Pink birds make me happy!!

They do, especially the ones I added to this layout. Now it started by watching a video on the Paper Artsy blog. Should you want to see, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sgBOi_DBkM&feature=c4-overview&list=UUs9MVeZCc8hFqi2_T7ygsfA 

This was made by using a stone background stencil and plastering paste (they use grunge paste in the video which I didn't have and I found that normal texture paste doesn't work, you need something firmer than that. So I bought a cheap tube of plastering paste and that worked wonderfully. After pasting it through the stencil you have to leave the stencil on, and then take a stamp (I used a script stamp) which you have to wet slightly (not too much), and then stamp in the wet paste. After you stamped to your liking you remove the stencil.

After drying I painted with a combination of acrylic paints I liked. Then I diluted a dark purple paint with some water, thus creating a wash which collects in the deeper parts. And then as a final step, after that has dried thouroughly, you sand the stencilled parts which brings out some white here and there. Don't you just love the effect of this technique??

Now for the birds I mixed a bright pink embossingpower with a glittery embossingpower. The pink was too bright for my liking, and the glitterpower too pale and translucent. Love this combination though. So here's a picture of the other side of the inclusion showing the text on the other side:

Around the edges of the birds I used a grey Faber Castel Pitt pen to make some shadow and round the edges of the pages I used a brown Pitt pen in order to 'frame' the pages. The Pink birds words were made with pink chipboard letters, and the words on this picture were stamped on. I added a background stamp here and there on the page in purple Stazon. And on the left page you see a pink feather, and yes, it's a real one.

I hope you like my spread, I was very happy with this one, it just came together so easily! Have a great Wednesday, hugs Frea
Challenges:
http://partytimetuesdays.blogspot.nl/2013/08/ptt135-anything-goes.html
http://craft-roomchallenge.blogspot.fi/2013/08/something-new.html
http://lexiscreations.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-97-and-winners-of-96.html
http://fitztownchallengeblog.blogspot.fi/2013/08/challenge-7-add-sparkles.html

http://createdwithlovechallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/08/cwlc-55-anything-goes.html
http://www.craftindesertdivas.com/search/label/Linky%20Party
http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-67-your-choice.html
http://www.twistedtuesdaychallenges.blogspot.nl/2013/08/2tc57-pink-as-all-outdoors.html

The letter O at the Craft Barn and I picked 'ornament'.

Right ladies, this time I actually am on time LOL!  So, I picked the word 'ornament', and for this page I made my own ornaments.

I started by gessoing the page making sure I left the word open. Then I took some Faber Castel Gelatos in the colours Guava, Watermelon and Raspberry. I used them dry and blended the colours with my fingers which works wonderfully when you do it on a gessoed later. The grungy hearts you see in the background were made with a stencil and a baby wipe which takes away the gelato.

I marked my work choice with a permanent pen and used Indian Ink to make the ink splatters. The strips you see are leftover design papers which I glued down with gel medium before gessoing the page. I accentuated the strips with a Faber Castel Pitt pen in the olour Middle Purple Pink no. 125.

Here is a close up picture of one of my homemade ornaments. I used Mold Mods to make them, painted them black and added some Rubb and Buff in a gold colour.

I'm pretty happy with the result and I especially like those ornaments. Well, I'm off to enter that Craft Barn Challenge. Have a great weekend you all!
Hugs Frea
http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.ca/2013/08/alpha-dictionary-challenge-letter-o.html

FInally, the month of July, and I haven't even started August....

Hi my lovelies, how have you been? I must sound like Alice in Wonderland's rabbit; I'm late, I'm late!
So, here's my July page, and goodness me, August is more than halfway gone and I haven't even started on it yet! Anhyhow, this was another happy accident page, but more about that later.
I started out with my background using Lemon Zest, Fresh Lime and Dried Martini.

I used a brick wall stencil and Dried Martini in the background. When I was on holiday in France I bought a lovely clear stamp set for the 'huge' amount of € 2,50, and this lovely fairy was part of it together with lovely swirls. Boy that's a lot of  'lovelies' LOL!

