Who you were made to be

Hello all!  I hope September is treating you well so far.  If you missed my Shades of White over at PaperArtsy a few hours ago, I hope you'll be able to check them out.  

But now it's time to start a new challenge theme over at A Vintage Journey and it's a good one!

Our lovely host, Ann, is looking for Cogs, Gears and Textures from us all - all the details are over at A Vintage Journey along with the usual amazing inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

Before you hurry off to check it all out, here's what I created for the challenge.  I think you'll agree there are plenty of cogs, gears and lots of scrumptious texture, both on the gears and behind them.















I took the chance to play with several techniques I've learned from Andy Skinner over the years, both in online courses and in-person workshops.













Since I'm working with a travelling stash (admittedly a large one - we travelled by car not by plane!) I had to adapt a couple of them a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with my rusty gears and eroded metal.













I wasn't sure how long I'd be away, but thankfully my packing-brain was intelligent enough to include some Tando chipboard cogs and gears - one of Andy's Industrial Elements kits along with an extra Bolts/Washers sheet.

These are so sturdy - ready for all the media you can throw at them - and you can layer them up in all sorts of different ways to create an interesting dimensional layout.













The background is an 18 x 24 canvas board (that's about 7 x not-quite-10 inches) which was already here in the Czech Republic.  (I've added to the CZ stash whenever I see canvases/boards/3D alterable objects in the shops here over the years.)















I lined it with some paper before using a palette knife to add Prima Plaster Paste, Andy's Strata Paste by Cosmic Shimmer, and Ranger Opaque Crackle Paste fairly randomly across the whole surface.













I left that all to dry while I started playing with Grit Paste, Resist Paste and Weathered Wood Crackle Glaze as well as lots of paint on the cogs.













The grit paste gives you a fabulous rusty texture to work with.  On some cogs I started with an undercoat of Paynes Grey and put the gritty paste over the top.














With some I started with grit paste and spattered with Paynes Grey, leaving some bare chipboard in between.














The main paints involved are Quinacridone Gold (both the DecoArt and the Cosmic Shimmer formulations), Raw Umber and Paynes Grey (Cosmic Shimmer) and Finnabair's Burnt Sienna.












I did some highlighting of the texture by scraping on some Speckled Egg Distress Paint with a palette knife, and there's a bit of Antiqued Bronze Distress Crayon in places catching the light too.












The reason for the Speckled Egg was that it was the main colour I wanted to have going on over the textured background, so let's head back to take a look at that now.

I used the Distress Paint along with some Weathered Wood DP too to create my first layer of soft colour over the crackles and layers of texture paste.













The Strata Paste has these amazing flat shale pieces, like a geological rock formation, and they look so cool when you give them a bit of shading and highlighting.
















Obviously, I was never going to stop at just Speckled Egg in the background.  The rusty tones made their way into the cracks and crevices too.

I embraced imperfection, so where some crackle flakes came loose I took advantage and made that a worn away area with rust breaking through.















I added rusty drips and trickles around the bolts in the corners of the panel, trying to create a realistic look of decay and weathering across the whole piece.












And I also used a Tim Holtz  background stamp to add more creeping decay in places along the top and bottom edges.  It's from the Pine & Birch background set, but it has a great look of cracked paint, I think.







I couldn't resist adding some additional shading around the main elements, bedding them in.  I used mostly the Paynes Grey and Raw Umber...

... but there are also places where the shadows take on the beautiful purple tones of Daniel Smith's Moonglow watercolour stick.

And of course, centre stage, are the two fabulous Paper Dolls - I love their grit and determination.

Their direct, uncompromising expressions tell such a strong story about their character and strength.













The Quote Chip pretty much chose itself.  The Birch stamp in Sepia Archival creates some more creeping rust, along with a swipe of Quin Gold to warm the cold white.













I used pieces of the chipboard off-cuts to support the other end of the Quote Chip. and they also came in handy for giving the Paper Dolls support in their dimensional positions.  I love that they cast real shadows!














I haven't given any focus yet to one of my favourite elements - this decayed metal structure with its rusted paint surface and rusty bolts.













I'm really happy with the finished look of this - there's Resist Paste, Weathered Wood Crackle, Distress Paint and Dina Wakley acrylics all in the mix, as well as the grit paste and rusted paints already mentioned to create the rusted screws holding it all together.















And I used a similar decaying paint technique on the two circular panels supporting the large gears at the top.













Okay, I think that's more than enough from me!

There's still lots of lovely inspiration to enjoy over at A Vintage Journey and we hope you'll come and join us somewhere down the road on A Vintage Journey this month with your own Cogs, Gears and Textures.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I'm sorry I haven't been around much lately - liaising with Czech builders, trying to start creating some sort of order in the slightly neglected and overgrown garden here, as well as making the most of a resurgent mojo at the craft table has meant I haven't been online as much as usual.

I will try to make the rounds this weekend to see what you've all been up to.  I hope you're keeping well, staying safe and enjoying some creativity too.  Have a great weekend and happy crafting all!

I felt a strange delight in causing my decay.
Robert Browning

... and the rest is rust and stardust.
Vladimir Nabokov

White (ish)...

Hello all, I'm over at the PaperArtsy blog this evening with some Shades of White for their current inspiration theme.  I decided to see if I could work with contrasting white...

There's not a lot of contrast available between shades of white, so the resulting pair of tags are pretty subtle, but I rather like them.  If you have time to hop over and check them out, I'd love to know what you think.

