What is it with pink?

I was playing in my moleskin journal yesterday/this afternoon and this is what I've come up with... it nearly turned into a big mess but I think I rescued it!!

Paints are Paperarty Frescos (obviously!) and stamps are by Sara Naumann for Paperartsy and the faces are Mini 13

I started by gluing some torn dictionary pages on the journal and painting with Frescos - London Bus, Blood Orange, Limelight (didn't like that!) and Inky Pool. These were too dark, despite being translucents, so used some watered down Snowflake and Ice Blue, plus I had to hide the Limelight.. it was just wrong with this combination!. This was were I left it last night as it wasn't going how I wanted it to...

When I got home from work today, I took up the paint and some stencils... First I added some more dictionary pages, and some Ice Blue paint, then used Very Berry and Baltic Blue with the harlequin and reverse chicken wire stencils.

Then for stamping - in black archival, and for the dots (from the Sara Naumann set) in cobalt archival.


The final step was to add the faces - stamped in black archival on crackly tissue and coloured lightly from behind with distress ink before sealing on the page with matte multi medium. (see top photo)

Crafty Boots - a Stamped Character

This fortnight at Crafty Boots, the theme is anything goes - but must include a stamped character.

I decided to get out my Dylusions journal, as I haven't done anything in it for ages.  Now, I am going to make a confession (to those of you who follow my blog regularly, this won't come as much of a surprise!) but I really don't 'DO' those cutesy cute figures.... but I do have one Dylusions set  which includes a figure, (Love Struck Lucy) so that fits the bill..... All stamps are Dylusions

Ok. here goes.

Sprayed the journal with water to help puddle and blend the sprays. I used Fresh Lime, Calypso Teal and After Midnight, then White Linen to lessen the very blue that After Midnight is....!!!

Stamped the dotty border (Inbetweenies) up each side of the page, then stamped the solid leaves ( Doodle Parts) with black archival ink and doodled over them with a white pen (Sharpie)


at the bottom of the page I stamped the art journalling border (also from Inbetweenies) 3 times, masking and alternating the position of the words.  I thought these looked like hills, so Lucy could have something to stand on..

 Stencilled some flowers (Dylusions - dotted flowers) in mowed lawn distress ink up the sides of the page over the borders

 the sentiment comes from The Right Words, and i used matt accents (I was going to say matt glossy accents then, but you know what I mean!!)

and here is Lucy grounded on her hill!


I'd forgotten what fun it was working in this journal!!

Make sure you come over to Crafty Boots and see what the rest of the team has done.

Shhh, it's a secret!

So the secret is out.... the Paperartsy  #3UP hashtag secret...that engulfed twitter around the time of Ally Pally craft show... a lot of fun...

A secret that involved a mystery craft parcel being sent to mystery tweeters... and I was one.

 we were told to incorporate it into one project - you can see how I did it over at Paperartsy but here are some more pics!

This is what I received...

Thanks to Gillian and Leandra for some brilliant twitter fun!!  it was really really hard to keep this secret!

It's as easy as ....

ABC, 123... oops before I get carried away with my Jacksons impersonation; the new Craft Barn Alpha Challenge was announced today.  I think you may have guessed where I am going this time!

yes, Alphabet...

 I just went for a single spread this time..

I used a mix of distress ink and stain (broken china) and pounded some picket fence over the page.  Quite like the unblended look to this, kind of cloudlike I think. (not that that is relevant to the theme!)

now, the relevant page in my dictionary was pulled out, for some reason (I have also been using it for background paper so this was probably why) so I cut the definition out and mounted it on some white card coloured with chipped sapphire distress ink.

Then out came some alphabet stencils... the jumbled letters (Dylusions for Ranger) and a larger one whose manufacturer I don't know...
I used chipped sapphire for the stencilling, and outlined the single letters in both black and white pens.

To continue my song theme, I wrote above the single letters with a black pen.

finally I edged the page border with black soot distress



As Hels' Sunday Stampers theme this week is "blue" I am submitting it there too.

Cherry Pie....

Fast becoming my favourite Dylusion colour... but I warn you, the photos I am about to share don't do it justice, it is much redder than appears here.....although, to be fair, I have used White Linen over the top!

So I was playing in my Dylusion journal today....

background spraying and dripping..

 I did some ghosting with water through the dots on the dotty flowers Dylusion stencil, though it doesn't show up too well, and also used Funky Fuschia through the apple blossom stencil (Imagination Crafts)

Then for the first black layer - Black Marble Dylusion, and the jumbled letters stencil, including the reverse to clean off the ink

The Paperartsy seed head type stamp is one of my favourites, used Seedless Preserves distress ink for that

 More black - this time with Dina Wakely's script silhouette girl, outlined with white marker

 Texture time - dipped a film canister into my Grunge Paste and randomly 'stamped' it over the page.

Then took a text stamp (Wendy Vecchi) and stamped it randomly round the page too,

before scribbling in black pen (Pitt artist pen) and also white marker.

This was a real fun page to do, and hard to know when to stop.... I think I've finished!!

journal page - inspired by Suzz for paperartsy

This week, Suzanne has been back for Paperartsy, wowing us with some fabulous projects.  I took her first idea which was done on a canvas, and converted it to a journal page.

This uses the much-going-to-be-missed Crackly tissue paper over embossed images fixed to the page (or canvas in Suzz's case)

My background page started out (as so often) mopping up some ink from a tag in calypso teal and cherry pie, but I added fresco paints in squid ink and bora bora.

You then take an embossed image - I used some leftover stamped butterflies rather than a die cut butterfly like Suzz (mainly because I don't have one, and the pre-cut butterflies I used the other day are too big for this page) which I ran through an embossing folder.  I realise now I should have coloured this stamped image as it has more or less totally disappeared behind the tissue.

