TIO #80 - My Fishy Piece

 This is my dream for the TIO fishy tag this week, set by Janet... it is very simple, but really good fun...Had to be because my back is hurt from coughing!!! A back brace is not very condusive to crafting!!!

 I smooched the white tag through lines of different blue distress inks - just for a change!!! Then dried and dipped again till I was happy with the bubbly effect...  vintage photo smooched at the base, made the rocky bits. The plants were stamped in the same colours...

 The dragonfly is so beautiful, with a sparkly head. I sprinkled clear ep round all the edges of the tag.

 I wanted a word - lots of people say that to me frequently, tee hee!!! - but not heavy letters, as I wanted to keep that bubbly, dreamy effect so I placed the letters across the piece, then sprayed with blue haze perfect pearl mist - gotta love that stuff!! - the effect was just as I wanted, with a little help taking off some of the inks underneath the letters.

The fishies were stamped from a homemade stamp - from foam, backed with the redline tape, like I made the Tim Holtz die stamps a couple of weeks ago... It was fun making the ickle trio, that could be reversed in order to look different, like a shoal!! I finished off the piece with a fishy charm, aged with black and pool acrylic paint, rubbed off to leave bits in the indentations...

Well that's it for this one... hope you like it and have enjoyed your visit enough to leave me a comment or two. That would please me no end... Thanks for coming.
Love and Light
Frankie
xx

WOYWW #103 and TIO #80 - Fishy Tag

Oh my, this week has gone WAY too fast, and my ickle bug is still being a pain - literally!! Apparently I have strained and damaged ligaments in my back with all that wretching and coughing, so I am laid up and in a back brace!!! Boo hoo... However, I have managed a bit of work this week and want to share my desk with you... follow this magic link to see Julia, if you don't know what I mean!!

 So here is the main picture of my desk this week, working on a tag for TIO, challenged by Janet this time, to do something with a fishy dream... All my blue distress inks - what a surprise - and some great stamps from Stamp Addicts.

 Here is one of my jewellery boxes of tricks!! Beads and other findings here, ready for the tag and another project I will share at the end of this page!!! - what a teaser!!

 So I needed a fishy stamp, and I don't possess one - drawers and drawers full of stamps and no fish??? oh well... and I decided to make my own... from foam. You can see the printing practice here, where I made marks in the foam with one of my TSS wheels...

 You remember me making the Tim Holtz die stamps from foam? Well I decided to try it again but freestyle. Above, you can see the black foam, covered in the redline tape.

 This is a sneaky detail from the finished tag then... all dreamy and watery, with a dragonfly hovering ready to pounce into the water to lay its eggs on my weed... rambling again Gaywood!!! get on with it... Come back later to see the finished thing or pop over to the TIO blog to see what my whole team has produced - you won't be sorry, there is so much inspiration...

And to finish, I am letting you see the beginnings of my piece for Simon Says Stamp and Show Wendy Vecchi... That stamp from Tim Holtz was for the wings to my art part watch, but again, you will have to come back to see how I finished it all off...

Thanks for looking and commenting... I really appreciate that you come and take an interest in my work... have a great week. When I see you next, I will have done my wonderful weekend at ArtsyCrafts.. yippee!!
Love and light
Frankie
xx

Simon Says Stamp and Show - some Wendy Vecchi Style

 So Wendy Vecchi - Studio 490... love her work and that of others who use her work and style... so this challenge was timely for me... I recently bought my first art parts and clearly for art sheets, and this was a good excuse to have a go with stuff...

 I feel one needs to get the signature bits of a style, and for Wendy-work it seems to be a recipe of :-
- dotty paper
- butterfly
- spectacular flower
- squared/graph paper
- an art part or three
- neutral colour scheme (frequently anyway)
- odd-ball theme/idea

 So here is a close-up of my version of spectacular flower, courtesy of the lovely Lin at Yours Artfully. She has fantastic tutorials on her blog, so check it out. I have wanted to work with metal for a long while and I fianlly did a class with her at her shop, L.B. Crafts.

These petals are from PaperArtsy dies. This metal started out bronzy coloured then I worked it with the tools. The pointy petals are done with what Lin calls the "scribbly scribbly" technique - literally scribble with a pointy tool... I painted with black then pool acrylic paint, then swiped off most of it, to leave the channels of the pattern etched in colour... that centre is a button/brad from Graphic 45 - total yumminess, introduced to me by the wonderful Laura Denison at The Paper Trail... she is a desginer for them, and makes the most amazing creations, including jewellery using these babies!!! Take a look, she's awsome!!

 Here is the mandatory dotty butterfly, here made from TH kraft paper put through the Vagabond in a swiss dots embossing folder, then coloured and dots enhanced. I used some homemade coiled wire for it's body and antennae. The arful tag from TH is coloured in the same way as the flower, attached with a swivel clip, hanging from a hitch thingy... the flowers are creamy Prima, inked and misted a very lot...

 TH sprockets and gears and spinners contribute to the steampunky flavour of the piece, as does the beautiful Vintaj piece in the centre of the art part pocket watch...

The wings are stamped from a birdie, by TH then cut out and aged with vintage photo and broken china inkiness. It's all mounted on a little frame, which I left unpainted cos the colour was just right. The leathery-look backer is a piece of crumpled/ironed kraft glassine paper - actally there is a ring of petals in the flower made from that too... wonderful stuff!!

So, I hear you cry... too much TH and not enough WV!!! However, when you listen to Wendy demo, or you read her blog, you realise SHE uses a lot of his inkiness and idea-ology too, cos they work for the same companies, and they admire each others' work... so it must be ok for me then!!! Whatever, I really enjoyed making it and hope it fits the bill over at SSSS, as I love their challenges and the high standard of work submitted there...

Thanks for looking, again, and for leaving your fab comments - I love 'em and want 'em quite shamelessly!!! tee hee!!!
Love and Light
Frankie
xx