It's far better to be "we" than "me".........

Good morning!

I've popped this post on as an extra this week so that I can get it entered in to a couple of challenges.

I must admit, I got totally engrossed in this one and REALLY enjoyed it as it developed.  I have taken photo's of some of the products that I have used so I'll pop those at the end of this post but for now, I'll talk you through where my mind was going when I was doing this piece of artwork.

This is an amazing stencil from That's Crafty - loved it the minute I saw in on their website and just knew that I had to have it! So many possibilities with it....

The stencil is called "Butterfly Wings" but of course is the shape of a man and a womans face outlines so I was going to follow the theme for this months Rubber Dance colour swatch challenge which is dark brown, light blue and white - brilliant colour combination and there is an inspirational photograph to help you with your creation too.

So, I started by sponging distress ink through the main stencil which gave me two beautiful blue wings (or face outlines).  I then had to turn my thoughts in to making those wings not only symmetrical but also looking like two faces.  So, I used the Stampendous stamp called "chilling" but only used the eyes - you see, I needed a stamp with two eyes, a left and a right to make this work.

Here is the stencil.

Here are the stamps used.

So, back to the artwork, the eyes were stamped on by just adding ink to the eye areas only on the Stampendous stamp and hoping that I got them in the right place and inked up correctly - not an easy thing to do!  I then stamped in distress ink (walnut stain) the flowers bending the stalk in opposite directions on each stamping and I decided to use some of this creepy looking tree branches on that stamp around the neck and chin areas of each face/wing.  I wanted to get some texture on there so I passed some structure paste through a stencil to put leaves across the faces (this was also to make the wings look more symmetrical - I didn't want to veer too much away from the fact that this is also a butterfly).  I also added eye brows by painting with the structure paste.

So, I had my main images stamped I then needed to complete the background and to fit in with The Butterfly Challenge this had to be a night sky with "R" to repeat - I have repeated the stamping of the flowers, the branches and the eyes and the stencil work on both wings to ensure the symmetry .  So I blended three different colours of distress ink from darkest at the top, to lightest at the bottom to give me a night sky and I added some stars with white gesso and then topped those with some lovely glitter.

The next task was to make those wings stand out from the background so I placed the masks of the faces back on and used a clarity brush to brush the walnut stain outwards all around the wings.

I needed the perfect sentiment for this card, as it is rather unusual! So the Sheena Douglass "It's far better to be "we" than "me" was superb - not just a single butterfly but a couple.

Now, I had a slight moment of genius I think as I came across these scissor embellishments in a drawer and I thought, if I just clip the fingers rings I could make these in to a butterfly body and stain them gold with gilding wax!

Finally I wanted to bring this design closer to the inspirational photo for Rubber Dance so I used some glue and some white glass beads on the flowers heads, and dotted some black momento ink on them, went over the black dots with a white pen to highlight and then over the top again with glossy accents to look like water droplets as in the inspirational photo.

I will also enter this in to the That's Crafty challenge "Foliage and Flowers" as it shows off their stencil superbly and another favourite of mine, good "ole" Stamping Sensations and "Anything Goes".

Mat and layered in white and navy.

I was pleased with this artwork, very different but very me!

I hope that you have enjoyed how I got there with this piece, I did it over two days.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll pop my next post on Friday as usual for you,

Leanne xx

I would like to enter this in to The Butterfly Challenge:-

http://butterflyspotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/75-butterflies-r-is-for-repeat-andor.html

Rubber Dance - colour swatch and inspiration photo challenge, dark brown, light blue and white:-

http://rubberdance.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/april-colour-challenge.html

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes:-

http://sirstampalotchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/april-anything-goes.html

That's Crafty "Foliage and Flowers":-

http://thatscraftychallenges.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/foliage-and-flowers-challange.html

Frozen in Time..........

Good morning!

Well, did I get messy doing this one or what?!!!!! I decided to take up the challenge over at Stamps & stencils of "Texture, Crackle and Paint" - well, it's right up my alley isn't it!!!!!

I've taken some photo's along the way so lets take our journey and see how I got there with this one:-

OK, so I started off with a medium mdf tag and covered it in Decoart black texture paste.  I waited for it to form a skin on the surface and then stamped a couple of lots of cogs (PaperArtsy) and another PaperArtsy border stamp along the bottom to give me some texture at this stage. Left to dry naturally.

On some acetate (this was not heat proof but strong construction acetate) I stamped this image from Ken Oliver Crafts on to it using Staz On ink.  (I couldn't make my mind up if this was an image of a doll or of a baby??!).  I then painted a two step crackle on to the front of the acetate. The first step is to put on the step 1 medium, wait for it to dry clear and then apply the step 2 over the top (both Decoart) and wait for this to dry naturally and the cracks to appear.

I then painted Decoart paint on to the acetate and wiped back quite quickly so that the ink remained in the cracks that had formed.  By now, you will realise that I was trying to achieve a crazed look on a dolls face.  I then painted Pebeo paint on the back (reverse painting) and this of course, made the whole thing pop. Cut out the image.

Those cogs have now been painted with DecoArt paints and some Powertex pigment mixed with a little Powertex varnish to make them shine.  The upper part of the tag has been overlaid with some acetate which has had some hearts stencilled on to it and some Andy Skinner industrial elements nuts and bolts (hard board) that have again been painted with Decoart paints to give a rusted effect, mounted on top of each other to look more realistic and attached to the tag.  The doll (in this case!) image has been attached on to all of those antiqued cogs and the sentiment of "Frozen in Time" (again, Ken Oliver Crafts) has been embossed with cream embossing powder to help it pop off of the grunge of the tag. Fabric ribbons tied to the top of the tag.

Well, can you guess the colour of my fingers after making this one!!!!! - well, I made this four days ago and my fingers still look like they are bleeding (they ended up the perfect blood colour all over them!!!!!) - my mother even asked what I had done to myself!!!!!!!

Messy? - OH YES!!!!!!!!

I would like to enter this into the following challenges:-

Try It On Tuesday - "Lets Get Messy!":-

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/lets-get-messy-14th-feb.html

Stamps and Stencils - "Texture, Crackle and Paint":-

http://stampsandstencils.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/texture-crackle-and-paint.html

Hope you've like the journey today in to my world of inky fingers!!!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Leanne x