Freehand painting

I had an attempt at freehand painting today.  I think the flowers are just about recognisable.  I realised that I should have used a black background, which would have made it "stand out" more, but I had used my pre painted black oval! (and I didn't really want to have to wait for a black background to dry first.)

As I wasn't completely happy with the white background, before I varnished it I used my dusting brush and some blue distress ink, which solved the problem.

More Cloud Clay Experimenting

 

Following on from yesterday's post I finished off the items I was preparing, and put some ribbon on the pink rose hearts.

 

The white roses have been painted and stuck on the plaque, and I made some black roses and leaves and put them on the white hearts I had prepared.

Experimenting Again.

 

 

I have been playing with my cloud clay again.    My original intentions had been to do some black and white creations, and I have been prepping by painting hearts and ovals with either white or black gesso mixed with some modelling paste and applying it with a palette knife to give a stippled effect, and then painting with acrylic.  (I was even very good and painted the backs - I normally forget that as I am so keen to work on the front of my work and then have to make good the back later!!)

 

Having prepared the roses from cloud clay for the hearts in the first picture, I suddenly wondered whether to keep the roses white or to try and paint them to create a sort of "Capodimonte" finish.  After much deliberation and a vote on Fb, I decided to paint the hearts and leaves.  (and yes I do know that one of the leaves had slipped on the middle heart - and that was rectified after I had seen the picture and before the glue dried!).

 

I am quite pleased with how the roses and leaves have turned out, as I have never painted anything like this before.  I have made roses in sugarpaste and have dusted them, but never painted them, so getting the pink edges to the rose was a real experiment.  I painted the leaves "paint-fusion" style with a double loaded brush,  Really pleased with them.

 

The middle picture is a vague layout for the plaque, and I am going to stick with monochrome for this one - the clay flowers need to be painted and glued on.

 

The final picture was a couple of coasters I was working on whilst waiting for paint and varnish on the clay to dry!    Not too happy with the top one - I had the brush upside down so the outer edge is red instead of white! The main experiment was to try something different for the background which was achieved by brushing brown and gold paint on double-loaded brush style, and then using a natural sponge with both colours on and "splodging".  I liked the effect.  I also wanted to do some random leaves as a background, but not too happy with how they have turned out - I should have painted the roses first I think and then just added some random leaves, as I did on my pot in an earlier post - but you have to experiment, and I can always start again!

 

Working on the monochrome theme  I shall work with my black cloud clay and create another set of hearts and a plaque on a white background.

 

and just as an afterthought - I imported the pictures into CAP2 to create the layout!

Anniversary Card

It is my son's Wedding Anniversary today, and this is the card I created for him in CAP.  I actually made the "frame" for the picture myself, so quite pleased with achieving that and learning a new technique.

Birthday Cards

 

I have been CAPping again, for two Birthdays recent birthdays.  The first one is for a great nephew using the Bloke digikits.

 

The second is for a very old school friend (not old in the age sense, although we will both be celebrating an "0" milestone next year) but old meaning long standing!

 

I saw this image in one of my digikits and just knew I wanted to used it - as my pal collects and sells postcards amongst much other ephemera.   The digikit is Hearts and Roses from Hearts Designs, and are images drawn and painted by local artists in East Sussex.

Upcycling

 

As I had to remove these pots from the windowsill to get to the curtains on my landing to wash them, I decided to give them a makeover.

 

They were both purple before, which matched my cloakroom colours some years ago.   The one on the left was always purple, but the one on the right had been a natural sort of cream colour, which I had painted with just some emulsion to compliment the bought one, some years ago.

 

I decided to do a paint fusion job on them and change the colours to match the decor and curtains!

 

 

 

As you can see the one above has a relief image on the pot, so I attempted to recreate the grapes and vine in the fusioning.  I even applied a little matching paint to the top of the plantpot inside the planter.

 

This one was just a smooth finish, so I opted for a few random paint fusioned roses and leaves.  It has certainly given the pots a new lease of life and the look really good in situ.

Flowerpot Makeover

 

 

Two of my granddaughters had flowerpots to decorate for a National Trust competition.   They have nurtured the geraniums from small cuttings, and they have flowered beautifully.  Unfortunately typical for the final day most of the flowers had finished!  (although there are more to come).

 

Needless to say they wanted to decorate them in the Den.   We had started to run out of time to get them done, so they had a little help from me preparing the white surface and getting it dried before they set to work decorating them, although they learned how to do the stippled effect themselves with modelling paste and titanium white acrylic.

 

With two days to spare, they managed to get the little wooden decorations painted and stickles applied, and then got them stuck on to the pots.  The 7 year old didn't paint so many - she is a bit of a perfectionist and was a little slower than her 4 year old sister - who I think was painting shapes like there was no tomorrow!

