Craft barn challenge marriage or age.

Well it has to be The Age of Aquarius.. doesn't it? I decided to do this in water colour. It seems when I paint in water colour it is either bright and in your face or washed out and I haven't enjoyed the experience that much. How do people get the pastel look? However, this called for  'in your face' as only flower power can be. I vaguely remember in the past of someone colouring a page with lots of colour and then drawing on the shapes afterwards..maybe it was an art programme I watched on BBC with the children..who knows.

So out came my barely used paints and painted the bottom half of the page in in reds and pinks plus splashes of green and a touch of blue and the top half in yellows and a splash of pure sunshine dylusions. In the corner I drew all the signs of the zodiac with Aquarius the largest and the words of the chorus flowing from it.  The dots of the eyes are tiny flower drawn with intense pencils. Finally I painted on the flower outline. I have to say I am well pleased and will persevere at water colours.

Craft Barn challenge strong/miss

At first I did not know what to do for this. I looked at lyrics but nothing tickled my fancy and then I came across a quote by Eleanor Roosevelte;

A woman is like a tea bag- you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

And then I saw the stamp and thought yes this is so me. One drink I can not do without and have never turned down is (no not wine!) is tea. It is excellent for all occasions happy or sad - 'shall I put the kettle on?' is the best question and the answer is always Yes! I also like my tea with a drip of milk and a good suntan so this is the quote for me.

I stuck some tea cup paper on my pad and covered it with a pink silks acrylic glaze. I stencilled bits and bobs with gesso and stamped the ladies eyes. Then some dylusion spray in a nice tea colour and when dry I painted over some parts with orange acrylic glaze. This gave the gesso a tea coloured look. I stamped on the main lady and added bits of glaze where needed. Finally the words and some cut out tea cups. The silks acylic glazes are lovely as they are very translucent and you can build up colour and layer but still see the original background.

Hope you like.

Let's Crochet

This weekend is the first time I have tried crochet since hurting my hand. I have to say it is very stiff today. I forgot virtually everything I learnt and had to go back to the very basics. I can now chain and double crochet. I glad no one saw me as I must be the most cack handed crochet person ever..but I got something made.

One of the first things I put on this blog was a very wobbly phone case. A new bag has been got from Sea Salt and it needed a matching phone case. So after much effort, undoing, swearing and cups of tea there was success - and it is better than my last effort. Now I have to master treble crochet so I can make flowers, lace and hearts.

They go well together and bring a bit of Spring colour even though it is still raining.

Hope you like

Craft Barn challenge silence and/or dazzle

Although I have missed the first one I thought the quotes and lyrics challenge sounded great fun. So, this week is silence and/or dazzle. I went for silence and a quote by the His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

I painted the page - well dragged acrylic paint across it with my co op card, using the colours of the Tibetan prayer flags which are blue, white, red, green and yellow. They are always repeated in this order and represent the elements of sky, cloud, fire, water and earth.

On the left the faces are covered in Buddhist text, then pictures monks and the Dalai Lama, this I painted magenta to represent the robes. On the right the face are covered in writing about war and pictures of armies including the Chinese army marching past the Potala Palace in Tibet, this I painted grey to represent war. This face has words emanating from it.

Next I added paint to other card, added the quote and stuck on. Finally I got my pastels out and added detail. I am really pleased with outcome and who knows maybe sometimes I will remember to be silent and not react.

Crow Maiden

This is one of Nigel's favourite pictures and I thought I could put that on a canvas.

I covered the canvas in texture paste and then painted in a rough mix of white and a little black. Next I added hessian which I covered in gesso and then added a rough mixture of white and black. When dried I used bubble wrap to put slightly darker paint. I printed the picture on cream linen paper, roughed the edges and added some sewing and bead detail.

A bit of lace, pearls, black paint around the edges and I have to say I am pleased with the result. As is Nigel and it sits in the conservatory.

Comfort Zone

I have finished two projects today. The first is a copy of a saying I saw in Cafe Imbizo just along from Jenny French's shop http://www.jendenink.co.uk/ and where we mostly lunch.

I feel this is so true especially with crafting. If I hadn't been encouraged to distress (oh my first go at distressing, I was sooo distressed), paint, tear, sew, bead and much more I would not be where I am now. I may be still learning but having such fun. After all what is the worst that can happen? I throw the page away or keep it as a reminder to not do that again!

As some of you know I went to Tibet and Kathmandu last year and a family member said how would I cope with the food, toilets, the people and hussle and bussle. I have to say the Tibetan toilets were something else....but my what a wonderful holiday.

So take yourself out of your comfort zone. What is the worst that can happen? You have a bad day, or else you experience something wonderful.....

I should not have added the pink around the edge but in the words of the the Ramones 'Hay Ho Let's Go'

Finishing Touches

Hi

After all the Christmas crafting my room was looking well used....

No paper or craft product was harmed or accidentally thrown away in clearing up this space. I did however find a few mugs, plates, wine glasses and an empty wine bottle...









I also found I had about 10 scrap pages nearly but not quite finished. You know the ones, you come home from a class or crop and think I will finish that but then something else takes your fancy. So New Year was spent adding finishing touches.

These three are what I created with the talented Linda Knight at a workshop in Bournemouth. It was was great meeting up with everyone and meeting new people just as obsessed as me.

Spread Your Wings..

 I am not usually keen on painting a whole page in acrylic but this I liked. We put on  texture with paste, ribbons, card and lace. Then painted. We added a gold sparkly stuff (didn't make notes so don't know what it is called!).  Embellishment were added afterwards so you did not have a page all the same colour. These pictures were taken at Highclere on a lovely day spent with Val my Mum in Law.

 

Sculpture in the Gardens.

This was a good old torn paper, embellishments and
splatter of paint. Very much my comfort zone. The photo is a Sculpture from Hillier Gardens. It was perspex hanging in the tree. The way the light shone through changed the colour of everything beautifully.

A Fisherman's Prayer.


This page was done using water colour paints on wet watercolour paper. We were meant to use 2 colours but I used 3. We then stamped on using bleach which was great fun. I loved this. It was going to be for another picture but thought the orange reflected the buoys in the picture of a fishing boat in Mevagissey Harbour. I added the Fisherman's Prayer by Bernard Moore as my main journaling.





I had an excellent day as did the girls I went with Ann and Lesley.

My room is now usable and my projects finished so I am ready for what the New Year has to throw at me.