Following The Script....

Hello everyone!
 
I am so pleased to finally be able to announce that I am joining the Design Team at 'Try it on Tuesday'. I am sooooo happy!I have always loved their challenges and I am so honoured to have been asked to be part of the very talented design team......

      So today I am here to show you my creation for the 'Try it on Tuesday' new challenge - 

'Collage with a twist' 

          

- The collage must contain some form of script.....

         

     This started with finding a rectangle of corrugated card that I had put in my craft stash where I store all the MDF tags, door hangers, paper mache houses and substrates and various other 'starter' pieces such as plain frames, crockery, bags and many other goodies. I love the whole recycling aspect of crafts.....

     The colour scheme in my head at this point was white and brown and I had no idea where I would go with that. I had some saved bits of the 'Melange' tissue paper so that made a good start. Applying it to the cardboard after coating it with Snowflake Fresco paint. I then stencilled using the 'Art is' stencil and covered half the cardboard with paste.

    After that was dry I covered it all again with Snowflake Fresco paint leaving the moths bare as I wanted to retain the darkness of the images, but the paint helped blend in the wording.

    I then began to dry brush the card with Mocha Mousse and Irish Cream Fresco paint and added some French Roast as well. I then stamped some script stamp with Archival coffee ink.

White lace was applied down the sides of the card and some sticks gathered from my garden were attached to the card along with some rusty wire.

White roses were dabbed with some Vintage Lace Fresco paint and stuck onto the card along with some die cut leaves that had been painted with Old Gold Fresco paint and had crackle paint applied and then had French Roast paint rubbed into the cracks.

   
















I attached a twig to the top of the card and wound rusty wire around it to form a hanger, and then to finish it off I applied a little Treasure Gold in White Fire around the edges and over the stencil lettering.

         So there is my hanging made from old cardboard! - Far better than chucking it into the bin!

     Please hop on over to see what the rest of the Try it on Tuesday design team have created and why not make your own collage and join in with the fun! 

                                See you all soon!

Coast along a creative path

     Hello again!

         I bought these coasters from Eclectic Paperie after I won the top prize there. They had been sitting waiting to be used and one day I decided to make a hanging with them...I had picked up a bargain set of papers from the Range for about £2 and they are stunning! - Had to use them so the coasters got a chance to appear!

      I covered three coasters with the papers. It was hard to chose which ones as they were all so lovely. I decided to use some die cuts - swirls and flowers - including one gorgeous one sent to me by by wonderful blogging friend Jenny (Buttons) who kindly sent me a gorgeous card she made which was filled with die cut goodies...

       The flowers were all covered with Weathered Wood and Antique Linen DS and while the die cuts were still wet I applied a smudge of Vintage Photo DP and Antique Linen DP to the center of the flowers and let the colours merge with a spritz of water - The combination of blue and neutrals is so gorgeous.

 I covered two swirls with Weathered Wood DP - I love the chalky finish of this paint.
 

The lattice die cut was covered with Antique Linen DP. The wings are covered with Frayed Burlap DI and the rose was swirled in Antique Linen DS then spritzed with water to blend the colour more.

Cream crochet lace is one of my latest favourites in my craft embellishment collection - I have one drawer crammed with them and I keep buying more...I can't help it!!!

     I made some holes in the coasters and cut some lengths of rusty wire and made some loops with pliers. A length of rusty wire was added to the top to hang it up...

    And here is my hanging....Hope you like it!

String Flowers

  Hello there!

      Hope you are sitting comfortably - Get a cuppa because here is a very picture heavy post! Today I am showing you a step-by-step. I don't usually do this as I find crafting so absorbing of my attention that I forget to pick up the camera and several stages get missed out - which makes a step-by-step pointless.....Today I can however share one where I did manage to stay focused on the camera....(well for the majority of it at least!)

     
      So here we go!......I loved adding the string swirls to the 'Hearts are for Loving' creation so wanted to re-visit that technique in more detail. I began with ...........

