Painted ATCs

Following on from my WOYWW 115 post where I showed the starting point of this new project, I’ve now done a bit more on them.

To recap: here are the ATCs primed with gesso and painted with blue acrylic paint in readiness for the application of crackle glaze.

Here they are after I’d painted them with crackle glaze and the top coat of cream coloured acrylic paint.

After I’d peeled all 27 of them off my two craft sheets, I looked at the mess that was left and thought I’d better start scraping it all off, when I thought that it actually made a rather interesting design!

If necessary, the colours could be digitally altered and then the image could be printed as a background, and then images or embellishments could be inserted in the “frames.” Endless possibilities!

Last night I started working on the artwork. After looking at various images, I did as series of pencil sketches on the themes I had decided on for the ATCs. These are the strawberries, vines and harvest.

Most likely I shan’t put the text on the ATCs that I use for cards, but I might use them on stand-alone ATCs.

These are the other pencil sketches I did, of daisies and poppies.

I’ve got a few ideas for some more, but will probably work on these few to start with.

The next step was to finalise the design for each one. I have started doing an ATC-sized drawing of each:

which I have outlined with permanent black marker pen. I then copied each onto the ATCs.

These lines will serve as guidelines for the painting, although I think they work pretty well as line drawings on the crackle-glaze background! I might keep a few like this – I’ve got plenty to play with, after all!

Shadow Box for our Nephew’s Wedding–Part 3

This isn’t really part 3 – more like part 6 or 7 really – because I’ve done blog posts out of sequence with their own titles, describing the experiments, and the various embellishments and finishes I’ve been working on for the purpose of this project, but which stand alone as well.

The final steps to complete the project were simple assembly; I had to decide where to put the flowers on each layer so that they would not obscure one another, and also would reflect on the internal mirrored surface of the box. First of all I put the frame and mount together, adding the flowers in the corners. I had to support it on a small cardboard box in the middle until I was ready to assemble the box, because the mount, attached to the glass, had a tendency to drop out of the recess in the frame.

The next step was to put the flowers in the base of the box, so that they would line up correctly with the other embellishments. You can see a small pencilled arrow at the top of the box, to tell me which way to line up the frame when assembling the project – the small lugs projecting from the box with the screw holes are not exactly placed, and need to line up correctly with the screw holes in the back of the frame. You can also see the protective strip on the double sided tape on the top of the distance piece, which would be peeled off when the acetate was put in place.

Here is the acetate with the butterfly and flowers glued down:

The printed monogram appears fainter and less definite than I originally intended; I hadn’t taken that into account when I reduced the graphic in size, and maybe should have used a darker shade of blue, but I’m not too displeased, as the whole effect is quite subtle, and it doesn’t dominate, or compete with the butterfly which is the main feature. It doesn’t show up very well at all in this next photo because of the reflections of my hand and the camera in the mirrored surfaces, but in real life it’s a bit clearer. This is the finished project.

Here are some close-up pictures showing some more detail of the frame.

It’s really hard photographing these reflective surfaces! The red you can see is a reflection of the top that I am wearing today, and has nothing to do with the project!! It’s also really hard to judge where to place my lamps so that they illuminate the work properly, without causing a massive bright spot like in the next photo (sorry about that!).

This next photo really shows what the glass bead gel is like, up close and personal. I’m really thrilled with this stuff!

When you get the light on it, the stamped and painted butterflies sparkle and shimmer, and I like the effect of the glass bead gel extending a little onto the glass in places, softening the outline of the aperture of the frame; my original idea was to cover the silver mount completely with it, but I think it is more interesting, and has a more organic look, the way I’ve done it. You can also see it extending onto the aperture of the painted frame, linking the contrasting surfaces of textured acrylic paint, silver mirror card, and glass.

The final photo gives us a glimpse inside the box itself, taken at an angle so that you can see the distance piece with the acetate resting on it. The double sided tape which of course was visible through the transparent acetate, has been covered with a self-adhesive silver strip all round, which makes it much less obvious. Again, unfortunately you can see the reflection of my hand holding the camera, and the red of my top! I really don’t know how to avoid these reflection problems when photographing a project like this.

