Look out of this Window!

Hello all.

Today I made a little picture.  I love the colour and quirky style.

It started with some cute little stamps from Paper Artsy which I bought a few years ago.  The range is Squiggly Ink.

I had once made a small card for a friend using the same stamps and technique so it didn't take much to go to the next level of making a picture.  The little houses are set on top of a hill, some are flat to the background and others are raised up to give dimension.  The main 'house' is raised even further to be the main focus. 

The materials used are VersaMark 'ink' - a tacky clear product, and chalks. I stamped the little houses, the main house and the other various elements onto a nice smooth card and then rubbed different colours of chalk over them.  The nature of the VersaMark is that it 'holds' the chalk giving a darker tone to the stamped image.  I have often wondered why the rubbing action doesn't smear the VersaMark all over the card.  Once I had a collection of houses and elements I cut them all out and started arranging them on the background which was planned to allow for the curve of the tape measure.  

The chalks lent themselves to shading and blending.  I particularly like the contrast of the sharp edges of the houses and swirls with the blended subtle 'sky'.

Placed in a deep frame painted black it is a little window onto a fantasy land.

Hope you like it.

Much Love Kim x

Looking Forward to Spring

The boy came back from France with a few little presents for us, bless.  He had a fantastic time.  And yes, there was a bag full of muddy laundry to do.

That done, I have been quick to get back into the craft room.  I have made a little gardening inspiration book.  I hope the spring brings with it some better weather so I can get some bits planted.

Front of Book. 

The little book is about 6cm x 8cm.  I bought a 'job lot' of stamps from that well known internet auction site and was quite pleased to find they were all themed around the garden.  

First I made the book from sturdy card.  I have looked at how toddler hard board books are made and used that method to make a blank for me to decorate.  I covered each page with a piece of printed paper in shades of green, dipped the edges of the book into some neat ink and allowed everything to dry.

Shaded the pots to make them stand out.

I stamped the words in a navy blue onto some hand coloured paper, cut them out and arranged them on the pages.  I needed to keep the pages 'thin' so instead of using real brads in the corners I drew little screws.  I used a pale green ink to stamp images around the words and navy ink to decorate the pages.  I then shaded some of the images to give them dimension.

You can see the mock screws on the word plaque.

I might give this to my father for his birthday instead of a card.  He loves his garden.

Hope everything is well with you all?  Remember to leave comments and share this blog with anybody you know that might be interested.

Love you long time - Kim x

Tinkering

My last day of creativeness for a while I expect.  Or did I say that yesterday?  I have been playing around with the Little Book theme and have come up with a few little beauties today.

The covers for the ones I made a few weeks ago were made from card.  Today I found some little pieces of wood in my stash, bought months ago from a hobby shop.  They are about 3.5cm x 5.5cm, and a nice smooth, pale wood which took very well to a little staining using Tim Holtz inks.  The inners or pages were made from card which was decorated and folded concertina style.  I am now waiting to find some appropriate words to stick onto the pages, maybe a phrase, or single words on each page, not sure yet.

The one I have called The Lane is made using torn book pages stamped over with little pink quirky houses, distant sepia spires and black tree silhouettes.  I then coloured in various parts of the houses to make them stand out a bit.  I distressed the edges and tied it all together with a brown organza ribbon.

The Lane.

In complete contrast I made a purple book, as yet untitled, in the same way.  I stamped the card with a tropical design stamp using a multi-coloured ink pad in shades of pink and purple. Again I am waiting for inspiration about what to put in the book.

Today I made.........

The third one is constructed slightly differently.  It is made from card and rather than being folded, each piece of card is hinged to the next with ribbon, somewhat like a ladder I suppose.  It has a French theme to it.  As you can see it is the same colour tones as The Lane, lazy me didn't want to waste time fussing about a new colour group.  

Paris - France

Hope you are all looking forward to the weekend?  I am looking forward to my boy getting home from France.  Big hugs need to given and a bag of muddy laundry presented in return. 

Take care peeps. 

Kim xx

Purple Peek Book

Bonjour.

As the week of temporary childless-ness draws to a close, (the boy returns from France tomorrow with a large bag of muddy washing no doubt) I am having a look back at a piece of work I did a wee while ago.  Did try to find pictures of my wedding stationary but without any luck.  Couldn't find the samples I kept either which is no wonder when when you see the state of my craft room.

Anyhow, the piece I want to tell you about is called Purple Peek.  It is purple and there are bits to peek at.  I know, making up names for projects is a skill which I seem to have.

It is based on a rubber stamp I have of a nautilus or maybe a fossil, who knows. I also had a lot of badly printed images of shells and the like which came out purple due to a printer malfunction.  Being the hoarder that I am I had kept these printed pages. There are never any mistakes in art, just pieces waiting for their moment to be born.

I wanted to keep the colours simple and so opted for black and white to go with the purple.  The design was not deliberate more of a discovery because while I was punching some circles out of the purple paper I put the piece of paper with the hole back down on my desk and noticed that it had left what looked like a little port-hole showing the image underneath to peek through.  That is how the whole idea developed.  Some areas are actually holes showing the page underneath, and some are 'fake' holes. 

I also wanted some movement to the piece so I made little cards to pull out from little pockets.  More peeking.  I bound the pages together and used some shrink plastic stamped images of the shell as decoration on the binding thread.  Together with the beads they also form a neat end to the thread to stop it fraying.

And there it is - Purple Peek.  Another blast from the past which kept me amused for a few hours making and has encouraged me to do something similar again.

See you soon, well, after doing all the dirty-boy laundry that is.

Kim xx

En France

My goodness, time does fly.  My son has been looking forward to his educational trip to France for a year.  Staying in a chateau speaking ONLY French and doing lots of exciting activities.  I have also been looking forward to this but for purely selfish reasons.  And the week has now arrived. Yippee.

I can craft all day long.  No school run, no homework to help with, no getting up early, meals when I like.  Of course I miss him , no I really do, but this week is all mine.

So, I am currently making a batch of the little inspirational books.  I have a little production line going and have made nearly 50.  I love the process as much as the finished result.  

I have also been wanting to tackle wedding stationary. Trouble is I am not the cleanest of crafters and so I would probably have to set up a work space in a completely sterile area so as not to get anything grubby.  I know wedding stationary doesn't have to be white/cream/ivory, but let's face it that is what most people expect.  

Could have silver or gold leaf and a different colour gem.

I did a complete suite of wedding stationary for a friend several years ago which included a Save the Date card, invitations to the ceremony, invitations to the reception, Thank You cards and place names.  They were great fun to make, again mainly because of the production line style.  The base colour of the card was cream with burgundy being the main colour thread.  I shall have to upload a photo............be back soon.

What Bad Weather?

For those that don't know, it has been a pretty snowy few days here in Blighty.  Actually couldn't get out at all and so was FORCED to potter in my Craft Room.  There was a bit of the usual 'What should I do?', some post-Christmas tidying, a few cups of coffee and then...........................these little beauties were 'born'.

For those like me who cannot actually throw away ANY bit of pretty paper, these are ideal little makes to use up some of that stash.

Each one contains a simple phrase, printed on hand stamped paper and bound in a co-ordinating hard cover, tied with ribbon.

They are great to make and because they are hand made, each one is unique.

I spent a while looking for inspirational quotes and it seems to have rubbed off on me; I am totally inspired and now want to make more.

I have no idea how many I will end up making, but I have a lot of little pieces of paper too good to throw away and there are thousands of inspirational quotes so don't be surprised if I am away for a few days.

Thanks you to all who read this, remember I would love to read your comments.

Kim x

Stollen - A Christmas Classic.

Today I have made Stollen.  I have made it in the past without much success but today I spent some time researching recipes and came up with this!

I made some changes to the fruit content, used a butter enriched yeast dough I trusted and tweaked little things along the way.

I don't like glace cherries so left them out without any guilt.  Not sure they are classic to Stollen anyway.  I also soaked the fruits I did use in some Brandy.  I used a colourful selection of sultanas and dried apricots.   I didn't have any mixed peel either but I don't think it will be missed.  There are almonds in it and I also added pistachio nuts as I had a handful of them left.  All in all it has turned out very tasty.  It is probably not going to last long once the family get their hands on it.  Maybe there will be time to make another one?

I know this entry is short and sweet but I am getting my house ready for Christmas.

I would like to wish you all a Happy Festive Season, may it be everything you wish it to be.

Love to you all.

Kim