Washed up on the shore.

Its been so lovely here in the UK over the past week or so that I've taken every opportunity to be out in the garden, either just soaking it up, painting or in this case painting.  One Saturday morning I just chose some brights (Cheesecake, Tango, Blood Orange) , some A4 Kraft card, an old credit card and started slapping some paint down.  didn't know where it was going, but that was OK because I was just enjoying "doing"

Added some stamping (dots text and numbers)and my oh my the two pieces of Kraft card started to turned out rather well.

I added some stencilling and cut the card into quarters.

In-between drying I nipped up to the craft room to start thinking about what to put on this base card.  I'd printed out a load of photos and one of a scallop shell fitted the colour scheme rather well.

I wanted something in-between to lift the photo from the background so it needed to be something "neutral" to act as a contrast.

Fabric. A different texture but I wanted it to be "stiff" not "soft" a bit flotsam and jetsam washed up on the shore as the scallop shell.  What if I thought I soaked some muslin in thinned out Grunge Paste to act like plaster and let it dry? 

It worked, in fact it worked a treat.  I added some thinned Toffee, glued on a paper scrap and stapled the whole piece to the background with my rusty staples.  Stuck the scallop shell image and edged in red pencil.  Which I also added to the background along with yellow pencil scribbles as well.

I left it like this for a while, but I thought it need to be lifted some more.  So took some of my scrunched up and Distress Inked Kraft card, ironing it flat and scraped some Snowflake over the top adding in some lines here and there for texture.  I was so tempted to stamp over this but said NO LEAVE IT ALONE! 

Distressed the edges bit of Snowflake and some Black Soot Distressing ink and done. 

Messy, grungy, distressed and textured. Just how I like it!

Hugs

Jo

xx

I have many hearts.

The heart is a wonderful thing, it keeps us alive, it leads us rightly or wrongly, it hurts, it holds many open and locked compartments of wishes, hopes, regrets, loss, happiness, sadness and longing.

 

Now this 12x12" canvas started out as something very different, a very red grunge paste scratched canvas (check out my Instagram to see the stages). Quite a difference eh?  

There are many layers on this of PaperArtsy: Vintage Lace, Tikka, Blood Orange  and Sherbet.  Some book text very much hidden under all that paint, more scratches and water colour pencils to define and fill in the lines.

The hearts were cut from some A4 Kraft card I'd painted and stencilled earlier with Cheesecake, Blood Orange and Tango. I used an old credit card to scrape the the paints and then added some subtle stamping with a favourite Ellen Vargo dot background stamp.I added some stencilling in South Pacific and Red Bus and some doodling in black and white pens around the circles. 

Finally some random stamping of some mini PaperArtsy stamps in black Archival and then cut out using the large PaperArtsy die.   Each heart was edged in Black Soot Distress Ink and stuck on the canvas. I edged each heart with black watercolour pen to give depth and shadows. 

Now sometimes you want to explore an idea further and I was working on this there were many times when I felt I should have stopped adding layers.  For example I can't see the book text or the stencilled lettering in blood Orange with the Tikka highlights any more which looked really good.  Equally what would the same arrangement look like with a much darker background and lighter highlights?  

Umm, the delight of art mean you can try  those ideas and see, paint and paper and boundless ideas.

Hugs

Jo

xx

Sandcastles

Well Mojo and Inspiration have settled back in comfortably making a right mess on my desk and gently nudging me in the right direction.

I printed out a load of my photos last weekend, manipulated with filters and quite small.  I want to start making greetings card sized original sized art to either sell in that original state of photo's taken of the art and printed on cards.

Well, this didn't end up greeting card size, more 10x8" than 6x4", hey ho!

The canvas had Grunge Paste smeared over it, wetted in places to make it move, dried, scratched, dried and scratched to get the texture I wanted. Some of the lines of dots you can see were made with a dressmakers wheel. Quite like it, need to try it again in slightly wetter Grunge Paste.

Wanted to keep the background fairly neutral so washes of Chalk and Concrete. 

Glued and ripped some text paper an started adding some stamping (Ellen Vargo PaperArtsy) in Watering Can Archival and some stencilling in Sage and South Pacific.  Another wash of Concrete to soften and merge the stencilling.

I'm still loving scribbling in water colour pencils to add highlights and shade. Dampening the scribbles to spread the colour and soften it.  I used grey, turquoise brown and green over the text, at the edges of it and in the scratches. 

The photograph was stuck to some card to strengthen it, edges distressed and Vintage Photo Distress Ink added.  You can't really tell but it is a sandcastle, trust me it is, I found it on Southwold beach on my solo holiday at Easter just before the tide came in to wash it away.I dot mind that its hard to make out, its the colour and shape that appeals to me - abstract!