My hubby is now safely in Estonia with his brother and the rest of the family, getting ready for the wedding on Saturday. He’s been phoning me each day – I’m missing him such a lot, and it’s nice to know he’s safe and sound where he should be, and having a nice holiday too – I’m very sorry not to be able to be with him but with my health problems, such a journey wasn’t feasible, and quite impractical too, given all the stuff I need to take with me! He’ll be back soon enough, armed, I hope, with loads of photos!

He didn’t take this present with him, because after the honeymoon, the couple will be coming straight back to London where they live, and there was no point in my hubby loading his baggage up with it when they probably wouldn’t have time to open it anyway. It can wait at his parents’ house for the next time they come down to the Westcountry.

WOYWW 115

Well, another week has gone by (I can’t think where the time goes these days!!). Again, I haven’t done a lot this week, because my energy levels have been low, but I have managed to finish my latest big project, the altered box frame for our nephew’s wedding present (see separate post also on today’s date).

Today I have started something new. My hubby is away in Estonia for our nephew’s wedding on 20th August, and volunteers from amongst our friends are coming in for an hour or two each day, to be my carers in my hubby’s absence. They are so kind, giving up their time to come and do the odd jobs for me that I find hard to do, and as I usually do in these circumstances, I am making each one a special card to say thank you.

The “Create and Craft” show on TV has been featuring Sheena Douglass and her “Paint Fusion” technique and products as their “pick of the week” this week, and I’ve been enjoying watching her again. I’ve decided to use this painting technique to decorate a collection of ATC-sized cards, and then matting and layering them to form greeting cards.

So far I’ve cut the pieces and primed them with a thin layer of gesso, and then painted the base coat in blue fluid acrylic paint.

When this is dry, I am going to apply some crackle glaze, and finally some cream-coloured acrylic paint, and then use this background as the base for some floral and leaf painting using these same fluid acrylic paints. (I shan’t need Sheena’s stamps for this as I can draw my own shapes,)

I have done a bit of this before – you may remember this mirror that I painted for Wonderwoman’s 50th birthday back in April:

The painting of the flowers and leaves takes very little time; it’s preparing the background that’s so time-consuming because you’ve got to let each layer dry before applying the next. The painting is really fun to do, and so simple and effective – by loading 2 or 3 different shades of paint onto the brush, you can achieve instant shaded effects with a single brush-stroke.

I’m preparing nearly 30 of the ATCs and won’t make them all into cards at this stage – they will go in my stash to be used either for ATC swaps, further cards, or other uses. Watch this space!

Hibiscus Factory

I have decided to embellish the shadow box I am making for our nephew’s wedding present with some hibiscus flowers made from Penny Duncan’s cut file – see my blog list for a link to her blog (thanks, Penny!).  I’ve been quite poorly recently and ultra brainfogged which probably explains why this has turned out to be a much lengthier and more protracted exercise than it should have been, but I’m getting there at last! What I should have done was to refer back to my original blog post on the hibiscus flowers that I made back in September of last year, before I had Jiminy Cricut and had to print them and cut them out by hand. Although I didn’t give a lot of detail as to colours etc., at least I did mention that they came out too light, and needed further attention.

This is what I have experienced this time, too. After some considerable messing about with them, I’ve now got them to the rich, dark colour I was after in the first place.

Anyway, back to the beginning. These are the pieces I cut first of all, in two sizes, from 140 lb/300 gsm smooth-surfaced watercolour paper. It is essential to use watercolour paper for this project because the pieces get very wet during the colouring process, and normal cardstock tends to disintegrate. This picture shows them in the process of being accented with archival black ink, both the flower and leaf pieces, and as they were so small, I used a surgical needle holder to hold the smallest ones.

Here they are, after I’d coloured them with some DIY glimmer mist I made from Chipped Sapphire and Forest Moss Distress Inks respectively. They weren’t dark enough, so I applied the DIY glimmer mist again once they were dry, but I was still not really satisfied with them, and the small ones are really much too small for what I want anyway (and as it turned out, much too small to manipulate), so I shall keep them for other projects, and not make them up into proper hibiscus flowers but use them as they are.

