Self Healing Art course - week 1

I've completed my first assignment for the Art, Heart and Healing course that I blogged about here.  (The name of the course has changed from 'The Heart of Art' to 'Art, Heart and Healing').

I'm feeling very pleased with myself as for a first attempt I like it!  I didn't have the correct flesh colour tones water soluble crayons, but did buy a few watercolour pencils from Hobbycraft this week and couldn't wait to start! 

  

Here's the complete page which unfortunately is very buckled under the weight of the various layers - I bought a sketch book with cartridge paper pages which looked and felt quite thick and sturdy, but they buckled none-the-less!

I enjoyed drawing and painting the eyes the best - I've always liked doodling eyes, although just one so it was a challenge trying to get two the same!  I've never drawn a nose before so that was the hardest thing.  I was pleased with the mouth, although the colour could have been better.

The most difficult thing was the shading on the face, and that is one of the most important things really.  I only had a few colours of watercolour pencil to work with and the shading does leave a lot to be desired (what's that about a workman blaming his tools - lol!)  I am going to invest in some water soluble crayons in flesh tones (when I find out where to get them!) so hopefully (and with a lot of practice) my technique will improve.

The background was fun to do - scribbling with crayons, brayering with acrylic paint, rubber stamping, more paint, more stamping.  My background has turned out quite pastel and on reflection it could have done with something else - or bigger font for the words, but it is all a learning curve.

Here's a couple of close ups of the background

I'm looking forward to part two of the course now and if you want to join in too, you can at any time until the course ends (in 3 weeks).  The video tutorials for week one will stay on the site until at least the end of the course.

  I must again say a huge thank you to Tam who is such a generous spirit offering this course completely free of charge.

Finally, am I self healed as a result of this excercise?  Well, let's just say I'm getting there!

Thanks for looking xx

Metal Flowers Birthday Card

This one is for my husband whose birthday is next week.  Although it has flowers on, they're made from thin metal (Ten Seconds Studio) so it's made them into masculine flowers - LOL.  He's a keen gardener (when he's not at work, or glued to the computer spending his hard earned dosh on ebay - still as I always tell him you earn it, I burn it oops, you burn it!) so I know he'll appreciate it.

I used the flowers and leaves stamps from this PaperArtsy set (HP1004)

Using Timber Brown StazOn ink (because my black had all dried up!) I rubber stamped the two flower shapes onto metal and once dry snipped between the petals and manipulated them to look a bit like flowers.  I say a bit because I was quite pleased with them until I looked at the sample I had from LB Crafts which has an amazing flower on - still, for a first attempt I'm still quite pleased.  I glued metal buttons in the centre and added a few sprinkly bits.

The leaves I stamped onto book text and spritzed with a mica spray - it doesn't show up in the photograph.

For the background, as you can see I used an old book page - it was so old that I only had to distress two sides of it and it's naturally brown with age around the edges.  I used it for the background as the fact that I tear pages out of perfectly good books is always a source of great consternation to John - heheheh, I'm such a tease!!

Here's a close up of the flowers

The colour hasn't come out right, but you get the idea.

Thanks for looking - I'm off to tear out some more pages now, before John gets in from work!

Compendium of Curiosities - Challenge No. 18 - Dabber Resist

'Dabber Resist' is the current challenge set by Linda over on her blog Studio L3 relating to page 37 of Tim Holtz book 'A Compendium of Curiosities'.  I made a birthday card using the technique with two Distress Ink colours - Vintage Photo and Old Paper and Snow Cap paint dabber.  (I outlined some of the circles with black Stickles and the number 40 is a wooden bingo disc also outlined with Stickles)

 Although the technique calls for a rubber stamp to be used, I wanted the card to match a tin box I altered with metal embossing, so I dabbed paint onto the embossing folder and used that as a stamp instead.  It worked really well giving a good impression, although I had to make sure I washed all the paint off the folder thoroughly.

