A Box of Eggs

Hello all!  I've been busy playing (or laying?!) with eggs over at PaperArtsy for this fortnight's colour challenge, A Box of Eggs.  The idea was to create projects using some of the gorgeous new paint colours designed by Courtney Franich (a.k.a. Cork, who is also Miss PaperArtsy) which include some beautiful pastels and neutrals, as well as darker tones to pair with them.  Obviously these colours could take you anywhere, but from the moment I saw the title A Box of Eggs, my mind became fixated on it...

I've found it's best not to argue with my mind once it gets an idea, so that's exactly what you'll find if you hop over to PaperArtsy - not just one, but two boxes of eggs.  Yes, okay, it's possible my brain's a little scrambled.  But go on, off you go, best get cracking or you'll miss the fun... !!

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

Encore - Nature Assemblage

Encore Posts

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 while I'm away.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  Please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!

Hello all!  Thank you so much for your lovely comments on my jumbo Autumn Splendour tag.  It seems I'm not the only one for whom it's a favourite!  I've another creation with autumn leaves for you today, but this time they're real leaves.  This assemblage canvas was created back in May 2017 for the PaperArtsy "Assemblage" theme.  Those leaves, and the fact that it uses Lynne Perrella stamps - she's on my mind because of the recent release of her Egyptian stamps, which I was lucky enough to make some samples for - as well as the subject matter of a woman connecting with the landscape around her, all made it seem like good timing for this Encore.  Here's what I wrote back then...

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Hello all, Alison from Words and Pictures here to share an Assemblage piece with you this evening.

The definitions I read spoke about Assemblage as essentially being three-dimensional collage - 3D objects projecting out from the substrate - and from the first moment of reading that, these Lynne Perrella houses popped into my head.

My imagination took flight from there - the woman from LP036 (probably my top favourite image from Lynne's latest exquisite releases) trapped inside the buildings, her domestic life, her position in society.

Her joy lies in escaping into the grounds of the large manor house she lives in and gathering botanical specimens, or natural keepsakes to remind her that there is life outside the walls of narrow society expectations.

And though her life is regimented, and she tries to follow the conventions in displaying her collections by lining them up and labelling them, nature always breaks out of the mould.

The twigs and branches refuse to be confined in straight lines...

... and so do the dried flowers, so carefully preserved.

The Frozen Charlottes are part of her own broken self - expected to behave in certain ways and follow certain codes...

... but feeling fractured and constricted by those expectations.

You can see how her obsession with the natural world has infected even her appearance!

And she feels ever more constricted by her world...

I'm indebted to Amanda at Treasured Moments of Inspiration for the background here.  I had my layout all in place, but I was struggling with what should go on the canvas itself - design paper?  Brayering?  Stencilled texture?  My usual crackle?  But thanks to a moment of inspiration from the blog visiting, I have these layered tags.

Over my tags, I applied a glazing technique picked up from one of Donna Downey's Inspiration Wednesday videos.  I used the PaperArtsy Matte Glaze mixed with successive layers of paint - applying and then wiping back with cloths both wet and dry, until I was happy with the look.  The paint layers were Nougat, Taupe and French Roast, knocked back at the end with Snowflake both as a glaze and, eventually, plenty of spattering.

I added harlequin stencilling with the Snowflake and text stamping using script stamps from Hot Picks 1006 and 1217...

... so that the background would echo the Tim Holtz paper used to make the houses.

I used a variety of mediums to add extra depth and shading - a Pumice Stone Distress Crayon, a Ground Espresso Distress Marker, and a Sepia Archival ink pad, and the final touch was some French Roast spatter to add extra depth.

The Matte Glaze mixed with French Roast was also perfect for distressing the Frozen Charlottes.

It's really easy to get the look you want, as the Glaze gives you so much extended time to play.

I almost forgot the roofs - another stamp from the LP036, featuring the little cottage where she dreams of living out a simple life...

... instead of in her father's great mansion with all the attendant privileges and duties.

So that was the journey my imagination took into the mind of this woman and her collection of natural found objects, as I was assembling this creation.

Thanks for coming along with me to share her story, and I hope you'll be inspired to gather some three-dimensional stories of your own.

