Earth laughs in flowers.....

I have recently received my Tim Holtz Christmas Distress Mica Stains, and wanted to have a play with them in my art journal. I chose Peppermint Stick (red) and Frosted Juniper, and to complement them, Barn Door and Evergreen Bough Distress Oxides. 

Peppermint stick has gold coloured mica, while Frosted Juniper is more on the silver side. 

I inked my pages with Oxides first, then sprayed the two stains. The quote is from a really ancient set of rub-ons/stickers that I have had in my stash for so long. The geometric flower shapes are from a Magenta stamp set that I must have got free with a magazine - they're dated 2008, and I have no idea what magazine it would have been. I stamped the flowers with Black Soot Distress Archival ink, and painted them with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink, and ink from the two stain sprays, before cutting out. On the page, I used smaller stamps from the set with Evergreen Bough, Barn Door and Black Soot Distress Inks. I also used an Imagination Crafts stencil with the two Oxides.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

I have decided to be happy .........

Good morning!! It's been a while since I have had time to sit and play, but now the whole "back to school/work" build up is over and we have had a week back, I can take a breath and do a little inky playing.

Found this quote in my box of things, and thought it seems very appropriate. With everything going on around us, we have to decide to be happy with what we have and where we are, otherwise it will affect our health.

I have used Broken China and Twisted Citron - both Distress Oxides and Inks - along with Black Soot DI. The stamps are an old CC set - probably from a magazine, and the circle stencil is and old Imagination Crafts one. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

I live in my own little world .....

I have finally got round to playing in my journal again. And I have also been playing with Distress Mica Sprays. I have had the originals - Tarnished Brass, Antique Bronze and Brushed Pewter for quite a while, and I find them quite muted in both colour and shimmer - which isn't a bad thing. So, when Tim Holtz announced that he was bringing out some additional ones in new colours for Halloween, then I was very interested. I don't do Halloween, but new colours in something Distress is something I am always interested in.

Before I started playing, I sprayed them all out to see what the colours and shimmers were like.

     

Like the originals, the shimmer is quite muted, but the colours are great! I decided to stick with two colours - Jack O Lantern and Hocus Pocus.

The background is created using Distress Oxides in Milled Lavender, Wilted Violet and Dried Marigold, onto which I added the sprays. You can see the shimmer is much more evident where the drops are larger. I did the same on a piece of card to stamp the Visible Images sentiment stamp.

The flowers are from Lisa Horton's Trellis Blooms - stamped onto card and coloured with a combination of Distress Oxides and Sprays.

The background was added to with smaller stamps from the Trellis Blooms, stamped with Distress Inks - Wilted Violet, Dried Marigold and Black Soot.

Happy crafting!
Cxxx

Be Incredible....

Another Journal piece today. The background is using Candied Apple, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress Oxides, with Imagination Crafts Mixed Media Sprays in Yellow and Orange. I used Lisa Horton's Trellis Blooms to add texture to the background, stamped with Black Soot, Candied Apple and Wild Honey Distress Oxides.

The main image is an old Leonie Pujol stamp called Everlasting Love. I stamped this on card and coloured using the Distress Inks. The words are from Crafter's Companion Textures collection.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Love the life you have ....

It's taken a few days to put this one together. I did the background a couple of days ago, with Kitsch Flamingo and Broken China Distress Oxides, sprayed with Imagination Crafts Fuchsia Mixed Media and Silver Shake and Gilt.

I then found the text in my box of random things, and had already planned on using the Creative Expressions Stamps to Die For - Butterfly Meadow. However, for the third time, I have not managed to get a good impression in this art journal, leaving me having to try to sharpen it up with a fine-liner. Am going to have a think about this for the next one. Will probably stamp it separately on my stamping platform and glue in. 

To even up the blackness, I used Black Soot Distress Oxide with a few different Imagination Crafts Texture stamps to create a black edging all round.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

If nothing changed ....

I really enjoyed working in my new Arteza journal yesterday. The process felt more comfortable for me, and I like the end result. I know that, sometimes, you need to go outside your comfort zone, but for now I am happy doing what I know and love.

Today, I chose to use brighter colours - but stuck to two. I wanted to include sprays as well as inks today, so pulled out all my Imagination Crafts Mixed Media sprays. Sad to say that some of the bottles were clogged - but a bit of flushing with hot water seems to have sorted them out. In the end, I chose to use yellow and green. To go with this, I used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Cracked Pistachio and Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxides. After inking the background, I added the sprays over the top.

