Just a smidge of red

I'm busy prepping for CHA next month (more on that soon) which is good because I am definitely in a creative zone, so many ideas!

Over on the SimonSays Monday challenge the theme is Love is in the Air  + red.  As I had some scraps left over from my PaperArtsy heart I thought I'd have a play.

I started with an old 7x5" canvas and gessoed to try and eradicate the previous colour (orange / pink). Plenty of  layers later I added some book text and then began adding layers of paint.  First up, a very watered down Mud Splat and then washes of Chalk and Snowflake (all PaperArtsy) to give some opaque and some translucent areas so the book text could peep through in places..

Walnut Stain Distress Ink added, spritzed and flicked with water to get a mottled stained effect around the edges.

The stamping is from PaperArtsy HP1107 in Watering Can Archival. 

Why the clocks? Well lust can be sudden and fleeting, but love, love grows and deepens over time

Barn Door Distress Ink was added bottom right to give that hint of red, lots of water added and spritzed to give water stains and differing strengths of colour,

The heart was a left over scrap from my Grungy Heart. Edged with charcoal pencil to define and some charcoal marks around it to frame  and reflect the grey of the Watering Can archival. 

I'm pleased with the simplicity of this, even though it has many layers of texture. 

Hugs

Jo

xx

 

Grungy heart

Grungy, shabby, distress, ripped, layers, collage, depth, that pretty much sums up my art and this encompasses all of that. 

I've had the idea of strips of distressed card layered onto more card for ages, its sometime I do with fabric and I wanted to see how it translated to card. 

Picture heavy, but I know that's what everyone likes!

I started by creating an master board using a PaperArtsy paints. I brayered and wiped,, scraped and stencilled with Buff, Cherry Red, Garnet, Vanilla and Chartreuse.   

Then I created a large collage style stamping plate using a variety of Ink and the Dog stamps and stamped over the card with Red Geranium Archival and finally some stamping of numbers in Watering Can Archival. A light wash of Chalk was put on to soften everything down.

  

 This master board was then cut into 1cm strips and the edges distressed.

 

The strips were then glued down onto a black background, make sure they aren't in the order you cut them, you want  a random look so that the stamping isn't prominent and acts as just another layer of contrast and creates the depth.

 

Finally I cut a heart shape and edged with Distress inks in Brick Red and Walnut Stain after gently distressing the edges. 

The background canvas had a lot of layers of die cut shapes, a sheet of paper and text paper.

This then had washes of Mud Splat, Snowflake and Chalk, stamping using the mash up Ink and the Dog plate in Watering Can and water colour pencil mark. Quite a few layers of wash went over the top to soften it all don so that the heart would stand out. In the centre I added some watered down Mud Splat which acts a bit like burnt umber to get that stained aged look.

 

Once glued the heart was edged with water colour pencils to further define the heart. 

Some close ups to see all that lovely grungy texture!

 

 

Really pleased how this turned out and Id now like to have a go with a neutral palette for the heart, off white, grey, silver or possibly gold, umm Ive got lots of sparkly Frantage stuff I could use ....

Hugs

Jo

xx

All you'll need is ....

Well I have to say it hasn't been the start to the year I'd envisaged, by now I would have been to the gym a 3 times a week, planned our meals weekly, dragged my husband into the study to start de-cluttering (we have different working styles, I like clean spaces and no clutter, he likes to be surrounded by piles of what appear to be waste paper). 

But no it wasn't to be the planned for January, that month of new starts, reflection, cleaning the decks, planning, setting goals in motion hasn't happened Instead the past two weeks have been sort of on standstill as I tackle my tooth abscess. It's finally going down (fourth lot of antibiotics) my face is almost back to normal as in not looking like I have a grapefruit trying to push its way out from the inside.  I'm still in some pain and achy, but no where near as bad as it was, thanks to everyone who has sent best wishes, social media is fantastic when you are cooped up in your personal pain riddled insular world.

Anyway enough of the maudlin. 

The past couple of days I've actually felt like I needed to do something, I'm not very good at standing or even sitting not doing anything, the mind starts churning, ideas pop in and the fingers are itching to "create".

The theme at the moment at PaperArtsy is hearts (ummm, I wonder why as we hurtle towards February)) and this is my contribution using a empty grapefruit tin, PaperArtsy paint, some card, Grunge Paste, embossing powder, rusty wire , ribbon and string. Yes I know I sound like Lesley Judd but as a kid I loved Blue Peter especially when they did craft!

The tin was painted with Little Black Dress all over and then I stippled Grunge Paste that had been mixed with Cherry Red. Over this I stippled Burnt Orange, Garnet, Plum, Chartreuse (just a little bit) in various places. Lots of water was spritzed and paints allowed to drip to soften.  I then went to town adding texture and contrast used a variety of embossing powder.  I used some WOW powders, Frantage and Distress to get the effect and colour I wanted.  I just lightly sprinkle pinches of powder onto the tin, have the heat gun very high up until it starts to stick and then move in closer to melt.

The hearts were stamped using Emma's new stamps EEG13 and EEG15.on a master board using the same colours (and lots of background stamps) on the tin. I really love the circles, that squiggly graphic really appeals to me.

I couldn't decide whether too stamp in white or black, I'm glad I went with the white, it looks good and I think it makes the hearts stand out more than the black. I used some rusty wire for the stems attached with some staples.

In the can is some flower arranging foam so that I can stick the wires into it,  Finally some ribbon and string around the can for more texture, I wasn't sure whether to add this last element as it would cover up the can, but it works.

 

So there we go, and in true Blue Peter style "I'm sure anybody would love to receive such a beautiful gift on Valentines Day"

Hugs

Jo

XX

Transparent layers

Well over at PaperArtsy the theme has been transparency. I completed this last week and then I came down with the mother of all toothaches and subsequent infection that has swelled my face to well, my husband dear man he is just called with Sloth from the Goonies. I'm chucking pain killers down my throat every two hours and antibiotics every six, my constant companion is a hot water bottle to my face. I have to drink tepid tea through a straw and I have to have a dribble cloth. Have I started old age early?

Anyway so transparency.  I'd had an idea of using layers of acetate with various elements on each to achieve a layered see through effect.  It's sort of worked, the depth between each layer needs to be bigger, but I'm quite happy.

Moving from back to front (all paints used are PaperArtsy):

Layer 1: text page stuck in and strips and bits removed. A light sponge of Elephant and White to tone the page down.

Layer 2: Elephant paint sponged on quite thickly and opaque, some stamping in Slate and Black Stazon.  The grey in the centre was scared back to reveal layer 1 and a white paint pen to create a frame.

Layer 3: one of photos (dandelion) image transferred on the sheet and some more stencilling in a light grey. Once the image had dried gently rub away the backing paper.

Layer 4:  white stencilled through small dot stencil and butterflies stamped in Stazon from HP1109.

You can see in the individual layers on my Instagram account @jomyhill, I often post WIPs here.

I crackle glazed an old frame with Slate and White and added a touch of Walnut Stain Distress ink.  I used a hot glue gun to stick layers 4, 3 and 2 togetherness. The frame and layer 4 was stuck over the clips.

Looking at it completed layer 3 needs to be less opaque in the centre as its stops the ethereal look I was after.

As an experiment it worked quite well.

Hugs

Jo

xx