Freestyle Art #131

Oops.. missed a day!  Had my artwork all ready but forgot I hadn't blogged it!  Oh well.. you will all have to do the Doctor Who timey wimey thing and pretend this post went up yesterday!... I'll have 'today's' post appearing later today!

Today's creation is a little different... complete freestyle artwork NO STAMPS... yes I know... unusual for me!

I started by covering card with sheets from a dictionery and then applying a light coat of gesso over the top so I could still see the text.

I next drew on my abstract flowers with a fineliner and added some paint colour over the top and then once dry I drew in the flower head detail.  I drew in a rough outline of a tree and added colour with acrylic paint, using the base of the handle of my paintbrush to apply the leaves so I got lots of texture

Finally the words were handwritten and then coloured with a little bit of pink Promarker to make them stand out!

hope you like it

happy crafting

Jane

www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

Steampunk Birdhouse #128

I absolutely loved creating this project!  I wanted to show you that the little papier mache birdhouses we stock (just a £1.00 each!! - six different shapes available) - can be decorated in more than just the Decoupage style.  Sorry - lots of pictures on this one today so you can see all the stages!

Well this is what you start with... well sort of.. I was that excited to get started I forgot to photograph it in it's natural state - this is it... balanced on its side whilst drying from a coat of Gesso.

Next I cut out lots and lots of different size cogs and gears using my Spellbinders Sprightly  sprocket set and started to arranged them onto each of the sides and then stuck down with Cosmic Shimmer Dries Clear Glue..

Next for some paint - I wanted a purple-magenta type shade - so mixed Art Proff Blue and Red shades

and then painted over the entire birdhouse a couple of times...

(it looks a little brown here) - but really its a magenta pinky purple shade.  Next - add some gold gilding wax to highlight the cogs...

Finally - I added dry brushed soft gold Cosmic shimmer pearlescent watercolour paint to further enhance the cogs and then glued some metal findings on with my glue for the finished piece.  We now sell packs of these metal findings - and absolute must for anyone who likes altered art!

love love LOVE it!.... what can I steampunk next???

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

Chinese Bird Card

This lovely little chap is a new Stampendous stamp.  This was another creation from the trade show.  I created the background by using the Stampendous version of the gelli plate (we'll be getting gelli plates in shortly!) - with some acrylic paint and spread it around with a brayer (roller).  Once our background was dry, the bird was stamped in black ink and then the paints were used to add some colour.  the leaves were coloured with a little watercolour pencil.

Sorry - very quick post today... on my way out of the door to the craft club this evening - should be fun!!

will catch you all tomorrow

hope you like the card

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk

Embossed Hearts

You will recognise the same dies from yesterday - and a similar layout too - but this time to mix it up a bit. I've used Acrylic paints onto greyboard.  On the red and gold heart, I've used the same technique as yesterday - painted a red base coat, then added some vaseline before painting the gold top coat and once dry then wipe away as the vaseline acts as a resist.  I've then run it through with an embossing folder.  I wasn't sure how much detail I would get as it's thick grey board - but as you can see it was very detailed - this has been put through a Cuttlebug.  (The folder was one that's no longer available to buy that was in my stash).  I created my mounts the same as yesterday.  As I knew I needed to make quite a few cards in a short space of time, I stuck with the same design layout and created my mounts in the same way so I could cut out having to do lots of measuring. 

In the pink and gold card, I painted in just the pale pink for this heart and then run through with a Love heart embossing folder from Crafts Too.  The next stage required patience!  I lined up the heart over the embossing folder so it would keep firm and flat, then bit by bit I used my Versamark to ink only the raised parts of the design.  Do this a a little at a time with a very light touch, if you rush it you will just ink the lower bits.  Again because it's over paint, even if you use an antistatic bag, you may need to tidy up with a little paintbrush.  I completed it in about 5 stages, so not too long - but worth it! 

As a final detail on this card, I inked up some scrap card with my versamark and embossed it with gold and then punched out four little hearts to add to the corners - that way they match perfectly.

Fed up with hearts yet..... I'm not quite finished!... a few more tomorrow!  :-)

happy crafting
Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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Painted Shabby Chic Hearts

 As I promised yesterday, my cards this week are on a heart and Valentine's theme.  I wanted to make a batch of cards for the shop - but didn't have huge amounts of love themed products to hand, so I based most of my cards around my one set of Nested Heart shaped dies.  These are from X Cut but are now discontinued. 

I started by cutting out a heart out of thick card - I actually used some greyboard - which is the sort of card you usually find at the back of a paper pad - always handy to keep!  I painted my heart using Acrylic paints - I've used colours from Eco-Green and Art Proff -  and allowed to dry.  I then swiped over some vaseline and then painted my second colour over the top.  Once dry, you can then wipe away some of the top coat where the vaseline has acted as a resist.  I allowed my hearts to thoroughly dry and then stamped and embossed over the top with different greeting stamps I had in my stash.  You may find that you need to do a bit of tidying up with a little paintbrush as even though you allow the paint to dry and wipe over the antistatic bag, the nature of the paint means it can cling on with some of your embossing powder - but be patient - its worth the effect!!

As I was making this card in two different colour ways, I measured my two mounts and then cut out two of each.  For the layer that was going immediately under the heart, I just caught the edge of the card with my Versamark pad and added embossing powder to give a lovely metallic shabby chic edge.  For the base mount, I painted the colour that I thought would best match around the edge of the card and allowed to dry (no need to paint the middle as you are covering it up!).  Once everything was dry I then mounted the cards onto a card blank.

I thought I would do two different colour ways as not everyone wants a pink Valentines card - and it was fun to play with the different layers of colour.

More hearts tomorrow..... :-)

happy crafting

Jane
www.aldridgecrafts.co.uk
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