Artsy Ornament

With only three more art journal classes to teach for the year, and no more promised projects to complete, I am starting to feel like I can play again!

2014 Twelve Artsy Ornaments has been just the thing to enjoy. Today, I had a lot of fun creating Jane Davenport's Christmas fairy. It was a great idea of Jane's to start by drawing her on an already prepared background and I just happened to have one in a journal... waiting.

Here is the full spread. I thought the right hand page looked a bit like a fairy glade. I used Grunge paste through a stencil and coloured over with acrylics, Neocolor 11 watercolour crayons and gold Izink. The left hand page has torn edges, because of what I did on the previous pages (see below). It was coloured the same way as the left page with a flat stenciled background to create a mottled look.

Next step will be to create the real project, a Christmas fairy on a substrate......maybe tomorrow..

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Here is the torn edge journal spread. I have no idea why I tore the edges! Perhaps I was feeling frustrated that day....it did make a difference to what I could put on the pages either side though.

This bird, the leaves below it and the flowers above were a photocopy of a vintage fabric that I used as a collage over a painted background. I added more collage images and paint pen doodling, even some stamping which I embossed.

 The large bird is drawn on top of white gesso then painted and doodled on as well. I do have a tendency of over working my pages and often come back to them several times before I am satisfied. I do love the texture on this guy.

St Nicholas Christmas Ornament

Hello Again!

Christmas is nearly here!   I love Christmas and all the trimmings. Here is a Christmas ornament I created for the Crafter's Cupboard blog using one of the Paper Artsy stamps from the new Hot Picks range and an old favourite from the Lynne Perrella range.

Spray an A4 sheet of glossy photo paper with an ageing spray. I half-filled a small spray bottle with warm water and added 24 drops of Antique Linen and 12 drops of Tea Dye Distress Ink and gave it a good shake.

When dry I stamped the St Nicholas from Paper Artsy Hot Picks HPXM07EZ using Ranger Archival Ink Olive and ColorBox Maroon. I applied the Olive stamp pad to the stamp on the tree area and then followed with the Maroon using the corner of the stamp pad to into the area where the colour meet.

 I stamped four images on the A4 photo paper, leaving enough space around the outside to cut them out.

 I traced around an oval paper template and cut out the images with scissors. 

Distess the edges with the ageing medium.

On the leftover scraps of aged photo paper stamp BELIEVE from the balloon doll from Paper Artsy LPCO18 in Archival Ink Coffee. I found it easier to not use an acrylic block.

Cut around the scroll with scissors and add gold marker around the edges.

 Light the candles! An add detail to St Nick’s buckle.

 Now for the substrate. Trace a larger oval onto heavy card and cut it out.

 See the image at the end of this post for an idea of the size you will need.

 Use a bright paper to match the image. I found just enough of this rag paper in my stash for 4 ovals. Adhere the paper to the large oval with gel medium and trim. 

  On the reverse side add some old music paper. Why dry smooth the edges with some sandpaper.

Distress the edges with Vintage Photo.

Now it is time to put everything together!

Adhere the St Nick image to the large oval. Add the sign with raised sticky dots. And lastly, an embellishment with hanging string.

What I can’t believe is that Christmas is so close! I hope you will try and make a little time to make some handmade decorations which will last for many Christmas’s to come.

Blessings,

Lynne

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 This little picture has also been posted on the Crafter's Cupboard monthly challenge. For October the theme is Stamping. So, anything goes! Why not submit your arty creation for a chance to win a gift voucher. Here is the link. http://crafterscupboardaustralia.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's a breakdown of the process:

Grunge paste through stencil background.
Acrylic paints including pearl,
Stamp birds and houses on HP watercolour paper.
Colour with Caran d'ache Neocolours and water.
Gel medium to adhere.
Charcoal pencil around all edges and add posts,

I would love to hear from you.

Truest Wisdom Journaling Page

Tonight I am sharing with you my latest project for the Crafter's Cupboard blog.

 I've used the new Paper Artsy Eclectica stamp sets by Sara Naumann and some other great products from Crafter's Cupboard

I have also used some of the new Jofy Paper Artsy Fresco paints and a stencil by Crafter's Workshop, which has just become my favourite!

Pattern Strips by Crafter's Workshop

I'm working a small journal with loose pages. It's loose because it fell apart!  I will bind together when all the pages are finished. Each page measures 20cm x 14cm.

Anyway, start by applying gesso lightly to the two journal pages that will become your spread. 

On an extra piece of journal paper, paint some swatches with Cherry Red, Chalk and Claret. Yes, Claret not Plum that is in the set. I think Claret works better for this project.

Stamp the hearts from Paper Artsy ESN11 with Versa fine Onyx Black on each of the painted backgrounds..

...and fussy cut the small hearts. Set aside for later.

Back to the journal pages..

With a brush apply Slate, Turquoise and Mermaid in the places shown. Work quickly and use a baby wipe to blend the colours into each other.

Spray lightly with water and leave for a minute before wiping the water away gently with a clean baby wipe. You should have lighter speckled areas where the water was sitting.

Now for some more fun! Stamping, I used the text from Paper Artsy ESN12 stamp set and the grungy 'whatever-it-is' at the bottom of the Paper Artsy ESN11 stamp set with Archival ink Carnation Red and Versafine Oynx Black as shown here..

More stamping...the bricks from Paper Artsy ESN12 and Black Oynx 

And my new favourite stencil! For the red on the left hand page I used the plain strip stencilled with Paper Artsy Fresco Cherry Red and also for the white with dots, I used the plain strip stenciled with Paper Artsy Fresco Chalk and the dot strip with Cherry Red.

In the photo below you can see on the left hand page I went over the red strip with Chalk stenciled through another design from the stencil.






Next came the hearts adhered in place with gel medium and a few red stamped texts...at first sight...from ESN12

Now for a few Cherry Red  watered down splatters and a few Chalk ones for good measure.

On a small piece of journal paper paint a strip of Mermaid and when dry, stamp the quote from ESN11 in Carnation Red. Ruler tear around the words and paste in place.

I used the stamp text phrase 'My Heart.' from ESN11 with Onyx Black but it didn't show up as much as I  would have liked......

......so, I stamped it on white journal paper and ruler tore it out and placed it with gel medium over the top. Much better.

Finish off by softening around the hearts and texts with a black charcoal pencil. I hope you try this project or at least one of the techniques. These stamp sets work so well together and can be used for many projects. Enjoy!

Dickie Birds

Here is a lovely version of the Scribbly Birds Triptich that my daughter-in-law created for her oma's birthday. Ro remembered her grandmother teaching her the Two Little Dickie Birds song when she was very young. Of course Oma loved this beautiful gift!

Ro has used a printing on tissue technique for the text and the addition of blended Caran d,ache Neocolours add warmth. Well done Roanna!

Has anyone else made this project or been inspired by it? I would love to see your finished piece here.

Mixed Media Work Apron

I thought I 'd jazz up a black apron to use while I'm painting to save my clothes from those unforgiving acrylics. I figured if they were so hard to get off my clothes, then a good thick brushstroke here and there on my black apron would stay put unless I washed it often.

As I stated the process I didn't even think about taking photos. So, I will have to describe what I did in words, for the first part anyway...

I laid out my apron flat on a table with a plastic tablecloth underneath and using a thin piece of chalk I sketched out a face, neck and hair of a girl. I blocked in the flesh areas with flesh acrylic (next time I would use a gesso undercoat). I didn't use any water, just paint out of the bottle.

I got so carried away working on such a large face, as most of my artworks are quite small, that I kept developing it for a while before I realised I should be thinking about the rest of the design! Next time I would leave the painting of the face until closer to the end.

Anyway, here is where I stopped....

She is not too pretty and the black is showing through....creepy, however she will be transformed by the end of this post.



I started thinking about what the quickest way would be to cover the apron with a painted design.



Out came some stencils and a stamp with large dots, some sequin waste and acrylic paint markers. Also Chroma Mural Paints, which turned out to be quick and easy to use.

They have a fluffy dauber tip, they are easy to apply and they make great big dots! All the colours in the range are opaque and they have fluorescent colours as well as brights.

I bought them at Riot Art when they had one of their sales because I thought they would be easy and less messy for my younger students. I decided the image on the bottle was too scary so they haven't used them much.

 I continued filling in the black apron overlapping stencils a little, making dots with the fluffy daubers, and more dots with the sequin waste and using dot stamps as fillers. Details and lettering was added with acrylic markers. Sometimes I needed to go over the letters a few times.

 I'm sorry I haven't photographed how I painted the face, I guess I just got lost in the moment... perhaps I'll make a face tutorial further down the track.

Here is a brief explanation...I gave the face another thick coat of flesh and watered down raw umber for the shading. When dry I used a medium bullet tip permanent marker for the feature outlines. Continuing with warmer, lighter flesh tones and lighter highlights using acrylic paints. Finer details and a little more colour with Inktense pencils completed the face. The hair was drawn with a large brown acrylic paint pen and lighter strands with a gold paint pen. Black marker was applied for shading.

Finally I gave the face a spray of fixative.

I hope you have enjoyed this spontaneous project and tutorial and are inspired to try painting on fabric. I would love to hear from you.