I last entered a ProMarker challenge in July 2013 and thought it was high time I had another go. This afternoon I coloured in a wooden stamp that predates even my last challenge attempt – it’s from 2011. This week’s challenge at Passion for ProMarkers is ‘sparkle and shine’. I’ve used ProMarkers to colour the image and added sparkle with Stickles and a wee bit of shine on the nose with Glossy Accents.
Continue reading On a recent trip to Co. Antrim (Northern Ireland), I visited the Dark Hedges. Now made famous by ‘Game of Thrones’ using it as the King’s Road, Dark Hedges is an avenue of ancient beech trees. As a memento of the visit, I’ve created this layered shadowbox using a photo I took. The card is 300gsm to maintain the stiffness of each layer, particularly of the branches which are too slim for glue/foam pads.
I cheated a little by duplicating a couple of the trees, tweaking their branches rather than creating five trees from scratch. I think with the intermingling of the branches, there is sufficient distraction for me to get away with it 🙂
I found it tricky to get the depth of field and wonder if the left-hand side needs a third tree. Overall, the 3D effect seems to be effective – which is just as well as it took ages to achieve! There are seven layers front to back, with the road slanted front to back to emphasise the depth of field.
Here are some more Bible journaling pages I’ve recently completed. Continue reading for the button to press if you would like to download the outlines for your own use – it’s free!
I made this quilt back in June and was due to teach it this weekend. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough people signed up for the workshop and the session has been cancelled. This frees me up to share the quilt, and more importantly, the pattern!
It is my own design and pattern. If you’d like to buy a copy (£5), click the button below. You will be shown a download link on completion of the order. The link will also be emailed to you with your invoice – if you don’t receive it, please check your spam folder. The file format is a PDF.
By clicking on the download button, you acknowledge that once you have paid you are not entitled to cancel the order or receive a refund (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 – digital downloads). Continue reading
A little while ago, I managed to get hold of some empty cigar boxes. One caught my eye, a wooden one, and a quick spray of white paint later, it was ready for a makeover. All I need to do now is find a place to put it (or a buyer!).
It’s been a long time since I regularly made greetings cards, back in the heady days of peel offs and basic rubber stamping. My style and media choices have changed significantly since, and last night I had a few moments to have a play during my Come & Craft Session: mixed media collage cards.
Next month’s Bible Journaling Session has the theme ‘a bit of bling’. There are some verses and illustrations that just scream out for some sparkle. A quick search using biblegateway.com came up with this gem: the only verse in the NIV translation that has the word ‘sparkle’ in it.
Next month’s art journal session is all about layers. There will be an unofficial ‘challenge’ to see who has the most layers on their page by the time the session finishes. I think my example had upwards of 20 by the time I had finished. The layers include acrylic paints which were stamped, stencilled and monoprinted using textured wallpapers. Over that were stamped archival inks before the title was stamped and matted onto the page.
It’s a bit of a melange, but I guess that’s the point of the exercise. I wondered after if keeping to a complementary colour palette may have worked as well – perhaps something to play with during the session next month. Spaces are available if you’d like to get inky and paint-splattered!
I’ve been playing around with some 15cm square mounted glass plates I had lying around the studio. I found some 3mm self-adhesive lead strip and used a template to stick it down. Rather than soldering the joins, I overlapped them and made sure they were well burnished. Then it was a matter of using some alcohol inks on the reverse of the glass to give the colour/’stained’ glass effect. I used isopropanol/rubbing alcohol to remove the alcohol ink from areas I didn’t want it.
Top tip: when cleaning fingerprints off with alcohol, remember not to wipe the reverse of the glass or some of your stain will rub off too…
The contemporary cross panel is available to purchase here.
It’s just about time for the leaves to fall… the weather is distinctly autumnal (read wet!) and the leaves are turning. This art journal spread started off with a Distress Stain Spray background that I hadn’t used up to now. Next, stamp some fallen leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampendous CMS097) in jet black archival ink. Fill in around them with black acrylic ink. They didn’t particularly look 3D until I added some shading with Black Soot Distress ink. I’m not entirely happy with the quote placement. I can always paint it out if it aggravates me next time I look at it!
