a small gift for RAK week

I didn't know RAK (random act of kindness) week even existed, till a friend mentioned it.  But I am in a small private chat group on FB with my friends and we decided to take part, amongst ourselves.

Names were drawn and we each had to make a piece of art for one person.  Until then, we weren't to say who was making for whom...
My gift has been received so I am sharing it here with a few pictures in progress

 I started with a square shallow canvas (the Works) and covered it in pieces of paper from a Prima pad  (Epiphany)
the idea for this sprang from a you-tube video by the lovely Maremi Small Art (Marta Lapkowska)
This is the link (hopefully) to her you-tube channel which is full of fun..  Of course I can't find the link to the right video.....but you'll have fun looking

I added stencilled layers of texture paste through a couple of stencils

 then I sprayed with Colour Bloom sprays (including the infamous Cobalt that fell all over my rug a few months ago)....

I always forget how sticky these dry, so I tried to seal it with some clear gesso... lots of smooshing of the blue colours... but I quite liked it so carried on..




time to add some stamping (Lin Brown for Paperartsy from ELB33) in blue archival ink

 adding layers of texture - an mdf heart got painted and coated with DecoArt  crackle paste
and some paper flowers got the spray treatment, plus a few dabs of paint on the petal edges..
I left some smaller flowers white

 some metal embellishments

 close up of the flowers

 some metal leaf embellishments too

and the final piece.  This was loads of fun to do!!

(edit.. no prizes for guessing Sam wasn't my swap partner, it's covered in flowers!)

(2nd edit.. just realised I made a big boo-boo.  the video I saw on you tube was one of Vicky Papaioannou's    )   sorry to both her and Marta for getting confused!  they are both super talented you won't be sorry if you check out their channels!)

Wanderlust Book - prompt 11 - What am I passionate about?

It has been a while since I made time to get any challenges or activities done for the Wanderlust online course by Everything Art... a few weeks ago, the Wanderlust Book prompt was "What am I passionate about".... after spending another morning at my favourite place I was blogging the photos and thought... oh yes that fits!
I spend hours at Kew, I go as often as I can, nearly always on a Saturday morning unless something else gets in the way - check out my photography blog  if you want to see some very photo-heavy posts - and if you want to know more about Kew Gardens check their website here. And, if you can, go visit!

So this morning, I created this double page spread in my Wanderlust book.

 I used some DecoArt paints that my friend Sam gave me for my birthday, and Chalk Fresco to create some blurring of the colours.  I used my fingers... those of you who know me, will realise this is very different for me!

 I spent some time blending and wiping and smudging with the Chalk Fresco before starting to add some elements to the page..

including some stamping (Paperartsy stamps, by Ellen Vargo)

and some leaflets from Kew

The Hive is their latest attraction and is wonderful. (see my blog for photographs - I don't have a printer so couldn't print any to add to my journal)

 

 added some more little flowers (also Paperartsy) in archival ink and some white highlighter markings on the flowers













the bees are by JoFY for Paperartsy

I had heaps of fun with this, hope to catch up with some more of the lessons very soon!
Thanks for looking.

Crazy Birds!

So, as you may have seen on Wednesday, I was expecting the Crazy Bird die set to arrive... and it did.  lots of little pieces, beaks and eyes and wings.. as well as the actual bird shapes... So on Friday I eventually sorted them out and matched them up.. and cut them...

It's a fair bit fiddly lining up the die with the stamped image (and keeping it in place when you put the top plate down on top, so you get them cut properly (legs, especially)... I think I'll treat myself to the magnetic platform for the Big Shot which apparently helps lots ( this may be a cunning sales ploy, but I somehow think it will help!)

This is what I used them for first time out.

 some white bits showing between the legs as you see... used my Inktense pencils to colour them in some crazy colours...

used bits of 3d foam pads to add the wings and beaks and eyes to the bodies.... ( swore quite a lot at this stage!)

 decided on a double page spread, painted with gesso first, then Dolphin, a Deco Art Satin paint.. not used this before, was surprised how thin it seems when it comes out of the bottle..

gave it a good shake though, and it seems to cover quite well.

