Butterflies

Such a lovely theme for a challenge. I have a thing for butterflies, I love them. They are beautiful delicate creatures and can fit into many types of artwork. These are my Moo's for Make a Moo or Two this week. I hope you like them.

These cards are made by layering stamps, adding colour with chalk eyes, glossy accents enhance the butterfly wings and one is stamped onto acetate.

Summer Sun

If only we had had some sun this summer, bar a few lovely days in July, August has been a wash out! Here's hoping we have an Indian Summer. Well on the theme of Summer one piece of artwork I have made kills two birds with one stone - so to speak.

I am a member of UK Art Raffle, a site where you can join up, produce a piece of artwork on the theme by the deadline given and then at the end of the month a name is pulled out of the hat and one member wins all the artworks entered for that month. A new theme will then be given and it starts all over again. The beauty of it is you don't have to take part every month if you are unable to, just play when you can.

The theme of Summer also fits the challenge set by Arty Girlz. I produced a mixed media piece using stamping, free hand machine embroidery on fabric, painting and punched elements. I began with the free hand embroidery and layered on top with other fabrics, stamping, acrylic paint and finally added stampe dbutterflies on acrylic and punched butterflies.

For those of you in the UK, visit the UK Art Raffle site and join up. I will be stalking the post next week to see if the parcel lands on my doorstep, and will also be looking forward to the new theme.

Tick Tock...

Watches was the theme for TMTA. These are the ATC's I made for it using a range of watch stamps from Cherry Pie Arts. They were layered using a masking technique and then coloured using glaze pens, watercolour pencils, chalk eyes and the top watches were embossed using black embossing powder.

Black and White...

...with a hint of Red. I love this mix of colours and this is the Gothic Arch I came up with this week. My arch is made using black, white and red embossing powders on top of a black background.

I first stamped the flowers at the bottom in versamark and then added white embossing powder on top. I then did the same technique with the black embossing powder. I then added the dream stamp and the small flowers in the top right. I stamped the butterfly stamp onto acetate and embossed using red embossing powder, then cut them out and applied them on top of the background stamps. I finished the small flowers with a few red gems.

I hope you like it. Let me know what you think. Enjoy the rest of the day.

It's all just a little bit.....

Mystical. A great theme and a good opportunity to use some stamps I have by Cherry Pie Arts for Sunday Postcard Art. For this 6x4 postcard I used chalk eye to soften the edge of the card and ran one of them over the left hand surface of the card. I then layered on a strip of patterned paper and began stamping.

I stamped my mystical lady over the patterned strip and decorated her with two layered flowers centred with a gem.
The moon was the first item stamped using Cyan Chalk Eye and then the flower stems and lettering stamped over the top in Stazon.
I love these stamps and they always stamp really cleanly with a lot of detail. I wish I had time to do more of my own art, maybe even design a set of stamps or two!

Punch Art

When I started out crafting, rather than doing just art (ie painting, drawing, photography), I only had a couple of punches and was not overly keen on them. But now I have quite a few, more than I thought when I did an Autumn clean up!

Well for Tag You're It this is the tag I put together using a butterfly punch and two sizes of a retro flower punch:

I added detail fo the centre of the flowers using various shades of brads, and coloured the edges of the butterflies with chalk eye.

I added glossy accents to the flowers on the background paper to make them stand out.

Blings The Thing

We all love a bit of bling, and the challenge set by This Thursday Its All About... gave me the chance to finish this layout I started a while ago. I have glittered up the background paper, added my photo mounted on black and then stamped the word fabulous in Versamark and embossed with black glitter EP.

The Lady of Shalott

By Tennyson - a long, but interesting poem, and one which has been the source of many paintings, in particular by one of my favourite art movements - The Pre-Raphaelites. This is my mixed media piece interpretation.

The background is made by dragging a distress ink across the card and spritzing with water to make the ink spread, I then layered old pages froma book on top and stamped some branches and twisted leaf shapes. I then painted the Lady of Shalott and the prow of her boat.
While waiting for the paint to dry I punched out the leaves and wrote the title and a section of the poem on card, distressed these with chalk eye and cut them out ready to layer on top of the painting once dry.

And all created in the space of an hour - only just though! for my One Powerful Hour of the week.

Flowers....

Always put a smile on my face, they brighten up this world and can say so much. This was the theme for Make a Moo or Two this week and these are the cards I came up with. The first pair use stamps from 7 Gypsies and Autumn Leaves, colour added to the background using chalk eyes and glaze pens. The butterfly was stamped on acetate and layered on top.

The background for these was made from the page of an old book, coloured with chalk eyes. The flowers were stamped on cream card and then coloured and layered onto the background.

Rendezvous With...

Well, when the theme is who would you like to Rendezvous With from Think Monday, Think ATC, who do you pick????

Here are a couple off the top of my head, but I could come up with many more names!

Going Digital

For the 4x4 Friday theme of statues I chose to do a digital piece using photographs I took of some angel statues in a beautiful Irish cemetary last year. I used Photoshop to layer different photos and a stone background and altered their appearance. I finished it off using text about guardian angels.

May yours be watching over you.

Children

This weeks Sunday Postcard Art theme is Children. This is the 6x4 postcard I ended up with after much ummming and ahhhing over what to do.

It is a combination of a distressed background made by crumpling up the paper and then rubbing distress ink over the creases and spritzing with water to make the ink bleed. Once dry I then used several different stamps from Paper Bag Studios and layered them by masking the girl out to stamp over the top. I added colour to the dress by using yellow and scarlet chalk eye. I then restamped the butterfly stamp on separate paper in Cranberry Adirondack ink, cut them out and layered them on top, stamped a title and added that to complete the ensemble.

Renaissance Inspiration

This was created for the Gothic Arches challenge this week. I used two sets of Cherry Pie Art Stamps on the theme of Renaissance for this. I made a stamped background of the Fleur de Lis in Cranberry Adirondack ink and dulled it down using distress ink and chalk eyes.

I stamped the Vitruvian man on a separate piece of paper and placed that to the right of the arch and then stamped Leonardo da Vinci writing on the blue strip and layered that on top. I then stamped separately a second Vitruvian Man and three Ranaissance Ladies, including Mona, and added colour with chalk eyes, watercolour pencils and glossy accents. I then layered these on top, raising Mona Lisa and the top Vitruvian Man. I completed the ensemble with the signature of Leonardo da Vinci:

How fantastic it would have been to be around at the time and see the original paintings being created, watching the master craftsman at work.

Wheels

I thought that I would have a go at the Make a Moo or Two challenge of Wheels. This is the first time I have done this and thought that I had read the measurements wrong - but no, the cards really are small! This was not a problem as I love working miniature, trying to get detail into a small area. The cards measure 2.8 x 7 centimeters or approximately 1,1 x 2,8 inches.

For my cards I used a Stamps Happen stamp, then coloured it up using watercolour pencils, added glossy accents to the mud guard and wheel trim and finished them off with a gem in the centre of the wheel. Have a go, the small size works well and they do not have to take long to do.

Birds of a Feather

Phew..... It has been a while since I had the time to just sit and paint, so I enjoyed the challenge of producing something within an hour. One Powerful Hour set the theme of Birds - to make something on that theme within the space of an hour and I painted this picture using acrylic paint.

This is a section of the painting. I painted using brushes, pallette knives, rubber tipped shapers and of course my fingers!

Keyholes........

Was the challenge set by Wednesday Stamper. I made the following piece using several different stamps from Crafty Individuals, Cherry Pie Arts, and Paper Artsy. Colour was added with distress inks, Twinkling H2O's, and Chalk Eyes.

I cut out the keys I stampedand added them to a wire ring to add dimension to the piece and then added glossy accents to the door knocker, door knob and keyhole.

