Frame It

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be back with another inspiration offering for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge, and I think it's up there with my favourite things I've ever made.  (And in return to Words and Pictures tradition, this is a l-o-o-o-n-g post... cups of tea or coffee, or a glass of wine recommeneded!)

It's an honour to play alongside the amazing Simon Says Stamp Monday team for the month of June and, as always, they've got a wealth of inspiration to share with you.

The new theme for this week is Frame It.

I've framed a whole collection of gathered items, presented by members of the botanical research team from Cambridge University (or Harvard, if your imagination prefers it), and surrounded by their academic notes and observations. 

It's an upcycling of a home decor frame which was about as uninspiring in its original form as it could possibly be.  But it's a lovely deep frame, which set my creative mojo whirring.

I started by gathering some things I thought I might want to use in the frame and playing a little with the composition.  Some little glass test tubes, rusty nails retrieved from old pieces of wood removed in the house reconstruction and now doing service in the garden in various ways, my trusty poppy seedheads and other dried flower heads from the garden, and so on...

I was enjoying the neutral colour palette, but as I was flicking through the Backdrops Volume 3 paper collection, this gorgeous vintage aqua/turquoise panel caught my eye, and once I'd seen it I couldn't let it go.

So I selected some more Tim Holt paper from one of the older 12-inch stashes to go behind, mounted them both on scrap cardboard to make them more sturdy, and set about adding all the details which make me happy.

I started with making the panels look a little rusted and worn.  Some Hardware Heads and other metal toppings "screw" the panels together...

... while Grit Paste smeared onto the metal as well as in places around the edges of the panels gives me some rusty texture to work with.

Then I had a little play with various Distress Crayons (Vintage Photo, Ground Espresso mostly), Archival Inks (mainly Sepia) and a little Quinacridone Gold Fluid Acrylic to get the aged rusty tones I wanted.

The new Snapshots have lots of great new characters to fire the imagination.  These Cambridge (Harvard) chaps are looking very pleased with themselves and their academic pursuits.

I hadn't originally planned on including any photos, but things were changing direction from that original minimalist look, and I let them have their way.

Oh, back to texture for a moment... I wanted to age my glass test tubes a bit, so I started by dabbing on some of the seasonal Icicle crackle medium which Tim Holtz and Ranger brought out last Christmas.  

It's perfect for making glass look a little bobbled and aged.  I spritzed them with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain, wiping a good deal of it off again afterwards, so that it subtly highlights the texture.

Regular followers over at Instagram will be well aware of how obsessed I am with the tiny labels from the Halloween Snippets collection.  I find them completely enchanting, and they get added to almost everything I'm making at the moment!  So here, as well as a starring role on the test tubes along with some Snippets Number Strips...

(Someone's clearly been on a fungus foray too, and got lucky with this Idea-ology Toadstool!) ... the tiny labels also form little collage clusters around the panel - above the snapshot and to one side...

(having the labels on two sides breaks up the straight edges of the snapshot, which I love)...

... and also tucked down behind the test tube rack.  Don't ask me how the Frozen Charlotte got in there... these Salvaged Dolls have a way of just appearing from somewhere without you really noticing.  Haunting.

The rack itself is one of the wooden Ruler Pieces, slightly softened with a wash of gesso, and inked with Ground Espresso Archival to help it tone in with everything else going on.

The seedheads the team have been collecting don't really seem like anything out of the ordinary to me (poppy, aquilegia, grape hyacinth), but who am I to throw doubt on this important academic study?

But the challenge is to Frame It, so "where's that frame?", I hear you cry!  I'm afraid I failed on the process photos for the frame - sorry.  All I can give you are some close-ups and some details about what I did to get there.

There's Grit Paste and Crackle Paste applied over a first wash of gesso, and then I layered various PaperArtsy Fresco paints (Seaglass, Waterfall, and Azure) along with Speckled Egg Distress Paint to find a blend that echoed the panel in the centre.  And at the end, I used a blending tool to apply some Pebble Beach and Ground Espresso Archival inks to create a more distressed look.

And I may not be done yet.  I think the turquoise colour may be too full-on, so I might change it to something more neutral to let the turquoise panel shine out.

Almost there - just a few odd angles to try to give you an idea of the depth and dimension...

... and we're done!  I hope you'll find something and Frame It this week to join in with the challenge theme.  If you're in need of further inspiration, the brilliant Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Design Team will definitely provide it.

And don't forget the whole thing is generously sponsored by the Simon Says Stamp store...

... so there will be one lucky random winner of a $25 gift voucher, as well as spotlight projects selected by the team members.

Thanks so much for stopping by to take a look, and I hope I haven't exhausted you! 

Have a great week and happy crafting all!

Is this not the collector's exquisite pleasure, that his desire should know no bounds, should reach out into the infinite, should never know full possession which disappoints by its very completeness. O what joy to be able to postpone the fulfillment of desire to infinity!

