Colours of the Rainbow....

It has been a while since I have seen a rainbow - despite the mix of rain, hail and sun we had yesterday! But it is a great theme from Gothic Arches this week - pick two colours of the rainbow, two stamps, and inspirational words. This is the arch I ended up with after deliberating for ages as to which two colours and which stamps! The peacock is a Basic Grey stamp which I inked up in two colours and applied over a background of swirls created with a paper artsy stamp and yellow chalk eye. I added flowers with distress stickles for the centres to add a little dimension.

Yesterday

The days seem to come and go so fast of late, with so much to do and not enough time to cram it all in! Yesterday is the theme for Make A Moo this week and I created these stamped Moos:

Hope you are all having a good weekend. I can't believe it is already halfway through!

Moulin Rouge

Another hectic week is coming to a close, busy but good for the most part! I had the pleasure of going to the theatre with friends to see the 'Vagina Monologes' - what a great show! We all laughed, were shocked, and I think all learnt something new! If it comes your way, it is a great girlie show to go see!

I have now finally found the time to sit and do some crafting and have got around to making an ATC for TMTA this week on Moulin Rouge. I love the film, and wanted to capture the essence of the place, but not use the film as my source. My final interpretation is below, created using chalk eyes to add the colour, stamping, and hand drawing.

Transferring Images....

Is a technique I love to use and have experimented with lots of different ways of doing so, and is the theme for Wednesday Stamper this week. I have chosen to share a page out of my art journal where I have used a combination of gesso, gel medium, acrylic paint, crackle paint, image transfers, doodling and stamping to create the overall effect.

Spring is arriving.....

and what a beautiful day it is today - Happy Mothers Day Mum! I have gone to the seaside to visit my mum today and all the family are here for Sunday Lunch (which I must go to as I am being called!!) then a walk along the seafront and a hot chocolate in Morelli's!

The theme of 'Vernal Equinox' has been set for GA this week and this is my arch:

Altered Mannequin

As part of the Design Team for Scrapbook Sisters I was given a mannequin which is about 3' tall and asked to alter it to fit the theme of 'weddings'. I chose to use the Graphic 45 range of papers Baby to Bride as my inspiration. I used the full range of papers and created a dress for the mannequin using paper folding techniques, cutting, punching, and layering. I added detail with punched flowers and butterflies, I created a laced back to the bodice and added a large bow with flowers on the train made from tulle.

To top it all off Graphic 45 have accepted it as an exemplar project on their website. Please visit the link to Graphic 45 and take a peek. I had a lot of fun creating this and cannot wait to start a new altered project.

Exotic Birds....

is the theme for TGIF this week. I have not had the time to hand draw my entry for this! But instead opted for a stamped ATC with some hand colouring to bring a bit of colour and tone to the image. The peacock feathers were stamped onto the ATC and the whole peacock image was stamped onto a separate piece of card, cut out, chalked and applied to the background with foam pads to raise off the surface.

I hope you are all having a good start to the week, my day today has been quite nice, but this is the calm before the storm with three full days of teaching before the weekend descends! Here'shopingwe get the sunshine back by then, the day started off beautifully with sunshine, but turned bitterly cold and I drove home in drizzle and fog!

Comic?

The theme over at TMTA this week is comic - this has always been an area of art which I find very difficult to translate to paper. Having been taught how to draw accurately, it then becomes hard to simplify and turn an image into a 'cartoony' style. So I thought this would be a great opportunity to put pencil to paper and produce my own comic image, I went for a cat character rather than a human figure. I drew the outline in pencil, then added colour with paint, finishing by chalking the edges of the ATC to darken it down. Hope you like my little alter ego side-kick!

Mother and Child

An interesting theme set by Gothic Arches this week. I chose to hand draw my image on my arch using watercolour pencils and finishing the detail with a fineline pen. I hand wrote the wording, cut out and chalked the edges and applied to the background. Hope you like the end result, it took a while to get a good composition and the facial features working as I wanted them to!

Africa.....

Is such a beautiful and amazing country, with so many different elements to it - the people, art, animals, and varying traditions and cultures from the Egyptian to the Masai and Zulu.....

This is the theme for SPA this week and I chose to focus on the animals, in particular the zebra. These have been stamped onto the background of my postcard and then hand coloured detail on top. All finished with the title of Africa.

Jigsaw Piece

I love jigsaw puzzles, they have always been a fascination of mine, I love matching the pieces to create an image. I could pretty much guarantee that I would get at least one puzzle as a present every year, the harder the better!! So I love this weeks theme from Make A Moo of jigsaw piece. I created these by stamping the main images onto the Moo and hand colouring with markers. I then re-stamped the images onto another piece of card and punched out a section of the image with different jigsaw piece punches.

I hope you like the end result! I cannot believe that I have not been able to post anything since last Sunday! It has been a bit of a manic week, with very little free time to create art! Hopefully I can find some time this week to do more, and go surfing to see all your lovely work too.....

Fruit

There are so many wonderful kinds of fruit available at our fingertips today, and because of modern shipping methods we can get most kinds at all times of the year. This is quite a shame as I remember having fruit in season and only in season! So strawberries were a summer fruit; apples, blackberries and pears an autumn fruit and oranges a winter fruit. They taste better at the right times of year, and especially when they are left on the plant to grow and ripen, being sold locally rather than flown halfway around the world!!

For Make A Moo this week I have hand drawn my fruit in black fineline pen and then added colour with watercolour pencils. I added hand written words in a sepia pen and finished the edges with chalk eye.

Fantasy.....

Is this weeks theme for Gothic Arches. I love all things mystical, magical and with an element of fantasy. I covered a plain card arch with one of the papers from the Once Upon A Time range, then I hit a mental block! It took me a while to figure out which way I wanted to take the rest of the arch and finally settled on hand drawing and painting a fairy figure and adding wings by stamping onto acetate and attaching with glossy accents so they are raised off the surface. This arch also fits the theme for CBH this week of Believe, I stamped believe down the side using midnight blue Stazon, as fairies are something you definitely need to believe in to see them.....

Altered Time....

Wouldn't it be great to alter time to fit the things you want to accomplish?!! There never seems to be enough time in the day to do all those things I plan to do. Time is the theme for MMM this week, and I have chosen to share a clock which I have altered. I created this piece at the last crop I attended, hosted by Scrapbook Sisters, this was the class that they held during the day.

We were provided with an MDF clock base, a selection of cardstock and patterened papers and the rest was up to your imagination! I chose to use cream cardstock as the backing for mine on which I stamped a selection of images in Timber Brown Stazon. On top this I created a smaller square of brown cardstock and patterned papers I cut and tore into a pattern, I extended the swirls onto the background by using watercolour pencils and fineline pen.

To complete I added some stamped birds from one of the new Prima ranges and hand drew the larger version. These were added with foam pads to raise off the surface - careful to still allow the clock hands to move around!

That Star Quality

Audrey Hepburn is a film legend, and the centre of attention for TMTA this week. I created by ATC by hadn writing the names of films she starred in across the background in fineline pen. I then chalked the edges and printed an image of Audrey Hepburn on acetate to layer on top. It is held in place using a brad.

Time now to go finish prepping for tomorrow's work day, andto try and ignore the howling wind and lashing rain that is filling the skies around me. What a miserable day it has been, no sign of sun or that spring feeling today! Good job I 'pruned' the plants in my garden at the weekend! Here's to better, warmer weather soon...

Once Upon A Time....

There was a little girl who loved to create Art.....

And she created this piece for SPA. The background is made by chalking blocks of colour and tearing out a circle of print. The start of a story was written on a piece of paper and added to the right hand side. An image was printed onto acetate and layered on top, held in place with Glossy Accents. The edges finished with dark brown chalk eyes.

Pink and Brown Silhouette

I have chosen to combine the Gothic Arches theme of pink and brown with Weds Stamper's silhouette. I hand painted the pink background and dark brown silhouette of legs with a fantastic pair of heels! I completed by stamping the wording and swirl border and chalked all edges.

Passing of time....

This last week has just gone by so fast, I cannot believe a week has already passed since I was away for my weekend retreat! It already feels like an eon since I had a holiday.......

The image provided by ACF this week seems appropriate then, of a sweet 'granny' figure. I created this digital piece using a sunset photograph, complete with wooden rocker I took while away, along with the horse image. I combined these with the photograph provided and used a number of layering techniques and Photoshop brushes to pull the whole look together, a respected figure remembering all those good times and younger days....