It’s another WOW! Embossing Powder Challenge, and my design team post this month takes their ‘Art Nouveau/Art Deco’ theme as its inspiration. I studied the period and art for a time whilst at college, and I loved the classic whiplash shape, the stylised botanicals and especially the stained glass. Here is my homage, using self-adhesive lead and embossing powder as my only materials (other than the 6×6″ deep frame…). More making instructions over at my post.
I spent a day with the fabulous Brit once again, learning how to paint with Powertex. Here are the results of a few hours work. Workshops are destined to follow fairly soon as these techniques are fast and great effects easily achieved:
Both techniques concentrate on building layers and texture, with pigment powder highlights. The figures and stones are made from Stone Art/Powertex clay. With practice I think my figures will be a little more uniform – I was going for the slightly more abstract elongated appearance, honest! Sizes – ‘African scene’ – 40x50cm, ‘Stones’ – 40x40cm.
Though everything was a month late at the allotment this year, I did actually have blossom on the fruit trees, unlike last year, and some fruit has set. Unfortunately, the cherry tree is still having problems and I have just one cherry ripening. Not so on this card for The Crafting Cafe, featuring LEJ Designs ‘Blossom’ digistamp:
For more details on how I made the card, check out my post over at The Crafting Cafe.
As I type, my head is pounding, my ears are popping, and the light-sensitive lights are on and it’s only 11:25am. Something to do with the English heatwave breaking down – there’s thunder and lightning and I love it!
Another challenge stimulated a spurt of creativity this morning – it’s another for the ‘Less is More’ blog, and this week it’s ‘hand made flowers’. This card features my handcrafted clematis flower, using the Leone-em bumble bee paper punch to create the petals and an ash leaf punch for the leaves, shaped with an embossing tool pressing into funky foam. The centre is a sun punch, with a smidge of Aubergine ProMarker underneath to darken the centre and similarly shaped. A quick mount on Bazzill pre-embossed cardstock, and a strip of thick white card with the sentiment from WOW! Everday Sentiments clear stamp set embossed with WOW! Metallic Silver embossing powder.
I’m in the process of planning a ‘Papercrafted Flowers’ workshop at my studio in Leicester – if you’re interested, let me know below and I’ll keep you informed 🙂
It’s been quite a while since I had chance to enter any web challenges, and since planning workshops is going fairly well, I decided to use time today to put that right. I’ve got out my ProMarkers again, and created two cards:
The first is for the ‘Less is More’ one layer challenge this week, which requires that I use a ‘not square or rectangular’ card. I used string theory to draw out an ellipse template and transferred this to a card made from my favourite white coated cardstock (from Rymans) before stamping the image [docrafts] using Memento Tuxedo Black. I coloured the bears with Blush, Saffron, Ginger and Cinnamon, with Meadow Green/Apple and Pastel Pink/Salmon Pink for the roses.
The second is for the ‘Passion for ProMarkers’ weekly challenge, which this time set the task of ‘set the scene’. I stamped the background image [Hobby Art – Countryside Scene] in Archival Jet Black onto watercolour paper before using AquaMarkers in Frost Blue/Perwinkle, Celery/Spring Green/Fern Green and Viridian with Granite and a waterbrush pen to colour. The picnic blanket was drawn freehand and coloured with ProMarkers – Warm Greys 1-4 over Lipstick Red. The girl is a stamp from Bild Malarna ‘Mimosa – Wonderful Day’ and complements the scene beautifully – she is stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black and coloured with ProMarkers: Pastel Yellow/ Sunflower/Gold and Caramel and Lavender/Orchid/Amethyst and skin tones blending Blush/Oatmeal and Apricot.
I’ve posted details of my next workshop over on the Workshops page. It’s another of my (soon to be weekly) Tuesday Craft Evening/Stashbuster Clinics for the grand total of just £5, with refreshments and reasonable use of equipment and materials included. It’s an informal evening where you can bring an unfinished object and work in the studio with other crafters, or bring along kit that you would like ideas/instructions on how to use.
This is for Tuesday, 30th July, 7:30-10pm – full details on the workshops page.
Here are two examples of my ‘bottle cap memories’ mixed media frame that you will be able to create in my new workshop on Saturday 7th September, 10am-3pm at my studio. Booking is available online via the workshops link, or email me if you’d like more information.
It’s ‘Summer & Sunshine’ over at the WOW! Embossing Powder blog, and the challenge is up and running. My take on the theme is to create this summer garden inspired by the view from my studio. It’s completely coloured with embossing powders. For the full details, see my post here.
It’s my last official day as a student (though my student ID card is still valid for another month… what can I find with a discount on? 😉 ), and I’ve popped down to the studio to do a bit of creative work before some of the tutors and my class mates come round this evening for an end of course party. These cards are part of my colour development work – I used Photoshop to create an inverted (negative) version of the distress ink colour palette and then colour matched the results to the inks. This way, I was able to quickly find the complementary colour for each ink, that being the colour opposite on the colour wheel. Frayed Burlap complements Weathered Wood, and Bundled Sage complements Dusty Concord. I added even more yin and yang with the Retro Circles texture fade folder.