I stuck it slightly off centre so I could still see the text paper and then melted some beeswax pearls.  By accident (a happy one as it turned out) it seeped into the text paper to add further distress. Some more pencil lines to frame the picture and white, sage and grey oil pastel added to lift the photo from the background and tone down the very citrus green of the photo.

I have to say I had a lovely morning putting this together and its nice to be paint and paper creative again. 

Hugs
Jo
xx

Well you didn't think I wouldnt have a play myself would you? (#3UP Spring 2015)

So here is my take on the colour palette I picked for #3UP week. 

John keeps saving me his grapefruit tins so I decided to have a go at using one of them to create a battered tin that had been left out ion the garden.

Using a large stencil brush I just started adding Stone Concrete and Slate over the tin.  I then took the hammer to it and gave it a few bashes to dent it. I made sure the inside and the top and bottom edges of the tin had colour on them.

I then mixed some Grunge Paste with Stone and started scraping that on really roughly.  I then used one of my old matted and stuck together bristles brushes to add further texture.

Once the Grunge Paste was dry, I went over with the stencil brush again with some Hey Pesto and Guacamole and Concrete.  I then sealed it with Matte Glaze.  

To further add to the lichen effect I added some green Treasure Gold again using a stencil brush (I keep one just for Treasure Gold). Finally I added some watered down splats of Slate.

Inside the tin I've added some flower arranging oasis which is the second part of my grand plan with this battered tin.

Oh and there may have been some "staging" of the snails!

Hugs

Jo

xx

Well, it's got a lot of texture

Ummmm, right I'm just putting this out there, its almost how I wanted it, but not quite.And I think I like it and then I think ummm, do I really?

What do I like?

• I love the main background.  Kraft card that has had paint (Caramel, Vanilla, Chalk), stamping (mini bricks and mini numbers), candle wax resit and crunched up to break the fibres to create the cracks, distressed edges for the rips  and then inked with Distress Ink.
• The brads in the corners
• The shading of it all with watercolour pencils (purple, brown and charcoal) to give depth
• The gold pitted and scrapped Treasure Gold covered Grunge Paste layer under the corrugated card layer
• The rusty wire, alcohol ink dyed eyelets and grungy alcohol stained staples.
• The burnt Lutrador
• The ripped, stamped and painted corrugated card.   

What don't I like?  

• Well the corrugated card top layer is too angular on the side of the small pieces.
• I wanted more of a gap between the eyelets with the rusty wire, but boy was it fiddly.
• I'm not sure about red / brown Lutrador focal point.
• And I don't know whether it works best portrait or landscape orientation. 

All great individual elements, but do they all work together? Is it too much?  Am I being over critical (do have a tendency to set high expectations)?

When I can decide which way it goes round I'll put it in a frame.  The one thing I do know is it needs a big frame with a lot of "white space" behind it so it looks as though its floating (like an island, to be honest I think the corrugated card element does look like an island!) and you are drawn to it because its the strongest visual and you aren't distracted by anything else. Framing, a border is so important.

Anyway enough pontificating. In the end its only card and I enjoyed creating.

Hugs
Jo
xx

 

Creating + Sharing = Happiness.

Well its the 14th February, you know hearts, flowers, romance etc. 

Let me sum up the 14th February in my house, the usual question a couple of days before is one of us will say, "have you got me anything for Valentines Day?"  If the answer is no, there's a sign of relief and if its a yes then there is either some frantic crafting or a quick trip to a card shop.  Its fair to say we don't really do it, I don't need a special day to tell the people I cherish and value that I love them.

However saying that I have made some postcards (nine to be exact) made with love that I will be sending to people to share happiness by hopefully making people smile.  There's a lot to be said for giving, it really does make you,  the giver happy, well it does me.

So I started with a 6"x4" piece of Kraft card and embossed a background stamp from PaperArtsy in Yellow and Orange WOW embossing powder mixed up. I then went over the card with Spiced Marmalade and Wild Honey Distress Inks and spritzed and flicked with water. 

I then added a thin layer of Grunge Paste mixed with a little Sand Texture paste and Yellow Submarine and Cheesecake Fresco paints (I am still getting to grips with these brights and I have to be brave). The sand texture paste gives a nice gritty texture.  When it had dried a bit I went back over with the palette knife and scraped again to give me lines. 

It was very yellow, so I added some Tango. Now it was very orange in places. Added watered down Chalk to tone it down a bit more and make it less in your face bright.  It needed some contrast so I added JOFY's new Jade colour, just a couple of dabs top right, held it upright and spritzed with water to get drips down the card. 

I added some more background stamping using a small alphabet stamp from PaperArtsy in black Versamark.  I didn't put in a block as I wanted a clear but not uniform all over stamping.  Looking to achieve the weathered worn beach side look. finally I sewed around the edge of the card with toning thread both a matte and glazed shiny thread.

The photo is one I took on an early morning walk along the beach in Peel in the Isle of Man, I have so many pictures from that morning the bright clear light and the amount of shells, seaweed and worm holes was a pure joy, all that texture and shape!

