In my garden - shabby panel

 In My Garden

The Great Outdoors CVC #2 July

Well I'm out and about in my garden for the second challenge for July at Country View Crafts and I've created another shabby panel. I also seem to have gone somewhat French (see later info in the post about this!) - that came about because Tim has some bee images that have been labelled in French, so I clicked with it and brought out a bit of school learnt French, but checked it on Google as well :0)

So in my garden I have bees and that was true when my Olive tree was flowering a few weeks ago - there were bumblebees buzzing away and flitting like mad from flower to flower. It surprised me because the flowers are so, so small! I have lots of flowers and bushes, I have raspberries, blueberries, tomatoes, courgettes, cucumber, runner beans, sweetcorn, roses, dahlias, fuchsias, hydrangeas and more - and I love it. I've also had lots of blackfly and slugs and snails, caterpillars, but very few butterflies and ladybirds sadly. 

Finished Panel

So the time to create this panel took longer than I had anticipated but read on and you'll find out why,

Process steps

Two pieces of paper adhered to card and brayered with white acrylic paint to tone it down.

Texture paste scraped through Tim's stencil for texture and left to dry. Water spritzed over the stencilling and walnut stain distress ink mixed with water on craft mat puddled through using a paint brush. Neat ink then painted over a few of the stencilled shapes to give variations of tones. Any puddled colour was splattered over, but most of it soaked in and can't really be seen.

Pieces for the focal point layers were collected together, much of it in bags as leftovers from previous projects. I keep lots of the bits and pieces to use for collages and toppers. The only things I had to do were stamp the bees (on leftover background) and create the text pieces on the computer. I also gathered a butterfly rub-on and embossed on vellum to add to the specimen slide.

The bees are stamped with an old Tim Holtz stamp mounted on wood. It was fabulous using it again and to give it an outing.

I layered up all the elements and lost the butterfly duh! But found a little one in the field notes snippets I could replace it with. Buuuuutttt .... I wasn't happy with it, there were imbalances - like the left side is so dark whilst the other side is very light, to me that took away from the focus of the bees and garden. So I had to have a play.........

This was what appeared. I got rid of the black flowers, added from the wildflowers dies and also added a ladybird peeking out at the bottom. Although there is a depth imbalance on either side now, I think I can live with that because now the whole piece is lighter and looks more like a garden.

Here you can see the contrasts and differences. I'm happy.

NEXT DAY

Is it a Bee or is it a Wasp?

I hadn't glued anything down before I went to bed and today everything changed!!! (Typically Me!!).

I brayered over the brown stencil texture to lighten it more, 

I didn't like the yellow on the bees (or wasps?).

Because I think this is more likely to be a wasp the French text seemed inappropriate so I made some in English.

I also stamped the panel mount with text from the Entomology set.

I added some snippets.

Now I'm even happier.

xx

Supplies

TH Sizzix dies - Specimen, Entomology, Wildflowers

TH Stampers Anonymous stamp - an old wooden stamp of a bee?, Entomology CMS328

TH Mediums - Collage Medium Matte

Th Distress inks - Walnut Stain, Wild Honey, Scattered Straw

TH Snippets - Field Notes, Curator

TH Small Talk stickers

White acrylic paint, White Gesso

Background papers and text - Tim Holtz and my own

Paper Dolls panel

 Adding to my Butterflies, Bees and Moths Creative Sketchbook

Whilst pulling together ideas and a large number of designs for a workshop next month, some made the cut and others didn't.

I'm teaching my take on Creative Sketchbooking on the 17th and 18th of July at Country View Crafts headquarters.  Thursday the 17th July is sold out but there are some spaces on Friday 18th. Bookings can be made here. 

 This was one of the experimental projects I made that didn't make the cut, but I will add it to the sketchbook later along with some other bits and pieces I have left over. It will be good to add them as they are still important being part of the creative process and decision making.

Paper Dolls panel 

Cut panel 10 x 8 cms punch rounded corners. Paint surface with gesso – dry. Using small sponge blend over a mixed colour to your liking.

