Deborah, Lin and Brusho inspired journal page.

Deborah Wainwright has become a friend and inspiration to me since we got together on Twitter. she recently mentioned experimenting with Brusho and I thought PING, I will have a play as well. Bought brusho years ago when I worked in primary school and the caretaker banned me from using it as it stains badly in the hands of 7 year olds.

Started off with my Dyan Reaveley journal and wet a double page with a water wash, then sprinkled a few grains of brusho in blues, greens and yellows. Sprayed extra water here and there and blotted it until I was happy.

Next I chose Dyan Reaveley stamps and Black archival and stamped a few leaves around the edges.

I then mixed some brusho with water and filled in some of the leaves and used the flat brush to give the impression of grass.

Next I wet some watercolour paper and sprinkled grains of brusho in shades of red and purple.

The finished effect suggested tulips to me and who do you think of with tulips, Linda Brown.I used her  beautiful stamps with black archival on the red background, cut out and arranged the flowers on the background. Finally I stamped Lin's tulip leaves, added a few extra with black pro marker and glued down the flowers.

It needed some words so once again Dyan Reaveley obliged again with her alphabet stamps.

A whirlwind project that just came together. getting quite reckless in my old age!

Leandra's Christmas cracker Abstract canvas.

As soon as I watched Leandra's video I was fired up to have a go.
I selected all my materials, bottled it and went and ate a bowl of trifle.
Urged on by the wonderful Patwits I decided to go for it.(Seem to have this fail before you start mentality.)
I selected my colours. Safe ones but chosen as my theme was based upon fish skeleton stamps.

I found a canvas that I bought from Leandra and divided it into squares which matched up with my Paperartsy mini stamps. I then began to mix grunge paste with frescos and the alchemy began.

What I found was useful was that if I stamped into the paste and it wasn't right, I could smooth it over and start again. I continued building and then gave it a thin wash with Space Cadet.

I got really excited and hopeful when the amazing treasure gold made an appearance. It brought the whole thing to life and made me hopeful that I could do this.

After phoning a friend, or I should say tweeting the Patwits, I used Stazon to print Minis 100 and 101 skeleton fish onto acetate. then redial to find the right glue to attach them. ended up using Liquitex and they adhered well. Finally painted keys from Mystery Paperartsy box with Toad Hall, magic Treasure gold and felt that they completed the balance. Painted the sides of canvas also in squares and printed script and stamps with coffee archival ink. BINGO. Did it. Well pleased. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY PATWIT FRIENDS> XX

MDF Decorations

Having bought some Xmas decoration shapes from the MDF man and being inspired by the latest edition of craftstamper I was off on another whirlwind mission.
I drew round the shapes onto vintage style BoBunny papers , glued them and inked the edges with Vintage photo.

I then Heat embossed some messages onto the shapes, threaded bakers twine and added some eyelash threads to some of them.
I chose the colour scheme to match my kitchen which is very traditional. The decs will look good hanging from my dresser.

I forgot to mention that I added some very distressed, rusty bells to tie in with the vintage look.

Darcy's Christmas Stamps

Here we are again with the Darcy Appreciation Society.
I bought this set of stamps from Paperartsy as soon as they were available and couldn't wait to have a play.
I decided to stamp the tree onto some vintage style papers that I have had for years. The first one has miniature father christmases all over it. After distress inking the edges and rubbing on some treasure gold I assembled the tree with loads of Pinflair. I thought that the Kraftpaper background set it off nicely.

Then I had another go but this time adding some lace to the edges of the tiers with tape. Really pleased with this one but don't want to part with it or send it to anyone!

Darcy's Denim

When I saw Darcy's jeans book I was totally blown away.
I just had to create my own jeans book.
This is my version so far:-

Anita's Haberdashery challenge.

I had a go at this because I needed to get into "having a go". apart from the PATWIT challenge I am completely new.
Not being into sewing I decided to do something a bit different.
Hence the egg box. painted bright red, varnished and blinged up within an inch of its life.
i enjoyed having a go but it took me ages.

Can I add a picture?

Sunny Sunday and once again trying to make sense of the blogging world. here is a picture of a sculpture of tulips which is situated outside the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Here we go

My first post on my own blog after dithering and procrastinating for a while. Will gradually get the hang of it but will leave it to marinade overnight. X