52 Pages 2011

Week 9.Follow

Definition=Go or come after (a person or thing proceeding ahead); move or travel behind

Are you a leader or a follower? Who would you follow to the ends of the earth and why?

.........................................

Apologies for not blogging and not yet doing last weeks page. I have had the dreaded lurgy that so many are suffering with. After a great weekend away I started with aches and pains and then a cough, that quickly descended into a full blown head cold and fever. A full week later and I am still coughing and barking like a demented sealion. I haven't been anywhere near my craft room an no art stuff has been done at all. Hopefully I can make up for that this week.

It was the lovely Claire's birthday at the weekend, so I made her a headband like mine to keep her unruly locks in place lol As she is very fair haired I went with a pink and purple theme. I really love making these, they turn out so sweet.



This is the card I made for her, it started with a manga style drawing.


Coloured in using promarkers and Derwent pencils.




Then I used some hand painted papers that I made a while back, to create a background on a white linen card.




Finally I cut the drawing out and glued her onto the background, made a matching tag and voila!

52 Pages 2011

Week 8.Waterworks

Definition=Used to refer to the shedding of tears.

When did you last cry, was it with sorrow or joy? Who wipes away your tears? Perhaps a puppy who has a fondness for salty water? Are you a paper tissue girl or do you have beautiful,delicate embroidered hankies? Do you keep a stiff upper lip or do you cry at the drop of a hat? Dare I even mention 'Bambi' ?

52 Pages week 7

I knew my mate Kirsty had done a fab little tutorial on using promarkers for backgrounds, so I thought I would use that this week. See it HERE.

I wanted my background to look like a worn old map, so I used browns and greens... i did the back exactly the same.



then I grunged the edges further with orange and brown distress ink.



I glued on some collage images, torn from a watch catalogue, of a map, a watch and some ancient pilots. I blended the edges in a little with acrylic paint.




Added my text..., and blended the edges of that.



and finally added my journalling on the back.

Ian bought me a fabby set of spray ink for my birthday, set #2. I already got set#1 for xmas. So I decided I needed a little sample book so I can see at a glance which ones to use. I started by randomly spraying inks onto sheets of paper inside a cardboard box. Once dry i cut two pieces and glued them to chipboard to make covers.

Then I added a really long concertina of white card inside.




Next I used a scalloped punch to punch a circle out of white cartridge paper, one for each colour of ink.. I put each circle in turn into the box and sprayed with one colour.

I glued each circle onto a page of the concertina, adding the name of the ink underneath.



Next I decorated the front cover with a little collage.



and finally doodled around the inked circles and around the names.




small and cute, only about 2.5inches square, but does the job....and is now sitting on my desk so I can pick it up and flick thru to find which ink to use.

52 Pages 2011

Week 7. Mileage

Definition=the aggregate number of miles traveled over in a given time.
How is the mileage doing on your personal clock? Mine just turned over,I am a whole year older. Do you feel your age? Are you in need of a service? How did you imagine your life would be at this age?

Just before Christmas I decided to make myself a new hairband to wear on Christmas Day.
I had seen one on this blog... that I knew would be perfect so I gave it a go. It turned out really sweet, even if i did get superglue on the bedsheets in the process....It was around 2am and I was sat in bed.

Excuse my model, she's having a bad hair day.



I used a length of zipper, some cream tape and some checked ribbon. made the roses and glued them onto an elastic hairband. Then added some beads.

I also put in a few stitches underneath as i am paranoid things will fall apart.

BTW the elastic hairbands I used are from Asda, they come in a pack of 3 and have some odd feeling rubbery grip stuff on one side to stop they sliding out of your hair.




I liked it so much when it was my Kirsty's birthday, I decided to make one for her too.



Also made her a tag..



and a card...

sweet huh?

52 weeks page 6

I sprayed my page with dylusions inks, added some hearts and sprayed again over them. then outlined the hearts with red pencil.



Added this writing...

Infatuation . is a wildly misunderstood although highly desirable malfunction of the heart, which weakens the brain,causes eyes to sparkle,cheeks to glow and lips to pucker.




