Where the heck has this year gone? My gosh time flies by so fast and I seem to have gotten so little accomplished this year. Today I was caught in a dilemma of do I houseclean, since this is a task I haven't completed in a while, or do I sit down and enjoy some time to myself and work on some art. The answer is pretty obvious considering I'm on here blogging about it! LOL I just got a bunch of new color inks from CTMH, which my GF sells and at our last group we tried a technique that she learnt and I wanted to use the inks in my pages today. I have been so used to using Distress inks, archival inks that I usually forget about my CTMH inks. They are fabulous.
My first page was using 3 different shades of blue ink and applies them randomly to marble them onto the page. Then I took a stencil with variety sizes of circles and used the pigment white ink to create highlighted circles over the blue. This is the technique she showed us. I added more layers on this page so they do get hidden a bit and are harder to see in the pictures, but they are there. :) Next, I took a swirly stencil and used a mid-tone blue and created some more background swirls for added visual texture. I then took my new Indigo Blue stamps and stamped the ink pot, the feathers and the wording, all from the same stamp set. I pulled out my pan pastels and colored in the ink pot/lid, the feathers with them. I love my pan pastels, they are so much fun to work with. I colored in the little hearts with my white gel pen. I think took a modeling paste and a stencil to create some textural elements on the page. When it dried it picked up the color from below and so it was hard to see it, I added some white pan pastel over the paste to lighten up the look a bit. It's subtle but that is what I wanted.
My next page was using CTMH inks again. I again picked several different tones of oranges and I did the same marbling of colors on the page by applying with a sponge. I then sprayed some water droplets onto the ink so they would react. They react the same way distress inks do which was great! Next, I used a stencil with a darker orange ink and created the swirls. I then stamped the flowers and the words which are from CTMH on the page with an archival ink so that it wouldn't bleed when I add more color. It seemed really bland looking so I grabbed my Dylusion red spray and sprayed a spot into the center of each flower. It still seemed off so I used my sponge a darker orange and added more ink to the background. I took a charcoal pencil and went around each flower. I think took a black fine tip marker and outlined the swirls. They color inside swirls was too light so I took a paint brush and dipped it into the Dylusion red spray and shaded the swirls leaving some of the orange to peek thru. I then took the charcoal pencil again and added some shading around the swirls. I distressed around the edges of the page to frame it. :)
Ok, I have to admit this next page is not my favorite by any stretch. I am so challenged when doing faces. I usually use a template or stamp to get me started, but I thought I'd attempt to draw this time round. Yeh, ok... good thing I have a day job! I'll keep practicing. I started this page quite some time ago and wasn't feeling it so I left it partly done, mostly unfinished because I was just frustrated with it. Today, I felt I just couldn't move onto another page without finishing this one first. This is were I left off at...
Ughhhh....My proportions are way off. Ok, moving on. I tried to color in some hair using this new paste called Rusty Paper. OMG, horrible. Hated it. It sounded so cool and it was far from. I covered it with white acrylic paint. It had some neat texture underneath from the paste. I added some ink over the white to give the backdrop to the hair some color. I then took a stamp of leaves and created the texture for the hair. Pretty cool! Ok, getting better. I used more CTMH inks to go back over the horrid mess I had made prior. I then took 2 other colors of pink and purple and blended thru a Donna Downey stencil to create the wording. Love how bright the colors are. I contemplated outlining the words but I like how they float over background and kind of melt into the colors.
Be kind..... I know her eye is super huge and her lips are way off scale too. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere. LOL Good thing this is just for me and I'm not looking to get an award with this one. LOL And so ends my fun for the day! Time to get things ready for work tomorrow and back to my busy life for another week. ;)
Thanks for popping in. I love to read any comments you may have, so please leave some love. :)
