The Phoenix Rises

Hello everyone!  


Thank you so much for your fabulous response to the ArtAngel... she's very happy that you liked her, and happy isn't exactly her default setting!


I'm back with a tag today, one that rose from the ashes of pretty much nothing to become one of my favourite recent makes.


Yes, this phoenix rising out of the flames began life as a paint sample... a tag that I grabbed just to show my sister-in-law Laura, of Laurart, some of the DecoArt paints she was asking about.  
















Rather than talk about the properties of Quinacridone Gold or Transparent Red Iron Oxide, I thought the best thing would just to be to put some on some card to show them to her.  

And I added in one of the regular acrylics - grabbing, of course, my favoured Indian Turquoise - and just randomly squiggling the colours onto the tag with my fingers.

This finger-painting is what I ended up with, and we both looked at it and said, "Well, that's the start of something!".

But at that point, I had no idea what...








When I came back to it a few days later my first step, as pretty much always, was to add some Distress Ink to the mix.

As regulars will know from recent creations, one of my favourite games is to play with the contrast of opaque paints and translucent inks.  

And it's ages since I've managed to play along with the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, so I'd like to offer this contrast up to their "Got Ink?" challenge this week.










I blended on Broken China and Rusty Hinge inks at opposite ends of the tag, contrasting with the nearest paint colours. 

Obviously, I had to do a bit of spritzing and flicking too.

Next, I added the Tim Holtz sentiment - it somehow seemed right, given that my imagination was going to be the main ingredient in turning the painty scribbles into something.  

I stamped it in the Indian Turquoise paint, to make sure it would hold its own against the colours and textures of the squiggles.

More stamping next, using the same Distress Inks as I'd used for the blending.  

I started with the little Harlequin diamonds from the little Tim Holtz French Market set, in Broken China over the Broken China bits...













... and in Rusty Hinge over the Rusty Hinge bits.
















Then came the flash of inspiration - the bird from Flights of Fancy suddenly became a Phoenix rising from the flames.  

Yes, it turns out those painty squiggles are flames... obvious once you know, isn't it?!

I stamped him in Versamark ink and embossed him in Copper Kettle powder.  I added some white highlighting with Inkssentials gel pen, but I somehow knew it wasn't over yet.
















Now that I realised we were on fire, I decided to add some extra tongues of flame, licking around the edges of the card, using the flourish from the Regal Flourish clear stamp set, and then it was out with some more embossing powder.














I started with some Rust from the Antiquities range, and added a few dots of Frantage Aged Gold to it.  Once I'd melted that, I knew what had to happen to the Phoenix!











I used the Emboss It Dabber to add some more embossing ink right to the edges of his wings and tail, as well as some tiny specks feathering outward from there too. 













The Aged Gold has a fabulously lava-like look to it, and I sprinkled a couple of speckles of the Rust embossing powder onto it while still molten and remelted it in.












I'm thrilled with the results both on the Phoenix and on the edges of the card.  See how he dazzles in the sunlight!!












The topping for the tag gives me great pleasure too... 

It's some more wire rescued from notepads being thrown out - and this time it was already a fabulous brass colour (no need for the Worn Penny used for ArtAngel's ruff).











I twisted it around for a sculptural effect, and it wasn't until I was taking the photos that I realised how it echoes the flourish flames on the tag itself - I love happy accidents!











All in all, I hope this tag is a sign of my Mojo rising from the ashes of exhaustion and stress - it's felt more than a little sluggish lately.  

There were signs of it re-emerging with the ArtAngel, and this tag certainly gave me a great deal of joy combining the inks, paint and powders to release the Phoenix from my imagination.

Hope you've all been having a fabulous week, and an even better weekend!  See you soon. 







It's ages and ages since I've managed to play along with the Monday Challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  
This week they'd like to know whether we've "Got Ink", so between the Distress Ink background, spritzed, flicked and stamped, and the Embossing Ink used for the Phoenix and for the lava, I hope this will fit.

And I'd also like to add it in to Anything But A Card's open challenge Fall Into Fall - apparently you don't have to have a Fall-themed project, so I'm taking them at their word, though I guess the colours here are pretty autumnal in any case!

The phoenix, hope, can wing her way through the desert skies and, still defying fortune's spite, revive from ashes and rise.
Miguel de Cervantes

I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.
J.G. Ballard

Angels and ArtAngels

Hello all!  Thank you so much for stopping by today.

It's Our Creative Corner time, with some mid-month creations from the other half of the team, including our new DT member, Astrid.

So if you haven't yet played along with Claudia's wonderful Steampunk Tic Tac Toe challenge, you'll discover lots of amazing inspiration at Our Creative Corner today, and you can find all the challenge details and join in the fun here.

I'm here with an Altered ArtAngel, who has in fact had me in something of a devilish thrall for the last few days - possessing me with an idea which proved very difficult to turn into reality.

If you look at the face which appeared, you'll see why I'm in two minds about her origins - divine or demonic?

Perhaps best to think of her as a Diva: she's certainly been highly demanding, including requiring a very long post and photo shoot!  (Remember you can click on the photos for a closer look if you need one.)

As soon as I saw the Steampunk Tic Tac Toe board, the top row called out to me - Wings, Gears, Wire - and I knew immediately that I wanted to create a wire-work crinoline skirt as part of whatever I'd be making.

I figured it might be a bit fiddly... but as it turned out, it was one of the simplest things about this make.  That's not to say it was simple - just that everything else seemed even trickier.












My next thought went to all the bottles I'd refused to throw out during the recent house move.  Time to prove there was a reason for hanging onto them by pressing one of them into service.

This one held White Balsamic Vinegar (which I thoroughly recommend by the way!), and after a good dose of washing up liquid and steel wool to remove the labels, I started to build my layers.










I embossed some sticky-backed aluminium foil using the Alterations Gears folder and stuck it around the bottom half of the bottle.












I also die-cut some cogs and, having used wax paper to make it easier to get them out, I thought I might as well use that as well as the paper versions.

I stuck those to the upper half of the bottle, curving them around the corners and neck to add interest.










Then I gave the whole thing a quick coat of gesso, to give all the different textures "tooth" to hold whatever I decided to sling at it next...














Paint, obviously... lots of it, mainly DecoArt, starting with the Traditions Blue Green Light and Aquamarine...















... and then dry-brushing Indian Turquoise and Spa Mist around the place.















There were many other layers, but towards the end I added some Fresco Translucent Pea Coat from the bottom upwards, as well as some Treasure Gold in Sapphire and Aquamarine.

I think the ArtAngel's mischievous side intervened, because I had intended to add some embossing powders to the bottle too, but by the time I'd remembered that, there was too much other stuff already in the way!










I wove the crinoline structure out of silver garden wire, and it was just as fiddly as I'd expected it would be.  But once I could see that it was going to work, I was happy to persevere.

It was very fine wire, which meant it was easy to manipulate, but also meant it would occasionally snap mid-twiddle - very annoying (ArtAngel in action again?).












Once the weaving was complete, I added a tiny twirl on the end of each stalk - wrapping the ends around a piece of dowelling to curl them.













I gave the whole structure a coat of DecoArt Metallics Worn Penny.

It really is the colour of a worn penny - exactly as it says - and with a lovely metallic sheen to it.






Time to get the wings under way... I had a Tic Tac Toe line to complete, after all, and the Gears and Wires were already well catered for.

I cut the Layered Wings out of aluminium (a cut-up Coke can, since you ask), and embossed them with the Wings folder.  I wanted them made out of metal so that I could bend and shape them easily if necessary later.

They also got various layers of paint to match what was going on with the bottle.













The idea of a clock face for the ArtAngel's face happened quite early on, but when I held up the largest Idea-ology clock against the bottle neck, I got a strong message through from her that it was simply not large enough.












Something considerably more imposing was required.

I happened to have the interior of a die-cut Weathered Clock lying on the craft table (left over from my art journal page earlier this week).  I lay the Idea-ology clock face down on it, and inspiration struck - more gears needed (definite external input, I'd say... ArtAngel up to her tricks again).









I grabbed several cogs and gears and started to create her hair.

It's one of those eighteenth century wig affairs, piled high, and with some little ringlets either side of the face too, courtesy of some curly rusty wire!

I obviously couldn't have the hair mounted on boring cardboard, so it was out with the paints again, this time given a layer of the DecoArt One Step Crackle.  

Once it was fully dry, I splurged Faded Jeans Distress Stain over it so that it would seep down into the crackles to highlight them.

I played around with eyes and mouths for ages, trying this, that and the other, and in the end I yielded to the strongest impulse, which was this rather alarming configuration, with frowning Idea-ology paper clips and an ambiguous game spinner for the mouth.  

I can't help but feel that this wasn't entirely my decision!







