Brave?...

Hello my crafty friends, I'm sharing a journal page inspired by the prompt this week on the Wanderlust journey, that many of us are on.

 

I read the prompt, and thought about what it meant to me. I decided that giving up smoking was the bravest thing I had done because I knew it would be the start of many changes and I was right. It was the start of a journey which led me here all be it nearly 20 years ago.

 

It started with some Color bloom sprays from Prima, on top of which I used Colour Cloud Blending inks through a Dina Wakley Stencil. I layered it up with several different colours. It reminded me of a smokey room with curls of smoke drifting.

Stopping smoking was very scary, and I knew if I could do it, I could do anything. That has stayed with me and I now I try all the things I want to do. So my smoke was turned into a more positive image of flowers, and by growing those flowers allowed love into my life,

I drew the flowers and using Gelatos smooched it around the flowers and blended them together. I used a Stabilo All pencil to outline the flowers. I wasn't happy how wishy washy the flowers looked so added black detail to them and scratched into the Gelato to add interest to the outside of the flower and stems.

 

I love how this came out and I love the process of making it so will be doing more me thinks.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by, take care as always hugs

Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs

Birthday Card

Good morning everyone, today at That's Crafty I'm sharing a birthday card I made for a friend. I got really inky and painty but enjoyed every minute. Here a peep but if you would like to see the whole thing,and how I created it, please follow this link.

Take care as always, I'll see you soon, hugs

Debsxx

 

Deborah's Designs

Right at the last minute

Hi everyone, some of you may be aware that Paper Artsy has just released their new sets of stamps by their very talented designers. I was fortunate to be asked by Sara Naumann to be one of her wingmen, to create samples for the release. If interested you can see the sample here. But here is a pic of Sara at CHA (stitches) in Birmingham with some of the samples in the background. The photo isn't brilliant because it is a screen shot from Periscope as The lovely Leandra from Paper Artsy gave us all the news and showed us as many of the stands as she could in between demoing etc. However you can see two of my samples - middle top.

Now that all the stamps are out, I can play with Sara's and this is what I created. I'm going to enter this into the Craft Stamper's current challenge which is Text. There has to text on your creation which is more that just the sentiment. I've entered the challenge a couple of times because I love using text on my work so it's a perfect fit.

I was thinking of long voyages letters being sent back and forth, sea air making things rusty, clothes becoming tatty, get the picture lol.

 

I hope you like my page as it was great fun creating it.

Take care as always, see you soon hugs

Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs

New Face

Hi crafty friends, hope you are all well and have had a good day. I've been playing with oil and soft pastels as well as Gelatos to create today's face.

A couple of steps. Sorry there's not more photos, I got carried away.

 

Well there she is, I like her and hope you do too. Take care as always, Hugs

Debsxx

 

Deborah's Designs

Make a background number Two

Hello crafty friends, it's my turn to show some more inspiration for the current challenge over at Country View Crafts. All month my team mates have been showing lots of crafty makes to inspire you to make your own background. I hope you get to play along as one lucky person will win a voucher to spend in the shop.

So here we go

I have made a mixed media piece using collage, stamps and stencil

I used colour cloud blending inks from Cosmic Shimmer and stamp plates HP1503, 1203 and Mini 28 from Paper Artsy to start off my background.

I added emphera and collage papers from Kasercraft Provincial PP984

The stancil is from Dina Wakley who I am fortunate enough to be doing a workshop with

Next month. Yah!

The Sprays are from Lyndy's Stamp Gang, and very much my go to sprays at the moment.

Here are a few close ups.

The face was drawn with a black Stabilo all.

I hope I have inspired you to have a play. Take care as always, Hugs

Debs xx

 

 

 

Deborah's Designs

Show your face Friday

Morning peeps, happy Sunday everyone. I'm sharing a face I created last week using soft pastels by Sennellier. They are fabulous to use, very blendable, which is what you need for faces.

I'm going to link this to Kim Dellow's show your face, which she blogs every Friday. I've been very neglectful lately, as time always seems to run away with me. I was fortunate to meet Kim in December and she is as lovely as she appears on her her blog.

 

here is my girl

Again once I sealed her and she changed slightly as she did look like this!

I love both versions, but I'm more drawn towards the darker of the two!

I have no step outs, as I forgot to take photos however, the basics are always the same. Below, I show how I start my faces.

I draw a basic oval shape, although if I'm doing a whimsy girl, I usual go more round. Whatever the shape, I set out my eyes, nose and mouth by deviding the face as you can see above. This is only used as a guide.

