Shake your tail feathers

Today's challenge at Sunday Postcard Art is 'chevron'.  Work has been so busy this past week that I haven't had much time to play with any art, so today I continued with my exploration of translucency.  I'm still having fun playing with various weights and colour of tissue paper and also translucent paints.  I also bought some new matte varnish today too, so tried it on the orange tissue paper which bleeds horribly - good result with hardly any bleed.

Do my tail feathers look big in this?

Today piece is a collage worked on 300 gsm card, starting with Golden Titan Buff and when dry I stamped little spots on it with Archival Ink Coffee.  Next came the chevrons, which I hand cut from a vintage Punch magazine before painting with Golden Nickel Azo Gold.  Once dry, these were collaged to the base.
I found the image of the bird on the web and printed it on white tissue before adhering it to the base with fluid matte medium.

The text is printed from my computer and coloured with Tea Dye distress stain.  I applied another layer of white tissue paper across the bottom of the card before distressing the card edges with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  I then went around the edges again and applied a rough dab of Golden Iridescent Bronze paint.

My eyes are dim I cannot see.....

After making these two moos for the Three Muses Challenge, I think I'll need some Coke Bottle specs!  I don't usually like making these, they are too small and fiddly to handcraft unless I have lots of time, however...  a stressful day at work meant I needed to spend some time in the studio to unwind.

I'm not sure I'm any less stressed but here are my two mini creations.

Silly Old Moo

The background of this one is painted with Americana paints in Indian Turquoise and Spa Blue.  I stamped the lady on white paper and coloured her with many Promarkers.  I then glued her to the substrate and drew some lines and dashes and then stamped a circle in gold paint and dragged some gold paint over the top parts before writing on it.

Hideous Baby Moo

The background on the second piece is Neocolor II.  I stamped the baby on white paper and coloured it with Inktensils and Promarkers.  I sprayed the background with sparkle varnish (looks like white dots) and then glued the baby to the background.

Ridiculous Moos

I've recently joined a group called Abandoned Art, where you leave small pieces of art for people to find, these two delightful quirky things will be sealed in a cello bag and hidden somewhere with a note telling the finder that they can either keep, give away or leave the pieces.  Hopefully someone will post a note to say they found them.

Thanks for looking and please check out the other artists.

That's a jazzy kite!

Ever since I saw Three Muses challenge of Fly a Kite, I've had this idea floating around in my head.  I just couldn't let go of it, so eventually had to create it in my journal.

Welcome to my jazzy kite!

Let's go fly a kite....  

The journal page already had some ink on it from mopping up some previous spills.  I sprayed the whole page with water and then the lower part with Lime Crush followed by Cut Grass in patches.  The top part of the page was sprayed with Vibrant Turquoise.  Once it was dry I lay stencils over the top (flowers, Letters and a clock) and sprayed through them with water and let them sit until the ink re-dissolved before I mopped them with paper towel.  Next I applied some Gesso through a harlequin stencil and left it all to dry while I worked on the saxophone.

I sketched the saxophone shape onto a vintage text page, cut it out then painted it in Golden Translucent Primary Yellow.  I stamped on it with music stamp in Pumice Stone Distress ink and at the same time I stamped on the background across the grass.

Next came a little colouring of the sax with some cheap oil pastels and a charcoal pencil before I glued it to the background.  Finally I drew the music coming from the sax and going into the sky with kite being represented by the treble clef.

A totally bonkers bit of work, but my muse is happy now.  Thanks so much for looking, it is always appreciated.

Mind the Gap!

The theme at Three Muses this week is 'Transport'.  I decided to do another page in my art journal to celebrate the London Underground!  I don't live in or near London so always look forward to a trip on the 'Tube' whenever I'm in London.

Stand Clear of the Doors

The background of my page is a journal page coloured using red and blue water based oil pastels.  I smooshed them up with an almost dry baby wipe to spread them a little.  Then I found a photo on the www of a fast moving train through a tube station.  In Photoshop I dropped the opacity to 50% and printed it on high quality art paper.
Using a splotchy background stamp with Archival Pale Ochre I stamped all over the newly printed image :) before I rubbed all around the edges with Stormy Sky Distress ink and glued it to the background.
Next came more distress background stamping in a crinkle design using Deep Purple.  (sorry about the technical terms: splotchy, smooshed and crinkle)
The Tube station names were stamped in Archival Coffee and the Underground and Mind the Gap are using Distress Ink in Barn Door.  The Union Jack is stamped in Chipped Sapphire and the red is barn door hand coloured using a nib rubbed on the ink pad.

I had an absolutely great time doing this piece and will probably add more to it as time permits.  I love this stamp set, it's by Indigo Blue if anyone is interested.

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!

Hat's off to Paris!

