Hen / Stag

Someone I know is getting married and a whole bunch of us are having a little stag do for him. Traditionally women don't go to stag parties but things are changing. I have never met his bride to be. In days gone by, with small communities you would automatically know bith the stag and the hen... So stag do it is! My first ever!

Someone got a cheap hen party set of a wand, headpiece and L plate and I being me, offeed to alter them.... Oh I enjoyed this soooo much! I let my inner child out and she had a ball! This is definitely my artists date for this week. The more icky and tacky and girly and over the top the better...


So we have wand with added ribbons as well as wire fixed with crimps with bells and beads. I also made a handle with gingham tissue paper and adhesive pink ribbon that says for you...




Fluffy L Plate was smeared liberally with interference violet paint. Adhesive ribbons were added top and bottom and all around the L. Stick on gems were added in clear and white on the white background and in pink on the L. I punched some hearts from pink pearlescent card and stuck these on too. I added some stickers to the L and then liberally dosed it all with glitter....
Finally we have fluffy horned headpiece with veil. I added ribbon in pink and white /pink pearl all down the back. I then sewed beads around the headband. Some cheap purple gems were added beneath the horns and then I painted the bottom of the veil with pink metallic paint...

Oh, did I mention the stag is a big, strong chap who is not in the slightest bit girly and can pick up cars? (yes really) Good job he is the sort who is up for a laugh...

Irridescent Medium

Yesterday we went to the lovely Truro Arts shop where I made a few wee purchases... I found this lovely stuff called Irridescent Medium. It is for use with acrylics and you can either mix it with acrylics or you can paint over things with it. It adds a bit if texture but more importantly it gives a lovely sheen... I have only played with painting over things so far..


This was fairy paper left over from the Hello Kitty card. I had left over purple gesso which I used up. The irridescent medium was used to highlight the fairies so they gently shimmer. I then added the text (yes I know it is wonky!) int hree different coloured purple pens.


This card is going to be postcrossed for someone wanting art cards and encouraging people to produce them themselves... I drew the maze in a silver pen and then used a limited selection of water colour pens. I then slapped lots of rridescent medium over the top.

Punk Postcross

I have recently started using Postcross. A lovely idea for exchanging postcards with the world. I sent my first five, of which only two have so far arrived and this entitled me to send two more. So far I have just sent normal landscape and nature cards of Cornwall but my seventh address called for something a little different...

This person is an artist who likes altered art... They want things half destroyed, changed, whatever and of course, I had to rise to the challenge....

The plain white card was splotched with cats eye inks. I then used stickers to do the writing. Crumpled the card then cut it up and finally stuck it back together with tape... I hope they like it!

Easter

It isn't that I haven't been creating - it is just that carrying my laptop up to my scanner and making room on my craft table amongst the drying things only happens when I have time.... This piece and the butterfly swirl piece have taken quite a bit of time and have had various drying stages.... I know this piece is a little late but hey...


The bottom layer is some nice bright wrapping paper. Pictures were stuck on top and then light green coloured gesson smeared over. I then added the tissue paper rainbow leading to the card eggs. I wrote Wordsworth poem about daffodils in gold pen down the middle and the story of Easter over the rainbow (the one where the Goddess comes to earth on a rainbow to heal a bird but the wings were too broken so she made it into a hare that laid brightly coloured eggs and whose appeareance each year ushers in Spring).

Over the picture of Mary discovering the stone rolled away from the tomb I drew a sun in gold and used chalks to colour it like a sunrise. I then added a gold frame and added a little gold to the whole piece. I added the names of Easter and other Easter time festivals in green metallic paint around the border.

The Easter picture is from a childs book, the old picture is of the Goddess and I found it on wikipedia, the little passover picture was from a website giving free Jewish clipart, the hare is from my llewyllns calendar, the hot cross buns music is from a childs nursery rhyme book. My favourite picture is the one in the middle by artist Thalia Took who kindly allowed me to use her work here.

I am not sure how much I like it - I think i have a lot to learn about using pictures in my work...

