Encore Post - Calico Snowflake

Encore Posts

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 while I'm busy.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

There have been a couple of wintry makes so far here this January, and there's something new on the way shortly.  In the meantime, I thought this little arched ATC from back in December 2015 might give us a little lift of spirit after the sombre melancholy of Hoping for some light.  The ATC was made three years ago - how is that possible?! - when I was on the Design Team for Calico Craft Parts, and here's what I wrote back then.

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Hello everyone, Alison here from Words and Pictures with a wintry little ATC for you today.  I love the ATC blanks, as you'll know if you follow along here, and this time I've used one of the decorative framed versions - so lovely to play with.

I started with a coat of DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylic in Titan Buff on the ATC Wood Blank with Snowflake Frame, and then sanded back for a distressed look.

I painted the background with Raw Umber, and then used Distress Paints to create a soft blended look over the top.  The next layer was white-paint-stamped snowflakes, and then some clear-embossed music notation - which you only really get to see when you move it around.

I quite liked the frame as it was, but decided I'd like some more texture.  I played around with some DecoArt Crackle Glaze, various Antiquing Creams and then some deliberate overheating with the heat gun.

I wanted texture and boy I got it!  So happy with the look of it now.

The two little birds are actually remnants from another project which I've not revealed yet...

... but I couldn't throw away leftovers this pretty!  And there are a couple of gentle word stickers to finish it off.

I hope you like my little Snowflake ATC, and I hope you're ready for the festive time ahead.

Here's wishing you all a peaceful and joyous Yuletide, and I'll see you in here in 2016!

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Obviously, those Yuletide wishes are slightly out-of-date, but I certainly wish you a wonderful week ahead.  Thanks for stopping by, and I'll be back with something brand new very soon.

Bring the past only if you are going to build from it.
Doménico Cieri Estrada

Calico Tree ATC

Encore Posts

I'm away again for a month or so.  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!

After that bit of fairly ancient history in Take a leaf out of my book, I've a slightly more recent Encore for you today.  This one appeared over at the Calico Craft Parts blog on October 23rd, 2015.  At the time, I was in the throes of an obsession with Wilted Violet, the then new-on-the-block Distress colour.  As an addition to my favourite blues and browns, it was making soul sing.  For this ATC I found some DecoArt paint colours to give me that same feeling with the perfect late autumn sky for this fabulous laser-cut tree.

I'm playing mainly with watercolours just now (November 2017) and funnily enough there's a similar colour love affair going on.  More of that another time... Oh, and since it's an ATC, consider it a little more inspiration for Anne's wonderful Mini Marvels challenge over at A Vintage Journey.  Here's what I wrote back in 2015.

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Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures with a crackly ATC for you today.  It's no secret that I love trees at all times of the year.  I love the young spring leaves so fresh and vivid, the luscious summer growth at its height, the glorious array of colour as the leaves turn in autumn (there have been plenty of creations celebrating that lately), but I also love the bare branches, stark against the winter skies.  This ATC celebrates that particular beauty.

I love working with these ATC blanks.  They are sturdy and beautifully dimensional in themselves, and so lend a much more substance to a small piece like an ATC.  I've used the Plain ATC but there are lots of designs to choose from.

I started by applying a coat of DecoArt Media Crackle Paste in varying thicknesses across the ATC.  Once that had dried, I wanted a bit more crackle around the edges so I added some Media Crackle Glaze (which also has a glossier finish) and waited for that to crackle too.

Regulars at Words and Pictures will know I've been having a bit of a purple phase... adding Wilted Violet to my autumn colours with great joy.  I've played with a similar autumnal range of colours here, but using DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics, applying them in washes to build the layers of colour.  The paints involved are Dioxazine Purple, Cobalt Blue Hue and Phthalo Blue coming down from the top, and Raw Umber, Burnt Sienna, English Red Oxide and Quinacridone Gold coming up from the bottom.

The gorgeous Skeleton Tree Style 3 has also had a touch of colour - a wash of Quin Gold and then some Dioxazine Purple to add the darker shadows.

I wanted some scraggy meadow grasses, so I stamped them in Sepia and Black Archival inks around the foot of the tree.

And up in the sky the affirmation of the eternal beauty of trees - some ChitChat stickers with the same paints creating shadows around them to bed them in to the wintry sky.

I love the dimension of the Craft Parts - they give this little ATC a real presence - and the delicate cutting is so intricate and detailed.  I hope you like my Winter Branches - as you can probably tell, I'm rather fond of this one myself!

If you're tempted to go shopping, you can click on the links in the text to go straight to the Craft Parts I've used.  Do go browsing while you're there - there are always new treats on offer.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.