Stencilled Prawn Fresco through the Finnabair circles stencil, just round the edge.
Left the stencil in place and stamped in Watering Can, the large text-y background from HP1501

laid out the birds... made sure they were "grounded" either on a circle, or another bird...
did some background stamping with the honeycomb from JOFY30 also in Watering Can, just extending a little into the journal

 stamped Dina's sentiment in black archival, then glued the birds down

wanted a few more circles to match in with the stencilling, so inked the single text-y circle from HP1504 in Watering Can , and the row of circles in Prawn Fresco, over the stencilled areas.

had fun with this, not sure I'll be doing much layering with some of the beaks/eyes as they are so small and you need a teeny tiny bit of foam pad to fix them to the body... but I like them!!

DragonsDream - Tag It On - Green and a Quotation

Welcome back to another fortnight's challenge from the Dragons Dream - this time, the lovely Gabrielle has set the challenge, and it is green, and to use a quotation.

I started with a pale manilla tag, and sponged Cracked Pistachio distress ink all over the background, spritzed and flicked water and added some more ink.
Then I took the quote I was going to use, (Tim Holtz life quotes set) and stamped it several times in Cracked Pistachio, over the tag (as you can see, I got so carried away there are no step by step photos!)

 stamped one of the Crazy Birds on tissue, and painted it with some Deco Art paints (apple green, burnt umber, pumpkin patch and canary)

Stencilled some chicken wire in library green archival







Added some little wooden butterflies painted with blue bird, a touch of violet interference paint and a swipe of white antiquing cream, before pouncing the remaining blue bird over the top

added a bit of green ribbon  and fixed my main quote with staples from my replacement tiny attacher.
Really had fun with my green, Gabrielle, great choice!   Hope you'll come and see what the others have made (you're in for a treat) and do join in - don't forget to use at least one stamp on your tag.

A double Journal page

I bought some DecoArt Crackle paste recently and finally got round to opening the pot and having a play..
I started by painting a page with Jade Fresco, then applied the paste with a palette knife through a stencil (Lin Brown for Paperartsy)

 The paste splodged quite badly under the stencil, I tried to scrape it away without damaging the flowers, then decided to leave it overnight to dry.

then this morning I was reading Sarah Anderson's blog - adding layer on layer, and decided to rescue this page. Out came one of my earliest stencils I ever bought, and the Buff Fresco...

 another layer, just in random places (over the worst of the splodges, so technically not random at all....) in Prawn Fresco, and then the 'art is' stencil (quite possibly my favourite ever stencil) in Slate Fresco

 Took some of the Finnabair sets for Prima, and the hearts (one from each) and stamped in black archival.

Added matt glaze to the hearts (Decoart) at this stage, not sure what I was thinking would happen next...

 added some drips of DecoArt mister in Turquoise, from the tube, just letting it drip down the page, spritzed a bit of water to help spread the ink.

Took some of the Finnabair sentiments from the same two sets, on white card and glued them to the page.









close up of the crackle... it buckled a bit but has dried out even further today and is much flatter now.

 on the other page, is the leftover paint, daubed from the cut and dry foam pad, (the turquoise isn't actually in the other page as the stencilling I started with it didn't show up enough over the jade)

stamped the flower from JoFY 32 and Fleur from JoFY36 and painted them with Prawn and Rose for the centres

Filled the gaps round the flowers with the honeycomb/circles from JoFY32 in Watering Can archival - was still a bit too prominent, so dabbed a bit more Buff over the top.

 

This isn't what I was meant to be doing today, which was a Paperartsy challenge piece for the Niche topic, but I am idea-less for that (or at least the idea I had wasn't coming together), so had fun with these instead!
Thanks for looking.