Butterfly Swirls

These pages were made using strips of blue tissue paper in various hues. I then put very long thin strips of silver and white tissue paper over the top. I then mixed some clear gesso with some cheap silver premix and a tiny bit of good blue acrylic. This gesso was mostly see through but added to the blue of the page and the silver gives just a tiny bit of glittery sheen. The butterflies and flowers were punched from holographic paper and glued on. At the bottom I used some art fibres but these haven't come out very clearly, they irridescent in two shades of blue and two clear ones with blue or green sheens. I then made little trails behind the butterflies with my glus pen and added some blue green glitter. I then spray fixed it.

As normal the scanner can't capture the play of light on all the glittery bits on a page like this...

Unfinished

These pages have started life in various ways - either experimenting with new supplies or using up bits of paint....
Black left over acyrlic with green coloured gesso over and finally left over gold acrylic.


Words - each layer has words starting with a different letter of the alphabet and goes in a different dirrection. I used kids metallic markers - more pearly than metallic!

Experimenting with some new kids window paints and glitter glues... I love the softest of this page.

I played with a new multi coloured ink pad and the bag of little creative type I found from the things I saved when my Dad retired as a printer. The green is left over gesso and the words matched the type - the past does indeed seem to live on in me, from one generation to the next.

Experimentation splodges with ink stamper pens and some new stamps - I need practice at stamping!

A Secret...

I am taking part in my Soul Journal Yahoo groups Mandala ATC swap. For those (like me) who have no idea what ATC means, I have finally discovered it means Artists Trading Card. This means I have to produce 20+ cards, either copies or originals. As it is sometime before everyone will receive their cards, i don't want to post pictures of the cards or certain details... I wil later, but not now...

So here it is...

I began with three sheets of white card upon which I marked the cards out. I then gesso'd with a mix of clear gesso and acrylics in colour one. i used a glue spreader so the mix gave a nice texture with little ridges and different thicknesses of colour. I then used scissors to scrap some chalk off a stick onto the wet gesso mix. The chalk was in colour two and once dry I brushed it so it gave a softer look in places. I then splatterd some ink on in colour three.

I then began work on the mandala itself by cutting out circles of sugar paper in colour one. I then used oil pastels in colour three to draw round the edge of the circles and then smudged the colour inwards. Onto this i stuck six shapes in a darker shade of colour one and into the centre of these, a smaller shape in colour two.

So now I have to choose my affirmation and copy them onto each card. I would also like to pretty up the back of the cards a little, if I have time!

One thing I love about the cards is that every one is different. The balance of the three elements of the background varies. The way I cut the shapes and glued them on varies to. Every one is unique!

I also love the fact that the cards suit Eostre and also fit Project Spectrum! Bonus!

Mandala for a Teenage Girl 2

And the second mandala... using much the same tools as the first.

I added some spray fix to both mandalas to try and give the glitter a bit more staying power...

Burning

This image was completed early last week.

I started with red and orange marker pen scribbles, then I added pink and red ink marks. Over this I added red paint. I then spoldged on white paint and spread it using a kids texturing tool. I then cut out some flamey shapes from some irridescent cellophane. The words are in gold stickers and although it has been cut off a little, due to the size of the book, reads ' How bright do I burn?'.

Mandala for a Teenage Girl

Just because I have been busy at work with overtime and very quiet on this blog, doesn't mean I haven't been creating! I have a lot of things complete or near complete it seems...


This mandala sits on one side of a spread in my niece's book. There will be a second mandala on the other page of the spread but that is still at pencil mark stage. They each sit in the middle of a near A4 page for her to journal around. I haven't included affirmations as I don't want to inflict my views on her, I just want to create a pretty place she can share her own.

This one was made with silver and lilac embossing powders and a glue pen; pink, purple and silver metallic paints; purple and silver crayola markers; silver fine line pen and silver and purple glitters. The page is gesso with white acrylic over the top.

I found this hard to get a good image of because of the sparkliness of the mandala. Some of the detail with the fine silver pen is lost as well in this picture. Some of the images appeared in silver all over!

I was inspired to include some mandals in my nieces book by the prompt from the Soul Journal group I belong to. They have a yahoo group here and a blog here. This month includes an ATC swap and a mandala competition.

