Happy Day!

Happy Mothers’s day!!…I’m having a lovely pamper day, a break from the renovating the cottage, eating lots of yummy (and bad for you) stuff and of course crafting. YAY!!

This has meant I have actually had proper time to have a play with Less is More’s challenge of masking…naturally my fingers itched to use stamps but actually masking and stencilling is one of the easy ways to make cards without spending anything at all.

So it was back to the felt pens and daubers for this one

Using a knitting needle punched through paper onto a soft mouse mat, created the torn circles. I keep a pot of buttons and coins on my desks as they make handy guides for projects that need small circles. I created three bushes on my tree for Allsorts “three in a row” challenge

            

I then drew a flower pot and using “bog standard” tracing, repeated the design three times to create different elements of the pot.  The layers of colour were created by mixing colours together, then rubbing the ink over the masks, working from one side to build up light and shade. A final bit of texture was added to the tree by stippling the darker shade on with a piece of packing foam. The stalk was added on after the leaves and pot, masking the area required with post-it notes.

          

I did find the dauber created a very subtle shade through such a small gap, so I used an off-cut from a Memory foam insole to get the ink into the gap which worked extremely well.  To finish I grounded the pot with a little bit of shading (masked with torn paper. The greeting was part of a much larger message on a recycled Birthday card.

CONFESSION: I cant even call it a school girl error as I think a school girl would have been more careful!! but I was so eager and gleeful in my extra crafting time I carelessly  wrenched the mask off my card, which I had diligently attached with masking tape…..you can guess what is coming …….there was …a hideous little tear on the side of my card. I had even de-tacked the tape on my p.js (yes I was crafting in my jammies…how decadent is that) but there it was …mocking me…oh well I like matting white on white…so no massive harm done.

After amazing, fabulous Eggs Benedict (cooked by Katie and James…and waited on by hubby Steve). It was straight back to the craft room for another version of the topiary tree. This time with the safety net of creating the elements separately, then decoupaging them onto the card. The message was from the same recycled birthday card but this time it was cut from the inside and pleated to create a banner.

I have only now had the chance to post this, I have spent the rest of the day with Katie and Steve. We have turned an old kitchen shelf into a house sign for the cottage(using my cricut to cut out some lettering)….. we needed a new sign as the old one was attached to the front porch….which got into a fight with a Concrete Mixer Lorry on Tuesday…the mixer lorry won!!! ……and we have all just cuddled up and watched “One Day” with tea and a packet of crunch creams.

My wonderful mum died 16 years ago and today is always overshadowed by not having my daughter Gina here (I craft in her bedroom, so it is a  special place for me) but I am lucky and privileged to have had them in my life.

to my loved ones….Thank you for this special day,

……and to you all who visit ….thank you for popping by and putting up with my ramblings. …..I hope you have had a lovely day.

TORN CIRCLES...the final frontier

Right I am beginning to bore myself but I just used up some scraps and a magazine I was about to throw out, to create one last circle card (well for the time being!!). This time I just wanted to see what it looked like if I didn't use just plain water (see Torn circles post), instead I created a wash by scribbling felt pen ink on a tile then picking up the ink with the wet brush. It shows up quite well on the light paper and creates the slight effect of another mat but I don't think it shows on the magazine pictures.

Right I am banned from using torn circles.....oh til at least....March???!

TORN CIRCLES...and three wishes from three little mice.

Clare's Do crafts Weekly challenge has a sketch this time and as it features a circle I thought it was a good opportunity to see if I could tear thicker cardstock and be more precise than the torn flower circles in the last couple of posts. The colour scheme is inspired by the Van Gogh Painting which is the very first challenge on the new blog, SCRAP THE ART. This is a great new blog which is going to use pieces of art to inspire and challenge, and it is not specifically about painting and being an artist, it's purely a starting point.

So I went back to basics and just used cardstock and doodling with pens, as I did in my first posts.

I sketched three little mice (I called them Cheddar, Stylton, and Eeedam) I doodle these mice all the time (mainly on my telephone pad) and they are just based on a simple rounded wedge shape, they were coloured with watered down ink from my pens. I tinted the yellow piece of card (this really was a horrible colour so it needed disguising)with daubers and pens. I then used a wet paintbrush to flick water on the ink, after a few seconds dab the water off with a tissue.

I used a black pen to doodle the border (a modern "homage" to Van Gogh's swirls.

I did use one cheat and that was glitter, watered down PVA glue was flicked on with a brush then sprinkled with glitter...this was my final influence from "Starry night".

THE CIRCLES.....

It actually worked better than I thought BUT PATIENCE is the key.

Choose a circular container or lid and again work on a spongy surface like the back of a mouse mat. Hold the lid in place and draw round (scoring) with an embossing tool or knitting needle DON'T be tempted to press hard, I ripped through the first time and it did spoil the effect, it's best to let the water do the work.

Next draw round with a very wet paintbrush, allow it to soak for a minute or two. REPEAT the process, scoring then wetting....allow to soak in again. Make sure you always hold the lid in place. Once softened try pulling the outside card away, it should pull away quite easily and neatly, if not, repeat the soaking until it does, thicker card will need several goes, allow it soak in properly before pulling.

IF YOU CANT BE PATIENT ....THE WHOLE PROCES CAN BE INTANTLY SPEEDED UP BY ADDING SOME WASHING UP LIQUID TO THE WATER, JUST BE AWARE THIS CAN LEAVE A WATER MARK BEHIND ONCE DRIED.