When is a border not a border?

When it is a border Groovi plate, is the answer.  I started on Friday, finishing off my little set of drawers, before getting stuck in to my PTC (Parchment Trading Card) for the swap organised by Josie Davidson ( https://m.facebook.com/groups/168389163628763?view=permalink&id=544406699360339  ).

Then I got hooked on making more of them, using mainly the Queen Victoria plate, which is the one that I had not used from the Queen set.  Yesterday, I used it for its original, most obvious, purpose, and started a Christmas (sorry) card.

This is now finished as you can see.

However, this, and the other Queen plates, can be used for the tiniest pieces, and you do not have to use the whole design.  You can take tiny sections and do all sorts of things by twisting and turning the plates.

This PTC uses half the diamonds only to create a useful border.

The next uses individual squares, set at an angle.  The colouring is done on the front and the back, using the Perga Liners.

Neither of these are 100% accurate, but they were just done as experiments, and just need a but more time and care to get them right.

One of my experiments went very wrong but I was able to rescue some of it and ended up with a topper for a small card.

Teeny, tiny bits of parchment are so useful for this kind of thing, and don't just throw your mishaps in the bin.  They often turn out to be the happiest accidents and teach you so much.

I am hoping that today is a bit calmer than the start of yesterday.  I had set my house alarm overnight as there have been a number of burglaries nearby.  I was woken by Flash, who was keen to go out.  So, semi-conscious, I tottered downstairs to let him out, got to the kitchen door to be hit by a wall of noise.  The alarm had gone off and the remote was upstairs.  Oh boy, was that a wake up call?  Then, of course, the phone rang.  It was the alarm company to check if things were ok.  My coffee was definitely needed to recover. 

Today is dedicated to making sure the kitchen is clear for British Gas to service the boiler.  Oh joy, oh rapture!  Then Thursday is the first of our fortnightly Groovi group meetings at Bromsgrove Parchers.  It is good to get back to classes and groups.  Oh yes, and it is the Groovi workshops at Evesham Crafters Companion on Saturday, led by the lovely Hazel Edwards.  Hope to see some of you there.

I'm back again!

This might be a short post today.  Sunday was a busy day, including a very tasty roast dinner at Bec's, cooked by her husband, Ant.  The other guests at the feast were Shaz (Silverwolf) and Doug, so there was lots of chatting, and swapping crafty ideas too.

Then, this afternoon involved a bit of sorting out as I am in the process of getting rid of things I haven't even seen for a few years.  

There are loads of stamps (not Clarity) that I no longer want, so they will be split between a couple of good causes.  Then there is a pile of metal stencils, lovely designs but it is several years since I even saw them.  After that, there are loads of dies that I have had for a while and just not touched.

The evening was a good time to snuggle down and do some parchment things in front of the tv.  I have been playing with combinations of the Queen plates and the PTC plates, both sets by Josie Davidson.

Today, it was the Queen Victoria plate for the borders on a PTC and a larger piece.  The centre of the PTC is from one of the PTC plates, while the larger piece will be a Christmas card.  The borders on the Queen plates are very adaptable and you can leave bits out to make it fit the smaller sizes and the PTCs do not have to be straight sided.  Have a look at the Queen Victoria and you will see how much I have left out to give me space to put something in the centre.

I keep looking at these plates and seeing more and more ways to use them and not just as borders.  That is one of my plans this year, to find as many different ways to use one plate or how many plates I can mix up in one piece.

Three days in a row

This is the third day in a row that I have blogged.  Something of a miracle.  

Most people who are into Groovi will know that Josie Davidson is organising a PTC monthly swap.  What is a PTC, you ask?  Well, it is the parchment version of an Artist Trading Card.  OK, there are loads of you who have never come across an Artist Trading Card (ATC).

 An ATC is a tiny piece of art, a bit like a business card for artists, designed to show off different techniques, but without spending hours on each piece.  They are 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches.  There are also Artist Trading Coins now, which are diameter of 2.5 inches.  There are lots of groups who join together and swap their little treasures.

The PTC is the parchment version and are the ideal size to try different designs without stressing over a full size card.  I have finished my offering for this month and it will be in the post today.  The picture on here is a different design, using the Queen Mary plate and one of Josie's PTC plates, which are full of tiny bits that fit well.  It took about an hour and a half from start to finish.  It does not have to contain a lot of perforating and snipping.  It will still be attractive and very welcome as a swap.

