Dare to Dream

I do love the dreamcatcher die and stamp, so I used it for this November birthday card.  The dreamcatcher and trees were die cut from copy paper and stamped.   I then coloured them with Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens as an experiment.

The trees were coloured with black and green sparkle pens and cut up, and layered to fit the card.

I used one of my Clarity masks and created the setting sun and sky behind the masks (using Distress Oxides applied with a dry wet wipe and my finger).   I also used the skein of geese stamp from Card-io.  That sun seemed to be crying out for birds to be flying across it.

The sentiment was stamped using the Tim Holtz Stamp Platform (love the platform - makes it so easy to position and stamp) and finally added some glitter, and a quick outline along two sides of the card.

More Christmas Bell Jars

Following on from an earlier posting, I made these two jars for my son.   Very similar to the earlier ones, but a gold base with ribbon, and some Nuvo drops on the trees.

I was also very pleased that my daughter discovered some tealights that fitted the jars in Robert Dyas, so now little jar has a light in it, as so does the earlier one I made.

My Pumpkin - a Different Take!

As I said a different effect.  I had thought I would buy a white pumpkin, but they had sold out, and the grandchildren bought me an orange one (which was a nice surprise.  So last night I prepared it whilst Miss B was carving her Dad's pumpkin.   (I had made the three holes earlier with an apple corer)/

I applied white gesso to start with, and in hindsight as I decided to go with Pebeo blue/black iridescent paint, I should have opted for black gesso. (Hindsight is such a great thing - lol!).  So this morning I had to give it another coat.

I will also confess here that I originally left the mask area white. but as I was actually painting the pumpkin upside down when applying the gesso and blue/black - the mask was upside down - duh - fortunately I realised this last night, and painted over it!

Once the girls had gone home today, I sat quietly and painted the mask, which was mainly freehand, using deco paints, fine-line markers, pebeo markers and some cardio-stamps and distress oxides for some of the small flowers ane leaves.

I then used the Pebeo deco paints for the flowers and leaves, using the paint fusion technique, with some detail added with pebeo marker pens in white and black.

Another view 1

Another view 2

Another view 3

Th top

Hopefully what it will look like with a light in it

Quite pleased with the effect - I was originally going to dry and print the mask on tissue paper and decoupage it - but decided to have a go at freehand paint it.  (Those that know me will realise I am not very good at freehand drawing/painting so quite chuffed with my effort).

Grandchildren's Pumpkin Carving

Heart Pumpkin by Miss T (aged 5)  - carved with a little help from me
Cow Pumpkin by Miss C (aged 8) - all her own work

Had a busy day yesterday, I had the youngest granddaughters for a couple of sleepovers, and we did some pumpkin carving.   They drew out their designs on paper, and then they transferred them to the pumpkins.  (I have to mention here that my son said to me the other day that he was sure I didn't use half the stuff in my kitchen cupboards and drawers - well just as well I never throw anything away as I had exactly the right tools for pumpkin carving and scooping out!!!!!!)  
I also have to add that I have never carved a pumpkin in my life - so they had to show me how to do it as I was helping the 5 year old!

OOps!

Poor Miss B - finished helping her sisters scoop out their pumpkins, and done her own, she managed to drop it - so we have given this the name Tim Peake (as he said when he was in space he used elastic bands to keep his uniform in place!)

So we sent out for another pumpkin and she redid hers:

Barbara the Pumpkin by Miss B (aged 11)

and finally in the evening, Miss B carved a pumpkin for her Dad.  He chose the design (originally he had wanted the ghostbusters logo, but it looked rather difficult to carve - so he chose a design similar to this, that looks a bit like the face of Slimer the ghost in ghostbusters   Didn't she do a fabulous job!

Slimer the ghost by Miss B (aged 10)

If you want to know what I did ........ come back tomorrow!

Christmas Village and Bell Jars - WIP 3

completed items

As you can see I have now finished the bell jars and the village scene.

I coated the cake board with white gesso and then applied clear gesso with a palette knife.  Wow the effect was fantastic, just like glistening snow.   I had thought I might have to apply some glitter or  fake snow, but it didn't need it!

I also completed the bell jars.  These had white gesso and white paint applied to the bases and then washi tape applied around the bases.   The inserts had snow effect applied with eXpandIt mixed with white gesso and when dry some glue and artificial snow was applied.

Hope you can see the snow effect on this

And there follows various view, with and without domes. lights.

Christmas Village and Bell Jars - WIP 2

A bit more of the WIP today.   I happened to see this mirror candle plate in John Lewis and it was perfect for the village.  I also bought a cake board, which I intended to paint in a "snow" effect.  As you can see I have also started to paint the houses, using some mini stencils for the brick effect.

Having put the ornaments on the glass plate, I realised I need to paint the underside of the ornaments white!  Still a way to go to finish the painting as I want.

I also have these two bell jars, which were another kit, and you can see I have also started painting these.  (I applied glitter gel to the little brush trees, but will add white texture past as on the wooden ones, but then apply the gel over that.)   The larger one will have a small string of fairy lights added. (The lights came with the kit and have a tealight candle base,

You can see the brickwork effect on the houses, and I have since outlined the windows with white pen.

To be continued ...........

Anniversary Card

I received a birthday card from a crafting friend earlier in the year with concentric circles on it.  The effect fascinated me, and I had to ask how she had done it, thinking she had used some special dies - but no the effect was just done with circle dies ........ so I attempted to reproduce a version of it for my daughter's anniversary card.   

I don't have a lot of dies, and only a very small selection of circles - I may have to rectify that, as rather like the effect.  I cut these from gold mirri card.

The background paper was created using distress oxides in cracked pistachio, wild honey and pickled raspberry - randomly applied with a dry wet wipe and blended together.   The rose and leaves were also coloured with the same distress oxides.

I created the sentiment in Craft Artist.  I added Nuvo Jewel drops to the card in yellow, green and pink.  (The ones on the circles are actually translucent green.

Christmas Village and Bell Jars - Work in progress 1.

The start of the painting progress.

I am working on a village scene and some bell jars.   So for the next few days I will share my WIP (Work In Progress).

To start with a coated all the wooden pieces with clear gesso, and then built the houses and trees and started on the painting progress, using Pebeo decoCreme paints.

I then mixed some white gesso with some EXpandit paste and applied it randomly to the trees, the bases and roof of the houses.  This was then heated to create the snow effect.

Watch this space for the next step!

Quick Birthday Card

I hadn't realised it was a long time friend's birthday today, until I read Facebook.   Thank goodness for Craft Artist, particularly when you know you can't send a card through the post in time as the pal lives in South Africa!  I quickly designed a card for her that I could post on her page.

Dreamccatcher

I don't know about you, but I love dreamcatchers.   It took me a while to decide on the composition I wanted, but I think this simple style will be an ok for a male relative that often visits the States.

The dreamcatcher is a Sheena Douglass die, which I cut out of black card, and then applied Pebeo gilding wax to in various shades of gold.   I wasn't quite happy with the result, so I painted the top part of the feathers with clear gesso and painted them white with a little white luscious added to it.  I then took a fine micron pen and added some fine detail to the feathers.

The background was created using Distress Oxides and the trees were die-cut from copy paper and then stamped.  After I had stuck them to the background, I lightly swiped some of the twisted citron colour over the top.  Finally I added the sentiment.  All the dies and stamps used are by Sheena Douglass.

Experimenting

I had some new scrumptious goodies to play with this week.  Gold Gesso, Silver Gesso, Clear Gesso, Light and Fluffy Modelling Paste and Shimmery Goodness!   Yes they do sound exciting don't they.  I love them all, and am sharing an experiment with some of them,

A complete experiment as I had no idea what I wanted to do.  To do a fair trial I used plain MDF boards as a canvas (see last picture).

I painted the larger of the two boards with the gold gesso.  It covered really well and dried so quickly.  I thought this was probably due to the fact that it was on MDF - so I gave it another coat - this dried just as quickly - amazing.  I also did a quick test on some card and yes it dried very quickly on that too,

I also have some new distress oxides, so I decided to see how they reacted on the gold gesso.   I used a tree stencil from my Clarity Stamp Club and randomly stamped it across the board, moving it as necessary to cover the area, using twisted citron, peacock feathers and salty ocean.  I moved the stencil to give some shadows.

(with apologies for the shadow of me taking photo)

I applied the silver gesso to the smaller board, and using part of another Clarity Stencil - The rose, I applied the Light and Fluffy Modeling paste through it with a palette knife.    This too dried very quickly,   I then applied Distress Oxides again - using picked raspberry and seedless preserves, to give it some shading.

