Saturday 31 August 2013

Darcy's Inspiration!

Welcome to Magpieheaven. Over at Paper Artsy the amazing Darcy has been creating so much! Her brain just teems with wonderful creative ideas. If you would like to be inspired just click HERE. This creative genius even designed her own range of stamps for Paper Artsy and they would grace any project. One of the great things about Darcy is that she is not afraid of building a project, so although my contribution this week may not be directly an interpretation of what she has been doing, I hope it is in the Darcy spirit! I need a new memo board to match the new Magpie kitchen - whenever it emerges, butterfly like from its chrysalis. Now, Darcy created a great chalk board. What I loved about it was the way the Paper Artsy stamped flowers arched around the board, softening and adding interest and perspective. I love Clarice Cliff ceramics, so I thought, 'What if I make a board that sweeps and swirls itself like a Clarice country cottage and arrange  flowers around the edge?'
I had some large pieces of MDF left over from the demolition of our old kitchen cupboards. I cut this into shape using a Jigsaw, cutting a rectangle out of the centre so that I could stick a piece of Whiteboard to the back. I also cut out some die-cut Tim Holtz Tattered Florals, which I painted with Fresco paints in Eggplant, Smoked Paprika, Baltic Blue and Tinned Peas. I also die-cut a Tim Holtz 'On the Edge' border to make a gate similar to that on my repro Clarice Cliff mug; but I eventually decided against using this when I arranged all my elements on my base.

I painted the whole frame for the board in Snowflake, after sanding it down. Later I drew round the flowers with a black pen to give the Clarice Cliff definition. I decided that I would Crackle Glaze the roof so I painted over my Snowflake base with a good coat of Little Black Dress.
I applied Grunge Paste through a Crafters' Workshop 'chicken wire' stencil to the sides of the house and painted the chimney with some Smoked Paprika. I planned to use some Paper Artsy stamps on my board and the ones that seemed to fit the project best turned out to be  HP1006, Ink and the Dog Petals Plate 3 and the new Mini 95. I stamped the images onto tissue (Sssh! I still have about 2 sheets of Crackly - I must have hoarded this like mad!) with Olympia Green Versafine ink, which I heat set. I painted my house in Guacamole with some streaks of Zesty Zing on the roof; Pumpkin Soup and Smoked Paprika on the walls and then Guacamole again along the bottom. I used the script from HP1006 to add to the Grunge look on the roof.
I made a little green ribbon loop which I hooked over the edge of my board for keeping the marker handy.
Here is a close-up of the Crackle, the tissue stamp and the script and just a little bit of the Grunge Paste chicken wire, which I touched with some Treasure Gold. I stamped the butterfly from HP1006 onto Smoothy card painted with Smoked Paprika and high-lighted with London Bus and some Treasure Gold, I finished the butterflies off with little pearls and antennae, which I think are intended for use as flower centres.
The sentiment is from the Petals plate 3. I put pearls at the centre of the flowers and this one is an Eggplant flower stuck over a Smoked Paprika one - you can just see the orange petals under the purple. The bricks on the roof are stamped straight on from the Mini using black Archival Ink.
Here you can see the little birds in the grasses that I used from the HP 1006 plate. Finally here is a picture of my board and the first message I've written on it. It comes with best wishes to Paper Artsy and Darcy for all the wonderful inspiration they provide! And a special 'Thank You' to Leandra for suggesting I try blogging in the first place! What great crafting companions I've found since April!
Here's to another great ten years of fun and creativity!

18 comments:

  1. Fantastic, great crackle and loving your summery colour combo!!

    Sam xxx

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  2. I love this, Julie Ann, the colours are fantastic... well done!!

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  3. Well this is certainly is in the Darcy spirit with all your special touches to it, the design team over there is VERY inspirational, I'm so glad you introduced me to their blog, I had never even seen it before I stating visiting you. Get you using a jig saw you go birdy, This board is designer worthy,that's for sure. I loooooove those colors you used, they sound just yummy and look fabulous,the crackling is gorgeous,love the chicken wire with the paste,love the butterflies with the pearl bodies, love how you stamped the script around, beautiful flowers, and the stamp with the grasses and birds, loooooove it and how cute is your chimney, oh man I love this project, outstanding work my dear, thanks for sharing and always inspiring me, hope you have a wonderful weekend.. BIG HUGS Cuz..XO

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  4. Awesome! no other word for it, I would be uber proud to have made this and so pleased to have inspired you. Love Clarice Cliff...It is going to look perfect in your finished kitchen. I hope we get to see photos of the whole room when it is done.

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  5. This is brilliant Julie Ann, I love your colours and am sure it will look fab in your new kitchen (good luck with that, ours was done last year and Neil still hasn't finished putting the lighting in lol) xx

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  6. What a fun board. Love the colors, it looks so happy and sunny!
    xx Monique

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  7. Wow, that is so gorgeous. I love the colours & the stamping & stencilling looks great.

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  8. This is fab Julie Anne Just loving the chicken wire texturing especially. Great Clarice inspired colour choices. Hugs Mo x

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  9. You can totally see the Clarice Cliff inspiration - this is fantastic!

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  10. Fabulous fun board!! It`s your world.I want know more projects.

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  11. Awww thanks for the birthday wishes. Love your post here, and so many great ideas within it. The colours look beautiful! thank you. xx

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  12. love the shape and colors - your memo board is very creative and quite attactive.
    sandy

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  13. Brilliant board, love your colours
    Janet

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  14. This is fantastic, and I love how you have made it all right from scratch, just like Darcy! Great to see what you make each week,

    Lucy x

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  15. What a fantastic piece of art Julie Ann! I love it...it's so creative! xx

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  16. Hiya sweet treat… thought I'd pop in to see what ya are up too. Don't ya just love MDF?? What a great repurpose, reuse, recycle, of left over material. I love the crackle effect. You most definitely are one of my most FAV craftastic goddesses!!!! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. ((((HUGS)))
    Kimmie<3

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  17. How gorgeous... the crackle looks wonderful, and I love the zingy orange amidst the greens.
    Alison x

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  18. Wow wow wow absolutely gorgeous stunning memo board, actually another wow is using a jigsaw, not sure I would be that brave lol. I remember it's a moth (hope you saw my last comment to know what I mean lol). I really love how you have taken the inspiration from the mug. I have difficulty doing things like that, I never seem to know how to follow a picture or thing to draw inspiration from it. Maybe I should try again as it has been a while. I love all the colours you have used and the stamps. I have still got a packet and half of crackly tissue, only problem is, I saved it for best and now can't find it lol. Hence why I'm trying to sort my craft room out lol. Hugs Kezzy :-) xxxxxx

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