Hot Air Balloon Birthday Card

Although I have learnt to doodle this image, I loved the hot air balloon so much, that whenClarity turned it into a stamp - I just had to buy it.     I made this card for a male family member, as I thought in this time of lockdown we were all dreaming of being "up, up and away!

The stamp set is great as it comes with a masks too.   I know it is a bit of cheat from actually drawing it again myself, but sometimes we just have too! 

Doodling - Africa - a few more stages + completed

Having drawn the pencil sketch, we then set about inking in and starting on the patterns:

The next stage was to make a start on the frame.   I found this a tad difficult. as I couldn't see it very well,  and went wrong on the top frame, and did my own thing on the side frame.

Finally on Friday we learnt how to draw an acacia tree with a man sitting under it.  and elephants.   My pencil elephants weren't too bad, but it went a bit pear-shaped with the baby one when it came to inking it - turned out more like a dog!  lol!

I then spent the afternoon colouring in the image.   Quite pleased with my efforts from week 9.

Back to Doodling - Africa

By the time you read today's blog, I will have done a lot more to this.  In fact we will probably have finished it   This was the first stage of our doodle on Monday this week and is my pencil drawing.  Gosh - who knew I could draw!  I certainly didn't!

More to follow as we progress with this week's lesson.

Doodled Birthday Card

Having learned all the doodling and colouring techniques over the past few weeks, I thought I would put them into practise on a birthday card for a granddaughter.   I haven't add her age, as I thought she might want to frame the card into a picture at some point.

I also knocked up a quick cake for her to try and make this isolation birthday a little bit special.    Nothing fancy as she was only at her Dad's for the morning of her birthday.   She wanted a brownie mix cake, and just a small one. with water icing on it as they don't like sugarpaste.  So it was an experiment to try and cook brownie in a small round tin instead of an 8" square tin  (In hindsight probably should have gone for a 6" square - it might have made it easier to trim!).

Brownies by their very nature are crispy and crumbly on the top and sides and gooey on the base.  I turned the cake upside down - that will give her a surprise when she cuts it and finds the goo under the water icing!   I didn't realise how much had crumbled off until I took the photo - If I had realise I would have turned into a heart shape.  Not one of my best efforts - but at least it will taste good as a favourite mix and it's the thought that counts and that she has cake!)

A Water-coloured Birthday Card

Having share the watercolour I did the other day - I decided to use it as part of a birthday card for a pal.   I imported the photo of it into Craft Artist and added the wording.

Watercolour painting

My final bit of crafting last week, was to watch some Matthew Palmer demos on Hochanda.  I watched the demo for the above picture on "rewind" and decided I was way out of practise with my watercolouring.  I couldn't blame it all on the eyesight - my paint was too wet!

Undeterred I watched a later programme and actually painted "live" in real time whilst he was doing it live.   This result was a tad better.   I think I need more practise at vinette paintings, a not quite confident with leaving the space at the sides.   I  much prefer to paint up to masking tape and then get a definitive white border.   It's just a case of practise and confidence.

This week's "doodle" - colouring lesson 2

This week we were back to learning colouring techniques with this postcard, which was a challenge for the eyes, especially when we learned pointillism for the speckled hen; but I succeeded

 Here are a couple more of the stages in reverse order:

A Green Man

I bought this lovely Green Man mould with a view to casting him in resin, but chickened out at the last minute (although I will cast him in resin in due course).   However,  this one was created using air dry  clay and then painted with acrylic paints.    I was really pleased with the finished result.   I may apply a very thin coat of resin on him to protect him and make him weatherproof, or use weatherproof varnish.     I am hoping that they make the moulds in smaller sizes eventually too.

I also sent for some more craft concrete, and I will make him using that too. which will also make him weatherproof.  He would look great on a flowerpot

Decorating a Canvas Bag

Towards the end of last year, I spent an afternoon creating background papers with heat transfer paints and shaving foam.   You may recall that some were used on mugs.

As I still had a box of prepared papers, I decided to cut them up and try and create a design on  a canvas bag, with the help of some leaf die cuts I made.   It wasn't awfully successful, as I had forgot that the paints were really better on a polycotton material, and I should have treated the canvas bag with some  special primer (which I have but forgot!).   This was the result!  Not brilliant and not as vivid as it should have been.

 

 Undaunted I decided to do some paint fusion with some fabric paints on the other side...........

.......I then had a brainwave - do some more fabric painting to enhance the squares, and tie them all together - yes it worked!

I also discovered this little panel in the box of fabric paints - so decided to paint that too

Sunshine and my Crafting Mojo has returned

I have taken advantage of the beautiful weather this week and been up in the Den or sitting on the patio crafting.   However I have been lax in not keeping up to date with the blog as a result.

Firstly I managed to have a play with some inks, acrylic paints and resin, on some wooden flowers.  The big ones were done with alcohol inks and the small ones with acrylics, as I wasn't quite sure how the inks would turn out.   Thy were then all had resin applied to them.   I must admit I was pleased with the results.

(Excuse the messy mat but this was the best way to coat them without them sticking to everything.)

Having done the first bartch I decided to do the other design.   This time I used all alcohol inks.   The picture above is the before and the picture below is with the resin on them.   I also added little gemstones and gold leaf in places.   I had a little leftover resin and put that in a mould along with some dried flowers, but confess I wasn't too happy with the result.