Claritystamp Challenge - Anything Goes #2

I've been really busy here this month.  In the process of buying and selling a house, so forgive me if I have been a bit distracted.  This is my offering for the mid-month reminder for the Claritystamp Challenge Anything Goes.  No step-by-step photos for this one I'm afraid, but fairly straightforward.

Stamp: Claritystamp NDC #102 Alice

Stencil: NDSC #22 

Inks:     Archival Watering Can

Other:   Watercolour paper, masking fluid, Brushos, White sticky labels, Spectrum Noir pencils

• Stamp Alice with Archival Watering Can ink onto watercolour paper.
• Cover Alice with masking fluid and also use the fluid to make a sun.
• When the masking fluid is fully dry, tape the stencil to the paper.
• Sprinkle a very small amount of the Brushos onto the card. I tried to place the colours to make grass, leaves and sky.
• Lightly spray with water. I sprayed a bit too much at the bottom and the colour ran under the stencil but I quite like the effect.
• Lift the stencil off and dry the artwork with a heat gun or just leave to dry if you are more patient than me.
• Remove the masking fluid.
• I started colouring in her dress with watercolour markers.  Not a good idea as the Brushos re-activated and bled round the edges.  So I stamped Alice again on a label, coloured in the dress, this time with pencils, cut around the dress and stuck this over the one I had messed up.
• Finish colouring Alice and the sun with pencils.  
• Cut a circle in a blank card and stick the artwork behind this.
• Finish off with some Faux stitching.

If you feel inspired to enter this month's challenge pop along to the Claritystamp Challenge blog.  Looking forward to all your entries.

Lesley x

Art Class - Rose lino-cut

Another example of a lino cut. I designed this from a photograph of a rose taken by my sister-in-law Sandra. She has a beautiful garden. 

This time I have gone for a simple one block print which I will print onto different papers or colour in by hand.

This one has been printed onto a scrap of paper used to clean my brayer during a Gelli-print session. 

Not a lino-print but a copy of my original design which I have doodled into. 

The great thing about lino-cuts is that once you have your block cut you can experiment and print as many times as you like in different colours, on different papers etc.  This is a small print approximately 11 x 11 cm designed to fit on a card blank. 

This blog was supposed to go out before the one about the rose painting.   Still trying to catch up and got myself a bit muddled. Never mind.

Lesley x

Art Class - Rose Painting

Having completed our sessions on learning the basics of lino-printing we were given a week to choose what we would like to do.  I scaled up the design of my lino-print rose and chose to do a painting in the style of the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe.  This was painted in Acrylic paint, starting with pale thin washes, gradually building up the colour with glazes. We also have to make craft items for our course and I have chosen to create greetings cards from my art.  I took a photograph of my rose painting and then printed to fit blank cards.  

The second card was re-coloured using an Art package on the computer before printing.

Lesley x

Art Class - Amaryllis linocut

Week two of doing lino-cuts. For this one I was trying out the method of creating more than one block, one for each colour.  To keep it simple for my first attempt I just did two blocks. The design is taken from photos I took of Amaryllis flowers. 

Separate prints of the two blocks

An example card made from a print of the second block coloured in with pencils.

Playing around changing the colours using an Art package

Lesley x

Claritystamp Challenge - Anything Goes

Seren is a Welsh name meaning 'star'

Why is it when you have wider brief it becomes more difficult to come up with an idea.  This month's Claritystamp challenge is Anything Goes. A lot has been going on here this month and suddenly the deadline for getting my design in was looming.  After a weekend visit by my daughter and her family, inspiration finally came.  I became a grandmother again on Christmas Eve, my first granddaughter, Seren.  She is beautiful, of course.  I have designed this name plaque for her but you could use any name of your choice.

Stamps: Nursery Rhyme Alphabet, Field Mice,  Toadstool from Wee Folk Elves 
Stencil:  Tree Box Frame
Ink:       Adirondack, Lettuce and Stonewashed, Archival Coffee
Other:    Claritystamp Stencil card and stencil brushes, Colouring pencils, fine nib felt pens, sepia pen

• Stamp your name using Coffee Archival ink.  I used this colour because I wanted to colour in the blackbirds on the letter S and thought they wouldn't show up if I stamped in the usual black.

• Cover up the name with post-it notes.
• Tape the stencil to the left-hand side of the card and brush blue ink across from the left taking care not to get a hard edge at the right-hand side  
• Make a hill mask with copier paper and then brush Lettuce across the bottom. The green will mix with the blue to give a darker green.  

• Remove the stencil and clean it before turning it over and repeating these steps on the right-hand side.
• Remove the stencil and then use masking tape to get an edge in the central section.
• Lightly brush on the inks to complete the frame.

• I'm afraid this is where I forgot to keep taking photos.
• Colour in the letters.  I used mainly pencils but also fine nib felt pens for those fiddly bits. 
• Add a wiggly outline with a sepia pen.
• Some shading around the frame and tree branches.
• At this stage I thought it was looking a bit plain and decided to add the mice.
• Make some masks for the field mice using post-its.
• Stamp mice and cover with masks.
• Stamp the Toadstool behind the mice then remove the masks.
• Gently wet inside the mice and blot to remove the green then when dry colour in.
• Add some colour to the toadstool and a couple of Barbara's heart birds in the trees to finish it off.

I have temporarily mounted the card on some brown card but not quite sure yet whether to frame it or make it into a door plaque. I will make that decision another day when I am not in so much of a rush.  I love these Nursery Rhyme Alphabet letters and noticed that you can buy individual letters now.

Looking forward to all your entries this month.

Lesley x