When you're having fun...

Well - I can't believe that it's been almost three weeks since my last post!  Sorry to anyone who has been waiting with bated breath for an update - I've no excuses (and unfortunately, nothing much of interest to report as to why it's been so long).  I sifted through ideas for my canvas and about 10 days ago I came up with something which seemed to work in my head, smeared the canvas with texture paste, waited for that to dry and then mixed some paint and put that on.  Now I've stalled because I need to go and get some more paint from the art store.  And some more texture paste - the canvas is so big that I used a solid half jar of what I had left, and then another half jar of impasto gel, made by another company - and it's amazing how different each of the mediums are, considering I had been told that they are interchangeable.  They are not!  The texture paste is something between thick paint and soft clay and you can mould it into defined edges and lines (think heavy meringue that you can form into peaks).  The brand of impasto gel I used was akin to the hair gel I remember using in the late 80s (yes, I know that's dating me!), and although it gives depth, the effect is much smoother, with less definition than the texture paste.  Useful for the right project, but not what I had in mind, unfortunately.

I'm not going to give you pictures of the canvas yet, although I have taken them, to record the journey.  I figure I will finish it and then have a humongous post detailing the steps.

So, onto the next thing I have done.  Last week we had two birthdays at work, so, as the branch EA, I compiled a list of everyone's birthday and brought it home so I could create cards.  The next one is this coming Tuesday (2 March), so today I pulled out the card making supplies.  First, I chose a Hambo digistamp for the main image and coloured it with my Copics:

The recipe is as follows:
Copics
YR21 & YR24 for beaks, feet and hat pompoms
B24 and B26 for the blue bird and one of the hats
E34 and E37 for the brown bird and one of the hats
YG41 and YG45 for the green bird and one of the hats
R12 and R14 for the red-ish bird and one of the hats
E74 and W-7 for the ground

Stamps
Hambo "Silly Birds With Hats"
Provo Craft alphabet "Circa 18 pts"
Cardstock
Stampin Up! Green Galore and Gable Green
Paper
Junkitz 6x6 pad "Salsa"

And the result is:

I am fairly happy with it.  I have real difficulties with masculine cards, especially for someone I don't know very well.  I have no idea about favourite colours or what his interests are, so I had to settle for something fairly generic.  For all of that, it works, so I'll get everyone to sign it tomorrow and we can have a morning or afternoon tea for him.  Any excuse for cake!

Okay, so that's what I've been doing, more or less.  I'm going to go and read all the blogs I've been ignoring for the last three weeks.

Catch up with you later, but in the meantime,
Happy crafting!
Bron

Canvases and maternity cards

Hello again,
Once more time has run away with me and I have been sucked into real life instead of being able to wallow in the world of creation and art, where I would prefer to be.  Both my daughters started school yesterday, so we've had the preparation and getting their school packs delivered and finding out which class and teacher they will be having.  And especially there is the calming down of two under 10s who have been on holidays for almost two months - arrrgghh!  Still, we have managed to accomplish the impossible - so I can strike it off the list of six things to achieve before breakfast :)

One of my bosses went on maternity leave today.  Monday was the farewell "high tea", and I was asked to make the farewell card, which needed to be big enough for everyone in the branch to sign (I work for a government department and our branch is small, but it still needed to have room for almost 30 people to leave a message).  I ended up folding an A4 card in half and using a digi stamp from Bugaboo stamps for the front.  I love the way you can manipulate digi images so they can be as big or as small as you require.  Then it was out with the trusty Copics and here she is:

Then it was onto making the card itself:

I was very happy with how it turned out, and, more importantly, so was my boss :)

The recipe is as follows:
Copics: E11, E13, E15, E25, E47, E49, E55 and YG97 (green for the eyes)
Ink: Colourbox Chalks in Lavender
Stamps: Bugaboo "JJ Grow People" and Hero Arts "Lots of Wonderful (D4644)"
Cardstock: Stampin Up! More Mustard
Paper: Scrapbook Walls "Butter Dahlia (Item #20722)"
Flowers and brads from stash.

The only other thing I have been doing was to actually drag out one of the two canvases I had leaning against the wall and give it it's first coat of gesso.  I have a before and after pic for you to see.  In the before photo, I have blurred out all the words on it - it was a canvas advertising my old company and I was unsure of the infringement implications, so I'm playing it safe LOL.

 As you can see, the canvas is leaning against a three drawer filing cabinet, which will give you an idea of the size of it.  Don't ask me why I chose to start with a canvas which is over a metre high (120 x 85cms to be exact) - I must be a sucker for punishment!  And, of course, I have now stalled, because I have no idea what I want to paint.  Do I do trees, or flowers, something modern, symmetrical, geometric? Do I doodle or sketch something recognisable (I am not a good drawer, so I guess that answers that particular question!).  The possibilities are overwhelming and so it now stands in the same spot, altered only by one layer of gesso:

I will get around to painting another layer one of these days and see if I get inspired along the way.

Nothing much else to report, I'm afraid.  I will post again later - it's off to bed for me now!

Happy crafting,
Bron