Art for arts sake again and some fans and windchimes

Phew! - this hot weather in the UK is too much now - it's been none stop (here on Essex coast) for several weeks - and some nights I haven't slept ...arghh! -  how  people survive hot weather regulary I just don't know. My PC is overheating and very slow just like me ha ha  - so expect garbled blogging and weird art as my mind is frazzled ( I think I mean that) - I can't think straight.

First thing Saturday I thought, I just must make some art... so this is for AJJ 'Art for art sake' hosted by Chris from Pearshaped crafting.

I started by making a background with Gouache paints. 

Then I saw my box of stencils and then I thought of using a baby wipe to wipe the paint off with. I've seen it done with inks and stencils and this Gouache was water based so could be reactivated again when moist to remove the pattern. I then used another arty stencil with a hand on and lightly sponged some white gesso on. Coloured pencils and Stabilo all black to highlight hand. 
Then I looked at a TH sticker book with words which I've only used once - but what should I add.... well the wiping over the stencils is really easy and effective so it just had to be 'Ridiculously simple' 

If it stays hot I shall have to do some more of the stencil baby wipe thing as that was so much fun and fairly quick too.
 

I don't think the temperature was really 34.5c as the probe for the weather station may have been in sun however the real temperature inside (downstairs)  was 27c and upstairs the thermometer in Fahrenheit been fluctuating between 81 - 85 even at night :(
I promise I will never moan about winter and the cold again as its much easier to get warm than cool down :)

While I was in an arty mode I remembered some plain fans I bought last year which would come in handy right now.... but what to decorate them with quickly?  I know - alcohol inks - so I randomly just dripped them over the surface open and closed.

And I have finished the wind chimes I started last summer. I had to wait for the stems of the plant that we pruned to dry and change from green to a bamboo looking cane.

Bean tin lid for the top and punched some holes to thread everything together to hang. The sound they make is a very gentle noise and I think I need to add a bigger dangley bit to the end of the middle cane to catch the wind more.
 

 And I drizzled alcohol inks over the canes to decorate them.

Himalayan Honeysuckle - the plant that the canes came from.

OK that's all for today,

probably going to need to let my PC cool now

before trying to catch up with your posts

but I will get there eventually :) 

thanks so much for stopping by

Gill x

Circles for AJJ and some alcohol madness on a keyboard

Hello

Hope all well with you.
We've been having a bit of a heatwave here and a couple of nights we've had to sleep downstairs rather uncomfortably on a 2 seater settee -  so I'm hoping it cools down a little soon. My PC seems to be suffering also and getting hot quickly and been left off more than on lately.
But I managed to make this page in one of my art journals For AJJ circle theme  I used Colour Cloud blending inks, stencils and I used a few of the faux Washi tapes I made recently .... the words have been digitally added.

 

Is it hot where you are too? If so, I hope you are managing to keep cool. 

Even the weather lady was too hot and had to put her bikini on :)

 

 

 

The Cactus flower (from prev post) and extra growth on it shrivelled up after a couple of days and fell off as it has in the past.

 

 

 

But it looks as if there will be other flowers coming as it has that tell tale grey nodule where it grows from.

 

 

When it's really hot I can't think straight and maybe this is why I did what I did?  I had a mad moment and decided to use some alcohol inks on one of my old music keyboards.

 

I have no idea what I am going to do next - other than maybe try stamping on some keys... I did think about making it into a door stop but not really sure where this going so it may be put to one side for now. 

I've been trying to keep cool sitting in the garden- not really doing anything but watching the world go by and taking an occasional photo of something I thought interesting.

 

 

 Amazing what you see in the sky too

 

 

Love the colours on this fly - and thinking he'd look cool with some Steampunk goggles :)



 

Thanks for stopping by 

Gill x

 

WOYWW #199

Well it’s Wednesday so that can only mean one thing …it’s WOYWW time! Yipee!

Welcome and Happy WOYWW to you… no I’m not going nuts..mmm actually that’s probably debatable LOL. If you don’t know WOYWW = 'Whats On Your Work-desk Wednesday' = lots of blog hopping fun by folk from all around the world.  All this fabulous fun is wonderfully organised by the lovely Julia over at Stamping Ground so for more info and to join in, do check them out.

so... what's on my desk?

So on my main desk I have a couple of finished cards(including the ‘wishing you well’ started last week, made with the stamped bits I sorted out a few weeks ago. The fairy one is almost finished.
I used my Martha Stewart punches on some patterned paper for the borders and found matching colours in my promarkers to colour the images, and added a little peach colour glitter glue on fairy and flowers. The stamped butterflies lying to the side of the card, I added antennae to and a bit of metallic wax over top – but I can’t decide if they would work on the card – have laid them on it in other photo below

..... so what do you think, add them or leave them off ?





On my cupboard top that I craft on, is a project being worked on for the alcohol challenge over at ‘Artful Times’ blog. I inked the back of one of the printable acetate sheets I designed a few weeks back. There's some grungy flowers drying on the left, (painted over them with copper acrylic paint) they still need working on and will be added to frame with some other bits…more on that another time.

So that’s it for now – I’ll be off trying to visit as many of your blogs as possible now.

Thanks for stopping by and any comments left are much appreciated.

Have a good day……. Gill x



Spots and stripes/Circles and straight line challenge

Artful Times challenge #24

This is a note pad and pen I made for Neet and Von’s great challenge over at Artful Times Challenge Blog

First I found some off cuts of striped (K&co/Tim Coffey) and circle papers and then thought about making the notepad. For the cover of the notepad I recycled one of the many cardboard envelopes I have that DVDs are delivered in.

Then as it started to develop decided didn’t want to use the large circles on paper so chose the bubbles/circles stamps to replace that instead.



Pen was plain white to start with. Masked off the ends to avoid the silver pieces.

Used a piece of foam and also a paint brush to put the alcohol ink on the surface. Then used small bubble stamps with archival ink.

Stamps used: large bubbles?(not sure of name) by Anita’s, Words by Andy Skinner, Diver and seaweed from an old foam stamp set - not sure who made by but maybe by Rubber Stampede or All Night Media. Also used Black archival ink, wine&roses and cedar wood H20s, white soufflé pen, few promarkers and on the pen I used lettuce, wild plum, sunset orange and latte alcohol inks.



WOYWW #195

Hello everyone Happy WOYWW and welcome… what’s WOYWW? It means ‘Whats on your workspace Wednesday’ and it’s the weekly Wednesday blog hopping fun kindly organised by Julia over at Stamping ground - pop over to Stamping Ground to check out the info on this and join in the fun.

 

Well I don't know where this week went again, if it keeps going this fast it'll be Christmas next Month.
I seem to have spent ages going through drawers and cupboards trying to work out how to re-organise my craft space - but no closer to answer yet LOL and only finished a few bits of crafty things.

So this is how my two little crafting spaces look this morning

edit - sorry I seemed to have messed up 3 or 4 of the top photos and lost the view where you can flick through them so have made the view larger instead.

 

 

It's a bit of mess.  Not done any more on the placemats I started stripping last week as still thinking what to do with them.

Got some old pieces out of stamped and inky bits to do something with and some left over bits acetate that I’d printed out a few week back. 

 

 

But talking of the acetate/transparency film that I printed out from my digital design.. below are the finished card and tag that I made using this.. and also last week I showed a digital card that I was going to print out and make into a proper card which is completed now too. 

 

My digital design acetate with alcohol inks behind. Micro beads and glitter on the ribbled black card on left side.
Made a flower and added some swirly die embellishments too.

 

 

 

 

Tag using the same acetate design... that's my grandfather top right probably about c 1899

 

 

 

 

Had a digital design of this last week made from my 'Grunge en rouge' kit
and this is the proper card printed out and  put together.

