IT'S ALL BALANCED!

Hi and welcome to my first post as a newbie on the Anything But A Card team.... and what a thrill it was to have been asked to join. The inspiration this month was taken from this beautiful photo,

with the added criteria of balance. Pop on over to the ABAC Challenge at:
http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/  to see how this inspiration has taken the rest of the team.

I decided to take the artistic meaning of balance and designed a yin-yang zen-tangled inspired pattern.

I  find this style of doodling quite relaxing and it was a technique I used regularly in my former life as a teacher. The designs the children came up with were always amazing and they were always so engrossed when doing them (this = quiet! always a big plus in the classroom!!)
This design was drawn onto white cardstock. To make sure my pattern was the same both sides, I first outlined the white section and then photocopied the design. The rest of the colour was added to both sides of the design before I put them in place. Even though this looks fiddly, it wasn't really. The only thing I found to be a problem, was when I joined the two pieces together and discovered I still had a small gap! Easily fixed... just added another pattern element.  Once all of the drawing and shading was completed, the whole piece was adhered to a canvas which had been prepared by painting with white and black gesso. I used 2 - 3 coats of both to get a good coverage. Stick-on black beads were placed along the white / black border: gave some extra dimension as well as covering any small paint line errors. I used the same idea with the outside of the circle, using larger stick-on pearls. I didn't have any black ones in the size I wanted, so coloured the white ones with a permanent ink pen.
The flowers were cut from a lace paper I've had for years. The other component was chipboard flourishes, again painted with the 2 gessos.
All of the gluing was done with Collage Pauge and this was also used as a sealer over the whole of the canvas. I used a permanent Sharpie pen for the design.
Thank you for visiting. I always love to read your comments. Come over and play with us.
Cheers, Di

DIAMONDS IN THE SKY

Hi! Today I'm sharing with you my first DT piece for ARTastic. The inspiration image for this month's challenge has come from street art by Vexta, with the added criteria of using diamond or triangular shapes.

Pop on over to: http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ to see what the DT has come up with for this. There's still time to enter and we would love to see your art.
For my piece I used mostly diamond shapes in some of the colours seen in the artwork. Various mediums ( 3D Stamping Paint, Pan pastels, Silks Acrylic Glazes, and Primary Elements artists pigments) were smooshed onto black cardstock and then cut out. The image I used, called 'The Star Lighters',  has come from an old decoupage book and mounted onto punched card stock. The poem, 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' was torn from an old poetry book, edged with 3D Stamping Paint and mounted onto an acrylic background. This background had been  put through a ray patterned embossing folder.

 

 

To complete the layout I used Kindyglitz and added 'diamonds' in a ray pattern.

Thank you for stopping by. Remember we'd love to see you come and play with us.
Cheers, Di

Fireworks on Canvas

Hi and welcome. Just a quick post tonight, showing you a canvas I have just finished for:
http://archiscraps.blogspot.com.au/  where the challenge for January is based on a photo of Sydney's spectacular Opera House. The added criteria is to add something musical.
For this, black gesso was painted onto the canvas and when dried spritzed with glimmer mists. the fireworks were drawn on with metallic inks, kindy glitz and liquid pearls.

The photo  I've used for this piece has come from a public domain site and depicts the Opera House on New Year's Eve. This has been mounted on paper put through a music embossing folder. The edges were torn and smooshed with 3D stamping paint. The music staff and fluoro notes were a set of stickers bought years ago and forgotten about. Amazing what a good tidy up discovers! These were also smooshed with the 3D stamping paint for a touch of glimmer.

Extra bits and pieces include a metal spiral, a metal badge made up of various musical instruments, star-shaped paper clips , fluoro ribbon added to one of the firework bursts and plastic stars. Other musical notations have been put on with a foiling technique, liquid pearls and metallic inks.
At the moment I really love creating with canvas, because of the versatility with what can be done with them.
Thank you for stopping by. Your visits and lovely comments are always appreciated.
Cheers, Di.

Splishing and Splashing at Pixels and Paper and some news!!!

Hi and welcome to the New Year.
Already this year is shaping up to be a busy one, with quite a number of exciting and challenging things happening.
Pixels and Paper have a great inspiration image to work with this month... summer fun in the water.

Although it may not be summer where you are at the moment, we hope that you will still join us, by scrapping some of your great photos of your previous summers. Pop on over to:
http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ to see what the rest of the team have been up to.

I loved the fun feel of this image, with the children splashing and enjoying themselves, the soft golden light bathing the area and the movement of the water.
My layout reflects some of these elements. The background paper has been stamped with inked bubble wrap and stencilled with sequin waste. Circles to represent bubbles have also been cut from inked bubble wrap.

Added to this is a piece of organza, kind of representing the steps in the image. 'Splashes' have been cut from silver mirror board, acetate and metallic crinkle paper. The silver board and acetate have been alcohol inked. When I applied some to the blue crinkle paper, I discovered that the alcohol ink totally removed its colour!

The other embellishments are discs of card stock patterned with silver metallic gel pen, to have therm look like sea urchin shells or sand dollars. Part of the title was painted with white acrylic and then repainted with glitter paint to add the sparkle.

The photos are of our son taken when he was 2 years old. The splash pool would have been a pressie for Christmas. He was a real water baby at the time and loved nothing else than to play in water.

 

And for my news.... it is a thrill to let you know that I've been asked to join the design team for ARTastic. I'm looking forward to the challenges on both of these teams. Thank you for visiting during the past year and thank you also for all of your encouragement. your comments have been inspiring, as have your blogs.
We would love to see your work at Pixels and Paper so feel free to join us in the fun and the 2014 creative journey.
Cheers until next time,
Di.