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.

My little Christmas angel

The challenge at Take a Word today is angels.  I always have such great things I want to do but time conspires against me.  I bought an artificial Christmas tree on Wednesday and we were looking for an angel to put on top.  This is my inspiration for my piece today, which I had lots of fun creating.

Oh Joy! I haven't had so much fun since last Christmas

The background is covered in 3 shades of water soluble wax crayon in green and then I sprayed over the top with some pearlex pearl powder in water to give it a shimmer.  Then I applied some Titan white golden paint through various stencils and stamped a checker board pattern in Ranger archival ink in coffee.

Next I did a direct to paper dragging across the whole piece with Distress Ink in Iced Spruce.

For the tree I stamped with Forest Moss and added Stickles in festive berries and starburst.  Next I stamped the wings on white card stock and coloured with Inktensils and also sprayed with the pearlex water.  Once the wings were dry I applied a little Golden Gel medium on the top and sprinkled on some DecoArt Glamour Dust to give a little sparkle.    I stamped the Stampotique boy onto the background in StayzOn and stamped him again onto white paper.  Using the Stampotique boy as a guide, I glued the angel wings to the background before colouring the white card stock version of the boy with Inktensils and gluing him over the top of the other layers.

The Christmas lights across the top are hand drawn with Stickles in Festive berries for lights.  The text is typed on my computer before being glued to the background.  I finished up by attaching a small red bell to the top of his hat!

It's halloween!

The challenge at Sunday Postcard Art this week is Retro Halloween.  I'm not really a fan of Halloween and always struggle with art for this holiday.  However, it wouldn't be called a challenge if it was easy, would it :)

I'm such a lonely pumpkin!

I coloured white card stock with both yellow and orange water soluble crayons and then wiped it with a baby wipe to spread the colour.  Next came some quickly hand drawn buildings on a hill.  For some reason I painted them with Mars black rather than colour them with a marker, which would have been much quicker.

Next came stamping across everything in Archival Sap Green ink and a cobweb stamp.  Then stamping again with the same stamp but with Monarch Orange Ink.  I notice it looks silver on the photo where it overlaps the Mars Black paint.  (Might have to play with this as a technique)

I drew a pumpkin and coloured him with Inktensils in orange, yellow, dark brown and light brown, then applied a little water to spread the colour and blend.  I drew around the outside of the pumpkin with a deep blue inktensil and applied water to give a soft outline.  The moon was hand drawn on white printer paper and painted with silver paint.

Finally I stamped around the bottom edges with a leaf stamp, first in StayzOn Black and then my favourite London Fog.

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.  

My Pretty Summer Hair

I visited a website last night and they have a postcard challenge, and the topic for the week is 'Quirky'.  How could I resist?  I have never done a postcard size before, so this was something a little different.  It's a nice size to work with although I probably would have enjoyed this subject at any size.

As soon as I sat down to do the design I knew I wanted to use this months free stamp from Craft Stamper magazine, in fact I decided to use on the main image.

My Pretty Summer Hair done for Sunday Postcard Challenge (link below)

I used Dylusions Inks for the background and some Archival Inks for stamping.  The face is drawn on white coated paper and coloured with water soluble wax crayons.  The hair is this months freebie as mentioned above.

A close up of her very pretty hair :)

The Sunday Postcard blog is new to me but I will definitely be checking in there frequently.

I've been booked!

For weeks now I've been creating  a book and I finally finished it last night.  Except for the title plate which I want to make from metal, but will sort out later.
For now, here is my book which is to be titled 'Inspired'

Front Cover, the title will be 'Inspired"

The pages are made from mount board (usually used with frames).  The paper is Neenha solar white cardstock and I used a whole variety of Tim Holtz distress inks and Ranger Archival inks.

Time to Dance

Magic

Some of the backgrounds I stamped with paint, some I used water soluble wax crayons (I still don't know how that happens)

Being Good

This girl on this stamp reminds me of my sister, I have a couple that remind me of her.

I used a Hero Arts background stamp on this one and used Brilliance Moonlight White archival stamp pad from Tsukineko.  Leaves a lovely subtle image.

The page on the left is intentionally blank, I didn't want anything to detract from the right hand page.

Mr Phrenology Head

Rather than stamping him from the Stampers Anonymous stamp, I used the digital version and printed it from my computer on Neenah cardstock.  I coloured him with distress ink and then gave him a twinkle to his eye using a souffle pen

Rocket Scientist

There is only one page after this and that is the back cover, which is almost identical to the front cover.  The edges of the book have been painted with gold pen and the binding was done using a Zutter binder.
There's only one other picture to show....  the whole book!

Did I mention it was very small :)