Wednesday 24 June 2015

Back to Journaling

I was at a loss today, jobs done etc, etc.

I roamed from room to room, watched the end of a chick flic ( film Steve doesn't want to watch), had a cuppa tea and finally opened up one of my art journals.

I found a page that I had started a while ago and decided to finish it off.

This is how it turned out.


The page was made up of a base of recycled packaging from masks/stencils, you may recognise it.
 
 
White gesso was added to the page and rubbed off to reveal packaging underneath. Texture paste was added to areas and then clear gesso coated the whole page to add tooth for the next stage.

Three Lindy's Spray gang colours were used all over the page to produce lush rich colours.
A metal embelishment provided the body of the moth. Micro beads in two colours were mixed with soft gel and added to the page.
Wording was added to the page,  "Adventure", as in an adventure into colour, I'm not a fan of pink but this page is yum, even if I do say so myself. The title was layered onto  plaster strip and stamped images.
Here are a few more photos.

 

Sue x

Monday 22 June 2015

SOC Week 3 - Purple + Purple +Yellow

SOC Week 3
 
Purple + Purple + Yellow
 
Wonderful choice of colours this week I can wok with this!
 
This weeks project sticks to the theme I appear to have made for myself of dresses, however,  this week is more of a ball room/tango type dress with a tail that sweeps down and round the stand.
 
The photo hasn't quite picked up the colours and detail, I will try and rectify this in the next few days.
 

 
  I'm an early bird  this week, mainly because  the gas man was coming to check the boiler so I was up, girls packed  off to school, hoovering, tidying etc all done by 8 am.

I began by creating a base to start, again an 8" x 8" flat canvas  was used.
Texture paste was pushed  through a brick effect stencil directly onto the canvas followed by more texture paste  layered onto body forms which were cut and layered up, these were stuck onto the canvas and all was coated with a layer of white gesso.


The Canvas was then sprayed with two purples from Lindy's spray gang and a yellow from prima colour bloom.
When the yellow was sprayed it sort of repelled against the purples and left a mottled effect which I thought was quite nice. This was then stamped on to add interest.



At this point I became a little carried away and forgot to take pictures.  OOOP's.
 
Basically lots of little butterflies were die cut from white card then sprayed with the SOC Colours.
They were arranged on to the body form and stuck into position.
Black glass glitter was added to create a shadow effect.
Mini beads were also added to add interest to the piece.

Here are a few more photo's




Having time  still left before the girls returned home, I decided to have a go at painting a face.
Many people on SOC  have made such a fantastic job of drawing and producing brilliant pieces that I was inspired to give it a go and it's been absolutely ages since I last focused on just drawing facial features. (Okay , not exactly true, real life features but you get the gist).
 This was how it began, I stuck to the two purples and yellow used a touch of black and a tad of white.

 
This is how it turned out, it's been a few too many years since I last attempted a face, I'm rather happy with the end  result.
 

Here are a few more sketch's


 So, now I've bored you all silly hop on over to see more exciting  entries on the SOC 5 Challenge at twinkle twinkle like a star.

Thank you for taking time to have a look at my blog.

Sue X

 


Thursday 18 June 2015

SOC 5 -Week 2

Hello everyone. Monday came and went bringing with it the next set of colours for the SOC challenge.
Pink + Pink + Orange
Talk about being outside my comfort zone, people who know me know I don't do zingy colours I think last time I used these colours was last years SOC.
So here goes, I decided to stick with the theme of prom dresses/ball gowns.
Back when I was at school it was referred to as end of year disco, no fancy frocks for me, in fact I think it was a relax t-shirt and luminescent roll up shorts. I'm talking Frankie goes to Hollywood verses Bananarama  and Thompson Twins.
The basics used were 8"x8" Flat Canvas, Body Form (Several layers cut and glued together), glue mediums and texture paste. Yum.

I began with the texture paste and put two different ones together, hopefully they compliment each other. Small  wooden frames were stuck  on the board followed by a few wooden birds this was then all painted with white gesso.




The dress form was painted with slate paperartsy paint to to show up against the pale pink of the ribbon used to make the dress.  (Can you guess what I used to do as a child). Three  lindy's spray gang colours were used on the canvas.



Glass beads in black and pale pink were added to create shading and ground the body form.
pale pink art basics sugar also added a touch of extra sparkle.
Some extra flowers were added to soften the project.
Tah Dah!

Not really how it looked in my head but task is complete, hope I get a brownie point for that.

 
Here are a few more close up pictures.
 


 

That's it for this weeks SOC if you fancy joining in there are still 4 weeks left or if you want to have a little look at other peoples works of art pop on over to  Twinkle Twinkle like a Star, the projects are all fabulous with individuality of their makers stamped all over them.
See you all soon.
Sue X

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Destination Unknown Part 2


Prom Dress


Summer of Colour 5 -Week 1
Blue + Blue + Green

Let the fun begin.

Over ther weekend I had many thoughts on what and how to finish my canvas, then this years challenge on Twinkle Twinkle started, so for the rest of Monday I spent the day thinking dragons, floliage, flowers, monsters the list continued.
Eventually I decided on a Prom dress canvas which I may use as a theme for this years challenge, we'll see.

