Darcy Wilkinson #4 House Of Books Part 2 ....

 "So here we are , part 2 of our house.Today I will show you how I filled up the spaces".

When Leandra sent my box of goodies I found a little bag of hinges inside, I knew straight away that I wanted to use them on this house. So I needed to make a door. I cut a piece of thick card , just slightly smaller than the largest of the house spaces. Literally only a couple of millimetres smaller. The card I used was really stiff and was actually the backing board from a pad of paper. With a craft knife I removed a small diamond shape of card from the upper middle.
 

I scraped on some grunge paste, randomly and unevenly. I stamped the 'lines' stamp from HPXT01 (Remember if you spritz the stamp lightly with water before stamping you will get a great result). Once dry I painted it with Toad Hall, Beach Hut and Hey Pesto.

Next I took a sharp pokey tool and scraped deeper lines into the surface to make it look like the gaps between pieces of wood.
(edit from Leandra: squeals with excitement - this is one of the cool features of Grunge Paste, it can be carved!! My tip, when the grunge past is dry to touch, but still feels cold, it has set, but not totally, the coolness indicated there is still moisture residue in the product that has yet to fully evaporate, it is at this point that it is easiest to carve with a pokey tool - we are all going to be making distressed doors now!!)

 I then rubbed French Roast into the grooves.

Next I dry brushed some Snowflake to the raised areas. Then I went back in and added more French Roast, especially to the edges. I treated the reverse of the door in pretty much the same way.

I used the hinges and clasps from PaperArtsy to attach the door. The hinges come with tiny screws, they are perfect for attaching to the wood of the house but no good in the card of the door. So I used brads to attach the hinges to the door. Of course this meant that the 'legs' of the brads were visible on the back of the door. I remedied this by glueing a piece of brass coloured fabric over the legs.

Now onto the attic space. I cut 3 triangles again from stiff card, attached them with strips of paper in a hinge style. I treated the whole thing in the same way as the door. I left a circle free in the middle for the faux window.

Here you can see the 3 hinged triangles, all painted up. I also made another window section. This comprised of 7 pieces of card, hinged with strips of paper and then treated with Grunge Paste and Fresco Paint.

The window frames were cut from corrugated card, painted to match. Then I poured in a little glossy accents to look like the glass.

I had no idea what to use as a handle. I knew that I would need something otherwise these pieces would be impossible to remove from the house. I searched through all my bags of bits and came across 2 little brass 'somthing-or-others' I believe they came off the top of an old clock. (See it does pay to keep EVERYTHING forever and never throw anything away, at least that is my excuse).

Now the books. Remember when we made the sheets of patterned paper , well only 2 were used to wallpaper the house. I used the other 2 on the mini books. This is the triangle book inside the attic space.

Here are the tags hung on a paper clip that fit into the large drawers. I used the JOFY09 flower stamps and coloured them with Aqua-markers.

Next we have 3 tiny,tiny books that fit into the small drawers. I actually filled them with lots of real photographs that are less than 3cm big. Again I decorated them with bits of the patterned paper. 

These are 'flag' books, they fit in the bottom left space.

These concertina books fit into the right bottom space. I used the alphabet stamps from Ink & The Dog  (Words Plate 2).

Next the window box. This has 2 sections inside, each section has a long concertina of paper inside. I doodled lots of patterns on all the little pages.

Finally behind the door I made a tag book. I took an A4 sheet of paper and folded it up into a booklet. This has turned up edges that are perfect for slipping a tag into. The booklet and the 8 tags were coloured like this.

Step 1: Spray 3 colours of ink onto a craft mat.
Step 2: Spritz with a little water
Step 3: Drag the tag or folder through the ink.
 

You can do this with spray inks or with Aquamarkers, if you are using the markers scribble with them onto the craft mat, add the water and drag as before. Once my tags were dry I put each one through an embossing folder.

Finally here are the 8 tags all decorated. I used pretty much every PaperArtsy stamp that I had. I used a combination of coloured images and black and white.

I was hoping to try the PaperArtsy crackly Tissue Paper, but as that is no longer available I used the 'packing tissue' that came in the box of supplies. ….see.. throw nothing away.

Here is the finished house.. The photo was taken in the library, a house of books inside a house of books.

