Calendar Challenge 2015: April

Hi everyone, it is that time again. Today the link goes live for the April show and tell of our altered calendars. If you are new here then read THIS POST to find out what we are doing.

As a reminder here are the rules for April ..

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique -  use drips and splatters

3. Add - a repeating shape or word as many times as possible

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from April 1st 2015

This was how my page started this month. To me it is extremely boring and wishy washy, with no real focus.

I added a coat of matte medium to give the page some tooth as this calendar is printed on very shiny paper. Then I used gesso to blank out the page, leaving just the patch of water lilies.  I added the gesso really thick in some areas to add texture.

One of the rules was to add repetition of a shape or word as much as possible.. I used the whole alphabet and repeated it all over the top and bottom pages.

Next I added my base colour, leaving out a stalk for the lily pad area, turning it into a mushroom, and also a couple other shapes. The colour was hideously yellow, but that’s ok, its just a base layer. I won’t be naming these colours as they are really old,cheap craft paints that I am trying to use up so I can get rid of the bottles as they are taking up space. and they are starting to smell a bit funky.. they are donkeys years old.. 

I continued to add paint, blues and greens.

Then as my letters were disappearing I decided to add another repeating shape with this leaf stencil. (Clarity Stamps)

I took all these colours down onto the bottom half of the page too.

Next I used some of my new stamps.. first I stamped onto the page an then whited out the shapes using snowflake 

..and then I was able to colour in the shapes and add patterning.

I was then able to go back in with the stamps, and a doodle pen.

The other rule was to add splatters and drips.. so here are the splatters. I added 3 colours of splatters.


I used the leaves from my new stamps sets to stamp lots of leaves on old scraps of painted papers.

I also stamped the month, days and numbers from HPXT06. 07 and 08 These calendar stamps are brilliant and so useful.

These were stamped  and then matted onto the new Bougainvillea..

this is how the top half looks now.. with lots of white highlights here and there.

The bottom matches, but is less busy… however it does need something more..

I stamped out this fairy from Lavinia stamps and made her all sparkly using WOW Starry Night. She is stamped onto regular smoothy  painted with Blue Oyster, then cut out leaving a small border.

She was then added to the planner page. The rules state splatters or drips, so I decided to add both, here are the drips done with just Metallic Glaze 

and here it is when dried, it looks like she is watering the flowers or sprinkling fairy dust on them..

Here is the whole thing finished..

Hope you liked that. Link up your calendars and then go visit each other.

Here are the rules for May.

1.. Keep a part of the original picture and incorporate that into your design

2, Technique - Make marks,... scratching or stamping into texture paste/thick gesso/spackle/glue anything that will hold the shape

3. Add – an image that depicts your star sign/horoscope (drawing,painting,magazine image)

4. Blog your calendar page and link up from May 1st 2015

Here is the link for April

Darcy x