HANG IT ! All for a mini-challenge

Hi everyone!  I'm pleased to be hosting the mini-challenge at Anything but A card this week and am so looking forward to seeing what the end results will be. To enter this challenge, pop on over to:
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/

I chose the theme "Hang It", firstly so that crafters / artists with many varied interests could perhaps be tempted to join in. I'm visualising anything that can be hung; including from people (jewellery, scarves, hair adornments, ...), walls, ceilings, windows, posts, mailboxes, trees, gates...  (the list could go on and on and on......)  and out of any medium.
As a retired teacher, space was often an issue in the classroom, especially when wanting to display work. One of the easiest and in the end, artistic, ways was to hang it, either on wires stretching across the room or as mobiles.
For the inspiration piece I have made a sun catcher/mobile. This is going to be photo heavy, so please bear with me, but it was the best way to show you what various elements looked like.

Photo taken when hung on the verandah

close-ups  of  sections of sun catcher taken indoors

The materials used were: a piece of stainless steel wire, wrapped around a bottle to create a spiral and acetate from packaging. This was treated using two different methods. Flowers were diecut and coloured with alcohol inks. This was applied directly to the acetate and then daubed.  Some were edged with glass effects gel medium. The remainder of the designs on the sun catcher were stamped on the acetate with Stazon black ink. The reverse was coloured using Tria pens and Peel-off pens. Both of these have a permanent ink base and a lovely brush tip.

die cut flowers photographed on white card

Chocolate Baroque Mackintosh Windows and Macintosh Beauty Sets. Black thread was replaced with fine wire.




To add some more sparkle to catch the sun I threaded lengths of crystal beads onto jewellery wire and added them, together with some 'jewelled' braid. The other item used came from my son's fishing supplies... swivels used for his lines. These allow the various bits and pieces on the sun catcher to move as they catch any breezes. On a sunny day, the glints of light bouncing around the room are really beautiful!
I do hope you feel tempted to join in the challenge so I can visit your blogs and leave a comment.
I know I truly appreciate comments left on my posts.
Catch up with you again soon.
Cheers, Di

 

MIRRORED

Hi again. Today I'm showing a layout I'm entering into a challenge at: http://blackwith2challenge.blogspot.com.au/  where the colours to be used on black cardstock are a soft grey and a slate grey. 5% white is also allowed to be used. There's also a sketch to use and the word 'Life' had also to be incorporated.
I found this challenge interesting and it stretched me because I don't normally work with sketches.

For this layout I've diecut trellises and  leaves from different card stocks and printed tissue paper. I've also added a stamped background piece, smooshed over with Weathered Wood and Black Soot Distress Inks, Stamping around and on the photo has been done with black Archival ink. The title has been done with Liquid Pearls.
Thank you for popping by. Catch you  again soon.
Cheers, Di.

EVENTIDE

Hi! Today I'm showing my DT piece for Anything But A Card, Challenge 35... Colour inspiration.
 Firstly a fabulous image and then gorgeous colours to choose from. In the end, I decided to go with  indigo, mauve and peachy pink... all colours to go with the photos on my layout. These were taken on a holiday to Tasmania in 2011. We were in the Huon Valley returning to Hobart late in the afternoon. The weather had been perfect all day, but then there was a build up of clouds and light rain just on sunset. This led to some interesting shots across the river before the showers reached us.

 As the photos themselves were full of moodiness, I kept the background to simple cardstock,  smooched around the edges and then added another layer of a gorgeous mauve patterned paper over the top. Embellishments have been die cut from an indigo pearlised cardstock.
The title, also diecut letters, has been coloured using liquid pearls.
Pop on over to:http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/  to have a look at the mood board and the inspirational makes by the rest of the team. You still have time to play, with one or more of the colours shown. We'd love to see your art.
Thank you for dropping by. Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

HAPPY

Hi and welcome. Over at ARTastic this month we have had the beautiful painting "Amarys" by Robert Hagan as our inspiration. This fitted perfectly with the challenge this month... mother and child, with the added criteria of flowers.
I used a gorgeous background paper from Prima: Sunlight Daisies from the Fairy Flora Collection. because the print and the colours in it reminded me of the field of flowers in the painting.

The photos are of self and son aged 6 months. He always loved to get his photo taken... then! Whatever happened!  These were framed, again from cardstock reflecting some of the colours from the background paper.
For the journalling tag I used a piece of experiment paper... cardstock stamped in archival inks, given a very light coat of gesso, dried, re-stamped and then given a finish with Inca gold. I also used a diecut trellis.

Background for journalling.. gesso and stamping

Same piece with the added Inca Gold, rubbed to a light sheen



The flowers needed to be a neutral colour and I wanted them to be soft to add a dreamlike quality to the page. They were diecut from patterned sparkle organzas, taffeta and mulberry bark (a very exciting and interesting fibre to work with). A couple of bought hessian flowers completed their structure.

 

Close up of some of the flowers. The sheer fabric makes them difficult to see well in photos, but I hope you get the idea.

 

 

 

 

The title was made up from fabric thickers, painted with liquid pearls.

I hope you can find the time to pop over to ARtastic at: http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ 

and have a look at our inspirational painting and the fabulous work by the rest of the design team.

We'd love to see your art work here.

Thank you for coming by. Your comments mean so much and I always like to visit blogs from others to see what you are up to.

Cheers, Di



 



 

RHOSLYN, THE MAY DAY QUEEN at PIXELS and PAPER

Hi and welcome. This month's photo inspiration at Pixels and Paper is  quite beautiful and lends itself to many avenues of interpretation.
It immediately brought back childhood memories of Infants School, where we all had to learn to dance the intricate steps for the Maypole Dance.  Most of the time we just concentrated on learning a polka dance step and making sure that the maypole ribbons were being braided into the correct pattern, so there was a lot of looking up!
Then there were the white dresses and coloured sashes (to match the ribbons we were holding). I remember performing the dance at the local showground in Murwillumbah, but I can't remember the occasion.It could have been to celebrate the then held Empire Day (24th May) or later in the year at the Tweed Banana Festival (August/September).
My DT piece has taken the movement of ribbons and flowers combined with the May Day tradition of a May Day Queen and so I created Rhoslyn.

Rhoslyn started off as a small wooden-mounted stamp, produced by a company which is no longer operating. I loved her face and the movement of her hair... just perfect for what I had in  mind.
When I stamped the face in black on white, it was too stark, so I photographed the image on the wooden block, and faded it on the computer, to give a lovely porcelain skin tone. The photo was then enlarged to A4 size and printed onto card. This was cut out ready  to be mounted onto smooshed A3 heavy watercolour paper. Ribbons were plaited and braided through her hair and then left to float freely. A crown of daisies was added.

All other flowers on the piece were handmade... diecut from smooshed watercolour paper, dampened and scrunched up. They were left to dry, before unscrunching and assembled.

The border has been made by writing out the words to an old English Maypole song (some of it had to be left out, so I could fit the words around the border). Some stamping has completed my piece.

We'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge, so pop on over to http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ and see what the rest of the team has been up to.

Thank you for stopping by. Comments left are always truly appreciated.
Cheers, Di