November loveliness from Sue Smyth

Mad Hatters Tea Chest 

and 

Catcher of Dreams Layout 

By Sue Smyth 

This month I am sharing two projects I have taught around Australia this 

year, first is a small box for holding tea with an Alice in Wonderland 

theme. Second is a layout using my Artsy treasures and ID chipboard to 

Create a Dream catcher style layout.

I have cut down one of the borders to create a frame on the lid 

of a Graphic 45 kraft box 

I added feet (wooden beads) to give the box some height and 

definition.

The spine is decorated with a playing card and resin bracket.

Inside I have used torn up text to cover the kraft surface, (and the outside)

And I have decorated the tags that came with the box 

with Alice in Wonderland Artsy Treasures.

To top the box is a resin Mad Hatter, he is painted with Inka 

Gold colours and placed over the ID frame.

Next is my layout.............

I love doing a mixed media layout and intend to do more, I create 

my own background to suit the photo.

The ID feathers are painted with gesso first, then I give 

them a second stippled coat, and dry off 

to bubble and blister.

Then I have coloured them with Scribble sticks and water.

I have used the scribble sticks to colour the flowers too, and to colour

the compass ID chipboard.

I have snipped the compass/clock chipboard, around the 

centre to create 2 pieces, and threaded cotton 

around the larger one to make a dream catcher.

Here are some close ups.

Oh and I used the same elements (except the photo)

to make a journal cover. Which I secretly like 

even better lol.

Here are some close ups of the prills and 

feathers etc.

I hope you are inspired by my projects and bonus

book, and 

some of the chipboard used 

Happy Crafting 

Mythical Creatures

What is a Spriggan?

By Sue Smyth 

 

You may well ask what is a Spriggan? For those that know me, I grew up on a farm...ahemmm some years ago, outside Brisbane. At that time there was no electricity, running water or phone, so we where somewhat isolated.

But this meant as children we had endless freedom. Freedom to run around the Bush, Rivers and Streams of the property. I had several favorite haunts on the farm, one was a deep hole in the ground made by the decaying of an old tree, tucked away under a stand of wattles it was shaded and protected. Moss covered the surface, lots of little tiny flowers would bloom from time to time, and minature mushrooms would sprout after rain.We could literally lay in this depression and pretend we were in another world. Some other spots, were a large patch of lemon scented tea tree and on the crest of the hill a patch of floating granite rocks that were flat and smooth, covered with moss and lichens. On cool evenings we would jump from rock to rock, sometimes at dawn you could also see foxes and even hares playing on the same spot lol.

Perhaps this explains why I love natural world so much, yes Bugs and Butterflies, I know they are not everyone's cup of tea, but I love their shapes and design lines, rather than their nature lol. But I also

love the mythical world, the world of imagination and folklore. I was always curious about the "little people" and we would often search for "evidence" of their existence, I think the closest I came to finding them, was in early summer time at the back of our farm we had a well, and the callistamen trees were covered in hundreds of "thumbelia" green tree frogs. This is my long winded way of saying I am again curious about the mythical world, and this seems to have replaced my penchant for bugs lately...So my first official project for the year is a altered book celebrating the Spriggan...

A spriggan, a singular borrowed from the Cornish plural spyryjyon 'spirits' is a legendary creature known from Cornish faery lore. Spriggans are particularly associated with West Penwith in Cornwall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spriggan

The story behind this book, is that I wanted to do more with mythical creatures, and elves in particular. So at Christmas time I carefully picked apart one of my elf dolls, and with 

a little trickery ..made a mold. Then I could set a resin head to use,  this is what started an altered book on Spriggans.

 

Here you can clearly see the elf head, first I painted it black to give 

clear defined lines in the face, kind of like you do in a cartoon.

I have added a set of resin wings, these are dragon wings but I think they suit for all creatures mythical right.

I love using the mini alphabet to make solid little labels, you will 

see this trick on a lot of my work. It is a great way of 

getting a custom title with out a lot of fuss.

