Enjoying the Journey

Hi all!  So, we're pretty much straight back in with inspiration piece number two for my Word Play theme over at Country View Challenges this month.

You can find all the challenge details if you click the links, along with a wealth of inspiration from my amazing team-mates.

(There's been a flurry of posts here at Words and Pictures in the last couple of days, so do go for a scroll if you'd like to see what else I've been up to.  All the links are at the end of this post to make life easier!)

And here it is - blues, greens, crackle, and a glossy "enamelled" sentiment with dragonfly to match, just alighting or just taking off...

This was one of those pieces where I set out on the creative journey without a destination in mind.. but I certainly enjoyed myself along the way!

I started with an idea for using the Tim Holtz die of the same name as the challenge: WordPlay.

I cut myself lots of thick card letters and glued them down to a large wooden ticket shape (I think it's intended to be part of a wooden album - I got some of them really cheaply at a craft fair).

I coated the whole thing with matte medium to seal the cardboard so that it wouldn't go soggy and peel.










Next stage was to add lots of Distress Paint colours, marbling as I went.  I started out, in fact, thinking that this would be a much fierier affair - pinks and oranges galore.













But when push came to shove, my blues and greens resurfaced, and I just went over the whole thing with a whole different palette!  I also did a little bit of inking with Mowed Lawn Distress Ink to highlight some of the surfaces.








I next added a coat Rock Candy Distress Paint and left it to get on with crackling while I tried to work out what would go over the background I'd created.  

This is quite often the way with me... I play around and come up with a background I really like, and then have to work out how not to cover it up too much!







My first abortive attempts involved stamping a large sentiment on acetate to go over the top, but it wasn't quite working for me... so that's when I reached for my new Layered Dragonfly die and folder.

I cut and embossed him in plain white card, and then got busy with some powders and the heat tool (and all this in that steamy heatwave we were having)... 










I started with two layers of clear UTEE, and then did one coat of Wow Bright White powder over the top.  

I sprinkled a tiny bit of Ranger's Antiquities Verdigris powder onto that to tie in with the blue greens of my letter texture background.





The UTEE makes it easy to reheat and remould the wings, so I was able to get them dramatically poised for flight...

And the curly antennae were created out of some more notebook bindings, saved and hoarded for just this kind of thing!











Since this challenge is about keeping words at the centre of things, I needed a nice bold phrase or quote to go with all that wordplay in the background...

So I ran some more white card through with the Stacked Artful Words Decorative Strip Die and selected "enjoy the journey" as the one which worked best with my wandering dragonfly.








I gave it the same "enamelling" treatment as the dragonfly himself - two coats of UTEE, one of Bright White and a sprinkling of Verdigris.

I love the dimensional glossy look, and that shimmer of turquoise from the Verdigris powders.

By this time, the crackle was all crackled, and I used some of the new DecoArt Antiquing Cream in Titanium White to highlight the cracks.

It also had the effect of tying in with the fresh bold white of the words and the dragonfly.










I was enjoying the Verdigris so much, that I decided to try it on a couple of white paper roses...

It was pretty tricky getting the embossing ink down into all the crevices.  I used a Perfect Medium Brush Pen in places to help.











But I like the finished effect.  You certainly wouldn't know at first glance that the flowers are made of paper!












The flowers needed something to "root" them a bit - somewhere to rest - so I cut some pieces of Tim Holtz's Garden Greens out of thick white card, and did a bit of text stamping on them with one of my Unity stamps before inking around the edges.

Some strong white paper ribbon will do the job of hanging up my wordy wooden dragonfly ticket.







It definitely needs to hang somewhere in the sunlight to catch the sparkle on all that crackle and the glossy dragonfly wings!

So I hope this will inspire you to indulge in some Word Play of your own and join us this month over at Country View Challenges.  Thanks so much for dropping in.  As I mentioned, it's been a crazy few days here - so in case you want to catch up here are the links.

You'll find my Artistic Stamper art journalling here, and my first Country View Challenges tag here.  Oh, and there's also my farewell piece for Artistic Outpost here.  Not forgetting my Calico Roses yesterday.  See... busy, busy, busy.  At least it's all fun, though - I'm so grateful for a life which lets me play even when I'm working.

And this week I should finally, finally have a bit of breathing space (in between Shakespeare workshops) to catch up with all of you!

All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.
Ernest Hemingway

I'm entering this in Who's the Boss (looking for dry and/or heat embossing) over at Craft Hoarders Anonymous.  With all that powder, as well as the embossing folder in the Layered Dragonfly, I've got a bit of both!
And I'd like to pop it in over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where this time my J is for... journey.

A Manly Beginning...

Hello all, so happy you could drop in today - there's a lot going on as it's the first of the month!  

First of all, I'm very excited to share my news with you.  I'm delighted to be able to announce that I'm joining the team at Country View Challenges - so happy! - and so here's my project for the June theme of Only Men Allowed.

