Summer Of Colour 5 Week 5

This weeks colours are 2 shades of green and 1 pink.  I like this colour combination.  I've kept with the heart theme again but added another of my favourite elements - butterflies.  The heart was cut out of patterned scrapbook paper over which I applied one of the greens and some pink - you can just about see the pattern through the paint.  This was stuck onto the canvas with some gel medium.  The tiny butterflies are made using a punch and the large and medium ones are rubber stamps - I used some gelli print I had from a previous project.  To finish off I added some stickles glitter onto the butterflies.

Find out more about the Summer of Colour 5 over at Twinkle Twinkle Like A Star

Oyster Stamp Blog Hop Winner

WOW just look at all the goodies that popped through my door today.  I took part in a blog hop - visiting listed blogs - over a few days looking at what the selected artists had created within a theme.  The blog hop started off at Hickydorums and went on daily with different blog hosts.  The idea was to visit each blog and leave a comment.  Well being nosy and I like to see what's happening in the arty world of crafts I entered and left a comment on each of the blog posts.  When I first read the blog hop details I don't think I even saw that there was a prize I was too excited to see the different techniques and idea.  Anyway last week Neet from Hickydorums announced a winner and I was one of them.  

Here's what I received today from Oyster Stamps who were offering the prize - there's some stamps (which a certain 9 year old has hinted that she likes), a couple of packets of air dry clay which I've never tried, a couple of tubs of Brusho (to add to my collection), some molds etc.

My Happy Post. 

Well I'm off to watch Strictly Come Dancing - tomorrow is play day with my goodies.

Anita

#blogtoberfest14 day 25

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 280

It's time for WOYWW or What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday - find out more about WOYWW on the Stamping Ground blog run by the lovely Julia Dunnit.  

I don't have very much on my desk today other than the remnants of yesterday's card making - some stamped images and off cuts of paper/card, a set of snowflake stamps from Oak House Studio which I used to make the background for the heart with and the embossing along the edge of the gelli print paper.  I'm hoping to make up the off cuts into another card topper.  You can see the card I made yesterday below.  I would have made a couple more cards but I got a bit obsessed with getting the photography correct or attempted to.  

My messy desk

Photograph I took today in natural daylight

yesterdays photograph using lighting

I'm off to peruse as many of the WOYWW desks.

Anita

Past Present Future

A small canvas board measuring 5 x 7 inches with my interpretation of the feminine divine.  Painted with acrylics, the words Past Present and Future are from a stencil designed by The Altered Page (available from the Stencilgirl). The clock face and "all the things she never said" are rubber stamps.  It just needs to be sealed with some gel medium - semi mat.  

So that's it from me for today a very short blog post.  I'll be linking up with Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday, Shells in the Bush for #Blogtoberfest14, Inky Dinky Doodle for Sunday Sentiments and ClaireJustine for Creative Mondays

Anita 

Creating a Picture with Rubber Stamps

Day 10 of #blogtoberrfest - Hello everyone hope you have a wonderful weekend.  Today I'm going to show you how to create a picture using rubber stamps.  In the picture below I have used the Scroll Frames rubber stamp as an edge to a page in my journal.  I stamped it with the midnight ink pad  and then used a damp paint brush to move the ink around the swirls to add some shading to them.  I've added some pink highlights with some neocolor II water soluble wax crayons and added some black dots with a copic pen.  

The trees I made using one of the 2 inch Journal Circles and added colour with the wax crayons.  The dots, edge of the circles and the tree trunks were painted with the black acrylic ink to which I added some white acrylic paint to make them 'pop'. 

For the grass I used the feather stamp from the Big Christmas Collection and stamped it using the spring green ink pad. 

This young lady was a happy accident.  I was playing around with the stamps as you do when you first get them and as I stamped the larger of the scrolls I thought 'oh hello' this looks like curly hair.   I added some more 'curls' with the smaller swirl and hey presto a full head of curly swirly hair.  Don't you love happy accidents?

Happy Crafting 

Anita 

Dilemmas and Tribulations of Product Photography

Day 9 of #Blogtoberfest14 and it's been a day of frustration.  My new website is nearly ready to go live and I need to get the backgrounds of my products to near white as possible.  I've set up a little stage on top of my printer haha yeah that is the only available space where I can get natural daylight and where I can set up the lights.  I think another day of frustration is about to happen tomorrow (Friday).  I was hoping to have got it set up and ready for the weekend but I don't think that's going to happen - we shall see.

Here is a picture of my 'stage' and a couple of pictures I've taken today.  

See ya tomorrow if I've survived.

