April Showers

Hello all!  Firstly, apologies for being a poor blogger again at the moment.  You'll see why over the next few posts - it's been a busy old month or so, and I'm away from home yet again so I had to do lots of making in advance to get ahead of the game.

Also I'm scrambling up the steep learning curve of doll-making, so that's taking lots of time and energy.

But I'm absolutely delighted to be a guest over at Frilly and Funkie today, sharing a project for their new theme, April Showers, hosted by the fabulous Suzz.

It's always a thrill to have something you've made singled out for recognition, and Frilly and Funkie is one of the places I discovered very early on this crafting journey, so it was especially lovely to have my Tiny Greenhouses honoured by their amazing Design Team.










From the moment I learned what the challenge theme was, I had an idea in my head about wanting visible raindrops on whatever I made.

It took a bit of experimentation, but I'm rather pleased with how it all ended up.  I hope you like it too!












I always enjoy my layers, so way back in the invisible distance there is some dipped and spritzed paint and ink, over which I scraped a thin layer of the PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze.
















Next step, once the glaze was dry, was a coat of Snowflake Fresco paint...














... and then some more dipping into droplets of Stormy Sky Distress Ink and Faded Jeans Distress Oxide.

I love the ink droplets over the crackle texture - already a slightly rainy sky, wouldn't you say?











Around the foot of the tag, I blended on some Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn inks, and then spritzed with some water to create even more showery droplets within the layers.













At this point, I mounted the tag on some sturdy cardboard to give it strength and stability for what's to come.














The fabulous Calico Craft Parts provided my central image - a lovely MDF wood field full of flowers.













I don't seem to have a picture of it "naked", but regulars will know what how it started out (and if you need a reminder, you can get the idea if you hop over to my Three Little Birds where you can at least see a "before" of that Calico Craft Part).















As I did for that ATC, I applied a coat of gesso first of all, and then used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics to paint the flowers, grasses and butterflies.














Since many of the Fluid Acrylics are translucent, you can build up layers of colour and create some really lovely effects.














Can never resist a bit of white spatter...















My sentiment - one of my favourites - is stamped in Leaf Green and Olive Archival inks.  I apply one and then add touches of the second before stamping.

We're still looking for that showery feeling, so I clear embossed the sentiment.










You get that lovely glossy dimensionality - like a film of water just sitting on the lettering.

For extra watery effect, I also clear-embossed the inky shading right around the edges of the tag.











And then it was time for the raindrops.  I settled on Glossy Accents and did some practising on a separate sheet of card to find out the best way to form a nice teardrop shape.

When they go on, of course, there's a slight cloudiness to the gel, but you just have to be patient and let them dry fully.












And yes, I know that raindrops aren't really that shape when they're falling, but we're allowed a little artistic licence, aren't we?

If I were making this again, I would spread my drops a little less regularly.  I was concentrating so much on the shaping, that I didn't even realise I was doing the spacing so evenly.












But I do like the effect, even if you have to wave the tag around a bit in certain lights to catch sight of the droplets - I do seem to like to set myself photographic challenges.  You can always feel them with your fingertips if you're in doubt!










I dyed some seam binding with Wild Honey and Picked Raspberry Distress Stains which gave me colour tones that blended nicely with the flowers and butterflies below.










And there you have your April Showers on a tag.

Thanks so much to Cec and the Frilly and Funkie Designers for having me along for the ride - I had a lovely time getting wet and watery! - and I hope it will inspire you to come and splash about in the April Showers at Frilly and Funkie too.

There's a clue in the last couple of posts about where I'll be bobbing up next as a guest, and there's another exciting project in the offing, not to mention those Tudor Tavern dolls.  I hope you'll hop by again soon... but, for now, happy crafting all!

For after all, the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Beautiful Moments

Hello all!  I'm still in recovery from travels and in preparation for more, so it's pretty quiet at the craft desk.  (Catch up with Beijing - The Forbidden City III and Beijing - The Artists' Quarter if you'd like to keep up with the travels... not that that's really keeping up - Beijing was in February - but I'm doing my best!)

