A Harlequin Infusion

Hello all!  I really don't like January... you have to take all the decorations down on the 6th, and there's the ever-present looming chore of the tax return, and all this grim, grey, damp weather.  Now is when we need the fairy lights to cheer us up!  Some crafting time also helps of course.  These pages came about because I needed to have a play with the PaperArtsy Infusions.

You'll have already seen from the sneak peeks at the PaperArtsy blog that there are some new Infusions colours coming, and Leandra wanted us to use them for samples of some of the new stamps (oooooh!).






Now I do have some Infusions, but I really haven't explored them much so, before the new stamps and the new powders arrived, I thought I'd better have a play with the ones I had to get some idea of how they and I would work together.










I used the Violet Storms Infusions for this layout, and started with the Harlequin stencil on some A4 card.  I've got no making-of photos, I'm afraid - I just set off to explore without really thinking there was any kind of project ahead.

But once I'd started, it seemed a waste not to use the results of my experiments.












Having shaken on some powders and spritzed water through at one side of the page, I flipped the stencil over and "printed" the surface inkiness onto the other half of the page.  This side has the original stencilling as its background...














... and this side is the flipped over print.  I pressed down some more of the extra ink on both halves to fill up the spaces around the 6x6 patterning made by the stencil.















There are still many book page tags left over from the excavated niche for my Hidden In A Book project from this time last year, so I grabbed some of those.














Some have been used to soak up excess inks at various points, so I layered up pairs of inky and non-inky tags on each half of the page.















And you'll see I did some white pen scribbling, from my story at the moment, as well as adding some fine twine through the tops. 













The Photobooth woman has been lying on the craft desk for months too - she somehow didn't make it back into the packet when I was clearing up.  Well, now she'll never get back into the packet... she has a story to tell.












Look at her eyes, full of intense excitement and determination, burning with what she wants to say.

Maybe some of her story is revealed in the book text, or just in the drifting autumnal colours of the whole spread.













I cut oodles of book page leaves for my best friend's wedding in November, some of which were scattered on tables, but some of which came home with me.













So now those leaves are making their way into projects and pages too.  I smooshed these in some Vintage Photo Distress Ink before glueing them down.

I only glued along the spines so that I could wrinkle up the edges for some dimensional movement.














The rings are cut with the Seth Apter Coffee Rings die, just out of white card.

I used a combination of the Violet Storms Infusions and Distress Inks in Hickory Smoke, Wilted Violet and Chipped Sapphire to create the shading around the rings which makes them pop that bit more.

I just put some of the powder and a scraping of each ink onto the craft mat and used a water brush to apply them.














There's also plenty of shading around the word stickers (these are from a sheet called Tiny Text by Cosmo Cricket - one of the unexpected discoveries as I sorted through the craft room before Christmas).













I've added Vintage Photo into the mix for this shading, picking up the autumnal tones of the leaves and book page tags.

There's some text stamping in the background - a Bo Bunny stamp I think.














I can't remember at what point in the process I cut the A4 page in half but, once I had, it was only a matter of time...













... before I decided that the 49&Market shabby stitching would be perfect to "attach" the pages into my kraft art journal.














Until I manage to make friends with a sewing machine, I'm just going to have to live with the stamped version of the stitching look I like so much!







So there you have it.  It was really useful to start to get the measure of the Infusions a bit, as I've now been immersed in sample-making with some of the new colours for the last few days.

The new PaperArtsy stamps I've been playing with have absolutely blown my socks off!  You'll see and hear more about that in about a week's time...

I'm hoping to squeeze in a retrospective of 2016 before then - anything rather than sit down and do my tax! - so perhaps I'll see you back here in a few days.  In the meantime, happy crafting all!

It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.
From The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss



I'd like to share this at Art Journal Journey where the theme for January is Tell Me A Story

With my Coffee Rings, I'll add this as another entry for Swirls, Whirls and Flourishes at Stamps and Stencils

And at Mixed Media Monthly they would like us to Put A Stencil On It

The Patchwork Poisoner

Hello all, and a warm welcome to a slightly spine-chilling post!

Blogposts are few and far between here at the moment, but what better reason to put in an appearance than a new challenge starting at A Vintage Journey.  The brilliant Anne is our host for October and she would like us to Make It Spooky.

I picked up an 8x8 Regions Beyond paper pad on sale at Michael's as well as a small set of Tim Holtz Halloween stamps, so fortunately I was able to join in with the spookiness.

And really this tag is all about the story (though there are a few making-of details right at the end if you're interested).

As I cut and layered my patchwork collage of ephemera, the story of the Patchwork Poisoner wove itself out of my imagination and into the tag... read on if you dare!














This rather formidable looking woman is Lilian Grace Brewer.  Well, as far as anyone can tell that was her original name.  As you will hear, she was married many times, and often changed her first names too, so it's hard to know for sure.










We would know nothing at all of Brewer and her history were it not for the efforts of one John Franklin Whitlock, a journalist for the Cincinnati Enquirer, who, in 1907, noticed a curious coincidental pattern in the reporting of some deaths stretching back over a number of decades;  deaths which, until then, had not been linked in any way.

The murders were geographically remote from one another.  In some cases, poison was confirmed as the cause of death - though different poisons were used in each incident.






Since poisoners tend to stick to a preferred poison, this varying use of substances - as well as a lack of communication between officers of the law in different states and substantial time delays between the deaths - meant nobody made any connection between them.












Some deaths were not even regarded as suspicious until Whitlock's investigations resulted in a series of exhumations - more than seven - taking place from Ohio via Illinois all the way to North Dakota, confirming poisons ranging from Carbolic Acid to Formaldehyde as the causes of death in each of these unfortunate gentlemen.













The thing which first caught Whitlock's attention in two or three reports he happened upon, was the mention of the bodies - all those of moderately prosperous, middle-aged men - being found laid out peacefully in their beds, warmly wrapped in what were clearly newly completed patchwork quilts of beautifully intricate design.







As he dug further into this curious coincidence, he started to uncover evidence of a decades-long murder spree by one woman - Lilian Grace Brewer.

He was able gradually to piece together her modus operandi, and in the resulting newspaper story - an exclusive for the Cincinnati Enquirer which was later syndicated nationwide - he dubbed her "The Patchwork Poisoner".









Lilian Grace Brewer would arrive unobtrusively in a small but prosperous town to take up a post as a teacher or librarian, or sometimes - in a more direct approach - as the governess in the household of a widower.

Before long, her calm demeanour and upright character would attract the attention of a lonely older gentleman, and a quiet wedding would take place.










That wedding certificate would also serve as the death warrant for the unfortunate man.  Once married, Lilian would begin sewing her patchwork quilt and, as she gathered her fabric swatches she would also be gathering sufficient supplies of whatever poisonous toxin she had decided to use in this case.











Upon completion of the patchwork - which might be a work of months or sometimes even years - she would deploy her poisons, tuck her husband securely in his bed under the quilted work of art, and leave the town as quietly as she had arrived.










If John Franklin Whitlock's evidence is to be believed, she carried out this pattern of behaviour at least a dozen times over nearly three decades, and possibly even more often than that.  As far as he could discover, she never benefited financially from the killings.  By the time probate was proven, Lilian Grace Brewer - or whatever name she was going by at the time - was long gone.

We can only assume that she found some sort of satisfaction in her patchwork poisonings.









Perhaps she selected her victims deliberately because she felt they deserved their fate for some reason.

What it was which made her adorn each body with a patchwork quilt of reportedly exquisite design will remain forever a mystery.  In one form or another, she was an artist, and this was her work.










So that there's not too much mystery about this tag, here are a couple of details.  I've used the Tim Holtz Autumn stencil in the background layers, and the fluffy white "cobweb" is made of my tumble-dryer softening sheets after they've been through the cycle.  (I've no choice about tumble-drying, I'm afraid... I'm in a hotel with nowhere to hang the clothes up!)













