I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...

Showing posts with label stitching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stitching. Show all posts

Friday, 16 December 2016

Snow is Falling




Hello all!  It's snowing again here at Words and Pictures.

Since there were, in any case, some snowy tags amongst the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas, and since I have, in addition to those, converted all the poinsettia tags into snowflake tags, it's been pretty snowy here lately, one way or another.

So this is my version of Linda's charming Tag 11.  Take a look at her original and you'll see why I was almost tempted into using red for this one... those papers!  It's enough to break down anyone's resistance to the colour...

But no, I decided I was going to stick to my guns, and so I've converted Linda's reds into soft blues.

I don't often use patterned paper, and when I do I always wonder why I don't do it more often.  I have a large stash of the stuff, but mostly it gets stroked rather than crafted with.






These papers are from Pion Design.  I'll only ever buy them when I can find them on sale somewhere, but I leap into action when I do.















I added some white-embossed snowflakes...














... they're the small ones from Tim's Weathered Winter stamps.











Regulars may recall that I have a troubled relationship with sewing machines, so it will come as no surprise that having layered up my papers and distressed the edges, I added my stitching in a couple of "faux" ways.












I used a needle point tracing wheel to "punch" stitch holes, and then did dot-to-dot with a fineliner pen.  In places, I added some stamping with my 49&Market stitch stamps for a messier look.

If I ever do conquer the sewing machine, I can assure you anything I do with it will be messy!











I cut one of the Tim Holtz doily thinlits with some more Pion paper.

If you look very closely, you can see it's got some of the same Gothic font as we had on yesterday's Tag 5 The Holly and the Holly.  This one is pre-printed though, and in the coordinating soft blue to match the other papers perfectly.









The Stacked Snowflake puts in another appearance.  For once, I didn't have time to wait for actual crackle to dry, so instead I used the Tim Holtz Cracks stamp, inked in subtle Antique Linen.













And the top layer has been replaced by one of the exquisitely intricate Calico Craft Parts snowflakes.















I created another of my leathery sentiment panels (they've put in a number of appearances over the last nine days of tag-posting), inking the kraft card so that it has a similar depth of colour as the Craft Parts.














Echoing yesterday's holly tag, I wound some twine around under the sentiment panel, and tied a simple knot.













Some more wooden snowflakes are dotted around the rest of the tag, each one a different design.














After all, each snowflake is supposed to be unique, isn't it?  And there's the top of that Stacked Snowflake... waste not, want not.









And I must say, I am completely in love with this Stacked Snowflake die - the dimension it gives to a project is fabulous.

I've really enjoyed using it for these 12 Tags - it also bobbed up in Tag 10 Snow Flurries - and there's one final use of it to come which may even be my favourite.







So there you have it... my version of tag 11 brings us to three-quarters of the way to the finishing line.  Nine tags down and only three to go, and I think they're good ones, though I do say so myself!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for all your lovely comments along the way.  I've managed to re-start some limited visiting, but of course there's all the actual preparation for Christmas going on too.  Hopefully, normal service will be pretty much resumed at some point in the fairly near future... we'll see!

They say that every snowflake is different.  If that were true, how could the world go on?  How could we ever get up off our knees?  How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?
Jeanette Winterson




I'd like to share this as Tag 11 in the Funkie Junkie's 12 Tags of Christmas, sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique
And it's also perfect as another entry over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where they are playing Let There Be Snow

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Gone Crazy!


Okay, okay, I admit it, I caved... I bought the Bird Crazy stamp set!  Well, it just looked like everyone was having such fun with it.  And I've been having fun with it too, even though it may not be in my usual vein.

I do love to watercolour with Distress Inks but I don't have many blueprints, so when Tim's new inspiration tag for July popped up, I thought I should go a bit Bird Crazy and here's the result. (Also, we're not so much for the 4th July this side of the pond!!)

I won't go through the how-to with you.  You'd do far better to hop over and check out Tim's fantastic tag and instructions.

But, as is my wont here at Words and Pictures, I've got a few close-ups to share with you nonetheless.

As well as the crazy birds, I've been playing with some of the new Distress colours for this tag.  All those blues and greens - I'm a happy woman, and now impatiently awaiting the arrival of the new Blueprint Sketch colour in the UK.  








For now it's a combination of new and old.

We have Faded Jeans, Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, Peeled Paint, Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Shabby Shutters and Mermaid Lagoon all putting in an appearance... 










... not to mention the Frayed Burlap for shading.  (Oh, and I used Hickory Smoke for my stitching - hickory stitching!)

Since the birds are fairly large, I've ended up working on one of the jumbo, jumbo tags, 10.5 x 5 inches in size.









It's covered with one of the text papers from the Wallflower set.  I started out with a very full-on background from Lost and Found, but decided I'd rather let the watercolouring take centre stage.

The micro-glaze is fabulous stuff.  I nabbed some as soon as it was released, but this was really my first chance to have a play with it.  As you know, life's been a bit busy!










Happily I was able to find lots of winged words amongst the Small Talk stickers...














... one for each of our nervous flyers.















Perhaps they will take flight one of these days!














If they decide to, there are some metal wings to help them out, altered with Mushroom alcohol ink, which means they tone in with the Frayed Burlap beautifully.











I had a ball creating the stripy ribbon.  We're on blues and greens again, I'm afraid, but with such limited time at the craft table, I'm afraid I'm leaning to my favourites rather than experimenting when I do get there.

Oh, one more thing - it's not actual stitching (sewing machines and I continue on terms of enmity), but uses the stitching wheel recommended by the lovely Jenny of Pushing the Right Buttons. Then you just join up the holes with a pen.  Much easier!


You can just about see the gleam of the Glossy Accents applied to their eyes in the photos below...





There's a flurry of posts coming your way over the next few days, starting with a VERY exciting one later today (and back in a more vintage style), but I wanted to sneak this in.



It'll probably get lost in the rush, but so be it.  I had great fun making it and I wanted to share it right away.  I had such a lovely time watercolouring this characterful trio and I suspect they'll be back.

Hope you'll pop back and see all the excitement to come, but for now I'll wish you a lovely Sunday.

I'd like to enter this as my July Tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2015.

And since we're in lighthearted vein...

A wonderful bird is the pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if I see how the helican.
Dixon Lanier Merritt