However, I am thrilled to be over at Frilly and Funkie as a guest today, thanks to my Trash to Industrial Treasure project.  It's an honour to be chosen by the fabulous F&F team, and I was delighted to accept the invitation to guest design with them.  The new Let The Words Do The Talking theme couldn't have suited me better and, given my limited time at the craft desk, I gave myself permission simply to enjoy myself.  Here's the resulting page spread...

I suppose it's a sort of spring/summer version of A Beautiful Adventure, possibly my favourite journalling pages from last year.

I chose one of my all-time favourite Tim Holtz word stamps - and it's a thought I really try to live by.














I'm most successful at being in the moment when I'm being creative - whether that's at work with Shakespeare's words, or at the craft table, or when singing.  And those times definitely yield beautiful moments which stay in the memory.













There are also uplifting moments of presence when I let myself engage with nature, whether on the large scale - mountains, landscapes, forests - or on the small scale - the joy of a tiny new leaf starting on my Ficus, or a butterfly alighting on my arm.

Or there is delight in silence, especially that silence just before a favourite piece of music begins, and of course there are moments of heart-soaring joy in listening to the music itself.

The more of those beautiful moments I manage to build in to my life, the happier I am all round.

So the Distress Ink background here made me really happy.

The torn script interspersed with soft textural wisps of cheesecloth made me happy.

The layering of the grasses and wildflowers made me happy...















... stamping with abandon to create a lush summer meadow.


















My first chance to play with the Wildflower die-cuts made me happy.















And I found unexpected pleasure in getting a little bit sparkly for once...















... with micro beads, seed beads, sequins and mica.















I really enjoy how they interact with the paper scraps and cheesecloth and, above all, how they catch the light!















At the heart of it all are the words, of course.















And though they may not seem to be very visible, white-embossed amidst all that sparkle and colour...







... I hope the thought behind them is present in the whole page.  It feels like a beautiful moment to me.  I hope you like it too, and that it will help to inspire you to Let The Words Do The Talking.

Thanks so much to the amazing team over at Frilly and Funkie for picking my project and for having me as a guest again.  It's always a delight and an honour - another memorable moment!  And thanks to all of you for your visits and comments - more delight and honour to have your company for the journey.  Happy Crafting all!

All that is important is this one moment in movement.  Make the moment important, vital and worth living.  Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.
Martha Graham

What do you wish for?

Hello all!  I'm absolutely thrilled to be a guest over at Frilly and Funkie as part of their new challenge theme, Holiday Hues.  You can select any holiday to play with - Christmas, Valentine's, Easter - up to you... and create something in your favourite colours for that holiday.

Well, I know there are people who rip down the Christmas decorations the day after Boxing Day (well, you would if you've had them up since November, wouldn't you?!), but round here we're Twelve Days of Christmas types - so the tree goes up as close to Christmas Eve as possible and stays up until 6th January... that means I'm still deep in the festive season, so I've stuck with Christmas as my chosen Holiday.

I'm afraid I'm pretty much CASEing one of my own creations - is that allowed?!  I was so pleased with my altered book covers that I wanted to play again, and I dare say this won't be the last variation on the theme.  The previous one, A Christmas Story Book burst out into some very traditional holiday hues, which were an unusual sight around here.  (Do check out the story of Josef and Luigi if you missed it - it's a tale for the festive fireside.)

But I thought for this one I'd stick to my own personal favourite Christmas palette (you'll find it all over my Christmas Pinterest board as well as in my December Tim tag, not to mention many of the actual decorations at home)... so my Holiday Hues are whites and neutrals with the absolutely essential holiday greenery.

This altered book started with the sweet Found Relatives Occasions image, which echoes this utterly wonderful video clip which turned up this year - 40 seconds which are enough to restore anyone's belief in the magic of Christmas.













Because of all the storytelling, I didn't get to tell you much about the making of the last one, and I think these are going to become a regular feature around here (as long as I can source enough dilapidated books!), so I'll add a couple of details this time.

