Dylusions Mixed Media Get Well Card

THE BIG REVEAL, PART 9.

This is the final thing that I made for Shaz before she went into hospital – until I had heard from her hubby that she had received it, it had to remain under wraps! I now know that I can share it with you.

I made her a get well card using a combination of Dylusions sprays and my new Dylusions paints. The colours of the two types of media match beautifully.

I began with a scrap piece of card which I had used for mopping up Peacock Feathers distress ink and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions spray. It ended up pretty crinkled and distorted but I thought it would flatten out OK.

This is my honeycomb stencil laid over the top of the background piece.

Stencilling with Polyfilla One Fill (what our US cousins call joint compound) – a lot cheaper than artists’ moulding paste! I spread a little in random patches, using a palette knife, and scraped off any bits that looked messy, and then dried it with my heat gun.

The piece with the stencilled Polyfilla.

Lemon Zest Dylusions spray. A couple of quick bursts at the top, then spritzed with water and held up so it dripped down through the stencilling. Love the lime green it produces with the turquoise.

Repeating the process with Crushed Grape Dylusions spray. In each case I spritzed it with water to help it blend.

Coarse sea salt added, and re-spritzed with water. I left this for a few minutes to react, and then dried it with my heat gun.

The piece with the salt crystals removed. It creates gorgeous swirls and spots as the salt draws the wet ink towards itself.

The piece along with a couple of other pieces used to mop up inks from my craft mat. Fabulous backgrounds!

The addition of Treasure Gold gilding wax to the raised stencilled areas. I put on the barest minimum so that the colours would still show through.

Working on the base card, I began by coating it with a thin layer of gesso, using a foam brush, and then dried with my heat gun. The surface of the card is fairly absorbent, and the gesso prevents the paints sinking in, and helps them blend better.

The Dylusions paints, in Lemon Zest, Vibrant Turquoise and Crushed Grape. I used the Ranger mini-blending tools to apply them and blend them together, and after the first coat was dry, I applied another, and after each one, blended the colours using a baby wipe.

The finished base card. The colours do blend well together, creating new colours.

The stencilled piece stuck down onto the base card.

I found this amusing quote online and printed it out on the computer, cut out the pieces and coloured them with Antique Linen distress stain because the white card I printed them on looked a bit stark. I stuck them down with Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive and outlined each one with rough lines with a gold gel pen. (After I had stuck them down I realised I should have used gel medium… dratted chemo brain!)

The inside of the card was inked with a selection of distress inks, using Inkylicious Ink Dusters, to echo the colours on the front of the card. Starting at the top left corner and working around clockwise, Seedless Preserves, Peacock Feathers, Peeled Paint and Squeezed Lemonade, Spiced Marmalade and Aged Mahogany. The centre of the card still looked rather white and stark, so I added some Antique Linen distress ink to tone it down.

I unscrewed the lid of my water spritzing bottle and flicked the tube over the surface of the card to spatter it with water droplets. I left it to soak in for a few minutes and then blotted it off with kitchen paper to leave the white spots, to create a bit of texture.

The final step was to add the sentiment, which was printed from the computer, coloured with Antique Linen distress stain, stuck down and outlined as before.

The backs of my cards usually seem to get a bit messy (I’m sure other people manage to keep the backs of theirs nice and pristine and clean, but I’ve never worked out how to do this!) and we are told that if you make a mistake, make a feature of it, so I did!

I inked the envelope to echo the colours of the card and its inside, and added the water spattering for a bit of texture.

I hope this card cheers her up in hospital, and at least raises a smile, if not a laugh! She loves very loud heavy rock music and I was delighted when I found that quote on Pinterest, and knew I had to use it for this card!!

Many of us on WOYWW have been following Shaz’s amazing progress in hospital as her hubby writes a daily diary on his blog. We continue to wish her well, and so look forward to the time when she is well enough to join us again. Meantime, take care, Shaz, and get well soon! We miss you.

Salisbury and Cotswolds Holiday Day 8–Cirencester–2nd Post–Art Exhibition

As I mentioned in my last post, at the side of the museum in Cirencester is a small art gallery which hosts temporary exhibitions of work by local artists. The current exhibition is on the theme of William Shakespeare, and I think you will agree with me that these pieces are exceptional, and depict the Bard very well, each in their own way. Many of the pieces have an ancient feel but using modern materials, and in a modern style – in exactly the same way as we interpret Shakespeare today!

A mixed-media scroll, decorated front and back.

“Birds on a Wire,” the wire being a quotation from Richard III: “True hope is swift, and flies with swallows’ wings; Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.”

Coiled pot with printed paper, “Love Potion.”

A display of mini-books.

