The Golden Hours

Hello all!  I'm so glad you like the new sets of word stamps launched earlier this week over at PaperArtsy.  I've got a couple of new creations this weekend using stamps from the Time Edition, and here's the first of them.

It's doubling as my inspiration piece for the new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, hosted by the lovely Sara Emily, who would like us to work Against the Grain... the idea being to work with wood and woodgrain effects to create your projects.

So my golden clocks are set against a background of weathered wood planks.  Read on to see how it all came about.














The main inspiration for this wooden panel came from these words from my brand new Time Edition stamp set.  If you missed the launch post over at PaperArtsy earlier this week, sharing three new sets of quote stamps, do take a look.











The quote is by J.M. Barrie, whose most famous creation, Peter Pan, knew a thing or two about whiling away the odd golden hour.

I love how it sets up a problem or warning, and then answers itself!










The background was made with some printed woodplank paper - from a Craft Consortium pack called Wood Textures - but the planks were too wide to work on the size tag which is somewhere under here.  You'd only have had two and half planks, as you can see when it's set against the duplicate sheet in the pack.













So I simply cut them into narrower planks lengthwise.  I also cut a couple of them crossways so that I could have shorter planks adding extra interest.  I inked the edges and scuffed them with my scissor blade.













I mounted them on some thicker cardboard to give them a more substantial presence, and then glued them onto a large tag which I'd painted with a rich dark brown.  (I filled in the tag corner spaces with some more of the cardboard to keep it all nice and sturdy.)












I then had quite a lot of fun stamping labels and advertisements onto my wooden planks.  Some of these are Andy Skinner stamps...
















... and others are by Tim Holtz (I just typed him as Time Holtz... not surprising given how often I've typed the word Time in the last few days, what with the new stamps and all!).












I've been stuck in a bit of a rusty rut lately (see Hopes of Spring or Rusted Hope) and I wanted some more!  This is the other die-cut in the set with the chicken wire used on those earlier tags, and it looks just as good rusted up as that does.











I knew that as I was smearing the rust pastes on, there would be quite a lot of waste, so I did it over another piece of small card... and you've already seen that in action, trimmed to frame the words!

It's a combination of Art Extravagance Brown Rust and Imagination Crafts Rusty Patina, which has a more reddish-orange tone to warm up the brown.













I then started to gather timepieces to arrange on the wooden panel.  There are quite a lot of different sorts buried in the stash, in all sorts of metallic tones.











So it was out with the Treasure Gold waxes - my favourite White Fire and some Florentine Gold to bring everything into the same golden colour tones.

I'm generally more of a silvery kind of person, but I can't deny that the gleam of all that gold in the sunlight is rather lovely.

There's a large Idea-ology clock face (originally pewter-coloured, but now rather splendid in gold), complete with clock hands.














There are some actual watch parts, bought as part of a job lot.  I'm delighted to say that the tiny cog on this one still rotates when you touch it, despite the added waxes.
















I've used them occasionally on projects over the years, but then I tend to forget about them for months (years) at a time.















The large engraved circle is the back cover of a pendant watch which I actually used to wear as my watch.  Sadly, you can't replace the battery once it's worn down, so I turned it to crafty purposes.

And watch out tomorrow for the rest of the watch!!













The tiny glass brad on the top is from way back when - I think it may be by Bo Bunny.












Of course you need lots of cogs and gears to keep a clock or watch running well.

(I don't know what that flake of green paint is doing there - must have got in the way as I was photographing and I didn't notice.  It's not there any more.  Harrumph, and I've just checked and found it's in all the photos - bah humbug!)












Best to keep them away from rust, mind you... Oops!















There's lots of golden splatter alongside a bit of my customary white.  It has a spectacular gleam to it.















It's one of Jackson's Art Supplies drawing inks, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what else it can do.















I'm especially looking forward to combining it with other mediums, maybe adding it as some gilding on acrylic backgrounds... more to come soon, I hope.


















So that's me going Against The Grain - using gold, of all things! - but over a lovely weathered wood plank background.

There's lots more lovely woody grainy inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides over at A Vintage Journey, and we're looking forward to seeing your wood-grained creations this month.

Wood is universally beautiful to a man. It is the most humanly intimate of all materials.
Frank Lloyd Wright












I'd like to share this at Country View Challenges where the theme for February is Splatters, Splashes and Drips (something tells me this might not be my only entry!)

Memento Mori

Hello all, an unexpected post today... well, unexpected for me at least.  I really didn't expect to fit in the Tim Holtz May tag, so this is a bonus!