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So I suppose this one is definitely heading for the end of autumn and into more of a wintry vibe.  I'm still not quite ready for the full winter look yet, but we'll get there soon.  Thanks for sticking with me while I'm missing in action - but at least there's a little bit of action here on the blog.  Hope you're all thriving and happy crafting all!

As soon as one leaves, one sees: wet bare branches, fog which floats over fields, trees, homes. Sky. Early dusk. And it all tells an incredibly simple truth.
Alexander Schmemann

Playing the (Neutral) Blues I

Hello all!  I doubt you'll be surprised to find that I've been playing with blues and browns (and greys) a lot since my return.  In fact, it started before I went away.  So, starting with a tag made back in April, here's the first of a series of posts scratching that old obsessive colour itch.

I meant this tag for the Vintage Journey Tag Friday in June.  In case I ended up with either no time or no mojo in NYC, I decided to get it made before I left the UK at the beginning of May.

But then my AVJ team-mate, the brilliant Nikki of Addicted to Art, who was also one of my wingmen for the PaperArtsy word stamp release, pointed out that Tag Friday was perfectly timed to share something made with the new quotes.

So instead I made a whole new tag for that (time and mojo both cooperating), and this one got left in the photo album for later.

Later has arrived!  And I'm delighted that this young woman is finally getting her day in the sun.

(More sun than was around when I left - she's had some more photos taken today, as the April ones were definitely suffering from the dreary showery weather which simply wouldn't lift in the days before I flew.)










Of course, being that it was made all that time ago, I can't be sure any longer exactly what ingredients were involved in the making...

I know it started with a mop-up tag (slightly taller than usual - a leftover piece from something else), and I'm fairly sure it's Golden Smalt Blue acrylic.














And then there were various layers of stencilling...
















... stencil-printing...















... inky and watery splattering (my guess is that at least some of this is using the Oxides - Faded Jeans and Iced Spruce seem likely suspects)...













... and in the latter stages the dragonfly stamp, embossed in Weathered White, puts in an appearance, along with some text stamping and inky distressing around the edges.

I also mounted it on some cardboard for extra stability.














One of the Paper Dolls takes her place at the heart of things...

















... standing on some strips of tissue tape...













... and with some lace and stained tea-bag strips in the background.














The lovely fronds of some Scrapiniec grasses wave in the wind behind her.

And she's been collecting old leaves and drying them too.















The oval frame tries to constrict her into some semblance of modest, ladylike appearance.  But you can tell from its rusty state of neglect that she's uninterested in being looked at, or fitting in.














Neither she nor her nature collections will be confined.  She doesn't fit in the family picture frame.  The dragonfly will always escape the net.

(She may remind you of a recent acquaintance.)














She won't be nailed down by society's expectations.














The rebellions at the moment may be small, but they are significant.  Her clothes are never quite neat enough.  There's always a splatter of mud or a loose thread from brushing through a hedgerow.














She'll continue to do what she loves, and there's no stopping her.












The lace and ribbons her mother and governesses have tried for years to encourage her to embroider, knit or crochet with, remain in a tangled bunch, as she heads back out to the garden, the fields and the woods.














The fresh breezes will ruffle her hair as well as the grasses, and she'll continue to wear whatever she's found on her travels as her corsage, be it flowers or leaves or grasses.














The dragonfly's wings will spread wide to carry her far away.












Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you've enjoyed meeting today's tag inhabitant.  As I say, the blue & brown tag theme is going to continue here over the next few days, so I hope you'll be able to pop in and meet whoever's next!

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
Rachel Carson







At Stamps and Stencils there's some beautiful photo inspiration from the amazing Ruth to inspire us to play with Colour, Texture and Shape.  The decorative lace with rusty metal accents are certainly in play here, as are some of those architectural lines, though mine are horizontal rather than vertical. 
I'd also like to share this at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where they are hoping that You've Got The Edge.  My dragonflies are heading over the edge in all directions, providing extra texture where they do, and the inky distressing provides a frame, as do the "rusty nails" in the corners (which are at the edge, after all).
At Tag Tuesday, the lovely Chrissie has chosen My Favourite Colour Combination as the theme.  As long as I've understood rightly and it's my favourite colour combination, not Chrissie's (!) then my blues and browns are right on the money.  And you already know there are some more blue and brown tags on the way soon!
Finally, at Mixed Media World they would like us to Use Natural Materials on a mixed media project.  The DT inspiration pieces are out of this world, but with my humble autumn leaves, I'd like to play along anyway!  (Thanks for the heads-up, Sara Emily.)

