Keeping it simple

A simple card today for a man.   Stamped with a freebie stamp from a craft magazine that was designed by Sheena Douglass, using Distress inks on watercolour card and then shaded with the add of a little water.  The card was then edged with the same distress ink, some nuvo drops added to create a faux brad effect;  and a bit of sparkle pen highlights.

The sentiment was from the same set of stamps and given the same treatment as the main image.

All mounted on cream pearlescent card.

Good old fashioned baking!

meat and veg pie

A bit of old fashioned baking the other day.  I decided to cook up some mince for tea, and I tend to batch cook when I did this - so I ended up cooking a batch of mince and various  mixed vegetables.  I had a portion for my dinner, but whilst it was cooking I knocked up a quick batch of pastry and made a meat and veg pie from the remaining mince - that will do me 8 meals over the next few weeks!

Of course there was some pastry leftover - so I made a few jam tarts - they may not look fancy but remind me of the ones my mum used to make.    There was also still a bit of pastry left, so I made a handful of cheese straws!   (Waste not, want not.   My husband was always pleased when I made any pastry as he knew he would get jam tarts with the leftover pastry, but I would never set out to make jam tarts!  )

little jam tarts and some cheese straws

Birthday Cakes

Following on from previous posts a cake for the birthday girl and some butterfly cakes.   My granddaughters don't like sugarpaste and I wanted to do a little cake for her (It's only 6" square). 

Limited by the fact that it has to be sponge and buttercream, I attempted to make a little record player cake.  The record is chocolate leather and the arm chocolate sugarpaste.

I also made some butterfly cakes, as that is her and her sisters favourites.   No fancy modern cupcakes for them - good old fashioned butterfly cakes!

Card for a Teenager

A simple card created with images from the net for one of my granddaughters who is absolute mad on Bohemian Rhapsody.  She wants a record player for her birthday, and little does she know she is also getting a Bo Rhapsody LP from one of the rellies too.   I think she will approve of this card.

Work in Progress - Apron

I started this apron last year, but as it needs a large space, I need the better weather we have had this week to work on it.   I spent one day painting all the different items,  and then the next day cutting them out and glueing them on with fabric Slap it on.

I still have the ties to do, and I am thinking of doing some stamping on it in some of the blank areas, and then painting them.

Fairy Cake Toppers

Just a quick topper for some fairy cakes  designed in Craft Artist for a family birthday

Allium Birthday Card

 This is the card I made using one of the alcohol ink pieces I shared yesterday.   The image was die-cut and mounted on to blue mirri card.

I used a matching Allium stencil from Clarity on the cardstock and brushed some blue Distress Oxide through it very lightly.

The die-cut was mounted on the card and a sentiment also cut from blue mirri card added.   Finally I added a few blue Nuvo drops.

Playing with Alcohol Ink

 I had a little play with alcohol ink the other day on Yupo paper.   Not a lot I can say about them, as I just dropped on the colours and they did their own thing.

I tried to do a geode first of all, and I am pleased with how it turned out.   Two photos, one taken indoors and the one below in sunlight.  

I then tried an experiment using a stamp on the ink, which I had seen demonstrated on tv by Maria Moorhouse.  She used an alcohol ink removal pad .... well I have ordered oe, but it hasn't arrived, so I tried with alcohol clean up solution on some Phat foam.   It didn't work that well - maybe I had too much depth to my ink   (Maria originally did this technique on lastic).  I then decided to overstamp where I had attempted to take the ink out by using white Posca pen on the stamp - yay it worked as you can see.

Two photos again taken indoors and also out in the sun.   The colours of the stamped image are more realistic to those on the actual image, but the photo below shows up the sparkles more, which can also be seen on the actual piece.

I have die-cut this image and used it on a birthday card, which I will share tomorrow.

MDF Geode - Work in Progress

 Excuse the messy  photo - paint pouring can be a messy business.  I hope you can see where the geode ends against the mess underneath.

This was a first experiment for me.  I had tried to pour the paint in rings, but it decided to do its own thing, even though it was on a levelling table.   The colours are blue, turquoise, green, black, white and purple (created by mixing red and blue).   I used ready prepared pouring paint from the Glass Hut.

So okay it did it's own thing and I wasn't to sure about it - but I threw some glass chippings on it (from Dunelm) and hoped for the best.   I wasn't sure whether it would work or whether I would need to try and colour the glass chippings with alcohol inks first (that will be a different experiment I think).  When it is dry I will apply some clear resin over it.   It takes a few weeks for the paint to "cure" before I can resin it - so will share a picture of the finish article in due course.

I have another geode blank and that is currently drying with white gesso on it, and I shall try and pour that one with just resin  (watch this space)

Violin

I treated myself to one of the Bizarre-ology violin kits.   Here it is made up.  and here it is painted ....

The paining didn't quite go to plan - I originally wanted a crackle finish on it - but my crackle didn't really want to work - actually it was so fine yo could hardly see it.    However undaunted I kept going!

I started by applying white gesso, the Pebeo Dyna blue/green paint.   I then applied buff titanium mixed with  crackle paint.  It was then dry brushed with gold and silver paint and some was applied by scraping across the surface with a palette knife.

I then applied some rice paper images that had a bit of music on them, and added a little more titanium buff and gold to blend them in around the edges.

