Monday 30 June 2014

SOC Week 4

SOC week 4 is upon us and I must say I am really enjoying taking part. 
 
The set colours for this week are pink, apple green and pop, splash or splat of dark green,
I'm stumped !!!
The colours are another stretch for me as I'm not a pink and green person.
I'm going away to think about it.

Well I'm back, ta dah.
As if by magic, I prepared an 8x8 flat canvas, a nice solid board to work on.
It was covered in a pale pink base coat, followed by many different layers of different shades of pink
stencilled on through a mask or two, with some additional stamping of script in white paint.
 
 
Next came the apple green and a tad of dark green, using a stencil yet again and different shades of green to get the desired effect.

 
I needed  a little more  texture on my piece and  added some green paint to grunge paste and put it  through a poppy stencil of thistles, I removed the metal stencil and added more texture by using the pallet knife to flick up the poppy heads to create peeks. I added a little more pink paint to the heads and ta dah!
 
 
Almost forgot I did smear pink paint all around the edge of the canvas to soften/blend it a little.

 
 Hope you like my piece this week don't forget to check out all the other wonderful projects over on SOC challenge site http://twinkletwinklelikeastar.BlogSpot.co.uk .
 


Thursday 26 June 2014

Poor little Butterfly

Just wanted to share this picture of a butterfly.
 
 
 Poor little thing became trapped in the conservatory and was overcome with heat.
He didn't survive the experience.
The colours in his wings were vivid unfortunately the photo doesn't  show them very well.
 

Wednesday 25 June 2014

A Day of Crafting

 
Monday was a stay out of the dinning room/craft room/work from home room, because of hubby having a  working from home day.

Tuesday, however was a craft day.
 
I collected my sister-in-law and made us a drink, (need tea to get the old brain cells motivated) had a chat as you do and then began.
 
For my birthday I was bought a nest of boxes and thought it was an ideal time to decorate them, so Nola and I had one each.
  We began by painting a base layer of a pale green, once that was dry we added pale pink then yellow, dry brushing the colours over the surface until we were happy with the way it looked.
Next we stamped in a purple/lilac paint music notes and a swirly leaf at random places on the box.
When I had collected Nola she bought with her a mass of dies, I thought it would be rude if we didn't use a few of them ,  Nola chose a few flowers and swirls which we cut out made up and added them to the box lid.
 
A touch of stickles was added for a touch of bling.
This is how they turned out.
Here is Nola's.

Here  is mine.

 I admit mine isn't stuck down yet and my little yellow sprigs have done a runner, (I think the cats have eaten them). But I wanted to post the boxes as they are lovely.

Should have Stuck it down at the time, but, time ran out and I had to drop Nola off, meet the girls from school rush Georgie to the dentist to have moulds and Xrays taken of her jaw and mouth so that they can make her a Twin Lock Brace. This should bring the bottom jaw into line without removing any teeth, it also means her mouth is going to be constantly open and there will be a lot of discomfort and dribbling.

Hopefully, she will be ok once she has got used to it. One advantage is  catching it at this age means no healthy teeth are removed.

 Moan over hope you like the boxes.

 
 


Monday 23 June 2014

SOC Week 3

WOW!!!
 
Half way through the six week SOC Challenge already.
For this weeks challenge the colours were Lavender, Grey and a pop of Plum.

The colours are fab together.
 I knew that this week was going to be a tough one to take part in and was challenged on how I was going to take part.  Luckily, many months ago I came up with this  creation in one of my,"What colours can I use that I normally wouldn't touch with a barge pole moment".

 
There is a lot of  lavender/Lilac in different tones painted onto an 8x8 flat canvas. Small fleur de lis
were stencilled on in white first and then over painted with plum, well more of a darker purple really.
 
I die cut a larger fleur de lis  from mount board and painted it in similar colours. Another piece of mount board was covered in sticky backed canvas, the edges were distressed with Seedless preserves distress ink and stamped on with a sentiment.
A small wooden frame was also painted along with a rose that had been made using a mould and melt pot.
More leaves and flowers were die cut and coloured along with a few swirls.
it was all stuck down with a hot glue gun and Hey Presto!!
 
Hope you like it.
 
Don't forget to see everyone's entries over at The SOC challenge site they are all fab and I cant wait to catch up later.
 
Thank you to everyone who has left comments on my blog, they are really encouraging and give me a warm glow when I read them.



Ballooning

Hi, today I'm posting a quick project I finished the weekend. 
 Hubby is in the dining/craft/working from home room, working from home so basically no crafting for me today.
 
