Christmas Treats :- All Seasons Hand-Painted Treasure Box

Fa-la-la-la-laaaaaaa! Yep - still festive here!

How's that turkey lookin'? A little sparse I bet! Well, I'm here to distract you with more by way of Christmas catch-up! I promised in my last post that there'd be more of that LOVELY treasure chest that my mum made for me, because she is the Empress of all Awesomeness and she's sooooo talented. You liked her lovely Yule dancer so much that I thought you'd enjoy sharing this latest wondrous piece of gorgeousness with me too.

So picture Christmas morning... mum and I still in our snuggly jammies wrapped up in brand new fluffy blankies (courtesy of my lovely neighbours - who are epic) while my kitty tried to play with ALL his new dollies at the same time, high as he was on copious amounts of nip...  There's always a build-up of excitement as mum and I always leave the pressies we've made for each other 'til the very end - a grand finale! This year, my last parcel was a big cube. Hmmm....what could it be? I opened it and -

 I so love this! Christmas fairies! She says it's a treasure box for all seasons.  It has pride of place on the shelves in my bedroom. I love it so much! I'm not sure of all the things she used to make her beautiful illustrations - I know she'll have used her Derwent Inktense pencils and a selection of acrylics and gouache paints as well as twinkly glitter... I'll ask her and add any details in a paragraph at the end of this post asap.

Hope you enjoyed that - I'll be back again tomorrow with another festive update about hand-painted wrapping paper and pom-poms!  See you soon, bug hugs from Shroo :) xxx

Hidden Treasures 'Life's Journey' Art Book

Aaaaaaaah... Sunday.......Aaaaaaaaaaah....*Sips cup of tea*....... The perfect day for putting my feet up, enjoying a good brew and just plain ignoring all the things I still have to do! I'll get to it manana....

Are we all enjoying the weekend? I do hope so! Here in England it's grey and bleak outside, but we've had a reasonable week of bright skies so that's not so bad. I have another project that I'd like to share - it's one of my finished Hidden Treasures - Art Books. These bring me real joy to make and do take quite some time, as (unlike an art journal or similar project) I want every page to be perfect and exactly how I like it. This book measures a little over 9cm x 9cm square and the base pages are blank coasters altered with a combination of vintage collage and mixed media application. The book is bound with vintaged binder d-rings, decorated with a plethora of charms and trinkets which nestle within some seam binding ribbons and hand-dyed yarns.

The covers and pages have a vintage or retro feel to them - which I personally love. These books are all a part of me and they reflect my likes and interests.

The fastening is a seam binding ribbon bow,  adorned with italian glass hand-blown lampwork heart bead, two with delicate white glass ribbon design, and two 'Fantasy Rose' beads, with a rich old-gold and delicate pink design.

I like to add hidden messages or books inside these projects - this 'Life's Journey' book features a little secret book which opens to reveal artwork based on my deep love of nature and wildlife as well as little motivational words:

The other pages in the book were completed as individual works of art before binding and I'm extremely pleased with the final results - I hope you like them too:

The sunshine page was completed upon my return after a car journey in the countryside, watching the evening sun sink behind the hills and the gold of the rays looking like liquid metal flowing over the land below. I used melted gold wax with extra real gold powder to reflect the memory I had of that moment. The 'bloom & grow' page was completed after watching the seed heads of flowers in the garden releasing their tiny parachutes into the wind. They would fly far and wide and grow in some tough landscapes, providing beauty and a habitat for wildlife wherever they grew.

My 'Love Yourself...' page is a reflection of my belief that whoever we are and whatever kind of life we lead, we forget to appreciate our own uniqueness. We are each a work of art in our own way, and if we can learn to love ourselves in an honest way, we will truly bloom. The sea-side page was created after looking at family photos of trips to the seaside. I love the sea and sea-shore and it holds perfect memories of adventure and happiness with family members now long gone. I wanted to capture the idea of these days with this vintage design stamp, which reminds me a little of my grandmother, along with the real tiny sea-shells, and the silver coin - pirate treasure!

This 'Serenity' page is simply inspired by my mood on that day. I love the images and colours - it gives me a sense of peace. The other page is my tribute to the people who are not BORN into our lives, but who choose to love us and be there for us in times of need as well as in carefree times. TRUE friendship is worth more than anything. I've chosen to extend the image beyond the border of the page as gives more interest to the book as a whole. I also added some little metal embellishments - I love the look of them against the rest of the page.

