Patchy Backgrounds & Earlestown Market

Stop Press...Woo hoo! Paul of the Artsiders wins a small Blog Candy prize for posting a comment as my blog count hit 45,678!!!!

I spent an hour or two, yesterday, messing about and ended up making some cards using the backgrounds I produced. I was influenced by a painting I saw recently that had images painted over smudges and patches of colour. 

This  certainly doesn't portray my usual choice of bright hues but I do think that inner feelings, moods etc., really influence colour selection. I know someone who's mood I can predict by her artwork and I worry when her colour choice becomes too dark. Everyone will be keeping an eye on me now!! 

Colour has such a strong influence on our lives. I remember reading about a prison where the cells were painted a rich coral colour. At first violent prisoners calmed down radically when locked in these cells but then it was noticed that if they were kept in for more than 30 minutes they reverted to their violent behaviour and had to be moved. 

My late father suffered from frequent bouts of extremely bad migraine and his doctor advised him to seek green... to play billiards, to walk in green fields to look at green as much as possible and it certainly helped.

What influence does colour have on your life? What colours do you favour? Do you wonder why you prefer certain colours above others?

My favourite colours are cerise/purple shades or turquoise/jade shades, I'm Gemini so I've got to have two colour choices!!!... If I really had to, I think I'd choose purple above all others colours and I wear it often. I strongly do not like yellow/orange shades except in nature but I won't even choose yellow flowers for planting in my own garden.

Below, you'll see the backgrounds which look so different and blend in so well once images and texture pattern gets stamped over them.

Earlestown Market

Some friends took us to a North West Market in a place we had never before visited, despite travelling widely around this area and living nearby for over 30 years... we've missed it!. Earlestown is a really small place, well past it's original industrial grandeur, near to St Helens, and is only about 30 minutes from where we live, so it is amazing that we've never visited before. The market on Saturdays consists of bric-a-brac and antique stalls but  there is also a car boot area with so much tat it has to be seen to be believed. Well I found it fascinating and sooooo cheap and here are some of my finds!  

Cards of antique cotton buttons, some tiny mother of pearl buttons, and a pair of scissors ..... 50p the lot!

2 metres of Laura Ashley Fabric and a packet of paper lace trimmings......50p the lot....

Cards and cards of old fasteners.... 50p the lot!!

A lantern.... yes you're right.... 50p....

I just had to buy this soap (in a sealed packet) .... FRONT view

You can guess what it says on the other side!!

These bulbs are much cheaper than Mr Holtz's for £7.50.... mine were.... YES! 50p

 A teeny weeny pewter Teddy, I'll use in a shadow box.... certainly worth yet another 50p!

What a mess but it was quite an adventure but I loved it and this charming young man gallantly carried a stainless steel bin round for me until we returned to the car. BTW... I paid the princely sum of £2 for that unused bin! Not 50p!

There were some fascinating items I left behind too....

I bet this fellow wasn't 50p? 

Afterwards we visited the Forum Cafe facing the Market Square for a great English breakfast and a nice hot cuppa! I can't wait to go again and I'm saving up a big bag of 50p coins!!

WOYWW Tag Books & Pearl Maker

Whizzzzzz and I'm here again... was that only a day since the last WOYWW? It couldn't possibly be a whole week since we crafters shared our work desks with the blogging world. Well I've been making a mess with a few projects on my desk, tying up loose ends of things I started at CHA earlier in the year. Believe it or not, the tag folder above was meant to be a BOX, which I made on the Tsukineko Booth at CHA, but I never assembled it so it would pack flat in my suitcase. I decided instead to use the decorated card to make the above tag file. 

Still a few strawberries to be spotted on my desk, so it can't be toooo much of a mess, but all the chocoholics amongst you might recognise the collection of Bendicks Tubes Orange Bitters...Intensely gorgeously delicious and I adore them! I was given a tube as a gift from my friend Lynne but had difficulty in finding more until my really kind, thoughtful friend Paul, of Artsiders blog, tracked them down in Manchester for me. Well he's a chocoholic too so he understands!!! Thanks to Paul's generosity last Saturday the stock has increased yet again but I guarantee they won't last long!

Call in on the instigator of this great WOYWW idea if you are desperate to spy on lots more desks... our well loved and revered WOYWW MUM Julia of Stamping Ground. 

Here's the front of my tag file.

 Some of the tags.

A mini book with envelope pockets inside. Another project I brought home from America that I have, at last, got round to finishing.

 I dotted the centre of the flower with my recently purchased Pearl Makers.

 I find them really easy to use and very effective and they come in a variety of colours... here's a close up to show the detail.

Ian in Crafts4U2Do (in St Helens, where I bought them) gave me a good tip. If you aren't confident enough to apply them directly to artwork, then just dot the Pearl Makers onto acetate, let them dry, then peel them off and glue wherever you need them. Simples!

A huge THANK YOU to Twiglet from this little guy.....Isn't he gorgeous!!!??? 

(Pop over to her blog, Sisters Crafty Creations which is a joint venture with Twiglet's sister Wipso, to see all their range of fabulous items which are for sale in their blogshop.)

This is Baxter Mk2 who is now on his way to Germany to a very special little girl.

Stop Press... He has arrived in Germany... woo hoo!

WOYWWer Twiglet tracked him down on ebay and, even though the sale was closed, she wrote to the seller to reserve him and contacted me. Without Twiglet's kindness and thoughtfulness we wouldn't have found him. He has been packed off with a dozen eggs, Cadbury's Cream ones of course, and a dozen Hot+Buns to keep him sustained throughout his long journey. I didn't tell him he was going to hospital but I really don't think he'll mind when he sees his pretty new owner.

The quest for Baxter has been long and hard with ever increasing circles of friends and family joining the search through charity shops, toy boxes, cupboards and lofts. We appealed on BBC local radio and put ads in charity shops with no response. 

We have been donated some lovely Teds, including a special favourite one called Ana from a very kind 9 year old Amy, a friend's granddaughter (and who will be treasured as Baxter's girlfriend), but we had to have a real Baxter.

Thanks go to Marks & Spencer's, who sold the original, as they pulled out all stops at their chairman's office to try in vain to find a Baxter. They are sending one as near as possible via the manufacturer, but even they could not get a real Baxter.

Heartfelt thanks to all of you who joined the search, the panic is over, but if ever you come across another REAL Baxter we would gratefully accept a Baxter Mk3 so there will never be risk of loss or damage to the others during the little one's long course of treatment.

Art Doll Workshop

Don't miss the chance of some fab T!m blog candy from the STAMPMAN...
 see my side bar!
We have had such fun today at Vicky Stampers with Olive of Paraphernalia blog as our excellent tutor for an Art Doll workshop. I haven't made paper dolls since I was a kid but this is a whole new ball game and it was such a hoot!. Olive dressed in keeping with the subject of the class and she was a real doll!

There were ballerinas, mermaids, and glamour girls, amongst other styles and mine was the only male created as I had chosen to make the Mad Hatter so I could use up some of my stash of trimmings which I hoard for just such an occasion.

Here's the gang of tiny characters created by the group........

This dancer shows great movement and it's amazing from just a few pieces of card how elegantly she poses.

The friend of this mermaid had a strategically placed fig leaf which gave us all a good laugh when we saw it.

 I love the button boobs here!

Here's my Mad Hatter which was great fun to make..... move over Johnny Depp!

 Some people thought the girl on the left looks like someone from Eastenders.

 Posh ball gown... what's the occasion?

 I love the embossed look and the hair doos too.

Thanks to Olive and to everyone there for all the fun and friendship.

Shaving Foam & Elizabethan Cottage Tandoori

I'm still having fun marbling away but this time with shaving foam which gives a  far more subtle effect than the marbling I did on the eggs with "easy marble" in my earlier post. Above are some marbled component parts for a workshop I will soon be teaching.

Here's the simple process to create similar backgrounds....great fun too!

First squirt some shaving foam onto an old baking tray, or similar container, and spread it out with a squeegee or spatula. Just don't be tempted to use your kitchen ones as they'll end up smelling perfumed from the foam. I acquired this jazzy one for 50p at a car boot sale. The foam I buy from £1 shops or as bargains in supermarkets and my last one was by Gillette at 99p from Tesco and it smells so good.

Drop blobs from 2 or 3 shades of ink, reinkers, colour washes, paints, dyes... try whatever you have in stock, then use a kebab stick point to make swirls and feathered lines through the blobs of colour. It needs a bit more than in my photo below.

I usually spritz my card lightly so it is more absorbent then I lay the card on top to pick up the colours.

Lift off the card. It's also a good tip to lay another piece of card onto the coloured foam of the card you lift off, sandwiching them together, thus getting two for the price of one! Scrape and lightly rinse off the foam then leave the card to dry.

Simples and it will smell lovely!

This, above, looks so much better, below, after rinsing and drying.

These die cuts were from the "extra" card made from the card lifted from the foam and are slightly more subtle but perfect for one of my planned projects.

Here's a post I forgot I had prepped from our last trip to Brighton in February. I love these window designs below.

As we drive into Brighton, along the London Road, we often remark on the anomaly of the name of the black and white timbered, Elizabethan Cottage Tandoori Restaurant ... I think it sounds so hilarious! After passing it for more than a decade of visiting our DD1 in Brighton, we decided that we would go there for a meal and we are so glad we did. I can recommend their fabulous food and our only, somewhat nitty picking, complaint was that the service was a little too charmingly attentive, but better that than not.

I just had to photograph these fascinating interior window panels

Marbling Ideas and Info

After my WOYWW post quite a few of you have asked for info on how I did my marbling so I'm doing an extra post today with photos of the simple stages. I've played around with several inks but I find the easy marble pots really are the easiest and are readily available at art or craft shops. 

Whilst there are more detailed and complex methods here I'm doing it the simple way and marbling with water as the carrier so it's best and easier to just use the right paint.

Note that the paint is not permanent , just decorative, and therefore will not wash. Here's the link for Marabu who make them.

To decorate the eggs you'll need a large jam jar of water (not too full so it doesn't overflow when items are plunged), kebab skewers (around £1 for 100) a piece of wire or a pointy tool, plastic eggs, 3 or more colours of easy marble paints. HobbyCraft have eggs quite cheaply BTW.
Late note... found packets of 12 eggs at The Works for 99p... (make sure you get the plastic ones as they also have polystyrene eggs which aren't quite as effective.)

Drip 3 or 4 drops of each colour onto the surface of the water.

Swirl around with the tip of a metal point

Push a skewer into a plastic egg then plunge into the water, twisting as it goes down. It doesn't look too good yet and it is serendipity as to the results achieved.

It is fascinating to see what emerges.

Sometimes just amazing!

Add tags and ribbons and they can then be displayed amongst Spring greenery for Easter

I also tried marbling shapes cut out of white mountboard and I think this has great prospects for more experiments.

These cut outs were all dipped into the colours in the jam jar exactly in the same way as the eggs but I pushed a cocktail stick into each item or held it with tweezers.

All these items can be stamped, decorated with flowers, gems, glitter etc, depending on their final use.

If you want to marble pieces of card then have the water in a bigger flat tray slightly bigger than the card to be marbled so the inks do not waste. You only then need to add drops for the surface area needed.

With an extra swirl this tray of water produced this result on card....

The small piece of card, bottom right, was made by picking up the residue ink in the tray.

I hope this inspires you to have a play and have fun... I did !!!