Living in Harmony

This is an inchie made using the challenge word prompt found on Every Inchie Monday.

This week's prompt is harmony.


My inchie is created from an inch square of white mountboard & covered using patterned paper from Hot off the Press & an image from Arbutus Hunter.



To see a slideshow of all the inchies made using the Every Inchie Monday word prompts, please click here.

Nasturtium & Bee

This greeting card uses a decoupage sheet from Splash Crafts.


The layers were cut out & the edges sanded.

They were then shaped by hand
& adhered using Pinflair Glue Gel
to give added dimension.




To see more cards in this series please click here

Texture Tuesday

The Texture Tuesday challenge this week is to use a photograph of a person or people

& at least one layer of Kim's textures.

I used one layer of Kim's Warm Sun texture

& compose a Haiku for added visual & contextual interest.

Please click on the image to enlarge & you'll see all the wonderful detail of Kim's texture.

the Beachcomber
tottering around
searching for the perfect shell
& sea tumbled glass

The original black & white photograph is from the 1960s.

And yes, it is me! I'm never happier than when I'm near the sea.

All Woman

This is an inchie made using the challenge word prompt found on Every Inchie Monday.

This week's prompt is woman.


My inchie is created from an inch square of white mountboard & covered using patterned paper from Hot off the Press & an image from Art Creations Friday.



To see a slideshow of all the inchies made using the Every Inchie Monday word prompts, please click here.

Postscript:
Karen has asked where I buy my blank inchies from, so I thought I would add a note here to explain.

Every year or so, I buy an A1 sheet of Daler-Rowney Cream Core Mountboard.

Manufactured in the UK, the core is made from virgin wood pulp with a characteristic pale ivory colour. Each board is alkaline sized and pH neutral. It is available in a wide range of colours, but I usually buy Snow White.

From this large sheet, I cut my blank inchies, moos, tags, etc. It is thick enough (1400 Micron) to give me a sturdy base to work on & withstand the abuse I throw at it (ie sanding the edges), but thin enough to cut to the required size with ordinary scissors.

Orchid & Hummingbird

Today is Fathers Day here in England.


I used a decoupage sheet by Splash Crafts.


The elements were cut out,
edged with black ink
& the layers built up using Pinflair's Glue Gel.


I used a sheet of patterned paper by K & Company,
behind the decoupage image as backing,
sanding the edges to add a little shabby chic.


To see more cards in this series please click here

Cherry Blossom

Another Splash Crafts decoupage card,
this one with beautiful cherry blossom
& a dancing butterfly.


The decoupage layers were cut out
& their edges sanded.

The pieces were shaped by hand
& adhered using Pinflair Glue Gel.


I added Gold Stickles to the six open flowers.


To see more cards in this series please click here

My Vintage Gluebook

All finished & bound together.


I used my Bind-it-all machine to punch the holes & bind together using white wire.


I tied ribbon around the wire binding to pretty it up.

Hibiscus

A birthday card made using a Splash Crafts decoupage sheet.


The flower image was cut out & edged with black ink.

The layers were shaped & adhered to the base image
using Pinflair Glue Gel to give dimension.


I used patterned paper from K & Company
behind the decoupage elements,
Gold Stickles (glitter glue)
& a touch of Glossy Accents.


To see more cards in this series please click here

Playmates

Another double page spread for my vintage collage gluebook (see here for details).

The lady on the right is my Great Great Grandmother Sarah, whilst the little person on the left is unknown although still from our family archives.


They come from two separate photographs, but both their expressions & the table & chairs seemed to make these two a perfect match.

Background papers from Tim Holtz. The green stamp image is from Mary Green.

Sisters

This is an inchie made using the challenge word prompt found on Every Inchie Monday.

This week's prompt is sisters, so there had to be at least two inchies ... I took my inspiration from the Irving Berlin song "Sisters, Sisters".


My inchies are created from an inch square of white mountboard & covered using patterned paper from Hot off the Press & an image from Mary at Green Paper.



To see a slideshow of all the inchies made using the Every Inchie Monday word prompts, please click here.

Hawthorn Blossom

A card made for Fathers Day,
which here in England is on 19th June this year.

This greeting card uses a decoupage sheet from Splash Crafts.

The layers were cut out & edged with black ink,
then shaped & adhered using Pinflair's Glue Gel
to give added dimension.


I used a sheet of patterned paper from K & Company as backing,
with the edges sanded.


For the finishing touch,
I added a little Gold Stickles to the centre of the blossoms.

To see more cards in this series please click here

Vintage Collage

I have just finished my first ever gluebook,

a series of vintage collages using just paper, scissors & a gluestick.

I registered for Mary Green's Your Vintage Gluebook online course last week

& today completed the final lesson.

Mary has a love of vintage & in these classes

she shares her method of creating beautiful vintage paper collages.

She talks through colour, patterns, size, visual weight & position,

setting a series of exercises for us to put into practice all the things we have learnt.

Mary makes a point in her lessons that we should find our own style

& make our gluebooks personal.

I wanted to veer away from using the images which Mary

had so generously supplied for us to use in her classes.

This class has been available online for over a year

so I didn't want to just replicate work that other students had already done.

I had a good rummage through my craft supplies

& gathered together everything that had a vintage feel,

either in subject or in colour tone.

Together with copies of old family photographs,

I have made a very personal gluebook. Apart from the cover image,

I have only used two of Mary's images, both postal stamps

(yes, I can hear Mary laughing too!).

I love the hands on aspect of papercrafting,

so I wanted to work on flat individual pages,

making it easier to sand the edges etc.

I used watercolour paper (300gsm) cut to 4¾ x 3½ inches (approx 12 x 9 cm)

to create my pages, to be bound together when completed.

The covers were made from the thick sturdy backing card from the back of the paper pad

& are slightly larger than the pages.

So with scissors, printed images, gluestick, emery board & corner rounder, I began.

Here are a few pictures of the pages I have made.

To the first page, entry to my gluebook, grab a ticket & come on in.

This page was made to illustrate the muted colours of the vintage style

with a background with two additional pieces;

one main focal point with another to lead the eye around the page.

For my first page I fell into the welcoming arms of Tim Holtz,

using his paper for the background & tickets cut from one of his printed cardstock pages.

The moth is from The Graphics Fairy,

already printed for a previous project that never got off the ground.

This next page was made for the exercise to divide a photograph/image across a two page spread.

It contains a image of my Great Grandparents (on the right)

with their friend alone on the left.

When creating a two page spread, each page should be able to stand alone.

The background paper & green strip is by Scissor Sisters,

the bird image is from The Graphics Fairy,

along with the moth (from my leftover printed images pile).

I added an off-cut of a ticket from the previous page & one of Mary's stamps.

The page below was made in response to the lesson on choosing a background.

The paper is again by Scissor Sisters.

The image on the left is of my Great Grandparents,

with their three handsome sons on the right.

My Grandfather is the one indicated by the moth's tail.

I used up more scraps of coordinating paper & two Doodads from Tim Holtz.

This page was made for the lesson on matching papers

& looking for pieces to use in our collages.

It uses a wonderful image of a young man ready to fight.

The photograph is from our family archives,

but we are unsure who he actually is.

I went with a B theme, B for Boxer, bird & bees.

The background paper is by Scissor Sisters,

the ruler is from one of Tim Holtz's papers,

together with his toy block cardstock.

The bee image is from The Graphics Fairy,

with the colour tweaked before printing out in different sizes.

The music paper vellum I have had for ages & never used.

This next page was fun.

It was made for the exercise to use an incomplete image in such a way

that it is not obvious that there is a part missing.

The gentleman is my Great Grandfather in his army uniform.

He cuts a stern figure.

I placed him on images of book covers,

How to Speak Correctly, Spelling Book, Music Book & Atlas all from Tim Holtz.

As class instructor, he would take no stick!

I'm sure he had many secrets,

so I gave him a lockable journal to keep them in.

The Lock & Key from another of Tim's papers.

Just one tiny stamp from Mary to finish.

The biggest challenge was the exercise to create a collage using only original papers

with no copies allowed.

Here is what I used.

* Text background page from a Pitman Business Typewriting course book from an evening class

I enrolled in over 25 years ago - I only went to the first class!

* The main image is of Lucinda Frances, Sir George Bernard Shaw's sister,

which was an unused page from my altered art journal book dating from 1949.

* The blue butterfly was from a recent magazine,

which has been on my desk for a few months, waiting to be used.

One part of the wing had writing one, so I needed to place it out of view.

* Sheet music from a Recorder book,

which I must have had since my primary school days.

* Black & white illustrations from an old National Trust handbook.

I thoroughly enjoyed working through Mary's lessons

& I hope you have enjoyed your wander through my work.

I have a few blank pages left to fill before I bind the book together ...

Jumping for Joy

This is an inchie made using the challenge word prompt found on Every Inchie Monday.

This week's prompt is merriment.


My inchie is created from an inch square of white mountboard & covered using patterned paper from Hot off the Press & an image from Art Creations Friday.



To see a slideshow of all the inchies made using the Every Inchie Monday word prompts, please click here.

Green Paper Challenge; Suitable for Ladies

A tag using the three images Mary at Green Paper provided for her vintage collage challenge.

I added two torn strips of blue patterned paper from K & Company to help balance the piece.

If you like this, you may like this tag that I made last month,

using Mary's beautiful vintage images. Click on the image below for more details.