Being Creative

Had some time this weekend to be creative. Parcels started to arrive over the last week. One included a few packs of grunge paper.

It is much thinner than normal grune board, so you can stitch it !! YES ! Been looking at making small covers for note pads. This one shown is for me. I only have one pad which I was praticing with. But started to make a few more for an exchange.

I feel these could be more suitable for gifts for male friends/familly.

Meanwhile I have worked on the third canvas for my art room. This time used the crackle paint with oil sticks rubbed in. The letters here all started with black crackle paint.

The image is not clear enough but the background is gold paint, with yellow crackle paint in some areas, these then had green oil stick rubbed in. Where the image of the lady is , this is an accetate so you can see the crackled paint below, which now looks like part of her dress. The image was a find while I was looking though the baggy of extras which Lisa from Collage Stuff often adds in with orders.

Also this week the next Round Robin book has arrived. Its called Black, White Red..... although I think I shall be looking to add some news print in there somewhere after the old joke - "Whats black white and read all over?"

Almost finished a piece of stitching. Just the beads to add now. So pictures next weekend =)

ART-ful times

A little time since my last postings, been busy ! It does mean I have a few images to share with you all.

Last weekend I was out in the garden working on the raised veg beds. Putting in earily potatoes and my onion sets. Does not look much in the photos ... it will be a while until they start to break the surface. Next I need to work on getting the green house sorted out.

On to things arty. Been working on trying out other ways to use the crackle paints. I now know that watering them down tooo much will create an almost watery effect on canvas ! This time I dug out my oil stick paints (Shiva sticks) to use over the top on the crack paint once it was dry.

This worked out really well as you can then get a rag/tissue/sponge and rub the oil paint into the cracks. Looks great over black crackle paint as you can get white into the cracks !!

Made another canvas for a friend. Its a smaller one but I like the effect at this scale.

I joined the All About Tim art book exchange too. The first book from B arrived a week ago. Last weekend I was feeling inspired and created two pages on creativity !

This is B's cover...

My work coverd two pages and used a number of T!M technques. I hope she likes the pages once the book reaches her.

We were asked to complete a 'sign in' card. I decorated mine too ! Although now I know how nice the oil paint brings up the crackle paint I may just pull this out again and add to it slightly !

Canvas Art

Been busy the last few weeks, either being away or sick =(

So what have I been up to??

I completed a punch work kit which my friend C sent me for Yule. I still need to seal the back so the work does not pull out.

I have been looking at my craft art. Tim Holtz has some new videos on his web site. Tried out the technicque of using the distress crackle paint as a resist to start creating this background for a canvas project I have in mind.

This has come out a lot better than I expected. I may try out a few different shades of crackle paint to see how it looks !

Two weeks ago I worked on the Dream canvas as a thank you gift for a friend. Again I tried out a few new ideas. Like using a mask to create the flourish in the background.

The butterfly is made from grundge board with a game spinner for the central body. I also used some new water colour fantasy paint. This looks great in real life but does not photo graph so well. The moon is from a new set of fantasy stamps too.

I also made two post cards for my friend L. Both of these started with a napkin. CPS magazine had an article about using printed napkins as part of a piece of art. I then started to added other elements.

The birds has a velvet rub down from the Laura Ashley range. Love how they make the cards very tacktile.