Wednesday 25 February 2015

WOYWW? 299

Morning/afternoon/evening... welcome back for another desk-hopping extravaganza... if you want to know all about it,Julia's Stamping Ground is the place to start..
Now, I know you are all expecting new stuff again this week... but I've been let down by deliveries not being sent when they should have, lol!!   Waiting for some pre-ordered stamps that should have arrived by now and are only just on the way, and something from Amazon that is coming from the States so also isn't here yet (even though in both cases, friends who ordered the same things at the same time already have theirs... so NOT fair, ha ha!!)

so instead, I've opened another box...
 This is a box of papers next to the end of the sofa, (there is another one underneath this...) and as you can see, it's a bit full...there are lots of plastic wallets in this and indeed the one underneath, all labelled... but, also lots of loose things too...
I don't use much of what's in here (and there's stuff dumped on top, inevitably so it's a right palaver to get into )





the papers I do tend to use, are in the plastic concertina wallet in front of the box, and are mostly Tim Holtz but not all... these are the 12 x12 ones... smaller pads are elsewhere..

the plastic tubs with the bright lids, down by the side of the sofa, are tubs of glitter... just in caseyou were wondering!


to put the other pictures into context a bit, here's a final slightly wider angle shot..showing even more stuff!
There is no hope, obviously...
See you all soon.




Sunday 22 February 2015

Alphabet Soup

One of my favourite places I shop online is Artist Trading Post and their latest blog challenge is "Alphabet Soup" - to use letters (or numbers) in a mixed media project. I decided to work in my A4 Seawhite journal

I had a set of Finnabair stamps itching to be inked up and this seemed the ideal challenge, along with some new Fresco colours.
 the alphabet stencil is from Carabelle, that I bought at VersionScrap last April.  the Fresco is China - a gorgeous colour!
 brayered some Smurf in the gaps round the stencilling, then stencilled grunge paste through the same stencil and let dry.

 Diluted Guacamole and washed it over the page, wiping back from the China stencilled letters.
Sanded back the grunge paste a little, then added White Fire Treasure Gold
Stamped the collaged lady from the Finnabair stamps on tissue paper, then used Glass Blue and Limelight Frescos over the top, being translucent they don't obliterate the stamped image.  Added a little Zesty Zing too. Glued the tissue to the page with matte medium and sealed it on top with matted medium too,  to help fix it to the page..
 stamped the little 'trust the magic' and the heart, and painted a little watered down Smurf into the hearts
edged the pages with a little of the China Fresco.
Had great fun with this, thanks to Artist Trading Post for the challenge

Saturday 21 February 2015

Discover Extraordinary..

I have a triple for you today, three totally different journal pages with new Paperartsy goodies...
the first, which is actually the last I made, is inspired by Alison Hall's splattery plaque from yesterday on the Paperartsy blog - inspired by the colours and the splatters.
 I have most of the new Fresco individual colours now, and was keen to play with the purples and blues.. Started by brayering Wisteria over the page, then added a couple of drops of Purple Rain which I blending with a babywipe and continued to brayer and blend for a bit...
 added some texture, in the form of tissue tape and the hessian type mesh "stuff" I used in a previous piece..I fixed these with matte medium, and then brayered a bit more Wisteria over the top to help blend it into the background.  
Stamping next - took the script and circles from Sara's new set, used Watering Can and black, respectively.  bit more dry brayering to blend that in just a little.










Took a scrap of white card, brayered Wisteria on it and stamped one of Sara's texts from an earlier plate and cut it out and stuck to the page.

and stamped 'discover' and 'extraordinary' directly onto the page.. added some more of Sara's stamping, spatters and circles in Blueberry.

Finished with some splatters of Chalk Fresco, got best results with a coffee stirrer and slightly watered down paint.


Am entering this to the Paperartsy "paint" challenge here  and, because there are lots of drips and drops, both stamped and literally, I am entering the CountryView Challenge "drips and drops" here 
 next up is a page in my small A6 journal, bit of fun with JoFY's new stencil in Chalk over Cherry Red background and the flowers are painted with some of the new purples.
next is a page I am calling Homes for Smurfs - mainly because I used the new blue Smurf, and the stencilled bubbles are Blueberry (gorgeous colour!)

I bumped with Chalk Fresco
and stamped Lin's houses twice the solid, and once the outline, and cut as shown.  The text is Lin's, and the little circles are from the big flower set, stamped in Blueberry to match the under-bumping.

Thanks for looking!

