Giving the Ancestors the Paper Artsy Look!

Hello visitors to Magpieheaven and thank you for popping by now the autumn is here! Over at Paper Artsy a new designer is guesting and, over the months that I've been visiting in Blogland her fabulous blog 'Words and Pictures' has become a favourite of mine - Alison aka Butterfly! The combination of her flair and the wonderful Paper Artsy stamps and products have made this a really exciting start to a new semester! Please do pop over to Paper Artsy and see Alison's inspirational work. I loved the trios idea of all Alison's impressive projects and I wanted to use embossing powder with paint or play with acetate; but time constraints have made me shelve those projects for another day and go with Alison's second project idea! This is very much an interpretation because I do like to learn from Designers and then flap my wings a bit and take off in my own direction! Last Sunday, while helping my mum to sort out her belongings prior to moving, I found a couple of photos of my great-great grandparents - I don't even know their names yet, only that they were the parents of my great grandfather on my mother's side of the family. My father's parents were Jewish and came from Poland and I have found out a little bit about them and his East End roots!

While I was out on a walk absorbing all the lovely autumn tints, scents and textures I thought about how I might present these ancestors, and Alison's second Botanicals project came to mind. I loved the neutral tones of this and I thought they would go well with my ancestors! I have scanned my ancestors into the computer and I think these images are going to turn up in many projects in the future. I really would like to use them in a shadow box but that's for another time! In this arrangement you'll see some of the bits and pieces I gathered on my walk. I wasn't sure if I would use them at this stage, but I loved their colours and textures.

I die-cut some corrugated card and some heavier white Smoothy card with my Tim Holtz tag die. My plan for displaying my tags was a little different to Alison's, but I still wanted to use corrugated card: I love it and have hoarded away loads! I pasted pages from an old Encyclopedia to the tags. As you can see, the paper was thin and ripped in places; but I didn't worry too much, as I told myself it added to the distress - the tags' not mine! I painted with washy Snowflake and distressed the edges with Distress Inks. Alison suggested a blend of different shades, as this adds depth and she's absolutely right! I used Peeled Paint, Frayed Burlap and Walnut with just a touch of Soot at the very edge. I wish I'd had Gathered Twigs like Alison, as I think it would have gone very well!

 I always get carried away and don't stop enough to take pictures - when will I learn? I expect people have done this before, but I wanted to see what it would be like to make a TH rose from Fresco Paint and Crackle Glaze! I painted some regular Smoothy card with French Roast then Crackle Glaze and then a coat of Butternut - now no longer available! Then I die cut it. Here you can see my experiments with elements before sticking anything down. I've die-cut the ancestors - copies, of course - into ovals and coloured them with a mix of Frescos and DIs. I've also used the little bird stamp from the Hot Pick plate used by Alison and some of the flowers. Like her, I used Coffee Archival. I was a little panicked at this stage because the tags didn't look great to me. Adding the birds, though, made such a difference and I began to like the effect!

So here's what I came up with! I know the acorn will wither and perish eventually, but this particular project is not a 'forever' one! You'll see what I mean in a moment. First, here are some close-ups.

Once my rose was in place, I added just a blush of Blood Orange.

I was so pleased with the look of the tiny feather I found. The distressed scraps of brown paper were torn from a parcel that had just arrived!

I cut out and added the little moths from the Hot Picks Plate. I had some curly hazel twigs...

And here is what I did with my tags - an autumn arrangement in my Royal Doulton vase, which my late Granny picked up in a junk shop in the 1960s

Thank you so much for looking in today! You are so welcome! And thank you Paper Artsy and Alison!