I read a quote by a man I hadn’t heard of before, Wayne Dyer. I made such a connection with the quote, that ‘Magical Binoculars’ became the inking you see in the photograph.
If you could have magical binoculars that you could focus and look at the field of intention, you would see what the source of all things looks like. It’s a source of love and kindness and beauty and creativity, and it’s a source that excludes nothing and it’s a source of unlimited abundance.
Wayne Dyer.
Isn’t that lovely? If you don’t get the ‘lovely’ first time, read it again. Read it as many times as you need to in order to use your own internal Magical Binoculars, and not only see what that quote is saying, but to feel it too.
If you look at the InkTober picture for today you’ll see a pretty standard view of a scene, looking out from a beach, as night is falling. It’s not dark, but it’s not light. You can still see the land and the edge of the sea in the distance, but you can’t really see anything other than that.
#InkTober2017 ~ Magical Binoculars, by Cobwebs @ The Cobweborium Emporium. Photograph taken with the flash.Photograph taken without the flash.
But … what do you suppose would happen if you looked through the Magical Binoculars? What might you see then? What wonders would open up for you, I wonder?
Would you see the birds, flying in the sky, having one last stretch of their wings before going home to bed?
Could you see the man, stood on the end of that land in the distance, with his fishing rod in his hand?
Would you perhaps see the Mermaid, playing in the moonlight?
Who knows … for your sight may be different from mine. Perhaps you will focus your eyes in a different direction. Perhaps you will lift your eyes to the sky above and see the Gates of Heaven. Would you maybe, see the Angel? Or perhaps you will look to the Edge of the Sea, in the distance, and see what is there and has been there all the time, but we miss it because we don’t use our Magical Binoculars.
Magical Binoculars. #InkTober 2017
The inks I used for this drawing were:
Black Ink
Brown Ink
Teal Drawing Ink
Metallic Drawing Ink in Rose Gold and Silver (see pic. below)
Yellow Drawing Ink
Blue Ink
… in addition, I used a white Jelly Roll Pen for the highlights on the Magical Binoculars, and a tiny amount of Acrylic white paint in order to help the moon and clouds to be what I wanted them to be. But apart from that, everything else you see is ink.
Use your Magical Binoculars today. See if you can find the things you might normally miss because you’re too busy, or not see at all, even though they’re right there, under your nose!
Well since we are in the Bewitching Month of Ghosts, Ghouls, and adorable little ones dressed up in their finery … I thought I’d better get in the mood, so I ‘inked’ a Witches Hat while the Witch was wearing it …. but she’s only allowing you to see her Ruby Red Lips! She’s clever like that. Magic!
I made this inking for #InkTober2017 on a Postcard!
I bagged a bargain of over 90 Kanban Postcards for just £3.99 a few weeks ago in a Create and Craft sale. The postcards came in a selection of 3 different sizes, with sweet little pictures on the address side, and a simple, decorative background on the other side.
Since I like to use postcards quite often in crafting projects, it was a no brainer. I jumped at the chance of buying them, as they were such a bargain.
They’re rather good quality and very thick, so I knew that they’d take the ink without it bleeding through to the other side.
The Witches hat was first drawn with an ink pen, then I filled in the colour of the hat using black writing ink as I wanted to ensure that the writing I was planning to team with the hat were the exact same colour of black. The ribbon band on the hat was made using teal coloured Drawing Ink. (The buckle was added with a fine paint brush, using copper drawing ink)
#InkTober2017 – If the Hat Fits ….
The Witches Ruby Red Lips were coloured with an Ink Pen in a deep red colour.
I added highlightswhere the light would naturally hit the hat, using a silver drawing ink, applying it first with a brush and then moved it around with my finger tip. I’ve taken the next photo with the flash on, so that it really showed up where I’d added the highlights.
#InkTober2017 – Taken with the flash turned on, so that you could see where I added the highlights.
Once the hat was inked and the lips were in place … I first pencilled out the words (to make sure I got them in the right places), and then inked them. The highlights on the letters were all done with a Gelly Roll Pen.
Finally …. I dabbled some black ink on my glass mat and added a few drops of water, then picking up a little ink on my brush I spattered some ink over the card. I then did the same with some copper ink.
Of course … any Witch worth a cauldron, wouldn’t be complete without a Wand! ….
#InkTober2017 – The Wand was also made by Cobwebs from The Cobweborium Emporium
The Wand was one I made a while ago, meaning to put it for sale, but it got packed away when we were moving house and was never sold. I came across it, along with a couple of others, fairly recently, so thought I’d include it as the Witches Wand to make the whole thing ‘complete’. All she needed now was her black cat. Which I have (Alf Capone) … but it’s so difficult to photograph black cats!
Anyhoo … as I am want to say … That’s all there was to it! 🙂
Happy Monday! May your day be blessed with love and may you bless someone else with your own love.
Well I did say yesterday that I’d be hard pushed to not, at some point, break open a coloured ink during InkTober this year … and I didn’t last even a quarter of the month. How dreadful am I?
There are gazillions of the InkTober Artists around the globe all pushing their black ink pens loyally and here I am being the bad girl. Oooooohhh but it’s so delicious to be bad sometimes! 😉
And .. I’m not really bad. Not really … for I still used ink. I used Brown Ink instead of black, and I used it straight from the bottle. A proper glass bottle too!
Aw anyhoo, enough of my bad … let’s crack on and talk about todays inky offering…
This drawing (with some painting) was inspired by a handmade card which I made for Beverly of More Ink Please, – no the name of her blog isn’t made up for InkTober, that really is the name of her blog. Ha! I sent her the card just over a week ago, and she emailed me to tell me that it had arrived. YAY! I’ll blog the card probably tomorrow as I have to re-size the photo’s still, but for today I’m sharing my offering for the 4th day of InkTober2017, which was inspired, as I said, by the card I made for Beverly.
Autumn is a much-loved season by me, so it made sense that I would have to do some sort of nod to Autumn, and here is the inking I created…
#InkTober2017 day 4
I started with the acorns on branches, on the upper left corner, and pencilled in where I wanted them to be before using ink straight from the bottle and a fine paint brush to ink up both the branches and the cups and acorns themselves. The ink used is called Chronicle Acrylic Dip Pen Ink, in Sepia. (I’ve had this bottle of never ending ink for years, and I’m not even sure they still make it). I also used a Kuretake Zig Memory System Ink Pen in black, (size 005) to give some dark shadows to places where they would normally fall. Those two things were the only colours and items used to make the acorn branches.
#InkTober2017 day 4
The Autumn leaf wreath was first drawn out lightly in pencil, then lightly again using a Zig Memory System Pigment Ink Pen, in Chocolate. I then used Kuretake Gansai Watercolour Paints to add Autumnal colours to the leaves. I added the twisted vine to the ‘wreath’ using the same Chronicle Ink I’d used on the Acorn branches, and also added some twisted tumbling vines too.
Using the Zig Memory System Ink Penin chocolate, I added the ‘Autumn’ word, and that’s all there was to it!
It was quite quick to make, the majority of the time seemed to be waiting for parts to dry before moving on.
I’ve told myself that I have to be a good girl for a few days now and not dip my brushes or pens into the blue ink. So … fingers crossed…. I might be able to do it without falling off the wagon. (to borrow a phrase from somewhere else. lol)
Autumn has really arrived to the South of England. It’s so heart stoppingly pretty here right now. Green is beautiful .. but ohhh.. the yellows, reds and oranges, those stunning sunburst shades that only nature can summon up from her paint-box … those colours just make me want to lie down in those leaves and do the snow angel thing. So yummy!
Hot meals have come back onto the menu, and my soft pashmina type scarves have come out and are enjoying the odd outing now and again.
Did you know ….that today, in 1883, it was the first run of the Orient Express.? Well, you do now! You can go and impress someone with your new-found knowledge and watch them as they try to work out why you’re so amazing!! You’re welcome. 😀
Have a wonderful rest of your day! And … when you get there … Sleep well, for tomorrow you will be gifted with another 24 hours (if you’re lucky enough) and you can join the rest of us as we do it all again … with some differences.
Sending squidges, from me in my corner to you in yours.
I had my Ranger Melt Pot out last week, aka: The Cauldron., and made a few pretties with it but … well, one thing turned to another and a little memory crept into my mind of a card I remembered seeing about four or five years ago. Once the memory had taken shape inside my mind (in other words, I remembered enough to give it a good old bash) I thought I’d have try at making the beautiful leaf I remembered.
