Feisty Ladies over at Left of Center

Hi again folks!!

Well it's that time agaiin, my fortnightly project over at Left of Center. This week's theme for our #146 Challenge is Feisty Ladies and our sponsor this week is Oddball Art Co Stamps by Lizzy Love.

 

I decided to use Creepy Cute Big Eyed Girl in Chains - DeeDee Image 265. She is indeed feisty wouldn't you agree?

I used Digi Paper Deisgns by Lozzy - The Paper Wall paper for the background, with strips of washi tape and some stickers from my stash to add some 'graffiti' aspect to it. I then printed out and coloured the big eyed girl with my Polychromos pencils and my Zest It blender. I used black and purple because it went with the look I was going for. Instead of using the chain image that comes with this gorgeous digi (it comes with a brick wall too), I used part of an old bracelet to attach her to the wall. The sentiment was also part of the digi set. I used Tim Holtz Distress Crayons in neutrals - brown and grey - to add colour and texture to the base of the wall and to add the shadow to the girl on the wall. I coloured up with Stazon black ink and used silver pen on two barbed wire corners from Things to Alter and added these to my art journal page top and bottom.

I hope you enjoy my latest make. Do come on over to Left of Center Challenge #146 - Feisty Ladies or go LOC as long as it fits the rules of our group. 

I will be entering the following challenges with this art journal page:

Dream in Darkness -September AG

Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle xxx

Left of Center #144

Hi there! Where's our beautiful sunshine gone? I do hope that that's not it now for the year and we are going straight in to Autumn so soon. Fingers crossed we get more sunshine, certainly before the kids got back to school early September.

For this week's Left of Center Challenge #144 we are lucky to have Sheepski Designs sponsor us. I chose Aisling and she came with Flutterby.

I created the background using a mixture of papers from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Lost and Found as well as Dark Grunge from Paper Lozzy and some inky background experiments I'd been doing. I ripped these papers up and layered them up on the background to add a bit of visual interest behind the main focal point. I inked the edges of the papers before sticking them on the Kraft card base.

Aisling and the butterflies were coloured with Polychromos pencils. I decided to stick with purple and blue tones throughout to keep it simple and cohesive. I'm particularly happy with how her hair came out  - it's one of the hardest parts for me to get right and I'm starting to grasp it much better I feel. I enjoyed sculpting her face and upper body to show shadow and define bone structure.

Once I'd finished colouring, I fussy cut them all out and created the focal point I wanted. I first inked the edges to enable them to sit well on the background with minimal white showing. I used Cosmic Shimmer Gilding Wax on her wings and the butterflies. I added some gems from my stash on the larger blue butterfly and on Aisling's wings.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my make for this weeks' challenge. Don't forget, Sheepski Designs are sponsoring us this week for  #144 - Friendship - you don't have to use a Sheepski Design digi to enter, all we ask is that you keep to the theme or go LOC (read challenge rules if uncertain what this means).

I will be entering this card into the following challenges:
Worldwide Open DT - #13 AG
Try Stampin' on Tuesday - #284 Paper Tearing/Sketch
Through the Purple Haze - #106 AG
SLS Lines - #23 Man vs Woman
Oddball Art Stamps - For you Blue (use blue)

Hannah and Friends - #255 Lieblingsfarbkombi

Dream in Darkness - August Make it Crafty
Doodle Pantry - #20 Ants in my Pantry Digital AG
Dark n Daring -  #04 AG
Craft Rocket Challenges - #22 Things with Wings Top 3
Crafty Friends - #38 AG
Crafting by Designs - August Anything Goes 
Crafts Galore Encore - August Use a Digi or Stamp 
Classic DT Open Challenge - #05 AG
Catch the Bug -  August BINGO
Cardz 4 Galz - #29 Dragonflies or Butterflies
A Bit More Time to Craft - #26 AG
Addicted to Stamps - #207 Make Your Mark 
A Gem of a Challenge - #176 Summer Fun 
Alphabet Challenge - M for Mythical
Artbymiran - #65 AG 
 
 


Thanks for joining me and see you soon!


Michelle xxx

#140 LOC

Hi all! Well that fortnight went super quickly! It's now officially Schools out for Summer here, and we're nearing August at an alarming speed - soon be Halloween!! Let's hope we get some summer first though, please!!!

On to my next DT project for Left of Center Creative Challenges  #140 - LOC

Our sponsor this week is Shadow Clocksy - the talented Jessi Scobee has a dark, goth, grunge, horror style that is fantastic to work with. Because our theme this week is LOC, I chose an Anime (Chibi) image to work from this time. This one is called Trixie, and you can find her successor over on Etsy called Trixie V2.

