Mini Art Journal

I was feeling a bit blue today, so I made a page for my Art Journal.

I made this a few weeks ago, using 3 pieces of card, rounded off the corners, folded in half, made some holes and stitched together.

I created the page by painting the surface with white Gesso. When this was dry I used a few derwent Artbars to create the background colour.

Using some stamps, I added some layers around the edges, and with a stencil and some acrylic paint created the circles.


I found the quote on pinterest, unsure who it is by, but it speaks volumes......

Summer

Found this great new blog, Mixed Media Card Challenge blog

 So I started with some watercolour card, and created the background using a yellow and 2 blue Derwent Artbars. When this was dry I stamped 2 patches of burlap and created the white circles using a top from an ink spray bottle and some acrylic paint.

With some PVA glue I created the half circles and added some Ranger Distress Glitter in Peacock Feathers. I am not really a glitter person, but really liked the effect.

With a Martha Stewart mould and some paperclay, the leaves were made. The face was created from a mould of a figurine, these were painted with acrylic paints and highlighted with guilding waxes.

The letters are from a Spellbinders alphabet die set.

This was backed onto some purple card and I added some free hand squiggles with a jelly roll pen.

Finally to finish I added 3 purple jems to one of the circles.

Great fun, glad I took part...

Autumn/Steampunk

Found this great blog

http://thatcraftplaceblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/autumn-or-steampunk.html

The theme for their latest challenge is Autumn colours or Steampunk or a combination of both.

So, I decided to do a combination of both.

I started with a small square of calico and put this under the tap to make it damp.

Using an old Big and Juicy ink pad I smeared this onto my glass mat and rubbed over the damp calico and left to dry.

After some thinking, I decided to stamp my steam train with white embossing powder, was'nt sure if this would work and was surprised how well it came out!!

I have a sheet of laser cut cogs, so coloured these with some alcohol markers.

The light bulbs and steampunk man come from images on Serif Craft Artist.

This was backed onto some cardboard and sits proudly on my bookcase.

Great fun!!!

Word Play Part 2!!

Here is my second entry for the Country View Crafts challenge,

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/were-into-august-and-new-challenge.html

I have been playing with some water soluable pastels and some Derwent Artbars, I found that by scraping the sides of the pastels with a craft knife, this creates little piles of colour. When I spritzed some water onto the colours it created this cool effect.

When the water was still wet I scraped some Derwent Artbars, some of this remained, and some watered down onto the card.

I added the words with a white jelly roll pen onto coated cardstock, and backed this onto some black card.

Really pleased with my experiment!!

Word Play

This is my entry for August over on the Country View Crafts blog.

http://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.com/2014/08/were-into-august-and-new-challenge.html

The challenge is Word Play. I saw this quote some time ago and wanted to incorporate it within my art.

I started with some chipboard and sprayed using Dylusions ink spray in black. When this was dry I stamped and embossed 3 light bulbs.

I used white and yellow soft pastels around each bulb and blended using a paper stump.

The inside of the bulb I decided to use Daler Rowney thick body acrylic paint in yellow and white. I mixed them using a cocktail stick and applied to the middle of each bulb giving dimention.

The words were hand written using a Zig chalk writer in yellow.

I wanted to add further elements to this, but decided against it as I wanted my eyes only to be drawn towards the bulbs, hopefully to fully understand the words!!

I really enjoyed this challenge, I am sure I am not alone in saying we all have dark times in our lives, and there is always light to be found...