I sprayed the back with the same inks and masks.




and added my journalling.

Go see what Amy.Ketsia and Donna have done with their pages...links in the side bar --->>> over there on the right.

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeee!..... do help yourself to a cupcakes. The light ones are sour cherry and white chocolate, and the dark,glittery ones are beetroot and milk chocolate.



Today is art class at Dede's house again. Would you like to join in? Pop along to Dede's Blog and download yourself a copy of this birdie. Print it out onto onto something a little thicker than printer paper.




Then join this... Ustream channel ...at 2pm Uk time, where a whole gang of us will be painting and colouring the birdie along with Dede. You will need cheap watercolour paints and some Prisma pencils or derwent coloursoft pencils...or something similar that is blendable.

Hope to see you there.


This week I have had quite a few birthday cards to make, this one was for Ian.



and this for my brother...



I have another i cant show yet till she receives it, and one I haven't photographed yet, plus 2 others that have already been mailed without being photographed doh! and still more that need making? apparently I know a lot of ppl born in february lol

Hello Wednesday, it's been such a long time since I have played along, almost 6 months in fact since Ian broke both his feet. He is on the mend now and should be back at work by the end of the month...fingers crossed.

So here is my desk, it is pretty tidy...a rarity for me, but then you can't see the floor lol All the usual stuff on there, plus my Art Portfolio that I have just made. It is on there as it is quite big and I haven't found a permanent place to keep it yet.

If you would like to see how I made it, I posted all the instructions with lots of photos in four blog posts.

PART ONE.

PART TWO.

PART THREE.

PART FOUR.





I have also started a weekly word prompt, all the words so far are IN HERE. Each Monday I post the new word prompt and questions to think about and on the Friday I post my finished page. I would love it if you join in...if you do please let me know so I can add your name to the side bar.

last week I drew this little robin, he turned out a bit angry looking. I didn't mean him to lol



I first applied a wash of watered down acrylics..



and then added all the shading and details with Derwent coloursoft pencils.



Do any of sketch,draw or paint?????? then you might be interested in joining a new blog that I set up. It is a monthly prompt blog for drawing, you don't have to be good at it, the whole point is that by doing the prompts it makes you practise and you get better.

Here is The blog , please take a look at the first prompt/challenge. If you join in we also have a Flickr group... HERE.... where you can upload your challenge pictures.

Hopefully I will get to visit lots of blogs today, but I also have to make cakes as it is Ian's birthday today and it is my birthday tomorrow.

Have a great day.x

52 Pages 2011

Page 6. Crush

Defintion=A brief but intense infatuation for someone, esp. someone unattainable or inappropriate.

Do you have a secret crush on someone or something?...or a not so secret crush? Maybe you have a secret admirer, speculate on who it could be..Who would you like it to be? Maybe you have a crush on a celebrity, a guilty pleasure?

52 Pages week 5

Sorry this is late. I did have it done but couldn't post it on Friday because of the hughmongous Art Portfolio postings that needed doing. I really wanted to keep them one after each other with no breaks for other stuff...

Anyway this is my week 5 page.

First I coloured my page using a spray ink ghost technique. I saw this the other week over on Dyan's site, and wanted to try it out. It is really easy and effective, go check out the video she has on her site.

I then added some images and text, and a little colour to blend around the edges.

When I was inking the front, some spray went onto my craft mat, and so as not to waste the ink I rubbed the back of my page into it.

I then wrote out my journalling and voila, all done.

Art Portfolio pt4

ok so here is the final part of the instructions, bet you thought it would never end eh?

I took a piece of heavy Calico(uk) I think the US girls call it Muslin. The length needs to be as long as your covers plus about 3 inches. The width needs to be 4 inches, (2 inches for the spine and an inch each side to fasten to the covers)

I used transfer dyes to colour my fabric. you paint the dye onto printer paper, dry it and then place it paint side down on the fabric and iron the reverse. Then I took an old paper bag, that had a hounds tooth check pattern on it. i laid strips of the bag down the sides of the fabric, print side down and ironed that too. The ink and pattern from the bag transfers to the fabric. Finally I took some transfer crayons ( they are like wax crayons but made with transfer dye) I drew the letters out onto printer paper, careful to draw the letter 'R' in reverse, then I flipped them over onto the fabric and ironed. I also drew a face and ironed that on.

