Be Yourself...

Well it's the first day of my two week break from work and boy is it needed!! I really enjoyed playing around with my journal last week so decided to do another spread. You know when people say 'I threw everything at it' well I did!! paints, inks,glimmer mist,archival inks,frantage, you name it and it's probably on there!! It also has all sorts of textures including plasterers tape to string to grunge paste and lots more.
It has so many layers I lost count but had a fabulous time doing it.. I love the quote by Oscar Wilde..'Be yourself ...everyone else is already taken'...so true lol.. I also love this stamp from tim Holtz and couldn't find it anywhere until my friend Sam found it at an excellent price too!..thanks again Sam..

Well here it is..I must apologise for the piccie...it looks like it has loads of red on it which it doesn't..I just take awful pictures!!

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A Masterboard inspired by Jofy

We had a visit from Jo this week over on the Paper Artsy Blog. she did a great masterboard using all her own design stamps...you can pop over and see it here. I only have three sets of Jo's stamps but decided I would have a go at this today as what is more relaxing than sitting at the table with you colouring pencils!! Like being six years old again lol..So here we go..I followed along with what Jo did and had to use some other stamps to fil the gaps..

                                                 First layer

                                                Second layer

                                                 Third layer

                                             And the final layer...

Had a lot of fun doing this, I had forgotton just how relaxing it is to just sit and colour in!!

Memories

Been having a quiet couple of days since the weekend. As I had a day off to day I decided to spend a bit of it in my shed. I had an unfinished page in my journal which had been sitting there for a couple of weeks..so I decided that today was the day it would be finished..
My mum has been in my thoughts more than usual this week as it would have been her birthday on Tuesday. Some years I feel better than others but this year was not a good one  :'(

I had more or less completed the background and die cut the Tim Holtz dwelling die, stamped and cut out some bunting from an artistic outpost set. what to do next. I stuck everything down. I cut out some numbers from the word play die and decided to use all the numbers that represented the places I had lived in..73 was the number of the house I was born in etc...So many happy memories....so that's my page finished, a trip down a very happy and sad memory lane...

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Inspiration from Alison Bomber

This will probably be the quickest post in history as I have about ten minutes to finish it. We had some fantastic projects over on the Paper Artsy blog again this week. The one from Alison Bomber was beautiful and inspired me to do this triptych which had been just sitting there waiting to be transformed!! You can pop over and see Alison's Hearty Canvas here.

This is my creation using the new Chatsworth paper, Frescos, Lynne Perella stamps, Stencils and treasure gold...

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Frozen Charlotte...

Julie Ann was back on the paper artsy blog this week. She did a fabulous job with three small canvas pieces with different versions of the green man. You should pop on over and see them here. Now Julie Ann used little masks in her project and I have to admit I am one of those people who find them a bit creepy..but I really wanted to play along. So thinking cap on I thought I know I'll do a samll canvas with a frozen Charlotte doll. Now thinking about this they are a wee bit creepy too!!

Apparently the name comes from an American ballad "fair Charlotte" but I have also read that it comes from a poem by Seba Smith which you can read here. It's about a young girl called Charlotte who refused to wrap up warmly in the middle of winter as she was going on a sleigh ride to the new years eve ball with her fiance` and didn't want to cover up her pretty dress. the story goes that by the time they arrived at the ball she had frozen to death....

After I had decided what I wanted to do I went out into my shed this morning bright and earlyish to get started..and guess what!! I only had the tiny doll! oops. Now these dolls have been discontinued by Ranger so couldn't get another...So I borrowed the larger doll from one of my configuration boxes and made a quick mould...it wasn't perfect as I didn't have quite enough mold and pour.but seeing as I wanted it to look old and distressed it was fine. I made my doll with beeswax.

I used a 5x3 inch canvas and painted it with concrete,antartic and ice blue frescos. I cut a small flower from a memory box die and used the waste to stencil with grunge paste up the side of the canvas. Next I die cut some tattered leaves (mini ones) with a patterned paper and colour washed them with hey pesto. the Charlotte doll was gessoed and then painted with chalk fresco. I stamped and cut some wings and paint them blue.

Next step sticking it all onto the canvas..First the die cuts, then a nice fluffy white feather and the leaves. Then some corrugated cardboard and Charlotte. I gave her a little crown too.
Lastly out came the treasure gold..denim,aquamarine and silver then a quick spray of perfect pearls mist to finish it off...

Now I really want to say that the moral of this story is put your bloody coat on!!! but I won't.

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A Little ATC Book

Good afternoon all!! What a beautiful sunny day it is today!
I didn't think I would get a chance to play along with the paper artsy blog this week..just couldn't seem to find any spare time. But when the sun started to shine this morning I got drawn out into the garden and into my shed.

Clare Lloyd was back this week with some lovely pieces. On day three she did a little ATC book which caught my eye..so I thought I would have a go. You can pop over and see it here. I don't ususally do ATC's and I have been neglecting my Jofy stamps so here is what I came up with.....

I used three ATC's as Clare did. I painted them back and front using chalk frescos. I then added a layer of  dusky teal blending it with chatreuse.

Next I got my new Lin Brown stencils and used chalk to stencil the dots and chatreuse to stencil the fern.

Out came the stamps..I used a selection from Jofy nine, ten, and fourteen aiming to get a continuous run of flowers through the little book.

I used olive green archival for the stamping as it wasn't as harsh as black. I painted in the flowers and butterfly using south pacific and blood orange frescos.  I added some dots using my white sharpie.

Using the rest of the chalk coloured card I stamped the words using black archival, cut them up and stuck them in the book. I went arond them using burnt orange charcoal and smudged it a bit.

The little book was bound with ribbon and beads

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A Lynne Perrella canvas inspired by Linda Cain

Another great week over on the Papaer Artsy blog with loads of lovely projects from some very talented peeps. One which really caught my eye was a canvas by Linda Cain which you can see here. It is so vibrant!! Well my canvas was inspired by Linda's so I hope you like it..

I more or less went long with what Linda did on her's so won't bore you with a step by step.I got the chance to use some of my new stencils and used Cheesecake,Tango,London bus,Chatreuse and Hey pesto fresco. then the treasure gold...Florentine and Special edition number 5 which I love!!. The background was stamped with a Paper Artsy script mini with Olive an Sienna archival inks.

I then stamped one of the images from LP027 and one from LP29 onto white card and embossed it with clear powder. Painted them with the same colour frescos and made a flower and leaves from some scraps of paper. Fnally I edged the canvas with black versafine..

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