Wednesday 30 December 2015

Gelli Birthday!

Hello and welcome,

Here is a quick birthday card I made for a friend:

I cut down a gelli print - it was created with a round gelli plate and the most recent paint release from Paperartsy (Teresa Green, Granny Smith, Professor Plum and Captain Peacock).

I stamped the image and sentiment from a Paperartsy JOFY plate, added faux stitching and some white highlights on the flower ends.

Mounted onto black card then extended the flower stem by hand.

Hopefully she'll like it - it's certainly unique lol!

Claire xx

 

Friday 25 December 2015

Merry Christmas!

Hi All,

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it!

I just wanted to pop on to share a few cards that a made this year - I only made a few for close family this year as that was all that time would allow.

I used Paperartsy stamps for all of them and coloured using Spectrum Noir pencils.

Thanks everyone for looking and I hope you all had a lovely and enjoyable festive day!

Claire xx

 

Wednesday 25 November 2015

Show Us Your Face

I had a little play in my journal the other day to join in with Kim Dellow's blog challenge - Show Us Your Face In The Style Of......

So for the month of November Kim and the community have set the challenge to create in the style of another artist - I chose Australian artist Joshua Miels. Here is a link to a little introduction to his work. He has a great loose style in a mixed media based way so I was really drawn to his portraits.

Here is my take on one of his portraits:

She was created in my journal using Paperartsy Fresco paints, a black Pitt pen and some White posca pen splatters.

It's been so dark here taking photos was pretty difficult!

Here is the Joshua Miels portrait that I based my journal page on:

Thanks for looking,

Claire x

 

Saturday 21 November 2015

Butterflies in Blue

Hello everyone,

Today I'm sharing another three coasters I've created to make a full set of 6 as a gift - to see the previous three just click here.

The current theme for November over at Country View Challenges Blog is 'The Colour Blue' click here to pop over to see all the rules and DT makes.

So here is the finished trio of coasters:

The backgrounds for them were created by using a brayer to add Paperartsy Fresco paint and also stenciling with the paint too - I used a combination of these paint colours:Sky, Mermaid, Beach Hut, Ice Blue, Lake Wanaka and South Pacific.

I added background stamping with second generation potting soil archival ink using the lovely big text/numbers collage stamp from Paperartsy Hot Picks HP1501.

Then I stamped in the grasses along the bottom of each coaster using Cornflower Blue archival - the grasses are from Paperartsy Hot Picks HP1009 stamp plate.

Next I stamped all the main butterflies and text onto the coasters using black archival. All the stamps except one are Paperartsy from sets ID10 and HP1506. The one little butterfly on the middle coaster is from a Prima set by Finnabair.

I edged each coaster using black archival with some cut and dry foam as I still need to seal them so needed a permanent ink.

And finally here is each coaster individualy:

Not sure really if I prefer the green or blue version - but they are all going to get sealed and wrapped up together to be a special Christmas gift :)

Thanks for looking today,

Claire xx

 

Sunday 8 November 2015

Butterflies x3

Hello,

Today has been the most awful day weather-wise! Rain, wind, dark and gloomy all day long - so this afternoon I took to my craft room to create another entry for the current Paperartsy challenge, which is Triptychs. Click HERE to visit the Paperartsy blog for all the details.

So I decided to create a trio of coasters - a little bit like Trish on the blog the other night but in a much more nature inspired colour palette:

I started my brayering Fresco Finish paint onto all three coasters in the following colours: Teresa Green, Tinned Peas and Limelight. I wanted to add the effect of texture to the coasters but not any real texture or they would be no good as coasters! So I used my favourite TCW stencil to add a textural effect and sponged Hint of Mint through it.

Here are all three coasters together:

And a close up of one of them:

Next I added some background stamping - for this I used second generation Potting Soil archival ink. I used stamps from the Hot Picks butterfly set HP1506 and also the lovely large collage stamp from HP1501:

I then stamped in second generation Olympia Green Versafine the birds and grasses stamp from HP 1009 along the bottom of each coaster.

Next I stamped all the main butterflies and text onto the coasters using black archival. All the stamps except one are Paperartsy from sets ID10 and HP1506. The one little butterfly on the bottom coaster is from a Prima set by Finnabair.

I edged all three in smudgy Little Black Dress Fresco paint.

Here are the three of them individually:

 

 

A nice little play on a very dreary afternoon :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Claire x

 

 

Saturday 7 November 2015

A Hanging Triptych

The current theme over on the Paperartsy blog this fortnight is 'Triptychs'

I have created a hanging triptych using an A4 sheet of super heavy smoothy card for my challenge entry.

