An Impulse to Soar

Hello and welcome all, with an especially big welcome to the new followers - it's lovely to have you here!  It's time for the monthly Artistic Outpost hop today.  It's a Designer's Choice theme, so there's all sorts of inspiration from my amazing team-mates on your way round... Here's the full itinerary:

Gerrie Johnnic, Lisa Somerville, Suzanne Czosek, Tracy Evans

Linda Coughlin, Alison Bomber, Terry Horrall, Kate Yetter

I've another make for you today which didn't turn out as planned - it changed direction part way through.  

That always happens when I have a plan - I'm better off starting with no idea where I'm going - but the change of direction was definitely for the better, so I'm happy!























The little girl from the Think and Wonder would pretty much always be my Artistic Outpost stamp of choice - there's just something about her.














And the Helen Keller quote from Quotes & Quotables was just crying out to be included.  

They're both stamped in Watering Can Archival onto Specialty Stamping Paper.  And I did some inking, spritzing and flicking with Pumice Stone DI and water.









So, the original plan was to mount my stamped panels onto a small canvas.  

I played with the layout until I was happy, and then - just to keep it all in place while I created the background on the canvas - I scooched it all across to a piece of painted corrugated card which was hanging around on my craft table.












Well, that was that for the canvas... the corrugated card was clearly where they were meant to live!













I added several stampings of the tiny flourish from the Serenity plate, stamped in Pumice Stone.  I love how it's almost the same colour as the unpainted cardboard.













If you saw my recent flirtation with pink (and I should just own up and say that I do quite like pink - some pinks, not Barbie pink!), you may recognise the colours on the flowers.












It's the combination of Hot Cinnamon and Spiced Pumpkin Primary Elements powders from Luminarte - made into sprays by my own fair hand and applied so as to keep some of the original creams and ivories showing through. 









The larger flowers are by Wild Orchid, and the little ones are from a pack of Petaloo flowers I picked up very cheaply.  

I love that with a spritz of colour you can customise them to fit whatever you're creating.









The butterflies are from the same Petaloo set.

The glitter continues to show through even after the spritzing...














... but I did tone down the bling factor by adding a bit of gesso to the pearls on the butterflies and in the centres of the flowers.

A couple of eyelets, also painted with gesso, and some twine to hang it up by, and there she is, ready to soar (which she almost did in the windy conditions during the photographing).

Thanks so much for dropping in.  I hope you'll have time to check in with the rest of the Artistic Outpost team - they've some real beauties in store for you.  

If you get lost along the way, you can find all the hop details here at Artistic Outpost.

See you soon!



My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring, roaring, diving and then buried in mud.  And why?  What's this passion for?
Virginia Woolf





I'd like to enter this for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where A is for... well, Artistic Outpost, obviously - the stamp company I discovered second only to Tim Holtz at the beginning of this crafty journey, and for whom I'm extremely proud to be a designer.

Fir Tree Christmas

Hello everyone... so glad you loved the Blissful Baubles - it's so lovely that you took the time to say so when we're all so busy.  Jeepers, it's getting close now - and I'm really not on top of things.

But I am slowly but steadily catching up with the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas (hmmm, maybe I need to check my priorities).

This is my take on Linda's fabulous tag number 5 which you can see here.  I was inspired by the beautiful, delicate stamping in the background, and have also cased the composition pretty closely, with the corrugated framing of Father Christmas at the centre and the large flower and lace.

As you'll notice, I'm poinsettia-less.  I have neither a stamp nor the poinsettia die (I'm not wild about them as flowers, to be honest) so I've had to go in slightly different directions.

And the other main difference is the colour scheme.

My alternative to the poinsettia stamp that Linda has in her background was to go for another plant-based image, and use the fabulous fir branch from the Artistic Outpost Snowy Woods plate.

So that pretty much governed my choice of colour...

