While the Cat's away.....

Hi everyone

I received a lovely email from my friend Anna today and then saw a nice surprise on the Chroma website. I made some cards recently using Chroma paints and mediums and they have put the cards and instructions on their website in the Paint Talk section. I just love creating all sorts of things and these cards were a lot of fun to do. I was also very honoured that Anna chose to paint my Buddha design out of the magazine that I wrote about in a previous post. Hop on over to Anna's blog to have a look at her wonderful work.

This week, my husband is away with work all week (hence the title of this post), so we all know what that means don't we? Quick easy meals for dinner, no housework, and lots and lots of ME time. Luckily my boys help me out cleaning up the kitchen every night after dinner so I have been doodling and painting this week.




This first page is my doodle that I did in my new moleskin-like journal right after a nice long meditation. I just used my coloured sharpies and I don't think I have finished yet but I have stopped for a while because usually I keep fiddling till it is too busy and overdone.






 The next group of photos are a double page in my art journal. I wanted to do a collage. Here are my stages. The first stage is stamping and stenciling on the background.




I found a plastic placemat in the bargain shop and used it as a stencil first with black ink and a makeup sponge.





Then I turn it over and used the brayer on it to use it as a stamp.






Here is the result.

Then i painted a wash of Ultramarine Blue Deep and Diox Purple over the stamped pattern. While it was wet I placed the placemat back over it and used the brayer again, lifting off to leave another pattern.






I then stuck on some paper towel that I had wiped my brush on with greens and iridescent colours.  This was actually the inspiration for the next couple of steps and the picture I found. I also stuck on some patterned serviette pieces







I had a piece of black cardstock that I had sponged red and gold iridescents on it. I tore it and stuck it over the patterned serviette.
I painted some thick irridescent green over the dark blue background and while it was wet I pressed the stamp in the picture to leave indentations of the stamp. Then I stamped this all over the page.





I punched out some butterflies and stuck the leftover piece on the page.

Then I found a photo I liked because of the iridescent beauty of her dress but also because of her confidence and her care-free and blissful mood I saw in her. I love the way her dress is floating all around her. I then stuck the punched butterflies around the girl. I cut out a butterfly in the same paper and doodled on it. I finished the pages with Opal Dust on her dress and on the butterflies.

Then I found the words that said what I saw in the photo.  They say 

"Beauty comes from deep within".  

The large caption says, 

"Although genes have a great impact on how we look, how well we wear them is up to us. Decide now to 'dress' yourself from the inside out to reflect the person you always knew you could be."

It looks like I have covered up most of the stamped background but in person you can see it there.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post. I thank everyone who has looked and commented on my blog. I really appreciate the feedback.

I hope you are all having a creative week
Lee:)