Encore - Magical Trees

Hello all!  December is running away from me!  I'll have something new for you tomorrow (or the day after, depending on when I get the post written), but for now I thought I'd share a sparkly winter creation which appeared over at the Country View Crafts blog in December 2015, when I was still on the team there.  I've chosen to share this one now partly in honour of the Sparkle theme over at PaperArtsy this fortnight.  (Watch out for me over there in a week or so!).  If you're not sure what I mean by an "Encore", check out the low-down at the end of the post.  Here's what I wrote back in 2015...

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Hello all, Alison here with some sparkling fir trees for you.  I don't break out the glitter very often, but if not at Christmas, then when?!  And after a brief skirmish with the bright traditionals, red, gold and green, I'm back in my neutrals comfort zone... in fact pretty much monochromatic.

It's also my first time having a play with Tim Holtz's new Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust... I think it probably won't be the last!

For the background, I swiped Ground Espresso, Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke inks on to my craft mat and did some wrinkle-free distress technique on to the tag.  It turned out there was more Ground Espresso than the rest, so it all got rather dark rather quickly.  I spattered some Fresco Snowflake over it to lighten things.

Then I thought it would be nice to have some snowfall, so I used the Speckles layering stencil to add some more white paint, and sponged a bit on to the foot of the tag too, to create some snow drifts.  I decided there wasn't quite enough snowfall, so I added a couple of spritzes of DecoArt Media Mister in Shimmer White.

Turns out that was a good idea, as you get a whole lot more shimmer into the bargain!

The trees were cut using the wonderful Woodlands Thinlits, and I painted them with some Ground Espresso Distress Paint so that they would be the right colour under the glitter dust.

I used Sticky Embossing Powder to adhere my Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust, and then rubbed some off again in places so that the trees would have a slightly more distressed "bark" look.  Yeah, right... whoever heard of glittering bark?!

I used a pastel pencil to create some shading under the trees to ground them.

And I stamped the word from the Handwritten Holidays #1 set in Versamark before embossing with dark brown embossing powder.

The whole thing is mounted on some white card, both layers distressed with the Distressing Tool.  And I topped it off with some simple Crinkle Ribbon (slightly grunged with a hint of Ground Espresso) and fine twine.

It was a bit of a nightmare trying to photograph my sparkling trees, balancing the tag in the ivy in strong wind, trying to catch the last rays of the afternoon sun....  sometimes catching one bit of shimmer, sometimes another.

But I hope you think it was worth it.

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There you go... earthy and sparkly and snowy all in one go!  Thanks so much for stopping by today.  As I said, I hope to be back with something new for you very soon.  I hope all is going well with everyone's Christmas preparations.  I think I'm behind!!  (That will be the winter bug that set me back, I suppose.  Thankfully I am feeling much better - thank you all for asking.  Avoid it if you can... it's a stinker!)  Good luck all!

The waving of a pine tree on the top of a mountain - a magic wand in Nature's hand...
John Muir

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!

Encore - More Than You Realise

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.  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!

Hello all!  Since you enjoyed the Wallflowers so much, I'm throwing in a quick encore post with some journalling which also used the coneflower stamp and die.  And it has a timely spring-like feeling, I think.  This was made as part of my Country View Crafts DT duties, and it appeared there in February 2016, just over a year ago.  Here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all, it's Alison (butterfly) here from Words and Pictures, and I've been playing in one of my old books as a journal again.

This started out going in one direction, and then shifted, and I'm a bit surprised about where it ended up, but I suppose these colours are a bit of a foretaste of spring.

Initially, I was just gluing down some paper scraps left over from another project to get them out of the way... then I added a coat of gesso to soften and blend everything.

This Tim Holtz woman used to bob up on my early journalling efforts quite often, but she hasn't been out for a while.  I stamped her in Pumice Stone and clear-embossed over the top to give her a subtle presence on the page.

Over at the other side, I did the same with the fabulous large flourish stamp (also a TH one).

