GPP Crusade No. 42 – Strip Ease

We entered the world of scary creativity this month – Michelle Ward, over at GPP Street Team, wanted us to TEAR paper!?!!? Can you believe it? No neat cutting, limited straight lines…. moving from neat, orderly grids to freestyle tearing, without a month in between. Hence it has taken me until the end of the month to find the courage to face this Crusade.

But guess what? It wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be; I managed to tear paper into strips and stick them down, without too much fuss at all! And the funny thing is, Michelle also reveals to us her concerns when first faced with the prospect of tearing paper and how overcoming her paper tearing fears helped her to loosen up. It is a liberating experience!

Here is what I did:

I had the facing page after last months Grid Lock Crusade, so I thought it would make a nice juxtaposition to put the tearing next to the grids. It was a gesso’d and painted over altered book layout.

Then I collected some left over pages from the last challenge and added a few others that fitted in with the blue colouring. I tore some up and down, and others side ways, and laid them out as I went.

Next I needed to stick them down. I liked the arrangement and needed a way to get the bottom layer stuck down first but didn’t want to try to move it all over or play pick up sticks with all of the pieces. As I was in a book, I closed the book without moving my arranged strips, then turned the whole book over and opened it again. Then I had all of the strips facing the wrong way, perfect for pulling off the “top” piece, adding glue and then sticking it down. I kept adding pieces until I had a good coverage of the background.

I am pleased with the final piece, although still tempted to cover it with a little gesso to tone down the bright blue and bring all of the elements together. But I will leave this layout as it is, hopefully true to the Crusade’s vision.

Thanks again to Michelle Ward, for assisting me to overcome my paper tearing worries!

Happy creating, fellow Crusaders!

MMM Pens and Pencils

Mixed Media Mondays challenged us with Pens and Pencils as this weeks theme. Luckily I do have a pen stamp, but then couldn’t find it; don’t know where it could have gotten to. Then found this one from an UM plate.

The writing is by me using an aqua pen and Ocean Wave Twinkling H2Os. Pen nib stamp from “Memories of Italy” plate, by Non Sequitur, using Denim Adirondack ink. Background made by me; instructions are here. Stick together with glue stick; a bit impatient today!

Thanks for having a look!

Michelle

Blue Background

I had two challenges ahead of me that needed a blue background – the Make A Moo or Two Beach theme and the 4×4 Friday Mask theme. So I decided it was time to get the paints out again.

I started with two A4 sheets of white card. I added some Jo Sonja’s Sapphire to a pallet. Using a dry brush, I started criss-crossing randomly around the page. Then I added a little water to the paint and continued criss-crossing all around.  The painted got watered down some more and the process repeated. When the page was nearly all blue, I used the remaining paint, not much more than coloured water by now, to fill what white was left. Go carefully here; adding too much water will start your nice criss-crosses to run and loose definition. Leave to dry.  If the sheet warps too much, let dry and then sit under the phone books for a day.

Once dry, I stamped with an array of stamps that suited my theme; Autumn Leaves Swirls, Stamp Oasis French text, All Night Media motif and Blockheads backgrounds for these sheets.  Brilliance ink was used with Graphite Black, Moonlight White and Platinum Planet (silver). Once the stamping is complete, this usually defines which way is “up” for the sheet. While the swirls are stamped randomly, the text is always stamped horizontally. Again, leave to dry.

There you have it – my method of how to create your own backgrounds. I have since cut mine up for the 4×4 Friday Challenge and into Moo size cards for the Make A Moo or Two challenge.

Have fun creating!

Michelle

Make A Moo or Two – Beach

This week was my first go at a challenge from the Make a Moo or Two blog. A “Moo card” is similar to an ATC but measures 28mm x 70mm – quite small. The aim of this format is to use the length rather than the width.

Blue background created by me. Instructions on how I made the background can be seen here. Images from Art-e-zine. Text from my old-fashioned font set. Edged in silver Krylon pen.

Michelle