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So there's another Encore post safely gathered in to my online virtual scrapbook of my creative journey.  One day maybe I'll have them all safely here in one place, but I warn you there are more than 100 of them still to go!  And of course every time I create something for another blog and only have a sneak peek here at Words and Pictures, that number goes up rather than down... ah, well.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope the autumn weather is being as kind to you as it is to me here in the Czech Republic.  There's something new up next (which this canvas also gives the tiniest little hint towards - you'll see what I mean on Saturday!) and after that I hope to find time to share some of my autumn photos of the beautiful Czech countryside with you, as well as a couple of the watercolours inspired by that landscape.  I've definitely been connecting with the nature around me, just like this woman, though feeling considerably more free!  In the meantime, happy crafting all!

There is an eternal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives.
Josephine Hart

I would like to share this as part of Simply Neutrals Tuesday over at Apple Apricot

Encore - Lovers Love The Spring

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!

Hello everyone, catch up time here again at Words and Pictures, with a project which originally appeared over at Calico Crafts in their previous life.  These days they offer a fabulous range of Calico Craft Parts which are pure delight to create with, but I still remember with fondness the eclectic range of crafting goodies they used to supply.  Here's what I wrote back in February 2014.

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I'm delighted to share a little touch of Springtime and a little touch of Shakespeare with you. I was even lucky enough to catch 10 minutes of sunshine between torrential rain showers for some of the photos.

I'm always amazed by the difference in colours depending on whether it's in sunlight or in shade...

It's another hanging created on a side piece of the same chopped up book box as the last one... waste not, want not. (Calico don't stock the history books box set I'm afraid!)

I painted the thick cardboard with DecoArt White Wash acrylic paint and added a coat of One Step Crackle Medium (also DecoArt) around the edges.   Once it was dry and crackled, I rubbed Burnt Umber paint into it and wiped away the excess with a babywipe.

Then I began assembling my Spring collage pieces.   One of the joys for me at Calico Crafts is they have such lovely things that you really don't need to do very much to create something special!

The grapevine heart is 8.5cm across, and comes wrapped about in plain wire.

I have to admit that I unravelled that and re-ravelled it (yeah, I don't think it's a word either!) with rusty wire - a bit fiddly, as I had to re-ravel before fully unravelling so as not to have the whole thing disintegrate on me, but I think it was worth it... but then I'm a rusty wire junkie!

These adorable little speckled eggs - they've just had a whisper of gesso added, and then the white splatter at the end.

And the ruffle roses have had a couple of coats of gesso to rough them up a little and make them a touch paler.

The three driftwood planks absolutely delight me and, again, they've just had a rough coat of diluted White Wash paint for an even shabbier chic look.

Being a rusty wire junkie, I couldn't resist wrapping the planks up with a bit more of the stuff.

And the whole thing is layered over a piece of script paper torn from the Kaisercraft Timeless Classics 12x12 pad.  I inked the edges with Jumbo Java Versamagic Chalk Ink, which is a lovely rich colour, perfect to add definition to the paper behind the twigs of the heart.

The words - ah, the words - are from one of the songs in Shakespeare's As You Like It. The first verse is at the foot of the post... it's not necessarily his finest hour, but it's pretty!

They're stamped using the Artemio Typewriter Alphabet stamps onto lightly inked paper, and then edged with the Jumbo Java Chalk Ink again.

Some rusty wire through the eyelets at the top, some hot glue gun action, a little white paint splatter and we're done!

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I hope you like it, and I really, really hope that Spring will be here soon in reality.  According to the weather forecasts I've been looking at at the time of adding these top and bottom paragraphs, the weather in China is likely to be an improvement on what we've been having in the UK - so fingers crossed for all of us!  Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.

It was a lover and his lass,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonny no,

That o’er the green corn-field did pass,

In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, Hey ding a ding, ding:

Sweet lovers love the spring.

Song from As You Like It by William Shakespeare

Long Live Calico Craft Parts!

Hello all!  I'm absolutely thrilled to share some fantastic news with you... After the awful fire which put the much-loved Calico Crafts out of business last year, I'm delighted to say that the Calico Craft Parts have arisen from the ashes.  This brilliant line of gorgeous laser-cut wood and MDF shapes is now available again, with an ever-expanding range of even more designs to choose from.  Check out the brand new website here.

To celebrate the wonderful news, I thought I'd share some of my Calico Crafts Design Team posts which used the Craft Parts - posts which hadn't yet made it over here to Words and Pictures and need to be added to the crafty scrapbook - starting with one of my favourites, this Garden Tray.  (If you commented last time, please don't feel you have to again!)

