Day 2 30 Paintings in 30 Days Jan 2017

Here we are at day 2 of the 30 paintings in 30 days challenge.  Today I've done a painting of a fish.............a rather unintentional chunky fish.  Artist Trading Card (2.5 x 3.5 inch) in Sennelier oil pastels.  I found the yellow was very soft and creamy and the blues harder.  I like the creamy texture but I think I need to get a blending stick - I'm using a paper talon which is okay but the tip gets rather mucky.

Till tomorrow

Anita

FITW - Face In The World Collaboration

Starting another FITW (face in the world) collaboration with 4 other artists. This is how I have started mine. This will travel to each of the other 3 artists who will add to the face and when it come back to me it will be a complete face. Looking forward to the journey as we all work on each others faces.

29 Faces Art Challenge

I've not had much time to blog the last few days.  Here are the latest faces for the challenge.  

Day 9 a fun doodle 

Day 10 acrylic paints and coloured pencils.

Day 11 inktense blocks

Day 12 was a rough day

Day 13 Derwent sketching graphite and acrylic

Find out more on the 29 Faces Art Challenge blog.

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.

29 Faces Art Challenge Day 4 and 5

Hello, hello I completely forgot to post yesterdays face so today you have the pleasure of seeing two faces - #29faces

2B pencil and tinted with water colour pencils. Not as grainy in real life.

Faber-Castell polychromo pencils, water soluble wax crayons

Follow this link to see other artists who are in the #29faces art challenge

I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Anita

DIY Washi tape - Art Every Day November

I like washi tape and what you can do with it but I wanted to make my own bespoke tape to match my artwork.  There are plenty of tutorials on You Tube with different ways of making it.  I've used masking tape for mine because that is what I had and didn't want to go and buy anything special just in case I didn't like the way it turned out. 

I didn't want to make a whole real of tape I only wanted enough to have a play with and use on a Christmas card I've designed using stamps from Oak House Studio.  I used a non stick liner to attach the tape to this is about the same size as copy paper and is enough to have play with.  I stuck 3 strips of tape down and painted over them using the last 3 colours you can see in the paint pots in the top picture.  I then used the large snowflake which just fits onto the tape but I wasn't too bothered about getting the whole image on the tape as I stamped it randomly along the middle and the edges.  The second tape I stamped with a couple of the snowflakes and the words 'Let it Snow' along the middle and the last tape I used 3 snowflakes.

On a piece of card I drew some triangles in 2 different sizes, painted and stamped the images in the same colours as the tapes.  Once dry I cut the ones I liked the best and glued them to some turquoise card and cut around them leaving a small frame.  To make the triangles look more like trees I added tree trunks using the same turquoise card cut into squares.

I added the trees to cream card stock - the 2 small trees are glued to the card and the large one is attached with 3D foam to give the image some dimension.    
To finish off I added my DIY washi tape 'Let it Snow' below the trees.  

Three steps to make the 'washi' tape

The trees painted and stamped

The finished card.

That's if from me until tomorrow.  Don't forget to pop over to Art Every Day Month to see how everyone is doing with the challenge

Anita

Halloween Costume - Corpse Bride

Today I've been doing my auntie duties and making my niece a halloween costume in the style of the Corpse Bride.  Having traipsed around the local market and not finding anything that was suitable we decided to go ahead and make the dress instead.  First thing to do was dye the fabric to a similar blue that is shown in the film -we or should I say I did this by mixing turquoise and ultramarine brusho powder paint in some cold water.  This was a total experiment as they're not meant to be used as fabric paint but this was the more economical way of colouring the fabric and I'm happy to say it worked.  Not sure the colour will stay if washed but as this is only going to be worn for a few hours I can't see it being a problem.  

Next step cutting out the pattern - well there is no pattern so I had to adhoc it using one of my nieces dress as a template for size.

Then onto sewing and fitting - after a few nips and tucks dress is ready to wear...but hang on it looks too plain.  Okay so we (that is I) have some skeletons in my little magic box - so we take them apart limb by limb - team effort here by auntie and niece.  

Next - they're going to look lost on their own.............okay bright spark..........lets make a bone stencil and add some along the border and waist of the dress.  Out comes silver acrylic and black paint.  Bones stenciled next step........................that's tomorrows post.

Decapitated skeleton

Sewing begins

All made up

Stenciling begins

Nearly there

Checking to see how the decapitated skeleton parts look on the dress.

Anita

Linking up with - 

Handmade Harbour - Handmade Monday

Claire Justine - Creative Mondays

#blogtoberfest14 day 27

Another Gelli Print- Dark over Light

Yesterday Gelli Arts released a tutorial for printing dark over light and it involved letting the paint dry before adding the final layer of black.  I'm loving playing with the gelli plate but I don't like rushing and pulling the print while the paint is still wet as I find you can't control the design as much as I'd like to.  The other thing I like about this new technique is that you can really build the design in stages and maybe a little bit more refined - maybe I just like being in control.

Anyway here is what I did this evening.  It's not very detailed as I didn't have much time but I did enjoy the process and next time I'll give myself more time to plan out the design.

Ha yes I do have a messy desk and not so much space to work in but I like it like that.  

Anita 

#blogtoberfest14 day 17

Halloween Cuteness

Day 6 of Blogtoberfest14 and today I have been finishing off a Artist Trading Card for a Halloween swap I am hosting over on Art With A Heart - our theme is a mix of Halloween or Autumn.

This young man is made on mixed media card and I've used in most part Faber Castell polychromo coloured pencils.  I've added some white acrylic paint for the stripes and used a black copic pen (04) for the outlines.

