A Page For My Art Journal - The Comet

I remember seeing Haley's Comet when I was a girl, I was fascinated by it's tail & the fact that, no matter what direction my Dad took, as he was driving me to school, the comet was always there! I think that, was the day when I realised that there was more, much more to the earth, the moon & the space in between.

Funny, I hadn't thought about that day for many years, but since Dad passed almost 2 years ago, I find myself often remembering instances of previous Dad time, that myself & my siblings shared. Today’s memory was the comet, so I decided to do a page in my art journal, while it was still fresh in my mind & that is what am sharing with you today!

I began by painting white gesso on an A4 watercolour 300gsm paper, when dry I created a background by smoothing on Distress & Oxide inks. I took a sheet of rice paper & using a set paintbrush, I gently tore off the pieces I wanted to use, sticking them in place with decopatch medium, smoothing out any air bubbles or crinkles.

I painted out a basic shape to symbolise the comet, adding texture using microbeads, glitter & sand, drawing it out from the sphere towards the tail & allowed to dry. 

To finish I added some shimmery paint to the tail & some wonderful texture paste for added interest, I also added highlights, using white wax paste,  added some blue & shimmery gold sequins to balance the page, then sealed it.

Products I Used:

Liquitex Gesso -White

Mod Podge - Gloss Sealer

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pads - Iced Spruce, Seedless Preserves, Aged Mahogany & Crackling Campfire

Stamperia Rice Paper - Cosmos 

Finnabair Products -

Art Alchemy Wax - White Pearl

Art Extravagance Jewel Texture Paste - Blue Opals

Art Extravagance Crushed Ice Effect Paste - Crystal 

Art Basics Matt 3D Gel 

Artful Days Products - 

Mini Rocks Texture -  Silver 

Metallic Micro Beads - Silver (01)  & Gold (02)

Translucent Micro Beads - Burnt Red & Olive Green

Cosmic Shimmer Irridescent Paint - Enchanted Gold

Random Extras - 

Sequins - Blue & Gold

White Pen

I would like to enter this into the following challenges 

https://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogs

http://moremixedmediachallenge.blogspot.com

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I would be delighted if you would leave me a comment, I always reply & return visits

Happy Crafting

Jane 🐚🌴

Love & Hugs at Artful Days

I am kick starting the month by sharing a gift box that I made for my Mum, to house some lovely scented soap, freesia, her favourite! So, I decided that I would also combine it with my Design Team piece, made for inspiration for this months mood board challenge over on the Artful Play Days Facebook group. 

Do join us over there and play along if you can. The theme is & it is such a pretty mood board, for you to interpret as you choose. Will you go full out Love or a softer dewy romance?

There is a prize, chosen at random, of £10 off your next order via the Artful Days website. Definitely worth getting creative for!

Using the mood board & colour palette above, I found a plain box & painted it inside & out, using Stamperia’s Vivace range of acrylic paint in (KAB51 Rosa Bambola) Baby Doll.

When dry, this lovely creamy paint dries quickly, I cut 2 oval shapes of paper from a Stamperia paper pad, I used their Love Story collection. I then glued these into the inside of the box, to blend the edges in, I lightly painted some of the same paint, around the edge of the paper.

Next, I began working on the outside of the box, to do this I used Stamperia rice paper in Tapestry from the same collection, gently gluing it down, by applying deco patch glue on the box & then, gently painting more deco patch glue on top of the rice paper, working from the centre outwards.

As you can see, I chose to leave the inner rim of the box with a painted finish, to show the colour of that lovely paint & to give some contrast.

Next, I chose a resin heart & arch shape frame from the Artful Days Treasure Trove department & painted them in Stamperia’s acrylic paint, but this time I went for (KAB54 Ninfea) Water Lily! 

I then set about gluing them, along with some ADs paper flowers & sparkly flat back gems to the top of the box. I coloured a Scrapiniec Love embellishment with a gold paint pen & glued it on top of the resin arch.

Finally, I added some Finnabair extravagance paste in Ice Crystal, painting it on the tips of the flowers & coating the outside wall & on the patterned paper in the bottom of the box. When dry, this gives a gentle shimmer. 

I hope that I have given you some inspiration today.

Please leave me a comment & don’t forget to join us on the Artful Days Facebook group, where you will find a big welcome & lots more inspiration.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun & keep crafting

Love Jane x

Mixed Media Collage... SEA

It's the 15th of the month, yes again!! The months are flying by so fast, maybe it's my age? They say that time  goes quicker the older you get. 

Anyway, a new challenge launched today over on the Bleeding Art blog & it's time to reveal my DT piece!

