I don’t venture this far into Mixed Media normally but I needed to break away from the madness of Christmas Card Making (yes, it has begun). There’s nothing like getting almost all your crafty stash out on your desk in order to choose bits and bobs to team together so you can make a bit of Mixed Art, to stop you from becoming stir crazy when trying to produce many greetings cards which are all different, but on the same ‘theme’.
I began with a plain tag. The tag itself is quite a large-sized plain Kraft tag, from a book of Tags made by Craftwork Cards – which I bought quite some time ago, and am just coming to the end of the book.
To begin with I applied Gesso all over the tag, followed by; crackle medium; paint; some gauze; and once dry, I added a variety of doodads, trinkets, baubles, etc, in wood, metal, plastic and added a variety of sizes, shapes, and colours of pearls and glass beads.
I then used Brusho’s Crystal Powders (which I’ve talked about before on the blog here so won’t bore you to death banging on about how brilliant they are) to add colour and give the tag added depth.
The ‘Live Your Dreams’ message looks like a printed bit of paper in the photos, but in fact it’s actually an acrylic cabochon, which has a ‘diamond cut’ effect. I managed to take a close up with the flash on and I think you can see it a little better here….
…. all those white diamond lines are the ‘cuts’ of the cabochon.
I know the finished tag looks like it would be really thick and very weighty, .. but it’s actually not. Take a look …
I don’t often wander into Mixed Media Art, simply because I have no idea what to do with the art after it’s all finished! Although I love to play and make it … it doesn’t really ‘suit’ my wee cottage . . . so I have no idea what I’m going to do with whatever I’ve made, and … there are only so many bits of stuff that I can pass onto family before they begin to groan at the words: “I’ve made this thing … and I wondered . . .”.
So … I have another bit of artwork to add to the box labelled: ‘Pop it in here for Now’.
Anyhoo . . . HAPPY MONDAY! Thank you so much for coming for a visit. 🤗 Monday hugs to you. …. and … a joke: What do you call a tick that lives on the moon? A lunatic. Think about it … think some more … THERE Y’ GO! (I heard the penny drop from here!!)
I hope you have a truly great start to your week. May the rain (if you get any) be soft on your skin. May the sun warm up your world in such a way that it makes your mood bright. And may you find plenty of places to discover joy, love, kindness and gentle words.
Be nice to each other. It makes the world a far happier place to live in.
Have you ever wondered where Fairies get their Fairy Dust from? Well wonder no more dear reader, for I think I’ve found out. But more about that in a moment . . .
I need to share with you something which I discovered last month in Aldi.
The photo above shows a large, A3 size, pad of 40 sheets of Watercolour Paper, of 100gsm, which I found in Aldi last month. (July 2017). When I spotted it and had a feel of the paper I have to admit that I wasn’t overly impressed in any great way. I’m too used to my usual thicker, water-colour paper. So I put the pad down and went to walk off. But … this sneaky little thought popped into my head: “hey, it’s just £2.49. Give it a try.” … So I bought it.
Because of a move around in my craft room (and the chaos which that sort of thing creates) I only got chance to have a play with it yesterday, and I’m rather glad I decided to buy it. It’s not the sort of watercolour paper which you can flood with water, as its a finer paper and the water will eventually be soaked up and will then wrinkle your page, but if you know where you’re going, have a plan and don’t soak it, then you can get some decent results. Added to that . . .if you’re putting the resulting painting onto a card, then it doesn’t add any great weight to the card, which is perfect.
Using Kuretaki Gansai Tambi watercolours, and also their Starry watercolours, and with the help of a bit of acetate, I created the background you see above. Because I used the Starry watercolours – in 2 colours of Gold, it was a little difficult to capture all of the patches of gold using my camera. If it were a video, I could have moved it a teeny bit so that you’d have seen the light catch all the areas of the fabulous gold paints. (Anywhere which looks like wet paper, or like I’ve spilt tea on it is actually twinkling gold paint which the light didn’t catch)
After the background had dried (with the help of my dear friend – the trusty heat gun!), I went to work on the flower.
Most parts of the flower were hand stamped, but some parts were drawn because I didn’t have a stamp which was either the right size or shape, using my friend – Stamp Perfect – a stamp positioning tool.(A Christmas present last year, and I love it for moments like this) .
What you’re looking at in the photo above is my Stamp Perfect, with a stamp attached to it, ready to stamp on to the background. The top half of the Fairy Flower had already been stamped, and I was adding the curled back sepals. If you haven’t met a stamping positional tool before and want to know how it works I found a video on You Tube which will help way more than I can here, and be far more entertaining than me too:
The photograph above is the flower after I’d finished stamping, (and drawing parts of it) and after I’d watercolour painted it.
Finally … I embossed around the edge, using a little Tonic Embossing Powder, and then adhered the flower to a 6″x6″ white scored and folded card, added a ribbon and Voila! One hand painted Flower Power Fairyland Card.
And that’s all there was to it!
Apart from explaining the Fairy Dust ….
