Add Some Texture - Simon Says Stamp Guest Designer

This may be my favourite theme of all the October posts for which I've been in the Designer Spotlight at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month... let's Add Some Texture.  And with Halloween fast approaching, my texture definitely has a spooky quality to it!

As always, it's been a delight to be part of the inspiration team at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month, even as a temporary member!  

I'm so grateful to the team for inviting me, and it's been a joy playing alongside the fabulous creatives and crafters on the regular Design Team, especially this week as we Add Some Texture!

As ever, Simon Says Stamp are sponsoring the challenge, with a lucky prize draw to win a voucher for a shopping spree in their fabulous online store.

I love adding texture to journal pages, especially when I'm working in one of my altered hardback books. 

There aren't really any making-of photos in this post - though of course I'll talk you through what I did with some close-ups... but you'll be able to watch the whole process over on my YouTube channel from Wednesday.  (I'll come back and add a link here when it's live.)

So make a note in your diary, and you'll be able to see the layers of texture building on this page spread in all the detail you could possibly want!

For now, let me share some of the steps and the products I used to achieve them.

It all started with a layer of gesso to soften the book text and prepare the pages for the wet media to come.  I glued in some scraps of my PaperArtsy Printed Tissue PT08, leaving plenty of wrinkles, plus bits hanging over the edges of the page... lots of texture already.

Next, I used the Tim Holtz Shatter stencil to ink some cobwebs into the corners using Pumice Stone Distress Ink.  The little spider comes from the Mini Halloween 3 stamp set - though he had migrated onto my Apothecary set!  And the little bits of script detail are the text stamp from Apothecary, one of my all-time favourite script stamps.

I glued down some frayed linen ribbon and strips of Idea-ology Mummy Cloth next to Shakespeare (!), and used a spatula to add Ranger Distress Opaque Crackle Paste in various places.

Obviously, you need to leave that to crackle and do its thing.  Once it was dry, I added Pumice Stone DI and Distress Crayon over it to highlight the cracks.

Time for some collaging...  I had some snippets left over from the Add Some Text project in week two... typewriter letters made with the large Typewriter Embossing Folder and Black Kraft Stock.  I thought they would be great elements within the collaging, and also add some more dimension and texture.

Otherwise, I grabbed bits and bobs from various packets of Idea-ology Halloween ephemera that I've collected over the years - both paper and metal ephemera.  

I can't say for certain what came from which edition, but you can find this year's collection here (and of course you can also buy the packs individually).

And there's one of the Halloween Paper Dolls too, of course.  (Again, she's from a while back.)

She's the fortune teller who might take a hand in how your fate unfolds by using one of her poisonous potions on you.  You'll hear more about all that in the video when it comes out on Wednesday.

Once again, there are a few of the Curator Snippets labels in the mix... I don't know where I would be without them!

I think that's about your lot!  It's certainly my lot for this month in the Designer Spotlight for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  Head over there to see what the Design Team have got in store for you - it's bound to be inspiring.

They'll pick out a few favourite projects at the end of the week, and one randomly-drawn winner will go shopping at Simon Says Stamp with a prize voucher.  All you need to do is Add Some Texture!

I hope you've enjoyed this spooky little detour into the pages of my altered book journal.  And don't forget to pop back on Wednesday to get the direct link for the process video.  Of course, if you already follow my Words and Pictures YouTube channel, then you'll spot it when it pops up anyway!!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll have a wonderful week adding texture to whatever you are making.  Happy crafting, all!

There are poisons that blind you, and poisons that open your eyes.
August Strindberg

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadly poison. A striking example of the essential identity of the two tongues.
Ambrose Bierce, from The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary

Halloween Storytelling

Hello all, and happy Halloween!  I hope you've got a spooky night ahead on 31st October if that's your thing.  And if so, I just wanted to drop in to let you know that I've got a couple of helpings of Halloween Storytelling for you over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures.

The videos are flip throughs of a couple of Halloween journals I've made in previous years, each of which is packed with unnerving tales of the dark side of human nature.

Halloween Storytelling Part 1 - click here!

If creepy stories are one of your Halloween pleasures, then I invite you along for the fireside (or at least candlelit) storytelling.

Halloween Storytelling Part 2 - click here!

