I Recipe Thee!

... aha, something slightly different to the I Challenge Thee is afoot! Oh yes, a new challenge has been thunked up by me and Ellen... create a crafty recipe... and see what comes of it. This time the recipe was devised last Sunday, during a Skype sesh and, whilst we didn't finish the pieces during the sesh, it has been the best fun playing with stuff that I have been ignoring for a while.




The recipe was to make a Hanging using:

5 Mini Canvas
Screw Eyes
Dimensional embellies - must include metal!
Sari Silk
Tape - any flavour
Stencils with medium of choice
Book Text
Words/Message of choice
Paint
Ink Sprays
Butterflies
Any additional embellies that we couldn't live without
AND... Something old or neglected from our stash.

I have to say... this pic of the hanging all together is truly cack itself. For some reason, no matter how I tried to take the photo, it has come out all diddy and daft... so, I took the liberty of taking a load more pics... so you can see all the details in full.



My neglected piece of stash was a sheet of acetate printed with butterflies that I bought about 382 years ago and have never used. The old bit of my stash is my Altered Originals Spray - now called Dylusions. It is the most gorge orange colour... I know... me... using orange... the day after using pink! Whatever next??? Lime green perhaps??? Anyways... I will shut up now so you can look at the pics....








Please do hop on over to see Ellen's totes-amazeballs creation... I just love the fact that we have the same recipe and come up with something so different from each other... As I just uploaded the pics I have seen that I have done a boo-boo... I forgot to edge four of the canvases with Black Dabber... doh! I shall go and rectify that now! Thanks for looking... have a lovely day! TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 213 - Dreamer

Goooodly Morning Stampers and a very happy Sunday to you all! Many thanks for the FAB entries to last weeks challenge, as ever, seeing all your different interpretations of the theme makes me smile big :O)) This weeks theme is the word DREAM. Now, you can use the word alone, included in a sentiment, a literal "dream" of yours... there are endless possibilities. To join in is simples: make a little something, it can be anything you fancy... add in the theme and some stamping and then pop back here with a link to the place you are showing your entry. If you haven't got a blog or web-hosting photo site, you can use Facebook or email me a piccie of your entry. The challenge will remain open until 21:00 Saturday 14th July 2012.




My entry this week is the fruit of another Skype sesh with Ellen. We decided to make a recipe that included a large tag (the mahoosive one), inspiration from Finnabair (see her amazing art HERE), paint, gesso, paper flowers, strips of canvas, punched/diecut shapes, ink sprays and lots of embellies. The word to use was Dream and we were to chop the tag into two at 2 1/4" from the bottom so it could be dangled... scary but... I love the effect. Anyways, I started by layering paper die cut shapes along with punched pieces, masking tape and strips of canvas onto the tag. I then used a spatula to slap some Gesso over the whole lot... I use Claudine Hellmuth Studio Gesso - to me, this is the best one, it is thick, creamy and is fab at covering everything.



I used Cool Peri and Pool Dabbers, applying them in layers, using Cut & Dry at first... once the layers were dried, I added some "dabs" of the colours to add intensity in patches. Next I scraped a smidge of Gesso over the top of the whole tag, this just highlighted the raised bits... I didn't want too much white but needed to add some depth to the piece and the Gesso did the trick. Next, I blobbed a dollop (love that word) of Gesso onto my craft sheet and spritzed it with Stream Colourwash so I had a custom colour paint... and it was quite runny which is what I needed because I was just scraping this very lightly over the tag, this brings all the colours together and adds more depth.




The next bit is one of the bestest bits for me... using a Stabilo All pencil (black) and a waterbrush to refine all around the diecut/punched pieces... this makes them really pop from the background, adding yet more depth. Then... once I was happy with it all, I set about layering on paper flowers, leaves and lots of embellies (as per our recipe, who am I to argue? lol) Now, I do have a comprehensive collection (ok, a hoard) of flowers, but guess what? Not a single one went with the colours I used... so, I knocked them all back with Gesso, applied with Cut & Dry foam.




