La Colmena

Hi everyone, soooo excited to be drawn out to be a 3 upper and extra excited cos I get to show on my birthday.
I chose to enter the draw for the new stamps HP1303EZ because I love the image of the face, very Grace Kelly and all the script and labels looked very inviting.

I decided to update all the stuff on my phone table, my address book looked very tired and there was a mismatched notebox and biros etc. The actual drawered box I bought at a flea market and it had already been tarted up with the old PA papers and waxed.
Incidentally, Leandra cracked up when typing my post as she thought that phone tables were so not now!

I started by turning my biro into a quill pen, making a feather as instructed by Julie Ann Lee out of manuscript paper, distress inked and rubbed with treasure gold. I emptied ink out of my bottle and made it look old by Grungepasting through a stencil, painting it with fresco French Roast and rubbing with Treasure Gold Aquamarine and Spanish Topaz.

Next I worked on my old address book. This was painted all over with French Roast, crackle glazed and painted over with Mushroom and Mermaid.I stamped assorted script in archival over the cover. I cut a corner pocket from Metal Card, wrote "Vins" on the reverse (back to front) by pressing onto the back of a mouse mat. I aged it with Treasure Gold Spanish Topaz and Oxynite. I created 3 "business cards" by using some of the stamps and tucked them into the pocket. I also TG the edges of the notebook.

I repeated the same Fresco paints onto my note box but didn't crackle glaze. I stamped half of the face of the girl and Grungepasted the same stencil as the ink bottle onto it to match. Inside I stamped the half face onto the notepaper and tied up with distressed lace. There is a "photo" of the girl in the lid also.

My large box was also painted in the same fresco paints, the paint went over the waxed surface no problem. I made a metal plate to fit over the drawer using the same technique with metal card and this time wrote "plumes" and "crayons". Going for a French feel!! I used assorted archival inks onto the stamps to give the effect of graffiti on the box. I created a postcard by using a selection of the stamps. To give extra drama I aged and stuffed some envelopes, wrote on them and tied them up with lace to sit inside the box.

My story for this is about an ageing French actress called "La Colmena", which is the name on one of the stamps. She is not coping with losing her looks and her career and clings to the past. This sounded good until I looked up "La Colmena" and discovered that it is not French but Spanish for beehive. Should have started with research not ended with it. 

Here is my creation in situ.

Special thanks to Leandra and all the Paperartsy team for giving me and the other 3uppers the opportunity to play nicely.xx