Falling Leaves

Encore Posts

I'm away again for a month or so.  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!

There's something brand new on the way very soon, I promise, but before that arrives we're heading further back in time again - this time back to October 2013 for another Artistic Stamper creation which has been patiently waiting to be added to my online scrapbook here at Words and Pictures.  It looks like we may finally have reached the end of the autumn crafting so, for a final fling, here's what I wrote all those years ago.

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Hello everyone, Alison (butterfly) here, and like many of the team I've been having a wonderful time with Katy Fox's [now Katy Leitch] fabulous new leaf stamps.  I've been having lots of fun with gesso, inks, clear embossing and fussy-cutting (well... not so much fun with fussy-cutting - I'd be lying if I said it was my favourite thing to do!).

The background was a by-product of me doing some stencilling with the Roman Letters onto another tag with gesso.  I had this tag nearby and flipped the stencil straight over onto it to get a reverse print of the Letters here.

The gesso partly acts as a resist, but - being gesso - also takes some of the colour when you ink over it, as I then did.

I think there's Peeled Paint, Rusty Hinge, Spiced Marmalade and maybe a couple of others in the mix here.  (Sorry - this was made in the middle of house-moving so I've only a hazy recollection of what I actually did!)

I blended the same colours onto a piece of Manila cardstock, and then stamped the leaves in various combinations of Archival Ink - Sienna, Olive, Fern Green and Sepia - using two or three ink colours on each stamp.

I clear embossed the stampings as I went, using the Wow Superfine powder.  And then the cutting...  The embossing gives you a bit more sturdiness on the very fine areas, like the stalks, so it's quite helpful when you're cutting.

I seem to have added some Grunge Paste to create some "earth" at the foot of the tag, patting it on with the palette knife for extra texture, and inking it along with the rest of the tag.

One leaf had the privilege of being home to the Camus quote which is also on the stamp plate - it's a lovely font, I think.  It's stamped in Potting Soil Archival ink.

I arranged the leaves around the tag, and then mounted them using padded tape, sometimes a couple of layers of it, to get different heights above the background.

I like the glossy leaves against the chalky background of the gesso.

A very simple, natural tag topping of some raffia tied with twine, and my autumnal tag is done.

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We're almost, almost into December.  I can hardly believe it.  Time to bring on the pine trees, the holly, the snow and the ice as autumn crafting gives way to the winter.  Thanks for popping in to check out my Encore posts throughout November (as well as the newer creations too, of course).  I'm aiming to play along with the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas in December, so it's going to be another mad dash of festive crafting, just like last year... but lots of new things to enjoy, I hope.  For now, I'll love you and leave you, and I'll see you in December!

The last dead leaves of fall crackled underfoot, winter-crisp.
From American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Encore - To every season...

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!

This is a project from February 2014, when I was one of Darcy's wingmen for the PaperArtsy new releases that year.  This is one of the samples I created for display on the PaperArtsy show stands as well as on the PaperArtsy blog, and this is what I wrote back then...

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Hello all!  I'm here with a project using Darcy's fabulous new stamps.  They're not in my usual style, but I really had fun with this one!  I started out with just one tag in mind, but before I knew it there were four seasonal variations in front of me.

I started with crackled backgrounds: French Roast underneath, then a layer of Crackle Glaze and then Nougat over the top, with the Crackle Glaze doing its usual magic.  I stamped the trees in Potting Soil Archival and clear embossed them, so that they would hold their own whatever I put over the top.  I used one of the lovely borders to create my landscape so the trees had somewhere to sit.

I applied my sky (mainly done with washes of Ice Blue, Sky and a hint of Beach Hut in the mix in summer) and grass colours mainly with a natural sponge, blending darker colours over the lighter ones from the edges to create layers and depth.

In Spring, there's just a light sponging of Limelight and Hey Pesto for the new leaf growth, and there's just a touch of Nougat to highlight the tree blossom.  Adorable little spring buds are popping up around the foot of the tree.

In Summer, the flowers have bloomed beautifully - with Nougat and Beach Hut "petals", and the grasses are growing wild and free.

Up in the tree, the blossoms have given way to big bold leaves, now darkening with some added Hyde Park for that rich fertile green of summer.

Come Autumn and those same leaves are turning to Autumn Fire mingled with Hey Pesto, and there are glossy Cinnamon conkers in the tree (no idea what species this is!).  The mushrooms sprouting from between the tree roots have variations on the same colour tones, while the grasses are also on the turn.  I stamped the stems of the flowers upside down to get some extra grassy texture.

