Christmas catch up

Hello

If you have been celebrating this week I do hope all went well. Where we are, we had to forgo family festivities and resort to one family bubble driving by another's home and not getting out of the car, just a wave through the windows. All quite surreal. Leaving two of us with turkey for fourteen!

Here's the last of the polar bears, for this year anyway. This time using a gel monoprint background and laser cut polar bears.

I also added a few tweaks to my Monet's The Magpie from the brilliant Something Less Boring workshop.

I really enjoyed painting this scene and now I'm eagerly anticipating snow so that I can take my own reference photos.

Right, off now to do some crafting and maximise the holiday time I have left.

Keep safe and well and have a good day xx

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all many blessings

xxx

Polar bear

Hello

He's back! My favourite stencil at the moment the Giogiocraft polar bear on the gelli plate, with the mask and the stencil.

 

Hope you are keeping well as we limp through the last few weeks of the year hopeful that next year will be so much better. Thank you for taking the time to stop by xxx

 

 

Jingle all the way

Hello

Just a quickie today sharing this cheeky chap using the Sizzix die and some magazine stamps. He does looks as if he is in the festive spirit.

Hope he brings a bit of a smile. Take care, have a good day xx

A very beary Christmas

Hi there

Today I'm sharing some Christmas cards made with the lovely Giogiocraft polar bear stencil. This is probably my all time favourite as it was my special request to have a bear stencil. 

It comes with the mask and stencil so you can play around with colours on the gel plate. 

  

Great with a bit of added sparkle.

Thank you for stopping by. Take care, keep well and safe xx

 

 

 

Up above the trees and houses

Hello

As the children I give gifts to get older, more and more so they want vouchers and money to choose their own things, or put towards more expensive items. It's hard to make it look like an exciting present. Decorating an envelope makes it look a little bit special and separate from a card. 

These were two really quick makes using Giogiocraft stencils Distress Oxide ink and stamps from magazines collected over the years.

 

 

I think the houses stencil might have been released for halloween but a change of colour and sparkle makes it perfect for Christmas. Different colours again and it could be for a new home.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely week ahead xxx

 

 

 

Brrr it's cold outside

Hello

There definitely is more of a nip in the air and I have finally succumbed to wearing a proper coat. A quick one today with a card I started making back in the summer, knowing full well that I wouldn't have Christmas cards done in time.

This is a lovely stencil from Giogiocraft, which will make further appearances in the future. I've used white acrylic paint through the stencil, stamped the scarf, hat and robin and coloured them in with paint pen. The stamps were from a magazine last year. I finished it off with a little picket fence Distress Oxide ink, some black gel pen and some paint pen snow.

We have a big trip planned next year to see polar bears so they are featuring heavily this Christmas. Got to have something to look forward to at the moment.

Thank you for taking the time to pop by. Have a lovely week. Take care xxx

On the first day of Christmas...

Hello

I can't believe that we are already in December. This has certainly been a funny year with periods which have dragged and felt like an age and weeks that have whizzed by when I can't remember doing anything (probably because I didn't).

I am extra excited this December as I have been given two advent calendars. I don't usually have one at all, although I did have a cheese calendar one year which was delicious and I have had a gin one.

The first is a gorgeous wooden one and has lovely little Christmassy gifts in it.

 As this is a crafting blog I'm thinking you'll be more interested in the second one which is a Giogiocraft calendar with lovely stencils and laser cuts.

As usual with all Giogiocraft products it comes beautifully packaged and every bit can be reused.

There are lots of ideas on the Giogiocraft Instagram page. Gio has named the cute little chameleon Leon and I couldn't resist a quick play with ProMarkers. I'm looking forward to getting him on the Gelli plate.

I am very grateful to have such lovely, thoughtful people in my life. 

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you have a lovely week ahead xxx

Something Less Boring

Hello

Hope you are keeping well. Here in the UK it definitely feels as if autumn is on the way out and winter is creeping in. The light has been pretty terrible for painting and crafting.

I haven't been up to much since the last post but I have managed to do a couple of workshops with the fabulous Liddy and Something Less Boring. They really are expertly delivered and great value. One of the best things for me that has come out of coronavirus restrictions was finding them online.

Last weekend it was a whole morning painting a still life of flowers in the style of modern impressionism. This is what I had achieved at the end of the workshop...

...but it was a bit pale for me and I couldn't resist tweaking a bit. This is what I ended up with...

 

 

 

I also spent an evening painting this cheeky chap.

The workshop was raising money for Cancer Research, a win all round.

Not sure if there will be much in the way of celebrations for Christmas this year, but I think it's about time I turned my attention to a few Christmas cards. Glad I got started in August!

Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a lovely weekend xxx

 

The magic of monoprinting

Hello

I have finally come to the end of the challenge for October set by Kim Herringe for those who have taken her online monoprinting workshop. I'm pretty impressed I did a print for each day and I now have a stack of prints which can become cards and backgrounds for other projects. 

22. Circle

23. Moon

24. Bicycle

25. Music

26. Treat

27. Feather

28. Shoes

29. River

30. Cat

31. Pencil

I've certainly learnt a lot more about how the layers interact and how the different paints behave. I've also discovered a new love...Payne's grey...how did I ever live without it?!

Thank you for taking time to stop by. Hope you have a lovely week xxx

Paint like Georgia O'Keeffe

Hello

Today I'm posting a quick catch up of what I've been up to. I had a great night 'Painting like Georgia O'Keefe' with Something Less Boring via Zoom. £5 for two and half hours of great tutorial. In London you can hardly get a beer for that. The participants were from all over the world and it was great to hear some say they had their first snow of the year or they were off to put the tea on when I was getting ready for bed. 

Here's mine next to the reference photo of O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed. It made me really appreciate the skill needed to get the sharp lines and smooth blending. It's a style that really appeals to me. I have a painting on the go (that's been waiting for over a year to be finished) in a not dissimilar style.

I've fallen behind a bit with the challenge for Kim Herringe's gel plate monoprinting course participants.

19. Book

20. Cake

These photos are of the exact same print. The top layer was printed using irridescent gold paint, which becomes more or less obvious as you tilt the print. If you look carefully you can see the tiered cake shapes underneath the flowers.

21. Banana

This one took me a bit out of my comfort zone as the colours feel very uncomfotable to me. I think it's rather ugly but hopefully it does have the essence of a banana.

I'm off to see if I can catch up with a bit more printing. Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a great week wherever you are xx

Gel tastic

Hello

After a lovely day messing around in the craft room I have caught up with the inktober monoprinting challenge set by Kim Herringe for those following her course. I've used a mixture of commercial stencils and ones cut myself from paper.

12. Rain

13. Shoes

14. Fish

15. Child

16. Dog

17. Home

18. Letter box

I love the versatility of gel printing. I think the secret is in the paint and the paper. I've invested in more Golden open acrylics, which stay wet long enough to pull a print and a ghost print. I use a 200gsm coated thin card which seems to be flexible enough to pick up a lot of the details but robust enough to not fall apart with multiple paint layers. 

I think the dog going for a walk on the moor is my favourite. Which is yours?

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely day xx

More monoprinting

Hello

I'm just posting a quick one today as I have fallen behind with the monoprinting challenge set by Kim Herringe for those following her course and hope to get a few prints done later. 

9. Grass 

10.Beetle

I love how these two are a pair, but the combination of print or ghost print creates a totally different feel.

 

11.Scooter

Thank you for all your lovely comments on earlier posts. I have taken your advice and started turning some of the prints into notelets and cards.

Hope you have a lovely week ahead xx