I started with a blank 5x7 flat canvas. Pieces of different squares/rectangles of paper were distressed around the edges with distress ink and glued into place with a mat medium, followed by a coat of mat medium over the entire piece  to seal it.
 
Stamping in black archival ink was added to create interest.
Chalk and Orchid Paperartsy Paint was dry brushed around the edges (drying between applications) and a small wooden frame had a coat of Chalk paint followed by crackle glaze then a coat of Orchid. Once dry the frame was sanded back lightly. 
 
 
 
I wanted to keep the project simple and had previously bought this super air balloon die (for male cards), I cut them out in black to make it appear dramatic and stand out. The paper beneath the die was coloured using distress ink in Worn Lipstick and Squeezed Lemonade spritzed with water and dried then stamped with a swirl.
 
The pieces of balloon were attached together and shaped into a small dome with a ball tool to give a 3D effect,  glossy accents was added to them, just to make them shine.
 
Dream was die cut out of mount board (three layers cut and stuck together to make them more chunky), and painted with Little Black Dress paint.
 
A little silver Treasure Gold wax was added to the small frame and the edges of the canvas.
All of the bits and bobs were stuck down and Hey Presto, finished.
 
 
Hope you Like it.
 
                                              

Sunday 22 June 2014

Mountain Ash Workshop

Today I  ran my Second Sunday workshop at Mountain Ash Crafts.

Five Lovely ladies turned up to take part.

This is what we made.

It is a card based on Paperartsy 3up challenge I was lucky enough to take part in, with just a few little changes here and there.
Everyone made such a fab piece, I'm very proud of them.

Here are some photos of what the lovey ladies made.
  

  
And here, are a couple of photos from the first workshop I did.
 Unfortunately we didn't finish the project in the two hours we had, however the ladies were very good about it and took them home to finished them. 
This one was Jill's and this one was Sue's.

Both were fab, with a bit of individual flare to finish them off.
Well chuffed to see them finished.
(For some strange reason the laptop wouldn't let me rotate Jill's photo, technology eh).

This was the original.

And
For my next workshop at MA Crafts
on 27th July'14.
We will be making a card with 
Gilding Flakes, a little messy but well worth the effort, the messy part doesn't last long, once you start using them (so long as you don't sneeze) you will be addicted.

Silly me forgot to take photo again but I will get one and put it on as soon as I can.

Thanks for stopping by.
TTFN

Tuesday 17 June 2014

SOC Week 2

This weeks challenge over at SOC week 2 was a little daunting for me.
 The colour options were, Teal, Coral and a pop of Bright White.
I had no idea where to start.
I didn't have Coral so I had to mix the colour which actually didn't turn out to bad.
The colour was brayered onto a an A3 piece of card and lines were added with the edge of an old plastic credit card, (Yes, they have an after life). LOL.
Still Stumped with what to create and not wanting to bore people with yet another canvas, I made up my mind to do a background for my July Art Calendar Journal Page.
So next up I stencilled black paint through an assortment of masks. 

Followed by white, slightly off from the black image to create a sort of shadow effect, the leaves were left black as I felt it need a bit of well, black to lift it. (Hope this was OK).



Next came a few shades of teal which appear really pale on the photos, this was applied directly on the top of the white to give a more realistic or pure colour.

White paint was used on a script stamp and stamped through the masks to add detail to the flowers.
A few dandelion heads and small circles were stamped around the page too.



 I haven't yet put the journaling squares in place as I like to appreciate the background first.

So hope you like it so far.

Bye for now

Don't forget to check out everyone's blogs,  all the entry's are fabulous pieces of art and full of inspiration if you're feeling a little lost.




Thursday 12 June 2014

Left Overs

So, what do you do with left over flowers, lovingly prepared with paint and ink?
Answer: 
Make a card of course.

Had to make a few leaves to go with it as I didn't quite make enough yesterday, stamped them with Leaf Green Archival Ink and added a little Shabby Shutter distress for a bit of shading and hey presto.

Layered up some music paper and a natural coloured card to create a base to stick the flowers,  leaves and a sentiment to.

Hope you like it.


Wednesday 11 June 2014

Yes, it's another Canvas

I doooo like  6x6 box canvas's.
 
I have found a supplier who for a reasonable price and I mean reasonable, provides the above good quality canvas and the back is all neat and tidy, not thousands of staples around the back edge to keep it in place.
 
