Blooming circles!

I'm just in time for this week's Craft Barn challenge, which is circle and flowers.

Had a lovely day on Friday, crafting with friends.  I finished this card at home, which consists of a Brusho background on watercolour card.  The Brushos were already diluted.  Then created the bokeh effect with a white Brilliance ink pad, and added some silhouette poppies - one of my favourite Memory Box dies.

Such a miserable cold and wet day, think I'm going to do my drawing homework now!

Bring back Summer ...

Exhibition time!

The current Paper Artsy challenge is all about time.

This is an experimental small canvas, using disassembled watches.  The first clock face had a couple of cracks in it and I managed to chip away the surface to reveal a copper surface.  I love all the teeny tiny screws and other bits.

This week I went to the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, which I thought was fabulous this year. Over a thousand exhibits - this is such a amazing show for inspiration with so many diverse artworks. Here are some of my favourites.

In the courtyard - this stunning metal construction - The Dappled Light of the Sun - by Conrad Shawcross.  In weathering steel, consisting of triangles.

Main staircase - Zobop by Jim Lambe - made from vinyl tape.

This is fun - OK going up, but felt quite precarious coming down!

Babel London (after Bruegel), transparency on LED lightbox by Emily Allchurch

Fabulous composite photograph, the detail is amazing.

Asylum, copper wire, medical plasters, pigment, feathers and silk, by Cathy de Monchaux

I first saw this artist's 3D work at last year's exhibition - stunning.

Mahe, acrylic painting, by Angela Braven

I am drawn to the vibrant colours and detail, this is a large canvas.













And finally an awe-inspiring work by Tom Phillips.  In 1966 he wanted to find an old book for threepence and alter every page with various techniques to create an entirely new work.  The book he chanced upon was A Human Document (1892) by W H Mallock.

He decided to call his treatment A Humument, a contraction of the original title.  The first reworking was printed privately in 1973.  Almost 50 years later he continues to revise and develop it.

This is page 303.  Enlarge the photo to read the words.

I fell in love with this work, there are over 100 pages showing in the exhibition.

To find out more go here.
















The Summer Exhibition is on until 16 August - go if you can.

Happy weekend!

Winged beauty

I have recently been inspired by the Sunset Moth, which Ryn (of Designs by Ryn) told me about in a recent comment on a previous post.

The sunset moths (Chrysiridia rhipheus) are native only to the island of Madagascar. It is the most stunning moth, and deserves as much fame as the most beautiful of butterflies.

Anyway, I've got Ryn's Moon Wings moth set, and I wanted to use a couple of those on this card, using Brushos.

On a piece of watercolour paper I did a simple wash background, and stamped and embossed two moths in white.

I then flooded the area within the stamped images with water - the wing areas - creating small pools, into which I sprinkled some Brushos - turquoise, purple and sea green.

I then did not touch it - but walked away. I was itching to push it around a bit with a brush, but didn't want to diminish the strength of colour, so I left it to dry.  Next, I used a little of the grey Brusho mixed with water to fill in the moth bodies and also used a little round the outside edges.

Finally, I added a little random embossing powder.

My tribute to the fabulous sunset moth.

Also entering this month's Craft Stamper Magazine Take A Stamp challenge.

There is a quote by Aristotle which I use a lot, but it says it all -

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

Buzzy as a bee!

I'm a couple of weeks into my drawing course, so have less time for other stuff at the moment, though I have several projects on the go, nothing is getting finished!  I'll be writing about my drawing course once it is over, but I'm finding it exhilarating - and mentally exhausting!

So I'm sticking to making cards - useful mini canvases that don't take a lot of time.

This week's Craft Barn challenge is to use background words.

Some of my favourite things are poetry - particularly Emily Dickinson, and bees.  I've had this stamp for some time -

The pedigree of honey
does not concern the bee
A clover, any time, to him,
is aristocracy.
Emily Dickinson

So I've used it for the background, created with Distress Inks.  I then stamped the clover onto a separate piece of card, again using Distress Inks, and heat embossed it.  Finally, my favourite bee stamp (by Stampotique).

Bee happy!

Lucy in the sky ...

The weeks seem to be flying by, and another weekly challenge from the Craft Barn, which is to feature playing cards - hearts, diamonds etc.

I would think a lot of people have that grungy diamond shape stencil; I've had mine for years and it is a well loved stencil, looking a bit more grungy that it should!

With watercolour paper as a base, I created a background with Gelatos for a change, (but I don't have that many colours), using the diamond stencil, and a little stamping.

I then die-cut a butterfly to use as a mask, and darkened the surrounding area.  Finally, added a few words and tiny butterflies.

Happy weekend watching the tennis and eating a few strawberries (haven't got any Pimms though)!

Just another day in paradise ...

The Craft Barn calendar challenge continues with the July prompts of turquoise and beach huts.

