Holiday makes..... Part 2

OK, I packed bits and pieces to use when making things on holiday but I can't resist using pieces I find in the room or collect from the restaurants... look at the pretty stationery! be a shame to leave that sitting in a drawer...

I really enjoyed creating with limited supplies - make you think a bit more, be resourceful with what you have and what you can find around you .... such as all these bits and pieces: I can't resist using pieces I find in the hotel room or collect from the restaurants... look at the pretty stationery! it'd be a shame to leave that sitting in a drawer...

 LtoR - the daily newsletter telling guests what's going on each day at the resort and what the weather is expected to be (in my experience of Mexico - that would be 'hot, hot & ... erm.. hotter!') - its useful for sketching onto or as underpaper or background paper; the lovely orange patterned pieces are all stationery (invites to evening events, envelopes, writing paper etc); the bottle tops are from water bottles that are readily available all the time; restaurant consumables: 'spice' packet held chopsticks & doily was under a cup; couple of bits from the complimentary toiletries pack - toothbrush (I've been known to come home with quite a few of those - great for cleaning jewellery, flicking paint etc..), ear bud (great for paint spots and rubbing paint along pages edges... and last but not least - the hero ball point pen!... I also had a very useful drink stirrer but that didn't make the trip home. :o)

Here's a page I made using a panel cut from a mini cereal box (more about those tomorrow) covered in papers I took with me.  I drew on a few simple flower heads and painted and doodled detail on them....
I glued a panel of the stationery - I think this was the flap of an envelope - into my 6x6 sketchbook after realising it coordinated almost perfectly with the my doodled flowers I glued the panel onto the page.  To finish I drew lines around the panel and the page.

Next up is a page that I started at 2am in the morning when I couldn't sleep!  I love hexagons (you may have noticed! lol) and had packed a hexagon drawing stencil - the type we had a school (there's a circle one shown in the 'perfect kit' blog post)... so I drew this at night...

... and painted it the following lunchtime (using the Winsor and Newton watercolour paints...)

One more 'holiday makes' blog post to come..  when maybe I'll also show you the photo of me with the monkey!! (I kid you not! lol)

xx

ACP:2 Pink + H

I'm not going to beat around the bush - H is for HEXAGONS!!!

I'm slightly obsessed with hexagons at the moment!... ok, in truth its been while now... punches, dies.... gelli plates - boxes:....

Look at these lovely hexagon nesting boxes I bought on the PaperArtsy stand at AllyPally... I've temporarily put my kokeshi dolls in them to illustrate the size (tallest doll (in black) stands about 17cm) - I like them A LOT (both the dolls and the boxes lol)!!  The shape is so on trend at the moment and these boxes make for a more interesting display than square boxes - not that I have anything against square boxes of course...

A couple of  years ago there was this scrapbook page... (and the quilt that inspired it..).. lots and lots of hexagons! (the patience my Mum must have to have hand sewn all those!)..

OK, so Hexagons are my theme for the last part of April's Pale Pink month (and yes, I am aware that its now May - where is this year going!!!)... I chose to use the colours below with the hexagons... (I didn't actually use the pale pinks but have put them here to illustrate the palette I'd chosen)(and I actually picked several other paler colours as the project progressed)

I like the look of pale pink with pale blues and grey (pink and grey together look great on their own, and in my book Slate/dark grey goes with EVERYTHING)

This is the finished project.... or so I thought... the more I looked at it the more unfinished it seemed... (you'll see what I mean later)

Let me show you how I made this - its not overly complicated...  The substrate is a 10x14in board canvas - this is quite big for me - I'm itching to go bigger with projects but I'm doing it gradually :o)

Painted the canvas with a wash of slightly diluted 'Space Cadet' paint

I didn't want a 'solid' base coat and so I broke it up by removing the paint 'ragging' stylee - ie crumple up a piece of kitchen roll and dab the surface.... 

I decide this was too dark so I added paint (Hint of Mint) using kitchen roll again.... 

Still not happy with it, I added some 'Chalk' and 'Slate' ... the kitchen roll was being used a lot for this project...  I really like how this looked (the photo below is a close-up) started to have lots of lovely paint layers and texture... but its now what I wanted so..

I painted over the whole piece with a wash of Antarctic' and 'Chalk Fresco Finish paints and laid on the die cut pieces of pink patterned paper... 

but it still felt too dark so I repeated with another wash of the colours...

I laid the pieces on again and now I was happy...  I think its important to keep checking (if its possible) how the different layers are looking and working together as you go along... because you can then tweak colours, finishes and layouts... 