I followed Suzz's instructions to adhere the tissue (crumpled) to the page, and added more fresco paints (pale colours) over the tissue.

I don't have the stamp set Suzz used for her main stamped image, so used this iris, which I stamped straight on the page and again on a piece of tissue, cutting out just the flowers to mount - I couldn't get the raised effect Suzz managed (a) because it's the wrong type of flower and (b) it would get squashed in my journal...

the sentiment comes from the same stamp set as the iris (HP1204)

if you squint you may just be able to make out one of the butterflies behind the sentiment....

Not happy with this, and nearly didn't link it, but nothing ventured, nothing gained...!!

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head..

I had some time to play this afternoon, and out came the Grunge Paste (Paperartsy)

This is fabulous stuff, you can colour it, stir it to loosen it (makes fab drips!), sand it - or - as I have done here - mix it with puff paint (also available from Paperartsy) - you don't need much, but I think I should have used a little more than I did, as the puff isn't fantastic, but....

I took a tag that had mopped up some Dylusions sprays the other day (Calypso Teal, Cherry Pie and I added After Midnight), spritzed with water to let the colours puddle and run and cover the tag; and used the puff/grunge mix through a raindrops stencil (creative expressions) ....

 I love how just a little of the puff paint makes the grunge paste much whiter - and how it's picking up the colour from the tag below, where it's thinner.

So, raindrops - could only be one stamp to finish this tag ..... yes, welcome back, Umbrella Man!! it's been a while...

I stamped him on some scrap patterned kraft card and cut him out, and 3d foam mounted him over the tag.

Recycled some ideaology from a previous tag, as the colours match this one too!! (I'm not mean, honest....)

just love this texture!!

If my printer was working, I'd have printed out the song title to add to the tag, but it's not, so you'll have to imagine!!

WOYWW 203

Dear friends and bloggers, welcome, whether you find your way here anyhow, or from Julia's gaff at the Stamping-Ground for your weekly fix of desk nosing...Julia will explain all about WOYWW, if you don't know by now...(where have you been?)

You (kind of) find me mid-tag here although actually that's a bit of a cheat cos I made it yesterday...!!

also, there's a new stool at the PC too - but although I've been able to lift the screen to a decent level (not yet high enough) the keyboard is too low - when I saw the stool I thought it would be a perfect height but it may not work - I need to raise the keyboard too... I will be getting neck-ache!! so it could be back to crouching on the low-level stool from before!
Ah well....

so, the desk shots... you may spy some anniversary atc's too... hiding!! but at least I have some ready! phew....

I'd never used this mini webbing stencil - but it looks fab for the butterfly, don't you think?  (Cherry Pie Dylusion spray before you ask...)

ooh look, another 'staged' shot... tee hee - there's those atc's again...they're getting around aren't they!

You'll be able to see the finished tag in Tuesday's post!! (It was for a challenge)

Colour - for a Simon Says challenge

It has been an absolute age since I managed to take part in a Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge - so decided that this was the week to make an effort!  The theme is "colour" and can be colour in any medium, ink, sprays, paint, whatever.

I went for Dylusions sprays and made a tag. I used Tim's Papillon background stamped in black archival on my tag, and sprayed with Calypso Teal Dylusions ink, with just a spritz of White Linen.  I used Chipped Sapphire distress ink round the edges of the tag.

I put a strip of tissue tape down the long edges of the tag too.

I had some die cut butterflies (from Craftwork Cards in the UK) which have been languishing in my stash for absolutely ever - this one is a pale blue with a hint of a shimmer to it.  I sanded it very lightly to help the spray "stick" - this is Cherry Pie Dylusions, and I sprayed it through a Crafters Workshop stencil (mini webbing)

I'd never used it before, but I love the pattern it's made across the butterfly's body.

To finish I added some ribbons and idea-ology bits and bobs!!

(sorry about the photo!)


As ever, the lovely people at Simon Says are donating a $50 prize to one random drawn entrant.

Now, where is my craft scrubbie? I have red fingers...!

Remember this?

Remember this mop up page (it was only Friday....) ?

continued by adding the butterflies (Tim Holtz Papillon set) in aquamarine archival, the text background in black and the single butterfly from Paperartsy from HP1203 in saffron and the buttefly from HP1204 in cobalt.

Knocked the page back with a very light swipe of Snowflake Fresco paint applied with a dry brush, to push it back into the background.

Stamped the butterfly again randomly, in black, and coloured it with the orange crayon from the portfolio pastels, blending it with my finger and heat setting it.

Took a piece of crackly tissue paper and stamped the Paperartsy mini stamp in black, and blending some paint (a drop of mermaid and snowflake) with my finger, on the reverse.  Glued it to the page with Satin Glaze by Paperartsy.

Edged the journal page with Walnut Stain distress ink., lightly.

Linda-inspired Painty-Stampy-Journal Page!

Linda Cain's final project for her stint at Paperartsy, was a glorious journal page.

I decided to do mine, in my moleskin journal, which is smaller - I think Linda used a Dylusions journal.

I did use many of the same colours of Fresco paint, though as I loved the choices, and they looked great - but took different stamps from my Paperartsy box (which is overflowing now... I can't stop adding to them!)

 Base painty layer including spray and drippage...

 masks and stamping done (I thought I had taken some after stencilling and before stamping... but seemingly not)

The little blue dots are in Bora Bora (what a great colour!)

added white scribbling round some of the numbers, and the blue dots.

 final step like Linda, was some brown stamping - but I took a Mini script stamp.

and this is the start of a new page - with all my mop-ups of spare paint!! Wonder where this will go from here!

I'm off to link this in the Paperartsy challenge!