Painty Pleasures Take Two!

Time for my second DT piece this month at Country View Challenges.  Our theme this month is Painty Pleasures and what a fabulous array of projects we have been treated to this month by my wonderful DT colleagues and the wonderful challenge submissions.  

Paints are still a little bit new to me and this is my first real canvas using paints, but the Paper Artsy Fresco Paints are just wonderful to work and I can really recommend them if you are thinking of trying paints for the first time. As you will see  they can be used to cover just about anything!

I started off with my canvas - it is small! (5" x 5") and created a bit of texture in the opposite corners with some Grunge Paste and my (heavily used) Diamond template.  I then just played around with painting and layering Pansy, Orchid and Vintage Lace Frescos until I was happy with it.  I used a brush this time in order to put it the paint on a little more thinly.  What I love about Frescos is that you can just keep applying or taking off what you don't want - great for beginners! Finally I very lightly brushed some Snowflake Fresco over the textured diamonds.

Next the stamping - I used Vibrant Violet Staz On on tissue paper - thankfully not as vibrant as I was expecting!

Then the flower - am I loving working with crinoline! - I have made so many experimental flowers!  This one I absolutely love and I used Linda Coughlin's fabulous tutorial on her blog The Funkie Junkie HERE.  I won't explain how I made the flower as I just followed her instructions.  I used a combination of Seedless Preserves and Dusty Concord DIs to colour the crinoline, which match the Fresco's beautifully.

I  used the Vintage Lace Fresco Paint on the metal - the chalky finish is just perfect for this hit and miss effect and then finally some of the ivy leaves from the new Tim Holtz Spring Greenery die (just loving this die!).

Thanks for joining me today and I hope you find time to join us in our challenge - there is still another week. 

x

Get Your Sunglasses On ...........

........ and nip over to Country View Crafts Updates if you want to see how I put this journal page together on what was a very grey, wet and windy morning a couple of weeks ago!  

Easy Easels!

A quick post today to share an easel card I made for Swirlydoos Round Robin Challenge.  I have never made one before and it was really great fun.

Amy gave us a great tutorial HERE and as I was lifting her card I used this 4" circular die, so the card is really quite small!

It was also a good opportunity to use up some leftover favourite papers and make some tiny flowers from the Donna Salazar Itty Bitty die.

Thanks for visiting x

Vintage Box and Book Workshop

A rather photo heavy post in order to record  the Vintage Box and Book we made at the workshop at the beginning of February. Seven of my lovely crafty followers joined me for the workshop at Tingwall School on what was a very horrible weekend of weather. A great time was had by those who managed to make it in(ferries were not running due to the high winds!) and many home bakes devoured!

Saturday was spent painting and covering the box and making the embellishments. Then on the Sunday we made the book to go inside.

We used Maja Design papers from the Autumn Basics Collection - some in pink and some in blue.

As we only had a day for the book, it is quite a simple design and a fairly repetitive use of papers and embellishments for each of the individual pages.

However, we still ran out of time and some final pieces were stuck down at home!

I also covered a small earing box with some of the leftovers to go inside.

Unfortunately it was such a dark and dismal day my photographs of the workshop itself are too dark to use. Some beautiful boxes and books were made by Linda, Rhonda, Margaret, Christian, Anne, Vicki and Sonia.

Jennie x

Brown is the New Black!

Hello Everyone and welcome, especially to new followers it is lovely to have you here!  

You might not have guessed but this is my take on Tim's February tag. I am not a great lover of Valentines I am afraid so I decided to follow the same steps but make it in a more vintage style.

Here is Tim's February tag and a link HERE if you want to catch up on all the techniques:

I used:

a Harlequinn Mask instead of the Hearts Mask

lace instead of the metal trim

a key instead of the arrow

and a flower instead of the heart 

using the Tattered Florals die 

(tutorial on the side bar!)

The Chalkboard is not quite so clear on the brown card but I still like the effect - and quite an apt quote I thought!

I did the whole tag with Vintage Photo Distress Ink applying different pressures to get subtle or stronger tones.

Thank you so much for visiting and all your lovely comments on my make for Frilly and Funkie!  I really do appreciate it.

Frilly and Funkie Flowers!

I am thrilled that today I am Guest Designing at Frilly and Funkie for the new challenge which is ..........

Bloomin Marvellous!

flowers and lots of them

all handmade

The invitation came as a result of being the Design Team favourite for the challenge Warmth of Winter and I am very excited to be making a piece for one of my favourite and inspirational places, which I visit often for their wonderful tutorials.  

And here it is:

For someone obsessed with making flowers, this is a wonderful theme for me. I decided to showcase my favourite shabby roses on this layered tag, using these gorgeous Maja Design papers.

The shabby roses (and the one in the centre with the stamens) are made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die. Click the link HERE for the tutorial for the shabby roses.

The smaller flowers were made with the Donna Salazar Itty Bitty Flower Die - again another of my favourites. 

And also fast becoming a favourite is the Spring Greenery die - perfect leaves for handmade flowers. I cut these from Maja Design paper and splattered them with a bit of watery Vintage Photo.

Finally, I mounted the layered tag on a piece of mountboard which I had covered with Picket Fence Distress Crackle and added wire to make a hanging. 

(A little tip which you might already know! - it was the last in the bottle so I scraped it out with a spatula and decided to continue working with the spatular rather than the brush and it gives a far better even coverage.)

My thanks again to the Design Team of Frilly and Funkie for this fabulous opportunity and I hope you will visit and enjoy the wonderful inspiring tutorials and projects and of course join in the challenge yourself.

Have a lovely day x

Tic Tac Toe .......

........ a totally new challenge concept to me! but most enjoyable and our theme this month at Anything But A Card.  

Just like noughts and crosses you take a "line" from the grid and then create your project using those colours, themes and/or products. All the details are on our first challenge post HERE. I chose the middle line - recycled, red heart and black and made this tiny little keepsake box from some scraps of well loved Maja Design Paper.

The base of my box is the inner of a roll of cleaning tissue which my husband uses in his workshop. Slightly stronger than a toilet roll inner it also is slightly bigger measuring 2.5" across.

For the lid and base I cut circles using the Spellbinders Nestabilities die, the base and lid being slightly larger than the tube.  For the lid I cut some smaller circles and stuck them together (three layers of card) in order that the lid sits reasonably snuggly.

I covered the inside and outside of roll with text paper leaving about a 1/4" overlap which allowed me to glue the roll to the base (sorry no photographs!).

Then it was "fun time" decorating the lid. I had only a few scraps of these papers left from another project but I managed to cut them to fit the lid and the scalloped layer. 

The die cut heart was inked and then had a three layers of UTEE before I stamped into it with a tiny flower stamp.  

I hope you will join us for our fun challenge this month - as usual just have fun making Anything But A Card! Click the link HERE for the challenge page and more DT inspirational pieces and be sure to visit again next week for more DT projects from our fabulous Anything But A Card team.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

Jennie x

Monotone Scrapping

Hello from a very wet and windy Shetland - normal service has been resumed after a wonderfully sunny and calm day yesterday! It is a poor day for taking photographs, but I thought I would share this layout I started a while ago and finally finished yesterday.

I love these Pion Design papers from the Sewing Room collection but wasn't quite sure how to use them as the purple is so dark. I have played around with the colours and experimented with different inks to try and match the colours and added a little brown as a contrast.

I made a little book to sit on the layout as these photographs of my mother are quite small - I have used them before in a mini book but not in a full sized layout.

I made a small envelope from the patterned paper using the Sissiz Envelope Die and then layered tags to create the book.  








I made a similar one HERE as a mini book with slightly clearer photographs of how it came together.

And this is the little tag inside the book.

In the 50s and 60s my mother used to make many of her clothes (and mine) always following the latest fashions.  I am not sure whether she made this coat, but it was the "New Look" and she was always very proud of it.  

I am not sure why I chose the word dreamer as Mum was very practical, but the word was in my head all the time I was doing this layout!  Perhaps because she turned her fashion dreams into practical clothes.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the weekend x

Book Covers with a Meaning!

Hello Everyone and welcome! and in particular a warm welcome to those new followers who have joined over the last couple weeks - it is always lovely to have you here and I really appreciate your support and comments.  

And so to business - a new month and a new challenge at Country View Crafts:

Painty Pleasures!

Well it really was a pleasure making this project.  My Tim Holtz stamp set is rapidly increasing and my leather wallet is now full, so I have had the text stamps bundled together on a shelf and felt they needed some book covers.  And here they are:

As you all know I am really enjoying the Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints but I hadn't tried anything quite so large so far.  

So using the large stamp from WAYS WITH WORDS I attempted these covers.



Be an Individual and take risks:  I was certainly doing that with these covers! - all a bit new to me this.

Be Brave:  I set to and stuck to my grey board lots of texture and bits and pieces that were lying around the desk - builders tape, some netting and some die cuts which were in my "can't throw them away" box.  

Still being Brave I used the Tim Holtz Cargo Mask and a Diamonds Stencil and Paper Artsy Grunge Paste to create some texture on top of these layers.  I must say the Grunge Paste is a delight to work with - whereas in the past gesso has seeped through the mask the GP is very easy to layer with a spatula, doesn't seep and looks fabulous (a minor miracle in my case) when the mask is lifted.

Open mind and heart:  well that was helped by a coat of gesso over the whole lot and then ..... deep breath ...... I painted Sky and Mocha Mousse FP spritzed with water over the boards. There was alot more spritzing with water and mopping up with a baby wipe before I felt reasonably happy.

Then Amazing Myself I dry brushed Snowflake FP here and there.  Amazed as I could never master dry brushing when sitting painting with my mother (well I couldn't master any of it really!) but it does dry fabulously and gives the whole piece a wonderful lift.  

Once it was all dry I stamped some of the stamps which will be in the covers onto some tissue paper and glued them down with Mixed Medium and then gave the whole cover a coat in order to seal it. Quite at home with this part!

We All Make Mistakes:  
I cut a couple of brackets from the Hardware Findings Die and then covered them with Rock Candy Distress Crackle.  After that they got two coats of FP in Mocha and Sky ....... not at all good ......  then some Tarnished Brass Distress Paint ...... still not looking good.  The texture was great but I couldn't get the colour right.  

Then I noticed the little pot of Treasure Gold which so far I had not used and gave them a good covering ......... getting better!  A little bit of  Walnut Stain DI and I finally thought I had got them to something I could live with, although not quite how I imagined them.  But what matters is ........ what we learn from our mistakes!

Then I got quite Fearless! rubbing Treasure Gold over some of the raised areas on the covers and giving the a bit of a burnish.  I am not sure I am getting this right, but again all part of the learning curve! 

So yes I Lived my Life (well made my covers) with purpose and meaning and had great fun in the process.

And I nearly forgot to show you the insides!  Due to a leak in the craft room window (60mph winds for days with torrential rain blasting up the valley) I had to clear out the old dresser and move it and found some embossed cardstock which has quite a plastic sort of finish which I thought would be quite helpful given the inky state my stamps get in. 

Well if you are still with me - well done!  And I do hope you come and join us at Country View Crafts for this months challenge.  Click the link HERE for some fabulous projects from my DT colleagues this month and look out for more as the month progresses.

Thank you for visiting x