Beautiful New Year Moments

Hello all, and a very happy 2018 to all of you.  I hope it brings you all that you are wishing for.


The first of the month means it's time to begin a new challenge at Mini Album Makers.  As always, any handmade book is welcome, and my lovely team-mates have provided a wealth of inspiration for you.  But before you hop over there to check it out, here's my own offering.


I've made myself a journal for keeping notes and ideas in for a new word-based endeavour I'm involved in - making it perfect for Simon Says Stamp's Something New theme.  It's decorated in a simple, natural style that makes me happy.
















And those lovely leaves also put in an appearance on the inside, albeit in a slightly different way...

I started by tearing the pages of a cheap watercolour pad in half, and then cutting the end-board of the pad in half to make my front and back covers.... simple and easy so far.















I painted the outer covers with some DecoArt Chalk Paint in Enchanted and added some of the Crackle Glaze formulated for the Chalk Paints.
















While the glaze was drying, I hole-punched all the pages and gave them a light spritz of Bundled Sage Distress Spray.













The pages were then left to dry as I added the top coat of the covers.  The white DecoArt Chalk Paint is known as Everlasting.  I love the mega-crackles from that hefty application of Crackle Glaze.












I glued some pre-printed tissue paper and some torn teabags onto the crackle... all nice and translucent.















I then added a patch of seamed calico fabric (one of the unwanted curtain bands which come with a certain Swedish furniture store's cheapest calico curtains... waste not, want not!) and lots of scrunchled thread to the mix.













That all needed time to dry so I got on with something else in the meantime.













I pulled out some of the lovely chipboards by one of the Mini Album Makers' sponsors, Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts.  I thought these leaves would make great decorative elements over my background textures.














Before decorating them, though, I used the leafy garland as a mask to add some more decorative detail to a few of the interior pages.  This time the spritzing was done with Peeled Paint Distress Spray.












I gesso'd the leaves and spritzed them with a combination of Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint sprays.  They looked pretty cool while they were still wet...













... but the colour faded quite a lot as they dried.  I was a bit disappointed when I came down the next morning.














In order to recapture the "wet look", I used some DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics - a mixture of Green Gold and Sap Green spritzed with water on the craft mat - and splodged the leaves down into them.
















I'm very happy with the result.












I know spring is quite a long way off yet, but the vibrant freshness of the green leaves is a promise of good things to come!













I lightly gesso'd the fabric and tissue of the front cover to knock it back a bit before adding my finished leaves.  And then I thought I'd better do the back cover too, so that the crackle would be softened in the same way as on the front.













The binding is very simply done with twine threaded through the hole-punched pages.  














But I decided I wanted a bit more natural earthiness, so I bound a twig into the twine as I tied it off.  It serves no particular purpose, I just like it!












The twig actually comes from a roll of wired twig garden edging which I'm gradually dismantling as I find a need for the twigs.













A little bit of Gathered Twigs (but of course) inking around the edges, and we're pretty much done.  














I love that there are places inside where I'll be writing over or around the masked leafy garland pattern, echoing the front cover...















... but not always.














I also really love the wild thread giving movement to the whole thing. 















The Idea-ology Quote Sticks tell you exactly what I hope to be doing throughout 2018.









I toyed for a while with the idea of spattering it with white paint in time-honoured fashion, but in the end I restrained myself.  I thought it was better left with this clean, fresh look.

So there you have it - Happy New Year!  I hope 2018 will be kind to you, and to us all.  Why not kick it off by coming to play along at Mini Album Makers?




There's lots more inspiration for you over at the challenge blog, and you could be chosen as one of our top picks or win our sponsor prize, which this month is a fantastic $25 gift voucher courtesy of the fabulous Lindy's Stamp Gang.  So do come and join in - we welcome any handmade book, and we love seeing all shapes, sizes and styles.  Hope to see you there some time during January.  Happy crafting all!




You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Henry David Thoreau

I'd like to play along at That's Crafty Challenges where Anything Goes
At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge they are looking for Something New - well, not only is this my New Year's journal recording words for a new creative project, but I've also used these new (to me) Gypsy Soul laser cuts

Dancing Leaves

Hi everyone, and a warm welcome to Words and Pictures - so happy you've dropped in.

I've a quick tag to share with you today, catching the very last tumbling leaves before the trees enter their stark, bare, winter state (also beautiful of course - silhouetted tree branches against the sky... wow, well done Nature!).

I've got an amazing view out of my (temporary) living room window, straight on to the River Avon, with a tree just outside, bravely clinging on to its last few yellowed leaves.

There's a definite melancholia to this stage, though with yesterday's bright blue skies, the crispness in the air was wonderfully invigorating.  And rather than falling, the leaves really did seem to flutter their way to the ground with one final flourish.

Today, in grey drizzle, it's sadly not the same story!  But this tag celebrates the final flourish, nonetheless...











It came together out of some discards and leftovers that were lying around on the craft table.  The kraft luggage label had been used to wipe a gesso-y brush on a couple of times, and the leaves are cut from one of my discarded Fashion ATCs!

The whole thing was based on a calico background, but in the end the fabric was a bit too floppy for my liking, so I backed it onto another layer of firm kraft card.

You can see those layers here...

The luggage label had taken on a slightly crumpled look, so I intensified that, scrunching it up and distressing the edges.

And then I had an absolute ball with some paints, inks, stamps and stencils to create the background.