For more texture, I used Sara Signature Flutterby stamps - Scripture and Textured Elements - with Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. The wording (which unfortunately is a little blurred) is from the Fly Away stamps, while the large butterfly is the Botanical Butterfly stamp - both stamped in Versafine Onyx black. I used my watercolour tin to colour the butterfly.

 Happy crafting.
Cxxx
  

Pause, Relax, Unwind

I have recently been trying out art journaling as a way to just create and try to unwind. I started with Everything Art's 5 day re-boot. I enjoyed having a go, so signed up for their 100 small steps. I have completed a few of the days, but have come to the realisation that I am not enjoying the process at all, and that the journaling side is really not for me. I also was falling out of love with my spiral bound journal, as I just wanted to cover the whole page with colour - and that was virtually impossible. It also meant that the two pages did not flow together. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the Pink Pig journals, and have invested in both an A4 and A3 version so that I have scope for much larger areas - but, for this, I wanted something fairly compact and not spiral bound. I have ended up with Arteza's 14cm square (roughly 5 1/2 inches) watercolour sketchbooks. The paper is 230gsm - and seems plenty heavy enough for what I want to do.

Rather than trying to follow a prompt - which I think was another thing I was struggling with - I decided on a colour palette, and just spent some time looking through my stamping stash to see what jumped out. I ended up with the mandala - Spectrum Noir Colorista Background 3 stamp - texture stamps from Crafter's Companion Textures collection, and words from Crafter's Companion Destinations.

I used Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Ground Espresso Distress Oxides for the background. I stamped the mandala with Harmony Waterproof Ink in Pebble (was meant to be Rustic Brown but picked up the wrong one). It didn't stamp very well, so I went over it with a brown Sharpie. I then painted it using my ancient watercolour tin. 

I have to admit to being happier with the outcome of this than perhaps I was with previous pages. We'll have to see how it goes - and whether I can follow my own advice to pause, relax and unwind. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Say it with flowers!

 It's been over a month since I posted - lots been going on and just didn't get round to it.

Today I am sharing the little flower boxes I made for my colleagues in my teaching bubble, using Crafter's Companion dies and Florist box template.

I have made flowers before - and they are on my blog from early last year - but I tried some new flower dies this time. All of them are from Crafter's Companion Spring Foam Flower collection. I also used my old travel iron along with the CC Petal Distress Tool set. The flower foam is a mix of Foamiroan and CC. 

Because I wanted to put them in the Florist Box (CC template from the same collection), I wanted a solid "stem". I created the flowers in pretty much the same was as last time (see my post from last year) although I didn't bother with ink or with the ball tool. To add a stem, I used Oasis green Hobby Wire, and used hot glue to attach it to the white ends of the stamens that had been pulled through.

I then used Florist tape (I got this from Amazon), to wrap the wire from the bottom, up to the flower.

  

  

I had four flower boxes to make, so used four different dies: Vibrant Dianthus (dark purple), Elegant Ranunculus (lavender), Pretty Peony (yellow) and Wild Poppy (orange). These sets come with 2 or 3 dies for the smaller petals, and with 3 templates for the larger petals. This is OK - but I think I would have been happy to pay more to have the larger dies for speed. The all have foliage dies too, but I feel that they are really only suitable if you are using the smaller petals. You can see from the pictures below that the poppy leaf is fine, but the others barely show (and not at all in the case of the ranunculus). I used several layers of each size for the larger flowers (mostly 3 - but sometimes 2).

  

 

I then created boxes for each, using the Florist Box template and Core'dinations card. I wrapped each one with Baker's twine (this is from Creative Expressions and has been in my stash for a very long time). I lost the piece of paper I wrote all my notes on - but I vaguely recall I used 50" of twine for each. Sounds a lot, so I may be remembering that incorrectly. I used red liner tape to wrap this around the box. 

  

I used an additional piece - this one I recall as being around 17" - to wrap round, and tie in a knot at the front.

I had some leaf and alphabet charms to add on. Unfortunately, the hole in the leaf charm was too small for the twine, so I added some thread, and tied a leaf to each side of the knot.

   

I then threaded the alphabet charm onto one piece of the twine, knotted it on and tied a bow.

  

I used tissue paper to "stuff" into the boxes and then pushed the flowers in. 

 

 

I am really pleased at how these turned out. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxxx

A Lovely Day

Today's card was for my lovely sister-in-law's birthday.  I used Hunkydory Peony Dreams - A Lovely Day for both the topper and patterned card. To that, I added some pink Core'dinations card and silver mirror card, cut with Crafter's Companion Stitched Squares and Inverted Stitched Lace Scalloped Squares.  I love this palette of pink and blue!! 

