Wanderlust Kate Crane Part 1

I fnally got around to starting the actual lessons on the Wanderlust course, not all have appealed to me so I am picking out my favourites to do. Going right back to the beginning of the year { I am so far behind lol} I chose to do the Kate Crane class. 

Before the main lesson we had to fill some pages with mark making, I had done this many years ago, but it is always handy to have a collection of scribbles and marks and patterns that can be used in other projects. 

I had some very very old sketchbooks that I had taken apart, thus giving me a huge pile of paper. Not really good enough to do good drawings on, but ideal for quick sketches and for mark making exercises. From some of these I made some tiny signatures, the pages are only 10 cm by 14cm. 

I compiled 7 signatures each with 4 sheets, giving me lots of little pages. I have bound them into a piece of canvas, whch I painted. 

Front cover:

Front and back covers, showing the stitching in the spine where the pages are attached. 

Here you can see I have lots of pages and I wil fill them all over time with patterns and ideas for use on bigger pages. 

Here are a couple of the pages done along with Kates exercises. 

Not a new technique for me, but nevertheless I did enjoy doing the pages. Sometimes it is good to revisit old techniques. 

Darcy x

Journal Playground Week 4

I got a bit behind doing other projects, but I finally did the last week of the Journal Playground course. This week we made our journal pages from heavy watercolour paper. this doesn't means you have to only do watercolour art on them, as this is a heavy paper it will take many mediums. 

I made 3 signatures, each with a variety of sizes of pages, some tiny, some a bit bigger and then the full size ones. I like the way this looks. Doing pages like this does mean you have to plan out your art a little, as you can see 3 pages all at once, . 

This is not how Kylie did her pages, I just wanted some variety in mine. 

I then made my cover, this is done on a piece of canvas cloth. If you buy this from an art shop it is quite expensive, so I get mine from a DIY place. What I buy is actually a canvas dust sheet and it is a really nice weight rough canvas. 

This is the back of my canvas, this will become the inside of the cover. 

..and this is the front, and will be the outside of the cover. 

I added velcro strips to the ends, one will fold over the other. They are self adhesive velcro strips, but in the end I also stitched them in place as they wouldn't stay put. 

I then stitched the signatures into the cover.

 ..and voila! the book is ready for some art. 

I love this cover.. 

As this is a watercolour book I figured I should break out the watercolour paints and have a go. I have absolutely no clue about watercolour paints, but I am determined to fill this book with them. I have done lots with waterbased products such as neocolor II crayons and pencils, inks and dyes.. so you wouldn't think watercolour paints would be a stretch for me, but for some reason I have some kind of fear of the paints lol

The tiny silhouette stamp is a 'Wee Folk' stamp from Clarity. 

Watercolour actually terrifies me, it seems so unmanageable. But I am determined to get to grips with it. This one isn't horrendous for a first attempt but there is  long way to go lol ahh well art is an adventure right, always good to learn something new. 

This was a great little four week course, if you fancy making four different journals then check it out. Not only do you get friendly stp by step videos you also get step by step art from Kylie in her signature whimsy style. Click HERE 

Darcy x

Tissue Flowers

Hi everyone, here again with a project that could be done all year round.  I love these little tissue flowers. 

I started by blending Concrete, Mermaid and Captain Peacock onto a 6x6 canvas board. Then I added my new star stamp in Aquamarine archival, radiating out from the centre. 

The edge has a little Blueberry rubbed around it. 

At the bottom I stamped my new trees. The dots of snow are easily covered with a little more of the blue paints. 

I coloured them in using Pitt pens, then added a half wooden spool. This was painted with Blueberry and a scrap of card , first painted with Moonlight and then stamped with the side of the long bauble stamp. 

Next I painted some tissue paper. 

and stamped pout the circle image. 

I cut apart the circles and the sprayed each piece with water before scrunching them up. These were left to dry and then and layered up the colours, mounting them onto a scalloped circle of white card. 

Each flower had a length of wire inserted. 

Once these were trimmed to different lengths they were tied together with purple craft wire and then the ends were glued into the wooden spool.  Finally a tag was added. 

I felt the background needed a pop of colours so I flicked on some pink paint. 

Darcy x

A Hot Picks Christmas

Hi there, here with a couple of quick Christmas samples using the Hot Picks stamps. I made these a while ago but only just got around to taking final photos of them. 

This started as a PaperArtsy postcard, painted and stencilled. Just love the Emma Godfrey star stencil

over this I chose one of the Christmas texts from HPXM08 and stamped and embossed this all over the background using WOW Seaglass.

At the bottom I stamped the trio of fancy trees. This stamp also has leaping reindeer on it, but I missed those off and added them later. 

Here you can see the reindeer stamped in Professor Plum paint. 

This is a small canvas measuring approx 12cm by 15cm . 

Keeping this uber simple, I merely painted the canvas black.. Then I cut 4 pieces of smoothy card and painted those in mermaid, Moonlight, Professor Plum and Captain Peacock. 

I stamped the same tree on all 4 pieces of card, and added a little doodled edge with a dot of stickles in each corner. 

Then added them to the canvas with sticky foam. 

I finished the edges of the canvas off with a swipe of Pewter Treasure Gold. 

Darcy x

Angel Blooms

I loved the process of the 'Basket of Dreams' canvas, (by Tracy Easson) so I decided to make another one. I think I will probably give this to one of my nieces. I have been promising them all a canvas, so this is the first one done.. 

Quick sketch onto canvas..

This time I painted the background first, then I stamped it with a text stamp from ESN15 and white paint. 

I added the texture to her wings and covered them with Treasure Gold.  in several colours. I also roughly cut some flowers from patterned paper and glued those down as the background for the posy. 

Next I worked on the face and hair, and then the dress. 

Love how this face turned out considering it is so small and fiddly to get the shading right. 

Using ELB15, I stamped little dots all over the background and added WOW embossing powder to them. I also added some lines of colour using a credit card and an old discontinued blue fresco from PaperArtsy. 

I wanted to add dimensional flowers. Paper doesn't always hold its shape.. so I glued lots of bits of patterned paper to aluminium foil. Once dry I die cut them all, layered them up and added a brad. Then I was able to bend them into shape. 

Using a Faber Castell Pitt pen I added some stalks, then poked holes in the canvas so that I could tie on some ric rac. 

I die cut these letters, painted them and added Treasure Gold.

and here she is all finished..

Here you can see how amazing the shine is from the Treasure Gold on the wings and bodice. 

Darcy x

Canvas

Ok, so this is the last blog post about the weekend away that I had with the circle journal girls.

We had decided that we would meet and do a workshop together, and where else would we go but to Dyans shop...Art from the Heart. One of the girls, Jayne, called and organised for us to do a canvas workshop.

So on our second day in Harrogate we all went along to the shop bright and early.

I had made  a little gift for Dyan, knowing that she loves to sew and make dresses, I made her a little hexie caddy/pincushion and thread catcher bag.

Then we got to work on our canvasses.. I chose to work with blues and greens..

We managed to make a great mess.. here is mine part way thru..

and here we all are with our canvasses just before saying goodbye..

Once home, I finished mine, by adding  a little more ink, defining the houses and adding a quote. it is now up on the wall.

close up of quote..

it was a fabulously messy,inky day...