The book was already on its last legs - I still can't quite get my head around ripping apart a perfectly good old book.  (The new mass-produced hardbacks are another matter, but it takes more work to give them a sense of character).

I removed all the pages which obviously weakens the binding if it doesn't destroy it altogether.  So tissue tape is the first step to constructing my book window.









Next a bit of measuring and a craft knife to cut the aperture to fit the die-cut Tim Holtz window frame.  I think this one was cut out of Grungeboard, so it was more than capable of coping with the DecoArt Chalk Crackle process.












I gathered pieces of ephemera that the little girl has been collecting... obviously the one that matters most is the Perfect Attendance certificate, necessary to prove to Father Christmas that she has been a good girl!

So good, in fact, that she was asked to sing the first verse of Silent Night as a solo in the school Christmas concert.

Of course, she's been writing letters to F.C. and hoping for replies...

.... and counting the days off in her calendar until the big day.

(Again I've been using some of the leftover negatives from my December Tim tag to provide the touch of festive greenery, just as I did with my romantic Holiday Greenery tags at CVC.) 












I think now she can hardly believe she's sitting here with the man himself.













She's a quiet child - a collector (too early to say yet whether it will turn in to a hoarding habit).














But she always keeps her parent's theatre and cinema tickets...














...and their Christmas party invitations, even though she didn't get to go herself (so it's not looking good!).






The "negative" pine branches on the collaged interior are an echo of the front cover.

Even though the book boards themselves are green, I still wanted plenty of holiday greenery to decorate them.

I cut Kraft Core in a couple of shades of green with the Holiday Greens Thinlits, then distressed the branches with a sander, and added touches of glue to adhere a frosting of Rock Candy Dry Glitter.















The holly leaves were an afterthought really.  They're from Calico Craft Parts, one holly bough cut in two, and they'd been sitting on my desk since the autumn.  (They'd had a sweep of dark Pan Pastels, but then didn't make the cut on my tower of Autumnal ATBs.)











All I did was add a couple of spritzes of DecoArt Mister in White Shimmer and I got this magical antique silvery effect... hard to capture in a photo as usual, but I really love it.










The word is made with the large Bigz die, cut in Grungeboard again, painted in DecoArt Titan Buff, sanded back and inked.  Then it was out with the Rock Candy Dry Glitter again - I'm not generally much for glitter, but this stuff I'll make an exception for!












And it was some Calico Craft Parts which came to the rescue when I needed some supports to glue the word in place with a pop of dimension.













The tiny "innards" (pressed out from cogs and gears and snowflakes, and carefully preserved in a little pot) were perfect to lift the "wish" clear of all the greenery underneath.  So there are times when the hoarding tendency comes in handy!













As well as greenery, whether die-cut, punched or stamped, the outside and inside have other things in common...














... the tiny stars...














... and lots of snowy splatter.














I'm afraid we've only been able to dream of a White Christmas where I am - and far from dream weather, so many people have suffered nightmarish flooding over the Christmas period... my heart goes out to them with wishes that 2016 will be altogether kinder.













So that's the combination that makes up my Holiday Hues - neutrals, whites and greens.  When you stand the book cover by a light, the glow lights up the inside just perfectly... I hope you like it.











You'll find lots more colourful holiday inspiration over at Frilly and Funkie where the Frillies have already shared their beautiful creations, and the Funkies will be long next week with more.  It's been an absolute pleasure to contribute to Pamellia's lovely theme as a Guest Designer, so a big thank you to the team for having me.

I hope the next year will bring you what you wish for.

Happy New Year everyone, and I'll see you in 2016!

It seems to me that we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive.  There are certain things we believe to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.
George Eliot

As a partner to the Christmas Story Book, I'd like to enter this at the Craft Stamper Take It and Make It, Sharing the Season
I'd like to enter this at Love to Create where, as usual, it's Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
And a final fling for the year at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for their Winter Wonderland