One and a half blokey projects

Hello there.

Time for me to post my entries for Hels Sheridan's Sunday Stampers challenge #262  - My Guy (here) and Anything But a Card #21 - Masculine (here)

I've  recently completed my June tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013 (you can see mine here and his here) and I enjoyed his watercolour technique so much that I decided I'd do another Tim inspired tag but with a blokey theme.

Best laid plans and all that...

I started off with the water coloured stamped images and was reasonably happy with how things were going until I inked the edges of the piece and then I smudged my dapper chappie's hat so badly that he looks rather  seasick...

See what I mean?

And I wasn't happy with the way the Forest Moss DI bled in from round the edges.

So, back to the drawing board. I was happy with my tag background (sorry didn't get a photo) so decided to use my Umbrella Man die to cut out a black silhouette. A typed quote and a bit of inked seam binding and Bob's you uncle - one and a half completed blokey projects.

What a surprise - there's that Cactus Annie text stamp again!

I quite like the giant raindrop effect.

By the way, I'm saving the watercolour to collage on to a journal  page at some point as after sleeping on it I actually quite like it.

That's all from me, have a great weekend.

Sunday Stampers Challenge #260 and exciting news

Good afternoon all!

I hope the weather is as lovely with you as it is here this afternoon.

Two things to talk about today - the first is my entry in to the Sunday Stampers Challenge over on Hels Sheridan's blog (here). It has been weeks since I've managed to squeeze in a Hels challenge so when I saw that this week's challenge theme was the word DREAM I decided to enter my latest journal page. So here it is...

Some detail shots...

 

The background was created using three shades of blue acrylic paint sponged over a white brayered  base coat and then I had fun building up the layers with some splodges of yellow, finger painted on, black ink pressed through a Stewart Gill mask and finally loads of stamping with both Midnight Blue Staz-On and Jet Black Archival.

My Whimsy Girl's face was drawn on sketching paper then coloured with Neocolor IIs and her hair with Promarkers. After cutting her out I adhered her to the page with Matte Medium and thankfully a stiff brayering (over some scrap paper) got rid of most of the wrinkles. (Sketching paper is NOT the right substrate for Neocolors!)

A few extra stamps, white gel pen highlights and "grounding" her on the page with a graphite pencil around her outline and there we have it - my first ever "portrait" and a page I am quietly over the moon with!

My second piece of news is that my little creative space is shortly to appear in Featuring: magazine, a quarterly mixed media and art journaling magazine. Featuring is doing a piece on Julia Dunnit and the phenomenon that is What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (details here). I was thrilled to be chosen to submit a photo of my craft room for the article. (unfortunately my photo is on the underneath page below)

You can find out more about Featuring: here.

Well that's all from me today, enjoy your evening!

P.S. I've been doing some insomnia blog hopping and I'm also going to creep in under the wire and enter this page over at the Anything But a Card Challenge #20 "Dust off your OLD supplies". I think this qualifies as the paints have been un-opened in my stash forever and the same goes for some of the stamps!

Get me - not crawling in under the wire! Sunday Stampers #244 and ABAC #12

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day to you and a very big thank you to all my WOYWW visitors who inspired me to carry on with a project which - if I'm honest - was a bit like pulling teeth!

Any way... 

I can't believe this is my THIRD post of the week - (OK I'm only managing this because I'm ironing on a need to wear basis!) I wanted to get my submissions in for Sunday Stampers (Endless Love) and Anything But A Card (Share the love) without having to rush (too much).

So here is my offering...

And here are some detail shots

(Handmade lace flower)

I have never done a project that has been such a roller coaster ride as this one! 

I loved my initial background stamping, but OH DEAR when I added colour to the canvas AAARGH!!! I hated it, not even my favourite crumpled tissue paper trick worked - it looked more like something from Chainsaw Massacre than Endless Love! So on Wednesday (gosh was that only yesterday?!) a coat of gesso and a rapid retreat were called for. 

After a spirit lifting voyage round the WOYWW world and some kind and uplifting reciprocal visits, I hit my craft room in a flurry of lace and flowers this morning and - in my eyes anyway - a phoenix has risen from the ashes! (or maybe that should be splashes? - groan)

Here or the (now not so gory) details

Canvas

8x8 ins Daler Rowney canvas board

Die

Sizzix BigZ / Tim Holtz Alterations - Caged Bird

Stamps

Background text - Paper Artsy Hot Picks HP1006; Tiny Harlequin - unknown

Winged heart and rose vine - Kanban Stamp 09

Inks

Images - Ranger Archival - Jet Black (second impression used for rose vine)

Background - Distress Stains - Spun Sugar, Fired Brick, Weathered Wood

Bird cage - DI - Vintage Photo

Scroll - DI - Antique Linen

Markers (for colouring heart) - Promarkers - Ruby, Cardinal  Red

Wings - highlighted with Sakura Gelly Roll Clear Star

Paint

Bird cage - Hobbycraft acrylic - antique gold

Other

Embossing powder - (bird cage) Stampin Stuff - Vertigre

Cream cotton lace

Vintage brass button

Mulberry paper roses

Red foam roses

Heart shaped deco pin 

Well that's all for now, I'm off to post my links, hope you like the end result, see you soon.

Having a little proud moment...

I've just found out that I was made a Featured Artist for my "These wings were made to fly" project over at the Anything But a Card challenge. I'm SO thrilled!  It really is nice to be picked for something like this as it gives your creative confidence a massive boost!

To save you scrolling through all my posts (although please do if you feel so inclined!) here is a pic of the finished project and if you want to see the details and a mini tutorial the link is here

I must confess that I'm itching to do another altered dress form soon -  it was such a fun project to do, I think I'll go shabby chic with the next one as I do love the vintage look, mind you the possibilities are endless aren't they?

On a completely different note I just wanted to share with you some Colouring In Therapy I have been doing over the past couple of weeks or so. My lovely Mum and the Mini Moonshines gave me some Copic Markers for Christmas and I have been having a very soothing and relaxing time practising my colouring technique. (At the moment Colouring In is my go to stress buster. I simply ink up a stamp (Molly Blooms being my absolute favourite for this) and colour my worries away (OK Copics aren't cheap but I'm sure they're better for me than chocolate!)

Here are my first efforts - and even if I do say it myself I don't think they're too bad for a beginner!

The faces of the next two images were coloured using Promarkers (before I got my Copics) and although they are nicely shaded the complexions are a bit washed out looking. (The clothes are Copics.)

I LOVE this Molly Blooms stamp! The jeans are coloured with Promarkers and everything else is Copics. You can see that the complexions are much warmer with the Copics.

A couple of close ups of Molly with wings just to show how using a white gel pen really adds fantastic highlights to the finished piece. (The red of the heart and candy cane are Promarkers)

If you've ever looked at other artists cards and coloured stamped images and wished you could do it too - you can! There are loads of colouring with Copics/Promarkers tutorials on YouTube and at the end of the day - if it all goes horribly wrong just re stamp your image and try again - it's only paper and felt tips!

Hope to see you soon