Art journal "Shine Your Light" page

I decided that I would do a Facebook live for this journal page... In the end, I added a little heart at the top of the right hand corner so that there are 5 hearts on the spread... 4 hearts just didn't work for me, I like odd numbers for elements.  Also, it helps to draw your eye around the page.

Cards made from Stamperia leftovers of Mechanical Sea World papers

I am very grateful that I am a crafter at this time in the world where the Corona Virus has taken hold and we are all in self induced isolation.  My husbands office is closed for 2 weeks and my son's school will be closed from Tuesday... go figure... why not Monday is beyond me... but I digress...

I plan on making lots of things over the next few weeks as I have no excuse not to be at my desk!  Other than to cook and clean the flat of course...

I recently received a parcel from Stamperia and there was a stunning stencil for cards in it.  (You can see the unboxing in my previous post)  They sent it to me for my Alice Egg which I posted on their Facebook group and it came 2nd in a challenge...

I decided to use up the leftover bits and pieces of paper from decorating my chair (see previous post) and cut them up into usable 6"x6" card bases and any other interesting bits got torn and inked edges, ready for adding to the cards.

 I recently purchased these two stamps and the glamour paste as well as the crackle paste and wanted to use them on the cards too... I didn't get round to using the stamps though...

I had a long strip of the steel plate paper and decided it would be great for the stencil.

 First I masked off the excess of the stencil with washi tape

 Then I spread the paste through the stencil.

 It is deliciously shiny, but hard to read at this stage.

 So I re-used the tape from the stencil and masked off the paper so that I could ink the block with Vintage Photo and black soot distress ink.

 To remove the excess ink on the stencilled image, I replaced the stencil over the top and cleaned it with a baby wipe.  Excuse the upside down image... I just cant get it to behave!

 It is much easier to read now.

 I removed the tape and chopped the strip up.

 This is what I had to work with...

I used some of the Glamour paste on the chipboard laser cuts from Antonis range with the ladies face.

 I die cut some Tim Holtz cogs and added them to the cards as well as a hinge I found cut out already in my stash, which I chopped in half and used on 2 different cards.

 Then I added the Crackle paste with a spatula and waited for it to dry... the thicker the paste, the bigger the cracks...

Here is a close up of the cracks, once I had added some distress crayon.

I decided to make an easel card for the last one to use up the extra sentiment.

Studio chair Makeover using Stamperia rice papers and stencils

I was the grateful recipient of a Stamperia Pizza Box yesterday...

Before we left Cape Town in March a year ago... I started researching ideas for how to paint my office chair.  With the arrival of the pizza box, I was finally able to put my plan into action!

Pinterest ideas...

This was my Father's office chair and is a good 30 years old...  It was worn and tatty, but really comfy... so it cracked the nod to come to Berlin as it was going to get a revamp...

I ripped out the cushions and took off the handles... which have stayed off... it now fits under my desk and in such a small space, handles were a real pest!

I had purchased this rose fabric from Ikea to match my boxes that I have in the studio for storage... The piece of fabric has been draped over my chair for months, slowly getting scrunched as it never stayed put!  Here you can see that I have staple gunned the fabric over the cusions as I decided that a painted surface would not breathe and that it would be uncomfortable.

I used 500ml of gesso to cover the back and sides of the chair.

Then I used gel medium to adhere the large 50 x 50cm rice paper to the top of the chair and the smaller sheet from my gift box underneath.  I fussy cut some images from the Mechanical sea world paper pad and the clock from flower garden to finish off the edges of the rice paper sheets.

Having left everything over night to dry, I chose some stencils to add finishing touches to the chair... here is a sneaky shot my hubby took of me while I was going through my stencil file...

My finished chair in my clean studio!  I can actually see the floor!

I used the new metallic wax paint from my box in pink and turquoise to stencil with.

Octoman Stamperia journal page

 This is my journal page that I have created using the left overs from my egg and album cover.

 I started by stamping my page with this huge Antonis stamp using archival ink.  It doesn't look so big on the packaging, but if you look below, you can see it fills the whole bag!  Its gorgeous!

I sprayed the whole page with frayed burlap which gives such cool effects.

I have a short video showing the rice paper that I added to the page before spraying it again with frayed burlap distress oxide...

 I had purchased a page from the Mechanical Sea World with Octoman on it and cut it out with scissors and my cutter.

 I then coated him with a layer of clear gel to seal the paper.

 When this was dry, I glued him to my page which I had covered with frayed burlap distress Oxide spray.

 The reason for covering him in gel was so that I could use distress crayons around him, to make him pop out of the page.

 On his right hand side, I used Walnut stain for the shaddow and picket fence for the highlight.

 On his right hand side, I used cracked pistacio to bring in a bit more colour and to compliment the colours he already had.

 I added some of the cracked pistachio to other places on the page too... this helps to move your eye around the whole page. 

 I love how the crayon makes him pop off the page.