my Crafty Corner

Cards and other handicrafts made by Jean Straw

Monday 22 April 2013

April Fool

I apologise for the long gap since my last blog. I have been doing some crafting but since a bout of flu at Easter I have been lacking in energy and enthusiasm. Anyway I needed to get these Quintiles done for the  Chocolate Baroque swap so have decided to show them to you today in an effort to get back to blogging.
The theme this month is April Fool which had me
thinking for a while, not really knowing where to start. However after checking in the dictionary to see if there was some definition I was anaware of,(there wasn't)  I turned to Google and searched for some quotes and came up with these two that I thought I could work with.
 The first quote made me think of this stamp from Crafty Individuals with the rabbits wearing crowns. I decided I would try and make a painty background for these tiles and used Lin Browns step by step tutorial on her blog here, for inspiration. I have a few of the Fresco Finish paints from Paper Artsy that she uses but they are mostly the opaque colours which are good for the base layers, but I found one that was more translucent and managed to mix some Old Gold to the Haystack to make it a bit less opaque. The other colours I used are Rusty Rose, Pansy and Guacamole. When I was happy with the painted background I stamped the diamond pattern across the top with a chocolate Baroque stamp from the decorative Edges set, with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP. I added some further interest by brushing Brilliance crimson copper ink through a Crafters Workshop stencil and adding some Frantage antique gold EP and fragments to the lower left hand corner. I also randomly stamped a few Crowns from a CB set with the Brilliance ink and some fragments of script with black Archival ink and a Paper Artsy stamp.The rabbits are stamped with the Crimson Copper ink and coloured lightly with pencils and cut out before sticking to the background.I stamped the crowns again onto gold miri card with Versa mark and embossed with WOW Gold glitter EP,cut them out and glued them in place. I printed the quote on the computer and cut it into strips and coloured the edges with the Brilliance ink pad.
The second one was made in a similar way but before painting I spread some Dreamweaver stencil paste in the top right hand corner and stamped into it with the diamond pattern stamp, spritzing it with water first. This was left to dry completely before adding the paint. I stamped the diamond pattern again with Crimson Copper ink across the bottom and added Brilliance Moonlight White ink through the stencil. I used a corner stamp from a Chocolate Baroque set  in opposite corners, stamped with Versamark and embossed with WOW gold EP, and I used some Gleam gold rubbing wax to highlight the texture paste. Again the quote was printed on the computer and cut out with a spellbinder die. I shaded the edge with Crimson Copper ink and mounted it onto some kraft card.

Thank you to everyone for looking and for the comments you leave, all really appreciated.
Hope to be back again soon. Jean

6 comments:

  1. Well done Jean. We have both been AWOL for a while. Nice to see you back. This was not an easy theme, but you've done well. I love the mixed media backgrounds. Kate x

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  2. Hi Jean, thanks for your kind comments. Your quintilles look fantastic, I`ve had to opt out of this months as my mind just drew a complete blank for April fool. These backgrounds are fun to do aren`t they and really effective. x Lavinia

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  3. Brilliant thinking outside the box for this one & I do hope you are starting to recover properly. some very nasty flu things about which really take it out of you. The colours are lovely & unusual & I love the way those rabbits match the quote.
    Take good care
    Paula (PEP)

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  4. Wow, I love the richness of all the texture here. Gold shines on them. The rabbits are so cute and the sentiments are nice.
    Sorry, dear Jean, that you have been poorly... hope you start to feel better real soon.
    Much love,
    M

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  5. What great ideas Jean, never thought of trying google! Love the backgrounds and the colours

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  6. Hi jean, I'm sorry to hear you've not been vey well, i hope you're starting to feel better now. I have also been missing from blogland lately, but am hoping to be back soon.

    Both fantastic creations, I love how you've created these stunning backgrounds. The rabbits are gorgeous!

    Take care

    Maria xxxxx

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