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

Crazy Caterpillar

Well, it's been a busy old time here at Words and Pictures, so I'm taking a few days off from Craftyblogland as you read this.  I thought I'd leave you with a bit of fun while I'm having a bit of fun (it's only a couple of days - you won't be rid of me for long!).

This page was just a bit of crazy playtime, letting off steam... so I got out the Crazy Birds.  I tried to feed them a crazy JOFY caterpillar, but I think they're a little bit wary, maybe rightly so!

I'd had the crackly background sitting on the page for a while (and I think it was a cover up of whatever was there before, which I'd given up on), and so I just started stamping JOFY flowers around the place.

I thought they'd make a nice crazy garden setting for the crazy birds.














(I know Cestina will like the "mushrooms".  She's always complaining there aren't enough fungi around here.)













When the crazy caterpillar started climbing one of the stems, I thought, "Ah, crazy dinner!"...














In the long run he got a coat of Glossy Accents and some white doodling.  Maybe that's what scared the crazy birds.













You can tell from the look in his eye that this might mean biting off a bit more than he can chew...











And I think his concerned friend probably agrees!

All the "colouring" is done with PaperArtsy Fresco paints, including on the birds themselves.













There's some Glossy Accents adding light to the butterfly our caterpillar might grow up to be, if the birds don't get him first.











And I've borrowed Alie's trick again of Glossy Accents on the birds' eyes... so that they can keep a beady eye on their prey (or on each other!).












I stamped the words with a Hero Arts alphabet - and added more Fresco paints top and bottom to edge them with "grass" and "sky".











I'm not sure, but I think I prefer the page without the words (though it hasn't got the butterfly either at this stage).  I think the thought is pretty clear even when they're not there.

(Shock, horror!  What, no words?  Now what am I going to call the blog - ... And Pictures?!)










But they're firmly stuck down now, so I guess they're staying... and the birds do look better with a bit of ground to stand on and a bit of shading to bed them in to the page.

So, that's my bit of crazy fun journalling for you.  I'll be back very soon with a slightly more sensible journal page, but one which still has a degree of risk about it.  I remain uncertain whether I'm feeling brave enough to share it... we'll see.

In the meantime, happy crafting all!

The early bird gets the worm.
The early worm... gets eaten.
Norman Ralph Augustine


I'd like to share this with the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge for their Use a Stamp theme - I've used quite a lot of stamps!
And given that's so, I'd like to play Work It Wednesday at Simon Says Stamp too, where they also want us to Use A Stamp.

Some light relief...

Hello!  The last post found me in a grey mode and mood, and although I really love the Gently Grey cards which resulted, I thought we could do with a touch of light relief so I'm just here to share, very quickly, another little play I was having with the crazy birds.

In fact, this one started before my Bird Crazy version of Tim's July tag, and I'd already stamped, coloured and used the Micro Glaze on these two before Tim's tag even appeared - so my choice of stamps for that was pretty obvious after all!

Like the ones on my July tag, these are also watercoloured with Distress Stains - splodged onto the craft mat and then applied with a water brush.











And I took a leaf out of Alie Hoogenboezem-de Vries's book (she's been doing wonders with the birds - and here and here - for some time now, and is probably one of the main tempters behind my caving in to them)...








... by adding Glossy Accents to the eyes for an extra goggling look.















I love that the Micro Glaze means you can then blend inks around your main image without affecting it.














As well as straight inking, I added some splotches and blotches with one of the layering stencils...













... and over the top of that I used Tim's great crackle background.












I remember I had some thought about eggs cracking, or some such, but when it came to looking for some words to go on the tag it became evident that my subconscious was way ahead of me!













A little bit of Vintage Photo around the edges, some JOFY grasses for the birds to stand on (as well as some shadows to give them a bit more substance), some twine through the hole, and we're done.






I hope that's put a smile on your face after the grey gloom (though I notice the actual words are probably not that reassuring... see, the truth will out, even in the light relief).

Starting to think I may need a holiday...

I'm interested in people's darker side, the ones that aren't easy and well balanced.  The cracks.
Noomi Rapace

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.
Bernard Meltzer

Come buy, come buy!

