Moving to new blog

It's been 6 months since I updated this blog.  

That's partly because of not having much time to make art in the last 6 months, but also having trouble posting because of arguments with my new computer, running Windows 8, about my having 2 google accounts. It doesn't like my split personality, so I am abandoning this blog and moving here.

I hope you'll come with me.

MIxed media with maps ATCs

The theme for December's monthly ATC swap was 'Mixed media using maps'.

I had a plan.  It depended on a stamp. I couldn't find the stamp.

This is 'plan B', using maps in a much m ore subtle way, which I rather like!

I started with a background made by gluing newsprint to cardstock, then using an old credit card to apply paint in reds, blues and purples. Using the credit card to spread the paint means it goes on very quickly, in a very thin layer, and dries fast. My background was too bright for me to use, so I added a layer of white gesso, again using the credit card. This gave a much more subtle effect.

The background looked a bit old and dusty, so I thought I'd go with the flow and add some cracked areas. I used a mask to keep the cracks off the area I planned to add my main image to. I used distress ink, which looked lovely, but which didn't dry properly on the gesso, despite using the heat gun, so I sprinkled with clear embossing powder and heated to 'fix' it.

Next came the main image, which I stamped with versamark, and embossed with 'blue raspberry' two tone embossing powder, for dramatic effect.

She didn't have quite enough dramatic effect, so I decided to make her stand out from the background a little more. I drew around her with an inktense pencil in what looked like a dull dark blue.  I added water,a and it turned out to be a much brighter blue than I expected!  I should have tested on a scrap of paper before I used it on the ATC! Still, it makes her 'pop'. 

You may have noticed that there's not much evidence of maps so far.  I had decided to use the map for embellishments.  I took a vintage map, dampened it with water, and coloured it with faded jeans and picked raspberry distress inks.

I cut small strips of map to use as 'ribbons' across the bottom f the ATCs, then added a few french knots with hand dyed thread. Next, I used a paper punch to cut out lots of flowers. I assembled these, and used a small white brad to hold them together and attach to the ATC.

Glittery book

I made this book for a swap with the theme of 'glitter'.  I wanted to use glitter in a subtle way, rather than in an 'in-your-face' way.

I created the book by tearing 5 sheets of watercolour paper for the inside, and a slightly larger sheet for the cover. I painted the cover with a mixture of matte medium, turquoise, jenkins green and titan buff fluid acrylic paints and dabbed a crumpled piece of paper on it to add texture.

Once the paint was dry, I used a Basic Grey laser cut 'doily' as a stencil, and dabbed on Stewart Gill Metamica paints in 'brass' and 'verdigris'.  Once dry, I added glitter  by dabbing on 3 colours of Stickles, and spreading it around with my finger. It doesn't show that well on this photo, but you can see more of it on the second photo.

To finish the book off, I did a very simple binding using some tubular variegated embroidery thread, and a polymer clay. The pear was made by rolling Premo Accents clay until thin, creating texture using a rubber stamp, and baking until cured. This is the first time I've used Premo Accents and I was very disappointed because the gold isn't shiny, it's very matte.  And I needed shiny. Very shiny. So, after a generous application of Treasure Gold, my pear is beautifully shiny!