Zetti ATCs Jan 2010, The Artist Trading Club

Chriss at The Artist Trading Club suggested watching Teesha Moore's youtube.com videos to see how Teesha goes about journalling Zetti style.
There are 9 videos.
First one is called Layer 1: Paint.
Then a series of 4 called Journalling Collage
and a final 4 episodes called Journalling Pen Work.

They were fascinating to watch, even if you don't like the style they are worth watching to see another artist at work and the processes she uses.
It's one step further along the nosey road of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW).

Having watched the videos I got organised and followed her instructions to the letter, improvising if I didn't have her craft materials but staying true to the style.

Firstly I painted a background using Reeves soft sheen acrylic.
Teesha recommends soft sheen because pens often bleed and won't flow properly on matt acrylics.

Then using cut up bits of designer paper as I didn't have any magazines I glued on a border with white PVA.
Teesha uses magazine cuttings and copies of previous journalling pages and a tape glue roller.

I took some photos of my progress at each stage.




Then you collage a central image.
After which using PanPastels you add some shading around the border and central images.

They look like that awful 1970's make up to me.
If you're old enough to remember using 1970's make up you'll know what I mean.

Teesha had a PanPastel sponge tipped tool to apply the stuff but I had to improvise as I had neither.
I used Versamagic chalk ink applied with a cosmetic bud then dabbed the cosmetic bud on my tongue so the ink would shade evenly away to nothing.
A little bit of spit did the trick.



For the journalling Teesha recommends Sharpie poster paint pens, in medium nib, fine nib and extra fine nib in white and black. Copic sketch pens. Caran D'ash Crayons.
I have none of those so used a black Staedtler pigment liner 0.1 size and a white Sakura gelly roll med gel pen. These suited the ATC size space.

Teesha explains how to shade your lettering so that it appears that you have a consistent light source.
If the sun is coming in from the top right hand corner then your lettering will have shading on the left side and the bottom. Anything that is facing right is NOT going to have shadow.

The things I found out about my crafting preferences is firstly that I dislike journalling.
I really really do not want to write all over my pictures.
I had to force myself to do it and I only managed to do it on two ATCs before rebellion struck.
I obviously only like my stories on the side or on the back and not all over the front.
I don't mind a quote or title but not writing all over.
I couldn't care less about shading on lettering or lettering styles.
Secondly I don't like doodling at all either.
I have absolutely no desire to create dark or macabre pictures.
Teesha uses absolutely no shiny. None what so ever.
Wot no shiny?
Nope.

The one thing I did like was making up bright, cheerful and funny central characters.

Click on the images to make them bigger if you want.











Despite all this I enjoyed doing the challenge, as I like trying new art styles.
I love the end result and I really didn't want to part with them; but I did, spit and all ;-)
(If you got one and are concerned, they were sent in clear plastic wallets so you don't have to touch them!)

The other thing is I don't really enjoy working this small.
So I don't imagine I will be making that many ATCs in the foreseeable future.
But I retain the right to change my mind, so please don't hold me to it. :-)

Whatever you are up to, happy creating!
Gini
xx

Keys ATC Nov 2009, The Artist Trading Club

Keys have been a very popular challenge theme in the last few months.
As I have already done Keys for the ABAA challenge in September I tried to think about keys from a different angle.
OK, so what phrases refer to keys.
Key to my heart.
Key to the door. And......

A few days pass and...... Nope, no more ideas were forthcoming.
That is pretty rubbish on the ideas front don't you think?

So I gave that up and went back to rabbits and hidden keys and had a ball dreaming these ones up.

Have you heard about the latest craze that is sweeping the country this Christmas?
Santa's Elves have been working day and night to meet the demand for flying keys and not just any keys; these are magic keys that only rabbits can fly.
Up and down the country hutches and warrens have been buzzing with excitement over the prospect of what will be lurking in Santa's sacks.

Flying Key Fever is making newspaper headlines and causing many mother rabbits considerable anxiety and sleepless nights over potentially limited stock (you didn't really think this was just a human condition did you?).

A fortunate few rabbits are already whizzing around the skies showing off to anyone who will watch them. I was lucky enough to be out with my camera and managed to capture a few of their antics in pixels.











Then I made another butterfly with a key body.




I found an image of a cute red squirrel. I love red squirrels (well just about any animal with fur or feathers really).
So this squirrel called Bob has buried his flying key to wait for the 24th December and hopes to dig it up and sell it for a fortune in nuts to some poor, nearly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, "gotta get a flying key" Rabbit. That is of course if he can find it again.



Then I noticed Julia peeping through her keyhole and low and behold Lloyd Grossman's show "Through the keyhole" popped into my head.
Come on all together now "Who lives in a house like this?"

Apparently he puts that accent on, it's not real, so Himself informs me. Now I could understand him doing this if he was a comedian, to give himself a memorable uniqueness, but he's not a comedian, he's a food critic and cook. Just shows you how little I know about the limelight and the media.