 

The finished efforts looked fantastic, so I created a little memory page for them in CAP, with a background created from a couple of pictures of my craft den to set off their efforts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quick cake!

Well it won't win any prizes in the Great British Bake Off, but it was a bit delish!

 

Just a plain victoria sponge with chocolate buttercream filling and icing!

 

 

Cloud Clay Picture Frame

Another little experiment with Cloud Clay.  I positioned the flower so that if the frame is set in the portrait orientation, the flowers and butterfly would still be "balanced".

Black acrylic paint and pebeo modelling paste mixed together were applied to the black frame with a palette knife to give a textured finish.   The flowers and leaves were applied whilst the paint was still wet so the paste medium acted as a glue.  Stickles were then applied around the frame.

The flowers, leaves and butterfly were created from Cloud Clay using some cake decorating plunge flower cutters, and when dry painted with Luminarte Primary Elements mixed with the all purpose glaze.

Simple Birthday Card

For once a change from digital crafting!  (I believe this is now known as hybrid crafting).  I decided to use some of my stash and give the cuttlebug an airing.

The Happy Birthday and the strip over the ribbon were made using dies.  The flower and buttons are Docrafts, but in addition to the button in the centre of the flower I added some "caviar" that I bought in Poundland!  Caviar from Poundland?  That sounds a bit upmarket - but no it is nail caviar - 6 pots for a pound! 

Experimenting in the Den

 

I managed to get up in the Den on Thursday and have a play.  I had managed to get some more Cloud Clay and wanted to experiment some more.   This time I used Black Cloud Clay.

 

The first piece was a tiny easel with a canvas, that I purchased at the works.  I painted the canvas, with some pale green paints.  I rolled out the Cloud Clay and stamped into it with some of Sheena's stamps, and then cut around the edges of the flowers and leaves.  They were then painted with a random mix of metallic green and blue acrylics to give the teal finish, and mounted on the canvas.



Mini Canvas

 

 

 

The next experiment was using the Black Cloud Clay again, but modelling roses, and using a cutter for the leaves.  Even though I used the black clay, I did still paint them with black acrylic.  The canvas had Pebeo modelling paste spread across it and was stippled with a palette knife.  When dry it was painted with titanium white acrylic.   (Quite pleased with the texture - perhaps I could get a job doing artex! )

A5 Canvas

 

Finally, I fixed the flower spray to the canvas and gave it a spray of Crafter's Companion Spray and Shine.  

 

I am really pleased with this canvas - in real life it almost looks like wrought iron/metal work.

Anniversary cards & Cakes and a "CRAFT" Moment!

 

Ruby Wedding Card

 

It was my sister-in-laws 40th Wedding Anniversary at the weekend, and we had a lovely party at their house in the New Forest, catching up with most of the family.  (My daughter and her family weren't with us as she and my eldest granddaughter were at International Scout and Guide Camp).  This was the card I made for them using CAP2 and my new digikits.  The background is silk effect from one of Joanna Sheen's cds (can't remember which one - but I have it saved on my computer as I find it an extremely useful background, which I can colour as required)

 



Anniversary Card

 

It was also my niece's wedding anniversary on the same day and this is the card I made for them - also using CAP and the new Hearts Design Digikit.  (I wasn't sure when I added this purchase to some other digikits whether I would really use it - It has such lovely elements in it, I am really glad I did buy it.)

Cake

I made the cake!

Cake - another view

It was also Mike's sister's wedding anniversary (not sure if it was the same day), and they arranged for the youngest grandchildren to present bouquets of flowers to the other anniversay couples, from the ruby Wedding couple.  I also got the same bouquet for making the cake.  

 

The three anniversary couples.

There is also a little "funny" story to add.  I was convinced it was my niece's Silver Wedding.  I knew she got married the same day as her mum and step-dad, and I was convinced it was on their 15th Anniversary - but I got it wrong!  Fortunately I realised before I had finished making her card (for some reason I decided to check the marriage records on line - obviously my guardian angel was looking out for me, so I didn't make a complete fool of myself!)

However, I had decided to make her a surprise cake - well it turned out the surprise was on me as I had started to ice it before I realised my mistake - so we have had a rather posh cake to eat at home this week, instead of the lemon-drizzle one I had planned!

So instead of adding names and some more elaborate decoration on the sponge.  I added the prepared flowers and wrote the work "Summer" on it!



"Summer" Cake

 

I did "fess up" to my mistake, and we all had a laugh - particularly as I am the keeper of the "Family Tree" so should have known better.  (Thank goodness that guardian angel made me look at the records!)