Courage my friends.

Oh I do love it when something comes together so effortlessly like the page below called "Courage",

Working in my big journal I had already used the Prima 12 x 12 flower stencil to add a base layer of texture paste. I painted over that totally with Claudine Hellmuth Studio paint in Classic Teal which is an absolutely gorgeous colour. Once this was dry I took a sanding block and gave the whole page a gentle sand to take off the top layer of paint and reveal the beautiful stenciled image below.

That all done I seriously didn't want to cover it up and would have been quite happy to leave it like that but that doesn't make much of a page really, so I clustered a few off cuts, a piece of glittery tape from My Minds Eye, a bit of journaling and I stamped and embossed the lace border by Prima and Finnabair taking a paintbrush to flick off some of the powder to give it a tattered look.

I think that's all it needed as I wanted to leave plenty of "white space" as they say.

See you soon

Jaine x

Circles!

Hello!
I love circles, use them loads whether its scribbly circles, printed circles or stamped circles! I decided to have a little circle play on a panel today, this time cutting some circles out and sticking them down.....

I took two different approaches to the circles. I gave some book pages a wash of paint, and dried it thoroughly. I then punched a few circles our (make sure the paper is COMPLETELY dry before punching, paper that is even a little damp just gets mangled up in the punch.....ask me how I know that lol!!) I glued the punched out circles to the background, overhanging the edge...

Once trimmed, you have a nice scalloped edge that you can then print or doodle over!
I cut out two larger circles from book pages, and very simply smeared paint over them! These were then stuck down to the background, and printed and doodled over....

These circles were my focal point, and I placed them upon stripey stems....

The background itself is another messy painty affair, as you might expect! Lots of smears, all done with fingers and dried in between colours so no muddy mixing occurred...

I stencilled a little, and then stamped a little too...

I added stitching for my other worldly flower heads to stand on...

And then added a cut up book page as a title..

Black UTEE splatters also found their way onto the panel!
So, a nice messy painty creation, colourful as usual with an emphasis on circles!
Hope you like it!
Trish xxxxxxx

Freedom!

Hello!
Did you see the winner of our last challenge? Alisons fabulous entry with all the butterflies inspired me to add a little 3D movement to my project for today. Of course, not having the patience Alison must have had, my 3D movement was limited to just six hearts.......

Stitching them down the middle means you can carefully lift the edges up....

The background is a quick smeared paint base, with white stencilling, black stamping and washi tape added for extra detail. I also melted in some black UTEE crystals, and stitched some decorative elements....

My lettering is some very ancient rub ons... I think I got them at the Post Office years ago! Very impressed they still worked!

I used:
Paint
Black UTEE
Stamps: Background, Heart

Have a nice Sunday everyone!
Trish xxxx

You are so worth it!

Hello!
A little inspirational message from me today....... with a stack of birds!

A colourful painty background, lots of layers..

A little washi tape and some melted in UTEE to give some splatters...

I stamped the birds onto tissue, then stuck them to the background using Mod Podge. Each one was done individually, to form the bird stack!

I used Prima stickers (Sun kiss) for the words....

Nice and bright and cheerful for a Sunday morning!
Have a great week everyone!
Trish xxx

Image transfer techniques

 It was whilst trying out some printing without using a gelli plate that I came upon this technique for transferring an image.  I tried this on paper first but found the paper tore but on sticky backed canvas it worked better. Maybe if I'd given my paper a coat of gesso first it might have worked better but I have to experiment further to find out. 

Anyway, I started off with a background of texture paste, (of course, what else would you expect from me?) through a plain old paper doily and some spray inks.

 I chose an image from a magazine of just a head shot and lay a piece of plastic over it. I used one of those clear pockets from a file folder so raid your children's school supplies.

The small bottles of Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints have a very handy thin nib to squeeze paint out of and can easily be used like a pen. I used this to draw the outline of the design onto the plastic.

 I placed the painted image face down onto the background and burnished with my finger.

 I had enough paint left on the plastic to transfer the design onto a journal page although it wasn't as clear.

 For the second transfer technique I used sticky plastic book covering but you could also use clear packing tape. I covered the image with it and burnished well.

