DIY Card

I was at a loss for ideas of what to do as a design for my brother-in-laws card.   I don't have a lot of "Men's" stamps.  I also couldn't come up with an idea in Craft Artist.  Eventually I decided to use my Card-io tool stamps and create his name with them.   He is currently in the middle of a lot of decorating; so hopefully it will amuse him.

Fairy Wands

 

What do you do when you are bored on a hot sunny day?   ...... well of course you make wands for your grandchildren - lol!  

The didn't turn out quite as planned, so have called them fairy wands rather than magic wands as they are very sparkly.

I started off with kebab sticks, onto which I threaded various sized beads.  I then got out the glue gun and glued an unusual shaped bead on the top with my glue gun.   The ideas was to make criss-cross patterns down the stick and over the beads, but it was more difficult than I thought  (you can see my attempt before the painting in the photo below.)

I then applied gesso to the wands - I did start off with one black gesso, one with gold gesso and one with silver gesso - but didn't like the gold and the silver - so applied black to all three.  I then added various gilding waxes in silver, gold, green, blue, pink, white and red in various parts.   I wanted some sort of jewels on the wands, but a) I couldn't find my pot of large jewels, and b) didn't fancy sitting sticking little jewels all over them!    I decided to use my Nuvo drops, but wasn't completely happy as they were a bit pale, so before they dried I sprinkled fine glitter over the wet drops.  Finally they had a coat of spray varnish.

If I locate my larger jewels, I may well add them later.

The mess of glue and beads before painting!

Yellow Roses

I prepared this mdf plaque a short while ago.  I loved the crackle, but it was too dark for the plaque I wanted to make.   Well I couldn't let it go to waste - so I painted some roses on it.

Wild seed heads

Birthday card for a crafting pal, using one of the new Clarity Dies.  Loving these dies.  I back the aperture with double sided sticky paper and added of the Clarity papers, and then sprinkled Pergamano glitter over it and rubbed it in.   I think you can just catch the hint of glitter on the paper.     The image was then matted on to some pale pink embossed card stock.

Freesias

                   

A pal's mother is 90 at the end of the month, and she asked if I could create something for her, as when they called in with some rhubarb for me the other week her Mum was admiring my fairy houses and other creations.  My mind went completely blank "what could I do for a 90 year old who suffers with dementia?"

I discovered that she loves the colour yellow and roses and freesias.   I knew I had a freesia stamp somewhere in my stash, but couldn't find it - so looking online I found this Clarity one, and knew it would be perfect.

I painted the mdf plaque from my stash with white gesso, then applied crackle paste and overpainted with a pale green/blue.   When the paint was dry I stamped the two images with black archival ink and added clear embossing powder.   The freesias were then painted with Pebeo acrylics.

I then applied two shades of blue distress oxides mixed with glycerine around the edges and in odd places.  A coat of spray varnish was added to seal the images.  The back was painted using the same colours as the front with highlights of distress oxides.  Finally pebeo gilding wax applied to the edge, and the string hanger added.

Fairy Houses

A friend's mother was admiring my fairy houses and other makes.  My pal asked if it would be possible to create something for her mum's 90th birthday.   Anything would do .... of course my mind went completely blank as to what I could make.   I have made these two fairy houses so far, and am currently working on a plaque.

The little houses are much more glittery in real life as in addition to sparkly paint, I finished them off with some Unicorn sparkles.  The one on the left was a jam jar and can have a battery tealight in it.  The one on the right started off life as a sauce bottle.

Watercolour Painting - Fields

This is the last one for the moment, as have now caught up with the demos on tv, with me painting along.

It seems the family are quite impressed, and I have had requests to teach eldest granddaughter, daughter and son and they of course hinted that they would need the special paint brushes too!   Looks like Christmas pressies are sorted, when the paintbrushes etc are next on special!!!!!  

Water Colouring - Lake Scene

Well I have been at it again, and am gradually working my way through the demos.

The grandchildren called in after I had just finished this one, and wanted to have a go!   So we spent the afternoon with a painting lesson.  ( A bit like the blind leading the blind, as I am still teaching myself)  The following were the product of the afternoon  Didn't they do well.

12 year old's

9 year old's

6 year old's
with a little experiment with masking fluid as she wanted waves

Watercolour Painting - Rapeseed field

Not quite so happy with this one as yesterday's, but as somebody pointed out the perspective is good.  Funnily enough the distant hills weren't supposed to be in the painting, but the paint decided to do it's own thing, so I just went with the flow so to speak.  (Sorry abut the pun)

The splatters on the rapeseed field were a bit splodgy, but it is early days.

Another attempt at watercolour painting

Well, undeterred, I tried another watercolour painting.   I like this one.   Perhaps I can teach myself to paint after all.

I am gradually rewatching the demonstrations and painting along with Matthew Palmer.   Basically it is all about learning to paint trees, although background do come into it to.

There will be another painting tomorrow.

Best Wishes Card

A little card for somebody who has broken her arm, so Best Wishes rather than get well.  Using one of the new Clarity dies, and baking paper.    Simple but effective.   I don't use a lot of dies, but this new collection is going to be a favourite.

