Summer Of Colour 5 Week 6

We have come to the end of the Summer of Colour challenge which makes me sad.  The weeks have just flown by and in those weeks I've been lucky enough to have seen many creations by very talented artists.  

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the artists who have visited and left comments.  

The final weeks colours are 2 orange and 1 blue.  Here is my last canvas and a collage of all 6 canvases together.

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

Summer Of Colour 2015 Week 1 & 2

Last week saw the start of the Summer of colour challenge over at Twinkle, Twinkle blog.  Every week for the next 6 weeks the challenge is to use only the specified colours in our artwork.  Last week the colours we could use were 2 shades of blue and one of green - our choice of shade.  This week we have 2 pinks and one orange.  Last year I made random designs using the colours however this year I've decided to make a collection of 5 x 8 wrapped canvases using hearts and butterflies as the main design.

Week 1 - 2 blues 1 green (I still need to add some text)

"Be Fearless" Week 2 - 2 pinks 1 orange

If you'd like to know more why not pop on over to Kirstin's blog Twinkle, Twinkle.  

Feminine Divine Commission Artwork

Today I can reveal the commission I've been working on for the last couple of months.  It's been a very enjoyable journey creating this mixed media artwork.  The mediums I've used are acrylic paints, stencils, rubber stamps, glitter and a clay heart I made with air dry clay.

Anita

#Blogtoberfest14 day 18

Don't Forget Me......

...............is a card made using my original artwork printed onto matt photo paper.  I've added digital elements to it using a free online software called picmonkey.  It's really easy to use and has some neat features.  To the original art I added some rubber stamping to the background and the main body of the artwork was hand-drawn and painted using watercolours.  It's now available to buy in my Etsy shop for £2.50 +£1.00 postage.  The card is blank for your own message.

Don't forget me 

Take Flight..........and Let The Adventure Begin

How would you like to be part of a creative adventure and make a difference in the lives of children in Haiti?  Well now you can and all you have to do is make a feather and send it of the Yanik over in Quebec Canada. You can read all about the artist collaboration over on Yanik's blog Avoxtar.  You'll have to be quick though if you're in the UK or Europe as there are only 33 days until the exhibition.  I'll be sending mine today so hopefully it will get there in plenty time (post usually takes approx 2 weeks).

For my feather I used some cardboard and painted it with gesso.  I used a butterfly stencil, rubber stamped words and some glitter.  I used acrylic paint as the main colouring medium.  It measures approx 23cm in length and 6cm at the widest point.  It fits at an angle in a a long DL envelope.  I can't wait to see everyone's feathers.  

Here is my feather - Butterfly Explore Life's Journey

I'm also sharing this as part of Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour and Creative Monday 

Midweek Paper Party Something Pretty

I can't believe we're already into week 9 of the Paper Party over at Handmade Harbour.  This weeks theme is 'Something Pretty'.  I bought a couple of Daler Rowney sketch books from an art store across from where I work but they have boring black covers on them.  One I've already used to sketch in but the bigger one I want to make into a journal.  Now I have no idea how to journal but at least I can make a start with the cover by making it look pretty and inviting.  To make the front of the journal I've used the #45 butterflies and hearts and #195 flowers in a frame digi stamps.  These are 3 of my favourite things hearts, butterflies and flowers you just can't go wrong with them.  

I've printed the flower image twice and with one of them I've cut away the background and added some textured painted paper.  The flowers are cut out and mounted with foam pads to give some dimension -these were placed just off center onto the printed flowers. The center of the flowers I've added some micro beads to add texture.  The butterflies are cut and mounted onto wire to give them a floaty/flying feeling.  I've used my trusted Inktense water colour pencils to colour them in with.  You can't see it on the photograph but the hearts on the butterflies are highlighted with dimensional magic to give them a raised look.  

So here it is I hope you like what I've made and feel inspired to make your own creations with these lovely and versatile digi stamps from Handmade Harbour. 

I've seen what the other artists have made and I think you won't be disappointed - so I would urge you to pop over to Handmade Harbour for a nosey.

Have fun being creative.

Anita

Shared on the following challenges - 

Crafting By Design 

Paper Pretties

4 Crafty Chicks

Stencils and Texture Paste

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Happy Stampers Festival at PortSunlight - this is a papercrafts/stampers trade/retail show where quite a lot of the well known rubber stamp companies come to sell their products.

One of the things I like about the show is the variety of rubber stamps on offer.  However, it seems the stencil is what everyone is into instead of rubber stamps.  There seemed to be stencils on every stall I visited.  Now I've been using stencils in my work for a number of years now so maybe I've been 'on trend' without realising it.  

As most people know I have an affection for butterflies (and elephants) so I bought myself a couple of stencils in different style.  Today I had a play with one of the stencils a pretty butterfly in 2 different sizes.  The one I used fits neatly on an ATC size card (2.5inch x 3.5inch). For my canvas I've used a medium weight calico for 2 of the butterflies and an ATC size board for the other.  The orange/red butterfly is watered down acrylic paint, I then used some light molding paste from Golden (I didn't have any grunge paste) I got the same effect as the grunge paste.   The black and gold butterfly is on card board - ATC size I used the molding paste on this one to - for some reason the paste isn't as smooth as the one on the fabric but I like the difference between the two.

I'm going to try and embroider the butterflies when I have a free moment.  I think they will look pretty cool.

I'm linking this to the Handmade Monday thread over on Handmade Harbour 

Pop over and see what everyone else has been up to this week.

Faces, Fimo and Slide Mounts

It's been a busy few days so haven't had time to update the blog.  So this ones going to be bit of a long one :)

Firstly, the 29 Faces Art Challenge finishes today.  I've had a great time trying to draw faces.  It's been quite a journey but a great experience.  Looking back at the faces from the 29 days I'd say there was some improvement in my faces..........obviously still a long way to go but as they say practice makes perfect. 

26, 27, 28 and 29

I want to share this face with you (#21) I'm really pleased with the way she came out and hence I have made her into a greetings card - I took a photograph of the original piece and altered it a little with an online editing software.  The original is painted with Faber Castell Polychromo pencils.  The orange and large green hearts are digi stamps from Handmade Harbour.

#21

In a previous post I shared some air dry fimo clay items I'd made hearts, elephant, key and a couple of mutilated gingerbread men.  Well today I finished making up the gingerbread men.  I painted them with acrylic paint and added some wire and beads.  These are for trading on ATCsforALL.

#Twisted Christmas

Finally I went to the Happy Stampers Festival at Portsunlight.  The village hall is where a collection of Rubber Stamp companies come to sell their stamps and do demos on how to use certain products.  I ended up buying a couple of unmounted stamps, a couple of stencils (these seem to be favour of the month), some modge podge sticks which are used with a glue gun and can be melted straight into molds and a few other little bits.  

#Portsunlight buys

I made these mount slide art pieces today using the rubber stamps I bought yesterday.  The mounts are a sizzix die.  I've painted them with Derwent inktense water colour pencils added some fabric flowers and butterfly also painted with the inktense pencils.

 slide mount art

Well I think I'm up to date. 

Hope you have a wonderful week creating some art.

Anita

Flutterby, Butterfly

So it'a a bank holiday weekend over here in the UK which means a lovely long weekend to play with all your crafty items without feeling guilty about not doing the more tedious jobs around the house.  

These butterflies were stenciled onto fabric a few weeks ago but I've not had time to do anything with them.  So with the long weekend I decided that this was the perfect time to finish them and to catch up on some movies I've been meaning to watch.  

Here they are my textile butterflies with lots of sequins and beads.  I can't decide which one I like the best.  I'm drawn to both as they have different aspects that I like.  Which one do you prefer?

I'm including this in the Handmade Monday blog over on Handmade Harbour.  Why not pop on over and see what the other lovely crafters have been up to.

Happy Crafting 

Anita

Purple Butterflies

I love butterflies!!!  They are so pretty and delicate.I made this card with two of my favourite rubber stamps.  I have many butterfly stamps but I keep going back to these two.  I've embossed the cluster of butterflies directly onto the base card -you can just about see them.  The tag has the same cluster of butterflies and the larger single butterfly has been stamped, cut out, glittered and wired.