More Quirky Birds!

Carrying on with this week’s Life Book 2013 lesson from Tamara, I got a bit carried away with drawing quirky birds. I drew four instead of two! – oops!!!

These are painted on the back of the other four and the whole image folds up like a concertina. Like the others, I created the background using spray inks and stencils, followed by neocolour crayons and acrylic paint and stencils. When it was all dry I covered it in clear gesso then drew the birds using pencil and coloured them using a mixture of acrylic paint, neocolour crayons, Edding 780 paint marker and unipin fine line pens.

I completely missed out the journalling part of the lesson!! I may add it later, or I may just skip it, I haven’t decided yet. I’ll let you know when I decide… keep watching this space!

Quirky Birds!

In this week’s Life Book 2013 lesson from Tamara she taught us how to draw these quirky birds. They were so much fun!

I created the background using spray inks and stencils, followed by neocolour crayons and acrylic paint and stencils. When it was all dry I covered it in clear gesso. I drew the birds using pencil, then coloured them using a mixture of acrylic paint, neocolour crayons, Edding 780 paint marker and unipin fine line pens.

I haven’t finished the lesson yet, so I’ll post some more pictures when I’m done.

Gratitude!

Still playing catch up with Life Book 2013 classes, today I finished this piece for Tam’s week 10 lesson.

I decided to add my own twist to the lesson by folding my paper in half and cutting a heart shape in the front half to make a heart door. After cutting the door, I started the background using acrylic paint, then added a collage of printed tissue paper, washi tape, and paper ribbon. Next I used Caran d’Ache neocolour crayons and stamping with a staz-on ink pad to add more colour, then finished the front using die cut letters. Once it was all dry, I taped in the ribbon ties and stuck the two halves together.

On the inside, I covered the back of the door with torn tissue paper and gel medium, then set to work making the mini scrolls for the centre from a mixture of torn magazine pages and digital design prints, decorating some of them with stamping. I filled the heart shape with gel medium, and arranged the scrolls on top. Lastly, I made the ‘Gratitude” banner by sticking some die cut letters on a scrap of digital design paper.

I had great fun with this lesson – thank you so much Tam!

Monster Pop-Up!

I have always loved pop-up cards so this Life Book lesson from Mitsi B really appealed to me, and I loved every bit of the process of making it.

I started by journalling over both sides of the paper using a water soluble graphite stick, then activated it to stop it bleeding. I added big blocks of colour using acrylic paint, then splattered and dripped a bit over it all.

Next I made the pop-ups for the inside of the card. Owing to my inability to listen to/read instructions, my card is slightly smaller than instructed so I had to modify the rainbow pop-up to make it fit! I painted the shapes using acrylic paint, stuck them in and added more journalling using calligraphy pens from Asda and an Edding 780 paint marker to outline the letters.

Finally I painted my monster on the front cover using acrylic paint. Don’t you think she’s lovely? I think this has been one of my most favourite lessons so far this year. Thank you so much Michelle!

Connections!

I’ve got a bit behind with the Life Book 2013 Classes, so I was quite pleased when I managed to finish Mindy Lacefield’s lesson today. I had great fun with it, but was a little unsure of how the whimsies would turn out using Mindy’s draw in paint technique!

I started out by writing 7 quotations about connections on the right hand page, then used various stencils with homemade ink sprays to create a background and partially hide the journalling. Next I used various stamps with distress ink pads to add some more detail to the background and did some acrylic finger painting. Lastly, I painted the whimsies with acrylic paint and used a pilot gold marker to add belts to their skirts.

This is my first ever attempt at drawing people using paint, pretty scary, but I’m quite pleased with the result!

Playing with Stencils

Since finishing my postcards, I have been busy playing with the new stencils I got last weekend. I always start my playing in my everyday notebook/journal, which is not quite big enough for the whole stencil.

I had a tiny bit of Light Molding Paste left in my pot so I thought I’d try it out with this Creative Expressions stencil. When it was dry, I painted it with acrylic paint, then added some green Perfect Pearls using a Versamark ink pad. Just to finish it off I added a shadow to the circles with a Unipin fine line pen. The scan really doesn’t show the lovely sparkly finish of the perfect pearls.

