Messy Little Details Meme

Here's this week's contribution to Carolyn's new meme: Messy Little Details.

We spent the last few days in West Sussex and between the showers we had some beautiful sunshine.  As a result I now have 2 or 3 photos to share on this meme and here's the first.

The sun was shining on the viewing screen on my camera so I wasn't totally sure of what I was going to get other than the duckling.  I am so pleased with the 'texture' of the water and the stones on the bottom of the lake.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Spring Tag

We're almost half way through May and coming to the end of our three months of Spring themed projects on 12 Months in View.  Today's guest post is from Nicola and is a Spring tag.

I decided I would use a #12 size tag but I'm in the midst of a big tidy up and I can't find where I put the packet I bought so I made one from a piece of manila card.

Nicola loves to sew and I'm 'not so much'!  So I drew my word and then drew dotted lines with a black pen to look like stitching.

I do have the Tattered Florals Die but decided I would use some of the flowers from my stash.   I used the Tattered Leaves Die and dictionary paper to make the leaves and then coloured them with Distress Ink.  I don't have a cloud stencil so I cut some clouds from a spare bit of paper and used them as a mask.

I inked the tag with Distress Ink and stuck the assembled flowers on with Glossy Accents.   I drew 'stitched' lines on the leaves.

The top of the tag looked a bit empty - partly because it didn't have a hole punched in it - so I stamped the little birds flying away.

I shall stick this into my journal.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Alcohol Inks Technique

This month's technique challenge on 12 Months in View is Blowing Alcohol Inks.

This can become very addictive.  I tried out various surfaces to do this on.  Some worked.  Some that I hoped would work but knew wouldn't, didn't!  Alcohol Inks work on glossy surfaces such as gloosy card (which I couldn't find, although I know I have some), acetate or glass.  However I wondered whether the surface on a manila tag was sufficiently non-porous.  It wasn't!

I tried putting the alcohol ink on my glass mat, blowing the ink and then putting the tag down on it but that didn't work too well either.

I used inks on acetate.

The gold ink didn't really work too well so I put some Blending Solution on it.  Plus some red.

Then I tried on the cellophane that came round a bouquet of flowers I was given.  It already had a pattern on it.

I was wondering whether the pattern would show through.

I tried blowing the inks on top of a page I had made with acrylic paint and the Gelli plate.  It sort of worked!

Then I went back to the acetate.

And put Blending Solution on.

Different colours on acetate.

I turned one piece of the acetate over and stamped butterflies with Archival Ink and then cut them out.

I cut up all my samples and stuck them into my journal using Glossy Accents.

I hope you've enjoyed looking at my experiments.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Ssshhh! I've got a secret.

Well 21 of them actually.  At the beginning of the year I signed up for 21 Secrets - an online art journalling workshop which has 21 classes with 21 different teachers.

Circumstances have meant that although I had briefly looked at what was available I hadn't actually done any of the classes.  So I determined that today I would do one of them.  I chose 'Doodling Our Way' with Cathy Bluteau.

I don't doodle very much and then you know from reading my blog I really don't follow instructions well.  Cathy's idea was to start by collaging flowers.  So what did I do?

That's right!  Not flowers.

Butterflies!

Here is the page in progress.  I used some turquoise washi tape.

I used stencils to draw the shapes but I did draw the leaves freehand.  I have a limited range of Brushables that I used to colour this. 

I had some Kaiser rubons which have deteriorated - as in parts of the words are on the backing sheet - but thought they would look fine on this.

I think there's too much solid colour but at least I've done a class!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

More 'little details'

Messy Little Details is a new meme set up by Carolyn on her blog Mess, Muddle & Fun.

I still haven't been out with my camera so here is a photo I took last year when I was with Carolyn on a course with Kat Sloma.

We were walking up a beautiful wooded valley and I took lots of photos of the rushing water rolling and crashing over rocks. 

But this photo appeals because of the patterns in the water against the firmness of the stone edge.

Why not visit Carolyn today to see today's photo and link up with other photographers.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Collage with Anita's papers

Again this month, Anita van Hal has provided 12 Months in View with digital papers for free.

As you know I love to make books with her designs but this month I thought I would try something different.   Collage!

I printed off three of her designs.

I tore around the design on the page on the left.

I glued the doily page into my journal and then glued the star shape on top, having first inked the edges.

The gel medium was quite a runny one and the paper was ordinary printer paper so there was a lot of bubbling up.

I added a semi circle of a white doily on the left of the page, although you can't really see it in this photo.  I tore round the bluebell image and glued that on top.

I added some modelling paste through a Dina Wakley mosaic stencil and when it was dry added some distress ink.

Then I added some black distress ink through the same stencil.

And finally I added the quote.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Monthly Photo

On 12 Months in View today is the reminder to take the monthly photo.

I take a photograph from my bedroom window of the back garden.

Here's how it looked last month. It still had a distinctly wintery look despite being the middle of Spring.

But look what a couple of weeks of warm weather has done.

And here are a couple of areas where you can see lots of colour coming.

I love that we get to enjoy the neighbour's Magnolia tree.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice