Thinking happy thoughts.

The Three Muses have the theme 'black and white stripes' today.  Unfortunately I wanted to work with bright colours, so did both - black and white stripes surrounded by a riot of colour!

When my day is dismal, I create my own happy place

Here is a double page spread in my art journal.  It started out as a series of pencil doodles and then before I knew it, I was doing stripes.  There is no logic or rational behind it, it just is me having fun.

Pencil drawings then over drawn with black fine line pen, then some black paint and some black felt marker.  Once all the black and white was completed, I pulled out my Inklensils in lemon, orange and red and randomly coloured the background.  After wetting the colours really popped out and I felt a rough day become bright and cheery.

Next came some stamping in Archival Monarch Orange, Memento London Fog and StayzOn black.

My two favourite stamps are the Reality Check and the flying pig.  I love my barmy stamps!

Thanks very much for taking a look and I hope my journal has brought some joy to your day too.

Thinking about gardens

I've just returned from the garden centre and can't help wishing I had a cute little garden to plant up.  The fact is I don't, I have a balcony, so I decided to make my own little garden for the Sunday Postcard Art challenge this week.

Butterfly's are early this year!

 I bought a packet of little bows today and couldn't help thinking they looked like butterflies, so they are!  I began by spraying the card with water and then with Dylusions ink in London Blue and Cut Grass.  I rolled over the top with a paper towel which transferred some pattern and also some colour.

Once it was dry I used a baby wipe to remove colour through a flower stencil and then stamped some grasses and small flowers using London Fog Memento Ink.

I finished up by attaching the buttons and the bow and then drawing a trail for the butterfly using a Sakura Gelly Roll pen in clear star.  I love these pens.

Thanks as always for taking a look, it's much appreciated.  Check out the other art at SPA.

Shake your tail feathers

Today's challenge at Sunday Postcard Art is 'chevron'.  Work has been so busy this past week that I haven't had much time to play with any art, so today I continued with my exploration of translucency.  I'm still having fun playing with various weights and colour of tissue paper and also translucent paints.  I also bought some new matte varnish today too, so tried it on the orange tissue paper which bleeds horribly - good result with hardly any bleed.

Do my tail feathers look big in this?

Today piece is a collage worked on 300 gsm card, starting with Golden Titan Buff and when dry I stamped little spots on it with Archival Ink Coffee.  Next came the chevrons, which I hand cut from a vintage Punch magazine before painting with Golden Nickel Azo Gold.  Once dry, these were collaged to the base.
I found the image of the bird on the web and printed it on white tissue before adhering it to the base with fluid matte medium.

The text is printed from my computer and coloured with Tea Dye distress stain.  I applied another layer of white tissue paper across the bottom of the card before distressing the card edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I then went around the edges again and applied a rough dab of Golden Iridescent Bronze paint.

Translucent Angel

The Take a Word challenge this week is Stone Angels and this piece is based on a photo of a stone angel that Captain Slow took in Salisbury Cathedral a year or so ago.  I've been missing from the challenges for a week or so as I worked on various technique experiments.  I've used some of those techniques below.  I'm also working on some assemblage art which is great fun.

Translucent lady

The substrate is 5" x 7" canvas board and has some vintage paper collaged to commence.  Then came some stamping onto tissue paper using Archival ink in French Ultramarine and stamping direct to canvas with London Fog.  There are so many  layers of paint, wash and glaze that I can't list them all the paints are Quinacridone Crimson, Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and Iridescent Bronze (Fine) all by Golden.
I also stamped with the Crimson and Bronze paints.

The angel was printed from my computer onto white tissue paper (took a while to figure this out) and then made translucent before attaching to the canvas.  Next came many more layers of paint.

Stamping and background visible through the stone angel

The cross was made with polymer clay and when hardened I painted it with a faux ivory technique before attaching to the substrate.  Now that I have created the mold, I will be making lots more crosses for future pieces.

Looks like tortured souls

Thanks so much for looking and taking the time to leave a comment, it is always appreciated.

My eyes are dim I cannot see.....

After making these two moos for the Three Muses Challenge, I think I'll need some Coke Bottle specs!  I don't usually like making these, they are too small and fiddly to handcraft unless I have lots of time, however...  a stressful day at work meant I needed to spend some time in the studio to unwind.

I'm not sure I'm any less stressed but here are my two mini creations.

Silly Old Moo

The background of this one is painted with Americana paints in Indian Turquoise and Spa Blue.  I stamped the lady on white paper and coloured her with many Promarkers.  I then glued her to the substrate and drew some lines and dashes and then stamped a circle in gold paint and dragged some gold paint over the top parts before writing on it.

Hideous Baby Moo

The background on the second piece is Neocolor II.  I stamped the baby on white paper and coloured it with Inktensils and Promarkers.  I sprayed the background with sparkle varnish (looks like white dots) and then glued the baby to the background.

Ridiculous Moos

I've recently joined a group called Abandoned Art, where you leave small pieces of art for people to find, these two delightful quirky things will be sealed in a cello bag and hidden somewhere with a note telling the finder that they can either keep, give away or leave the pieces.  Hopefully someone will post a note to say they found them.

Thanks for looking and please check out the other artists.

That's a jazzy kite!

Ever since I saw Three Muses challenge of Fly a Kite, I've had this idea floating around in my head.  I just couldn't let go of it, so eventually had to create it in my journal.

Welcome to my jazzy kite!

Let's go fly a kite....  

The journal page already had some ink on it from mopping up some previous spills.  I sprayed the whole page with water and then the lower part with Lime Crush followed by Cut Grass in patches.  The top part of the page was sprayed with Vibrant Turquoise.  Once it was dry I lay stencils over the top (flowers, Letters and a clock) and sprayed through them with water and let them sit until the ink re-dissolved before I mopped them with paper towel.  Next I applied some Gesso through a harlequin stencil and left it all to dry while I worked on the saxophone.

I sketched the saxophone shape onto a vintage text page, cut it out then painted it in Golden Translucent Primary Yellow.  I stamped on it with music stamp in Pumice Stone Distress ink and at the same time I stamped on the background across the grass.

Next came a little colouring of the sax with some cheap oil pastels and a charcoal pencil before I glued it to the background.  Finally I drew the music coming from the sax and going into the sky with kite being represented by the treble clef.

A totally bonkers bit of work, but my muse is happy now.  Thanks so much for looking, it is always appreciated.

Vintage Beauty

The topic at Take A Word Monday is Vintage Beauty so I decided to do two things at once.  I made an ATC for a swap this month and created it to suit the theme from TAW

It's a simple piece from me this time, but I love how it has turned out.

Love those shoes!

A few weeks ago I went to a Flea market and found some cigarette cards of old movie stars that I thought I may be able to use in my art. They are real photo's not a print, so they are quite thick but have aged beautifully. Today is the turn of Ms Maril De Forest and pretty she is too.

The background is scrapbook paper in a grey and paler grey stripe.  Attached to that is the photo of Ms De Forest.  Over the top I thought the Tim Holtz film ribbon was so fitting and I added the text down the right hand side from my computer and coloured with some Pumice Stone Distress Ink.

I finished it off with a small star from my stash.

Secret Recipes!

I love playing with techniques, textures, recipes and effects and have been doing lots of them lately.  So that I don't forget what I've done, what worked and what doesn't,  I have finally created a little book to put them in. I call my book of samples.

Needing something to decorate the front of the book I have been on the lookout for a couple of weeks for the perfect item and I found it last weekend at a car boot sale.  It's a Starwars figurine that I used to make a mold, then created a flat back piece in polymer clay before painting with a faux aged ivory / bone effect.  The book is approx 8.5cm x 10cm and approx 4.5cm thick!

Let the force be with me

I have a feeling I will be making subsequent volumes since I don't intend to stop doing this anytime soon.

The front and back inside cover use old text roughly torn and glued to the substrate then using an edge painting effect before covering with a fine crackle medium and rubbing in a medium to highlight the cracks.  On the right hand side is the first page of the sample - burned copper.