May 18, 2013 by isisimaginings

Inspired by France Papillon, Days One and Three

Happy Saturday everyone, hope you’re having a great weekend. I’ve had a busy day & shall be spending the rest of the evening on the sofa, but first I’d like to show you my piece for this week’s challenge on the PaperArtsy blog. France Papillon’s projects this week were fantastic, with lots of layers & textures.

I combined the techniques from days one & three by cutting a piece of PaperArtsy’s grey board in half & making a sort of shrine thingy. It wasn’t my intention, but I ended up copying what France did, almost completely, hope she’ll forgive me.

Here’s the front cover. I can’t believe I actually sewed – by hand! - on one of my projects. I’ve had a length of poly cotton in my stash for almost a year & kept meaning to use it. No excuses this time. I cut the hinges out of grunge paper using a PaperArtsy die, added PA Grunge Paste & painted them with French Roast, Little Black Dress & Claret fresco paints, finishing with treasure gold.

This was after I stamped onto two sheets of Kraft Glassine with a stamp from PA set HP1107.

This is the inside. I’d had a discussion on Twitter with France & Nicky about what to use to create texture. France used gauze with great effect & I didn’t have any. I found a piece of thick plastic on my desk, I can’t remember where it came from, but I thought I’d give it a go.

This is it with the grunge paste on & below you can see the texture it created.

The grunge paste didn’t adhere very well to the plastic, so I added a layer of Satin Glaze on top & left it to dry overnight. It’s better, but I have a feeling this particular project won’t last forever.

(If you’d like to know more about Grunge Paste, Leandra has posted links to a series of videos on the PA blog today).

The word stamps are Chocolate Baroque’s Artistic Expressions & Artistic Affirmations sets. The heart is the Tall Heart PaperArtsy die.

France added more grunge paste through a stencil directly onto her journal pages, but I put mine onto a scrap of white card & roughly tore pieces before gluing them on. And no, I could not resist adding more treasure gold.

That’s it for now. I am very grateful for all the kind comments I’ve received on my projects recently, thank you again. Until next time,

Love & light.

May 15, 2013 by isisimaginings

PaperArtsy Key Chains

Hello, happy Wednesday. This week on the PaperArtsy blog, the uber-talented France Papillon is the guest designer & on Monday she showed us a gorgeous tag & two fab key chains, along with a how-to video. You can see them all in this post.

I’m hoping to get some time to make something else inspired by her other posts this week, but for today here are my key chains. I was so pleased that I had some of PaperArtsy’s wooden spools & Tim Holtz’ swivel clasps. I painted the spools with Stone, Chocolate Pudding & Mocha Mousse fresco paints & used two of my small stamps by Tim Holtz for the quotes.

That’s it for now, thanks for visiting. Until next time,

Love & light.

May 11, 2013 by isisimaginings

Breathe The Love

Hello! Happy Saturday, hope the weather is better for you than it is here. I had thought about doing some gardening, but the rain means that crafting wins.

Due to all the stuff that happened from February onwards, it’s been ages since I took part in the PaperArtsy challenge. This week I was determined to change that. Sue Carrington was this week’s guest designer on the PaperArtsy blog & her projects are beautiful, full of layers & textures. I loved her use of greens & as it’s a colour I hardly ever use, except as an accent, I thought I’d give it a go.

I used one of the large, chunky, hanging boards from PaperArtsy as my substrate. They’re a nice size, very light, but also very sturdy. I layered Nougat & Sage frescos on the board after the Grunge Paste had dried, then used Pesto & Blood Orange, as Sue had done in this post, mixing the Blood Orange with water & letting it drip down the board. I now think I should have been braver & used more Pesto. I loved how Sue had used the brick wall stencil & Grunge Paste in this post, so I copied it, but I covered too much of the board, so decided to limit my stamping to the mini splatter stamp, (Mini 72) & a tiny swirl from Swirls & Curls 1. I finished by adding Spanish Topaz & Aquamarine around the edges of the board & on some of the higher areas of the grunge paste.

My initial thought was to use flowers as Sue had done, but on Twitter last week there had been lots of talk about Tim Holtz’ pediment die, (which is on my wish list, of course) & when I saw this project by Sam I really wanted to make one of my own. Not having the die I wondered what I could use as a substitute. Answer; a Spellbinders Labels Four die, cut in half.

I cut the label from grunge paper, put the PA grunge paste through my CWS mini cubist stencil & then painted with assorted Frescos, (French Roast, Brown Shed, Little Black Dress, Claret) and added Treasure Gold, (Spanish Topaz & Brass).

I stamped the Lynn Perella image with black Archival ink & heat set with clear embossing powder, then painted it with Frescos.

The heart & the sentiment are from the Love & Kisses 1 set. I stamped them onto metal card that I’d covered with gold alcohol ink. Then I used a metal tool to add a border & added Frescos & TG to give an aged effect.

So that’s my entry into the PA challenge this week. Thank you to Sue for the inspiration & I hope Sam forgives me for using her idea.

Thanks for looking, have a great weekend.

Love & light.

May 6, 2013 by isisimaginings

Let The Sun Shine In

Good evening & happy Monday, hope everyone has had a great weekend. Before I show you tonight’s project, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone for the kind comments on my recent posts & also a warm welcome to my new followers. I appreciate you all.

This project is my take on an excellent tutorial by Lin Brown, of Yours Artfully fame. Along with Leandra of PaperArtsy, she is a genius when it comes to working with Fresco paints & when she posted this tutorial on April 14, I knew I had to try it. (It’s only taken me three weeks, not long at all for me).

I used Nougat & Chocolate Pudding for my base layer after applying the wondrous Grunge Paste through two Dina Wakley stencils, (Mini Sunray & Mini Vine), for The Crafters’ Workshop onto a sheet of PaperArtsy grey board – fabulous stuff. Lin used Stone & Squid Ink, which are two of the new Fresco colours & look gorgeous, I want them badly.

Lots of stencilling with Snowflake.

After I’d stamped & applied foil ‘schizzle’*, (#PATWITS terminology) & Treasure Gold, (Brass, Spanish Topaz, Aquamarine), I spent an age wondering how to finish the piece. I cut a few flowers from the TH Tattered Floral die to try, but they didn’t work at all.

Then I remembered the metal flowers my mum had given me a few years ago. I like them a lot.

I applied assorted frescos & TG to the Idea-ology ornate plate & Wild Honey DI to the journal ticket, then added Crackle Accents.

Here’s the finished piece again. I’m fairly happy with it. Again, I have to say that Lin’s tutorial was excellent. Thank you Lin!

Thanks for visiting my blog, until next time,

Love & light

*Foil transfer sheets

April 30, 2013 by isisimaginings

#3UP for PaperArtsy

Evening all, happy Tuesday.

The title of this post will be understood immediately by the #PATWITS on Twitter, but for the rest of you here’s a little backstory.

Last week on Twitter, Leandra started adding the hashtag #3UP to her tweets & the only clue she would give us was to see if we got a direct message. Well, I got one – which was a huge surprise. The message was if she sent me three items, would I use them to make something for the PaperArtsy blog? Would I???? Of course!!

These are the three items she sent me & after much deliberation, I decided to make a mini album. Here’s the front cover…..

I used PaperArtsy’s new Grunge Paste through a stencil. The Grunge Paste is FABULOUS. If you want texture on your projects, you NEED GP. It’s slightly chalky, not at all runny & dries really quickly.

Then I started blending some Fresco paints on top – Mermaid, Sage, Claret & Inky Pool. When I was happy with how it looked, I added Brass & Spanish Topaz on the raised areas.

I painted the largest of the buttons with Claret & rubbed a little brass TG on top, stuck another button on top & glued seed beads to that with Cosmic Shimmer clear glue.

I made the embellishments by stamping the images from the Lynn Perella 005 set onto shrink plastic & painting on the reverse with more Frescos when the plastic had cooled down.

The inside covers were originally completely different. I made a mistake right at the very end & couldn’t get them back to how they were, so ended up with something else entirely. That’s one of the properties I really like about Fresco paints, you can add numerous layers without damaging the substrate. It doesn’t show in the photo, but there is still some of the original Crackle Glaze effect showing through the stencils. The little birds are an Impress die & I stamped the sun, from LPC005 onto a scrap of white card with Versamark & heat set with copper embossing powder.

The pages are torn squares of watercolour paper & I’ve just decorated this first one so far. I covered it with Grunge Paste, let it dry for a few minutes, then stamped into into with another PA stamp – Swirls and Curls 2. When the page was dry I painted over the top with Mermaid, Sage & Beach Hut, stamped the flowers, house & quote onto tissue paper, which I attached & sealed with Satin Glaze.

Here’s the back cover. This is PA metal card put through an embossing folder. I painted it as for the front, sanded the raised areas & rubbed TG on top. The metal numbers were painted with Beach Hut, French Roast & Little Black Dress & highlighted with TG.

Here’s the finished album again. I think it’s ok, even though there are things I would do differently & the inside is not what I intended.

A huge thank you to Leandra & Gillian for the opportunity & for their utter fabulousness.

Love & light.

February 8, 2013 by isisimaginings

PaperArtsy Challenge

Hello, blog visitors, happy Friday. I finished this little shrine-type piece late last night, so I’m going to enter it into this week’s PaperArtsy challenge. It is inspired by Michelle’s gorgeous wooden house on the PaperArtsy blog, ( part one & part two) & Jo’s beautiful Butterfly Arch on her Shabby Dandelion blog. I’ve had a few of these wooden pieces for years, so I decided it was about time I did something with one of them.

I thought I took a lot more photos than I did & wish these were a lot better than they are.

After covering the wood with a few washes of Snowflake FF paints, I just started putting on layers of colours, with a dry brush & with my fingers. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but I tried to be patient & not precise. I used the following Fresco Finish paints:

Mermaid
Beach Hut
Nougat
Pumpkin Soup
Brown Shed
Eggplant
French Roast

Here’s the back. You can still see the colours, but I think they blend fairly well. I stamped the image on to Crackly tissue, coloured both on the reverse with Frescos & used Satin Glaze to adhere them to them to the wood, with more Satin Glaze on top to seal. Then I added lots of Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold & a wash of Pumpkin Soup. There had to be some metal, so I cut the legs off the screw brads & attached them with Glossy Accents.

This is the front. I wanted it to look worn & shabby. Recently, I read a biography of Richard III, (rather prescient, given the exciting events in Leicester earlier this week) & it got me thinking about medieval iconography & the miniature prayer shrines that people would carry with them when they travelled.

I can’t remember how many layers of paint went on this, because I just kept going until I decided it was ok. Then I added the copper Ferro paste through my mini cubist stencil & Aquamarine Treasure Gold.

Next it was time to work on the metal card. I’d put the crackle glaze on it the night before & painted a thickish layer of Mermaid on top before I started the rest of the project, to get the crackles going, also leaving it to dry thoroughly. I got some great crackles, some of which ended up being covered by the translucent paints – Brown Shed, French Roast & Eggplant – but there’s still quite a few. Again, I just kept going, blending over & over with my fingers, knocking back with a baby wipe & tissues & building up layers of colour.

When I’d added the images & sealed everything, I used a white pen on the eyes & the detail under the face, then decided that it all looked a bit flat, so on went the gold liquid pearls & the black adhesive pearls. After that I left it alone, before I did something to ruin the whole thing.

I quite like this. I’m glad I took my time with it & didn’t stick rigidly to how I wanted it to be.

Okay, I have waffled on enough. Thanks again to Michelle & Jo for their inspiration this week, I’m chuffed that I finally used one of the pieces of wood that have been living in my craft stash for goodness knows how long!

Until next time,

Love & light.

February 6, 2013 by isisimaginings

Funky Florals

Hello! Happy Wednesday to everyone.

The other week, I was thrilled to win the PaperArtsy challenge & I chose Jo Firth-Young’s gorgeous set of flower stamps. Jo began designing stamps for PaperArtsy last year. Her first collection was a selection of terrific Christmas stamps. I couldn’t buy any before Christmas, but I hope to get some this year. I knew I wanted these cute flowers as soon as I saw them & they are GREAT. They arrived on the same day as the new issue of Craft Stamper magazine, so that day was a very good day.

Unfortunately, the stamps then sat on my craft table until last night, when I finally had some time to play with them. I decided to start with something simple, with the focus on the images.

I made these two by stamping on linen textured card & colouring with pencils. Like all of PaperArtsy’s stamps, the images stamps beautifully.

Then it was time to get out the Fresco Finish paints. I brushed a wash of Irish Cream onto the linen card, ( the texture showed through the paint & really added to the finish), dried it & stamped the sentiment on top with Snowflake. The flowers were painted with;

Pumpkin Soup
Brown Shed
Beach Hut
Mermaid
Pesto

I filled in the gaps with Martha Stewart stamps, inked with distress inks.

That’s it, three quick - well, relatively quick - cards. What do you think? I’ve got more ideas for these stamps, so you will definitely see them again in this blog.

I’ve started something for this week’s PaperArtsy challenge, hopefully I’ll get it finished before Saturday.

Thanks for looking. Until next time,

Love & light

February 5, 2013 by isisimaginings

More Inspiration from PaperArtsy

Evening all, happy Tuesday & happy February – thank goodness January is over, it seemed to go on forever. But now, although it’s still very cold, the days are definitely getting longer & looking out the kitchen window I can see lots of green shoots appearing all over the garden; Spring is on its way!

I got very behind last week with my crafting, I didn’t have time to make anything based on PaperArtsy’s guest designer, Suzanne Czsoek’s projects, but I had a quick play over the weekend & made two cards. I wasn’t aware of Suzanne prior to her guest designer slot, but her work is gorgeous. Her blog is HERE.

These ended up being virtually identical to cards I’d made for the PaperArtsy challenge about three weeks ago, but I could not come up with a different idea.

Putting the PA Crackle Glaze on to metal card & then painting with Fresco Finish paints was definitely different for me. After putting on the crackle glaze, I left the metal card to dry overnight, which was VERY difficult for an impatient crafter like me. You can see how the cracks show through the paint more clearly on the card below.