Later in the morning, I'll be back (with a completely contrasting tag!) to share my inspiration offering for the new Our Creative Corner challenge.  But first let's check out the men!  The Country View Challenges team have created some fabulous makes to inspire you, so do hop over and check them out when you're done here...

I'm starting out with a tag - what else?! - and drawing inspiration from my favourite crafty men: Tim Holtz and Umbrella Man.  There's a list of ingredients at the end of the post, so you can click on the product links if you feel an uncontrollable urge to go shopping!

I had a ball creating the background for this... I stuck some Metal Foil Tape Sheets to a Size 8 tag, and then ran it through my BigShot with the glorious Subway folder.









I splurged some paint onto the surface, black acrylic and Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood Distress Paints.  








The first layer ended up far too dark for my liking, so I added more of the two blues, spritzing and drying until I was happy.











Once it was all dry, I sanded the surface of the embossing to reveal the metal tape beneath - v. cool look, I'd say!

Glancing around the craft table, I spotted a steely blue mop-up tag which was hanging out over in one corner... perfect for Umbrella Man.  
Once cut, I blended on Black Soot Distress Ink from the left to create a shadow effect.

He's stamped with grungy numbers from the Ultimate Grunge stamp set, and mounted on padded tape to create a pop of dimension.

He needed somewhere to stand, and since he's trying to work out which way he should go in life, I thought this arrow (a.k.a. a clock hand/Game Spinner) might help.












And I added some other Idea-ology bits and bobs, as well as some other metal pieces to help on the journey - Sprocket Gears and a Compass Coin, for instance.













The ChitChat stickers are edged in Black Soot and have a touch of Weathered Wood DP to add to the stormy steely bluesy look.














The topping is made with tissue tape - Commute, to co-ordinate with the embossed background - stuck to some seam binding to create a stiff ribbon, and it's tied with Paper String.











So, that's my first masculine make for you.  I'll be back later in June to share some more inspiration.  Do hop over and check out what my amazing new (to me!) team mates have created, and we hope you'll come and play Only Men Allowed some time this month.  There's a prize draw generously sponsored by Country View Crafts.

And, as I mentioned, I'll be back all too soon to play over in Our Creative Corner, with something completely different... hope to see you then!

To map out a course of action and follow it to the end requires courage.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'd like to enter this in the following:
One for the Boys at the Pan Pastel UK Challenge Blog
For the Guys at Allsorts

Click to go shopping at Country View Crafts:
Metal Foil Tape Sheets
Size 8 Tags
Subway and Stencil Texture Fades
Stampers Anonymous - Ultimate Grunge
Idea-ology Game Spinners, Sprocket Gears, Compass Coins
Commute Tissue Tape
ChitChat Stickers
Paper String - Solids
Umbrella Man has been discontinued - shock, horror, tears!

A Joyful Christmas Tag

Hello everyone and welcome, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers - lovely to have you on board.

Hope you've had a lovely week, and are looking forward to a great weekend doing whatever makes you happy...

I'm back with another Funkie Junkie inspired tag.

Yes, slowly but surely I'm making my way through Linda Coughlin's fabulous 12 Tags of Christmas... just not in the right order.

For my fourth contribution, I've leapt forward to Linda's number 9 which you can see here.













If I manage to get all 12 done by the 22nd December, I'll qualify for the prize draw sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.  You can find all the details and rules here.

And this one was a sheer joy to make from beginning to end.  Again, I haven't travelled far from Linda's original, but there are some variations to keep you posted on.











I loved Linda's background so stuck to that pretty closely, using an Artistic Outpost snowflake from the Snowy Woods set for my silver embossing.










Something was going on with the sizes of the tag, the baroque plaque and the sentiment stamp.  I seem to have either smaller or larger versions of each, so it all meant the overall look of the tag has altered somewhat.











I cut the music from a card of Bach's manuscript so it has a slightly shiny finish which was slightly reluctant to take the ink I edged it with until I added some gesso on too.

I notice from these close-ups that I seem to have stuck it on upside down.  Imperfection, I embrace thee!









I didn't have any kind of large snowflake to hand, but I did have a small wooden dove, part of a set of decorations from the Czech Republic.

I painted him, added a silver snowflake and then, since I don't have any Distress Glitter in any other colours, I got out the Rock Candy Dry Glitter to zhuzh him up.

My sentiment was embossed onto another plaque, but it was way too large and my lovely background was fast disappearing.

I trimmed it down by hand at either side, and gave it a good inking with lots of the dark brown Distress inks.













I found myself wanting some more music around, so I added a bit more to the background using a Tim Holtz stamp (where the music is actually backwards - but we're embracing imperfection, eh?).



















Another major departure from the inspiration tag was to change the fir branches for flourishes.

