The leaf itself is a stamped leaf, but, after cutting it out, I turned it over and using bottles of re-inkers, I set about colouring the leaf up. The first one I made didn’t give off the feeling I was trying for. The colours were too deep and kind of flat. So I scrapped that one, (my motto: If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you ever tried!)… and began again, this time using different colours. I knew what I was after: A leaf coloured for all the seasons. And this was the result:-
I was quite pleased with how it turned out. It went from a brighter summer green, into a deep, rich, dark green, which then changed into rust and orange, which in turn changed into that fabulous autumn yellow.
I took LOADS of photographs of the leaf … and couldn’t for the life of me, get it to show the ultra thick embossing which I’d toiled over until it was perfection. I wanted to catch the shine on the leaf so that you could see that this was something really pretty. It looked like the most beautiful leaf captured inside glass. [sigh] Sadly, I failed. Nothing I did would catch the shine of what looked like glass. So you’ll have to imagine that it’s there.
The sentiment– is partly something I read a while back, but I changed it round a little, added a line and changed a few words, and so made it more what I wanted the card to say.
In case you can’t read it, it says:
Whispering winds which scatter leaves at the end of Summer; A gentle stroll on an Autumn Day; The chill in the air on a Winters morning; The chirrup of bird song which Spring brings. Somethings in life are always beautiful.
I really enjoyed putting this card together and love the leaf. In fact I loved making it so much that I think I’m going to make it again, only next time a little different. If it works, I’ll share it with you. If it doesn’t … you may never hear another word about it. But .. I might share it if it fails miserably – just so that you and I can have a laugh. LOL.
On the day I made this card, I made some other things too – only this time with my Cauldron (Ranger Melt Pot), and I’ll share those things with you next time.
Anyhoo . . .HAPPY MONDAY!
Just to get the week off to a grrrrrreat start, I give you a joke in the hope of making your heart smile….
I just watched a wildlife documentary about beavers. — Best dam programme I’ve seen in a long time! 😀
Pass the smile around. Share the joke. Let’s see if we can get the whole world smiling. We could use a little amusement now and again.
Have a truly lovely Monday. May today be a good one. Sending you squidges from my corner to yours….
A handmade card, but with a story behind the making of it.
Last weekend I had my cauldron Ranger Melt Pot out with the idea of making ‘something’ (I knew not what at that moment in time). I didn’t have a plan. I just knew I wanted to play with my Melt Pot. Everything was on my desk, ready and waiting for me to conjure up something which I could make in my Ranger Melt Pot category here on my blog. But what? WHAT?
I sat back in my chair and had absolutely no ideas. My mojo had gone out for drinks and not invited me.
Ah well, I said to myself, you’ve got the thing out now, so just mess around, and who knows, something might come from playing and making a mess. I stamped out an image of some Angel Wings, embossed and then distressed them using denim ink and lavender ink. Cut them out and then shaped them to given them some depth and ‘apparent’ movement. I printed out some words onto some lightweight card – thinking that I’d put the wings in the Melt Pot and mount them onto the card. But .. I decided that I’d do it the other way round. So I cut out the words into a big ’round’ – using my EK circle cutter, – and then distressed around the edges of that circle with the same inks I’d used on the wings.
Turned on the melt pot and once my crystals had melted I began to move the large circle around in the molten liquid. I advise CAUTION when using a melt pot – keep tools in each hand so that you’re not tempted to touch anything. I use a pair of long-handled craft tweezers in one hand and a bamboo skewer in the other. It doesn’t stop the urge to touch – but it makes you touch in a safe way, with the tools rather than your fingers.
Once I’d coated the front of the circle,I removed it from the liquid and just let it drip for a moment, then laid it flat to let it ‘set’ and go cold. Unfortunately – the lightweight card was too lightweight and it curled all around the edges and curved in places. It wasn’t what I wanted. I cleaned up and left the coated surface on one side.
Then a couple of days ago I looked at it again and told myself to try using it and see what I’d come up with. So here’s what I did:
Originally I chose a white 6×6″ card but changed my mind and used a 6×6 craft card instead; and some white feathers. I placed the wings on the circle where I felt they looked best, but the circle still seemed like it was missing something. So I chose a tiny glass bottle with a cork stopper, and put the tiniest of white feathers inside it, along with a teeny pinch of iridescent glitter, just to draw the eye to the feather, as I knew it would stick to the feather and the inside of the glass jar. It looked really lovely – so I glued the jar to the disc, and fixed the wings in place.