Here I wanted a frame to surround my side lock, but could not find one that fit perfectly. So I have use ID corners and snipped off some of the overhanging

bits, I think it works fantastically well.

I love tucking things under the layers, here you can see the large 

ornate key I have tucked in. And the those neat little rustic domes are actually gum nut lids, I love bringing in the natural world lol.

I wanted the spine to have some interest too, and since I chose a really really think old hardback novel I had room to play, this is just chipboard rectangles that have been adhered 

to the spine first. Then I have scrunched up tissue paper and 

applied it to the cover and spine with Gel Medium for that textured almost leather look.

A lot of the neat ID chipboard gets lost on the front, but under the head I have an oval frame and a square frame (adhered to a piece of custom chipboard)

I needed some kind of sturdy base for the head and a place to tuck in the wings, key and moss. 

You can see how I painted the entire book with black gesso and then with metallic purple paint.

This seems bold, but as you know adding more layers will cover 90 percent of this, with only a little of the black and purple showing through.

I have then decorated my book by rubbing layers 

of metallic waxes over top. This is the step that takes the book in any direction I want it to, just by adding more of one colour or another. I have complete freedom here to change the colours or adjust them to what I like. This time I highlighted the purples, greens and graphite of the spectrum. I have hidden the bottom of the spriggan with faux moss, and a tangle of black cotton.

I hope you like my new addition to my altered book

collection and here is a few of the Chipboard pieces I have used.

Edward Relief Corner IDC0008

Oval Swirly edge Frame IDF0031

Leah Frame IDFR0034

Swirly Corners IDC0002

and of course 

main letter set (small )

IDA0006

Thanks for visiting and 

Happy Crafting 

Colour of the Month Challenge.

 Hello Everyone

Welcome to our first "Colour of the Month" Challenge.

This month's colour is RED.

 

 Our Photo Collage is made up of my personal photos and photos from our Design Team Ladies.

This months photo's are as follows.
50 red roses from my husband for my birthday.
A little child dancing, taken at my one of my daughters wedding. She is the niece of the groom and is dancing with our daughter Anna.
Lovely red berries from Solange (Brazil).
A London red phone box was taken when three of my girls had a holiday there.
A red fire engine at Disneyland. You can see Josh reflected in the head light. This engine is in the fire station below Walt Disney apartment.

Each month the colour will change.
The idea is for you to come up with a project using our colour of the month, send me some photos and a list of Imaginarium Design chipboard used. We will show it here on our blog during the month. At the end of the month I will choose two winners. Each winner will receive a bundle of our chipboard worth $50.
If you want to take part in  our challenge then I will need your photos by the 23rd of the month at the latest, I will announce the winners on the 25th of the month. Every week the design team will be sharing their projects to inspire you. We will also be giving way 2 small bundles of chipboard each month as well. All you need to do to be in the running to win one of these is leave a comment here and on our facebook page. All winners will be announced on the 25th of the month.

So lets see what three of our Design Team Ladies have come up with.

First up is Natalie May

Nat has designed one of her amazing journal pages to inspire us. I wish you could really see it. There is so much going on in the back ground. The photos here don't really do it justice.  

Here is what Nat has to say about her page.

Red is such a beautiful colour but I always have so much trouble creating with it.... I worry that it might look like I spilt blood or wine on it! lol!
So with that in mind, I opted for an Art Journal page with the boldest part of the image being Red!
I created a collaged background and then hand painted the Poppies using Watercolours and Neocolors. I used my Hand drawn chipboard leaves to add some dimension - I coloured them with Neocolours before using Gel Medium to adhere them to the page!

IDD0045 Nat's hand drawn stemmed leaves (2 in a board)

 Nat is one of our in house designers and the leaves above are hand drawn by her. It is one of the many designs Nat has done for us and is one of  her most popular designs.

Nat has quite a few personal art journals now, she teaches wonderful art journal classes inspiring many ladies to have a go at this mixed media art form.

Thanks Nat for sharing one of your beautiful art journal pages with us today. The red poppies really do "pop" on the page and I love your collage background.

