Taron - Butterfly Dancer

MEMORY LANE

I was having a root around my stuff which had gathered dust over the years and came across these. A picture I created using a photo from a magazine and collected cross stitch threads that match the colours of the picture. Then extended the image by cross-stitching and embroidering into the inner frame. This was produced in the 80s. There is some pastel painting, again 80s and 90s and egg craft. Unfortunately I did not take photos of all the pictures done in pastel.

A Fairy Blessing

I will show how I did the following picture with a series of photo stills and a brief explanation for each stage.

Using Distress Inks Weathered Wood and Black Soot and Distress Oxide Old Paper I dabbed and blended and dry stroked the ink in an upward motion to give direction to background trees.

I continued with the centre ground using Distress Oxides Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose and Wilted Violet. Plus Antique Linen for the centre. Then in the foreground in crushed olive, black soot and a little tea dye.

Using watered down Distress Oxides and Distress Inks (I don't see a problem in this case using both types) I splattered with a fan brush and clear water too dabbing as I went along. Using the tip of the brush to create a pathway.

Using the creeping vine stamp (I think) I stamped randomly the foreground with Distress Ink Forest Moss and Distress Oxide Crushed Olive.

I used a large background stamp of trees and branches by sponging the stamp with watered-down bleach and pressed the stamp on to the paper. I also created a foreground tree on the left by using a brush and the bleached water. Then also used the mini vine stamp for the odd random imprint again using the bleached water for the foreground

Finally I stamped firstly Jaylah in Versafine Claire Shady Lane and darkened it a bit with Versafine Claire Nocturne. Then the Oracle in the same green and added black by brush. The hare on the left was done in green and overpainted in black and Dorey in black. Using a brush I applied streaks of watered down bleach from the top left down to and across the central image to create the illusion of light shining down.

Please note that the particularly light splodges on two of the photos were a reflection of the crystal I have hanging in the window.

Candle

An idea came to me during the night. So armed with one candle, some pieces of Art tissue paper, a Jayla stamp, heat gun and fingers crossed came up with this idea.

A piece of white art tissue was stuck down with masking tape to the glass mat. Cut out several pieces of pinks and screwed then up wetted the base tissue paper and applied the pink pieces to the base to create some sort of semi circle shape. Wetting as I go. At this stage I am thinking what are you playing at. Leave to dry completely. Lucky I was not tempted to fiddle as I had to go out.

Once dry, I carefully removed the screwed up pieces and waited another few minutes just to make sure it was dry enough. I then applied the Jayla image with black memento ink. Remove the tape and very carefully unpeel the tissue image from the glass mat.

Trim down to size using some scissors and gently wrap the tissued image around the candle. Then get a piece of greaseproof paper from your kitchen stash. Long enough so that you wrap over the image and can hold everything away from the heat gun. Apply the heat and just like embossing powder you will see the image change.

When completed remove the greaseproof paper and you will see that the tissue paper is now embedded on to the candle surface. With any luck you will end up with this.

Home Decor

I was being creative in the bedroom. No not like that. I brought a wall poster and created a doorway into another world. Quite proud of it.

Using a background of a very familiar scene if you live locally (Beech Walk) in Windlesham. I made this gift for a book lover last year. Just to explain I used my inking pads, die cuts, some puzzle pieces and greyboard letters from CraftWorks. On the inside I used striped background paper and more inks , an Alice in Wonderland stamp, made some bookmarks and a Waterfall card on the left. Each flap has a famous quote from books or authors. On the right; miniature card pack, a scroll which has on it a list of classics and below is a little pocket for anything extra such as a gift card. Hope you like it.

Fun, Sticky Fingers and wonky edges

Hi Everyone,

Let me introduce my self my name is Karen and I am in the process of starting up an idea.

As the heading suggests the aim is to have fun while doing your choice of craft. Full of hints, tips mishaps and the occasional works of art that we can oooh! and aahh! at. It will be aimed at from the very young (so keep it clean) to the very mature of us. From the pre beginner (if there is such a word) and the more talented of us.  So hopefully, through this we can make lots of friends. On a more serious note there will be those of us who live alone or in circumstances that make it difficult for people to get out and about. Hopefully we can all inject a little light into each other's lives.