CCC 32 - Inking and Stamping Masks and a Little Bit of This and That

I seem to have neglected the blog a bit this past week. Not that I haven't been busy with inks and paints. It's just that I don't seem to have had time to post anything. Last weekend I went to a couple of water colour workshops which were great fun. Of course we used DIs - pads and reinkers - as our water colours. Since then I've made lots of pieces which I've made into cards. This one uses resist/batik and tonal washes in Broken China.

Another memorable event since my last post was a trip to London to attend the Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Dame Joan Sutherland at Westminster Abbey. Some of the most moving moments were when recordings of Dame Joan singing 'Let the Bright Seraphim' and 'Casta Diva' were played in the Abbey.

After the service was over we took some time to walk around the Abbey as it had been some years since we had last visited. Here staff are tidying up the altar area and preparing to snuff out the candles.

The Great West Door where everyone entered and left the Abbey.

This week was also our local Stamp Club where the theme was Serendipity - using up all our little scraps, so a lot of work went into that - which I will post when I have more finished pieces.

And last, but certainly not least, this week is the Compendium Challenge. Linda at Studio L3 set us page 59 - inking and stamping masks. For the technique see Tim's book, and for lots of lovely examples call in at Linda's. Here I used Bundled Sage, Stormy Skies, Forest Moss and Walnut Stain, and stamps by Tim and The Artistic Stamper.

CCC 31 - Rusted Enamel

This week's challenge at Linda's Studio L3 blog is Rusted Enamel, the technique on page 41 of Tim Holtz' book, Compendium of Curiosities. I used Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo as my colours. The geisha images are Stampington, the blossom Kay Carley, and the other stamps don't have names on them and were acquired back beyond the mists of time.

As frequently happens, I had difficulty getting a good photo. Photography problems are usually down to shiny surfaces or my crafting assistant. This time both factors came into play. In the first photo, there's no shine, but you don't get the texture and colour.

So I tried again, but that's where the assistant came in. First of all she distracted me by jumping on the table and fishing about in a box that I'd been emptying of little scraps of paper.

She was on a mission, and eventually found what she was looking for. A nice shiny strip of TSS metal which she picked out of the box and brought to me in her mouth for my consideration. Oh, well, at least you can see the shine and some of the green colour.

Pop over to Linda's and see lots of great examples of the Rusted Enamel technique.

CCC 30 - Altered Metal with Paint

Linda at Studio L3 set us page 48 of the Compendium this week. I have been enjoying these challenges so much and latterly, as each week has passed, I have kept thinking that I didn't want them to end. Now we're in week 30 and the book has 35 pages of techniques, but Linda has just said that the end is not the end. What can she mean? Can't wait to find out. I'd happily do them all again !

So this week it's Altered Metal with Paint, and I went totally overboard with metal. In fact it's all metal apart from two small pieces of card and some clay. I used a piece of Ten Seconds Studio metal in Dark Chocolate cutting one end with a Tim die and the lacy circle with a Nellie Snellen die; and embossing the metal with TSS moulds. Then I sanded some of the raised bits on the brown metal to reveal the silver. Next I got busy with this week's technique on the metal, and got so carried away that I started looking round for other bits to receive the treatment ! A small old and slightly rusty key, a philosophy tag, and a Tim flower. Then I found a lovely little heart that I'd made from clay in a mould and had painted gold. So these items became the things that were washed up on the shore around the little girl who is coloured with DIs and Inktense pencils.

WOYWW 87

Well, that didn't take long .... for another January to pass. And here we are again, Wednesday, the day when we all nip over to Julia's blog to have a shufti at other folks' workspaces. Mine's returning to messiness again. There's the makings of my compendium challenge on the craft mat. Behind the red holdall thingy, there's an embossing folder and some card that I'm working on for another challlenge. The three tiered basket is positively groaning with stamps-to-be-put-away in the bottom basket, lots of diecuts-waiting-to-be-used-for-a-card in the middle, and at the top dabbers and Glossy Accents, yes, that's right, waiting to be put away.

Painting and Paintings; Compendium & Simon Says

Last week I suddenly woke up to the fact that The Glasgow Boys exhibition at the Royal Academy was about to finish, so I hastily renewed my railcard and headed off for London. I had hoped to make a full day of it by getting tickets for a concert or a play, but alas all of interest were fully booked, so I decided to content myself with the exhibition and take the opportunity to do a bit of shopping. I arrived at Burlington House thinking that I was just in time to have a cup of tea before going into the exhibition, only to find that the building had been evacuated because there had been a power failure in that part of Piccadilly. No one could say when the electricity was likely to be restored. I was so disappointed that I had travelled to the city especially to see the exhibition, and it looked as if I was going to miss out. I decided to take a walk for a while and come back in an hour. I spent part of that time buying my favourite yummy honeys from Fortnum's ! - Scottish Heather which is dark, heavy and strong, and Welsh Heather which has an amazing jelly-like consistency and is great for mixing with plain yoghourt. On my return, the Royal Academy and surrounding buildings still remained without illumination. Off I went again this time for a pot of tea and some chocolate gateau in a nearby restaurant. Back at the RA still no electricity, so I decided that it was time to either head back for the train or see if there were any last minute theatre tickets available for a musical. Before that I wanted to have a wander through the Burlington Arcade, and that done, I decided on a final check on the RA. To my delight, after my wait of two and a half hours, the power had just come back on, and I found myself near the head of the queue.

