Thursday 10 July 2014

Our Creative Corner - Flowers, Ribbons and Illuminations!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! One of my favourite blogs is Our Creative Corner. I love to see what the Design Team come up with each month! They set such fun challenges too! This month it's to create a project using hand-made flowers and hand-dyed ribbons! I couldn't wait to join in because lately my cooker has been bubbling away with red cabbages, purple onions and avocado skins. These 'witch's' potions are very innocent compared with Macbeth's Weird Sisters' brew! I've had all manner of laces and ribbons drying. My daughter thought something nasty had crawled from out of the shower head the other day when a length of lace drying over the shower curtain flicked across her face during her morning shower! Here they are, put to use on a project for Our Creative Corner's Challenge!
I've used some Lynne Perrella stamps and a PaperArtsy mini, which resembles Gothic Script. For a long time now I've been fascinated by Medieval illuminated manuscripts and some of Lynne's designs remind me of these beautiful creations. I love all the activity that takes place in the margins: birds, flowers, animals and people become so vivid it is as if they could fly off the page into our world! I wanted to create the idea of manuscripts blossoming into life on this project.
 I decided I wanted to work with blues and browns. I was going to create flowers, but I wanted them to give the impression of parchment, vellum and ink. The ribbons in this picture were dyed with avocado to create one shade of brown and red onion skins for another. I die-cut some fabric dyed with avocado skins and some gauze. I also stamped over the fabric and the ribbon, using Stazon and the PaperArtsy mini. The lace, which I decided not to use in the final project was dyed with red cabbage. I created lots of die-cuts and shrink plastic shapes before playing around with different flower combinations!
I also got busy with the rusting powder!
This is the little house of illuminations! I bought it when I was in the Danish store, 'Tiger' with my friend, Lucy. It took several coats of Gesso then PapertArtsy Stone, Chocolate Pudding, Crackle Glaze and a nice thick coat of Nougat before those rather 1970s style shiny flowers vanished!
I created an arched window with a die-cut wrapped in a mop-up baby-wipe stamped with some PaperArtsy Mini script and touched with some Florentine Treasure Gold. The decoration at the top is a rusted 'corner'.
The flowers were created using Tim Holtz Tattered Florals with my own hand-dyed fabrics, Shrink Plastic and Smoothy Card painted with PaperArtsy Caramel, Toffee, Chocolate Pudding, Vanilla and Nougat - all very yummy colours! The Lynne Perrella images inside are coloured with Frescos and Inktense pencils.
The birds are die-cut using a TH Sizzlits decorative strip and they are painted with Antarctic and Elephant Fresco Finish paints.
Another close-up showing the manuscript flowers I created. The Fleur de Lys on this one is from Stampington's 'Clearly Impressed' 'Butterfly Girl' plate. I used a Prima Stencil of flourishes and coloured Grunge Paste onto tissue to get into those awkward little sections inside the house.- a tip I learned from Lucy Edmondson at True Colours. My rose stands in a half cotton reel covered in stamped tissue and that little resin bird also perches on a toadstool from Retro Cafe Art Gallery covered in stamped tissue.
Hand-dyed gauze, stamped with Stazon forms part of this flower.

Sorry if this is a little blurred! It's a tiny peek inside to look at a little flower with a tiny shrink plastic sun at its centre.

The feather shape is Lynne Perrella stamped onto a Tando chipboard feather shape and the text is from Sara Nauman's Eclectica range for PaperArtsy, stamped onto stacked card.
These tiny scrolls are tied with avocado dyed seam-binding.
Here is the Crackle on the outside of the house. I used that wonderful Mini again to create the impression of worn calligraphy.
Thank you so much for your patience, if you've stayed around for the whole of this rather lengthy post! I should like to enter this little house for the Our Creative Corner Challenge here.

25 comments:

  1. WOW!!! I've not come across Tiger... love the house, (after the transformation, before; it's a bit much!) but your flowers and all the other details are just fantastic.

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  2. BREATHTAKING, such a gorgeous project. The house looks fantastic.

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  3. Seriously Julie Ann,sometimes I really think your work should be in an art gallery...wonderful,wonderful,wonderful....again!

    Hugs
    Donna xx

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  4. Saw this on fb, Julie Ann, but had to see more--it's DEFINITELY yummy, the whole thing!!!

