A manly challenge

The November challenge on the Canvas Corp Brands blog incorporates a metals, rust and mechanical theme. Since I love all things Steampunky, this is right up my street!

I have a collection of old coffee tins that currently hold my brushes and tools and were perfect for a bit of altering.

First I glued some wire, die cut gears and keyboard keys to the tin to create the design and then used gesso to cover everything. I added some areas of crackle paste and grit for texture, then started applying the colour.

13arts Cinnamon Latte and Cardamon Machiato paints formed the base colours. Over this I sprayed Tattered Angels Red Maple glimmer mist. I added some 7 gypsies rub-ons on top of the keys and then highlighted some areas of details with turquoise patina paint. I finished off with a light spray of Chalkboard Chalk mist.

Now I just need to alter the rest of my coffee tins to match!

#ccbmovember 

Bits & Pieces

Now that the nights are getting darker, I like to spend the evenings sitting at my desk making a mess with paints and papers. And since I've finally got around to getting myself a proper desk light I can craft at night without having to squint and getting more mess on myself than on the page!

We've recently had a new baby niece born so I decided to make a keepsake box as a gift. I started with a plain box, painted on some wood grain texture and stencilled on a cherry blossom with modelling paste.

I used some pretty flowers, butterflies and chipboard in a nice peachy colour range and added some glitter for sparkle.

Tentacles!

I have a sort of obsession with octopus. Well, not just octopus but all things cephalopod. There's just something about their weird alien-ness, from their  tentacles to their intellect, there's just something a bit otherworldly about them.

I also adore the steampunk movement; the rich colours, the industrial imagery and the idea of an alternate twist to Victorian history. Plus octopus tend to feature quite heavily in the literature and aesthetic! So for the latest challenge on the 13artsblog, it seemed only natural to combine these two loves.

I made these covers for a new journal. The tentacles were made from tinfoil and 13arts wine red stain powder and glass beads. I also used fine grain grit to create texture on the background, various sprays and paints for the colouring and some 7dots studio stickers and papers for detail. 

I'd also like to enter this into the 7dots challenge for steampunk this month.

Ocean blue

I adore the sea. It is at the same time both tranquil and soothing, and wild and unpredictable.  From the waves lapping on rocky shores to the great unexplored deeps, it evokes such fantastic imagery and inspiration. And the creatures that live within the vast oceans! From the strange and bizarre yeti crabs and nudibranchs to the awesome majesty of the ocean giants like humpback whales and manta rays.

One of my favourite sea creatures however, is one of myth and legend; the Kraken. Whether the stories are of gigantic sea creatures rising from the black depths of the ocean to destroy unwary sailors or as a monstrous figure in Greek tales for sacrificing virgins to and as a tool of the gods' wrathful vengence, I love the thought that there may be kraken still, lurking in the abyssal trenches of the ocean.

The quote on the journal page below is from one of my favourite stories, Kraken by China Mieville. Here, the Kraken are ancient gods, worshipped by a cephalopodic cult in an alternative London landscape. The papers and tags are from 7dots  Destination Unknown collection, with some netting, pearls and metallic foils and paints, plus some texture stones.

I'd like to enter this page into the metallic colours challenge on the 7dots blog.

Creativity

Finnabair has a challenge on her blog about quotes and how they inspire us to be creative. There are lots of words that inspire me, but I think the ones that have stayed with me and stuck in my head and still make me stop and think, aren't really a quote. Infact, they're a piece of graffiti I first saw nearly 20 years ago- "this inertia that keeps me, hides me, kills me". It was spray painted on a car park at my old university building and I read them every day for the next 7 years. The words eventually started to fade and the car park has since been demolished but still the words linger in my head. They're not the most cheerful words and I don't fully understand what sentiment inspired the graffiti artist when they sprayed them. There's even something slightly uncomfortable about the words, but they drive me on: to understand better, to keep trying, to not give up and never let things get me down. I try to follow this idea through all things in my life, including creativity. If at first something doesn't work or doesn't turn out how I want, I start over and try again.
This is my page inspired by Finnabairs challenge.

Created using lots of paints, sprays, diecut cogs, flowers and a lot of mess!

Changes

I'm generally quite laid back about things and don't usually get too stressed- except for when I'm waiting for big things to happen. I've just moved house and started a new job, and waiting for all the paperwork to go through and making sure all the necessary arrangements were in place left me feeling really strung out. I worried something would go wrong, I had a huge to-do-list that never seemed to get any shorter and what if I'd forgotten a really important thing?! Stress! But we're now settling nicely into our new home and my job seems to have gotten off to a good start so I can start to relax now and wonder what all the fuss was about.

This months challenge at Mixed Media Place is about being patient and well, it's something that I struggle with sometimes.

This journal page is about my IMPATIENCE and was created using sprays, crackle paste, seed beads, alpha stamps and a splattering of paint.

I'd also like to enter this journal page for the May Berry71bleu blog challenge. The colours and textures in their mood board are just gorgeous and really inspired my page details.

Greenwitch

The Dark Is Rising series is one of the first books I remember reading that has left an indelible imprint on my mind. The mixture of ancient magics, Authurian references and nature imagery always conjured fantastical pictures whenever I read it. My copy is now somewhat battered and falling to bits but still I devour each page as if I were reading it anew. The imagery of the Greenwitch book is particularly striking- ancient traditions combining with an elemental power that is renewed with each making.

For this journal page I used various patterned papers, spray inks and I handmade the frame elements from polymer clay.