So with the base of the canvas prepared (on a previous post) I set out on a quest to use the suggested colours. I had bought navy blue twine and decided to use this as one of my blues, coordinating with a lighter blue and a bright green.

This is a quick picture strip of background.

1.2.


3.4.


5.

These are the colours chosen.
 
 
I die cut several body forms to layer up, then I found some moulded paper flowers, some rather nice fern leaves, buttons and bits.
I painted them all with a layer or two of gesso and left them to dry.


The blue twine was wound around the bodyformand glued to stop it unraveling, black distress ink was added to the edges to tone down the White.
The elements were then spayed with the chosen colours and dried, the canvas initially only had green spray but looked plain so I added the lighter blue too.
The elements were then glued into position and blue and black micro beads were added randomly around the main focal point, and a touch to the flowers too.
Extra blue colour was added to flowers as they were still to white.
Black glass glitter was added to create a shadowy effect.
Week one complete, blue + blue + green (with a bit of black and probably to much white).
 Here are a few more photos.





Pop on over to Twinkle Twinkle like a star to see the other entries, the ones I have seen so far are fab!


Sue X


Sunday 7 June 2015

Teapot Notepad Holder

This is a little project that I have been pondering over for a while now.
Friday was suppose to be a dedicated craft day, but life happens and yes I am easily distracted.

This included going on a hunt the green tennis ball in green grass that my friend Rebecca's dog kept hiding from us. Followed by a look at a possible venue for our craft group which we have been trying to set up now for oh, about a year now.  Followed by a trip to the shops for the evening meal.
Then a load of washing and finally I sat down about 11.30am only 4 hours to craft before the girls come home.
Phew!

I began with my Destination Unknown canvas, adding more wooden bits, gluing them into position with 3d Matt gel and put to one side to dry.

I made a template of the teapot and cut two from thick card taking time to ensure both were the same.

   
I then cut various papers into 2" squares, inked the edges began to stick them to one of the card teapots creating a patchwork effect.  nice all the squares were stuck down and dry I flipped over the design and using a craft knife cut away the excess paper.

 
The edges were inked in Black Soot Distress ink.
Then two holes were punched into the shape to let me thread elastic though this was then stitched together at the back to secure it.


The second teapot was glued to the first and left to dry under the craft mat.
 
During which time I painted a layer of gesso on my canvas project.

 I made  a cover for a small note pad, decorated it in the same coloured papers and pushed the back flap down through the elastic.
I almost forgot, I added a little random stamping of text for  more interest.
 
Die cut leaves were double dipped ink two green distress inks and dried these were glued flat to the canvas.
 Ready made flowers were used in white and colour was added with a paintbrush, again using distress ink pads and a little water.

Mission accomplished.
 
 

Hope you like it.

Sue X

The canvas continues.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

Destination Unknown Part 1

 
Well ummm!
How do I explain this one.
 
I have Friday planned out to be my day to do my sort of crafting!
Mess, layers, paint, texture and much more.
This project began life as something else, and this is how or what I have to work with.
 
 
It began a while ago with an 8"x8" flat canvas, then I layered squares of paper followed by a touch of texture paste and some bits of wood supports left over from box canvas's stuck down randomly.
 
I've found some more wooden bits, so I may create a sort of abstract  type back ground, who knows.
 
Anyhow, can't wait for Friday to come, check back to see how I  get on.
 
 
Sue X

Owls, Owls, Owls

Now then, I like owls, cute small owls, large Harry Potter type owls but I'm not sure about making cards with owls, so when given  "Owl" stamps to construct. something with I was stumped again.
My Mojo's certainly taking a battering.
 

So here goes.



I started by making a background paper from A4 card and distress inks then adding stamping to add interest. This was then cut to a 14cm x14cm background, layered up onto a darker colour and adhered to the card blank.
 
A die cut white circle was edged with distress ink and stamped with the circular stamp included in the set then layered up onto the scalloped circle which was also edged with distress ink. This was stuck in the centre of the layered up card.

 
Using the left over background card three owls were stamped with embossing ink and sticky embossing powder or heat and bond embossing powder (depending on make) was heated which created a sticky raised edge.  Flakes were placed onto the sticky embossing powder and pressed into it to ensure a firm bond. The flake sponge was gently rubbed over the flakes to reveal the image beneath, the owls were then cut out and 3d foam attached to the back ready for positioning.
The foliage was coloured with two tones of green distress ink.

 
The cogs were pressed onto the embossing ink pad then into gold utee and heat embossed to create fake metal cogs.
All the bits  were stuck into position, and a piece of twine wrapped around the card to finish it off.
 

Not content with one version/colour I made a much brighter version to show the same stamps in a different light.

The difference here being the circle was dipped into distress ink which had been pressed onto a craft mat and sprayed lightly with water (two colours).


 
The owls were stamped directly onto dark card with embossing ink and regular embossing powder used to create the detail, again fussy cut out and layered with cogs and leaves.


There you have it, mission accomplished. Hopefully!
 
Materials:
White A4 card
15cm x15cm blank card
Dark card for layering cut to 14.5cm x 14.5cm
Die cut scallop Dark card
Die cut circle white card
Flitter Flakes
Embossing pad
Sticky Embossing Powder
Distress Inks
Die cut foliage 
Die cut cogs
Twine
&
Glue


Sue X