Friday is for finishing off

Four more parchment pieces finally finished and mounted ready for use. The first three were started at various classes, and just needed time and finishing of embossing etc.

The first one was from a workshop run by Maria Moorhouse at the Crafters Companion store at Evesham.  For some reason, this one was the hardest to find backing paper that I liked.

Number 1

This was one design that I actually followed and I think it shocked Maria, as I do have a reputation for going off piste.  It is a quiet sort of piece and I kept the colours very soft too.  To me, this makes it the kind of card that would work for a sympathy card.

The next two started life at a workshop run by Josie Davidson and Chris Walker up at Whittingtom.  Josie gives us several designs to choose from.  Rather than work through one piece from start to finish, Lynne Bishop and I tend to go through the prep work and set all three up, then settle down to develop them.  

 

Number 2

 Number 2 did contain rather a lot of dots and I think the hardest bit was trying to line them up diagonally across the whole design,  Very fiddley but give a very effective texture.  The centre section is a combination of dots and perforations, so the only picot work is round the outside border, which I did using the fine straight grid

Number 3

Number 3 has just two borders, top and bottom, of gridwork with the centre panel coloured.  For once, I used the bold grid, but because all the cuts are straight, they were not such a problem to snip.

Both these pieces were coloured with the Faber Castell Polychromos, first on the back and then on the front, with highlights added on the front.  

I think that Number 2 is my favourite.  The colours work better for me on that one.

The final piece for today uses one of Josie's royal border plates and one of Linda Williams Flowers and Lace.  I love pansies and the colours of the flowers on this one are close to one of my favourite pansy flowers called Joker.

I did the border some time ago so I cannot remember which plate it came from.  The colouring is done with the same pencils, but this time, I dorsed them on the back and the front and then added darker lines to each petal on the front to give them definition.  Looking at this on here, it does not really show the colours to their best.  It shows better if you click on it and look at the magnified image.

I enjoyed doing all of them and there is still the third one from Josie's class to be finished, but I am still thinking about the colours for that one.

If you have been finishing off some of your UFOs, why not share them on Facebook or on your blog.

Friday is for finishing off

I am taking a different path today with my finishing off.  I would love to ask everyone to finish being unpleasant and hurtful.  "The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley has two very important characters in it.  They are two ladies by the names of Mrs Be-Done-By-As-You-Did and Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By (try typing that lot fast).

I would show you a picture of my treasured copy of this book but I might fall foul of copyright law, so, instead, I will show you a picture that I did very recently.

To give credit where it is due, this piece came about after doing the Encaustic Make and Take with Mike and Shona Bossom at the recent Clarity Open Days in Ditton.  They inspired me to get my kit out and play with it at home.  Watching them on Hochanda taught me even more, especially the show where Mike Bossom and Barbara Gray swapped their skills.  I learned how to use stamping together with hot coloured wax. I know it is not brilliant but I enjoyed playing with the equipment and learning more from that play.

To me, crafting is a way to relax and escape from problems in life, and I don't think I am alone in that.  I need to escape from sad and bitter people who think they can get their own way by shouting and bullying others.  They need to think about Mrs Be-Done-By-As-You-Did, which is probably another name for Karma.  If you constantly dish out physical and verbal bullying, at some stage it will come back to bite you.  It will, also, only serve to make you even more sad, bitter and unpleasant. No-one wants to be with someone like that.

The other lady, on the contrary, Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By, is a much happier person, the kind of person you enjoy being with, and her Karma brings a much better life.  If you want people to treat you kindly and help you out, then you need to treat others with kindness and respect.  If you want respect, then you have to treat others with respect.

Back to the crafting world, the same applies.  There is an unpleasant minority that is so sick that they spend all their time trying to bully others and damage other people's reputations.  I try to keep out of the angry rows that come from this.  However, when a good friend or family member is being treated so unfairly, then I will step in and say my piece.

Let's all take a deep breath, then exhale hard to get rid of bad feelings and childish behaviour.  Spend your time doing nice things for others instead of trying to make them do things for you.

P.S. How could I have forgotten to give credit for the stamp on my picture?  Of course, it is one of the lovely Clarity stamps.  

Thursday - Tips and Techniques - PTCs

First of all, what are PTCs, I hear some of you say.  Originally, there were ATCs - Artist Trading Cards.  They were used a bit like business cards for artists and crafters, tiny pieces of art to be given as a sample of your talent.  These days, they are usually used as swaps, generally on a theme.  Then, Artist Trading Coins, round pieces of art, came into the picture.  The only real absolute rule is the size of these pieces.  The cards must not be bigger than 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches (64mmx89m), while the coins must not exceed 2.5 inches.  The main reason for this is to ensure they will fit into the plastic wallets designed to display them.

PTCs, both cards and coins, have to stay within that size.  This is a PTC (Parchment Trading Card) that I put together for a recent crop.  Despite the apparent intricacy of the design,  the whole thing is still only 2.5 inches x 3.5 inches.  So it fits properly into the wallets.

To make sure you get the right sizes, this is how I work.

1.  Cut your final backing card to the correct size out of white card and put the ATC backstamp on it (Clarity ATC Stamp).

2. Cut your parchment to the same size before starting your work.  You will almost certainly have some kind of a border to be cut, which will reduce the size of the parchment slightly.

3.  At some stage, either at the start or at the end of your work, you will also need a piece of backing paper or card to go between the white card and your parchment.  Ideally, that should be slightly smaller than the white card and slightly bigger than your finished piece of parchment.

By lining up all three in this way, you are showing off your work to its best.  Measure the backing card carefully and keep everything else within those limits.