The advertisements, photo and labels in my patchwork collage are all from the Regions Beyond paper pad, and the textured black paper which forms the frame and the topping came as the wrapping around the fragranced candles I bought to make the hotel room a little cosier.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  If you want some more Halloween inspiration, do hop over to A Vintage Journey and see what my fabulous team-mates have been creating.  We hope you will come and Make It Spooky with us this month!

Belladonna (noun): In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison.  A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
Ambrose Bierce

I see poisoners—so calculating, so cold-blooded—as most like the villains of our horror stories. They’re closer to that lurking monster in the closet than some drug-impaired crazy with a gun. I don’t mean to dismiss the latter—both can achieve the same awful results. But the scarier killer is the one who thoughtfully plans his murder ahead, tricks a friend, wife, lover into swallowing something that will dissolve tissue, blister skin, twist the muscles with convulsions, knows all that will happen and does it anyway.
From The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum



I'd like to enter this in the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme this week is Halloween

NB All names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of my own fevered imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.  I really hope there's nobody resembling my Patchwork Poisoner out there...

Believe that you can...

Hello all!  It's Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey - that lovely extra Friday in the month when the Creative Guides get to come out and play.  Anything goes, as long as it's on a tag.

As you've probably worked out by now, my travelling stash has plenty of blues and browns and book pages, but I also decided to bring some as yet un-inked stamps (as well as a few favourites) so that I would be forced to finally bring them into play.

So this tag has my first inking of one of Dina Wakley's faces.  I have them in a mini version which I got on sale when I was in New York earlier this year, so I suppose it's only right that I should play with them back here in the US again.

Apart from the new stamp, it's pretty much business as usual!

There's an inky background, made by smooshing the tag onto some inks on the craft mat.  Then I added one of my new favourite stamps (having inked it up for the first time for my Come What May pages), these lovely branches by Memory Box.













I couldn't resist adding some swirling threads courtesy of my (also previously un-inked before this trip) 49 and Market stamps.  They give extra detail and movement to the background.













The Wakley woman is stamped onto a piece of torn book page which had already been gesso'd and inked.















I used a water brush to remove some of the inky blotches from her face so that she didn't look too diseased!














The words are a Unity stamp, embossed in Bark, a lovely rich dark brown.  As regulars here know, I like giving my words that extra touch of dimension and gloss to catch the eye.












The woman is layered up over some more book page scraps (some tea-stained) and ephemera.















I used an Idea-ology Nailhead for some metal detailing to "fasten" the twine.  I've got limited metal embellishments with me, but I couldn't bear to travel without any at all.














Some inky, distressed Linen Ribbon finishes the whole thing off.













Oh, and there's some painty splatter of course.

While I'm here, I thought I'd share a few more shots of what I'm travelling with stash-wise... just for the curious types, you know.











Stamps, stencils and ephemera (you can probably see the Photobooth packet) line up against the wall.  An art journal lies in front, along with the watercolour paints you saw in action in my Rainbow Wheels.

The Golden tubs I bought when I got here, and I've found an adoptive parent who will take them when I leave (my costume designer on Romeo and Juliet).

The media accessory bag has Archival inks, embossing powders, some tissue tapes and various embellishing odds and sods in it.

I also picked up some paints, crackle and glue at Michaels with a coupon - I've yet to decide whether I try to bring them home in a month or so (the airline website seems to be pretty sniffy about travelling with paint, even in hold luggage) or leave them to a happy home here.









No prizes for guessing which mini Distress Inks made the cut...

There's also a small brown paper bag with some ribbons and metal embellishments in it, but I don't seem to have a photo of that.










It's perfectly possible to make a nice crafty mess with what I have, though I have to make sure I clean up after myself properly (I don't think the hotel staff would be very impressed otherwise).

I know it's not the smallest of travelling stashes, but who needs clothes in the suitcase?!










Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see what my fabulous team-mates have been getting up to with their tag playtime... it's definitely worth the trip!

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France

Believe you can and you're halfway there.
Theodore Roosevelt