Then the realllllly scary bit... spritzing the spray inks from the recipe. Ellen has it on good authority (ok, she watched Anna's video) that the very last thing you need to do is spritz. I am such a baby... I liked the look of the tag, I know how cack-handed I can be... and I was so cringy, aware that one spritz in the wrong direction would wreck the lot. So, I figured out that if I covered most of the tag with kitchen roll and just spritzed the bits that I wanted, I would be safe. And it worked! So, the sprays used were Purple Twilight CW spray that I had decanted into a Mini Mister and added some water (that colour scares me... wow) and some Cosmic Shimmer in Turquoise (I didnt' shake the bottle before spritzing so there's less sparkle)




And there you have it. And... I LOVE IT! It isn't very often that I look at something I have made and go "ooh, I love that" But... this one I do... I am so chuffed that this recipe made me step outside the inkpad and think about using paints and layers and stuff that I wouldn't normally do. If you fancy using our recipe, please do feel free and then come and show us what you did... Pop over to Ellen's place to see her tag... wowzers, she has pulled out all the stops with this one... tis a gorgeous creation indeedily.



So... enough of the waffling for me for one day.... I hope you are having a good weekend and keeping dry... I reckon that Summer is on it's way....it will be here in about 12 months rofl Thanks for looking.... TTFN

Hels x

Challenge Ellen...

... cor blimey and thrice, I am a lucky lass indeedily because when the chips are down, or rather, when the Mojo naffs orf, I have a lovely friend who will step in and try to help out... namely Ellen... her blog with all her lush art is HERE btw in case you haven't see her stuff before. Anyways... being a I am Mojo-less at the moment, Ellen set about giving me a challenge. It has become a bit of a tradition between us, this old Challenge thingy.. and usually it works a treat. Ellen chose some stashly bits we could use... and then we set off making our tag. We decided to do a simultaneous blogcast of our tags btw, so Ellen's will be on her blog now too.... Here's the stuff we could use:

Dylusions Stamps: Around the Edge, Basic Backgrounds, Quintessential Quotes
Giant Tag
Any colour Colorwash Spray
Perfect Pearls Powders - to make into paint
Gesso & Craft Scraper
Stencils
Rosette Alterations Die - any size
Embellies of choice
White Pen
Easel Alterations Die (if needed)



So... that there tag is my effort. Actually it is my THIRD effort. Now, I love those stamps and I love using Gesso and I love Colorwash Sprays... but mix all three together when the old Mojo has naffed orf... forget it. The first two tags were right holy shows, so bad they couldn't be resurrected ever. I have never been able to get the proper effect using a stencil, I always end up with more of the sprays on me than on the tag... so I used Gesso to squidge through the stencil.. worked a bit easier but still...messy lol


I am a bit chuffed with the way the Rosette went.. I sprayed some card with Colorwash Sprays, die cut it, assembled the Rosettes and then stamped and cut out loads of leaves and then glued them under the Rosette. Oh and... the words... I cut them into strips and used a Tiny Attacher to staple them on... I like the "pillow" effect, I did this by curling the strips of card thru my fingers, it made it just a bit dimensional.



So... there you have it. THANK YOU to Ellen for trying to get my creative juices going... sadly whilst it was fun to get inky, it hasn't lured that old rapscallion back yet... am still after rummaging through old stash to see if that sparks something! Don't forget to hop on over to Ellen's blog... her tag using the same stash is there for you to see! Thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Sunday Stamper - Week 175 - This Wheel's On Fire

Goodly Morning Stampers and a happy Sunday to you all. First of all, many many thanks for the wonderful Mojo-themed entries last week... I certainly appreciated all those hints and tips too :O)) The theme this week has been chosen by Gillian... who, along with me, was totally inspired after attending a fab class with Dina Wakley on Friday. Dina taught us about the principals of the Colour Wheel, primary, secondary and tertiary colours and how they work together. So... to narrow the challenge theme down, Gillian has chosen for the theme to be using the colours BLUE & ORANGE together. The challenge is open to all, tis easy to join in - simply make a little something, add in the theme and some stamping, leave a comment for me here with a link to the place you are showing your entry and I can hop on over to see you. The theme will remain open until 23:00 Saturday October 15th 2011.



So... my entry is actually some of the pages of the mini book I made in class. I am not going into detail about how I achieved the looks on the pages because they aren't my design to waffle on about and it wouldn't be fair to Dina... however, I will say... I LOVE HER STAMPS! And now I need them all lol




If you ever get the chance to take a class with Dina... go for it... she is an amazing teacher, really chilled out and hilarious... and she had a way of getting me to learn this stuff... believe me when I say I am thick when it comes to anything to do with art and colour and now I know about the colour wheel and how it works!




