Sunday 27 April 2014

Art For Hermine & a Mini AJ

I was recently asked by the very talented
Hermine Koster, to make a piece of
art for her project. I was sent an Art card
& then spent about two weeks trying to decide
on my theme!! France was my choice.
Here is the completed card below.
Stamps - Elusive Images
Background - Emboss resist stamp - Tim Holtz.
 

This is the card I made to accompany the little art card.
Stamps by Art Journey.
Clouds and grass are stamped using
embossing folders. Colour added for flowers
using distress markers & watercolour brush.
I also sent to her the matchbook that I recently made
as it went well with my final design.
 

 
I also sent her a blank miniature Art Journal.
Below is mine.
I am showcasing the front cover, the first spread
and the back cover today.
 

Inks used Hero Arts Shadow Inks.
Archival Black Ink.
 


Stencils are TCW and Donna Downey.
Stamps - Stampers Anonymous
Kaisercraft & Paperbag Studios.
 


This little Art Journal measures 3" square.
I made it from a piece of 140lb watercolour paper
and I created a Maze Book.
To create the two covers I copied the idea from
Tim Holtz Valentine Book 
instead of making card covers, I folded them
over to make sturdier covers. I did not bind the book with tape
I left it free flowing until it is completed.
I did seal all the pages together on my version.
I have left them open on Hermine's,
so she can make pockets if she wishes too.
Being so tiny, there are only 6 double spreads but as my
name suggests, I love minis!!!

Monday 21 April 2014

Caught up with my Art Journal

I have been very creative behind
the scenes making things for others
and taking care of a few commission pieces.
Today I got chance to finish page 6
of my Art Journal and make page 7 too!
 
 I had made a mistake on the word MOON
but with some bold drawing around the word,
it is hard to see now where I went wrong.
The background is made spraying home made
distress inks in peacock feathers and pumice stone.
 
This page came together really easily once
I decided on my theme. In fact
the only problem I had with
this one was knowing when to stop!
The colours do not look as good in photo
form as they do in real life.
The camera makes them much lighter.
I had planned to offer this piece for the
latest Vintage Journey challenge,
Spring Flowers but I do not think it floral enough.
The background on this one is stamped white tissue
coloured with distress ink sprays. I made it in the week
following reading an old CS article by
Rachel Jackson & seeing France Papillon
use it on her latest AJ layout.


Sunday 13 April 2014

Quick Cards

No Art Journal page to share again, this weekend.
It still isn't quite right. I made an error (smudged my colouring!)
and to fix it is a slightly lengthy process.
If I could get away with leaving it I would.
I have also been extremely busy trying to
finish up some commission work so that I
can crack on and create for me & others.
 
Once I'd finished one of the commission cards,
(It will not be blogged as the person it is for reads &
it wouldn't be fair on the person who requested it!!)
I had all the inks, stamps & embossing gear out so,
I made a quick couple of cards just to have
on hand.
 
Les Papillons
 
 
Life 
 
It is always good to have a few
cards  in reserve!
Stamps; Kaisercraft, Next
Cavallini, T Holtz
Butterfly - 2 Cavallini stickers fussy cut.
White embossing detailed powder
Distress inks; worn lipstick,
bundled sage, victorian velvet,
squeezed lemonade.
The first card has gesso on the surface surface before embossing
the stamp and inking it up.
Ironed off the powder and added further stamping.
Second card was a piece of left over from the
commission using wrinkle free technique.
 
 

Sunday 6 April 2014

Vintage Journey - A Little bit French

The third challenge on The Vintage Challenge blog
I had to think long and hard about this one,
not because it was hard, but because I had
too many choices!!
 
I finally decided on a matchbook in browns and pinks.
Here is the front.

This is the back.
 
 This is the front of the glassine bags
 
and this is the back of them.

I made six of these mini cards to insert
into each bag and they have images on the front
and quotes on the reverse. 


 
This is the whole piece put together.
If I could have done this differently,
I would have used sturdier cardstock.
The whole thing took me about 8 hours,
with drying time at about half hour.
Materials;
Glassine bags (internet purchase)
White cardstock
Distress stains - gathered twigs/ Victorian velvet
picked raspberry
Perfect Pearls - Cappuccino/ perfect gold
Staz-on Timber Brown ink
Archival black
Hero Arts Shadow Inks in
soft sand/wet cement
CW - Harlequin Stencil
Stamp sets;
Tim Holtz/Elusive Images
Kaisercraft Quotes
Wooden Paris stamp
B Line Designs Paris duo
Typographie - unknown
 
I coloured the main body of the matchbook with
gathered twigs distress ink & then once
dry sprayed with gathered twigs
re-inker & the perfect pearls.
Mini cards were sprayed with V/Velvet
& then a quick spritz of P/Raspberry
added to the back of each.
They were lightly over-stamped with text
and V/Velvet was sponged through a
Crafters Workshop Harlequin Stencil,
prior to having the images & quotes added.
 
Hope you like it as much as I do. The shimmer is gorgeous!

Edited to add I have also entered this in the
Kraft Journal Paris or France Challenge.