A Scottish Wedding

A friend of mine has asked me to do a few wedding designs - my desk looks like a bomb has  hit it with sprayed backgrounds and roses embossed and watercoloured.  Whilst waiting for it all to dry, I made a quick Save the Date card.

The design is A6 in size and can either be mounted on a card with the details inside or just used as a postcard with all the details stuck on the reverse.   I've used  two Oak House Studio stamps - the Mack Rose and the Save the Date stamp from the Wedding Words set - inked with Midnight Pigment Ink and clear embossed to add a little shine.  It's just finished with some tartan ribbon - obviously the colours used can be changed to match the tartan chosen. 

Off to see if there is enough light to match colours - it's gone so dark here I need the lights on already!!   Hope you all have a good (and dry) weekend. 

Quotes & Lyrics - Silence

Here's my postcard for The Craft Barn's Quotes and Lyrics challenge which is to use Silence and/or Dazzle.   Various songs came to mind but I couldn't decide how to depict them so I went off searching for quotes and found this one about oaks and acorns. 

The background is a mix of Distress Inks - Shabby Shutters, Mowed Lawn and Pine Needles - and the Oak Tree is an Oak House Studio stamp inked with Olympia Green Versafine and clear embossed.  The small oak leaves and gold acorn (I was thinking Silence is Golden here) are by PSX - they've been stamped and embossed and then distressed with a little Barn Door and Spiced Marmalade. 

The quote was on an internet quote site and  its by Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish Philosopher - I thought it was about how beautiful nature can be.  However when I looked for the rest of the poem/prose I found it was made up from an 8 line paragraph in his book about The French Revolution and the oak hasn't just blown down in the wind, no, the woodman came with his axe!!   So someone has actually paraphrased what Carlyle said and made it a quote......so I hope I'm still allowed to use it.

Well last years challenge was educational and I think this years will be too.  Its great to read all the interesting quotes; not so much fun knowing some of the 'old' songs!!

Copper Beech

Here's a quick card for the Less is More Challenge week 156 where there is a sketch to follow. 

 

I've not had chance to enter recently but as it's so wet and horrible outside I thought I'd make a quick card to while away the afternoon.   I wasn't sure whether the card had to be square but I've kept the elements the same.

The Beech Tree stamp (and the sentiment) are from Oak House Studio - I've just embossed it with copper embossing powder and added a horizontal band of corrugated card to give some texture.  I forgot I was doing a LIM card and inked the edges of the tree but I hope I can get away with it as it's so plain elsewhere.

Thanks for popping by for a look and for your comments - they are very much appreciated!

Journal 52 - Somewhere

I thought I'd show you what I've been up to this week.  Now I'm really not an artist but it's good to get out of your comfort zone once in a while.  Week 2 prompt of the Journal52 challenge is Somewhere - a Simple Place. 

My first thoughts were sitting on a mountain admiring the view, in a garden by water, by the sea watching the waves crash etc so I've tried to combine all three.  The background is just done with Distress Stains swiped across the page - a quick and easy way of painting!!  I've added white dabber clouds, and some greenery with stamps from Crafty Individuals (CI-207) and 7 Gypsies (Nottinghill).  I think I need more practise with the writing!!

We visited Aysgarth Falls in the summer and carved onto some wooden seats along the river was the phrase - sit a while and listen to the sound of the  water fall.  Doesn't matter if its a powerful waterfall, a babbling stream or waves crashing on the beach ... it washes your cares away!!

Well I did stormy seas last week and water this week - I wonder what this is telling me!

Make Me Smile

The Craft Barn has a new fortnightly challenge for 2014 - Quotes and Lyrics. The first words are SMILE and UP - you can choose either or both and full details are here.  Why not give it a go!!

I've decided to do a Postcard sized piece of art with my quote or lyric then I can either post them, bind them later or mount them in an A5 book with extra quotes etc.  Not sure yet.  Anyway after much searching, I've decided to do Steve Harley & Cockey Rebel's Make Me Smile (Come up and see me) which includes Smile and Up!

The  background is Broken China, Tumbled Glass and Sailboat Blue Distress Inks with a smidge of Faded Jeans.  I've used an alphabet layering stencil, the Blue Eyes are from Darkroom Door's Mail Art set and the Music stamp is from Oak House Studio.  Inspired by words in the song - breaking every code, blue eyes and resist!!   The song lyrics are just handwritten, outlined with marker and cut out.

Maybe next time I'll find something more profound, but this song did make me choose the colour scheme and the stamps.   Hope you like and thanks for looking.  I'm off to see what everyone else has come up with.

Something New

Lynnda at Oak House Studio has challenged everyone to create a postcard to send to yourself, pin on your notice board or put in a frame, with a message.   Here's mine:

I  decided to go for Spread Your Wings ie try something new, find some new challenges to do, use different colours etc.  All the stamps - Thoresby background, Butterflies and Sentiment - are from Oak House Studio.    Why don't you have a go - you may win something!

My "Something New" is to have a go at Art Journalling - I've signed up to Journal52  which provides weekly prompts and I've decided the only way I'm going to carry on with this is to go smallish (A5) and do the first thing that comes into my head.  She who procrastinates is lost I fear  - I'll just end up doing neat and tidy with straight lines. 

The first prompt is Up, Up and Away - so Soar, Kites and Stormy Seas.  I hope you can see all this is my first attempt.  I used inks and paints and the words are all from dictionary definitions or quote sites online.  I've added Soar in Thickers but they are too pale to photo so may alter that.  I'm not sure I like it but if I don't post it, it'll end up in the bin and I won't have a go next week!!

I've no idea where this is taking me and I might not post my art every week but it's good to have a go!

Tim's Tag - January 2014

Happy New Year to you all!

Here's my first offering for 2014 - a tag for Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2014.  I should thank him really as I've had chance to have a good rummage through my stash and remind myself what I have and that it all needs a darned good sort out!!  For this challenge  I only had the Chit Chat stickers and a spinner  so everything else is improvised.

I've used Iced Spruce and Pine Needles Distress Inks with TH's Clockwork Mask for the background.  The stamps are from TH's Fairytale Frenzy and Stuff to Say sets.  The clock is made up from a Heidi Swapp Clock stamp, with a silver embossed frame, a gear and a spinner.  The date I made using Hero Arts Alphabet stamps with a fragment and it's finished with some scrunchy ribbon coloured with distress inks.

I'm hoping to make useful stuff this year in challenges ...otherwise I end up with piles of tags that I don't know what to do with.  This may well get framed with the other 11 should I finish them all! What does everyone else do with their makes???

Well thanks for visiting and reading my waffle.  I do wish you a very creative 2014 and hope you are all safe and dry and that this wind and rain wears itself out!!