Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Hello Strangers! It has been a while, but I have been thinking of you all, promise! I have been working on a few bits and pieces that I am unable to blog yet, but be patient and all will be revealed...though don't get too excited!
At journal club this week, our prompt was "patchwork". So after a little research on Youtube and Pinterest I had a play, without any real idea of where I was going - this is usually how I work and it tends to work for me. If I have an idea of what I am aiming for, I am generally disappointed in the execution!
Using the Tim Holtz tissue wrap as a background I added random blocks of colour (Frescos) to the pages and then using a contrasting colour stamped lightly on the colour laid down. The effect of the tissue wrap and the colours for me is reminiscent of the holidays and the beach....my favourite place. I adore being by the water, winter or summer, the sound of the waves and the salty smell, it is good for the soul! I am very lucky to live very near an estuary (walking distance) and a short drive from the coast and I totally make the most of it,. Anyway I digress...
Despite my love of the coast, my stamp collection does not reflect this, however I do possess an Artemio set with coastal icons and luckily many of the images fit (yes more luck than design, however next time I try this I will think a bit first about the images I want to use and form the blocks accordingly.  I know that is common sense, but I am not known for this!). I used  black Archival to stamp the images and then a fineliner to add a little lettering of my own.
I hope you like my take on patchwork and I will be entering it into the following challenges.......
The sea challenge  at Thats Crafty
Feature a creature
A perfect Mess

Go figure!

Welcome back to my parlour! It has been a little quiet on the western front as I have been a tad off colour for a few days. However today I managed to drag my poorly self to my messy corner for a little "colour therapy"....that is a thing is it not?
I have had this idea in my head for a while now, well when I say idea I really mean little glimmers of "ooh I wanna try that"  that I have collected and put together for this journal page.  
The first glimmeration  was to use a Gelli plate. The 1st problem with this is I don't have one! Now many friends sing its praises but I have yet to fall at the alter of the Gelli. And I didn't want to fork out £30.00 on something I am not totally convinced about. (just think of all the goodies you can get with £30.00!) ....so, ....I made one! I cant remember now who's recipe it was, (sorry) but it involved 9 packets of gelatin and 380 ml glycerine. Make up the gelatin as instructed, add the glycerine then pour into a square Ferrero Roche box lined with cling film.  Allow to set and cure for 24 hours.  Oh my gosh! My house smelled of cows -gladly this did dissipate as the gelli set. And it worked!  I used PaperArtsey Fresco paints on my Gelli, adding a little Satin Glaze to make the work time a little longer. The background on this page was about print 26 of that first night ..yes I did get carried away, (but I do love using stencils and such like!) So much so that I ran out of my normal paper, then I used some photographic paper and that is where it all went pear shaped. The paper stuck like the proverbial to a blanket. As I pulled it off I took chunks of the plate with it....devastated is probably to strong a word, but I was disappointed. But for an outlay of £6  it's not the end of the world. I am going to try again, this time avoiding photo paper like the plague! Also, I wont use cling film as this adds a few wrinkles to one side, which in some ways is nice as it adds a  little texture, but I would prefer to choose to do that. Instead I will use some acetate. Also, if you are going to try this, do not whisk the mix as it adds air bubbles...you don't want them settling on the top. 
The 2nd was using a Croquis (the female form to the uninitiated!). Vicky Papaionnou used one in her journal If you love the rainbow. She suggested the book Collage Couture by Julie Nutting which has tutorials in drawing a croquis and different styles of clothes. They are all very stylised and just right for my page. So, I spent best part of the afternoon trying to draw what seemed to be quite a simple figure!  I finally managed to get one that was fairly ok...but it was much too big - I can't seem to draw small! Ahha! this is where the tech head in me came to the rescue...I photo copied it then shrunk it! Fab!  So I copied and printed a couple, 1 on craft card and another on paper. Then ( sorry I know this is getting very long winded! Skip to the end if you are bored, but please leave a comment) then, I cut the paper skirt, top and shoes out and traced around them onto a another gelli print. These were then cut out and pieced onto the craft card croquis to add colour. 
The 3rd (and last) was to use the Faux Leather technique we learned at Craft2gether a few years back. Again, using craft card, I spritzed the card with a mix of glycerine and water (6:1) massaged this in then screwed up the card careful not to tear it. Repeat, the add DI Vintage Photo to the raised creases and spritz once more to move the ink. I left it outside to dry then set about drawing the suitcases and adding shadows with a Stabillo All pencil. Then bish bash bosh I stuck it all together! Et Viola! Complete......not a quick project, but I loved doing it. 
I am going to enter it into the following challenges:
Thats Crafty Go Figure
Countryview challenge use a stencil
http://art-journal-journey.blogspot.co.uk/
http://blog.paperartsy.co.uk/2016/05/2016-topic-9-mono-printing-challenge.html#
http://welove2create.blogspot.co.uk/p/meet-design-team.html
http://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/welcome-to-creative-artistes-challenge.html
Stencil Sunday #44 + May Mixed Media Challenge
Stampotique Scribbles

Fly

Welcome back to my little corner of the sofa. I asked Saph to move over for you but as usual she is being very stubborn ( How can reasonably small creatures be so hard to move? Its like she has hidden suction. I have to leap into bed and pull the covers up before she jumps up otherwise I dont have a hope of staying warm and draught free!) Well, that is enough of my ramblings....
Today's offering is actually a by product of last weeks craft club technique ( or should I say I worked for hours on this composition???) . This card was underneath the paper I was working on and the marks are "overspill" of paint!  My partner in crime,  Trish, forbade me to spoil it and mentioned that the PaperArtsy challenge this week is 'White Space'. Now I would have felt a complete cheat entering it as was, so I stamped a butterfly on some card I painted with the same colours of the stripes cut him out. As usual, his antennae came to an untimely end, however I drew in a couple of prostheses for him once I curled his wings and stuck his body down. He seems fairly happy with them. I then stamped the saying, using a stamp positioner as I am invariably wonky. It turns out that even using a stamp positioner  I am invariably wonky! Then I used a fine liner to add a border around both the edge of the card and around the sentiment which helped to disguise my wonky leanings.  I am very pleased with the result, I hope you like it. 
Please dont be shy, say hello, and I hope you have a wonderful Bank holiday weekend.

Entered into challenges:
white space

Its all about the Face

I did warn you didn't I!  For years my go to doodle has always been a solitary eye, but they never really got any better and tended towards a cartoony appearance. Last year I taught myself to crochet (Very basic) via YouTube so I had the bright idea to use it for faces! Well here I am with a page that I started a while ago as a practice piece (from a You Tube tute). The eagle eyed among you will notice that there are some bits missing - as I said, I am just learning and haven't learnt how to do cheeks yet!

 I actually liked it as is and was a little nervous to do any more in case I spoiled it. Then, lo and behold, Thats Crafty chose Faces as this fortnights prompt for their challenge. I didnt want to enter her  "naked" , so I used clear gesso to seal the pencil then applied Fresco finish over the top, first with yellow and orange, then Irish cream, using a wet wipe to remove the paint from areas I wanted her to look clearer.

I finish off by adding a very light application of red for the lips, doodled for the frame then backed it onto black.  I am pleased with the result. So what do you think? Dont be shy, knock on the door and leave me a comment.....generally its good for the ego you know!

I am entering this into 

Thats Crafty Challenge

Craft for the Craic

Show your face

Playtime!

