Come Home to Me (Finnibair inspired)

Hi hope you are all well.

So for some time I had a small double page spread started which kind of dried up for inspiration as can happen.

Today while struggling to acclimate to a hearing aid I thought I would try to distract myself from the incessant buzzing!

Following my recent posts I thought I would draw on my Finnibair course to inspire me and a vintage photo of my maternal great grandparents.

The base spread was made up of Tim Holtz paper and tissue paper torn and applied to the page.  Although I love the American street sign paper it didn't fit with what I wanted so I did a gesso wash to knock it back.

Next step was applying some colour using a floral template from Barbara Grey and turquoise and lime dylusion sprays. Again knocked back a little with my scrap paper.

Next I applied some Luminaire silks in the coordinating colors to add some shimmer.  I then applied a pink doily and a strip of adhesive decorative tape.

After adhering the photo I began to compose the embellishments and stuck them using heavy duty medium.

Once happy I painted all metal embellishments with gesso as I wanted to change their colour and accent them with mica Silks.

Once this was all completed to know the brightness back I used a dry brush technique with navy paint around the edges.

I stamped some words and coloured them with distress stain.

The poem suited what I wanted to say about those wishing for their loved ones to come back from war.

Hope you like the results as much as I do.

Finnibair Daydreamer

This was the second darker piece created in my Finnibair class at Art from the Heart based in Harrogate on 1st June 2014.

This used a photo of my maternal grandparents on their wedding day which I have adored since I first saw it as a child.

For this I chose the hidden garden technique.  First the canvas was covered in black gesso and then a patchwork of papers and the photo placed and applied.  Then using heavy gel medium and a catalyst tool patterns were applied to the surface.

I sprayed the lace and applied it beneath the photo before adding the metal, paper and plastic embellishments.

This time instead of painting over all the elemnts we just painted black those we wished to change.

Next we dry brushed primary element by Luminarte on the canvas to bring out the texture and applied silks paints to the black painted elements and areas we wanted accentuating.

I hope you love this as much as I do.

All products can be found at Art for the Heart www.afth.co.uk.

Santoro Journal page

This journal page uses a new stamp and new technique to create it.

This was created in 23rd April 2014 and was inspired by my childhood memories of growing upon near the norfolk coast and spending time there with my family and more recently holidays to the south coasts with my hubbie Ben and our dogs.

The background was taken from an issue of craft stamper magazin and involved three shades of distress inks (shades of lilac/purple).  The firststep was to swipe thepalest colour direct to paper vertically and horizontally.

The next stage involved a floral stencil and the mid shadebeing applied through it using cut and dry foam.  When thishasbeen done I then removed the stencil cleaned it, flipped it over and did the same process with the dark shade to complete the look.

I applied two coordinating mats in tworn distress paper from coordinations and stamped my sentiment.

The image was stamped and cut out using my cuttlebugand a spellbinders die which I then used to create the frame by blending with distress inkin stormy sky and a judikins peg stamp to add the stars and dots for texture.

The image was colouredusing promarkers from my stash and finally I used a wooden santoro key accent coloured with distress ink to complete the page.

I hope you like this.

Beautiful is something we should tell ourselves everyday!

This page was created in April 2014 and contains a background technique fromcraft stamper magazine using a brayer and distress stains.

First you apply the first colour of distress stain in this case red brick to your craft sheet and  roll thebrayer through it.   Roll it in smooth strokes horizontally down your page.  Dont worry if you get a spattered effect as this is what we want to achieve.  Remove and remaining ink from the craft sheet, clean the brayer and do with a second contrasting colour.  I also used this secondary colour to add splatters with the applicator.

To complete the pageI used some papers and imagery from Graphic45 Couture collection.  Crackle accents was added to the roses for texture and text added on the journal area.

I hope you like this.

Finnibair Overemotional

This was created and achieved with a morning class by Finnibair hosted at Art from the Heart based in Harrogate on 1st June 2014.

As you can see from the imagery this means alot to me as this is my great great mother on my maternal side.

This tall thin canvas was created initially with the placement of tge photograph and strips of ripped material to create the impressionof a body.

We then placed a number of metal, plastic and paper embellishments to the top of the image to create a kind of headress and to balance it out a couple of items placed on the body and to the bottom of the image.

To creatr additional feeling with a heatgun we applied hot glue to create texture and emotion.

The puece was tgen painted with gesso to create a ghostly effect protecting the photo and neutralising the colours of the elements applied.

Some stamping with archival ink and 6b pencil for shadow shade was applied. With a dry brush blue and lime Luminarte silks were added and spritzed with watet allowing drippage to flow down the piece again protecting the photo.

Overemotional a fantastic name for an appropriate piece full of technique and love.

I hope you like it too.  All products can be purchased through www.afth.co.uk.