I now have basic colouring on which to embellish.



I cut some felt letters slightly smaller than the printed letters, and stitched them on. I used a machine for speed, but you could easily do it by hand. The felt acts as padding.




Next I took a pile of gorgeous sheer fabrics, and cut squares from each. I laid about 5 squares over each letter and pinned in place.





Next i cut a strip of medium weight vilene, and ironed it to the reverse of the spine, you only need it 2 inches wide, as it only needs to add stability to the centre while you are stitching.

Using a close zig zag stitch I went around each letter, then cut away the excess fabric. I put the machine into free embroidery mode and stitched over the lines on the printed face. Finally I free machined a wiggly line all over the remaining fabric.

Note I did not do any stitching on the outer inch, as this will wrap around the cover and be glued, so you want to keep it flat.




Now this is a fun bit, the sheer fabric melts easily, so make some slashes in the fabric at different angles, using a craft knife. Vary the number of layers that you cut through. Now very gently heat with a heat gun, you only need to pass the gun over the fabric and it will melt and shrink away from the cut...too much and it will disappear.

Heat it just enough to reveal the different colours underneath.




Finally I added a butterfly. On all of the flaps i used a face to represent the 'artist' and a butterfly to represent' the journey'. So I wanted to do the same on the spine. I knew I already had this butterfly up in the attic, it was made years ago, and was attached to another project (which was packed away,unloved,in an old suitcase) so armed with scissors I ventured into the attic and cut it from the old project. It is made using a technique called Stumpwork. You buttonhole a wire shape to fabric, then fill in the centre with stitching. You cut it out and have a wired, embroidered shape. The body is layers of felt for padding, covered with satin stitch.

I was able to quickly attach the belly of the butterfly to the spine fabric with just a few stitches.

Next I applied tacky white glue to the two outer inches of the spine fabric, then laid my covers onto the fabric and pressed down. It does take a little adjusting to get everything lined up and straight. Leave to set for at least 10 minutes before attempting to turn it over.

Then apply more glue to the ends of the spine fabric and fold then inwards.

You might need to stack some books onto the spine now to weight it down while it dries. i would leave it a good hour.

When totally dry, take some wide black tape, or whatever colour matches the inside of your portfolio. My tape is 2 inches wide. I attached one strip 2/3 onto the back cover and 1/3 onto the inside of the spine. then another strip 2/3 onto the inside of the front cover and 1/3 onto the spine, and finally a third strip right down the middle of the spine. These 3 strips should fully cover all the inside of the fabric and be sufficiently over onto the covers enough to provide lots of strength. I burnished the tape down quite a lot with the back of a metal spoon.

Next apply some white glue to the smaller of the folds on each of your flaps, glue them into place, one at the top and bottom of each cover. Then take a piece of tape and stick that over the edge, so they are stuck from underneath and on top.

Take a couple of length of black twill tape, and 2 shorter lengths of white twill tape. You can make them however long you want, as long as they will tie.

I stitched the white tape onto the black, then stamped a quote on each using stazon ink.

Find the middle of each cover and make a mark about 1.5cm in. Punch a hole using the largest setting on the cropodile.

Pass one of your stamped tapes through the hole, and tie a double knot on the inside of the cover.

The other end will hang down outside, and you can add a big bead on the end, with another double knot.

Finally you are all done, all that is left to do is fill it with artwork.

Close up the flaps, to hold everything in place...

tie it up and you are done...phew! dunno about you but I am exhausted.

I really hope you enjoyed this project, I would love to hear what you think. If you make one too please let me know.

I have no intention of taking mine outside. But if you do, or you are making this for a student who will be going to art college, then a couple of things to think about...

firstly i wouldn't attach anything delicate such as the butterfly, and secondly I would give the whole thing a couple of thin coats of matte varnish to protect it from adverse weather. use a spray varnish, as one that needs brushing on may just make the artwork on your covers go all smeary.

Click here for short video of portfolio finished!