Wanderlust 2023 - weeks twenty-five to thirty-two - Mists and Sprays

The next supply focus was mists and sprays, such as Distress Oxides, or Distress Spray stain or Dylusions sprays.  We made a mosaic using misted and sprayed papers together with photos.

Week twenty-six was again about using sprays to make backgrounds and then cutting out shapes.

I threw myself into this portrait.  The background was using sprays but the portrait was done using pencil crayons.  I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this. It was easier drawing someone with their eyes shut!

We mixed sprays and acrylic ink to make these backgrounds and layered up different patterns and marks.

I really enjoyed week twenty-nine as we sprayed the background then masked off the shapes and added stencils and lots of other layers.  Cutting the letters out of the black card was a challenge but it really helped to have a sharp blade on the craft knife!

Then it was a collage background and stencils.  I made myself choose warm colours (as my usual go to are the cooler colours).

I really enjoyed this piece too.  I chose to draw primroses for my Granny, marigolds for my Mum and lilies for me (as they were in my wedding bouquet and the church flowers - many years ago!)  I like the contrast between the black and white drawings and the painted flowers.

The artful musings week was about making an inspiring creative space.  I have started a page but have only started the background and am considering what to do next.

We move on to Pigments and Powders now.
 

Index Card A Day (ICAD) - Week Nine

The Index Card A Day Challenge has finished after nine weeks and 61 prompts (plus two bonus ones).  Above are the bonus cards: One Staple Collage and Draw or Collage a Bird.  I used gel medium to stick the magazine pieces down and it left a few wrinkles, but they are just part of the image!

The final prompts were: Billiards; Tea Set; Arboretum.  Initially, I didn't feel particularly inspired by Billiards or Arboretum, but managed to create something.  Arboretum was a magazine collage, using a different glue this time.

The final two prompts were: Bossa Nova; Adventure.   I really enjoyed painting Bossa Nova, while listening to appropriate music, of course.  I bought a map stamp a few weeks ago, so was able to use that for the Adventure prompt.  The folded paper hides...

...the countries/places I have travelled to and had my own adventures.  Egypt definitely tops the list for adventures!

I have enjoyed the ICAD challenge and have used lots of different techniques and media to create the pieces. I found making one small piece a day was do-able and the prompts helped me to focus on ideas which I probably wouldn't have followed otherwise.  Deciding to use the prompts each day was also a good choice as again, the words weren't always ones I would have used.   I think my most successful pieces were the mixed media ones - Tiramisu, Camomile, Cappucino, Diagram - but I also like the ones where words have been incorporated too, such as Album and Orchard.  

Here's to next year's ICAD challenge!   

Index Card a Day (ICAD) - Week Five

 How quickly the time seems to be going as I continue this challenge.  I am starting to amass a nice little collection of cards now and just need to decide what to do with them once it is finished.  Above, you can see: Citrus; Arcade and Font.  Arcade had me thinking and in the end the image was quite simple - just arches drawn with a biro and then some distress ink smooshed on.

 The next photo shows Earrings; Periwinkle; Board Games and Lantern.  For the earrings, I looked at lots of earring images and decided to use the suffragette colours of white, green and purple.  White was for purity, green for hope and purple for loyalty and dignity. (Dignity and Hope are certainly things we could do with at the moment.  I was in the town centre this morning and it felt like social distancing had gone out of the window - all rather worrying.)

 I rather liked the earrings I had created for this Dina Wakley stamped face and decided to make some real ones, inspired by these.

Here they are  - white pearls, green fluorite hearts and amethyst rounds.  Women's voices are still not being heard around the world so this is my little token of support for them.

Index Card a Day (ICAD) 2020

I have enjoyed the doodle book and the 14 day journal projects, so when I saw the Index Card A Day challenge over at Daisy Yellow, I decided to join in. 
I like the idea of daily art prompts, which may push me to do something different.  However, there is no pressure - you can use the prompts or not, or use the themes or not, it is up to you.  Creating a piece of art a day on a small scale - 6 x 4 ins, sounded doable and enjoyable, so off I went.
Here are the results of the first week:

Just in case you'd like to know what the prompts were:  Hopscotch, Marigold, Album, Sequins, 1980s, Dreamcatcher, Highway.
I have really enjoyed it and found I could manage a piece per day as they are small and relatively quick to produce. I can also use all my different art and craft materials, which is a good thing.  So far, I have used paints, crayons, magazine collage, die cuts, stencils, stamps, sequins and inks. The most time consuming bit is the thinking!
There is a facebook group to join, should you wish to share your work and see what others are doing.  I'm not a facebooker, so haven't done that.  I am happy with my progress so far and have started the second week's prompts.
I will do a round-up each week in the hope that you find it interesting to see what I come up with...

Playing with inks, stamps, stencils and dies

 I have recently started to get hold of some Distress Oxide inks.  These are a mix of pigment ink and dye ink and have a chalky look, but not a chalky feel.  They have been around for a couple of years and I kept seeing them being used to create the most wonderful backgrounds on blogs and youtube, so I thought I should give them a go (better late than never!).  They work really well.  Above is a simple birthday card for my niece with a Distress Oxide background.  The stamp worked beautifully too.

I then made more backgrounds and used stamps I hadn't tried before.

 I was really pleased with the results.

I have started using frames around these smaller images and I think they look really effective.

 I then tried the oxides through a stencil...

...in a couple of different colourways.  I found that the Oxides are a lot easier to blend than the regular Distress Inks. 

The Oxides react to water so you can create some interesting effects such as 'faux bleaching'.
I used a spiral stamp to create the backgrounds above and you can see the effect adding water had.  I used watercolour card for that.

I also ordered some rather fabulous dies which arrived last week.  Oh my goodness, I love them!  I used the Oxides to create the backgrounds although it took me a few goes to get the colours right - (lighter colours around the moon, Ellie!)

 They are so versatile and can be used throughout the year, not just Christmas, although that's my cards sorted for this year!  A fox peers warily through the trees...

 A stag, doe and fawn pause in a glade...

 A barn owl is on the prowl and a rabbit listens...

 You can also build up the layers by making a little pocket for the tags to sit in.

I know I am going to really enjoy using the inks and dies, although more Distress Oxides will need to be purchased, I think.