The Brusho turquoise is a fabulous colour, so I cut a 10 x 8 sheet of watercolour paper, and mainly used the turquoise Brusho, together with a couple of the yellows.

I then found a beach hut in some clipart, printed out a few, coloured them with Copic pens, (to avoid any reaction with the printer ink), and added my chosen words.

A few stamped seagulls to finish.

Brings to mind those long lost childhood days on the beach, with my bucket and spade, building sandcastles.

Write your secrets in the sand and trust them with a mermaid.

So many paints - so little time!

We went to the Craft Barn at the weekend for a Brusho workshop with Kay Carley - good fun!

So, yesterday, my Brushos nudged the oil paints out of the way!

I laid a stencil onto a piece of card and sprinkled some orange, purple and violet Brushos, then a quick spritz.  Removed the stencil and laid another piece of card on top of the still wet stencil.

Now I have a positive and a negative. Two subtle backgrounds, which is what I was after.

I decided to use the negative one.

When I was clearing stuff out for the craft room make-over I found a paper bag with some felt and tyvek experiments.

This one is layers of felt, bondaweb and painted tyvek, covered with some paper, and ironed. The tyvek reacts with heat and starts to break up - fascinating!






Anyway, I cut some flowers out, used some of the felt edges to create some stalks, and added some purple half pearl centres ...

My entry for this week's Craft Barn challenge, which is stars or stripes.

Happy July!

I think I'm in love ...

There is one medium I have never tried - oil paints.  I've always been put off by all those solvents you need, not only to clean up but to thin the paint.

Then I discovered you could get water mixable oil paints that act exactly the same as normal oil paints, but clean up can be with water, and the paint can be diluted with water, though there are mediums available.  Don't know how it all works, but I decided I wanted to have a go, so bought a set of Daler Rowney Georgian Water Mixable Oil Paints - 10 tubes in all.

To try them out I found a simple photo of some lilac to use as a reference, used a 10 x 8 canvas board, and did the background first.  Now, I hadn't realised how long this paint takes to dry, so I had to wait about a week!

I've now found this stuff that you can add to the paint to thin it a little and also make it dry faster.

I also read about fat over lean - that is thin layers first, and build up to thicker paint layers.

Anyway, I finished it, and am quite pleased.  The proportions are not right, but the drawing course I start next month may help with that!

But for a first attempt .. especially as all I've used is paint ... not bad!

I love the buttery texture of the paint, and the way it it can go on really thickly, and there is no colour change when it is dry.

I think this could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

Take a bow ...

I'm going to whisper this  - but I got my Christmas stuff out - whoa - I gave myself a scare there!

I needed to get going on projects for the craft group I run, so - I told myself "be brave" and get going!

One workshop will be making Christmas baubles using chipboard shapes as a base, and here is one of  them. It has a bow on it, so I am entering it into the Craft Barn weekly challenge, which is all about bows!

The workshops are just 2 hours long, and I want everyone to do at least 3 or 4 baubles, so needed to keep it simple. I covered it with paper, added a die-cut snowflake that was glittered and sequinned, hung a bell on the base, and tied a bow with silver cord.  I've done others bauble designs, but they can wait for another time - probably when the weather is turning a little colder!

If I say - Happy Christmas - will I be the first to do so this year??

Little fish with plum blossom ...

... sounds like I've been busy in the kitchen, but fear not -

It was my turn to issue the challenge to the Fearless Four, and as I love poetry I provided two poems to provide inspiration.

The first is by D H Lawrence called Little Fish
The tiny fish enjoy themselves
in the sea.
Quick little splinters of life,
their little lives are fun to them
in the sea.

And the other is a Haiku by Matsuo Basho
Suddenly the sun rose,
To the scent of the plum-blossoms,
Along the mountain path.

I decided to use the first one as inspiration, and found a box canvas in my store cupboard (yes, I am trying to use up stuff before I buy more!).

I prepared the canvas before we met, to save drying time.  I used Ryn's Gingko stencil with modelling paste, and also used the paste to create some sea grass, with added tiny beads.

Several layers of paint later -

I don't have any fish stamps, so made my own with funky foam backed with pieces of acetate packaging.

You can see the stamps at the side here.

I also stamped the fish around the edge of the canvas - here is a close-up.

Next, I cut some fish from cardboard, and painted them separately.  These are very exotic fish, never seen before!







The end result ...

I'm entering this into the current Craft Stamper challenge, all about texture, but entries also have to include some stamping.  Hope my hand made stamps qualify!

The latest Paper Artsy challenge is all about stencils, so that one too!

And another entry for Ryn's monthly challenge!

Now, what did the other three get up to ...

Monica went for the Haiku about plum blossoms, and did two small canvases to be hung together -

Lin did a fishy one -

And Linda also went for fish -

A good time (and lunch!) was had by all ...