Hello everyone! What with all the house-moving shenanigans, it's pretty quiet at my craft table at the moment... though the quiet was interrupted with some squealing when I found my Bluesy tag had been pinned by a certain Mr Tim Holtz!!

In any case, I thought I'd do a catching-up post today, as I continue to gather some of my GD projects together under the one roof.  So please don't feel you have to comment again...

This was my final project as Guest Designer for The Artistic Stamper in February.   As you know, I'm now thrilled to be a regular member of their team!

But here's what I offered up at the end of February, earlier this year...






So, I promised you something simpler for my final piece (in the hope of writing a post shorter than War and Peace for once)... and I did make something simpler, but I ended up making it in two different versions!







I knew I wanted to work with the glorious Victorian advertising bills - they are so much fun: fantastically detailed in their wording, with brilliant cartoons.  They are simply wonderful pieces of print ephemera that rocket me back in time when I look at them.

My first thought was that I wanted to stick them on a wall; a grimy, crumbling wall in a forgotten alleyway, with these three ancient posters still clinging on.  So I had to create a wall background... 







Lots of ways to do that - you could use the Decorative Strip Die by Sizzix, or some texture paste through a stencil.  I used an embossing folder, Tim Holtz's Bricked Texture Fade on a large tag (running it through twice to emboss the whole thing).

Then I set about it with some inks - Vintage Photo, Pumice Stone, Black Soot and Aged Mahogany - until I had a suitably grungy look.  

I used the Paper Distresser on the edges, and then ran the Black Soot DI pad around them to give it a good strong inky edging.

For the posters themselves, I did a bit of TH's wrinkle free distress technique using Old Paper and Antique Linen DIs - not too much ink, as I wanted age spots rather than a complete change of colour. 








I'd already done one version with darker inks, very beautiful, but once I'd stamped the images, they didn't really look like posters.

So with this new, paler version, I stamped the three adverts in Black Archival, and then did lots of distressing - ripping, rolling, using the TH paper distresser, and adding Vintage Photo to some of the tears and creases.  It's one of my favourite things to be able to age a piece of paper like this!









Simple enough then to stick the bills on the wall (hope I don't get prosecuted), all in a row, and add some trimmings.  

And you can read what you like about Victorian society into those trimmings: it's raffia, inky twine and some leather all tied up with a beautiful shiny satin black ribbon.

I was pretty pleased with that, but I still had those spare stamped images still sitting on my desk, stamped on the darker inky paper (two sets in fact, safety in numbers you know).  I started shuffling them around, thinking that they'd look pretty good in a slightly grungier version of the tag.













I grabbed some corrugated card, and added Distress Stains and thick gesso to it randomly and roughly.  

I created a background like this for a recent project and really liked it, so it was fun to resurrect it.  It creates a fantastically grungy, textural mess - no other word for it really.







I gave my three posters the distressing treatment again, and started positioning them on the tag.  They seemed to want to go in the other direction for this one, so I let them.

It was crying out for some metalwork, but I didn't want to go too smart...















... so I used some black alcohol ink to grunge up a key and some pen nibs from my stash, as well as an Idea-ology clock.

I like the grimy look of this - like the soot-ridden London streets of the nineteenth century.














I particularly love how the clock looks, with the black face and the figures sanded back to reveal the gold underneath.










I've always sort of thought that I was born in the wrong century, and I'd love to go back in time and visit, but looking at these images did just make me wonder whether my historical glasses are a little rose-tinted... were they really the "good old days"?

So I added a little slogan at the bottom asking just that question... stamped in black on paper inked to match the advertisements.

Again, I added some varied trimmings: string, raffia and some black paper string to tie them together.  

So there are my two variations on a theme using these fabulous little stamps, and I think I've brought it in under the 10,000 word mark!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by, and Happy Crafting!

Ingredients:
Stamps: Goose Grease, Phineas Pinchbeck and Squaretoes Continuous Lunch
Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Aged Mahogany, Pumice Stone, Black Soot
Distress Stains: Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain, Old Paper, Antique Linen
Ranger Archival: Black
Alcohol Inks: Pitch Black
Gesso
Idea-ology: Time Pieces, Game Spinners
Decorative Strip Die Brick Wall (as an alternative to Bricked Texture Fade)
Tim Holtz Paper Distresser

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.
Marcel Proust