Eclectic Elements–Wooden You for UPA

My article for Unruly PaperArts this month is about using wood in your projects and I chose the title ‘Altered Wood'. It is my last article as I am intending to spend more time on my own projects but I am so pleased it is not closing and will continue as a featured blogozine.

If you are anything like me you will have a box of things that you have collected with the intention of altering at some point. For me some of these have been collected at boot fairs, charity shops, left over containers or things I have specifically bought (like shadow boxes), but for this project I chose to use two of the boxes that the small wooden embellishments come in and I knew I wanted to make them into a configurations type box, hinged together.

Here are some of the photos from the article which you can read over at UPA today.

I would love it if you have the time to pop over to UPA to read the full article and step by step and perhaps leave me a comment over the there as it’s my last article for them. I’d like to wish Nicie and Zoe the best of luck in taking over, without them the blogozine would have had to close.

Thanks for taking the time to visit and for sharing in my artistic endeavours.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Crazy Stamping with Finnabair

We didn't get time to finish the last pages at the Finnabair workshop, we just didn't make it, but I  knew I had to get them done to finish all the projects and record all the ideas that Anna gave us. So this is the last set of pages she showed us how to make and such a great and effective idea. Anna’s compositions are always so well balanced, she arranges her visual elements in such a way that is pleasing to the viewer, giving structure to the layout and takes our eyes around the project so that we notice details and brings us back to the focal point again. To me composition is probably the thing I spend most time on when designing my own layouts and art. It takes me forever.

Here is my version of the crazy stamping technique and if you want to see more about how to do it then check out Anna's Creative Jumpstart video HERE.

This is middle granddaughter having fun when we went up to the Victoria and Albert museum last year, doing one of the children’s workshops.

I loved doing the crazy stamping, cool technique.

And I just used some washi tape and little flowers to introduce colour, of course it had to be pink which is Ella’s favourite.

Thanks for stopping by to see my Finnabair inspired pieces, I am on my own now lol. But I learnt a lot from the workshops and mostly about freeing myself up to be more instant and expressive when I am working. I hope it will speed me up some.

I might see some of you at Ally Pally as I think I will pop up tomorrow morning which will leave Sunday free to get a project finished that needs to be done for the end of the month.

Have a great weekend and hopefully time for some creative moments.

hugs {brenda} x0x

ICAD swap and Layers at CVC

Remember I received two gorgeous ICADS (or Skinnys as we used to call them) as part of Astrid’s swap, well today I am showing you the two I made with envelopes to go with them as my DT contributions to the Country View Crafts’ Challenge which is Layers.

I love making collage pieces and super-inspired by Finnabair I set to work.

ICAD 1

A masked background, a TH stamped steampunk image and embellishments for the Skinny.

Then some collage papers with wooden and metal embellishments for the front of the envelope which was made with a strip of 12 cm wide paper from a 12 x 12 TH paper stash.

My favourite glue to have beside me is Evo-Stik wood adhesive and it adhered these heavy embellishments together perfectly.

Some of these were bits I had rusted, others were painted and brushed with Onyxite treasure gold.

I also added some tea, Finnabair style.

On the back I made another collage and added a simple closure.

ICAD 2

A distress paint and stamped background, again with embellishments and die-cuts adhered collage style.

This envelope was more simple in style but I wanted this acetate clock face to be the focus.

I adhered it to a painted wooden cog to give it more height and dimension.

The insides of the envelopes are the patterned side of fab Tim Holtz papers.

More papers collaged and another simple brad enclosure.

Well I hope you like all my layers on these projects and most of them are made from papers from my bits box – a great way to use up leftovers. The two recipients of these have now received them so I an show them knowing they are in safe hands again.

Let’s see what layered projects you are making this month. Don’t forget they can be layers of paints and inks or layers of paper, card and embellishments. Hop on over to Country View Challenges where the winner will receive a £20 voucher to spend in the on-line shop.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Challenges to have fun with -
Craft Room - use some wood - The first ICAD envelope has two wooden cogs, painted to look as though they are rusted metal.
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Stamp on anything but plain paper. - Mine is Tim Holtz paper stash covered with gesso before stamping over it.

Workshop–Crafty Individuals stamps and Giveaway winner

I taught another CI workshop last Thursday and had a great time with a lovely group of ladies. We made a card and tag with an autumnal theme, but before I move on  just to let you know I am announcing the winner of my ICAD envelope at the end of this post.

It has really felt like autumn today, chilly, grey and the leaves are starting to turn too, so sad.
 So for this tag and card we used distress inks for the background choosing colours like dried marigold, scattered straw, mustard seed and added a bit of vintage photo and peeled paint.

We stamped the image once on the tag, twice on the card and another four times on cream card so that we could decoupage some extra flowers and seed heads colouring them with the same distress inks.

We stamped with bubble wrap and white acrylic paint and using a white posca pen we added some highlights .....

..... and used whispers pens to add a little more colour on the stamps in the background..

Then we doodled round the edges to frame the compositions.

Look at what some of my group made.

They loved their makes and Lorraine had never used distress inks before, she did a brilliant job as did all the others. Isn't it amazing that we all used the same supplies but got such different outcomes?
Thanks ladies for a fabulous morning.

Onto my giveaway which can be found here.

The winner is ...........

COCO

Hey Coco this will be wending it's way to you as soon as I receive your address. Please send it to me by email - which can be found on the sidebar.

Thanks to everyone who leaves me such lovely messages and to those of you who took the time to enter this little giveaway, you really are the nicest people.

Hope you are having a good week and have some creative time planned in somewhere.

hugs {brenda} x0x

Tim’s tags of 2012–July revisited.

It’s almost that time of the year again and so I am getting in early with my first Halloween make for 2013.

This is tag 6 in my quest to revisit Tim’s tags of 2012 which originally started off to get Mr Mojo back, but after all the wonderful workshop experiences I have had recently I feel truly inspired again so I will continue to finish them all just for fun. But more inspiration to come from Tim, I have just signed up for Creative Chemistry 2 and looking forward to seeing what he and his guests make for us.

You can find Tim's July tag HERE where he gives all the details of how he made his one and of course it was a completely different theme. I followed his instructions for the process and techniques but changed the colours and images.

Supplies -

Alcohol inks – sunset orange, wild plum, gold

Distress stain – picket fence

Stamps – mini halloween, mini halloween 2

Looking forward to see more halloween makes over the coming weeks. I know some of you are well into it already.

I had a great day with Jo Firth Young yesterday and am looking forward to today's session too.

I hope you are having a great weekend. I can't believe  the beautiful blue sky and sunshine we have started with today, we are forecast gales and lots of rain which I guess will come in later :((

"Explore, discover and Create"

hugs {brenda} x0x

Second set of pages with Finnabair

I posted my projects from the amazing Finnabair workshops last week, which you can find Here, but I only got one set of the journal pages completed at the time but I have now finished the second set (and the third set will be on their way soon).

Based on strips and splatters this one was great fun, very simple, but oh so effective to get fabulous colours into a layout.

I think there is a story behind this photo and thanks to Jools for bringing it to the workshop. This young man is part of consortium of local builders, being a carriage and sleigh maker ……

… it looks as though he may be thinking of changing direction to become a stair maker.

I wonder if that is just a pipedream?

Can you see I just loved playing with bright colours for a change?

I hope you are having a good weekend. I am at the Stamp Attic for a couple of days with Jo Firth Young playing with her stamps and fresco finish paints.

Take care.

Hugs {brenda} x0x

ICAD swap–receiving beautiful art

Back when the summer days were hot and balmy (yes I remember we did actually have a summer this year lol), the very talented Astrid, at Astrid's Artistic Efforts, made some ICADs (this stands for Index Card A Day – which are aka Skinny's and are 3 x 5 ins in size), she offered to organise a swap and I jumped on board straight away. (Why do I do these things when I am up to my eyes in stuff?) But after my holiday I made a start which then got interrupted by my workshops with Tim and Finnabair, but eventually I got the ICADs and an envelope made for them and sent them out to my swap partners Elly and Maryann. I have kept them to post later for my DT contribution to Country View Crafts’ Challenge where the theme this month is layers.

But here are the fabulous ICADs and folders I received in the post.

Firstly from Sue at Stamping Sue Style.

Sue knows me so well, she chose one of my most favourite themes and made this little beauty.

And here is the fabulous folder it came in.

Also from the lovely Astrid herself I got two beautiful cards -

Aren’t they gorgeous?

And this wonderful folder.

Decorated beautifully inside….

…. and out.

THANK YOU SO MUCH both of you.

This is the first time I have entered a proper swap like this and I am so happy to have received these perfect little treasures. They will sit in my craft room to bring me additional inspiration each day. I am soooo lucky to have such wonderful blogging friends.

It’s Thursday night and off to banquet night at the local curry house.

See you all soon.

Stay inspired.

hugs {Brenda} x0x