I decided to cut another whole sheet of flower pieces – some of the flowers were about 2 inches across (I didn’t mean to cut them this big!), and the majority 1 inch, and I cut a few more of the 3/4-inch ones (the larger size in the original batch) because they are useable for my current project. In this picture you can see them at the accented stage, with the original batch on the right.

The next picture shows the leaves being spritzed with the DIY glimmer mist. Immediately after this, I mussed them around in the liquid, spraying on more as necessary, until they were completely coated, and then I set them aside to dry.

This is what they looked like when they were dry.

I was not impressed. They are too light and wishy-washy looking, and also I felt the green was too yellow for my project, so I decided to work on them further.

The same applied to the flowers. Here they are after spritzing and drying.

I decided to make up a couple of batches in other colours while I was at it. The ones on the left are done with DIY glimmer mist using Spun Sugar Distress Ink, and they are barely pink at all! The middle ones were done initially with DIY glimmer mist using Wild Honey, and I accented the centres with a little Barn Door Distress Ink straight from the pad, applied with a cotton bud. The ones on the right are those done with the Chipped Sapphire DIY glimmer mist.

All much too light! Very unhappy Shoshi! Decided to do what I should have done in the first place: smear the ink pad onto my craft sheet, spritz with water, and muss the pieces around in the ink. This way I got a lovely rich deep colour which is what I wanted all along! I am pleased to say that the Perfect Pearls in the DIY glimmer mist is still showing now that they are dry – if it had not, I’d have spritzed them again, just to get a bit of iridescence. Using Spun Sugar, the pink ones were still too light, and I tried with Victorian Velvet, with the same result, so in the end I used a mixture of Victorian Velvet and Aged Mahogany and came up with a gorgeous rich pink colour. The others were done with their original colours, i.e. Chipped Sapphire and Wild Honey. On the yellow ones, the Barn Door that I dabbed on is still visible, and now just shows as a deeper shade of orange, which is the effect I wanted.

Here they are now they are done. Happy Shoshi.

As for the leaves, I didn’t like the colour after the original spritzing with the DIY glimmer mist, so I mussed these in Pine Needles Distress Ink on my craft mat, and I love the effect – lots of colour variation, and the underlying colour shows through quite nicely. They’ve got a lovely subtle shimmer from the Perfect Pearls, which of course doesn’t show up very well in the photos.

So, after a lot of unnecessary messing about, I was now ready to hand-emboss the pieces, using my embossing tool and a piece of funky foam. This gives them the dimension they need. The pieces need to be completely dry before this step, or the paper will disintegrate.

I used a stylus to form the central vein of each leaf, on the right side, then flipped the leaf over and embossed each side of the vein with my hand embossing tool, and then formed the leaf with my fingers.

For the flowers, I hand-embossed the reverse of each petal in turn, using my hand-embossing tool, and then flipped them over and used the embossing tool to depress the centre of the flower.

The following photos show in close-up first some leaves, and then some flowers, embossed on the left, and not yet embossed on the right, and you can see what a huge difference the embossing makes to the realistic appearance of the flowers.

Here is the whole of the second batch, embossed and ready for assembly with the hot glue gun.

To assemble the flowers, each one needed to be pinched at the base so that the petals formed more of a cup. The cut file has a small hole in the centre, and this needed to be poked out a bit first, especially on the small pieces, and then a stamen had to be inserted through the hole.

I bought these little stamens in the cake department of our local kitchen and hardware store. They can be coloured but I prefer to leave them as they are as they make a nice accent.

Each one is double-ended, and for this project they need to be cut in half. I poked the stamen through the hole in the centre of the flower, and put a dab of hot glue on the base to secure it in place, and also to prevent the petals from collapsing back out again. Once the glue was set, the petals could be manipulated so that they formed the correct shape. This is what they looked like immediately after glueing.

After trimming off the backs of the stamens, to finish the construction of the flowers, I glued the leaves onto the base of each flower; this placing doesn’t have to be exact, but it gives a pleasing base and background to the flowers. If you wanted to group the flowers, the leaves could be overlapped if necessary.

The largest sized flowers that I made measuring approximately 2 inches across:

The medium size, about 1 inch across:

and the smallest size, measuring approximately 3/4 inch.

I think Penny has done a lovely job with this particular flower design. It’s a lovely embellishment for lots of different projects, and shouldn’t take too long as long as you don’t mess about getting the colour all wrong like I did!

WOYWW 114

Ooops! It had gone midnight before I remembered it was Wednesday today! Still, I don’t suppose I’m the first person to be a day late…

After a bad week health-wise, I haven’t been in my ARTHaven at all until today, so not much progress has been made on my projects. This is the state of my table tonight:

On the left you can see the frame, temporarily assembled, and on the right, a series of hibiscus flowers in the process of being constructed. These were cut on the Cricut using heavy watercolour paper and then coloured with DIY glimmer mist made from Tim Holtz Distress Inks re-inkers in Chipped Sapphire and Forest Moss mixed with water with some Perfect Pearls added. The edges were first coloured with a little archival black ink, and then the detail added with a fine waterproof black marker. At this stage they are waiting to be hand-embossed and assembled.

At the back of my table you can see some UTEE pots. I’ve got some silicone mould compound and some charms and am hoping to make some embellishments for my ATCs.

Sorry to be late, folks! Hope you all had a good WOYWW!

Outing to the Eastern Side of Plymouth Sound

My hubby and I took my parents out for the day again yesterday. This time we went over to Plymouth and explored the eastern side of Plymouth Sound. My hubby used to live in that area before I knew him, so he knows lots of out-of-the-way places and there's still lots that's unspoilt, like the hidden bit of SE Cornwall that we visited last time we went out. This particular area is steeped in history and full of views of familiar places, but from a completely different perspective.

We had lunch in a pub in Turnchapel which has been run by the same couple for years, and she does all the cooking. We got an excellent 2-course meal, perfectly cooked, for £4.95 a head! My hubby has been going there for years and often goes there with his boating friends.

We were killing ourselves laughing half way through the meal, because my mum got up and went to look at the garden while we were waiting for our deserts to come, and my hubby took a swig of his drink and said, “This beer tastes a bit lemony!” He took a sip of my mum’s drink which was supposed to be a lemonade shandy and said “She’s been drinking my beer!” When she came back, I asked her if she was enjoying her shandy, and she drank some and said “Oh yes, I always enjoy a nice shandy!” My hubby was mouthing, “Don’t tell her!!” and she didn’t know why I was smiling so much and trying not to laugh! Next time we go out, I shall say to her, “Would you like a nice glass of beer today?” She will reply, “You know I don’t like beer!” Ha ha ha!!!

After lunch we explored Mount Batten, Bovisand and Wembury, with a quick detour to Down Thomas. There are lots of forts in the area – my hubby explained to us that Lord Palmerston built them in the days when there was real anxiety about a possible invasion by the French under Napoleon III, which never happened, so these forts are now known as Palmerston Follies!! Most of them have been used by the MOD and some are now in private hands.

Here are a few photos from our day out.

Terraced houses in Turnchapel:

The National Marine Aquarium from Mount Batten, taken with the zoom lens – this is one of my all-time favourite places to visit. Notice the sea-green glass windows and the roof shaped like a wave. In front, you can see the masts of the yachts in the marina.

Rock-climbing at Mount Batten - see Shoshi hanging on by her eyebrows up there! (...Not!)

Mount Batten Tower (this isn't a Palmerston Folly but dates from the time of Charles I):

Drake's Island, once used as a prison – from this angle you can see the prison buildings. Our local Alcatraz.

Staddon Heights Wall and the Golf Course:

This wall, which you can just see between the trees, is a free-standing wall which was built as a firing range. When it was first built, the locals thought it looked like a sea wall, and the story went around that it was built on the top of the hill by a particular British Isles ethnic minority not renowned for their intellectual prowess (although I strongly dispute that notion - I believe they just have a different way of thinking from the rest of us lol!!), as a sea wall, and then they realised they couldn't drag it down to the sea, so they left it there!!

Here’s a view of the Palmerston fort at Staddon:

This one is definitely still MOD property, with all its “Keep Out!” signs in evidence!

