Winter Wood and Pine Panels

Hello all!  I'm back in the UK for three months for work, so once again I've had to pack more craft supplies than clothes in my suitcase so that I don't get withdrawal symptoms!  I'll share some pictures of my temporary craft stash if you're interested, but for now I thought I'd show you this pair of wintry panels I created just before leaving the Czech Republic last week.

I wanted the new Tim Holtz 3D embossing folders Tree Rings and Pine Branches the moment I saw them.  I knew they'd make perfect settings for my PaperArtsy botanical stamps, and I just had time to make one panel with each while I was doing my packing.

The first one was this weathered wood panel created with the Tree Rings folder.

I tinted the gorgeous wood texture with Distress Sprays and Crayons - sorry, I can't really remember what colours I used but Pumice Stone, Hickory Smoke, Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood were definitely in the mix...

some pinecones gathered on walks, and real twigs interspersed with die-cut ones...

and of course my EAB Hawthorn Edition stamps.

I kept the colours very muted and wintry - it's all done with Distress Inks, including the new(ish) Lumberjack Plaid mixed with Festive Berries.  The leaves are a combination of Pumice Stone, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain and Weathered Wood.

The quote is from the same set, embossed in Wow Primary Bark powder, and it's resting on some coils of rusty wire.

The second panel uses the Pine Branches folder.

Again, the colours are a bit hazy - there's certainly some Rustic Wilderness, Speckled Egg, Evergreen Bough and Walnut Stain around...

a lovely Idea-ology Quote Token, with Picket Fence Distress Crayon highlighting the words...

the berries from my EAB29 Mistletoe Edition with a touch of Glossy Accents crackled with a heat gun...

background stamping with the theatrical ephemera from the same set...

and some more pinecones.

Of course, the BigShot was one thing I couldn't put in the suitcase (too heavy, too big, too awkward!), but I did pre-press a few more of these panels to bring with me.  Keep an eye out for them in future makes... they're definitely going to become a regular part of my creations.

I hope you like them, and I hope you are enjoying a gentle and peaceful weekend full of good things.  See you soon.

I prefer winter and Fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape--the loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show.

Andrew Wyeth

Christmas Countdown Tags Part III

Hello all, and a very merry Christmas to you all.  And if that's not something you celebrate, then I simply wish you the warmest and cosiest of times tucked away from the winter weather.

I'm here with the final instalment of my December tags.  I had planned on 24, which would have been three nice even batches of eight each, but in the end I went for just one more to make 25 in total.

So today you get nine tags... a Christmas bonus!

I hope that, however you are celebrating, you will enjoy days of peace and contentment, and I hope that 2022 will treat us all a little more kindly.  Stay safe, stay well, stay creative all.

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.

Agnes M. Pharo

Freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin – inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night.

John J. Geddes

Springing back into action

Hello all, and a very happy spring and a happy Easter and whatever else you celebrate at this time of year!  I can only apologise for my long absence.  It's been difficult to find the time to create blogposts alongside everything else that has been going on.

There have been turbulent waters along the way, but my floors are finally down, so any day now the unpacking can begin, so it's not going to be any less busy.  But I have found time for a bit of creative play along the way and I wanted to share these spring tags with you.

Spring arrives late in the Czech Republic - in fact, it's still likely we'll get flurries of snow and possible frosts well into April, but we also get lovely sunny days in between, and it's been quite warm sometimes too.  I expect you can guess which kind of weather it was when I made these a few days ago!

In essence, they're very simple, but I really enjoy looking at them - I see different details and different colour blends each time I gaze.

The backgrounds are done with Distress Spray Stains and Oxide Sprays - mainly Bundled Sage and Speckled Egg, with some other springtime blues and greens thrown in there.

It's the Tim Holtz Mosaic stencil (though I have to say I've always thought of it as cobble stones - that's the dollshouse bit of my brain talking!) - and after spritzing through it, I turned it over and printed onto the other tags.

Where I wanted some more patterning, I then did small areas of spritzing and turning and printing again.

The daisies are from the newest Wildflower Stems Thinlits set (number 3) which I couldn't resist.  And it nudged me into digging out the BigShot from the packing boxes.

(None of the other dies are unpacked yet, though, so you'll be seeing a lot of this and one other die and one embossing folder which I also ordered.)

I dipped the stems in Bundled Sage and Peeled Paint on the craft mat, and then used Picket Fence Distress Paint, a couple of Distress Crayons (Speckled Egg, Scattered Straw, Wild Honey), and a PITT pen to colour the flower heads and add dimension and shading.

I'm really pleased with the effect.  I put the paint on in quite thick strokes (not easy with fluid Distress Paint) and it's given the petals a lovely sense of texture and movement I think.

I'm also pleased with the dotted PITT pen markings just adding a bit of depth and dimension to the centre of the flowers.

And I love the little leaves growing over the edge of the lace trim.

The three quotes are all from my PaperArtsy EAB06 Spring Edition - and I'm embracing the imperfections of the embossing!

It's Vanilla White Wow powder, and I'm usually much better at getting a really crisp imprint.  But clearly I'm out of practice - and had to re-stamp with a couple of them, trying to get the words in the right place to fill up gaps left from the first time!!

So in case you can't make out every single letter, they're all down at the bottom of the post in full as today's quotes.

I hope you like them.  After a pretty rough couple of weeks, they give me a sense of lightness and hope which is something of a relief.  And although spring comes slowly here in the Czech Republic, there are finally signs that life is stirring.

I hope wherever you are that you are enjoying some light, some warmth and the return of hope.  Stay safe, stay well, and I'll see you again soon.

Spring has returned.  The earth is like a child that knows poems.
Rainer Maria Rilke

In spring, everything is full of promise.
Charles Lanman

The sun has come out and the air is vivid with spring light.
Byron Caldwell Smith

I'd like to share these at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme this week is Spring/Easter

At Try It On Tuesday they are saying Hello Spring! - spring is all about the spring flowers for me, so this fits right in

I don't know whether I'll get away with joining in at Tag Tuesday where they are looking for Mostly Monochrome - my blue/turquoise/greens are very crowded together in one part of the spectrum, so hopefully it will work.  Having been away for so long, I'd love to play!