Thanks so much for stopping and hopping, and I'll see you again soon.

White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities. 
Stephen Sondheim

September Leaves

Hello all and a very happy September to you.

I thought I'd drop in to share some more of the backlog of tags I've been creating with a newly active mojo here in the Czech Republic (overseeing the final stages of building work before coming back to the UK to pack up my life and ship it over here - all before 31st December... stressed, not much!).

But partly because of my limited travelling stash (fewer decisions to make - just got to go with what I've got), and partly thanks to Speckled Egg (a colour which fired my enthusiasm no end) I've found myself getting really inky at the craft table.

This is one of three backgrounds which all came into being together, but each took a slightly different journey as I worked out what to put onto them.  So here's the first of the three and the other two will tip up soon.













The background is a combination of inks and oxides, smooshed until they made my heart sing.
















I stamped the Tim Holtz leaves onto another smooshed background and cut them out, clear-embossing the outlines before adding little sprinkles of Frantage Aged Silver.














I think that gives them a look of sparkling dew or sunlight catching glossy leaf edges.












In between the stamped leaves, I wedged some metal filigree leaves which have also had a coating of the Aged Silver powder.  The gleam is gorgeous without being too in your face.














The stars are also done with the Aged Silver over some stencilled texture paste.














The paste I used was a bit sloppy, so we haven't go the cleanest of finishes on the edges of the stars, but that really doesn't bother me.  I just love the gnarly knobbly texture.














The Quote Chip seemed like the right way to add the words.












I dyed the crinkle ribbons to match for the topping and tied them with some simple twine.  The fine silvery ribbon is cut out of the shoulder of a blouse (one of those ones they put in to keep them on the hanger, but I never use them for that... much better to add them to the craft stash!).













The sparkle is really rather lovely on this.  I don't get blingy very often but just occasionally it's fun!  I shared a little video clip of them on Instagram, but I seem to have deleted it before uploading it here.















I have still got the one of all three tags together though, so I'll make sure to hang on to that until I've posted all three, so you'll get to see the video in the third of the posts (if New Blogger lets me upload it).

















Have just had to revert to Legacy yet again in order to get my photos where I want them.  If they don't sort it out before taking Legacy away, it is going to be the end of my blogging I think.  I am so sad, angry, frustrated, depressed about it.

Sorry, didn't mean to end on a down note.  I really hope you all have a wonderful September.  Happy crafting all.

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.
Walt Whitman

Encore - Calico Flourishing Butterflies

Here's a blast from the past - a project for Calico Craft Parts from all the way back in June 2015.  There's a wealth of different crackle products in the background, and I had a lovely time adding colour with sprays - something I don't do very often.  It's a slightly different vibe from some of my creations, but you'll recognise the colours and of course my passion for crackle!  Here's what I wrote back then...  (Oh, and if you're not sure what an Encore post is about, you'll find the explanation at the end of the post.)

_____________________________

Hello everyone, Alison here from Words and Pictures, and I've brought along some Flourishing Butterflies to share with you today.

What I mean by that is that I've been playing with the fabulous Mini Butterflies again, as well as some of the scrumptious Mini Cogs, and they're all nestled around one of the glorious ornate Flourishes now available to create an altered notebook cover which, I will confess, I'm rather in love with!

I played with the layout first of all - you'll notice I ended up with fewer butterflies in the end.

I had a lovely time creating the background - book pages, masking tape and various layers of gesso and crackle mediums are at the heart of it.

I also applied texture paste and gesso to the large flourish before gluing it in place.  I added the metal flowers and filigree pieces, and gesso'd all of it.

I decided I needed a bit of extra crackle texture, so I applied that and let it dry before going on to the next stage.

Ah yes, the next stage - lots of spritzing inky colour over and around it all - such fun.

As well as spraying on inky colour, I also used a paintbrush to apply paint (shockingly conventional, I know) to intensify the colour in places.

That also gave me a bit more control in deciding where and how much colour I was applying to the flourish, the flowers and the crackled "sky".

Both the butterflies and the cogs have been given a touch of golden shimmer using some iridescent gold paint - Interference Gold, which changes as it catches the light.

I've used some of the same stuff to add highlights and gilding on the flourish texture and the metal elements too.

The butterflies gleam as they catch the light...

... and the cogs add a little hint of Steampunk glamour...

(... or should that be Glampunk? - something I explored with one of my first ever posts for Calico way back when - my Glampunk Birdhouse!!)

I love how they glow amongst the other elements.

There are spots and splatters of ink to add extra detail, all in colours to complement the main colours on the flourish.

I quite often leave my Calico Craft Parts "naked" as I find them so beautiful, but as you've seen in my last couple of projects, they're also fabulous when altered, and so much fun to play with!

So there's my notebook cover for you - I hope you like it.  See you again soon.

________________________________

There you have it.  I hope you've enjoyed this little wander down memory lane.  I still have lots of these fabulous flourishes in my stash.  I must dig them out when I get home (or make sure they're near the top of my packing when I pack up to move house!).  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you again soon.  Stay safe, stay well and happy crafting all.

Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.

L. M. Montgomery

Encore Posts

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 while I'm busy.

As always, the Encore Posts are formatted differently from the regular ones, so that you can easily spot them.  For some of you they will be new, but if you've seen them before, please don't feel that you have to comment all over again!