I love Iced Spruce, and I always forget about it for some reason.  But this tag is very "woody"; it's all over fir trees... what with the fir branches and the pine cones, the wood-look corrugated card, not to mention the Snowy Woods stamps, so Iced Spruce was the obvious choice for the background colour.










My Father Christmas is also from the Snowy Woods set - a slightly more genial chap than this rather stern fellow on the previous FJ tag - a proper old man of the woods.

He's stamped on Specialty Stamping Paper which has had a delicate blending of Iced Spruce DI over it.











The sentiment is from Snowy Woods too (best Christmas stamps ever!), stamped in black Archival.

And the fir branches themselves are stamped in Iced Spruce, to keep that subtle tone-on-tone look that Linda had.









The flower is by Wild Orchid. I've yet to join the handmade flower crowd - especially at this time of year... no time, no time!!

I do occasionally make my own, but for this tag, I stuck to altering this rather beautiful gardenia.

It was a bit too yellow, so I went at it with gesso and all sorts of white sprays (Dylusions, Tattered Angels Chalkboard) until I'd muted it a bit.














The pine cones came from Live & Love Crafts, and have also had a touch of gesso for a snowy
look.














I cut the holly leaves from patterned paper using Tim Holtz's Festive Greenery decorative strip die, and inked around the edges with Gathered Twigs (seemed appropriate given the woody theme).













Rather than the label, I used the Cabinet Card die to cut my frame - I think F.C. looks rather splendid inside.

There's another fir tree cone and holly leaf up at the top of the tag, with a bit more lace, tied together with some tea/coffee stained seam binding (ultra high-tech!).









Thank you, Linda, for another cracking piece of inspiration.  If you manage to get all 12 Christmas tags plus the two bonus ones done by January 8th, you'll get an even bigger discount at the fabulous Funkie Junkie Boutique... and three lucky winners will get vouchers to spend there.  A chance not to be missed.

I'll leave you with Father Christmas in the position I think we'll all be in in about a week's time... flat on his back!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you out there in Craftyblogland soon.

Today's quote is the full version of one of my favourite poems.  Its last verse also appears on the Snowy Woods plate - are you starting to get that I like these stamps?!

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.   
His house is in the village though;   
He will not see me stopping here   
To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   
To stop without a farmhouse near   
Between the woods and frozen lake   
The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   
To ask if there is some mistake.   
The only other sound’s the sweep   
Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost

I'm entering this as Tag 5 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.
With background stamping, focal image stamping and sentiment stamping, I'd like to pop it into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge which is to Stamp Out 2013!
And let's also make it a third entry to the Stampotique Designers Challenge where Anything Goes this month.

I do remember an apothecary...

Hello all, and welcome (back!) to Words and Pictures.  It's time for the monthly Artistic Outpost bloghop, and after all the excitement of the new releases, we've been let out to play with a Designers' Choice theme this month.  

We're in a Halloween mood here at Words and Pictures, after my Tim Holtz tag yesterday, but you'll see all sorts of makes as you head round the hop... Here's the full itinerary:

Gerrie, Lisa, Suzz, Tracy

Linda, Alison, Terry, Kate

I wanted to play with my new Apothecary set - not "new" new, but new to me, and such a lovely set of vintage images - not strictly spooky, but with a slightly macabre twist if you choose to think that way... so it seemed appropriate in the run-up to Halloween!

I started with a Manila tag and stuck some torn pieces of book page randomly onto it.

Then, I smooshed it around in some Distress Stains on my craft mat.  I'm pretty sure there was Pumice Stone and Frayed Burlap involved, and perhaps a touch of Antique Linen.

And of course an edging of Vintage Photo Distress Ink for that burnished, distressed look.

I stamped the word Apothecary and the building directly onto the tag, using Coffee and Black Archival on the stamp to give a bit of extra shading to the image.












I added a partial stamping of the prescription slip in the top corner - love how it's layered onto the Gothic script of the book page.

