Nautical

The new challenge at Country View Crafts has a wonderful nautical theme to it, chosen by our lovely Jennie who loves to be on the sea. I also love the sea and always thought one day I might live on the coast somewhere but it never happened but that doesn't stop us going down to the coast as and when we can. In fact I was in Portsmouth on Saturday night for a walk and a lovely meal at Jamie Oliver's restaurant.

For this project I chose to use the back of a deep canvas to make this shadow box effect display and began with some white paint, torn strips of patterned paper and texture paste with stencils.

I added a couple of the canvas stretchers first of all to provide me with something sturdy on which to add some of the elements and bring them nearer the front. I painted the inside of the frame with white emulsion and when it was dry I adhered some torn strips of patterned paper.

I rubbed some gesso over the paper with a dry paper towel and then using texture paste and a palette knife I added the textures around the edges of the frame.

For the background I chose a piece of Tim Holtz paper and added some bubble effects with the texture paste and used a few blue distress inks over it. This gave me the base to add the elements I had chosen to use. You can see I had great fun with the rusting powder and alcohol inks to give the metal embellishments a really aged look.

I also used Tim’s crackle paint and distress paints on this little bottle and found a video on the internet and learnt how to make this Celtic Plait.

Whilst I was making this I knew I was going to see some friends on Saturday night on the way to Portsmouth and they have a lovely beach hut and the colours I was using reminded me of it, so I decided to add the name of the sea-shore abode ‘Y’ Knot to the label pull and take this with me for them.

Did you see the little battleship on the top of the letterpress? It’s from an old Monopoly set and given a bit of an alcohol ink treatment and I don’t have an anchor so I used some old jewellery to add the hanging ball and chain.

When Ken saw this he thought it would be very apt for Jill and Dave, our friends, as the old liner on the tag is like one that used to come into Southampton and the battleship is a reminder of the naval presence at Portsmouth and our friends live between the two.

I hope you’ve had a great weekend and if you have the inspiration and motivation to make something Nautical, we would love to see you over at Country View Crafts. Do go take a look at all the wonderful inspirational projects by our amazing team.

Thanks for joining me today.

Have a great week and a wonderful September.

hugs Brenda xxx

Ranger Dina Wakley Media - White Gesso Ranger Texture Paste Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Expedition Ephemera pack Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Found Relatives Tim Holtz Letterpress Tim Holtz Locket Keys Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Plaquettes Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Hinge Clips Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Label pulls 7Gypsies Apothecary Bottles - clear Tim Holtz - Idea-ology Gears Broken China Distress Ink Tim Holtz Distress ink - Stormy sky Tim Holtz Distress ink pad - Weathered wood Tim Holtz Distress paint dabber - Broken china Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Evergreen Bough Tim Holtz Distress Paint - Crushed Olive Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Cabinet cards

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Tim’s tag for August

Well it's lovely to be home and this is my first non-scheduled post for three weeks, what can I say? I wanted to keep my blog ticking over but I haven't been able to comment in all that time as the resort wifi would grind to a halt very quickly and my Ipad decided to be temperamental leaving me unable to access the internet for most of the time. But I will make up for it next week. I just have to get some projects finished for almost immediate deadlines and I will be out enjoying crafty days on Saturday and Sunday, so hopefully I will catch up with all of you who have been so kind to stay with me asap.

On to my Tim tag, amongst these DT and workshop deadlines I have managed to get my Tim tag completed this week. It follows his guidelines fairly closely but I have also followed my muse, as he said to do, and made changes as I was going along.

I love Tim’s film strip and using the mini portraits in it, to me it creates such a great embellishment and focal point, adding more interest and detail. I collect and cut all the portraits from his paper pads to use this way.

You can see it’s a very busy and textured background and the elements sit beautifully over the top.

Can you live simply and seek adventures? I think so, I think we should seek new adventures every day and for me many of those are by experimenting with ideas, styles and techniques so that I can grow and be excited by the projects I produce.

What adventures have you had lately?

I’ll be out both days this weekend, a day with Andy Skinner tomorrow and a PaperArtsy day on Sunday. Lots of wonderful ‘play’.

Stamp sets I used are – Merchantile, Classics #2, Classics #3

Thanks Tim for another inspiring tag, I look forward to seeing your creative make every month and of course September is not that far away now is it?? I’m off to link this up to Tim’s blog.

Take care , my love and hugs to you all and have a great weekend..