Wednesday 18 February 2015

TIO #185 - Pink and hearts

Welcome back to the DragonsDream for another fortnightly challenge.  Thank you for your orange entries, we enjoyed seeing them.

This time, it's the choice of our newest team member, Catherine, who's chosen Pink and hearts - for a just after Valentine tag.  Now, amongst my friends, I have some who love pink -  and quite a few more who hate it!!  however, I like a nice strong pink  and that's what I've used.

 Bougainvillea, one of the Limited Edition Frescos from Lin Brown forPaperartsy. Isn't it gorgeous?  Painted the size 10 tag, and stamped Daniels Hearts by Stampotique
 then took a Stencil Girl stencil (it has 4 or 5 different heart shapes and styles on it) and added Prima Light Paste by Finnabair, through the hearts - then, added another single one, at the top.

Waited (im)patiently for the paste to dry - this is where it's wet, very bright white..the nature of this paste is to pick up the colour you're using, or it comes into contact with, so as it dries, it gradually looks pinker.

I do love this heart stamp and never seem to use it often, it makes for great backgrounds

Added a piece of pink ribbon (it only looks red due to the lousy light when I was taking the photos) and some white fibre
and finally the sentiment from one of Darcy's stamp plates for Paperartsy.
We'd love to see you embrace your pink side, stamp us up a tag and join in! Don't forget to use at least one real stamp, and a tag.

WOYWW? #298 - errr....guess?

Hello!  Time all so quickly for another Wednesday show and tell... link up here at the lovely Julia's...

well, as you MAY have intimated from the blog heading... I've been shopping again!  more than once in fact, but not everything's arrived yet..
What can I find to show you...lol
Some goodies from the Artist Trading Post - a further selection of the new Paperartsy Fresco paints, and a set of Finnabair's new stamps for Prima....lush!
I'm sure there's more but can't find the photograph I must have taken.. hold on peeps!
 ah yes, there we are!  as you can see I've used one of the stencils now!
here, in my little journal!

Who knows, maybe next week there won't be anything new.. but I am making no promises!!


If you're around later on today, there'll be a new Dragons Dream Tag It On tag post.


Sunday 15 February 2015

Paperartsy Challenge - theme 3, Paint

The new theme for the Paperartsy blog challenge was announced last weekend, and was right up my street. Since then, as always, we've been wow'd by several beautiful posts from designers.  I was immediately drawn to Anneke's "yellow" journal page when I saw it on Friday.

 I don't have any duct tape (that I could find) but do have a roll of close weave fibre "stuff" (sure it's got a proper name) that my sister in law was turning out, so after I gesso'd the journal page, I cut a piece and glued it to the bottom of the page, adding some masking tape too, like Anneke.
 I took the new JoFY stencil PS12 and added grunge paste through it, three times.  As you see, I had my small journal to hand too, to use up the excess grunge paste on my palette knife.
 Once dried I painted the pages with shades of yellow (not 50 though....) starting at the bottom with Banana, then Yellow Submarine, and finally Zesty Zing at the top (later added just a little Honey Dew right at the top)  At this stage I thought I'd copied Anneke's too heavily, and left it overnight.
 This morning, I had an idea..
Took some of Sara Naumann's stamps (the circles, from one of her new plates, and the criss-cross from one of the older ones) and added them to the page - I started with the criss-cross in Snowflake, but turned to archival inks as the white didn't seem to show up much... then went back with the Snowflake too.
 Once I'd uploaded the photos, I realised it does show up quite nicely!
It was these images that gave me the push for this page, I had stamped one of them, on scrap card and coloured it with Frescos last night, and I happened to pick it up to move something else, and it fell onto the page... strange how some things just happen like that!  I stamped and coloured the other two images (LP34) and placed them to look as if they were hanging from the leaves set in the pages.
 Took one of Lin's flower phrases and cut it up, and glued to the pages.... Really pleased with how this turned out - thanks, Anneke, for a fabulous inspiration!
oh, and here's the small page, which I did whilst not sure where the first one was going!

Colours are mainly Limelight, with Hey Pesto and Beach Hut, and Blue Glass round the edges of the page.   The little flowers are from LB13.

Am entering this to the Paperartsy "paint" challenge here 

Wednesday 11 February 2015

WOYWW 297 - you know what I'm going to say..