Anita

Trust, Breathe, Let Go

I'm sharing this young lady again for Sunday Sentiments and also because she is one of my favourites.  I've used Faber Castell polychromo coloured pencils, acrylic paint, white and black acrylic posca pens and rubber stamped words on water colour paper.  It measures 15 x 11 cms.

If you fancy joining in the fun or just want to see what others are creating then pop on over to 

Inky Dinky Doodle -for Sunday Sentiments

 Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday

Shells in the Bush for Blogtoberfest14

Clairejustineo for Creative Mondays

Anita

Day 2 Of Blogtoberfest14 Confetti/Sweet cones.

Today I have a very simple tutorial to show you using a corner design rubber stamp.  I have used the small Christmas Corner Stamp from Oak House Studio to stamp the design along 3 sides of a piece of rectangular paper with the spring green, dusky pink and sea blue ink pads also from Oak House Studio.  I used a heavier plain white printer paper so it would hold it's shape when twisted into the cone shape.  As you can see from the pictures below its a pretty simple process - stamp and twist.  These are now ready to be filled with sweets or maybe a little treat as a gift for someone special.  Don't forget to pop over the Shells in the Bush to see who else is taking part in  Blogtoberfest14 - 31 days of blogging.

WOYWW #278 and Blogtoberfest

Good morning to you all on this sunny Wednesday.  It's time for WOYWW - What's on your workdesk Wednesday #278.  You can find out more about WOYWW at the Stamping Ground.  

Today is also the start of Blogtoberfest - the idea behind this is to blog everyday of October - more details here on Shells In the Bush blog. 

I have a messy desk with not much going on today.  There is a card which is something I've been working on with rubber stamps from Oak House Studio where I'm on the DT and was trying out some different uses for the stamps.  The skellies and cotton reels are for a swap on iATC  called Oddball Art Ornaments.  Not sure what I'm going to make yet.  I have an idea but how to execute it is the next step.

So that's it from me for this weeks WOYWW.  I'll be back tomorrow (hopefully) for Blogtoberfest. 

TAg YoU'rE IT Tutorial- Handmade Monday

Hello everyone hope you've had a wonderful weekend. The weather has been kind to us here in the UK and it stayed dry for the Walk of Hope stroll around Tatton Park yesterday for The Christie Hospital -you can see a pic here

Today I've been playing with some floral stamps from Oak House Studio.  The stamp is part of the Big Christmas collection and is proving to be one of my favourites - there is a positive and negative so great for creating different textures.  All the products I've used in this tutorial are available from Oak House Studio (ribbon and gems are from my stash).

I've made a step by step tutorial if you fancy having a go at making these tags. 

So here goes - 

1.  Gather all your ingredients.  

2. Apply spray inks in your colour choice - I've used citrus orange, totally turquoise and regal claret. Randomly stamp the text with black ink and add ink around the edge of the tag with the sea blue ink pad - just run the ink pad directly onto the edge using a gentle stroke.  Put to one side.

3. Cut a piece of card which is smaller than the tag.  Stamp the solid flower using the dusky pink ink pad and then the outline stamp with the sea blue.  You'll notice that there are a few lighter solid flowers - I stamped these after the initial flowers had been stamped and there is usually a little bit of ink still on the stamp (no point wasting the ink right?).  Add a border again using the sea blue ink pad as in the previous step.

4.  Next we need to add the leaves.  Here I've used the Oak House Studios acrylic inks and a nail art brush (which you can get from Poundland yep you read that right :) )  Dipping the brush lightly and making sure you don't have too much ink on the brush all you need to do is gently stroke the brush in the areas where you want grass/stems and leaves.  You don't have to be too neat to do this.

5.  Glue the smaller stamped card onto the tag (on this one I've glued it off center and to the right.  I've added a few lines of acrylic ink along the left side of the tag using peridot and amber inks with the nail art brush.

6.  I finished off the tags with some ribbon and gems which I added to the middle of the flowers.

Here are a couple of cards I made using the same flower stamp.

I hope you've enjoyed the tutorial - You can find the stamps here

and the ink pads, sprays and acrylic inks here  

I'm linking up with the Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday and Creatives Mondays 

Happy Crafting

Anita

Back From My Holiday & Design Team Announcement

Hey lovely peeps I'm back from my holiday in Rochester NYC.  I was there for an art convention with 26 other artist who I know from ATCsforALL.  We had a weekend of making and trading art - although I'm sure there was much more socialising being done than art as most of us had made our art for trading before we arrived in Rochester. 

