Dancing Moonbeams

The challenge at Take A Word this week is 'Moon'.  I've done a piece in my Art Journal and have used it to test and experiment with a new product and some new techniques!

By the light of the dark grey moon :)

 This is a single page from my journal.  I began by spraying the top two thirds of the page with water followed by Rangers colour wash in Stream.  I left it a minute, blotted it with towel and repeated the exercise to ensure all the page was covered.
The bottom third of the page was sprayed with Dylusions in London Blue and then painted with Golden paints Phthalo Blue with a little red brought in closer to the bottom of the page.
The stylised stars are stamped with Memento Ink in Moonlight white and the sea/lake has waves stamped in Archival Ink French Ultramarine.  The foliage at the front is a Hero Arts stamp using StayzOn Black.
Land to the right is painted in various tones of green from Golden Paints.
Then came the moon!.......

Some of you may know that I'm working with various techniques at the moment and this is one I learnt from Andy Skinner.  I couldn't help but notice how much like the craters of the moon it looks, so I scanned my box lid and added some shaping in Photoshop then printed it on Silver Metallic Foil by Personnel Impressions.  In real life it's really shiny.
To finish off, I masked some of the page with paper towels and sprayed from the moon to the water with Perfect Pearls in water.  I sprayed heavily and blotted the sky portion to remove some of the colour wash.  I left the Pearl Spray on the water to hint at reflection.

Thanks for looking and commenting, I really do appreciate it.

Special Effects Time!

I have been a little quiet lately, not because I'm not doing art, but because I have had some new art projects on the go.  I am taking the Andy Skinner Book of Ruination course.  It's been great fun so far and it's kept me quiet.

I made a few items and finished up with this mask based on the techniques taught on the course.  (Yes, steampunk I've probably done to death previously).

My brother was The Terminator!

It's not to everyone's taste I agree, but as a technique I love it and had so much fun.  I will probably use a version of the technique in my art journal too although we are told it won't work on paper (impossible is such a delicious temptation).

I am also making book covers with this technique and the book will contain my faux painting technique samples and recipes.  If only I had known how much I love doing these things when I was younger.  A career in special effects would have been awesome!

The Grand Tour

The Challenge at Three Muses this week is Steampunk!  It is one of my favourite subjects but this time I have gone less industrial and more romantic with the Grand Tour.  I'm still trying out some new techniques but I'm happy with how this came out.

Dreaming of the Grand Tour

Starting with heavy card stock I die cut one of the short edges using the Tim Holtz Steampunk On The Edge die.  I then painted the cogs in Burned Umber and the rest of the card in Lumiere Halo Rose Gold (not used this for a while and forgot how much I love it).

Next I stamped the lady's face on high quality card and coloured her with Promarkers then stamped a few cogs around her face in both Distress Ink Rusty Hinge and Archival Ink Coffee.I trimmed around the hairline and then used Distress Ink in Rusty Hinge to colour the top and side of her face to help blend her into the background.  After gluing her to the background I stamped more and various cogs to represent hair.

Next I stamped the metal globe in StayzOn Metallic Gold and when it was dry I over-stamped with the quote in Archival Coffee.  I used a couple of other stamps from the Grand Tour plate.
I decided I didn't like the cogs in Burned Umber so I coated them with texture paste, painted them Burned Umber again and then dry brushed them with Iridescent Bronze.

What hasn't come out well on the scan or the photo's is the fantastic glow that comes from the Lumiere paints, Ah well, such is life :)

Thank You Mum

It is Mothers Day in the UK today and Sunday Postcard Art have challenged us to create art about mothers.      Imagine the job description to be a mother?
- 7 day week, 52 week year, no sick leave, no vacation, no pay, minimum 18 year contract!

My tribute to mothers everywhere:

Thank You to Mothers everywhere

Starting out with 300gsm card stock I applied Americana paint in Butter, Spa Blue, Mint Julep Green and Indian Turquoise blending them slightly.
Next came stamping of flowers and leaves in Archival Sap Green, followed by a damask background stamp also in Sap Green
Both the stamped and typed words used here were inspired by my Mum.  She always always there, loving, patient and definitely quirky! (this is where I get it from I guess).  The clockwork lady is stamped on coated paper and coloured with Promarkers before being cut out and glued to the background with Golden gel medium.
Finally I edged the card with a Glaze Jelly Roll by Sakura and die cut a small heart from a scrap from another project.

Thanks for looking and if you are a Mum - pat yourself on the back!

Was that a fairy I saw?

The challenge at Sunday postcard art this week is Mushrooms / Toadstools.  I wanted to do something closely aligned with the brief, since my muse went on a tangent for the last challenge I entered!

I think I'm in auto-experimentation mode at the moment... today's experiment :-

Are those lights in the forest or eyes?

Using 300sgm card stock I sprayed through a stencil with Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise and then removing the stencil I sprayed again with cut grass.  After all of the other layers the stencil is almost invisible.  Using Archival ink in Sap Green I stamped leaves around both the left and right hand sides (also impossible to see now).  Next I placed drops of Daler Rowney liquid acrylic in Pearlescent white and sprayed it with an airbrush.
The toadstool stamp is from Dyan Reavely and is stamped on 300gsm card stock and coloured with Inktensils. After adhering the toadstools to the background I outlined them with nautical blue charcoal and then smooshed that with a paper stump.

I applied some Dew Drops in 'Mint Chocolate' to the background and then stamped over everything with a small script stamp and a cross hatch stamp using Archival French Ultramarine.  The piece was finished using a 'dream' stamp using StayzOn ink