Try It On Tuesday – How Much Texture is enough?

Or alternatively, knowing when to stop!! The current challenge at Try It on Tuesday is TEXTURE and no, you haven’t got the dates wrong, I am adding my DT piece mid way through the challenge to hopefully give you some additional inspiration if all the DT yumminess last week wasn’t quite enough.

I’m still trying to emulate that Finnabair style and this piece has been several colours from completely white (it looked so nice I couldn’t decide what colour to add) to pink and finally sort of greeny brown. I haven’t quite captured the look for this one but I had great fun playing with my texture paste, stencil, paints, chipboard, die cuts and buttons (don’t you just love that cute flower button?) and of course flowers and I like it so that’s the point really. It really is amazing what you can do with just some paper and paint.
The base of this frame comes from Any Crafts a Pound and did, in fact cost me a £1. A £ well spent in my opinion. It needed a little re-inforcing on the bendy bits but otherwise is a great little greyboard frame – I shall pick up some more when I see them next at a show.















And of course the little beauty in the frame is my darling Chelsey. Thank goodness there is someone in the family who is photogenic!! (I must really like this photo, just realised I have used it before!)
So now it’s over to you to make something for the challenge at Try It On Tuesday. Remember we would like you add textures to your project.  The choice of what you do or use is up to you,  if you could tell us what you used that would be great.

This month our Sponsor is -

Smeared Ink

who are offering  a $10  prize to our  October winner.

So go on, join in!!

I am entering this piece in the following challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges #67 – Buttons
All Crafts Challenge - Anything but a Card
Natalie & Amy - Shabby Chic

Shabby Chic at Crafty Cardmakers

This wasn’t what I had originally intended to do for this challenge, I had something a whole lot quicker  in mind but at some point in the last month or so I became aware that an artist whose style I had long admired was giving classes in the UK – Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair. Of course this was after the event so to speak, and even if I had known I might not have got a place but to say I was miffed to have missed her is an understatement. So I thought I would have a go at a couple of pieces in her style, one of which was destined to become  my DT entry for the current Crafty Cardmakers theme – Shabby Chic.
The base for this project is an IKEA mirror frame – for some reason I decided to fill in in the mirror bit because I had this idea that I wanted a huge butterfly exploding out of the centre panel. If I had known the difficulties that butterfly would give me I would have stuck to the mirror!! I painstakingly chose some lovely shabby papers and covered the whole thing  - and then proceeded to obliterate it all with paint, ink and gesso!!
I loved using my new new ‘peacock’ stencil with artists spackle to give some texture – yum!!
 
I was really pleased with my diamond ‘relief’ – they are the waste from some trellis die-cut I have. Obviously I had to stick each one down individually but the finished effect was pretty neat.

Tried out the Kroma Crackle for even more shabbiness.



And of course there had to be flowers – these are made of UTEE using a mould.

The problem with the butterfly was I didn’t have a stamp big enough so it had to be digital – I tried several ways of colouring and printing it but it kept turning out either too strong against the background or more matt and dull than the background. In the end I found using a Golden glossy gel medium lifted it enough without being too brash. The layering of paint and gesso to create depth takes time as you need to let them dry between applications so this was not a quick project but quite a rewarding one!!  

Well I might not have quite nailed the look but I hope my take on the Shabby Chic theme will inspire  you to join in with to the Crafty CardMakers Challenge. This fortnight it is hosted by BettyC, who would like to see any creation, scrapbook page, altered art, or card that is 'shabby chic'. There’s lots more DT loveliness over on the blog to inspire as well.

PLEASE BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE RULES BEFORE ADDING YOUR CREATION AND CHECK IT MEETS THE THEME. 

We are sponsored by
MILK COFFEE DIGITAL STAMPS

WITH A PRIZE OF 5 DIGIS FROM THEIR STORE

And also by SIR STAMPALOT

with a fabulous prize:-

So go on, get  crafting!!

This week I have been mainly........

decoupaging. Or that's what I call it. Not the 3D stuff, the lots of layers of varnish (or in this case, decopatch glue) and lots of sanding stuff.

This is the Christmas tissue box that has been languishing on my desk.

We saw some of these at a Christmas Craft Fair last year and one of my friends (her house is a grotto at Christmas, she even has a santa toilet seat cover) was uhmming and aahing over the price of the ones on the stand. So I rashly said, oh I'll make you one for Christmas.... Fortunately I didn't specify which Christmas. 

At that point the other friend I was with pulled a face and raised an eyebrow.... so I said alright I'll make you one as well, what do you want on it . She said roses, shabby chic.

It's her birthday in a couple of weeks which prompted me to get a wriggle on. I made a little tag to go with it as well.

Well I hope they like them. Must learn to keep quiet!!

Try It On Tuesday - Let's get Stitchy!!

Or perhaps this post should be titled 'The art of knowing when to stop'.

So to get to my DT piece for this week. It is a fully loaded 8 x 8 canvas. It started from the big blowsy flower which came in an embellishment kit - gorgeous but a bit big for a card - which gave me the creamy/peachy colour tones and well, it kind of grew from there!!







OK we asked for stitching on this week's project's at TioT and there is stitching on my project although it may be hard to see as the layers have obliterated most of the stamped and faux stitching. However I can assure you the lace ruffle is handstitched, as are the swirls on the piece of fabric (I even did a bit of beading). The idea for that being that the stitched work would marry up with the stamped swirl behind - kinda worked!!

There are a lot of layers and also texture in this piece though mainly abstract as my spackle was a bit lumpy and hard to manage through non-use (until I remembered you could add water - doh) so I couldn't use my masks. I've done a few other pieces in tandem with this one that were more successful in that regard but I'll post them later as this is a TioT Challenge post. The rolled roses and shabby flowers are handmade and spritzed with micas and the leaves have been DI'd and embossed with Distress embossing powder to give them a rough and multicoloured texture.

 I always find it hard to know when this kind of canvas is finished - to be honest the first layers of paper were so pretty I couldn't cover them up for a day. Anyhow it gave me a chance to use some new stamps (had them since September!!) and have a rummage in my stash and I think it will look nice on my wall.

So now you've seen what I've done it's your turn - but don't worry you don't have to go crazy you can do any kind of project to any theme with real or faux stitching.

Crafty-emblies is our sponsor for January, with a £10 store voucher for our lucky winner this month.
Just remember that to be considered for Top 5 and the Prize Draw you must only link to 5 challenges in total including ours. Don't forget to visit the other DT members at Try It On Tuesday and check out their projects as well!

Because this turned out kinda pretty and feminine I am entering it into the current 'Our Creative Corner' Challenge for which the theme is Shabby Chic.

Happy Crafting!!

It's pink, it's pretty .........

but is it shabby chic? I'm supposed to be working in my office today but couldn't resist just finishing this off and uploading a photo of my piece for the NI Jigsaw jam. This is the first altered jigsaw I have ever done so poor old Margaret has drawn the short straw and got my first attempt! As you will see some of the roses from the previous project have made their way on to here as well, just hope it's not all too bulky for what she has in mind for mounting it. Oh well, no more excuses, off to do some work...