I'd been playing around with the wonderful cone flower for something else where it didn't quite work, so I tried it out on these pages and rather liked it.

I started to build up layers of colour, using mainly Fresco Chalk Finish Acrylic paints, first in blues (Smurf, China and Blue Glass)...

... then some (slightly surprising) shades of mauve and lilac (Wisteria and Purple Rain, and eventually some Blueberry).  There's some Wilted Violet Distress Ink in at this stage too...

... a layer of Ground Espresso stencilling (which barely made it through to the end)...

... and finally a step into brights with Hey Pesto, Zesty Zing and Limelight.  From a distance I confess it does look slightly like the final stages of a very impressive bruise!!

But close up I love the effect of the layered colours.

Shading around the main images helps them pop.

I used the same paints to light up the woman's eyes, and I love how she emerges out of the purply shadows.

There's lots of splatter...

... mainly in Ground Espresso, I think.

The inking around the edges gives us a really nice look of aged weathering.

And I really like the effect of the embossing resist of the flourish under the paints too.

I used some Small Talk stickers and, as I did with my recent tag for the Backgrounds theme over at Country View Challenges, I used a white pen to doodle lines around them.

I love how this completely changes their look.

So there you have it... another journalling journey.  I'm not always sure about the results, but I do enjoy the process and the learning, and I think that's what journalling is really about.

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I'm busily creating characters to inhabit the Tudor Tavern, so there's not much else apart from some watercolouring going on craftily (and I'm not getting much done on the visiting front either - apologies).  But I will share those characters with you once they're ready, and in the meantime I'll be back on Friday for the new monthly challenge at A Vintage Journey.  Hope to see you soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.
Thomas Edison

Saying Goodbye...

Hello all.  I'm here with mixed feelings today... It's with a sad heart that I am saying farewell to my fellow team members at Country View Crafts - both the Challenge site and the Projects blog.  Life has simply become too busy and complicated to be able to give the DT work the attention it deserves.

On the other hand, I'm deeply sensible of the privilege and excitement of the work and travel still to come in this adventurous year, so I really can't complain.  If you hop over to the Country View Crafts Projects blog to take a look at my farewell journalling pages, I think you'll get that sense of positive anticipation.

It's been fantastic seeing the amazing projects entered into the challenges each month and, as always, I'm deeply grateful for all your wonderful support and comments both on the CVC blogs and here.  I know I've been pretty absent from Craftyblogland lately, but that doesn't mean I don't read every single one with great pleasure.

You'll see from the sneak peek that there's a favourite film star of mine involved in the pages, and I hope you'll be able to hop over to see the rest, but for today I'll leave her with the last word (and if you want to hear how it should be delivered, it's right here - at the one minute mark if you don't want to watch the whole clip, but I do recommend it!).

"You're Norma Desmond.  You used to be in silent pictures.  You used to be big."
"I am big.  It's the pictures that got small."
From Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett

Trying to Simplify

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be here with a new creation for you today.

Well, I say here...  In fact, it's just a sneak peek here (a.k.a. a future Encore post!!), and if you'd like to see the whole thing, you'll need to hop over to the Country View Crafts Projects blog.

It's a very simple card, but quite atmospheric I think.  I hope you'll have time to check it out.  I'm going to love you and leave you for now, and see you again soon.  See, I really am keeping things simple today.

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Hans Hofmann

Simplify, then add lightness.
Colin Chapman

In search of illumination...

Hello all!  Since I can't invite you all to the upcoming press night performances of the RSC King & Country History plays in New York, instead I'm inviting you over to Country View Crafts Projects to see some medieval(ish) illuminated manuscript pages with which to celebrate Easter. 

I've been playing with the fabulous White Fire Fresco paint again, as well as my all-time favourite Lynne Perrella stamps. I do hope you'll be able to head over to Country View Crafts Projects to see how it all looks.  

