Altered Book Butterflies

I've taken a break from my Christmas posts today to complete a couple more pages of my ongoing altered book, 'NEW Techniques To You'

I was given some commerical industrial waste from a toy company years ago of stencils.  The cardboard insides I think were used for mobiles.

I have stuck the stencils onto the middle of the pages that I did recently in my altered book and they look really effective.

The white side was the front of the stencil

..and the lettering was on the back.

Each butterfly 'pops' out of its background.

in lots of interesting colour and texture:

I really like the effect.

Thanks for looking and for any comments,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Spray stencilling

I mentioned yesterday that I was itching to get on with journalling/stencilling in the style of Dina Wakley but was procrastinating. Well today, that niggle turned into action!  It's just a baby step, I've been trying out spraying through some old stencils but its a step in the right direction.

This is what I've been up to tonight (and got very inky fingers in the process!):

(The one on the right is the stencil itself)

I love the effect of spraying, all those uncontrollable blots they make.  I haven't got any mists (yet!) so used my old sprayer that I used to blow down to put fixative on pastel drawings.. 

..and here is my workdesk!

This is the one I have in the attic, it gets very hot in the Summer so I have also taken over the dining room table.  Thats how the picture started out by the way, with just the dragonfly.  As you can see, I just used drawing inks.  Think I might have overdone the dark blue at the end but no matter, this is just me practicing!

Another work in progress shot.

Don't think I'll be needing any pics of dinosaurs in my journal (?!) but they were useful to use for my practice run. 

I even got myself a journal today

Isn't it lovely? Just 99p from my local Barnados!

Thanks for stopping by,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Stencil storage and Collage

Today I've been continuing on with my stencil pages for the file I made a few days ago - so, sorry, apart from these, no new craft to show.

These are the pages I made today:

I did them whilst watching QVC, but I was very good and didn't get anything (else!) 

I'm desperate to start some journalling/stenciling a la Dina Wakley, but I'm procrastinating by cataloguing my stencils first.

I also cut out some images from magazines to use in my journalling:

I really would like to do some more altered art.  Lots of people that do altered art seem to use very old images (for copyright reasons I think) but I'm not so keen on those, think I'm going to stick with the modern stuff.

Finally, I won my first blog candy ever that came today all the way from San Francisco:

Bits of stationery/mail art - Yipee!

(Thanks to Carolee from goodmailday).

Thanks for reading,

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Craft Equipment Organisation

After being so inspired the other day with Dina Wakley's blog, I decided that I need to start making more use of the many stencils that I have accumulated over the years.  I also need to find a good way of storing them (any ideas?) and a good way of cataloguing what I have.

This (cataloging), is what I started to do tonight (but admitedly, got distracted by internet craft shopping so didn't get very far!)  I drew around the shapes and coloured them in:

(Regulars may remember me purchasing this set of stencils from QVC about a month back). 

I have got LOADS of stencils, quite a few of which are alphabets, many of which have been charity shop finds.   I have already got a book that catalogues my rubber and clear stamps, this one will show me my collection of stencils.  The book I made for the stamp collection was made from a Gift Bag.  If I make this type for the stencils I will be able to show you how you can make it.  Just give me a day or two to get the materials and I'll put a tutorial together.  

This is the stamp book:

Made from this giftbag:

See you tomorrow,

qwiksave

Easy as ABC

When I bought a stencil from a charity shop today, I thought that (a) it would contain all the letters of the alphabet not just the first 3 (b) the stencils would already be cut out and I would just have to do the painting part and (c) it should have been cheaper than £2.50 because the first 2 weren't true!

This was the stencil - after I'd cut out and painted letter A:

Nice isn't it?  But pretty tricky to cut out all those fiddly bits!:

Three more ABC's:  (a) Who do I know with those initials?? (b) How well is this going to stencil? and (c) What paint do I use?

Inspired! I'll use my (one and only!) Adirondack Paint Dauber in Boat Blue:

It's already got a sponge on it, that'll work a treat, won't it?:

Ready for the reveal...

OOps!  But at least I thought of someone beginning with one of the letters, my husband Andy! 

One to try another day I think...

See you tomorrow!

qwiksave