Art Reboot #1 Things to be grateful for

Have been feeling quite lacking in inspiration with my crafting for a while. I am making cards for friends and family - but have lost the inspiration to do any messy stuff. So, when I received the email from Everything Art entitled "Lost your mojo?", I found myself signing up to the #ArtReboot. I haven't really art journaled before, but bought a Pink Pig pad at the start of the first lockdown with the intention of having a go. Apart from one, half-hearted attempt, it has been shut away in the drawer ever since. I love mixed media - and have a cupboard full of paints, sprays, paints, pastes, inks, stencils etc etc - some of which haven't seen the light of day for quite a while. 

Day 1's prompt was: 6 or 8 things you are grateful for today.  And the guidelines were: divide your page into 6 or 8 parts and fill each one with scribbling, doodles, collage etc.

These were the materials I ended up using. And this was what I came up with. 

And following the three golden rules: 

1 - We're here to create - not create jaw-dropping are pieces;

2 - No art/page/spread is ever finished until you decide you're done with it;

3- You owe yourself kindness - accept, acknowledge and celebrate what you've done.

.... I shall say that I am happy with what I have done and just leave it there.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx 

Rainbows!

This week's theme at Use Your Craft Stash is Rainbows - quite apt at the moment. This is my finished piece.

Wasn't sure what I was going to do at first, but then I thought about my Brushos that have only ever had one outing in all the time I've had them. 

I did have a rootle around on the Internet, and decided to start with a rainbow across a piece of watercolour card.  I got another piece of card and marked it into 6 sections - one for each of the colours. I sprinkled each colour at a time and sprayed it. 

Once it was dry, I stuck it onto a piece of greyboard to flatten it out. I then stamped around the edge with Imagination Crafts Art Stamps (from various Texture sets) and Smokey Gray Versafine.

I wanted to mount this onto a canvas, so decided to paint that with a rainbow too. I marked out the sections diagonally and used Imagination Crafts Starlight Paints.

     

  

I felt it was a bit too bright for what I wanted, so I went over the whole thing with a thin layer of Gesso, and then stamped around the edges as before.

Originally, I was going to stamp a sentiment onto the watercolour card, but felt it was too large for what I wanted, so I created another, smaller piece. This time, I put all the colours on in one go and sprayed over the whole piece.

This was stuck onto more greyboard, and the edges stamped as before. The sentiment is from Visible Image - Stay Strong, stamped with Onyx Black Versafine.

Both of the Brusho pieces were mounted on black card, and all three were edged with Onyx Black Versafine before assembling. The final touch was to add some gems (the suggestion of one of my good crafty friends). These ones have been in my stash for ever!

Come and join us at Use Your Craft Stash on Facebook, and share your rainbows. 

Stay safe everyone!! 

Cxxxx

When it goes wrong - put a butterfly on...

That old crafter's adage worked for me today - and saved me from feeling pretty rubbish about what I was attempting. This is what I produced, but it is so far from what I set out to do, that it's really quite laughable.

Let's rewind to just before lunch yesterday. I decided to make a list of all the things on my shelves, in my drawers and in my cupboards (and already I know I missed some things - gel press, mica powders...) that I really should play with, have a go with, experiment with. you get the idea.

And when lockdown had seemed imminent a couple of weeks ago, I ordered myself some journals from Pink Pig. The large one has watercolour card in - for an art journal, The next one is lined for jotting ideas and thoughts down. And the little one is for drawing and sketching - I went small with this one as I didn't want to be intimidated by a larger size.

The art journal was the one I wanted to start with, but I didn't really want to ruin other pages, so I cut a piece of mylar to sit behind the page and protect the rest (or that was the idea).

 

For the afternoon's dabble, I decided to have a play with the Spectrum Noir Sparkle Inks. I bought these with the intention of using them on my Christmas cards, and never did, so they have sat in the cupboard for a while.

I got all excited, googled for something different to try with watercolour based products, and found a lovely video clip which showed techniques using salt water, water with bleach, and clingfilm. Great, I thought. And got myself all set up, remembering to take photos for a step by step. And I used some low tack tape to divide the page into three - one for each of the things shown on the clip. So far, so good.