Do you see at the top of the flower as it’s opening … with what looks like wiggly lines and dots? Well . . . That’s the Fairy Dust, escaping from the Fairy Flower Power Pod. See? THAT’S where Fairy Dust comes from. I know this to be true because my Unicorn, which lives in my back garden, told me so. 🦄 🤣
Happy Wednesday!
Did you know . . . that according to research by a tanning company, women look oldest at 3.30pm on Wednesdays? Now I KNOW this to be an outrageous lie because I know that you girls and I look terrific at all times!
I will admit that when I stumble out of bed in the morning, my hair looks like five miniature kittens have been playing in it all night – but that’s easily calmed down with a comb. And … I do seem to have bought a couple of really spiteful mirrors which are obviously designed by cosmetic companies to try to trick us girls into thinking that we have a spot on our chin which is being kept company by a hair to the left of it. But .. I decided quite a long time ago that I would no longer look in those mirrors, and from that moment on I’ve looked practically perfect in every way! (so long as I don’t have my glasses on).
Oldest at 3.30pm on a Wednesday? Don’t make me laugh. I’m ONLY 27 years old – as we all know, for goodness sake!
Did you also know: that a recent(ish) survey in the US reported that bosses are most receptive to requests on a Wednesday? Now I can’t prove this, buy hey, what have you got to lose? Obviously asking the boss when he plans to leave as you want his/her job, might not go down terribly well, but I guess you could give it a go, so long as she/he has sense of humour!
[. . . thinks:- . . .] . . .
“I wonder if anyone is still reading?
Maybe I should buzz off and stop sitting here like a target.
Oooo, what are they talking about on the TV?
Do I need to turn those curtains up? Hmm, I don’t know… what if they shrink when they’re washed?
Aww, look at the dog, she’s so cute when she does that.
Uh Ooooo, here comes Alf Capone (used furniture dealer – but actually a cat), he looks bored, and that means he’s going to cause trouble by playing Cowboys and Indians throughout the house, and trying to get Maisie or Belly, or both, involved in the game.
Coffee…. do I want another coffee, I wonder?” eeek!
I have to agree with that last ‘Did you know?’ for I am, (easily distracted) and I do (talk to myself).
Aaanyhooo – that’s enough from me. All that’s left for me to say is: …. Have a wonderful Wednesday. Find the joy in each moment. 😀
Where I live, I have a different routes to drive home if I’ve been out gallivanting. On one of the ways I can come home takes me past a big stretch of green grass in front of some houses. On this stretch of grass the council planted some seeds for meadow flowers to grow in order to encourage and help bees with their jobs.
They’ve actually done this all over the Dorset area in various places, which I’m so thrilled about – but this particular area, being probably the biggest ‘patch’, takes my breath away each time I see it and makes me slow my car down just so that I can drink in the wonderfulness of it and nature in general.
So, when I sat down in my craftroom on Friday afternoon for a bit of watercolour painting on an ATC, I wondered if I could capture the mass of colours and beauty as they swayed in the breeze, of all the meadow flowers which always took my breath away. And this is what I managed to bring about via a few paint brushes and some colours.
Meadow Flowers with a white mount ~ An ATC made for #WorldWatercolorMonth
I began by first working on the background which I desperately wanted to fill with the glory of the almost mental array of incredible colour which my eyes and heart registered as I came upon the flowers. It was difficult to pick out particular flowers as it was all such a wonderful sight.
Meadow Flowers with the green mount ~ An ATC made for #WorldWatercolorMonth
Once the background colour was done(and I’d waited for it to dry …. helped after fifteen minutes of waiting – which is the limit of my excitability, patience wise) I then was able to pick out some of the colours and turn them into flowers.
Meadow Flowers with a blue mount ~ An ATC made for #WorldWatercolorMonth
I began with the blues and turned them into cornflowers. Followed by the red poppies, and lastly the tiny buttercups appeared low down. After this I just added some colour – mostly a watery green, to add to the depth and try to give that feeling of what it looked like as I slowly drove past this wonderful display and gift from nature. It truthfully takes my breath away each time I see it, as if I was seeing it for the first time. Just incredible.
Meadow Flowers, painted using Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolours. ~ An ATC made for #WorldWatercolorMonth
All of the flowers were painted using the box of paints you see in the photo above (yes, that’s my desk…. and my mess). This was taken just after I’d finished painting the ATC and before I’d cleaned up my three water containers. One a large pot thing which has a brush scrubber at the bottom, a second pot which is what I rinse my brushes off in, and a third pot for cleaner water which I can dip my brush in if I require just a little more ‘wet’ to my paint(s) if the colour is drying out.
An ATC made for #WorldWatercolorMonth
And that’s all there was to it! 🙂
Well now …. time for some coffee chat …. Happy Saturday! It’s so lovely to meet up with you for a coffee today. I have some biscuits (‘cookies’ for our USA folks) in the cupboard … shall I get them out for you?, or perhaps you might like some buttered toast? We can all eat, enjoy and chat around the table together.
Thank you so much for coming for a visit. It’s a total delight to see you here and I’m so glad that you dropped in and shared a coffee with me. I hope you have a truly lovely day, and that when bedtime comes, you feel that today was a great day to be alive.
Sending squidges to you in your corner, from me in mine ~
The Art of Cobwebs 