Imagine a world without blue .....

Before I get to the main reason for this post, I just had to share with you that I made the Top Three Designs (out of 181 entries) on the Craft Stamper January Challenge - and I've got the button to prove it (look right)!!! Really chuffed about it.

Anyway, to business - the Fearless Four got together again recently, and one of us (step forward Lin) threw down a challenge for each of us - my challenge was to create a canvas without using blue!

I found this tougher than expected, and started with a 10 x 10 canvas board, on which I used paste through a stencil, then gesso-ed the whole thing in black.  I quite like starting with a black canvas instead of a white one.

The stencil I used is a new one by Designs by Ryn - maidenhair fern - beautiful.  I'll be entering this canvas into Ryn's February Customer Creation Challenge.

So starting from all black, I used the Fresco shades of grey (just 3 not 50!) to create the background, and also used the stencil again, but this time just with the paint.




I also started painting a couple of butterflies (cut from grunge paper) with the Fresco oranges/limes/yellow.

Next, I relaid the stencil over the paste ferns and applied some pearl paint (Ranger Dabber), and a little Pebeo Irridescent yellow/green.

I finished the canvas off at home, and after some thought decided to use just one butterfly, and gave it a little dimension and enhancement by using the Pebeo Relief Gilding Paste and mirror gold foil.











Finally, I'm happy - but it was an effort not to use blue, and gave me a bit of brain-ache!

The other FF creations .....

Linda's challenge was also not to use blue!  Love this cute owl, and that is not blue in the background but a combination of greens; my camera has not taken the true colours.

Monica's challenge was not to use any seashells (she has quite a collection!) and no napkin layers.

Great canvas -with a little paint sharing (with Linda) going on in the background!

Lin challenged herself not to use any wooden shapes, or trees, and did two small canvases.  A couple of trees did creep in - but at least they are not wooden!

Love those vibrant colours.


















Our next get together is in March, and I've a feeling I will have all my blue pots of paint on the table!

Happy February - Spring is nearly here!

Another diversion, another poem, another year .....

I've recently acquired some new Pebeo materials, so thought I would do an abstract canvas, trying it all out!  I've already used the combination of glass paints with ceramic paints on some butterflies (see here ).

I did start this before Christmas, but then the cold struck, with the least of it manifesting in a 3 day headache!

My cold is now manageable (funny how I've taken ownership of "my" cold, but it has been with me for over a week now!), so I've finished this little canvas.

I used an 8 x 8 box canvas and painted a background of blues in acrylic paint first, then coloured a little modelling paste and scraped that on.

Once the paste had dried it was time for the new stuff - Pebeo Glazing Resin. This is a 2 part mixture, which I slowly poured onto the canvas in a slightly random manner.

It has dried here, so you can see how it holds it shape, and remains 3D.

Next, I covered most of the canvas with glass paints, and dropped in some Prisme Fantasy paints.

Everything is still very wet in this picture, and the paint is still moving around.

I wiped the glass paint off some of the resin, so that the acrylic colour underneath would show through.

When everything was dry, I finished with some Pebeo Relief Gilding Paste, which comes in a tube with a nozzle, so you can be quite specific where it is placed and it also remains 3D if you wish it to. When the paste goes clear, it remains tacky, and I then applied some gold mirror effect leaf.

In this close-up you can see the gold leaf, and the Prisme paint.

Finally, I applied some black Relief Liner.

Very difficult to capture how the light bounces off the resin and the gold leaf, so you will just need a little imagination for that.

Now I know how all this new stuff reacts, I can do another canvas with perhaps a little more control!

The last few early mornings have had stunningly beautiful hoar frosts - even in suburbia!  Just looking at the patterns created on cars is mind-blowing.  So, I have been inspired to write another Haiku poem, to celebrate the new year.

Frost white December
Come January clothed anew
Constancy endures.

Hope 2015 is good for you.