Dream canvas.

Good morning!

Well, this is indeed a more complex piece of artwork but I had a ball with it!!!!!  I let my creative side just take over!

I am very grateful Cec and all the team at Stamps and Stencils challenges

stampsandstencils@blogspot.co.uk for asking me to be their Guest Designer this month.  Their new theme is "swirls, whirls and flourishes" - it's a brilliant theme and there is lots of scope there to include a swirl, a whirl or a flourish on your piece.

As you will see, I went the whole hog and got swirls, whirls and flourishes on here so shall we take our usual journey and see how I got there?

OK, I started off with a piece of tissue paper (gift tissue) and with some cut n dry foam applied some Archival watering can ink through the stencilgirl stencil.

Then it started to get messy (my favourite place!!!) I stuck the tissue paper to a 12 x 12 inch canvas using Powertex napkin glue and allowed that to completely dry. Then I applied some modelling paste through two stencils - a swirl and a whirl!.

Here I have sprayed some yellow Powertex Bister Spray to start the background colour.

Now we have some drama on that background, I've used green and yellow Bister Sprays now, I added some lace that I've applied with Mod Podge and sprayed with the ink sprays too.  The flourishes are Sue Wilson Dies and the small paper flowers I have had in my crafty stash for so long, I have no idea where they originally came from!

Now, the problem I saw was that the girls face was too lost on the canvas and I needed to bring her completely forward so I made a start on completely enhancing her face and her hair.

There! What fun I had!  I used the modelling paste to change her hair to bring her forward and the face I enhanced to bring out that nose and mouth and particularly the eyes. I have used Pebeo gilding wax (silver) to highlight all of the swirls and flourishes and gold gilding wax to highlight her hair.

I stamped the sentiment of "Dream" from Clarity Stamp on there and I was very happy with this.

If nothing else, this project shows you how you can adapt your stencils in to anything you wish them to be.  Use your stencil to start your piece off and build on it from there as I have in this piece.

This is all the ingredients apart from the stencilgirl stencil which you can see in the first photo.

Hope you like what you see and that you have enjoyed our crafty journey today.

Don't forget to pop along to Stamps and Stencils and join in their new challenge of "Swirls, whirls and flourishes".

I would like to enter this piece in to current That's Crafty challenge of "Silver and Gold":-

http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/silver-and-gold-challenge.html

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx

Sometimes in the winds of change.................

Good morning!

Well, this card has been made from the heart really.  Tomorrow I shall close one of my businesses (a very large local pet shop) due to Pets At Home having moved in to the town last March where from it has been removing my customers ever since!  Not too much of a drama as I've obtained planning permission for a change of use so what was a lovely independent pet shop with full animal licence - it will now be flats! - Thats the local council for you!!!  So, after 30 years of trading in our family and although it is sad, I think I'm ready to let the hard work go now and take the rental income instead and so this card was made while I thought to the future really.  

I must admit, while my mind was a bit elsewhere, I did forget to take the photo's as I went along but I'll talk you through it as always.

I think you can see from this artwork (or at least I can) that my mind has been unsettled for a while as I had to make some rather large decisions.  The air is stormy, the colours quite dark and the sentiment was perfect.

I started with my usual piece of Sheena Stamping card which had been sprayed with some bister spray inks and left to dry.  I then turned the card until I could see how I could get my stamped images on there and looking right.  So I then stamped the man and the tree (both Clarity Stamp) in black Momento ink.  I grounded them both using a piece of torn paper and some sponged distress ink.  Using the same torn paper and distress ink I added the hill in the distance.  The clouds have been done by just smoothing over some gesso gently and then enhancing with a soft charcoal pencil.  The grasses at the front are from Inkylicious and I just had to ensure that they were leaning over in the same direction as the wind was blowing!  

The final touches are a few spots of water, just dripped from my fingertips and the colour removed with a piece of kitchen towel and the shadow put in with the charcoal pencil from the mans legs with some white pen to highlight around him and the tree.

A sad time for me and my staff at Pettifers Pet Shop in Rushden, Northants.  (I do have other businesses) - this was a much loved shop but too smaller fish to compete against the larger chain.  At least with the rental income from the completed flats, I won't have to get out of bed to earn the same income. - Do you sense bitterness? - yes, do you sense sadness? - yes, do we pick ourselves back up, brush ourselves down and carry on and make the best of what we have got - YES WE DO!!!!

"Sometimes in the winds of change - we do find our true direction",

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne xx