To make the little squares for the days, I gessoed a piece of paper, and then sprayed Dylusions Campo teal, London blue and a little bit of Lemon Zest on. Then came my accident, because I bought a roll of kitchen paper in France and it had this embossed pattern on it. I've used that type of paper before for blotting the Dylusion ink, but the pattern always disappeared after drying. Not the case here!! The pattern remained and looked stunning! Have a look.....

Now I found some pictures in a magazine, that are really nostalgic here in the Netherlands. You used to get them free, with a certain brand of biscuits in the sixties. I fussy cut them and glued them on the page with mat gel medium.

I stamped the letters with an alphabet I've had for ages by Autumn Leaves called Freestyle Alphabet.

I really hope you like my page. Now let's see if I can find some challenges. Obviously I am too late to enter Kate's challenge with my July page.
Challenges:
 http://cisforchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-4.html
http://www.ladyanneschallenges.com/stamp-challenge.html
http://www.craftysentiments.blogspot.nl/2013/08/colourful.html
http://craftingbydesigns.blogspot.nl/2013/08/mixed-media-challenge.html
http://cheerfulstamppad.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-67-your-choice.html
http://www.craftindesertdivas.com/search/label/Linky%20Party
http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/08/the-pink-elephant-challenge-tpe213.html
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/2013/08/let-your-imagination-fall-into-fairy.html

D stands for 'Dragon' and Copics on ordinary copying paper???

Hi girls, Frea here, and I've made my Craft Barn page for the letter D. I picked the word 'dragon' since I had this lovely Kenny K. image called 'Dragonrider', which fitted perfectly. I printed it on regular printer paper, because I wanted it to be large enough to fit over both pages, otherwise the details would be so small they would become very hard to colour. I wanted to colour with Copics, but proper Copic paper was too thick to get it into the fold of the pages. To my total surprise, I was able to blend the Copics on this absorbant copying paper in a way I never expected. Makes you wonder if it is actually nescesary to by special papers for Copics.......

I started this page with making my own Glimmer Mist by mixing some Dylusion Campoo Teal in a spray bottle with water and adding Perfect Pearls Gold to it. I sprayed that all over the page. After drying I splashed some waterdrops which gave the light spots on the page.

 

I fussy cut the dragon, and then glued it down with mat gel medium. However, the paper is so thin, it absorbed some of the Dylusion underneath. On the dragon I didn't really mind, but I did repaint it's rider with skincoloured acrylic paint. The Copics do not give enough coverage to make the turqoise spots disappear.

On the sides I used a stencil with a Celtic woven image and gold texture medium. Now with that medium, the same thing happened as with the paper. It absorbed some of the Dylusion ink which gives it a lovely corroded look. Again, an unexpected effect and I love it!!

So, that's it, I stamped some chicken wire with Stazon teal in the background (not that chicken wire would hol a dragon LOL)!! Hope you like my page, hugs Frea

Nederlands nu:
Deze pagina heb ik gemaakt voor de Craft Barn woordenboek van de letter D en ik koos het woord 'dragon', draak. Ik had namelijk een Kenny K stempel die Dragonrider heet en die hier prima voor geschikt was. Ik ben begonnen met Campoo Teal Dylusion met wat water in een spuitflesje te mensen en heb daar goudkleurige Perfect Pearls aan toegevoegd. Op die manier heb je eigenlijk een soort van Glimmer Mist gemaakt. De stempel heb ik geprint op gewoon printerpapier. Ik wilde 'm met Copics inkleuren, maar Copics papier is veel te dik om in de vouw van de pagina's te krijgen. Ik had verwacht dat er maar moeilijk schaduw aan te brengen zou zijn omdat printerpapier te veel absorbeert, maar uiteindelijk bleek dat het resultaat niet onaardig te noemen is. Wellicht dat Copics papier niet eens zo noodzakelijk is om met Copics te kleuren....
Ik heb de draak uitgeknipt en opgeplakt met mattte gel medium. Toen bleek dat door het dunne papier, de Dylusion kleur eronder door het papier heen kwam. Op de draak zelf vond ik dat niet zo erg, maar zijn berijdster heb ik met huidkleurige acrylverf overgeschilderd.
Op de randen heb ik een stencil gebruikt met een prachtig Keltisch motief en goudkleurige reliefpasta.  Al tijdens het drogen bleek dat ook daar de Dylusion kleur hier en daar opgenomen werd door die pasta wat een prachtig corrosie effect geeft. Onbedoeld dus iets leuks ontdekt!
Ben weer benieuwd wat jullie ervan vinden. Groetjes Frea

http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.ca/2013/08/alpha-dictionary-challenge-letter-d.html

A new page in my Donna Downey journal.

