Unstampabelles February Challenge

I'm delighted to have received the DT pick of the month from Unstampabelles for my Thank You card in the January challenge.  Thank You Unstampabelles.

The challenge at Unstampabelles this month is to incorporate a national symbol or iconic image from your country into your work - something a stranger to your land would immediately recognise as being of your place.  The twist is to use the colours from your country's flag on your project somewhere

Note too, that it does not have to be a card - you can make any paper project as long as you don't use a stamp of any kind on it (excluding postage stamps - you can use them!)

I am loving stag heads at the moment and thought it would look fabulous against the Scotland flag.

1. I made a stag head stencil and used ink to colour in.

2. Using more ink and a straw, I blew through a straw to get the antlers, this is so much fun and unpredictable, it took a few attempts to get the look I was after!

3. Using the sticky part of a post it  note, I masked off the cross, then coloured the remaining area with light blue pan pastels.

4. The edges are inked with a dark blue ink.

5. Mounted my design onto a white card base.

TFL Lou x

Thank You Card

I'm back with another card for the UnstampaBelles Challenge; this month its a Thank You card, you can use any craft supplies but NO stamps, rubber or digi etc.  Each challenge comes with an optional TWIST; this month look out the window and incorporate something you see.  Well, living in Scotland, we are in the middle of winter and its very frosty out there with lots of dead seed heads in the garden.

Thank You

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Take a piece of scrap card, cover with an old book page and colour with lilac pan pastels.

2. Cut out a 'Chloe Stem' from a Memory Box metal die and colour wih a deep purple Bic Mark-it pen.  Attach some crystals.

3. Glue the die cut in place, wrap some purple embroidery thread around the base and add a small tag with a letter 'x' sticker.

Thanks for popping by.

Lou x

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

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

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

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