It's A Wrap....

... oh ho ho, I do love a nice play on words you know... it appeals to my inner literature demon...  The "wrap" I am waffling on about is the Gallerie Wrap canvas kit that I have been playing with for this months Snazzy DT.  Here's a taster pic of the piece I made... and HERE is the link to the Snazzy blog so you can see the piece in full.  Whilst there, you will also love to see all the gorgeous creations that my talented teamies have been making this month too... seriously, Gillian had her swoonworthy canvas as a "blogworthy" mention from the one and only Duke of Distress, Tim... among Lesley's creations is a beautiful textured piece with a classy colour scheme, one of Nicky's creations made a total breathtaking WOW with colour (not to mention my fave 490 stamps) and Astrid made some seriously tactile mixed media lushness...   so, a word of warning... you may needs a cuppa and a packet of HobNobs with you when you visit :O)

In other news... Grim's toe is beginning to get back to normal, at one point last week it resembled a mouldy olive (I am sure he will lurve me for reporting that!) and he is back to work today (booohooo, it has been soooo nice having him to myself)  But!  I am awarding myself "a day off" today.  Apart from the usual pushing of the hoover about and catching up on the ironing, I know plenty of you will be saying "poor Hels... having ironing to do..." when in actual fact.... I love ironing!  I know, I am weird, I do love to have a big pile of crumpled clothes and spend a while pressing them and then they are all neat and smooth again... only to be creased and crumpled when they are rammed into my over-stuffed wardrobe that is full of... erm, ahem, ahhhh.... stash. It is getting bad you know, I now have about 10" of hanging space (for short things, the boxes at the bottom of wardrobe are now piling up) and I really need to sort it out... I shall do that... erm... another day though!  I am planning to have a day or two this week doing arty stuff in preparation for my next batch of classes so I needs a day off to get the old Mojo revved up and raring to go.  He has currentlly beggared off on his holidays so I am hoping to tempt him back to do some new stuff....   Anyways, I digress... going off at a tangent as usual.  What I was saying is today is a day off from worky stuff and you never know, after the ironing and the stuffing of clothes into the store cupboard that masquerades as a wardrobe, I may just sneak into the Room of Stash and do some inking, take old Mojo by surprise!   Right, I shall away... as ever, thanks for looking!  Have a goodly day!  TTFN

Hels x

A Little Cracked...

...mmm, many of my friends may well say that could be me... but no!  Today the "little cracked" is actually what I have made!  So, Darkroom Door have just released some gorgeous new stamps, and being as I am uber lucky to be on the Design Team, I have just received some of them... my fave being the brand new (and mahooosive) crackle background.  I have had this project in my bonce for a yonk and a half and haven't had a chance to really play... so when I saw the crackle stamp I knew I could combine the two!

Starting with a papiermache hanging board for a base and Fresco paints to colour it - I used Ice Blue mixed with Snowflake to make it lighter, this was pounced right over the top of the board and whilst it was still wet, I blended some Bora Bora and then a smidge of South Pacific to make the edges darker.  A good old zap with the heat tool to dry the paint and then I used the same Ice Blue/Snowflake mix and Little Black Dress to add the two-tone around the border (yep, am a teensy bit addicted to doing these borders!)  I then used the brand new Crackle background stamp and added patches of the crackle image using Jet Black Archival Ink... instead of using an acrylic block to mount the stamp onto, I just held it in my paw and only little bits of the design hit the board... cool if you want that patchy look.

Next I added some more crackles... this time using a mix of Grunge Paste and Black Puff Paint, spread through the new Prima Crackle stencil... I then heated up the stencilled bits, I looooves puff paint as it goes all bumpy which then just begs to be touched up with some Treasure Gold - I used White Fire and Pewter to highlight the crackles and then smudged it around the edges of the board to bring the design in.  I wanted to add a bit of a grungey look so I used Black Marble Dylusions spray to add a bit of extra detail to the background.

The butterflies are from the Wings Darkroom Door set, stamped onto Clearly For Art Blackout that had been covered with old book pages... and coloured with Distress Stains.  Once cut out and heated, I moulded them into shape so they look like they are fluttering.  The words are from a Darkroom Door Art de Fleur Word Strip, cut out, edged with black paint and then popped onto 3d foam to raise them up.  I toyed with the idea of adding "bodies" to the butterflies but I am liking the more natural look at the moment, I can always go in and add some pearls later on if I change my mind.

Isn't it a beeeeautiful day!!!  My heart has been telling me to get outside into the garden, relax and read a book... but my other heart has been telling me to make the most of the tidyness of the Room of Stash and get up to date with DT stuff... what to do huh?  So, I have done some "work" this morning and now I am going to get the old lounger out and take my book and catch a few rays.  I could really get used to this sunshine you know, it just makes me feel happy!   Anyways, enough wafflings... hope you all enjoying your Monday... Thanks for looking... TTFN!

Hels x