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.

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!

Thank You!

I knew it was a mistake mentioning how well I was doing with my faces yesterday – I’m now officially running late! But I did finish this piece for the second lesson in Carolyn Dube’s Use Your Words workshop. This workshop is just so much fun!

I used my home made stencils combined with Twinkling H2O’s to create the word ‘Thank’ then used some plastic stationery stencils to create ‘you and for’. I hand wrote my thank you list using a uniball eye pen. Carolyn’s supply list called for Dylusion spray inks for the next stage which I didn’t have, so I made my own using drawing inks in my ranger mini misters! I think they worked quite well.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll manage to catch up with my faces. Watch this space!

Finally finished!

Yes! – I have finally finished my game board for last weeks Life Book lesson from Kelly Hoernig.

I ran out of space on my board to glue my car, so I attached it to a hinge so that it could be flipped to see the board underneath.

I may add some flowers to the roadside later – I can’t decide at the moment!

Meanwhile the ingredients list! I used collage, white gesso, acrylic paint, Artist Cellar stencils, a home made mask, some ribbon, a button, a little jute, a uniball eye pen, some digital text, most of a cotton bud, plus some ink and hot glue.

I really enjoyed making this – thank you Kelly for a great lesson.

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!

Expansion!

Do you remember the new stencils I got just before Christmas? I found a small tub of Light Moulding Paste and decided to see how it worked with the stencils.

I applied the moulding paste through the stencil then painted it with metallic acrylic paint when it was dry. I just love the texture that resulted! I’ll definitely be asking for a big tub of moulding paste for my birthday later in the month 🙂

After scanning the image, I thought it would make a great background for my word of the year for 2013 – Expansion. I didn’t get round to choosing a word for last year with all the upheaval of travelling, but it’s something I do like to do. Have you chosen a word for your New Year?