Vintage Envelope

Back of the envelope with the flap down.

Front of the envelope.

Front with the flap unfolded.

Back with the flap unfolded.

Close up of the flap.

Another piece made entirely from scraps.

Secret Mission

Today I was on a secret mission to attend a journaling class, yes, I did say a journaling class, with the lovely Kate Crane at AftH. The reason for going was because Em and Lin and Chris were all going. Em made it as you can see here, but unfortnatley, Chris and Lin ended up waiting for a recovery vehicle on the service station about an hour away.

So the theme of page one was black and white and shades of whilst trying not to make it too muddy. We preped the pages added the white panel in the middle and outlined it in a black. Did some stamping in the paints and added some music paper to create a frame.

I chose to use the main image from The Presenters plate by Brett Weldele. We had to colour it using shading using pencils and the like. I've never been any good at colouring and shading, so I did mine with black soot and iced spruce distress ink markers and a water colour brush.

Quick blast with the heat gun before we moved on!!

I didn't take any steps in-between as I was covered in black, white and shades of grey paint - lol.

View from above. The afternoon page was to use a splash of colour. I chose purple and used the Dylusions paint in the tubs, it's lush. Thick, creamy, vibrant and very quick drying.

I wanted to use another image from Brett Weldele but unfortunately there was only the one I'd already used available in the workshop, so I left it empty and am going to finish it off another day when I find the right image.

Emma colouring in her image for the second page, just look at all those coloured pencils!!

Everyone chilling colouring their images and adding colour to their pages.

Emma's pages. She put them to one side for them to dry whilst finishing her colouring. She used the Dylusions teal paint for her splash of colour.

And whilst in the process, she managed to dunk her elbow in the black paint - mucky pup!!!

Had a fab day and really sorry that Chris and Lin had car troubles and couldn't join us - next time, fingers crossed xxx

***Edited***

Just lifted this of Kate's FB page, just to prove I was there you understand

Fragile Papers - Drama Queen

PA have changed their challenges to themes and the first one is fragile papers. I stuck a piece of German text to a piece of card, once dry spritzed it and peeled away the edges, spread gesso here and there and brayed cherry red over parts. I drew a heart onto music paper, cut it out, added gesso, coloured with quinacridone burnt orange media paint, stuck it on and outlined in black smudgy pencil. I added a piece of cotton scrim also coloured in quinacridone burnt orange.

I stamped the Dina image onto printed script tissue paper, cut it out and stuck it onto the heart. Finally I added the letters.

Close up of the three different papers used.

A vintage tag

There's a new tag challenge started last Thursday called Tag Along, and you all know how much I love my tags.  They had a theme of vintage for their first challenge.

Also PanPastelUk have a theme of spots and dots and if you look carefully you'll see I have dots as one of my many layers.

Country View Crafts have a new challenge theme today which is layers and I have lots and lots of layers on this tag.  Firstly lots of colours of PA fresco paint layers, snowflake, Irish cream, nougat, French roast and mushroom.  Next the circles stencilled in Frech Roast, then a whitewash of snowflake to knock them back a bit and finally a layer or script stamped in timber brown stazon.

The image and the music script is covered in a layer of ice resin and the image is framed in a photo mount coloured with French roast paint housing a piece of card cut from T!m's lace strip die.  Pom-pom lace and gems added to finish the frame.

***Edited***

I wasn't happy with my first effort, as it just looked like the frame had been plonked on the tag.  So I went back in with a white ink pad and stamped some script over the flourishes and the frame.  Also added oxynite treasure gold to the trimmings so they didn't look so stark.  Think it blends in much better now - am a happy bunny again!!!

Heart and Swirls

They have had a change of tact over on the PaperArtsy blog for the end of this week.  Seleb designers are showcasing their stuff and last night was the turn of Lin Brown.  I loved the concept of what Lin did, but as you know, I'm not keen on flowers!!!  I followed the first few steps which you can find here.

I continued with Lins steps and used stone and elephant fresco paints over the corrugated, grunge paste and wiped back where the music script was placed. 

I used snowflake thought a stencil, but my stencil wasn't delicate!!

I used London bus and claret fresco paints over the top as they are both transparent.

I then painted the stencil swirls with florentine liquid leaf and added eggplant to the edges to give it more depth.

Finally added the vintag heart in the top corner, stamped the letters onto white card with seedless preserve distress ink, tore them out and inked the edges.

Out of a Hat Creations have a swirls and hearts theme this week, so I am entering!!

January Challenge - In Gratitude

The main challenge set by Sandra for all the members of the Creativity Venture group for this month is called 'In Gratitude'.  Sandra has set up all these challenges to make us think outside the box.  The main brief, once I had had it explained to me, was to basically think back over last year and choose a word which covered around 6 events.  Take that word and create a project.

There are 3 levels to choose from to work with.  The visual output areas (number of surfaces) determine which level to do.  So there were 4, 5 or 6 surfaces and each one carried a number of techniques you have to include and you also have to incorporate the mandatory ones on the list too, again level dependant.  

So as you can see, I chose the middle one with 5 visual outputs, which Sandra calls, 'enjoying the moment level'.  The project had to include 7 techniques including 5 from the list.  I chose journalling, die cuts, something new, layering and inking.  Now for those of you that know me you'll know journalling doesn't feature very high on my list, so I wrote on a piece of tissue paper first and used mod podge to glue it onto the canvas.  It says 'not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes, know no boundaries, take flight, release, relinquish'.  The die cuts are the arrows decorated with rub ons.  The something new is the background technique as I have just bought Kate Cranes new box set of dvds.  The layering is the paint and the inking is the stamped images.  Other techniques include stencilling, bumping, doodling, using gesso, using artbars and blending and I'm sure there are a few more in there too!!!

And this is a snippet of the other 4 sides.  The canvas is a deep edged one and the overall size is 9" x 12".

So can you guess what my chosen word was?

Over at ABAC this week they have the theme of 'things with wings' and this just happens to fit in perfectly.

This weeks PanPastelUK challenge is 'new technique' so again, a perfect fit.

***Edited***

I made top 3 over at ABAC with this canvas

Last Post of 2012

Dina Wakley has a new book coming out soon, Art Journal Freedom, and as I was researching it I found a free download called Silhouetting with Spray Ink, so I had a play.  They are actually supposed to be journal pages, but as I don't do journalling I figured they'd be okay on pieces of card.

You are supposed to write on them, ie, add your journalling, so I used a script stamp instead.

Simon says Stamp and show are having an anything goes week, and anything definitely goes here!!!

Artful Times - Challenge 6

With fathers day in mind, Neet has chosen 'men' as this weeks Artful Times theme.  I decided to make a postcard size canvas.  I randomly swooshed crackle paint over the canvas and patiently waited for it to dry!!  Once dry I coloured it with blue and black Stewart Gill paints.  I die cut the umbrella man from music paper and gave him a coat of black translucent paint.  The 'John Lennon' quote is computer generated, cut out and glued on.   I then took the white art bar, outlined the image and the words and added a few hi-lights to the background around the sequin waste images.

Hop over to the challenge blog to see what Neet and Von have been up to and why not join us.