There's a fine line between 'exploring' and 'escaping'....sometimes one leads to the other in some way, but I feel we all need to find the balance there so that we can make clear choices for ourselves. The 'walk the line' page was created after thinking about this  - I like to represent (and exorcise!) my thoughts and ideas artistically and symbolically. The matching page is such a representation....time passes quickly which can make us feel sad and unfulfilled,but we forget all the skills we've collected, the important lessons that have been learned, and all the beauty we've seen. Rather that looking wistfully at landmark birthdays past, we should look towards the future and the landmarks we'll create for ourselves! Experience guides us to possibilities.

My 'Follow Your Heart' page was created straight after the previous page and is a continuation of my feelings on that day. I love heart shapes and I'll include them as often as possible! My little Bluebird of Happiness is just that - an expression of joy! I'd been playing music and singing along (my poor neighbours!) and felt so happy! We should ALL sing whenever we feel like it! Little bluebird is painted with a mixture of acrylic paints, cosmic shimmer paints and acrylic inks.

"Starlight, star bright, first star I see tonight -

I wish I may, I wish I might

Have this wish I wish tonight!"

But I have SOOOO many wishes! And there are SOOOO many stars! I'm gonna wish every wish I can! These stars are painted with shimmer mica paints, decorated with spirals - the life path - and individually enamelled. I like the kind of 1950s retro colours and pattern.

 Oh - you KNEW there'd be a mermaid in there somewhere! I'm currently working on a 'Mermaid Realm' book - MUCHO mermaidness! I just loved this happy little image of the girl on the stunning papers from Graphic 45 and she HAD to have a tail! What could be better than being a mermaid? She's painted with layers of blue and green, then finished with shimmering gold accompanied by her friend, the sea-turtle (vintage illustration), swimming across a genuine Japanese washi paper square which is itself highlighted with gold ink designs. I love this page!

The edges of the book are all painted, inked and then gilded to create a splendid vintage look and feel. I enjoy adding texture to my work, so when it came to the final page, I used some modelling paste to stencil these yummy orange circles as an accent to this page. This was pure self-indulgence - all those hearts and happy colours!

Thank you so much for looking - hope you've enjoyed the post. Is there anything you'd like to see on this blog? Do you have suggestions about what arty crafty things you'd like me to post? Why not leave a comment or email me and let me know - I'd love to hear from you! As always - love and hugs, Shroo :) xxx

Steampunk Altered Memo Holder

Hi!

Hope you're well? Apologies for the unimaginative title there....I opted for 'descriptive' over 'inventive' - it's hot, my brain has melted! Do forgive!

Anyhoo - just a small, interrim post-ette between art journal/sketchbook ramblings to prove that I've been creative since the last blog entry. I bid on a whole bunch of auctions on ebay last week - didn't anticipate winning them...you know the kind, the 99p too-good-to-be-true kind of auctions? Then, hey presto! The ebay fairy granted me wins on pretty much ALL of them, which meant bargain celebrations coupled with spending guilt, but these REALLY WERE bargains! I won a whole heap of Tattered Angels Glimmer Glazes for 99p each! They're normally about £6 - £7 so that was a VERY happy thing, and as soon as they arrived I just HAD to test them all. Of course. Naturally. Anything else would be insane, obviously!

I keep a stack of chip paper on my art table for just such a thing- it's like newsprint paper, but with a slight satin coating. It's thin but soaks up excess paint and such and leaves me with some cool patterns and 'homemade papers' to use in my journals. I tested the glazes in two batches, warms and cool colours and when I'd let them dry they looked kinda like sea and sand. So - not to waste them, I cut out the two sections and pasted them into my journal as backgrounds:

I added some 7 Gypsies rub-ons and some collaged elements, then some definition colours to the waves and sand with blue and white paint marker pens, along with a few Faber Pitt pens. I added sky effect with some turquoise crafters acrylic paint and some white Magic Color acrylic ink, adding deeper colour again with Pitt pens, then splattering some more glaze to make 'sea spray'.

I find that, without intending to, my journal pages tend to rely heavily on symbolism, rather than text. I try to journal my emotions - fears and hopes, dreams and goals, and often it's only when I sit back and look at the page as a whole that I realise what I'm doing....where I'm at, as it were. They can often be something of a surprise or revelation. Weird. Weird but true.