The other day I bought this magazine called The Flow, and it had the picture of Helen Keller, who was both deaf and blind, a publised author, political activiste and teacher. She lived from 1880-1968. It also had her quote saying: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart." I just loved that quote.
Now it so happened that a while back France Papillon, who makes the most wonderful video's on You Tube, (you should check her out: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3lkm39DsSZUqRGJg5REtFg) had bought this old French journal from 1898, and offered some pages from the journal as a candy for her followers. I was the lucky girl who won some, and of course this was the perfect opportunity to use a page.

I started by mixing a turqoise and teal coloured acrylic paint with some gel medium. I made sure the coloures were not mixed in completely so there was a marble like effect. I then put it on the page with a spatula. After drying I took a piece of quilting cotton that had a really antique look. I frayed the edges a little and stuck it to the page with doublesided sticky paper.

The journal page was torn and then glued down with mat gel medium, and so were the picture of Hellen Keller and the quote which I cut into strips. I distressed everything before gluing it down with Walnut Stain Distress ink.

As a last touch a went around the page with a blck Pitt pen which I smeared with my finger. That 'frames' the page nicely. I so hope you like my page. Hugs Frea

Nederlands nu:
Ik kocht laatst het tijdschrift De Flow, en daarin stond een stukje over de schrijfster, politiek activiste en lerares Hellen Keller die zowel doof als blind was. Ze leefde van 1880 tot 1968. Nu heb ik een tijdje geleden oude Franse dagboek pagina's uit 1898 gewonnen bij France Papillon, ze maakt geweldige video's over art journalling op You Tube, dit is haar kanaal: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3lkm39DsSZUqRGJg5REtFg). Zij had het journal gekocht en gaf een aantal pagina's weg als candy. Natuurlijk waren die super geschikt om op deze pagina te verwerken.
De ondergrond heb ik gemaakt door turqoise en tealkleurige acrylverf te mengen met gel medium, maar dan zo dat de kleuren zich niet helemaal vermengden. Daardoor ontstond een soort marmer effect. Dat heb ik met een spatel opgebracht. Vervolgens heb ik na droging een lapje quiltstof met een antiek uiterlijk aan de kanten wat gerafeld en met dubbelzijdig klevend papier opgeplakt. Ik heb een stukje van een pagina gescheurd en met gel medium opgeplakt. Daarna heb ik de foto opgeplakt en het citaat van Helen Keller dat ik in stukjes had geknipt eroverheen. Het citaat betekent zoveel als: "De beste en mooiste dingen in de wereld kunnen niet gezien worden of zelfs maar aangeraakt - ze moeten worden gevoeld met het hart." Het sprak me enorm aan.
Als laatste heb ik langs de randen van de pagina nog wat distressing aangebracht met een zwarte Pitt pen. Op de acrylverf kan de oostindische inkt die in de pen zit met de vinger enigszins uitgeveegd worden wat een distressed effect geeft.
Ik hoop dat jullie het een mooie pagina vinden. Tot gauw!! Groetjes Frea
Challenges:
http://bearlymine-challenges.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-99-anything-goes.html
http://www.craftdoormagazine.com/2013/08/ttcrd-august-13-20-challenge.html
http://asimplefive.blogspot.nl/2013/08/inspire-me-fridays-115-anything-goes.html
http://brownsugarchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-54-anything-goes.html
http://challenges4everybody.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/challenge-26-anything-goes.html
http://paper-craftingjourney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/distressed-vintage-challenge.html

I'm back, and just too late to enter my letter T at the Craft Barn.

