A Wise Bird Once Said....

So the end of another month, and the beginning of a new journal page for April.

This one is inspired by a fascination and love started at an early age for Owls by my Nanny Robertson who brought me back a stuffed owl from her travels to Canada.  All throughout my youth until my early teens I collected these fluffier versions.

Today the collection is no more however, the gracefulness and somewhat endangered nature of some of these regal birds means I find them as interesting today as I ever did.

I would like to firstly state that this photograph was taken from one of my BBC Wildlife magazines and although I cannot remember to include it here the photographer of this image has a phenominal eye.

 (page not quite finished here)

This spread was completed using the following techniques:-

Firstly I applied the image to a gesso'd background using matt multi medium.  I then surrounded the image using a collection of assorted black wallpaper samples stamped on using Tim Holtz sketched leaves and cut out and again adhered using matt multi medium.  Once this was all dried any white space was filled by hand using a fine tipped black pen using assorted zentanging techniques attempted for the first time.

On the opposite page I used the scraps of wallpaper collaged with matt multi medium and adhered some Tim Holtz washi tape (sealed with a layer of mod podge).

To complete the look I printed off the computer empty number and letter sheets and filled them with zentangle patterns before cutting them out and adhering them to the page.  The journalling element consisted of a vintage notepad page where each line equated to a day in that month.

I am so pleased with how this page turned out I hope you like it as much as I do.  I would love to receive your comments.

Until next time

Em x

An Owls Tale

This is part of a design team entry I have submitted for Stamp Addicts using their Owl stamp plate and also a floral florish from their Emma stamp plate.

My idea was to create a faux book both on the exterior and interior of a board shaped book which I purchased on a visit to Hobby Craft.

As you can see from the image above all the sides of the book cover were painted in burnt umber liquitex acrylic paints and I speed dried it using a heat tool.  The lettering has come from metallic stickers I had in my crafty stash however, I wanted a more vintage feel so I over stamped them using brown archival ink and a hessian patterned clay squisher.

The Owls were stamped on to an old book page which had been colour tinted using Ranger Alcohol Inks in Peach, Latte and Caramel then over stamped with the images of the Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil Image before mounted them on Tim Holtz Grunge board.  I then cut them out using a heat tool to warm the grunge board and shape it with my hands and layered them on to the front of the book using pinflair glue gel for dimension.

My next endeavour was to make the top and edges of the book look as much like the real thing as I possibly could I left the bottom free of this embellishment as I wanted it to be able to sit as if in a book shelf.

The faux pages were created by cutting a number of 1cm slivers of the old book paper together until I got the desired effect and then adhered them to the length of the book using red strong tape.  I then colour tinted the already yellowed paper using old paper, frayed burlap and tea dye distress ink pads for a more grungy effect.  The top was made using the same method however, I folded the paper in half to create a faux bound effect which I hope you think is quite effective.

For the binding of the book the shaping was already there so using some Liquid Leaf in Florentine Gold I painted this on to the highlighted areas and again applied the same stickers from my crafty stash distressed using the same method.

Above is the inside front this was created using a simple piece of white card cut to size and distressed using direct to page technique and distress inks in antique linen, old paper and frayed burlap.  The font stamp (also from stamp addicts) was stamped over the paper in old paper.  The Floral Flourish (from the Emma Stamp Plate) was stamped using Crimson Copper Brilliance ink to add a sheen to the image and pull it forward from the rest of the page.

This is the faux inside of the book itself.  The height was initially established just using cut down old book pages stuck together the 2nd page from the top was colour distressed using old paper and frayed burlap, I then stuck the front page over it ensuring that I kept the bottom right hand corner free from adhesive and rolled it using a small paintbrush handle to get the curled page effect.

 

I then stamped the floral flourish from the stamp plate Emma and overlayed the stamped owl on the branch image over the top shaping it before adhering it with pinflair glue gel.

 

To complete the look I desired I added small paper flowers and the two sentiments.

 

I hope you like todays image and look forward to hearing any comments you may have.

Take Care

Emma

A New Week Full of Inspiration

I have just returned from possibly the best artistic weekend away I have ever experienced in my life.  I arranged with my good friend Ros to attend a class at Art from the Heart in Harrogate. 

I can only tell you boy that shop and its employees have such warmth and soul you will always feel welcome and at home.

On my arrival Dyan Reaveley met us in the studio along with our phenominal teacher Kaz Hall and it started off straight away with laughs and relaxing conversation.  These ladies and there helpers over the weekend are an inspiration, the kind of artistic lady I inspire to be hopefully one day.

Anyway if any of you crafty/arty types fancy a thoroughly enjoyable weekend away I strongly suggest you book on one of their classes the value for money is well worth the drive (3 hours for us) and we are already planning and saving for our next reccie.

This is just an small enticer as to what was made overall we covered nearly 30 techniques and this project which as I say expand you mind and your creative juices to the point of pure salavation.

This tag book can contain 10 tags of the techniques made and once I get the chance I shall be making some further books to contain other technique tags I have.

This is Ros's interpretation she has gratefully agreed for me to show you too.

I would love to hear from you please continue to follow my posts.

Em x

March A3 Double Page Spread

 

So we're part way through another month of the Journalling Challenge and I have to say my ideas appear to be abounding at the moment to the point where apart from the Journalling text itself I am almost ready to start laying out April's spread.  I also have an A4 page sketched out and eager to try out too so watch this space.

The inspiration from this months page came from the wonderful colours of the 1939 Wizard of Oz and the modern day prequal starring James Franco.  As you can see I have incorporated images from the new film. 

To start I wanted to use my new Golden Fibre Paste craft medium along the border of the page, I lightly pencilled out the area I wished to fill in and applied the paste using dabbing and swiping motions of a cheap foam brush.  Once this was done I left it to dry thoroughly overnight and I was really pleased with the textural results.

So after the boarder was dried now for the fun bit, I sprayed the whole page with water and applied Sunshine Yellow, Postbox Red and Dirty Martini Dylusions sprays on to the background. 

Using the ghosting technique I took the Crafters Workshop 6x6 Bark Template and applied it to the four corners of the background.

Next I rubbed through the Crafters Workshop 6x6 Star Template with Distress Ink in Walnut Stain and a key and writing template with Barn Door Distress Ink in a random motion across the page.

Next I rubbed my Forest Moss Ink Pad over the texture on the border and some Meadow Green to the lighter areas to make it more punchy.

Next I applied the two images from the modern Oz film across the two pages using Gel Medium and allowed it to dry.  Once this had taken place I then used Florentine Liquid Leaf and a small sponge applicator to apply a border around the images.

I stamped the numbers at the top of the page using Tim Holz Stampendous Large Numbers in Walnut Distress Stain and the word "March" was applied to the page using Walnut Faber Castell Pitt Pen through some letter templates in my stash and then outlined this with Cardinal Red Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

Now I am ready to journal for the month.  To keep with the theme I have used some poignant quotes from the Oz films, Gregory McGuire (who wrote the book that became the stage show "Wicked") and some of the lyrics of Idina Mendels "Defying Gravity".  Along with other quotes and thoughts I had throughout the month.

I hope you like the page as much as I did creating it.

Em x

Fresh flower backgrounds

These background papers are using a technique suggested in Craft Stamper utilizing flowers and shrubbery from your garden and cut flowers.

These particular ones were pressed from a bouquet my friend got me for my birthday.  Please note that although white ones work they tend not to stand out and are a grey shadow outline, darker colours make a stronger impression.

To do this technique sandwich two pieces of card over the pulled petals play with your cuttlebug or other machine to get the right sandwich and pass through three times then rotate both of the pieces of card and do again for a more intense and fuller effect.
I shall post my cards made with these shortly.

Hope you like my backgrounds and give it a try.

Em x

February Journal Challenge (Part 2)

Please see below the final entries for this month's journal.  Some entries took several days to complete but I am very happy with the end result :-)

Please feel free to let me know your comments.

Em x

February 2013 journal page challenge (Part I - 1st to 16th Feb)

I have recently joined a group on facebook that spend time each month making a journal page of that month.

 

I have only been journalling for a brief time but thought that it might be interesting to take part in a journey of this sort so that creatively this time next year I can look back on my creative journey.

 

I have also taken to keeping a written journal/diary now too just for me of thoughts feelings and ideas that I may or may not use for future journal pages.  It was something I used to do in my youth but feel it would be a cathartic way of approaching my busy life.

 

Please take time to look at the pictures and brief descriptions below.

 

 

This is the base background page for February as a double A3 Portrait spread and also on a closer scale.  As you will see the base layer consisted of pink, purple and red acrylic paints before a fire stencil was applied to the page and FW acrylic inks applied in black and pearlescent red and purple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of those items that just happened organically and I love it.  The background is using distress stains and inks before stamping and colouring in the Crafty Individuals bird image using Tim Holtz distress stain pains dipped in staines to create the graduated colour affect.  Finally the background was distressed further using a random numerical pattern, great start to the month.

 

This vintage lady came as a cover stamp off of Craft Stamper Magazine.  I have been having quite a busy time at work lately and very much wondered how it must of felt to be one of the first women to get the opportunity to work so I decided to create some text in the background with my handwriting before distressing the background with seedless preserve.

 

 

This song from the 80's has been rattling round in my head for the last few days since hearing it, so whilst it refused to leave I thought I would use some of the lyrics for todays entry.

 

 

This is one of my favourite images so far excluding the 2nd.  This used the amazing image from Indigo Blue and was water coloured in using Distress Stains.  Sometimes simple is all you need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Washi Tape and this uses the parisian text from Tim Holtz overstamped with floral patterns in purple archival ink and coloured using Faber Castell pitt pens.

 

 

Loving my new stamps from Saturated Canary called Little Darlings, this one was coloured using promarkers and then a button peg stamp applied to the background prior to distressing with black soot and adding a bit of glitz.  Feeling quite whimsical today so suited my mood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

16th February,  this is now one of my new favourite techniques for adding some vibrant colour to the background of a stunning stamped image.  This background is using oranges and reds from the Portfolio Oil Pastel set and overstamped using Archival Ink with an old Joanna Sheen stamp, feels really atmospheric.

 

So who would have thought how quick part of this month has gone already.....

 

....stay tuned for part II with 17th-28th February images and a sneak peak at my thought for March.

 

In the meantime thanks for looking

 

Emx

 

 

It takes a long time to grow young

 

I  really adore this image, another from the Little Darlings Stamp Range.  I wanted to branch  beyond the amazing promarkers with this one so I used Lyra Polycolours for this image stamped in Archival Jet Blank ink as I blended the colours not only on the page but with a paper stump and zest it blending fluid.

The A6 card was pale blue and I stamped a dotty floral background on to it using Archival Cobalt Blue.  I then layered a piece of pearlised navy card.

 

The sentiment comes from a Fiskars set of sentiments.

 

I hope you like this card.

 

Em x

An adventure into Steampunk

 

So today I had a friend come over for a crafty day and a spot of lunch, these usually do not follow a plan but gives us both the opportunity to play with each others crafty stash and expand our knowledge from each other.

 

This is the card that we both created with our own interpretation.  The background is the 3D cog spellbinders embossing folder which was done on copper card and then distressed using adirondack alcohol inks.

 

The cogs are part of a new spellbinders die release which we cut using card and my friends Grand Caliber.  We then distressed these as well.

 

For my card I cut out the largest and second largest cogs twice.  With the largest cog I used vintage images stamped in Gathered Twigs, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain distress inks and rotated it slightly behind the original cog to give a slightly different and vintage background.

 

The second sized cog was stamped using the sentiment from a Dyan Reavely set of stamps and I thought it was both appropriate and in keeping with the card.

 

All the cogs were mounted on a craft card backstamped with the same vintage style images.  The background and cogs were adhered to the card using Pinflair glue gel.

 

I hope you like this card.

 

Take care

Emx