I'm still here!

Sorry it's been a bit quiet around here lately. I had to have some surgery and it has taken me a bit of a while to get back on track. There hasn't been much going on in the craft department apart from my crochet as I haven't felt like sitting at my desk. In the meantime though I have managed some crochet and made great inroads into another blanket for a Christmas present which is already nearly a third done which is great! I have also bought a kit for a beautiful Waterlily Crochet Along blanket project designed by Jane Crowfoot. Although the full design cannot be seen yet, there are some stunning teasers, certainly enough to tempt me to buy the Stylecraft kit from the Wool Warehouse. The patterns will start to be released on 7th April and I have started to collect pictures of the elements revealed so far on a Pinterest Board here. I just hope my limited crochet skills are up to the challenge!

Today I am sharing another couple of pages from my art journal. These were done a while back, but I am pretty pleased with the way they are coming out. Not my usual style, but experimentation is the name of the game!

I am continuing some common threads between the pages. The backgrounds are initially coloured with gelatos and stencilling is added, usually by taking colour off through the stencil with a baby wipe. All my pages also feature butterflies.

The pictures on both pages are from a cheap paperback book of Pre-Raphaelite paintings I bought especially to use for cutting up for art projects. It is great not to have to feel guilty about destroying the book as it is a mass produced cheapie. The second pages also has some added flowers taken from a serviette and both pages feature some stencilling in glitter paste.

I am very excited because next week will be my last week at work. I have decided to retire quite early and concentrate on things at home. I am looking forward to spending much more time in the garden, cooking, walking and generally living a simpler more carefree life.  It might also mean a bit more time for my arty endeavours, but we will have to see! There are lots of cupboards and things that need a good sort out first!

I hope you are enjoying the early spring weather, we are champing at the bit to get some of our vegetables started now I am feeling a bit brighter and tomorrow may see me in the greenhouse with my hands in the compost for the first time this year!

Have a great weekend!

Elaine

Good luck card

My niece has just landed herself her first job in graphics having completed her degree in typography last year. She is very excited! I wanted to make her a card that was relevant, but struggled for a while with what sort of design to go for. This is what I came up with.

This pencil stamp is from Lost Coast. I hankered after it for ages and finally got it on my one and only visit to Happy Stampers in Port Sunlight when the company were over from the US. I have to say this is one of those stamps that was very difficult to stamp. I wanted to use archival ink as I was planning to watercolour the pencils and I stamped the image about 10 times and still ended up cutting off some pencils. It is stamped onto smooth hot pressed watercolour paper. I tried everything!  I reinked my small and large archival black ink pads, I tried a large curved acrylic block with a handle especially designed for large background stamps, I tried a flat acrylic block, I tried with a sponge stamping mat underneath and without, I even used a hard brayer to flatten the paper onto the stamp from above. It was driving me a but nutty, but I was determined!   Sadly I don't think this stamp is one I will be using too often, but I do love that image.

I coloured the image with Aquarelle watercolour pencils and added the sentiment which is from a Sam Poole Creative Expressions set which is so handy.  The words seemed so right for her chosen career.

I just hope she likes the card. I think she will, she likes stationery and vintage images like me!

Elaine

Blooming birthday!

It is my friend's birthday this week and she is going through a pressurised time at the moment with things in her life. I made this card as a reminder to take time for herself. We have been talking a lot about mindfulness lately and it seemed appropriate.

Once again light conditions before getting it in the post did not help with taking a nice pic of this one. It is actually a really simple construction, put together after faffing about with all sorts of stamped and stencilled bits and giving up on those ideas. I have been feeling a bit under the weather lately and there is no doubt it saps the creativity somewhat!

The main papers are from a Prima 6 x 6 pad which has a strong nature theme and the sentiment is from a matching ATC pad. I added the strip and butterfly from a lovely K & Co set of embellishments that have been languishing unused in my stash for about a year if not longer. It's all mounted on a 6 x 6 card blank. After all my fiddling about I am quite pleased with the result.