SO - as I had all my STUFF out there in front of me, I took the opportunity to alter a little DCWV memo box that had been sitting gloomily in a corner. It was also a cheapie auction win (just £2) but arrived battered and looking sorry for itself. NOTHING'S a throw-away though, so I attacked it with sandpaper and my teeny metal-hammer until it was utterly knackered, then gave it new life!!  Lookee -

 

I used acrylic paints to cover the surface, inside and out, adding some distress ink (Tim Holtz, what would we do without you?) in the colours: broken china, vintage photo and shabby shutters, then further distressed the edges with Pitt pens.  The collage elements are a mix of cut-out images from the Papermania 'Chronology' line, and G45's gorgeous 'Steampunk Debutante' collection (now sadly retired, but check out their new 'Steampunk Spells' release!) The butterflies are from G45 again - their 'Botanicabella' collection, and the flowers are from 'I Am Roses' (awesome company). Glues used were the staple stand by, Mod Podge (matte finish), and a hot glue gun for the flowers and metal adornments (leaves and a teeny weeny bee). 

I 'aged' the surfaces and the flowers with a combination of Tattered Angels glazes, Distress Stickles, gold gilding wax, copper gilding liquid and Pitt pens. I added a few flat collaged pieces from the same paper lines to the inside of the box, just to make it all pretty like!

And that was that! I made sure all the flat surfaces had a couple of layers of my trusty acrylic satin lacquer, just to help splash-proof it, as it'll no doubt have many cups of tea presenting opportunities for peril in the future months!

Yep...so that's that! I had really good happy fun with both the journal pages and the memo box. I think sometimes people sneer a little at the idea of altering or re-purposing an item, but I REALLY believe that in our throw-away society, we should take any opportunity to upcycle tired items and not only enjoy the result, but benefit from the imaginative creative process.  Your turn to have a go now! Have fun! Hugs - Shroo :)x

Stuff used in this Steampunk Altered Memo project:

DCWV memo pad holder (any brand will do though!)

Docrafts Crafter's Acrylic Paints (turquoise and avocado)

Graphic 45 papers ('Steampunk Debutante' & 'Botanicabella')

Papermania 'Chronology' papers

I Am Roses paper flowers

Brass leaf & bee charms

Treasure Gold 'Classic' gilding wax

Treasure Gold 'Copper' gilding paint

Faber Castell Pitt Pens

Ranger Distress inks (Vintage Photo, Broken China, Shabby Shutters)

Ranger Distress Stickles (Bundled Sage, Golden Rod)

Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze (Waterfall, All That Jazz, Indian Summer, Cowboy)

Mod Podge (matte)

Acrylic Satin Lacquer

Places to visit for cool stuff:

I Am Roses

Craftie Charlie

Two Soups

Well and hello there!

No - not dead...still here...I've deserted my poor little blog and left it hanging here in the scary internet ether, abandoned on the webscape pavement with its teddy bear and a bag of crisps.....alone....in its little bloggy duffle coat....awwwwww.... Yep - and I've had guilt! But there's a good reason I promise! Don't be calling blog-abandonment social services! I'm here now and my blog's all wrapped up warm and snug with a mug of hot chocolate and bunny slippers....

Yep - reason for being away? My body hates me. Quite a lot apparantly. First, a migraine of death, with all the grot that comes with it, then - just as that's fading at last - I put my back out. And I mean, WELL out! And not in any interesting way...nooooo, rather by - oh I dunno - breathing, or blinking or whatever it was that pissed my body off further. All the fun of the fair. So yeah, pretty immobile there for a week or so, with only the classic bent-double shuffle reminiscent of a classic Julie Walters character - Mrs Overall, or possibly the awesome 'Two Soups' waitress (we love Julie Walters - and Victoria Wood....I think it's a law? THOU MUST BOW DOWN BEFORE AWESOME COMEDY ACTING/WRITING TALENT OR ELSE....THAT law....)

 (Hopefully this pic should link to Victoria Wood's long-overdue BAFTA award and the 'Tip Top Tap' routine starring the epic Ms Walters and the spectacular Celia Imrie.)

Better now - I can stand upright and sneeze and lift a kettle for that vital cuppa and EVERYTHING! Fabulous!   And while I got stuff-all done, art-wise, I have thought of many blog entries, so brace yourself and grit your teeth 'cos there's more rambling to come....seems I have an inexhaustible supply of complete drivel and I shall happily inflict it on the blogophere. Moowahahaha.