I'm really happy with the leaves.  In pursuit of a Fashion ATC for the challenge over at Fun With ATCs (still plenty of time to play... we'd love to have your company), one attempt started with an ATC background on which I'd done the Tim Holtz Enamelled Stamping technique (from Compendium of Curiosities II)

I stamped some flourishes in Seedless Preserves DI and embossed them with clear embossing powder, then inked the background with the same colour and embossed again.




I completely loved the look - so much, in fact, that anything I put over it to build the Fashion theme didn't please me as much as the background itself - and believe me, I tried!

But what a delight when the idea struck for this tag to use that discarded ATC with the Tim Holtz Autumn Garland decorative strip die to cut myself some beautiful leaves.

I love how they catch the sunlight at certain angles, and at others reveal more of their flourishes.  

So really, it's a tag of two backgrounds - not only the tag itself, but also the not-quite-an-ATC background!

I added the sentiment that came to my lips, stamped onto some another gesso-painted kraft label (this time deliberately painted!), torn and edged with Gathered Twigs for extra definition, and assembled my pieces trying to leave plenty of  background on display.  

When I glued the leaves, I kept the glue just to the centre of each leaf, so that they could flick or curl up at the edges for extra movement.

I added some of the trimmed off calico as my ribbon at the top, and that was pretty much that!

Thanks so much for taking the time to drop by.  I'll be back very soon with a very special announcement... oh, the suspense!... so I'll hope perhaps to see you again, if not here then elsewhere in Craftyblogland.



I'm entering this in the following:
Artful Times would like us to share a Fabric Tag
Our Creative Corner are asking us to Make Our Own Background
Crafts 4 Eternity are looking for Terrific Tags

Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile.
William Cullen Bryant

Autumn wins you best by this, its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.
Robert Browning

Halloween Masks

Hello all, and welcome!  Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by.

Another Halloween number for you today - and apologies if the title led you to believe there would be actual masks here (as in Masquerade type masks)... I'm thinking of the crafty-technique sort.  Here's what I've been up to - a plaque to hang on the wall behind the treat baskets this Wednesday:

I'm so in love with this skull stamp from Tim Holtz's Apothecary set... I think without it I probably wouldn't have gone Halloween-y at all.  



And now I'm on at least my fifth project influenced by All Hallows Eve (here, here, here and here, if you've time to spare, and curiosity enough to kill a cat...), and he's on three out of the five, and clearly on overtime in this one!

There are a number of Halloween themes around at the moment, of course, but the challenge over at Our Creative Corner is specifically looking for Halloween with the use of masking technique.  I love to mask, as you'll have seen if you visited the first 'here', so I didn't need telling twice.

I love the 3D effect you get of one image sitting behind another, and I love that you can get those extreme colour differences, right up to the image, which gives it such definition.  

So the central skull went in place first, and I used the mask I'd already cut for him - out of an old book page.  The paper is quite thin without being completely flimsy, which makes for a good mask.  

If your mask is on thicker paper or card, you won't be able to get the image to stamp as close to your first, as there'll be gap where it has to deal with the thickness of the paper.  

However, if it's on something too thin and frail, you won't be able to do the blending without it creasing up or ripping. Bit of a Goldilocks situation - but I find the book page is "just right". 

Next to be stamped were the skulls either side of the central image and then, using the same mask, the spiders' webs (Tattered Angels) and writing (TH Apothecary - my new favourite script stamp!)  behind them. 




All of that was stamped in Black Archival ink, since I knew I'd want to do some blending, and who knows what else, and wanted the images to keep their integrity.   

Then I did my colouring of the two secondary skulls, Pumice Stone DI on a blending tool, done quite roughly - not looking for perfect precision.  Then it had to be Chipped Sapphire to give me my moonlit night behind the skulls.

I used the Picket Fence Distress marker on their teeth, and then had to do some re-outlining of some of the teeth with the fine end of the Black Soot one.  The teeth have also had a layer of Chalk Dust Glimmer Mist, painted on from a spritz on the craft sheet.  The central skull also has a layer of this gentle sparkliness - hard to photograph, but I think you can just catch it in a couple of the photos...

The Happy Halloween (also TH Apothecary) is embossed in Frantage Aged Silver enamel onto dark blue card.  

The same card is used as the background to the plaque, embossed with the Cracked Texture TH embossing folder (always looks a bit cobwebby to me).  I applied some Pewter Metallic Distress stain to the raised areas for the sheen and lustre of it.  









Between my inked card and the embossed background, there's a layer of calico, frayed at the edges... I loved how it picked up the colour of the Pumice Stoned skulls so exactly, as well as offering some lovely additional texture.

I was lucky enough to have Mr Random Generator pick my comment out of the hat over at Snazzy's last month, and the spider comes out of the TH Idea-ology Halloween set that arrived a couple of days ago to put a big smile on my face.

He timed his arrival perfectly and looks rather splendid, I think, with a little coat of Pewter Metallic Distress Stain!

Tis the night - the night
Of the grave's delight,
And the warlocks are at their play;
Ye think that without
The wild winds shout,
But no, it is they - it is they.
Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
William Shakespeare

Hold on, man.  We don't go anywhere with "scary," "spooky," "haunted," or "forbidden" in the title.
From Scooby-Doo

I'm entering this in the following:
Masking for Halloween at Our Creative Corner
Halloween at Try It On Tuesday
Halloween at Top Tip Tuesday - and my tip: cut your mask out of thin paper to get a really close up edge to your stamping and blending
The Fashionable Stamping Challenge have also got a Halloween challenge... this is my third and final entry (well, it won't be Halloween much longer - got to make the most of it!)