Advent Countdown (part 1)

Hello all!  I'm trying to create something daily during December so I'm here to share the first week's worth.  There are definitely some new wintry favourites among them for me...

I haven't always got as far as a finished tag - so some days are background-creating days, and some days have more than one tag.  Hopefully in the end it will all add up to 25!  Here's what we have so far...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Those silvery blue crackled stencilled backgrounds appearing were actually made back in the summer during one of my first playtime sessions with the (then) new Uncharted Mariner colour.  It's taken until now for them to get their chance to shine!

There are some of my own PaperArtsy EAB28 Juniper Edition berries and text in a couple of the others.  And I think my favourite maybe the layered stamping backgrounds from Day 6.  I'm looking forward to finishing those off. 

I hope you are having a gentle run up to the festive season, and I hope to be back with some more Advent Countdown creativity soon.  Happy crafting, all!

I pray this winter be gentle and kind--

a season of rest from the wheel of the mind.

John Geddes

Insect Instructions

Hello all!  We're starting a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, and the lovely Annie is asking us all to spread our Inky Wings.

You can find all the details and instructions for the theme over at A Vintage Journey along with the usual incredible inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

Basically, as long as you have some ink and some wings involved, you'll be flying!  Before you hop over there to take a look, let me share my quartet of insect ATCs.

They're slightly bossy insects (embossed and bossy, how's that for word play?!), full of instructions for how to live your best life.

And after the unexpected fun I had with my excursion into the coral pink zone (do check out my Blushing Coral Butterflies if you missed them) we are back in my happy colour palette of blues and browns.

It all started very simply with a few spritzes of Distress Spray and Distress Oxide Spray onto an A4 piece of cheap watercolour paper.















Out of that I cut six ATCs, trying to choose areas which had some variety of colour as well as some white space.  Four of those made the final cut for this quartet, and I have two left for another day.












I was pretty sure from the moment I heard Annie's theme title that I would be getting out Tim Holtz's Entomology stamp set.















After this quartet, I think there are only two left that I haven't used at some point.  (I can't quite bear to ink up the mosquito-type one, such is my long-standing enmity with the species!)

They are, as you can see, embossed with Vanilla White Wow embossing powder, for that lovely light-catching dimension.













As always, when embossing an intricate stamp, I used Archival rather than sticky embossing ink - I think you get a more detailed result that way.














I chose some buttons from my hoarded stash and hand-stitched them to the ATCs, layered over some scraps of handmade paper (not handmade by me, I should say).














Long time followers will know that sewing is one of my least favourite things to do.  Sewing machines break when I sit down at them, and I used to put my skirt hem up with double-sided sellotape at school!













But I was prepared to make an exception in this case, and had great fun looping some extra wild thread around the buttons to add movement.














I did mention that these embossed insects are a little bit bossy.  You've already been told to Be brave with your life, and here are some more instructions.














I chose Small Talk stickers that all have suggestions (commands?) for us on how to live a good life.














They're edged with Pumice Stone ink and layered over torn strips of Design Tape.
















You may have spotted in the background that there are some glistening cobwebs...















... subtly hovering there to capture the winged insects if they fly in the wrong direction!

I doodled some frames around the edges, using grey ink and white with my dip pen.















And some ivory sequins capture extra flashes of light as you move the ATCs around.














There was a bit of text stamping early on in the process, but it's mostly disappeared.  However, there's lots of splatter to keep things lively.

So that's my set of Inky Wings ATCs for you.  They make me very happy.  I hope you like them too, however you feel about insects in real life!

If you're after some more inspiration, do hop over to A Vintage Journey and take a look at what the other Creative Guides have been making.  We hope you'll be inspired to spread your own Inky Wings and join us on the journey this month.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope to be round to repay some more visits over the next few days.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

Your dreams are what define your individuality. They have the power to give you wings and make you fly high.
P.V. Sindhu

I've just got time to squeeze this in to the Alles Geht (Anything Goes) theme over at ATCs mit Herz (ATCs with Heart)
At Crafty Cardmakers they're inviting us to Add a Critter... mine have six legs and wings into the bargain
Try It On Tuesday are looking for some Animal Magic - well, if insects are animals, then these should fit in well
More Mixed Media Challenge are playing Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Brown - done!
At the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge it's another month of Anything Mixed Media Goes

We're in the money!

