June in Bloom

June's page for Darcy's Calendar Challenge 2015

 This month I started with Brian Addams ...

 and decided he should be a garden spirit...

 which meant replacing his guitar with a watering can :D

 Added random blocks of colour to the background giving it the feel of a blooming flower bed...

The art challenge part this month was to use glue/paint skins, you know the dried up bits of paint you peel off a palate...

so I smooshed some acrylic paint onto an acetate sheet and left it over night to dry.

 Once dry, I peeled the whole piece off and used an old metal cookie cutter to chop out some "rounds" for flowers, while tearing off bits of green for leaves.

 I used some of Darcy's leaf stamps to add definition to Brian's hair.

 I didn't have any ticket stubs for the second required element, but I did find a strip of tickets with insects on in my stash (Hunkidory paper kit) so I have used those instead :D

Drew in a little detail with Posca paint pens and stems with Darcys stamp...

 My greenman and me just chillin' in the garden...

playing air guitar with our watering cans...

or is that just me?

Enjoy :D XXX

Pieces of Heart

I was in pieces trying to decide what to do with Darcy's FANTABULOUS new stamp designs I bought recently( Electrica  Darcy 01 from Paper Artsy).

I had started a different project, but got carried away with the yellow...it went BLAH!!!! so is now in rehab.

Then I spotted a pack of 2 blank jigsaw puzzles in a kiddy craft section of a large store and knew they would do nicely :D

 I started by building a base layer of colour using TH distress ink pads

 adding colours til satisfied...(no yellow)

 Next I simply stamped Darcy's images over the background using black Archival ink.

 Even on this irregular surface the images stamped amazingly crisply.

Then I added touches of deeper colours using promarkers (very carefully as I wasn't sure how the different layers of ink would react on the coated card surface)

 I used a gold metallic gel pen on the zippers. 

 I love the warm colours that formed, and hope Darcy likes how it turned out :D

This could be a great project for children during the wet days to come, using any stamps you have laying around lol.

I am entering this for Manon's Paper Saturdays challenge, and counting it as my Piece a Week

Enjoy :D XXX

Singing for your supper....

So, knowing how much I struggle with these things, my lovely friend Magaly tagged me with this award. But being the awesome person that she is, she changed-up the rules before passing it on lol

So instead of sharing 7 random things about myself, I have to share some (and I quote) "sugary sweetness" that has occurred in my life recently.....

so I give you "PUDDING"

This was a lovely refreshing dessert I made last week :D

A meringue nest filled with strawberry ice cream, blackberries fresh from the garden simmered with a little sugar, poured over and a lovely heap of whipped cream! Doesn't come much sugarier or sweeter than that....and the warm syrup melted the meringue, turning it into chewy toffeeness :D

One specially happy thing that happened though this week, was receiving these fabulous Paper Artsy stamps from another friend Darcy

 They are called "mini" but each stamp is about 2 and a half inches in length :D

Thought I'd try using chalky paint for a change. These are test pots from a DIY store, £1.10 each so no major outlay there lol

Using a piece of heavy grey board (also Paper Artsy, which Darcy kindly included for me to play with), I did a quick "smudgy" background and then used the same paint to stamp the feathers with.

As the paint dried a lovely matt finish it was easy to stamp over with more PA stamps and Archival ink,

Before edging with Inka Gold wax in a green colour(have had it years) and a hint of black ink. 

The stamp set that the sentiment came from also has this wonderful image, which I thought would make an interesting topper. I stamped it onto some supersmooth card, painted with the same paints as the background, and cut out.

Before adding the topper, I wanted to make it stand out a little more. I stamped the same image in position directly onto the background, and used it as a guide to add a dark shadow.

 Finally I added some metallic gold pen details and glossy accents to the wings and clock hands.

I feel I should be adding something more, but I don't want to cover all the lovely feather impressions, so for now it is done...as am I :D

I would like to enter this tag for Manon's Paper Saturdays challenge :D 

Enjoy XXX

Project without end....

Some projects we start have an obvious ending...

 they may feel like they are going to take forever...

but a final bit of sparkle marks completion.

For other projects we can see no obvious end, yet we know when we are there.

My Piece a Week "Duet at Dawn"

BUT....some projects can never reach an end....some projects are designed to grow with us and remain part of our arting life indefinitely....

 Like this one from Darcy :D

How long do you spend trying to decide which paints in your collection will combine to give the effect you are after? (and these are just my craft paints : /)

Making swatches of randomly splatted paint (and writing notes on them) can be a fabulous time saver :D

 Especially when you have different "finishes" of paint too...

and it is a fabulous excuse to get messy :D

Why not pop over to PaperArtsy and see what else Darcy has been up to this week?

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