From little Scraplings grow mighty trees…

From little Scraplings grow mighty trees…

Hello there!
Thanks for popping in…
Last week during the Crowborough retreats, 
we were walking the brayer through acrylic paint, 
and rolling off any excess paint onto a sheet of copy paper.
Remember?
And I said I’d blog the scrap!
Ready?
The first thing is to stare at the scrap until it speaks to you.
This could take a while….
Do you see what I see?
Squint. It always helps.
Fantastic! Perfect!
Out with the Tall Trees stamp.

Pick a perfect spot and stamp using black Archival ink.
Now for a little cosmetic work.

The first thing to do is neutralise the tree trunks, 
so that the background isn’t running through them.
The white Spectrum Noir pencil will do this. 
In other words, white out the trunks.
Then add in colour with other pencils: red, blue, yellow – all the colours in the background actually.

Now let’s sort out the treetops.
First white out some of the red stripes, 
i.e. paint which runs through all the trees.
Then lightly add shade to add perspective.
Now the trees are set behind each other.

Cut the paper back, leaving the landscape to stretch out 
beyond the stamped image.

Add a little pencil shadow to the outside of the frame, 
bottom and left.
The white copy paper was too bright, so I took a brush which had a little yellow Butterscotch already on it 
and brushed around the edges.
Much warmer.

Found a sheet of really nice handmade A4 water-colour paper
and spray-mounted the copy paper piece to its centre.
Rolled a brayer over it to eliminate any air bubbles.
Mounting it this way gives it plenty of stability 
and a feel of top quality.

Signed it lightly with a pencil.

Nobody would ever know it started out life
as a sheet of rolled paint scrap.

So NOW do you see what I saw?

There’s something very rewarding about making something from nothing. From a paper scrap. 

I love it.
It’s going on the wall in the stairwell,
in my gallery!
love and hugs,

58 thoughts on “From little Scraplings grow mighty trees…

  1. I love it Barbara. You always have marvellous vision…even without squinting!! I have a basket full of brayered scrap paper…I should really go through it now you have given me a reminder. Hope Dave is still on the mend and that you are looking after yourself too. Hugs xx

  2. Hi Barb,
    Really lovely – I just don't know how you do it! You always make it look so easy as well! Thank you. Hope Dave is well and truly on the mend. Got my NDC envelope on Saturday and forgot to say how lovely the two " gifts" are this month. Love Alison xx

  3. And I hope it gets "pride of place" Barbara – it's a very beautiful, serene piece of art 🙂
    Hope you've had a good day today. Send hugs xxx

  4. Lovely, very inspirational. Spent a Groovi day today, playing with my new plates, thoroughly restful and enjoyable. I like your idea of standing back and squinting at it until you see something that inspires you. Yesterday was a bit frustrating as my inspiration deserted me but this reminds me to just wait and be patient, try squinting a bit. All from a bit of scrap, well done, love it. Hope your day was a bit restful too and that Dave is feeling well today. Karen xxx

  5. Yes remember you swaying you were going to create art from that scrap. Amazing, I did not see that. Glad you adding more art to your gallery, signed as well. Hoping Dave is doing ok, thinking of you both. xx

  6. How did you see that ? That's why we need you to teach us all these tricks! I'm often looking at scraps that I've kept – I'm going to have to start with them and see where I go. Thank you x

  7. Wow Barbara you never fail to amaze me with your scraps making them into art .
    How is Dave doing? have you had anymore results ?
    Have a restful time together
    Hugs xxx

    1. Hi you two,
      Sheila you're incorrigible!!! Are you sure you're not on Barbara's payroll, sent to infiltrate us and encourage us all to fall off the wagon every week!!!!!! 😉
      What are you going to do with all this Groovi artwork you're making, do you have anywhere you can be asking to sell it for you? xx

      Aye Donna, have you come up with any new ideas on how we infiltrate Barbara's art room now we know raiding her bins is only going to get us her dinner leftovers!!!! Maybe oor Dot is hatching a plan while waiting to be rescued from her grandkids!!!! xx

      Dot I am worrying about you, if you can, can you let us know if everything is ok? big hugs xx

