Try It on Tuesday is going Botanical

This fortnight we hope you will join us with anything botanical!
I looked up the definition of Botany…..

BOTANY

The science of plants

The plant life of a region

The biology of a plant or plant group

There's plenty of scope there for you to get started and the TIOT  Design Team also have some brilliant inspiration as usual.

I have been enjoying some journal play.

 As you can see all sort of different plants here but this page started as a mop up page!

 This was using the the ink up on some stencils I had been using

Added some spotty tissue paper, a mop up paper towel and some scraps of doily.

Next came texture sand paste coloured with dark blue paint and some green coloured crackle paste both through plant stencils, some tissue tape and more stencilling using ink!

I rubbed some gold paint over some parts using my finger.

Mixed up two quotes!

Finally the Paper Artsy Hotpicks bluebell was stamped onto green card and cut out!

I hope you will join us at Try It On Tuesday with your botanical entries.

Thanks for looking, Chris

Adding Metal at Try It On Tuesday

The new theme at Try It On Tuesday is 'Add Some Metal' so I've gone a bit shiny today!
My first project went definitely 'pearshaped'! You will get to see it sometime, but as we were going away last week it had to be done before Wednesday and that just wasn't going to happen! So I did what I often do for something a little quicker- a tag!

 So - distress ink (Dried Marigold and Aged Mahogany) onto a tag then a damp sponge through stencil and a dab with a paper towel.

I used a music stamp to add flitter glue then metal flakes then spattered some gold and brown paints over the tag

I stamped the Crafty Individuals stamp and added distress ink, and also stamped the whole stamp onto a painted square of DecoArt media fluid gold paint

They were then put together on another piece of card and the tag was stamped with the whole image before adding the cut out!

Then to the embellishments, 

fairly easy - some flourishes stamped on, a couple of die cut shapes, some curled wire and some metallic fabric from a scarf I bought 2 years ago in France for 2 euros!
The bottom of the tag uses hessian(burlap)sprayed with Tarnished Brass distress spray stain, a combination of flowers,(given the inca gold treatment) and a die cut flourish

There are some 'brilliant' 'shining' examples on the Try It On Tuesday Challenge blog from the design team. I do hope you will be able to join us this month with your own 'bright' ideas!! 

I would also like to link this to 

Crafty Individuals challenge - Anything Goes.

Stamps and Stencils - Up,up and away with a twist challenge

Thanks for looking, Chris

Trying something new at Try It On Tuesday

Our new theme at Try It On Tuesday is Try Something New….now, there are lots of things I have tried and liked, but this had to be something new! 
I have always admired crafty folk like my TIOT team mate Pamellia, and Georgie of 'Little Blue Craft Box' who create such lovely Mixed Media layers, in fact the colours here were inspired by Georgie's challenge at Anything but Cute Challenge Blog.
I had seen a wonderful article in Stitch magazine a couple of months ago by Maggie Grey where she used gesso on felt (much brighter though) but had left the magazine at the caravan so just went with the flow..I quite like the effect!

it's a bit more green than this!!

My hanging started like this..

a B and M special - £1.99p!
I removed the cord and turned it to portrait mode before adding gesso, paints and crackle.

I then stuck down and trimmed the edges.

I wasn't happy with the colour at this stage so added some DecoArt Red Oxide Antiquing cream over the crackle and some DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics Burnt Umber over the 'hole' in the 'trunk'.

Then came some sparkle - some of my nail art beads mixed with glue and some Viva Inca Gold and Maya Gold turquoise.There's probably more in there but I was just enjoying myself

By now I was ready for my fairy (Crafty Individuals) and some foliage (TH dies-mainly - the larger leaves are from Brittania dies)cut from Brusho and mica sprayed water colour paper.

a little touch of glitter on her wings

 All I had to do then was put my woodland fairy where she could keep a watchful eye on the woodland creatures but not be seen!

It photographed greener with a different setting on my camera!

I think you can guess who will be receiving this! 

I hope you liked my attempt to Try Something New and that you will take a look at the fabulous new projects the design team have made.

The challenge runs for two weeks and can be anything new at all - the details are here ! 

I am also entering  the Anything but Cute Challenge - Making Magic

Thanks for looking, Chris  

Sending you (all) flowers at Try It On Tuesday!

The brand new challenge at Try It On Tuesday is Sending You Flowers and I must say, if I could I would, from my new followers(welcome!), to some of you lovely folk who have stuck by me(and encouraged me to start my blog) and to all the great people in between who have left me such encouraging comments even when I wasn't sure I should have posted!!!
My team mates have pulled out all the stops with their samples and I do hope you will pop over and have a look!
I have made a journal page for you.

 The page had stayed around in my journal for months looking like this…

…now you know why!!