I added the phrase at the bottom, attaching it using brads:

Enjoy.

Journey

The Created Byhand Challenge is Journey - I made this tag using the theme as my insipiration. I created the background using a selection of travel stamps, an ink splatter stamp and Tattered Angels misting spray. I then layered on top stamped suitcases, a Journey stamp, and a compass, finished off with some raffia and ribbon, red gems and glossy accents on the compass:

Let me know what you think, and have a go yourself.

Doors

For the Sunday Postcard Art challenge - Doors I created the following two 6x4 postcards:

1. This one is made using a hand drawn and inked door, punched leaves, edged with chalk eye, hand journalling, and acetate faeries.

2. This is a hand drawn Art Nouveau door - drawn in pencil first and then basic colour added using watercolour pencils, detail put back in on top with fineline pen, then distressing inks were used to age the feel of the door, and final detail added with white fineline pen.

I hope you like them.

Seashore Moments

This is a double layout I made last summer of a day out on the beach when I was knee high to a grasshopper! I drew the starfish on white cardstock and then chalked the edges with a creamy brown chalk eye, and drew the leggy starfish freehand using a quickie glue pen and covering it in chocolate glitter. The weed was on a small section of the paper and I extended it freehand and again covered it in green glitter.

I added final details with stickers, a tag, and a title.

That's Torn It....

This layout on the theme of Autumn was a challenge to create a layout by being able to use paper only, by ripping or tearing it by hand - no form of machinery could be used to cut the paper.

To do this I used Marmalade Distress Ink over a piece of orange cardstock to give a textured background. I then mounted my photo on red paper, carefully tearing around the edge, I placed this just off centre and then using cream paper tore three strips and lay them to the right, muting htem by adding dark brown chalk eye around the edge of each strip to bring out the texture in the tear. I then stamped the branches, the owls and the title. To finish I added leaves torn out of white paper.

The stamps I used a a mixture of Basic Grey - Grow Your Own Garden, and Stamps Away owls.

I used a template of a stem of leaves, drew the shape in pencil, tore them out and then added orange chalk to mute them and a chocolate brown pen to add detail of the veins.

Rhapsody in Blue

A challenge set was to produce a layout using one colour only - I chose blue. I used a photograph I had manipulated on Photoshop, where I merged a skull into my own portrait. Sounds a bit scary I know, but I originally did the manipulation as an example for an exam question on Time, and I got an interesting result. I based the whole layout around the theme of time and all paper, stamping and embellishments use different tones of blue:

First I added Weathered Wood Distress Ink to the background blue cardstock to create a mottled effect and then stamped the clocks all over in midnight blue Stazon. I added a strip of darker blue paper down the right hand side and stamped this with wording and layered on a hand drawn skull in light blue paper:

I added embellishments around the photograph using grunge board elements which have been coated in bright blue UTEE:

To join the two halves of the layout I added different shades of blue brads, topped with blue Stickles to complete the layout:

The stamps I used are Kelly Panacci clear stamps - Time Flies, from Sandylion.

All the products I used I purchased at Scrapbook Sisters: http://www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk/

From 32 degrees....

... to a full on British thunderstorm!! Having been away in Paris in heat of 32 degrees, I really did have to return to the great British weather and unload from Eurostar to a thunderstorm - fork lightening, sheet rain and crashes of thunder that sound like rocks falling on your head!

One highlight of the trip was a visit to the Eiffel Tower at night. I was aware that they lit the tower at night, ever since the Millenium firework display there, but was not quite expecting the light show I got:

Day Trip to France

Earlier this year I attended a class at my local Crop held by Scrapbook Sisters. Jane Dean was our teacher and showed us how to make a layout with a moving mechanism - the top right photo has a pull to the right which reveals two hidded photos when pulled out. I love the mechanism and will be using it again on other pieces of work. I chose to record a day trip to France with my family:

I added embellishments and detail with flowers, buttons, stamped letters, brads and journalling: