The Golden Hours

Hello all!  I'm so glad you like the new sets of word stamps launched earlier this week over at PaperArtsy.  I've got a couple of new creations this weekend using stamps from the Time Edition, and here's the first of them.

It's doubling as my inspiration piece for the new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, hosted by the lovely Sara Emily, who would like us to work Against the Grain... the idea being to work with wood and woodgrain effects to create your projects.

So my golden clocks are set against a background of weathered wood planks.  Read on to see how it all came about.














The main inspiration for this wooden panel came from these words from my brand new Time Edition stamp set.  If you missed the launch post over at PaperArtsy earlier this week, sharing three new sets of quote stamps, do take a look.











The quote is by J.M. Barrie, whose most famous creation, Peter Pan, knew a thing or two about whiling away the odd golden hour.

I love how it sets up a problem or warning, and then answers itself!










The background was made with some printed woodplank paper - from a Craft Consortium pack called Wood Textures - but the planks were too wide to work on the size tag which is somewhere under here.  You'd only have had two and half planks, as you can see when it's set against the duplicate sheet in the pack.













So I simply cut them into narrower planks lengthwise.  I also cut a couple of them crossways so that I could have shorter planks adding extra interest.  I inked the edges and scuffed them with my scissor blade.













I mounted them on some thicker cardboard to give them a more substantial presence, and then glued them onto a large tag which I'd painted with a rich dark brown.  (I filled in the tag corner spaces with some more of the cardboard to keep it all nice and sturdy.)












I then had quite a lot of fun stamping labels and advertisements onto my wooden planks.  Some of these are Andy Skinner stamps...
















... and others are by Tim Holtz (I just typed him as Time Holtz... not surprising given how often I've typed the word Time in the last few days, what with the new stamps and all!).












I've been stuck in a bit of a rusty rut lately (see Hopes of Spring or Rusted Hope) and I wanted some more!  This is the other die-cut in the set with the chicken wire used on those earlier tags, and it looks just as good rusted up as that does.











I knew that as I was smearing the rust pastes on, there would be quite a lot of waste, so I did it over another piece of small card... and you've already seen that in action, trimmed to frame the words!

It's a combination of Art Extravagance Brown Rust and Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina, which has a more reddish-orange tone to warm up the brown.













I then started to gather timepieces to arrange on the wooden panel.  There are quite a lot of different sorts buried in the stash, in all sorts of metallic tones.











So it was out with the Treasure Gold waxes - my favourite White Fire and some Florentine Gold to bring everything into the same golden colour tones.

I'm generally more of a silvery kind of person, but I can't deny that the gleam of all that gold in the sunlight is rather lovely.

There's a large Idea-ology clock face (originally pewter-coloured, but now rather splendid in gold), complete with clock hands.














There are some actual watch parts, bought as part of a job lot.  I'm delighted to say that the tiny cog on this one still rotates when you touch it, despite the added waxes.
















I've used them occasionally on projects over the years, but then I tend to forget about them for months (years) at a time.















The large engraved circle is the back cover of a pendant watch which I actually used to wear as my watch.  Sadly, you can't replace the battery once it's worn down, so I turned it to crafty purposes.

And watch out tomorrow for the rest of the watch!!













The tiny glass brad on the top is from way back when - I think it may be by Bo Bunny.












Of course you need lots of cogs and gears to keep a clock or watch running well.

(I don't know what that flake of green paint is doing there - must have got in the way as I was photographing and I didn't notice.  It's not there any more.  Harrumph, and I've just checked and found it's in all the photos - bah humbug!)












Best to keep them away from rust, mind you... Oops!















There's lots of golden splatter alongside a bit of my customary white.  It has a spectacular gleam to it.















It's one of Jackson's Art Supplies drawing inks, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what else it can do.















I'm especially looking forward to combining it with other mediums, maybe adding it as some gilding on acrylic backgrounds... more to come soon, I hope.


















So that's me going Against The Grain - using gold, of all things! - but over a lovely weathered wood plank background.

There's lots more lovely woody grainy inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey, and we're looking forward to seeing your wood-grained creations this month.

Wood is universally beautiful to a man. It is the most humanly intimate of all materials.
Frank Lloyd Wright












I'd like to share this at Country View Challenges where the theme for February is Splatters, Splashes and Drips (something tells me this might not be my only entry!)