Trees are life........for AJJ

It's Tuesday so that means tomorrow is the last day for me as guest host at  AJJ Nature'Wonders  so without further ado here is todays piece....

 

I started with a finger painted background with Paperartsy fresco paints and then added some scrap pieces from my old school dictionary and painted over the top of them. 
As I hadn't yet used the pages with 'Trees' and 'Bark' on - this was the ideal time to make use of those words.

   

 

Stamped some leaves and then stuck down the images I'd printed on photopaper with Galleria matte medium but I'd put gesso on back of image first. (I'm still learning about mediums etc and when I had not used the gesso first, I think I got
bleed through as the image dried a bit streaky in places).

 

 

Next I stamped a few more leaves and then coloured them with Inktense blocks, added the white dots with a Posca pen and finished with 'rub-ons' for the words.

 

 

Trees certainly are one of Nature's Wonders; trees are life.... they make most of the oxygen we need to breathe, without them life would probably not exist. They have so many other benefits too like cleaning the air by absorbing carbon dioxide, they help reduce noise pollution, they help with our landscape and erosion, provide shade, are a natural resource and so much more as well as being beautiful.

 

I'm finishing today with a digital piece using a photo from my garden, another of my poems and can you spot one my pastel faces blended on the tree too.

 

 

 

Nature's Wonders at AJJ

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by today,

Hope you're having a great day.

Gill x



All Things Bright and Beautiful.... for AJJ

I'm going bright and beautiful today... so this is my bright  page for Nature's Wonders theme at AJJ  and ok maybe this spread is not all that beautiful but further down this post I will make up for this with some real flowers :)



I started off with some acrylic paints and finger painted the background - this is so messy and so much fun isn't it? I love doing this.

Then I tore some leaves and petals shapes from my old school dictionary to create a flower on the right page and on the left page (no step by step photos for that) die cut some flowers instead.

I stuck the pieces down with Galleria matte medium, painted the stems with an Inktense block and painted the pieces with Inktense blocks or lightly watered acrylics.

 

Added some details with white Posca pen and some more red and yellow paint to background. And sorry.. I cheated with digital words.

 

 

 and now for the beautiful...which just happens to be bright too

... don't flowers just make you want to smile and feel happy?

 

 and when you want some of Nature's Wonders inside....

how about this for an idea...

This is something we had about 1997-ish

The walls were sponged in two tones of grey and then

 we stencilled 4 columns and a hanging garden

 with butterflies and dragonflies.

 

 

The two photos show the 4 columns.

 

 

I'm particularly proud of the columns as I designed them on my pc

and to get the correct size, they are made up of a few pieces.

Once I had found large enough and suitable stencil material,

 I traced the design on to it and cut the pieces out.

 

 

The two long winding leaves and rose looking stencil were shop bought stencils.

Some of the other stencils I made by  tracing a design from a book and then cutting them out with one of those tools that looks a bit like a soldering iron. 

 

 

just a few more days left if you would like to join

in Nature's Wonders at AJJ

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by

(and sorry for the long post)

Gill x

 



Beautiful Butterflies

Hi everyone

Hope you are having a nice weekend and for those where it's been too hot, I hope your weather hasn't stopped you having fun.
Its been quite a bit cooler here today which will hopefully mean that it's more comfortable for sleeping tonight :)

I have two pieces to show today...
My first piece is for  AJJ challenge Nature's Wonder and my second piece for MOO Mania Nature's Beauty and I've gone all Butterfly-ee today ( you know what I mean) for them both.

  

 

Both backgrounds on the pages were created with
Brusho crystal powders and Aquamarker pens. 

 

 

On the right page I  used a mask (called 'Grunge texture' made by 'That special touch') with acrylic paints. The Peacock Butterfly stamp and the quote are from two Sheena Douglass sets called ' The Butterfly effect' and 'True colours'.
The Butterfly was stamped on to tissue paper and coloured with Inktense pencils and then stuck down with Galleria matte medium, Then dots were added to the page using white Posca pen.