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Here in secular theatrical New York we are working not only today, but also on Easter Sunday and Monday... I'm looking forward to our day off on Tuesday.  So I'll wish you a happy Easter now, and I really will be out and about in Craftyblogland more regularly soon!

If you look at an illuminated manuscript, even today, it just blows your mind.  For them, without all the clutter and inputs that we have, it must have been even more extraordinary.
Geraldine Brooks

Life Is Good

Hello all!  I'm just having flashbacks (it's all these Encore posts)...  I suspect that there may have been a post entitled Life Is Good at some point in the history of Words and Pictures.  Ah well, as George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  I think he had something rather worse in mind than using the same blogpost title twice.  Sorry, I'm wittering... it's writing and scheduling all these blogposts, I think!

Anyway, it's a new project today rather than a flashback, but I'm afraid you're going to have to hop for it... I'm over at the Country View Crafts Projects blog with an upbeat, springtime tag.

So I hope you've got some spring-like weather with which to pop over and check it out.  I hope you enjoy the trip.  And I hope I'm enjoying all my trips.  All being well, I should be home in a couple of days, though only for a couple of days.  For now, I'll keep moving and leave you to your hopping!

You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West

Fired up for the journey

Hello all!  It's been a busy week what with Flourishing Floral Extravaganzas, and Reflections of Dragonflies, and now I'm back with another scheduled post and it's a teasing sneak peek.  I'm hoping this time to send you off to the Country View Crafts Projects blog to catch a taste of the fabulous new PaperArtsy White Fire Fresco Paint.

I've always been a massive fan of the White Fire Treasure Gold - hands down my favourite colour of gilding wax ever - and now it exists as a paint, metallic sheen and all.  Colour me happy!

(If you saw my Head in a Book recently, made before the paint existed, you'll know how much simpler life would have been if I'd had some of this stuff then!)  

This is the first of a couple of projects using the paint, and I hope you'll be able to hop over and check it out.

We should be just about to put on the third of the shows in Beijing as you read this - all being well - and I've workshops all day tomorrow, then it's off to Shanghai on Monday, so it's appropriate that my ATCs should be travel themed, I guess.  Hope you're enjoying a great weekend everyone, and see you soon.

Travel and change of place impart new vigour to the mind.
Seneca

What are you capable of?

Hello all!  I'm hoping you're capable of at least a bit of hopping.  I'm over at the Country View Crafts Projects blog today with some art journalling.  It's nothing radical - just a bit of playful exploring without any particular agenda in mind.

I'm not entirely sure about the results.  From a distance it does look like the last stages of recovery of a rather impressive bruise, but I do love the close-up paint and ink effects.  Why not hop over and see what you think...

Hope you have a lovely week everybody!

Ability is what you're capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.
Lou Holtz (American Football coach)

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.
Mahatma Gandhi

Flutter by...

Hello all.  I'm glad you enjoyed the colourful hop-out-of-kin of my Be Brave tag for Tag Friday!  It's just a quick sneak peek here today at Words and Pictures so, although it's lovely to see you, I'm going to invite you to flutter on by towards the Country View Crafts Projects blog...

... and your trouble will be rewarded by some butterflies!  I hope you have time to flutter by and see what I've been up to, and I hope you're all having a lovely Sunday.  See you again very soon!

Not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.
Elizabeth Goudge

Stay curious... come what may!

Hello all!  Such dull, grim, grey weather - so disheartening... but a good reason to stay indoors at the craft table, eh?  There's a lot going on at the moment, so I'm grateful for any time spent with my inks and paints and stamps, and I had a lovely time with the art journalling I'm sharing over at the Country View Crafts Projects blog today.

I hope this sneak peek will make you curious enough to hop over and check it out... and whatever you're up to this week I hope it goes well for you.  See you soon!

The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existence.  One cannot help but be in awe when one contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvellous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.
Albert Einstein (almost certainly my "most-often-quoted"!)

If you don't mind hopping to see the full reveal, I would love to share my little birds in their wintry setting with the lovely Chrissie's Winter Wonderland theme at Art Journal Journey

Holiday Greenery at Country View Crafts

Hello all!  I'm not here for long today, just long enough to hope you all survived "the big day".  Oh, and long enough to share a quick sneak peek...

We're now heading in to my favourite part of the Christmas season - twelve days of peace and quiet, enjoying the lights of the tree, some festive music, a warm fire, and a good book or three.  Still it's good to get out occasionally, so I'm here to invite you to go hopping over to Country View Crafts Projects to see some holiday greenery.

I found a way to use some of the leftovers from my final Tim tag... and the pair of tags you'll find over at CVC almost made themselves.  If you'd like to see why these two are made for each other, you'll have to hop over and check them out.  By all means take your drinks along with you!  Have fun...

Here's to holly and ivy hanging up

And to something wet in every cup!

Traditional toast

If you don't mind hopping to see the background details, I'd love to share this at Fashionable Stamping Challenges where they would like us to Make Your Own Background

Magic Faraway Trees

Hello all!  Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my Blustery Candle Jar.  As promised, I've got some bushier branches for you today.  However, they're not here I'm afraid... you'll need to hop over to the Country View Crafts Projects Blog.  I've been playing with Tim's new Vintage Platinum Glitter Dust for the first time, and after a brief skirmish with the traditional red, green and gold, I'm back in my Christmas neutrals comfort zone today.

I hope you'll have time to hop over and check out my sparkling woodlands... I think the Glitter Dust does make them slightly magical, and they're not really that far away either (but I couldn't resist the Enid Blyton reference).  I hope you're all enjoying a lovely weekend... not many of them left before Christmas now!!  I'm back tomorrow with a very festive post, so happy crafting until then.

The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.
Andy Rooney

UPDATE 2019: You can now view the full project as an Encore Post right here at Words and Pictures - Encore - Magical Trees

Peace in the Forest

Hello all, it's lovely to have you drop in today, but I'm sending you away again almost immediately!  I just wanted to let you know I'm over at the Country View Crafts Projects blog today with a card (yes, a card - and not only that... it's a Christmas card).

It would be lovely if you have a moment to pop over and check it out, and I'm finally getting myself caught up a bit (if I ignore the looming tax return), so I hope to be catching up in Craftyblogland too!

Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours.
Herman Hesse

Meet the Snowcrow!

Hello all and welcome, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers - it's so lovely to have you here.

And thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my ballooning Tim tag!  It's always great to hear what you think... the journey wouldn't be the same without you.

I'm here with a sneak peek today (you'll get used to those, there are many of them!) and it's sending you in a brand new direction for me.  I'm posting on the Country View Crafts Project Blog for the first time, and I'm sharing a tag using JOFY's snowman/scarecrow - I can never decide quite which he is, hence the "snowcrow".

I hope you'll have time to hop over and keep him company for a short time - it's lonely work out there in the chilly winter fields.  Stay warm and dry yourselves and I hope you'll be enjoying some crafty time this weekend... or whatever else it is that makes you happy.  See you again soon!



"It was a lonely life to lead, for I had nothing to think of, having been made such a little while before."
Said by the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz by L.Frank Baum

It snowed last year too: I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.
From A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas



Just a little reminder... you have one month left to catch the bargain price for next year's online workshops Wanderlust 2016.

If you book before December 15th you'll get the twice-weekly videos from some amazing teachers (more than 50 hours worth of inspiration), plus challenges, giveaways and retailer discounts all year for just £65 (about $100/€89).

After that date the price goes up to £99 for the year.  You can find out more about the course here, or simply... 

Click here to sign up for Wanderlust 2016 now

Just to clear up any confusion - I'm not teaching on the course, but I'm along for the ride as a participant and helping to promote the course as an affiliate.  I can't wait for it all to start in January.  Hope to see you there!