Cop a load of how out of focus this picture is, I blame my camera of course, it couldn't possibly have been me.
Oh! and on this one I thought I would finish it off with a blanket stitch border, it was AFTER I had bodged the holes in it that I realised I couldn't actually remember how to do blanket stitch which was so incredibly handy I had to do a little dance.
I got out a sewing book, but the written description of just how to do this stitch might have been written in Swahili for all the sense I could make of it, so I had to wing it and invent a new stitch called the Schmare Stitch.

Named in Tribute to the late great Jack Lemmon for his fantasmagorical performance as Felix Ungar in the Odd Couple and that wonderful scene of him having a sinus attack in the coffee shop - schmaaaare, schm, schm, schmare. (Who needs Meg Ryan doing her "thing" in a coffee shop when we have Jack...)
You can watch this scene on you tube if you like :-)

Presenting the Schmare stitch -
which as you can see is quite badly untidy, but it's a new stitch and I haven't got it polished to perfection yet :-)




I did finally come up with something for "The key to my heart" and took yet another awful picture of it with that temperamental camera of mine, which I think was having it's own sinus attack today.




These two have absolutely nothing to do with this challenge (I could have been just a little bit wicked and just left them here and let you try and decide what they had to do with Keys. The answer of course being absolutely nothing, but I'm good, allegedly, Santa says so and his sacks are very full...)
I did wonder how much of a difference a central image can make to the same background, quite a lot seemingly.



Happy Crafting everyone!
Gini

Last Bad Hair Day ATC for The Artist Trading Club Swap Sept 2009

I was wondering if it was possible to make "shiny grunge" that didn't look like a dogs dinner.

I have no idea who the man in this image portrays but it came from The bumper book of papers from the Crafter's Paper Library, which disappointingly is printed on semi gloss paper which is not what I would've knowingly purchased. Still...

The resemblance of this chap to Billy Connolly is startling don't you think?
Either he is a great great relative of Billy's or he could be The Billy Connolly caught in the Victorian Era and he got there by hitching a ride with Spanky.

I'm not sure if I have managed to achieve a visually pleasing shiny grunge punk mohawk.
I like it, but that might be because I like Billy Connolly :-)

As you know I struggle to photograph shiny well, so the real look of the thing is somewhere in the middle of these two photos.
Click on them to make them bigger.




Happy Crafting everyone!
Gini

Spanky does Jonathan Dodgson Carr in 1895. ATC Bad Hair Day.

We are each responsible for our own happiness aren't we?
Well, I nearly peed myself laughing making this one.
(I don't think I should be admitting this but hey.)

I saw on The Artist Trading Club blog that September's theme is Bad Hair Day.
Spanky's eyes lit up and she wanted to have a go.

We (?) were eating lunch of crackers and cheese.
She held the knife and I held the fork. (Run Away Now)
We got to looking at the box of crackers again with a crafter's eye this time.

This is what we were eating.
Click on the pictures to make them bigger.





If you can't read it from the picture, it's my photography skills not your eyes, (your age is just fine, honestly)

It says:-

"Biscuits of Distinction
Carr's Table Water in their original form first appeared in the late 19th Century as a refinement of the ships biscuit. Water instead of fat was used to blend the dry ingredients in order to keep the biscuits fresh on long voyages. Carr's cabin biscuits with their delicate, crisp texture proved extremely popular with seafarers....."

Seeing as we had polished off the packet I cut up the box and Spanky made this.
Click it to make it bigger.



It says:-

Spanky does Jonathan Dodgson Carr in 1895

Mr Carr Esq was not a happy chappy, he asked for a light trim and got... well he didn't know quite what it was, but it was not good.

On his way home the seagulls had dive bombed his monstrous hair but after glumly staring at his reflection in the mirror he had the most marvellous idea!

"I know" he thought "I'll use water instead of fat in ships biscuits and rename them Carr's Table Water, biscuits of Distinction."

Disclaimer. Please note: This story is based on absolutely no facts whatsoever apart from J.D.Carr establishing the Carr's Table Water. The rest is just the product of an over active imagination.

It's one of those conundrum things, if Carr hadn't invented the biscuit then Spanky being a time traveller couldn't have taken them back in time to him, but if Spanky hadn't gone back in time and put biscuits on his head, would Carr have invented the biscuit???
It's all complete tosh of course but it entertained me no end!


But I don't think I can bear to part with it. I think I need to make a set of these.
Actually I might be getting a bit ahead of myself, I haven't even asked if I can join in yet. Oya!

How I made it.

Brayered Andirondack inks in pool and sunset orange on white card. Stamped circles in watermelon and a rubbish white ink from ink it up that hardly had any ink in it and went straight in the bin, what a waste of money.

I use 230 g/m Watercolour paper for any shapes that I stick onto projects. In this case his body and his hair. I find that watercolour paper can handle any applied medium and at this thickness I get rigidity but I'm still able to cut it into intricate shapes quite easily. The 300 g/m (thicker) watercolour paper is better as a background for much larger projects.

Buying watercolour paper. For this sort of thing you don't need expensive brands of paper.
I get 18 sheets of A3 in a pad from "The Works" for £4. It's made by Boldmere.

I painted his water biscuit hair in acrylics. His body in blue metallic acrylic and heat embossed a stamped image in glitter gold on his coat. I edged the piece in eggplant in Versamagic chalk ink.
I glued everything with white PVA.

Happy crafting everyone!