Colour is my Obsession - for This Thursday Challenge

This challenge has taken me way out of my comfort zone. I've gone bright, I've gone bold - and maybe a bit bonkers!

I drew on my experience of running a pre-school playgroup over 34 years ago - and loved messing around with paint with the little ones - so I guess I regressed to that of a three year old when I got out the brightest colours and played.


So think flower fairies, gingerbread houses, fairy cakes, and sunny days.


Mix them all together with some sparkles, fairy dust, lots of texture and tutus - and here you have it..................



My obsession with colour.

My thanks go to Paula who not only gave me the little piece of jigsaw puzzle you can see in a previous post below. But also a template for a house and a bird. (I drew around the template and added the chimney - take a look at her blog for the most fantastic cards - and Paula really does have a 'eye' for colours.

Jigsaw Puzzle Piece Swap - By the Sea

I received a little wooden jigsaw piece in the post for a swap. Sadly it was snapped in half right across the middle.

But I repaired it and decorated it with metallic acrylic paints, texture paste, embossing powders and tiny little shells I got from dismantling a charity shop necklace.

Here is a close up - with a tiny vintage image of a bathing beauty!

It looks all shimmery in wet with the naked eye but I can't quite capture that in the photos.


The back and sides have been painted metallic blue too - and the back has had waves painted on it.

Wings - for This Thursday Challenge

I found this quite a challenge this week. 'Wings' if only it had been that theme last week I could have entered my butterfly - so what could I do that was totally different?

After spending a few hours on an angel - I finally admitted defeat and started a totally different piece of art.

Firstly I chose a few images and then focussed on this one.

A lovely picture of a Japanese young lady.



I decided to age her by painting her with acrylics - to give a vintage oil painting feel to her. I cut out butterfly wings and colour washed them the same colour as I had painted her shawl.

Next I cut a small gothic arch and painted the background with acrylics - then collaged on top of it the wings and the lady. I painted her hair to fall down her back and wings to ensure that they looked part of her rather than added. I put that to one side and cut out a larger arch and covered it with a sheet of a Japanese newspaper.



I coloured this with TH distressed inks to match the colour scheme of the small arch. Then stamped a few small butterflies on top.

I mounted the small arch onto the top one and added gold leaf (which unfortunately is showing up quite bright in the flash light). In natural light the gold leaf gives it an aged effect - like peeled gold on wood.




I have photographed this at an angle to try and show the small arch edged to give an illusion that the girl is in a room looking out through an arched window.

More pieces of aged gold leaf, and textured with clear embossing highlighting some areas to add to the aged look and give it more depth as on the fan etc - it feels wonderful and looks so much better in real life.

MADJAK DESIGNS - Butterfly Stamp

I am entering this for This Thursday Challenge Blog


At last I got to use one of my beautiful stamps from MADJAK designs. It is one of a set of four ATC sized stamps and they are gorgeous - I am trying to do them justice!

After a visit yesterday from Paula I was inspired by the way she colours her backgrounds with different shades of ink - so I had a go. O.K. so it looks mainly black - but there are different shades to make it look like that!

After shading the backing card, I stamped out a butterfly on acetate and coloured the back with firstly alcohol inked gold - then once dry added red acrylic paint. Although you can't see it here - it gives the butterfly a lovely gold shimmer on top of the red. A bit like painting in reverse!

I had a whale of a time with textured paste - as you can see - and incorporated butterfly red, gold, silver, black shades, and white.

I stamped on layers of ferns - with the top layer having some sea foam embossing.

I sprayed some dried twigs black and that was 'sunk' in place with a No Nails product and coloured to match the rest of the texture.

The butterfly is resting on the twigs - its head is the 'bud' from a dried twig as cutting out the head and antennae of the butterfly out of acrylic was a bit out of my scope. The butterfly antennae are twigs with 'buds' conveniently on the top, painted with gold leaf

It hangs by gold thread at the top.

I would just like to thank Linda for the stamps, together with Zuzu, Ginger and Paula all of whom have inspired and encouraged me - and I think that their guidance and influence is beginning to show in my work.

