Using up what's on your desk!

I've been lacking a bit of crafty inspiration recently, maybe because we're in the 3rd month of a major building refurbishment so everything is a bit displaced and messy. I've been mainly sitting watching films whilst it's been so cold outside and noisy and dusty inside, and have been knitting a jacket. Now I remember why I prefer crochet to knitting, as it grows so much quicker!

Last week I decided to try to tidy up in my craft room a bit and went in to find such a lot of "stuff" on my desk top! Then I remembered someone telling me that sometimes the best thing to do when you needed to find somewhere to start with your creativity was just to use up the things that were on your desk.

I'd been experimenting with some Brusho powder backgrounds, and had a whole pile on my desk, so that was my starting point. I also had lots of "bits" of mirror and shiny card offcuts on my desk left over from making Christmas cards and tags, so I decided to die cut these using some star shaped nesting dies. Then I raided my little box containing other offcuts of plain and embossed card and cut more stars in colours that coordinated with the Brusho backgrounds, and also some numbers and little tags.

Finally I found some bright grosgrain ribbons in my stash, cut and matted the Brusho backgrounds into squares, added the ribbon through the tag, and arranged a number of the stars in a limited colour palette, overlapping the arrangement and raising some of the stars with a little double sided sticky foam. Then I just stamped a happy birthday greeting inside each card.

I've ended up with six cards for my great nephews and nieces, and the children next door, and my desktop is looking much clearer. Of course, it's not really tidy, but the crafty inspiration does seem to be back! Next time I might try to use up some of the offcut pieces of white card, using stamps, embossing folders and inks to add some interest - I think this might be a really good idea for those awkward men's cards.

 Thanks for visiting and I'd love to hear if you have any comments, Susan x

Klimt Challenge Canvas

So this post is dedicated to the Klimt inspired challenge on the JJJMA Facebook page, where the brief was to use the colour gold, and modelling paste to create a Klimt inspired piece of art.

Here's a photo of the kit I used to create this canvas, although I also used some Grunge paste (texture paste) to create dimension on the project, which I forgot to include in the photo!

Firstly I used the brayer to randomly apply some of the Fresco Finish paint and the gold paint to a square canvas which was already pre-prepared with a gesso base. I used a piece of card to clean the excess paint off the brayer and then sprayed the residual paint on the craft sheet with water and mopped up the drips onto the card to make a base for a masterboard to use in another project.

Next I used the grunge paste through part of a Claritystamp stencil to apply to texture to the edges of the canvas board, making sure to wash the stencil and spatula straight away to remove any residual paste.

Whilst the paste was drying, I stamped the Miss Austen stamp by Indigo Blu onto a piece of white card using the Tim Holtz stamp platform, a black Versafine ink pad, and heat embossed with clear powder. Then I replaced the card in the same position on the stamp platform, reinked parts of the stamp with Versamark ink, and heat embossed again using gold powder. Finally, using a versamark pen, I inked some of the check design and other features of the stamp, and embossed those areas with gold embossing powder. I had seen this technique used on a design on Pinterest a long time ago, and was trying to find a project to use it on, and this was the perfect project!

Next I fussy cut around the image, and using two Distress Oxide inks, I applied background colour using the water spritzing technique (drying the droplets between each application to create layers), and finally using a blending tool, I applied ink around the edges of the cut out image.

Next I used some red acrylic paint to randomly stamp some small star shapes from the Indigoblu Victorian Garden set across the centre of the canvas, and then applied flitterglue to parts of the fussy cut image, and the texture paste, and covered the flitterglue with gilding flakes and removed the excess with the scoochy sponge. I finished the canvas with a little gold paint dry brushed around the edges of the canvas.

Here's the finished canvas. I hope you like it! The most important thing to me though is that I was challenged to do something different, way out of my comfort zone, and prompted to use a technique I'd been wanting to try for a really long time.

Thanks for visiting and I'd love to receive any comments or suggestions that you have that will help me to grow in my creative journey. Susan x

A layered, monochrome tag

Today I'd like to share a little tag that I made for a challenge on the Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art Facebook Group. I've been a member of this group for maybe 6 months now, and often comment on and like the work posted by others, but I've never been brave enough to enter a challenge myself ... until now!

