GRAB THE BROLLIES!!!

Hi and welcome. As I'm writing this post, the temperature outside has dropped and I know we're in for another chilly night.... just right for snuggling up in a warm doona!
Our inspiration at ARTastic this  month was based on the artwork of Shirley Charlton (aka Shirlroma) called "Umbrellas, wet street". 
I loved this piece, with its wet, reflective appearance, the pops of colour from clothing and umbrellas and the texture on the pavement. 

I had a photo taken on our last holiday in Tasmania, showing the reflective view of yachts and old buildings on the waterfront area of Hobart, and the rain falling on the nearby Mt Wellington. This, was just right for our theme and added criteria this month. Minutes after taking this photo we had to make a dash for cover... no brollies on our holiday!

The background was stencilled onto white card, using a new stencil which I thought went so well with a flagstone look.

 

This was left to dry slightly before spraying with various ink sprays and building up layers of colour using Glimmer Mists and Lindy Stamp Gang Sprays. These gave a beautiful metallic , watery sheen to the whole of the background. Once these were dry I sprayed sections with Dylusions Ink Spays and let them dribble freely down the page... helped by misting with water.

 

 

 

Umbrellas were made from papers which had also been sprayed or inked in some way. This one I stamped with versamark and heat embossed using a white embossing powder. It was then overstamped and coloured with Inca Gold 'Rose Quartz'.

 

 

Two of the brollies were cut from smooshed Distress Inks, using some of this year's colour releases. two were cut from paper sprayed with Dylusions Ink Sprays, and the remaining one on the centre of the grouping was cut from tissue paper which had been painted with Dylusions Acrylic paints (the most yummy colours!)

 

The title was also cut from the same types of paper and then given a coat of Glossy Accents to give them a wet look. This was also applied to the ribs of the umbrellas.
A lot of messy fun, using techniques and mediums I love to play with.
If you want to play with us, pop on over to:artastic and check out what the team has done. We'd love to see your art here.
Cheers, for now.
Di

 

 

STARS IN OUR EYES

Hi and welcome. This month's inspirational artwork at ARTastic is "The Return of the Young Prince" by Sarah Beetson, with the additional criterion of the use of stars.

For my layout this month I have chosen some of the colours depicted in the artwork and constructed an iris folded star as the background mat for the photo I've used.

One of the papers used for this was one of my experiments with a new stencil and Neon inks.
The photo I've used was taken of my soon-to-be husband and self, not long after our engagement in 1973.  The photographer was one of my bridesmaids to be.

Additional stars were made from some of the same papers and were highlighted with dots using black or gold Sharpies. The border was done with a gold Sharpie and I added black stars.

Thank you for dropping by and while you're here, why not pop on over to:artastic and check out how the rest of the team has used the artwork. We'd also love to see your art here.

Catch you again soon. Cheers for now.
Di

IT'S GOLD!!!! A TAG FOR ABAC

At Anything But A Card this month, the focus has been on GOLD!
For this I have made a tag using black cardstock as a base. This was sprayed with gold glimmermist.

A butterfly was diecut from a manilla folder which started life as a mop up piece. It was sprayed with the gold mist as well, then dry embossed. The raised areas were highlighted with Delicata gold ink (absolutely THE best gold ink I've used). Some glittery blue sections were added using Viva Decor Perlen- pen.

The flower was made from glitter paper with an overlay of leaf skeletons (purchased), also inked with the gold ink and edged with the blue glitter. Gold pearl pen was also added to the glitter petals.
To finish the tag I added the stamped sentiment, woodchip butterflies and flower centre and gorgeous braid (black and antique gold).
Pop on over to:anythingbutacard and check out what other members of the team have done with our "Fool's Gold" theme. We'd love to see what you come up with (as long as it's not a card of course!)

Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

NATURAL BRIDGE

Over at ARTastic this month, we have a fabulous inspirational artwork to use... a piece called Frozen Music,  full of colour ad suggested movement  by Roy de Maistre .

I have taken advantage of our added requirement of swirls to complete a double-page layout, with doodled flourishes and swirls using a silver Sharpie. This has been done as a vertical piece in keeping with the photos.

