Tuesday 16 December 2014

Southern Hemisphere Christmas Card Challenge

While having a nosey around various blogs I stumbled across the Unstampabelles Challenge Blog.

All challenges EXCLUDE the use of stamps, which can be quite a challenge.  The current challenge is to create a Christmas Card for those enjoying Christmas in sunnier climates.  I love Christmas Trees, for me they are a sign of friendship.  I just had to create a nice sunny yellow background for this challenge.

Merry and Bright

Background:  Take a piece of yellow card and sponge over some light lustre yellow paint.  When dry make a stencil from a swirl punch and stencil with gold paint.

Tree: Cover some scrap card with an old book page, paint over with white gesso, when dry colour with chalk pastels.  Scatter on lots of red sequins, secure with glue.  Attach a star.  Punch out 2 swirls from silver card for the tree base.   Attach tree to card base.

TFL Lou x

Monday 3 November 2014

Papermaking

Art Every Day Challenge: Yesterday I spent the day papermaking, using paper waste and autumn leaves.  Here are a couple of papers after pressing, the next step is air drying.  I usually peg them to a clothes dryer (clothes horse).



Not sure what I will do with these papers when they have dried but I'm sure inspiration will strike.

Tomorrow I'll be prepping for the UKS Secret Swappers Christmas Collage Swap.

TFL  Lou x



Sunday 2 November 2014

Art Every Day Challenge



I am taking part in the Art Every Day Challenge.  I am hoping to be creative every day but work on bigger projects which will take several days to complete.  No pictures for today but I have been busy making some handmade paper.  A picture of the papers being pressed is not very exciting!!

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pictures of the handmade papers drying :)

TFL  Lou x 



In Memory of Nana & Grandad

I have been doing some work to support the To Absent Friends festival, a Scottish festival of Storytelling and Remembrance and as our last day (for the time being) of inspiration at The Weird Scissors was about Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) I thought I'd create a fabric paper wall hanging in memory of my Grandparents.



Fabric Paper

There are lots of ways to make fabric paper but my favourite is Tissue Paper and Golden Fluid Matte Medium.  Lay a thick piece of plastic down.  I usually start with a white piece of tissue for the base, slap on lots of Golden Fluid Matte Medium and then layer on another piece of tissue of your chosen colour and dab the tissue down with a bit of Matte Medium on your brush and repeat the process 1 more time.  I sometimes add a layer of pages from an old book between the last 2 layers of tissue. You can also mix up your colours, the red page below has orange, pink and reds through it.  You need to leave the paper to dry for a day or 2 and then peel it off the plastic and turn it over to dry the under side.  I usually make lots of different sheets of my Tissue Fabric Paper in one session.  The paper rips nicely, is nice to hand and machine stitch.  It can be used in hand punches and die cutting machines.  I've only ever made it with the Golden Fluid Matte Medium and I know it works. Watered down PVA is too harsh.


Taking the light brown piece of my tissue fabric paper stamp over it with various stamps, I used a harlequin design, an old script and a large crackle stamp all with Antique Photo distress ink.  I wanted to use some Glimmer Mist but the nozzle was blocked, when trying to fix it I dropped a large splodge onto the background, so I ended up mopping it up and sponging it over the paper.  Once dry it was quite bright so I brushed over the background with the distress ink to knock back the colour.

I cut out a large heart from the red tissue paper and then cut out a small rectangle area for the photo to sit behind.  The photo was attached with hand stitching and beads.

I placed the heart on the backgroud and roughly marked around the edge, I then hand stitched and beaded around where the heart will sit.  I needed to pre prick the holes for ease of stitching.


I then attached the heart with slip stitch and covered this up with some couched gold braid.




To finish off the quilt, I pressed it under a couple of very heavy books for a couple of days as it was quite curly. I then attached a large silver cross pendant and then wrapped purple thread around the edges, finishing off with 2 eyelets and ribbon for hanging.



Now taking part in the Art Every Day Challenge 


http://creativeeveryday.com/creativeeveryday/2014/11/art-every-day-month-day-2-2.html  

TFL Lou x





Monday 25 August 2014

Junque Journal

Scrap3D is running a 3rd Junque Journal swap over on UKScrappers, I've decided it was time to get myself in gear and have a play.  I have made a selection of pages, different styles and techniques to see what I liked.  It really is great to just have a play.  Here are a few snapshops of my 'pages'.





TFL  Lou x

Sunday 13 July 2014

S J Crafts New Scrapbooking Challenge

Over on S J Crafts blog, there is a new scrapbooking challenge.  Sarah gives you the starting point to get your scrapbooking mojo going, and then you complete your layout, posting the Starting point and the Finished layout.  Here's mine:


Apologises as the lighting isn't too good.
Really enjoyed the challenge, thanks Sarah, looking forward to the next one already.

TFL  Lou x

Wednesday 9 July 2014

Christmas in July

Yes, its the Christmas in July ATC swap, hosted over on UKS by SarahK.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree, How Lovely Are Your Branches.....

Yes, I love Christmas trees and love the traditional red and green colour combo.


Looking forward to seeing what others have done.

TFL  Lou x