... Starts with "been shopping" and ends with "bought new stamps"... once again they arrived just after last week's WOYWW post (check here for all the info)... which means I have this to show you:

 three sets of the new Lin Brown stamps released by Paperartsy last week... (and - erm-  there "may" be some more on the way...)
 my "desk" shows signs of  preparation for another tag and atc swap - as you can see, I haven't exactly got far!!

and my journals are out as I've been playing lots lately... check back a few posts for the results..
now, there is a box under here, on the chair... the pile has grown somewhat over the last few months... all kinds of things in the box itself (boxes of glitters, sprays, lots of wooden bits waiting for altering, and... er... ermm.... I'll excavate and check soon!

So, that's me.  Julia is waiting for you here...
See you soon!

Sunday 8 February 2015

Home Sweet Home...

The final set of new Lin Brown stamps I treated myself to, (so far) was one of the houses sets.. the skinny houses I was calling them to myself.

Whilst I'd been working on some of the other projects, I had been wiping the excess paint, as I usually do, onto a journal page - this time, the teeny A6 sized one. I knew when I saw these super little dwellings, that the would need someone to live there, and from aeons ago, I have a load of Art Impressions pixies...

 The page has all of the new LB Limited Edition paints and some Snowflake to knock it all back a little, I stamped the houses on white card and used my Inktense pencils to colour them,

stamped one of the swirly grass/flowers from ELB16 before I stuck the houses down (imagine a path leading from the one in the background as it looks as if it's just hanging...)

and sat the little fella on the roof - which, although it doesn't really show, is layered up for dimension

Just a bit of fun for a sunny Sunday!

More new stamps playtime - In the Stars

So, I also got a set of Sara Naumann stamps in my Paperartsy splurge.. the star set.  here's what I've done with them so far.

 I started with a coat of Stone Fresco and then added a couple of dots of Purple Rain, one of the new lovely purples across the top, but when I spread it out, it was too 'in your face' for what I wanted to do next, so I wiped at it with a babywipe to knock it back.   Added Bougainvillea from the Limited Edition LB set... love this pink!

Stamped the big star from the SN set, in black archival, randomly over the page, (the imperfect stamping in the bottom of the left page is due to the bumpy stuff on the page underneath, not the stamp's fault!
 added the circles, which I love, from this set - used both black and then Magenta Hue archivals , and the script is in Watering Can
I wanted something else, so as I went to bed, I added some Glass Bead gel in the centres of the stars and let it dry overnight - when it goes on, the base gel is white, and you never think it's going to dry clear....
 ...but it does! Time for words...







I stamped one of the quotes from the SN set, and cut it into pieces, mounting it on black card
...  I stuck most of them flat on the page, but wanted to further accentuate the main words - stars and ourselves - so used 3d foam for those.
Left the author of the quote, just on the white card without mounting it.

Really pleased with how this came out, love Sara's stamps  - may have to go back for more...



Friday 6 February 2015

More Paperartsy play! - Shiny Stuff

Evening -  had a bit of play this evening with Lin's new big flower from ELB16 and some metal.. oooh me likey!

 Am using Lin's new Limited Edition paints too, just love them!  The journal page is covered with the Caribbean Sea, and I stamped the big flower twice, painting the petals with the gorgeous Bougainvillea - I wish you could see this in the flesh, (even with the daylight bulb and the flash, it's not a fabulous photo!)

I used Banana for the centre of the petals and in between the pink.

Used Guacamole for the leaves..
 I stamped the flower again on a piece of copper metal, and puffed it gently using a paper stump, after outlining the petals with a soft pokey tool. Filled the back of the flower carefully with Prima Light Paste (Finn's) this is wonderful - so light and fluffy, like lightly whipped cream, so it didn't "unpuff" my metal  - and let it partly set before putting some matte medium onto the journal page, to help hold the flower in place.

Stamped a sentiment from one of Lin's earlier flower text sets, and done!

Entering this to the Paperartsy "shiny stuff" challenge, although it was only as I was typing this up, that I realised it qualified, lol!!  I have been inspired by all the fabulous samples from the new Paperartsy releases this week, and especially Lin Brown's here

Tag and ATC Swap

I recently took part in a tag and atc swap and the results are now winging their way to the recipients. So, here's what I made to swap.  The theme was 'faces'

 I failed miserably to take any step by step photos..
 crackle on the first tag, though I can't remember what colours I used... think Dolly Mix is on top.. Stamped "David" on book text
 Paperartsy script background in ?? Fresco over Antarctic, I think! (should have written this when I made the tags!)

The stamps are a Judikins cube stamp I've had forever and haven't used in longer, but I love them!!  Used an alphabet stamp for the 'create'
ATCs.  hmmm Tim Holtz stamps - the left one coloured with gelatos I think... glass bead gel on the one on the right, over the 'dream'