This skull and crossbones - a hint perhaps that you might not want to trust this particular apothecary with your health and well-being - is the larger Idea-ology one.  You saw the teeny-tiny version on yesterday's Tim/Our Creative Corner tag.










The apothecary himself, Mr Forrest, is stamped on Specialty Stamping Paper, and I used Vintage Photo DI to darken the background, making him stand out.














The poison label is also a partial stamping, and also on Specialty Stamping Paper.

A couple of other Idea-ology elements... the pen with which to write the prescriptions...

Who holds the key to the apothecary's secret cabinet?













The seam binding is dyed with Distress Stains - Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo, and a hit of metallic sheen from Brushed Pewter - and tied together with my favourite paper string.

I mounted the whole thing onto suitably dramatic black card, to give a touch more definition, and there you have it.




I do hope you'll find the time to hop on round to see what my immensely talented team-mates have been up to.  Should you get lost along the way you'll find all the details here.

House Move Update - for anyone who's interested!
The beds were moved by the removal firm yesterday, so we're now officially "in" the new place (having been shifting stuff ourselves on a daily basis since the beginning of the month).  We now have two days to sweep through the remaining chaos and clear it - either to the new house, the charity shop or the tip! - before handing over the keys to the new owners on Friday... nearly there!

Mr Forrest looks somewhat more prosperous than the apothecary Romeo seeks out, and I can't imagine he has tortoises, fish skins or stuffed alligators hanging in that rather elegant looking drugstore, but it's one of my favourite speeches so...

I do remember an apothecary,— 
And hereabouts he dwells,—which late I noted 
In tatter'd weeds, with overwhelming brows, 
Culling of simples; meager were his looks, 
Sharp misery had worn him to the bones; 
And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, 
An alligator stuff'd, and other skins 
Of ill-shaped fishes; and about his shelves 
A beggarly account of empty boxes, 
Green earthen pots, bladders and musty seeds, 
Remnants of packthread and old cakes of roses, 
Were thinly scatter'd, to make up a show. 
Noting this penury, to myself I said 
"An if a man did need a poison now, 
Whose sale is present death in Mantua, 
Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it him."

From Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

I'd like to enter this (belatedly) into the Something Spooky challenge at Country View Challenges 

Around the World in 80 Stamps

Hello all... just slipping in an actual post between all the PaperArtsy sneak peeks.  PA project 1 can be seen here, number 2 is here and, just like with buses, there'll be another along in a minute - well, at 7pm this evening to be strictly accurate!





But first, it's time for a new challenge over at Fun With ATCs.  


And it's okay, you don't really have to use 80 stamps; but we would like to see you use At Least Three Stamps on your 2.5 x 3.5 Artists Trading Card.


This seemed the perfect chance to use the teeny tiny Tim Holtz stamps Tiny Things - they're unbelievably adorable vintage images, and give incredibly sharp, detailed stampings.


To make the most of them, I stamped them in Archival ink onto Specialty Stamping Paper.  It really does give a clearer, sharper result...











I've actually used seven stamps in total - just showing off now, of course!!

The very dapper chap (I suppose the post title makes him Phileas Fogg...) is attempting to make a decision as to which form of transportation he should select for the next stage of his Around the World journey.  















And with the fabulous balloon, or the vintage car...












... or the splendid aeroplane, or of course that wonderful 'motorcyclette' to choose from, I'm not surprised he's looking a little indecisive.

Still, at least he has the globe to guide him on the way; I'm sure he'll 'enjoy the journey' (from the Simple Sayings stamp set) once he gets started!

All the panels are mounted on padded tape in varying thicknesses so that you get layers of dimension, and some gentle inking with Vintage Photo DI finishes things off.









I'm trying to keep it short today since there's so much going on.  

As I said, there'll be another PaperArtsy post later this evening, and of course there's also a project to be seen over at Artistic Outpost today (shhhh... it's a C*******s card!), so if you've got time to hop over there, that'd be great too!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you out there in Craftyblogland some time soon.