The base for this piece is a canvas covered board, it was a painting in a former life, but it got badly marked when coffee got spilled on it. Rather than throw it away, I gave it a couple of coats of gesso & I had a blank canvas again. 

Next, I painted the surface with 3 shades of blue, using the 'wet on wet' technique, to do this I selected the darkest shade first & painted the whole surface, while still wet, using the next shade down I painted a few areas, blending the paint as I put it on & did the same with the third colour. Moving the paint around giving a mottled effect. Next, began adding colour to the large seahorse, using acrylic paint & waxes, when happy I adhered it to the base & gathered the embellishments together.

                                                  

I placed the cogs in place first, then added little stones & gauze in random areas, then painted them blue. When dry I started to build the colour up, don't worry to much at the moment, you can touch it up later!

now it's time to add all the extras. I have used seashells, faux pearls, charms, gems, glitter & resins. I found some lovely wooden alphabet tiles, so used them for the title, they were very dark, so treated them to a bit of golden wax to give them some interest.

                                                  

At this point I tend to take a photo & walk away from it, for a while. I do this so that I can look at it through the photo & for some reason I see clearer on there where things stand out of need touching up or blending. Daft, I know, but that's just how I work especially when using lots of colour.

                                               

When I looked at the photo online, the letter tiles, stood out to bold, so I added the tiniest bit of blue & pink wax, just to balance it out. I also noticed that the cogs didn't stand out, so I dapped some of the same gold wax, just on the tips of each one & a little to the edges of the board too.

                                                    

I coloured & added the 2 smaller resin seahorses, some shells to form the back fin of the large seahorse & I was done!

                                                      

I hope you like my little canvas, it was fun to make, even if it was a bit out of my comfort zone. Please join in with the Bleeding Art challenge, it is a mixed media challenge & always 'Anything Goes' so no restraints. There is always a lovely prize on offer as well as the lovely winner badge to display on your social media page.

Thanks for visiting my blog, please leave me a comment. Take care & stay safe Jane x

Steampunk Anyone?

Have you visited the Steampunk Challenge blog yet?   If your not aware of it already, it’s a new challenge blog on the block & covers all things Steampunk, Grunge & Industrial, It has been put together by Cathy Frailey  the same talented lady that runs the Bleeding Art Challenge  so if you love mixed media, steampunk & grunge, be sure to head over & check the blogs out, because they are choca block full of inspiration, not just by the Design Teams, but the talented people that enter the challenges.

Today, it's time for my take on this months theme, which is "Anything Goes"  I thought long & hard as to what I wanted to make, I wanted to try to tell a story through my art this month, The industrial part of the genre jumped out to me & I knew what I wanted to do. One of my life long hero's is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, not just because of what he did for the industrial revolution, but I was lucky enough to be born & bred deep in the heart or 'Brunel' country, My dad was also a draughtsman & he never failed to point out Kingdoms work whenever we passed it, rode it or drove over it, so the Industrial Revolution became my theme of my canvas!

For the base of my canvas I used a small cake board, you know one of the silver foil coated ones, that most of us have languishing in the back of the cupboard. I set about with my trusty pot of black gesso & painted all of my surfaces with it, including the cogs, clock face & the piece of textured sheet that I made, using a Stamperia soft mold,

When everything was dry I played around to find the best placement for the cogs, the molded sheet etc. When happy with how it looked, using a soft gel medium, I glued the pieces in place.

When done, I liberally spread some of the gel medium to the board in the remaining space & added seed beads to resemble coal, When completely dry & set hard, I tapped off any loose beads before painting them with a good coat of black gesso. When dry I then rubbed it with black wax & sprinkled a very light dusting of glitter dust. I didn’t want it glittery, but just the odd glint of reflected light, like you would see in real coal. Tip: give the board a tap after applying, most of the glitter will come off leaving you with just a hint of it.

Next, I took some jewellery wire & wrapped it tightly around the end of a paintbrush, to create my copper spring & glued that in place. 

Then, it was time to build up the colours, for this my medium of choice was Finnabair waxes, I just love those dinky pots of loveliness for this type of project & they are so easy to use.

I have had a few gentleman shaped die cuts in my stash drawer for years, just waiting for their day to shine & they were just right for my canvas, he originally had an umbrella, but that had to go!

I stuck 2 of these guys together for a bit of strength & coated them in varnish & popped him on top. I searched out some appropriate wording & I was done. 

If you are not sure who Isambard Kingdom Brunel is, check out the link.

I hope you like my canvas & I have inspired you to join in with the Steampunk Challenge this month & please checkout my fellow DT members blogs & see what they have made.

Please leave a comment to let me know you have visited me.