Finally some adornment.  

I'm delighted with her ruff.  I'm aware it makes her rather more Elizabethan than truly Victorian or Edwardian - which would be more appropriate time periods for Steampunk - but I couldn't resist it.  

It's another bit of salvage from the house move - one of many ring-bindings ripped out of notebooks which were headed for the incinerator.










The ruff got a coat of the Worn Penny, so that it would tie in, and I added one of the Tim Holtz tassels for extra decoration.

On a piece of the ball-chain, I added another little cog, a large game spinner (the other hand from the clock face?), and a Muse Token stating the ArtAngel's strong claim to being Unique!












Things were simpler to start with, but ArtAngel kept wanting to wear more!
















She didn't make life any easier when it came to the photo shoot either... ArtAngel is very difficult to capture in her full glory.


Anything too fussy in the background really didn't work; the shine on the crackle background kept obscuring the crackles themselves...


It seemed to me that her frown got deeper and deeper the harder I tried.
















Almost no light variation that I tried could really capture the detail of the embossing at the same time as the delicate wire crinoline.

In the end, I just had to go with lots of photos, rather than trying to hit that special one that does the job in one go.

It's been another mammoth post here at Words and Pictures - but, given the number of very short sneak peeks lately, I hope you'll forgive me.  

If not, I'm just going to blame the ArtAngel in any case, so there!







If you're still eager for more inspiration, do hop over and see what my amazing team-mates have been up to over at Our Creative Corner, and I do look forward to seeing what happens when you play Steampunk Tic Tac Toe - you have until the 28th of the month, so I hope to see you there.

Oh, what may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!
William Shakespeare

If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.
Tennessee Williams

Every angel is terrifying.
Rainer Maria Rilke

I'd like to enter my ArtAngel for Bonnie's fantastic Art Dolls Challenge over at eclectic Paperie (my old stamping ground - nice to be back for a visit!)

A little Christmas offering

Hello all - a little Artistic Outpost offering for you today... a simple little Christmas card.  And a lovely offering from Artistic Outpost themselves: a well-timed sale with 15% off all Artistic Outpost stamps until November 18th - perfect for stocking up on Christmas presents!!




For now, here's a really quick way to boost your Christmas card making... 

In fact, you could probably make this card in less time than it's going to take me to write this post (especially if Blogger keeps misbehaving)!

I started with kraft cardstock, and stamped the adorable wintry cottage from the Midwinter plate in Coffee Archival.  I used a white pencil to add the snow to the scene.

I added one of the lovely new Christmas Chalk sentiments and edged the card using the Prima Chalk Edger in white.

Inside, I stamped the little '25th' also from the Christmas Chalk plate, and there you have it.  With stamps this good, sometimes that's all you need!

Simple, quick card-making, and simple quick post-writing - I bet you didn't think I could do that.  Don't worry.  I give you fair warning: normal (War and Peace length) service is about to be resumed on Friday!





Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the fire is so delightful
And since we've no place to go
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
From Let it snow! by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne

(I can't be the only person for whom that's a Pavlovian trigger to go and watch all the Die Hard films!)

What do you mean "No Peeking"?!

Hello all, and welcome - with an especially big welcome to the newest followers.  Thank you so much for joining the journey.

Regulars will know by now that a "no peeking" rule simply wouldn't work here at Words and Pictures.

Sure enough, after the latest Artistic Stamper sneak peek I'm back with the newest Artistic Outpost sneak peek.  Anybody panicking about getting Christmas crafting done in time, there's a super-quick make over at Artistic Outpost today - why not hop over and take a look?

For now, I'll wish you all a wonderful week and I'll see you soon, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland!




It's fun to peek into other people's worlds and see how they go about doing things.
Norah Jones

A little bit of time to myself

Hello all, and happy Sunday! 

It's been a bit quieter here since all that PaperArtsy excitement at the beginning of the week, but today I'm back with yet another sneaky peeky post. And after yesterday's Artistic Outpost creation, nicely chilled out, we move to my first November post over at The Artistic Stamper.











I'd love it if you have time to hop over to The Artistic Stamper Creative Team Blog to have a look at my latest art journalling effort.  










I've finally been putting ink (and paint and paste) to paper in my Dylusions art journal, bought several months ago and pristine until a couple of days ago. There'll be no stopping me now.

Hope you have a wonderful day doing whatever makes you happy!

A Sunday well spent brings a week of content.
Proverb