Flower power

...or making order out of chaos. Well I've definitely been stepping outside my comfort zone on this artful journey. I love the artwork of Flora Bowley , and she does teach via workshops and online courses and although on my wish list they are out of my price range..however..I noticed on instagram she was doing a short online tutorial via Creative Bug, having looked into it, this was much more affordable so I signed up. I've already learned a lot and trusted to the process for several of the steps but ended up deviating along the way partly because Flora works on large canvasses and this just started as a play in my small journal. However I look forward to practicing her techniques more.

It's not giving the game away to say it involves the layering of colour and mark making. What I quickly realised was that it's difficult to make many different marks on such a small scale that won't just get lost, so the solution for me was to incorporate stencils and stamps. I went way overboard with detail because I knew I wanted to isolate some shapes with either black or white (another deviation) so that whatever area I picked there would be lots of pop.

I won't show the first few layers because they just look bleugh! You have to work through each one but for someone who at times embraces and appreciates CAS this final layer looks like all my fresco paints exploded on the page...and more! I even added some journalling.

I have to be honest it's like the most vibrant crazy masterboard I've ever seen...but I liked it. I may even have to create another in my journal just for fun.

Time to isolate. I wanted to create a repeat pattern for the new 'Pattern' challenge at PaperArtsy and thought about circles and larger flowers that would have shown more of the background off but I was torn in thinking if I left too much background it would still look chaotic. I opted for tracing around a Lin Brown flower stencil. I then used fresco paints in snowflake and nougat to block out the background colour.

Using white or pale paint always knocks back a background and although I loved the 'fresco' effect of painting on plaster it created, the jewel like tones of the flowers were disappearing (this is where I feel a larger flower may have worked better or I should have used black). I decided to emboss them to make them pop.

I added some scratchy lines around the petals and between the flowers to join them before adding a go to quote.

A good journey for me is one where in travelling from one place to another I learn along the way....I really enjoyed this art journey and I'm now eager to travel again. Thanks so much for stopping by and happy creating!

A little playtime...

...is good for your soul! I started this journal page last week and today I've managed to find some time to  finish it.

The background started with layers of torn book text, music paper and some tissue doily pieces. Then I added some crackle paste through a stencil.

I've used crayola twistable slickstix to add the colour, blending them and and spraying with water to get some rather nice tones and drips. White paint through some more stencils.  

Part of the main image was repeat stamped on tissue and added to a few areas. Black archival stamping and ink pad swiping across the raised textured areas add some more depth.

Treasure gold and some intentionally illegible journalling, plus a little doodling in places. One of the quotes I've used is by  Paul Cezanne  'A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not a work of art', I found it recently and it struck a chord.

I've had this Donna Downey face stamp for a while so I'm really pleased I've finally got around to using her along with one of the fab quotes in the set.

As I've used stencils in a couple of ways it's lovely to be able to join in with the current challenge over at A Vintage Journey which is 'Stencil It'   and I'm also joining in with the current 'Anything Goes' theme at The Artistic Stamper.

Thanks so much for stopping by....hope you find time to go and create something...you know it will be good for you. Ruth x

'Time to Take Flight' at Stamps and Stencils

Hi everyone, well the last month certainly 'flew' by and now it's 'time' for our next challenge over at Stamps and Stencils....bit of a hint there...it's our DT lead Sue who is the host for this months challenge, here's what she has to say about it.

For this challenge I would like to see anything relating to flying, so this could be a bird or a butterfly or it could be an inspirational quote that includes words relating to flying ! As always, please remember we are a mixed media challenge and you must include either stamping or stenciling or both !

I've chosen to make a fabric page this month which will eventually form part of a fabric book. I first made one a few years ago on a wonderful Artsycrafts weekend which was a weekend workshop run by PaperArtsy....of which I have very fond memories. Although the base is fabric, this would work just as well on a canvas.

In looking around for inspiration, I was thinking about insects and came across a metal bee embellishment similar to one I'd used in my original fabric book. I thought it would be good to create another book and start by creating a fabric page....although in the end I didn't use the metal bee.

The Tim Holtz dragonfly was cut from some alcohol inked deli paper (from my Yupo post) which had been glued on to a music sheet.

The base was some green fabric and I stencilled the numbers with French Roast fresco paint. The Chapel Road bee stamp is stamped onto a gorgeous rust colured piece of silk and the lace was coloured with Infusions mixed with gum arabic to make it fast.

I then played around with the placement and decided I would stencil some Finnabair 3D transparent gel mixed with pear blossom primary elements onto the background. I then started to secure most of the elements in place by stitching.

A few microbeads and touch of treasure gold enhances the embossed dragonfly.

A little key and some stitching

Where would I be without buttons and lace...

To finish the edges of the cream canvas were zigzagged stitched.

Lots of things take flight, pop across to be inspired by my wonderful teamies creations and join in with our challenge!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Ruth x