The image above was stamped on acetate, as per Helen Chilton’s project. The wings on the image below are the free stamp in the current issue of Craft Stamper magazine.

Thanks for looking, that’s all for now. The plan is to post again tomorrow……..

By the way, Michelle Webb of the Hobbyroom is back again on the PaperArtsy blog this week. You need to see her amazing, altered house HERE.

Love & light.

January 26, 2013 by isisimaginings

Inspired by Linda Cain, Day 2

Happy Saturday, blog visitors, hope you’ve had a lovely day. Mine has been ever so slightly hectic, but I’ve just finished my second PaperArtsy piece, based on Linda Cain’s tag trio from day two & want to share it with you.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this piece caused me much frustration, NOTHING worked the way I wanted it to. It’s also no exaggeration to say I’ve lost count of the number of layers of paint I put on each tag & I gave up counting after the twelfth attempt at stamping on the metal card.

Linda made a beautiful Valentine’s tag trio, but I wanted to try out the new Fresco Finish paints that recently, ahem, *appeared* in my stash….

I started building up layers with Nougat, Irish Cream, Pumpkin Soup, Pesto & Zesty Zing. Three hours later, (seriously, that’s what it felt like), after knocking back & adding more paint, the tags looked terrible, so I started adding Mermaid, Eggplant, French Roast & they ended up looking slightly less terrible.

I stamped the Chocolate Baroque words stamp the PA mini script stamp & feather stamp with coffee Archival ink & the Tim Holtz mini harlequin stamp with a purple Brilliance ink.

Stamps used:

PaperArtsy LPC015 & LPC007
PaperArtsy mini script 61
Chocolate Baroque Artistic Affirmations UM set

Stamping the PA image & collage flowers on the PA metal card almost drove me crazy. It didn’t matter what I did, I could not get a clear image. Thank goodness for alcohol blending solution – I used almost half a bottle before finally getting the images almost right. By then, ‘almost’ was good enough.

The final additions were treasure gold – Spanish Topaz & Aquamarine – on the edges of the tags, the Tim Holtz Idea-ology metal embellishments & lightly brushed over the main body of the tags, then doodling with a white Sakura pen.

It’s a pity it took me so long to finish this, because the colour is actually not too bad, but you can’t see it clearly in the photos. Anyway, it’s done & I’m glad I didn’t chuck it in the bin as I threatened to do more than once.

If you haven’t seen Linda’s beautiful creations on the PaperArtsy blog,start HERE with this GORGEOUS canvas, then work back. An if you want to try Fresco Finish paints yourself, Leandra did THIS brilliant post all about them. They are seriously good. With all the paint I put on the these tags, I started to wonder if the tags would fall apart, but they didn’t, they’re absolutely fine.

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments last night. I’ll be back soon, I hope. Until then,

Love & light.

January 25, 2013 by isisimaginings

Inspired by Linda Cain

Hello! It’s Friday already & I don’t know where the week gone. It isn’t my intention to only blog once a week, but that seems to be what’s happening at the moment. Anyway, on to today’s projects.

Over at PaperArtsy, this week’s guest designer is Linda Cain & she has been getting all painty with the Fresco Finish paints. My cards today are based on her first PaperArtsy project, ‘Winter Wonderland’.

This time I used the FF paints on black card, with Snowflake as a base on the one below. I used the same colours on both; Beach Hut, Mermaid, Lilac & Eggplant.

I tried to use Leandra’s corner, corner, side technique as she demonstrates in THIS YouTube video, but I think I’m too messy & I ended up putting paint any which way, but at least I can still see different colours in places.

I think the white is very striking against the background. I don’t trust myself to draw, so I used a white pen to highlight areas of the main images & added some doodling around the black border & added some adhesive pearls.

I also used distress inks & treasure gold around the edges.

The owl is possibly an addition too far, he’s very dramatic with his yellow eyes. My thinking was that he tied in with the birds & the feathers, just as the shell on the other card tied in with the swirls.

Here you can see the difference between the two backgrounds. Again, I used Snowflake as a base on the ‘Imagine’ card only. The more I use the FF paints the more impressed I am. They give such great coverage – I don’t think you’d ever guess that the base card was black – they’re so easy to blend & build up layers with & they dry very quickly.

I started another project based on another of Linda’s PA projects & I’m hoping to finish it tomorrow.

Thanks for visiting my blog & for all the kind comments on my post last week. Until tomorrow, (I hope),

Love & light

isisimaginings

An art filled journey

Category Archives: PaperArtsy

Inspired by France Papillon, Days One and Three

PaperArtsy Key Chains

Breathe The Love

Let The Sun Shine In

#3UP for PaperArtsy

PaperArtsy Challenge

Funky Florals

More Inspiration from PaperArtsy

Inspired by Linda Cain, Day 2

Inspired by Linda Cain

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