A challenge from ATC Linda B

Well Linda - of ATC Linda fame set a challenge to make something black and white with texture - and here are mine.

Both were made the same way - a black and white picture I printed out and then painted over with watercolour and acrylic paints in some areas to highlight things and to give texture to the painting - with the intention of making them look like old oil paintings.

The borders were made by painting with acrylics and then when almost dry bubbling it up with a heat gun.

I used silver paint and made it look like pewter by painting on black water colour.





As well as painting over this picture I distressed it by painting on a lacquer and then heating it with a heat gun to make it bubble and melt and flow.

They look so much better in 'real life' than these scans portray. The frameworks really look like metal and they are both really tactile.

As you can probably guess I am very into touchy-feely things!

Altered CD door hanger for young teenager grandaughter

I painted this printed image in oranges and reds, and greens for the front and added the orange ribbon for this door hanger and added golden hightlights here and there which really enrich it - but do not show up on the scan



She loves her tabby cat - is mad about him - so I had to put a cat on the reverse. Gorgeous metallic bronze paint doesn't show up - but it really compliments the orange - which is her favourite colour at the moment.

Stamped swirls - and the heavily embossed, stamped and gilded cardboard initial of her name.

I did the same thing for the initial on the one below too.

Altered CD door hanger for young grandaughter

A door hanger for our youngest grandaughter. She is into glitter and cute and girlie things. The scanner does not pick up the gold painted star, the silver painted backing or the pale silver painted disc.

This was not planned as a 'work or art' but a fun little thing for a fun little girl





The reverse - to keep out brother and sister

Looks much better in reality - as it is 3D and glittery

Altered CD Christmas

A very traditional Christmas - Victorian Style - Altered Art CD





This took hours of work over several days - so I am keeping it for myself for this year

Gothic Arch for Mandy's Swap

Christmas Decoration for a swap on Zuzu's Forum

For both sides of this decoration I used stamped music scores on thick card. These I coloured with distressed inks to make them look Victorian which the girls are of course - enhanced with water colours, and embossed (differently) on both sides.

I varnished both sides to protect the finished work.



This looks so much better in real life. It is an altered thick plastic business card - really thick so was quite a challenge.

I got my son to drill a hole through it when I went to visit yesterday - then stuck on the trim and made the hanging loop today.

Sequel Stamp ATCs - Guernsey Postage Stamp

I painted a sea and sky background on white paper for the Guernsey stamp I chose to use.

Then just two stamped images - the seal looks dripping wet in 'real life' as he has been embossed too so is very shin.

Think Monday Think ATC

This week's challenge is 'Birds'

I used a scrap of white paper from a Japanese shopping bag - they have pretty ones as opposed to the brown paper bags we use over here.

It had very random little gold cranes imprinted on it.




I stamped the large Japanese crane and embossed it.

With acrylic paint, I painted layers of blue to give it a textured look and feel - symbolic of the sea.

As I painted further up I reduced it to a colour wash and the took out areas to form clouds.

I then edged it with the dark brown which I used for the stamping.

This is my first time doing the TMTA - I hope you like it - I had fund making it

My very first altered arch

Another all time first - an Arch - bigger than the ATC’s that I have been making so a different challenge. ‘All things pink’ is the theme for the swap.

I stamped pink swirls on mottled pink card then embossed them so to give a raised finish - and painted around them with several layers of gold paint to make them show up. Photos and scans of gold do not really show up well!

There is crinkled gold paper along the left hand side edge. The roses, dotted paper, gypsy image, and labels were all collaged on - and have been highlighted with sublte gold paint, then embossed. Again the embossing doesn’t look ‘right’ in the photo but does look nice and smooth with the naked eye.

I rather enjoyed making the arch so I think I will have another go at one in the week

Another go at the green ATC swap theme

I am going to keep 'plugging' away at the green theme ATC's until I get three that I like - or I may just enter one.

This is another go.

A stamped image which I took ages to paint with acrylic colours, several layers. I embossed areas with several layers too although it doesn't show up on here. The fish and other areas look really 'wet' and shiny.

There is also shiny gold highlights which look dull in this picture.

Still I have fun making it!