Poe-try

Hello, blog friends and thank you for visiting.

I've been a bit quiet lately.  There have been a couple of reasons, one being that my husband has been in the hospital (he had a nasty infection in a gland in his neck and spent five days on intravenous antibiotics).  Running to and fro to visit him, plus the demands of getting  to grips with a new job and recovering from the old one (seriously stressful!) left me little time or inclination to craft. Then I got a bit carried away with my entry for the Quoth the Raven challenge...it turned into a real project.  So this post is going to have quite a few photos.

The theme is "Anything Poes" - and I've taken my inspiration from "The Raven". 

It was originally going to be a notebook cover.  I began by embossing black cardstock and painting it to get the look of leather - one of Andy Skinner's Timeworn Techniques.  The frame was made using a mould bought from a well-known internet auction site and is moulded out of paper clay, painted silver (Eco Green Antique Silver, as it happens.) The plaque I made out of Pearl white Fimo. When it was cooked I stamped the raven stamp (from the Tim Holtz Hallowe'en set) in black archival ink and covered it in Glossy Accents.  I made the book cover out of chipboard (yes, the pieces that come to act as dividers in the boxes of envelopes we have in the office.)  And I could have stopped there...but I didn't.

I decided to put the poem into a mini album using Laura Denison's "Stack the Deck" method.  The great thing about this method is that it allows space for embellishments.  I love getting a 3D element into my projects and my latest toys are some Martha Stewart silicon moulds, including this frame, so while I had the paper clay out it would have been rude not to make it.  I made my own mould (with Siligum) of a rose-shaped bead and made a few paper clay roses while I was at it. 

I made the leaves for the Stack the Deck out of black cardstock, and while the paper clay was drying I went searching for some suitable papers to suit my project.  In the haunted wing of my stash I found a pad of "oriental" papers I've had for years - so long I can't remember where or when I bought them - but the rich colours were just the job.  In the pad there was some white textured paper with a gold flower design that I didn't like very much.  When the flowers were dry I put some sheets of the white paper underneath them while I sprayed them (black & red Mr Huey's and pewter and red Radiant Rains)...and they suddenly became yummy - result!  All that was needed then was a vintage picture (again, one I've had for years) to represent Leonore and to paint the frame silver.

Surpise - the page opens up. I die-cut some ravens and the candlestick using the Alterations dies and you can see some of the oriental paper behind the raven.  The silver part of the candlestick is cut from a scrap of textured card that I found at the same time as the oriental paper.

Next pages - the window is a digital stamp from Ike's, printed out twice, colored with Spectrum Noirs.  I cut the panels out of the lower print and stuck the frame onto acetate. I backed the acetate with a scrap of card - I masked the moon and blended shades of blue ink (Adirondack Cloudy Blue, Stonewashed and Denim) over the mask with a bit of Dusty Concord and Black Soot Distress Inks around the edge.  I used the Split Tree stamp from Clarity to get the branches (I used Memento ink).  I repeated the process on the tag and added the Raven  (Dah-dah-DAH!)

The raven and the background paper on the left are from Ike's. (I like Ike's.  They have some very fab digital stamps in the fantasy/gothic genre)  On the right, the raven is from Smeared Ink - added to the bust of Pallas and coloured with my Speccies (hard to see in the image but it is really a light grey).

More diecuts and Smeared Ink digi stamping

Etcetera

Etcetera

Nearly done.  You can find directions for the pushmi-pullyu card here.

The last page.  Thank you for staying with me in this marathon post!

Crafty hugs,

Keren