Tuesday 5 November 2013

Alison's Crafting Peace!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven. It's been so very hectic with moving my mum into her new flat that when I saw Alison's guest designer piece for Paper Artsy it really appealed to me. Click here to discover how she creates some crafting peace with two exquisitely beautiful tags. They are just perfection! The wonderful images on the Paper Artsy Urban snapshots stamps that she used so effectively were a revelation to me, but as yet I don't have any of these. I plan to - Christmas list definitely! I loved the sentiments that she used so well. What I do have, though, are a selection of my favourite Paper Artsy Fresco paints, some Wendy Vecchi archival ink and lots of distress inks. I decided to play along with the very talented Alison and I should like to link my work to the Paper Artsy Challenge this week.
Here are the colours I decided to work with. I went for my favourites - browns, blues and greens! Alison's background was just lovely, so I selected one of my Crafters' Workshop stencils and had a good old play with Frescos and distress inks over two tags I cut with a Tim Holtz die out of Smoothy Card! I discovered just by chance how great Honeydew is as a base for all the other colours; I really loved the blend. Spritzing and flicking was lots of fun too and I found that this created a misted look that reminded me of this time of year as autumn dissolves gently into winter. This transition between the seasons became the theme of the tags, which evolved into a 'moving house' card for my mum. I had the Paper Artsy, Ink and the Dog alphabet plate that Alison used, but I had cut it into individual letters and numbers so I randomly stamped some of these in Snowflake on my tags.
My backgrounds reminded me of frost fronds on the window-pane. For a little more interest I stamped the sentiment from the Ink and the Dog Petals, plate 3 across the tags in Wendy Vecchi Fern Green. I did not have an arch like Alison, but I had an idea I had wanted to put into practice for a while, to die-cut another shape into the centre of a die-cut. I chose Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves and die-cut a Spell-binders keyhole into two Crackle Glazed leaves to symbolise the key to a new start in a new home. Then I stuck my tags onto a concertina card I made using my Crafters Companion multi-board. A while back I bought some ribbon with a design of winter trees on it so I edged my card with this.
I clear embossed the sentiment and used Stampendous, shabby blue Frantage and a pearl to accent it. The card was coming to symbolise the idea that winter has its own beauty and that seeds are sleeping under ground ready to form the trees of tomorrow. This is a period of settling in for mum, a kind of winter, but I hope that well before spring she will feel really and truly at home. Let's hope we are sewing lots of seeds of happiness!
I used the distress inks to stain some seam binding. I was quite pleased with the blend of distress inks and Frescos that I used on the background of the white card too. I also embossed the Petals sentiment onto this and sponged over it.
I also had some lovely hand-made paper given me by my dear crafting friend and Magpie Cousin, Dianne. This is such a subtle shade and has little leaves embedded in it. I thought it would go perfectly with my theme so I used it for another background to my concertina card.
I used the same background technique and added the lovely door from Mini 94, embossed and edged with Treasure Gold White Fire. I also used some White Fire to edge my leaves.
Sadly my mum has Macular Degeneration so she finds it very difficult to see, but she likes to look at pictures through her magnifying glass and - with patience - she can see quite a bit of detail. I am hoping she will like this card to wish her all the very best of happiness in her new home. I do hope that all the disruption caused by the recent storm is being sorted over at Paper Artsy HQ and that this has not caused too much stress! Thank you for stopping by today and thank you, Alison for your inspiration and the reminder of the peace there is to be found in crafting and creating!

12 comments:

  1. Fabulous idea and colours card Julle Ann! Your project always fun to detail too. This time also.
    Etsuko xx

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  2. Beautiful work Julie Ann - this is a stunning card and you have crafted along Alison's fabulous designs wonderfully. I do hope that your Mum will be able to see all the lovely details. Nicola x

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  3. Hello
    I am your newest Follower and so pleased to discover your Blog.
    Such gorgeous combination of colours with a beautiful combination of stamps.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  4. This is just stunning, my fave so far this week. Really delicate, ethereal.

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  5. These are so beautiful, Julie Ann - delicate depth and frosty beauty. I love the images and words and the thought of planting the seeds for your mother's happiness in her new home. Thanks so much for joining in this week - I'm so happy you found some peace and joy in the crafting, and I wish your mother the same in her new house.
    Alison x

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  6. Well my sweets you have done Miss Alison proud and your Mom and at the Parliament everyone is all puffed up :O).., eekks, you used all my favorite colors, the background does look like, frosted fronds on a window pane,, (love that expression), brilliant idea to use the 2 die cuts together to create the keyhole in the leaves, looooove the sentiment you stamped in different ways all over the card, I love that tree ribbon and the seam binding is beautiful.I knew you would find an excellent way to use that wonderful handmade paper, it looks fabulous on this card, when you see that inside piece with the door BAMB, that is FANTASTIC, looove the background, then the piece on top, then the piece on top of that, OMG, the door is fabulous. You know my dear, things made with love are MAGNIFICENT, that's what this is. Your Mom will love this,it will remind her every day of the love you have for her, this will indeed help her adjust to her new surrounding I too am very hapy you got some time to create this piece and had some fun doing it, thanks for letting us be a part of this fabulous make..

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  7. I hope your mum is ok & loved her card, it is SO beautiful.

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  8. What a beautiful card, so special for your dear Mum Julie Ann! I hope she is soon settled in her new home.
    Alison xxx

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  9. beautiful - so much detail and fantastic colours. x

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  10. It's gorgeous and will give your mum lots to look at for hours on end! I love your key hole idea and will have to hum... borrow it sometime!

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  11. Your tags are beautiful, Julie Ann, and I love the sentiments behind them,

    Lucy x

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  12. Wow wow wow absolutely gorgeous stunning tags, I love how they fold up. I tried doing this but I made a complete mess of mine lol. I love how you have added frantage and the pearl. I love the colours you have chosen as well, slightly lighter. Hugs Kezzy :-) xxxxxx

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