sometimes the pieces just all come together....

Yesterday whilst reading through my bloglist, several themes just blended together for me, and this is what I made..

A postcard from Skegness :D

Anything Goes Challenge #99 is By the Sea, Country View Crafts asked for "Quotes and Sayings", while Inspiration Avenue wanted Postcards. Sounded like the perfect combi to me :D

This is a photo of my hubby and youngest son following me to "the perfect spot" on the beach at Skegness...

I printed is out onto a 4 x 6 piece of card...

 Stamped some letters out onto scrap card, inking the edges for a little definition...

 then glued them onto the "postcard" to form the classic sea-side quote :D

I think this would be a lovely way of "scrapping" holiday pics, and you could write little memories on the back, as if you had been sending the cards home whilst on holiday.

It is also my "Piece a Week", and my Paper Saturdays challenge entry

Enjoy :D XXX

Sometimes people say the strangest things...

This weeks challenge at Inspiration Avenue is WORDS, which was the perfect prompt for me to make a little silliness for my "Piece a Week"

This is a 6 x 4 watercolour board mixed "medium" (couldn't resist that pun) piece, the theme of which was brought about by an argument with my stroppy sister last week...

It was the same day I found out I had won a prize from PaperArtsy, I got to choose a stamp set....and this just said it all lol

ID-10 EZmounted form their Vintage collection.

Started by getting messy with gesso and string...

 (seriously recommend opening hand wipes "before" you start)

 While that was drying I stamped some of the words and images onto tissue paper for a later layer...

 added paint randomly with scrunched up paper...

 then knocked back with a thin layer of white.

 Now time to play...

adding layers of paint , tissue paper and gel pen journalling.

Part of the rant my sister had at me included the line "...why don't you ask Dad (he is dead), after all, you are the one with the hotline to the undead!"

I know...the most infuriating part was not being able to reply as she cut me off, or I would have pointed out that "undead" would be "alive". But hey ho..nothing new in her behaviour, though it did remind me of a seance where the medium actually said "Is there anybody there?...Knock once for YES and twice for NO"...was very hard not to giggle :D 

Enjoy :D XXXX

Any port in a storm?

This months journal prompt from Dawn is "Numbers", and I am combining it with Inspiration Avenues "Nautical" theme for the week.

I know this isn't a very pretty journal page, but it is full of love all the same :D

The journalling reads:

No matter how stormy the sea or how long the voyage...

I am your Harbour

(process shots, starting with a pre messied page)

added a ripped piece of scrapbooking paper with lovely big numbers on...

tore an ocean liner from a piece of Hunkydory travel themed paper, and overlayed this with a torn piece of scrapbook paper with a tape measure and waves on from K&Co.

used acrylic paint to "stormy" the skies...

added journalling with Sakura soufflé pen and Poska paint pen, and the finishing touch...a superb lighthouse stamp from a pack sent me by my friend Silvia :D

Enough numbers for you there Dawn? :D

Enjoy :D XXX

The Pride of Innocence

So first of all....YAY!!! I was not going nuts... I found my missing stencils!!!!! Well truth be told they found me. I was grabbing stuff from my stash to make a last minute Bday card on Saturday when they just fell on me, but I'm happy all the same :D

so obviously I just had to attack a piece of paper and used them to make a random background to work on later.

And now it is Tuesday and time to post for "A Piece a Week"...and I didn't do anything for Paper Saturdays either...and then there is a new Inspiration Avenue challenge "Sad girl with flowers in her hair"!!!

So I grabbed the random background and went for it :D

The cogs make a wonderful base for flowers...

and the mixture of clock faces and cogs turning and love letter script lent a truly melancholy air to the piece. 

Building layers of hope and wishful thinking...

and a coating of stubborn refusal to accept the obvious...

and we are left with a single tear for the "Pride of Innocence"

Hope you enjoyed the process :D XXX

Natures paintings

I'm not a photographer...and I only have the camera on my cheap mobile phone, but I take loads of pics, store them on my puter...and never use them!!!

This week Inspiration Avenue asked us to share some pics of "Sunrise and Sunset"

My sunsets always give fabulous silhouettes... 

especially from the giant Poplars at the bottom of my garden...

and then my Bro walks the moors just beyond my horizon...

and gets fabulous visions like these!

I can't see the sunrise as I am on the wrong side of the hill...but I do get to see some amazing "effects" in the sky above me....

and the pastels after a storm passes can be so soft and subtle...

but after a sunny day(even in January) the sky here has the deepest blue as the sun settles down for the night.

And just sometimes.....we get a magical moment of shimmery suspense as a storm moves in.

People often ask how a yokel like me copes living in a huge city like Sheffield...

I bought a house where I could see the sky :D

(I really must use these for paintings one day)

Enjoy :D XXX

Psst!..you didn't hear this from me right!

This weeks theme at Inspiration avenue is "Talk to the Animals"...

and this pair of dodgy characters appeared while I was painting today :D 

" A little bird told me..."

though who told the little bird is another story :D

Lots of layers to this piece, inspired again by Jeanette at One Little House ning, but this is class 04 from her Paint What You See class

Acrylic paint over masking tape(applied with fingers)...

picking out shapes with red paint and blue "circles"...

Sploshes of ink and dabs of white...

black pencil blended with matt medium...

and teeny pink dots with Martha Stewart stencil :D

...And now just paint what you see!

I saw a cigar smoking dog leaning over the shoulder of a little birdie :D

I think the birdie looks rather nervous about being caught talking to this particular animal, don't you? :D

I will be entering this as my Piece a Week for Rita, and Inspiration Avenues "Talk to the Animals challenge

Enjoy :D XXX