The small board was then mounted on the larger board.

Below is a photo of what I started with:

MDF board

Clay plate

Some time ago I posted pictures of some clay projects the youngest grandchildren had done.   At last the eldest of the three has managed to paint her plate.   (Mainly due to the fact that she was off sick from school and with me for the day).   It was a lovely afternoon yesterday, so as she felt a tad better we sat up in the Den in the sunshine, and she completed her project.

She fell in love with my Cosmic Shimmer iridescent shimmering watercolour paints, and wanted to use those.  I wasn't quite sure how they would work on clay, being water colour, but they worked fine.

I think she has done a lovely job for a 10 year old.

Acrylic Pouring

I fell in love with a demo on acrylic pouring.    I love my Pebeo fantasy paints and their quirky cell formation.   However this technique using normal acrylics and it doesn't matter whether they are cheap paints or not (you could even use tester pots of paint).  

Acrylic pouring is all the rage in the States at the moment, and is fast taking hold in this country and around the World.

The method I used was demonstrated by Jo from the Glass Hut (which also comes under the Bead Hut) if you are searching for them.)   This was using her pouring medium and pva glue and paints of choice.  I also added some cell medium at one stage.

Having watched load of demos on line (and also watching DaliArt using a slightly different medium this week, together with some paste pigments) I decided it was time to take the plunge.

First pour on left, second pour with cell medium (and no cells on left)

I mixed PVA glue (just cheap stuff from the Works) with an equal part of the pouring medium and then added a similar amount of white paint to one plastic cup.  I then made up two more mixes and me being me the ultimate alchemist (lol!) I decided to try using the brusho pigments rather than acrylic paint.   The result was a little thin - so I added a smidgen of white paint to the blue and the purple.

Having read a tip to make the paint spread more easily, I put a little of the white mix on the canvas and spread it with a palette knife.   I then poured a little of one of the colours into the centre of the canvas -I think I started with the purple.  I added some of the blue to the centre of the purple "puddle", then some white and repeated.  I then took a straw and blew the paint into a sort of flower shape.   I put a bit more paint in the centre of the flower and did another lot of blowing.   It didn't fill the canvas quite as I wanted, so I add some more of the colours around the edge of the canvas.  I then took a kebab stick and drew through the paint.

I then added a few drops of cell medium to the purple and blue cups, and did another similar pour, again using the straw and kebab techniques.  I didn't get many cells appearing - I either didn't mix it enough or didn't put enough in.

I also learned from the DaliArt demo that she poured using wet wipes in her "drip collector container" - so I had done this as you can see from the photo.    Apparently when they are dry you can then tear them up or die cut them.

I decided to tip the remaining paint over some wet wipes - this time doing a "dirty pout" which is where you start with the white mix, and then add the colours into it - alternating the colours. (I should have reserved some white paint to do this in hindsight).   Having poured it it onto the wipes, the first thing I noticed was all the cells appearing - oh bother - typical!  Undeterred I grabbed a small canvas and dropped it onto the wipes and lifted a print - tada cells!  I gave this canvas a quick blast with my little blow torch to help bring the cells to the surface more.

The "lift" with the cells!

The wet wipes after I had "lifted" a print

In hindsight I possibly could have lifted some more prints from this mess in the tray, but as I wasn't sure I didn't bother (but you can see the imprint of where I dropped the little canvas into the puddle.)

I left all the bits and bobs in the Den overnight - and of course it wasn't really warm enough for them to dry, so now they are indoors - However, I did lift the wet wipes from the tray and took some prints on some card from the paint that had soaked through the wipes, which I can use for die-cuts or backgrounds  

Anyway I think I am going to be hooked on this technique - just have to hope for some nice days so I can venture to the Den and get messy, and next time bring them into the warmth of the house, as I am still waiting for these to dry.  (I may get my heat gun out and try and speed the drying up slightly as no heating on in the house at mo.)

Hopefully I can say watch this space for some more dabbling.

Male Birthday Card

Back to Craft Artist for this card, and struck lucky with a freebie from G&T designs for some of the wording.  Just what I needed as inspiration was lacking and card need to be made and put in the post,

So simple - but sometimes less is more.