Here is my finished project:

Here it is at the start, with random old book pages and bits of washi tape stuck to the smoothy:

I then brayered on Fresco paints, I used Teresa Green, Granny Smith, Captain Peacock, Professor Plum, Limelight, Zesty Zing, Bougainvillea, Snowflake - maybe more but I can't remember! Then I stencilled using a variety of TCW stencils and used Little Black Dress mostly along with Snowflake, Captain Peacock and Professor Plum.

I stamped the clouds, raindrops and flowers onto old plain book pages using black archival. The stamps are by Carabelle studio - the Birgit Koopsen collection.

Then I cut up my brayered panel into three pieces.

I cut all the elements up and added them to the panels, adding a bit of shading using a grey Pitt pen. I edged around each panel with some Little Black Dress.

I added the words which are from Tim Holtz - the big chat stickers, I then added a bit of white doodling around them.

I used my cropadile to punch the holes in each of the three panels then assembled them into a hanging panel using black waxed thread.

Thanks for looking,

Claire x

 

 

Wednesday 28 October 2015

Spooky Happenings

A little bit of Halloween fun here today......
Two ATC's created by blending distress inks on to the background.
Added a bit of stencilling and some white paint pen splatters.



Stamped out the Halloween images from a Stampendous stamp set I've had for eons and coloured using distress markers, cut out and layered up onto the ATC's using foam pads or cosmic shimmer glue.




Added some shadows with a Pitt pen and edged them with black ink.
I'm entering my ATC's over at The Craft Barn blog where the theme is 'Halloween' click HERE for all the details and also over at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog where the challenge is Haunted Halloween, click  HEREfor all the info. 

Thanks for looking,
Claire xx

Sunday 25 October 2015

Faces - Willowing Style!

Hi Everyone,

So I couldn't sleep last night so decided to have a go at another face as I'd enjoyed creating yesterday's face so much. So another person Leandra mentioned in her intro blog post HERE was Tam aka Willowing. I've long admired Tam's work and style of faces so was extremely pleased to see she has one of her 2015 Lifebook lessons open for free for four weeks as a little taster for Lifebook 2016.

So I watched all of the videos and there is also a very detailed PDF that accompanies the videos too.

The reason I wanted to try this technique was because I try to draw faces all the time but somehow - no matter how hard I try - they always seem to end up looking very similar!

So this technique involves using magazines to collage a background and uses a face from a magazine as a starting point for your page.

I didn't do a whole collaged background as I was working on a journal page that already had a pretty busy background - this is how it started out:

I cut up a picture from a magazine, added it to my page with gel medium, added random washi tape here and there then covered the page with clear gesso:

So there she is - the starting point......I spent a long time faffing with her skintone, adding highlights and lowlights to her. I used Paperartsy Frescos in Buff, Blush, Vintage Lace, Little Black Dress, Snowflake and Mocha Mousse.

And here is how she looks now:

Her eyes are Sky Fresco and her lips are Prawn. Originally I had planned red hair for her but when I blocked out the area in Snowflake to make her hair pop I decided I quite liked her with grey hair so she stayed Snowflake and Elephant coloured.

Her clothes were painted using Merlin and stencilled with a TCW stencil and Proffesor Plum, Granny Smith and Captain Peacock.

All the black fineline detail was added using a Faber Castell Pitt pen.

I'm quite happy with how she turned out - and I'm so pleased she looks completely different to the original magazine girl.

I'm entering her over at the Paperartsy blog HERE.

If you'd like to see Tam's free taster Lifebook 2015 video then you can check it out HERE.

Thanks for visiting today,

Claire xx

 

 

 

Saturday 24 October 2015

My Green Eyed Girl

Hi Everyone,

The challenge over at Paperartsy this fortnight is 'faces' I usually would have been straight to this kind of challenge but I've been away on my hols so just scraping in last minute!

So I looked at all the inspiration Leandra had lined up for us on the introduction blog post HERE and watched the video of Dina Wakley drawing a face - I'd never seen her doing faces before and decided to give her style of face drawing a try :-)

So I started out with a page that already had some background journalling on as she suggested - this is a page from my Birgit Koopsen workshop journal from a couple of months back:

I didn't take any 'in progress' photos but here's how it turned out:

I thought the background looked a bit boring but didn't want to overwhelm my girl so just added a little bit of stamping:

So there she is - my first Dina style, scribbly face. She's been drawn with a black Stabilo all pencil, painted using Paperartsy Fresco paints in Buff, Snowflake, Little Black Dress, Blush, Prawn and Jade. Her hair was painted with Tikka, Chutney and Snowflake. And the additional stamping was from Paperartsy hot picks plates 1501 and 1506.

I'd also like the link my girl over at Show Your Face on Kim Dellow's blog HERE

Thanks for looking,

Claire xx