I've decided that 2018 is going to be the year I really take myself out of my comfort zone!!! I've done a bit of work with a brushos, watercolour and acrylics on a gelliplate before, but stamping and masking and fussy cutting and paper piecing and clean and simple tend to be the tried and trusted go-to crafts that I embrace on a more regular basis. So, for Christmas, I asked my other half for an art journal, a book about art journalling, and some paint pens - believe me, I have enough stencils, paints and unused "keep it just in case" items in my craft room to keep me going for the rest of my life. And now I have dipped my toe into the world of messy crafting!

Now, you may or may not know, but I am an ex-nurse. I am a bit of a neat freak and like things to be cleaned within an inch of their life. Both of these qualities serve me really well in my new career in hospitality, but messy doesn't come easily to me. However I already have a box of vinyl gloves and an apron ready for use in my craft room - no-one will want to eat my baking if I have dirty clothing or inky hands will they!

So, getting back to the challenge - it's part of the Explore Your Creativity fortnightly challenge on the Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art (JJJMA) Facebook group, and this task was to use the:

Technique  - Layering
Product - Home Made Washi Tape
Colour - Monochrome
Base -  a Tag

I had no idea where I was going with this, so I gathered together a whole load of bits that I thought I might want to use, and then just started to play. First I had a go with my Distress Oxide inks. They are still quite new to me and my first few attempts were OK, but not the mind-blowing creations that I was expecting, so I was pleased with this tag background and made sure that I fully dried the ink before adding extra layers - that seems to be the trick! I used mostly Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo, with a little Iced Spruce just to give some lighter patches and texture.

Whilst my tag was drying fully, I made the washi tape. In the picture above you can see some self adhesive ribbon strips - the nasty yellow shiny sheet with florals all over it! I've had these for ages (they came in some kit or other), so using my palette knife I randomly smooshed over some paints, dried that off, and then stamped randomly with the darkest paint to create my washi tape. I used IndigoBlu Junk and Disorderly paints in Warm Tan and Leather Corset (which incidently looks just like molten chocolate on your craft mat) and a Pebeo gold paint. All the stamps I used throughout the project were from the IndigoBlu Shine Bright set. There is loads of the washi tape left over for another project, and I'll definitely be doing this technique again to use up more of the sticky ribbon sheets!

When the washi tape was dry I added some thick and thinner strips in two areas of the tag, layering them over one another and varying the length to give some interest. I then randomly stamped the smaller lightbulb image in Versamark ink, and embossed with the darker gold embossing powder. I added some of the small butterfly images and the texture stamp to the tag background and used both gold and clear embossing powders to glaze the images. I then stamped the largest bulb image in versamark on the page of an old book and heat embossed it with the lighter gold powder. I also stamped the sentiment in brown paint onto the book page, and randomly stamped the edges of the book page and the edges of the tag with bubble wrap using the last bit of brown paint on my craft sheet. I punched out some tiny butterflies from the painty book page and used the vintage photo distress oxide ink to age the book page images a bit, and fussy cut them before adhering to the tag.

Finally, I finished the tag with some string, some off cuts of dark brown and gold ribbons, and a little gold key that I had in my stash. Here's the finished tag - hopefully it meets the brief of the challenge, but certainly it met the brief of challenging me to be more experimental, creative and messy. I was quite pleased with the finished result and the depth of the layers on the tag, even though it is pretty much flat. It might be the first project to make it into my new art journal!

Thanks for reading this, and please leave a comment - I'd love to hear what you think.  Susan x

New Year - New Challenges

I've not blogged for a while now as I started the blog originally in order to enter some on-line Claritystamp challenges, which then moved to a Facebook format. However I have still been crafting away, so here are a few of the entries that I posted onto Facebook last year!

For ages I've been stockpiling stencils and paints and texture paste and canvasses, and most of them are still sitting in their packaging (hangs head in shame), so this year I'm determined to get out of my comfort zone and to try some mixed media pieces, and join in some challenges that really test my skills (and my bravery) !

The first piece of mixed media I've attempted was to use a little canvas that I started on a Claritystamp retreat last summer. All the bits and pieces that I added were found in my craft room, so I like to think it was part of my de-cluttering process too. Here are a couple of photos that show where I started, and where I finished up and I did share the finished artwork on Facebook and got some great feedback. I did ask for constructive criticism, but I think most crafters are just too nice to give you pointers as to where you might improve! Maybe someone visiting my blog will be a bit more honest, as I'm sure my first attempt can't be perfect.