Kenny's Page

Collaged with yellow magazine pages. clear gesso. Paint 'Black Dog' large with black acrylics.

Wrote a selection of the names we used for him in red gel pen round the outside of the page as a border. Wrote in orange gel pen around the page some of the things he used to do.

Used acrylic washes to create 5 'frames' getting smaller as they went in the page. lemon yellow for the outer one and cadmium red for the inner one with gradations in between.

Discovered what to do with my autumn blending chalk pack and used the yellow, red and prange chalks to make the colours radiate from the middle. (wish I had scanned it at this stage as it was pretty!)

Mixed my copper and gold metallic acrylics to give a more appropriate shade and then spread lightly over the top of the page with heavier dollups in the middle.

**********************************

It has been over two weeks since I wrote about this page first and it has taken me this long to be able to finish as I find it a very moving page and finishing it has made me feel very sad.

I used the images from a lovely sympathy card as a template. Kenny was a black dog and his earthly body was done using black sparkle embossing powder and his spirit in snowflake tinsel embossing powder.

His name was printed from my PC and I cut the letters out to make a template and I had put some irridescent cellophane underneath. I used the template to sponge on black paint which I overlaid with PVA glue and then pasted the cellophane letters on top. Finally I added some sparkly stick on heart shaped stones.

Earth Part Three

This part of the collage is now done I think. I will add all four collages to a large sheet of card board I think and papier mache and embellish a frame for them later on.

Soul Journal

These are the pictures from yesterday with a few extra things done to finish off each spread.

Spread 1

This is my least favourite because of the muddy, dark quality of the brown. I am not sure it is finished. If it is, it is because I have given up on a bad job! *laugh*


Spread 2

I love this one. A friend of my Dad's recently died of a heart attack and he was only 46. When the numbers reached 46 over the top of the butterfly style squished paints it just spoke to me of living life to the full because we only have short lives really, like flowers and butterflies. The black hand outlines are embossed in sparkly black. 46 is the last number and it sits to the bottom right under all the flowers.... I don't think death should be seen as something gloomy because I have beliefs to help me believe the dead go on. Death is hardest for the living but then so is life....



Spread 3

This is a very gentle, subtle spread with the colours all being quite similar. The silhouette was done in glue pen and then lilac embossing powders used. The wings and outline were highlighted in copper with lilac ink added to the wings and white acrylic to the head. Even so it is hard to see the detail here and not much easier in real life.


I would love to hear what they say to you!

Progress

I have been quite busy since leaving work early yesterday.

Earth - Some paint and glitter have been added to the original after a little (but not enough) experimenting on the copies. I just have a little text to add then this part of the project will be finished. I think I may mount it on some cardboard and papier mache a frame of some sort.

Soul Journal - I have missed out the house pages from Caspiana's for the moment and have been enjoying the collage pot pourri pages. Basically Caspiana gives a list of instructions to carry out on a page and you have to do them in a different order. The results are a little random especially if you are haphazard when selecting colours.

The first of the three spreads has an unusual look for me as I used the first paint I picked up to dry brush the two pages was brown. The second colour I picked up was yellow so the wash I did didn't really do much. I then drizzled and flicked some metallic paints onto the page. The last step will be to do a silhouette of a figure.

The second spread has turned out much nicer than the first. I blobbed primary colour paints onto the page before closing the book and squidging all the paint together. Over this I used some pinky chalky inky stuff which toned it down in a subtle way and coloured the white spaces. When I wrote the numbers across the pages I got as far as 46. This number is especially significant right now as a friend of my Dad's died of a heart attack last week. He was only 46. This page began to take on the essence of living a life fully and brightly, no matter how short, like a butterfly. I forked on some black paint and then drew round my hand with a glue pen before putting on some black glittery embossing powder. I heated this up and all the little left over bits of dust to so the page is glittery and colour full with black bits as well. I then wrote on some words in silver like Be, Blossom, Flower, Grow etc. The last stage will be to sew on some flowers made from felt.

The third spread was started using a dusky pink chalky ink pad which didn't get into all the folds of the paper and so highlights the texture of the pages. I used some wool to stamp on some copper ink. I wrote the alphabet in purple. For the metal I added some eyelets (which will be under the flowers on the other side) and some metal tape. I then gesso'd out a section with pinky gesso. More steps to follow...