The photos are of the Natural Bridge at Numinbah,on the rim of the Mt Warning crater, about 30 minutes from the small township of Murwillumbah on the far North Coast of NSW. My layout is reflecting the photos showing a flow of water from a creek and its progression, tumbling down a steep rocky outcrop into a cavern where it cascades into a pool before once again splashing out into a small creek. As a child I enjoyed visiting this area and wandering along the track to the cavern beneath. We always called the site the Natural Arch but somewhere over the course of time this was changed to Natural Bridge. It's a great place to visit, especially after a period of good rainfall, when the cascade is even more spectacular. At the right time in the evening the cavern is filled with little bursts of light from the glow worms.

Close up of page 1

Close up of page 2

The background is on a pearlised cardstock and water drops have been cut from glitter cardstock. I've added strands of glitter yarn, fabric and paper orchids in the colours taken from our inspirational painting, acetate butterflies and dragonflies and painted chipboard mushrooms. The edges have a drawn border of water droplets, again using a silver Sharpie.

We'd love to see what you could do with our inspirational artwork and of course the added criteria of swirls. These can be in the form of doodling, swirls on your background paper, or added embellishments. Pop on over to: artastic and check out what the rest of the team has done using our artwork for this month.

Catch you again soon.
Cheers, Di

PRACTICE

Hi! Thank you for stopping by. This month at Pixels and Paper we have a great photo inspiration... perfect for a male perspective.
For this, I took some of the darker colour tones  and used the idea of wheels and cogs to create a layout using photos of my son aged 8 or 9, enjoying his bike in  our yard.

The background paper from  Fab scraps was the perfect paper for this layout. Cogs were diecut from foil shim and then embossed using 2 different folders; one with gears and cogs and the other with a metal grid pattern.
Pop on over to: pixelsandpaper to have a look at what the rest of the team has done with this photo.

We'd love to see your artworks in our challenge this month.
Catch you again soon,
Cheers, Di

Golden Tag

Hi and welcome. We've certainly had an interesting week of storms, wind and hail in our region over the past week. At home this has not been to the extent of towns nearby where, in some centres it certainly looked like a Northern winter scape!
In my exploration of challenge sites I came across "Lets get Shabby Challenge" blog and decided to put an entry into their latest challenge ( just getting it in!), which is themed on "Gold". For this challenge at: http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com.au/  I decided to make a tag. This was cut from a pearlised glittery cardstock which was coloured with gold metallic alcohol ink. Even though this card only had a soft satin sheen to it, the alcohol ink took well without any bleeding on the underside.
On the background I've stamped a steam punk rose image from Chocolate Baroque's steampunk butterfly set. This was coloured using 3d Stamping Paint.

The flowers were quilled from different gold papers, including a soft metallic gold vellum.

 

Some layering with corrugated cardboard, Tim Holtz tissue paper, diecut cog and ribbons were also used.  Around the edges I've added a random border of mica flakes.

 

 Thank you for visiting. I really appreciate your encouraging comments.
Cheers, Di

Winter Antics

Hi and welcome. I've been bouncing around different Blogs this last week, discovering amazing artists and their gorgeous work. While doing this, I also found some great challenge sites I hadn't known about. The result of all of this was for me to try some new challenges. Now that I've bookmarked the sites, I hope to visit them more often.
A wintry layout was the requirement at: http://showusyourstuff.blogspot.com.au/. Winters where I live are fairly mild compared to other parts of the country. The photos chosen for this layout were taken on top of Mt Wellington, Hobart while on a trip there in 2010. It was our first experience of ice and snow (even though it was a light covering) and we found it truly amazing. We couldn't get over the plants which had been transformed into crystalline structures, or the huge sheets of ice which had formed on the towers. It really was quite magical in appearance.

 

The  background card stock was stamped, smooshed with Distress Inks and lightly sprayed with Glimmer mists. Die cut and punched crystals made from pearlescent card and mirror board were added and finished with  Crystalina Kindyglitz.
We had a fabulous holiday and Tasmania has become a favourite destination and we're looking forward to going back again.
Thank you for visiting and for your lovely comments.
Cheers, Di