Craft Fairs, Inspiration, CCC 14

This weekend I'm hoping to find some time for a little inking and painting, and trying out some new materials. Last week I spent time enjoying other people's creativity. First at a craft show which was craft in its widest sense - pottery, needlework, knitwear and other clothing, lustre ware, metalwork, home decor, garden ornaments, furniture, woodwork, jewellery, painting - in fact everything you could imagine, and all very inspiring. Some awe-inspiring.

Bearing in mind the William Morris exhortation "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful," I allowed myself a couple of purchases. A gorgeous turquoise pottery jug to replace the rather plain jug that bounced on the kitchen floor a couple of weeks ago, and ended up in smithereens. The new jug is beautiful and useful. The other purchase was irresistible. A book. "The Art of Annemieke Mein - Wildlife Artist in Textiles." First published nearly 10 years ago, but I had never come across it before. Stunning, stunning work beautifully photographed with the artist's commentary to accompany the photos. It's a real joy to look at, to read, and to marvel at, and I know I will return to it again and again to feast my eyes.

Lots of winged creatures: butterflies, moths, dragonflies, grasshoppers, and gorgeous birds ...

Beautiful. More than beautiful. And useful in that it is so inspiring. Not that I, anybody (?) could aspire to produce anything of this standard, but inspiring just by its very existence.

My second craft fair was a papercrafts one. The Craft Barn September Extravaganza. I spent most of my time watching Helen Chilton, Carol Cockbain and Carole Cann. Helen had done lots of lovely colourful work with some of the latest, inspiring Crafty Individuals stamps, and shared her humour, her tips and her techniques with the groups gathered round her table. Carole with an 'e' was demoing her work decorating boxes using some fabulous pieces of paper napkin with PVA glue and Inka Gold; decorating book covers with Ferro and stencils; and metalwork with Viva metallic paints. Carol without an 'e' is the Dreamweaver stencil and pastes expert, and was working on beautifully coloured and textured cards using these, embossing folders and distress inks. So I came away with lots of ideas, and of course, met the organisers' objectives of these weekends, with a few purchases. OK, quite a few. Um, more than I intended.

This in fact caused me quite a few problems with my Compendium of Curiosities Challenge No 14 organised by Linda from her Studio L3 blog. Thank you, Linda. You're a star ! These challenges are such fun. I've got quite a few masks. In fact, I've even got a masks drawer, and I've used them a lot. But they've sort of got forgotten about, and I confess I haven't used them for ages. My problem was that I was desperate to use my new stamps, but I couldn't see how to use them with the masks I've got. I decided on the Tim clock mask, and wanted to use some of my new Crafty Individuals stamps. Wasn't quite happy with this, but anyway have used Antique Linen, Scattered Straw, Faded Jeans and Dried Marigold DIs, and Paper Artsy, Crafty Individuals, and Clear Choice stamps, and I dedicate this to wonderful friends of many years standing - some I see regularly, and others I've recently met up with as if the intervening years were no more than a few days.

As I wasn't entirely happy with the marriage of my new purchases and the mask, I tried again. It's no better, but it's made using Prima flower masks, Weathered Wood, Faded Jeans and Dried Marigold DIs, and Paper Artsy Hot Picks and Artemio stamps.

Have a happy weekend.

CCC 13, WOYWW 66 and Robbles

For the uninitiated, in the title of this post CCC 13 refers to the fun weekly challenge at Linda's Studio L3 blog; WOYWW 66 is my chance to be nosey and see what other people have on their work desks thanks to Julia organiser of snoops from her Stamping Ground blog; and Robbles ? - well , more of that later.

Linda's challenge this week saw us thumbing through Tim's Compendium of Curiosities to find page 65 and the instructions for making grungepaper flowers. My background this time is made using Terra, a technique I first started doing at Lin and Leandra's Paperartsy weekends, and gives a textured effect that I love.

I made this last night so you will see what I used from the photo of my desk taken this morning.