Jewellery - I have had to pick upmy beads again after a three month break as I have demands to fulfill. I am currently 9 inches through a daisy chain made in size 11's (11 beads to an inch) in transparent glass in clear, pink and blue.

The worst thing about the journals is that many of the steps need drying after.... This also makes it hard to scan in as whenever I start I don't think about this until I have wet pages!

Postcards Nine and Ten

The effect of the postcards is growing and spreading across my wall....

Postcard Nine - A continuation of the doodle I started (which turned out to be a sort of maze) This time I doodled within a word.


Postcard Ten - this postcard was covered with foil insulation tape, words is made up of black foam letters and the butterflies were made using a punch and some magazines. I like the simple meaning behind this postcard. That words are a mirror and they are also fleeting like butterflies... It fits nicely with the theme for Creative Every Day this month which is words...

Soul Journal

I scanned in my last two pages and realised that scanning was much better so here is my whole journal from the beginning...

Page 1 - stamps and various pens



Page 2 - images outlines copied on to plain paper using fine line pen. Colour added using pens, inks and eyeshadow mixed with pva.


Page 3 - Violet and black inks sponged on. Images glues on with pva and then watered sown blue acrylic paint added. Some further detail added in copper pen which is not very clear.


Page 4 - Prompt - I forget covered in tape and quote made out of foam letters

Journalling Day

Today I have been journaling.

Pages 3 and 4 are complete. Over the pink and black ink I pasted 24 images that were selected according to the list in Caspiana's blog for the scavenger hunt for this page. I then used watered down blue acrylic to paint mostly between the images. I then used a copper pen to decorate and add words. The copper doesn't show up to much and is pretty subtle but looks pretty.

Pages 5 and 6 are probably finished. I spent some time writing on the prompt 'I forgot'. I actually found this a little upsetting as I listed many good things that I had forgotten to do. I then taped over most of the words I had written. I used sellotape, book covering plastic, holographic tapes, masking tape, double sided tape, florsists tape (with double sided tape), white labels, yellow post it tape and adhesive velcro pads. I then looked for forget quotes and found this 'remember your humanity and forget the rest'. It felt perfect for this page as it is all about letting go of the things you regret and forgot and moving on... I used sticky letters to put this on the page.

I know this ended up a little different to Caspiana's prompts but hey... I haven't sanded or gesso'd this page and I am as yet undecided about...

One thing is for sure - I can't use the foam letters again in this book as it really won't shut if I do!

Soul Journal: Soul Armor

Today I have been working on pages two and three of my journal. Soul Armor! This is the types of things you need to protect yourself and your creativity.

I didn't want a big armored chap, it feels wrong somehow for me. Woman can protect themselves in their own ways and well, it is about ME protecting MYSELF. I do however have companions. I have a magical stead to carry me safely and two hounds (Rhodesian Ridgebacks) from my dreams to protect me and keep me going. These companions are most importantly friends as well...

I found images on the net and printed them off. I held them against the window and put a blank sheet over the top onto which I coped the features I wanted. I then cut them out and glued them onto my page. I added some colour by painting with my new inks. I then mixed some very sparkly eyeshadows with glue to create a lovely paint. This does not show it's full lustre in the picture.

I started adding text and I have finished for the day. I suspect other things will be added to this picture over time but it is fine for now... I have to say, I find this quite challenging and tiring!

Yesterday's Postcard (5)

Having admired some of Sue's Doodles, I would like to bring some doodle power into my postcards. Not sure this one quite does it. I used various pens and pencils and crayons...

Small Beginnings...

I would love to post a piccie of today's efforts but I have no idea where F has put the camera. I have had fun pasting newspaper randomly into the first three spreads of my journal. I have then written about my feeling son top. I made some gesso-ish stuff from pva and white paint. When I went to paint the second page with it I discovered that greaseproof paper is not the same as waxed paper as my first page stuck to it... I peeled it off and it created an interesting effect - both on my page and the greaseproof....

Photos tomorrow.. maybe... or a big catchup at some point anyway...