Old cottage watercolour on news print

art, art class, cottage, painting, watercolour, watercolour painting
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This was a fun exercise I did last November.  You tear a piece of newspaper and glue it to your board or in my case watercolour pad.  Then do your watercolour (or any other medium) to paint or draw your image.  You can choose how much newsprint to show through.   I found the whole process quite fun as I didn’t feel that it mattered if I made mistakes.  I was using water colour and I just slapped the paint on a went with it quite carelessly.  It didn’t matter if the lines were not straight or if I couldn’t get the shade on the house right. (the inspiration is from an image found on the web while doing a search for ‘thatched cottage’ or ‘English cottage’ or something like that but I have forgotten where.)

Straw bales watercolour

art, art class, painting, straw bales, watercolour, watercolour painting
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Today I have decided to rake out some of the projects I started last year but never quite had the time or inclination to finish them.  This is a watercolour painting that I started last November.  The inspiration for this painting is from a photo that Harry took one beautiful sunny day – not that you could tell that from my painting as my sky looks more like a storm is approaching!  Not to worry it is all good practice.  I also learned while painting this not to hold one paint brush in your teeth while painting with another brush because you forget it is there.  You then move or turn and all of a sudden you have inadvertently painted  a line across your painting.   Hey ho!

Slide mounts

slide mounts

I haven’t done much in the way of crafting for  a while and Heather reminded me that I said I would alter a few slide mounts for a ‘show and tell’  at our crop.  So here are the ones I did this week.
(oops the pictures are not all the same size)

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untitled4For the two bugs slide mounts I cut out the pictures from an advertising leaflet about Jeeps! I have no idea where I got it from but these images fitted the aperture perfectly.  I added a bit of Diamond glaze to the bugs to make their chitinous exoskeleton shiny.

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For these two slide mounts I use Chiyogami paper and cut out images form Oriental playing cards.

For the one below I used an image from a different set of playing cards and covered the mount with gold leaf.Oriental3SlidemountSml

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The one above has a piece of old sieve in the aperture along with tool brads and the mount is covered with aluminium foil tape with magic mesh underneath, coloured with rust alcohol ink and black acrylic paint.  The one below is 3D as I used a double layer of 3mm sticky backed foam tape.  I put a letter and some sand in a mini bottle, coloured the front with crackle paint and embellished with sand on all sides and a few shells.

 

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Shabby chic magazine/file holder

distressed, file holder, magazine holder, shabby chic
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This is the time of year where I really try to get rid of or use some of my stash that I have accumulated over the years.  I love Anna Griffin papers and I had wanted to use them in some scrapbook pages but they didn’t really match any of my photographs so I thought I would just sell them or swap them at my next scrapbook crop.  But I then thought I would decorate my numerous plain magazine or file holders and that way I would still get to look at the pretty papers.  The holder is made of thin wood so I painted them first with white gesso then applied some pink rose and ivory emulsion very haphazardly inside and out.  I cut the patterned papers to fit leaving a tiny borfer around each section then using PVA stuck them each side.  When everything was completely dry I then sanded the edges and parts of the images to distress them and get a softer shabby chic look.  I might need to give them a coat of sealer but I am really glad I didn’t get rid of my Anna Griffin papers after all.  Only another 17 more to cover!

Fun door hangers

door hangers

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I have had a few wooden door hangers in my stash for a couple of years so I finally had the ideas for them as fun little Christmas gifts for mum and dad.  The one for the bathroom for dad  so he does not (should not) lock the bathroom door in case he has a fall or ‘turn’.  The other is for mum because she is ALWAYS getting interrupted when she is busy in her summerhouse/art studio.

Materials:
blank wooden door handles, acrylic paints, gesso, stencils and cross-stitch mesh, stamps, computer generated text, image from an old postcard, brads, bookplates and copic pens, acrylic sealer.
I used photoshop to erase the tortoise from the toilet image.    Now I have to admit that there is a smudge on the front image of the tortoise as I inadvertently got a drop of water on it but it was when it was all finished and stuck on so there wasn’t much I could do. They are finished off with a cople of coats of acrylic sealer.

Copper Christmas tree card

card, Christmas card
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In an attempt at using some of my stash up and inspired by one of my copper baubles I made this simple Christmas tree card.  I don’t use my copper Stazon ink very often and I want to use it more before it dries up in the bottle (it is the type that you need to re-ink the pad each time to get it out to use) and I have had the copper stars ribbon in my stash for years now and my copper stickles have gone a bit dry and gloopy.  They all need to be used up.  The photos don’t really show how glittery it actually is.
I smooshed  some Distress inks onto a craft sheet then sprayed with water then I placed a piece of white card onto it.  Once it was dry I stamped the image using the copper Stazon.  I tried to remove some of the colour from the tree and gift using some bleach but it didn’t work as well as I expected to and when that was all dry I scribbled a glitter gel pen over the tree and gift and blended  it using a water brush to cover the image.  I edged the layers using the Stazon as well.  The ribbon has very glittery stars and lines on it and then lastly I added blobs of copper stickles (mine has gone rather thick now therefore it came out of the nozzles rather stringy and wouldn’t stick to the card very well) – so I have learnt my lesson – use my stash up before I can’t use it all all.

Zentangle Chrismas card

card, zentangle, zentangle Christmas card
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For this zentangle card I used masking tape to make a white border and didn’t add a black line border around it in order to keep it quite light.  I am not sure it worked as you can see the lines at the top going off into nowhere.  I got all my Christmas papers and stamps out but ended up doodling this one and not using up any of my stash.  I just haven’t got my Christmas mojo this year so I will only be making a few cards.  I used a gel glitter pen to add sparkle on the snowy areas – you can see it better bellow.

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Bright and colourful grungy birthday card

birthday card, card, grungy

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Inspired by Craft stamper again but can’t remember the issues, I used a mixture of techniques.  Using an A5 piece of old card I started making the background using torn masking tape along with some ripped pieces of text from an old book sticking them haphazardly over the whole piece of card.Then I applied some Distress inks to the page  (tiny drops from re-inkers)  and smooshed it around with a baby wipe so that some of the ink highlighted the edges of the tears.  I gave it a light spray with water and while it was still wet I sprinkled on some salt in some areas.  Once dry the salt was then wiped off.  Using various found items I made some marks with black and white acrylic paint and stamped some text using white acrylic paint (I tried various white inks but none of them came out well).
Next I stamped the silhouette onto tissue paper and stuck that onto my card.  Stamped more white text over the image and highlighted areas with oil pastels.  Cut the size you need then mat and layer it all on the card.  Similar background card was created with ordinary white card as one of the layers.

Inks:  Memento Tuxedo black, Distress re-inkers Picked raspberry, Moved lawn and Salty ocean
Card: white and black
Stamps:  Dina Wakely grungy silhouette D1007
Other:  black and white acrylic paint, oil pastels, torn book pages, masking tape