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

When your life is in pieces...

Sometimes life can be a real pig!! No matter how you try (so we are told) you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear....

but you can make art from a piggy puzzle!

The theme this week over at The Game Challenge is "Name That Tune...", use musical script in your project.

So I started by covering the puzzle pieces with music paper :D I used the reverse of the puzzle pieces, just in case the image showed through...

and painted the frame a lovely crimson pink/red.

When dry, I started drawing straight onto the pieces with graphite and watercolour pencils.

Building depth with layers of water colour and pencil, and adding brown paint with a dry brush to the frame.

Tarted the frame up a bit with some Inca gold, and highlighted the image with souffle gel pens.

Adding a layer of satin varnish "pushed" the image back into the paper, and drew the musical notes out, making the piece much "richer" :D

To remind me..."When my life is in pieces...I should still sing from the heart", because it makes me happy :D

Why not join in with the Game Challenge....no real rules...just follow the theme, oh and obviously, it has to be a never before blogged project.

Enjoy :D XXX