That there is a Colour Wheel... and you will see that the primary colour is blue... and the secondary or complimentary colour is orange... which is why the work together so well. I can't wait to see the things that you make... I am going to go off and have a play and make something else using these principals. Right, enough of the old waffle from me... time to get painty and inky again... thanks for looking... TTFN

Hels x

Men!!!

...yes indeedily, I have had men on my mind this week! Well, three men inparticular, namely; Uncle Fester, The Beast and Jack, who are all residents of the Octopode Factory... where the Friday challenge theme is... MEN! And, I am incredibly honoured to be asked back to Guest Design again for this fab challenge. Now... I know I have said this before but... I was a snob when it came to "digi" stamps... thinking that a stamp is made out of rubber and you have to add ink to it to see what the image is. Ahah! My snobbery was well and truly dispersed when I first happened across these delightful digi's from the fair hand of Lily Chilvers, who happens to not only be an incredibly talented artist but also... get this... she just turned 18 yesterday! So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lily! And... if you do prefer to use rubber... Lily has now had some of her Octopodes made into rubberstamps... result!!! Anyways... HERE is a linky to the challenge blog... where you will be inspired I am sure, by all the gorgeous arty pieces from the Design Team :O))



So... Men! A very easy subject for me as I always seem to veer towards the more masculine things in this world we call creativity... the colours, images, themes etc... so I challenged myself... make something with a bit of colour.. and a flower... so I did! The shadow box is 8" square, so that means the centre piece is about 6" square. To get the little men images onto the cardstock, I resized them (I did make an emergency phone call to my IT guy (ahem... Grim!) but his phone was switched off... so I panicked and pulled a few hairs out whilst stomping about on the laptop... til I sussed it... tis easy really) Anyways, I have resized the little fella's and printed them out.. then cut them out.. then coloured them with Distress Stains and a paintbrush... and then got very busy with some Colorwash Sprays.



I used Red Pepper, Sunset Orange, Butterscotch, Stream and Sail Boat Blue... then whacked some Bronze PP Mists over the top and let the colours merge together before blotting off the excess. I added some circles and lines using a craft scraper and a bottle top and then set about placing the images onto the card. It was then that I sat and stared at it... mmmm, needs words... but what words? I was going with Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil and See No Evil... cos it does look like each of the fella's would fit one of these categories.. but the words ended up being too over powering... so I then though...aha, there's three of them... so.. the Three Wise Men idea was born. I used "This Charming Font" to make the words, printed and cut out and coloured with Pumice Stone DS.



The frame was easy-peasy... I wanted a contrast to the centre... so that stood out more... and being as I am rather partial to a bit of black and white, I set about painting the frame with white Gesso and Charcoal Black paint. Once it was dried, I used a little charcoal pastel stick and smudges around the white so it isn't so bright... and then went around parts of the images to add some depth. Phew.. I think that is all... Cor blimey... I had a whole heap of fun making this... don't forget to hop on over to see Lily and her DT to see the amazing art and all of the amazing Octopodes too.



Well, that's me for now... thanks for looking... have a lovely sunny day! TTFN

Hels x

Small Steps...

...very, very, very small steps indeedily. Oh yesh, I have finally taken the plunge and started a journal! I made a book for myself last year but after cocking up the first page I soon banished said book to the Drawer of Despair... which is basically where absolutely everything I make that I don't like ends up.





So... this here journalling lark... has always had me fascinated... and I am full of admiration for those who can do it... and who make their pages look totally awesome. I mentioned on yesterdays post that I had been given the good and proper shove that I need by Dyan... and I also had much encouragement from Dan too... so I did it... just got painty, inky, splatted stuff about and generally enjoyed myself... apart from the actual wordy part, which I really have trouble with... goodness knows why because how difficult can it be? Actually, tis very difficult (for me) because I really hate my handwriting... and so, the thingywotsit I did the writing on looks naff... it was written, covered over, written and then over written... it is all a load of old waffle but still, I needs to sort out my handwriting! Right... time to get back to the book of Hels... thanks for looking... have a very goodly day! TTFN

Hels x