Happy crafting!!
Cxx

Retro Ride

Today's share is the 30th birthday card I made  for my stepson's recent 30th birthday.

The topper is from Hunkydory's Pick 'n' Mix - A Retro Ride, teamed with gold mirror card, Kanban textured blue mirror card, blue Core'dinations and a piece of digi printed paper. I also used Crafter's Companion Stitched Edge square dies and First Edition Number dies. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Art Reboot #5 Natural things

Today's prompt was to use natural things in your journal - either to stick in, or to make marks.

I had a mosey round my garden and picked some raggedy old pansies, a geranium flower and a lavender stalk. I also picked up some dead leaves, a crumbling piece of stick and a feather.

I covered the pages of the journal with paper - I am definitely preferring having something other than white to work on, and added a couple of pieces of paper.

I stuck the petals and crumbled leaves on, and used the stick and feather to paint with. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Art Reboot #4 Cut some shapes....

 Absolutely loved today's prompt to cut some simple shapes out, and to arrange them in a fun way! Simple as - and really enjoyable. I picked some papers out of the box of "papers I don't really like - or have had since the Stone Age - and am never likely to use", and cut away!!

Really loving the end result!

Happy crafting!

Cxxx

Art Reboot #3 If I were a flower....

Today's prompt was - If you were a flower, what would you be. I had to think about this - and in the end I went for a flower that I love in my garden - and was planting this morning! It is the good old Busy Lizzie - or Impatiens. And the guide was to paint it in a whimsical way. 

I have always loved Busy Lizzies as, in the right spot, they need little fuss, and really flourish and produce loads of flowers. And in a way, that is me - I flourish when I am in the right place! I also think the name suits me too. I am always busy - on the go, and doing things - and can be quite impatient!

So, I said yesterday, I wanted to be less planned and use less materials - and I think I managed that. Quite whether my painting is whimsical - I really have no idea.

Back tomorrow. Happy crafting.

Cxxx

Art Reboot #2 My biggest priority right now....

Day 2 of Kasia Avery's Art Reboot, and today's prompt was "My biggest priority right now....". And we had to apply paint with an old toothbrush. 

Decided to go for bright colours today - but I do think I am being a bit too organised. Tomorrow I'll try to be more spontaneous - and less planned with the colours. And maybe less products too! 

That said, the whole preparation process did make me happy!! 😂😂

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Art Reboot #1 Things to be grateful for

Have been feeling quite lacking in inspiration with my crafting for a while. I am making cards for friends and family - but have lost the inspiration to do any messy stuff. So, when I received the email from Everything Art entitled "Lost your mojo?", I found myself signing up to the #ArtReboot. I haven't really art journaled before, but bought a Pink Pig pad at the start of the first lockdown with the intention of having a go. Apart from one, half-hearted attempt, it has been shut away in the drawer ever since. I love mixed media - and have a cupboard full of paints, sprays, paints, pastes, inks, stencils etc etc - some of which haven't seen the light of day for quite a while. 

Day 1's prompt was: 6 or 8 things you are grateful for today.  And the guidelines were: divide your page into 6 or 8 parts and fill each one with scribbling, doodles, collage etc.

These were the materials I ended up using. And this was what I came up with. 

And following the three golden rules: 

1 - We're here to create - not create jaw-dropping are pieces;

2 - No art/page/spread is ever finished until you decide you're done with it;

3- You owe yourself kindness - accept, acknowledge and celebrate what you've done.

.... I shall say that I am happy with what I have done and just leave it there.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx 

Bow Card

I decided I would like to make my friends something different this year, and decided to go for a bow card. I initially purchased a template, but it wasn't big enough, so I decided to create my own. I started with the basic shapes, and then created the template for the mats and layers. It took a bit of fiddling around, but eventually I had what I wanted. 

The papers I chose for this one were all peachy/orange tones. For the bow bases, I used Core'dinations - a lightweight card. The two papers shown at the back are digi papers - but am not sure what CD or download I printed them from. The paper at the front is very, very old. Twenty eight years old. It's a hand made, marbled paper that I created when I was volunteering at a local school while I was waiting to go to Uni to re-train as a teacher. We were marbling with the class, and I was mopping up all the left over ink before the next lot went in. I have kept the papers all these years - and finally decided to use them up.

The flower is cut with Gemini Elements - Elegant Ranunculus - dies, and the sentiment is stamped with Tattered Lace Distress Ink, and comes from Crafter's Companion Birthday Greetings clear stamp set. I also inked the edges of all the papers with Tattered Rose DI.

The hexagon card was printed onto white stamping card, and cut by hand. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx