Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year

I would like to wish you all a happy Christmas, and a prosperous, healthy, and creative 2014 !

I was inspired by Jo Myhill's use of tissue paper on the Paperartsy blog. What would I create with this technique? It is nearly Christmas, so why not make a Christmas card? Actually, it is the only Christmas card I made this year...

I stamped some balls and holly from Paperartsy Noel plates 2 and 6 on a piece of tissue paper. Then I coloured the balls with Sky and Ice Blue. I coloured the holly with Toad Hall and London Bus, darkened with Little Black Dress. All this is done on the back of the tissue paper. When that was dry, I painted the back with Ice Blue mixed with Snow Flake to make a lighter shade.

I coloured a card with Sky, and stamped Mini MN39 using ColorBox MicaMagic Regal Red, to add some sparkle.

Using Satin Glaze I glued the tissue paper to the card.

The Happy New Year's wish is stamped with Archival Black. The sheet music is from Stampers Anonymous, stamped in Sepia. I coloured the background with Frayed Burlap and Scattered Straw Distress Inks. I distressed the border and coloured it with Vintage Photo.

Vintage Archivist

Some time ago, I started a new project. The idea was to create a masculine / steampunk collage inside a wooden frame. I bought the frame, and started on the background. And then it just laid there on the desk. I had no idea how to continue.

This week some inspiration came. I cut 3 gothic arches from chipboard, and coloured them with Little Black Dress and Chocolate Pudding Fresco paints. I used Antique Linen Distress embossing powder and a swirl stamp to add some texture. The distress powder nicely matches a colour in the background. The man is an image from Google. The images in the left and right arches are from the Paperartsy HP1108 stamp sheet.

Next, I continued with the background. I applied Grunge Paste through the Mini Harlequins stencil. I also tried some rough texturing around the edges, but the peaks are not as high as I wanted. Not enough GP, or not given enough time to dry... As can be seen on the photo, I coloured the Grunge Paste first, with Old Gold. In an effort to create more peaks I added some more GP straight from the jar.

I coloured the area between harlequins with a Eggplant and Baltic Blue. Although it is quite dark, I like it, because it matches with other parts of the background. The harlequins themselves are coloured with Brown Shed, and then highlighted with Treasure Silver. This really makes them stand out!

This is the final piece. The label is made from a piece of metal. The word 'Archivist´ is from the same Paperartsy HP1108 stamp sheet.

Submitted for: Challenged by Alison Bomber on the Paperartsy blog.

Shrink Plastic

Earlier this week Jo Myhill used Shrink Plastic in her project on the Paperartsy blog. I wanted to make something with shrink plastic as well. I am sure we have it, but where is it? After a long search in our large pile of stamping and scrapbooking supplies, I thought I found it. I coloured it, stamped an image on it, and started to heat it. Whatever I tried, so shrinking... Turned out, I had used acetate, it said plastic on the package ...

Long search again. Now I found it, it is called 'Krimpie Dinkie' in the Netherlands, and it even has a manual how to use it. (Yes, I read the manual). I painted it with Brown Shed fresco paint, stamped the image from HP1108, heated up the oven, and waited. Now it shrinked, which is always very nice to watch. This is the result. The colour turned out a bit dark. Next time, I use a lighter colour.

I painted the ATC with Sky Blue fresco paint, and then dry brushed Baltic Blue fresco paint on top. The upper right corner is made with Grunge Paste, the cogs stamp from Clocks 5, and Treasure Gold. The face and the text are also from the HP1108 sheet.

By the light of the moon

This week it is Liz Borer again on the Paperartsy blog. In her project she made a beautiful background, that I wanted to recreate. This is the result:

I started with a piece of white cardstock, and used embossing folders for trees and foliage. Then I coloured the card with Fresco Acrylics, using several blue colours. The trees and foliage are coloured with Treasure Gold. The moon was stencilled using a circle cut out of paper, and coloured with Snowflake.

The flower in the foreground is from a stamp from the Paperartsy HP1004 sheet, that I inked the with green and brown Zig markers.

Also submitted for the Three Muses challenge, their theme this week is By the Light of the Moon.

Artful Blooms Coaster

Recently we have tidied up our attic, because we want to redecorate it and use it as our craft room. We found a box with old cork coasters, that are great to reuse.

I applied Mod Podge over the coaster, so that the coaster would not soak up all the paint. When dried, I painted it with Snowflake Fresco Paint. To my big surprise, the paint started to crackle!

I used Lin Brown´s Eclectica stamps for this coaster. The leaves are coloured with Hyde Park, and the flower is coloured with Orchid and Egg Plant.

I used Hyde Park around the corners, and some Hey Pesto over the Artful Blooms stamp. Finally I applied a thick coat of Matte Medium.

Quick Happy Birthday Card

Hi again! A quick Happy Birthday card, today. Just like Joanne did on the Paperartsy blog, I started with a swipe of Zesty Zing. On top of that, I stamped the car from the Paperartsy HP1106 set. To finish the card, I added some glitter over the number.

Inspired by Alison Bomber

This week's guest designer on the Paperartsy blog is Alison Bomber. She started crafting only quite recently, but she has made some very nice creations.

I liked the weathered white crackle over a multi-coloured background, so I tried to recreate it. First, I made a background with Eggplant, Orchid and Baltic Blue. It looks really nice.

But when I crackled it with the Snowflake, actually nothing from the background was visible anymore... I sanded away some of the white to expose the background. No multi-colours, but still nice.

To finish the background, I applied London Night on the upper half of the card.

Next, I selected three stamps from the Ink and the Dog collection. The amazing birthday week at the Paperartsy blog inspired me to use those "old" stamps more often. I used Carte Postale from Words Plate 4, the doll from Dolls Plate 4, and the foot from Travel Plate 2.

I stamped the doll on white card and coloured her with South Pacific and Claret.

To give her something to stand on, I stenciled some pavement using the Luscious Leaves stencil from Dylusions with Grunge Paste mixed with a drop of Claret.

By selecting three stamps to work with, I create a kind of challenge for myself, mostly because the background must be made with other things or techniques. I had to do this in the 3UP challenge with the Lynne Perella stamps, and I really liked it!

3UP challenge

When Leandra from Paperartsy announced a new round of #PAtwits in July, I immediately replied that I wanted to play #3UP. A few days later, I received a big envelope with my 3UP package. It contained the following items:

• Lynn Perella stamp set LPC010
• 3 pieces of chipboard
• 3 pieces of Heavyweight smoothy card
• 3 blue buttons (Fabric Bobbles), 2 spools, a ribbon, a key
• a colour swatch
• a long letter with instructions

It also contained a card with all the Fresco Acrylics Paints colours. My colour swatch seems to consist of Vanilla, Pumpkin Soup and South Pacific. The last colour I have, but for the other two I had to find replacements from my own set of Fresco paints. I decided to use Nougat, and to mix Haystack and Butternut to match the Pumpkin Soup.

A real challenge ...

When I went on to read the long letter, panic hit me... The package contained a Lynn Perella stamp set. The letter said, we can use other Paperartsy stamps that belong to the same collection of stamps. This was probably meant to make it easier but not for me! I do not have any Lynn Perella stamps! Now there is a challenge!

I had no idea what to create with this package ... The only thing I could come up with was to create a triptych with the three pieces of chipboard. I wanted to use the complete stamp set. As I could not use other stamps, I had to find other ways to create the backgrounds.

And after a few days of thinking, and searching through our huge stash of crafting materials, some ideas were forming... I might be able to produce something that could be shown on the Paperartsy blog ...

The left panel

I coloured the left panel with the Haystack/Butternut mix, then applied Crackle Glaze using a palet knife. When dry I added a good layer of South Pacific. It crackled very good! I stamped the image on a piece of fabric with Versafine, and coloured it with watered-down paints. I then sewed it to another piece of fabric with some foam in between to create a cushion. To finish this panel, I cut the spools in half, and wound blue and orange yarn around the spools.

The center panel

For the center panel I used the largest image. First I coloured the Heavyweight smoothy card with Nougat where the face would be. I used the Haystack/Butternut mix where the gate would be. Then I stamped the image with Archival ink. When dry, I coloured the image with watered-down South Pacific. I coloured the chipboard with the Haystack/Butternut mix, and stamped the keys with Archival. The text is made by applying Snowflake through the Mini Art Is stencil (TCW261s). The crown is from Grungeboard and is coloured with Spanish Topaz Treasure Gold. The frame is made from metal sheet.

The right panel

I coloured the right panel with Nougat, and then stamped the image using Archival ink. I masked the image, and painted the background with South Pacific and Haystack/Butternut using baby wipes. I coloured the swirl using South Pacific and Sapphire Treasure Gold. To finish the panel, I added some embellishments from my own stash.

The complete picture

I attached the three panels with the ribbon to a bamboo rod to make a wall hanging. This is the final piece:

This was a fun challenge to do! At first, I did panic because of the stamps I received. After a few days of thinking, ideas were forming and I started to create the panels. At some point, the right panel was an absolute mess, so I decided to start over. This panel is now my favourite!

Leandra and Mark congratulations with your 10th anniversary! Keep up the good work!

Here is the link to the 3UP night in which this project appears: 3 UP Night Six: Lynne Perrella Collection.

Everything you can imagine is real

Today, I played again with the Fresco Finish paints and tried to recreate a background like we made in the Secret Garden class last week. This is the result.


I used some old papers and glued it to a piece of Kraft paper. Then I coloured it with Rusty Rose and Haystack. These colours match the colours in the paper. Using Snowflake and two templates I added diamonds and a clock. Then I sealed everything with Multi-Medium.

When that was dry, I added more and more colours. I used Old Gold on top of the clock, which gives a shiny effect. Some embellishments and a steampunk stamp finished this project.

Playing with grunge paste

Last weeks two very interesting courses for my work kept me very busy. I did not have time for crafting. Now these courses have finished, there is time again to get out the stamps, Fresco Finish Paints, and Grunge Paste. I watched all Leandra's videos on youtube about Grunge Paste. Of course, I had to try myself on a tag. This is the result.


I used a stencil with leaves. The right branch is applied directly on the tag, and I painted over it. This layer was probably too thin, I could not get the white back. For the left branch, I coloured some grunge paste with Hyde Park, and applied this on top of the paint. Here, I used more Grunge Paste, and the result is better.

Secret Garden

This weekend Ineke and I went to England to visit London and to attend Linda Brown's Secret Garden class.

Ineke had never been to London, so we googled for a walk that would show us the important places in central London. We walked along Trafalgar Square, London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, the Horse Guards, Buckingham Palace, Regent Street and Oxford Street. It was quite a long walk, but well worth it!

On Sunday we attended the Secret Garden class. We selected this class because we wanted to learn how to better use the Fresco Finish paints. It took some effort to get a place in this class, but with some help from Linda we managed. Linda thank you again! We learned a lot and had a lot of fun!

This is my final piece:

Inspired by Helen Chilton

This week Helen Chilton was guest designer at the Paperartsy Blog again. She made a very nice masculine hanging board. I used the same colour scheme to create this tag.

;

The background is made with Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints Guacamole and Sky. The swirls is one of my favourite stamps from Stampers Anonymous. The swirls, the man and the crossword puzzle (Paperartsy Gentlemen Plate 2) are stamped with Sepia Archival ink.

On this tag I used Tim's Kraft Glassine Paper. I bought this kraft paper some time ago, but I did not know how to use it. This week's post on the Paperartsy blog and Tim's instruction video gave me some inspiration.

I stamped the leaf (Paperartsy Letters Plate 4) on Kraft Glassine Paper. I then crumpled the paper and applied perfect pearls. The purple piece of kraft paper was embossed with an embossing folder full of numbers. I then coloured it with Lilac Fresco Finish Acrylic Paint and Dusty Concord Distress Ink. The two pieces of kraft paper on the corners are crumpled first, and then coloured with Limelight and Beach Hut Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints, just as Helen did.

The text on the tag says General Failure, but for me it was not! It was fun to try out the Kraft Glassine Paper. I very much like the result with perfect pearls.

Birthday card

I enjoyed the video about the Paperartsy Crackly Tissue Paper. We do not have this stuff (yet?), so I tried this technique using filigree paper, the paper between sheets in a photo album. It worked out quite well, the only thing is that it crinkles a little when wet. In the end, I am quite satisfied with the result.

The stamp I used on this birthday card is from the Paperartsy Hot Picks 1007 sheet.

London Bridge Tag

This week the challenge at the Paperartsy Blog is to use Paperartsy stamps, and Fresco Paints together with metal. A great opportunity to try out the translucent paints that I ordered and received this week.

I coloured a tag with London Bus, then coated it with Crackle Glaze. Once that was dry, I put a thick layer of Baltic Blue on it. It immediately started to crackle, and some large cracks appeared. Wonderful! I love the bright red colour of the cracks.

In the bottom left corner, I played with Zesty Zing and Beach Hut. It created a nice opaque green colour, not exactly what I intended, but not too bad for a first time... The man is from the Hot Pick 1110 sheet. I first applied some Snowflake so that his face would not be too green...

The London Bridge is a stamp from Crafty Individuals, that I stamped with Stazon on metal. I then coloured the picture with Chocolate Pudding, Beach Hut, and South Pacific. I created some depth by puffing the bridge from the back.

Down under

In November and December, we went on a vacation to Australia and New Zealand. We had a wonderful time! This blog post about our trip is for our English speaking friends.

We started in Sydney, and walked along all the city highlights such as the Opera House, Harbour Bridge, the Rocks and Darling Harbour.

We also went to the Blue Mountains. We went to Melbourne by night train, and from there we went to Tasmania. On Tasmania we rented a car and drove around this very beautiful island. We walked in Cradle Mountain NP and had a very sunny day in Strahan on the Gordon River.

After Tasmania, we went back to Melbourne and did a day trip along the Great Ocean Road and Shipwreck Coast. Again we had beautiful weather and made lots of photos!

The next week we stayed in the Red Centre, where is was quite hot (40-45°C). We started in Alice Springs, went to King´s Canyon, and of cource to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). The distances and emptiness were very impressive!

Our last week in Australia we joined a cruise on the Great Barrier Reef with the Coral Princess. Three days of snorkeling in marvellous reefs. We have seen a lot of fish and very beautiful coral.

Then we headed to Christchurch, New Zealand by Air New Zealand. On the plane, every passenger was watching the safety announcements, done by crew members dressed as elfs, dwarfs and hobbits from Middle Earth!

We stayed a day in Christchurch. The CBD is still fenced off, we could see the damage done by the 2011 earthquake. A corridor is made to Cathedral Square, so we could see the damage done to the cathedral. It is a pity... Everywhere buildings are being demolished. We had a pizza on the Mall where containers are used for shops.

We rented a car and left for a three week's drive through the South and North Island. We went to Mount Cook, and Dunedin. We drove around Otago Peninsula, where we visited the Albatross Centre. There we saw a lot of big birds. From Dunedin we drove to Te Anau. We had very good weather in the Milford Sound, which is rather exceptional.

We stayed a day in Queenstown, and then continued to the West Coast. We walked to Franz Josef Glacier.

The next day it rained, so we did not see very much on our route to Westport. We only stopped here at the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks.

In Motueka we had a day off before leaving to Picton. We were lucky to catch the morning ferry to Wellington, so we had the afternoon to walk around Wellington and visit the Te Papa museum.

The next day we headed to Tongariro NP, with the three volcanoes. From there we drove along lake Taupo to Rotorua. This is the area with the hot pools and thermal valleys. We made several stops, also at Wai-O-Tapu. Geothermal Wonderland.

We enjoyed the Coromandel where we stayed in Whitianga. Here we went to Hot Water Beach and walked to Cathedral Cove. Again we had beautiful weather.

Next we went to Northland via Takapuna and Paihia. In Paihia we went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and enjoyed a Maori Cultural performance.

We ended our trip in Auckland, we we stayed four days. We had a lovely time down under. Although the weather was too cold and wet for the kiwis, for us it was warm enough with an average of 20-25°C to walk in shorts and T-shirts every day!

There are still parts of NZ we have not visited, so we might go back in the future.

Mechanical Man

I am a big fan of Paperartsy. I have lots of their stamps and some 30 bottles of Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics. Therefore, I am very excited about everything that currently goes on on their blog.

On this card I managed to get a nice crackled background. Believe it or not, this was the first time it worked out so good! Thanks to a tutorial on the Paperartsy Youtube channel.

The mechanical man is stamped on acetate and coloured the back with Pansy so that it shows up against the background. A nice tip given by Helen Chilton last week!

The cogs are from a metal sheet. I coloured them with French Roast and Claret, which gives a rusty look.