I add flat back pearls to the keys, and a smidgen of gold paint to the strings (which were supplied with the kit and had a little sparkle in them).  I also applied a little buff titanium and gold pain to the ribbon on the bow.

It needs a coat of varnish and I am waiting for my matt varnish to arrive, though I may change my mind and paint it with a glass varnish if I don't like the matt finish.

Birthday Cakes

Earlier in the week I shared the picture of a topper I designed for a birthday cake - well here it is on the cake.

and here are the cupcakes:

close up of one of the cupcake topers

Granddaughter's card

I had two of my granddaughters a couple of evenings ago, and the 7 year old asked if she could use the computer whilst I was preparing dinner, as she wanted to use Craft Artist.  Of course I said yes as I know she likes to play on the programme sometimes   Well this is what she made .... card for her Dad - isn't it brilliant - she designed it all herself.  I showed her how she could add shadows and "edges" if she wanted, once she had finished her layout, as she had never tried that before - and away she went.

She chose some white pearlised card to mount it on, and then that was mounted onto cream pearlised card.

I did help her slightly with the insert, but more by helping her with the layout settinG - she did the rest.   Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of her finished card, but I did save this picture of the topper.

Toppers for a Birthday Cake

 Following on from yesterday's post here are my designs for cake toppers (created in Craft Artist)).

What do you put on a cake for a man.  Well he is a computer geek - so I kept it simple. 

 The one above will be for a cake and will be printed on sugarpaste.

The one below will be printed on small discs of wafer paper and put on cupcakes.  (Of course I will be making both cakes, but again they will be simple as the grandchildren don't particularly like sugarpaste decorated cakes, but love a victoria sponge with buttercream.  Makes my life easy!)

If I remember I will take photos of the completed cakes

You're having a firaffe.

It is my son's birthday next week, and I couldn't resist making this tongue in cheek card for him, using a stamp from Pink Ink, on watercolour paper.

The photo doesn't do it justice as I painted it with Royal Talens Van Gogh metallic and interference paints.  The giraffe is actually mostly interference blue, with highlights in gold, brown, purple/grey and pink, and leaves on his neck are actually green.  The giraffe was stamped with brown Nuvo Ink and embossed with clear detail embossing powder.  The sentiment was stamped in black and clear embossed.  The glasses were stamped in grey and embossed, and glossy accents applied after painting.   The leaves were stamped with Nujo green, and like the sentiment were art of the giraffe stamp set.

The background was done with IndigoBlu luscious powders and then sprayed with water.  A large cold 40 peel off was added.

Another attempt at paint pouring

 

So following on from the blue paint pour, I tried again using a slightly different technique, still not what I had set out to do, but I saw this idea on Utube.

I spread white paint over a piece of MDF, and then dropped small amounts of colour along the centre - two shades of blue and red - and then balloon smashed them to create "flowers".   I then added some drops of green either side and drew those out with a skewer.  (Having taken the photo I realised there was a foreign object in one piece of green - this has now been removed - it was a piece of cotton - goodness knows where that came from I had no cotton near where I was working!)  I shall take another photo later.

I quite like this  - so when it is dry and "cured" I shall probably pour some resin over it.

Paint pouring

It is a while since I have done any paint pouring.   I wanted to try a particular technique, but it didn't quite work.  Originally I wanted blue in one corner and white in the other, with a balloon smash along the centre line!   I couldn't get the effect I wanted - so added more dark blue along the join of the colours and attempted to balloon smash that - erm no - so undaunted I proceed to do various balloon smashes with white on blue and blue on white!  Oh well I suppose it looks like waves on the sea.  I need to try and add the figure of a surfer on it somewhere!

Playing with Water colouring on Black Card

A few weeks ago I treated myself to some black watercolour card, and the Royal Talens van Gogh Metallic and Interference paints.  At long list they arrived, so I had to have a play

Nothing fantastic - just playing to see what the paints did and trying a bit of double loaded brush techniques for some of it.

The photos really don't do the colours justice - so difficult to catch the fantastic shine of the paints.  I even tried taking a photo in daylight in the sun - but it still didn't show them up, so you will have to take my word for.

If anybody has had the Spectrum Noir metallic alcohol pens, you will know what the effect is - and these paints give the same effect, but in watercolour.

I am going to try stamping with Versamark and white embossing powder on the black card and then colouring with the paints.  I think the effect will be fantastic.

Gelli plate playing

original landscapoe

I have had a gelli plate for yonks and never used it, although I have used my smaller ones.   The other day there was a demonstration by Barbara Gray and Mike Bossom, where they swapped place and Barbar tried encaustic art and Mike tried the gelli plate.

It was a fascinating show, and mike used some encaustic art techniques on the gelli plate.  So inspired, I had a go.    I did have a mini practise on one of my small gelli plates, following wht Mike had done (see image further down).  However, this was trying to create a landscape, following his demo.  Not bad for a first attempt, but when I chanced to turn the picture upside down I saw a leeping fish.

landscape turned upside down

I then swiped the plate again as there was still quite a it of paint on the brayer and although "muddier" this was the result, after I had drawn a few random lines into the paint.

Originally I thought this was a bit "rubbish", but the more I look at it I can see a landscape with a bridge.   I shall keep practising! 

Finally this was the little trial I did on a small geeli plate, doing exactly what Mike had done on the tv demo - just brayering on red and orange and then make marks with a sponge, a come and a circular piece of spong..