The tray itself is part of a range of self-assembly Printers' Trays - they're being re-designed at present and should be available very soon.  It's so cool that you put them together yourself, because it means you can decorate them beforehand, which makes painting and papering much easier.  So here's what I came up with for my first tray - it's a country garden, moving through the seasons, in a tray!  And it uses other wonderful Calico Craft Parts available now.

I'm afraid I forgot to take photos at the early stages... but I started with the DecoArt Chalky Finish Paints.

I gave the walls of the tray a coat of Enchanted - an earthy garden green, then a coat of the Decor Crackle Medium (specially formulated for the Chalk Paints), and then the white Everlasting over the top.

Eventually they had added shading using all sorts of colours, which you'll find out about further down the post.

On the back wall, I glued a piece of the Tim Holtz Menagerie 8x8 paper using the matte Mod Podge from my Mod Podge Starter Set.  Because the pattern on the paper varies, it looks as though I've carefully chosen different papers for different sections of the tray... nope, it's just one piece! 

I decided it was time to glue the tray together.  Because I had added both paper and some quite thick paint layers, I had to do a bit of sanding around the "teeth" where the pieces join to get them to fit snugly.

You might be better not gluing the paper right over the teeth, but just up to the edges of them - that's what I'll be trying next time - you live, you learn! - or maybe that's what they're working on in the redesign!

I added some shading with green paint, a wash of DecoArt Hauser Light Green, on the corners, both external and internal, adding a bit of colour to the background paper too.

Next, I started filling my compartments with lots of rustic goodies.

I altered some Buttons with paint - the Enchanted and Everlasting chalk paints again, a little touch of DecoArt Forest Green - and a tiny touch of Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

I threaded Rusty Tin Wire through the buttonholes, and layered some of them up over different sizes of the Rusty Tin Hearts. 

The smaller heart is mounted on a cork from a glass vial which smashed.  Naturally I saved the cork, and now it's doing good service creating great dimension in this little section of the tray.

The smallest rusty heart is mounted over one of my favourite Punched Metal Heart Danglies, which has had the same painty treatment as the buttons.  And I curled a bit of rusty tin wire through the hole at the top.

In the tall segment at the top, with the largest rusty heart (mounted on some padded tape), I added one of these fabulous shiny yellow pears, so that became a sort of autumnal section, especially with those pods looking like sycamore wings, of which more later.

Just below that, it's Spring!  I created a little nest of green jungle moss and someone clearly took advantage as there are now some miniature speckled eggs nestled in it.  I also added some of lovely Sun Daisies in Golden Yellow, Yellow, and White and Yellow.

And there are some more daisies up in the summery corner, top left.  These I left with longer stems, rather than chopping them off as I usually do, and I used some masking tape to stick them into a UTEE moulded pot I'd made a while back and which had been sitting on my craft table, waiting for a chance to come out and play.  

The moulded UTEE is painted with DecoArt paints in Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber with a little dark shadow of Raw Umber at the edges and some highlights of Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

The final touches include some more of the wonderful Calico Craft Parts - one of the grasses, Wild Grass Shape 2...

... and a snippet of seed pods, cut off from the Maple Leaf and Twig shape that I used in the orchard frame which I'll be sharing with you soon.  It's playing the role of autumn sycamore seeds here!

Both of them had a coat of DecoArt One Step Crackle, and then I inked with Vintage Photo Distress Stain to intensify the crackles.  You may also spot little shimmers of the Treasure Gold too (as well as the button hiding in the dappled sunlight behind!).

I used lots of Rusty Tin Wire to attach an Idea-ology Word Band which I'd altered with the Hauser Light Green and Forest Green paints, as well as some Quinacridone Gold paint and Florentine Gold Treasure Gold.

I almost forgot to tell you the paints for the shading on the outside!  I used the Quinacridone Gold and some Raw Umber around the corners of the tray, so that the edges also have a good rustic feel to them.

So that's my rustic garden Printer's Tray for you... From what I hear, various styles of tray will be available at Calico Craft Parts soon - definitely worth keeping an eye out for, and great fun to play with.

In the meantime, I can only recommend that you head over to Calico Craft Parts and see what fabulous bits and bobs are available, and all for temptingly reasonable prices.  You have been warned!

Thanks so much for dropping in, and I'll see you again soon.

Beauty surrounds us, but usually we need to be walking in a garden to know it.

Rumi

Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.
Anonymous