Now onto the Design Team - before I left for Rochester I applied to Oak House Studio's call out for new Design Team members and while I was on holiday I received an email from Lynnda who owns Oak House Studio to say I had been successful.  Now to keep quiet about it for nearly 3 weeks has been really difficult - but yay now I can shout it out to everyone and I can tell you that you are in for a treat as the stamps and inks are just lovely and I get to play and get creative with them.  So don't forget to subscribe to this blog or get email notifications to keep up to date with what's happening and not to miss out on the tutorials/instructions I'll be posting.

Before I go here are some photo's from the art convention.

Huggles with Sarah 

Outside the Brainery with Cindy, Ann, Sarah and Karen

Collage of the art room and the artists 

Take A Hand or Two or Maybe Even Five

Do you remember when you were little and you traced around your hands and then coloured them in?  Well this is the same thing only you now have bigger hands and the art is a bit more sophisticated.

Why am I tracing and decorating my hands?  Well why not it's just another shape of paper/card on which to create art and you might as well make it unique............right?

I've made these for a swap over on ATCsforAll (Artist trading card site).  It's nice to have an alternative shape other than your basic shapes.  I think they add a different aspect and design element and also makes you think about how and where to place your designs.  I can't wait to see what I get back in return.

So what do you do with them I hear you ask?  Well you can make them into an altered book, add them onto a ring binder or even hang them up as a mobile (hence the decorated backs) or string them like you would bunting. The possibilities are endless -I've had mine on my art wall before packing them up - I'm hand delivering these to the host of the swap..................yes your eyes aren't deceiving you - I'm off to Rochester NYC in a few days for a weeks holiday and art weekend with around 20+ artists.

So here are my hands all using mixed media - acrylic paints, neo II colours, rubber stamps, etc. there are too many to list.

Even the backs have been decorated.

See you all soon.

Anita

Hearts, Hearts and more Hearts

Well all the challenges have finished and just in time for my holiday - yay Rochester NYC here I come.  I can't wait to meet up with my artist friends from AtcsforAll and iATC - both sites are related to Artist Trading Cards and other types of altered art.

The weekend will consist of making and trading art.  There is no schedule we just turn up in the art room and make art, get to know the other artists in person.  I very rarely end up making much art because I end up moving around the room chatting and having fun with everyone.  So with that in mind I make my art before I go.  One of the things we're making this time is heart art which just happens to be one of my favourite things to make.

My hearts are mixed media and are approximately 2 - 3 inches big,  I've used rubber stamps, paints, neo ll colours etc.  I've tried to make them different so that everyone gets a unique heart.

These are some of the hearts I'll be taking with me to Rochester.

A close up of some of the hearts.

This is the meetup I went to in January Mesa Arizona.

Last Week Of The Summer Of Colour 4 Challenge

The last 6 weeks have been great fun and definitely challenging - for me last weeks colours were most certainly difficult but I managed to make something with the colour palette.  

This weeks colours were one of my favourites Raspberry, Tangerine and a dash/splash or yellow.  I decided to go with another heart theme again this week as I've been working on some heart art for my trip to Rochester NYC in August.  It's not very big - approx 3 inches.  I'd just like to thank Kristin from Twinkle, Twinkle Like A Star for hosting a fabulous challenge and I'm sad that it's ended but will look forward to the next one. 

Oh and before I sign off a quick yay to me for winning last weeks prize from the challenge.  I didn't even realise until a couple of the girls pointed it out to me.  I'm having it sent to a friend in California who will then bring it to Rochester with her in August.  I can't wait to play with them.  Thank you again Kristin.

This weeks colours - Raspberry, Tangerine and Yellow

My heart art - Only a question of time.

The goodies I won 

Here all 6 together

Challenging Colours

It's week 5 of the Summer of Colour 4 challenge hosted over on Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star.  With only one more week to go I and some of the other artists are already getting withdrawal symptoms.  

This weeks colour challenge was Royal Blue, Red and a splish, splash or dash of light blue.  Now lovely as the colours are on their own they were a definite challenge to me.  This really isn't a colour scheme I would ever choose to use.  But as this was a challenge I went a head and did some research and then played with the colour palette and this is what I came up with. 

I tried to keep the design element simple by using my all time favourite - hearts.  I used neo-colourII as the main colour medium.  Then I stamped the face and swirly leaf design in the light blue.  I still think it needs some other elements adding to it but for now I'm happy with what I've made and it fits in with this weeks challenge.

Red, Royal Blue & Light Blue

Rubber stamped images by PaperArtsy and Woodware.

To see what the other artists have created with this colour challenge why not pop over to 

Twinkle Twinkle like a Star 

Anita