Before we went to Bovisand, we had a little wander around Hooe. This is where Sir Francis Drake was playing his famous game of bowls when he spotted the Spanish Armada, not Plymouth Hoe, as is usually supposed. Also on the outskirts of Hooe is the site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s mansion, which was pulled down in the 1930s, and all that remains is his summer house. We approached the site down an extremely narrow lane, at the far end of which is a large locked gate giving access to more MOD property, and no turning space, so my hubby had to show off his reversing skills all the way back to the road, which impressed my parents no end! (We get plenty of practice round where we live, reversing down narrow lanes!)

All around this area there is a lot of evidence of military presence, much of which has now disappeared with the downgrading of the armed forces; I didn’t manage to get a photo of the RAF officers’ mess, unfortunately, as we were driving at the time and couldn’t stop, but it’s very impressive – a nice curved building with neo-classical leanings. RAF Mount Batten was where the flying boats were stationed, and their large hangars are still standing.

The RAF quarters for non-commissioned ranks are still around too – a far cry from the officers’ accommodations – it’s a rabbit warren of little brick block buildings huddled together and known affectionately by the locals as the “Hooe Loos”!! (I didn’t get a photo of those, either…)

And so on to Bovisand. Here’s a picture of the beach:

There’s a quite magnificent fort at Bovisand, another Palmerston Folly. From this point, one can see the Breakwater across Plymouth Sound, which I've never seen from this angle before; we were quite far round on the eastern side of the Sound and so were able to see it end on. The familiar view is full-on, from the Hoe, from where you can see it stretching across the Sound.

Here are some views of Fort Bovisand, which is incredibly massively constructed with huge granite blocks. The whole fort is pretty extensive, and after passing out of MOD hands, was for a while the home of the Plymouth School of Diving, where many North Sea divers were trained.

The part of the fort where the great guns were housed, down on the edge of the sea, is circular, and has the gun ports all around. The actual ports have been converted to windows, as you can see in the photo above, and the divers’ accommodations were in converted rooms behind.

Surrounding the ports are incredibly thick, multi-layered panels of steel armour, which was once painted, but the surface has corroded in the sea air, and the metal has begun to rust, giving rise to the most glorious grungey textures which I simply couldn’t resist!

Rocks below Bovisand Fort:

Here’s an interesting rock formation below the fort, beside the old sea wall:

I also took a couple of photos of the top of the wall I was beside when I took that photo – you know me – I love walls! I love the shapes and colours of the stones, and the spots of lichen.

After this we made our way to Wembury, via a quick detour to Down Thomas, another attractive little seaside village. The coastal path at Wembury is the property of the National Trust, and when I was well, it was one of my favourite walks – my hubby and I used to walk for miles along the cliffs, with the springy turf and wild flowers, and the wonderful sea air blowing in, and the skylarks singing… That’s one of the many things on my famous List of Things to Do if I ever get well again!!! The path that leads up to the church goes on up the cliff.

Colourful canoes at Wembury:

 
The Mew Stone at Wembury:

For a brief moment, there appeared an incredible streak of light on the horizon over the sea – the weather had been pretty changeable all day, but it didn’t rain, and there were occasional bursts of sunlight, but this was such a dramatic effect.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of us! When I go out, I very rarely take family snapshots as my camera is usually drawn to the natural beauty of landscapes, quirky details, fun architecture, textures, textures, and – did I mention textures? LOL!! Here’s my hubby with my parents:

I was very amused at this because my mum was very anxious to cross her legs before I took the picture, so that the plaster on her leg ulcer wasn't showing!! In the next picture, she's hiding it behind my wheelchair! (she really is a hoot sometimes…) I hate this picture of me - my necklace is all crooked, and I look like a fat lump!!! (A friend on the Brainfog forum suggested that my necklace was crooked to balance my hubby’s crooked belt buckle! Ha ha ha!! What a scruffy lot we are!!!) My dad managed to cut our feet off, but I suppose that’s better than cutting our heads off (or perhaps you disagree?)!!

I really enjoyed the day, despite feeling pretty lousy all day. (I had a busy day last Sunday, and have suffered pretty severe payback every day since then.)

Hope you've enjoyed this vicarious trip around some of the lesser-explored bits of South Devon!