Compendium of Curiosities - Challenge No. 20 - 'Industrial Grunge'

Another great challenge from Linda this week, over at her blog Studio L3.

The technique is the very manly titled 'Industrial Grunge' and is detailed on page 54 of Tim Holtz' book 'Compendium of Curiosities'.

I used one of Tim Holtz' Alterations Sizzix dies called 'Styled Labels' and coloured it with Copper alcohol ink, Walnut Stain distress ink, gold pen and some metallic rub on paste.

Having created a suitably industrial grungy piece I didn't know what to do with it - lol!  Eventually I attached it with two gold coloured brads to the end of a document box I have.  I stuck on some lovely vintage ruler paper first - from Tim Holtz 'Lost and Found' idea-ology range.

I wasn't sure what to do with the keyhole, but left it as it was - if I'd put black paper underneath it, it wouldn't have shown up - right?  What would you have done - I'd love to hear?

If you'd like to see other examples of this technique, they're all linked on Linda's blog.  If you do pop over there, you'll also see details of the wonderful prizes she's giving away to one random winner also. 

Thanks for looking, and Gini if you stop by, I'd love to know your interpretation of 'Industrial Grunge' !  Last week's technique was 'Extreme Masking' and Gini said "So is this something that a particularly daring Highwayman also does?" LOL

Hi ho Silver, away ...........!!

Compendium of Curiosities - Challenge No. 19 - Extreme Masking

The current challenge being set by Linda over on her blog Studio L3 is 'Extreme Masking' which is a technique on page 61 of Tim Holtz' fabulous book called 'Compendium of Curiosities'.

I started off making a mask using one of Tim's Alterations Sizzix dies - 'Branch Tree'.

Here's the colours of Distress Ink I used

It was quite by accident, due to not placing the negative mask in exactly the right position, that the white outline was created.  I thought this looked at bit like moon shine, so hightlighted it with some Crystal coloured stickles and coloured the moon in the same way.

In the first photo you can see the mask itself - I really like how this turned out so will be using that some time too.

Thanks for looking!

Self Healing Art Course - week 2 (part 2 of 2)

Following on from my previous post....

The second spread in our board book was to include a whimsical character and be based on a childhood trauma and our page needed to be the opposite of said trauma.  Fortunately I didn't experience any (as far as I can remember) and so my spread was to be based on a happy memory instead.

Rather than focusing on anything in particular (this was the hardest part, deciding what to do!), I used lyrics of the first pop songs I can remember hearing as a child.  Namely, and I've included links on YouTube so I can go and listen to them again whenever I feel like it!

Grocer Jack by Keith West - Excerpt from a teenage opera (1967)

Little Boxes by Pete Seeger (1963)

Little Arrows by Leapy Lee (1968)

My page included two whimsical characters - one is me and the other my best friend, my Mum!  This wasn't a conscious decision, I did one and then another and it just looks right.   They were painted onto watercolour paper, cut out and glued onto the background.

My characters aren't perfect - even though I've now got some of the 'proper' crayons!  It really isn't as easy as Tam makes it looks - I guess I'm not a natural at this, but I'm going to have a lot of fun practicing I think.

Here's some close ups - I must be mad!



What a funny mouth - and it looks as though I have a bad case of dandruff - it's supposed to be shine!  Why have I got talcum powder on my forehead and down my nose - hehehe!!

She's much prettier!  Beautiful green eyes, but still a bit of dandruff!

I enjoyed doing the background.  Book text, water soluble crayons, white acrylic paint, more crayons, rubber stamping, printed text coloured with the crayons, more white acrylic paint and rubber stamping.

I know I haven't quite got the whole 'cohesive' thing absolutely right yet and I was rather heavy handed with the shadowing around the characters.

I do still like the finished pages though, and as I said before it's all a learning process and we learn by our mistakes after all.  The main thing is I'm enjoying the process - it's a lot of fun!

Thank you again Tam - wonder what's next!



Self Healing Art Course - week 2 - (part 1 of 2)

Week 2 of the on line course 'Art, Heart and Healing' offered free by the very generous Tam on her ning site Willowing & Friends was all about altering a board book and taking us back to our childhood.

The first spread (two pages in the book) was to incorporate an acrylic image transfer of a childhood photograph and then messages of what we would have wished for ourselves.  Obviously I wished for happiness, good health and love and fortunately I have been blessed with all of these things, but rather than including those I decided to use the words of a lovely song I remember from school and still sometimes sing it to this day! 

 'Glad That I live Am I'.    

  For my spread I used this photograph of myself as a young child

I've done image transfers before quite sucessfully, but not this time!  I had three or four attempts at it and the finished result is far from perfect.  I dared not rub any more of the paper off for fear of the whole thing rubbing off again.  I think I went wrong with my preparation of the board book.  The pages were super shiny, high gloss - and I should really have either peeled the first shiny layer off, or have given them a good sanding.  As it was my gesso kept peeling off.  I tried an acetate transfer for the first time.  I printed the photo sucessfully onto the acetate, but failed miserably when trying to transfer it - it seems that using an inkjet printer is no good for this technique and a toner based one would be better.  In the end I transferred an image printed on paper (on my inkjet printer) and it certainly has a vintage feel - lol.  Note the strategically placed flowers on the image - covering up some holes in the paper.

I think this must be the grungiest thing I have ever done - but I do quite like it!  The background was gesso, gesso, gesso (as it kept rubbing off!), water soluble crayons, white acrylic paint brayered on, printed text, more white acrylic and rubber stamping.  Unfortunately when I coloured the printed text with crayons and diluted them with water, some of the words smudged quite badly - all adds to the grunginess of it I suppose.

I'll do a separate post for the second part of this week's course, otherwise this post will go on and on and on!

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (week 73)

This is what my craft desk looks like today - if you don't know why I'm asking 'what's on your workdesk', hop over to Julia's blog 'Stamping Ground', where you'll be able to find links to over 100 other desk to have a nose around should you feel inclined to do so.

Back to my desk - the figures are my attempts at whimsical characters and the book at the back of them is the first two pages of an altered board book - both projects are for the second week of an online course called 'Art, Heart and Healing' being offered free of charge on the 'Willowing & Friends' site.

Oh you can also see my shiny new crayons I've got especially for the course from the online site Artifolk who were recommended to me by two lovely blogger friends.  I found an old glass jar to keep them in - the crayons that is!

I thought you might like to see what's above my desk - I have two large shelves the first of which is full of little plastic containers

They contain all sorts of crafty goodies and maybe I'll show what's inside one every week (just in case there's nothing else of interest on my desk!)

As they are made from clear plastic it's easy to see what's inside them.  I bought them from Aldi last year, I kept going back to buy more as they are so useful and look good too.

You can also see some wire mesh drawer units in amongst the plastic ones, these were a Christmas present from my sister last year.

Maybe I'll show you what's under my desk next week - although that would involve me having to get the vacuum cleaner out so I won't make any promises - lol !

Thanks for looking - I'm off to have a look at some of the other desks now.