Little Daisy is bright today

Better late than never with my submission to the Sunday Postcard Challenge - Journal on a postcard!

I used a sample tube of paint I received from Liquitex in Quin Magenta and mixed in some Golden fluid primary yellow and primary cyan.  I also mixed some Slow Dry medium into the magenta, before I applied it.

This is amazing stuff I think, the acrylic paint stayed open and workable for about 40 minutes!  In fact it wasn't the best idea to try it when I was in a hurry to finish it :)

My beautiful garden

After the background I pressed some white gesso through a Dylusions stencil to make circles and squares, stamped some checks in Archival Monarch Orange and Deep Purple, before stamping my crazy lady in Deep Purple also.
The flowers were drawn with Posca pens and the text is a cheap rub-on I bought in a kit at the Pound Shop!

Gothic Arch Demeng style

The challenge at Three Muses today is Gothic and a little dark.  I chose to work in the style of Michael Demeng, who does some very spine chilling assemblage art.  Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time for all of the layers of painting, sealing and washes to dry properly so I've got some crinkling and buckling but all in all, I think it's OK. (I was going to glue a small eye to the flower but didn't want to spook you all out)

What an evil looking dude!

The card is 300 gsm cardstock painted in Paynes Grey.  Once dry I painted over the top with PVA glue (creates a gentle crackle).  While that was drying I cut out the Gothic arch from old text paper and adhered the evil man to it.
Then came lots of layers of various paints until the vintage text almost fell apart.  I painted some paper ribbon with Van Dyke brown paint for the bottom and a flower embellishment to the top.  Then attempted Demengs signature dots and wriggly things!
It was certainly an interesting exercise in what happens to various papers, paints and varnishes when you rush through and dry them with a heat gun!!!

Why worry...

Orange is a great colour and it's hard to be unhappy when you are looking at such a cheery colour.  This is the challenge at Take A Word this week.
I have made a simple piece with orange as the primary colour

I sprayed the card stock with sunshine yellow Dylusions spray ink.  Next I stamped the background motif with Versamark and rubbed over with Perfect Pearls Blue Patina and Perfect Copper before spraying with hair spray.
Next I stamped the lady (who reminds me of Maid Marion in the old Robin Hood series) in black StayzOn Ink.  Next came some doodle string hearts and some rub on lettering.

Thanks for taking a look.

Steampunk notebook!!

Life has been hectic lately with not enough hours in the day.  However, you can never be too busy to play with art supplies!  This notebook cover is something I made a few weeks ago but had not photographed until today.

I haven't put the pages inside or applied the binding yet.

I see steampunk in there!

 This started life as a hard back, spiral bound notebook from Sainsbury 21 x 15 cm.   The rest is all from my art supplies.  I started out withe steampunk sections.  Most parts are made with grunge paper with a little plastic used for the gears and some half dome pearls for bolts.

 Various layers of paint, washes and dry brushing give it a metallic look. The final dry brush layer was silver paint, which you can see has hit the high spots.

The 'metal' strapping is actually grunge paper with the holes made with a hole punch.  The punch pieces are then used in other areas as rivets.

Inside the front cover is a page from a 1931 edition of Punch with a phrenology head stamped over it.  The edges have been given a faux burned effect and I stamped some 'blotches' in a rusty orange colour.  The circle around the eye is Golden Iridescent Bronze - gorgeous paint.

The back of the book inside cover is the same except no circle around the eye and the outer back cover is plain 'rock'