Mixed Media Place......Creative Gym #3

The theme for the December Mixed Media Place Creative Gym is .......Wings. So many opportunities for imaginative creativity.  I, personally have kept this one very simple, just a tag. For me, butterfly wings are the most beautiful.....fragile and delicate as well as being full of pattern and colour.

Water colour paper coloured with Distress Stains. Stencilled poppies, stamped, art basics Light Paste dabbed on then sprinkled with art ingredients Zinc Glass Beads.

Paste and beads coloured with Primary Elements and Silks Acrylic Glaze.

Tag made from 7 Dots paper and coloured with Distress Stains.

Poppies, patterned paper, embossed "mesh" stamp, all layered on top of tag.

All papers, beads, gels, pastes, inks and paints used are available from Mixed Media Place.

Thanks for visiting. 

Wishing you all happy holidays and a wonderful New Year.

paperDVIZHNIK Christmas New Year Challenge

Challenge No. 55 at paperDVIZHNIK is a seasonal one: anything to do with Christmas or the New Year, so, lots of scope to create, and it can be pages, cards, tags, home deco, any thing that expresses the season.

A  simple Christmas tag.

Some dots for snow flakes, a sparkly twig, a significant date and a bird for peace.

"Kindness"

Give without remembering and take without forgetting.

Have a safe and very happy Christmas.

Mixed Media Place......."The Guard"

For this months project at Mixed Media Place I have worked on a 12cm x 28cm x 5cm solid wooden block. I love the solidity of this as my base. It can be hung on a wall or it can sit securely on a bench or table. It can support heavy embellishments, it can be nailed into and it is a fantastic supportive base to paint and collage over. I also love that it's not just the front that is worked on, but also the sides need to be considered and should relate to what is happening on the front; it makes me think, it gives me more opportunity to "tell a story".

Finnabair's art basics gel mediums are perfect for working with wooden blocks and collage.....art basics Soft Matte Gel and 3D Matte Gel have been used through out this project. Apart from their "adhesive" ability, they dry quickly. I've created an imaginary character, "The Guard" He has a head- dress of metal locks, clocks and the hands of time, and a paper "cape" adorned with keys, crosses and pearls, all symbolic of our personal dreams, desires, fears and insecurities.

I could go on about how all art should have some significant "deeper" meaning, but I also believe art can just be pretty, aesthetically pleasing or interesting. It can also be fun........do you like his "earwings"?

Sides collaged with patterned and textural paper and chicken wire chipboard coloured with Distress Paint and aged copper embossing enamel.

Paper, metal, and chipboard. Coloured with either Distress Paint or Ranger Patina and then embossed with Stampendous aged copper embossing enamel.

Paper "cape" made from 7Dots Wonderland "Follow the Rabbit" paper.

A full product list is HERE at Mixed Media Place and all products can be purchased HERE at Mixed Media Place Store.
Here's a quick 5min photo video, not a step by step how to, but just some images of how this project evolved. 

Thanks for visiting, wishing you a productive and creative weekend.

paperDVIZHNIK Challenge #54.........Spots and Stripes

A new challenge at paperDVIZHNIK...it's fun and easy; "strips and peas" or "dots and stripes" or "lines and circles" however you want to call it. Who doesn't love the fun of dots and spots (well, maybe not when they're on your skin). Circles, dots and spots always make me smile and there's a million different ways you can make them; "splatter" for starters. Strips, stripes and lines, maybe a little more serious, I'm thinking prison bars, but still the possibilities are endless. Put them together and what a joyous page of pattern you can create.

The usual ingredients...water colour paper, texture paste, acrylic paint, patterned paper, embossed stamps, washi tape and ink.

Thanks for visiting today. Circles can be fun but I hope as Christmas and the holidays draw near you don't feel as though you are "running around in circles".  Wishing you a productive and happy week.

On Inspiration

Recently I came across an article written by an amazing photographer......Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai; a proponent of photography as an art form, a writer and a teacher.
The actual article, on her blog, was written back in February 2014...it just rang so true and was so perfectly written.
Apart from being a wonderful photographer she is also a musician and that's where the article starts, but
her ideas, so eloquently expressed are true for all artists.
The article is HERE...so worth reading.
The two tiny collaged canvases below are mine, but all the words belong to C. J. Nicolai.