I'll be a bit more planned in the next post. HA! that's a lie.....I'll make it up as I go along as always....BUT - I'll have a theme and structure.....HA! I lie again..... But in this post I thought I'd show you some of the stuff I made for my mum. Not all of the stuff as she whisked it away before I remembered to take pictures. Planning, planning..... So, yes - when there's a notable date or event, beit birthday, festive Yule/Christmas as is yer pick, Mum's Day, so on, so forth, I make things as gifts a- because it's fun; b- because I find so much commercially produced stuff boring and/or overpriced; and c- because I'm invariably skint, being that I am now officially a starving artist!! Trouble is that I feel I have to trump the last set of gifts with something new - and it's getting tougher! I've made mum felted figures, decorations and ornaments, garlands, copious amounts of jewellery, teddy bears, photo albums, journals and sketch books, altered boxes and chalk boards, coasters, picture frames, painted pictures, written stories and poetry and probably stuff I've forgotten....upping the ante is easier said than done.

SO - with all of this in mind I decided to alter a set of shelves which had belonged to her brother, which were plain and knackered and gods alone know what he'd kept on them, but they were a mess! After MONTHS of debating a theme, I chose to paint them with a design to remind her of all the trips to the seaside we had when I was a kid, the fun I had there and all the cool stories she told me to keep me amused. Pirates and mermaids and buried teasure...all the cool stuff - she's no fool! Anyhoo, I (being an idiot) forgot to take pics for you right at the beginning, but here're the ones I have:

 I sanded the whole thing down and cleaned it off then gave it three coats of gesso undercoat. Then I used spray oil paints to give a thorough colour base in green, blue and sandy yellows. The grass, sea, sand and sky were painted in with liquid acylics - decoart and docafts as they blended perfectly on  the coated wooden base. I ended up using Faber Castell Pitt pens to add depth of colour and outline shading. The Pitt pens are basically india inks in pen form, and on a non-porous base they can be moved and blended like any ink or liquid medium. If you've not used them before I'd HIGHLY recommend them for their vibrant colours and overall versatility. They're not cheap, but better value than the likes of Copics in my opinion.

I opted to use Magic Color Liquid Acrylic Ink for the white clouds, combined with a LITTLE matte gel medium for body. I didn't want this to look realistic as such, more idealised, which I suppose is the way I see seaside trips in my mind's eye. I wanted a SLIGHTLY cartoonish, illustrative feel to the whole thing.  I also lightly sanded and Pitt penned the edges to create a 'weather-worn' look.

Given that the shelves would be covered with STUFF, I kept them plain and gave a light gesso whitewash to the top and sides to add to the beachy seaside look. I kept the layered base colours to compliment the rest of the design.

I used my gorgeous, sexy Neocolor II pastels to paint some scabeous flowers and hairbells (mum's seaside favourites). Again, I wanted to keep the designs illustrative rather than botanical, softer and simpler - the colour's what I remember most from my childhood so that's what I concentrated on.

 

I coated the whole thing with a quality satin lacquer - another product I absolutely can't do without ...

 ...I order it in quantity so I don't run out and 'cos it saves me cha-ching on post fees.  Once the whole lot had had a couple of good coats I mod podged the (also pre-lacquered) flowers onto the shelves, Pitt pen shaded around them and painted on some representations of sea grasses and weeds.

I wanted to add a 'thing' - something that hinted at the stories I was told, and made up for myself... I tried a few things and was grumpy about all of them so in the end I painted and decoupaged this diving tail. You can see it as a whale, a giant fishy-wishy thingy or a mermaid, whatever. In MY mind it's a mermaid, but then I am a tad mermaid obsessed...

 

I added some spotty detail with a uni ball gel pen and a couple of distant seagulls and added three more coats of lacquer, allowing good drying time in between coats.  (note the spray-painted chives..... I'm a nightmare with a spray can in my hand - I wanna paint everything!!)

My photos are not so awesome, I'll admit, as they were a bit rushed, but I hope they give you an idea of the thing. It actually looks better in 'real life', as it were.... at least I think so. What do you think? Mum likes it - that's what matters, right? I had fun doing it too so that's cool !

Ok - I think I'll leave this post here otherwise it's gonna be one of those epic ones that make your face go numb by the end! I hope you like my piccies - thank you for reading and for being patient with my wonky back-related absence! Hope this day is awesome for you. Hugs - Shroo :)x