 Finally, go make yourself a drink and snuggle back to watch this little video. In it I open all the doors and windows, take out all the books and show you all the insides. I hope you enjoy it. I would love to see you make your own patterned paper using Fresco Paints, maybe make a mini book with the paper, or use the idea to decorate a tag or a journal page perhaps.

P.S If you a re interested in making mini books I can recommend this book.
Making Handmade Books by Alisa Golden.

Thank you so much for spending time with me, I will see you again next month.

Darcy xxx

Leandra Says: Well, you have stunned us yet again, I bet no one ever in a million years expected you would go this far with the house you showed us yesterday! It really is the most beautiful and in depth project, and perfectly executed. Carefully thought out, cleverly constructed, and all the elements work perfectly together with your typically bright colours. The video is the icing on the cake.  I think it has to be the most stunning project I have ever seen Darcy. You must be utterly thrilled with it! And you have given us so many ideas to think about and experiment with this week. Thank you for that, and we look forward to seeing you next month! 

...Leandra continues...: I am sure the blog readers with join with me in saying you really had no need to be terrified or worry about being a Guest Designer !! You've been THE BOMB. I really love how each Guest Designer has something different to offer, there is no right or wrong, and we learn from you all something different every week. Darcy you have your own unique twist, and it is truly fascinating to observe, and that is exactly why we were so pleased to have you on board this semester. xx

Gillian Says: Where does one begin with this project, so many genius ideas Darcy ... creating the "door" for one, the "faux glass panel" , the drawers ... the list goes on. Love the use of colour and all the PaperArtsy images you have used in creating such an unique, arty project .... Bravo xx

I'm sure you will agree Darcy has blown us away with her projects this week. If your muse has been spurred into action, share with us all your creativity here, just link up from any web page. We'd love to see what you've been up to as a result!

Darcy Wilkinson #4 House Of Books Part 1....

"Here is my final project for this month. I will be showing you half today and half tomorrow.
I originally planned to go with a blue/cream vintage look. I started to paint the blue and then
changed my mind... typical huh! Why don't the brainstorms come 'before' you start painting". 

So I had to gesso the whole house before I could begin again.
I then painted on Hey Pesto..Smoked Paprika..London Bus..Zesty Zing & Limelight.
I made sure to use the Hey Pesto on all the inside joins and outside edges.

Next I added a layer of Crackle Glaze and then a layer of Snowflake. Once the crackling was dry I sanded some away to reveal the original colours a bit more.

Now to decorate the sides. I coloured some grunge paste with Pumpkin Soup and Smoked Paprika, then pushed it through a Crafters Workshop flower stencil. I created a group of sunflowers. I added a little depth to them with some mixed browns. Finally adding a little Treasure Gold in White Fire just to add a little sheen to the flower heads.

I drew the leaves and stems in place and coloured those with Aquamarkers.
Next I used Mini 48 to create a fence and painted it with Cinnamon, Brown Shed and French Roast. I blended some Hey Pesto and Limelight on a small piece of card and stamped on the grass from JOFY10.

On the other side, I started out the same by making the sunflowers, fence and grass.
Then I made a bird house. I stamped Squiggly Ink Mini 26 onto card, cut it out and used the hole left behind as a stencil. 

I pushed grunge paste into the stencil and lightly stamped it with the criss cross border stamp from JOFY10. Once dry I painted it with Cinnamon, Brown Shed, French Roast and Haystack.

I blended some Beach Hut, Mermaid and Guacamole onto card and stamped the birds from Squiggly Ink Mini 26. I cut these out and added them to the birdhouse and fence. I decided they needed to be shiny so added glossy accents to each bird.

Now for the roof.

I took some pieces of corrugated card, ripped not cut. I painted them with Brown Shed, London Bus, Smoked Paprika. Once dry I lightly dry brushed them with Stone.

Before glueing the panels on I added a 'chimney'. I curled some heavy wire using pliers. I then cut 2 hearts, painted them with Beach Hut and Mermaid. I added dots with London Bus. Once dry I added glossy accents to each heart. Then I glued them back to back, trapping the end of the curled wire between the hearts. Then I trapped the other end of the wired under the roof panels.

Now to make some wallpaper.
I took 4 sheets of A3 cartridge paper, no particular brand, and I created some painted patterned paper. Often people are scared by such a large white space. The best way to get past this is to scribble words onto the paper.
So..
Step 1: scribble words, you could use any. I scribbled the names of all the fresco paints.
Step 2: Randomly spray some inks, any that you have.
Step 3: Stencilling. I used 3 stencils. I wouldn't go too crazy, better to repeat 3 stencils than to use 7 or 8 different ones. I used several Fresco Paints for the stencilling.
Step 4: Stamping. I used HPXT01 and HP1008.

Step 5: I used a scraper/old credit card to scrape Snowflake randomly and in a thin layer over parts of the page.

Step 6: More stamping. Mini 23 and 72 

Step 7: I then added doodling around some of the stencilled shapes. I just used a regular black Bic ballpoint pen, no need for fancy journalling pens here. I also used a spray can lid dipped in fresco paint to add circles.

Here are some close ups, I just love this crazy paper.

If you want some more inspiration on doodling and creating papers then check out the Doodle Queen Traci BautistaI used 2 of the sheets as wallpaper inside the house. I left 2 of the boxes unpapered, and just painted them with Hey Pesto.

In the 2 green spaces I wanted to add some drawers. I measured each space, and decided to make 2 for the upper space and 3 for the lower space. I 'wallpapered' the inside of the drawers, and the front panel. I also added white heart brads as handles.

Here is the house complete with its drawers.

That's it for today. I will be back tomorrow to show you how I used all those spaces and drawers. I have a cool door and some funky books to show you

Leandra Says: Basically, I just want you to come and wallpaper MY house with that stuff! Which room shall we do first?? Downstairs loo could do with a bit of that!!! It's superb Darcy!

Gillian Says: Love the funky doodled paper, so many designs to look at on the background, but they all work perfectly together. Another awesome project Darcy.

No doubt Darcy has not only blown you away yet again If there are some ideas within this that you might like to try; making wallpaper, a heart on a squiggled wire, drawers for a niche...then please feel free to join in and share with us all your creativity here, just link up from any web page. We'd love to see what you've been up to as a result!

Darcy Wilkinson #3 Victorian Adventure Bag

"Hello again, time to play with fabric today. After watching Leandra's videos on you tube where she paints on fabric using the Fresco paints, I just knew I wanted to try it out. Not one to do anything easy I decided to go BIG".

I popped to my local haberdashery and picked up a metre of heavy weight cotton twill fabric. I had originally gone for sheeting, as recommended by Leandra. The only sheeting available was cream, and I wanted white. The piece I bought was £6.99 for the metre, and I made 2 large projects from it.

My first job was to wash the fabric, just to remove any sizing that might be on the surface.
I then laid an old cotton bag onto the fabric as my template. I made sure to leave lots of extra fabric for mishaps,seams and any last minute straightening that I might need to do. So now I had a large rectangle of white fabric (double the intended length, as it will be folded in half and seamed up the sides at the end).

So now onto some decoration, how could I use the stamps and paints? I laid out the stamps that Leandra sent and decided to use HPXT02 as my main images. I quickly decided these would make great flowers on a hat....and the sketch grew from there.

I sketched the hat, added a face and then stamped the flowers onto spare paper and then cut them out so I could arrange them. At this point I felt it might all look a little flat, even on fabric, so I knew I would have to find a way to add dimension.

I cut out my face and hat and used them as a template to draw lightly onto the fabric. Once happy I went over my lines with a permanent pen. I used a Mitsubishi uni-ball eye pen. Once dry and heat set it is permanent,waterproof and fade proof.

Next I used one of the smaller stamps to fill in the goggle eyepiece. I used black Archival Ink.

I used the original flowers that I had cut from paper as masks, and used my stamp-a-ma jig to help placement. Masking and arranging I stamped the flowers and also 2 feathers from HP1008.

At this point I really did wonder if it would be waterproof, so I washed, dried and ironed the whole piece. As you can see none of the ink disappeared.

Now to paint. I started with the face, and used the following Fresco paints - Snowflake, Stone and Rose for the skin, adding in a little Cinnamon for the shadows. To each colour I added a little fabric medium.

I chose to have blue running through all the flowers but apart from that I had no clear colour
choices, I just went with whatever looked right for each bit. I think I used almost all my colours.