 



 

 

 

When I had photographed this I took it into my software programme, duplicated it and digitally cut out the Peacock butterfly and added back on top of the original but with a 'hard light' filter effect.  Then I finished off the page by adding some digital smaller butterflies and grungy foliage/flowers.

 



 

Left page background which was created with Brusho and Aquamarkers also has various digital elements added.

 

 The quote on the left says 'just when the caterpillar thought its world was over it became a butterfly'

 

 

Butterflies often have a tough time surviving for various reasons. It is sad to see so many once green gardens reduced to concrete paving with little planting. It not only makes life difficult for Butterflies but also for bees, insects and birds.

 

These are some of the Butterflies I occasionally see in my garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally below is my digital piece I'm linking to Moo Mania's 'Nature's Beauty' theme which is made up of digital elements from various kits.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for visiting

Gill x

 

Flowers always.... for AJJ

Hello everyone hope you had a nice Saturday.
Here in the UK we have a longer weekend this time, with a holiday on Monday.
It's the last public holiday before Christmas, so hopefully the weather will be nice, but not too hot.

My time as guest host at A J J is coming to an end and there are only 4 more days left, but still time if you would like to join in with this months theme Nature's Wonders. Here's my piece for today.

 

 

For todays double page spread I have started with a background using Brusho crystal powder in Turquoise and lime - just shaking some of the powder on and spritzing it. 

 

 

Then on the left page I stamped the tree (not sure what that is, but maybe a Datura Tree) by La Blanche. Small stamps from 'The Works'. The small alphabets by Dove craft. Flower stickers by'papercraft4you'.
And I also printed part of one of my poems on to paper. It says 'Respect all life and the earth you're on, no going back, when its gone its gone'. 

 

 On the right page I printed one of my photos of a spiders web on to photo paper and stuck down with Galleria matte medium after coating it with white gesso on the back first. (the gesso seemed to stop the matte medium from seeping through the paper) 
I used the same stickers as on the left page. The main quote from a stamp set from PaperArtsy Electica3 ELB05 by Lin Brown which says 'there are always flowers for those who want to see them'. The small script stamp from 'The works' but the web stamp unknown.



 Both pages finished with dots and scribble using a black Pilot pigment pen and white posca pen.

 

  

 All for this time...

Thanks for stopping by today.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Gill x

 



Wonder is.... for AJJ

Hi all...

Today for AJJ Nature's Wonders I have mainly just used Aquamarker pens and Inktense blocks and a couple of bird stamps that I lost the packaging for and don't the know maker. The added quote says 'Wonder is a natural response to the beauty of the world' by Amethyst Wyledyfyre and although I have added that digitally the font is one of a couple I have made. (one of those done by filling in a template with your own writing and then get it converted to a font)

 I've not photographed it step by step mainly because once I get into it I often forget to do that, but this is kind of how it started.  Sorry about weird shadows in photo below.

 

I love using Aquamarkers with the cellophane (as you may have gathered by now) as you get some interesting texture and it's great to see where you are placing the ink.
This is the thing, you know...where I scribbled/doodled the markers on a piece of cellophane, spritze or breathe on it, then pressed it down onto the paper to transfer the ink.

 

 



I loosely painted some sketchy flowers with Inktense blocks and then outlined them with a black pigment pen. Added some squiggly bits with the pen and some splodges and extra bits with the Inktense blocks. Then stamped the birds.

 

Well its Friday once again

Hope your week went well.

Wishing you a lovely weekend

and many thanks as always for stopping by.

Gill x

 

 



What Wonders?

Hello...
Hope your day has been good. Its been another hot and sticky one here in the UK and I'm wishing it was a bit cooler. And for some reason one of our TV channels was recently showing Christmas films  in the afternoons - I know it's 4 months exactly til Christmas but I'm confused!