Hello all!  Thank you so much for the lovely comments on my Eileen Hull Nature Journal.

I'm sorry I'm not managing many return visits at the moment... not only am I in the throes of packing for another stint away from home (travelling today, in fact) but my computer keyboard is having severe migraines, so I'm having to limit my time working on it.

Happily, I persuaded it to cooperate for long enough to write this post and schedule it.

You'll only understand today's title if you look very closely...

Underneath all those layers are some extremely mundane money envelopes - a pack of 250 bought for £1 in a Pound Shop at some point in the dim and distant past.  Nothing much to look at initially, but oh, how I enjoyed altering them.












I'm sharing both of these photos of the complete set as I've been flicking back and forth between them, unable to decide which I prefer, for long enough now, and there's still packing to be done, so you can decide for yourselves.

We've shifted from my actual dolls (see them at Pastime With Good Company) to Tim Holtz's new Paper Dolls... there's considerably less time and stress involved with these dolls!

I'm always inspired by the fantastic sets of ATCs created by Maj at m-1309, and these almost-ATC-sized money envelopes (they're actually 4 x 2 and 5/8) arose out of many happy visits to her blog, though they're not specifically based on any one ATC set of hers.

I've just been to take a quick photo of some of the unaltered envelopes, so that you can see the humble beginnings...













I think it's probably around a year since I created the backgrounds - paper scraps, gesso and Ecoline inks dotted on and spritzed with water.

Whatever I had in mind at the time didn't quite come together (I can't remember what or why), so they sat around near the craft table and waited patiently for me to come back and play with them.













When Tim Holtz's Paper Dolls and new Design Tapes turned up, I thought they'd be the perfect addition.















The little strips of Design Tape add lovely detail without being too in-your-face.














I had a joyous time selecting my characters and adding the simple extra layers of embellishments.

It took a while to sort through the hundreds of dolls to find the ones I wanted at matching sizes.













Almost all of the images in the pack of Paper Dolls are there in multiple sizes, so you can pick just the right dimensions to suit your project.

I love the selection of children I've ended up with, so full of character...













... the serious expressions of some of them, even to the point of definite anxiety in the case of the little girl on the left...















... and then this confident chap, happy to look you straight in the eye from his comfortable perch.















I find that the characters tell you stories as you work with them...













... so that choosing the individual Big Chat word stickers to accompany each of them was pretty easy.















I just listened to what they were saying to me...















... and selected the word which seemed to correspond.







I used some bundled thread on each envelope (something Maj often does).  I have quite often done it myself in the past, and always enjoy the effect, but I seem to forget about it.

I've now put a roll of thread in the little box which sits the middle of the craft table right in front of me, and I've got another in the craft supplies ready to go in the suitcase.  Hopefully I'll remember to use it more often in future!

I kept the embellishments simple - a button and a number brad for each of them...
















... and an inky butterfly each.

The butterflies were punched with Tim's large butterfly punch out of a wrinkle-free distress tag.















I used various Distress Inks, chosen to complement the Ecoline inks already in place from a year ago.















It's great fun varying the positioning, so that each one of the set is slightly differently arranged, but balanced in itself.











And it really doesn't take much more time to make four than it would to make one.

(It does require more photos though, in my world...)













I often work in series and sets with tags, but I can't remember doing it at this size before.

I can see this becoming addictive!








You have to look pretty closely now to see the printing from the money envelopes now, but I promise you it is still there.  (Quite why they won't sit all in a straight line is beyond me, but that's children for you.)

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  As soon as I've arrived, settled in and got stuck in to rehearsals in NYC, I hope to be round for some long-neglected visiting.

If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
Dorothy Parker

I'd like to play along at Frilly and Funkie where the challenge is to Put Your Inking Cap On - making anything without using designer paper.  Quite apart from anything else, that's my favourite challenge theme title ever!
This makes entry number three at Mixed Media World for their Anything Goes with an optional twist of Watercolour theme - and finally, third time lucky, there are Ecoline Watercolour Inks involved
And I hope they're bright enough for That's Crafty Challenges where the theme is Bright!