Later in the week I'll share with you a tag that I created for another Facebook challenge group which really challenged my skills! 

Thanks for visiting and please leave me a comment and give me some pointers on how I could improve - I'm always open to learning or trying something new.

Happy New Year, Susan x

Flower of Scotland

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I've been busy in the garden re-felting the shed roof, sorting out the fencing and painting the wood and garden furniture, so no time for crafting! Still, when you live in the north of Scotland you take every spell of good weather to do those jobs outside. Now the forecast says it's promising to snow again this week, so I'm pleased that most of the maintenance jobs are done.

Here's my entry for this month's Claritystamp challenge. The theme is "all about the words", so I thought long and hard about how to do a background that wouldn't overwhelm the sentiment, and the idea of wallpaper came to mind.  I made my own custom inkpad using a piece of cut and dry foam and distress re-inkers, faintly stamping the Claritystamp thistle image onto the foam, then applying drops of two different green and purple inks to represent the leaves and flower head. I was aiming for a simple repeated design (like the idea of William Morris wallpaper), and the custom inkpad makes it easier to get more consistent colouration of the stamping.

When the background was dry, I added the wording "Flower of Scotland" using Versafine black ink, and a variety of letter stamps from the Claritystamp letterbox and word chain alphabet stamp sets. The card was trimmed to size, edged with a black sharpie pen, then mounted onto an 8x8 inch square white card and finished with a ribbon trim in a complimentary colour.

Hope you like the finished card, and any comments or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks for visiting, Susan x

Spring is in the Air!

I've been busy up in my craft room trying to get ahead with my long list of cards needed for 2017, and as I was tidying up I found some bleeding colour tissue that I've had for ages but have never played with.

I didn't have my laptop at hand to re-watch the YouTube tutorial that the very talented Eileen Godwin had done on the technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oivloSbeLXA), so I relied on my memory instead! What I did recall was that she used dies to cut multiple shapes of the tissue, and reinforced that it was messy, that you should wear gloves and an apron, and dispose of the wet tissue carefully to avoid unwanted blotches of dye everywhere in your craft room.

First I cut various sizes of stars and circles in multiple layers of tissue, and put them into a container to keep them away from my water! Then I had a go at placing them onto pieces of watercolour card and spraying them, then removing them with tweezers after a few moments, but the result was a bit pale, watery and the shapes were quite indistinct. I finally decided to use a waterbrush to apply water directly to the shape before removing it, and that gave me a much brighter colour, with a definite shape.

Above are some of the scraps, some of which I've gone round with a black fineliner pen, and I'll use these for backgrounds for other projects. I really liked how some of the shapes had white areas in them, so I might try scrunching up some of the tissue shapes to see if I can enhance that effect in the future.

I used the main square piece of watercolour card for a background for my Clarity Stamp Challenge piece for the February 2017 theme, Flower Power. I thought the brightly coloured circles were reminiscent of the swinging 60s, and I used the Clarity Stamp alium flower stamps to enhance the circle theme, stamping using archival black ink, and stamping using versamark ink with white and coloured embossing for some variation of texture on the finished piece. Finally, I edged the square with a black sharpie pen, and matted onto yellow card for contrast. I added the Spring sentiment (one of the Clarity NDC club stamps) and coloured the lineart with some green pencils to finish the card, which will be sent for one of my upcoming spring birthdays.

Thanks for visiting, and if you'd like to leave me a comment that would be really appreciated!

Susan x

Crochet Blanket project

Just  short post to celebrate the completion of a long project, to make a kingsize blanket for our bed. I started it back in April last year, from a pattern in the "Crochet in no time" book by Melody Griffiths. The book promised the project could be completed in a day, and honestly, if you did a small blanket of the proportions in the original pattern, it probably would only take a day!

The project is comprised of large "granny squares, with quite a simple pattern (easy to remember after doing so many) which incorporates a bobble type stitch, and which starts with a circle of treble stitches around a magic ring.

The squares are joined together with a zig-zag crochet pattern, but I have modified the pattern slightly for the corner areas between the squares, and I also added a wide border around the finished blanket, finished with a picot edging.

Now I just need to decide what to do with the left-over yarn!

Thanks for visiting, Susan x

Animal Kingdom - Clarity Challenge January 2017

Hello and Happy New Year! It seems like ages since I've had time to blog, but we've had a busy time during the festive period and then it was my birthday, so the diet's gone out of the window and my hobbies have been on the back burner. Time for a change, methinks!

