New Stash, and Gold Seahorse Masterboard

Today I did some art in my studio for the first time for ages! I have several occasions coming up which require cards, and I need to make some fairly quick ones without too much work involved, because energy is in short supply, and I shall be having my third chemo treatment on Friday and who knows how I’m going to feel after that!!

So I thought I would make a masterboard and cut it up and make several cards from it.

I got some very exciting new stash today! First of all, I’d ordered some thin metal angels’ wings from Etsy, along with some vintage mini-bouquets, and they arrived this morning.

I am intending to make moulds from some of these wings, so that I can replicate them in different materials (polymer clay, Friendly Plastic, etc.) depending on how well the moulds go – the metal is very thin and it might be hard to press it down evenly into the moulding putty. Notice the attached haloes on the larger wings! You can bend the halo forwards so that it hovers above the angel’s head! The mini-bouquets are very pretty and I thought I could split these apart and use them for angel embellishments.

Later in the day, the most exciting parcel arrived. I decided not long ago to get the complete set of Dylusions paints. I am so fed up with ruining decent pens by writing with them over acrylic paint – there’s something that reacts and causes the ink in the pen to stop working, and once that happens there’s nothing to be done – the pen is ruined and just has to be thrown away. I read a review of these new paints and was pleased to learn that they are designed specifically for art journaling and of course writing is an essential part of that discipline, and the paints do not cause the pens to clog. I have watched a number of Youtube videos over the past few days and can see how versatile these paints are, and how you can blend them, and create great backgrounds with them. The colours are identical to the Dylusions sprays but their usage is different, and you an get quite a bit more control with them.

I began my masterboard by creating a background from several of these paints. These are some of the materials I used for this masterboard.

I applied the paints using a baby wipe, picking up the smallest amount of paint each time, from inside the lid of the jar. The card I have used for the masterboard isn’t very good quality – it’s A3 office grade card, so I would probably have got better results with the blending if I’d used better quality card. Layer 1 was done with London Blue.

Layer 2 was created with Vibrant Turquoise. With the blending not going quite as well as I’d hoped, I decided to go for a swirling pattern.

Layer 3: Cut Grass.

Layer 4: Squeezed Orange – just a little, between the swirls where there wasn’t so much colour.

Layer 5: Lemon Zest – a very small amount, just to highlight the Squeezed Orange.

For layer 6, I mixed together some Vibrant Turquoise and some White Linen to produce a paler shade.

Creating Layer 6:

Time for some stamping. I used the water droplets stamp from Designs by Ryn, with Ranger Cobalt Archival Ink.

At this point I felt that the whole thing was much too bright and the water droplets were too dark, so I decided to apply a wash with some White Linen paint mixed with some water.

I applied this with a foam brush over the entire surface of the masterboard, but it left quite a lot of streaks, so I took a fan brush and made swirling brush strokes through the wash, which gave a better effect.

The wash completed. I am much happier with this result. The colour is much more subtle and the water droplets not so obvious.

Time to stamp the shells. I used Distress Inks for this, but they didn’t go down onto the acrylic surface very well, and took quite a bit of drying with my heat gun, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result.

I began with the little starfish from the Seven Gypsies set, using Tea Dye Distress Ink, but this came out quite pale with a slightly greenish cast over the turquoise background.

For the scallop shell I used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink:

and for the other shell, Rusty Hinge.

The shell stamping completed.

Time to add the heat-embossed seahorses. The seahorse stamp came from the same Seven Gypsies set as the shells.

The gold embossed seahorses complete. I completed four at a time.

I think you can see how nice and shiny they are in the photograph. I wanted to add a bit more sparkle, so I applied some variegated copper gilding flakes in small patches, using a glue pen, and stippling them on with a brush, and then brushing off the excess.

Here is the completed masterboard, showing the shiny seahorses and gilding flakes.

I am very pleased with the new paints. If the quality of the card had been better I think the blending might have gone better, but I like the way the colours go together, and how you can control them, and lighten or darken the effect with the addition of white or black, and other colour mixing, giving you the full range of colours. In their raw state the colours are very vibrant and not a bit subtle, and I think for most of the time I shall be mixing them for a gentler, more subtle effect. The addition of a white colour wash certainly improved this piece, I think.

Daddyhole

Daddyhole… what a funny name! According to one website, the origin derives from a natural arch or hole in the cliff which the Victorians named “London Bridge” but which has a much older name – “Devil’s Hole.” In Old English, Daddy was a name for the devil! In some ways I wish I’d never found that out!!

Anyway, today I felt sufficiently better to realise that I was going stir crazy, not having left the house at all for several days. I asked my hubby if we could go out for a while to look at the sea as it was a lovely day, so he took me up to Daddyhole, which is not far from where we live, in Torquay. This is a high-up plateau above the sea, with wonderful views and the air is always fresh. At this time of year there are plenty of wild flowers growing, too.

Coastguard Station.

This is unfortunately no longer in operation and has been turned into a museum.

I love seaside architecture! It’s so light-hearted. Isn’t this a fun terrace of houses painted in their pretty pastel colours.

My hubby.

A most intriguing little archway to the left of the Coastguard Station with a path leading down the cliff.

We found these really weird flowers growing on the cliff top. They look like giant lavender! They were quite large. I have not seen this plant before.

View over the bay.

Looking over the cliff.

Flowers and railings.

Rocks and boats.

I love those three rocks strung out across the sea. Lots of sailing boats out today.

The sky was so beautiful today – I think you will agree that the changing cloud formations are gorgeous. The sky and sea were so blue.

A short, but very pleasant trip out – a change of scene and a breath of sea air. OK, I was knackered when we got home, but it was worth it.

Edited later: Pic of me taken by my hubby. I wasn’t aware of him doing it so I’m looking a bit dozy!

Here’s another pic he took the other day, at Anstey’s Cove, another beautiful bit of our Torquay coastline.

Beautiful Card from Paula

I have been suffering pretty severe effects from my second chemo session and starting to feel a bit sorry for myself, getting fed up with it going on day after day – at least the nausea and other effects have subsided but the fatigue seems endless. In the middle of all this, last week I received the most wonderful package from the USA from Paula. If you haven’t seen her work, do check it out because she makes the most beautiful cards with intricate die-cuts and gorgeous embellishments, and I am sure she would appreciate a visit to her blog.

She sent me a lovely little pack of crafty goodies to use, with lots of die-cuts and embellishments, which I am going to have a lot of fun with. Also included in the pack were some precious little vintage Valentine cut-outs. Just look a that adorable little bird’s nest with the eggs in it, too!

She also put in a choccie biccie as a spoily – delicious despite it being so NOT what my waistline needs lol! Great feel-good factor though, touching those parts that only chocolate can reach! On the little tag it said “All you need in life is a friend who has chocolate. …I’m that friend.” Lol!!! (I’m afraid I can’t photograph the biscuit. I’ve eaten it!!)

Everything was beautifully wrapped and I felt very spoilt indeed as I opened each little package.

She has made me the most beautiful card, in her signature style with delicate die-cuts and gorgeous papers. The white-on-white is so sophisticated, with a little splash of colour with the delicate lilac of the flowers and the blue organza ribbon.

I had to take lots of detail shots to show just how beautiful this is, and how much trouble she went to to make me something I shall want to keep and treasure.

I have tried to light this so that the photos really show the shimmery nature and different textures of the paper and card she has used. There’s a lovely contrast between the bright silver behind the sentiment and in the corners and the matting and layering, and the more subtle brushed silver and the embossed glitter cards.

I love the floral embellishments with the ribbon and the little pearl flowers.

This embossed glitter card is so beautiful. I hope you can see the sparkle on it. Really hard to photograph to do it justice.

The base card, which extends around to the back of the card, is stunning. Beautiful silvery colour with a subtle design.

Inside the card she stamped a gorgeous floral corner decoration, and I do so love the stamped sentiment! This is definitely something I would use inside my own cards! Beautiful words.

This exquisite card, and the other gifts in the pack, certainly did a lot to cheer me. I feel so blessed to have such friends as Paula, who are prepared to do so much and go to so much trouble, to help me on my way through my horrible chemo!

Thank you, Paula.

Another Needle Felted Angel

I have made another angel body from needle felting over an armature, this time made from my mammoth new pipe cleaners.

These pipe cleaners are enormous – very long and extra thick and fluffy! Almost large enough to sweep the chimney with. The colours are somewhat lurid but as they will mostly be needle felted or wrapped, I’m not too bothered about that.

Here is the armature for the angel that I made – this one is quite a bit larger than the previous one.

This armature was made from two giant pipe cleaners, one for the head and arms, and the other for the body and legs. I looped the ends of the legs a couple of times to form the feet, and the arms are double thickness with a loop at the ends to form the hands.

I began the needle felting by loosely felting a ball to form the inner part of the head.

Here it is, stuffed into the head loop of the armature.

It was then a simple matter to begin wrapping the whole head with wool roving, needle felting as I went.

Here is the head, almost complete.

As it was quite a bit larger than the first one, I decided to attempt to sculpt a face on this head. I began by adding more roving to the front of the face to build it up.

This is the head in profile so far.

I sculpted the face by building up the nose, forehead and chin, and pushing in the eye sockets and mouth, and the area under the nose, with more aggressive needle felting. Not too bad for a first attempt!

Here is the finished head in profile, showing the ear – I made the ears from two small fragments of wool roving, shaping them as I needle felted them to the sides of the head. The face is a little flat – a bit like an Easter Island statue!

The next step was to needle felt the body. I made it a little bit too long so the proportions aren’t quite right, but once the angel is clothed, this won’t matter. I built up the chest and stomach/bottom areas with extra wool roving.

The final step was to cover the limbs with needle felting. I covered the hands and feet well with roving before beginning to wrap the arms and legs.

Not too bad, I think! With his rather long body and short, slightly bandy legs, he looks a bit like a drunken sailor. At least there was no angel abuse this time, unless you count being stabbed all over repeatedly with a barbed needle!

I’ve been pooped all week. At least the worst of the side effects of the chemo have worn off now, but my energy levels remain extremely low and I’ve done little else but flop about on the recliner since my last treatment. The next one is a week today and I really need to start feeling better so I can actually achieve something before the next one is upon me and I’m back to square one again!