red Tag

Just playing around, wanting to cut, paste and make something. I thought I'd experiment with darker colours but still keeping with my style. If I was to make it again, I think I'd add some stitching around the tag and perhaps distress up the edges more. However, as a first attempt, it hasn't turned out too bad.

Now I just need to adapt and tweak my photography skills as well. I'm too used to the lighter colours.

Keeping it short today. So until next time.

Pxx

More Mojo & Less Mojo

 I made a sort of goal for myself to choose two crafty challenge sites and attempt to commit at making something each week for them. So, with that in mind, I decided, for now, to continue with Mojo Monday, especially as I enjoy having a sketch to kick the inspiration off.

However, the challenge becomes even more so when the mojo it is supposed to encourage, decides to take a surprise sojourn (my mot-de-jour -  sorry but I just had to use it somewhere in the post today).

The overall background layout was easy. Once again, I stuck to using one collection from Prima. This time around, I went with Madeleine. But when it came to the sentiment and embellishment, I don't know why, but I hit a brick wall. Finally, I resorted to my trusty default of spellbinders and floral. It may not be new, but it works.

I therefore have now come to the realisation that I need a dose of inspiration to shake up my mojo. Maybe a trip out somewhere or even better, booking a short break to London, and visit the galleries.

Until next time
Au Reservoir (I'll never tire of that lol)


Px

Feeling a Bit Rusty

Yes, I know it feels a strange conclusion to come to but I honestly felt a bit out of practice whilst wiling away the time constructing a card. Especially as I was following a sketch. All I needed to do was fill in the blanks. It's rather like admitting to being stumped with adding colour to a paint-by-numbers.

Anyway, I shall hope to rectify this temporary rustiness by continuing to make a few more cards in the coming days and weeks, just to keep my hand in. As much as I enjoy art and drawing  the crafting bug soon hits when I fail to indulge.

The catalyst, for this creation was the reliably trusty challenge site, Mojo Monday. Always nice to have a slight nudging of inspiration. I find sketches do just about enough work already for you, leaving plenty of room to play around and add your own spin on it.

I shall be short and sweet tonight. And in the spirit of E.F. Bensons Mapp & Lucia (which I'm currently watching on DVD with the excellent casting trio of Nigel Hawthorne, Prunella Scales & Geraldine McEwan)...

Au Reservoir

Pxx

A little Gesso with a Smidge of Inspiration

Thank you for your kind comments yesterday and for persevering with the word verification. I really do appreciate how awful it is and will eventually switch back. Thank you also for your equally sweet remarks regards the drawing/sketch of the zombie fella. To answer your question Kory, and anyone else who is interested, I draw a rough outline in pencil first, then ink in with a fine black Uniball or Pitt Pen. It's all analog and no iPads.

Okay, onto today's tag. Yup, I seem to have my mojo in full swing, thanks to tags. As I've written before, I find them perfect for discovering all manner of techniques and creative experimentation and, for a change, I'm not fighting it, I'm going with the flow.

In a change to my usual format of just showing the end result, knowing the idea I wanted to put into practice, I took a couple of "before" pictures as well.

I mentioned in my previous post that I fancied doing something more along the mixed media direction. So I grabbed a tag and then, with very little conscious thought, just reached out for an assortment of textural elements which I hoped could be married together in an interesting assemblage.  Above is the result.

I removed the flowers and glued everything else down with either PVA or glue gun. When dry, I coated the whole tag in white gesso, adding thicker clumps here and there to create more texture.

Once the gesso dried, the fun began. I merrily squirted a couple of ink sprays about and randomly dabbed on acrylic paints, dry brushing to highlight the textures. I did the same to the flowers and leaves, which were set to one side. Everything was then left to dry before being attached with a glue gun, resulting in this...

Which I have to say I'm quite pleased with. Okay, the colours aren't quite there yet. I still need to play around with more combos. But it's a good start.

Pxx

Burlap Flowers & Chippy Fairies

Well I'm back from London & I survived. It was definitely a novel experience, fighting my way through the minefield of tourists but it was fun. And I came back laden with art supplies, tea, french cheeses and some rather heavy sausage.

And it's been a great week so far. The UK has been enjoying the rare sighting of the sun. Yes, even Manchester's constant rain has been put on hold. It's been so tranquil to sit in the garden and draw or listen to a play whilst sipping on smokey Earl Grey.

Trouble is, I haven't felt like sitting indoors, in my craft room playing and it was beginning to look as if I was going to have nothing to blog this week. However, I was up bright and early this morning and had already notched up a couple of hours worktime, so decided to drag out my stash and just spend a few minutes putting something together.

