Chillin' Out!

Hi and welcome. We've had a little relief from the hot, dry conditions here,with some mizzly, welcome rain. In other areas of NSW bushfires are lessening  which is great news for all of those involved in the firefighting efforts.
As well as completing layouts for some challenges I've been experimenting with some ideas for a girl's group (10 -  12 yr olds) who meet in their lunch hour once a week for various activities. I've been asked to do a Christmas activity with them and apart for what I've already planned (will show you when completed), I would  like to also come up with a small, quickly-made gift they could make. If anyone has any ideas, could you share?
Today's layout is showing photos of a tawny frogmouth taken in early January, 2010. It was a particularly hot day with temps in the mid 30's (degrees C), and no breeze whatsoever. To get some relief from the heat, this tawny (and there were 2 others  in the tree)  sprawled out on a branch  (the tree is in my front garden), with its wings on either side. It just seemed to be balanced there. It mustn't have been too uncomfortable, because it remained in this position for at least half an hour. I was lucky to get photos of it as it was spreading its wings to get cooler. I love the look on the tawny's face... it reminds me of  'Animal' from the  Muppets.

The challenge at ARTastic this month is to use wood &/ or feathers. Pop on over to
 http://artasticchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/   to see what the inspirational art work is, and what the fabulous Design Team have come up with.

I've had the paper in my stash for some time. The edges of the tree and owl paper were moistened before distressing and rolling.  I also used gesso over a stencil and while damp, sprayed it with green  and chocolate dylusions sprays...... what a surprise to find when the leaves dried that the ones sprayed with chocolate colour  had turned ... PINK!!! ... not the colour I wanted. Back went the stencil and a good layer of 3D Stamping Paint added. The wooden feathers were sprayed with chocolate coloured dylusions and wrapped with twine to resemble the tawny feathers. Thickers in the title were painted with liquid pearls.
Thank you for visiting and for leaving your positive comments.

Fairy Door Hanger

Hi and thanks for stopping by. This challenge piece for ABAC at http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/  is about fairies. The photo of the fairy was taken of a gorgeous metal woodland fairy I bought a couple of years ago. her wings are made from loosely woven twigs, so of course she had to have  woodland setting.

The door hanger is a piece of plywood which was painted with a thick layer of gesso and then sprayed with blue and red dylusions sprays. The large mushrooms, leaves and the snail (hand carved from rubber) were stamped onto some background papers which had been smooshed with Distress Inks, and then cut out. The wooden mushies and small leaves, were  plywood embellies from Prima....  love this range! I've also added a gum leaf chippie, real gumnuts and flowers diecut from glassine paper. All of the ply and chipboard embellies were painted with 3D stamping paint. A piece of seam binding helped to secure the gumnuts in place. My fairy door hangr is ready for use.

Thank you for stopping by and for leaving your encouraging comments.
Cheers, Di

Crafty Colleagues and a Blogging Anniversary!

Hi and welcome. Today is the anniversary of my first year of blogging, and what a journey it has been! It's been a marvellous opportunity for me to discover so many wonderfully talented artists who share similar interests and passions. Blogging has opened up a whole new world of exploration and the chance to extend myself in directions I never thought I would.
Thank you to all who have visited my blog and left comments this past year. This has let me glimpse your world, something I truly enjoy doing.
Today I'd like to share with you the inspiration image and my DT piece for Pixels and Paper Challenge blog.

 

Inspiration image of our second challenge.

 

 

 

My take on the challenge

 

The background is second generation stencilling. This I do by using gesso and spraying with Dylusion inks and while wet, lifting off and flipping the stencil over onto a new piece of card stock. Sometimes I add a further layer of gesso and sprays. I love this method of stencilling, because you never know what you'll end up with.I'm building up quite a store of my 'what if' experiments.

This particlar background went perfectly with the colours the lovely ladies were wearing. I decided, that since I had absolutely no photos of bathing belles, that I would concentrate on the eyes. This inspired my layout, with the photograph forming the 'pupil'. To tie in further with the sea theme and colours, I outlined the eye shape with buttons, braid and fibre (eyelashes) and used the same fibre for a seaweed effect.

The photo is of  a group of my former workmates and self, at a craft weekend, Lennox Head; a beautiful beachside spot near Ballina, NSW.

Thank you for visiting and if you are interested pop over to the Pixels and Paper blog page at:

http://pixelsandpaperchallengeblog.blogspot.com.au/ and see what the rest of the DT have done for this challenge. Maybe you'd like to join us. We'd love to see your work.

Catch you later. Cheers, Di

 

A Messy Journey

Hi! Just getting this in before the deadline at:http://anythingbutacard.blogspot.ca/ . This challenge (Number 22) certainly had me getting messy, sticky and inky! - some very interesting effects on my fingers!
I started by covering a piece of patterned card with Gel Medium. On this were placed punched flowers and other shapes, another layer of gel and a layer of tissue paper.

This was covered with gesso, spritzed with Dylusions Sprays and lightened with White Linen. When dry, a section was stencilled using 3D Stamping Paint. At this stage, I decided that I didn't really like the overall effect, so I added some more gesso over all of it (a thin layer) and when dry, smooched on Distress Inks, leaving a more subtle effect.

 

 

Various other pieces were prepared. This used the natural dyes from flowers and foliage: freshly picked, put between light card and rolled through the Cuttlebug:- very effective, but it can be rather messy because some plants are juicier than others. The rollers have to be cleaned as soon as you finish.

 

 

 

 

The stencil piece is a second generation stencilling. The original was quite bright (have kept it for something else). When gessoed it had been lightly spritzed with Dylusions. For the above, I flipped the stencil over and added just a little more gesso, drawing in any colour still left. I liked the effect it had of additional foliage in the background.



 

 





This is a piece of microfiche. The same stencil has been used, this time with the 3D Stamping paint.

 

 

 



The chipboard was smooshed with Distress Inks and then had Vintaj Patina brushed on to give more of an aged look.

 

 

 

The piece has a slightly textured finish and even though on card, still has a slightly metallic appearance.

 

 

Some stamping around the edges and a stamped film strip, have completed the front cover.

 

 

 

This cover and panelling are now the first part of "My Messy Journey" .... an art journal to hold information and samples of the messy experiments. Hopefully many pages will be added.

 

What I Used:

Distress Stains: Forest Moss, Peeled Paint, Shabby Shutters, Picket Fence (chipboard)

Vintaj Patina: Moss, Rust (chipboard)

3D Stamping Paint: turquoise, moss green, silver, blue ( large background, microfiche)

Dylusion Sprays: London Blue, Cut Grass, Lemon Zest, White linen ( background, stencilling)

Distress Inks: Mowed lawn, Forest Moss (background)

Archival Ink: Olive

Impasto Gel medium, Gesso

 

Thank you for visiting and for your encouraging comments.

Cheers, Di