Stay safe, smile loads & enjoy life

🌴 Jane x

Sea Critters Play

This week there is a new collection at the Artful Days store & I got to have a play. The MDF shapes has been designed by the wonderful Jules Bell & they are are fab. I think that they work great for both a whimsical fun look as well as a more natural look. As soon as I saw the large tag & crab shape, it took me right back to when my 4 sons were young boys, when one of their favourite activities when at the beach was crabbing, one of my boys Steve (now 40 years old) still love crabbing & his own son is obsessed too 😆😆 Whenever they visit me, they grab a bucket, crab lines & a tin of sandwich meat & they would disappear for hours 😆😆
Anyway, back to what I made with my AD goodies, everything used on my 3 pieces can be purchased in the Artful Days online store, it is UK based but ships worldwide.

I’d like to enter my tag into the Tag Your It challenge

That tag is such a great size, I love it & the crab is so sweet. Artful Days has also added to the Stamperia range, by now stocking the Acrylic Paints, to go alongside the rice papers already stocked. The paints are lovely to use, really thick & creamy, yet blendable. So they are suitable for wet on wet techniques too.

The natural moss, mixed in with the synthetic moss creates a lovely sea bed.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I did with the MDF pieces, as much as I enjoyed creating them. 

Please leave me a comment, to let me know that you have visited me & I will return the visit.

Stay safe & happy crafting 

🌴  Jane  🌴

Background Play

 I really had fun creating this background yesterday, I was completely absorbed in the making of it.
When I started all I knew was that I wanted to use heat embossing, no plans or prompts, just play & see where it took me.

Working in my handmade journal, I chose my stamp dabbed WOW embossing ink & pressed on to my page, I had to do this 4 times to fill the pages. Next, I placed my book on a sheet of paper & sprinkled WOW embossing powder over the entire stamped page, I used Crusty Copper then tapped the excess on to the paper & poured it back into the pot!

I then decided to just spray mist some shimmer inks until I got the effect I wanted.
Sadly, the photos don’t show the shimmer very well, but I managed to capture the blends. I always dry each spraying before changing colour.

Purple & Gold looks so extravagant ...

It's July the 15th, which means that there is a new challenge started over on the BleedingArt blog & what a line up of inspiration the Design Team have created for you all. Please join us this month, remember it's always 'Anything Goes' so you have free reign to create whatever you like. However, we say NO to scrapbook LO's, should these be entered, they will not be considered in the judging process!

This month I decided to alter a no longer needed iPhone box, it was just the right size to turn it into a collector's box, you know, all of those little treasures you accumulate in life, but never know what to do with them. My box contains little things such as, a tiny green plastic ring that my 30 something son have me as a toddler & a tiny pebble that my grandson had given me, because he said it looked like a shoe lol ..... Sentimental treasures that mean nothing to anyone else, but they are precious to me 😊

So, I started by removing any stickers & labels from the iphone box, then I roughed up all of the shiney surfaces with a strong energy board, but it can be done with a sanding block or sandpaper also. I do this to give some grip for the products that I will be applying to transform the box.

The next step was to coat the box with gesso, allowing it to dry completely. I wanted to give the idea of texture without actually using products to produce the effect. So, I painted the lid of the box with a nice purple acrylic paint, when dry I dry brushed some good metallic paint, quite randomly, to break up the plain colour & adhered a piece of string netting! By doing this, I have myself another colour to play with,  when it came to adding embellishments & there are lots of them! 

The next step was to gather a mixture of embellishments to dress my box lid, after a happy rummage through my various wellies boxes, I chose some resins, a few cogs, a bottle cap, some cognac coloured faux gems, some gauze & some yummy metal shapes. I placed them on the lid, which always takes me a while to get the look that I want. When, I was happy with my look, I began gluing them in place, I like to use a gel medium for this, because I know that it has a very strong bond.

Some of the pieces I painted before glueing them down, because of where they would be hard to get too, when other things were placed on top. The lovely metal pieces & the string net, I left unpainted, because I like the contrast between metal & coloured.

The big element in the middle of the box, is from a larger resin that I broke in half, it's the lower half of the Zuri Phoenix. It's good to play with your available embellishments etc. to see if they can be adapted to fit your projects, because I am making a conscious effort to use what I have, instead of keep buying all of the time. I know it's the same for most crafters, but I am rapidly running out of storage space 😉 

Ok, so all of my embellishments are glued in place, once everything was completely dry, it is good to pick it up & look at it from all angles, by doing this you can see if you need a dab of paint anywhere or other little finishing touches. Sometimes, just the tiniest dab of paint can make everything work together.

I finished it off by adding the word ‘Memories’ & adding a few of those cognac coloured gems & I was finally done.

Thank you for visiting me today, please leave a comment so that I know you have been & or become a follower, I always do my best to return visits.

Many thanks

Jane 🌴