I so enjoyed the exhibition: The Glasgow Boys - Pioneering Painters 1880 - 1900. The 'Boys' had been critical of the work of Scottish artists who produced dramatic landscapes and sentimental scenes. They wanted to depict scenes from everyday life, and they drew their technical inspiration from European artists. This week I am engrossed in this book, The Glasgow Boys, by Roger Billcliffe. On the right is one of my favourite pictures from the exhibition, A Hind's Daughter by one of the leading 'Boys,' James Guthrie. (A hind was a skilled farm worker who would have a special responsibility, perhaps, as Billcliffe suggests, for the large team of horses used for ploughing). I'm a family historian, and my paternal forebears were farmers on Loch Lomondside, so to see farming life depicted was especially meaningful for me. Needless to say, some family members migrated to the city, so would have walked the same pavements as the Boys at the School of Art.

The exhibition was beautifully planned. The guide booklet says that there were around twenty Boys (only one of whom was a girl !), and among them were twelve key painters some of whom travelled and worked together, and some who followed the same path in terms of artistic development. You could see how they started off, travelling to various rural locations in Scotland, and painting what they saw there. Thereafter, some travelled to France, Spain, Italy, North Africa, the Middle East and Japan where they found inspiration. Others went on to depict scenes of wealthy Glasgow urban life; and some of the Boys turned to portraiture commissioned by rich industrialists in the city.

So as well as perusing my book, I've also been messing about with my own paints. Linda at Studio L3 has set us page 50 of Tim's Compendium of Curiosities as challenge number 29. It's called Weathered Wood Grunge. I was going to use my wood grain embossing folder, but I've done quite a lot with that already, so I decided on a folder which would give a background with the effect of old embossed wallpaper. I used Juniper dabber and Walnut Stain DI for this. The frames are cut with the Classic Frameabilities. The outer part is coloured with Versamagic and Memento and highlighted with Inka-Gold. Then there's a frame coloured with Gold dabber, and a third frame, again coloured with Versamagic and Memento. The swirl is grungeboard in Broken China and Vintage Photo DIs.

With family still in mind, in the centre there's a photo of a certain Minnie Mac (originally black and white) coloured with DIs, and this brings back a childhood memory of a fluffy little hand-knitted bolero in blue with yellow chicks knitted into the front, one each side. It was shortly after this photo was taken that my mother found that my hair was as is in the photo on one side, and short on the other. She then found a bundle of hair in the fireplace. Apparently I had given myself my first haircut. Thereafter I lost my lovely curls, and in their place came the very straight dark brown hair that I have today. So this piece is also for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge where the theme is Childhood Memory.

Compendium Challenge 28

Here we are in week 28 of Linda's Compendium of Curiosities challenge. For all the details, call in at Linda's Studio L3 blog. We all dutifully opened our books at page 57 and got stuck in to Tim's 'Colourful Layered Fragment' technique. Unfortunately the photo doesn't show the colours to best effect. My background is Bundled Sage, Peeled Paint, Forest Moss and Walnut Stain DIs with Tim stamps in Bundled Sage. I drew round the fragment in pencil, and then drew round on top of the pencil line with a Perfect Medium pen and embossed with Ranger fine detail gold. My lips are sealed on what I did with the fragment. For that you'll have to get a hold of Tim's book. I will say that the stamp used was one of my favourite Magenta ones.

Suddenly it's WOYWW

Suddenly it's Wednesday, again, and time for WOYWW. Click on over to Julia's Stamping Ground blog to find links to lots of workspaces, and enjoy a good old nosey.

Well, this morning on my desk is a book open at my January calendar pages, and beside it, a box of soft pastels. When I first started doing these, I made some templates to help me do the squares for the days. These are card ones, but I made some plastic ones too. Needless to say I can't find the plastic ones (shows how well I tidied last week), but the card ones will do as I plan to use the pastels in the squares. Most people do their calendar pages in advance, but I prefer to wait a couple of weeks to get the mood of the month. So far January hasn't been cold and frosty but rather wet and somewhat murky. But there's been sunshine too, and even on the not so bright days the birds at the bird table and feeders have cheered the day. This led to my chosen colours being those of the bluetits that swarm in front of my kitchen window swinging from the fat balls and peanuts, and carrying off black sunflower seeds to the nearby hedge where they crack the seed shells. These seeds are the favourite food of the blue, great and marsh tits, and they seem to eat them in vast quantities.

Also on my desk is a fragment waiting for some inspiration for the Compendium challenge. And in case you're wondering, what looks like a little book on top of the pastels, is a pad of stickies that I used for masking when making a card at the weekend. Well, I won't keep you any longer as I know there are lots of desks to be viewed. Happy browsing.