Stop looking at what others are doing.
Start looking at the world around you, and the world inside you.
Stop shooting(creating) with an eye on what you believe others will like, and stop judging the strength of an image(page, tag, canvas) by the number of comments and Facebook thumbs you receive.
Start creating photographs(art works) that are vulnerable enough that they scare you. Learn to be brave enough to share them, and to stand proudly behind them.
Start the long and painful process of learning to answer your own questions, and embrace the trials, errors, and frustrations you’ll experience along the way.

And learn that when someone tells you that you don’t sound like anyone else, it is a high compliment.

Mixed Media Place.........Creative Gym Exercise #2

This month at Mixed Media Place we're asking you to think in 3D....textures, embellishments, objects to be altered. Visit the Mixed Media Place blog HERE and be inspired by what the girls have come up with, amazing and beautiful. I thought 'literal', a 3 dimensional object, and one just happened to present itself to me in the bargain reject bin at a Typo store.....a broken, articulated wooden artists hand.

The base of the broken hand was easily fixed with art basics 3D Matte Gel. My idea was to have the hand make the peace sign........... The fingers are 'articulated' and bend and move up and down but they do not move sideways so do not spread apart. I had to insert a little block of wood between the two fingers to force and keep them apart. I'm sure someone with a more mechanical brain would have come up with a better solution. 

Now my fingers were all in the right place I was ready to collage. I used a piece of  Finnabair's paper from the Domestic Goddess range. No paint was used:  the shading or light and dark areas on the hand were created by just using lighter or darker pieces of paper, all stuck on using art basics Soft Matte Gell.

The hand was completely covered in torn bits of paper. Well, you know how much I love to collage and stick things down, but half way through doing this I was thinking omg, why didn't I just paint this hand !? I was peeling gel medium off my fingers for days after. Anyway, once this was done, time to embellish.

Some metal pieces all attached with art basics 3D Matte Gell.

Rubber bands help hold the curved metal in place while the Matte medium dries.

Some Finnabair Mechanicals, some flowers and some rub-ons and I've totally indulged my inner hippy.

Thanks for visiting. May your week ahead be chilled and full of only positive vibes.

paperDVIZHNIK New Challenge No. 53

A simple and pure colour challenge is presented to you this month at paperDVIZHNIK.

When the colours are kept basic and simple it allows for more detail and pattern to dominate.

Image source Pinterest.

Stencil used with Finnabair art basics 3D Matte Gel. Yellow paint applied with a squeezy bottle.

If you love these beautiful bright, pure colours, then join us at paperDVIZHNIK this month. Be inspired by the gorgeous examples made by the DT and check out all the details HERE. Thanks for visiting. I hope your week is bright and cheery and full of creativity.

Mixed Media Place........Inside My Book

I have an on going project; making a small book out of a recycled box. This is the front cover, made back in July. Details are HERE

Finally I've completed the inside of the front cover.

Finnabair's beautiful 'Raspberry Pudding' from the Domestic Goddess range of papers is the background....if I could choose 1 piece of paper to use on every project, this would be it ! The metal embellishments are Finnabair Mechanicals, Vintage Vanity and Cold Country stamps, Finnabair Sunrise Sunset 'Checker' Stencil' used with Finn's new Art Basics Modelling Paste. Every thing has been attached using Art Basics Soft Matte Gel or Art Basics 3D Matte Gel, including the glass beads, and of course you can get all these  products from the Mixed Media Place shop HERE

I've used Silks Acrylic Glazes to add colour to the Modelling Paste and glass beads.

A peek inside my front cover and a slightly 'blurry' Page 1.

I don't know about you, but I'm not always good at completing "long term" projects. So far I have loved making this little book, so hopefully, one day I will be able to show you it filled with pages and completed. Thanks for visiting. May all your projects you're working on come to fruition and bring you joy.

New Challenge at paperDVIZHNIK

A great sketch to play with this month at paperDVIZHNIK for Challenge #52.

Ink, paint, stamp, image transfer, colour pencil, embossing, velum die-cut.

Salt sprinkled onto wet ink.
This was a fantastic sketch to play around with. Visit paperDVIZHNIK HERE and be inspired by the girls.....there are some fabulous pages. Then, play along with us!
Thank you for visiting, have a wonderful week.