This is another PTC I have played with, again a mixture of the Queen plates and the PTC plates.  Both these designs show that you don't have to use the whole of one plate if you don't want to.  You can cherry pick the bits you want.

If you do lots of them, they make brilliant toppers for small cards.  If you were wary of joining in this month, why not join next month's swap?  Have a play over the next few weeks and see how you get on.  It is fun.

You only need to do one each month to join in the swap.

By the way, the piece of black card is covering up a name of someone it is intended for very soon.

Finishing Off Day part 2 - Results!

Getting there slowly.  My first problem is remembering the right order that Maria told us for adding each section.  In truth, it is fairly self explanatory once each drawer is folded and glued.

The painting of the two pieces of board for the top and bottom was a pain, mainly because my acrylic paint had separated out.  So the first inch was grey and clear oil which I needed to get rid of.  I have had those paints since Barbara Gray first introduced us to the Gel Press, so I half expected problems with them.

One warning that Maria gave us was to make sure you only put glue on the top and bottom of each drawer, otherwise they will not open.  That warning was ringing in my ears while I was assembling things.

The next job was to decorate the four side panels and the top panel, using the same set of Clarity stamps. 

2 hours later:-
It is done.  Finished.  Completed.  I am happy.  Projects like this are not my forte.  My fat fingers don't manipulate things as well as I would like, but I am not one to give in.  I actually enjoyed this one, and Maria is good at giving us projects that we can all do.

So here it is.

And from the top, where I finished it off with one of the large Pergamano brands right in the centre.

And a final view before I go back to creating my PTC for Josie Davidson's swap for this month.

Thank you, Maria.

Friday Finishing Off Day - Number 1

I have taken inspiration from the lovely Maria Moorhouse and today is dedicated to finishing off as many UFOs as possible. 

Hence why my table is covered in little boxes to start with.  They belong to a project we did with Maria at her Shrewsbury workshop just before Christmas.  You can see what it is when I finish it.

The second one, just visible under a Groovi plate, is a tiny PTC (parchment trading plate) which I started last night.

The work so far on this was done in 2 hours sitting front of the tv, and all it needs is to find and cut the right backing paper or card , stamp the back plate and just put it all together.

Then there are a few toppers to edge and mount.  Whatever I finish today, I will try to post tomorrow.  Who else is going to join me on Friday Finishing Off Day?

WOYWW - 493

Sorry I was missing again last week.  I had forgotten how fast Wednesdays come round.  My desk is still a mess.  In fact the whole room is a mess.  Christmas is definitely in progress here with 50 cards completed (one or two still need envelopes).  Several of the ones completed are parchment designs so I will be cautious who those go to.

These three were started at Paul Church's workshop last Saturday at the Crafters Companion store at Evesham.  Those of you who went to the NEC may recognise the designs as being from the talented Linda Williams.  The blue one on the left is based on the design that was chosen for the Clarity Make and Take for the show.

This photo shows the class at Evesham with most of the Bromsgrove Parchers group taking part in the class.  We went mob-handed as you can see.  A really good day among friends.

Now I need to do the mass production fast ones to complete the pile.  I have done some using the fantastic new Fresh Cut Dies from Clarity, cutting the design from the centre of the card and, using double sided sticky paper and a variety of suitable backing papers, filling the blanks with the subtle glitter.  As usual, the glitter does not really show on the photos but it is there and does not shed either.

Fortunately, these are quite quick to do in a mass production system.  The pieces just fall out of the dies and once everything is cut, it is easy to assemble.  

Since I took the first photo on this post, my table has deteriorated dramatically as you can see, so some clearing up is required before tomorrow's attack.  In fact, the table is worse than this right now.

I have been through my card list and pruned it severely.  The cost of postage is too high to continue sending to everyone.  There are several whose current address is not in my book so, if they have not seen fit to tell me, then they have been dropped.  I have also been through my stash of almost completed cards and many of them will be finished off soon and donated to charity as I will never use them all. I am also sorting stamps etc and getting rid of anything that is not Clarity as I am just not using them.  I desperately need the space.  One day, I might actually get back into my craft room????

