It was time for a bedroom refresh… The turquoise feature wall (read chimney breast) needed updating due to a change in bed linens and their warm grey no longer complemented the blue-green paint tones. I was given free rein to choose a replacement bedspread and create a new art piece above the bed. That didn’t quite work out (see below), so this was the final(ish) outcome:
If you recall, I recently was asked to help design posters to be displayed in the toilets at my church. They are particularly prominently placed front and centre for the urinals, hence me dubbing them the pee pulpit. My first is shown here. Since then I have moved to digital creation, mainly for speed, but also for a little more impact. Herewith a gallery of the last few months of posters…
Today’s Art Journaling Session at the Studio revisited working on aluminium foil. Last time, we used thinned acrylic paints to cover the foil with multilayer colour. This time, we played with alcohol inks. The inks are designed to stick to shiny surfaces and really pop against the reflective metallic background. There are various ways to add depth and texture, take ink off and add other inks on to make a very shiny and interesting collaged background for a suitable saying. I’ve included making notes below, along with a video of the techniques.
I’ve been playing with more dry embossing for Day 2 of the Online Card Class; Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For these cards, I have used inks in different ways with the folders, playing with contrast and the debossed and embossed sides. There was also a technique using shadow word dies, but I don’t have any of those. Instead, I created the same effect with my Silhouette Cameo and laser cutter using cardstock and an offset set of text:
In the first of a series of posts, I am going to update you on what I have been doing during my blog’s radio silence… Several groups have been postponed for various reasons, so I have not posted about them, and I have spent the time on a number of projects. This week has been a new Online Card Class; Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For five days there were two videos per day with techniques to expand your use of embossing folders. It’s been a while since I did any card making, so it was good to do some today based on the first day of class:
Next week’s Art Journal Session at The Studio will still take place on Monday (6th May) at 7:30pm, despite it being a bank holiday. We’ll learn about PanPastels and use them with rubber stamps to create our spreads. There’s no online tutorial this month as capturing the techniques is tricky as a step-by-step (and I didn’t have a chance to do a video), so you’ll have to book in and come and try for yourself! Here’s my sample page:
This evening’s session was all sparkly with gold leaf dust! We spent our time working on a colour theme of pink, turquoise and gold, throwing in some dry embossing and distress oxides along the way. The main focus was on techniques for layering acrylic paint to build a background and the incorporation of imitation gold leaf for a very shiny bit of bling:
Well, this evening’s Bible Journaling Session was due to take its inspiration from some Old Testament verses. Unfortunately, not enough people could attend today and the session has been postponed to Monday, 8th April. For those unfamiliar with Bible Journaling, using the provided templates and examples participants trace and colour into their own wide-margin Bibles, reflecting on the verse as they do so. There’s also a lot of space for chat, catching up and not forgetting a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate. The sessions are monthly, cost £5, and are suitable for artists and non-artists alike. More details are on my workshops page or by getting in touch with me. This month’s choice of illustrations are pictured below, and the templates are available as a free download from my online shop.
As I post, we’re having fun with thermoplastic memory foam here at The Studio. I have some heat mouldable foam blocks that once warmed with a heat tool and then pressed onto a textured surface will retain the texture once cool until they’re reheated. Using water-based inks, you can use the stamps to print a background in your art journal before a quick wipe clean and repeat the process with a new texture. I’ve got out all my pre-printed die-cut ephemera for a bit of decoration and came up with this sample layout to inspire attendees at the monthly art journal session:
Recently, I was donated now unused COVID screens from an office. They are 5mm clear acrylic sheets and are pretty much unscathed from a couple of year’s of use. I returned the favour by making the company a lot of custom engraved acrylic coasters, and started looking round for more things to do with the acrylic. Working with an inspiration pic sent to me, I came up with this project for four different ‘stained glass’ acrylic crosses:
