Less Is More: Take Three Challenges

Posted on 30th March 2012 by perfectly4med

It’s been tricky to find five minutes this week to sit down and do the ‘Less Is More’ challenge card – but I managed to get it done just before the closing time this evening. The theme this week is ‘take three challenges’ and my card fulfils these three past rules:

Week 4: Three Squares
Week 20: Monogram
Week 31: Metallic

Of course, the observant will note there are four squares… I didn’t notice I’d used a square card until it was all done and put together! Hope that doesn’t count toward the total number… The monogram was an accidental discovery – I triple embossed in WOW! Metallic Silver Ultra High and stamped my signature monogram into it. I then tried to catch the raised parts with Ranger Archival Jet Black ink, but missed, so carried on. Rubbing it back has produced this fabulous gunmetal finish. And I’d forgotten how tricky it was to photograph metallic surfaces!

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 7

Posted on 27th March 2012 by perfectly4med

There… I’ve just finished catching up with my CC101 homework and done the tags for today, Day 7 – embossing powders. The first tag uses clear embossing powder over multicolour distress ink stamped images as a faux batik effect – it resists the layers of distress over the top. Second tag shows my favourite technique – faux rusted enamel. And finally using distress embossing powder as a resist – I love the matte finish.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 5

Posted on 27th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’m still catching up with my CC101 homework – today I’m publishing Day 5 on Day 7 🙂

Day 5 was all about playing with Distress Stains – the first tag showing their effects on kraft resist with distress inks over and stamped with jet black archival ink. The second builds up the colours on a wet tag with distress stains before drying off and overprinting with Picket Fence Distress Stain applied to a stamp and dried off quickly before overstamping with archival black. Finally is my attempt (the first one) at doing the distress stain marbling using the Picket Fence Distress Stain – it turned out ok, but I think I’ll have to try different colours and surfaces to get a more marbled effect.

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 4

Posted on 26th March 2012 by perfectly4med

It was Creative Chemistry 101 Day 4 – but I was a bit busy, so I’ve caught up on Day 6, and that’s only because I don’t have my hands on any Distress Markers yet! So back to Day 4, and we were exploring Distress Reinkers, using them as watercolours, sprays and for inking up custom stamp pads. The autumn leaves work really well as watercolours and the reinkers blend wonderfully. The sprays didn’t work quite so well, and there’s a bit of Perfect Pearl in there from previous mixes which might not have helped. By the way, Heidi Swapp masks are not heat proof… And finally the custom ink pad was easy to make, but I found I had to work fast to get ink on before the previous colour had oozed its way across! I stamped the image and then pulled some of the colour from the lines to fill in the white areas. All of the tags have been distressed with trusty Vintage Photo DI round the edge.

Photography – Term 2 – Final Image

Posted on 26th March 2012 by perfectly4med

Another part of my Extended Diploma in Art & Design course is a photography block. This term’s work followed the theme of ‘manmade’ and the challenge was to incorporate some of the items we’d drawn over the Christmas break into a digital studio photoshoot, followed by image manipulation in Photoshop. I chose to use a manual coffee grinder as that had been the most interesting shape to draw, and my imagination took me off on a flight of fancy – so I emptied the cutlery drawer and with a bit of jiggery-pokery, I came up with this:

If you would like your own photographic quality print of this image (without the copyright notice) then please contact me using the email button in the sidebar.

WOW! with a bit of Creative Chemistry 101

Posted on 24th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’m up early, all excited about my stint at Hobbycrafts at the NEC, Birmingham today and tomorrow on the WOW! Embossing Powders stand. They have just brought out some silicone moulds – come and see the jewellery pieces I’ve made (I’ll pop them on here next week when I have a moment). Also created last night using their new embossed resist card with inspiration from the Creative Chemistry 101 Day Five teaching on Distress Stains comes this little (8x20in) sampler for the show:

Life Drawing – more from Term 2

Posted on 22nd March 2012 by perfectly4med

That’s another block of life drawing finished! This term we’ve looked at the paintings and sculptures of Antony Gormley and used wax and ink to paint the human form. This is the second piece from Week 2 – I’ve already posted my work from Week 3 here. I’m particularly pleased with the crouching figure. Many thanks to our model for his fortitude!

This second image is the result of a four 40 minute sittings over two weeks, starting with a measured outline, then addition of oil pastels for colour using David Bomberg’s paintings as an influence. In the second session, we then broke down the oil pastel with turpentine before adding the background and working into the figure more. The figure isn’t dark enough with the addition of the background, so some of the form is lost as a result. Many thanks to our model for allowing me to share the image (and for sitting so patiently!).

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 3

Posted on 21st March 2012 by perfectly4med

It’s Creative Chemistry 101 Day Three and we’ve learnt about the properties of oil-based Archival Ink from Ranger. I only have black at the moment… which makes some of the homework a bit tricky. Tag one is the alcohol ink agate background with images stamped in Archival Ink, tag two is the Archival Resist on glossy paper (only I substituted Adirondack pigment inks, which of course are water based and not going to do the same), and tag three is the Reflections Stamping onto embossing folder – only I don’t have the Reflections stamps, but I practiced the principle! Not my best work as I’m rushing to get done in time to go set up at the NEC and got them done in 40 mins 🙂

Creative Chemistry 101 – Day 2

Posted on 20th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’ve enrolled on another course – this one is online and is a 10-day delve into the world of Ranger inks and other products lead by none other than ‘Professor’ Tim Holtz. Creative Chemistry 101 Day One introduced us to the various types of ink and their properties. Day Two was exploring distress inks, and for me was a revision of blending and spritzing, watercolour stamping and wrinkle free distress. Here’s my homework tags:

More butterflies – and the odd moth

Posted on 18th March 2012 by perfectly4med

I’ve had a creative day today – and this is one of the results. I’ve used the new Attic Treasures stamp from Tim Holtz, masking tape, Promarkers and a Letrajet attachment, a bit of Letraset metallic tape and a few stick on pearls. I’ve kept it clean and simple to enter the ‘Less is More’ masking challenge this week, and the colour scheme fits the ‘Passion for Promarkers’ yellow and pearls challenge. Oh, and me being me, I looked up each of the winged things on the interweb to find out what colours they should be…