Time to finish now and get this posted before the dog groomer comes.  Hope to visit as many as possible of the Wednesday gang over at Stamping Ground, the home of our leader, Julia.  For anyone who has no idea what WOYWW is, it is a long running group who meet up every Wednesday to show what state our desks are in and what we are doing on them.  No special tidying up is allowed.  Just take a photo, and post it with a short explanation, and link in to Julia's post.  then you can go round and see what everyone else is doing.

Have a good week, everyone.

Mix up those plates.

All you Groovi addicts out there, some of you will have seen bits of this already.  I love just sitting and playing with a few plates to create a mixed up design.  This is one of those.  All it needs now is a suitably sized base card.

This is a mix of different designs and sizes from Linda Williams' beautiful plates, overlapping each other.  This is so easy to do with the lovely see through plates.  Once I had drawn it out, it sat around in my folder for ages.

Once I got back to it, I decided to keep the colours to a limited palette and fairly soft, with some gentle embossing.  Then, it was down to the perforating.  I used two different tools for that, the two needle fine, and the two needle split which is finer still.  With the split you have to be careful to only perforate VERY lightly otherwise you get the messy split.   I used the split tool for perforating within the circles, like the honeycomb pieces.  Everything else was done with the fine tool.

Then, I went round again with the single needle fine to ensure I had good holes to snip.  You cannot get good picot edging if your holes are not good.  All perforating should be done with the needle tools held perfectly upright.  Anything else and you will end up with oval holes instead of the desirable round ones.

WOYWW - 491

Two weeks running!  I will try to keep this up but I am making no promises.

My desk is tending to be my lap tray as often as not.  It is so convenient while I am doing my parching.  The only real disadvantage is what happens to all the tiny bits that I nip out.  They stick to my clothes, the carpet and the dog, and if you step on them with bare feet, it can be very painful.

These two Christmas trees are a design by the lovely Tina Cox and were a challenge from my parchment tutor.  (You might notice my head torch on the tray, which is essential for really close work, but I do have to be careful when in company as it totally blinds everyone.)

This butterfly was a serious challenge from my tutor, Pat White.  It was designed by Josie Davidson and is made up of three separate butterflies, all embossed and perforated.  I have just mounted it on a piece of the beautiful Shenandoah designer paper from Clarity.  It had to go into a mount to save it from the jaws of my parchment eating dog.  I did debate adding a touch of sparkle but then decided it was better left simple.

Over the last twelve months, I have been going to watercolour painting workshops with Matthew Palmer, who has given me so much confidence, after being told at school that I was rubbish at art.  Now I really love it.  A good teacher makes so much difference.  This one is a Stone Barn in New England, with lovely autumn colours.  I am hoping to get on his taster classes at the NEC, but that might depend on the motorway traffic.

Time to end now and keep things shortish.  If you wonder what this business of showing desks is all about, just call in on Julia at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com where you will find out what it is all about.  Have a good week, everyone.

WOYWW #490

It is a long time since I joined in on Wednesday, so don't all collapse with shock.  This is not really my desk, just one that I share every two weeks with some good friends at Bromsgrove Parchers.

You can see my bit close to this end of the table.  The messy bit.   We meet to share our addiction to Groovi and everything to do with parchment craft, not to mention a lot of chat and sharing of ideas.

This year has been chaotic with a lot of driving up and down the country's motorways, from Kent to North Yorkshire, all to do with crafting apart from one trip to West Bay in Dorset to meet up with three school friends for our yearly get together.  

I do remember that Julia likes us to keep our posts short so I will end here and look forward to read in some of your posts this week.

Lots of perforations and snipping

This is a design I started work on over a year ago.  I did most of the work on the central flower sprays and then put it down.  I had completed the main tracery but used it as a backing for a different design.  More recently, I was gathering up all my parchment UFOs (Unfinished Objects) and came across the flowers, so decided to complete the whole thing.  The original design was by Julie Rocas and published in Parchment Craft Magazine in January 2012, but I did make the odd alteration.

I certainly made a better job of the tracery this time round, and managed to get much closer to the embossed lines.

I found it easier to snip from the centre outwards.  It seemed to hold the whole design together better and I succeeded in breaking the line only once.  The central medallion is slightly smaller than Julie's original and I used the central part of the nested scalloped circles from Groovi to create perfect circles.

This is the completed base layer.  Then it was a case of putting this somewhere safe while I went back to the flowers.

Four sprays of flowers with embossing and grid perforations on flowers and leaves, then each one needed to be perforated around and snipped free.  My choice of tools were the 2 needle fine and my trusty Pergamano Ringlocks.

