Maneki-necko

Hello

I've been having a little play with some of the lovely stencils in my Giogiocraft advent calendar. First up is the little maneki-necko, beckoning cat, in the hope that 2021 brings us better fortune.

Difficult to get a decent photograph at this time of the year when there is so little daylight.

Thank you for stopping by. Hope the week brings you happiness and good fortune 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

A is for Anthropoid

This fortnight the letter for The Craft Barn dictionary challenge is A with no extra twists.  I don't get to use this stamp often so initially I thought of ape, but anthropoid is a much better definition... like a human, such as a chimpanzee, that resembles a human.  What could be more human than wearing a top hat?

Materials used:

Archival Ink: jet black

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: little black dress, snowflake, London bus, 

haystack, china, blue oyster 

The Crafters Workshop: mini circle explosion

Stampers Anonymous: shatter THS014

Katzelkraft: so special

Impression Obsession: solar system

Kaisercraft: film edges

Grey Owl

With the first little sprinkle of sleety snow this morning I felt inspired to tackle the Craft Barn's November calendar challenge.  This month the theme is grey and owls which initially I thought would work well with a Kate Crane style Journal Soup approach.  Having got started though I decided to keep it a bit simpler and more muted.

First a generous layer of white with layers of shades of grey (not quite 50).  Then more grey and white through a stencil, with some dry brushing on top to create the feel of a blizzard.

Next edging with Gelatos and Stabilo All pencil, and a little shading to ground the owl.

The owl was cut out of a piece of card painted with darker shades of grey and some stencilling was added.  Wings and feet were added separately and his face drawn on.  'Snow' was added with a piece of crunched up tissue dipped in paint.

Actually I quite like him like that, but that wouldn't really work for a calendar challenge!  I won't stick the calendar on yet and maybe some lucky owl lover might get him as a Christmas card next year!

Wishing you all a warm and cosy weekend xxx

Materials used:

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: snowflake, elephant, taupe, little black dress

The Crafters Workshop: mini circle explosion

PaperArtsy: PS002

Faber-Castell Gelatos: squid ink, chocolate

Ranger Multi Medium: matte

Stabilo All pencil: black

fine line pen

Gelli plate soup

Hi
On the very last day of my long summer holiday I finally had time to revisit the fabulous Journal Soup 2 tutorials by Kate Crane.   I had an enormous amount of fun getting messy with the Gelli plate and returned to work with paint encrusted fingers and nails.

People who know me will no doubt agree that I can't follow instructions without making my own changes and this was no different!  I chose the option of stamping on tissue paper, not to avoid mistakes, but because it allowed me to paint colour on to the back.  The result is that my creations are probably not as bold as Kate's.  I blended some Stabilo All pencil with water around the images to create a faint shadow.  I also used Fresco Finish Chalk Paint which dries quite quickly and so the background colours are not as blended.  Overall I was fairly pleased with the results and would definitely use the techniques again.

Materials used:

Gelli Plate

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints

The Crafters Workshop stencil: mini circle explosion

Stampers Anonymous: stuff to say

PaperArtsy: EDY05

Pam Carriker stamp: Ophelia

Katzelkraft: KTZ118, Chatool KTZ63

Kaisercraft Clear Stamps: edges, film edges

black and white gel pen, Stabilo All pencil

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

Smile

Hi there

Not a lot of time for crafting or blogging at the moment but here's a little something with a Valentine's flavour.

The heart is made with grunge paste through a Tando stencil, which is why it was difficult to get it all in focus.

The Craft Barn calendar challenge for February is Red and Hearts...I'm hoping I can get away with one heart!  Thank you for taking the time to have a look.

Materials used:
PaperArtsy: Grunge Paste

PaperArtsy stamp: JOFY  JM05
PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Paint: eggplant, claret, orchid, red London bus, mermaid, snowflake
Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray: post box red, funky fuschia
Ranger Dylusions stamp: The Right Words

Kaisercraft stamp: Arty

Tando stencils: Hearts, Giovanna Spiral
The Crafter's Workshop stencil: Mini Circle Grid
Stabilo All pencil
silver paint marker

Home Bird

Happy New Year and happy new crafting!  With the start of 2015 I decided it's time to try something new.  Inspired by Kate Crane I had a go at a whimsical journal page.  Having had a lot of fun I think it's something I might try again!

 Thank you for taking a peek.  Hope you have a great 2015 xxx

Materials used:

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints

DecoArt Dazzling Metallics gold paint

Hero Arts Birds and Branches clear stamp

The Crafters Workshop flying geese stencil

Assorted background stamps and stencils

White gel pen

Faber-Castell gelatos