Crafting Family History

Today I am going to share another canvas with you.  I really enjoyed my play with my first canvas so decided to have a go at another one.  This one was inspired by Linda Simpson's Mission Inspiration Journal Page. 

My great grandfather, William Davison, was born in the early 1850's and died in 1937.  He was a boiler builder by trade, but also something of an inventor too.  His house was the first in the area to benefit from electric lighting and family lore has it that he invented a sausage-making machine which he sold to a local butcher.

So with all that in mind I set about making a canvas.  The colours given for Linda's Mission Inspiration were orange, red and brown - and I love colour.

This is the finished canvas.

 I used an Imagination Crafts stencil, structure paste and inks again, and the cogs are die cut using a set of dies by Sheena Douglas.  I added Crafty Notions gilding flakes to some of the cogs before adding them to the canvas. The heart shaped padlock I made using a Katy Sue mould and paper clay, and I printed the photograph and all the text using the Steampunk Inventor digikit from DaisyTrail.  I finished it off with Pebeo gilding wax. 

I only have two photos of my great grandfather - one wearing his bowler hat and the one I used on the canvas.  Sadly the one wearing his bowler hat isn't good enough quality to use on a canvas.

And now I must actually spend some time working on boxes for Mr Tom, but I will be back as soon as I get some more time to play

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Lots of Firsts ....

As some of you will already know, I paint/decorate boxes for Mr Tom of TC Crafts so I thought I might have a try at making some of my own embellishments from paper clay.  I have never worked with clay before so something completely new for me to try.

I started out working with white clay and some Katy Sue moulds.  The moulds are dual purpose because they can also be used in cake decorating.

My first attempt

Then I got a bit more adventurous and tried out the coloured clays.

I  mixed coloured clay with white clay to create my own colours and I found working the clay in my hand very therapeutic.

I also invested in some cutters, including rose petal and rose leaf cutters but haven't yet had a go at making a rose - I got too hooked on the moulds, and then I got sidetracked trying out yet something else new to me!

I've never attempted a canvas before but I decided to have a go and use some of my paper clay elements on it.

I started out using some Imagination Crafts crackle paste through a stencil, and when that had dried I decided to try out spray inks (a first for me too).  The ones I used were also from Imagination Crafts and the colours are good and strong - I love colour.  Then I added the paper clay embellishments I had made, and finished it off with a caption.

I really enjoyed doing this canvas so must do some more.  Incidentally, I haven't used any of the clay embellishments on a box - yet!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x

Oh wow - I can't believe that my last post on here was in 2015.  There has been a lot of water under the bridge since then, not least the fact that I was working long days every day, seven days each week and no holidays to speak of!  All that has now changed though and I vowed that this year I was going to find some time for me - to play and just do what I fancy doing.  So far I have managed to stick to that and have started experimenting with different crafty things so the next step is to start documenting them on here.

One of the first things I did was to hunt out all my parchment craft tools and grids and started to have a play - oh boy am I rusty!  But in the time since I last did any parching it has undergone a transformation with the advent of Barbara Gray's Groovi boards and grids - so of course I had to have a play with some of them too.

Then I got a bit more adventurous and started on some gridwork - of course I made lots of mistakes on the way.  It's quite hard on the eyes but I perservered!

And I got plenty of practice cutting using the above pattern!

Then I actually made a couple of cards.

Remembering that some years ago when I was attending parchment craft workshops, our teacher brought in some designs printed onto parchment - I think they were from Pergamano - I decided to print out a design and use it in the same way - embossing the back of the design before adding it to a card.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am really into digital crafting so this was a case of digital meets parchment.

The design I used for this, and also the background paper, is from MJM Design Studios.  The background is actually two papers from the kit which I blended together. It is a digikit called "Lilies and Light" - though I chose the poppies, rather than the lilies, for this card.

I used one of Clarity's groovi boards to do the sentiments on all three cards.

I am still playing with parchment - though not exclusively as there are so many other things I want to try during my playtime!

Thank you for visiting my blog.

Catherine x