Birthdays

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #141

Birthdays

Our challenge theme 'Birthdays' has been chosen by Chriss.

For my card this week I decided to make a mandala stencil and have lots of fun with Ink Oxides.  It has been ages since I made a physical card, think that is because playing with my laser cutter seems to have consumed most of my time so it really was a play day making this card :).  I started by designing the stencil on Illustrator and then cut it out using mylar and my laser.  From there it was onto playing with the inks to make a pretty pattern.  Oh so relaxing, I had a ball.  To finish off the card I added some gold pen details, die cut the sentiment and added some flat back pearls.  My youngest daughter saw this card and loved it then asked if it was her Birthday card.  It wasn't but as she loves it it is now hahaha.

The Colours of Fruit

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #140

The Colours of Fruit

Our challenge theme 'The Colours of Fruit' has been chosen by Jennie.

I was wondering what to do for this card and then at some stupid time in the morning the light in my head switched on ROFL.  Needing some chair time while my body woke up I set to colouring the Candle Poe image digitally.  Normally I just use a regular paint brush for colouring but this time I tried the charcoal brush and just used black paint with varying densities of opaqueness.  I did switch back to a regular paint brush for the skin and candle as I wanted those bits smooth and added colour for the candle stick and candle.  I saved the image as a transparent .png and then finished off the card design in Illustrator where I added the colour backgrounds behind each Poe image giving the overall effect of an Andy Warhol look.  I just love how this creation has turned out, so different from my usual and great fun to do too :) 

Happiness

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #139

Happiness

Our challenge theme 'Happiness' has been chosen by Hazel.

You certainly sent me off on a thinking journey with this challenge Hazel lol.  So many things make me happy.  In the end this challenge gave me the perfect opportunity to use a laser cutting design I have had for a while - Mandala Yin Yang by Laser Cutano.  Happiness to me is balance in life so the Yin Yang is perfect.  Next it was onto choosing colours and for that I used one of my wedding photos as that was the happiest day of my life, still married after 42 years and still best friends :).  I hate waste that makes me unhappy ROFL so I designed the hearts, my first layered cuts that I have designed which would fit on the nicely on what would have been an off-cut of my prepared boards.  I really did only have scraps left of the 600mm x 400mm boards so no waste worth worrying about (the Yin Yang mandala is 390mm diameter and the hearts 230mm).  The boards were treated with MDF sealant and then painted with acrylic paint.  After assembly a couple of coats of spray varnish and all done.  

Here is the wedding pic I used to get the colours from.  The blue was from the carpet, the green from the orchids, the 2 pinks were a mixture from the flowers, bridesmaid dresses and the outfit my Mum wore.  The brown was from highlights in hubby's hair :) 

Masculine

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #138

Masculine

Our challenge theme 'Masculine' has been chosen by Maggie.

I made this last year for my grandson for Christmas.  He loves his biking and is such a dare devil :)  Alas last week he had a wee mishap when doing a jump and a tree got in the way, ending up with a broken wrist just in time for the Summer hols bless him, he is not a happy bunny.  Anyway, back to the clock, I designed the clock as large as I could for my laser bed so it has a diameter of 390mm.  The base layer is MDF which I painted grey with acrylic paint and the top layer is black acrylic.  I bought the clock mechanism which came with silver hands, these were then coloured with alcohol inks which I have discovered stick to the metal really well when dried.  A very successful Christmas gift which Jay is still enjoying, he says the ticking sends him to sleep lol.  

Red, White & Blue

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #137

Red, White & Blue

Our challenge theme 'Red, White & Blue' has been chosen by Chriss.

Red, white and blue are such a great colour combination.  Although I am not American I did think of doing a 4th of July card but instead opted for something a bit more random.  The digi I have coloured is a real oldie created about 9 years ago by one of our DT - CraftyGirl while we were all part of the StitchyBear DT.  I think I am feeling a bit unsettled at the moment with everything that seems to be happening in the Western world at the moment - the Boris bashing in my country, the shootings and reversal of the abortion ruling in the USA, Russia being the iron fist bully - I know Russia is not in the West but it is directly involved in something I feel deep down is so very wrong.  I should add here that is is not the Russian people who are wrong, it is the power hungry I oppose. Anyway, these 3 countries all have red, white and blue flags, all 3 need peace!!  Sorry to be a bit downbeat and political here and no offence to anybody intended, just my thinking behind the creation of this card.  

4 Legged Friends

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #136

4 Legged Friends

Our challenge theme '4 Legged Friends' has been chosen by me.

Are you a cat or dog lover or both?  I am both but these days just have 2 adorable cats, Bree and Jeeves.  They are Russia Blues and brother and sister, the perfect companions for us these days.  

I can't remember who designed this stamp, pretty sure I got it from Crafters Companion and it is by Sheena Douglas but not a 100% certain.  I masked the 4 legged friends once stamped and then stamped the background circles.  Next remove the masking and coloured the image with Copics.  A simple card to make but I do love how it turned out.

Summer

  International Art & Soul, a challenge which has been put together to incorporate any type of craft, paper, wood, flowers, recycling, glass - the world is your oyster :).  Come on over and join us with you artwork :)

Challenge #135

Summer

Our challenge theme 'Summer' has been chosen by Jennie.

Sharing a happy sunshine easel card today.  Oh how I love Summer with blue skies and lots of sunshine, just wish for a bit more than we are having at the moment :)   At least it is warm enough to have the heating turned off and save the pennies just now.  Have a feeling this winter if things don't sort themselves out it will be our log burning fire that is doing the majority of the heating in the house.