To emboss the flowers and leaves, I used my favourite shaders, which I, personally, prefer to the ball tools in designs of this kind.

I backed the whole design on a piece of Clarity blue paper, which I thought set the white off perfectly, using tiny dots of Perga Glue.  Then I created a medallion to cover the central circle, embossing it and colouring with pencils, finishing with a multi faceted gem in the centre.  I also highlighted the embossing with a Wink of Stella pen to give subtle sparkle.

I hope you like what I have done and that Julie Rocas does not object to my slight alterations.  It was started mainly to challenge myself to create the base tracery section.

What a major performance!

2. I know it has been a long time since I actually blogged anything, but I had not anticipated such major trauma to get access to it.  Every time I logged in, it started to load but then got covered by totally unwanted adds for all sorts of things.  Now I have managed to get unwanted numbers that I can't get rid of, but at least I am apparently back in. 

This is a Groovi based design that I started a couple of weeks ago at parchment class with Pat White.  We were supposed to be doing our own design using the metal Pergamano grids, but mine had got mislaid during my tidying up, so I was allowed to use Groovi instead. I really enjoyed putting this together.  

I used the large octagon nested shapes to create the basic borders.  The rope twist edging is from one of the first border plates, and is a real favourite as it is so easy to emboss to add shape.  The balloons and large boat came from the Gentleman's Collection.  I drew the small sailing boat freehand as I needed one small enough to add perspective.  The other major plate I used was the landscape plate from the original Starter Kit, a real essential.

I added in the birds from the Groovi, plus some that I drew in myself.

I started the embossing on the rope twist, then I had a "bright idea", nearly a major disaster.  I thought I would use the small semi circle tool to decorate the inside border and snip it out.  Fortunately, I realised in time that would remove the whole border.  Instead, I embossed within the semi circles and reperforated the holes.

The colouring was a mix of the Pergamano pens, and blendable pencils with a little dorsing, both on the front and the back of the parchment.   I used shader tools to emboss the sails of the boats over several days.

When I worked on the hills, I added a few extra lines and shading to give it more perspective, using techniques I learned from painting classes with Matthew Palmer.  I firmly believe that everything you learn can be used to cross over different media.  In the same way, I use things I have learned from Barbara Gray and the Clarity team in my painting.

Embossing practice

I was going to post this on Facebook, but decided to go for the blog today so that I can add more pictures and comment more easily on each.

Last Sunday, over a week ago now, I travelled down the M5 to Bristol to spend the day at the Bristol Parchment Exhibition, organised by Pat Murphy and her team.    Great journey down until I came off the M5, then it went a bit pear-shaped,but eventually got there, parked up, and with the aid of some kind friends paid the extortionate parking charge.

The exhibition itself was amazing with a wealth of fabulous work on show.  I could have done with longer to see it all and talk to more of the talented exhibitors.  

I was remarkably restrained with my purchases, spending my Clarity vouchers on a new mapping pen, a gold gel pen, the set of new Clarity/WOW ultrafine glitters and a bottle of the amazing aptly named Liquid Gold.  Oh yes,and a couple of parchment pattern books for inspiration

The last port of call for the day was back at the Clarity/Groovi/Pergamano stand for an hour's make and take with Barbara Gray.  When we got there, the tables were ready, set up with a selection of Groovi plates to choose from and all the equipment needed.  We all came home with a lovely design which we could use as it was, as a crisp piece of line art, or something ready to take further using traditional skills.

This was my design after a couple of evenings playing with it.  I have added some embossing around the scalloped border and some more to define the hills in the background.  Oh yes, and some fairly random stars etc snipped out in two corners.  I wish I had left those until I had dug out my fine perforating grid.  The bold grid produced a design that is too big for the whole thing.  Another lesson learned, patience and find what you need not just what will do.

The embossing here is ok-ish, but after lessons for on my lovely parchment tutor, Pat White, things rapidly got much better (apart from the snipping, which I am stuck with).

This is one corner before my lesson,showing the border embossing.

Again, it is ok-ish, but if you look, it is not even and smooth as it should be and has a lot of dark bits where I have not quite worked to the edges.  Definitely could be better.