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.
From Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

Clean and Simple Experimenting

Hello and welcome everyone, with an especially big welcome to the newest followers. It's lovely to have your company here at Words and Pictures today - another busy day, I'm afraid.

Anyone who was around late last night will already have seen the sneak peek for my project over at The Artistic Stamper today - and check out the bottom of this post for my other bit of omnipresence - yes, since it's Tuesday, I'm at Artistic Outpost too!

But here and now, it's time to tickle your creative tastebuds for the new challenge at Fun With ATCs.  For this fortnight, it's CAS all the way - Clean and Simple please, on a 2.5 x 3.5 Artist's Trading Card.


Regulars will know I'm not much of a CAS crafter (though I thank you all for your lovely feedback on my broken roof tile in the CAS style!), so this was definitely a challenge for me.


But it was a chance to crack open my new Tim Holtz stamps - utterly irresistible scientific apparatus images - and I ended up with a trio of ATCs, stamped according to how we were taught to write up our science experiments at O' Level.









We had to break down the report on any experiment into three sections:






Method - what we did and how we did it (and usually including a diagram - finally a use for all those protractors and set squares in my pencil case!)

Results - what we observed and data we collected
















Conclusion - writing up what we had learned and what we could deduce from what we did and what we observed







So that's my very simple (Clean and Simple) set of ATCs, stamped in Jet Black Archival on Specialty Stamping Paper to really let those images shine.  And the words, of course, are done with my little Hero Arts alphabet.







I swiped the edges of the ATCs along the ink pad to get the borders, and that really was that.









I hope you'll find time to come and play along with the Clean and Simple challenge this fortnight.  You'll find lots more inspiration from my amazing team-mates, plus all the challenge details, over at Fun With ATCs.






And if you have time, I would love it if you popped over to either The Artistic Stamper to check out this...












... or to Artistic Outpost to check out this...

... or even both!!  Thank you so much, and I'll see you out there in Craftyblogland soon.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every great inspiration is but an experiment.
Charles Ives

Lonely Leaf

Hello all, and welcome to Words and Pictures.  My profound apologies that I'm so behind with visiting you all.  After my internet meltdown, I then had a couple of weeks where work made any crafting or crafty-visiting virtually impossible... but I'm doing my best, and I hope to get back on track very soon.






You've arrived in time for the new challenge over at Fun With ATCs - and an unusual creation for me.  


The theme is Black, White and Red, and regulars will know that's not exactly my comfort zone!  


So, I thought: "Well, if it's going to be different, let's make it really different!"  So here it is...


I used one of Ranger's Specialty Stamping Paper ATCs, and stamped Tim Holtz's bare branches in Jet Black Archival.













That got a good blast from the heat tool to make sure it was dry before I stamped the word 'alone', using the little Hero Arts alphabet set.












For the leaf, I saturated a bit of leftover card with Cherry Pie Dylusions Spray, and then used a little leaf punch I bought in Norway a few months ago, when I did some work over there.  

It was pretty much the only thing I could afford (small bottle of Diet Coke £4.50!?!).















I brushed the sides of the ATC across the surface of the Archival ink pad to give a little definition around the edges, and that was pretty much that.













I hope you like my 'hop out of kin' project.  

You can find more inspiration from my brilliant team-mates for this fortnight's challenge over at Fun With ATCs, and I hope you'll find time to join in with our Black, White and Red theme.  Can't wait to see what you create.

For now, thank you so much for stopping by... and I really hope I'll be round to visit you very soon!

And something a bit different here too:

What's black and white and red all over?
A blushing zebra

What's black and white and read all over?
A newspaper

What's black and white and black and white and black and white and black and blue?
A penguin falling downstairs









If you'd prefer something a little more in my usual vein, you'll find the Coffee Guys over at
Artistic Outpost today - just in case you missed them the first time around!