It's a while since I posted here, with the last two entries for this challenge being quickly posted to Instagram at the last minute. I do have the videos for the last three months so I will include those and images below in this post. I got out of the swing of posting and publishing videos after having the flu and taking weeks to recover. Thanks goodness that is gone now!
I have been creating two pages throughout the year, one for the Northern Hemisphere, as in the poem, and then writing my own couplet for the Southern Hemisphere. When I search for a pheasant, one of our native New Zealand birds, the weka, came up so I included that in my second page.
I have been away for a few days celebrating my mother's birthday and spending time with my sisters. It was fun creating with with one of my sisters who has just started to work with different media. As I only had a small supply of art supplies with me, it was challenging to find ways to use what I had.
I completed a few ICAD's using what I had and then I moved on to the July challenge for The Months by The Craft Barn. I was a little annoyed when I realised I had let my 'Month' journal behind, especially as I had started preparing the backgrounds. So I started again, knowing I would have to stick in my page and complete my Southern Hemisphere page later - then I checked the CB blog and found I was a week ahead of myself!! So I have waited to post, having completed the Winter page at home.
My mum had some great napkins with text on them, that I used as the background and then layer with white acrylic and Gelatos. The flowers where painted with watercolours and then detail added with black pen. I had also prepared the text at home - and left it there - but as I managed to acquire an old typewriter while I was away, I typed out the couplet from the poem.
So I still stuck in the page I completed while I was away, but now have both pages done to share with you.
For the Winter page, I used a similar technique as I used in the song challenge a couple of months ago for I Can't Stand the Rain. The window is sort of just sitting there, but I didn't want to lose my frost effect created with a white embossed stamp.
Once again I've been contemplating this idea for 2 weeks and leaving it to the last minute to execute!
I have been using the felt pen watercolour idea as backgrounds in work I do with kids at school and knew it would be a good basis for this page. I actually sprayed it with fixative before I did anything else on top.
I was happy with the idea of the trees, using the doily as a stencil, but then wasn't too happy with them so pushed them right into the background. I must admit, on the video they didn't look so bad.
I was brave and had my first attempt at writing the title on the page with my Tombow marker - then smudged it when adding another flower while filling the space where the trees were. Not minding my own handwriting so much on my work, except that it seems to be different for every verse!
Please check out my video - still pretty new to recording and posting these so would love you to check them out :)
Half way through the year with this - who can believe it!? I feel compelled to do this every month, especially as I made special journal for it and those of you who take part have commented on enjoyinbg seeing my take on both seasons. Thanks for that.
I must admit, it is getting more challenging to think of rhymes going into winter. Even though we have reached the shortest day and it is quite gloomy outside today, many of our days here are still beautiful and sunny. Most of this week we had chilly, frosty mornings - and what comes after that?? Blue skies and sunshine!!
I have been working on this spread (amidst writing school reports) and have not been that happy with it - but the time is up and this is what I have. I think it may look better in the photos - here's hoping.
I was lucky enough to receive my new Paper Artsy Infusions via my Craft Barn voucher and my daughter visiting her brother in London, then bringing them back for me. I really wanted to use them this month but as I'm still learning, it may just be a hot mess. Check out my Instagram #ICAD2017 Days 2, 5, & 7 for what I think is more successful. Videos on my YouTube channel.
I used brighter Infusion colours for Summer (Magenta & Slime) and the darker ones for Winter (Rusty Car & Olive Tree) I had been trying out an Elegant Writer pen and has some success on card, but didn't want to block out the background totally, so gave it a go on tissue. Not so great - I used lots of white and some pink and violet Sakura gellyroll pens to try to bring out the flowers. The winter side has a very sketchy image of my house [because that's my best drawing :)], some grunged up tape and a bit of stamping on both side also.
I have been creating ICAD's (Index Card a Day) as part of a challenge that goes on for June and July. This is great fun but takes time everyday - and I' still catching up as I didn't manage to start right on the first day. I've also been making videos which of course takes extra time. I'm getting better at the filming and have a reasonably ok setup with a small GoPro type camera.
