Vellum hearts

Sometimes when a piece inspires me, my creation can be pretty similar to the original...and sometimes an explanation may be needed! Over on the PaperArtsy blog this week Keren Baker used vellum to create a sky and grass project. It inspired me to create this little wall plaque which I am entering into the PaperArtsy weekly challenge here

I liked the idea of stamping on vellum and using wire but I didn't have the flower stamps or dies used. What had I got, well my much loved PA heart die and instead of text I thought swirls. So I stamped on some vellum with a Darcy mini stamp (EM06) in 2 different directions with a satin pearl embossing powder.

I then used distress markers and some water, but I probably used a bit too much water as the vellum went crinkly...but I liked the effect, it looks more textured. on the finished panel.

The original piece has some background text so keeping in theme with that I painted a 18 x 12.5 cm canvas panel with some snowflake fresco paint and then used a stamp from ELB06 across the central part of the panel, stamping in versamark and satin pearl again. At this stage I was still thinking I would wire 2 hearts together off the panel but after some playing around decided to use 3 hearts and wrap copper wire around each of them. They were glued down with matte medium and of course the shape of the wire can be seen through the vellum, but I quite like that. The panel was then finished with some copper foil tape from my stash......Thanks as always for stopping by.

'Turning Japanese'

For those over a certain age a song may now be stuck in your head...sorry!

It can be a bit of a challenge making male themed birthday cards but my son quite likes Japanese styled things so here's a simple card I created for him. I thought I'd share it with you because I used luminarte silks to transform some cardstock.

The paper and card stock I used has been in my stash for years....and I mean years, in fact I think the Japanese calligraphy paper is some of the first paper I bought. The card stock has an embossed effect and I do like to experiment so thought I would see how the glazes worked on it.

They worked fabulously! I used persimmon and monarch gold and they gave a lovely golden, plum and indigo hue. I was able to use a slightly damp tissue to wipe the glazes off the embossed areas. I originally intended to use the card stock as a backdrop for the flowers I used in the previous post which were made out of DCWV  far east paper (hope I'm not the oldest blogger in town and there are others who recognise this stash from the past?)

Once altered it just toned in with the papers better than navy but then the oriental flower creation wasn't to be. However I really liked how the card stocks colour altered depending on the light so decided it could work as part of a male card combined with a good dose of black and gold. I added the tokens and the 2 motifs are cut from some oriental paper from the same stash. No stamping just fairly simple papercrafting.....with a bit of messy play thrown in!

Leftovers

Sorry I've not posted as much recently, but I've not had as much to share with you, (work does get in the way) but it was lovely to be able to craft yesterday and I've been using up leftovers, scraps or 'Bits and Pieces' which is The Sunday Stamper challenge this week. As soon as I saw the challenge I thought great, I should be able to submit something this week.

Then I set myself the extra task of just using the bits on my work space and not the bit box....well it's really 2 boxes and a large bag! These are the bits I had a choice of, as you can see there is definitely a blues and purple theme going on.

I chose the large blue and pink tag as the background though it isn't one of my makes. When I was at the PaperArtsy stand at Doncaster, Darcy demoed her home made tag size gelli plate with frescos and gave me a print she pulled with instructions to make something with it....well it's taken me a few weeks and pink and blue aren't my first colour choices but it was a great starting point.
There are a few unfinished pieces in the pic, the other tags were the CC3C layering stencil texture paste challenge. I do have good intentions but I'm sure I'm not the only one out there who hasn't made it to a challenge or 2?

I've edged the tag with walnut stain DI then added a piece of Martha Stewart punched paper from a scrapbook page. The trimming was used on the plaster from my fresco post and the piece of back ground paper was painted with luminarte silk glazes....more about that in another post  to be shared. The stamping on the tag is with the PA mini 62 stamp in violet archival and the 3 squares you might recognise from a master board post I did a while back with Ellen Vargo stamps. The bits of ribbon are just that, pieces I've trimmed and not thrown away even though they are scraps, it's amazing what you can use up.

A bit further on and more ribbon, washi tape, torn paper and ephemera from my desk.. even the butterfly,ticket and buttons used were freebies that came with an order from 'The Funkie Junkie'. I then used some snowflake and stone fresco to give a very light dry brush over the tag and trimming, just so it knocked the colour back a bit and tied all the elements together. The sentiment is Lin Browns and I've added walnut and aged mahogany DI to blend it in.

In the end I did add a few other elements from the bit box. The leaves were left over die cuts of cotton paper from my emboss resist post and the flowers were handmade and intended for the recent 'Our Creative Corner' challenge of handmade flowers and dyed ribbon but I just didn't have time to complete the project in the end. Nothing wasted though, the only other additions were 2 keys and of course treasure gold in florentine and spanish topaz. I wouldn't have thought those initial colours would have worked together with brown tones, but I'm quite pleased with the end result.

I'm also going to enter this in the The Artistic Stamper August challenge which this month is 'Anything Goes'. It's the first time I've not used an Artistic Stamper stamp when I've entered but I still get one chance in the draw! Thanks for stopping by and hope you get chance to create something today!