Encore - A little bit of inspiration

Encore Posts

While I'm away, there are some scheduled posts with new creations coming your way, but I'm also taking the chance to do some catching up here at Words and Pictures.   Projects which made their first appearances elsewhere for Design Team duties or Guest Designer opportunities, but which only had a sneak peek here, are being gathered together in the pages of my virtual scrapbook.  I'm calling them "Encore" posts and they're formatted differently (all the way down the centre), so you can spot them easily.

Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

This is the last Encore for a little while (there's some new stuff coming your way!), and to be honest I'm not sure whether this really is an Encore...  I don't think that it ever put in an appearance anywhere, even though it was meant for eclectic Paperie (now embraced by The Funkie Junkie Boutique) way back in March 2013.  I think I had this little booklet ready just before I left the team, so I'm not sure it even got an outing at eP.  There again, the post seems to have been ready and written, so maybe it did.  In any case, if it doesn't ring any bells it's probably not your memory going funny on you!  But here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all, and I'm very happy to be here at eclectic Paperie to share another project with you.

This one is a very simple little ATC book (I seem to have a thing about handmade books), with lots of little pockets - brilliant for using up paper scraps when you really want to make the most of every last little bit of your favourite papers!

It's a tiny book of uplifting and thought-provoking words and phrases, so that you can turn to it for a little bit of inspiration when in need.  And of course you can add more phrases, or other memorabilia, pictures and ephemera as time goes on... plenty of room in those pockets.

I started with six of the Inkssentials natural canvas ATCs.  One of the great things about these is that they are sticky-backed, so you get all the great canvas texture and you can apply it really easily to cardstock or chipboard to create a really sturdy, dimensional ATC.

I adhered my six ATCs to some kraft cardstock, and then started juggling with my papers.  These are from the Basic Grey Serenade set.  I worked out I had enough to do a couple of ATC-sized pages and a couple of "pockets" out of each of my selected papers.

I wanted to leave plenty of the canvas on display, and also to keep things pretty minimalist, so I kept my pockets nice and simple: a plain rectangle, alternating (mostly) between vertical and horizontal positioning.

And I gave the canvas a good going over with the Vintage Photo Distress Ink to really highlight all that lovely texture.

I thought about doing some stamping on the canvas, which I always love the look of, but I was quite enjoying the clean lines of the whole thing (couldn't bear to leave out the distressing though!)... it's probably the nearest I'll ever get to a CAS project!

All the sentiments - from the fabulous Donna Downey sets, Empowered Words and Art and Possibility - are also stamped onto paper scraps, so they look pretty cute either way up, and they've also had a touch of the Vintage Photo DI of course.

On each facing page, the design paper side, I've added one of the larger sentiments, stamped on plain white cardstock and inked to tone in with the rest of the look.

I particularly love this Picasso quote... and I've tried to match the quotes in the pockets with my "main" quotes each time - I've tried to create satisfying groupings that "speak" to each other.

Another sentiment stamp serves as the title on the front cover (in the picture at the top of the post), and I've stamped some of the Hero Arts Music Background to surround the title, and all over the back cover.  This stamp is designed to coordinate with the Serenade music paper that I've used on the inside, so it fits in with the overall look beautifully.

Finally I added the little corner pieces cut with the ATC and Corners die by Tim Holtz onto the front and back covers.  I love the "finished" look it gives.

The binding is incredibly simple too (seriously, you can knock up a whole little album in well under an hour) - just some crinkle ribbon dyed with Vintage Photo Distress Stain, and tied through the punched holes to give a pretty bow at the front.

I had to do a little bit of retying to get the tension right, so that the pages would turn easily without the whole thing flopping about uncontrollably, but that was about the hardest thing in the whole project - and, really, what's so hard about tying a bow a couple of times!?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I do hope my ATC inspiration album has given you a little bit of inspiration to go off and create something yourself.  See you again soon...

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So, that's about your lot for today.  There's a brand new project up next here at Words and Pictures in just a few days... in fact, quite a few new projects in a row, plus a first little travel update for you, so I'll hope to see you again soon.  Happy Crafting all!

It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important.
From The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Take Flight

Hello all, and a happy Sunday to you... I hope you've got some of the lovely weather we're having today - it's one of those deep blue skies of winter sunshine, and absolutely glorious.  

I'm sharing some more inspiration for using some of the delicious goodies you can source at the eclectic Paperie online store.  I started with a very basic 5 x 7inch canvas that I picked up very cheaply at The Works, and set about zhuzhing it up! 

I'll be sharing a tutorial for this piece over at the eclectic Paperie blog soon (will give you the heads up when that is), so I won't go into too many details for today, but all the product details are at the foot of the post.  

That'll also mean that you (and I) can get back to the last-minute Christmas prep which is now assuming slightly scary proportions!

The background of the canvas was created using papers torn from the absolutely lovely Serenade paper pad from Basic Grey, gesso, inking, and some stamping using the coordinating Hero Arts stamp, Serenade Music Background.

The butterflies you can see are all created using the Crafter's Workshop template, Mini Mariposa.  It's a great template, with seven different butterflies on it.













Some are stencilled on using Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress Inks.  I tried to position them so that they would go over papers and bare (or at least gesso'd) canvas, so that the texture would vary under the ink.

The textured butterflies are created using a texture paste (such as Wendy Vecchi's Embossing Paste) smeared through the same template using a palette knife.

Once the paste was dry, I applied some embossing ink and then used the glorious Liquid Platinum embossing powder from Ranger - I love its subtle lustre.

I also used the embossing powder on one of the Idea-ology bookplates, so that it would tone in with the butterflies.  



You do have to be careful embossing onto metal as it gets very hot, and takes longer to cool down than you might think. 



I decided not to colour the long attachers, as I rather liked how the brown picked up the colour of the stamped sentiment (Coffee Archival and my trusty little £1 alphabet).










The large wings from the Tim Holtz Layered Wings die were cut out of Grungeboard, and after inking and painting, I used the Liquid Platinum again to emboss the TH flourish onto them.


















Whenever I do a canvas, I like to make the most of its dimensionality, so I let the designs and motifs "overflow" down the sides.  I do love the texture the canvas gives you under the stamping, stencilling and inking.



Do click on the pictures to get a closer look...







So there you have it: a butterfly canvas ready to take flight into the wild blue yonder...  I hope you like it.  


Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by - your incredible support and generosity really does make this Butterfly's heart take flight.


For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
Leonardo da Vinci


I've always thought of music as something that gives the words their flight and their wings.
Neil Diamond


They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods.
Edith Wharton



I'm entering this in the following:
Simon Says Stamp are asking What's Your Favourite? - well, I'd have to say it does vary, but stamping and embossing remain at the heart of it - and my current passion definitely seems to be for neutral tones!
One of the Reader Art Quests at Unruly Paper Arts is to use 4 or More Patterned Papers
Addicted to Stamps have one more week playing their lovely Bingo board. I'm playing diagonally again: Favourite colours, Embossing, No Flowers
And at Basic Grey Challenges they are playing Anything Goes, using at least one Basic Grey product 

Basic Grey - Serenade 6x6 Paper Pad	TCW 6x6 Template - Mini Mariposa	Hero Arts - Serenade Music Background	Tim Holtz Alterations - Layered Wings Bigz Die	Idea-ology Ornate Plates
Grungeboard� - Grungebook, 6x6 Square	Ranger Embossing Powder - Liquid Platinum	Distress Ink Pad - Gathered Twigs	Distress Ink Pad - Vintage Photo	Fasteners - Mini Fasteners