 

 

 Well that's my lot for now - I'm off to check out your desks and see what you have been up to.

 

 

Thank you for stopping by and looking and thanks also for any comments left ....Have a good day and Happy Crafting... Gill x

 

 

WOYWW #194

Good morning everyone...well I thought last week went quick but this week flew even faster… so it's time for the Wednesday blog hopping fun again ....known as WOYWW (Whats On Your Workspace Wednesday) all thanks to the very gracious Julia over at Stamping Ground… -thanks Julia x.
No idea what I’m talking about? Check out the Stamping ground blog for details.



 

So whats on my desk? 

 

So last week I had some acetate on my desk that I’d designed on my p.c using some old photos and printed out to have a play with… well I have started but not finished with them as I got side tracked playing with ‘loo paper’ I altered a Nesquick container (it's at back of desk with butterfly on) and covered container with loo roll and Klear and made butterfly in a mould with loo roll too (see previous posts this week). I also started stripping surface off of some old place mats too as they are sturdy and look like they have lots of potential for something or the other. Also have little book mark unfinished too which can just about be seen in photo.
Lastly been digitally designing a grungey card ready to print out in pieces.



Close up of butterfly on Nesquick container - love the texture

 

Acetates printed out, added some alcohol ink on back - half finished card using it too
which has some micro beads on the left hand side of it... what a pain they are when they go all over the place LOL

My other little space with placemats, managed to punch through a coaster
to make holes for a ribbon to hang it. On the left a chocolate mould and some
more butterfly 'loo roll' thingies in it.

 

 

digital design ready to print and make into a card
used my own kit called  'Grunge en Rouge'





Well that's my lot for today, so thanks for stopping by and I hope to visit you too today (or probably over next few days)... Happy Crafting - have a good week... Gill x

Upcycling Nesquick container

So this is following on from yesterday,

 

 

 

and after sticking on the loo paper and butterfly (made in a mould with the paper too) all was given a coat of Gesso.

Then using alcohol inks I attempted to try and loose some of the yellow which was the original colour of the container.  I could still smell the yummy chocolate that had been in it originally, that was distracting LOL...mmm.. nice.... where was I? ahh alcohols inks - I thought they would work on plastic, it did, but scratch it  and it seems to come off.

I put some double sided tape at top too and used holographic foil with paint rubbed over top.

I painted the main body with a diluted purple acrylic wash which showed up the fabulous texture.

I didn't smooth the paper down when sticking it and think the texture that the cheap loo paper and the Klear floor polish gave was quite interesting. 

 

 

 

 

Rubbed some metallic wax over the surface.

The antennae were made from florist wire, so I used silver alcohol ink on them. Added a little bit of iridescent glitter glue and some jewels on butterfly.

Its not brilliant but I'm glad I did it just to get the fabulous texture and to see how the moulds would work - potential maybe for some other projects.



close up shows the great texture that the paper and Klear gave when stuck down.

 

 

New project?  - I found some old place mats that had faded in the sun and were tatty. Seems a shame to throw them out so I have been stripping them of the top surface. They are nice and sturdy so lots of potential I think.
I might have thought about doing something and then sealing with heat resistant varnish to still use as a place mat, but have no experience of using that type of varnish.
Would be interested to know if any one used that? wondering if its too expensive and too many fumes ...and does it work?  love to know  if you know anything... thanks
 

 

 

 

Also this wekend I have been cutting up the acetate sheets I printed out that were shown on my last WOYWW #193 on Wednesday. The one above not finished yet, is drying.. I used Klear (getting addicted to that) to stick it onto the watercolour paper. The paper had one layer of water colour then some H20s added and a little glitter. The acetate had some alcohol inks on back too. I shall try to finish all of those acetate things for the next WOYWW.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by - hope you are having a great weekend x