WOYWW 291 - Expressive Florals

What a terrible blogger I've been these past few months of the year! It's not that I haven't wanted to create but due to a change of my working hours and job. That's not going to change for awhile but I'm planning on making more time to create now that I've settled into the job.

This is my final piece for the year - it's from Life Book 2014, I'fe still plenty of weeks to catch up on.

Sorry I don't actually have a work desk this is a corner of my dinning room table and as I was waiting for the paint to dry I cleared the paints away.

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for passing by.

Karin x

ATC Swap July - Bugs

The theme for the Willowing ATC swapsies for July was Bugs!

After discounting the rabbit, I decided to use the stampotique Bee stamp by Jo and the beautiful Dragonfly by Stampers Anonymous - designed by Michelle Ward

I've used lots of distress inks on these two atcs plus a little bit of clear sparkle from a sakura starlight pen on the wings - not sure if you can see that.

Thank for looking,

Karin x

CC3 - 7 ........shabby chic jewellery box updated with original photo

Painted Industrial meets shabby chic jewellery box!

Over on  Studio L3,  Linda Ledbetter and her wonderful crew (do go and check them out) are sharing their masterpieces for the seventh challenge of The Compendium of Curiosities Vol 3 Challenge (CC3), from Tim Holtz's latest publication. In respect to Tim please don't ask for the technique used; you need to get your own copy :-)

The challenge this time is Painted Industrial technique, which can be found  on page 46. 

I've put my twist on this as I wanted to use this technique but with a different colour. 

Here's a close-up of the top

 This looks like it's a totally different colour but that's the trouble with photographing metal, the photos I took inside looked dull but these ones outside look different colours. I used Salty Ocean and white, just to give you an idea of the true colours. The metal was stretched to the extreme over the stars!

I've just found the original photo of the box!

 The fabulously generous people over at Inspiration Emporium are offering a $50 prize! 

Thanks for looking

Karin x

CC3 - 6

   Altered Burlap Panel

Over on  Studio L3,  Linda Ledbetter and her wonderful crew (do go and check them out) are sharing their masterpieces for the sixth challenge of The Compendium of Curiosities Vol 3 Challenge (CC3), from Tim Holtz's latest publication.

The challenge this time is Altered Burlap Panel technique, which can be found  on page 37. 

I've used lots of Tim's products on this 8"x 6" Burlap Panel which was one of the Christmas Panels, Tissue wrap -Composor, Wallflower paper stash, distress inks, rock candy stickles, alcohol inks, shrink plastic, tissue tap, trellis framework and the new Layered Dragonfly. I love the detail on the this die; unfortunately the camera hasn't picked up the detail on the shrunk ones but the both look gorgeous in real life.

In respect to Tim please don't ask for the technique used; you need to get your own copy!  

Tim and Mario have sent Linda, prizes for the challenges, those guys are the best!

All even numbered challenges are  are sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

Life Book ATC swap

This is the pair of ATCs I made for the swap on Life Book

They've both arrived now so it's safe for me to share.

More to follow soon...hopefully :-)

CC3-4

Over on  Studio L3,  Linda Ledbetter and her wonderful crew (do go and check them out) are sharing their masterpieces for the forth challenge of The Compendium of Curiosities Vol 3 Challenge (CC3), from Tim Holtz's latest publication.

The challenge this time is Layering Stencil techniques -Texture Paste, which can be found  on page 49. 

I used the stripes Layering stencil and texture paste.

In respect to Tim please don't ask for the technique used; you need to get your own copy!  

Tim and Mario have sent Linda, prizes for the challenges, those guys are the best!

All even numbered challenges are  are sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique.

I've used the Hot Air Balloon from remnants and the minis plates, using a selection of distress inks, crushed olive, mustard seed, festive berries, broken china, ripe persimmon, seedless preserves, frayed burlap, scattered straw to colour the balloons; and  broken china and salt ocean for the sky. 

Please go over to Linda's Blog to find out how you can join in the fun.

Until next time

Karin x

Life Book week 10

 This is my take on week 10. 

The on this picture the face looks like it's lifting but in real life that's not the case. 

Next time I'll cut around where I want the new hairline to be then it won't look so odd in a photo. 

This is how I started the picture above.

For details about Life book 2014, please use the button at the top. 

Thanks Tam, great Lesson.

Karin x

12 Tags of 2014, June

Here's my take on Tim Holtz's June Tag.

I've got the new French Flight Framelets die set on pre-order  but they're not due in until July, so I've used the original butterfly set.

I love how well the distress inks have blended on this piece.

I've used nearly every shade of green and blue, plus picked raspberry, spiced marmalade and mustard seed.

Sorry I've been absent for so long. 

I've been away on holiday and as soon as I returned I had to have another dreaded steroid injection into the base of my thumb which again has had no positive outcome, more grief and no relief.

I'm now behind on so many different project but hoping to catch up soon.

Thanks for looking,

Karin 

CC3C-1

The Compendium of Curiosities Vol 3 Challenge has now began, otherwise known as CC3C.

The lovely Linda Ledbetter and her cute distressing assistant Violet, over at Studio L3 have set us all off on another wonderful journey dipping into Tim Holtz latest publication. The journey will continue until we've completed all of the techniques in the book, the techniques are going to be  randomly selected every fortnight. Linda has a wonderful crew sharing their masterpieces too, so do go and check them all out. 

Tim and Mario have sent Linda, prizes for the challenge, those guys are the best!

For the first challenge the fabulously generous people over at Inspiration Emporium are offering a $50 prize! 

In respect to Tim please don't ask for the technique used; you need to get your own copy :-)

Any way onto my card, yes I've decided to make some cards for this challenge as I always seem to be running out of them. 

The base of the card has been stamped with Tim's chickenwire stamp using a selection of distress inks, then a little blending of broken china and stormy skies. The distress paints  that I used to create the technique (Paint Marbling pg.43) where Mustard Seed, Evergreen Bough, Crushed Olive and Salty Ocean, plus Broken China and Faded Jeans distress inks. I then over stamped using my favourite (at the moment) stamp set - Bird Feather and a sentiment stamp; I used a variety of distress markers to colour the stamps in, and also used the birds wing tips to create extra branches. Finally I distressed the edges of a Tim Holtz Kraft core and the top layer, added a distress inked Adage ticket and attached a distress painted word stick.

Please go over to Linda's Blog to find out how you can join in the fun.

Until next time

Karin x

WOYWW #255

Here's a very quick post from me before I go off to work. This is my life book creation for week 17 taught by the lovely Tascha Parkinson 

Hop over to the Stamping Ground for all the details of WOYWW

I'll update this post when I get back from work.

Thanks for looking,

Karin x

Metal Narcissus Flower Card and Ally Pally

Here's the birthday card I made for my friend Francesca, she got it a little late as I forgot the date!

The background metal got a treatment of alcohol inks and black paint. The metal flower was die cut using Tim Holtz Tattered flowers die and shaped using a variety of TSS tools, then the flower and the industrial strip also had alcohol inks then I wanted to subdue the colour on the flower center and the strip so used Decoarts antiquing cream on them. 

I've tried to shape the center of this flower like the small trumpet on Narcissus to represent spring flowers. 

I'm going to be cheeky and enter this for the Vintage Journey Challenge Spring Flowers.

If you'd like to see some tutorials on creating metal flowers hop over to Lin Brown's blog and scroll down until you see the flower power tutorials on the right hand side.

Ally Pally stash shot below

and inside the box............

Hope you have all had a Happy Easter.

Thanks for looking

Karin x

12 Tags of 2014, April

Here's my take on Tim Holtz's  April tag. Tim's tag created using the Framework die is a little more shabby chic, vintage than mine. I've opted for a slightly brighter finish using salty ocean and crushed olive distress paint on my framework, and evergreen bough on my background along with walnut stain distress ink . The pine cone die is on my wish list so I've adapted the tag a little. 

Thanks for looking,

Karin x

WOYWW #253

Sorry not been around recently, there's been too many other things interfering with the creativity but I'm on holiday, so hoping to catch up with missed life book weeks and other projects. That's mostly going to happen next week but today I managed to sneak an hour to get three projects under way. Two are from life book 2014 and the other is for Tim Holtz tags of 2014 challenge. I'll upload the finished projects when completed.

If you'd like to know more about WOYWW then hop over to the lovely Julia's Blog to find out all the details.

Thanks for popping by and hopefully leaving a comment.

Karin x

12 tags of 2014, March

Over on Tim Holtz's blog we are challenged to create two tags using the smudge stamping technique. I've just refreshed my memory of trying out this technique in CC102 by reading it in his wonderful new book.

Anyway as soon as I saw Tim's tags I knew that I was going to make these straightaway as he used my current favourite stamps! I just had to wait for postie to bring me the spritzer which arrived late this afternoon. :-)

I used Dot Fade stencil on the second generation image and on the original image I used the Burlap stencil.

Thanks for looking,

Karin x

WOYWW #248

Here is my workdesk as from this morning.

  I'm waiting for the postie to arrive then I'll have everything I need to complete these two tags. 

Keeping my fingers crossed postie will be here soon.

I'm editing to say postie arrived and the finished tags are on this post here

If you'd like to take part in hoping around different blogs on a Wednesday, pop over to Julia's Blog at the stamping ground for full details.

Thanks for passing by.

Karin x

Pop-up Cover

This is my cover for Life Book week 7 taught by the lovely Jane Davenport. I've used a mix of tissue papers from Tim Holtz and Seven Gypsies and couple of different serviettes too; matt medium to hold it all in place and coloured with Beach Hut a transparent Fresco paint.

I'm still working on the pop up pieces but hope to blog these soon.

Thanks for looking.

 I really appreciate your comments so please don't be shy.

Karin x

Life Book week 6

Today I put on the finishing touches of my week 6 life book main project.

I really loved how this piece came together flowing Tamara Laporte fab lesson.

I love how easily the face took shape but I think I got carried away with the inks ;-)

On this piece I've used a mixture of Dylusions ink sprays, Acrylic paints and sharpies!

Thanks for passing by,

Karin x

WOYWW 247- Candy Diva

Good afternoon desk hoppers, I have just completed my week 5 piece from Life Book 2014! 

I know I'm jumping about a bit here with it but that's OK, because I can.

I knew this piece was going to take a bit longer for me to get my head around and I ended up using Marieke Blokland's template for this fun piece "Candy Diva". I think I might have been a bit clumsy with my layers, there are so many on here, but I'm not sure you can see them all. 

I'm hoping to catch up a little more with the other Life book weeks, as I'm recuperating from an operation this week. It will take my mind off to wonderful places. :-)

If you'd like to have the low down on snooping at other workdesks around the world nip over to the stamping ground where you'll find all of the details.

Thanks for passing by.

Karin x

WOYWW 246

Today I'm working on week eight of Life book 2014, there's still lots more to do until it's finished but that's for later today. I've so far used a mix of acrylic paints and inks, coloured metallic varnishes and portfolio oil pastels.

The little glimpse of teal that you can see to the left is from a different week of Life book 2014, I just need to put the finishing touches on that too.

If you'd like to take part in hoping around different blogs on a Wednesday, pop over to Julia's Blog for full details.

WOYWW 245

I'm currently working on the warm up exercise for week 6 of Lifebook.

I'm a little behind with the classes but hoping to catch up next week whilst on half term holiday.

Flying for fun

I'm still trying to decide on a title for this one, but I think it might be

Rainbow Eruption

The backgrounds have been created using Dylusion Dye ink sprays. for the circle I've used PaperArtsy paints and the birds are from Tim Holtz latest release. I'm going to come back to both of these at a later date to add a few finishing touches but firstly I want to get the basics done on each week.

If you'd like to take part in hoping around different blogs on a Wednesday pop over to Julia's Blog for full details.

Be True To You

Here's my mixed media piece for week 4 of Life Book

the teacher for week four was Kelly Hoernig.

Week four was a bonus week "Be True to you".  

I got a little carried away by creating two pages.

This isn't as bright yellow in real life and the tag colour should have more hints of teal showing.

I'm hoping you'll be able to see the under layer of texture in these larger photos.

Sorry I can't add any details of how these pieces were created as I was following class techniques in creating them. 

Although I did add a couple of twists of my in own.

Paints: Fresco by PaperArtst Zesty Yellow, Limelight, Beach Hut & London Night.

Distress Inks: Peacock Feathers, Black Soot

Tissue Paper Melange & Composer

Plus a few other bits and pieces.

Thanks for Looking,

Karin 

WOYWW 243 - Gesso!!!

Today my work desk is the dining room table and I'm trying not to get the Gesso on it! 

Both pieces are works in progress.

Above is a start on my February journal pages, fingers crossed I'll get this finished for the weekend.

And below is the start of a mixed media collage.

Here's a link to last weeks finished cards for those that asked last time.

If you'd like to know more information about WOYWW, hop over to Julia's blog 

at the Stamping Ground for all of the details.

Happy Wednesday everyone, thank you for popping by. 

Your comments are really appreciated

Karin x

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Abstract Cards

Over on PaperArtsy's Blog, guest designer Ellen Vargo challenged us to create some Abstract cards.

I thoroughly enjoyed the techniques Ellen used and ended up making a batch of cards, all they need now is the appropriate labels to be added. 

Here's a closer look at a few of them 

all have a base of brayered Fresco paint

random pieces of torn dictionary pages

PaperArtsy Stamps stamped with paints and ink

and Fresco paint through a stencil.

Thanks for the inspiration Ellen.

Karin x

WOYWW 242 - paint

Here's my work desk for today, it's one I use fairly often.......the top of my chest freezer ;-)

I'm playing around with my fresco paints today as I want to take part in the challenge set by Ellen Vargo  on PaperArtsy's blog

I'm going to keep this post short this week as I want to get back to my paints. 

Happy Wednesday everyone, thanks for popping by. 

Your comments are really appreciated.

A fun affirmation

Here's my piece for week two of lifebook 2014 I'm already working in catch up mode ;-)

The tutor for week 2 was Micki Wilde, where she demonstrated a happy affirmation. 

My word for this year is fun and I had it producing this piece, once I'd got over the initial shook of painting the page grey! I don't why it effected me like that as I normally like grey as a colour at least it wasn't brown. Anyway as soon as my white fine liner arrived the fun began.

Thank you, Micki Wilde it was fun.

My guardian

I'm taking part in Lifebook 2014 this is lesson 1

Here's my guardian to make sure I have fun!

 I didn't see her first of all as she's actually very white and appeared in white foam, so this is the essence of her, otherwise I'd be showing you all a white page! 

I know she's not totally completed yet and I'll be altering her as the year goes by.

My word for the year is fun and the colour is varying shades of teal.

Thanks for looking,

Karin x

Birthday Card

Just a quick post now that I know this card has arrived...a little bit late for my forum friend Carol.

The main image is a stamp that I've recently acquire and have coveted for a long time.

I'm really happy to have it in my possession, it's mainly coloured using promaker pens plus a little distress ink; the text is from TH sentiments plate; finally I added a few pieces leftover from the flora and fauna ephemera pack.

Hope you had a good birthday Carol!

Karin x

Warm up exercise

I'm taking part in the Lifebook 2014 and have just completed the warm up exercise. I've decided to blog my progress on the course whether I like the outcomes or not. In fairness to Tam I will not be posting any details, it you want to know you're going to need to sign up for the course too.

At Willowing

Thanks for looking,

Karin x

WOTWW #239 - An Art Journal for 2014

This year for my first time, I'm taking part in the Art journaling Calendar Challenge 2014.

That Kate Crane is hosting look here for the details.

Second photo hopefully will show the mica shimmer a little better - that's if I've got the photos in the right order!

As this is currently on my work desk I'm also going to share it with the WOYWW if you want to have a snoop around the world to see what other people have on their desks pop over to Julia's blog at the Stamping ground to see what's all about.

I'll have to update the link later this as the new post isn't there yet for today.

Happy New Year, too you all

Karin x