I also made this 6 x 6 inch boxed canvas with a similar Halloween figure - we're going to name him Edgar Bertrand as suggested by a couple of my friends over on facebook.  On the canvas I've used mainly acrylic paint and added a few stencil elements.  I took the picture before I finished off the eyes so he does have the bloodshot look.

Want to know more about #blogtoberfest14 then pop on over to Shells in the Bush 

Till tomorrow

Anita

Journal Page - Cats

Well one cat - he's a funky purple and blue cat with odd eyes and stenciled trees.  He is in one of the traveling journals that I am collaborating on.  I got to play with some of my new larger sized stencils that I brought back from America back in August.  I hope he will be happy in his new home.  

I seem to be doing okay up to now we're onto day 4 of #Blogtoberfest14 - 31 days of blogging.  Want to join in or know what it's all about then pop on over to Shells in the Bush. 

See you Sunday

~Anita

What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday 276

I'm trying to get back into regular blogging again and have re-found the blogs I used to participate in one of which is run by Julia called the Stamping Ground.  Every Wednesday Julia runs a blog post called What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday or WOYWW for short.  The idea is that you show a photograph of what is on your work desk - cause we're a nosy lot of artists and love snooping around other artists work area.  I do hope Julia will let me play again.

On my desk today are 2 hands.  These are for a swap on an ATC site that I am a member of.  The theme for the hands is Things That Go Bump In The Night.  I'm afraid my little pumpkin monsters aren't very good at making anything go "bump" in the night but are very good at collecting for Trick or Treat.  I have another 2 more the make so I guess I'd better get off here and go get them made.

Fancy a snoop around what other artists have on their desks pop on over to the Stamping Ground.

Have a wonderful Wednesday

Anita

Travelling Journal

Phew what a busy week it's been.  I've had a day out just for me then a day out with some ladies for a networking lunch, Saturday I went to the Stitch and Craft Fair in Manchester and today I added my page to a travelling journal.  

What is a travelling journal?  We are a group of ladies from all corners of the world (UK, USA, Germany) who are collaborating in each others journal.  The idea is to make a piece of art in each others journals by posting them to each other over a course of a couple of weeks - in an ideal world this would work perfectly but as we are reliant on our postal system to get the journals safely to their next destination it we have had a few hiccups along the way but this has added to the experience.

Our journals measure 5 x 7 inches everyone has sent a page to be worked on by each member of the group.  Some have made specific requests, some have given an idea of what they would like to have for example their favourite colours.  But the main focus is to put our own mark on the journal.

Here are some of the pages I've worked on.

Anita

I'm linking up with Handmade Monday and Creative Mondays  I hope you'll pop over to these lovely blogs and see what other crafters are getting up to.

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.

Home Is Where The heART Is.

Home is where the heART is.  I'm one of the participants in a travelling journal which will take 12 months to complete - this is the 1st journal which has traveled from the USA.  It's quite a big page slightly bigger than A4 so it was a bit daunting to be faced with a blank page that size.  However once I had an idea of what I wanted to do it developed quite easily.  My favourite are the tubes of paint with the rubber stamped flowers which look like they are growing out of the tubes.  This has given me an idea for some skinny pages I need to make for a swap.  

Sharing this post on Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday

How to make bookmarks or gift tags from scraps of paper

Gather your ingredients - scraps of paper, glue and a sheet of card to stick your scraps onto.  I used an A3 size card you can use A4 which is what most crafters have in their stash of cards.

This is what I call the "eww" stage because it looks like a 5 year old's work.

Next start adding paint - I used acrylic paint and added it using a crumpled up piece of bubble wrap - randomly.  You can use anything you like to paint with fingers, crumpled up paper towels, an old credit card etc.  

I then used a stencil with white acrylic paint to sections of the background.

  Over this I added spots of gel medium (with my fingers) and sprinkled some embossing powder (the turquoise bits) into it and heated it with a heat gun - on top of this I did the same again but this time I added some gold embossing powder.  

I also added some fibres which added texture but lost its sheen as I went over it with paint and glue - so you may want to leave it out or add it at the end.

These 2 pictures show a close up of the embossing powder and the texture it creates.  The more I heated it the bubblier it got - just make sure you have a good ventilated room - embossing powder is meant to be used with embossing pads to adhere the embossing powder but I like to experiment and gel medium worked really well (didn't give off any smell but just to err on the side of caution make sure you don't over heat it).

After the background has dried you can cut them to any size you want.  I cut mine to 12cm by 6cm.  I then mounted these onto coordinating card and cut around them so the clean card showed around the edges - you don't have to do this I just think it finishes the tags/bookmarks off and it covers the back of the original background - mine got glue and paint in parts.

Now you don't have to do this stage but I added some embellishments just to make them that more interesting and unique.  I used some odds and ends I've had in my collection box - you can use images out of magazines, text from newspapers in fact anything you like. 

To finish off I punched a hole at the top and added some fibres.

I hope you enjoy the tutorial.

Anita

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.

3 Eyed Green Monster

Since the 29 Faces Challenge finished I've had a bit of a withdrawal week or 2.  However I've joined in with a daily drawing thread over on ATCsForAll and this weeks challenge is to draw Halloween monsters or Autumn scenery.  The challenge starts on a Thursday so we have the weekend to draw something.  There are no prizes and you don't have to draw everyday.  It's a group of people who want to practice their drawing skills, get feedback and generally get support and encouragement and most importantly have FUN.

For my card I drew (or attempted to) a monster but I think it's more of a cute monster than a scary monster.  Its painted with Polychromo pencils with a hint of white acrylic paint.  The background was coloured using Pro-markers.

Here's my monster with her 3 Eyes.

Have a great weekend

Anita

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