    :)

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  5. Hey Miss Julie Ann, I agree with Donna your work belongs in an art gallery, yes the Dream Team from Our creative corner, love them too, this was a great challenge Astrid thought up, right up your nest... How funny your naughty lace everywhere, poor little puppet lol.. How appropriately you have name this ILLUMINATING, the dictionary describes it as, To adorn (a page of a book, for example) with ornamental designs, miniatures, or lettering in brilliant colors or precious metals. and this my dear is EXACTLY what you have created, you've made an illuminated page into a 3D creation, honestly I could go on and on about every detail you have created, bowing to you Missy, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, this is your best production up to now, the Dream Team are going to looooooove this, deserves another guest designer spot I think :O)... Have a wonderful weekend, I'm going to share this on FB now, ((( BIG HUGS ))) Cuz....

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  6. Absolutely stunning Julie Ann, a masterpiece! xxx

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  7. all i can say is WOW! this is so very awesome. xo

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  8. This is amazing Julie Ann! I love that you repurposed and lost those 70's flowers-ewe!
    Gorgeous and more gorgeous- the time you must put in to your art is amazing- thank you for sharing! Now, about that rusting powder- where do I find it and is it difficult to use? xo

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    1. It's very easy to use, Jackie. You sprinkle it over the embellishment, having put on a thin coat of something sticky and then spray with vinegar. Sent you a message on Google+ about finding it! Thanks for your kind comments xx

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  9. Such a beautiful work of art Jullie Ann, the detail is jaw dropping, I love the little scrolls and your touch of rusting and different flowers. Being a 70's girl I had forgotten how it was a decade of bad taste those flowers were a bit loud! Thank you so much for dropping by my blog and your kind comments. Mo x

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  10. I really love how you can fit so much onto a project and it works, it's such a talent you have Julie Ann.

    Stunning as always, love how you always manage to inspire so many people with your gifts :-) xxx

    Did i recommend you to go to Myfanwy Hart's site, she is an expert dyer, she makes some wonderful threads from her concoctions. you might find her on You Tube under the Colouricious channel.

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  11. This is a fantastic and dreamy house Julie Ann! These flowers are so delicate and beautiful natural dyed the ribbons. Fab rusted and shrink embellishments,beautiful colours combo. This project is really wonderful, thank you for shared of us.
    Etsuko xx

    Finally you got Inktense pencils, (sorry) how many colors set you chosen?

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  12. This is truly delightful Julie Ann, there are so many wonderful details to look at. Off to take another look. xx

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  13. wow this looks fabulous, great flowers and I love the LP stamps you used!
    Groetjes Karin (OCC)

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  14. A really gorgeous piece x love all the colours and those flowers are gorgeous x

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  15. This must have been quite a fun piece to work on. You've added so many lovely little details. I love how you used the baby wipe. I like to incorporate repurposed bits like that in my art too. Well done!

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  16. Oh boy - this should definitely get a certificate for "most improved" at least!! What a horror those flowers are, and what a beauty your finished house is. Fabulous dyed ribbons, giving such a unique look to the whole thing. Beautifully done. Thank you so much for joining us at Our Creative Corner!
    Alison xx

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  17. Wow what an amazing transformation, it looks totally fabulous now! Love all your beautiful hand made flowers and the ribbon looks great too! Thanks so much for adding it to our challenge at Our Creative Corner!

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  18. Wow what a fabulous mastepiece.xxx

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  19. Oh Julie Anne, what a work of art this is, with beautiful attention to detail in every little place. Gorgeous just gorgeous.
    Julie x

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  20. Haha, I can very well imagine that scene of your daughter having an encounter in the shower...I guess I would have screamed like a girl...erm, I AM a girl...lol.
    LOVE your beautiful alteration with all the wonderful hand died goodness on it!

    And thank you so much for your lovely comment on my blog! Highly appreciated!

    Hugs,
    Claudia x

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  21. WOW! what a transformation! You have done it again! Created a superb masterpiece. I am so glad to see you take part in this months challenge! Love from Laura xxxxxxxx

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  22. Wow wow wow truly stunning gorgeous house, so many gorgeous details. Lol on the lace hanging over the shower. Kezzy :-) xxx

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