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.

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!

Time for a cuppa?

The challenge at Sunday Postcard Art this week is Coffee Time chosen by Marie. All week I have been thinking about the topic and yesterday I had decided I wasn't going to put an entry in.  Then I woke up in the middle of last night with a clear vision of how the finished piece should look.
It hasn't turned out exactly as I wanted, but pretty close and I learnt lessons on the way, bonus!

The vision was for an old 1950's cafe sign that has been left to weather and been damaged, the hands have fallen from the clock and rust is taking over.  The process for this was difficult for me, and it took several attempts and it's still not a perfected technique.

Hmmm, what time does the clock say?

Starting out with 300gsm paper I applied 3 coats of Deco Art Butter.  While the paint was drying I found the coffee cup image on the net and the clock face on the Andy Skinner dropbox.    I arranged the elements in Photo-shop and then (filled with fear and trepidation) I put the painted paper into my printer!!!!!

 I sprayed the whole of the card with hairspray to try to avoid any damage to the piece during the next phase. I painted rust elements around the outside and some chips of rust over the centre panel.  Then I added some small crackle medium in various places. Over the top of all I painted a very weak wash of Quinacrodine Gold and then immediately laid a paper tower over to absorb the excess. Unfortunately the crackle medium seems to have reacted with something??  (don't know what) and when I applied the final paint wash, the crackle medium turned brown.  There is a bit of photo manipulation on the dark patches to soften the edges, but otherwise this is exactly as it was scanned.

This was so much fun to create, I have a feeling I will do more of them.

Who's knocking at the door?

This week the Sunday Postcard Art theme is Doors.  I'm quite a fan of old doors and have lots of photo's so was mildly tempted to try some digital art, however since I love to play with paint and glue I decided to stay with mixed media.  If you would like to see the video of it being made, it's Here and is approx 11 mins.

A very tiny key can open a very heavy door - Charles Dickens

 I'm really happy with the way the faux wood planks turned out and the 'brass' heads to the screws.  You can barely see from the photo above but there is a strip of copper at the base of the door treated with verdigris paint.  I bought the copper strip from a garden centre, it's designed to keep snails out of plant pots!

The door handle (ring type thing) was originally holding two little keys.  One of the little keys is now hanging from the birds beak.

Once again, I had a great time doing this and loved every minute.