Thursday 31 January 2013

Craft Barn Alpha Challenge - C

HI there lovely bloggers,

here is my C page for the fab new Craft Barn challenge, please pop on over here for full details.  If you fancy a peek at all of the entries so far please pop on over here too.

Ha ha ha, kept it a bit more simple this time!! The illustration was found on a Google search but sadly there was no reference for the artist (if you recognise it please let me know so I can credit correctly??) and me being a total muppet went and lost the web address!!  The illustration has been 'painted' using distress inks and a water brush.
The background is an acrylic wash which was then stamped on using acrylic paint too, lol I love doing this!!  The stamps used are from a Little Big Tree set.
The dictionary definition does not match my entry word so I decided to adapt an encyclopedia definition and journal it onto my page on a gessoed panel!!!!!!!!

Anyhoo, here you go............







Ha ha ha ha ha, why on earth I decided to stamp a black seahorse on is beyond me really, love the stamp but think it unbalances the page a bit, hey ho!!

Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Huge hugs

Dawn x

Friday 25 January 2013

Journal Page........

Evening all,

ooh I'd forgotten how fun it was to watch some of the glorious You-Tube journal page demos that are out there, ha ha so much for the early night I had planned on Tuesday - Lol it didn't happen!!!!!!!!

One of the demos I watched really whet my appetite for some playing on Wednesday and I just followed the demonstrated techniques etc as far as I could with the supplies I have, the stamp used is Daniels Hearts from Stampotique.  Please pop on over HERE to watch a superb journal page from Rach.  Thank-you Rach for the inspiration, it was just what I needed to get some creativity flowing again, I hope I have done you justice!!

Here you go peeps........


Ooh this was so much fun and I learnt a few techniques I had not come across before - bonus!

Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Hugs

Dawn x

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Just playing........

........with a cereal packet, dry wall tape, tissue paper, all purpose filler, scraps from my scrap box and some paint!!!!!!!! A work in progress but I wanted to share as I like it so far!! I dread to think how it will end up though!!!!!!!! Hmm, maybe just keep them as they are for reference!!?? Lol, love how the first one crackled in places, not a clue how mind you!!??






Keep safe and warm my lovely blogger friends.

Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Love and huggles

Dawn x

Sunday 13 January 2013

The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge - Letter V

Evening all,

phew!!!! I eventually finished my page ready for entry into the new Craft Barn challenge for 2013.  This is right up my street, so to speak, as you have the option to 'alter' a dictionary (among other ideas) and play with lots of words/text.  For full details of the challenge please pop on over HERE, the lovely Izzy explains all.  If you fancy a peek at the entries so far please pop on over HERE too.

I love the way that the letters posted each fortnight for the challenge are to be random and that 'little twists' are to be thrown in every now and again!! What a great way to keep the challenge fresh and enticing for us all and help us to avoid the temptation to try working ahead ha ha ha!!

Anyhoo, here you go (ooh and apologies for poor pics, my book wouldn't fit on my scanner for a full double spread shot)........


I opted for V for VENUS and have done a double page spread for the Goddess and the planet.

Lots of acrylic glazes, stamping, stencilling, embossing, collage and journaling techniques were applied to create a diagonally symmetrical spread, one of my faves!!  The central image of the Venus de Milo was found on The Graphics Fairy, the other images were sourced from a google search.

Hopefully these scans of the 2 pages will show the details more clearly.......


You can see here that I have put the statue on a 'plinth' incorporating the dictionary definition!!  Lol, the plan was to keep this part of the page free from glaze for more definition but I downright forgot when I was slapping the glaze on - what a muppet!!




Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Huge hugs

Dawn x

Sunday 6 January 2013

Journal Page........

Evening all,

hope everyone is well? Ha ha I am determined to create more and share more this year now that I'm feeling a little more confident with what I am doing, long may this last and I hope you will join me on my 'travels' this year too.

I am so so pleased with how this page evolved, considering it started life as a 'tester page' for some new paints!!


I started by randomly stamping a viva decor flourish using raspberry memento ink.  The distress inks came out for the next layer and were built up gradually and then spritzed with water to help blend the colour blocks. My scrap paper box was raided for some complementary patterned papers which were hand cut and stuck on before I further attacked the page with the paints I wanted to 'test'. The paints were sponged through Tando's 'sequin waste' and 'random circles' mask until I was happy.
The gorgeous fella is Stampotiques 'heart throb' and the sentiment is a random one from my stash. Heart throb has been coloured using promarkers and grounded to the page with a strip of Tim Holtz tissue tape.
Lots of doodling later, with the random circles of white again courtesy of Tando's 'sequin waste' mask, and 'voila'!!

Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Hugs

Dawn x

Friday 4 January 2013

Altered Book Update........

Evening lovely people,

ha ha its been an age since I blogged but hopefully after a very busy few weeks I can finally start to get back to some 'normality'!!

I would like to share some pages from my altered book which was done in conjunction with the amazing Elizabeth's free course, the lessons are all still available on her blog via a dedicated side-bar feature HERE.

I would like to thank Elizabeth again for her time and dedication in providing these amazing lessons. I can honestly say that through the course I have tried many techniques which were so beautifully explained and illustrated, many of which I would probably never have had a go at!!!!  I am sure you can all imagine the time that this lovely lady has taken to prepare, demonstrate and blog each extensive lesson - Elizabeth I salute you for this and for your willingness and generosity in sharing your experiences and arty knowledge x x

Anyhoo, I have to admit to not having a 'completed' book yet, personal circumstances took over at the end of November that brought my crafting to a halt, then Christmas and New Year took over, hey ho, these things happen and I am now on a mission to 'catch-up' as soon as I can and get my book finished.
I still have a few more spreads to go inside as well as the cover to decorate and I will share these with you as and when I complete them..................

My apologies for the terrible photos, the light has been horrendous lately!!






I started this spread by collaging various pieces of papermania bookpage paper into my book. I then added a few layers of various coloured glazes until I was happy-ish with the result, it got a little 'muddy' for my liking but you can still see some of the colour tones I think? 
The 'venetian' images were all from various travel brochures, some of which I have covered with glazes and metallic paints to ground them into the spread and some of which I have left alone as focal points. 
The lettering was created using an alpha stamp set from my stash, this was stamped onto red card, details picked out using glitter pens and they were then clear embossed before I added them to the page.





Tee hee, this spread was fun to do albeit not using my usual colour pallette!!  I gessoed and glazed the base then stamped and stencilled away to my hearts content. I felt it was still a little too much so decided to dry brush some more gesso across the spread to tone everything down a bit.
The main images were cut from magazines and were matted onto a distress inked doily.  Tim Holtz's regal flourish was randomly stamped to create a border (not too easy to get a good stamped image on a very lumpy surface as you can probably see ha ha) and some tissue tape and torn music paper was added to create some focal balance.
Following some advice from a very special lady (lol you know who you are Mrs G, thank-you sweetie x) I added a few scrapes of red paint with a plastic card which gives the spread the little lift that it needed.


For this final spread I started with a gesso base and stamped the entire page with an Andy Skinner texture stamp, a yellow glaze was then added along with a tissue tape border.
The main image was created using a papermania 'urban' stamp on cream card, this was then coloured with distress ink. One of the clock faces was stamped again on cream card and fussy cut. It was then coloured with DI's, highlighted with a glitter pen and clear embossed. The wings are from Stampotique's Angel Boy, they were stamped and embossed with gold powder, fussy cut and then coloured with DI's before being stuck to the original stamped panel.

Hopefully I will be back again soon my lovelies.
Many thanks for popping by and leaving a comment if you feel you would like to.

Huge hugs
Dawn x