Almost everything is from Jodie Lee's Nature Collection, except for the burlap flower. I found this neat tutorial here. You need to scroll down to the last flower made, the Button-Eyed Daisy. I love how the burlap frays as you make it and you end up with these tattered strands. And I know I always say this but honestly it's really easy to make.

Right, well I'm going to sign off, prepare myself some lunch and then partake of it in the garden. I may even fool myself into thinking I could take some work outdoors later on (though I've tried that one before and end up taking a book out and reading that instead lol). Welllllll...I can always work when the sun goes down haha.

Have a great weekend folks

Px

Mother-in-Law

In my last post, I mentioned how lucky I am with the friends in my life. Today, I've also realised, I've been very fortunate with my, for want of a better term, in-laws. The parents of my past and present partners have all been delightful. I know the stereotype is for the mother-in-law to be a monster-in-law but that's not been my own experience.

And so I've produced a long overdue page which has been missing from my scrapbook album, the one devoted to Kate, Nick's Mum. It's a page that, if it wasn't for our dogged persistance, wouldn't exist. She is one difficult lady to take a photograph of. Short of tying her up, the only way we normally do it, is to take her by surprise or wait until she's had a tipple or two.

This page doesn't need any journalling. All anyone needs to know about this wonderful woman is that I say she is AWESOME!

This is the first project I have created using the stash sent to me by Jodie from her Nature's Garden collection with Prima. In fact, the only additions which did not come in the kit, are the chipboard letters in the title and the twine used on the buttons.

I created three Scrunchy Flowers using a sheet of patterned paper and two fabric one's with some beautiful strips of printed silk. And, as you can see, A4 paper can easily be applied to a 12x12 format. In this case, I joined together two of Jodie's designs which had a collage appearance already, so you can hardly see the join.

Great fun to piece together. I'm raring to make something else now. I just need to remember, where did I put that extra bit of spare time? When I find it, I'll be a blur of paper, scissors and glue.


Pxx

Scraplifting at the Flying Unicorn

I know I've said it before, but it's worth saying again. I'm so pleased to have discovered and joined the Flying Unicorns community. They are such a feisty and fun group with a brilliant sense of humour and high output of creative talent.

This month, I've enrolled in an April Scraplift Challenge. We are in teams of four, each taking a week in turn. I'm in "Team Trouble" (no looks of surprise out there) and I'm down as week three. The two layouts preceding mine are both delightfully creative and individual. An intimidating act to follow!!!

This is the amazing page I had to scraplift...

and here's the layout I was inspired to produce from it...

I lifted the idea of stenciling in the top right hand corner, though changed the design from honeycombs to blooms on a branch. I also took the title and dimensional letters and gave it my own twist.  Neither of my teamies have used photographs in their layouts and I carried on with the idea and found an illustration on the web, of an album design cover for Singin' in the Rain. I noted the flourish on the right, so added a grungeboard version, found lurking in my stash. Finally, I lifted the garland of flowers from along the bottom. I used a spray of Prima blooms which I'd coated with a watery glaze of white paint to mute down their originally bright colours. The rest of the design was my take on how to balance all these elements together.

I trust this will meet with "Team Trouble"'s approval. Can't wait to see how my page will be lifted next week.

Have a wonderful, creative week my friends!

Px

Ball-Tool Flowers with Crimpered Leaves Tutorial

Hello all. I'm afraid the title of this tutorial is a bit of a mouthful. Believe me, I tried to think of a snappier title but one didn't surface. Somedays the creative part of my brain works, others, it feels like hibernation has set in.

Anyway, this is how I spent my Easter Sunday. Who knew that it could take a day almost to blog a tutorial from start to finish? It doesn't help that I decided to photograph the whole project twice. The first flower was produced with red card and just didn't have enough of a shabby vintage feel to it. So I went again, with a different process, as you will see. And though the temperature outside here has dropped, I was down to a T-shirt in my craft room, under the heat of the lights and I was still too warm. 

However, it was great fun to do plus I managed to sneak in some polka dot patterned Washi tape into the resulting tag (I blame Kory for tempting me into my recent purchases). 

So without further ado, I give you..the Ball Tool Flower, accessorised with Crimpered Leaves!

Materials:

White Card 

Black Card

Tattered Rose Distress Stain

Tea Dye Distress Ink

Die or punches to cut flowers in three sizes. I've used Tim Holtz Sizzix Tattered Flower Garland

Paintbrush, Ball tool or Pen

Mouse Mat

Perfect Pearls Mist - Heirloom Gold

Paper Crimper

To begin swipe the white card with tattered rose distress stain. Dry with a heat gun. Turn over and colour the back. Again, dry with a heat gun and repeat on both sides so that it has two coats of stain either side.