As I’d run out of texture paste, I thought I’d try creating a texture using some black gesso with this TCW stencil. At first I thought it had worked, but when it dried, it went rather flat! So I decided to add some colour to it using acrylic paint. I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out.

This last image is a digital blend of two scans of earlier acrylic paint prints using the two stencils above. I just love how many different effects it’s possible to get using stencils!

Handmade Postcards

Last Sunday we travelled to Harrogate and visited the Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza – great fun! I got some really cool stencils, stamps and dies which I have been playing with this week.

On Monday I signed up to take part in the iHannah’s DIY Postcard Swap 2013. (There’s still time to sign up if you’re interested, you just have to pledge to post 10 handmade cards by 30th March.) So I have been busy this week making my ten cards for the swap.

I started by creating a set of coloured backgrounds using Inktense Watercolour pencils. Next I added a contrasting colour using Acrylic paint and an Artist Cellar Stencil followed by a stamped image from IndigoBlu using a mixture of distress ink and staz-on ink pads. I followed this with a layer of gel medium to seal everything and to stick on the word definition tags, which I created using more stamps from IndigoBlu and a Creative Expressions stencil, and the die cut letters from memory box. Lastly I added another layer using the same stencil with acrylic paint.

I created the backs of the postcards using a free postcard backside from iHannah which I had to resize to fit my postcards, then added a digital stamp which I made using a scan of another Creative Expressions stencil, some hand drawn bird shapes and a quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche.

The completed postcards are now sitting waiting for their recipients addresses to be added!

60 Goals!

I just read this post from Samie (Journal Girl) and (having just passed a major milestone) was inspired to create a similar piece for myself. Only trouble is – I have more than double the goals to create. But I did it!!

I had great fun! I started off with a gesso base, then added a wash of acrylic colour. I created the text using a mixture of Stencils with acrylic paint and computer generated text washed with Twinkling H2O’s. Next came a border using stencils and Twinkling H2O’s. I added my 60 goals using a Unipin fine line pen. Lastly, I splattered a bit more colour with some paintbrush flicking and collaged some die cut flowers and leaves coloured with Twinkling H2O’s.

I’ve blurred out my goals for now, but will reveal them in a years time when I review them to see how many I’ve achieved!

Faces and Letters!

Today I have been getting really messy! In addition to creating my face for 29 faces, I’ve been playing with letter stencils.

I created today’s face using pencil, watercolour pencils and acrylic paint. She still doesn’t look entirely like the one I was copying, but I’m getting better!

I signed up for this free workshop, Use Your Words, from Carolyn Dube the other day and have been having fun playing with letter stencils for the first lesson.

I started off with a collage of torn newspaper which I covered with a few layers of acrylic paint. Then I started playing with stencils! As I didn’t have the letter stencils Carolyn recommended, I made my own by removing a set of chipboard letters from their holding sheet, then using the sheet as a stencil. I used the whole alphabet and numbers to create the first layer, then made the word ‘creative’ over the top in a darker colour. I finished off using an Artist Cellar stencil to create a bit of interest at the bottom of the page.

I quite like how it looks right now, but I have a feeling I may be adding some more to it later!

Celebration of Light

I’ve been a bit caught up in the mechanics of website maintenance for the last few days and have been neglecting my mess-making creativity! Thank goodness for the Monday Life Book lesson from Dion Dior this week – it was just what I needed to get back into mess making again!

Starting with a piece of black paper, I drew a handprint and mini mandala using a white watercolour pencil, then shaded between two using an assortment of dry white media which included a neocolour crayon, a soft pastel and a jelly roll pen. It was great fun and I think I’ll be playing with this concept some more over the next few days!

Just to add a bit of colour to the post, I had to show you this.

It happened when I was preparing this image for uploading yesterday. I accidentally pressed a few extra buttons … well maybe I did mean to press them … but it looks rather pretty, don’t you think?