If you're of a nervous disposition, then maybe steer clear... you have been warned!!  (Or just come and watch with the sound turned down and enjoy all the Tim Holtz Idea-ology goodies layered up in the pages and pockets and tabs.)

I hope you'll all enjoy celebrating this All Hallow's Eve in whatever ways you choose.  And I'll be back soon with some more autumnal creativity and some more samples from my latest stamp launch too.  Happy Halloween, all!

October was always the least dependable of months … full of ghosts and shadows.

Joy Fielding

Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve.

Ray Bradbury

There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.

From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Books, Books, Books

Hello all!  I'm just dropping in quickly to let you know about a new series called Books, Books, Books starting soon on my YouTube channel. 

Given I started out working in theatre, deeply embedded in the Words side of things, it shouldn't be a surprise that books, words and storytelling played a significant part in things when I turned to exploring Pictures and visual art.  The Books, Books, Books series on YouTube is going to celebrate that. 

There will be flip throughs and storytelling from art journals, handmade books and altered books made across all the years of my creative journey. 

The first full episode will be next Wednesday, but there's a short introduction over there now with a taste of what’s coming your way over on YouTube over the next weeks and months.  Take a look at the introduction to Books, Books, Books here... 

I know I haven't got around to filling you in on last month's Fodder School adventures yet - and boy, did I have a lovely time with the April project!  I'm looking forward to sharing it here... I just need to find time to write the blogpost!  Hope you're all doing well, and I'll be back soon with my Collage Quartet. 

Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.
Jeanette Winterson

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
Cicero

Watercolour Playtime in my Fodder Journal

Hello all!  Given it's already November, it's about time I filled you in on the second part of October's Fodder School 3 classes... 

Having shared with us how to make the Coptic-bound watercolour journal in the Make Fodder classes of the month, Di Venter shared some ideas for watercolour spreads to go inside as her Use Fodder section.

I'm no stranger to painting the odd watercolour page or two, so I used her inspiration to nudge me into action in a few new directions, and I pushed the boat out colour-wise a bit!

I was inspired by some of Di's fruity pages, by the repetition she often uses in her spreads, by some of her colour playtime, and by her colour block page with doodles inside - though I went my own way with what I doodled!

Take a look and see what I got up to:

And here are just a few close-up details so you can see the gorgeous texture of the handmade Khadi papers I used in my journal.  They took a little bit of getting used to as they are really very rough, but I soon found how that texture could actually help with the watercolour effects (the plum page was the first break-through for that).

I'm already fully immersed in November's classes with Tiffany Sharpe, so I'll try to be back before December to share some of that creativity with you.  

Don't forget, you can of course still sign up at any time for Fodder School 3... all the details and registration are here.

I hope you're all doing well - I've been very busy getting the garden ready for winter... just as well as our first hard frost hit last night.  Off to get the gardening gloves on again now to cut back the roses for over-wintering!  Have a great weekend once it gets here... we've got some snow forecast (but not much).  A good excuse to stay in the craft room!! 

Because watercolour actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art.

Nita Engle

Water colours are wet colours in water.

David Hockney

Swatched florals

Hello all, and happy Spring to you.  After three months working in the UK, I'm just in time for the (later) spring here in the Czech Republic, so it's all go in the garden, getting things pruned, cleared, planted and generally ready for the sunshine.  

I just thought I'd pop in and quickly share some watercolour florals with you - these are usually done in quick 20-minute bursts in the morning when I get up, adding layers day by day, and both pages have more space to fill yet.  But I hope you'll enjoy them.  

And here's one with a colour palette that you don't often see from me...

Here are just a couple of close-ups and process photos.  The initial pencil sketch for the first one was done in the almost-dark, as an exercise in trying to keep it loose.  I'm really happy with it - in fact, it might be my favourite stage of the painting!

Making a note of the colours I've used is a good discipline for me.  I'm still learning so much as I go.

There are so many exciting things going on behind the scenes at the moment, but I'm not allowed to share any of them with you yet!  It's shaping up to be a big year.  I know I've not been a very good blogger lately, but I hope you'll be able to come along for the ride with some of what's coming up.  

Thanks so much, as always, for your company on this creative journey.  Happy crafting, all!

Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.

Matshona Dhliwayo

Blossom by blossom, the spring begins.

Algernon Charles Swinburne