Ginger Lady

Another play.

She's been photographed on the hough - sorry for that.

She is square in real life - I think I'll put her in a frame as I quite like her

I just want to make clear that these are monochrome excises from a collage book - which you are encouraged to copy and colour and 'tweak'.

So I traced them and added circles and swirls and bits etc here and there to the little pictures which are smaller than these photos, and coloured them.

So I can't take any credit for the 'one eye' ideas or the basic styles. 

More experimental faces exercises

I am really out of my 'comfort' zone with these exercise faces.

Glitter, bright colours et al!

But I have to admit that they are a lot of fun!

Experimental

Be prepared to be shocked - it's shocked me!

I bought and second hand collage book from a lovely lady on a forum I belong to.

It took me completely out of my comfort zone.

Here is the first 'exercise'.

I used 'things I had to hand' and these were three flourescent marker pens, and a black one!

The exercise said to use glitter - yikes - I don't do 'glitter' either, but after a long rummage I found some which I got for my grandson - he likes bright colours and glitter.

On the Cardmaking Paradise Forum they had a link to a video that showed someone drawing Zetti borders.

Sadly this is nothing like the talented lady achieved - but it's my first attempt so I am happy with it - but whether I will be in the morning I don't know!

It's great to just play isn't it!

Well judging by your lovely comments - it certainly did the trick and shocked you!

I am working on some more  today - along the same theme but more subdued!

UK Stampers Easter Tag

I have spent the past few days on and off working on an Easter Tag for the UK Stampers tag competition.

Please click on the photos to see an enlarged photo

I started with a print of a Victorian Easter card.

I wanted it to look like a Victorian painting - but not wishy washy so I tried to build up layers to give it depth.
It's quite hard, I found, with water colours as you have to wait ages for the colours to dry, the go over it again with different tones

Funnily I found the egg quite a challenge - how to make the white paper to look not so flat.

So I gave it a wash of watered down grey, the added some blue and a hint of wishy washy peach.

I am quite pleased with the broken 'lid' of the shell lying on the grass.

 I did the same with the chick - close up it looks dark but it's lighter in real life.
I used several 'goes' with a black biro for his eye and beak

It's hard to get a decent photo of it - but it does look very vintage and the old gold
edging just seems to finish it off. I often use black but it's too harsh on this card

It's not often that I confess to being pleased with the results of my work, 

but actually I am with this - I'll add a silk ribbon, but didn't want to hide the painting for the photos.

Right - I am off to clean out my real life chooks!

Thank you so much for visiting

'Every Day Things' ATC swap on UK Stampers

I am so out of practise making anything arty crafty, so I too the 'plunge' and put my name down for the Every Day Things ATC swap on the UK Stampers Forum.

I have made quite a few ATC's and 'binned' the ones that I thought were not up to scratch, as I wouldn't like to send anything that I would not be pleased to receive myself.

So - above - I have stamped a music sheet background and 'discoloured' it to age the sheet.

The double base image came from a very old paper napkin which I received in a swap a few years ago from New Zealand - and a paper napkin is an 'Every day thing' too isn't it.

 I am not sure which way up this ATC looks better so here are two views. 

The actually colouring in the one below - don't know why it looks different vertically.

These are the every day things that an Eygptologist might have in his kit bag following a dig.

They are 'found objects' tied together on an 'old' lump of card with a written postcard ready to send home - Circa early 1920's.

I stamped the images several times on white card, stained and coloured it,  and cut out and collaged some of the elements - the egg, postcard, and stamp.  Then distressed it to look old

A painted and collaged ATC

 

Stuck indoors going stir crazy - the snow just won't stop!

So I messed about, messed up and messed about again and created the ATC above.

I was supposed to be trying to do one with the theme of Everyday Things, but kept messing them up so just went with the flow and this is the outcome.

There are 'scraps' of gold in the background and all around the edge - but it's not showing up apart from a tiny glint on the right hand side of the photo - my photography skills are not good!

Postcard swap

Well not only have I stuck my head up above ground, and rejoined the two arty crafty forums I enjoy, I have also taken another step and joined in the Post Card swap on UK Stampers

It really is such a friendly forum, and a number of members are designers for well known magazines in the UK and USA - as well as lots of suppliers.

Everyone is generous with their knowledge and help and support, and there is so much inspiration on the forum and it caters for all craft related hobbies - as well as stamping, collage, altered art, polymer clay, beadmaking, metal work - so many talented people on there and so many blogs too.

Soooooooooooo  after a long absence, I decided to jump in feet first and join in the monthly Postcard swap
What is even better - the postage is just the price of a postcard - so not expensive at all!  This month didn't have a theme, which suited me to start off with.

Joanne kindly offered some magazines on the forum, so I took her up on her offer and used one of the free stamps that were still attached to each of the magazines.

This first attempt at a postcard was inspired by the snow covered fields around the village where I live and the 'Mad March Hares' who do not care about the weather.

 

This looks rather pale on here but it is more colourful in real life.

I painted and stamped it straight onto the postcard which was a bit of a risk (understatement) and was quite pleased with my first attempt.  But in hindsight, I think that it would look better if the hares and the trees had been stamped in brown.  (The black marks in the sky are off the scanner screen and do not appear on the card)  I got lots of nice comments when I posted it on the forum, and some really good tips and advice on a better way to attempt the post card.  i.e. create your art work on a postcard size piece of card or watercolour paper if you are painting some of it - then glue it to the postcard - Eureka why didn't I think of that - so less risky!

So taking all the 'tips' on board I had another go today - it was far too cold and wet to go out so it filled a few hours for me - and avoided the dusting and ironing nicely!

Again this one is better in real life than the one dimensional and harsh scan.

The background is painted on thick watercolour textured paper, in soft hues of pale blue and lavender, so not these harsh colours at all.  The big butterflies were stamped onto painted smooth watercolour paper, cut out and collaged onto the card with finer details drawn on in pen.
The 'half a heart' is collaged on too, and it's not white - it's smooth water colour paper painted in the same pastel colours as the background but watered down.

I've been advised that I need to find a way to seal these as they need to be sent 'naked' as postcards, which I hadn't realised as I was going to pop each one in it's own envelope, but write on the actual postcard and attach a vintage stamp!  I painted them with watercolours so I can quite understand that if they get wet they will be ruined.

I'm on a learnng curve - so it's good to find out these things

Back at last

It's been a long time coming, but at last I feel like crafting again, and joining in on the couple of arty crafty forums I belong too.

The first thing I tried was creating a postcard - for a monthly swap.

It really was like trying to learn how to stamp and paint again.  I was quite pleased with my effort at the time - but with hindsight, there is a lot of room for improvement so I won't show it on here.

I also decided to join in a decorated beer mat swap.

As I haven't joined in for so very long, I took my theme from one of my favourite Jo Capper Sandon's sentiment stamps - which is 'Even Silence Speaks'.  I have it on display all the time and read it every day.

So, although the stamp does not appear on the front of the beer mat - it is stamped on the back

The stamp for this image I have had for years - but don't remember the manufacturer.

The lady looks so sad and thoughtful.

The butterfly is symbolic - said to be sent by a loved who's passed to cheer you up!

I have coloured the lady with pastels - it's a bit hard to see her pale pink face in the photo, and she has brimming eyes and tears running down  her face.

The butterfly I painted, and glossed too.

My 'take' on "Even Silence Speaks"