Our house in the middle of our street

My entry for the PaperArtsy challenge this canvas but I have used the inside instead.

Our house in the middle of our street



I have had the TH Alterations die Artful Dwellings for some time having bought it in a sale then I heard Madness singing their song "Our house in the middle of our street" and the idea for this project began to form!

I covered the frame with torn dictionary pages and then painted them with Brown Shed, then toned it down with Irish Cream and stencilled over with Brown Shed.

Some houses were die cut with corrugated card or plain card and each painted in different colours and stencilled, embossed or stamped, I also used granite paste on the one of those in the front.

The tree and Bird on a branch are Tando die cuts. The "leaves" are an actual ribbon which I cut and glued to the tree to create a tree in leaf.

The fence was a buy about 3 years ago which I forgot about until I started searching in my stash for something appropriate to make the fence. This only goes to prove crafters' excuse when we  say - it will come in useful!!

The words from the song were stamped and stuck to the fence along with handmade roses. The 2 at the top is significant for several reasons - we live at number two, there are the two of us, I have two children and I have two grandchildren!

Thanks for stopping by.

Take care

IndigoBlu Retreat Projects

Hi there, today I thought I would share the projects we made at a recent IndigoBlu retreat. 

I have been to all the Indigo retreats  since Kay starting doing them a few years ago. The first couple where held at Stephens Park but subsequently they are held at Indigo HQ.

The retreat is 3 days of painting, inking and generally having a great time with like minded people - of course people can opt just for one day or two if they so wish. Its actually called a secret retreat as we don't know what the projects will  be until we get there, the idea behind it is that some people may be put off thinking they wouldn't be able to do the project. However, all things are achievable with lots of help from Kay and even some of the other ladies. 

Here is a picture of all the projects I did over the 3 days:

All 4 projects

 Day 1 was clay mosaics, I stayed in my comfort zone with my favourite blues. All the materials are provided but a lot of the ladies (myself included) always tend to bring a few odds and ends from their own stash. Of course we also made some embellishments with the clay using some of Kay's moulds.

Mosaic Art

Each 'tile' was stamped to create texture and embellishments were baked into the clay. perfect pearls were dusted onto the baked tiles and then glued into the back of a deep display box .

Day two was a 12 x 12 canvas project which had a detachable frame. We started by creating texture using stencils and texture paste. Once this was dry  the canvas was painted with  Banana Custard, Hot Cocoa and  Burning Bonfire in two lines then dry brushed in the white areas.

Caitlin

These are not my usual colours so a bit out of my comfort zone but so pleased with the end result. Will definitely be using this colour combination again!
I stamped Caitlin onto one of the new papers from IB and decided not to paint her as I liked the effect of the paper. Finished off with a varity of embellishments - aren't those dinky jigsaw pieces cute? The frame was coloured used Metallic Copper and Hot Cocoa.

Our final day was two projects. The morning project was using the new papers which are also resist, this was painted with watered down gesso and then we used thicker gesso for the runs..

Born to be King

The chair reminded me of a throne and as the dinkie stamp Aloysius has a crown on his head I stamped him in the corner, decoupaged his crown and added some gems to it. When I got home I distressed the edges, mounted it onto brown card the edges of which I also distressed, some frayed hessian and then onto an 8 x 8 canvas box.

The afternoon project was a small framed canvas. I had brought some mount board TH sewing room die cuts with me and decided to opt for a sewing theme. I have just taken over another spare room for my sewing so this would be nice to hang in there.

Sewing Room

 I used Pink Iced Gem and to create another two shades of pink added Pantry White and Postbox Red, the lightest at the top graduating to the darkest at the bottom and also on the frame. Using phatt foam, flitterglu was dragged and dabbed over the canvas and frame and silver  megaflakes added. This colourway is so way out my comfort zone. 

Did you know that the spool and buttons stamps from IB's In stitches fit the Sewing Room buttons and spool dies? Neither did I until doing this project!!

Right I think I've waffled long enough, hope you like my projects. We had so much fun, can't wait until the next one!

Thanks for looking in.

Take care x

Just One Layer - IndigoBlu Challenge

The IndigoBlu Challenge this month is 'Just one Layer' which to me is all about creating the illusion of layers which, given the cost of postage these days, is something to consider.

I love layering with stencils and stamps, paints and inks,  to create backgrounds, I find it quite therapeutic too. The patterns etc are endless and no two are ever the same.

I have just started using a brayer to add colour, I think I saw somewhere it's called 'walking the brayer'. Basically I put some Park Lane on my mat, spread it out using the brayer and then lightly run it across the cardstock in different directions. The result is random patches of colour. I did the same again this time using Grandmas Teacup.

The IB script stamp was inked up with Townhouse Teal and this was rolled randomly - the stamp was unmounted, this way the stamp is patchy. Then I dabbed Frosty Sky through two of the design section from the Doobaboo geometric stencil.  The criss cross lines were done by dipping the edge of an old credit card in Park Lane which I felt lifted and gave some focus to the background.

The focal image is Emma from IB's Mr Darcy stamped with Midnight Blue stayzon and to balance the image I used the birds stamp from the same stamp set. The bird in the bottom right  is the same stamp but with the other birds masked off.

Finally, just for extra definition I ran the Midnight Blue ink pad around the edges of the card. 

I have a cousins birthday coming up and I know she will love this. 

Thanks for stopping by.

I am also entering this card in : http://www.fashionablestampingchallenges.com/ Things with wings

and http://craftstamper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/take-it-make-it-challenge-may.html Take a stamp

Love to use Sprays

My daughter and her boyfriend have recently moved in together and have just celebrated their first anniversary of being together so I thought I would make them a little house warming gift.

I have had this wall hanging in my stash for a while now - another of those impulse purchases that gets put in a drawer and forgotten about, just  perfect for a gift for them though!

The letters were painted with Brown Shed, no need to gesso with Fresco paints! I made a spray of Snowflake and sprayed the letters through the  Doobadoo bubbles stencil. I made another spray with London Bus and using the same stencil I offset  it over the first spraying and then sprayed with the red. This was a technique I learnt from Lynne Perella on an Artsycraft workshop I did with her.

Offsetting a stencil gives a shadow effect.

The letters were all given a very fine mist of gold spray just to give some shimmer

Each of the letters were decorated with items from my stash.

Treasure gold was applied to all the embellishments and to the edges of the letters.

The crochet flower here was sprayed with London Bus

I really liked the mottled effect created by offsetting the stencil and spraying with two colours. A simple and quick project which I am sure my daughter and her boyfriend will love - no pun intended!

I am entering this in the Paperartsy Sprays Challenge 

Thanks for visiting.