By Winter, everything else has faded away and the bare boughs of the tree are revealed in stark beauty against the wintry Antarctic sky.

The words are stamped on a strip cut from my first tag which hadn't had the tree embossed and so all went belly up when I tried to restamp the tree over the top and missed my mark.  Still, that gave me a lovely background for the sentiment on the finished project!

All mounted on corrugated cardboard (of course!), and some natural raffia toppings... 

and there you have it.

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I know we're hopping around a lot, rather than working through these Encores sequentially, but I've been really enjoying the process of excavating them from my Drafts folder.  (When I have something to post somewhere else, I now always create it here at Words and Pictures and copy it over, so that I have a record here.)  It's fun seeing projects which I'd pretty much forgotten about.  I hope you're enjoying a few trips down memory lane too - or brand new stuff if you're new to Words and Pictures!  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon.

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
George Santayana

A Blustery Day

Hello all!  I'm here with my second offering for Rachel's lovely Create A Scene theme at Country View Challenges this month.

And, yes, I know we're well into December, but I'm clinging on to the last of autumn just as some of the trees are clinging on to their last leaves.

This altered jar celebrates just this moment, when the last of the leaves are torn from their moorings by a strong wind, and hurtle through the air for one final dance before falling to earth and becoming the mulch of humus (no, not the chick pea sort!) to nourish next year's new growth.














Trees and branches are a bit of a theme here this week, especially bare ones.  You may already have seen the Those Who Wander tag, and there are some slightly bushier versions on their way at the weekend.













The branches on this jar were created using one of Tim's new punches - the little branch.  It makes a great bare tree if you're working in this smaller scale, and you can layer it up to get a bigger tree too.













I started very simply... To get my cloudy sky, I simply spritzed a bit of DecoArt Mixed Media Mister in White Shimmer around the jar, and tilted and dabbed with paper towel until it was dry.  I love the misty autumn morning look.












The houses are cut with the fabulous Townscape On The Edge die.  They're made from kraft card, stamped with a tiny alphabet stamp and inked for a grungier look.












It took nearly two whole townscapes to get round the whole jar.

The leaves being blown gustily around are punched from some wax paper, so they're slightly more translucent than the kraft houses and trees, which gives them a more delicate look...














... especially when you light the candle inside.















The candle inside?  But of course... why else would I create my scene on a jar?!












I tied some raffia around the top.  I'd completely forgotten about raffia.  I used to use it all the time, but it had somehow slipped out of my mind.  I was reminded of it by Lisa Minckler's astoundingly lovely altered jars, and went straight to get it out of hiding!











And round at the front (if a round jar can have a front) I added some autumn gatherings.  When I shared my wandering tag earlier this week, I told you I was using leftover leaves... well, this is what they were left over from.














They're cut from kraft card and stamped with some more of the tiny alphabet...














... and I added a Philosophy Tag, altered with alcohol inks.

One of the pleasures of this is seeing the warm glow once it's all lit up...

And again, I'm sharing a couple of different lighting variations over the course of the post so you can get the general impression of the effects.  Check out the shadows the houses cast too!

I hope you like it, and I hope you'll be inspired to come and Create A Scene with us at Country View Challenges this month.  As always, there's a generous prize voucher from our sponsors, Country View Crafts, with the winner randomly selected, and the honour of being one of our Top Three or our Design Team Member's Special Mention also at stake.  Hope to see you there soon!

A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things.
From A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Autumn Colours

Hello all!

Apologies for my complete disappearance - it's such a relief to be back.

My laptop collapsed on me and had to go away for repairs...  I'm afraid I missed a Calico date, but hope to fit that in some time soon - and now I'm back just in time for the new challenge at A Vintage Journey.

The fabulous Astrid is our host this fortnight and she's looking for The Colours of Autumn in your projects - with, of course, the usual requirement for a strong Tim influence.

You can find lots of beautiful inspiration from my team-mates over at A Vintage Journey, as well as all the challenge details and rules.

Here's my offering for you - a crackly tag full of glowing autumnal colours and the crunch of leaves underfoot.

I started with repeated stampings of one of Tim's Falling Leaves stamps in lots of different colours of Archival ink - Sepia, Sienna and Orange Blossom - as well as some clear embossed stampings.
















