Sunday 8 August 2010

Inky, grungy, sunshine

I've been musing about the latest Compendium of Curiosities Challenge over at StudioL3 during the week (p39 of The Book) but not had time to do any playing, and to be honest I was a bit nervous as I haven't used grungepaper before and it could be a pricey mistake if I messed it up! Now I'm wondering how I managed without it !
Inspiration for this tag came from two sources really - the Chestnut Challenge at Gingersnaps Creations currently is Famous Painters or Paintings. I've chosen a painting from the Paris sunflower series by Van Gogh because , well , I like it!  My Sunflower is one of my oldest stamps - a PSX from 1999, one of the first I bought and the background of the Tag is stamped with 'Sequin Waste' from The artistic Stamper which arrived this morning so is my newest stamp. On this baiss I'm entering into the Artistic Stamper 'something old something new' challenge with this tag too.   I stamped the sunflower in brown Stazon and added some Cinnamon stickles to the centre which you can't see on the photo. The  which I've then spritzed with water. Ooh..and I must mention the charm - this was my gift from Gloria at the 'All things Tim' Yahoo group that I won a few weeks ago and arrived this morning (of course she didn't just send me one - that would be silly, but a whole package of Type Charms, thanks so much). Because of the colours I've used my tag also fits with the Primary colours challenge at Allsorts.

The other inspiration for this tag came while browsing 'Cathy Walters' Etsy shop. This was in aid of the Etsyinspired challenge, that I discovered today, to pick an item of art from the weeks etsy shop to inspire your own piece. Cathy Walters makes little pieces of wearable art in pendant form and I was quite taken with this one (given my love of sunflowers not surprising!).
While I had the sunshine coloured Distress inks out - Mustard yellow, Dried marigold, Wild Honey and Fired Brick, I decided to keep going with the grunge and made another piece. I haven't made it into anything yet, but will probably use it for a card. I was trying to go for a sunshine through the tress kid of feel - it looks quite dark on the pic but the colours are lighter and more yellowy orange in real life.  I've embossed the grunge paper with Tim Holtz sizzix 'rays' folder and added highlights with some gold metallic rub on. The film strip is an 'Artistic stamper' stamp (which also arrived this morning and had to be used immediately!), I've stamped it onto acetate in black and again onto black card in white in, cut out pics of trees from a crafty individuals pad and layered them together. The tree is stamped on acetate and torn down the right side.  I'm going to add this to the Ginger Snaps Creations random redhead Challenge 'Sunshine' - even though it's not bright sunshine (just like our real weather!).   

19 comments:

  1. My goodness Esther, there is such a lot to look at and its all great. Thank you so much for all the lovely comments you leave on my blog. Enjoy Sunday, Annette x

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  2. Love your grunge sunflower and all your other wonderful works of art!

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  3. Wow, Esther, you made two absolutely gorgeous pieces of art this week! I love your sunflower-- the colors are so rich, and the soft blue background paper is the perfect setting for the happy flower!

    Your second piece is equally lovely! I just love the contrast of the soft pastels in the filmstrip against the earth-toned background.

    In both cases, you did the inked grunge technique perfectly, then went on to take it to new levels of beautiful! Bravo, twice!

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  4. Gorgeous tag!! Love the distressing and lace/ribbons! Thanks for playing with us at #100 Etsy Inspired Challenge!! Good luck!!

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  5. Gorgeous creations ... fantastic inspired design.

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  6. Wow, both of these pieces are gorgeous!! And you've created according to all of your challenges beautifully. Thanks for playing along at Gingersnap Creations!

    And if I might mention another challenge you may like... at the Play Date Cafe, it just so happens that their color challenge this week is exactly the inks that may still be out on your table.... I'm just sayin'... tee hee! :)

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  7. Wonderful work, all of it! I love how you've interpeted "Sunflowers"!

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  8. I was just going to repeat what Jean said...your first tag is perfect for the Play Date Cafe Challenge....

    As for your second entry...PERFECT interpretation for The EIC...so glad you played along : )

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  9. Love your tag Esther - your sunflower really pops against the background. I love how you've coloured the lovely sentiment too.

    I like your other piece too - sunshine through the trees - lovely!

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  10. Great tag!!

    Great background effect and great take on the theme this week...

    thanks for playing at Allsorts

    Emma xxx

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  11. Gorgeous tag and card!! You're a genius at stamping and mixing various elements together into one design! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Thanks for playing EIC!

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  12. Wonderful pieces of art, all the great details!

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  13. What awesome projects! I love how you are able to use such interesting techniques! Thanks for taking the time to play along with the EtsyInspired Challenge this week, it means a lot to me!

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  14. both pieces are just fantastic, love the inspiration for the first and the embossed background of the second really looks fab,thanks for joining in with the ASTC x hugs Minxy

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  15. wooow your creation are stunning...love your distressing...and your lace too....both card are adorable...I just joining Allsorts challenge, my card is number 30, would you mind to see my blog?Many thanks before.Hugs, Monika

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  16. Your creations are absolutely beautiful. I love the tag you did for the GC challenge. Perfect! And the second piece is wonderful too...love all the textures and details there.

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  17. Your tag is beautiful! x

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  18. Wow fab, just perfect and thank you for joining in our new challenge at The Artistic Stamper :))

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  19. Fab work - love that sunflower.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts - they make me smile x

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