    2. Hi Brenda I'm doing my special Christmas cards this year on groovi parchment need to start now as takes a lot of my energy to make up one just couldn't resist the Christmas tree now it's on sale yippie hugs xxx

    3. Well confusion rains here……… I have a cut n boss, which according to crafter's companion website comes with two A plates a B,D,E, magnetic shim and rubber mat. When I looked at the pack of replacement plates it contains a C plate!!!!!! And I discovered I can get a metal shim as well????? I might just go back to my Windy Miller machine!! 😉 xx

    4. Oh you lot are so naughty (or good as Barbara would say!). I've just opened a posh box of chocolates and there's a lovely piece of parchment resting on top go the choccies, it's almost a sign! – buy the Groovi plates. I must resist though after car expenses this week – I'm being nice to hubby and dropping hints for Christmas! Xxx

    5. Oh that's not good you must have the new machine mines just a e bosser
      I cannot use my windy Miller machine as I cannot turn the handle no more .
      Hope you can find something to give you same thickness as the c plate without buying no more as you need to be able to mosey over to clarity to keep me company hugs xxx

    6. Not long until Christmas now, according to Martyn, he's got the weeks /days counting down!!!! Wish I could tell you Groovi was rubbish, don't worry about it, but that would be the biggest porky ever, (and Barbara would seriously fall out with me)!!!!! Sorry, best I can do to help you sit on your hands is tell you it's not long until Christmas and it will be well worth the wait. and you'll have learned all the what not to dos from us so will catch up with us all in no time 🙂 xx

      My name is Brenda and it's been 8 days since I fell off the wagon…. see I'm being good!!!!! xx

  8. Thanks for a truly inspirational couple of days last week. I really appreciate the effort you, Paul and the team put into the whole event. I hope today went well for Dave, and you ofcourse.
    Genine x

    1. Some of us were working on a plan to empty her bins for her!!! But then we learned Barbara throws nothing out so back to the drawing board!!!!!! 😉 xx

  9. Your skill, ingenuity and ability to see something out of 'nothing' never fails to amaze me. Only you could see brayer covered waste paper as the start of something so gorgeous

  10. Wow Barbara, this is amazing, thanks for sharing, and I'm so glad it's getting it's rightful place in your personal gallery. Thanks for the idea of how to mount it too, I've been wondering how I'd go about it when it's only copy paper :-). More incentive to get myself playing with arty stuff, if it all goes wrong, I'll have a box of scrap to get arty with ;-). Hope it was a good Monday for you, and that Dave's health has improved, even just a teeny wee bit would be good. Love Brenda xx

    1. No 🙁 Had every intentions, who knows what I've got up to, not been idle. But tomorrow no chores, and I'm going to do the couple of boring paperwork type things in a wee bit, so tomorrow a crafty afternoon, fingers crossed. But I did come up with the start of 3 new Groovi ideas, while dusting and hovering, so that's something. What about you, what have you managed today? xx

    2. Had my mobile hairdresser this afternoon to do my hair
      Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some of our CFS group only 5mins from home
      So then will need to rest to reenergised hopefully to craft when I get my new groovi plates hugs xxx

  11. What a wonderful creation Barbara anf froma scrap of copy paper too. When you have finished a piece on scrap I can see how it works but just looking at the piece itself I don't think I have the imagination to see what you do. Hope all is well with Dave. x

  12. Hi Barbara
    This is really amazing, especially when it started life as a scrap piece of paper. Love the way you have mounted it too, glad it's going in your gallery. Hope Dave is behaving and resting and your cardboard box pile is getting smaller. Take care love Diane xxx

  13. I love how you have made this from scrap paper. It's brilliant, you really are a very talented lady. I have lots of these scraps and really must learn to utilise them more.
    Hope you and Dave had a nice weekend.
    Big hugs,
    Amanda xx

  14. Super masterpiece. I love my scraps and they die-cut nicely for flowers too. That's a lovely stamp too; I use it far more than I'd anticipated, but not as cleverly as this. I hope Dave is getting better and causing you less concern. X

  15. Love this – I did some cards with gelliplate scraps and this stamp a few weeks ago, and was really pleased with them – thank you to Sam Crowe for the inspiration, and thank you to you for another way of using the stamp with my scraps!!! Susan x

Leave a Reply to Pat Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *