Stripey Flower Batik Card Thing

A simple looking card this one, but oddly enough, a lot going on technique-wise! :)

I started out by stamping the distressed lines with Versamark ink and embossing them with clear powder, to act as a resist. Then I applied distress inks (punctured tyre, shattered teapot and sprinkled corsage I think), and stamped the flowers in black. I then placed some kraft paper over the whole thing and ironed it to melt the embossing powder again, which soaked up into the paper. I then applied stripes of various promarkers over the top, to colour the white lined areas (mouldy peas, awkward silence, scraped knee and disappointed parent, if I remember rightly). Finally I overstamped the flowers with versamark and embossed with clear powder for a bit of shine. Oh, and I cut a white mat for it, colouring the edges with two overlapping shades of promarker (witchety grub and I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter).

As ever, click the pic for a larger view :)

Twinchie Time

I wanted to have a play around today with a lot of different techniques, mainly because I'm working in unfamiliar surroundings right now, with unfamiliar stuff, and wanted to put it all to the test :) Twinchies were the order of the day as there was no need to produce larger pieces, it was the process that was important rather than the end product! I hope you like em, click on the image to see a larger view :)

Home is where the art is...

... is a quote we've all heard before, I'm sure, but I couldn't resist it today! :o) I've just joined what I think is going to turn out to be a really fun swap! Each person has to make 21 itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny houses, send them off to the organiser, then gets 20 back from other artists in return.

Each house must be 2.5in wide and can be anywhere between 3 and 6in tall. Apart from that, all rules are off! I think 5 or 6 tiny houses arranged in a line will look awesome in the right frame, I'm really looking forward to seeing what I get sent back - I need more art on my walls! :o)

I thought I'd have a go at just a couple today, to suss out the lay of the land, see if there were any mistakes waiting to pick me to happen to or any problems I hadn't forseen - all that malarky! :)

The right hand house was coloured with distress inks (shabby shutters and broken china), stamped with basic grey and fontwerks flourishes and painted with a waterbrush and fired brick distress pad.

The house on the left uses the batik resist technique. It was stamped with the tree in embossing ink and clear embossed. After the rest of the inking/stamping was finished, I placed some brown paper over the house and ironed it with a hot iron - melting the embossing powder again so that soaked into the brown paper and was removed from the house, leaving a white image behind.

I'm not sure if I'm going to include these two into my swap or not. To be completely frank, I just don't like the one on the right. Those of you that read my blog regularly will know that from time to time I put "mistakes" onto my blog, and this is one of them, lol! I will approach the rest slightly differently I think - I just hadn't really taken on board how small they are, and am a little wiser now! :o) 3 more tomorrow, watch this space.

I hope you like them, click on them to see a larger view!