Dip into puddle of hickory smoke, dry and blend same ink round edges.

Stamp bug with watering can archival ink.

Gather dolls and blend ground espresso round them and the same with snippets.

Add something to ground the girls I used the small alphabet strip.

I will add the actual Creative Sketchbook pages here after the workshop in July. 

xx

Winter Scene 2 for Country View Crafts

 Distress Journal Panel

1. Stamped the tree/branches with walnut stain DI, then stamped the bird with cornflower blue and  black archival inks leaving the belly uninked and then the barn with black and the trees with peat moss. The tree trunk was made by double stamping the branch from the Mr Frostie set and then using a fine brown drawing pen to give it a seamless appearance.

2. I played with dabbling and dipping gathered twigs and broken china DIs to start the background off.

3. The background tree line was an experiment covering the stamp with pine needles DI and dipping it into watery chipped sapphire and broken china puddles then stamping at various heights to make them look further away and melting into the snowy background.

4. I dabbled around the tree line using a brush with the two blue puddles of DI until I was happy with it.

5. I used the watercolor pencils on the barn, the bird, the tree and branches the bird is sitting on.

6. The bottom of the scene was looking a bit wishy-washy so I added some rustic wilderness with a brush and water..

7. I tore some paper to cover most of the scene and stamped text above and below the bird using watering can archival.

8. I then covered the bird and splattered watery Snowflake fresco finish paint to make a snowstorm but the text stood out too much so after drying the splatters I brushed some watery white paint over it and knocked quite a bit of it back. The snow seemed to have died down so I splattered again.

9. Finishing was about playing with the details, painting and inking the bird's belly, darkening the tree, dabbling some white paint around the foreground in a few places, touching up and strengthening shape with pencils and pens.

So my second wintry scene is finished and I added it to my Distress watercolouring journal.

Supplies

I decided to try some new card for this project (Paper Mill Direct Arena Super Smooth 300gms). I cut a panel 18x15 cms. I'm, pleased to say it worked ok with wet inks, dipping and drying, stamping and paint.

Tim Holtz - DIs - walnut stain, gathered twigs, vintage photo, chipped sapphire, broken china, pine needles, rustic wilderness.

Tim Holtz - Distress Watercolor Pencils - mermaid lagoon, uncharted mariner, gathered twigs, brushed corduroy, ground espresso

Tim Holtz Stamps - Nature Walk CMS181, Mini Holidays 2 CMS096, Scribble Woodland CMS282, Mr Frostie CMS499, Letter to Santa 053

Ranger archival inks - cornflower blue, potting soil, peat moss, black, watering can.

Miscellaneous - white posca pen, brown and black fine drawing pens.

Mixed Media Panel

 Just some playtime using distress inks over modelling paste surface and stamping.

1. Scrape white modeling paste randomly, roughly and thinly over card. Dry.

2. Blend tattered rose and victorian velvet randomly and mostly in the centre of the card.

3. Repeat with faded jeans more around the edges but leaving gaps where the other colours are.

4. Make a puddle of tattered rose and dip your card into it particularly where you have blended that colour- Dry.

5. Repeat with victorian velvet and faded jeans.

6. Blend frayed burlap around the edges and lightly in other areas to get a more vintage feel to the colours.

7. Stamp the shrubbery in the lower left hand corner ...

8. .... I also masked off most of it to add a longer stem up wards to fill the left hand side completely. I also used a black drawing pen to add some little bits to make it all look as though it is one image.

Dipped edges into black soot puddle to get darker distressed outline.

Mounted into black journal.

Supplies

TH - DIs - victorian velvet, tattered rose, faded jeans, frayed burlap

TH - Stampers Anonymous - Urban Tapestry CMS061,  Watercolor CMS217

Autumn Richness 3 - Berry Panels

 This is my last project post for the September 24 challenge at Country View Crafts challenges on FaceBook. Two little panels that grew to four and now five. I've added one more to complete the series.

            Here they are as a completed collection.

I made a little torn tab booklet to add them to with some collage paper elements.

xx