Colourful Pages

Yes, really!

I promised myself this year I would experiment with more colour in my journals, especially colours I don't like, and here are the first two pages made during Snazzys AJ Sundays at the end of May & June.

 

Back in the dark ages, when I was a girl, I was very pale skinned with very blonde hair and my Mother used to dress me in red to 'cheer' me up.  Problem was add a bit of heat, or a bit of sun, or a bit of cold, or a bit of exercise never mind embarrassment and my skin could exhibit every shade of red going lol! 

 

Consequently, I loathe red, never wear it, rarely work with it, don't own anything red. What better colour to start with - once I had been shopping.

 

Postbox Red Dylusion's Ink Spray, Ranger's Distress Inks in Barn Door, Fired Brick & Festive Berries plus Tsukineko's Versafine in Crimson Red & Satin Red all found their way to my studio and onto this page - I did buy some Cherry Pie Ink Spray too as it looked pretty red on the label but on an empty white journal page it looked pink ;o( 

 

I was in need of sunglasses to cope with all the colour so added some Gessso stamping with Kaisercraft Background stamps, texture paste through a couple of Prima Stencils, Chequerboard & Crackle, (which turned red as I hadn't dried the Ink Spray, interesting effect tho') and Tissue Tape inked with some Vintage Photo Distress Ink to try and tone it down a bit - that went well then lol!

 

I think I quite like the page but I still loathe red!

 

The following month it took me all of two seconds to come up with a colour I dislike almost as much as red. That would be orange then, very closely followed by yellow - haven't worked out what it's for other than when a circle of it appears in the sky from time to time.

 

Set me thinking...

 

 

Dylusions Ink Sprays in Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine and a touch of Sqeezed Orange with Scattered Straw & Mustard Seed Distress Inks, topped with Wild Honey Distress Paint scraped on thinly and it was certainly orange, extremely orange. I added some of last month's red Distress Inks to try and warm it up (I am becoming my Mother!) then consoled myself the beautiful Donna Downey stamps from Unity, I had finally treated myself to would hide most of the sins.

 

I then covered everything with a couple of thin coats of Gesso to create a sort of sunray effect and to try and calm things down, then stamped Hero Arts new Stamp your Story stamps in Archival Ink in Saffron, Distress Ink in Ripe Persimmon and Picket Fence Distress Paint. I then added the flowers and words with stamps from PSX (there's a blast from the past!) and MM in my favourite Versafine Onyx Black ink.

 

I like this page marginally better than the red one but am so grateful I told myself I need only use each colour once in my journal, what a relief!

 

Thanks for persevering with my inky exploits.

Back soon xx

 

Experiments with Distress Paints Part 1

Firstly, apologies for being MIA for way too long but sometimes life just gets in the way - I'm sure it's the same for everyone at some point.

A few weeks back I was having a little play carrying out important research for Snazzys with some new products which had found their way to my desk and I thought I'd share the results here ....

 

This is simply a 7" x 5" canvas board which I covered with Ranger's Antique Linen Distress Paint and whilst that was still wet, added DP in Walnut Stain, Broken China and more Antique Linen, one at a time at the top of the board, spritzed with water and allowed to run, drying between layers.

 

I then added some texture paste through a Prima Crackle Stencil, dried it, and with the stencil replaced, inked with Broken China Distress Ink at the top and Walnut Stain at the bottom. background complete in less than 10 minutes - result! 

 

The stamps are from Dylusions Monster Mash and I made a cover for the bell jar from Studio 490 Clearly for Art, heated and curved around a coffee cup to add dimension. The eyeballs were triple layer embossed in the centre using a Versamark Pen as was the monster's tongue, again to add a bit of dimension and contrast. The quote is also from Dylusions, this time the Christmas Words plate - you just never know when your Christmas stamps will come in handy lol!

 

Now, I had intended to stamp the tree from Dylusions other new release, Mischevious Malcolm to hang the bell jar of escaping eyeballs from but, having stuck the monster down with good old Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue (therefore never to be unstuck), I hadn't left enough space. Change of plan and a few copper jump rings and matching chain had to do.

 

I so wanted not to like these paints but they are fantastic and allow you to create background effects, very simply, in a way which would not be possible with other acrylic paints I have used. Addicted then lol!

 

I will be back on Thursday with Part 2 of my Experiments with Distress Paint and Part 3 will follow on Saturday.

 

Thanks for looking xx

 

 

 

 

Hearty Greetings

Hello there.

It's been a long time, but then it is rather a long time since I made anything just because I fancied making it.

This little heart was just a quick Valentinesy piece which started as an experiment to see what happens if you use Ranger's Distress Crackle Paint in Picket Fence on white Sticky Back Canvas.

 

Well, it gave me a very fine crazed, rather than crackled effect, which I loved but it was very subtle, possibly magnifying glass territory lol! So I added a spritz of Dylusions Vibrant Turquoise ink spray, which leeched beautifully into every little crackle, and then added my Stampotique Falling Hearts stamp in Versafine Deep Lagoon.

 

I really liked my canvas heart so had to make a little something to add it to. So, one Wendy Vecchi Art Parts heart and word, smothered in Lake acrylic paint from Eco Green Crafts with some of their Artists Spackle through a Dylusions Harlequin stencil, plus Viva's Inca Gold in silver to highlight the texture. But, still lacking something, I swiped a corrugated metal set of wings with the Lake paint, on a baby wipe as I had alrady washed my brush, some more silver highlights and I was done.

 

 

 

Not a bad little project for less thn 45 minutes play.

 

Back soon xx

 

PS I added the little heart brad to balance the word 'Love' as it could only go just there after I discovered that if you put your finger on the crackle paint before it is dry it just lifts straight off.

You have been warned lol!! 

Dylusions & Pan Pastels

Last Saturday the afternoon workshop I taught at Snazzys was all about Pan Pastels. I was trying to illustrate my belief that their versatility means just having a few colours of the pastels need not limit what you can create, but actually allows you to really explore all the techniques you can use with them.

This was the final project of the afternoon using Bright Yellow Green and Pthalo Green Pan Pastels, Tsukineko Versamark and Versafine Onyx Black inkpads plus some of my favourite masks and stamps from the brilliant Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions collection.......and with thanks to the lady at Artstamps Cornwall who gave me the idea, my new favourite tool, a Derwent Eraser Pencil.

Often I fail to do anything with my workshop pieces but I set to on Sunday and added a quote which says 'Home is where you can say anything you please because nobody pays any attention to you anyway' - anyone with a brood of children will know exactly how that feels lol!

Thanks for visiting

Back soon xx