Hello everyone.
My name is Helen aka Croms.
I have been a craftaholic for the majority of my life. Started knitting about 5 years old, thanks to a lovely old lady that took the time and patience with a lefty. Graduated to sewing once my mum realised I could be trusted with a sharp needle. I didn't start paper crafting until I was about 50 and soon realised I was more into “dark and alternative” and definitely not into cute and mainstream. I then migrated into all sorts of messy crafting and I am loving it. That's me in a nutshell really.
Wow – you could have blown me down with a feather when I heard that I had been chosen by France as her guest here and all because of a little mini book I'd made featuring Auntie Margo and co.
Yes, I'd set out to try and win the challenge set. After all, why bother creating unless you are putting your heart and soul into the project? I just expected one of the other entrants to win, that's just the way my head thinks.
Now I need to come down from the giddy heights of cloud nine and find my thinking cap that I left lying around somewhere. What projects did I want to feature on this post? I decided on some new projects – I wanted to feature both stamps and stencils designed by France that I have in my collection. In the end, only the “London, New York” plate didn't get an airing. This time.
The first couple of projects were done because I needed some storage for some of my goodies.
First a mini bookcase for the mini books.
Decorated with crackle paste through the "Rockformation" stencil on the outsides before painting and inside paint through the "crackled" stencil on back and shelves and paint through the "torned circle" on the insides and stamped with crackle stamp from "Rock'n Rust" plate.
Next somewhere to store my journals. Well, it was going to be stencil storage but got re-purposed.
Purely functional with just the moths from the "Creepers and Crawlers" plate. Stamped onto some brusho-coloured watercolour paper and cut out, with a bit of interest inside with heat embossed owls from Stampendous.
The purely functional projects done - some real playtime.
This acrylic tag went in the box of some very special items to France. I must give a shout out to Nikki Killinger for the backwards crackle technique. Such an awesome way to decorate any clear substrate.
On my tag I used the boy from "Auntie Margot & co." and the little hearts and sentiment from the "perfect words" plate.
Another tag - just because
From the Tando kit "France Papillon Tags and embellishments", and using "Rock formation" and "Rusted rivets" stencils. Both stamps on the “creepers and crawlers” plate. The sentiment is from the "Perfect words" plate stamped onto part of the embellishments kit.
Finally
France is very inspirational in the Art Journaling field as well as Mixed Media . It is because of her that I actually started my very first art journal after all these years of not understanding "WHY". Anyone who has not done any art journaling and is still dithering really needs to go and get stuck in. The “A layer a day, a spread a week” approach is really working for me and I know I'm not alone. One of the weekly prompts was "Shadow of the morning". This next piece evolved whilst playing with decoart sosoft fabric paint with this prompt in mind.
You can see the "rusted rivets", "circles", "torned circle", "crackle" and "rectangles" stencils all being used before stamps from "Rock'n Rust", "Perfect Words" and Auntie Margot and co" make an appearance. This piece of fabric has been used to cover a 3x3 signature booklet made from A4 envelopes I have, that were bound, coptic style.
I hope you enjoyed looking at these projects almost as much as I enjoyed making them and I thank you for your patience. If you do want a bit more detail, feel free to come and visit my cubbyhole.
Once again, I want to thank France for not only choosing me as her guest on her blog but for being such a wonderful and inspiring lady.
Helen Angel - Cullum
I'm so honored Helen is sharing her creativity here on my blog. And awesome sauce, she used almost all of my stamps and stencils! Check out her blog too to see more photos. Thank you Helen
Products used:
Stamps: Illusionary Artists ”Perfect words”, "Creepers and crawlers", "Rock'n Rust", "Auntie Margot & Co"
Stencils: "Crackled", "Rockformation", "Torned circle", "Rectangles", "Circles", "Rusted Rivets"
DecoArt: paints and mediums
Brushos
Mica powders