To compliment all the bright colours in the flowers I made the hat very neutral, mixing my browns, blending and layering. Once dry I dry-brushed some Stone over the hat as the highlights. Adding fabric medium to each new colour.

Next I worked on the goggles, making them a deeper brown to look like leather. I don't have a very dark brown but I found layering and mixing my browns and adding a touch of French Roast gave me the shades that I needed.

I added the lipstick using a mix of London Bus and Blood Orange and fabric medium.
I knew I wanted to stamp the hair, but painting in-between curly,spirally, squiggly lines didn't seem like a fun prospect so I painted the hair first. I used Zesty Zing first, then Pumpkin Soup, then Cinnamon, and finally stone for the highlights. I painted very loosely just using a flicking motion.

Once the hair was dry I stamped all over it with Squiggly Ink Mini 08.

Now to add the metal parts of the goggles. I wanted to use Treasure Gold, I knew it could be used on fabric but I didn't know if it would stay put after washing. I did several samples on spare fabric. I tried it on its own and mixed with fabric medium, I also tried it with a layer of fabric medium painted over it. I then washed the samples and they all washed out in varying degrees. A dull brown colour is left behind but most of the metallic shine comes off.
So what should I do, I then tried samples with metallic pens, pearl-ex powder + medium, metallic acrylic ink....all of them washed out, some more than others.

So I decided to just use the Treasure Gold, knowing that only part of it would stay put. To be honest I am not too worried, I don't see me washing the bag on a regular basis.

I used Brass and Copper, I mixed them with a little fabric medium to make them easier to paint on . Once dry I deliberately rubbed some away, to make the goggles look tarnished and worn.

Now for the background. I mixed up my paint with fabric medium and randomly filled in the whole background, blending the colours where they met.

Next I stamped all over with Mini 23, Mini 60 and a small dot stamp from HP1204

Step 3 I rolled Snowflake over the background using a brayer.

Step 4 I used a Crafters Workshop Dot stencil and added Beach Hut.

Step 5, once the Beach Hut was dry I bumped the stencil and added Snowflake.

Basically I treated the background just like a journal page. Now to add dimension. I stamped 3 of the flowers again on spare fabric, also 1 of the feathers and also Mini 48.

I painted these and ironed them to heat set them.

I then ironed some interfacing (vilene) to the back of them all. Once cut out the interfacing stops them from fraying.

I cut several large circles of sheer /organza fabric and machine stitched the cut out flowers to the sheer fabric.

I clipped into the fabric all the way around and then used my heat gun to shrink/shrivel/melt the sheer fabric. Note. Do this VERY carefully, over doing it will disintegrate the fabric and your fingers!

Now I had fluffy textured flowers. I stitched them to the bag and added a metal button to each centre. I treated the feather the same way and stitched it on between the 2 'flat' feathers.

Now for some embellishments.

I added the chain and the heart clasps to the goggles. I also added some lace to the hat.

I then stamped a face from one of the flowers onto fabric, once painted and ironed to interfacing I then glued it to black card. I used Glossy Accents to glue this piece into the blank pendent. I then filled the inside with Glossy Accents.

I straightened up the sides of my fabric then folded it in half and seamed up each side. I added the painted Mini 48 to the back of the bag, and finished it off with a red lining and some thin strappy handles.

 Here is the finished bag, all ready to go on an adventure.

Over to you....come back, don't run off screaming with terror. I don't expect you all to make bags, though it would be fabulous if you did. Just think of the PA adventures we could all go on together!

Try a little fresco painting on fabric, see what you can come up with.

Leandra Says: Very, VERY cool. The flowers look amazing with the textured layers, fantastic to shrivel that sheer fabric, in fact, if people don't have time to make a whole bag this week (snorts) then making flower brooches using this technique would be an awesome thing to have a go at! Utterly brilliant Darcy, and so fascinating to get a true insight into the process!

Gillian Says: O.M.G ... stunning stunning project Darcy. I'm literally lost for words. Love the use of the stamps with your beautifully hand drawn image, love the cool head gear.

No doubt Darcy has not only blown you away with her project today, but perhaps there are some ideas within this that you might like to try; stamping and painting fabric, frazzled flower embellishments, or if you have time, how about a stamped bag! However your muse is spurred to action, share with us all your creativity here, just link up from any web page. We'd love to see what you've been up to as a result!