  

I started with the salt water. The idea was to put a wash of the salt water on the paper, then dot the ink on. I used Amethyst and Garnet from the Glitz and Glamour set. This was reasonably successful - but not quite as great as in the video.

I pushed on with the water with bleach in it. Same idea - make a wash with the water and then dot the ink on. This was supposed to give a much more feathery effect. This was what I got. Total fail.

At this point I was starting to get frustrated, but ploughed on with number 3 - the clingfilm. Plain water is put on the clingfilm, ink dotted on, and then applied to the paper. 

  

The result - a puddly mess that leaked onto the other two sides as well. Totally annoyed with myself by this point. Instead of a lovely page showing three techniques, it looked like a small child had been let loose on it (no offence to small children intended). So, I went over the whole lot with the salt water.

  

At this point, it was a case of what can I do to save this. So I dug out my Sara Signature Flutterby Collection (have pretty much all of this as I demo'd it not long after release), Harmony Water Reactive Inks - Plum Pudding, Winter Rose and Silent Night and Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide.

At this point, photos kind of went by the wayside. I added more of the Pink Garnet Sparkle Ink at the top and bottom and stamped the Botanical Butterfly with Silent Night inkpad. I used water to spread some of the ink, and then filled in with Amethyst and Pink Garnet Sparkle inks. 

Have to say, it looks better on the above photo than I felt it did yesterday, so I watered down some white gesso and went over it to knock it back. And then I attempted to overstamp the butterfly with Memento - Nautical Blue.

    

To frame it, I used one of the Scripture stamps with the Winter Rose inkpad and two different stamps from the Textured Elements set with the Plum Pudding and Silent Night.

The sentiment is from the Fly Away set, and I edged the whole thing (tricky when it's spiral bound) with Chipped Sapphire Distress Oxide.

While this is is no way what I had intended when I started, it ended up OK. Oh, and it's almost impossible to keep the next pages clean in a book like this!! 

Lessons learned. Onwards and upwards!!

Take care and stay safe.

Cxxx

Vintage Charm

So, this week sees another great One Day Special from Imagination Crafts. The theme this time is Vintage!! As ever, there are gorgeous Rice Paper and Stencils, alongside Starlights, Rusty Patinas and Shabby Chic Relief Pastes.

This is one of the 10x12 Canvases cut in half and painted first with White Gesso and Green Starlight paints, then sprayed with Blue, Green and Orange Mix Media Sprays. Have to say that the Orange Spray got a little lost in the strong blue and green pigments. I then added a piece of rice paper (design 407) over the top, which adds more interest to the background. 

I used Zinober Gold Starlight paint through the new Feather stencil that MJ shared on her FB live last night, and then Ruby Gold Sparkle Medium, slightly offset to create a drop shadow. The postmark was added in the same way. The script is from the same stencil,with Linen Shabby Chic Relief Paste. And finally, the "Dream" word is one of the Magi-Cutz with Zinober Gold Starlight and Ruby Gold Sparkle Medium.

The ODS launches on Hochanda at 6pm Thursday - make sure you tune in!!

Cxxx 

Journal Cover

Am back with another sample made for Mandy-Jane's shows today at 12pm and 4pm. This time I have taken one of the Journals and altered the back and front covers.

I forgot to take the step by step photos for this - but I can hopefully remember what I did. So, firstly, I remove the front and back cover by gently prying apart the binder. I did take photos of this so I would have a guide as to how to put them back on - but you don't need to see them.

The next step I did was to decide on the rice papers for the covers - these are the insides of both the front and back.

And these were for the front and back - although at the last minute I swapped them over! 

I mixed Bright Maroon Starlight paint with White Gesso, and painted both the inside and outside of both covers. I added the rice papers to each part.

For the inside, I used the Swirls stencils firstly with Black Starlight, and then with Platinum Texture Paste. 

For the outside, I used the Inky Script stencil with the Linen Shabby Chic Relief Paste. 

I finished by adding some Diamond Starlight Wax around the edges before returning the covers to the pages.

Cxxx