From The Bells of Bruges by George Rodenbach

Who you were made to be

Hello all!  I hope September is treating you well so far.  If you missed my Shades of White over at PaperArtsy a few hours ago, I hope you'll be able to check them out.  

But now it's time to start a new challenge theme over at A Vintage Journey and it's a good one!

Our lovely host, Ann, is looking for Cogs, Gears and Textures from us all - all the details are over at A Vintage Journey along with the usual amazing inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

Before you hurry off to check it all out, here's what I created for the challenge.  I think you'll agree there are plenty of cogs, gears and lots of scrumptious texture, both on the gears and behind them.















I took the chance to play with several techniques I've learned from Andy Skinner over the years, both in online courses and in-person workshops.













Since I'm working with a travelling stash (admittedly a large one - we travelled by car not by plane!) I had to adapt a couple of them a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with my rusty gears and eroded metal.













I wasn't sure how long I'd be away, but thankfully my packing-brain was intelligent enough to include some Tando chipboard cogs and gears - one of Andy's Industrial Elements kits along with an extra Bolts/Washers sheet.

These are so sturdy - ready for all the media you can throw at them - and you can layer them up in all sorts of different ways to create an interesting dimensional layout.













The background is an 18 x 24 canvas board (that's about 7 x not-quite-10 inches) which was already here in the Czech Republic.  (I've added to the CZ stash whenever I see canvases/boards/3D alterable objects in the shops here over the years.)















I lined it with some paper before using a palette knife to add Prima Plaster Paste, Andy's Strata Paste by Cosmic Shimmer, and Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste fairly randomly across the whole surface.













I left that all to dry while I started playing with Grit Paste, Resist Paste and Weathered Wood Crackle Glaze as well as lots of paint on the cogs.













The grit paste gives you a fabulous rusty texture to work with.  On some cogs I started with an undercoat of Paynes Grey and put the gritty paste over the top.














With some I started with grit paste and spattered with Paynes Grey, leaving some bare chipboard in between.














The main paints involved are Quinacridone Gold (both the DecoArt and the Cosmic Shimmer formulations), Raw Umber and Paynes Grey (Cosmic Shimmer) and Finnabair's Burnt Sienna.












I did some highlighting of the texture by scraping on some Speckled Egg Distress Paint with a palette knife, and there's a bit of Antiqued Bronze Distress Crayon in places catching the light too.












The reason for the Speckled Egg was that it was the main colour I wanted to have going on over the textured background, so let's head back to take a look at that now.

I used the Distress Paint along with some Weathered Wood DP too to create my first layer of soft colour over the crackles and layers of texture paste.













The Strata Paste has these amazing flat shale pieces, like a geological rock formation, and they look so cool when you give them a bit of shading and highlighting.
















Obviously, I was never going to stop at just Speckled Egg in the background.  The rusty tones made their way into the cracks and crevices too.

I embraced imperfection, so where some crackle flakes came loose I took advantage and made that a worn away area with rust breaking through.















I added rusty drips and trickles around the bolts in the corners of the panel, trying to create a realistic look of decay and weathering across the whole piece.












And I also used a Tim Holtz  background stamp to add more creeping decay in places along the top and bottom edges.  It's from the Pine & Birch background set, but it has a great look of cracked paint, I think.







I couldn't resist adding some additional shading around the main elements, bedding them in.  I used mostly the Paynes Grey and Raw Umber...

... but there are also places where the shadows take on the beautiful purple tones of Daniel Smith's Moonglow watercolour stick.

And of course, centre stage, are the two fabulous Paper Dolls - I love their grit and determination.

Their direct, uncompromising expressions tell such a strong story about their character and strength.













The Quote Chip pretty much chose itself.  The Birch stamp in Sepia Archival creates some more creeping rust, along with a swipe of Quin Gold to warm the cold white.













I used pieces of the chipboard off-cuts to support the other end of the Quote Chip. and they also came in handy for giving the Paper Dolls support in their dimensional positions.  I love that they cast real shadows!














I haven't given any focus yet to one of my favourite elements - this decayed metal structure with its rusted paint surface and rusty bolts.













I'm really happy with the finished look of this - there's Resist Paste, Weathered Wood Crackle, Distress Paint and Dina Wakley acrylics all in the mix, as well as the grit paste and rusted paints already mentioned to create the rusted screws holding it all together.















And I used a similar decaying paint technique on the two circular panels supporting the large gears at the top.













Okay, I think that's more than enough from me!

There's still lots of lovely inspiration to enjoy over at A Vintage Journey and we hope you'll come and join us somewhere down the road on A Vintage Journey this month with your own Cogs, Gears and Textures.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately - liaising with Czech builders, trying to start creating some sort of order in the slightly neglected and overgrown garden here, as well as making the most of a resurgent mojo at the craft table has meant I haven't been online as much as usual.

I will try to make the rounds this weekend to see what you've all been up to.  I hope you're keeping well, staying safe and enjoying some creativity too.  Have a great weekend and happy crafting all!

I felt a strange delight in causing my decay.
Robert Browning

... and the rest is rust and stardust.
Vladimir Nabokov