Miss Dorothy Leng

This is what I call one of my temporary installations because I'm using valued bits of memorabilia that I can't bear to glue.

When I found this photograph of an unknown woman on the web, I just had to use her.  She's nothing to do with me or my family....but that face!

Most of us have or will have to clear out a loved one's home at some point and, if we're lucky, will come across small treasures of somebody else's memories.  Chances are that we'll never know what they meant or where they came from but they create a connection between us and the past that's both mysterious and beautiful.

Scraptastic

Like every crafter, I've always got loads of scraps of paper and 'bits' on my desk (with the stuff I can never find buried under) so I decided to make use of them.

This month's challenge to myself is to just use up what I already have - including half-finished stuff.

This was an Ecoline ink pick-up but on rubbish watercolour board and it's been drying by the radiator for about a month!

So I gathered all the scraps from my desk and started sticking.

I don't really think about what I'm doing, it's just to add texture.  Most of it won't be seen by the end but it does make a difference to the finished project.

I used Talens Pearl Medium through an Inkylicious stencil and let that dry.

Next I went in with the Brushos and water spray.  I was interested to see how they would react with the pearl medium.

It looked really vibrant whilst it was wet but sadly the colours faded as it dried.

I'd got a few sheets of rice paper that I've been cleaning up with so I stuck those over the right half of the piece then I treble stamped IndigoBlu's Big Butterfly 2, with Seedless Preserves then Spiced Marmalade oxides and white gesso in the middle and again with black Versafine above and below

Using a black Ecoline brush pen I shadowed the 'Dream' and the butterflies.

It still looked not quite right so I did a bit of random stamping, added a moth I'd previously stamped on acetate, the eye and the sun.


I've decided to have a go at the Creative Artiste challenge blog with this.  You can find it here.....

http://creativeartistemixedmedia.blogspot.co.uk

Wish me luck!

Year List (you'd have to be a birder)

In the (some might call sad) world of birding, we keep lists.  I won't bore you with the details but one is a year list.

New little note book and a piece of copper led to this.  It's a bit rustic but as I'm the only one using it, I won't mind the wonky edges.

I cut the copper sheet slightly smaller than the cover of the book, then traced the outline of the copper before sketching out my design.

The birds at the top and the 'list' were taken from a Clarity stencil.  I printed the 'year' off the computer and traced them all through and drew the puffin and owl.

I placed the tracing over the copper and used a biro to go over the design.

Then working from the back and using an embossing tool, I went over everything I wanted raised on the front.  There's a lot of too-ing and fro-ing with this to get the detail and definition.

I (stupidly, it turns out) decided that I wanted to make the area around the birds look like beaten copper, so used the pen to stab the dots - note to self, this hurts your fingers so don't do it again!  Looks nice though!

When I was happy(ish) with it, I filled the back with modelling paste, let it dry, then went over the front indented areas with a black Promarker, rubbing off the excess.  Finally I used heavy gel medium to glue the copper to the front of the notebook