On Sunday I went to a craft show in Portsmouth. It is always lovely to see what is on offer and get far too tempted by goodies. I always mean to be good, but I never quite succeed somehow. So I came away with a couple of dies, a few stamp sets, some ink pads and paints, card blanks and a bargain rack for my distress inks. You may recall I made myself a rack I was very pleased with, but for the time being working in my tiny crafty space, the spinner takes up too much surface space, so this one is a flat one which is perfect for now, not least because it only cost me £10!

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine

Art journal page

I am trying a bit of art journaling as a way of being a little more experimental and playful with my art work. I am not good at letting go of my perfectionism, but I seem to be giving it a go! This journal is a A5 sized hardback notebook and I am gluing pages together to give them more body. So far my backgrounds have all been made with my newly acquired set of gelatos. I find they work best on a gessoed background.

The thing I like best about starting with a layer of gesso is that you can take colour off through a stencil as I have here, with clouds and a small circles stencil. I finish off with a spray of fixative spray before I start gluing images on top.  In this case I used an image from a photographic magazine and butterfly die cuts. Finishing off with some mulberry paper daises that always make me feel happy when I use them as they are such cheery little things!

My words are chosen from my Pinterest wise thoughts board. I felt I was collecting loads of thought provoking words that should be given an airing some how. I typed a load out and have them to inspire my pages.

I was so pleased with the way this page came out. I really doubt myself having any artistic ability sometimes, so it is nice to just have a play and not worry too much about things being perfect all the time!

Whatever you are doing I hope you are having a nice weekend. I am off to a craft show tomorrow which will no doubt offer me plenty of temptation!!!

Elaine

Christmas Cards 2015 - 2

This is my second Christmas card post so far this year. I wonder if I can keep up the progress?

This is quite a dull picture, bit of a problem this time of year I find!

This is an unusual card for me being quite a cute design. This is Stampendous House Mouse stamp, I had to have it though because I thought hanging carrots on the Christmas tree would really appeal to my veggie friends! I stamped the image in Onyx Black Versafine onto smooth hot pressed watercolour paper and when thoroughly dry, I added colour using my new Faber Castell Aquarelle water colour pencils. I really like these pencils, they are much easier to use that previous watercolour pencils I have tried and I was lucky enough to get my set of 60 recently for a very good price.

I die cut the image and added ink shading using Distress Ink before removing it from the die. I mounted the image onto a home made card blank, using half a sheet of A4 card cut lengthways. Although I have quite a large stock of card blacks, I mean to try and get into making my own more often. I have an unused envelope punch board too, so there is no excuse for me not finding an envelope to fit. The sentiment is from a Kaisercraft set, embossing in WOW gold powder.

Thank you for visiting and I do appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.

Elaine x

Live, Love, Laugh

I saw this Frantic Stamper die in the January sales and knew it had to be mine. I could envisage the quick cards it could help me make!

I die cut the words from black card to work out how large my base panel needed to be. I inked the 3.5 inch square in Squeezed Lemonade DI and added the sun rays with Spiced Marmalade through one of my favourite Crafters Workshop stencils. I added more of that ink around the edge and across the whole panel and finished off adding some shading with Watermelon Adirondack ink.

As I was working I spotted some tiny scraps of glitter card on my desk that I could not bear to chuck out, so I used one to cut out the little heart to insert it.

I matted the whole thing onto black and onto a white linen 6 x 6 card blank. I made two of these cards at the same time as I am hoping to build up a stock of simple quick cards for birthdays and occasions this year.

Thanks for popping by!

Elaine x

Christmas cards 2015 - 1

As I mentioned in my new year post, I have already been making Christmas cards while the festive spirit it still with me. Before Christmas I was given some A3 sheets of this fine corrugated navy blue card and I immediately thought of making cards something like this.

I used 6 x 6 card bases, added the die cut stars using a variety of colours of glitter card, added the die cut Noel in a contrasting colour, (this is a Stampin' Up die set) and finished with some 99p shop sequins.

Short and sweet, but my first 6 cards are made!

Hope you are having a good week!

Elaine x