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

The cat and the butterfly

Hello

Today I'm sharing the last one in a series of cards using gel printed backgrounds. I started by adding the foliage in Distress ink and black Archival ink.

The details were added with Posca pens and Inktense pencils.

Here are the other cards made in the same way. They look pretty all together.

Thank you for stopping by xxx

Hare by night

 

Hello

A quick one today to share another card made with a gel plate background, with a layer of dye based ink, followed by a sprinkle of Brusho crystal pigment and a spritz with water. 

I started by stamping the hare and masking off the feet, before darkening the foreground with Distress ink to create hills. 

Then I added some plants with Distress ink for the background and black Archival ink for the foreground. The moon was masked off and Distress ink used to darken the edges. The final touches were added with white gel pen and Posca paint pen. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Wishing you a lovely day xx

Evening in the garden

Hello

Once again I seem to have time for crafting or blogging, not both! I have had a bit of time in the craft room making birthday cards.

The cards started off with gel plate printed backgrounds. These were made with a layer of dye based ink brayered onto the plate, followed by a sprinkle of Brusho crystal pigment and a spritz with water. It doesn't take long to make a stack of lovely backgrounds.

I used mostly Lavinia and Card-Io stamps, starting with lighter shades of dye based ink in the background and black Archival ink in the foreground.

Then the time consuming bit is adding in all the detail to create more depth, using Posca paint pens, white gel pen and Inktense pencils. To finish off the edges were darkened with Distress ink.

Another card...

Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a lovely day xx

Winter magic

Hello

Today I'm sharing another mixed media fantasy scene. I had every intention of capturing the process and took a first photo...

...but then forgot to take any more until the end! I started with the gate gel printed uisng a GiogioCraft stencil and a watercoloured background.

By the time I'd played around quite a bit it looked like this...

I wanted to try out some new Coliro pearlescent watercolours and a new rigger brush. I think more playing is needed!

Thank you for taking the time to visit. Hope you 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

African beauty

Hi there

Today I'm sharing a card using the GiogioCraft African beauty and tribal frenzy stencils. I've had them a few months but not had a chance to play yet.

I've used DecoArt and PaperArtsy chalk finish paints on bronze paper, with some Posca paint pen dots.

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

Art journal - April

Hello

Today I'm sharing an art journal spread for a #tagalongaj challenge  If you want to know more you can see the details at Isa.C Art&Craft. The theme for this month is black and white flowers.

I started with Brusho on wet watercolour paper.

 

 

 Next some stamping from PaperArtsy sets ETS06 and ETS09, with some embossed in white.

I added a little colour to the ovals with Posca paint pens and stencilled the honeycomb using a GiogioCraft stencil.

 

I stamped and embossed flowers from the stamp sets, cut them out and added them to the pages. I added a little stamped script in a few places.

 

A few bees from a Sentimentally Yours stamp set finished it off.

The bees are starting to visit the pots on my balcony as the weather warms up. Just waiting for the swifts to arrive now.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a lovely week.