I had to go to Paris on business on Sunday and have returned tonight (Tuesday).   While I was away I was thinking what I could do for the Hat's challenge at Three Muses and decided, in honour of Paris, to do a Zetti type person wearing the Tour Eiffel.  Content sorted, I just had to finish the work I had gone to do, come home and paint it.

Imagine my utter surprise when I opened the Air France magazine on the plane home and found - a photo of a woman wearing an Eiffel Tower hat!

Paris is as lovely as ever - tres magnifique!

I decided to change my plans and rather than draw her, I would put her in my art journal.  So today there is no painting or close ups, what you have here is a Zettie style art journal page, with a lady in a hat.  It's my art journal page of my trip to Paris this week.
The other collage elements are all from the Air France magazine and the background is sprayed with Dylusions inks in bubble gum pink, turquoise and lime green.
Doodling is with Sakura Gel pens and Sakura Souffle pens and also with a Sharpie, permanent marker.

Thanks for taking the time to look at what is basically my journal!

A Swarm of.... what!

I was looking forward to lots of challenges this week and had lots of ideas, but as the days went by I became so busy at work there was no time for art.  For the  Three Muses Challenge where the subject is animals,  I had wanted to do a painting of a King Penguin, but knew I wouldn't have time this evening, so I went the quirky route and did what else...  a swarm of zebra!

I wonder if a swarm of zebra make the 'bzzzzzz' noise

My aim was for a pictured book style and painted the background in watery acrylic paint and tried to do some layers but hadn't used water colour paper, so the paint layers are not as many as I would have liked to do.

The baby zebra image was found on a wild life site and I printed out 13 of them in different sizes before colouring their white stripes yellow.  The wings are painted in Lumiere Halo Pink Gold,  cut out and glued to the background.  I thought the stamp 'Think and Wonder' from Artistic Outpost was the perfect match and completed the piece by stamping it in Ranger Coffee Archival ink.

It was dark last night when I had finished and I couldn't take photo's which didn't have big shadows on them.  Even at 8 am this morning there are still shadows from my lamp so apologies for the very bad photography.

Art Journal Zetti

I have been making ATC's and Inchies for some swaps this week but have really struggled with inspiration.  Today I'm back in the groove and have enjoyed creating a page in my art journal that I entered for the Take A Word challenge.

Little Miss Zetti

 No matter how I played with the levels I couldn't make this image as vibrant as it looks in my journal.  I realise that to be really Zetti art I should have turned her eyes upside down, or made them bigger than her head, but I didn't want to because I thought she was pretty :)  So this is my nod to Zetti.

The spaces on the page will be filled with my journal entries, once I start to write on it.

I like her little shoes made from individual leaf stamps.  The stamps, stencils and spray inks are all Dyan Reaveley products.  I applied Gesso to my A4 art journal and then applied the colours and the collage elements.  The face is hand drawn and coloured with Pro-markers.  Black and white pens are Posca.

I've been playing with this for so long today that I forgot to have lunch!

My fathers pocket

The challenge at Three Muses this week is the word 'Masculine'.  Whilst considering what to do for this challenge I started to think about my father.  When I was little he would give me pocket money on Saturday morning and then take me to the local shops, usually the toy shop, for me to spend it.
Before we set out he would clear out his pocket so that I could put my precious pocket money in a safe place.

I decided to make a tag for the challenge this week, one that would represent the types of things that my father kept in his pocket.  I don't think it gets any more masculine than that :)

In my fathers pocket

No photographs were harmed in the making of this piece :)

Fly me to the moon

Last week we went to visit Salisbury and while there, decided to look at the Cathedral.  As I was admiring the stained glass window, I saw the perfect image for the 'Take a Word' challenge for this week - Wings.
I did this postcard size piece for the challenge, but have other ideas in mind for this image from the window.

Wings of Steel

The paint I used as the basic background is Halo Pink Gold by Lumiere, which is beautiful in real life but terribly difficult for me to photograph.   On top of the pink gold, I stamped feathers in Archival Brown, and dragonfly and a small swirl in Archival Magenta.  The wings of the little man are coated with a clear glaze pen by Sakura.  there are other squiggles done with various colours of Sakura glaze pen too.

Wings of Steel close-up

I am just editing a video I took of this being made and I'll post a link here as soon as it's up.

There's something fishy about this...

A couple of weeks ago, Captain Slow and I went to the aquarium where I saw a tank of Piranha fish, that glittered and shone as they swam.  They were the most beautiful colours and  the sparkle on their bodies looked like stardust stickles to me.

Last weekend I decided to do a journal page and test my theory that Piranha fish are made of stickles

You can't really see the sparkle in this photo but each fish has quite a bit of texture, the bodies have star dust stickles and the eyes have a coating of glossy accents to raise them and make them more 'eye' like.



This photo better shows the texture and the fish eye.  The fish were drawn and coloured with Inktensil pencils and then collaged to the page using Golden gel medium.



You can almost see the sparkle in this shot, but I must admit it does look more like Rock Candy distress stickles!