And I decided I didn't want to make them all glittery like Linda's branches.  I like them too much in their natural wood state, so all they've had is a little touch of gesso.

















And a happy side effect of that decision is that this tag will fit nicely into Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge this week, With A Flourish.











The paper roses have also been gesso'd, and then I used Treasure Gold in Pewter to give the very edges a bit of silvery shine.














The tiny pine cone needed a smattering of gesso/snow too, and I wound a little piece of fine twine around and about for extra interest.












My heart started out as another of the Czech wooden ornaments (like the golden tree on the last tag).  I gave it a coat or two of paint, then added some silver snowflakes to replace the ones I'd painted over.














I added Rock Candy Dry Glitter again to give it a touch of sparkle.

What's great about the Distress Glitters is that you can ink over the top of them, so I was able to add a touch of Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain around the edges for definition.










And another tiny touch of music too... Christmas should be filled with music.















The topping is some paper ribbon, splayed and frayed, and another of the little pine cones, all bound together with some more fine twine.

Really, really happy with this one (hence all the photos) - and it gave me such pleasure to create it - so thank you yet again, Linda, for a wonderful piece of inspiration.  

I'm starting to think I might stick with this blue and brown colour theme for the rest of my tags... what, blue and brown?  Me?  Surely not?!

I'd like to enter this in the following:
As my Tag 9 in Linda Coughlin's 12 Tags of Christmas sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique
At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge the theme this week is With a Flourish
At The Ribbon Girl they are having a Ho Ho Ho Christmas Challenge
And there's also an Anything Goes month at the Stampotique Designers Challenge


Your destiny is to fulfil those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something.
Ralph Marston

The Ghosts in the Machine

Hello and welcome, everyone - and an especially big welcome to the newest followers... it's lovely to have you with us.

You've arrived just in time for the monthly Artistic Outpost bloghop, and our theme this month - to get you in the mood a little early - is Halloween.

Do hop around to see what my amazing fellow designers have been up to.  Here's the full itinerary:

Gerrie Johnnic, Lisa Somerville, Suzanne Czosek, Tracy Evans

Linda Coughlin, Alison Bomber, Terry Horrall, Kate Yetter

Artistic Outpost has some delicious Halloween sets, but it so happens that I don't own any of them (yet!), so I got creative with some of my other AO stamps to create my ghostly tag.

To be honest, I've always found the little girl from the Kudzu Kafe set more than slightly unnerving, so she was my first choice.  

And I figured, well, if one of her is unnerving, how spooky would several of her all at once be?!

I started by sticking a book page to a tag, and then used Linda's technique of stripping away some of the text using masking tape, so that it would be even more distressed and shabby.

Then I gave the whole thing a rough coat of gesso so that the stamping would show up better.

I stamped the little girl in black Archival, and then stamped her again on another piece of paper so that I could cut a mask to use.

I layered up several versions of her, using second and third generation stampings to get varying ghostly transparencies.

I played with Distress Stains and a water brush to tint the main figure.  

Those in the background got a touch of colour too, but again, in paler and paler variations.

The little phrase was hovering in my mind - I've Googled it, and it doesn't seem to exist as a quote, so I suppose I must have cooked it up myself... 

There's something in it about those internal voices, or the other versions of ourselves that hover in and out of view at various points in our lives, haunting us with the possibility of other life choices we might have made, or might still make.  

The larger tag behind has actually been sitting around since April - it was one of my experiments with the Metallic Distress Paint background for Tim's tag that month.  It wasn't quite right for my tag at the time, but I still quite liked it, with all those swirls of Pewter shimmer.












Since I was working with spooky blues, it suddenly became clear that maybe its time had come.  I added some text stamping using the book text from the Bluebird set, so that it would match up with the book page background of the smaller tag.

And having added text to make the large tag more like the small one, I then added some blue inking and some Aged Silver Frantage to the small tag to make it more like the big one... 

The Frantage is sort of like internal ectoplasm, maybe?!

The cogs and gears arrived because the other words running around my head were "the ghost in the machine".

It's a phrase used in philosophy to question the notion that in some way our mind and body operate separately - as though the mind were somehow a separate entity trying to tell the body (machine) what to do, and not perhaps always with the body's best interests at heart.

With all my internal ghosts, it seemed right to add some machinery for them to operate.

A little topper of broad white paper ribbon and satiny grey ribbon tied together with some of the Idea-ology paper string is the finishing touch.

So there's my slightly off-beat, philosophical Halloween tag... Do go and have a look what my team-mates have been up to - I promise you won't regret it.  If you get lost along the way, you'll find all the details here.

For now, thank you so much for taking the time to stop by, and I'll see you soon somewhere out there in Craftyblogland.

The past is a ghost, the future a dream and all we ever have is now.

Bill Cosby

She walked with a ghost of herself, one full of potential and possibility. One who was fearless. Where had that girl gone?

From Vision in White, by Nora Roberts