That fooled you

I think I said last time "expect shiny" in this post, but as I browsed our swap group photo albums I remembered we had done a mini canvas swap.

Now normally I am a stickler for rules but with my mind full of other things at the time I didn't pay proper attention and my canvas was a smidge smaller than the size parameters we had agreed. Fortunately I confessed early and didn't have to start again. The canvas is just less than 4 inches square and it is surprising how many things can be squezzed in to such a small space. It is a bit like the game we played as children  - fitting as many different things as possible into a match box. Now there's an idea I might come back to...

I used a Crafty Individuals image in the centre and coloured the piece to match the vintage photo look.

The picture is surrounded by all sorts of pretty odds and ends all glued in place with gel medium or glossy accents. As usual I've used whatever I could reach so the ric rac from my last tags features. there are also buttons, beads, paper flowers, scraps of lace and some floral bits die cut from craft foam using a Memory Box die.

 

 

Once everything was stuck down securely I masked the image and painted gesso over everything else to tone down any existing colour. After this I applied some pink and beige paint to match the central image as best I could, and finished with a good spritz of Moonshadow mist to add vintage look walnut stain and a mica sparkle that you don't really see in the photo.



So far so good...

If I keep this up I'll have finished 2013 before half term! Meanwhile on to last November's tag swap which was black and white themed.

Those who've seen previous posts will spot tell tale signs on my methods of working here...

There are more scraps of old patterned papers and more splattering - I had the scrap box and inks out for the September theme and just kept using them.

 

I used layer after layer to create a grungy look with stamping, stencilling and splattering applied on top of the patterned papers. I should have kept the poor man's face clear but I was a bit carried away with my new Dylusions white spray. The reverse side is embellished with odds and ends that fit the colour scheme. This one appears to have some ric rac braid and a stamped jigsaw piece.

 

Now December's theme I do remember because we've only just received the swaps this week. It was gold and silver so expect something excessively shiny in my next post.

Testing my memory

I'm still in catch up mode with my posting and I'm struggling to remember which colour scheme we swapped in which month because I have left it so long to blog.

I think October was lime with a touch of pink. My backgrounds are both made with ink sprays. I am still using on old Dylusions lime spray with mica in it which is very vibrant. On one side I used and alphabet stencil and on the other I spritzed my craft mat with ink and water and squished the paper around in the resulting puddle.

Now I look at this picture I am more certian this was October's tag because I have used the same die to cut the flower as I did for September's. This suggests they were made close together as I'm not very good at putting things away - but once I have I tend to reach for what is at hand before going to get something specific back out.

The little birds were stamped onto some remnants of Blonde Moments paper and cut out. The stamp is a Karantha one.

It looks as though there was some splattering going on too - I think there was an article in Craft Stamper around then using spatter techniques.

New Year again...already!

Once again New Year is upon us - so best wishes for a happy and creative 2014 to everyone.

As usual I am starting out filled with good intentions to be crafy and blog more regularly whatever setbacks come my way this year.

Fortunately I have a few of last years tag swaps and the annual 12 Days of Christmas extravaganza to share with you so I should manage to keep going for the next few weeks whilst we get back to normal routines.

And casting my mind back, September's coloured tag swap was red with a touch of green which I approached with some trepidation. It is not a combination I find easy except for Christmassy things and it took quite a lot of messing about before I was even vaguely happy with the results.

I started out with bright red (scarlet) corrugated card. You can just see bits of the original colour peeping through. I ran it through an embossing folder first and then heat embossed the ridges with Versamark and clear embossing powder. The result was too red so I rubbed some cranberry coloured paint into the crevices (see what I mean about Christmassy). I think it then ended up too pink but it was too late to go back. I added a bit of pistachio green paint in places to match with the flower embellishments. The large green flower was die cut from scrap card and coloured with spray ink. The red flower started life white and was also sprayed with ink. The middle is a sequin.

 

Whilst I had the spray inks in my hand I used a stencil to make background paper for the reverse of the tag. I think there is a flourish and a script stencil in there somewhere. On top I layered some hand made (not by me I have to admit) papers and a die cut in the hope that flowers would make it lass Christmas like.