'Flying' Journal Page

Another bit of double spread journaling in my 21 x 13 cm Moleskine journal .  This time entitled 'Flying'.  The background was made using spray inks, acrylic paints with masks over a pre-gessoed page.  The page is pictured at the end of the post prior to having any decoration added.

The flying girls are collaged and are a digital download from the lovely Helga at ARTchix Studio .  These have been trimmed out and stuck in place.  I just love the butterfly winged dress and hat on the girl on the right !

Lots of doodling with Posca pen in red, gold, black and yellow and stamping with Archival black & green inks with a leafy vine stamp helped hold the design together.

Finally the words were printed on paper with a pink background, trimmed out and finished with more Posca pen before sticking in place.

I do find it difficult to know when to stop adding things and am still finding out what I really feel comfortable with as my 'style'.  I am really loving doing these though and have lots of ideas which I still want to try.

Sid xx

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The Fragile Heart

Here is a piece I made for a challenge on The Cupboard Trilogy Blog.  The main stamp used in this piece is a cover stamp from Craft Stamper Magazine designed by the late, great Sarah Lawrence of Crafty Notions who passed away very suddenly in December 2011.

The challenge is to design a piece of craft using the cover stamp. 

I have used a box that originally contained Valentine chocolates and have altered it to contain a flower made from the hearts depicted in the stamp. The box was painted with red satin acrylic paint and stamped on the outside with a swirl stamp inked in Stazon Gold.  The three hearts were coloured in Posca gold pen and edged in Posca black fineliner.

The inside of the box was lined with spotty red paper and decorated with a flower made from the heart stamp which had been stamped a number of times in black Archival ink and coloured with barn door Distress ink.  Glossy accents was used to assemble the heart 'petals' finally adding a red glass cabochon as a centre.

The words were printed on the printer and added over another stamped heart on foam pads. Hope this is a fitting tribute in the memory of a great crafting icon !

Sid xx

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Domino Reflections

I have decorated a domino !   The shot above makes it look huge but it is actually only 2in x 1in, just wanted to show the detail...........

I started by sandpapering the plain side of the domino to afford a key before painting with 3 coats of pearlescent emerald Lumiere paint, ensuring it was dry before applying each successive coat.

I then stamped a small flower stamp in black Stazon several times as shown and infilled with a gold Posca pen.  The word 'Reflect' was stamped in gold Stazon.

Once thoroughly dry, Glossy Accents was applied to all sides of the domino as a strong glue before dipping in Ranger calypso Beadazzles to afford a bit of glitz.

Sid xx

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Stripes Rule !

Here is the beginning of a small (21cm x 13cm) Moleskine Art journal I am making.  It's a bit daunting when you first open the journal and all the pages are empty, stark and glaring at you.

Once you get going it's a lot easier to move through and decorate the pages at random although I still have a thing about handwriting and could do with some tuition before I actually do it.

The background is made using various stencils and coloured ink sprays (Sticky Fingers)  which I have had for an age and which were laying unused on the shelf.  Believe me, when you get going though, you soon end up being very inky and the background soon comes together.  The last photo shows how the background looked before adding layers and images.

I have used a variety of stamps with black Archival Ink on the background from Tim Holtz & PaperArtsy and added some doodles with Posca green, gold and black pens.  A few self adhesive numbers were added between Alberts hands.

The words are printed on the printer and coloured with Alcohol inks.

I did some stamping with Zetti Albert and Zetti legs onto copy paper with black archival ink and coloured these with Marvey Alcohol ink brushpens. Alberts head and body were then collaged with the legs.

All items were stuck in place as shown. All that remains to do is date the piece now.

The pic above is how the background looked before stamping and collaging.  Loved making it and now onto the next !

Sid xx

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Book of Life

I have been meaning to have a go at making this this piano hinge book since I was inspired by the  extremely talented Sue Roddis in her book 'Handmade Decorative Books'.  I like the way this turned out and the book measures approx 4 x 6 inches.  It lends itself to all sorts of size variations and colourways to suit the mood and purpose.