I've been taking advantage of the January sales however, so there's some new storage in the craftroom, already filled and labelled, and also a few new crafting goodies of course! And now I've just completed my card to enter the January Claritystamp challenge.

This month's theme is The Animal Kingdom, so my entry uses quite a few of my favourite Clarity Stamps to create a valentine's day card for my lovely partner.

Items Used
New Designs Club Issue 105 - Elephants Stamp
Letterbox Alphabet Stamp Set
Wordchain Alphabet Stamp Set
Fiskars chain edging punch
Complimentary background papers
Scrap of velvet rickrack ribbon
Black archival ink
Turquoise pencil

Firstly, I stamped the elephants repeatedly onto a piece of background paper using black ink, coloured the lineart with a pencil in a complimentary colour, then cut out three of the elephants to use on my card. I've a few spare images to use on another card, as this stamp makes a great background for an anniversary card too. I love the way their trunks are knotted together into a heart shape.

Next, I took a complimentary piece of background paper, and punched the knotted design along one edge. I trimmed it to fit my card blank, then I used letters from my letterbox alphabet set, and mixed them with the wordchain alphabet set to spell out the message "I'm knots about you". I had a practice on a scrap piece of paper, and eventually decided just to stamp the message along the paper above the punched border using the scrap to help me space the lettering.

I decided to punch the knot design on both edges of the background paper, then I mounted it onto the base card, and added the three elephant stamps above the wording. Then I added some velvet ribbon in a teal colour to the top of the card. I thought it would be finished then, but I decided to add the word "Valentine" into the white area between the background paper and the ribbon, again using my letterbox and wordchain alphabets. I think this gives the card better balance.

I'm really pleased with the result - the photos don't do it justice, as the papers are a beautiful mix of turquoise and teal colours. I think it's a much more masculine valentine's card than you can buy in the shops, even if it has got some velvet on it!

Thanks for visiting, and Happy Crafting, Susan x

Blast from the Past

Hello again

Today's blog offering is a New Home card for my niece who has just moved into her first flat, and it was a bit of welcome relief from my Christmas card making. I thought it fitted the blast from the past theme of this month's Claritystamp Challenge, as it uses some stamps I've had for a long time and never used, and also one of my favourite stencils; the brick wall seemed so appropriate for a new home card.

Now, Katie is a very girly girl, and has loved pink and sparkles from a very young age, so I knew the card had to have shades of pink and purple and a feminine touch.

 I started by making a print of some lace (repurposed from an old top that I no longer wear) using current adirondack ink and a gel press plate, then I placed the Clarity brickwork stencil over the print, and using the same colour ink and a Clarity stencil brush, I applied the ink gradually building up the colour, working in a circular motion so that the colour was deeper towards the edges and more faded in the centre of the piece. Using a smoothie, I then blended some of the adirondack ink around the edges for more contrast.

Using the same colour ink I stamped one of the Clarity quirky cottages on the right hand side of the card, and under that I stamped the word NEW from the "Time for something new" NDC club stamp, masking off the unwanted parts of the text. Then I added Katie's name at a right angle to the house using the Alphabet Word Chain set. I wasn't originally sure that I needed this alphabet set, as I already had the letterbox kit but now I just can't put down!!! Finally, I coloured the cottage and the open areas on the word using promarkers in complimentary colours.

I cut some swirls from a piece of glittery card, and adhered them to the left side of the card, then added a small punched bird and a mat of the same card to finish the project.

I'll get this in the post tomorrow, and would love to hear your comments. Thanks for visiting my blog, Susan x

Baby blanket and Elephant for Ellie

Hello again

I mentioned in my last post that I was busy crocheting a gift for my friend's newly adopted daughter, and having delivered it earlier in the month, here's a photo of the blanket that I made.

I used a free crochet pattern by Joanna McVey that I found on Pinterest which came from her blog http://southerndaisy.com/2013/10/02/chevron-baby-blanket-free-pattern, so thanks very much Joanna. The pattern was super-easy to follow and it grew quite quickly which was great to keep me motivated. My only concern was that the free pattern didn't tell you how much yarn you required, so I had to guess, and had a fair bit left over. I ended up using about 3x50g balls of pink, and 6x50g balls of both white and taupe, a size 5mm crochet hook, and used a washable double knitting yarn by Bergere de France, called Sonora, which was 50% cotton and 50% acrylic. The only other point to note is that the pattern uses US crochet terms, so don't forget that it you're going to make one yourself.

