I wanted to break away from the cool colours I have been working with recently and go really bright colours for a change. And this is what I came up with...
Using a variety of colourful acrylic paints I created my background...
I have foiled my sentiments by die cutting them from double sided adhesive sheets and rubbing them with gold foil from Crafter's Companion. The love die is by Hero Arts and the Hugs die is by Papertrey.
To create come contrast with the background I added a floral stencil with white paint and a black damask stencil design in black.
These really are such a contrast to my recent creations and I love the results.
There is no Youtube video for this one, sometimes I just like to play
without the faffing of the video camera! Don't forget to check out my Youtube channel though as there are lots of art and mixed media videos on there you might like!
These creations are for the Simon Says Challenge this week which is called "Don't be fooled, be foiled".
I hope you are having a good day and thank you for stopping by!
I have made the decision to resurrect my blog. Now feels the right time. Let me explain...
After only a few months of starting this blog over a year ago, I was unable to continue with it. As my last post suggests my health was in trouble. Big trouble. Really big trouble. OK, not terminal, but nonetheless still very serious.
So I had to take a break. Despite feeling ill so much of the time, as soon as I felt well enough, I wanted to move into videoing my art work with a view to starting a Youtube channel. It kept me motivated through some very dark times.
Of course, it was the art that was the main motivation, not just the desire to do Youtube. Art has always been my saviour and has kept me going both physically and mentally.
So, my lovely hubbie made an overhead rig for my video camera, and when I felt well enough, I switched on the camera each time I worked. Then I had to learn video editing. Luckily hubbie is a whiz at the tech stuff and was able to teach me the ropes. But it took a long time as I could only learn it in between my health relapses. So my blog suffered, I simply could not do Youtube and blogging.
I had no idea how time consuming being a Youtube creator is, and I take my hat off to each and every one. There was so much to learn that only now do I feel confident with creating videos. I actually really enjoy video editing and find it every bit as creative as the art work. And in turn I now feel able to do Youtube and create blog posts as well. I enjoy writing as well a creating videos, and sometimes it easier to explain my thought processes in a blog rather than a video. Above all though, doing all of this has helped me get through some very tough times and has helped take my mind off feeling so tired and ill so much of the time.
My new fave toys art products are Sennelier oil sticks as I demonstrated in my last Youtube video here. The Sennelier oil sticks blend very easily and can be used to create a very grungy, messy, smudgy background very quickly. Not only that but I discovered that you can layer acrylic paint over the top. It will dry and adhere perfectly.
And here is my messy desk with my messy art work...
I love love these colours. The rich yellow ochres combined with sepia and teal is especially one of my favourite colour combinations. In addition to the oil sticks I used Sepia Extra acrylic paint by Old Holland to add even more depth of colour.
And so I created art journal covers with my art work. You can see how I made them in my Youtube video here.
I love how they turned out...
I didn't go too heavy on the oil sticks and love that I can still see my vintage papers and book text collage peeking through.
I deliberately don't even try and blend my white paint very much, I like the raw almost unfinished look. Maybe that's a bit weird but I just love messy art!
The gold heat embossed sentiments are from my favourite stamp set by Donna Downey called "Empowered Words" by Unity stamps.
I have used May Arts cord to secure my journal signatures.
I did wonder if anyone would watch my Youtube videos as the process of mixed media and abstract art can be soo ugly at times but you have to go through the ugly hot mess to get to the beauty. At least sometimes. It doesn't always work out lol.
I shall be entering my messy art journal covers in to the Simon Says Monday challenge this week which is called "play with paint".
You can see the whole process on my Youtube channel Red Queen Art Creations
It has taken me a while to get back into crafting again. I've really been struggling with everything. I think that my recent health scare has had more of an impact than maybe I realised, it's hard to be creative when you are worried something might seriously be wrong. Thankfully I am OK but I think it will be a while before I am back to my true creative self.
These little creations came out of nowhere. I had been mindlessly painting, really creating what I thought was a mess. But I added some Art Basics heavy gesso on top of my paint and covered with black acrylic paint resulting in these gorgeous texture cards...
My first layer of paint included lots of muted colours, pinks, greens and even lilac. Much of this got covered when I added the black paint but I love how the muted colours are still peeking in the backround.
I started as I usually do-on an A4 sheet of heavy mixed media cardstock. As I worked aimlessly I was getting more and more fed up, it was not going well and I very nearly threw it in the bin. But just as I was about to give up, I could see elements of the piece that I really liked, especially the texture. When I cut it up I realised I absolutely loved the end result. Not what I was expecting at all!
The Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers say it all...
The beautiful metal frames are also by Tim Holtz...
I'm so glad I did not give up! It has taught me to really look carefully at my art before deciding whether it discard it.
I have created these very simple backgrounds with cling film. Although this is an old technique I really love it and come back to it time and time again as I love the drama you can achieve with this technique.
I have sprayed Lindy's Starburst sprays and Glimmermists onto the cling film and layed sheets of ordinary cardstock on top.
I love these cool tones...
By spraying at least 3 colours onto the cling film I got a multi tonal effect...
I then used warm tones for this art journal background...
And I had enough left over to make a cover for my Ellen Hull Passport book.
These were so simple to make but I love the effect.
I shall be entering my cards into this week's Simon Says Monday challenge called "flower power". I'm off to rest now and hope to be back soon xx
Hi! Apologies for the long gap since my last post. I have been concentrating on video editing over the last few weeks in the hope that I will soon have my own Youtube channel, but this has inevitably impacted on my crafting.
But today I just had to get back to creating and as I haven't done any art journalling for while, I thought it would make a nice change for me.
I have created these pages for this week's Simon Says Monday Challenge which is called "A Trio of Something". So I have included 3 flowers, 3 brads and 3 sentiments!
I wanted to add texture to my pages so I have used strips of old ribbon and fabric, and I hope it adds to the overall vintage look.
My "art journal" is in fact a really old book that is actually starting to fall apart, but it is great for journalling as the pages are quite thick and can withstand pretty much whatever I throw at it!
I will continue with my video editing but I know this may well slow down my blogging as a result, but I will try to be back as soon as possible I promise!
Something a little bit different from me today. A mini painting of a very dark brooding stormy sky which I have created for this week's Simon Says Monday challenge called "Whatever the Weather".
I used cotton wool and acrylic paint to create the cloudy sky. I love using cotton wool with acrylics for painting as you can get lovely soft edges that I find difficult to get with a paint brush.
The little birds are a stamp by That's crafty called Lynne's Affirmations-set 2. And I added an Inkylicious branch stamp around the edges.
I love making a mess. Paint wise that is. And I certainly did with these cards...
Lots of layers of acrylic paint with doodles and scribble grafitti...
The gold paint is my absolute fave-DecoArt Fluid metallic gold, it is a lovely shade of gold and has an amazing shine.
The other colour which I feel really made these cards is Opera Rose acrylic paint by Windsor and Newton. It looks a scary vivid pink in the tube but is actually a lovely bright pink, and I think goes beautifully with the other shades of pink and grey I've used.
The flowers are by Hobbycraft and sentiment stamps by Paula Pascale.
To finish I added some slivers of white card which I ran between my fingers to make it curl.
I'm really pleased with how these turned out and how photogenic they are! I will be entering these into the Simon Says Wednesday challenge "anything goes".
Having made a notebook cover a few weeks ago I just wanted to try another.
This is a different style, more of a notebook wrap, secured with some washers and eyelets, and finished with some metallic gold cord...
The gold foiling looks quite subtle in the photos but in real life it really catches the light. I added lots of my own doodles but also the Andy Skinner Alphabet Spaghetti stencil in black paint. I loved the result...
And this is the back...
This will be my second entry for this week's Simon Says Wednesday Challenge "Anything goes". I was thrilled to have made the designer spotlight for the Simon Says Monday challenge "grunge it up" and thank you to everyone who has left me such lovely comments, I really appreciate them.
Thankfully our snow is now melting and life is returning to normal. Hope you are all OK,
I had never tried heavy body acrylics on cardstock and wasn't sure if it would work.
But it did. These creations may not be to everyone's taste, but they have grown on me and I actually love all the texture the paints have created.
In shades of black, burnt umber, mushroom and white I kept layering the paint with my fingers, my preferred way of painting.
There is a rawness to these pieces but I quite like that...
I couldn't make up my mind whether just to put them in my art album or make cards, but I chose to make cards and add the Tim Holtz book plates, I just love them and I think they really suit this grunge style of art.
Like so much abstract work they actually look better from a distance than close up...
I spent most of yesterday on various art projects but I just did not produce anything that I liked. In fact the more I did, the more it was going horribly wrong.
I was about to give up. I had just soaked a piece of card with Liquitex inks in Muted Violet and Carbon Black and it looked awful. But then I added some white acrylic paint and started to scribble and scratch the paint. Suddenly I had the beginning of these pieces of art...
It was the final addition of arcylic paint in Quinacridone Magenta that changed how I felt about these
pieces completely.
Here a couple of close ups...
Then in was case of what to do with them. I just did not want to cover up any of the art work.
So I have simply displayed them in my art journal.
Now I can look at them and use them as inspiration for future art work maybe.
I may get even more art work done this week as they have forecast snow with potentially blizzards later on in the week which would be quite unusual for this part of the UK. A great excuse to cosy up in my craft room as if I need any excuse!