I distressed the edges and then used both Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink around the edges. It was stapled onto some stamped beige tissue paper and Chalk gently wiped around the photo to lift it from the background.

So I hope my wormy sandy heart has made you smile, it does me every time I see it and  creating these postcards makes me happy.  

Hugs

Jo

Bird man!

So I was working on this straight after finishing bird shed as the two are linked.  As I said not only was the shed to store the bird feed but it's also a bird hide so that husband can get closer to the birds and record his weekly count for the British Ornithology Society Garden BirdWatch.  He does this every Sunday morning usually with the help of one of the cats who likes to come into the shed with him!

Husband isn't usually this Grizzly Adams like, but he was acting in Victorian thriller and needed to have mutton chop whiskers.  I hate it when he grows a beard, so was really happy when if came off and I got my less hairy but a bit of 5oclock shadow is quite sexy husband back!

Same size (11x11") and pretty much the same colour scheme and elements (they were all out the desk, so my not use them up!) I've added in some red with the fabric and Distress Ink to pick up the red of husbands bobble hat.  Really rather like the white splatters which echo the grungy stencilled circles which echo the Grunge Paste stencilling!

Right it might be time to move away from the green colour scheme. 

hugs

Jo

xx

Bird Shed

So my husband is a bit of a bird man, not the human kind I hasten to add, no the feathered variety. We have some many bird feeders in our garden that we have to have a huge (and I mean huge) delivery of bird food stuff virtually every month.  In fact it's so much that it was decided it needed its own shed that could also double as a bird hide for my very own Bill Oddie!

Homework was done and a suitable shed identified, purchased and delivered. and one weekend husband and brother put it up.  I kept well out of the way as I knew there would be a clash of egos (no, you should do it like this, no it should go like that - you know what I mean) and I figured my input would only antagonise not soothe the situation,

So now we are the proud owners of a bird shed and as you can see its fairly well hid under the plum tree so makes an excellent bird hide.

It makes him very happy and that makes me happy!

The background 12x12" card had plenty of texture added with a thin layer of PaperArtsy Grunge Paste mixed with Guacamole Fresco paint, whilst it was still wet I gently pushed a piece of hessian into it to give more texture (you can see that hessian under the photo).  More green PaperArtsy Fresco paints were added along with Glimmer Mists.

Stencilling with Hyde Park Fresco paint and stamping with Ink & the Dog Mini 59 in Green Fern Archival Ink. Lots of distressing and sanding and Walnut Ink and Peeled Paint Distress Inks to highlight the distressing and sanding on the edges.

The embellishments are as you can see are lots of fabric, tags, book text paper, chipboard, staples and the lovely little mini bird from Hot Picks 1103. I used the the small songbird die to cut the shape before stamping. 

The photo is of husband and bro adding the roof and if you look carefully you can see some finger pointing from my bro!   

The photo had filters and layers added in Pixlr and I really sanded it around the around the edges. I added some Walnut Stain Distress Ink and spritzed with water, but because its a home printed photo the inks ran when I wiped the edges with a baby wipe!  I thought "oh %$$^&*!, but actually I think it looks OK with the smudging.  

Bit like an old 1970's Polaroid picture that's faded and got crumpled in the back of the drawer and squint at it because you can't quite make out what it is but you can vaguely remember it being taken and going "oh yes that was the weekend we put the bird shed up, do you remember ?"

Hugs
Jo
xx

Molten hearts

Well this will be a short post just to show you what a I did (really Jo, that's not like you, do you think you can really be that short in your description?).

I'd been playing with the Dreamweaver crackle paste and covered a square of 7x7" card.  Love the really fine cracks it gives and the bubbling where I heated it. Added various brown PaperArtsy fresco paints lightly so as not to cover the cracks, some Archival inks in blues, some Glimmer Mists in reds and blues and finally some Treasure Gold.  Lovely shimmery distressed decayed leather look.

The base card was 11x11" plum colour, sprayed with the red, plum, blue and cold Glimmer Mists and stamped with a large text stamp in Plum Archival and Darcy's cogs which were embossed with a burgundy embossing powder.

Stitched the small card onto the big card.

Slathered some Grunge Paste which had been coloured with Squid Ink over the middle in as strip, dried it a bit and then added LOADS of Frantage and WOW embossing powders to get that thick molten metal mineral look I wanted to stamp the stamps in.  I first inked up the Darcy heart (I used both sizes) with black ink, heated a section of the powders to melt them and then stamped the stamp in it, leaving if for a bit to set and harden and moved on to the next.

Finally I painted some twinkling H2Os in a red over the hearts, it sort of sank into the hollows or sat in small splodges on top.  Wasn't what I was quite expecting, but I like it and I think it adds to the grungyness. 

Yum, yum yum!

hugs
jo
xx