Cut the flowers out with your die cuts or punches. You will need two large, two medium and two small. Though I've used a Tim Holtz Flower Garland die for this tutorial, I've also created flowers with other dies and punches. As long as they have individual petals within the shape. And it doesn't matter if they have six petals, like these, or five. 

Add a darker colour of ink to the tips of the petals. I have used Tea Dye distress ink but you go with whatever is in your stash already. (Have you noticed the obvious sequence error? The die cut flowers in the previous photo have already been inked. Oops!).

The petals are going to be shaped using a "bowl" technique. There are plenty of tutorials online and in books, where you'll see this method demonstrated. It's also very versatile and can be applied to all sorts of flower shapes.  This is where you will need a mouse mat as your base to work on. You will also use your ball tool for this, or as you will see, in my case, the end of a paint brush (pens, with a smooth capped end, can also be used). Begin by pushing the tip of your tool down onto the edges of the petals. The 'give' in the mouse mat will begin to crinkle the paper. 

Once you've pushed down or stabbed the edges, move onto the centre of the petal. You will now be seeing the petal form into a cup.

Now, you want to swipe the tip of your tool from the centre of the petal to the centre of the flower, using gentle pressure. The petal should be lifting and curling upwards.

Do this to all the petals on all the leaves and you should end up with six "bowls" - hence the name of this technique.

Flip over the two larger flowers and the two medium flowers.

Taking your tool tip, push down on the centre of the flowers, into the mouse mat. You may need to gently help the petals to fan out as you do this. There will now be a gentle bowl shape in the centre of the flower with the inverted cup shaped petals slightly lifting.

You will now have four shaped flowers with the two smallest still in their bowl shape.

Glue the two largest flowers together, interleaving the spaces between the petals.

Once the glue has dried, adhere the medium arrangement to the larger one. Press down, only in the centre, to ensure the flowers keep their shape.

Now it isn't easy to see in the photo above, but you will now add a dollop of pva glue to the inside of one of the smallest flowers. You will then take your finger and spread it around the inside.

Gather the petals into a tighter shape by pinching in with your fingers and letting them overlap each other to form a bud. Hold like this, until the glue sets. By spreading the glue out evenly in the previous step, you will speed up the time this takes, which will probably be just a couple of minutes. You will know the glue has set, when you take your fingers away and the bud doesn't open out.

Add glue to the inside of the remaining smaller flower. You can just add a few dots this time, you do not need to spread it out.

Pop the bud into the centre.

And again pinch the petals up and around the bud, letting the petals overlap. Hold in place until the glue sets. Alternatively, once you have pinch the shape together, release and let the petals unfurl to form a looser bud.

Attach this bud to the top of your flower with another dab of glue and leave to dry.

For sizes and instructions on how to cut out leaf shapes, refer to the end of the Tattered Bloom tutorial here. This time around however, I have used black card sprayed with Perfect Pearls Mists, Heirloom Gold.

Now, instead of wetting the card and crumpling up, you are going to run them through a paper crimper, making sure you insert the folded leaves in at a 45 degree angle.

Open the shapes up and you will have a trio of beautiful, shaped leaves.

Glue the leaves to back of the flower and you are done. If you don't have a crimping tool, use the technique described in the tattered bloom post. Or you may have a punch or die to create your leaves. Use whatever is at hand. 

Note I have not given you any sizes in these instructions. Just Large, Medium & Small. That's because you can make these flowers in a variety of shapes and sizes. You have the creative freedom to produce a whole spray of blooms, large and small, with different flower shapes and colours of card to suit. And if you are so inclined, you can even hand cut your own flower shapes. 

This flower is a bit more involved than the previous ones I've demonstrated and yes, you may find your hand begins to ache with all that stabbing, pressing and shaping that's required. It's a flower you can make one or two at a time. It's certainly not one to try in batches. However, the results are worth it.

Joining in with these Artful Times

There's a new challenge blog which my very good friend, Neet has launched along with a few of her arty buddies. I know they are excited to see it up and running and after much discussion and debate, have given it the rather gorgeous title of the Artful Times.

And their first challenge...

to make a tag!

Well, as you are probably musing to yourself, that is right up my creative street. So I'm only too pleased to conjure something up and join in.

I began by running my tag through an embossing plate, before applying grey acrylic paint. I dry brushed a lighter grey over the top to highlight the embossed pattern as well as to the edges. I die cut the silhouette images, painted them with acrylic paints and coated with a thin layer of clear embossing powder. The flower is handmade using a Tim Holtz flower strip die. The leaves were cut out by hand, inked around the edges and run through a crinkle tool.

I then pieced it all together, adding wooden flower shapes, buttons, brads and lace. I added the found text which is a mix from a scrap of MME paper and a pottery book. I outlined with white paint and finished off by tying the tag up with a length of lace.