Hello there my bloggy friends! Nearly 2 weeks since a post....blame work, I do! I love what I do, however it really effects my crafty mojo. I started a project last weekend, hoping to have that ready to show you last Sunday, well that obviously didn't happen did it? In fact I only finished it this afternoon and I am still not overly enamoured with it. It was one of those projects that in my head looked fab, to be honest it should have stayed that way...in my head! So I finished it and pushed it aside to enable me to get on with what I really wanted to do!
Now, have I mentioned Lynne before? This very talented lady runs the Craft2gether club at Feering on the 1st Monday of the month. I can't tell you how much I look forward to this each month, always something new to learn and friends to chat to as we do so!  This month our project was based on the technique  Faux screen printing Lynne observed Kim Dellow demonstrating at at a retailers workshop.
At club I chose some Fresco finish paint colours and set about applying the colour with a credit card. I enjoyed this process so I did it again, and again, and again...and a few more times after that!Others were busily finishing their projects whereas I went on a wallpaper spree! (thats what I call it when I just concentrate on lots of backgrounds. Well concentrate is a wrong choice of word as I do anything BUT concentrate!). Then today I reaped the rewards.....

I can add these to my art journal or they can be used for cards...one very happy, relaxed bunny! Thank you for joining me once again, and you never know, there might be another visit tomorrow! (After all, it is the weekend!)

Entered into following challenges:
MAWTT   Spring flowers
avenue613.blogspot.co.uk



Stampotique Nature

Journal Club

Hello my friends! Last Monday was the last Journal Club with The Fantastic Mrs Fox (see what I did there?).   Carol Fox has not only introduced me to journalling, but also has shown me so many different techniques to lay down colour, doodle and highlight, I shall be forever grateful! So as a little thank you I wanted to show you a few of the pages I completed at Carol's classes.....

Using our fingers to lay down the paint, building up the background with stencilled gesso and gelatoes. The girl was stamped separately and coloured with polychromos (3 attempts to get her right!) 

This is the same technique - I love this quote. 

Looking at this on on the PC,  my Cheshire cat's eyes and smile on the left page look like an orange monster!

Teeshamore Collage. Boy was this fun! We had pages and pages of images, quotes and words to choose from...the hardest part was whittling down to just a few. I decided not to go for a run of the mill quote, instead choosing to play silly sentences (getting ready to go back to work I suppose). 

These are just a few of the pages I completed based on Carol's designs.  Pop along to her blog http://gingernonutsbits.blogspot.co.uk/ and have a gander at her creations, she is one clever cat!

Once again I would like to thank you for popping in (and drinking all my coffee!) and I look forward to seeing you next time.

Colour me happy

Good evening, I hope you are all doing just dandy out there. My offering today is a funky little journal page that was easy and fun to do...just as crafting should be! 
My background was formed on...now I could be arty and say Deli paper, however that would not be the truth! It was some packaging tissue that surrounded my new bedroom ornaments that I ordered from Next. They were very safe in their protection, generous beyond belief, so I probably have enough to last best part of the year! I selected 4 or 5 PaperArtsy Fresco colours and 3 paintbrushes of random widths and set to work.
I randomly brushed horizontal stripes onto my tissue using the different brushes and colours trying not to blend them until the sheet was covered. The tissue coped well with the paint which was a pleasant surprise!  Then using the same colours I stamped and stencilled over the whole sheet randomly,  adding some depth with a little black stencilling. Then, finally, using a little Snowflake and a small brayer I "knocked" it back in places. 
 And viola! Background.....ooops excuse me...Masterboard .....finished!
Back to my trusty Weetabix box (it is just as well I have 2 teenage boys that eat  mahoosive amounts of cereal! ),  cut it down to 8"x 8",  gessoed and dried before  using matt medium to stick a section of the masterboard onto it. 
So far so fabulous! Very happy with what I had achieved thus far, I then blocked! Yep, too good to be true! I had no idea where to go next. So I didn't, I placed it on the side and waited, and waited and waited some more.....
3 days later, whilst contemplating whether to clean the bathroom or not - BING! Light bulb moment! With a Dylusions stamp I created a border around the edge with Black Archival, filling in the small gaps with a black pen. Using the stencil I drew around it onto some black card and stuck it down with the matt medium, with her toe resting on the border. I thought the quote was quite fitting as my lady is in silhouette. I added a little shading around the different elements and Bingo - Complete! 
I would love to hear what you think.
And by the way, I still haven't cleaned the bathroom!

I am entering this into the following challenges:
Thats Crafty Challenge Bright, Bold and Beautiful
Stamping Sensations One for the girls