Past and Future

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

It's just gone midnight.  It's a brand new year, and time for a brand new challenge at The Artistic Stamper.  We're looking for projects with the theme of New Beginnings - and you can interpret that in any way you like - so come and play along.  You don't have to use Artistic Stamper stamps, but if you do you'll automatically get two entries in the prize draw - and you can play as many times as you like!

I've created a pair of ATCs marking what's past and what's to come, complete with some rusty bells to ring in the New Year.

I seem to plunge into really vivid blues and greens in January and February, and these ATCs take full advantage of that.





The backgrounds are from the Family Values plate, and are the perfect size for ATCs.

I applied lots of Distress Inks - Salty Ocean, Peacock Feathers, Mowed Lawn, Broken China are all definitely in there, plus maybe some others - direct to the stamp, and then clear embossed the resulting image.

I also added some Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder around the outsides, over some Versamark ink brushed directly onto the edges of the ATCs.












The months and years come from Katy Leitch's Dates set, and are stamped in Vintage Photo and clear embossed.

I then cut them into tiny tags and arranged them with some of my rusty jingle bells to ring out the old year and ring in the new (yes - an echo of the current Vintage Journey challenge theme there, and more than a few echoes between these ATCs and my offering for that, Ring In The New!).

I couldn't resist adding a bit of my favourite rusty wire to the mix.










And the Chitchat stickers capture some of my thoughts and feelings about the year going out...










... and the year coming in.

So those are my New Year's ATCs on the theme of New Beginnings.  I hope they'll inspire you to come and play along at The Artistic Stamper this month.

I'll be back later in the morning with the new Country View Challenges theme...  Until then, don't drink too much champagne (is there such a thing as too much champagne?!), and Happy New Year!!




Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.
Dante Alighieri

Artistic Stamper stamps used: Katy Leitch Dates, Family Values

Butterflies for me!

Hello all and welcome back to the second post of the day.  Yes, it's the first of the month and it's challenge time!  If you're looking for my Christmas is Coming offering for Artistic Stamper, just click to visit it.





But now it's over to the new theme over at Country View Challenges.  This month we're looking for  Bugs, Bees and Butterflies.  You can use any or all of them on your project… no prizes for guessing which way I decided to go!


For this tag, I reached for something old, something new and something blue.  If there's anything borrowed, then I'm afraid the owner can't have it back!


The blue obviously is there in the colour palette - blues and browns, probably my all time favourite combination, though one can always ring the changes with the precise shades used.












The "something old" is one of the tag backgrounds I made using Tim's June tag technique.  At the time I made four or five different colour variations as I was having such fun with the technique.  It was finally time for this one to take centre stage.

The "something new" are the French Flight Framelits butterflies… my first time of using the stamp-and-cut die set.









I love the inky stencilled print effect on the watercolour paper, but since you can read all about the background technique in the words of the master himself, I'll just fill you in on a couple of the additional details.










For the butterflies, I inked up a separate piece of card and stamped them in a combination of Cornflower Blue and Aquamarine Archival inks, blended the inks on the stamp.


When you cut them, you lose the labels and the antennae, so before gluing them down, I also stamped them directly onto my lettering background in Cobalt Archival.

So once they were stuck down, they had their bits and pieces back in place!









I edged the wings with Florentine Treasure Gold, as the metallic glow was becoming a bit of a feature elsewhere…

Here, for instance, in the couple of pen nibs attached as embellishments.












And on the altered Muse Token at the top of the tag… just a touch of Treasure Gold can really zhuzh something up!











I used some Chitchat Stickers to create my sentiment, outlining with a fine PITT pen to bed them into the background.













And because I stuck down the watercolour panel a bit too high up the tag, it needed something extra at the bottom.

I used some Idea-ology Long Fasteners to create a row of studs.  A burnishing of Treasure Gold to make them tone in, and we're pretty much there.










Oh, not forgetting the Distress Ink-dyed ribbons of the topping, of course!








So there are my first Bugs, Bees and Butterflies.  Do hop over to Country View Challenges and see what my fantastic team-mates have been up to, and don't forget there's ongoing inspiration there throughout the month.

I'll be here in a few days with my second Bugs, Bees and Butterflies offering, but I'm off to the theatre again now.  As well as new challenge day, the 1st November is also our first Preview, so today we find out how the show goes down with an audience… fingers crossed.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I've just over a week left in New York now, so I should be able to visit Craftyblogland more regularly again soon.  Happy crafting all.

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust

If you're after seasonal inspiration do check out the new Artistic Stamper challenge too.  Christmas doesn't usually start this early at Words and Pictures!