I have had the materials in stock for ages but it was suprisingly easy to make.

The front and back covers are made from royal blue card and it has four sets of 8 pages inside.

The pages are in 4 blocks of 8 in alternating buff and gold paper and all is held together with 7 painted wooden kebab skewers.  I have used fancy wool to bind the ends to stop them coming out of the hinges of the book.

The main image is by Stampotique Originals and is entitled 'Queen of Life' by Daniel Torrente.  This was stamped in black Archival ink onto white cardstock, dried and coloured with Spectrum Noir alcohol ink pens.  Once coloured I trimmed out the image and added a small amount of Posca gold pen on the crown and book.

Before assembling I stamped the fromt cover of the book with a Tim Holtz background check stamp inked with Stazon gold ink and overstamped with another TH circles stamp, this time inked with pale blue Versamagic chalk ink.  Some more of the circles were added to the back cover too.

The skewers were painted in Martha Stewart beach glass satin acrylic paint.

Sid xx

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Circles Postcard

Postcard time again !  This is a postcard as part of a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  This months subject is 'Circles' so I have made a collaged card.

The background is backing paper and I have used various stamps and Archival black ink to stamp a hotel/holiday based theme.  The Hotel Mondial stamp is one of Tim Holtz travel tickets.  This was stamped onto a die cut circle of spotty paper before sticking in place.  Other elements are made from digi images.

Some circles have been added in barn door Distress Ink with a glue stick lid and the message is dymo tape over coloured self adhesive Washi tape.  The whole card has been edged with more barn Door DI.

This postcard will be sent naked through the post at the end of the month.

Sid xx

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Happy Alice !

I'm Alice mad at the moment I think !!

Here is a card I made as an entry for The Altered Alice challenge blog which has a theme of 'Stripes' this month.  The stripes in my piece are used as a background which I made using double sided adhesive applied onto a square piece of card and dusted over with metallic mica powders in bronze, copper and two types of gold.  Each stripe is individually applied and coated until the whole square is completed.

I then used chess piece rubber stamps from a plate by Chocolate Baroque to stamp a base onto the stripey card with black Archival ink.

More chess pieces were stamped and trimmed and Alice herself stamped and coloured with alcohol ink pens.  These were trimmed out and  mounted on foam pads for depth. 

The text stamp was stamped directly onto the base card also.  The whole thing was mounted onto a mat of gold mirri board and then onto a background made by passing a square of Coredinations 'black magic' through the Sizzix machine using an embossing folder and this was sanded back to reveal the orange core.

Sid xx

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Alice ATC's

Here are a set of three Alice in Wonderland themed ATC's done as a swap over on UK Stampers Forum.  I have used a variety of techniques all on serendipity type backgrounds.

Some images have been stamped in Archival black ink onto card and trimmed with minimal colour added with alcohol ink based pens before sticking in place.

Some heat embossing in silver followed by colouring with souffle pens was used on the Hatter image.

Alice herself was left entirely monochrome.

Sid xx

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Sixes & Sevens

First post of this New Year !!  This is a 6 x 4 inch postccard made as part of a challenge on UK Stampers Forum.  The subject this month is 'Numbers'.  The postcards have to be able to be posted naked to your swapee too so no big and bulky embellishments. I started with a large card bingo board trimmed to size.

I used stamped images from Lynne Perrella and Paper Artsy, scrapbook paper fragments and punched elements along with self adhesive numbers collaged with paper Mod Podge.

All the elements were edged in chalk inks and some penwork was added with  gold, white and black Posca pens.

Finally the whole postcard was painted with more paper Mod Podge to seal.

Sid xx

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HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Just to wish all my family, friends, followers and commenters a very Happy, Prosperous & Crafty New Year for 2012

Cheers !!!

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