 I cut around the image.

I then soaked it in water and rubed off the paper backing. I kept soaking and rubbing until most of the paper had been removed from the back and only the image remained.

 I used some gel medium to glue it in place.

To finish my piece I use my sewing machine to doodle around the edges.

 and stamped some script over the image and added lettering with stickers.

Sticky canvas is great if you don't sew and takes any manner of mediums on top give it a go. I hope you give the transfer techniques a go too, they're easy.

Jaine x

Messy Monoprinting!

Hello!
I want to share an easy (but still messy and great fun!) way of creating backgrounds today!

 

Monoprinting is HUGE right now, and this is how I've created my painty background on this project. No expensive bits of kit though, just an acrylic block!
The block I used was the biggest I have, but of course smaller blocks work just as well for smaller projects!
I print in two ways.... firstly...

Put teeny bits of paint on the block. Then, brayer gently to mix...

Now, this is tricky to do without smearing. The block has a slick surface so the brayer can want just to slide rather than roll. Still, persevere and you'll get the hang of just how much pressure etc to use.
Quickly, before the paint dries, press your cardstock onto the block...

Then peel it off....

The thin layers of paint will have transferred themselves to the card...

It's an absolute doddle to clean the block, hot soapy water or babywipes get it pristine in no time.
Now, brayering thin layers can be a little subtle for me, so I tend to go for the more messy approach!
Smear the paint on with your fingers....

And then press on the card to get a print...

This method obviously uses more paint, and you will be able to get more than one print from the block. This is great if you are doing book pages etc, where creating similar backgrounds quickly is useful!
So...printing done, we can get on with the rest of the piece!
I did a little stamping..

Bo Bunny Dots, Prima stitched circles, Jenni Bowlin grids and text.....
I also did some stitching and splatting with black paint..

My Stampotique figure is coloured with the same paint using a waterbrush...

She stands on some washi tape, and I've added a phrase from a cut up old book to finish.
I think we all have an acrylic block in our stash....get it painty and try printing!
Trish xxx

Which direction? Tag by Gez!

Hi Gez here, I've had great fun playing with paints and masks and getting messy!

I started with a piece of brown packaging, nothing like having a good old rumage through the recycling box! I laid the stencil on the card and applied, paints and inks, removed the stencil and added some doodling along with some gorgeous Tando arrows which were painted. The words are computer generated.

List of products used:
Claudine Hellmuth Studio Paints
Dr Ph. Martin's Bombay Indian Inks (for drips and splatters!)
Tando Creative Mini Arrows
Posca Paint Pens
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer Blazonry stencil

Hope you like my tag! Happy creating, Gez

Follow Your Heart.....

Hello!
I've gone a little off piste today...... I've made a *thing*.....

It's a hangy dangly thing.....!
Remember the heart I used on this project? That one was made of clay. This time I used the same mould, but used  UTEE for a different look. I'll show you how I made the heart embellishment....
Paint up a bit of book page (I like the look of this so much I've stored the idea away in my head for future use!!!)

Glue the heart to the book page using glossy accents. Make sure you press really hard to get rid of any trapped air bubbles. Doesn't matter if it oozes out of the sides!

Leave to dry.....and you can't hurry it with your heat gun, the heart will melt remember! Cut closely round the shape , but don't worry about being too exact...

Use an emery board to gently sand the paper away to get a very neat finish. Sand in strokes from the back to the front so the UTEE heart doesn't get scratched....

I then drilled a hole through it.... This needs to be done gently so I used a small Archimedes drill (purchased from Ebay, loads on there)

Everything else on my hanging was threaded onto wire coming from the heart. I twisted the wire after threading it through my drilled hole....

I made five rolls of book pages. Very simple, just add a little paint and stamping, roll up into a tube and glue in place. One of the tubes was given a rub on phrase, this will be the one next to the heart. I poked a hole through each tube, then threaded the wire through......

As you can see, I also added a little bead in between each tube. Once all five tubes were on, I formed a loop with the remaining wire, and twisted the end around to secure....

Lots of dimension to this hanging...

Finished off at the bottom with a handmade UTEE heart embellishment....

Something different from me today, hope you like it!
Trish xxx