A distressed rose

Ok a little miss leading maybe,Those off you who saw my workspace on WOYWW earlier would have seen a book by Mark Ryden, he is one of my favourite artists,I picked up a spare copy so I could use the images for some craft projects.Along with the book, I picked up a melting pot and some bee's wax so I could try an altered canvas thing.
So this is what I have come up with, She is one of my favourite paintings, she is called Rose.I have made this to enter a few challenges. Over at Haunted design house their challenge is 'Pass the distressing please', and Simon says stamp and show is 'one for the boys,And smudgy antics is embellish it.

Hopefully I have met all the criteria. Now a quick rundown of what i did.
First I distress stained the canvas and coated in wax, I then stamped onto some grease proof kitchen paper the TH stamp and added it to the canvas along with the tape and some other torn papers, all
applied with wax.
The picture frame started as a plain wood frame and I used one of  Andy Skinners time worn techniques to make it look like pitted metal, you will have to do the workshop to find out how.Rose has been cut out and added to a stamped up piece of card that has been coloured and aged with distress inks and ranger archival, the frame was then filled with glossy accents to give it a behind glass look. The number plaque embellishment was a tando product that has been stained and distress embossed, the number is from TH and has been coloured with alcohol ink.

Finally the flowers, not tried to do flowers befor, These were from a pack of plain cream flowers, they have been colour blended with 5 different distress inks and then over stamped with the same big stamp from TH papillon  stamp and then some ornate brads.

I am actually quite pleased with how this has turned out and I will be using the melting pot again soon.

I will also enter this into the Poisoned Peas challenge, Its a wicked step mum challenge,This is the step mum looking back at an old picture from her childhood, helps explain why she is so wicked now ;)
And also at Crafty Cardmakers where their theme is distressing.

Sorry if this was to much blurb, I am still figuring out what is best re presentation.

Would like to say again thank you everyone who visits,follows and comments, its unreal.

WOYWW 156

Morning, And happy 3rd birthday to Julia Over at the Stamping ground the blog is 3, not Julia.

Its that time of the week again, A WOYWW and to celebrate the 3rd b'day there is an ATC swap. Mine is ready to go out and I can not wait to take part in it.
If you have no idea what im talking about, your not the first, but pop over to the Stamping ground and check it all out.
As you can see my desk this week is much the same as last, it just has my new project on it, covered as it is not finished yet, you can also see my new toy, the melting pot,this is great, I'm loving it. and in the back ground you can see a book by one of my fave artists, Mark Ryden, this is actually the 2nd copy of this book, I picked it up cheap so I can cut it up and use the images.
You will see what I'm talking about in my next post.
As always, a big thank you to everyone who pops by and for all the lovely messages.

Enjoy the blog hopping everyone, I will get round as many as I can. mark

Macabre monday at the haunted design house entry

After last weeks surprise success in the macabre Monday haunted design house challenge (thanks to the people that chose me), here is this weeks attempt. the challenge is Long in the tooth. I really struggled as none of the stamps I have at the moment lend them selves to this, Mainly Tim Holtz, I am working on getting more varied and darker stamps ;)

This is an atc that has been altered a little. hopefully it fits the bill.its more of a comic take than anything scary.

My first ATC trade

I recently started this blog thing about a month ago after finishing one of Andy Skinners on line work shops, Time worn techniques, there is a link in my sidebar. One of the friends that has been made on this course and has been very encouraging is Elly her blog is http://ellypirally.blogspot.co.uk/. With the up and coming atc swap on woyww Elly asked if I fancied a bit of practice and wanted to do a trade, I jumped at the chance. She set the challenge of 3 atc's, one shabby/vintage, one steam punk and one free choice.

Here are the three that I made, I really love playing with the atc, they are such a good way to try things out with out to much waste.

 Here are the 3 Elly made, they total blow me away, 

I love them, and they have taught me a lot as well. As well as these 3 amazing cards was a little stash of booty, some nice laser cut pieces, some little bingo papers in a pad, a little envelope for the hand stitched card, all presented in a nicely stamped little bag, The funny thing is Elly used the same da vinci image I have used on one of my atc's with out either of us knowing. for some reason this pic would not face the right way :-(

playing with textures

This is something that came about just by playing with different products, I wanted to have a go at the The Craft Barns faux finish challenge so I started with a couple of different crackle finishes. the large cracks are the croco cracking paint clear, this was applied over the paper artsy fresco finish chalk acrylics, which had been treated with its own cracking glaze,(same range). How ever when the croco was applied it started to lift and peel the top layer of fresco chalk as it dried and cracked, it has a nice 3d feel with the bottom colour being pulled up with it. the croco then got stained and dry brushed to bring out the depth.The rocky/sandy bluff that the girl is stood on was made using modeling paste that was then coated in embossing ink and different distress powders to give it that rocky feel. The Girl Is one of the new Gorjuss stamps, she has been coloured with distress inks painted on and then covered with glossy accents. the frilly wire ribbon thing was stained and added to feel like see weed and some shrink plastic shells were added. the sun is blended alcohol inks.As the colours came together it started to have a beach/seaside feel so I will enter in to the Simon Says Stamp and Show summer holls challenge

Its one of those project that had no real direction and I wanted to try a lot of different things to see if they worked, I still can not make my mind up as to weather it works as a piece or not though, maybe its like marmite.

woyww 155

Hello, its that time of the week again, yep a WOYWW Im sure you all know what that is but if you don't, follow the link to Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground.

