More butterflies and journals

Over the last few months I've developed what was a one-off collage in a frame into a range of Artist journal/ sketchbooks... I knew getting the Cinch was going to cause problems!

Here are a few in the latest colours, I work each set in fours so they really are unique...

These are hearts and butterflies, I've also tried blinging a couple with little gems, what do you think?  I need to make some more now as I've just got a spot in a shop in Canterbury, which hopefully will be quite popular... watch this space!

Eac of these contain over 40 pages of mixed artist paper such as watercolour, pastel, cartridge, black and tracing paper. Perfect for mixed media artists who love using more than one medium. Each little section is separated with some gorgeous hand-made paper in coordinating colours. 

I'm also taking orders for these with a name added within the design, how special is that? Check them out on Etsy...

13 days to go...if you do Valentine's Day

  If you celebrate Valentine's Day, that is!  We don't at my house, but I still get caught up in the flow with everybody else's creative exploits in a red and hearty fashion...

  My very obliging friend Mary sent me some die cut hearts to show me what sizes were available for cutting grey board... and of course I had to do something hearty and romantic- not my strong point, so be gentle!

  Mary cut from corrugated board, so I thought I'd tissue and gesso it up to give it a bit of support and to add some texture. Using a technique that I've been playing with alot lately I added flowers, butterflies and sequins with gesso, and heated it to bubble it.

  Once it was suitably dried out I painted it up to give depth and shadow  and highlighted it with those gorgeous Golden irridescent acrylics- you can't see it in the pic, but when you twist the books they shimmer with 2 colours in places. 

  When my Cinch arrived I'd already bought a pair of wires but not used them, so I cut them down to use for these... not sure I've got the hang of the squashing yet... I was expecting grooves or something to show how to place the book/ wires so they folded correctly. I think I need to play more... or carry on with the coils that I have an abundance of.

  I spent this morning cutting pages and lightly inked the edges before punching  with my Big Bite. That's both new xmas toys being put to good use already, I'm sure they're going to get a serious workout over the year!

  So, thankyou Mary for your help, and the next lot winging their way to me... now I know which die to save up for.

Oh, and while I was distracted on another hearty woolly project I had theses sitting in latex so I can make some hanging plaques in plaster. It's all about developing... so you'll see them soon!

On a wing...

I spent today working in another international  Pass and Paint journal, courtesy of Willowing. It was Paula's, whose theme is "When she flies". I'd been thinking about what I was going to do for a while, and really wanted to do a folding pair of wings with tissue feathers, so yesterday I set about a heavy gesso layer with textural feathers across the page in preparation.

I collect those plastic boxes that mushrooms come in nowadays, and each one is dedicated to a project so all the materials are together in one place... until the project is completed. Anyway- I've had a box with the tissue and bits and bobs sitting accumulating for a couple of weeks now, but the final pieces were decided this morning after I used a die that I'd recently bought. 

I rarely work to a plan, but I might have a "want" for each project, knowing full well that once I get started it'll probably go out the window anyway...

I liked the idea of music as the base for the wings so I ripped and gessoed a pair, then stuck all the other elements I wanted to include. Once they were all in place they were gessoed again, then built up in pastel colours to give depth and movement. Once it was shaded to my satisfaction I added glass beads and pearlescent highlights.

Here's how it turned out.. before text

 

I really liked how the wings looked so I opted not to add fold-up wings, or tissue feathers... I wrote the text with a technical pen- I do wish I could learn how to do really nice text, it just doesn't come for me- calligraphy is one of those elusive techniques for me.

Here's the full piece...

 The photo doesn't show all the silvery highlights or reflective glass beads, but you get the idea... if you tilt it the light plays beautifully on all the textures and raised surfaces...

I hope Paula likes it.

Book covers in 3D

That's my weekend finished with bubbled gesso projects. I was determined to do  couple that could be used as book covers so while using the same technique I chose different accents... 

here they are-

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I shall find some nice papers now and bind them into books for sale. I might even get them onto Etsy- I've been planning putting work on for sooooo long, but just not looking forward to writing all the texts.

I've also taken lots of pics through the stages, and have posted a tutorial in the Craft section.

Butterflies are definately in this month...

A few days earlier I posted my heart for June's prompt... the material featured this month is gesso, highlighting "fossilised" shapes and textures. The heart turned out really well, and I enjoyed creating it so much I decided to do some more...

Here's the first one... on a spare piece of mountboard. I don't often use green but I thought it would work well for this. I shall probably frame this one, but I decided to create a set and have them proud of the frame so I'm collaging onto 6 x 4" canvas boards. It will be a set of four, one for each season... I'll post once they're done.

Creative Colour Challenge

I forgot to blog my entry into this months CCC, the theme this month being MUSTARD. I created a textured spiral shell on canvas using gel medium and acrylics. I have a growing set of these now because as I get an urge, I do them in different colours, but I'd not done a yellow as it's not a colour I like too much. I like creating a 3D feel to my work using both a texture gel and careful shading- from a distance they look like padded pillows.

April's Heart...

It's that time again already, so Thealie and Lillibule posted this months heart which features gesso and baking soda!

I've not heard of such a mixture so it promised to be a novel experience! It wasn't too bad, and it's great fun, if you don't overheat you get some great imprints... here it is before the painting...

I used various stamps, then added wooden letters and shapes covered with the mix too. I then painted with acrylics, buffed and highlighted with pearly and gold, and added depth with texture paint in orange and violet. The butterflies were embossed then highlighted with paints and copics. As I usually use wire and beads I thought I'd keep that going as I've changed the colour theme for the next 3 hearts- something bright and summery... I shall end up with 3 hearts in each seasonal change.

I really enjoyed this one... but I'm still wondering whether to add some text... or a pic... 

February.. the month of hearts...

This is my February heart for the Heart Journal project in my previous post. This month the featured material was air-dry clay- something I have plenty of... already rolled, stamped and some painted for just such a project.