Friday 23 March 2018

It's VIP birthday time!

Morning everyone,

It's a bit windy out again today and although the sun keeps trying to make an appearance the clouds are winning for the moment.  At least the temperature has risen to double figures for a day or two but typically set to drop again for the Easter hols 😒.

Anyway,  today I'm sharing a card I actually created over a month ago, ready in plenty of time for our Son's 40th birthday which was on Wednesday.  I'm beginning to think our Royal Mail has a big cheek putting postage charges up next week as just recently I and a few others have not received the service we paid for.  I think it's time they did away with 'first class' as they are taking several days to deliver even when this is paid for and I was really disappointed this card did not reach it's destination till after the birthday date.  Oh well, moan over for now, lol.  I was very chuffed with the card itself and I think Jamie liked it.


I started by sticking torn bookpages to various areas of an 18cm square piece of card, then roughly brayered Fresco Finish acrylic paints in different shades of grey.  I followed this with some stencilling of the brickwork and stamped some wording using Shadow Grey Archival Ink.


I stamped the fab Bee Crafty Banksy style image using Black Archival before finally adding some Smalltalk Stickers and a phrase stamped separately and cut out.

As Jamie is an artist/tutor himself and has done a lot of graffiti style artwork I thought this card was particularly apt.  We are looking forward to a meal with close family and friends on Sunday and are hoping the weather behaves this time as it had to be cancelled due to the snow storms last weekend.

I might be back again tomorrow but if not have a good weekend everyone.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx


Saturday 10 March 2018

Ooer! It's Pink Again!

.....I must be feeling a bit poorly, lol!

Good Morning everyone,

I am hoping you have started the day with better weather than we have here.  It's been absolutely tipping it down but stopped for now.  More expected late afternoon but I intend crafting so that's ok, lol!

I seem to be having an accidental run on pink at the moment which I'm sure everyone knows is not my favourite colour.....and that is an understatement!  However, when the latest Distress Oxide Ink releases arrived I had to put the colours through their paces and I did like this dusky background I got so it had to be used.  Now the card has been received I can share it.


I thought the background was perfect for using Raquel Burillo's (aka Scrapcosy) stamp set ESC04 for PaperArtsy.  I used Aged Mahogany Oxide to do the stamping with the script stamp in the background and the roses stamped and heat embossed.  I then added some subtle highlighting with white pencil to the roses and green to the leaves.  I did a little stencilling with white Versamagic through Kim Dellow's stencil for PaperArtsy.


I found the pretty chipboard frame and lightly stamped it with the script stamp and stuck it to the card and stamped the butterfly onto a background scrap to add to the centre of the frame.  A small sentiment and a few pretty pearls and the card was finished.  

I must admit this kind of pink I do like, lol, and I loved it teamed with Raquel's stamps.

Have a lovely weekend everyone and see you again soon.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx

Monday 5 March 2018

OMGosh! It's Pink!!!




Hello everyone,

Well the past couple of  weeks have been mostly pretty miserable as I picked up one of the nasty viruses going around at the moment.  The main symptom has been an horrendous cough which made me rather noisy and unpleasant to be around.  My stomach and rib muscles feel as though I've been kicked by a mule but they should have had a good workout, lol!  I'm coming out the other side now though and at least I was poorly whilst the weather here has been unfit to go out in.  We were quite badly affected by the snow and ice and being a bit old and decrepit, I wouldn't have been venturing far had I been fit 😉.

Before the bad weather blew in though I managed to collect my 10 yr old granddaughter Izzy for a long promised weekend of crafting, just the two of us (no little brothers demanding our attention, lol) and just as The Cough kicked in big time.  Izzy was very patient with my constant coughing fits and I'm so glad she doesn't appear to have caught the bug.  I introduced  her to stencilling various texture pastes onto large MDF hearts.  It was lovely to see her delight when the crackle paste crackled before her eyes, lol!  We made loads of backgrounds with my favourite Oxide Inks and the highlight was making some pendants with Ice Resin, a product I have had in my stash literally for years but have never plucked up courage to use.  Izzy went home with a bag full of her creations and a proud smile on her face.  Sorry the pics aren't brilliant but they were taken quickly on my phone.


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Just about the only thing I have done this week is a project for the prompt challenge with my friends.  The latest  prompt was to use tissue and I decorated a  canvas board to come up with this.......

......and that's where the pink comes in, purely by accident as it's definitely not my favourite colour, lol!



I started by covering an 8" x 8" canvas board with white gesso and then lightly blended some Portfolios to dull down the white.  I took a piece of Tim Holtz tissue and applied alcohol inks over the back blending them together with the Ranger Blending Solution.  Unfortunately the pink shade became the dominant one which I really didn't want.....


.....and once I adhered it to the board using Golden Soft Matte Gel it went an even brighter pink,  argh!!!


So, I set about taking the accent off the pink by giving it a wash of white gesso, which also helped to enhance the crinkles in the tissue, followed by some stencilled Prima (Finnabair) opaque texture paste and then Watering Can Archival Ink through a Tim Holtz stencil.  I applied some paint and Treasure Gold guilding wax to some Prima embellishments and chose a selection of flowers, lace, chipboard and other bits from my stash to collage onto the board.  I also picked out the texture on the board with the Treasure Gold.


I'm really pleased to finally be digging out bits and pieces I've had in my stash for years and using it instead of hoarding it, lol!


A close up of the pretty 'water feature', little bird and the delicate Scrapiniec trailing ivy.


Another beautiful Prima metal embellishment I thought was too precious to use!



 And finally I decided at the last minute to add a little Prima (Finnabair again) Graphite paste through a stencil.  Don't forget you can click the pics to see the texture and light guilding on the background in greater detail.

Well, I have to say that by the time I finished this piece the pink had almost grown on me and I was actually happy with the end result.  I really enjoyed the collaging which I find quite difficult as I don't normally do so 'busy'.   I had intended finishing off with sprays over the flowers but I decided I liked the different creamy whites as they are although I may go back in and add a little shadowing round the embellishments before I call it finished. 

That's it for today.  I'll be back soon with a birthday card which I can share later in the week and I hope you all have an easier time getting out and about this week.

Hugs
Lesley  Xx