New Blooms

Ever since Tam published this week’s Life Book 2013 Lesson from Christy Tomlinson, every spare minute I’ve had has been devoted to getting messy playing with the new techniques Christy taught us.

Along the way I had some leftover paint which I used with a flower stencil to create an image. I scanned this together with the sheet I prepared for making the flowers in the main project, then blended them. It’ll make a good background for something one day!

Finally – the finished product! I had so much fun! I started by creating a mixed media collage background using newspaper, old magazine inserts, bits of old envelopes, washi tape, white acrylic paint, inks, stamps and marker pen for the words. Then came the fun part of making the flowers. You’ll have to do the course if you want to know how, but I used kitchen roll, tissue paper, very runny acrylic paint, stencils, stamps, kitchen foil and lots of gel medium. I had to adapt some of the ingredients as I didn’t have everything on Christie’s list! It was great fun, and very messy! – Thank You, Christie!

I’ve really been missing drawing this year, so today I drew the Pink Lady! I wasn’t going to colour her at all, but then I had an accident over her right eye with my white marker. So she now has blue eyes! Not a bad cover up job!

Getting Messy!

Once again I’m playing catch-up! I’ve been having so much fun getting messy, I just haven’t had the time to post the images!

On Friday I played with some embossed flowers, trying to colour them using a couple of ink pads. It didn’t work quite as I planned. Instead of nice clean colour on the raised areas, I ended up with a very dirty, grungy looking image (and a very dirty grungy me, covered in ink!). Not being one to let these things deter me, I stuck the image to a page in my notebook and created a grunge border round it using acrylic paint and an old credit card (getting covered in paint this time!). I think it looks alright now. What do you think?

Yesterday I finally got around to completing this week’s Life Book Lesson from Monica Zuniga. I was a bit apprehensive when I watched the video, but once I got started I had so much fun (I got covered in paint and glue with this one!)! I started by creating a painted background, but once I created my doll and put her on it she disappeared, so I decided to use a plain black background. I created the doll using a collage of a mixture of stamped and embossed images, with the exception of the face which I scanned from a magazine and altered digitally, then coloured her using watercolour pencils. I’m really pleased with the way she turned out. Do you like her?

Today I thought I’d play digital and mess free! I started with a photograph of sand patterns I took last week, then added a scan of an acrylic paint background I made a while ago and blended them together.

I really love how the colours draw you into the image.

Catching Up!

I’m playing catch up today – it’s been a really busy week!

On Tuesday, I created a couple of backgrounds using a mixture of acrylic paint and ink. I scanned them both into the computer then added a photograph of some flowers and blended them to create this image.

On Wednesday I followed a video from Doll Dreams teaching us how to draw these cool doll birds! I tried it out in my everyday notebook using a uniball eye pen, then did the doodle later using my rapidograph pen while I was on the telephone! I didn’t plan for them to go together, but I think they do anyway! Do you agree?

Today I had fun playing with all sorts. I started by colouring the page with neocolour crayons, then collaged an embossed sheet which I had coloured with distress ink and the stamped image of the globe which I cut out. Next I added the text which I printed on the computer and coloured using a watercolour pencil and a gold marker pen. Finally, after scanning, I added a bit of digital shading and distressing. I really like how it turned out. What do you think?

Celebration Journey!

I have finally finished part two of Life Book Week 1! I had so much fun creating this – thank you Tam for such a great lesson! I chose an aeroplane as my mode of travel as I have have only just got my passport and have never yet flown. I intend to take my first flight in 2013!

I created my background using watercolour paint and rock salt, then added a collage of the plane, which I coloured using neocolour crayons, combined with a picture of me. I created the flowers using circles punched from old magazines then added the details using a uniball eye pen and watercolour pencils. Having already stuck the plane to the page, I then decided I wanted some buildings behind it! Nothing like planning for getting things in the right order! I photocopied a book drew the buildings using the uniball eye pen, then coloured them using watercolour pencils. Then I had to cut them to fit round the plane! Next came the clouds, using the uniball pen and white gesso, and the sun using the uniball pen, yellow acrylic and neocolour crayons. Lastly I added the text digitally after scanning.

Phew! All done just in time to start Week 2. Roll it on!

Scary Stuff!

Yesterday I got the fright of my life. I was totally absorbed in capturing this shot when a dog barked right behind me. What made it worse was that I was precariously perched on the edge of the cliff path, and I suffer from a fear of heights! This was the result.

Not being one to waste anything, I set about playing blending games with this image.

What do you think?

Rose Blend

I’ve decided to try and take a photo every day this year to improve my photography. Yesterday I took a photo of my Christmas roses, but you know me … I can’t help but play blending games with my photos!

I just love the way it turned out! What do you think? You can see all of the originals here.

Happy Christmas!

Ink Blots and Stars

I treated myself to a set of drawing inks a while ago and created this background with them.

I played around with it a bit to give it a bit more depth and have used it a few times already, including on the inside cover of my new notebook.

But you know me – never miss a chance to do a bit of blending, so when I made this star image on my iPad, I thought I’d just have a go and see what happened.

I added it to the ink blots, did a lot of copying and blending …

… and ended up with this! What do you think?

Playing Digital!

Today I felt like having a digital day. I started with an image of a feather and turned it into a digital brush. Then I played with brush settings, altering its spacing, randomising it, and flipping its axes. I put each new variation on a new layer then added coloured layers and blending into the mix. Finally I topped all the layers off with a leaf print image taken from my stash of images created in September. Then I played with some serious blending!

This is my favourite of the resulting images, but they all looked so nice that I thought I’d try something different. I created a window containing bits of all of them.

Do you like it?

Painty Tissue!

Today I created a batch of coloured backgrounds in different colours using inktense pencils and neocolour crayons. I often do this when I can’t think what to do as I find it generally sets me off on a new creative path. Today was no exception! During the background process I ended up with several very painty tissues, but one in particular caught my eye.

I carefully separated the three layers of tissue then tore and arranged them before glueing them to the background with a healthy dose of gel medium. When it was all dry I scanned the image into the computer, added the quotation and chose some digital brushes to frame the words.