Stencilled Poetry - an Art Journal Cover

Servus and welcome to my blog today! I am so happy you're stopping by as today I am sharing a  make that is really close to my heart as it is about poetry - not only "stencilled poetry" (which I hope I have managed to achieve on my journal cover) but also the poetry from song lyrics and music that have deeply influenced my love for the English language and for music and for song lyrics that evoke images, feelings and stories in my head.

One of the very first songs - or maybe THE very first song - that did this for me was "Eleanor Rigby" from the Beatles (and the lyrics were written by wonderful Paul McCartney). I have been loving the song and also the "Yellow Submarine" movie since I was about twelve years old - and that love has never changed until today.

"Stencilled Poetry" is this month's theme for the Creative Team at StencilGirl Products to go by and a special line from "Eleanor Rigby" immediately came to my mind for this theme. So I created an art journal cover, trying to capture visually what that special line from the song evokes in me and how it makes me feel.

I have done a video of the process again - so you can watch and find out how I built up the layers on the journal cover and how some of the effects were achieved. So I hope you will hop over to the StencilGirl Talk blog to check out the video, some of my other thoughts that went into the design and also some more images of the finished journal.

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Ripper Street at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Servus, hi and welcome back to another project, done for our mid-month reminder over at my SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog!

Our challenge theme is the usual one - "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial"...so loads of ways to approach this challenge and have some messy stamping, painting, doodling, crafting,...fun. ;)

My make is a make-over to be precise. You may already have seen these guys on facebook or over here, when I was sharing the "work in progress" picture...but I decided that they deserved better than just being neatly sketched onto a mixed media board. ;) So here's my finished mixed media portrait! I hope you like it!

I tried to also capture the feel and design of the TV series...and even if the portraits are not to the point (with noses being too big and eyes not in the perfect spots), I am still quite content with the outcome.

I have done some steps images...so if you would like to learn more about how this was done, simply read on. If not, simply click HERE to get to the challenge post with the makes of my wonderful Team B ladies!


I simply started out with glueing torn dictionary pages and other scraps from old magazines to an MDF panel using DecoArt media Matte Medium.

Then I added a layer of diluted white DecoArt Acrylic Gesso to tone it all in.

Once that was dry I went over it with a wash of DecoArt media English Red Oxide and Transparent Yellow Oxide for a vintage look.

I used an image from the internet as my model and roughly sketched the shaded areas using a soft brush and diluted DecoArt media Raw Umber fluid acrylic paint.

Then I added the finer details with Raw Umber using a detail brush.

Highlights were painted using DecoArt media Translucent White.

...and that was also the state I previously shared my painting in on facebook and over here on my blog. I liked it, but I didn't think it was a real stunner or any "special". Just a piece of portrait painting practice...


Sometimes I have to put paintings aside and let them "rest" until I decide whether I want to add something to them or leave them the way they already are. In this case I wanted to add that special vintage and steampunk-ish feel to it that I so love with the TV series.

I started with stippling on gears borders with a bristle brush. I used an Andy Skinner stencil and DecoArt media Quinacridone Gold and Titan Buff.

Then I used a thin acetate sheet as a mask and stippled on more Quinacridone Gold, creating shaded and layered rectangular shapes.

After that was done and had dried, I added a wash of DecoArt media Prussian Blue Hue on top.

I let that dry thoroughly before I went in with a scratching tool and some sanding paper to give my painting a really heavy distress treatment.

As I had sanded off the hats' silhouettes I went back in with more Raw Umber and re-painted the hats.

I also sanded the edges of the MDF panel to create a kind of border. The sanding also highlighted the edges of the layered paper scraps...which added perfectly to the design. Done!

Some close ups to show the cool textures and layers:

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see play along and share your beautiful steampunk and industrial art with us! Once more the link to our challenge blog.

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

Dreams at Emerald Creek Dares

Servus and welcome to the start of this month's challenge over at Emerald Creek Dares!

This time we want to see and learn about your

Dreams!

and/or any fantasy you can dream up. 

Mine is rather a memory than a fantasy. My grandma that I love and miss dearly used to read to me when I was little and my favourite book was a collection of poems and short texts on the seasons of the whole year. It had the most charming poems and watercolour illustrations showing flower fairies, elves, gnomes, lizards, bugs, moths and many other nature creatures that inhabit meadows, forests, ponds and hedges. It was those "tiny wonders" that I never got tired of looking at. And when I had finished my DT project for this challenge I found that obviously my inspiration originated from these memories...

The fairies in the book looked totally different from mine of course. But I remember how I loved to watch them sleep. So I just had to draw a sleeping - and dreaming! - fairy too. ;)

 

 My fairies are trying to catch dreams that evolve from the soil as twinkling stars or huge dream bubbles (the brads) and gently rise up to the sky where they drift along to "find" their humans that will dream them. 

Emerald Creek products used:

Fractured Ice Embossing Crystals

Flower Crest Antique Copper Brads

Fleur Crest Brads

Antique Brass Metal Circles Brads

Mossanite Gemstones

Aventurine Gemstones

Pyrite Gemstones

other products used available at EC:

Ranger Distress Spray Stains

Emboss It Dabber
Picket Fence Distress Paint

I started with a plain white cardboard (a left over from some packaging) and added white Gesso to it using a palette knife. While the Gesso was still wet I sprayed on some Broken China and Squeezed Lemonade Distress Spray Stains and dabbed off most of it with a baby wipe. Once that was dry I used the gorgeous Tim Holtz "Wildflower" stencil and some modeling paste to create the meadow for my fairies. I left the paste to dry naturally.

Next I sprayed on some Gathered Twigs Distress Spray Stain and also dabbed off the excess after half a minute.  My board now looked like this:

I let everything dry really well before I went on to the next step. I unscrewed my embossing dabber's top and poured a little glob of embossing ink onto my craft sheet. Then I picked up some of that with the tip of my palette knife and scraped it randomly onto my board.  

I sprinkled on a thorough coat of Emerald Creek Fractured Ice embossing crystals and heated it with my Ranger heat tool. 

I love that that embossing enamel has transparent crystals as well as lightly tinted ones, glittery and dark ones and some that melt to a chunkier consistence than others. So the Fractured Ice crystals added a beautiful green-ish tint here and there but also highlighted the sprayed on colours underneath and made them look brighter. 

Then it was time to sketch my fairies with a precision pencil.

I unscrewed my Picket Fence Distress Paint Dabber and used a fine tip brush to paint my fairies. I also used a bit of Gathered Twigs Distress Spray stain from my non stick craft sheet. 

I glued some Mossanite, Aventurine and Pyrite gem stones to the blossoms using matte Decou-Page.

Using my fingertip I added some dark brown acrylic paint to the board's edges for a frame. I also added a bit of doodling with a white gel pen (swirls, dots).

I poked some holes and inserted the brads. Then I doodled some white circles around them to create my "dream bubbles".

The alpha part letters were glued on using matte Decou-Page. Afterwards I applied some DecoArt Iced Espresso Metallic Lustre to make them match the embossing enamel's look.

In whimsy handwriting I added the word "fairy" with the white gel pen...

 

 ...et voilá!

I hope you like my little dreamed up fairies realm! I am already impatient to find out what you will come up with!!! And also check out Cassandra's make over at the Emerald Creek Dares blog!

Don't be shy  and play along! You can win a $50 voucher by doing so! How cool is that?

(And last but not least I would like to ask you to scroll down to my previous post as there is another project and tutorial waiting for you  - this time over at the Calico Craft Parts blog. Hope to see you there soon too! )

Thanks for stopping by and

hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

A Fossil Cabinet for a Young Explorer

Hi, servus and welcome to my first post for 2017!
I hope you have all had fantastic holidays and a wonderful new year's eve! May the new year bring you loads of joy, fun and success on your creative endeavours!

I am kicking off the new year with a make from last year - but one that I can only now finally share as it was a gift that has now been delivered to a wonderful young man I had the chance to get to know when visiting my friend Laura and her lovely family in the UK two years ago. I know that he loves red pens and collecting stones and fossils (like I do too) - so I made a fossil cabinet for him.

This is just a detail from one of the cabinet's sides. I used one of the fab TCW stencils, DecoArt media Modeling Paste and Texture Sand Paste and loads of DecoArt paints to create the look of fossils being embedded in stone (well - at least I tried to).

The cabinet came as a blank white cardboard box and I started with dabbing the DecoArt Texture Sand Paste onto the box using my fingers. That was followed by adding the fossil fish and trilobite shapes using TCW stencils, a palette knife and DecoArt media white Modelling Paste. Once all was dry I added a thorough coat of Raw Umber as a base to work on. Once that had dried I went in with various DecoArt Americana paints - dry brushing and painting them on as needed.

DecoArt Metallic Lustres were added to the raised areas of the fossil shapes to imitate a bit of a sheen
where the fossils had been "polished" by wind and weather over the ages.

The last step was to paint on the marbled look - using a fine tip brush...

...and to add an old map from an old dictionary to the back, toning it down with a wash of DecoArt paints to make it match the whole design of my cabinet.

I just love the effect of the Texture Sand Paste, contrasting the shiny fossils!

I had a lot of fun creating this little keepsake for a young explorer! And I hope he likes his cabinet!!!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed your visit!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx