challenge butterfly

Patchwork butterfly for Chocolate Baroque colour challenge 35 - sadly this will be the last of the monthly colour challenges.

I found a box of elderly glimmer mist sprays recently, and surprisingly some still worked, luckily including purples and greens.... I sprayed an A4 piece of white card with two of each colour, then cut it down to 6.5" square, choosing the bit with the least blobs on it.I stamped the lovely Irish blessing and the large butterfly from patchwork butterfly and embossd with gold EP.

I had previously  brushed mica powder over the butterfly stamp for an earlier project, and there was still some mica left on the stamp,so I covered it with pearl soft form relief paste and left it to dry.
The result was very pastelly, and too pale, so I rubbed some very elderly wax over the raised areas before gluing it over the stamped butterfly image - I thought he would look better with his antenna!
The base card is white 7" square.

blue roses

For one of the samples for Lesley's first show on Hochanda I made this small  notebook.

The cover was covered using  tissue paper coloured with brusho powders and crumpled up, glued on to the cover with modge podge. I used purple and turquoise powders.
The plaque used soft form relief paste and mica powders. I brushed the powders over the rose and leaves of the rose script stamp before adding the relief paste and leaving it to dry overnight. Once it was dry and peeled off the stamp, it was glued on using pva glue.
The mica powders are absorbed by the paste, and will not brush off - you will get a stained stamp though, but it will clean off.








close-up of the plaque, and the open notebook

The large 8" square card used the large stamp from the harlequin rose set, coloured with blue and green brusho powders, with grey powder for the background, and gold mica powders for the swirl. The large lacy border was stamped onto the base card using broken china distress ink, whicgh was also sponged round the edges.
Card mats were gold, green and blue.


The last one is red, not blue and shows the lid of a snall hexagonal box also covered with crumpled tissue paper.
I stamped the large image from harlequin rose three times, coloured it with promarkers, cut out the rose and decoupaged it. The 'raindrops' are glossy accents.





Lesley will be back on Hochanda at the end of the month  with a one-day special, featuring some really lovely stamps that are a little bit different, so check the programme listings for times, you won't want to miss this one!

angel of light

 I have been playing with one of my favourite Christmas images, the lovely angel of light from Chocolate Baroque.

This one was stamped directly onto a 5"x7" black card blank, (with fingers firmly crossed that it would be straight!), using versamark and stamp'n'bond powder, then a gold mix of gilding flakes.I had originally thought of trimming it down and layering it up, but decided to leave it as it was, especially as it was straight!



The second version was actually started first, using the silver soft form relief paste to cover the stamp after brushing some areas with mica powder.

Once it had dried, I found that I hadn't put enough powder on to add colour, so painted over with more mica pigments mixed with water. I wanted a starry background, so sprayed the black base card with white decoart shimmer mist - got a bit more of a nebula than starshine though,,,,,,,







The final version was stamped onto white card with versamark and a black sparkle embossing powder, then coloured with mica powders mixed with water.
I tore the card close to the image, using a ruler to get the torn edges as straight as possible, then added blue, silver and lilac matts before mounting onto a white card blank.
The blue and lilac matts were coloured round the edges using the same mica powders used on the angel.




I have left plenty of space to add a greeting, once I have decided where this one is going, I shall leave the first two without a greeting on the front.

holly script

Playing with the soft form relief paste and mica powders, and the large image from the
holly script set of stamps.
I dusted the stamp with mica powders in red and green before covering the stamp with silver soft form relief paste and leaving it to dry. The mica is held in by the paste, and doesn't rub off.
Very simply peeled the pste off and mounted it onto black card, then onto a 15x15cm white card blank

steampunk butterfly

 For my last DT post this month I did another canvas.
I used a brick wall stencil and texture paste on two corners, the acrylic paint over all the canvas. I wanted a sort of peeling paint effect, so added some Decoart antiquing cream in patina green and rubbed it off over the bricks. It wasn't quite right, so I added distress rock candy crackle paint , which was better.
I stamped the steampunk roses onto tissue paper with archival ink, then coloured on the reverse with alcohol marker pens. I tore them out, then added to the base with a matt multimedia medium.
They didn't quite blend in with the background, but I didn't dare trying to get them off and trim them some more!

For the butterfly I brushed some metallic mica powders over the stamp before I added the black soft form relief paste over the whole stamp and left it to dry.
Once it was dry - about 30 hours this time - I peeled the paste off the stamp, trimmed the edges and glued onto the canvas.

textured steampunk

 Apologies to anyone who is getting fed-up with my current steampunk craze, you will be pleased to hear that I am running out of ideas!

For the first of my DT  posts this month I have a card and a couple of Lesley-style notebooks to show you.

Our theme this month is textures, and my card is a very simple one using embossing folders and soft form relief paste together with the  owl from steampunk birds.
I embossed the two Tim Holtz folders on white card, cutting down to 6.5cm wide and and then into 2 slightly different lengths.
The background was a piece of textured matt silver card sprayed with walnut stain ink.
I used silver soft form relief paste on the owl, then carefully trimmed the spare round the edges.

 If you saw Lesley's recent shows on the Craft Channel, you will have seen her make some lovely notebook
 covers using brushos and tissue paper. If you missed them, try the catch-up on the website, though I think it only goes back for 7 days...... I am always happy to play with brushos, and crumpling tissue paper is dead easy, so I just had to have a go.
In hindsight, I should have gesso-ed the covers first, as some of the print on the covers shows through, but I was very happy with how they turned out.
The first one used blue and green brushos, and the window from gothic fragments covered with black soft form relief paste . I added some decoart antiquing cream in patina green over the window, then some gold wax to highlight the masonry.




For my second try I used leaf green, turquoise and purple brushos, and the cockerel from steampunk birds with the silver soft form relief paste.
I will definitely be making more of these notebooks, they are great fun to do and will make nice small gifts.