Men!!!

...yes indeedily, I have had men on my mind this week! Well, three men inparticular, namely; Uncle Fester, The Beast and Jack, who are all residents of the Octopode Factory... where the Friday challenge theme is... MEN! And, I am incredibly honoured to be asked back to Guest Design again for this fab challenge. Now... I know I have said this before but... I was a snob when it came to "digi" stamps... thinking that a stamp is made out of rubber and you have to add ink to it to see what the image is. Ahah! My snobbery was well and truly dispersed when I first happened across these delightful digi's from the fair hand of Lily Chilvers, who happens to not only be an incredibly talented artist but also... get this... she just turned 18 yesterday! So... HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lily! And... if you do prefer to use rubber... Lily has now had some of her Octopodes made into rubberstamps... result!!! Anyways... HERE is a linky to the challenge blog... where you will be inspired I am sure, by all the gorgeous arty pieces from the Design Team :O))



So... Men! A very easy subject for me as I always seem to veer towards the more masculine things in this world we call creativity... the colours, images, themes etc... so I challenged myself... make something with a bit of colour.. and a flower... so I did! The shadow box is 8" square, so that means the centre piece is about 6" square. To get the little men images onto the cardstock, I resized them (I did make an emergency phone call to my IT guy (ahem... Grim!) but his phone was switched off... so I panicked and pulled a few hairs out whilst stomping about on the laptop... til I sussed it... tis easy really) Anyways, I have resized the little fella's and printed them out.. then cut them out.. then coloured them with Distress Stains and a paintbrush... and then got very busy with some Colorwash Sprays.



I used Red Pepper, Sunset Orange, Butterscotch, Stream and Sail Boat Blue... then whacked some Bronze PP Mists over the top and let the colours merge together before blotting off the excess. I added some circles and lines using a craft scraper and a bottle top and then set about placing the images onto the card. It was then that I sat and stared at it... mmmm, needs words... but what words? I was going with Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil and See No Evil... cos it does look like each of the fella's would fit one of these categories.. but the words ended up being too over powering... so I then though...aha, there's three of them... so.. the Three Wise Men idea was born. I used "This Charming Font" to make the words, printed and cut out and coloured with Pumice Stone DS.



The frame was easy-peasy... I wanted a contrast to the centre... so that stood out more... and being as I am rather partial to a bit of black and white, I set about painting the frame with white Gesso and Charcoal Black paint. Once it was dried, I used a little charcoal pastel stick and smudges around the white so it isn't so bright... and then went around parts of the images to add some depth. Phew.. I think that is all... Cor blimey... I had a whole heap of fun making this... don't forget to hop on over to see Lily and her DT to see the amazing art and all of the amazing Octopodes too.



Well, that's me for now... thanks for looking... have a lovely sunny day! TTFN

Hels x

Time... For Something Totally Different...

...So... I have been looking at those Octopode Factory designs, digi-stamps and rubber stamps for a while now and have gazed longingly at them... but... I haven't taken the plunge because, to be totally honest, I really didn't think that "my style" would suit them. And then... Lily Chilvers, who is the so very clever and incredibly talented lass that lives in the Octopode Factory and draws her Octopode friends, contacted me and said... "would you like to be a Guest Designer on my Friday challenge?"


So... after thinking about this for a few seconds I thought to myself... why not! And why not indeedily because I am incredibly honoured and ever so chuffed to have been asked to be part of Lily's world. So... I went onto The Octopode Factory Etsy shop and gathered a few digi-stamps and armed with the challenge theme which is TIME, I got stuck right in to making this canvas, which is loaded with Colorwash Sprays and paint and other goodies! I will say this though... I want it to be known that I have found inspiration in Kate Crane and Sue Roddis's work... and have used this inspiration on this canvas. Credit where it is due and all of that :O))



Right, the canvas is 8" square and after priming with Gesso I gave it a quick coat of watered down Trad Tan paint, being rough with the brush strokes so there is a bit of texture in there too. I used a variety of Colorwash Sprays to achieve the background... namely Sail Boat Blue, Wild Plum, Lettuce and Meadow and then mixed Sunset Orange with some Gesso and splodged this along the top of the canvas to create some streaky bits... because I knew I was using the Melting Clock and thought that they would blend well together.



The words are created in Word and printed onto copy paper which was lightly coloured with Pumice Stone DI and then stuck to the canvas and drawn around with a soft pencil... which I then roughly went over with a Ranger White Pen to lighten up the lines a bit. The lines and circles on the canvas are made from Black Dabber and Gesso with bottle tops and a paint scraper.



I printed off the Digi-stamps... hey, this is a first because I have never used a digi-stamp before and I admit to being a bit of a wuss because I am rubbish at computerly doings... but I managed!!! The images were all cut out and then coloured with either Distress Ink or Stains and a waterbrush. I used some old watch bits to decorate the canvas and also the eyes of the Octopodes and popped a cool Optical Lens that Annette kindly sent to me. Finally, I didn't like the messy look on the sides of the canvas, so it had two coats of Gesso and then I painted black lines onto it so it is a black 'n white stripey look... which I have to say... I lurve... black and white, my fave colour combo lol


So, there you go... a first for me that I used digi-stamps (and yes, I LOVE them!!!) and also using the inkyness direct onto canvas, normally I would do it onto paper and then stick the paper to the canvas... am getting daring in my old age... Please do hop on over to see Lily and her Octopode pals... all the deets are HERE. Thanks for looking... TTFN Hels x