So realising it is time to have my entry for The Craft Barn Song Challenge ready, I have made this ICAD as my entry for this.
Tine for The Craft Barn Monthly Challenge for May and again I have tackled the season for both hemisphere's. I'm not really a drawer (yet!) so was grabbed the lamb napkins I found in my local dollar store knowing I could use them for this challenge.
I used Golden fluid acrylics in gold green and light umber for the background, applying it with an old bank card as this gives more texture. As the background was quite dark, I found it showed through when I glued on the lambs from the napkin, so had to add another layer. I thought I had been quite careful with the placement, but seem to have some ghosting - not a problem really. I then went over the lambs with white Posca pen to make them whiter and also used a couple of flowers from the napkin.
Now for my Southern Hemisphere page. I had been to Wellington with a school trip in the second week of May and these are the amazing blue skies we encountered. This is actually a combination of two photos taken at the waterfront. The top one shows The Michael Fowler Centre and pole sculptures on the 'Taniwha Bridge', with another sculpture and cafes in the lower photo. I really didn't want mess with them or cover them up so all I did was add some glaze and glass bead gel to the top image and some silver foil and gel markers to the sail-like roofs in the bottom image. While my couplet about May reflects the amazing day we had, sadly I will have to admit that during the last two weeks of May, it has done nothing but rain!! Still we are lucky here, as we really do see the sun, and skies like this all year.
This page is for The Craft Barn´s Song Challenge -I Can Stand the Rain by Tina Turner.
I had the idea to create the rain on acetate using Diamond Glaze, so got that done and set it aside for a few days to make sure it was properly dry.
I have been trying to use more layers and not be so concerned about covering them up.
I started with a layer of tissue then added gesso, some stenciling, ink drips and some postage stamps. Once the raindrops had dried I decided on my window design. I used some crayons to create the timber effect and then coloured with acrylic paints. The flowers and leaves were punch from gelli prints, arranged on the window box which was then stuck to the window frame. This was then stuck on with a double layer of foam tape.
So normally I´m making sure I have no shadows when taking photos, but this time I wanted them to show the full effect.
I must say, I´m very happy how this turned out.
The April challenge was to include primroses or daisies as well as the lines of the poem.
As usual I have created my Southern Hemisphere version of the page a part of my journal spread.
I was going to be away from home for a few days and so quickly laid down some paint for my backgrounds, keeping them similar but using Golden High Flow acrylic in silver to highlight the Spring side and gold for the Autumn side. I punched some shapes from patterned paper, with the primrose/daisy shapes coming from some scraps of geli prints. The scraps left were used to stencil some flowers. I also coloured a piece of watercolour paper so I could create the acorn.
So once I went to create the pages, I stuck on some pieces of gold patterned tissue, then drew and cut out the acorn. I also had some paintings of some hyacinths from some watercolour play and these seemed to fit well. Once I had placed and glued all the images, I chose matching Inktense pencils to outline them.
I had been thinking about what path to take and then watched this video by Marrmi Small Art and thought I would give this a go. I chose similar colours to those in the video, one, because I liked them, but also, because I had several paints in tones from light to dark that would work together. It was simple and quick but I was very happy with the outcome worked well for this challenge.
The challenge this time was to include daffodils and hares. I started by painting my daffodils with watercolour paints, which did lead to a challenge with other layers, making sure they didn´t run. I had just purchased some fixative spray so using this certainly helped.
I added layers with torn tissue napkin pieces and butterfly and vine type stamps. I loved this sketchy hare I found to use as a focal point in the foreground.
Check below for my Southern Hemisphere version.
At the school where I work we held our annual fundraising gala last Friday so this was the celebratory theme I followed.
I had a small piece of watercolour paper sitting on my table on which I had be practicing some paint effects. In itself it was nothing special and was probably destined for the bin. However it was ideal to cut up into triangles to make colourful bunting.
Again I used some napkins for the checkered strips and added bunting and other stamps before sticking on my main bunting feature. I think this really conveys the happy atmosphere of our gala - although actually, I spent 2 hours in a haunted house full of screaming children!! :)
Really happy with how these two pages look together this month.