Hi ladies, I'm back from my holiday in France! Had a fabby time, hot weather and a little whirlwind which came up in about a minutes time and was really scary. Spent the evening without electricity and our band couldn't perform. However, singing on an out of tune piano in the dark with only candles did add to the atmospere the evening and it was very memorable.
So, I made my letter T for the Craft Barn Challenge, but unfortunately the collection already closed and I am too late. Bummer, but I still want to show you my page. I picked the word: TANTRUM, because I have this lovely LOTV stamp of a little girl throwing one LOL! It so reminds me of my daughter Kyra when she was small.

I made the background with Twinkling H2O's en Creative paints which gave it this lovely shimmer which unfortunately doesn't really show on the picture. 

I coloured the stamp with Copics; the ribbon of her present, also the bit on the floor, were painted with creative paints. I painted her crown with golden Perfect Pearls diluted with water. I then gave it some purple pearls with a Via Perlen Pen. I stamped some swirls in the background and added a shadow around the diecut shape with a black Faber Castell Pitt Pen.

In Germany I bought this golden dimensional paste and it works wonderful. Great effect. I made this lovely corner with a new Andry Skinner stencil and some chicken wire. Of course I took out too much and to I added some more chicken wire on the other page, just because...LOL!

And I still owe you the word I picked, so here it is, and doesn't she depict it perfectly?!

Hope you enjoyed this page, I certainly enjoyed making it. This coming week will be a busy one, even though it's my last holiday week. Putting all the tables back into my classroom en preparing for the new schoolyear, so there will be little blogging time. Oh well, it's for a good cause right?! Hugs Frea

Hallo dames, terug van mijn vakantie in Frankrijk; heerlijk was het! Ik heb dus mijn pagina met de letter T gemaakt, maar was net te laat om nog mee te doen. Balen. Maar ik wil 'm jullie niet onthouden. Ik koos het woord Tantrum, wat zoveel betekent als boze bui of driftbui, en ik heb deze prachtige LOTV stempel die het woord perfect weergeeft.
Ik heb de achtergrond gemaakt met Twinkling H2O's en Creative paints waardoor deze een prachtige glans heeft wat jammer genoeg niet te zien is op de achtergrond.
Het stempeltje heb ik ingekleurd met Copics; het lint van het cadeautje, ook dat op de grond en de rok van haar jurkje hebben wat glans gekregen door Creative Paints. Haar kroontje heb ik met goudkleurige Perfect Pearls, aangelengd met water geschilderd en met een paarse Viva perlen pen pareltjes gegeven. Op de achtergrond heb ik nog wat swirls gestempeld. Rondom de uitgestanste vorm heb ik met een zwarte Faber Castell Pitt pen een schaduw aangebracht.
In Duitsland had ik een tube met goudkleurige textuurpasta gekocht, en ik heb deze hoek met een gloednieuw Andy Skinner stencil aangebracht. Mooi he?! Verder nog wat kippengaas hier en daar en omdat ik wat pasta over had heb ik ook nog kippengaas op de andere bladzijde aangebracht, gewoon omdat ik het leuk vond hihi.
Ik hoop dat jullie het een leuke pagina vonden. Komende week wordt weer regelijk druk. Moet de klas herinrichten en voorbereidingen doen, dus veel bloggen zal er weer wel niet van komen.
Maar vooruit, alles voor 't jong nietwaar? Groetjes Frea
Challenges:
http://www.totallygorjuss.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-195-anything-goes-with-pearls.html
http://2sisterschallengeblog.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-155-anything-goes.html
http://pinkgemchallengeblog.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-91.html
http://ourcreativecorner6.blogspot.nl/2013/08/words-words-words.html
http://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/07/challenge-22-anything-goes.html
http://crafterscafeblogchallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/07/challenge-22-anything-goes.html
http://craftycatzweeklychallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-194-and-gdt-call-for-sept.html
http://deliciousdoodleschallenge.blogspot.nl/2013/08/challenge-47.html
http://stampingwithdragon.blogspot.nl/2013/08/stamping-dragon-challenge.html