Beach Lady

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well.    We experienced tons more snow this week, but at least it's not as cold and it's already starting to melt.    It's hard to imagine that Spring will be here in 3 weeks, but I'm looking forward to it !  Can't wait to get out into the gardens again. 

I was also honored once again with the Liebster Blog award from Wendy at Wendy's Card Craft.  My gosh, this is the sixth time, thank you Wendy!   If you have a chance, please visit her blog, she creates beautiful designs and has just joined the new DT for Lavinia (beautiful) stamps.  

During the snowstorm I worked on a couple of things and one was this textured mixed media collage which I matted for display.   It probably should be on a board or canvas but I started out thinking I was going to create a background for a card.

I'm going to join in the Out of Hat Creations Challenge as the theme is "Hanging About".  This lady could be 'hanging about' at a beach, but it was sometime in the 1920's I think:)  

I started by painting Gesso over a collage piece of designer paper which I glued to heavy water colour paper.  Next I added colour with Neocolor Water Crayons, added water and spread it around.    I added some texture using a stencil (TCW Circle Explosions) & Viva molding paste.

I was going to stamp an image but then thought about the beach lady on a left-over piece of Graphic 45 (Traveloque) as she would suit the background colour.   Next thing I knew I was adding molding paste, acrylic glaze, metal flowers and chunky gold embossing.

The colours are more vibrant & sparkly than the photo shows.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great day!
Shirley

Island Girl Canvas

Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed your weekend.    We had mild weather with rain, fog and most of our snow melted away.    It's strange to see green grass in January here. 

I recently had a chance to play around with another canvas piece, which was a lot of fun.   I used images from a sheet of Graphic 45 - 'Tropical Traveloque', to create this textured 8 x 10 inch piece.   I think I was dreaming about escaping winter and being in a tropical paradise while creating this.

I'm going to link in with the Take a Word Challenge - Fantasy at Anja's suggestion.

Materials used to layer (in order of use):  Gesso, TCW stencils with molding paste, drywall tape, pieces of lace curtain (picked up at a 2nd hand store), glossy gel used to adhere pieces,  Silks Acrylic paints & chunky gold embossing powder.  The Graphic 45 images were cut from a 12 x 12 page.

The flowers are coloured sheer plastic to which I added a little paint.   I had to be careful when using the heat gun for the embossing powder that I didn't melt them ! 

Also, I'm late but here is a photo of the hand made cards I received at Christmas.  It's a little difficult to see them all clearly, but a couple of these are from blogger friends.  Top right hand card is from Ellen in Alberta, Canada  and the bottom centre is from Maria in Belgium.    A few of these came from my family in the Netherlands and a couple from crafty friends here !   Thank you I love receiving your beautiful creations ! 

Thanks for your visit & have a great day !
Shirley

Canvas Collage Workshop

Hi everyone I'm back for a second time today !  My previous post was for the IO Challenge.

I enjoyed another workshop, this time creating a collage on canvas with Karen Ellis owner of the Art House Studio.    Karen designs for The Crafters Workshop & My Stamp Box.  She is also a contributing writer for Canadian Scrapbook Magazine.  It was great to take a class with her, I learned a lot, she coached me along to create something that I am happy with.  Her first words of advice "stop thinking" :) 

I've never done any canvas or collage work so this was a new & exciting experience !   Karen's design for the class used the same Asian Lady (cut from Graphic 45 paper), but everyone's work turned out different.   Karen's sample is stunning which you can see here.    I chose similar colors as I love the vibrancy of them.

This is an 8 x 10 inch piece and it's hard to see all the detail,depth & texture in the photo.  We started with canvas board, added Gesso and then built up in layers.   It's fun to get very inky & gluey.   We used molding paste, joint tape, embellishments, Silks Acrylic paints and more.       It needs to be framed & matted with white which pops the colors.  (Karen had one on hand for us to 'test')

Thanks for your visit and have a great day !
Shirley