I used gesso, crackle paste through a stencil, a thin coat of very watered down DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics(Burnt Umber) over the page and rubbed in some DecoArt Media Antiquing cream(Red Oxide) into the crackle.

I stuck on a little bit of ripped baby wipe that had been used to mop up from another project I also added a little bit of random text stamping

The flowers were a mixture of some I have had for a while , coloured with Neo colour IIs and layered with some leaves and part of a paper place setting that I rescued from a cafe in Austria!!!  The butterfly I think may have been a magazine freebie!
The words are from Paper Artsy and I had them in mind along with the clock so that I could also join in with Art Journal Journey!
It also means that no time was wasted on my up to now useless page!!

I do hope you will find time to join the Try It On Tuesday challenge, we like to see all kinds of crafting and the details are here!

Thanks for looking, Chris

Using stencils at Try It On Tuesday

Our new theme at Try it on Tuesday is 'Use a Stencil'. I am bit of a stencil addict so really enjoyed making my sample for this new topic!

I started by painting a canvas board with some acrylic paints - I did wonder whether they would mix but I needn't have worried.

The other weekend hubby and I went for a Lindsay Mason workshop - thoroughly enjoyed ourselves but still to post pictures of what we made. The techniques on this canvas are some of the things we learned!

Started with light blue base than added different shades of blue and some lighter brushing over with shades of purple

I then used pewter through a TH harlequin stencil and blue through the clockwork stencil

Then, used hair clay (one with a number 5 in it) as a resist, quite a lot, as I wanted to keep the base showing through!
I painted over with a light blue then left it to dry before rubbing the paint and clay off - I had left it in the sun as the clay rubs off better if warm(a heat tool would have worked too)

Next white through the same stencil

I stamped an old Inkadinkadoo stamp onto some lightweight card and 'fussy' cut it

Next came the paint - to paint out the patterns!

A hint of greenery using paint on a stamp, some gold spots added with the ends of brushes and I added the bird

I added a little Archival ink around the edge, some words and then the whole canvas was covered in Deco Arts Soft Varnish

I have seen Deco Arts products used on lots of blogs but up till the workshop hadn't tried the Media Fluid acrylics - only the crackle paint and paste - I am now hooked!!

I hope you will take a look at the fabulous samples at Try It On Tuesday and be inspired to take part this time.

I'll be back for T with Bluebeard and Elizabeth later.

Thanks for looking, Chris.

It's hot and it's Tuesday

I could be referring to the weather but no - today is our new challenge at Try It On Tuesday and this time it's 'Hot and Wild' and the Design Team have some fabulous inspiration for you over on the blog. Some of us are 'hot', some of us are 'wild' and we hope you will join us - all the details are here! 

I have made a card for someone special

I started by dabbing some Brilliance pearly pink ink around the edge of the craft card and then dabbed Picked Raspberry distress paint and some of my trusty Adirondack copper on top

The corrugated card had it's edges run through some H2O's

I used a selection of papers including one for acrylic paint and some watercolour papers and splashed some orange red and yellow Brushos around before spritzing.

After stamping the Stampotique 'Strut your Stuff' bird several times  I cut three rectangles to fit the card and after mounting onto more Brushoed paper sprinkled on some Nail art beads as 'sand'

Although the little birds are looking a little wild, they clearly live somewhere hot, I imagine they know the words to 'Speedy Gonzales', a song I used to love in the sixties!

Thanks for looking, Chris

TIOT Design Team

Hello everyone, I am so excited and honoured today to show you my first piece as a DT member at 'Try it on Tuesday '! 

The theme is 'Hats' and you can see the fabulous inspiration from the team here

I chose one of my favourite Lynne Perrella ladies from Paper Artsy.
I resisted buying this set for so long but she is definitely a lady with style and she has had several outings! 
Some of you may remember Gertrude Shilling in the 60's who used to attend Ladies day at Ascot wearing the most outrageous hats - one of which was a tea cup and saucer - I have never forgotten it!!
Here is my lady

I started with a Kraft card and used Vintage Photo and Aged Mahogany   distress inks rubbed on randomly before spritzing to blend the colours.

I then rubbed the ink pad over some corrugated card that was torn roughly to size and stamped parts of a floral stamp over the card using Aged Mahogany.

I stamped the image onto a piece of newsprint paper that I painted over with PA Snowflake Fresco paint to give her the palour that Elizabethan ladies used to have, then coloured her in using distress inks.

Used the ink pad again on TH Tattered lace, a corner die and a scrap of paper.

I hope you like her. The sentiment is from a set I keep at our caravan
Please pop over to the Try It on Tuesday challenge and I do hope you will join us in this challenge.

Thanks for looking,Chris