Tuesday 31 July 2012

Rusted enamel challenge

Finally, (just in time!) my entry for the CC101 Facebook group's rusted enamel challenge!

The group is open to participants of Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 101 course only - it's a great course, well worth doing - it's still available online.
So I used the technique twice...
Firstly on the card - I stamped with archival before doing the technique over it (I used Victorian Velvet distress ink).

And secondly on the background, on a canvas board.  The background inks were Spun Sugar, Weathered Wood and Iced Spruce, which I used direct to the canvas & then spritzed with water, to blend them a bit & also to make sure the embossing powder stuck!  As the board already came covered with gesso, the distress for the rusted parts didn't work 100% perfectly, but I think it makes quite an interesting, grungy background, none the less!

Finally, I added a grungeboard dress form covered with lace & trim, lightly coloured with Victorian Velvet.

Monday 30 July 2012

12 tags of 2012 - July

After weeks & weeks (months?!) of a very wet, rainy & cloudy 'summer', we've finally had a few days of hot sunshine!  So I thought I'd create a bright & cheeful tag for July, following Tim's alcohol ink technique for his July tag.  I remembered the quote 'make hay while the sun shines' and took it quite literally! - thinking of a corn field, with poppies, ripening in the sun...

I used alcohol inks in aqua, lettuce, cranberry & gold mixative.  The stamps are from a retro florals set by Chocolate Baroque.
I printed the quote onto a separate strip of glossy cardstock & cut out the words. I coloured the ribbon with festive berries & tumbled glass distress inks & added a green organza ribbon as well.
Finally I added a metal swirl & a couple of diecut ears of corn (from Tim's Autumn Gatherings die).  Hopefully we'll have lots more sunny days in August so that all the hay & corn that hasn't already been ruined by the rain & floods will ripen well in the fields this year ...
Back soon!  Kay

Thursday 26 July 2012

CC2C - Challenge 14

Just in time (literally!) for this week's Compendium of Curiosities vol ii challenge, hosted by the lovely Linda at Studio L3 & this week sponsored by the funkie junkie boutique.
This week's technique is Gilded Kraft Glassine, in Tim's book on page 39.

So I did the technique on the kraft glassine background and also on the kraft glassine for the butterflies, & 'skirt' (using Tim's birdcage die) which I then diecut.  I backed the 'skirt' with a white-printed tissue paper & added a few 'jewells' for a bit of extra sparkle!!  Can't say much more, really!  I do love the effect this technique gives ...
I hope I'm organised a bit better for next week's challenge!
Back soon!  Kay

Thursday 19 July 2012

Seasonal distress challenge

There's a bonus challenge this month from our CC101 Facebook group... to create a piece using one of Tim's 4 seasonal sets, and one or more techniques from Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 online course.
At the moment, I've got 2 sets of the seasonal distress inks; winter & spring (& no reinkers!).  So as I've used the spring set a lot recently, I thought I'd use the winter set.  The colours are usually quite Christmassy, but as it's July I wanted to see if I could use them for a non-Christmas project, so I decided to use lots of water & see what happened!
First I clear-embossed the flowers (in the background) onto a 4.5" x 7" canvas & coloured them with festive berries. I pressed the ink pad onto my craft sheet, & picked up the colour with a waterbrush, using lots of water. My stamp (by Judikins) wasn't very clean so the clear embossing which should have shown up white over the white canvas turned out grey in places (you can see a couple of bits if you look closely!)
So I decided to add some more flowers on top!  I used the dabber resist technique (with pitch black dabber) onto natural sticky back canvas, (using the waterbrush rather than stains (!)) with festive berries again for the flowers...
To finish off the flowers, I inked the centres with iced spruce & then added distress stickles over the top (actually antique linen rather than clear rock candy, which has gone 'walkabout' at the moment!).
I used the dabber resist technique again with a mixture of iced spruce & evergreen bough for the  leaves.  Then I cut them out & attached them to the canvas 
I coloured the background with iced spruce & evergreen bough, very watered down.  I added random blocks of iced spruce on top, & then spritzed the canvas heavily, let it lay there for a bit, & then stood the canvas upright & let the water run down.
  I gessoed the edge of the canvas, adding a little festive berries to the gesso, which made it a soft pink, which I toned down with a little iced spruce.
To finish the canvas, I added the ribbon & coin, as it looked sort of oriental!


Back soon!  Kay

CC2C - Challenge 13

And it's another week's challenge from Linda at Studio L3, using p 42 of Tim's book Compendium of Curiosities vol ii, this week sponsored by Simon Says Stamp.  And once again I've left it until the last day!!
This week it's one of Tim's classic techniques - spritz & flick distress.  I love this technique, it's quick to do & you can get some great results!
In 'honour' of our 'summer' here in the UK (which has been extremely wet!) I thought I'd use the theme of 'rain'!!
I love Tim's quote stamp about '... learning to dance in the rain' (I'm learning!!!).  So on top of the (heavily) Spritz & Flicked Distress background, I used this quote, and the 'umbrella girl' stamp from Art Journey - a great stamp company in the Netherlands.  
I added a few Glossy Accent raindrops and some drops on the distress inked flowers ...
 & also created a Glossy Accents puddle!!

The distress ink colours I used were dusty concord, broken china & shabby shutters for the background, shaded lilac & dusty concord for the flowers, and black soot & aquamarine archival for the stamping.
It's supposed to be getting better and more summery by the weekend, so finger's crossed - I may decide on a 'sunshine' theme next week!!!


Back soon!  Kay

Thursday 12 July 2012

new cards ...

Here's some of my new cards, ready for two craft fairs this weekend! - I'll also have a few bookmarks, mixed media canvases & pendant necklaces for sale...

Saturday 14th July - Queen's Road Summer Market, Watford 9-4

Sunday 15th July - Hertfordshire Craft Collective Vintage & Craft Fair - Battlers Green Farm, Radlett 11-4

Fingers crossed that the rain holds off (both are open air!!)


card for flower & bunting coloured & stamped

stamped

distressed & stamped, (on watercolour paper)

distressed, then stamped & embossed, ready for greeting

cupcakes punched out & stamped
loads of techniques on this one!


stamped, coloured & cut, ready for greeting

stamped, coloured & cut, ready for greeting

die cut, stamped & coloured


stamped, coloured & cut



stamped & coloured

stamped & cut, punched background

stamped & coloured, ready for greeting
stamped
stamped




distressed & stamped, ready for greeting

Back soon!   Kay

CC2C - Challenge 11/12

A 2 week challenge from Linda this time, as it's 2 techniques from Tim's book, pages 33 & 34, creating a Configurations box.  This time it's sponsored by Mario, with a whole lot of Tim Holtz goodies up for grabs!  It's taken me the 2 weeks to do enough to photograph it - glad I didn't do one of the larger ones!  Decisions, decisions!!!

I wanted a vintage, feminine feel to it, so I used cream, blue & lilac for the colour scheme.  I used small wooden spools to raise up the box a little. The scroll, key and dressform wings (die cut butterfly!) are embossed with Frantage aged silver embossing powder - I love the vintage feel this gives!  The bottle of nail polish is an old one of my Mum's - the polish is completely solid, but I love the old bottle...  The small flower on the top right I think is tatting (one skill I have never mastered!) - it was part of an old brooch which had seen better days!  I used one of Tim's foliage leaves to add wings to the frozen Charlotte.
I'm not sure whether it's finished; I think I'll leave it as it is, & add a couple of more bits as and when ... !  Here's some more detailed photos...
Left-hand side

Top right


Bottom right

Back soon!  Kay