Moving swiftly on

Hello

It feels as if summer has already left us and our beautiful swifts are headed back to Africa. I took a bit of time away from paper crafting and card making for a bit of painting, trying to hold on to the summer feel for as long as possible.

Here are some of the steps...

I used some of Giogiocraft stencils to get the foliage started...

It very much is the view from my west facing balcony on a summer evening. I'm already counting the days until the swifts return next spring.

Thank you for stopping by. Your comments are very much welcomed. Have a lovely day x

Bountiful

Hello

Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating today. I'm sharing a card using a gel print background I made a while back.

 It seemed perfect for some decoupaged pumpkins.

Then I decided it needed a few spatters!

Good to remember there's so much to be thankful for. Have a lovely week xxx

Gated

Hello

A very much needed pick me up this week was the arrival of some new stencils from Gigiocraft.

I love gates, doors, archways and tunnels and always look out for them on visits to new cities. We recently spent time in Liège and found a few lovely alley ways.

I'd set some time aside for a bit of a play. Firstly starting with a gel plate background, building up some layers. I had a rough idea where I wanted the path behind the gate to go.

Now I realised too late I missed photographing the gate going on! I put carbon black paint on the plate with the stencil on top and then printed onto scrap paper, leaving just the ghost print under the stencil. I then printed the gate onto the paper where the beginning of a path was. 

 I kept the stencil in place while I stenciled the trees directly onto the paper.

Next I masked off the gate and built a wall and some vegetation up with more stencils. The trees were filled in with more stencilling and blue was added into the sky.

 At this point I turned to Posca paint pens to add flowers to the trees and bushes.

 With Inktense pencils used for building shadows and depth and gel pen for highlights.

It was a lot of fun and time slipped by so quickly it was three oclock in the afternoon before I realised I hadn't eaten anything. After all there are a lot of dots there!

I'd love to hear your thoughts and constructive comments are welcomed. Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely week xx

A touch of Klimt

Hello

I managed an afternoon in the craft room on the bonus bank holiday. Perfect for trying out some of my new Klimt inspired stencils from GiogioCraft.

I started with yellow chalk paint on black card and then added red, blue, green and gold translucent paints over the top. I masked off the lady and stencilled the background with Distress Oxide ink.

The second try I coloured in the skin with pencil...not sure I like it...

The third go was with black paint on white card, overlaid with the colours and gold again, and gold stencilling in the bacground.

It's such a gorgeous stencil I'm sure it will make another appearance in due course. Which do you like best?

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

March printing challenge - week 1

Hello

Today I'm sharing some gel prints I've done for the GelliArts #marchprintingchallenge. Gel printing is very addictive, before you know it the whole room is covered in printed paper!

1.  flowers

2. circles

3. rainbows

4. hearts

I also managed to use some die cut gelliprints on a gelliprint background for the #2022Marchcolorprompt challenge on Instagram. 

Week 1- blue and teal

Over time I have experimented with different paints and I seem to get the best results with Golden open acrylics which stay wet for longer and pick up fine detail in botanicals. The rainbow, though, was done with Brusho on watercolour paper and I like the effect so I will have to investigate this a bit more. Some of the prints I have added to with Posca paint pen, graphite pencil and inktense pencils.

As always, the dilemma is make them into cards, keep as they are or use as a base for another project? What do you think?

Have a lovely week xx

A new style of stencil

Hello

This week I was delighted to  receive my parcel from GiogioCraft in Sardinia in a record time of four days. Her packaging is always beautiful with handmade tags and wrappings.

I was even more delighted to have been sent a sample of one of her new stencils. Unlike usual stencils there is fine detail etched into the Mylar which is fantastic for gel printing. I haven't seen this before and would be interested if you have seen anything similar.

I tried with ink but found I had most success with acrylic paint. I like Golden Open paints for gel printing. They are expensive but a little goes a long way and I find I get fewer mishaps. There's nothing worse than doing several layers of printing to spoil it all with the last layer. 

I started fairly simply using just the mask.

 

I tend to use three or four colours, working from light to dark, and I love using Payne's grey for the final layer. I also just like using the ghost prints.

 

Then I added in a little background texture using a Stamperia mould as a texture plate.

 

I think this one is my favourite.

The stencil was comparable to using a real leaf with the advantage of being able to use it several times and rigid enough to line it up for over layering.

I'm looking forward to seeing developments with etched stencils. Do let me know if you have come across stencils like these before. I am already imagining the possibilities.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by.

Heart's delight

Hello

Today I'm sharing a card made from a gelli plate background using Giogiocraft stencils. It's a mixture of prints and ghost prints. I generally start with a print of the lightest colour, a second print with a darker colour and finish with a ghost print in the darkest colour.

I love the unpredictability of monoprinting and that every piece is unique.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Have a lovely day xxx

Lockdown Lola

Hello

At last a chance to catch up with a bit of blogging. Today I'm sharing a project that I've been working on for a few weeks, hence the lack of papercrafting recently. It's an acrylic painting of my sister's cat taken during lockdown.

 

 Here's the original photo.

I felt it summed up a lot about being restricted and not able to move freely. The wistfulness, and also after a while, the apathy.

Things are cautiously beginning to get back to normal here. Fingers crossed we can keep it going.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by. Hope you have a lovely carefree day ahead xxx

Dancer

Hello

Today I'm sharing a quick post. I had every intention of photographing the steps but before I knew it I was elbow deep in paint and stencils.

 

The background was made with Golden Open acrylic paint and Giogiocraft stencils using a gel plate. You can just see a hint of the gold paint.

The dancer is from one of the new Giogiocraft sets, again added using the gel plate.

To finish off I added some stamping in black archival ink and some white gel pen. I have no idea where the stamps came from! Probably from magazines over the years.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out for a quick hour of messiness and fun after a long day at work. Sometimes it's best to not over think things and just get on with it.

Thank you for stopping by to take a look. Hope you get to let loose and have a lovely day xxx

March printing challenge - week 4

Hello

Today I'm sharing the prints from the fourth week of the @Gelliarts #marchprintingchallenge on Instagram. Timewise and inspiration-wise it's been a bit more of a challenge but glad I have persevered.

Here's week 4:

22. sunshine

23. rain

24. moon

25.sparkle - hope you can see the sparkle and iridescence

26. fruits

27. vegetables - really struggled with this and resorted to printing with veggies onto the plate

28. favourite colour - turquoise, red and white is my favourite colour combination

 ...and so just a few days to go. It's been fun and pushed my creativity a little at times, but that's what it's all about...isn't it?

Thank you for taking the time to look. Have a lovely week xxx