Mixed Media Grungy Tool Box

One side

I suddenly realised that I hadn't posted the pictures of my little tool box, having earlier posted the work in progress photos.

Second side

I used various techniques with crackle paint, acrylic paints, stamps, distress oxides, stencils, spray inks, and crystal tints.  This is quite a deviation from my normal painting, but having been fascinated my examples of mixed media pieces, particularly those with a "grunge" them, I wanted to have a go.  It was sealed with Spray and Shine when I had finished to seal it.

One end 

The other end

With some of my tools in it 

Another view

I am quite pleased with the overall result, and if I get fed up with it - I can always apply some more gesso and start again!

More Paint Fusion - Planters

A finished planter

A pal liked what I had done to my hanging baskets and asked if I could paint some planters for her.  Once again I used the Black sparkle paint, this time silver sparkle.

The three finished planters

The first thing to be painted was the rose  (freehand)

To get the positioning right for the daisy, I stamped the
outline first with white acrylic paint before painting them properly

Attempting a watercolour scene

A case of don't give up the day job .... My first attempt at a watercolour scene, using some new paintbrushes I purchased.   I obviously need a lot more practise.  At least I know what I did wrong - the paint was too wet.

Good Luck for Exams Card

My eldest granddaughter starts her GCSE exams this week, so I made this little good luck card for her.

Space themed cake and card

A quick surprise cake for a family birthday.     He is very into space, the ISS and little did he know he was getting an R2D2 model for his birthday.  Rather than try and model an R2D2 - I designed a topper for the cake!

It then came to making a card, well confess I cheated and used the same/similar images for the basic design.

He was rather pleased with both.

If it doesn't move it'll get painted ....

 Yes it's a bit like that at the moment ....... am loving the sparkle paint so much.   This first project was to give a coat of paint to the rusty sun umbrella stand.   It has come up a treat.  (Mind you I am wondering whether a touch of gilding wax on the roses would look OTT).

revamped sun umbrella stand

Next on the list was a revamp of some bamboo wind chimes, that were last painted 7 years ago.

work in progress

The finished article.  As with previous posts I painted the bamboo with the black sparkle paint, and then using the paint fusion technique I decorated the chimes.

and the "dangler"

The wind chimes before I started - as you can see
 they had become rather faded over the years.

I decided to keep to the one theme of roses and daisies.   However, I do have another set of bamboo chimes, so perhaps they will have a more random painting on them  :)

Gypsy Caarvan (Vardo)

How could I have forgotten to share this.   It took up enough time to do, and the reason why I missed a lot of blogging.

Front

All painted with Pebeo acrylics with a little detail on the wheels done with pen.   Finally a coat of spray and shine to seal it. I think it is self explanatory of what I have done painting it - so pictures following are work in progress finishing with the start,

Perhaps the only thing I should add was that rather than have empty windows I painted some rice paper and stuck it behind the windows,

Side and Front

Side

Back

Work in progress - top painted and wheels etc added.

Wheels decorated

Close up of wheel decoration

The original start of the build

I had originally wanted the decoration on the front and back to be a bit smaller, but it was virtually impossible - so just went with the roses theme.

I hope you like it.

Sunshine again and more Paint Fusion

A pal fell in love with the makeovers I did of my hanging baskets and planters, and I volunteered to do some for her.   These were actually new orangey brown plastic.

I painted the planters with the black sparkle paint, and then painted the rose and leaves freehand, as well as the little rose decoration around the base.  As I wanted to ensure that the daisies were a consistent size, I actually used a daisy stamp and stamped with watered down white acrylic paint first for a faint outline as a guide.   The daisies were first painted in a light blue-lilac and then white, and then the centres were painted.

Finally a quick spray of Spray and Shine to seal the paint.

The three finished planters

work in progress the first rose

Showing the outline of the daisies before painting

A bit of Grunge - work in progress

Well with the recent miserable weather I have been going a bit stir crazy with cabin fever.  How unkind to tempt us with the lovely weather a week or so ago, and now it is back to mid-winter.   It has been so dark as well which is not conducive for crafting.  (Added to which I treated myself to a dining table and chairs recently and just don't want to risk messing them up - lol!)

Anyway as I couldn't get outside and do the painting that I wanted to, I did some "tidy" painting indoors - well perhaps tidy isn't the word as my inner grunge seemed to appear and quite a different sort of crafting for me.

As mentioned in the title these are work in progress,    Had fun with the MDF, using crackle paint and distressing with oxides,  I also stamped some images, and the flowers were embossed and then coloured with alcohol pens.   Looking forward to doing some more effects on it as the mood takes me.

The second item is the start of my Art Journal.  I had been a bit scared of starting it - what do I do?   Well having watched a demo by John Lockwood, and purchased a couple of items, I decided to play with what I had seen demo'ed and went from there.  Basically I was playing with oxides a leaf media plate and some feather stamps.  The page on the right was the excess from the brayer.

I then got carried away and added some stencil effects and on the right hand page I also experimented with different embossing powders.   I shall add more to these  - ok they look a mess at the mo, but I am told that you just keep going until you are happy with the result.

So watch this space as they say .... I may share more as the develop.   At least it whiled away a miserable day.