I felt that the wings looked a little flat, so I used some Anita’s Gloss and carefully coated the wings then put everything to one side while I worked on the card.
Using brown and a shimmering gold (not mirror) card, I cut out circles so that I could mat and layer the wings/words/glass jar onto them.
I chose some blue ribbon in a shade which echoed the blues of the distressing around the edges of the wings and the disc, and using some permanent tape, I fixed the ribbon running it over the back and front of the card, exactly at the ‘half way’ mark.
I fixed the first layer of the cards onto the front of the card.
… then matted and layered the other discs in place, sometimes tucking a white Angel Feather into the layers. Once the wings were dry and the glued bottle was fixed in place, I fixed some feathers onto the top layer then applied the disc topper which I’d made on top, adding just one smaller feather tucked under the outter edge of the wings.
Three close-ups of the teeny tiny white Angel Feather in the bottle. It was really hard to capture the feather – so I chose the best three photos of a large bunch of rubbish ones that I took.
Of course – there HAD to be a surprise inside the card … (you knew that, didn’t you! lol)
On the front page of the insert is a psalm from the bible, which speaks of Angels: I stamped it onto some white paper, and distressed it a little, then fixed it to the craft paper insert
In case you can’t read it, it says: He Shall Give His Angels Charge Over Thee, To Keep Thee In All Thy Ways. (Psalm 91:11).
Then on the inside, middle of the insert . . . .
. . . a pair of white feathered Angel Wings, and a stamped image of a feather, drifting freely.
Once finished, I really like this lovely card – which began with a disenchantment with the way the topper turned out, but I’m really glad that I made it into a card. It looks a little flat in the photo’s, but to the naked eye it has a depth and a wonderful warmth and gentleness about it. And to be quite honest – if someone sent me this card I’d be chuffed to bits. Seriously chuffed to bits!
I hope you like the card too.
So anyway … enough of me and my crafting. What have you been making or doing? Leave me a message with a link to your blog and I’ll come and take a look and leave you a message too.
You can leave messages on any post or article on my blog by . . .
scrolling up to the title of that article which you want to comment on and …
looking for the little grey speech bubble to the right of the title. (Hover your cursor over the title of a post then move it to the right and the speech bubble will turn from pale grey to a deep red colour.
Click on that speech bubble and the comments for that article or post will open up for you to read (if there are any) and, if you’d like to, make a comment.
Wishing you a totally fabulous weekend. May your Angels surround you and protect you from any harm.
This post is dedicated to Stacey, a fellow blogger on WordPress, who came up with a brilliant idea of promoting other crafting blogs in posts. Stacey very kindly mentioned my blog (with a link) and other crafters blogs that I hadn’t seen before – which was enough to tell me that I too should take up her idea and promote crafters blogs on my own blog here.
So, since Stacey came up with the idea, I am firstly promoting her blog (link below) and dedicating this post – and this card – to Stacey.
To Stacey, a dedicated blog post and card, for an amazing idea! ~ from Cobs.
. . . join me on a journey through this card . . .
Every few days/weeks … now and again … I’ll make what I call a ‘labour intensive’ card. One of those cards which takes more time than the regular cards you’ve so far seen me post here. This card – ‘Life is a Journey, not a Destination’, is one of those cards.
It’s not that these types of cards are difficult, they just take a little more thinking and working out so that you end up with the ‘feel’ that you started out knowing you wanted. This particular card was inspired by a piece of wall art which I have hung in my bedroom, facing my bed. It’s an iron framed rectangle with a piece of calico strung in the centre and printed on the calico are the words Life is a Journey, not a Destination, and that’s what gave me the theme for the card.
I wanted the card to have a vintage style, with a slightly ‘steampunkery’ feel to it – but at the same time I knew I wanted it to carry a message, and wanted the message to be read as either literal or spiritual, depending on who the card ended up with, and the circumstances they were in within their life, at that time. And ... I think I’ve managed it.
This card could be for someone who’s:- moving house; going on a cruise or going abroad; it could be a simple regular birthday card (for either a man or a woman); it could be for someone who’s starting a new job; or perhaps for a person who needs some encouragement; maybe some tests soon?; or … it could be given to someone who is going through some sort of personal challenge or challenging time, and this card would be a gentle, loving way of saying that they’re going to get through this time and move on to a better place or time.