Brenda xxx

Positive Thinking – Positivity Journal

Here we are again with another altered playing card as promised  – this time with a new colour background. You can see the partner one here if you missed it before, it's much grungier than this one.

The background had been started some time ago and I think it was made using watercolour crayons and masks, but I’ve added more on the top with stamps and tissue tape.

I really like the red heart with a predominantly pink background ……

….. and all it needed added was a small die-cut and another of my computer generated quotes. I rarely watch the news these days because of all the ‘bad’ news they report on, so this is a great reminder to stay positive in myself.

I am now back from holiday and have got most of the washing out of the way. I have some important projects to get finished and then I will be round to visit everyone again - poor wifi and Ipad problems resulted in me not being arable to keep up with all your wonderful makes whilst away so I am sooo looking forward to catching up.

Have a creative day and enjoy the rest of the week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Dreams can come true

Here I am again with another journal page using the lovely Lynne Perrella stamps.

This page was created using the following steps - - - - -

Using a piece of watercolour paper, spray with no more than three co-ordinating colours, let them blend a bit and heat dry.

Spray with a darker shade of colour randomly through a stencil/mask, then turn it over and press the excess ink onto the paper in other areas. Heat dry.

Stamp using a texture stamp and white acrylic paint and dry.

Stamp your focal image and a flourish using black archival ink.

Use the faux bleach technique to remove some of the colour over your focal image, this makes it stand out a little more.

Use oil pastels to add some small spots of colour.

Print/stamp a saying and add to your page using a black pen to outline/doodle round it.

I ink the edges of my paper with walnut stain distress ink.

There you have some great layer steps which you could use to produce your own journal page.

Have a wonderful week and hopefully some creative time.

hugs Brenda xxx

A little touch of Tim at A Vintage Journey

Well after ‘time flying’ from the last challenge it is Alison’s turn to take us along another route of the journey and she is challenging us to think about a little bit of Tim. What she says is - Keep it small please!  I'm looking for Vintage and Tim Holtz style ATCs - a single ATC or a set - perhaps a trio that match.  And I'm being a purist here, so only ATCs, please - no ATBs or Chunky ATCs allowed.

Mmmmmm small eh? Ok here’s what I came up with using the shattered stains technique for the backgrounds and Tim’s papers for pieces of ephemera which fit perfectly with the 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch size pieces of art.

I began by looking at Tim’s paper pads – they are a treasure trove for snippets and small bits for little projects. In fact long before Tim bought out his ephemera packs I had my own box full of small pieces I have kept from his papers and the things I love the most are his photo portraits. I use them quite a lot in projects and along with the photographic studio cards in the French Industrial stash the seeds of ideas for my ATCs were born.

I cut out three portraits and 3 studio cards keeping colours together and along with lots of other bits from my box I managed three colourways.

I cut myself three pieces of card and used distress stains to make the backgrounds.

I then cut three ATCs using Tim’s die and started designing the layouts. These are the rough placements before I distressed any of the elements.

As I was designing these I imagined what was going on in their lives and what meaning all the little pieces of ephemera had for them.

This couple got married during the war on the 15th January 1942. It had to be arranged at short notice as they didn’t want to wait until Jimmy came home again, he just didn’t know when that would be. He was being deployed in Europe after the bombing of Pearl Harbour the month before. After a ceremony with close family the couple went to the Thornton Theatre that night to see a show, on the way they stopped at Hill’s Photographic Studio to have some pictures taken as a memento of the day. Time was of the essence as Jimmy had to be back on base by 9.00 am the next morning.

This pair of friends found themselves at Crystal Beach on their day off from work and spent their time chatting about starting a metal scrap business for the war effort. It was the 3rd October and the US had just announced their new initiative of " scrap days " encouraging every American to help the war effort by giving scrap consisting of metal and old clothing to the nearest scrap merchant who would then be able to provide much needed raw materials. To cement their partnership they decided to have a photo taken at the Gibson Studio.

These girls have been friends since school and often enjoy a day out together when they can. On the 25th November they had their photo taken at the Walton Photography Studio before venturing out to do some shopping and then a game of Bingo at the Majestic Theatre. They enjoyed a bottle of fruit punch each and then found they were winners of £25, calling on the number 25. What a great day they had and 25 became their lucky number after that.

It’s been lovely to return to some collage work, it really is my favourite way to create works of art.

Please come and join us by making an ATC (or two, or three lol) and share your inspiration at A Vintage Journey.

hugs Brenda xxx