The underside of the flowers is stamped with the Artistic Stamper spotty stamp.

And as for Robbles? Robbles is my regular morning companion who comes looking for a snack when I am feeding the chickens. Robbles disappears in the summer months when it's family raising time, and this morning was my little friend's first day back at the feeding station. The photo was taken earlier in the year, and I am looking forward to seeing my little Robbles each morning over the coming months.

Compendium Challenge No 12 - Chipped Enamel

It's now Week 12 of the Compendium of Curiosities Challenge organised by Linda from her Studio L3 blog, and the theme is Chipped Enamel which is described on page 44 of Tim's book. Thank you, Linda. I love trying out the techniques and seeing the fabulous pieces that others are doing.

I've gone back to using a family photo again - this time of my grandmother. Sadly I never knew her as she died too young of leukaemia, but I do know that she was a gardener, a musician and a champion golfer, and I've taken up the gardening theme here. I've done a batik background as in last week's challenge with Old Paper, Victorian Velvet and Peeled Paper DIs, some stamping with the latter two DIs, and I've used Peeled Paint and Tea Dye Distress embossing powders for the enamel bit.

It wasn't all plain sailing to get a photo. My first attempt produced this.

A certain furry mischief putting her foot in it, and casting a shadow over proceedings.

Now a closer look at the chipped enamel on a memory frame. I decided that the garden twine that I use to tie up plants was the right colour and texture to put on the frame, so ended up out in the garden shed with a torch, rummaging to find what I wanted. It's a lovely balmy night, and I could hear the screeching of an owl as I walked in the garden.

WOYWW 65

Last night after a lengthy ATC making session my table was a total clutter, but I did in fact tidy it a little before going to bed, so this morning rather than being a bombsite, it is just a mess.

If you're wondering why I'm telling you this, go to Julia's Stamping Ground blog and find out.

Compendium Week 11

If you're looking for a challenge that will introduce you to new techniques or get you practising some you may know already, then have a look at Linda's Studio L3 blog for details of her weekly Compendium of Curiosities Challenges taken from Tim Holtz' book. This one's called Blended Batik, and is a technique I have tried a couple of times before.

I enjoy researching family history, and using my paints and inks to produce something related to this. One of my second cousins has a beautiful photo of our great grandmother, Janet. It is on glass and in a gilt metal frame. I didn't make a very good job of photographing it, but the real thing is very beautiful, and I treasure this copy. Janet was the eleventh of twelve children and was born and brought up by the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

So on to my piece. The inks are Scattered Straw and Forest Moss, the stamps Darkroom Door, Studio 490 and Elusive Images, and embellishments a Tim swirly and Prima flowers.

Three Muses and Stamping Club

The theme of the current challenge at the Three Muses blog is Wheels. I enjoy the freedom of cycling through the woods around here, so that decided my choice of type of wheels. There are a few whitish flecks in the background of my "Wheels" though not as many as I had intended. Our project at this week's get-together of our local stamping club was to use glue on card, let it dry, and then colour with Distress Inks, and the glue would create a resist effect. The colours here are Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Vintage Photo and Black Soot. Stamps are Rubbadubbadoo and Paper Artsy.

These are some I did at the club evening where the glue is more in evidence. First one using Wild Honey, Vintage Photo and Black Soot inks, and Paper Artsy and Artemio stamps.

Then Victorian Velvet and Antique Linen inks, and Paper Artsy and Artemio stamps again.
Crushed Olive, Forest Moss, Mustard Seed and Black Soot with Viva and Paper Artsy stamps.

Stormy Sky, Peeled Paint and Black Soot with Crafty Individuals stamps.

Tag Tuesday

The challenge at Louise's Kardkrazy was to produce a tag on any material other than card. For mine I chose grungeboard, and used acrylic paints, clear embossing powder, Archival and Stazon inks, and stamps by Elusive Images, Stampotique and Artemio.