REST!

Hi and welcome! At the moment I'm having heaps of fun experimenting with different mediums to make background papers, some of which I've used to create the layout for this month's ARTastic challenge. The added criteria was to use wood veneer.

The background was part of a paper created in a class held at timetocreate last month. On this we sponged paper soft- colour, through different-sized stencils. This paper soft is a wonderful product which gives fabulous effects. The shapes made were stamped. In the white sections remaining I added some of my tangled patterns with a black sharpie. I also used green, purple, copper and gold sharpies to some sections of the design.
The leaves were made from another piece of background paper I had made last year, using a distress ink smooshed tissue paper glued onto cardstock. This was then stamped with distress and archival inks.
To go with the quirky inspiration art piece, I used a photo of a tawny family from a few years ago. The youngster was definitely AD/HD and stayed awake quite  few hours during the day when it (and parents) should have been sleeping. This was just one of the photos we were able to capture of its antics!

The wood veneer came into play with the speech bubbles, title, butterflies, leaves and owl.
To complete the piece I added some fibres.

Pop on over to artasticchallengeblog to check out what the team has done with this amazing artwork.
Thank you for coming by. Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

CUNJEVOI SURPRISE

Hi and welcome. Just a quick post and an entry into a challenge I've not been to before.
At Crafts -Too Challenge You the criteria is for the craft piece to be about the natural world... with a twist. The twist this fortnight is to add wings (real or fantasy). Pop on over to:
http://c2cu.blogspot.co.uk to have a look.

My layout is showing butterflies (chipboard: small ones coloured with distress stains and then with liquid pearls to give a jewel-like shimmer; the larger one coloured with Opals embossing powder). Part of the background paper has been stamped with dragonflies. This was altered printed cardstock,- paper I didn't particularly like, smooshed over with distress inks, including Black Soot, after  highlighting some aspects with white crayon, which acted as a resist. The paper was then buffed off to reveal the lighter sections, before stamping with archival inks.
The photos were taken at a rainforest park near Lismore. The plant is a native one: a cunjevoi. These I've seen about for years, but on this occasion, they were in flower... the first time I'd seen them flowering... quite unusual!

Thank you for stopping by. Catch you again soon. Cheers, Di

String Prints

Hi and welcome. Today I'm showing a very old method of printing, which I first used at Teacher's College, and then again with a number of students in classes during the years I was teaching. This string block method is also my entry for ABAC Challenge 11, where you were to feature anything that could be theoretically tied. Pop on over to http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca to see the DT makes and other great entries.
Mark-making, as my friend Julie at http://timetocreate-handmadetreasure.blogspot.com.au often advocates, is a fantastic way to make a unique paper, and with printing marrying up with other techniques you truly will have something that cannot be replicated, even by yourself. It allows for experimentation using different mediums and is a great way to alter those 'unloved' papers that often languish around in our stash.
String block printing is a simple process. All you need are: blocks of wood (I've used pine off-cuts which have been lightly sanded to remove sharp edges), PVA glue and string (or any other fibre.... I've used some wools in different textures and thicknesses as well as string).
First, PVA is generously applied to the face of the wood, fibre put down in a pattern, or as in the case of one of the wools, just stretched out (it featured netting strips, bobbles and wisps of wool) and everything left to dry.



Wood blocks showing string and wool designs ready for printing and below, some of the prints using the above blocks.

Then the fun of printing. I experimented with Distress Ink, but found this needed frequent application to get a repetitive print. In the end I went with Distress Stains and had some great results. The best came from the wool. These, with just a small application of stain gave fantastic paper coverage. I ended up with two, 12x12 backgrounds and one A4, from the one application..... a little really did go a long way. I've made 7 print blocks so far but will make more, varying the sizes so I can vary the fibres being used. ( It's also a great way to recycle bits of string and other fibrous packaging, and bits of ribbon and lace that may be too small to use elsewhere).

This post leaves me thinking of everyone effected by yet another weekend of natural disasters in Australia, with the east coast of Qld and NSW being hit by torrential rain, cyclonic winds and severe flooding. Where I am, is safe from flooding, but we have certainly been feeling the force of the wind, the worst I have experienced in my 30 years here. Wherever you are, take care and be safe.

Thank you for stopping by. I love knowing if you have visited. Cheers, Di