Here's what the box looked like before I altered it - with the three foam initials I put on the lid.

I cut rectangles of metal (from Ten Second Studio) for the top and sides, run it through the embossing folder ('Retro Circles' from Sizzix Alterations range) and lightly sanded the surface.

I encased the foam letters between sticky tape and a smaller rectangle of metal and burnished around them.  I rubbed black acrylic paint over them and once dry, again lightly sanded all over.

It's filled with the birthday boy's favourite sweets, so even if he doesn't like the tin all is not lost!

What's On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

Why am I asking what's on your workdesk?  If you don't know already, hop along to Julia's blog Stamping Ground where she invites bloggers to share what's on their workdesks - and we all like to be nosey don't we!  Well, I do anyway - lol.

Yesterday I received a lovely packet of crafty goodies which I won as blog candy from Cath on her blog Notes from a Divided Island.  Here's a more close up photo.

There are some lovely fibres, lace, game pieces, dictionary pages, word charms, envelopes and even a little acrylic stamp of the map of Cyprus where Cath lives.  I also love the two vintage style tins - one for Christmas and the other for Halloween containing stickers, and not forgetting two lovely glass magic eye (I think that's what they're called) beads.  Thank you again Cath!  I would never have seen Cath's blog if it hadn't been for WOYWW, so thanks go to Julia too!

I received another packet yesterday too containing this lovely post it note holder from Viv - this was for a swap on the Art 'n' Soul Flickr group I belong to.  In the first photo above you can see it open, but here it is closed in all it's majestic glory - isn't it gorgeous!

On the first photo at the top you may be able to see (on the extreme right hand side) a paper with a girl's face on - don't laugh!  This was my first attempt at a journal page which had to incorporate a portrait representing me.  I couldn't finish it as I didn't have the right flesh tone coloured water coloured crayons (does anyone know where to get them in the UK - I tried a few places today without any luck).  The journal page was part of a free 'self healing' art course I've joined called The 'Heart of Art' and if you're interested in joining there's more about it on my earlier post here.

This is turning out to be a post of thanks - 2 more to go -

Thank you Elizabeth (of Bleubeard and Elizabeth fame!) for featuring me on your blog Altered Book Lover.  I've never been featured on anything before so I'm feeling all special now - lol.  Seriously though, thanks!

Finally, thanks to all those of you who last week commented and suggested ways of helping me when I had trouble with uploading my photos onto Blogger.  Although I'm still experiencing the same difficulty, I have now ensured that all my privacy settings are ok on the Picasa site, so that's some peace of mind at least.  I see that Blogger will be doing some maintenance this evening disabling photo uploads for two hours - it will be interesting to see what happens after that!

Sorry this has become a very long post, if you're still here - thanks for visiting and if you leave me a comment, I'll definitely be along to visit you too!  

Stampotique Challenge: Treat Container

The current challenge on the Stampotique Designer Challenge Blog is to make some kind of container suitable for Halloween trick or treating.  I made two little bags.

Although it wasn't a requirement this time to use Stampotique stamps, I did use two as the images are rather creepy - in a lovable sort of way and so fitted the Halloween theme!



Moth Fab



Prom Queen

I stamped the images onto white cotton then used Distress Inks as watercolours. (Swiped the ink pad over my craft mat and picked it up with a water brush and painted around the images). I really like the effect and intensity of colour. If I'd taken a bit more care the colour wouldn't have bleed into the faces - still, I'll know for another time.

I sewed the images onto some black and white gingham fabric, then onto some scrim fabric.  I made a basic bag for each image. The handles match the lining - ideally the handles would have been wider, but I was using scraps of fabric from my stash and didn't have enough.

A couple of pumpkin buttons are sewn onto the base of the handles, and that's it, they're ready to be filled with Halloween treats!

If you hop on over to the Stampotique blog, there are some wonderful treat containers displayed on there.

Thanks for looking!