I’ll give you a list of everything I used to make this card at the end of the post, because I don’t want anyone to look at the list and think that they couldn’t make a card like this. I might have different stash to you, and I might have different cardstock; dies; ink pads; glues etc etc … but I’m pretty sure you will have things in your stash that you could use to pull a card like this or similar together. Just because the list of stuff I’ve used might look long – please don’t be put off. If you want to make something like this, go and look at your stash. You’d be surprised what you can use in order to make your own style of card.
For now .. I’ll just give you different photos of the card so that you can see things closer up….
Up up and away! . . .
A (working)compass to help you keep you going in the right direction . . .
Time passes quickly, – so some gentle encouragement to enjoy the beauty of every moment.
As followers and readers of my blog know … I LOVE to put surprises inside all the cards I make. I feel that the inside of a card is just so wasted and such a let down when you open a birthday/Christmas or any other time card, and find a big white space with a little bit of writing.
I like cards to be beautiful inside and out and surprise the receiver when they open their card! . . .
Oooo… I wonder what the magnifying glass is for?! ;D
OOhh .. another surprise! .. now we have a lucky wish star and a ticket which gives me ‘entitlement’ to one wish! But .. what the devil is that magnifying glass for???
Ah haaaa! . . . It’s so you can read the page from the dictionary/thesaurus! Ok .. one mystery solved, . . . but … what’s that pink ticket by the end of the handle?
Ah haaaa! . . . mystery number two solved! (Just call me Sherlock. lol)
Oh, and by the way … the postcard inside . . . is for you to write your message on, for the person you’re sending the card to! See? It all makes sense!
And that . . . (photo above) . . . is the just finished card, stood on a glass cutting mat, on my desk … and that’s all my mess important, essential, fabulous, well organised {cough} equipment and tools behind the card. (I’ll clean it up properly at some point, so that I can take a photograph of my craft room and share it.)
The Recipe for this card: I used:
Sheena Douglass – Little Bit Sketchy – Magnifying glass stamp.
Papermania Acetate (for the ‘window’ of the magnifying glass)
Papermania Black Embossing Powder
Stazon ‘Saddle Brown’ ink pad
” ‘Jet Black’ ink pad
Memento Dye Ink Pad in ‘Desert Sand’
” ” ” in ‘Rich Cocoa”
Xcut Build-a-Scene Dies – Vintage Hot Air Balloon
Heartfelt Creations 12×12 pad – which I used some of the images from.
Spellbinders ‘Once upon a Time’ Die
Tattered Lace ‘Postcards’ Die set
Heartfelt Creations ‘Time Sentiments’ stamp
” ” ‘Journey Sentiments’ stamp
Pinflair Gentle Blends – in Denim colour
” ” ” – in Dark Khaki colour
Graph It Glitter Ink Pen
Compass – was in a pack of 4 I bought a while ago, from the children’s section of either Asda or Tesco.
Dictionary page was cut from an old Dictionary/Thesaurus which was no longer used.
Cardstock used:
Warm Chocolate Brown 300gsm
Plain Black 270gsm
Orange – was scrap from my scrap draw
White – 270gsm
Kraft Card – 300gsm
Extras:
2 x short lengths of silver-grey Rayon Seam Binding.
Grey and white Bakers Twine
3 x fuzzy, funky fibre, Eyelash Knitting Yarn/Wool – 1 x length of warm brown. 1 x length of jet black. 1 x length of a blues and purples mix.
One tiny metal vintage looking Postcard embellishment.
And that’s all there is to it! 😀
Aw,please don’t be daunted by the apparently long list of ingredients for this recipe. I’ve named almost everything I used here just to be helpful to anyone who wants to know where I got a particular thing, or the make of the papers or dies etc, (named everything apart from glue .. but if you need to know: I used Collall All Purpose, Anita’s Tacky Glue, hot glue, and Double Sided Tape) – but I bet you use tons of stuff when you craft a card and you don’t even notice what you’re using anymore. It’s just all … ‘stuff’ … which is treasured and loved, and there because you use it!
Thank you so much for coming to read. I hope you like the card! Oh … and don’t forget to visit Stacey’s blog!
Please have a look around my blog here and check out the different categories. There’s a list of them all in the column over to the right, – you’ll find the list of categories towards the top of that column.
The Art of Cobwebs 