Brusho Canvas

The brusho canvas really caught your eye in my WOYWW post last week, and even though I thought it needed something (words maybe?) I couldn't decide what...
When I was out Christmas shopping yesterday, I popped into CassArt in Kingston and caught sight of the Liquitex paint markers... I've seen people using these (or similar) and saying how good they are, so picked up a black and a white... and then thought as I won't be going back anytime soon, I may as well have a few colours too... (only 3!)

Anyhow, after I finished my Craft Barn challenge earlier today, I was looking at the pens, and the canvas, and decided to outline the stencillled flowers with the black paint marker and the stems with the cobalt turquoise.
I had taken a few pics during the early stages of  working on the canvas ... loving the red

 then we jump to a bit later on, used orange, both reds that come in the starter selection, turquoise, yellow, and probably some black too..

 as you can see, I was having trouble deciding which way up it would end...but I love the drippage with the turquoise

 as you can see, it turned again!  Used the JoFY stencil with black gesso over snowflake fresco, which picked up the colours underneath, so tainting them pink!
Also stencilled some of the bubbles from Lin's stencil too.

so, I'm still not sure if it's finished, (the edges should probably be coloured over all the drips!) but for now, I quite like it, and I'd hate to do something which would then ruin it...



*Edit*  you are right, Sam though I am not sure the picture picks it up too well... edged with black

oh, perhaps it does..

Craft Barn Q&L - Faith/Harmony

Today seems the final Craft Barn Q&L challenge - it's been a bunch of fun and I have a journal full of great quotes, a random win and a wall of fame page!! 

This last quote or lyric is to use Faith or Harmony (or both)  This is my page.

 Background is brushos - turquoise, ultramarine at the top and leaf and emerald greens at the foot.  I smooshed the colours with a brush to blend and cover the pag, then when they were dry, spritzed white shimmer DecoArt  Media spray through a dotty stencil, but due to the slightly wrinkly page it's gone a bit splodgy, so I blotted it with kitchen towel.
love the shimmer though, (sorry it doesn't really show up)

 I wanted to use "David" by Tim Holtz as he was itching to be inked and thought he could be the subject of the quote, I stamped him on white card in black archival ink and stuck him to the page,
then stamped greenery (both from Tim Holtz sets) firstly in Fern Green along the foot of the page, overlapping David slightly, and the second in Potting Soil archival inks,

The bare branch at the top, is a Stampscapes stamp, stamped in Potting Soil and Black archival inks.  I filled the top, again overlapping the branches to get depth and to aid with the quote..

which is,

Hopefully, David is living in harmony with himself and the universe!!  Thanks for looking, and thanks to the Craft Barn for a great year of challenges, can't wait for January to see what's next! 

WOYWW 288

Glad you could come back for another desk-hop round the world... no doubt Julia sent you
I expect you're all ready for the big day in just over 2 weeks... cards finished and presents wrapped.... well I can tick the first one off at least!

Sunday saw me buckle down and get them written -

 here they all were in the box waiting.. I found a few tasks to do before I progressed to the next stage...

 getting them out of the box, and laying them on the sofa!

But they had to be done, and by the end of Sunday, they were...

here they are in a pile waiting to be posted on Tuesday (because I was buying the stamps on Monday!) - together with a card to collect a parcel from the sorting office this  yesterday morning

As you can see, I even had time to play a bit at the weekend too, with a canvas I'd been messing about with a few days/weeks ago, with brushos (the background) and some stencilling (the flowers)
It's by no means finished as I'm stuck with what to do next!

My craft mat still looks the same now (minus the cards which are now hopefully being dealt with by Royal Mail!)
I've got a couple of hours off this afternoon (now getting very confused about when I'm talking about, as it's still Tuesday night...) to do some Christmas shopping, got a couple of presents to buy that need to go in the post, but hope to be home early enough to visit some more desks too.  Catch you soon!

DragonsDream - TIO - M and Holly

So, the end of the alphabet... this fortnight was Jax's choice at Dragons Dream and she took M, and holly.  Very festive...Here's my tag.

 I started with brushos on my tag, but forgot to take a picture of this stage.
I used Emerald Green and Lemon and let them drip a bit to cover most of  the tag.

I stamped the "Christmas Carol" (Tim Holtz stamp) onto some Paperartsy tissue, with black archival.

It's too wide for the tag, so I tore it to fit and glued it with matte medium

Stamped three of the pairs of holly leaves (also Tim Holtz) on thin copy paper and Library Green archival ink and cut out.
I added some red Liquid Pearls for holly berries.

tied some red velvet and organza ribbons, and then dripped some scarlet brusho and spritzed with water, and dripped it over the tag.