I add the eyes, nose and mouth, again these are only roughly sketched in. I usually use a graphite pencil but if using pastels I will change to a white pencil or a white pastel.

Once I am happy with the position of the features, I start to block in some shade. For this purpose I've kept to pencil but I will have changed to whatever medium I am using.

I then add more details, shades and highlights. By now the face determines its self. The size and shape of features will work together to give character to the face as she comes alive.

 

I am no expert at faces by a long way, and everyone will do them differently but this is how I start mine. The key to getting it right is practice. I rarely use a reference photo as my faces seem to live in my head, but occasionally, I might want a certain angle that I cannot achieve and will then use a reference. There is nothing wrong with using a reference photo, many artists do, I currently choose not to.

I would suggest that soft pastels are a good medium to start with, as they are very forgiving, easily removed to correct mistakes etc. Another thing I do, is take photos, as this helps me see things I cannot see looking at the picture.

Kim Dellow along with some other great Artists such as Tracy Scott Clare Lloyd and Trish Latimer have a new workshop teaching faces on DVD which you can order from Traplet.

 

I'm off to have a crafty day, see you soon

Hugs Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs

I had a play

Hi everyone, thanks to all of you who left comments on my previous post. The verdict is still mixed so will leave it there, but it was fun reading what everyone thought.

It's been an exciting time lately in blog land as the UK Trade show is kicking off in Birmingham and a number of my crafty friends are there. It must take so much work to get organised so congratulations to everyone there. Leandra From Paper Artsy will be going round showing us the other stands with regular Periscopes so if you are interested follow the the link.

The other exciting thing is that many of us are doing Wanderlust, an online classroom for the year by Everything Art. It has been fabulous so far, with some great techniques being taught. It's not too late to join.

Well Jamie and Kaisa in collaboration with Paper Artsy brought out a new stamp, and I used it for this journal page.

 

 

The background is craft Card and I've used the stamps from the plate with white Ink to cover the page

I then sprayed with Lyndys SG in blues and greens. I dried this off and with Archival ink in black I added more stamping.

 

Using a pencil I drew in the face and went over it with black Acrylic ink. To finish, I added some more spray. My words were inspired my Joanne Sharpe who gave us a wonderful lesson in lettering in class yesterday. I'm glad i checked my books first as I decided to buy her book, but found I already owned it. Hope to have more play with lettering as Joanne really does give you the tools to create your own letters.

Take care as always hugs Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs

New challenge

Morning everyone, today's see the start of a new challenge over at That's Crafty, and the theme is circle it. I love circles and dots, it my thing at the moment and you will see them cropping up everywhere. My team mates have some fab inspiration for you over on the blog here. Follow the rules and your creation could win a £20.00 gift voucher to spend in the shop.

here is my take on the theme.

I'll talk you through as we look at the stages

Blue Green Turquoise and Yellow Dylusions paints smooched over the page

And then lots of That's Crafty stencils on top. I used all their Dinkie Stencils

Which feature circles. I left the centre free for my girl

Here you can see that I've sprayed some Lyndy's Stamp Gang Spray to add interest. I also used Emma Godfreys new stamps from Paper Artsy (did you see the other 3 stamps sets from Emma, on Periscope last night, and more tonight, I wonder who else is releasing stamps? Ooh exciting!)

My girl, still using Dylusions paint,

Still with circles on my mind I doodled her hair and added some of my own

Circles, well you just gotta!

Now I was torn!

Doodle hair or no doodled hair? I put it to the team and they were torn, some liked doodled

Some preferred black.

Here are the two options, which do you prefer?

I would love to know your thoughts!

And hope that all this talk of circles has sent you flying off into a spin, with ideas!

Take Care as always Hugs

Debsxx

 

 

 

Deborah's Designs

Door Hanger

Hi everyone, brrrr its cold here in Essex! Winter is definitely here, even if it sometimes it thinks it's spring. Hope you are all managing to keep warm.

Today I have Spring inspired piece over at That Crafty all the details can be found here but I'll show what I've been up to.

Over at Craft Stamper they have a challenge which asks you to use Text on your piece, this doesn't include any sentiments. I have used a French script on the background and so will enter this into their challenge. Wish me luck.

Take care my friends and I'll see you soon.

Hugs Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs

Tim's Feb Tag

Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by. Today I'm sharing my take on Tim Holtz's February tag.

You can see Tim's here.

I followed the instructions, changing things where I didn't have the same. The photos show the steps.

 

 

 

All products are Tim Holtz's except the people emphera who are from Prima.

I hope you all have a crafty day!

Hugs

Debs xx

 

Deborah's Designs