These were so intriguing and beautiful that I had to take a few detailed shots of them.

It is a shame there was so much reflection from the display case, but I did the best I could to capture them. These little books are so exquisite, and so along the lines that I want my own work to progress; I am very attracted to the idea of making art in books which themselves are little pieces of art, not something to be hung on the wall, but dynamic, to be handled, tactile, with texture to be enjoyed.

This beautiful installation displays a series of mini-books in a cabinet. Gorgeous distressed frame.

Again, my apologies for the reflections.

Ariel, the winged messenger.

Details about the exhibition.

Beautiful backgrounds.

A display of mini-books arranged between a pair of masked bookends.

Gorgeous grungey black and white mini-books.

One of my favourite pieces in the exhibition, a paper sculpture entitled “Will Writes.”

I love how the pages of words flow from the end of the giant quill pen and gradually become part of the structure in which he is sitting – just as his original ink-still-wet words have over the centuries become part of the edifice of our national culture. The words are for us all, but it is up to us to draw aside the curtain and dig more deeply to discover the beauty and meaning of the immortal words which transcend historical period and fashion.

There were many other pieces too, mostly paintings and a few more sculptures and ceramics, but I felt this selection best represented the theme to me. I hope you agree that they are beautiful and inspirational – a modern interpretation of the sublime works of our greatest wordsmith.

As with my previous post, this was composed on the following day, as I was too tired on our arrival home last night to tackle anything on the computer! As before, I have kept the date in sequence to make my holiday record complete.

Dartmoor Wild Flowers

After our lunch out today, as it was such a beautiful spring day, my hubby took Mum and me on a drive up onto Dartmoor. We drove around, doing what my hubby called “Proper Sploring”! This meant that when he saw an interesting little lane turning off, he would have to go down it, just to see where it led. He is nosier than a cat, and even nosier perhaps than those of us who take part in the weekly WOYWW blog hop when we satisfy our curiosity as to what’s on each other’s work desks.

From high up on the moors, we could look down towards the wooded valleys, and in one spot we saw what we originally thought was purpley-blue plastic laid out – we said, “That can’t possibly be bluebells!” But it was. We drove down to have a look.

We stopped a few times in a wooded lane, so that Mum and I could get out and have a wander, and I got my camera out. I’m afraid some of the photos are slightly out of focus but it was hard to tell at the time because the screen on my camera isn’t that big, and the sun was extremely bright. Further up, we came upon the masses of bluebells we’d seen from above.

Here are the photos I took.

I believe our American cousins call these beautiful flowers “Blue Bonnets” which I think is charming!

Buttercups:

Celandines:

Clover (a bit out of focus, I’m afraid):

Gorse – this grows in the woods adjoining the moors, and profusely on the moor itself. Very prickly, and the flowers smell of coconut.

Speedwells:

Stitchworts – again a little out of focus:

Violets:

Wall pennyworts. I love this little plant, with its delightfully round, rubbery leaves that “creak” when you move them, and the humble little green spike of a flower. Until he met me, my hubby had never heard of them, and had never noticed them, despite being brought up in the country! They are so insignificant, but so valiant, growing out of dry walls.

Don’t our British wild flowers have delightful names? They probably go far back into the mists of time.

Now for some non-flowering plants. Ferns unfurling:

Ivy:

Lichen. Don’t you just love that texture?

Gnarled old oak tree:

And now some of Dartmoor’s famous dry stone walls. Many of these have been there for centuries, and they are as solid as the moor itself. Dry stone walling is an ancient craft, and while the old walls sometimes may look a bit haphazard, they are carefully planned, with the largest granite stones at the bottom (how did they even lift some of these?) and they are probably the earliest cavity walls, with a double wall being built, and the centre being filled with smaller stones, and then topped with more stones.

They get a wonderfully weathered look over the years, and in shady places, moss and lichen grow there, as well as my wall pennyworts, and sometimes little birds will nest between the stones.

Sorry, I can’t resist it – got to quote my favourite Pam Ayers poem:

I am a dry stone waller,

All day I dry stone wall.

Of all appalling callings,

Dry stone walling’s worst of all.

She may be right. Inmates of Dartmoor Prison were forced to build them, and some of the best ones are found in the vicinity of Princetown! Beats sewing mailbags, perhaps, at least in the summer.

Just before turning back for home, we drove down a tiny lane which led to some pretty thatched cottages, and found this:

I count my blessings every day, one of which is the privilege of living in such a beautiful corner of England, with all this on the doorstep, and also having a hubby who so enjoys “sploring”!

Hope you enjoyed sharing our little trip into the beautiful Devon countryside. It is certainly at its very best at this time of the year.