I know this is a different corner, but they are the same all round.  This is after another two days of improved technique with the embossing.  Still no pressure involved, just a lot of gentle stroking in the right way to finish it off properly.  It is now smoother and really white but still not distorted by too much pressure.  I reckon that I have embossed this border at least 10 times, very softly, to get this level of whiteness.  It has had time to rest between each session, so that the parchment has had time to relax and flatten out.

This is probably the finished piece now, ready to mount, but it needs to be rested, probably in a heavy book to relax it again and take the slight curl out of it.  Oh yes, and Pat showed me a better way to get the highlights on the hills - such a difference.

The next job is to find the right background paper to suit it best, but that is for another day, and may take a while, but it is important.  Why take a long time over a piece of work and ruin the effect by adding the wrong background?  Watch this space for my choice.l

WOYWW 400. What an achievement!

I have not done much blogging for a while, but I could not miss this very special day for deskers.  Four hundred weekly posts is quite a landmark to celebrate.  Congratulations to you, Julia,for keeping everyone going for so long.

Apologies, this picture was missing on my original post and I did not notice.

This is not strictly a desk, but it is where I am working at the moment, playing around with parchment techniques, and my Derwent Metallic Pencils.  Some embossing,some perforation and some colouring on this one.  The grid, I used is one from Pergamano (now owned by Clarity, and my tools are a mixture from PCA and Pergamano.

Here is one card I completed last week, coloured with Derwent Inktense blocks and a slightly damp brush, and the backing paper if one of the new packs from Clarity.  The stamps were designed by the lovely Jayne Nestorenko.

This parchment coaster was started at the Clarity Make and Take at November's NEC show.  I finished mine at home as I wanted to do more embossing.

I cannot believe that the first month of the year has already vanished.  I really must get myself together to blog more frequently.  Meanwhile, Happy 400th Birthday.

A Special Present

I had intended to blog this over a month ago, but Christmas got in the way.  The end result was a present for someone who has been a very good and supportive friend to me over the last three years.

This was the starting place, a flat pack kit from Roy Pakeman at Candy Box Crafts, which just happens to be only about four miles away.  His kits are meticulously made and go together with no struggle or effort of any kind.  It is important to assemble the pieces before adding paint, otherwise the mdf is liable to expand with the moisture and then it will not fit easily.

At this point, the bottom part of the lantern is glued and fixed together.  Note the safety notice on the base.  I found the best light to put inside is a wax based battery candle.  For what I intended, I needed a decent amount of illumination and the flicker is good on them too.

This is the top section, glued and ready to be added to the base.  Every piece is marked clearly to aid the construction.

 This is the point at which I moved out into the conservatory to get messy.  All the pieces are now glued into place and you might notice that I have covered the whole thing with black gesso, ready for adding colour.

Things got very messy and confused from her on, only because I was trying to match the colour of one I had done before, but failed to write down the colours used there.   So it became very much trial and error.  I wanted gold inside to reflect the light properly.  That ended up as a mix of several goldy type colours to get the reflective shade I wanted.

To get the green I was after was a nightmare.  I actually got it in the end by mixing blue, gold shimmer, green and an interference blue,  all from different companies.  I was happy with that on the Tuesday before I needed it on the Thursday.  Let it dry and went in with the gold gilding wax.

DISASTER!

It looked dreadful, so it was back to the paint mix again to cover the whole thing again.

This time, I heeded Barbara's advice - you can always add but you can't take it away - and was very much more sparing witht the gilding wax.

Fortunately, I had already done all three parchment panels, so it was a fairly quick job to stick them in place with red tape on the inside.  It was just a little tricky with the final piece as there was less room to manoeuvre the very stick tape exactly into the right place without it sticking to me, the dogs or the other pieces already in place. 

The Groovi plates I used were from the lovely Clarity designs using Jayne Nestorenko's fabulous art work.  I also heed the advice from my talented parchment tutor, Pat White , to go in very strongly with the colour.  I had already worked out that whitework really did not look right in this situation, although I did do a few bits of pricking and snipping here and there randomly, and embossed the names of the recipients.

The colours came from a mix of the Sakura Koi Brush Pens, which can be used really strongly but still shading the flowers well, or in a more muted way if desired, and the coloured Wink of Stella pens to add a bit of sparkle.

You might wonder why I only did three of the four panels.  Well, I could not work out any way of operating the candle inside if I did all four, and after all, the chances are that it would be placed against a wall so the fourth side would be invisible.   That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.

I hope you like it.  I think the recipients liked it which was the important thing for me.