I saw a similar blanket for sale on Etsy, which had a little applique elephant and heart on it, so I made up a pattern myself (sorry I didn't make a note of how I did it!), as I thought it made the design a bit more child friendly. With some of the other leftover yarn, I also made a little elephant from the book Ed's Animals by Kerry Lord - this is the seventh animal I've made from this book, and I blogged about the first 4 some while ago here if you want to have a look http://creativecapricorns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/my-crochet-zooedsanimals.html.  I warned you then that they were addictive!!!

Now I need to get back to the big blanket that I'm making for our own bedroom - don't think it will be finished by this winter but you never know! Watch this space, and I'll post a blog at some point when it's in pride of place and keeping us toasty warm!!!

Susan x

Circles and Squares

Hello again - well I've had so little time for card making this month, as I've been crocheting a blanket for a friend who is adopting a little girl. I will blog about it once I've handed over the gift, as I think she should be the first one to see it!

This card is for the new mum though, so I used the circles and squares theme, and a monochrome palette to produce a subtle, but hopefully not too babyish card to celebrate her adoption. To produce the card I used the following items:

Clarity circles stencil
Clarity stencil brush
Wee folk stamps set #2
Small allium stamp
Flower punch
Sticky gems
Clarity With Love line stamp
Clarity NDC blocks of fun stamp
Clarity alphabet word chains stamp set
Distress ink (Milled Lavendar)
Archival Black ink
Black sharpie pen
Black fineliner pen
Lavendar promarker

 

No time for a step-by-step this month, but I've added some extra photos, as the card photo doesn't really show all the subtle details. Would love to hear your comments, and hope my pal loves her card as much as her new daughter!

Susan x

Calendar Challenge #9 September 2016

"In the light of the silvery moon"

Here's my attempt at the Claritystamp calendar challenge for September 2016. I find it really difficult to copy someone else's artwork, so for me, the calendar challenges are far more challenging than the monthly themed challenge!

However, I loved the composition of Barbara Gray's artwork, had the Toadstool and Hares stampset, and I improvised a bit, using Clarity coated cardstock and Promarkers for the colouring. Still, I was quite pleased with the final result, although it didn't get finished until today as both my white gelpens had dried up, so I had to nip to the craft shop and buy a new free-flowing one!

Thanks for visiting,
Susan

A little bird told me...

My offer for this month's Claritystamp Challenge is a little MDF birdhouse, decorated for the theme "in the garden". I honestly can't recall where I got the shape from, but it's really happy to be liberated from the rest of the stash in my cupboard!

I started by giving the MDF shape a base coat of Snowflake Fresco Finish  Acrylic Paint by PaperArtsy, then when that was dry, I went over the shape again in Beach Hut Fresco Finish Paint and dried it thoroughly using a heatgun.

Using the Flower Stencil (NDSC #24) from Claritystamp, with some areas masked off with tape, I applied Blood Orange Fresco Finish Paint to the flowers using a piece of cut and dry foam, a little Cadmium Yellow Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic paint to the flower centres, and a mixture of Sage Fresco finish paint and Emerald Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic paint to the leaves, then left it all to dry. The design looked a little soft around the edges, so I went around the flowers and leaves with a black fine-liner pen, and added some details to the flower petals. I also added some yellow dots with Pebeo Gloss Touch in Bright Yellow to give a bit more dimension to the flower heads.

I decided to add some stamped detail to the roof of the birdhouse, and randomly stamped with Claritystamp small ocean swirl stamp from the Galleon set using Ranger Stormy Skies Distress Ink, and again drew freehand around the stamping to add a bit more definition to the design.

Finally, I found a bit of inky, blotchy scrap card, and drew one of the birds from Claritystamp Bird Frame stencil (NDSC #1) using a fine liner pen, extending the branch it was standing on, so that it would wrap around the edges of the bird house. I felt it needed to stand out a bit more against the bright background, so I added a few black boxes, zentagle style, and made my little bird into a zebra finch! Admittedly, you don't see many of those in my garden in Inverness, but I call it artistic license!!!

Hope you enjoy my little birdhouse, and I'm going to hang it from the shelf in my craftroom to keep me company when I'm crafting on my own.

Thanks for visiting, Susan x