The voice of the sea

Hello

At last holiday time has arrived and the weather is cold and wet...perfect for crafting!

Today I'm sharing a tag for TAWI using moodboard colours and the prompts sea, fish and cup.  The tag also had to include collage which isn't something I usually go for, but managed some torn paper in the background.

Then I forgot to take any more photos until it was finished! I stencilled and stamped the net and bubbles onto the card. The fish, cup and shells were stamped on card and cut out. The fish and cup needed a bit of masking to make it look as if the fish is inside.

I enjoyed making this more than I thought I would with the odd combination of elements. 

Hope you are having a lovely day. Thank you for stopping by xx

Butterfly tag

Hello

Today I'm sharing a tag made for the summer mini tag challenge with Isa on Facebook. I can't recommend this group enough. Isa is a very generous host with lots of FB and YouTube lives in the month and prize giveaways.

This tag was made for the theme transparent. I'm afraid I went with the obvious butterfly.

I stamped the butterfuly on white card and acetate. I embossed the acetate one, which was a bit tricky as it was ordinary acetate and nearly melted! I added a little gold gilding wax in places.

As the tag turned out better than I expected I made a matching birthday card.

The background stamp is from Studiolight, the butterfly IndigoBlu and the sentiment Elizabeth Designs.

Thank you for stopping by. I always welcome and appreciate your comments. Have a lovely week xx

January tagalong

Hello

This year I'm going to join in with challenges set by Isa who designs for Katzelkraft and Crafty Individuals.

If you are interested you need to ask to join the private tagalong group. I won't share her techniques for obvious reasons. There will be live demos and prizes. I've really missed crafting with other people and this is a good compromise for present circumstances. 

January tagalong

The FBlive demos a technique, not a design, so everyone's tags are different.

Isa is also hosting a monthly art journal challenge, a monthly Christmas card challenge, and most intriguingly a basket challenge. The idea behind the basket challenge is to gather together a bunch of old and unfulfilled crafting supplies and do something with them.

Did I say it's free?! Maybe 'see' some of you at the next FB live in February.

Thank you for stopping by have a lovely week xx

Butterfly

Hello

I'm sharing a quick make today and one that is great for using up those patterned papers from magazines which seem to multiply behind your back.

The inspiration, stamps and die are from Indigoblu's Mixed Media Magazine Box Kit 3. I'm afraid I can't remember where the papers came from.

I covered the front and inside of the card blank first, before die cutting a circular aperture and scoring the front and back down the centre. I inked the edges to help it blend together. The leaves were also stamped and die cut from patterned paper.

Always good to have a quick make up your sleeve.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely week xx

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

 

 

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

Little grey cells

Hello there
Today I'm sharing a card made for an Agatha Christie lover's 50th birthday, using the IndigoBlu mixed media box kit 1 and a very handy StempelBar stamp.

Thank you for stopping by xx

Faith in humanity

Hello
Hope you are all bearing up wherever you are in the world in these very strange times. I'm sure like everyone, I've had my ups and downs, but crafting really is a great distraction.

I've been continuing to try new things as the novelty, and the extra concentration it takes, really make time pass quickly. I tried Dina Wakley's faces tutorial but I'm not ready to share those just yet!

So here is this week's attempt at journalling with a quotation from Mahatma Gandhi.

 You must not lose faith in humanity. 

Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty

the ocean does not become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Deciding I needed a few tips I've ordered myself a magazine on lettering and some pens.

I'm off now to reconnect with some blogs that I had lost touch with. Take care and thank you for stopping by xxx

V is for Voyage

Getting ahead of myself I thought I'd tackle the newest letter for The Craft Barn dictionary challenge...V. I was thinking along the lines of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaire.

Having finished the page I then went to put the definition on, and too late, decided I'm not sure it goes! What do you think?

Materials used:

IndigoBlu: grand tour III

Kaisercraft: chevron

Brusho: gamboge, orange, dark brown

Distress Ink: fired brick, walnut stain

Fresco Finish paint: snowflake, old gold, blood orange, china

DecoArt dazzling metallics: glorious gold

Archival Ink: jet black

white paint pen

F is for Friendship

Time for another letter on The Craft Barn alphabet challenge.  This time the letter is F with the added twist that a heart has to be included.  Friend immediately sprung to mind.  As I haven't used my Gelatos for while this was a good opportunity to  get them out.  The background is created with Gelatos, blended with a baby wipe and then gesso on top.

Materials used:

Craft Individuals: CI284

PaperArtsy: EDY10

IndigoBlu: BFF

Fancy Pants: bella brush

Gelatos: blood orange, tangerine, mango, banana, spearmint, 

lime, cotton candy, blueberry, boysenberry

Stabilo All pencil: blue

Archival Ink: jet black

white gel pen

multi matte medium

Leave a trail

The August issue of Craft Stamper features a free camper van stamp...very handy when you know someone with a camper van with a birthday coming up in September!

The sunshine was created using Brusho through a stencil and blotting to get second and third generation images.  The road was added using distress ink through the same stencil.  The van is decoupaged and the windscreen is cut out so that the background shows through.  The IndigoBlu sentiment is one of my favourites and I've used it many times before.


I can't decide whether I like the top card best with the stronger colours or the bottom one with the van coloured in more traditional colours.  It might depend on if you're a VW purist...what do you think?

Materials used:

IndigoBlu: Grand Tour III sentiment

PaperArtsy: EDY10 flying birds

Kaisercraft texture clear stamps: chevron, edges

The Crafters Workshop: mini sunburst mask 

Brusho: scarlet, ornage, yellow, lemon

Ranger Archival Ink: jet black 

Distress Ink: faded jeans

Promarkers: ice grey 2, capri blue, sky blue, orange

A Trouble Shared

Hi There
Thanks for stopping by.  Inspired by Alison Hall's plaque on PaperArtsy's blog, mainly because I love the colours, I decided to make one with a particular friend in mind.  The theme is all about paint, an excellent excuse to get out the Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics. 

First some grunge paste was added to mount board and when dry painted with snowflake and chalk paint.

Pieces of patterned paper were glued on.  Some masking tape was painted in patches with bora bora, wording stamped in snowflake and pieces added to the paper.  Splatters of eggplant and beach hut were added by flicking a paint brush.  More script was stamped in cobalt Archival Ink.

Gelatos were added to the edges and very lightly over the Grunge Paste.  Treasure Gold was used to add highlights.

The flower was stamped repeatedly and painted with washes of beach hut and eggplant.  The flowers were layers up, with one flower cut smaller.  Treasure gold was added to the tips of the petals, gold pen added to the centres with a pearl gem. 

The sentiment was stamped in Archival Ink, coloured with paint wash and adhered with Multi Medium.

I'm entering this in PaperArtsy's Challenge 3 - Paint.  Thank you for taking the time to look.  I really appreciate all of your comments.

Materials used:

PaperArtsy stamps: Eclectica EDY05, EDY10

IndigoBlu stamps: B.F.F.

PaperArtsy stencil: PS003

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: Bora Bora, beach hut, snowflake, chalk, eggplant

PaperArtsy Grunge Paste

Treasure Gold: white fire

Faber-Castell Gelatos: grape, cotton candy

Ranger Archival Ink: cobalt

Ranger Multi Medium Matte

gold marker

masking tape

patterned paper