Butterfly Card and experimenting

I seemed to have lost my moo yesterday.  The weather was very grey, and at this time of year I tend to be a bit down as my Wedding Anniversary is in a few days, and I miss my husband most then.  However I knew I had a card to make ..... but I had a little play anyway.

This DaliART butterfly stamps were in the front of my stamp box , so I thought I would use that.   I also have some John Next Door Media Plates (sort of gelli plates), which I had only played with in my art journal - so one of those  came out as well.

I placed the media plate on my stamping platform and inked it with a brayer and Izink Sky blue pigment ink.  I then took one of the little butterflies from the collection and stamped it into the ink on the media plate to remove the colour.  The result was a border with butterflies.  I then applied clear embossing powder and heated this up.

I then stamped the large butterfly with black Nuvo ink (again using the stamping platform - where would we be without this - it makes life so much easier).

As I was watching a demo on Spectrum Noir Metallic Pens, I decided to get mine out and colour the butterfly with them.  I can see from the photo that my colouring is not what it used to be.   I do struggle to see to do this nowadays (roll on the new glasses next month).   Tiz a shame as I love colouring.  However, although the colouring looks dodgy in the photo, it looks ok on the card - or at least I think so!

I did a few highlights with a fine white Gelly Roll pen, and then when the image was dry I damped it with a wet paintbrush and applied some more clear embossing powder.  (This was a bit of an experiment as although I have done this before on MDF with Ultra Thick Embossing powder, I had never done it with fine detail powder - Thankfully it worked!)

I still wasn't quite happy with the effect so I edged around the blue frame with a little Nuvo glue and sprinkled on some Cosmic Shimmer Glitter Jewels - yes I liked that.  However, as you can see from the picture of the card (below) before I got to colouring it - I hadn't quite got the frame centred on the card.   Undaunted I got out my picot edge dies from Clarity Stamp, and cut the whole thing out, and edged the pico with more of the Sky Blue Ink.

Happy at last I then mounted it on a new card - and there you have it - the finished card (above)..

The start of the card, and the dodgy alignment of the square boarder!
(you can just abo9ut see the reflection of the embossing)

I created an insert in Craft Artist - with just a simple message in it saying "Fluttering by to wish you a very Happy Birthday.

Art Journalling

I am always intending to try some art journaling, but never seem to get around to it.   Well I rectified that today.   MY no2 granddaughter was with me for the day, and as she was busy playing on her x-box, I thought I would try out the new Peerless Designs "face" stencils that arrived in the post.  (I bought them because a) I am useless at drawing faces b) thought they might encourage me to play in my art journal and c) I thought the grandchildren might like using them.).

As it was raining, and I couldn't work outside or up in the Den, I thought I would stick to watercolour painting in the first instance - rather than acrylics, as slightly less messy as I was working on the dining table to keep my granddaughter company.  I also used some luscious powders, a sprinkle of brushos, some Izink ink pads, and a smidgen of starlight paint for the straight lines.   I also used some other stencils from my stash.

The picture on the right will be work in progress when I inspiration strikes me as to what I want to add.  Of course this is the great thing about art journals you can go back to them as and when you want and add more bits.

My granddaughter took a break from her video game and came to see what I was doing.  "Can I have a go please", she asked.  So here is her journal page.    (We were both working in the same journal, so I stopped working on my page for a bit.    I then did some later, and she also then did some more to hers.   She wanted to create an abstract look for hers - so it is quite different from mine.   She has fun with the luscious powders!

I confess I haven't quite got into the "grunge" look of creating pages - I will try though.  Confess I would never have thought of starting with a blue/grey face!

Whilst she was putting the finishing touches to her painting, I was trying to encourage her and tell her about the "Rule of Three" or at least odd numbers, and demonstrated on a little tag I had handy.  Here it is.

We certainly had a fun day - and I am getting ideas of what she might like for Christmas .... could get expensive!   I will keep my eye out for bargains on journals and ink pads etc.

Experimenting with techniques

front side

I purchased this little box the other week from Indigoblu, along with some stamps.  I also have a canvas apron to paint along with some similar canvas panels to paint and attach to it - so I thought it would be good practise to try the stamps etc out before I tackled the apron.

The idea was to start of with a crackle finish, but this didn't turn out quite right, so nothing ventured nothing gained, I proceeded to try and get a distressed effect using paints.

second side

 I wanted to experiment with rice paper.  I stamped onto the rice paper with versamark, and then adhered it to the box with slap-it-on.   I then painted the images.

third side

 I tried out a bit of stencil work with inks and texture paste.  The paint drips were done with texture paste, then painted and finally versamark and ultra thick embossing powder applied.

Fourth side

I applied versamark to the rose, after I had painted it and UTEE as with the paint drips.  I used the same technique on the bottles on the front panel.

The top

 The butterfly on the top was created with texture paste through a stencil.  When dry I replaced the stencil and painted various colours through it.   I then applied versamark through the stencil and added a few coats of UT embossing powder.

another view

I found a stencil in my stash with the word Art on it , which was just right for the front.   I used a dauber and a black ink pad.  I also used a "splodgy" stencil and ink on the ribbon.  (Wasn't sure if it would run or not - so sealed the ribbon with pva glue.

the inside

I painted the inside with Pebeo DYNA orange/yellow iridescent paint.  Not a colour I normally use, but perfect for the inside of the box and lid.   It also married up well with the ribbon from my stash.

and finally a close up of th lid showing the embossed relief butterfly.   I must admit it looks fantastic in real life, and the grey shadow around the edge doesn't appear quite so wide, but helps with the 3D effect.

Definitely an experimental piece using different paints, inks etc.