The stencil I'm using is from Artemio - I love it because its so big! (Its the one I used on my suitcase HERE )  I laid it on, checking that it worked with the position of the pattered hexagons

It would bother me if the hexagons weren't straight (!) and so I drew a pencil line down the canvas as a guide to line everything up to

...and glued them down. I'd always planned to cut the hexagons off at the canvas edge but I really like how they look hanging off the edges...

I stenciled the flowers in Slate - I like the bold contrast - black would've been to harsh...

To finish the canvas off I die cut the word 'Hope' (using Sizzix Serif Essentials dies) and painted it with Slate to coordinate with the stenciled flowers.  I dry brushed Chalk around hexagons - over the edges and onto the canvas to halp blend the two surfaces, and then I used a Grey Stabilo All Pencil to draw around the hexagons to give them a bit of depth.  I dragged the edge of the canvas in Slate.  The word 'Hope' was attached to the canvas using 3d foam.

Here's the 'finished' canvas again..

which I liked but felt it was missing 'something' down the left hand side... I wanted to write on it... in my head it was turning into a BIG journal page of sorts - what does the word HOPE bring to mind... what do I hope for?? (I think it about here that I occurred to me that HOPE begins with H which is letter of this post! lol I'd like to say I planned that but it was happy accident!)..
I couldn't bring myself to just write on it... Its a canvas, something to go on the wall - that little inner voice started up: what if its not straight? what if it looks 'wrong'? what if writing on it ruins it!???
So my husband had the 'brilliant' suggestion of writing the words onto acetate and laying it over the top of the canvas to get an idea of how it would look! That was a fine idea!

Biggish writing.... thickish pen... not really liking that...

What about if I wrote IN the hexagons... no, I liked that even less! lol 

Then  my husband suggested just single words ... die cut like the main word.... another great suggestions - he doesn't often suggest design options/ideas but when he does they are good - he was on a roll!
I dug out my QuicKutz dies (going old school here!) - the perfect size! and so quick and easy to use with the Big Shot!

I cut words out - 'eternal' 'weather' and 'well' using the QuicKutz dies and then 'Cure' using the Word Play die from Sizzix (I wanted that word to be bigger)  I painted these words in a mix of Slate, Space Cadet and Chalk - I didn't want these to distract from 'HOPE'. These words were glued flat to the canvas surface and I wrote phrases and journalling around them in grey felt tip pen - white was too pale, and black would be too strong/bold... I didn't want the handwriting to be too obvious.

Here is the finished canvas (yes, now definitely finished!) 

Woah that was a long post!

Thanks for stopping by - and as its now May I'll be moving onto a new colour and 2 new letters very soon.... 

xx

London!

A recent day out in London.... first a hospital appointment...

... followed by a walk round Covent Garden.. nice to be a 'tourist' for the afternoon...

... this shop called 'Kikki.K was right up my street - founded by a Swede living in Australia - it now has branches in the UK stocking all things paper but with a definite Scandinavian/minimalist feel to it... heaven! I knew it was going to be lovely: look at the lovely dimensional clouds cut from card in the window...

Inside were cabinets where all the displays were created in paper (!!).. very clever..

all this paper engjneering was so clever.... the teapot above and the scissors below...

and look at this fruit and icecream!... I particularly like it all being white - it allows to 'see' the detail and work that's gone into it without being distracted by pattern and colour...

the displays were so interesting (and clever!)... such a great shop - it was all so lovely that I couldn't decide what to buy so in the end I didn't buy anything! but will definitely be going back.. (or to their online shop!)

and speaking of lovely displays - here are the windows at Oasis (who always have great window displays)

We watched the street performers (well, when I say 'we' I mean Matt - he watched while I went in shops), browsed the shops - sometimes its just nice to walk around the shops - look at trends, merchandising, colours etc - in 'Pylones' I saw these;

but, tempted as I was, I left without them but when I got home searched on internet and ordered a similar pack by Derwent! well, if you're going to buy them you might as well buy better quality ones! lol and these were available in watercolour pencils! (not exactly artist quality but will be great for travelling!!  and the packaging is also a stand!! I'm so easily pleased aren't I!) (available from Hobbycraft, Amazon and probably other local art shops...)

lots of interesting shops in the area - and its not overly tourist biased so it was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

aaanyhoo - to end the day we had dinner at The Ivy Marketgrill (before heading to see a play) - this restaurant looks as if its always been in Covent Garden but is a relatively new addition - LOVE the flooring (continuing my hexagon obsession)...

 ... and my dessert! its a lemon meringue baked alaska! totally scrumptious!

It was a lovely day (the play we saw, in case you're wondering was 'Hand to God', it was good but at the same time a bit disappointing imho)..

We have to visit London again on April 10th.. must find something to do/see for that day - any recommendations/suggestions??

Thanks for stopping by

x