 I decided to colour her in using my Promarkers. Her hair is a cascade of waves which was a great challenge to get dimension and depth as well as light into - it was enjoyable colouring her in. I used 3 yellows for her trousers, 3 pinks for her top and 3 oranges for her hair. I used Wink of Stella in Clear over her eyes, boots, highlights in her hair and the bear on her hair bow.

To coordinate with the colours used on Trixie I found some lovely Mixed Media paper from Paper Lozzy, I tore this into the right size to fit on my Kraft card base, and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Old Paper.  It needed something else, so using another digital paper pack from Paper Lozzy called Dark Grunge, I tore two pieces to go top and bottom of the base paper. I used Tim Holtz Distress Crayon to darken the edges.

I used a variety of stamps to to add further interest on the background paper, including a retired Stampin Up set with dots and circles, a vine stamp and Denim Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Stamps. I also used the Denim Backgrounder in dark yellow on Trixie's trousers to create more texture.

Once happy with the background, I fussy cut Trixie out and placed her off to the left on the card, to leave room for a quote or sentiment. To ground her, I used a brown Distress Crayon by and under her boots. I used a pale cream Distress Crayon to go round her to further ground her onto the background. Once happy with the background and Trixie, I chose a quote stamp from the same retired Stampin Up set that the dots and circles stamp came from - I don't know the name of the set, sorry. I used Stazon in Black Soot to stamp the quote.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:



Thanks for stopping by.

Michelle xxx

Challenge Winner

I had a lovely surprise browsing the blog challenges I've entered my projects on. I have won two more prizes!

Firstly, I won $15 of digi stamps for Challenge #66 - Be Independent over at Ike'sworld Challenges. Thank you Suzy and the DT!

I also was in the Top 5 for June over at Altered Eclectics - thank you Elaine and the DT who chose mine. 


I was surprised and thrilled to have won three times with my very first art journal page, and it's given me the confidence to carry on with my own style of work. I feel rather silly having had my mixed media pad for quite a long while before getting the courage to actually do a page - now you can't stop me!!

Next post will be my project piece for the coming week's Left of Center Creative Challenge #140 - I do hope you come along and join in.

Thanks for stopping by and reading.

Michelle xxx

Left of Centre Challenge #138 - Animals

Here we are again - those 2 weeks flew by didn't they? I'm back with my next project for Left of Center Creative Challenges.

This week's challenge requires an animal to feature and our sponsor for this week is Delicious Doodles.

 

  

I chose the blue tit from the lovely digi stamps available. I have a big reason for choosing it. I had a family of blue tits with a huge batch of eggs in a nesting box on my front porch, and someone knocked the box down, destroying half and then came and stole the rest. So- upset and angry about that, I thought that I'd transfer that into my art, and came up with this. It's premise is that nature is never ending and perseveres regardless - whilst humanity is a small blip on the conscious of the world. 

I found the perfect paper for a wonderful 
background at Paper Lozzy on the gorgeous paper pack Mixed Media, it had the right colours that would coordinate with the coloured image.
I used Promarkers to colour the bird and branch, layering up colours from pale to bright yellow, cool grey, and three shades of blue plus black. The branch is a mix of cool grey and two different browns.

The MDF pieces for the nest and the skull with roses are from a wonderful lady called Jac and her company is called Things to Alter. I left the nest as it came, such wonderful detail. With the skull, covered it with Liquitex Heavy White Gesso and used my finger to rub it over the area, then a baby wipe to take off some of the thickness so the details still show. I added a bit more gesso on a baby wipe after it dried to whiten it up a bit more. Once dried, I used Promarkers to colour the skull, teeth, and the roses. I used my finger to blend the colours together on the roses, and added deeper colour to the cracks and crevices in the skull.

I ripped the A4 printed background around the edges to give it an aged look, and used a deep pink ink around the edge to take away any white. Once stuck down, I added some Liquitex Heavy White Gesso in places with an old credit card. Once dry, I used a brown Promarker to add a trunk along the left hand side of the page. I added the nest so it would be in the background for perspective and placed the coloured and fussy cut bird slightly staggered and down from it. To fill in the area between the trunk,  bird and nest I used Petaloo Botanical Mini flowers in Pink. The skull was placed at the bottom and a shadow added with brown Promarker.

The two layered die cut pieces of card in deep orange canvas effect and plain white are from my stash, as is the stamp I used for the quote.

I hope you like my latest project. Don't forget to pop along from 8pm Saturday 9th July for challenge #138 - Animals. I look forward to seeing your makes.

I will also be submitting this project into the following challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft - #23 - Anything Goes
Dream In Darkness -a July - Anything Goes
 Art Journal Journey - In My Garden
Altered Eclectics - July Anything Goes 
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - #285 Anything Goes
SLS Lines Digital Stamps Challenge - Anything But A Card 
Paperbabes Stamps- #37 Anything Goes

Thanks for coming by.

Michelle xxxx