I trust the arty folk over at the times will like it. And if you are keen on knocking out a tag or two, why not join in. The ladies (as if! lol) are all wonderful people and I know they'll be giddy with delight at each and every entry.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend and sneaking in some time to be creative too.

Px

Scrunchy Flower Tutorial

Here's the second of the two flower tutorials I produced as a pdf, which I have now brought over here. Well, it's nice to have them all together in one place.

The materials you need:

Plain Ivory Colour Card

Circle Dies: I’ve used Spellbinders Circles 23mm, 35mm and 48mm dia. i.e. the three smallest. 

With the circle dies, cut out 1 large disc and 2 of each of the medium and small discs from the card. Spray with water to dampen. 

Scrunch up tight, each of the circles.

Unfurl them and lay back out on your craft sheet. Give them another spray of water to keep damp.

Cup your hand and press each disc into it with your finger to create a bowl shape. The card is easy to manipulate whist damp, so tweak and pinch the edges with your fingers until you’re happy with it’s look. 

With the two smallest circles, Pinch them into tighter, trumpet-style shapes.

Leave the pieces until they are bone dry. Use a heat gun to quicken up the process. 

 Use pva glue or similar and layer the flower together. Largest on the bottom, followed by the medium two & top with the  smallest ones. Yes, it really is that easy to make.

If you don’t have the Spellbinders circle dies, don’t rush out immediately to buy a set. I use them for convenience but you can easily handcut out rough circles from the card using just a pair of scissors. Also, if you do already own similar dies of a circular shape, why not try them out instead. The flower above on the left was created with a scalloped circle set and the one on the right using the Blossom Nesties. 

Tattered Bloom Tutorial

Welcome to my first ever online flower tutorial. It's a tattered paper bloom which incorporates one of my favourite techniques of wetting and shaping card. Some of you will have seen this before in PDF format but I thought I'd bring it over here too.

So to begin. The materials you will need:

Card -  Ivory, Dark blue, Light blue

Sun Shaped Punch

Dark Blue Ink Pad

From the light blue card, cut out a 5cm square and a 4cm square.

Start from middle of the top edge and tear to the middle of the left hand edge. Keep tearing to the middle of the bottom edge, right hand edge, back up to the top.

Do this with both squares and you will now have two rough shaped circles.

With a pencil, lightly draw a circle in the centre and five lines going out to the edge. 

Using the pencil marks as guides, tear the card to make the petals.

With a mister, spray the card pieces with water. You want it lightly wettenned, not soaked through.

Take the back of a paint brush and press into the middle of each flower shape. 

Carefully fold the petals up around the brush’s handle.

Squeeze the card tight around the brush to form a tube like shape and carefully remove.

With a heat gun, give the shapes a blast, to dry them out. 

Now, VERY carefully, unfurl the shapes. You need to feel your way around each petal, one by one. It’s easy to rush and tear a petal off. Once flattened out, dry out again with a heat gun

Take your ink pad and apply to the edges of the petals. I used a dark blue but any dark colour, say a brown, will be an excellent alternative.

With tweezers, curl the sides of the petals towards you. If you don’t have tweezers to hand, curl the petals around a cocktail stick.

Punch four sun shapes (approx. 15mm dia) out of the darkest card. Take a mouse mat and press each shape into the mat with the back of the paint brush to form a bowl.

Scrunch up one shape as tightly as you can. Add to the centre of a second shape with a dab of glue. Scrunch the outer shape around the central bud.

Take this bud and glue to a third shape. Scrunch up.

Finally take this bud and glue to the fourth shape. Again scrunch up. 

You now have the three components for your tattered bloom.

Place a dab of glue in the centre of the largest flower and arrange the smaller one on top. Try to offset the petals to give a rounder looking flower.

Add another dab of glue to the centre and attach the bud. And there you have it. You can stop there and use this flower in your projects as it is. However, if you’d like to add some leaves...

Take a strip of the ivory card (approx. 10cms x 5cms) and fold it in half along the length.

With scissors, cutting along the folded edge, make three rough half-leaf shapes. Open them up to see your results and if you wish, fold again and fine tune your leaf shapes.

When you are happy with your leaves. Spritz them with water.

Scrunch the leaves up into ball shapes and dry with a heat gun.

Unfurl the shapes and fold in half to revive the central crease in each leaf. As an optional extra, you can distress the edges carefully, with a craft knife, scissor edge or distressing tool.

Add a dab of glue to one end of each leaf and arrange behind the flower.

Once you’ve made your first tattered blooms and learnt the process, you can begin to produce them in batches, to have ready in your stash collection for future projects.