Saturday, December 31, 2016

December Jingle Hells and New Year Resolutions

Well!!!  All the hellish things that CAN happen, DID happen, so they went into my diary, which I hope I can still find in 11 months' time to remind me what NOT to do next Christmas...  I wonder if any of these resonate with you too...
My book pages are from Sizzix  Day of the Dead Sugar skull book die:
I covered the outside (front is right, back is left in all photos) with fibre paste, then Lindy's Moonshadows.  I liked that too much to do more, apart from a bit of blood on the teeth, and filling the eye sockets with Seth Apter's Splatter die - look at all the speech bubbles that have dropped out - too many conversations about what to do, what to get... 
Turn the page, and it's all about the menu - peoples' allergies, splatter die illustrating someone's leaky gut (ugh TMI ) The stress of making sure everyone's dietary fads are met!!!
Whilst here in Middle Earth, it's summer.  And summer means BBQs morning, noon and night, so where are those mammoth steaks?  Pictograph & mammoth stamps from Third Stone stamps were heat embossed on the right, and hints of them rushing around on the left.

One thing I DO remember from Christmas Past, is that every kids toy needs batteries.  But these days, a packet of AAs just doesn't do it 😰  You have to have square ones, rectangular ones, small round flat ones, large round flat ones, ones that slide in one way only, ones that burst in to flame while in use, ones that won't come out if you put them in wrongly... Last year Santa swapped Rudolph's 9-lived ever-red-y nose for a Li-ion battery-powered GPS.
Guess what?
Yep, absolute disaster!!!  And Seth's got a stencil for that too!!!

From battery-powered toys, to other favourite choices by those who do not live fulltime with Little Darlings:
Washi tape holds flaps over the eye sockets, more Christmas wrapping paper as the base, and I'm starting to use Grumbacher's 531 transparentizer with some paints to make layers of background.  And more of Seth's stamps texturizing.  The idea of layers of paint, stencils, stamps creating intricate backgrounds is something he teaches in his Card Play DVD.  Though I've done too few layers on these pages - Christmas rush!
Maybe some fond rellie will think we need an SPCA Rescue pet - a feral Wharf cat perhaps.  Or a sword fighter outfit.  Some other weapons to break a little girl's leg. musical toys that play LOUD...
On this spread you can see the difference between straight paint round the edge, and paint with 531 glazing medium added (green - the stencil was blue, and done before the glaze)

And who do buys these sooo-inappropriate toys?  The Grannies, the uncles, and... The Aunties!
They have to be invited, but oh my!  Opiniated, insist their view the only view, won't see your migraines coming on or that you're worn down to the bone...
Van Dyk Brown is not particularly transparent, but with 531 added it comes up rather a nice sepia - as if those Aunties belonged in a misty time gone by (with flowersoft lavendar in their smellers).  In reality, it's The Clash Of The Umbrellas
More of Seth's stamps, and the Aunties fighting with their umbrellas are Sizzix La Catrina die.
Pages, pages... how to become a book?  I'm playing with running a thread round each one, then plaiting them... it's a WIP, as there are more horrors to diarise.

Stamp credits next page: Oasispalms,  nevermore from Silver Crow Creations, more stamps & stencils from Seth (Story, star, "what will happen", Now is the time).  Outer spread below, Barbed wire with crow from Things to Alter, skull dies Sizzix 

And why do we do it all, put ourselves through such agony?  Look back to "The Reason For The Season", groan at today's madness, and wonder if we've missed the plot.




Merry Creepmas and  Highly Creative New Year to everyone.
But wait... you've all been so busy doing the Christmas-Hannukah thing, you've not been creating darkly - there's still a few hours for the post-celebration depression to be creArted out of your system and entered here for a chance to win some Grumbacher goodies.  And come back tomorrow to see who's helping us kick off 2017 big time!!!

1 comment:

  1. The Post Celebration Depression thing you do so well! Love it! Happy New Year from the Arizona Desert... Dawn... The Bohemian

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for visiting and partaking of our weirdness! Play on kind souls!
~~~(insert grown up voice)

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