Blue Heaven

I really wanted to make a lovely little tag-book like Carol created over at Paper Artsy - click here - this week - I will do too, one day. I've wanted to have a go at making my own books and journals for ages - BUT...Well, time just ran away with me, and I thought I'd have so much now my students are on holiday! I started making some storage for Magpieheaven and that project totally took over. Then I needed to make a little gift for a friend and - wow - Carol came up with a gorgeous canvas for her second project. I found a mini-canvas - just 12cm by 16cm - and easel I had. I wish I could have given mine feet like Carol's (the ones on the canvas - not the ones on the end of Carol's legs, you understand!) but it had to be posted a long way away and it did have its little easel to stand on. My challenge was to make this wonderful idea of Carol's work in miniature. I used Grunge Paste through a stencil to create a raised background. That ledger stencil Carol used is great, but I didn't have time to order it, so used this flower one from Crafters Workshop.

I also painted some Paper Artsy Smoothy card with Frescos in South Pacific, Beach Hut and Vintage Lace, the colours I intended to use on my canvas. When the Grunge Paste was dry I gave it a coat of Concrete as a background. I also made a shrink plastic version of the lady I was going to feature in triplicate on my canvas and coloured her with alcohol inks; glazed her with Glossy Accents and embellished her with a few gems and Treasure Gold edging.

Now this is such a coincidence, my cat Daisy wanted to join in too; she so wanted to be like Carol's moggy! She refused to let me photograph the evidence of her poking her little pink nose in and ran off to beg my son for a second breakfast! Here she is back again and washing her tummy! It's OK she actually didn't manage to use her paws as a paintbrush! I think the sun was shining through raindrops on the window and made this effect of spots everywhere - it really wasn't Daisy getting paint on everything!

Trying to ignore Daisy, I painted my canvas with my chosen Fresco colours: Baltic Blue round the edges, blending with water, as Carol had done into South Pacific and Mermaid. When this was dry I applied some Treasure Gold to the flowers with a tapered paper stump (Carol had used a dried out pen with Gilders' Paste, I think.) I then stuck on my stamped images with Dresden wings and crowns in place of the crackled ones on Carol's. I didn't have die-cut wings small enough to fit such a mini-canvas unfortunately, as I love CG and take any opportunity to use it!

I embossed 'Namaste' in black sparkle embossing powder onto some acetate as a greeting banner across the left-hand corner of the canvas. I also stuck some tiny gems into the centres of the grunge flowers.

I hope my friend isn't taking a look at the Paper Artsy blog, as this will spoil her surprise! But I wanted to post my blog to say 'Thank You' to Carol for the inspiration she has given this week with her lovely projects.