Blueberry Dyeing Collage

I mentioned last week that one of the recent tutorials over at Wanderlust was about making "inks" from regular household stuff. Most intriguing (I thought), were the results using blueberries! I managed to get various shades of lilac/blue/purple/magenta and these seemed to depend on what surface they were applied to. Here's a bit of a summary ...

Have a look at the three brush strokes on the left ... all done using the blueberry "ink", the pink one is still wet and the two purple/blue/grey ones are in various stages of drying.

 As a background wash applied to a gessoed page ...

... just a washy looking light purple with hints of darker blue.  Other things, on the left, also dyed with the blueberry solution - watercolour paper (light blue, dark blue), ex-tea bags (bright red) and some yarn and cheesecloth (magenta/burgundy)! Very interesting!

Here's a few more pics ... some close-ups ...

Another strange thing about the way the blueberry ink changed colour ... see those tall, narrow sticking up pieces along the bottom edge? They were torn from the bright red, ex-tea bag tissue paper but as soon as I glued them down they turned greyish/blue! Not a hint of that lovely reddish colour!! But the sliver of tissue around the the little picture is the "correct" colour!

Here's the whole page without it being chopped in half ...

This page just grew. It had a mind of it's own. And it wouldn't even suggest a focal point until nearly finished! Now I don't normally use cliches, (or any sort of wording really) on my "art", but this actually seemed appropriate. (And I had to strongly resist the temptation to "computer print" the wording, instead using my own writing.)

Now, if I start waffling on about "What It All Means" we'll be here all night. So let's just leave it at that?

And here's most of the stuff I used ... including salvaged tea bag tissue and one of my handmade stamps. Nearly all of the tissue paper is ex-tea bag!

WOYWW a mini tidy up ... and an Altenew Challenge

and look there's room to actually finish something ...

Following the Pick a Stick prompts (for the May challenge), and here's my finished spread.
I know, it makes no sense unless you have a look at the directions. Anyway, I'm quite pleased with it. There are more details here.

And I've been getting good use from those Altenew stamps ...

I think I might enter the above card in the Altenew June Challenge.

Here's the inspiration for the challenge ...

***********************************

Sending very best wishes to Julia and Jan.  

I'll be visiting, via Jan's place ... sooner or later :)

BTW, last week Helen (Laurence) visited - thank you, but I'm sorry, I could find no way of leaving a comment on your blog.

Call it finished ...

Well, I managed to put this together for the March "Pick A Stick" Challenge*, mainly left-handedly, except for the last instruction, which involved a printer. Unfortunately, my printer just won't come to the party. It's demanding new cartridges, or something. So, like I said, let's call it finished, eh?

*the guidelines, for those interested ...

Pick a Stick Challenge - February

In case you missed the January Pick a Stick Challenge here's how it works ...

ten guidelines are picked and then you do your page using them, in the correct order ...

So, here's the result ...

If you're looking at the prompts and wondering how it all plays out ...

(Use any sort of background - some acrylic paint and some light stamping.)
1. die cuts - trees, fences, 
2. journalling was done at bottom of page and eventually covered by Step 10
3. foil - the round circles - cut and embossed (ex-champagne wrapping)
5. add metal - a couple more circles as per Step 3
6. Gel print - faux gelli print - tiny pink highlights on trees
7. Napkin - flowery bush patches at the bottom
8. Stars added
9. Wings - butterflies
10. Draw in wet paint - grass at bottom, drawn with toothpick

and yes, I can count, and yes, I did leave out Step 4. which is way too far out of my comfort zone.

almost abandoned

If you were here the other day, I made mention of a project, slightly buried under some layers, which may or may not get finished. Well, it did ... get finished, that is ...

The inspiration came from here but I've just put the actual original pic here for you to see ...

When I saw these pics, I was immediately taken with the idea of using the negative and positive space as well as line and direction to make a semi abstract "floral" canvas. You know how much I love using colour, but I thought I would try to be restrained :)  However, I couldn't resist using some "sparkle", maybe suggestive of Winter which was coming soon.

In case you are interested, I used ... heavy watercolour paper, black drawing pens, Tombows, Twinkling H2Os, Derwent coloured pencils and for the frame, gesso (lots), impasto paste, Glimmermist.

And, now, because I am actually quite pleased with it, I am linking it at Our Creative Corner

an Autumn canvas

Despite the fact that it is actually Spring here, I've been fiddling around with this Autumn-colour themed reverse canvas, and I think I had better call it "finished", don't you?

Now, for my first ever challenge, I'm going to enter it at http://rubberdance.blogspot.no/2014/09/new-join-our-monthly-colour-challenge.html 
and for my second ever challenge, I am going to join in over here
http://themirrorcrack1d.blogspot.co.uk/


There's also a competition over at Rubber Dance stamps to win some of their lovely stamps ... have a look here
http://rubberdance.blogspot.no/2014/09/autumn-stamps-giveaway.html

mini book - piano hinge

After spying some mini books here the other day, I remembered that I had made a mini book ages ago, using a piano hinge, (and I had another one sent to me also),

so here's a few pics ...

 

WOYWW teetering precariously

Not me, just this huge pile of stuff creative chaos. You can't really tell from this angle (which actually does involve teetering precariously on a chair), can you? Trust me, everything is about to take a dive or at least sail over the edge, not unlike ancient mariners worrying about falling off the edge of the known universe.

No, you can't see the full gravity of the situation from this angle :)

 

The small mixed media canvas needing some tweeking before it could be called finished.

And all those bottles are the latest "must have". They are Adirondack colour wash sprays and unlike Glimmermist they don't contain mica, so, maybe, just maybe, they won't clog up and refuse to work. They can be made to look like Glimmermist by adding a spray of Perfect Pearls... perfect!

 

Why am I showing you this?  Julia over at the Stamping Ground will explain all. Bye for now.

Defeating the UFOs

I have a cunning plan to eliminate all UFOs. (You know, UnFinished Objects). In a never-ending attempt to tidy, sort, organise, rearrange and generally cull some of the "stuff/stash" which surrounds me, here begins a serious attempt to finish those projects which somehow ended up in the unfinished basket, not the "too hard basket". These projects were started and then put aside because I had a "better idea" or possibly I got distracted by something shiny ...

So, two days ago ...

and today ...

Bird Book has flown in

You remember I was making multiple pages,

for a collaborative book swap just a few weeks ago?

See this post for the details.

The finished book has returned and I thought you might like to see some of the other pages,
 in no particular order ...

 

and here is the cover ...

 

 

WOYWW what's happening here ...!

Once again, it's time for our weekly desk snoop reveal,

brought to you courtesy of Julia at the Stamping Ground.

OK, now that doesn't look too bad, does it? Just the usual amount of stuff happening, but if even that is too much for you then I suggest you look away now, yes, right now, because today I am going to show you what's going on "around the corner" and, really, it is not for the fainthearted!

Here goes, (remember I warned you),

but wait, there's more ...

Like Ripley's Believe It or Not, I am actually using almost everything you can see, in at least four different projects. (Except for the coffee machine, the mechanics of which totally elude me!)

 

For my most recent (completed) projects, see posts below.

And if you missed me, see post below that.

Catch you on a desk or two, sometime soon.

 

Weekend class with Rachel Greig

Last Saturday I made these two little canvasses at a class given by the talented 

Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door. (You know, those gorgeous stamps ... everyone's got some, haven't they?)  I'm very pleased with them.
 

 

 

 

 

WOYWW and where did that week go?

... seriously, what happened to it? Wait a minute! I wasn't here last week, so that means that two weeks have simply vanished into thin air!

Here's what's sort of happening here ...

... the next journal page (and I use the term "journal" loosely, because no "journalling" has actually happened).  And I have been using that small watercolour book on the left to mop up excess sprays, which will, in turn, lead to more background pages!
In case you are bored with the journal pages, there are some tiny (mixed media) canvasses that I finished and sent with my neighbour to a market which has just started locally. (These came back but maybe they will go again next month.)

Why am I showing you this?  All will be explained by Julia. 

Catch you soon!

WOYWW Fun with Finn

It's Wednesday and you know what that means, don't you?

Time for another dose of weekly snooping sharing of our workspaces.

 

So, for your perusal, a larger than normal mess,

sort of a spillover from last week's fabulous workshop with Finnabair

 

 

LO, from the class (top left and below), another LO started (bottom right),

Polished Pigments, and stencils bought at the workshop venue.

(Oh, and an edge punch bought at the office supply shop ... weird, eh?).

Scrapbooking doesn't happen here, so the LOs will have to be transformed somehow, probably into canvasses, methinks.

 

 

You know, for lots more interesting and creative desks you should

visit Julia.

Home Alone ...

You remember those backgrounds I was churning out recently?

(And here's more of them ).

 

Well, they got used ...

I think they are nearly finished?

 

Unfortunately, in this high tech, digital age,  photos are really not the quality they used to be ...  once upon a time. And it didn't help that I had to swipe them off Facebook, (eeek!)either.

The pages are just sitting on those coloured backgrounds for the time being. I might turn them into a book, maybe, who knows? for my niece's birthday. (Don't worry, my family never visit here, so she won't see them.)

book review "Mixed Mania ... Recipes for Delicious Mixed Media Creations"

by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater (2008, Interweave).

Once again, this book comes from my extensive collection of somewhat under utilised art/craft books. I've had it for a while and often delve into it for another look. Well, I thought it was about time I looked, and actually read it, pretty much from cover to cover.

The book contains 17 individual projects, using both paper and fabric, (and everything in between), with explanations and instructions which appear to be clear and easy to follow. The "useful" tools and supplies mentioned at the beginning are not compulsory (that's my kind of supplies), alternatives are suggested and the authors don't insist on particular brands. You might already have most of these items. All the projects are interesting and even perhaps a bit "quirky". (Again, this appeals to me. This is not "Cardmaking 101".)  Even if you don't want to do all (or any) of the projects, there is a lot of inspiration and useful techniques. There are quite a few projects which I would actually like to get around to making. Both the authors have a friendly and chatty style, which, in my opinion, makes for interesting reading.

Disclaimer: this review is totally subjective and all my own opinions ... but you probably knew that, right?