I inked over and around the leaves with Distress Inks - Wild Honey, Rusty Hinge, Vintage Photo, Gathered Twigs and Walnut Stain - before coating the whole thing with Rock Candy Crackle Paint. 











The clear embossed leaves are still nice and present, but the colour versions have almost disappeared - shadowy echoes remain, like layers of leaf mulch under the surface.











For my background tag, I used some of the same Distress Ink colours and the fabulous Shatter stencil - here playing the role of cobwebs.














I layered the two together and added some metal accents.  I love the effect of the cobwebs peeking out around the edges of the crackle.










The clock measures those days ticking away, revealing your true colours as you head towards the autumn of your life.

Both the Idea-ology pieces and the metal skeleton leaves had a slight burnishing of Copper Treasure Gold for an added glow.













I found the quote online, and it seemed perfect!  I stamped the words onto one of my tea/coffee dyed tags, then cut them out and arranged them amongst the leaves.

There's no attribution - it seems to be by the very prolific Anonymous.

I'm already finding it hard to hide my true colours, and I think I could probably still claim high summer... it doesn't bode well!












The topping is some dyed crinkle ribbon, the same Distress colours again, and tied with some rustic raffia.









So those are my autumn colours.  I hope you like them...  Do hop over to A Vintage Journey for more inspiration, and I hope we'll see your Colours of Autumn this fortnight.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  Now that my precious laptop is back safe and sound I hope to do some catching up with you all in Craftyblogland soon.  I've missed you all!

I am having a great time in New York.  There's not much time for anything outside of work, but luckily I love my work too!!  If you're dying of curiosity, how about a taster of where I'm working: Theatre for a New Audience.  Tamburlaine is my show...  We rehearsed at the theatre for the first couple of weeks, but we're now in a rehearsal space right on Washington Square - lots of literary associations, and a fabulous Blick Art Supplies store right around the corner!

Don't you love New York in the fall?  It makes me want to buy school supplies.  I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.
Nora Ephron

In The Garden

Hello all... how did it get to be May already?!  I can hardly believe it...

But it is May 1st, and that being so, there are new challenges starting left, right and centre.  I have two for you today here at Words and Pictures alone.

Later today I'll be sharing the new Our Creative Corner theme, but right now it's time to find out what's on the cards at The Artistic Stamper this month.

Our challenge to you this month is to share with us what's In The Garden.  You can make any kind of project; it doesn't have to include Artistic Stamper stamps, but if it does then you'll get two entries into the prize draw at the end of the month.

Do hop over to The Artistic Stamper to see inspiration from some more of the Design Team, and check out the full rules and guidelines, but here's my starter for ten.







No mistaking my inspiration - I'm still playing with the lovely double-stamping technique Tim shared with us in March, but the stamps I've used this time are from Katy Fox's Encyclopaedia Botanica.

I coloured the flowers on the stamp using Distress Markers and stamped onto to two manila tags in succession.









I used a little ink and a water brush to gently colour in the petals, while not disturbing the stamped lines too much.















Then I stamped the flowers again on a spare bit of paper and cut a mask.













I used my marker spritzer (sadly an ancient bright red one, not the new sexy black TH one!) over the mask to create the speckled sky "behind" the flowers, layering on several different colours.












The little beetle is again stamped with Distress Markers, coloured straight onto the stamp... 














... Pumice Stone, Frayed Burlap and Black Soot if memory serves.












The little butterfly perched on the Idea-ology linen ribbon has been created the same way...















... and cut out to create a dimensional embellishment.












And I used Distress Paints to alter a couple of Word Sticks...













... to add a touch of metal to proceedings.














Simple raffia and a little knot of linen ribbon - well frayed of course - finish things off...














... providing an echo of the linen ribbon around the middle of the tags.






So what's In The Garden round your way?  Do pop over to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog and see what's at the bottom of the garden for my team-mates, and then we'd love to see your take on the theme over the course of the month.  

As I said, I'll be back later in the morning with the new Our Creative Corner challenge but, until then, have a lovely few hours!!

Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden?
Robert Brault

I'd like to enter these in Not So Mellow Yellow at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  It's not a colour I use very often, but it seems to come out in Spring!!
And at the Stampotique Designers Challenge, they're playing with Flowers this week.  I haven't had much chance to play this month, so I'm leaping in at the last minute with this one!