A while back I went canvas crazy and prepared a few, (may have mentioned this previously).
Anyhow, I chose one and  here it is grunge paste, paint and treasure gold applied and waiting for a topping a bit like a cake.

 
I cut up a piece of mount board to make a title, painted it with a brayer inked the edges and stamped on top.
 
Die cut flowers, (my fave) were dipped in paint/water solution that was sprayed on a non stick craft mat and left to dry, then text was stamped on top.
 
The edges were distressed with Rusty Hinge distress ink using my new round applicator thingy.
 
 
Leaves were die cut and coloured with Leaf Green Archival and Shabby Shutters distress ink, the flowers were shaped with a ball tool and all the bits and bobs were dunked in the melt pot. This did make the lovely rusty colour a lot darker, but a still like it.
The centres of the flowers were hot glue gun covered in glitter and allowed to cool, everything was then attached to the canvas with the glue gun.
 
 
And then I made a couple of cards!!!!

 
 


Tuesday 10 June 2014

Display Boxes

On Sunday coming,
 yes, I know Fathers Day.
My friend and I are participating in a local table top sale to raise funds to pay for room hire of the local village  hall (Mega Bucks).

We are hoping to run a workshop to make a canvas, with a bit of stamping, painting, metal work, colouring and no end of other odds and ends.

Initially we were setting the club up for  people in the local area as currently there is nothing like it available, but if anyone would like to try us out get in touch.
(Local area being Codsall, Nr Wolverhampton).

Anyhow back to the project at hand,  I own a set of Laura Ashley storage boxes which were residing in the loft, because of the above event we had to find a way of displaying our  goods.

So, up the loft I went and down came the boxes all ready for a coat of paint and new lease of life.

As you can see, I forgot the before photo and the only bit I hadn't painted was the bottom.


I basically brayered the whole box with white gesso let it dry and added a few blue hue's to create an interesting background. I used the good old regular script stamp to add another layer stamping in paint, followed by JOFY mini stamp of flowers in a neutral paint colour. Next came a touch of stencilling with a Dylusions circle mask. This is the point I thought I'd finished.

I felt it needed a little something more and added Onyxite Treasure gold to all the edges which perked  it up no end.

Very sorry forgot that photo too!

I'm sure you can imagine the same pictures with brown edges

Monday 9 June 2014

SOC4 Week 1

Yipee!
Well its the start of SOC4 over at Twinkle, Twinkle like a Star, the colours were Aqua Blue, Yellow and a touch of Hot Pink.
So here goes.....
First I had to find appropriate colours, I chose Mermaid, Beach Hut, Bora Bora and South Pacific for the aqua Blue. Zesty Zing and Yellow Submarine for the yellow and a couple of dylusions spray inks Hot Pink and Fuschia.  


To start I used a stencil and grunge paste for a touch of background texture,then added the yellows the lighter one to cover the entire canvas and then the other to add depth. I used the spray inks to add pink element, I maybe got a little carried away.
  

 Stamping was added in a pink and yellow archival ink and  treasure gold to add a bit of bling.


Paint was brayered onto good quality card, some blue spray ink was added to perk up the colour followed by a tad more stamping in blue archival ink.  Flowers were die cut and shaped from this blue card and some hot pink and yellow coloured card made at the weekend for a different project.

This was all stuck together with hot glue gun. I made the centre of the small flowers using hot glue and a bit of glitter, just to finish the look.

Hope you like the finished canvas.




Wednesday 4 June 2014

Art Journal June 2014

Finally managed to complete June's journal page.
 
June just seems to have snuck up on me and I was a little unprepared this month, anyhow, I  got stuck in and was very happy with the finished result. I do have one problem at the moment  though, that is I like my pages so much before the journal tabs go on and
 it breaks my heart to cover up all the detail as I want to see it all. Hence all the photo's this month.

 
To begin with I stuck tissue tape randomly across the pages, followed by a coat of matt sealant. On top of this I brayered  Antartic and Dusty Teal Paperartsy paints.

 
Then using JOFY and LB masks, Space Cadet was stencilled through as the base layer, followed by a coat of Chalk on the flowers and buds  leaving the stems blue, the mask was adjusted slightly to give the  impression of a shadow and also to create a neutral colour to put the colours of  Haystack ,Lilac and Amethist on.
 
This is June 2014

 
Circles were die cut from co-ordinating spotty paper to create an area to journal on, and a title added.
 
This was June 2013
 
 
I had forgotten how bright this one was, especially for me.
 
That's all for today folks.