I have a mixed piece today for AJJ Nature's Wonders which is rubber stamped on the right page and is digital on left.

 

  

I started with a Brusho background for a change, using seagreen and turquoise. Then on the right side I stamped the scene using an old sea theme foam backed set which was either by 'Rubber Stampede' or 'Allnight media' and also used a couple of stamps by 'Cherry pie' and used a mix of alphabet rubber stamps for the words. (small ones by Dove craft)

 

 

 

I am always fascinated by the things that are discovered deep down in the oceans, that are often weird looking and twinkle and glow.

I also wonder what is up out there beyond our skies and what amazing thing will be found next. Nature's wonders are everywhere.

 

I'm still really enjoying seeing all the lovely pages you're creating for this theme and all the wonderful ideas - thank you.

 

There's still a little time left to play

Nature's Wonders at AJJ 

 

Thanks for stopping by

Gill x





CONVOLVULUS - friend or foe?

Hello....
Todays piece for Nature's Wonders at AJJ is a Convolvulus. But is it friend or foe?  
The common name that Convolvulus is known as, is Morning Glory. It is a species of bind weed which appears to be looked upon as both a plant and an invasive weed as it twines itself around plants and can choke them, however it does have good points as bees are also attracted by them.

I drew the Convolvulus with pencil first then went over it with black pigment pen and coloured with Neocolor ll water soluble wax pastels. Background Tim Holtz distress stains in Tumbled glass and Shabby shutters.. 

 Word quote stamp ’Eclectica 3’ by Lin Brown. Script and little grunge stamps make unknown.

 

 

 

many thanks for stopping by.
Hope you have a lovely day

Gill x

MOTHER NATURE

Hello all.... 

My piece for Art Journal Journey  today started with an acrylic background in blue and green paint. Then I loosely drew the face and mountains, and coloured with Neocolor 11 pastels, Inktense blocks and coloured pencils. Added a bit more detail on the face with black pigment pen.

Natures wonders words were rub-ons. Rubber stamps were from a ‘Stamp a scene’ set by Rubber Stampede - not sure who made birds. The additional quote was a digitally done.

 

There's still another week left

for AJJ Nature's Wonders challenge 

 

 

 Hope to see you at AJJ

 

Thank you for stopping by.

Hope you're weekend going well.

Gill xx



Paper Pages People

Hi... a bit different today as this is my first of two posts. First one  linking to TIOT   where the challenge is to use some book pages/print on your project and I've been using my old school dictionary.... I knew it would come in handy after all these years :)



 

 

 drew and cut out head, neck and hair from pages.

 

 

 

Using Galleria matt medium stuck down pieces plus a few random bits.

 



Probably should have painted background first but using Pebeo Dyna paints and Pebeo Yellow painted around the body and head and over random bits.

Some more painting then added more colour using a stencil/stamp die cut from craft foam.

Drew face, coloured lightly with Neocolor 11 oil pastels.

 

Added some more Pebeo Dyna paint to the strips at edges. And then finished by painting and sticking on hair, a bit of shadow with Stabilo all pencil and finally a digital quote.

 

 August has been a funny month - the heat has made it awkward to sleep and what with trying to fit in watching the Olympics I seem to be doing everything late or back to front.

 

 

This was yesterdays breakfast - Polenta with sun dried tomato paste,quails egg, red pepper, and courgette. This morning was back to normal - beans on toast - but about 11am we were having a glass of white wine with cheese and crackers - this wasn't normal but this was to toast a blogging friend who was getting married this morning but too far for us to attend,

 

 

My red glasses case broke and Dave found a replacement but the dark blue didn't show up well and I spent so much time hunting down where I left my glasses that I did a quick painting with Pebeo acrylic and Dyna paints - not brilliant but at least it sticks out like a sore thumb and easier to find now.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope you've had a great day.

No sunshine here today,

 was a grey day and now raining.

 

Gill x