Brown and Blue Too/Two

Starting with the completely brown...
... so it should qualify for this week's Simon Says Stamp challenge, 'Something Brown', I think, and for the Everybody Art Challenge, 'Monochromatic Brown'.


I made this for my first web challenge, for a Czech site, prettypapers.cz (I'm in the Czech Republic right now, setting up some strands of life here, and starting to learn the language).  I struggled for a while to work out what they meant by "Liftovani" as the theme.  More seasoned crafters than me will spot that they were working with the idea of 'lifting' and adapting an existing page template.  The examples on the page were pretty clear, though, with each of them using this three-by-three pattern.  


The other condition was 'sewing' - which, as yet, I'm afraid, I simply don't do!  I thought threading the panels together with raffia, rather than sticking them down, was an inspired version of sewing (especially as they're prepared to accept marker pen 'stitches' as qualifying), and I love how it gives the panels a higgledy-piggledy dimensionality.  But then, just in case, I added the buttons.  Even though I used to put my skirt hems up with double-sided sticky tape, I'm happy to say I can at least sew on a button...




The pale cream card is background-stamped with Kaisercraft's text stamp, and both it and the Kraft panels are inked with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, sometimes with a touch of Tea Dye and/or Walnut Stain added for extra colour depth.




Apart from dividing up TH's LoveWishDream stamp on to three individual panels, the other stamps I've used come mainly from the Pink Paislee London Market set, which I love - and it produces such clear, sharp images.  There's a BoBunny one hiding in there too and, I think, one 7 Gypsies bird.  Tiny paper flowers, inked to complement the card, finish off the raffia strings.



Then add some blue...


While I was hunting out the buttons, I found the crunchy wax paper I'd ordered from PaperArtsy, which set me off on another blue and brown odyssey, playing around with how it held an image compared to other papers... which led me to this:   







The image I was playing with is by Tim Holtz (yes, again... I'm going to pursue the TH abbreviation quite often, if it's okay with you, because it's a name which will come up a lot) - the photograph memories one, which I love, even though it seems slightly melancholy to me.



I think the combination of the era of the picture with the serial numbers makes me think of displaced families in wartime - refugees seeking a new home, as in my own family heritage.  I think that gives it a real sense of character and history though, adding layers of meaning to the layered papers, I hope.







The main image is on plain white cardstock, inked; and then on the wax paper, crinkled afterwards; and finally on some crinkly tissue paper - all three using Archival ink in either black or sepia. Each of the background images becomes more ghostly (quite hard to see at all in the photos, I'm afraid), which adds to the sense of the disappearance or loss of the children.


The background wallpaper (from Prima's En Francais pad) is also frayed, torn, inked (charred?) - signs, perhaps, of a deserted, abandoned home. The travel label, with grids and authorisation stamps, offers at least some reassurance:

Not all who wander are lost.






I enjoy the little bird a lot; he offers some hope of escape - he can fly away home.  And he's on a die-cut heart, symbol of love.  But what I like most is what he's printed on... 


I spotted some of those little seedling pots made of rough brown heavy-duty card in a bric-a-brac store, and thought, "I can use those!".  This is the reverse (inner) side of the pot, and it gives a fantastic canvas texture.  The outside is even chunkier, all lovely and knobbly.  You'll get to see what I've been doing with that in future posts, I'm sure.

So I still haven't got round to showing you the Brown and Blue mini-album I promised in the last post... no time now - there's football to watch - so you'll just have to come back again some time. 


And for those who may be starting to worry that I only know about brown and blue, there will even be (shh, whisper it) other colours arriving soon...


Thanks so much for dropping by, and have a lovely time with the rest of your day.


Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead