Mail art

Hello everyone, well its a lovely sunny Easter Sunday here in the south, not as cold today so windows have been thrown open (and blowing the dust around the house) and the washing is actually on the line (I am hoping its above freezing otherwise it will be interesting when I bring the washing in!!).

The postie brought the expected bills yesterday but also this lovely mail art from Virginia over at the http://collabor-art.blogspot.co.uk

Isn't it lovely? It now on the wall of my craft room, thanks Virginia (and thanks to Donna for convincing me to join the group).

Right....off to get inky and find some tunes on Spotify

Happy crafting

kyla

 

Make Time to Create

 Hello all, I hope those of you who have time off of work are enjoying it (extra crafting time!!).

Blimey its cold here in the UK at the moment, the ice in the back garden hasn't defrosted for 2 weeks now....luckily the craft room is the smallest in the house and bathes in the sunlight so its the warmest!!

My new make is a new stamp.  On my WOYWW a few weeks ago I had a pack of 10 round rubber discs which only cost me £2.50 (25p each---bargain!).

Now I have admired the folky art girls that have been around in books and blogland for some time, so I thought I would have a go.  Now, drawing and me are not natural friends but I thought if I managed to draw one I liked then by capturing it in a stamp would mean that I could replicate the face time and time again.

So here she is:

 

I decided to create a picture on a canvas covered board using the new stamp.

I spread some texture paste through a number stencil at random points on the board.  Top right I spread some through a clock face that I liberated from an old desk clock I was throwing away and added some clock hands (made from wooden drink stirrers I pick up from coffee shops!)

I added lots of acrylic layers, pinks and yellows with blue, green and black over the top for depth.  I then dribbled some acrylic inks down the board.  

I stamped "Make Time to Create" on tissue paper and adhered it with multi medum and added the girl cut out of various papers and distressed them with inks.  I coloured her face with oil pastels so I could blend the colours.

I highlighted a few areas with both black and white chinagraph pencils and gave the piece a quick spray of matt varnish to seal.

The saying is so true to me, I spend hours at the pay the bill job and think about it almost constantly when I am not there.....it drags me down and the best way to relax, for me at least, is to create something, be it fabric, ink, paper or resin....but finding the time is difficult-I think I need to schedule some time for it in my diary, even if its only 30 minutes a day.

Anyway, its a bank holiday, housework is nearly finished...so the warmth of the craft room beckons!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A quick and almost free card!

 Hello peeps...are you ready for Easter? Time off work and choccys on standby??

So, time off work can only mean one thing for me...crafting time!!  Woo hoo!

I was busy today round a friends house making a new skirt (yep sewing!!....I will blog that later in the weekend when I have some photos) and am waiting on the varnish to dry on a painting, whilst I wait for that I thought I would blog a Marilyn Monroe card I recently made.

 The picture is actually from some wallpaper border samples that cost me nothing from a local DIY store (yep, I liberated stuff to be upcycled and crafted with....me?  who'd have thought that!).

I added some Tim Holtz film strip and used my TH Tiny Attacher to adhere it (I SO love my tiny attacher and use it on so many different projects).

So, a very cheap card and took only a few minutes to make....bargain!

Happy Easter and happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

 Happy WOYWW...again!!!  Seriously, how come Fridays don't come round this quickly?!

So on my desk this week is my new key storage box, on the left is my latest stamp I have carved (more of that in a few days when i have played with it properly), happy and very dirty fingers and my latest resin creations.

I made these resin letters using a chocolate mold.  Once set I painted them with black acrylic (you can see I don't often use paintbrushes by the state of my fingers!!) and dried it hard with a heat gun so that the paint bubbled and created a bit of texture.  I then added some gilding wax to highlight areas and added some satin varnish (applied yet again with my fingers!!).  I have NO idea what to do with these, I am sure inspiration will strike at some point!!

If you'd like to share your desk, or even have a legal snoop at workdesks across the globe, you can pop over to the lovely Julia's blog here 

Happy Crafting

Kyla

ps - just noticed I missed my 'Man Bites Dog' cards this week!!  First time in I  think nearly a year!  oops!  Next week they will be back (honest!)

Keys, keys and more keys

 Hello, are you keeping warm? It's really chilly here, who'd have thought it was Easter at the end of the week?!! (2 pairs of socks, electric blanket and hot toddy..and I am STILL cold!!...come on...its nearly April...this time last year it was 23 degrees and we were basking in the sun!!...what a difference a year makes!).

Anyway, back to craft....Tracey, one of the lovely Coven, passed me a bag of keys her partner collected for me...aren't they lovely...ooh, so many ideas. 

With such a haul I decided my box could be made into key storage, I added some letters and a die cut key, I painted them all with acrylic, stippled some crackle paint on top and added some green and gold wax to hi-light the texture.

Right, I am off to put ANOTHER layer on and turn the heating up!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Who'd have thought it...and its free!

 Well, this is the cardboard box from the chemist...you know, the one I mentioned in the WOYWW posting (or as Donna put it in the comments..."from the clap clinic!").  Now, I didn't need it....I don't want you to think that!!  BUT when I was in BOOTS I noticed that there was a pile of lovely thick cardboard boxes which screamed "cute storage"...and I like to think of myself as resourceful (and to be honest I would rather spend my money on craft stash rather than storage)...I couldn't resist!

I gesso'd the box (to remove the dodgy STD labels!!) and added some texture paste through a stencil, I then used a variety of acrylic paints and wiped them back to produce different layers of colour.

There you go, a nice sturdy box ready for holding some crafty stash (I am thinking of using it for my charcoal pencils as they make my case a bit messy)....all for free!!

If you have any free storage tips, I'd love to know.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

Happy WOYWW

On my desk this week is....a can of ginger beer (love ginger, I drink ginger tea, eat fresh ginger, drink fizzy ginger...you get the idea!), a plastic pot at the back that I wash my brushes out, a cardboard box I am painting to decorate...its a lovely little box that I think will be good for storage (you'll never guess what its from.....I will post at the end!!) and a canvas board that I have decided to paint (I have only gesso'd and given a coat of texture paste so far).

My Man Bites Dog cards this week are "Cruel MOB boss rips off thousands"....never a truer word said as I write this whilst listening to the budget being announced!!

 

If you fancy joining the legal snoop across the globe, then pop over to the lovely Julia's blog here 

 

Happy Crafting

 

Kyla

 

 


NB
The cardboard box?  Well, in the UK you can pick up free STD tests in chemists.....they come complete with a lovely thick cardboard box and also a small plastic test tube (perfect for beads I am thinking)!!!!  I am always on the lookout for free stuff I can use!!!

A different take on a wedding card

Spring Equinox  tomorrow and snow forecast!!

Looking back over my blog posts I noticed I haven't posted the card I made for my brother's wedding.  He and Zoe were married in Ecuador a few weeks ago (where they live).

I used some TH papers and made a patchwork out of them, toning them down with a wash of gesso.  I then added an ATC I made (with the TH die I won when I was lucky enough to go to the TH paperarsty event a couple of years ago) and added a moth paperartsy die and stamp, some torn corrugated cardboard and a pen nib for the moths body

I added the word 'journey' to represent the journey they are starting with their new life.

I wish them every happiness in their new life together

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

 

Postcard from America

Hello peeps, I hope you are all ok and those of you with snow are keeping warm.

Only a quick post today to say thanks to Jane Davies at the post office in Rupert Vermont.  A few blog posts ago I mentioned that via the cloth, paper, scissors blog she runs the small country post office, threatened with closure and asked fellow crafters to send in handmade post cards to boost numbers going through the office!!

Well I did, and look what I got in return.

 

A post card of one of her paintings of the post office (isn't it the cutest one ever!!).

All the details if you would like to see all the postcards she has already received (wow, there are a LOT) can be found here 

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Wednesday again....boy it really does come round quickly!

So, this week on my desk...well, its not my desk its actually my dining room table.  Why?  Well I have decided to get my sewing machine out and make a special gift for someone, lots of free machine embroidery and hand sewing so I need to spread out!

My hubby drew the 'Man Bites Dog' cards this week...."340lb blonde lady wanted priest"!!!  Considering what is happening at the vatican this week I couldn't believe that he randomly drew a priest from the pack!!

So, what's on your workdesk this week?  Clean?  Messy? Craving some organisational tips?....then head over here to the fabulous Julias blog and have a legal snoop around desks across the globe, go on....you know you want to!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

March 365 Journal Challenge

 Hello peeps, are you wrapped up warm?....we are having another chilly spell here in the uk, -10 in the wind (now, I know this is nothing to some of you...but we are used to damp weather, we don't do cold very well!)!!

Are you taking part in Kate Crane's 365 journal challenge?  No? Well all the deets can be found here

Basically its a small jounalling every day for a year.  I am in my 2nd year, its so easy, it only takes a couple of minutes a day, and its great looking back over the year and remembering some of the small things that have happened.

I decided to go with cheerful blues, purples, greens, turquoise and yellows to brighten up the days! 

 I love Octopodes Mad March Hare stamp so I decided to hide a couple of them in amongst the flowers! 

He looks like I feel some days!!

I have also decided to enter the Mad as a March Hare over at http://alteredalice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/chapter-25-mad-as-march-hare.html 

Enjoy the snow if you have it...I am off for a warming hot toddy!

Happy Crafting 

Kyla

 

365 journal challenge - February

Hello peeps, I hope your weekend is going well.
I finished my February page of Kate Cranes 365 challenge.  I cannot believe I am in the 2nd year of doing this challenge!  

It seemed fitting for it to be all pinks and reds, what with it being the month of love (as well as my birthday!).

I die cut some hearts, coloured them with inks and added some random scribbled words before edging them with the sewing machine.

Now some of the squares are a quick summary of my day, others are a little sketch. The black witches hats are the evenings I go to our Craft 'Coven' and the tooth is when I visited the dentist (well, a tooth is easy to draw!).

If you get a moment I recommend checking out the wonderfully talented Kate Cranes blog here to see all the wonderful challenge entries.

Happy crafting

Kyla
 

My first encaustic canvass

Cast your mind back 15 years...what were you up to? My hair was extremely short and spikey and I lived in black and purple striped tights with teeny tiny demin shorts, purple and green (hand painted) doc martins and a hand painted leather jacket!!!  (no there are no photos!!).

At this time I discovered encaustic painting.  I used to paint with wax, an iron and a paint stripper.  After a couple of years I must admit I wasn't too bad.  I was lucky enough to be awarded a permit by Bath chamber of tourism and commerce to sell them on the streets of Bath.

Wind forward 15 years and after a clearing out session I came across my old kit!  Now, I am not really into this sort of thing any more (they still look great, its my tastes that have changed) but after doing a bit of research (mostly on Cloth Paper Scissors site, SO love that magazine) I realised that I could use the clear wax blocks as a way of finishing off some of my collage work that I have been experimenting with (I have never tried collage before and I must admit I am loving the experimenting!) as an encaustic top layer.

So, a few weeks ago, my mum went to Ecuador for my brothers wedding and I took a day off work and spent it painting with my dad.  It was a fabulous day, we are both reasonably new to acrylics so we are learning things together.

I built up layers on the canvass with acrylic paints, acrylic inks and some dylusion ink sprays through a stencil.  I added some black paint through some sequin waste and distressed the edges with some vintage photo distress ink.

I then added some torn vintage music paper (again dyed with DI) and adhered them with multi medium.

I stamped the heart and the saying onto tissue paper (I am constantly saving tissue paper when I find any...on birthday gifts, wrapped round cosmetics....if its free I try to use it!!) and once again stuck it to the canvass. The tissue paper literally "disappears" into the canvass and you hardly notice the edges at all!


I added some charcoal around the music paper and heart to add a little depth.

I then melted the encaustic wax with my iron and dripped it all over the canvass.  Once covered I then ironed the piece to smooth all the waxed layers and gave it a final buff to bring out the shine.

For a first attempt I am quite pleased I will definitely do it again. My dad painted a fabulous blue canvass which he later added stamped flowers and butterflies onto.  It was a great day and one I hope to be able to do again.

Kyla
 

WOYWW

It's that time of the week again when people up and down the craft world say "Wednesday?  Again....where on earth did the past week go?"  Yes, it is that time where we all have a legal snoop at desks across the globe, some make us green with their lovely crafts and amazing organising, others give a wry smile as we realise we are not alone.

All of this can be found at the lovely Julia's blog here

So on my desk this week is my 365 journal as I have finished my March page (I will post a full piece on it over the next few days), at the back is a finished postcard that I plan to send (thanks to Donna convincing me to take the mail art plunge!!) and in the pack to the back right of my desk are a set of 10 round lino blanks (well, not actual lino but a softer easier to cut variety much easier on my hands).  I found these for £2.50 and thought that was quite a bargain.

My Man Bites Dog cards this week "Mayor Snubs Movie Star"...interesting as I live in Bristol, the only other city in England that voted to elect a mayor (the other of course being London).  Ours appears to be a cool mayor though as last week he slept rough with about 60 others to raise money for a local homeless charity!  I'd like to see some of our MP's do that!!

Anyhow, I am really late posting this (its nearly bedtime on Wednesday)...but at least I made it, and that's what counts!

I hope you are all having a crafty time

Kyla