My hexagon day.....

It has been far too long since I have had a chance to blog - life just happens to get in the way on occasion! But I just had to take the time to share my rather disastrous day yesterday - one of those days where nothing goes how you want it too....

A friend of mine once had a scrapbooking lesson which included cutting and placing hexagons into a design, instead of being a fun activity it ended up being a nightmare. One of those occasions where you want to throw it all out of the window and walk away - well my hexagon day came yesterday.

I was at an altered art class held by Scrapbook Sisters, creating an altered clock using a range of Tim Holtz products. Beautiful example to start us all off and lots of inspiration in the room. However, the colours on my clock just would not go right. I started by priming the base of the clock with Gesso, then added Distress Stains on the top - what a disaster, they all came out neon! Fired Brick looked a sugar pink, then thr Crushed Olive looked like radioactive nuclear waste! Really not my colours and everything I  tried to change the colours just made it look worse.......

In the end I gave up on the clock, shoved it under the table and spent the rest of the afternoon making embellishments to use later on. Leaving with just a bag of bits rather than a complete project. Once I got home I had a break then decided to tackle the disaster head on - what a mess I made. Viva Deco Terra and Ferro pastes and metallic waxes, Distress Inks, Rock Candy crackle glaze, metal findings, pliers, metal punch, and glossy accents. Some hours later I finished, and am much happier with the outcome now:

  

Hope you like the end result. Xx

Pure Grunge.......

Wow - two posts in one day! While blog hopping this evening I came across a site called  Studio L3 with a great challenge - Grungy Monday - all things Tim Holtz. Fantastic - right up my alley. I have been looking for inspiration, and time to be able to be more creative on my own terms, and I just couldn't resist this. This weeks challenge is to use Distress Inks and take Tim Holtz's video demo of them as inspiration.

I created the following piece by covering a page in pages from an old book, then used his flourish masks and Stormy Sky, Bundled Sage and Victorian Velvet Distress Inks over the top to create patterned voids, and stamped on top with some of his word stamps. I then die cut the film strip and cogs dies in patterend paper and grunge paper, inked them up with the same coloured Distress Inks and then added metal embellishments to finish.

Music....

I love listening to music, but have a terrible memory for who sang what and what the song is called! Music is the theme at CBH this week and I created an ATC using a music note stamp and some musical instrument peel offs. I stamped the background using distress inks first, then stamped the image again on paper and cut to smaller pieces to represent sheet music, I used distress ink to age the paper and then curled the edges to look like the leaves were blowing up. I finished by glueing this to the background and adding a few silhouette peel offs.

Dragons.....

are a favourite of mine. My Chinese zodiac sign is a Fire Dragon, so the theme at TMTA this week to create art using dragons appealed greatly. I have used a range of shades of red to create my ATC, putting down a base coat of distress inks and then using clear embossing powder on the top to stamp my dragon image in. I then stamped some lettering over the top of this, and to finish added some darker red shades to make the embossed image stand out and added some gems.

Turquoise

The challenge this week at Gothic Arches is to use the colour of your birthstone as the basis of your design. My birthday is in December, so my birthstone is Turquoise, which happens to be one of my favourite colours too. I created my arch using a clear embossing powder on a stamp for the background, and rubbed turquoise distress ink over the top. I then stamped the tree branches and birds over the top using Azure Stazon. To finish I added gems to the centres of the clocks, and used the new Martha Stewart stamp and punch butterfly punch to add a 3D element.

Using An Old Postcard

Weds Stamper this week have set the challenge to create artwork on the back of an old postcard. As I could not put my hands on one at home, I printed an image off the internet onto glossy paper to use. I then used my Tim Holtz masks with distress inks to add a pattern to the background, stamped a postage mark and flowers from Prima over the top, then punched some leaves and coloured them with chalk eyes and finally added a touch of Tattered Angels mists over the top. It was a little difficult to photograph as it was getting dark, so I will try and get a clearer shot tomorrow.

Nature

Well, what a fantastic day it has been here today, the warmest of the year so far, a balmy 20 degrees! But thunderstorms are due for tomorrow....

I did manage to get the garden straight - lawn mown, dandelions banished to the recycle bin, and flowerbeds weeded. Which put me in the right frame of mind for the Crazy Amigo challenge of nature. I created this skinny by using collage techniques,distress inks, stamps from Prima and punched shapes.

Inspired by Italy

Italy is a great country and I have visited a few different parts. My last visit to Italy was to Venice, where I had a great holiday with my sister. I chose to use Venice as my inspiration for this weeks Weds Stamper. I coloured the background with distress inks, then stamped the gondola on top. I hand drew the buildings in and added colour to them with chalk eyes. I then stamped the tickets and wording separately and applied them on top.

Hands...

I was invited by Sandy to be Guest Designer for TGIF this week on the theme of hands. It took me a while to find the right kind of inspiration and all of a sudden it just clicked as to how I wanted the piece to look. I created this mixd media 8x8 piece using a digital photograph of my hands and hand drew on top with fineline pens and markers to give is a handdrawn look. I then cut a line across the top of the hands and made a heart separately - stamping it and hand colouring, then slotted it into the photograph. I created the background using distress inks, Prima stamps and crackle paint and adhered the photograph on top, the hand prints in the top right corner were stamped and then had glossy accents added on top to give dimension. I completed with clusters of Prima Flowers. Ihope you like the end piece, the heart can be changed now to fit any hand drawn element, so I am considering using this as a page in a mini book and having different items I can change the heart for?......

Mardis Gras...

is the theme for Gothic Arches this week, what a great theme with loads of possibilities. I chose to create some mini masks using a mould and Makins clay in black. Once dry I coloured using metallic markers and decorated the edges of some with paper, fabric or feathers. The background was layered card, a page of an old book, crackle paint and distress inks. Hope you like the end result.

Grunge

I started this arch for Gothic Arches at the weekend and only now have had the chance to finish it. I love grunge and all that goes with it, but wan unsure as to what I actually wanted to put on this arch. I finallt settled for a background of crackle paint and distress inks, then layered with stamping, both directly onto the background, and separately. I coloured and cut out the figure 'grunged' her and adhered to the background. I finished by adding crackle accents to the word imagine and some liquid beadz.

Moonlight...

It has been extremely foggy here today and this very misty, surreal landscape inspired my piece for MMM on the theme of Moon. I created the background using crackle paints in two shades of blue and pewter. Once dry I rubbed walnut stain distress ink over the top to bring the crackles out and then stamped the image of the moon and trees onto acetate and placed over the top. I scanned this into my computer and then completed by digitally adding the white mist using the brush tool, and added the quote to the left side. Hope you like it, sweet dreams.......

Winter Time...

has definitely set in. The little amount of snow we had has still not melted around where I live, and it has become very icy indeed. I am at the point where I wish it would really snow hard, and make it worthwhile, or melt away altogether!

For TGIF this week I have created a skinny using distress inks for the background, a stamped image, and then distress stickles to add some texture to the ground and sky, hopefully giving it all a very wintery feel.

Now to go get warm by the radiators and leave the cold outdoors....

Santa Is Coming To Town....

Well hopefully anyway! This is my entry for TGIF, slightly later in the week than I hoped, but what I thought was going to be a fairly straightforward week has turned into another hectic one!! Still, only two days left till the end of term, then the relaxing and enjoying time with family and friends can begin!

For my Santa skinny I coloured the background with distress inks and then stamped the flourish with holly leaves on top. I stamped the lines from the song on a separate piece of card with Versamark and embossed with clear EP, once cool I rubbed distress inks over the top, cut and applied to the background. I also stamped Santa, coloured with markers and added a bit of bling with stickles.

Favourite Colours?

Time is very definitely limited this week, a very busy schedule that shows no sign of letting up yet! So I have combined Arty Girlz and SWI&T this week.

My favourite colours - that is a hard one, there are so many lovely colours in the world and different combinations evoke so many different emotions. In the end I settled on a colour range that I really do use a lot - purples, blues and browns. I created this card using some inchies I had made previously and applied them to the background, which has been coloured with distress inks over a Tim HOltz mask. I drew around the inchies and the border to define the shapes and patterns, then mounted it all onto black.

Locks and Keys....

Are great to use in any form of crafting, I have several different methods of creating them - stamps, punches, Quikutz, or hand drawing. For MMM this was their theme and I created the following two ATC's. Both have backgrounds made using distress inks and blending the colours over the surface, the first I stamped with locks & keys stamps, the second with my crackled effect stamp. I then used Quikutz to cut out some keys and locks and coloured them up with chalks. With the first one I then added some chipboard hearts from Maya Road, added colour with distress inks and then added Glossy Accents to add a bit of sheen. Both are finished with a hand written phrase.

Now off to bed, to catch up on some sleep before the final day of my hols and a whole lot of cleaning, ironing and marking to do....definitely need the beauty sleep before that. Oh, and to check Hugo (my cat) is alright after finding him under the bed, due to his fear of the fireworks going off!