.........A pencil, piece of wood, hemp string and Mod Podge or PVA glue

 Draw any design you like! I chose flowers and tried to keep the images as simple as possible here. The more intricate the design the harder it is to attach the string......

                          

Apply the glue to the area you are working on. Try to keep it to small areas to give yourself time to work before the glue dries.

It is much easier to work in small sections rather than coping with long lengths of string.....

          All done and waiting to be completely dry........

..........One good thing is that the design isn't set in stone here...No one will know what is underneath when it is finished. As you can see here I have made several changes to the original design......Notice one flower (the most difficult part) - got changed into an easy swirl!!!

     The most important thing about this is to take your time - I actually really love spending time on intricate things like this and where attention to detail is required I usually have the patience of a saint! BUT...here I will admit to using some very naughty words and walking away counting to ten! I swear sometimes it was almost as if the string was having a tantrum "Nope! I am not sticking to this glue and there is NOTHING you can do to make me!"

Tip - Tweezers and toothpick are handy tools for getting the string to behave itself stay in place

Painting time!

 I covered the board with a layer of Snowflake Fresco paint which gives a lovely chalky finish...

         All done....now what next?

  Melange Tissue wrap.....covered with watered down Snowflake Fresco paint.....whoops!......nearly forgot to pick up the camera!

I chose my newest Fresco Paints....

    .........and I dabbed the paints all over the right side of the hanging, blending with a sponge....

I dry brushed some Chocolate Pudding Fresco Paint to add some definition

Then I dry brushed some Snowflake Fresco Paint to add highlights and a bit of a vintage shabby effect

      I rubbed on some Treasure Gold in White Fire to highlight the flowers and the edges.....Hmmm....seems I am gradually losing the gorgeous tissue wrap on here - This often happens, you get an idea and then it evolves and sometimes things get cast aside. I was sorry that I got to carried away with painting :o(

      I am always like this with dry brushing - I can't stop! I add layer after layer and usually go around in circles adding dark and then light before repeating it again...and again!

     

After a bit more paint I felt that the two sides needed balancing - so I selected a flourish stamp and stamped in Coffee Archival ink down the left side......

       When it came to finally decorating this I totally forgot about the camera!!!......

    Never mind - Here is the finished creation....

            I painted some card with Stone Fresco Paint and stamped the quote with an alphabet stamp using coffee Archival ink. A few strands of twine were tied into bows and added. the green bow is remnants from bridesmaid cress alterations from my wedding last year. I used some more twine wrapped around rusty wire to be able to hang this up.

        Thanks for wading through this post! Hope you liked it!

             See you soon!

     

Face to Face

    Hello everyone! Here is a new creation for you....I actually made it quite a while ago - but Artistic Stamper are doing Ladies day this month and well, this seemed to be very appropriate!

        I got some mini paper substrates from PaperArtsy and I love these...as you know from my 'Little Things' creation I really like using these - they can take a lot of punishment - I love things that will withstand a lot of re-painting and sanding down (just in case of the rare error....ok...the 'not so rare' error!)

 
















I recently got some of the Gibson girls stamps - these are so beautiful and I couldn't resist making something straight away.

 While looking on the PaperArtsy site I found a technique of stamping on tissue paper (which I had done before) but the new aspect was painting on the back with Fresco paints. So I stamped these images onto tissue paper using Coffee archival ink and painted the back of the tissue image with Vintage Lace Fresco paint.

This meant I could apply the images to a dark surface but the faces will be pale. I also stamped some text here and there in coffee archival ink

 ..............and of course couldn't resist a bit of crackle effect as well!

     I had just got some new Fresco paints in several shades of brown - so used these to cover the hanging and dry brushed different shades around the faces to make them blend in.

My treasured pot of Treasure Gold came in handy here for a lovely gold edging.

     

    Hope you like it! Thank you for being here and I hope to see you all again soon

     I would like to enter this for the following challenge -

   Artistic Stamper - Ladies Day