My "M"?  haven't you guessed?  it's Music... Christmas music (or Manuscript) at that!

Come and see what my talented team mates have dreamt up over at Dragons Dream Team.
Hope you have all enjoyed playing along with our alphabet challenge this year, we can't wait for the next round of tags!

See you soon.

...that journal page...

Did a little bit more faffing with the journal page that was on show in my WOYWW "desk" yesterday

 I had started by gesso'ing the journal page, as I discovered that either the brushos or the Deco Art media sprays went through the paper if not.. I tried out all the media art sprays I got (black, white, purple, yellow and green) and some brushos.. I think brilliant red, yellow and black. may have added some leaf green too... Love how the media art drips!

I wanted a focal image but nothing too fancy.. settled for the JoFY flowers, stamped twice, on two pieces of scrap paper.  I painted them with some brushos, mixed in a little pot, with similar colours to my background. Stuck them to the page.

then this morning (bravely, before work!) I took the black media art spray, and with the end of the spray tube, dropped some ink (paint?) on the page above the flowers and let it drip.  Did the same,upwards (ok, so I turned the page up the other way) on the other page.

Luckily I stayed free of black mess on my hands and went to work... Tonight I added some more sprays of black, and let it drip, and a little yellow on the right page.  Some words to finish - had to use alphabet stamps as I don't have any 'vertical' stamps  and voila!
A bit messy, a bit dark (but looks better by the daylight bulb I took the photos by, so maybe in daylight it won't look so dark...) but FUN!
thanks for looking. and try these sprays, they are fab!  I want some more colours....

WOYWW 283

Here we are, ready for another Wednesday Workdesk hop? Just in case you don't know the info and Mr Linky can be found here  at Julia's Stamping Ground

Once again there isn't much on my desk today... a bit of a wide angle shot...you can tell it's turned colder, slippers are out! the only reason they're not on my feet is so I could move back further to get the shot in!

the open journal is a bit in limbo, Fresco paint background, bit of messing/dripping with Brushos - and no chance of carrying on with it tonight (I am writing this on Tuesday night) as I am watching football (soccer if you prefer) on TV.

I have however, as you may have seen from the previous couple of posts, started my Christmas cards, and got a huge chunk of them done (33) at the weekend... which is a big relief! (here's a sneak of some of them )

I'll be along as soon as I can to see what you've been up to - Happy WOYWW.
Oh! I had new stash to show too.. bargains - Tim stamps on clearance from the Stamp Attic (think they're mostly all gone now!)

Craft Barn Q&L - 22 - Moon/Sensation

Afternoon, welcome back!  Been a bit of a crafting flurry here the last couple of days, finally got started on the Christmas cards! (scroll back to the previous two posts) and I have some more to share today. First, though, it's the Craft Barn Q&L challenge - Moon and/or Sensation

My first thought was "Moon River" from Breakfast at Tiffany's... then I googled for some quotes, and came across "Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star" attributed to W Clement Stone - and in various similarly worded versions, to several other people too.  I liked that, so decided to switch tacks.

After another masterboard's worth of Christmas cards, I settled down with my Brushos - well I had to play with new toys, right?!

 I worked on a piece of Paperartsy's Smoothy card, and used Ultramarine, Leaf Green and Emerald Brushos - a mixture of sprinkling the Brushos onto dry card and spritzing, and then more spritzing the page in the dry parts and dropped more Brushos into the water.  This is my first play with them (apart from a short play at Lin Brown's when some friends and I went for a workshop in August)

A long search ensued for a moon stamp - I still think I have a different one, but couldn't find it... this is part of a stamp that depicts "twinkle twinkle little star) but I just cut the moon out. Hence you can see the face under the Pewter paint (no silver!) (Fresco)

For the stars, I stencilled Pewter paint  through a stencil and cut out 3 stars










I wrote the quote on a spare scrap of card, and stuck it to the page.

Decided it needed somebody or someone to be aiming for the moon, so stamped the little people (Stampscapes) on another scrap of card and trimmed them and glued them to the foot of the page.

Quite pleased how this came out, entering the Craft Barn challenge here 

Oh, and the third masterboard Christmas cards? These are they!

 just used Cherry Red and Chalk Frescos, the tree is by Woodware and is just repeatedly stamped in Library Green archival, first and second generation stamping.

So that's another 12 from another sheet of paper, I'm well on the way now.