Small paper pournal

This was another project from my few arty days in Shropshire, this class was taught by Wendy and Annie.

We made a small blank journal, about 5 inches wide by 6 inches tall.

We used Brusho washes to colour paper (lining wallpaper), then once it was dry, we sprayed Brusho washes with added mica through stencils to decorate the pages.

For the covers, which were inspired by a Linda Monk class Wendy had taken,  we used scrim painted with gesso and paint, to create texture.  I coloured the scrim with fluid acrylic paint and added glitz with Treasure Gold, before sewing some beads on and adding a butterfly. 

The butterfly is made from polymer clay, stamped into and cut out using a cutter, then painted with acrylic paint after baking. 

Shrink plastic ATC

One of my regular monthly swap ATCs - April's theme was 'shrink plastic'.

The background was interesting - it's a Gelli print.I brayered Jacquard Lumiere paint onto the Gelli plate, and it behaved in interesting ways - it beaded up. So I took a print using some paper which had I'd already printed with light coloured paint. I love the effect, and added to it by stamping with turquoise Stazon.

I added a little washi tape around the bottom of the ATC then set about making my shrink plastic embellishments. I coloured translucent shrink plastic by very lightly touching it with inkpads in pale colours, then stamped it with my favourite butterfly stamp (which is too big for most things). Once shrunk, I edged the butterfly with turquoise Stazon, and added a 'body' using some gold 3d paint.

Finished with a silk flower held on by a brad and mounted on a turquoise background, and it's done!

Inchie postcard

I quite like making inchies, but never know what to do with them.  I have a bag full of paper and textile inchies from swaps and must think up a way of displaying these tiny pieces of art.

So, I set up a swap where the inchies were made and mounted onto a postcard so that they were already displayed. This is my inchie postcard - a mixture of card and metal inchies.

Most of my card inchies have Gelli printed backgounds, and have been rubber stamped then embellished with sequins and brads. The metal inchies were mmade by sticking metal tape onto cardstock, adding texture with an embossing folder, then colouring using Vintaj patina paints, and sanding off unwanted paint.

I liked it enough not to really want to let it go, but sent it anyway!

Textured pot

In April, I went to Shropshire for a few days with a group of friends. We'd each agreed to give a half day class, and here is the textured pot that Liz Welch taught us to make.

We made little faces from cloud clay, each face is about an inch tall. I coloured my clay blue, using mica powders, and added more colour with a little acrylic paint when I'd finished them.

These were fun to make, each has his own little character! 

Next, we set about decorating a cardboard pot - this one had contained sanitary products but apparently they are no longer packaged this way, which is a shame as the container was sturdy and a useful size! Liz had kindly paint the pots for us before the class, but this is easy to do, a coat of gesso then acrylic paint in  a strong colour or two, then dry brushed with metallic paint.

We took some scrim and dipped it into a mixture of ink and Paverpol fabric stiffener until it was really well coloured and very sticky! Next, we draped and otherwise artfully arranged the scrim onto our pots, sticking it to itself and the pot, and trying to leave some suitable gaps to put faces into. Once the scrim was dry, we rubbed Treasure Gold gilding wax onto the high points. I rather like the look of it just as it is!

The next step was to stick our little faces onto our pots. I thought my faces stood out too much, the colour didn't blend in well enough for me. I added some more Treasure Gold to see if that would help, but it didn't.

So I left the pot to sit for a week or two.  Finally, I decided to paint the faces with some fluid acrylic paint - a mixture of turquoise and green, as close to the colour tones of the background as I could manage.

Suddenly my faces look as if they belong on the pot! 

I added some Treasure Gold to finish them off.

(a bit too much, it is easy to be heavy handed with this stuff)

Now I really like my little faces pot, and it is in my studio holding pens, pencils and other tools!

Colourful tags

Oh, a whole month and a half has slipped past since my last post.  I was away for a couple of weeks and then I've been unwell enough not to feel like posting.  So today I will post a few things to make up for it!

I'm taking part in an monthly 'colourful tags' swap, the colour scheme is set for each month but otherwise the swap is pretty open.  For my 

'green with a touch of blue' tags I layered fluid acrylic paint until it started to look leathery, then collaged on some painted and stamped paper across the centre of the tag. 

I used the Gelli plate to print on both sides of the tag, then stamped the top half of one side using Stazon and on of my favourite Stampers Anonymous stamps.

I stamped the bird and egg images (Invoke Arts) onto green paper, and mounted the images in painted slide mounts. The touch of blue was dots of Jacquard Lumiere paint.

For the 'white with a touch of gold' tags, I used moulding paste and a lettering stencil to give texture to the top of one side of the tag,and some stencil waste and moulding paste to add texture to the bottom. I  then sewed some scrim around the tag using long straight stitches and french knots, and painted everything with gesso, then white acrylic paint. I stamped a series of circles across the back (Stewart Gill), and added some lace trim stickers.  Finally I used a W stencil with gel medium to add the W, and when it was dry I painted it gold. To finish the tag, I gently rubbed all the scrim and embroidery stitches with Treasure Gold.