Renaissance Mens! 2nd post in 2 Days!

   When I saw Anita Houston's challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, I was utterly fascinated by her idea and promptly got distracted Googling all her references and getting lost in art all evening (and watching chunks of the Olympics) I 'ummed and aarghed' about what to make and in the end decided to have a go at a canvas... not, as you will know if you follow my blog, my usual route at all. I'm quite proud of myself!

   A while ago, I bought a pad of canvas pages, I thought they might come in handy to stamp on and cut out for this and when I found the pad... BONUS! the drawing on the cover was Leonardo da Vinci's Vetruvian man (c.1487) albeit chopped up into 3 pieces... hmm... after about half a seconds thought the pad was in the photocopier providing the first piece of my homage to the Renaissance! It has been chopped up, wetted, distressed and torn and now resides proudly in the top right quadrant of my canvas looking like it has been there for hundreds of years. How lucky a fnd was that? 

   My main aim was to try and recreate the look of a Fresco/stylised working drawing using works by the Renaissance giants Anita Houston cited (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael)  2 extra influences here... One of my first jobs was in an Architects department of my local Council and I loved the style of architects drawings (still do) the second, my love of all things Holtzy... which has now extended to those amazing new stamps by Mario111 with those awesome 'working drawing' lines. How neat are they? He has inspired my daughter and I so much. Alas, I got so into merrily chucking every art supply I own at this canvas that I totally forgot to take photo's until I was most of the way through it DUH!

   I reckon I paid homage to everyone Anita mentioned. The cherub (bottom right) looks much clearer in real life but twas a be-atch to take a piccie of with my little camera!. Also, the pointy hand (Graphic 45) is paler in real life.My piccie makes it stand out like a sore thumb!LOL. Again, the real thing is very heavily textured and, still glowing in the proud aftermath of having my first article published in Craft Stamper, I was actually so chuffed with this canvas that I squiggled my initials at the bottom of it.

   I was pleased with all my rulers...'cos I made them! They are made from an Xcut embossing folder, embossed (well, what else!) Perfect Pearled, Distressed and chopped into pieces. Some got treated with the 'faux leather' technique... I am so loving this at the moment. Honestly, I'm like a puppy rampaging thru Blogworld. I even worked in a few Latin quotes... one of which is the motto of my town!

I'm so chuffed with this canvas, it makes me miss the days when I taught crafts... Wanna go back to it so much! Ending this now. Tim Holtz has posted his August tag, tis awesome... and I want to play. I don't think I have many of the ingredients and I can't wait to improvise. I hope you all have a good day. EDITED! Yay! I just found a little silhouette stamp my daughter got at a craft fair for a pound.... Happy Dance!

This is my entry for the Renaissance challenge over at Frilly and Funkie... do go check it out, there are some amazing pieces being posted. Renaissance Men Challenge

I managed to get a better photo of my little cherub by holding the canvas up to the light in the garden. I like the effect of this, I used the mask and swooshed clear embossing ink around it and then embossed it using Ranger Ultra thick Embossing Enamel. I wish I could show the depth of this finish, the canvas is sooh tactile and chunky.

As it has one of my favourite Tim Holtz sentiment stamps in the middle (Life is the Art of drawing without an erasor) I am also entering this into the 'what do you say?' challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Anything Goes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges

Fashion, Beep Beep, Fashion!

   Well! little did I know when I started making this tag, that a song would get lodged in my head and would end up changing the making fairly substantially. Recently, there have been a series of David Bowie concerts and documentaries on the BBC and I've watched them avidly as Bowie was such an influence on me during my teens and twenties. Still love his music now actually. Well, as I was hunting out the glitter card and my T!m Holtz dress form Die, the classic song Fashion (1980) popped into my head and got firmly fixed there, it's still there, I even Googled the lyrics! I tend to roll with these things, so I wrote chunks of them all over the tag and totally changed what I was going to do. I'm delighted with how this tag turned out and I'm still quietly singing that song... 
    I started with a plain white tag and covered it with Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink using a blending tool and then flicked it with water a la T!m Holtz. The background was then ghost stamped with a Rogue Redhead Designs Stamp and Picket Fence Distress Stain (I am totally hooked on stamping with this at the moment) I hand wrote lyrics all around the edges of the tag and added 3 T!m Holtz dress forms. I wanted to keep the tag simple as it didn't seem to need much else in the way of adornment. 
   I am entering this into several challenges, one of which is new for me. It fits nicely into Hels' Sunday Stamper Challenge 'More than words' as well as the Die Cut challenge at another of my favourite sites, Bloggers Challenge. I am also entering this into the Analogous colours challenge at Make My Monday (Oh yes, I now know what the word analogous means!) and the Hey Girl Challenge at the lovely Simon Says Stamp And Show.
   It's been another lovely warm day down here on the South Coast... Summer is outside the building! I had such fun making this tag and I was so pleased with the outcome, I'm still thinking of songs... mmmmm.... might be the B52's next, that, or GOTYE... or both!




sunday-stamper-week-215-more-than-words
bloggers-challenge-die-cuts
Make My Monday Challenge
Simon Says Stamp and Show - Hey Girl

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Dyan Reaveley Christmas Village!

Inspired by seeing all the new Christmas items from CHA (have you seen the fabulous photo's on T!m Holtz's blog? totally inspirational!) I actually made my first little Christmas offering this dull and dreary afternoon down on the South Coast of England. I surprised myself actually! normally, I wait months before doing anything Christmassy.

 Well, for this little fun project, I re purposed a very sturdy black box that had previously held Paperchase Christmas Cards (yeah... I know, I should make all my own cards, but after Christmas they are so irresistibly inexpensive) I  stamped a dotty background onto the top and sides of the box directly from the end of my Picket Fence Distress stain... I love the shape that it makes... I got quite carried away, but I loved it :)I used lots of glossy accents, glamour dust (the most versatile glitter ever) and non traditional Christmas colours to scribble colour the cute little houses (these are so cool) with Promarkers. I used a Picket Fence Distress Marker to make it snow.

I will add a sentiment later, I enjoyed making this even though it is totally different from my normal projects. I'll try anything these days! grungy, shabby, jolly... bring it on! I will probably use it for one of my daughter's Christmas pressies, we both adore little boxes and tins. 

Blogging really broadens the horizons artistically, I think it is because those of us who blog get so much exposure to the gorgeous things other people make, that maybe we widen our own boundaries without even realising it!


Welcome to my newest followers and thank you so very much  for following - I always try to visit blogs and come visit you back if I can (some of you don't have links to a blog)

I am entering this into the Anything Goes Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, I think it has a 50's vintage feel going on. Anything Goes

Tim Holtz Pen Nib Picket Fence Tag

Spring has Sprung

   When I started to get out the bits and pieces to create this tag, I was hunting to see if I had a suitable bird stamp. I did not! For someone who loves stamping as much as I do, I am woefully lacking in the stamp department, however... I have ingenuity by the bucketfull!
   Instead I cut out 2 images from a scrapbook pad (they were a plain royal blue and black) and Glossy Accented them. Part way through the drying process, I scored the wings with a needle to create a textured surface. Once everything was dry, I coloured with Promarker's.

   During my hunt,  I decided that my Tim Holtz Pen Nib stamps reminded me  a little of a fence and this igave me an idea for my tag.
   I knew I wanted to add lots of Spring things... I ended up with flowers, birds, butterflies and some cheeky little Indigoblu bunnies  (again, a freebie from Craft Stamper magazine) that snuck in there at the end.
    I also used lots of different stamping techniques which I really enjoyed - it is lovely to be able to create my own backing papers... most of this, I have learnt from blogging - thank you all!
   After lightly rubbing a plain tag with Vintage Photo and Broken China Distress ink, I used my favourite background stamp, the Almanac from Rogue Redhead Designs and Versamagic Sugarcane Ink to create a text background. I couldn't decide which embossing inks to use from the selection I had chosen, so I used all of them in different parts of the tag (Holographic, Clear, Dark Brown and a Faded Jeans Distress ink) I water splattered the tag and rubbed Frayed Burlap Distress Ink around the edges to close the tag.

I stamped a large Basic Grey floral stamp with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and embossed with holographic powder

Bird Detail showing 'scored' Glossy Accents 

My pen nib fence

Trying to show the glimmer! As ever, I had such fun making this!

Ihis to be my entry for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2012 April Tag: 12-tags-of-2012-april.html
and Lisa Somerville's Blogger Challenge here: For the Birds and the Spring Challenge at: Fashionable Stamping Challenges and the 'free' theme at: Crazy Amigo's and the Spring Challenge at: Creavil Challenges
I'm not used to adding blog hop links - my comments space has moved half a mile down this page! sorry xx