Next up is Wendy Duwakin.

Wendy has been very busy. She has designed two card sets to inspire you.

First up is a cute country set. Here is what Wendy had to say about her cards.

For this month I have done two sets of cards each with a different feel - firstly my country cards. For the chipboard on these I have used Colour Blast Shimmer Dust and actually mixed with glossy accents to create both a matt look and a glossy look.

I love the little details Wendy has done on her card, like the stamping and raffia bow. Also the punched border which looks very effective on the red spot print. The Shiny finish on the chipboard nicely complements the black button embellishment.

I love the way Wendy has incorporated the colour red onto this card. By adding a couple of squares of red prints and a red ribbon, Wendy's card has a real country feel to it. The bee and ladybug is a really nice touch. The glossy look Wendy has done on her chipboard is very effective and contrasts beautifully with her green flowers.  

Wendy has also used some of our chipboard designed by Nat.

 IDFL0018 Sheet of 7 Leaves.

IDD0041 Nat's Pin Wheels.



Next up is Wendy's second set of beautiful cards. This set has a real vintage feel to them.



Here is Wendy's own words to describe her cards.

I decided to drag out some old paper tole kits I had lying around and put them together I really love these retro cards.

Sometimes with the chipboard flourishes I find that I need to cut them down to get the look I want such is the versatility of the product. For the flourish I used Colour Blast colour paste in bling as a base and then to get the look I was after I mixed two embossing powders together being "leather" and "snow white" to give the shipboard a mottled effect.

You can see the mottled effect on her chipboard flourish, and matches perfectly the vintage look of Wendy's cards.

IDFL0014 Jessica Flourish.

  

Just look at all the beautiful flowers Wendy has clustered on her card. The embossed chipboard word is the perfect touch.  In keeping with the vintage feel to her cards, Wendy has tucked some crocheted lace under her flowers.

 A really beautiful card that any one of us would love to receive.

IDW0080 Totally, Adore, Wonderful.

Thank you Wendy for sharing 2 sets of your wonderful cards with us.

Sue Smyth also has created something very different to inspire us.

Sue does very detailed pieces and amazing off the page projects. Today she has done a canvas for us. You can see all the beautiful bits and pieces Sue collects and adds to her work. Again this is another project that you really need to see. Sue has done a lot of work on the foundation of this canvas before she has added all the detail on the top.

Here is what Sue had to say about her project.

Here is a project I created a few years ago using red, it is not a colour I use a lot, though I love it. It can be a strong colour to use with a lot of emotion behind it, it can so easily go all wrong

However for this canvas the feature I decided to use was an old doll face and wooden spoon, along with lots of found objects to create texture, I have used chipboard and trinkets as accents, not sure it worked as well as I would have liked, but it sure taught me a lot about red and mixing it with other colours.

I have double embossed the chipboard brackets with gold embossing powder, (one of my favourite pieces) to give a bold shiny look, this is a great contrast with the red.

IDS0013 Embellishment 4

 IDC0003 Corners with Four Circles.

Sue has used these corners on the foundation of her canvas. You need to look closely to the corners of Sue's canvas to see them. 



IDS0002 Butterfly Large.

The Butterfly has been double embossed with gold embossing powder and Sue has used it as part of the fountain of her canvas. Tucking it under her dolls head. 

IDACU0001 Capital Letters.

With Sue's work you always need to look very closely and carefully or you will miss something.

Thanks Nat, Wendy and Sue for getting our challenge underway. I am hoping lots of you will join in and take part. I look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Over the next few days, our Design Team Members will be sharing more of their beautiful projects to inspire you.

I will be back in 7 days time to share more of our "Colour of the Month"  projects from our amazing  Design Team. As all the Ladies on our team have different styles, it should be an interesting and enjoyable month of creativity, with something to inspire everyone.

Thanks for looking.

Jane

PS Don't forget to leave a comment here and on face book to go into a draw to win a small bundle of our lovely chipboard. Maybe you can use it to enter next months Colour of the Month Challenge.