Just Playing!

You may have noticed that the fabulous Imagination Crafts has joined Crafter's Companion with their amazing range of mixed media products. I've been a bit lacking in motivation recently, so it's taken me a while to have a play. 

I treated myself to a selection of goodies and for this project I used: 

Rice papers - 399 and 403

Magi-Bond Decoupage glue

Fabric decoupage glue

Starlight Paints - Heather, Clotted Cream,Topaz

Starlight Wax - Dark Orchid

Stencil - A4 - Crosshatch Elements

Magi-Cutz - Moroccan Trellis

I also used:

Crafter's Companion Watercolour card

Crafter's Companion Essentials Flowers for All Occasions 3 & 4

A mirror frame (bought loads of these years ago from Ikea)

Pebeo White Gesso

Wooden Butterflies, old buttons, ribbon, lace and pearls from my stash

Art Basics Heavy Body gel

I started by mixing Heather with white gesso and covering the complete frame. I then layed out the the rice papers to decide where they would go, and used water to help me tear them. 

 The rice paper was stuck down with Magi Bond decoupage glue.

Next, I stuck down a load of old buttons - the sort you wouldn't really want to use on anything special. Because I wanted them to stick really well, I used Heavy Body Gel - this stuff is amazing at sticking - but don't expect to ever remove it afterwards!!  

Dark Orchid Starlight wax mixed with a bit of water was sponged through the Crosshatch Elements stencil on the bottom left corner, and also over the buttons.

As I wanted quite pastel colours in the background, I mixed all three Starlight paints with with gesso.

The Clotted Cream mix was painted over the buttons. 

This was also dabbed over the other parts of the frame. The brush I was using is very old and clumpy and formed just the right kind of texture to dab on. I repeated this with some of the two colours. 

It was also used to base coat the two wooden butterflies. 

And to paint onto watercolour card to cut the flowers.  I also used Clotted Cream directly over the Topaz/gesso mix.

As ever, I managed to forget to photograph a lot of stages towards the end. So, I adhered a piece of white lace down the right hand side, and a piece of white organza ribbon across the bottom - both with the fabric decoupage glue. The gesso mix of paints was dabbed over them.

Next, pieces of the magi cut were covered with Dark Orchid Starlight Wax, and the butterflies were painted directly with the Starlights. I also dabbed the Starlights over the buttons. Dark Orchid was also used to edge the mirror. Finally the flowers were cut out, arranged and a small pearl placed in the centre.

There are a few things I would change - but overall I'm pretty happy for a first play with a big range of products.

Off to think about what to do next with all these goodies!! 

Cxxx

Do More of What Makes You Happy!

A few weeks ago, I took delivery of my new Happy Planner from Me and My Big Ideas. I had been looking at them for a while and when Crafter's Companion started to stock them, I just had to get one - along with a few accessories including stickers, pocket cards and other bits and pieces. I'm not really sure how I envisaged using my planner with all these fabulous goodies - but in the end I have come up with what suits me - and I'm loving using it. 

But sorting through all the lovely extra bits and pieces, I realised that it was opening up a completely different possibility to me. So, with a goal in mind, I invested in a set of the expander rings for the planner and the punch that goes with it. The punch may well get used for the planner - but the expander rings are for a completely different purpose.

I have decided to start an art journal, as I love playing with all sorts of techniques and media, and as I no longer sell my cards etc, this would allow me to create for a purpose! And being able to punch the pages and add them to the rings gives me more scope than working in an existing book. The motivational quotes that came with some of the Happy Planner things also spurred me on. I intend to either use them on the pages - or as inspiration for the pages.

I have started by creating the front cover for my journal, which I am going to laminate to make it durable. There is such a wide variety of products in my stash, I decided to use up some of my oldest acrylic paints - my Eco Green tubes!! Some of the paint had separated in some of the tubes - but I've given them a shake up - so they are good to go!!

I took my starting point from this Happy Planner Pocket Card, because I feel it sums up what the point of this is for me - doing more of the messy stuff that makes me happy!

I began by making a background on Sheena White Stamping card with Eco Green paints - White, Butternut, Raspberry and Green Patina. And I really didn't like it.

So I mixed some white Gesso with water and went over the lot - then added more colour back in - but really watered it down.

I wanted to use Leonie Pujol's Everlasting Love stamp - I really love the style of it - and it reminds me of gardening - which is also something I need to do more of to stay happy!! I stamped it with Memento Rose Bud.

And then covered it in Pebeo Masking fluid! Big mistake, as the ink ran into the liquid!! But I pressed onwards.

I used stamps from two of the original Textures collection - Basket and Burlap, and Journal Jottings. The tyre tread and footprints are for the activities I love doing! I persevered with the Memento Ink - and used Rose Bud, Pistachio and Pear Tart.

Once I had stamped over the background I realised that I had stamped the flower image a bit too low down to be able to attach the card with the words - so I partially inked the stamp, and then stamped it again.

Because a lot of the ink had disappeared with the masking fluid, I used my Spectrum Noir AquaBlend pencils to go over the image - and to colour it in. I picked three colours to echo the inks - Rose (Florals), Tobacco (Essentials) and Pesto Green (Naturals).

To add more definition to the edges, I added a thin white line with the Pebeo 4Artist Oil Marker (fab new addition to my stash) and then drew a line on the inside with my Rose pencil and went over with water.

I did a little of all these things to the card with the words on too, so that it would blend in. After adding a few dots with my Pebeo marker, I mounted it on white card so that the messy back is covered before I laminate it!

Looking at it, I think I would have added more foliage to the left of the card - but I'm pretty happy with the way this turned out!

Cxxx

Day 80 - Back to Earth with a bump!!

I've had such lovely comments and feedback on Facebook for my last few shares of my cards. It always makes you feel really good and positive about your work. And I have to admit that I was very proud of them. But today I have decided to share a card that I'm not so happy about - because we all have those days. 

I cut all the bits for this Accordion card a while back using Crafter's Companion Die'sire Square Accordion die and accompanying layering dies - and also the Polka Dot overlay. I was really looking forward to assembling it all. But there is just something about it that I am not happy with. It could be that the base card was too lightweight which has caused it to bow a bit. It could be that the olive green card for the polka dot overlay was a bad choice and overpowers everything else. It could be the combination of green and red - which seemed to work when I was cutting it all out. It's not awful - I'm just not pleased with it. 

It was meant to be for a friend's birthday - but I think I will go back to the drawing board. I have used it as a learning experience in assembling the Accordion dies. And as a reminder that even when we're on Design Teams, we can still come up with things that are really not quite right!! Sometimes the experiments pay off - and sometimes they don't.

Just a very quick thank you to those people who have been popping over here, and then leaving comments on FB - and to a few new followers of my blog via Twitter, Pinterest and Bloglovin' (all necessary links on the right hand side of my blog) - and on Facebook (Papercraft By Carole) . I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look and share this year of Crafty Images with me - 80 down 286 to go!! 

Cxxxx