I knew I'd be making it at some point as it's an absolutely beautiful piece of inspiration from Lord Holtz, but I thought that'd be somewhere down the road a way.

Quite apart from the time available, I've been feeling pretty Mojo-less.  That's not quite fair... my Mojo's been busy with the dollshouses, but that doesn't seem to leave much over.  

So it was a real pleasure to just sit down and let someone else do the thinking.  And oh boy, did I have fun playing with all that metal?!

So it's an even bigger thank you than usual to Tim, for giving me a couple of happy hours at my craft table, when that's been a rare commodity lately.










You'll notice one major change from Tim's tag (apart from not having the ShadowPress folders - yet).

As you'll see further on, I simply couldn't get an inky background that I was happy with so, since we were playing with the paper sizes, I decided to let some 12x12 in on the act too as my background.











With various things that are going on, I found myself reaching for objects to do with Time and with the things that are precious to me in my life - things I want to make sure play a big part as those seconds tick away.  How will you spend your time in this life?








It started to become a bit of a Memento Mori, a reminder of death - but in a positive way!  A reminder to make sure the things that matter to you are included in life on a daily basis.

So music and words are here, for starters in the background papers on the panels.  In a cliched kind of way, this key was perfect... these things are the key to a happy life for me - words, music, learning, and of course the crafty creativity.









I had the Rabindranath Tagore quote running through my head while I was making the tag: the butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough - another prompt to live in the moment and make the most of it.

So there are butterflies too... delicate filigree creatures, balanced on the edge of time.

This one is perched on some old watch parts - internal workings and an old pocket watch back, along with some other bits and bobs, including a lucky number 7.













The pen nib reminds us of the possibility of leaving something to endure - whether that's memoirs, music, art, writing, children, good works, happy memories - to leave you able to smile in the face of death.

The butterfly shape is echoed again in the lock I chose ready for opening with that key.  

In fact, I noticed as I took the photos, that I seem to have chosen harmonious shapes - circles, ovals and butterfly shapes in the main... it wasn't conscious!









There's another genuine clock part connected to the Lifetime Muse Token - this watch face has a lovely shine in the sunlight.

(Oh, yes, sunshine - another key ingredient in the happiness recipe - I'd've liked a snidge more of it for the photos really).









And no, I haven't got any of the lovely ShadowPress folders yet - the set I think I'll make most use of doesn't come out until later in the year, so I'm holding off (there seem to be a few dregs of willpower remaining) until then.

So instead I used my favourite dimensional lettering, the Alpha Parts, and added an iced topping of Distress Paint in Picket Fence and Pumice Stone.










Another lucky number 7 to ward off the evil eye...












Oh, and the tiny little clock brad (Prima, I think?) was a happy find at the bottom of one of my travelling shoe boxes of stash.  Perfect for the theme which had developed.













And the linen ribbon to top it all off, fastened with a metal panel to echo the larger ones on the tag.













I'll just quickly share a couple of the dismissed backgrounds... feel free to skip all the failures! 

I think part of the problem was I rested the panels on some white mountboard while I was inking, and I became rather attached to that look - so nothing else quite worked for me.

















I tried some dark metallics (with Perfect Pearls Mists and Distress Stains) thinking it would pick up the metallic elements on the panels quite nicely.  No go.


















Next go was a paler look - closer, but still no banana...




















... even once I'd added another layer of splatter and inked the edges - nope.











So that's when I gave in - I really did try, honest guv! - but there was definitely too much over-thinking going on.  Having hauled all these beautiful things out of my stash, there was no way I was putting them on a background I was only half happy with.  

For a while, it looked like the plain white would be the winner, but then I thought about what Tim said in his post about the different pattern sizes within the pads, and I grabbed the large 12x12 music sheet.  And that was the one for me.

In the end, the whole thing was so heavy, I had to put it on another piece of mountboard to stop it flopping everywhere.  That solidity gives it a really lovely weight and presence - and the whole thing makes me very happy!

Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi

Whoever uses the spirit that is in him creatively is an artist.  To make living itself an art, that is the goal.
Henry Miller

I'd like to enter this as my May tag in Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2014.
At the Craft-Room Challenge the lovely Annie would like to see Things With Wings - will butterflies from butterfly do?!
At Craft Hoarders Anonymous the challenge is to Show Some Metal or Glass.
At Creative Inspirations the challenge is Tag It.
At Tag Along the theme is Tick Tock.  With all those watch parts and the theme of what to do with the time you have, this should fit right in.