Recipe for a good time ...

Ingredients:
Yupo Paper
Alcohol Inks
Brushos
Coffee
Smoked Salmon
A good friend

Had a session with all of the above last week. I tried Yupo paper some time ago, but I recently got together with a friend for another go!

 Here is all that I produced, and I'll go through some individual pieces in more detail.

Doing a landscape with alcohol inks is fun. For the sky I used a cotton wool ball with some blending solution and swirled it around.

I used the solution in a mister to add texture, and the corner of a credit card to create some grasses. The edge of a coffee stirrer moves the ink around.

The moon is a drop of silver mixative.

Similar techniques used here.

I thought I could use this as a background and stamp some fish on it!

A little more random using Isopropyl alcohol in the mister (which is a bit stronger than the blending solution), and dropping in some Isopropyl too.

I'll probably use this for a background.

Now to Brushos - I spritzed plain water onto the Yupo and sprinkled the Brushos. I then just left it to dry.

Makes a very subtle background for stamping.

I love using clingfilm on all liquid media but I can be impatient.

As Yupo is completely non-absorbent I had to be extremely patient! But I do love the effect.

I sprinkled the Brushos on dry, then spritzed before applying the cling film. I have a tendency to peek under the film quite regularly, but I had to wait til the next day before removing it!

On this one, I created a Brusho background, then added a couple of drops of water and Brusho on the bottom edge, before taking my trusty straw and blowing.

The paint moves very freely on the Yupo so not much puff is needed!

And here is what Linda W created with Alcohol Inks too.

Great colour combinations.


















A fun session getting reacquainted with these materials!

Hello Spring!

Another month has passed and its time for the Craft Barn challenge, using the third couplet in the poem by Sara Coleridge The Months of the Year.

March brings breezes, loud and shrill,
Stirs the dancing daffodil.

And the extras to include this time are daffodils and hares.

I'm finding my choice of a postcard format quite restricting, especially with the specific additions that need to be included. Anyway, this is supposed to be a challenge, so I press on  - I can only get better ...

I drew some daffs in pen before doing a quick background watercolour wash, then coloured the flowers with Inktense pencils.

Surprisingly I found a hare stamp!

I love this time of year, especially with the warm sunny days we are having. I just love to see the yellow daffodils with the pink cherry blossoms against a brilliant blue sky. Such a joyous sight!

Introducing Molly ...

You may recall I did a portrait of a friend's dog called Tia (see here).  I thought I would have a go at a cat, so this is Molly, sadly no longer with us.

I was asked to use pastel colours, so I did the background with very dilute acrylic inks, wet on wet, and just let them mingle.

I then used a photo as a reference. The outline is drawn in acrylic ink, and then I've used a combination of watercolour, Neocolor II crayons and coloured pencils. Quite tricky getting the fur colours and patterns!

This formed part of a birthday present to Molly's owner, who now has a black cat - which could be a little trickier to paint methinks!

Whiskers and tails

And thousands of frails

Lion-like nose

With an angelesque pose

Silky pattern'd fur

O'er heart-touching purr.

Terri Guillemets