Annie Ruffles

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending three wonderful days on an art journalling retreat run by Art Workshops. The teachers were Birgit Koopsen and Nathalie Kalbach.
Wow! Did they ignite a fresh creative spark in me!

This piece of work is an amalgamation of inspiration from these two ladies and from Laly Mille, who has also had a great influence upon my work.

Here we go with a lowdown on my creation, which, incidentally, I completed this afternoon and evening.

First, I selected a canvas, 20"x16", and I wrote freely about my lovely Grandma Barnes, my paternal Granny. Didn't worry about grammar, punctuation etc. Just wrote from the heart using a Pitt pen  which is waterproof.

Next, I selected a range of fragile papers and collaged over the top, using matte medium; finger painted some neutral colours and stained it with acrylic inks.

I gradually built up a background, leaving some of my writing visible. I used some of Nathalie Kalbach's Foamy stamps to build up my background.

Next, I placed the photo of my Grandma onto the canvas.

I glued the pic down and sealed the very glossy photo with clear gesso and painted over her with a selection of acrylic paints. I also added some drippage to the top of the canvas and some inks in the bottom left corner for foliage.
I added some darkness around the frame using a black stabilo pencil with a wash and some distress stain.

It looked unfinished somehow, I knew that the sky needed something else. Over to my large box of leaves and some lovely Acer leaves from my garden that I pressed last year. they echo the colours on my Grandma's coat really well.
A few close ups.

In this photo, you can see that I drew in the missing pieces of the tyres.

So, the final piece. I am so relieved that it turned out so well. It meant so much to me to use this wonderful photograph.

Thanks for looking. This has been one of those pieces that makes my heart beat faster.

Snowflakes and Stars.

I was thrilled when Leandra asked me to play with Emma Godfrey stamps for the Pearlescent challenge over on the PaperArtsy blog.

Teamed up with Kay Carley's snowflake stencil, it was a perfect match. 

I began with Emma's stamps in a rustic style. Using brown card and Kraftcard, PaperArtsy fresco Metallic White Fire provided a great sheen for my background.

I also used White Fire and Metallic Pewter fresco paint to stamp with.

I brushed on a little mica powder and also stamped with Archival Coffee ink. The embellishment came from some old jewellery and I added stickles. 

Next, using Kay's snowflake stencil, I created a variety of backgrounds by spraying mica sprays through the stencil.
The first ones were monochrome.

Then coloured mica backgrounds.....

And gelli print backgrounds.

The common denominator in all these are the snowflake stamps which are stamped with either Fresco Metallic White Fire, or Pewter paint.
Using a variety of beads, embellishments and stickles I dressed them up for Christmas.

I happily made 50 cards, which are now sitting in a shoebox waiting to be written! Happy days! 

thanks for looking and don't forget to visit the PaperArtsy blog challenge. 

Autumnal Fern

At the beginning of the month I chose to create my CVC post based upon die cutting. Well, I enjoyed it so much that I have once again turned to this beautiful die set.
This time I have cut the basic frame from textured brown cardstock and used a variety of autumnal colours to die cut the leaves and flowers.
The die cut frame displays the real, dried fern leaf beautifully, and to finish off, I have used Perfect Pearls for flower centres , metallic sticker for the words and a Finnabair paper for the background.

There is still plenty of time to join in with our topic this month. Don't forget to pop over to the CVC blog for lots of inspiration.

Products Used:- Foliage Memories die; Tim Holtz Metallic stickers.

Beautiful memories, special people.

Having just returned from a fantastic 3 day retreat in Coventry run by Art Workshops I was keen to play with some ideas inspired by the amazing Nathalie Kalbach and Birgit Koopsen.

I worked in my large journal beginning with brayering colours, then Nathalies' foamies stamps, gradually building up a background.

The image is a photo of my dear uncles Len and Edgar. Edgar, on the right, is a happy and independent 92 year old and Len left us a couple of years ago.

I wanted to paint them in a happy place with happy colours and it just evolved naturally and I love it.

The paints are PaperArtsy frescos and the stamps at the top are Birgit's from Carabelle.

I am entering this into the Mixed Media Monthly challenge as the colour inspiration is bright.

Thanks for looking.

Today is all about you.

What a great topic on the Country View Crafts blog this month. Mixed Media with Autumnal Hues. 

So many possibilities here and something a little different for me.

Die cutting has never been my "Go To' style of crafting, but, I see many beautiful examples everywhere and feel urged to introduce it into my work.

I began by choosing a Die Set from Sara Davies' Signature collection, Autumn Morning, Foliage memories. It gives you a framework and also many flowers and leaves to add to it.

I also chose to use one of Tim Holtz papers as my background. It is from Wallflower paper stash.

I began by cutting out my framework from Black card and then used lots of autumnal colours and bookpaper to cut out some leaves and flowers.

I like the contrast between the image and the black frame.

I added my flowers and leaves around the image, also some little white mimosa type flowers to give a 3D effect and centred some of the flowers with a few assorted jewels.

I finished off with a few words from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Small Talk.

So, I can enjoy die cutting, and with these dies, it was a pleasure.

Thanks for looking and please pop over to the CVC blog for more Autumnal Inspiration.

Products Used:- Foliage Memories Dies; Paper Stash Wallflower; Tim Holtz Small Talk.