So my workbench as of late last night, lots of stuff out as I have been playing with a few different things, you can just see what I have been making for the Simon says stamp and show and if I'm lucky I might be able to enter it into the Craft Barn challenge as well.
Hope you are all having a great week, I will try and get round as many people as I can.

Thank you everyone for all the kind and encouraging comments that my blog has received.

Mark

journal page

Here's a journal page I made earlier today. The back ground colour has been down for a little while, a mix of some spray mop up and the wiping's from my brushes from the x box project. I just stamped it up with different inks, mainly memento and ranger archival. the stamps are a mix of Andy Skinners and Tim Holtz, Kind of gone for a carny feel. 

And finally, the x box, simon says stamp and show.

As some of you know I have been working on my x box recently, It is now all done, had its varnish and been left to dry for a few days, I have just bolted and snapped it all back together.You will be happy to know it still works.

This copper patina effect is one of my fav effects at the moment, It was learnt on the Andy Skinner work shop Time worn techniques As I have stated before this was a great on line workshop, I learnt so many techniques and the banter in the forums made it a great experience. The pieces on top were embossed with the Tim Holtz diamond plate folder, stained with distress inks and then embossing powder added for a rust effect. the little number was just stained with alcohol inks and is again a Tim ideology thing.The bottom grill was just painted and dry brushed with Americana acrylic paints.  The colour in real life is more of a green than the blue in the pics, but am only snapping with my i phone at the mo.

I am thinking of entering this in the Simon says stamp and show
their challenge this week is anything goes, I think this just about counts???? we will see lol.

I could not really go to town to much on this as it still needs to function and fit in with my home decor ;) maybe ill do the pad to match lol. And there is always my stunt case.
Thanks for all the nice comments on my other posts, they are so very much appreciated.   Mark x

Dante's hot in here

As you may have noticed on my woyww pic, I have been playing with alcohol inks, I was looking through the blogs and wound up at the haunteddesignhouse this site appeals to my darker side, I love all things gothic, horror and a little bit not the norm in the crafting world. Their challenge was 'Hot as hell in here' this made me smile and I thought it would be a good way to test the inks out, after seeing Neil walkers tags from ranger u, I loved the depth and vividness. So after a little playing this is what i came up with.I like the way the inks have come out, but I did struggle with the composition.

To fit in with the challenge I needed to do something that included flames or used fire/heat.  Hopefully the inks look flame like, I have heat embossed the mount card with copper powder and Dante is in reference to Dante's Inferno.   The Divine Comedy's.

I hope the links work, I have my comp back now, It was very, very sick, it had at least 10 different viruses,  It now has medi care with Norton so fingers crossed no more probs.

Woyww. Bought to you by. http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/

Yay. Another woyww. What a frustrating week. My computer died with a virus so making do but posting is difficult. Hopefully the link is working.

This is my work bench as it was put to rest Tues night. Progress is being made on the X box and I have started playing,aging with alcohol inks. I have three atc's ready for a swap.I will post pics when they have been received by Elly. I have also started work on my atc ready for the woyww swap in a few weeks, just a sneak. Again no complete pics till the swap takes place. Have a great woyww people and I will try and see as many of you as I can on my playbook.

Viruses and fat thumbs.

No posts for a few days and no pics for a few more :-( My laptop caught a virus. An unsuspecting email from usps, I have been waiting for three bags( parcels) of goodies from the states and thought it was an update email required the tracking. Unfortunately when I opened the attachment my computer did silly things and died. All I have to get online until I get the laptop back is my phone and my blackberry playbook. Tiny touch screens and fat man fingers do not mix. Sorry Terry from Simon says stamp and show, I was reading your comment and instead of replying I hit remove content. Oops. How to win friends and influence people,(I don't think) Anyway. Enough grinching. I have just had a great few hours over with Neil walker at neelz expressionz, Sorry no link. Playbook won't let me, talking all things Tim Holtz and ranger as he has just got back from ranger u. Go check his Blog for the trip details and what he has been up to. It looked full on and fantastic, the techniques and tags he has made are great. Lastly Saturday evening was spent at the Warner Brothers Harry Potter word. What a great 3 hours spent. If you like steampunk you won't be disappointed,there are hundreds of props,sets,diagrams etc from the movies and it's a real visual treat. Lots of ideas gained. I will post a few pics when laptop is back. Sorry for the dull rant but it's all I can do for now. Happy crafting. Mark

Woyww

Good morning, just a very quick post as running out the door to work,Its that wednesday feeling again so over at The stamping ground its woyww, after taking part last week I could not moss this week.  I will be back later to look at as many pages as poss, Pic was actually taken late last night when i finished and has not been touched, in the back ground there is my x box project and at the front an ATC i have started work on, I hope to get that finished this eve.
Happy woyww everyone.

Simon Says Stamps fave stamp

Happy bank holliday everyone, I have been trolling through the craft blogs and have found Simon Says Stamps  Monday challenge.To create something using your favourite stamp.I have decided to have ago at making a gift tag with my favourite stamp at the moment,the Paper Artsy hot picks 'Zeppelfish'.This stamp for some reason puts me in mind of the old Monty Python  animations and just had to buy the set when I saw it.
I started by masking of the strip I wanted red with tape and then stained using the Tim Holtz distress ink pads,once done I then masked the inked parts up and applied the red ink.Ive embossed the bottom of the card with a Tim folder.Added a water splash effect and stamped the edge with a Tim Holtz stamp from the Halloween set in brown Stayzon ink and finished the stamping with the Zepple fish in Archival black.I then went round the edges with more distress ink in the darker browns to try and age it up a little.
Added a bit of ribbon in the corner, a couple of brads and an old key tied on with a stained suede tie.

Paddington bear case and small book

As mentioned in the earlier post from today I have taken part in a work shop at the Craft Barn, It was held by Linda Elbourne her blog is acraftingjourney.blogspot.co.uk There was not a moment to rest in the class as it was packed full of a great little project. This was lots of fun and I like the way it turned out, Its the little details that finish a project off.

ATC's

Hello again, So this week I joint WOYWW and have leanrt what ATC's are, I like this idea a lot and can not wait for the card swap in a few weeks time.I could not wait to try this out and have spent the last couple of eve's playing around. this is my first attempt at an ATC. I could not stop at one so have done a few more, I decided to try the first card in different colours. They are the Tim Holtz distress ink pads, a Katzelcraft Da Vinci stamp and a text embossing folder.I was really pleased with the way they came out.

After that I made one using a technique learnt on the Andy Skinner time worn online workshop and I also used one of his new stamps,I love them. The next two were made by spraying the card with some Cosmic Shimmer Vintage, a blue and gold.The colours are really subtle.I did one with A background stamp Of Tim Holtz, a paisley print and then used a Gorjuss stamp which I stamped out on other card stock and stuck together. The last one was a flower stamp that was then coloured with copic pens and a little glossy accents on the flower head.

Today I have taken part in a craft work shop at the Craft Barn, It was taken by Linda Elbourne, We took a card suitcase and made a small book to go inside, mainly using Tim Holtz dyes and stamps. I just have to finish it off, pics to follow soon.It was a great class and managed to put a face with one of the Bloggers on here which is always good.

X box ps

Just a quick ps, This is now working with all the guts inside. on light to prove it ;)

I do however need to figure out a way of painting the disc draw without getting paint inside the machine, Patience and being tidy are not strong points of mine. You can also see why everything needs to be painted at once. A little colour discrepancy lol

X Box progress

Here is the progress I have made so far on the x box case, This is a spare case I have picked up to experiment with. The case was quite fiddly to take apart, a youtube visit was in order to see how the case comes apart, that done I used the copper effect that was taught in Andy Skinners 'time worn' online workshop, very very good course, link is on my widget bar.

This pic shows the face plate, I have added some half pearls to give a riveted look, when I get round to doing the case for my x box I will use more rivets and maybe add a stamped decal or something to the top just to break the colour up. I will also paint all the parts in one go as colour matching was a pain (impossible).

Hopefully I will get my x box apart next week and get it finished.

Angeldrummer hits 1000 posts

Just thought I would share a link, I have been searching through peoples blogs after joining the woyww.This mile ston feels a long way off ;)

woyww

Right,so after reading a few blogs I now know what woyww means and have decided to be a part of it.Welcome to my desk, this is what I have set up for myself to make a mess and just play. there is the journal page from yesterday a new Tim Holtz stamp,and other bits and pieces that I havn't put away. This seems to be the brain child of http://stamping-ground.blogspot.co.uk/ hopefuly I will keep this up and remember to take a pic next week.

Journal !!!

Journalling, So what's this all about?I see most people crafting have one of these so I thought its time to jump on the band wagon.No idea what they are really for yet so like most things, I will wing it till things become clear.It seems like a great way to keep all your ideas in one place ( a journal ) its already becoming clear. So here is page 1. I have wanted to play around with the cosmic shimmer sprays and use colours that are not my normal cup of tea, I was inspired by Helen Chilton Who was doing a demo at the craft barn, using the vivid colours and then bleaching back some of the colour,It looks really good. My next mission is to find out what the term 'Frantage' means. feel free to let me know.

For the first page I have tried to capture a sense of me,or the aspects I like in crafting, A steampunk nature boy.