'Fly Away'...

Fly Away with 'Flying Bird'

Time soon flies when your having fun and it's my turn to be DT for Roc Nicholas design team this month....

                          

This is my make for this month. On the last Stampotique release of stamps I treated myself to several of Roc's new stamps, and one I couldn't resist was 'Flying Bird'. I fell in love with her straight away and it's such a versatile stamp.

I've been really enjoying playing around with textures and effects recently but, unfortunately these photos really don't show the depth, shimmer, brightness of colour and effect I managed to achieve. Sorry, I tried all sorts of angles...

I thought that I'd try and make my own texture paste as I wanted one that would hold its height but also have a rough surface to it so that it would grab hold of any medium and colour I was going to use over the top of it.

I managed to create a very thick, heavy, gritty paste and applied it to this canvas and left to dry.

                                  

Once it was dry I sprayed it with various different coloured sprays in bright tones then shimmer sprays.

I stamped out Roc's Flying Bird stamp, with an extra set of wings, and painted it with slightly watered down acrylic paint, until I got the depth of colour I wanted. I kept to the same lemon, blue and pink of the canvas.

 I then painted an opalescent pigment ink over the top of the painted duck. It gave such a lovely effect, and to tye the background in with the stamp, I spritzed the opalescent ink over the textured background.. I'm just gutted it doesn't show on here.

I really enjoyed making this, and as ever using Roc's stamps is a total pleasure.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave me a message to say hi. It's great hearing from you..

All Stampotique stamps are available at www.stampotique.com

Roc's Flying Bird stamp is at http://www.stampotique.com/stamp/roc-nicholas/2416.html

   

It's a dogs life

Today is my day to be Roc's featured Design Team Member!

For this months piece, I decided to make a small canvas using 'Polka dot dog and Daisyhead' stamps by Roc Nicholas and Stampotique.  You can find Rocs stamps here...

                    

UnfortunateLy, the camera hasn't picked up the vibrancy of the colours on this little canvas. I used acrylic pains and markers in very bright colours on the black gesso'd background.

I got the idea for the background on this canvas from a class I did with the very talented Karen Hayselden at 'Art from the Heart' a few months ago. Thanks Kassa X

I gesso'd the canvas with black gesso and left it to dry. To create the gorgeous multi-coloured background, I used acrylic paints and pieces of card to create the multi-coloured 'prints' I used to apply to my canvas using the techniques taught to me by Karen.  

To enhance the colours, I used some of Tim Holtz Distress Crayons and rubbed them over a few of the colours.

To give the background more depth, I used a couple of different coloured acrylic marker pens to flick the ink onto the canvas making splatter marks.  You can also achieve this effect by adding some water to paint and flicking it with a paintbrush.  It's great fun, and very messy. I also used white paint to  make circles to make the colours POP off the canvas......

                                             

I used a couple of my favourite stamps for this make. 'Polka dot dog' is so incredibly cute. I just love him, he's adorable! I also used the flower from Roc's 'Daisyhead' stamp. This stamp is fabulous and so versatile, I use it such a lot.

Because the background is so bright and busy, I decided to stamp my dogs onto book paper to act as a contrast and make the dogs stand out more. I decided to lightly colour one of the dogs, but to be honest, I prefer the plain one as it's brighter.

                                       

I stamped out the flower from 'Daisyhead' a few times onto one of the pieces of card I used earlier when making the background 'paint print'. If you know me, you won't be surprised to see that I chose a card which was mainly turquoise - it's getting a bit obsessive..! Lol 

I stamped out four flowers and layered them up and shaped the petals, as I wanted to create more dimension. I then glued it to the top corner.....

                                       

I really enjoyed making this little canvas as I got to use my favourite colours and some of my favourite stamps. I hope you like this. 

Thanks for popping over to my blog. I'd love you to leave a message to say hi...

Happy Crafting Xoxoxo