IW12 Verday or not Verday!

The twelfth Inspiration Wednesday. Yikes that's halfway through already!!!

Did not have (nor indeed have any desire to buy) the special Verday paints from 10 Seconds Studio....so set about trying to make a rusted/verdigris copper finish on my own :)

I started by using some sand texture gel coloured with teal acrylic to smudge on the page for some texture.

Then a bit of a wash all over with some orange and black acrylic.

Texture paste through a brick stencil and stipple coloured with burnt umber then claret and stone fresco paints...

....an old white plastic house number

(I saved it over 5 years ago when I replaced it with a much nicer stainless steel one)

given a make over too.

Wording added above reads "Home is where the heart is"

Front of inclusion... it says "Age is but a number written on the wall of life"

Two different thoughts as this page encompasses my "not to look forward to" big birthday later this year and my love of where I live....and no.....EXCUSE ME!!! I'm not 69!

On second thoughts that could allude to something entirely different.......ROFLIA

...back of inclusion.

Various stippled layers later of burnt sienna, juniper paint dabber, more burnt umber and a touch of copper inka gold peeping through just about got me to an effect that I really like. ;)

I think I really like this for the simple reason I had to use my brain and some of the things I've already learnt to experiment and it seems to have worked....well I like it and that's what counts!!!

ROFL :)

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Holiday in rural Normandy

We have just spent 10 days away in France, some of it in Brittany but most of it in Normandy.

Looking back at the photo's it seems it had a lot to do with food and drink!

We (Me, SB, and our friend JB) sailed to Roscoff overnight and enjoyed a meal in the great restaurant aboard the Pont Aven ;)
We were meeting up with the rest of the 8 sharing the gite the day after landing.

A little detour just after landing to Carantac where we had an early morning coffee in a quirky tabac/cafe. Yikes it was a bit on the strong side!

Next stop Morlaix for some breakfast but we ended up just having another coffee and a little shop in a wine place....;)

Onwards then to Dinan......our overnight stop.

We needed an early lunch at this point....so we did!
Galvanised buckets for the mussel shells we were about to devour.

I love, love, love Dinan (I've only ever been to Paris for a few days (was not that impressed for some odd reason....I know....shocking!! lol) and so this was my first taste of real France.

 A wander around the town later and we ate in an atmospheric place in the evening.

Victor Hugo supposedly stayed in our hotel and there are quotes above the beds.
We had a nice breakfast in the hotel and went to the market to buy some cheeses for our week long stay....we had a little list of stuff we had to buy so we went to a supermarket just outside Dinan and had a field day looking at all the great fresh produce....our supermarkets need to learn a thing or two I think (it was the Intermarche chain if you are ever that way) :)

It was another 3 hours to get to our very rural part of Normandy.....a little place called La Foret Auvray.....you would never have heard of it if you had never been!!! Our gite was 2 kilometres from there......very peaceful but not so handy for a jaunt to a bar etc :)

Thanks for looking, I'll share a little more later

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of 2015 June

Wow! Four months in a row at 12 tags...can I possibly revisit the couple I missed and catch up one of these days? :)

Here is my entry for 12 Tags of 2015 June

I have in mind to use this as a means to hold a gift card as T!m showed...hence the grabbing of a Costa Coffee motif from the net :)

The plaid effect was made with a Wendy Vecchi background stamp.

Coffee cup cut from suitably coloured Kraft Core and as I did not have the corrugate surface I used my ribbler on some Kraft card before cutting...

...can't remember the last time I used my ribbler....think it was back in 2006 when I made some roofs for little bird houses as table decorations at Christmas!

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

A little craft stash from SSS ;)

My little win at T!ms 12 tags allowed me to get these goodies from Simon Says Stamp.

I have not been buying the new distress colours as they come out as I knew I wanted to get them in the mini pad format ;)

A couple of masks....

although I like cutting my own I can't possibly manage to cut something as intricate as the writing type ones.

A set of gorgeous Gelato colours that reminded me of our recent holiday to Brittany and Normandy (pictures coming soon).

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

IW11 - finished!

The eleventh  Inspiration Wednesday.

Next stage blending with white acrylic....think I should have picked darker colours to start with but that could be just me liking a more grungy style! lol

I added "Painting is a new Adventure" and "Open the window and jump!!!" because the effect reminded me of stained glass windows. ;)

Back of inclusion

It was still looking a bit stark so I just had to add some stippled DI walnut stain around the edges of the pages ;)

Not sure if it looks "finished" to me....hey ho....if I really knew what I was doing I'm sure I could make something fabulous with this technique! ROFL

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

IW first stage!

The eleventh Inspiration Wednesday. first stage.

Have to say I am not totally sure what it is we are supposed to be achieving with this one....lol

Think one of the fast forward sections could have been a little less speeded up!

I've watched it about 6 times and still a bit in the dark ;)

I am going to have to go with my own thoughts on how it is going to resemble what Donna did with the colours!!

ROFL

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Horrors in my garden?

I love taking a close look at things...the macro setting on the camera is the most used one!
LOL ;)

Yesterday in my garden I was looking at this and it reminded me of "Little Shop of Horrors" or something, just waiting to burst into life :)

Today in my garden they have burst into life and I am looking at these instead.

I love them any which way ;)

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

IW #10 the joy of art

Inspiration Wednesday 10 done and dusted.

Although limited supplies 'cos I'm on holiday, it's turned out O.K.!

The squiggly writing says "Art is a subjective thing, unless we try we will never know the joy it can bring"

Page before the black and white added.

Rear of inclusion

Front of inclusion.

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux

Take a butterfly die!

It's our first wedding anniversary today......all say aaah! ;)

Seeing as your first wedding anniversary is associated with paper I made my honeybee something :)

Butterflies cut from maps of some of the special places we have been to in this first year of marriage.

Framed in a shadow box.

"near or far I love being where you are"

Love loving you honeybee.

xoxo Sioux

A bit of colour ;)

I brought my bouganvilla into the house this winter instead of overwintering in the greenhouse and it's done ever so well.

I thought it was a goner actually when I first put it on the kitchen window sill.

It looks even more striking up next to the green of the basil leaves.

It's really uplifting to see it's cheery colour each day.....love it.

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

12 Tags of 2015 May

Well, well, well.....it's three in a row at 12 tags for me :)
It comes in handy just having had a bank holiday weekend to play!

Here is my entry for 12 Tags of 2015 May.

My mum was called May so it was perfect to include her on the May tag ;)

I made a photo of her from 1929 (she was about 13/14) into a look alike T!m type photo.

Did not have the flower dies so made an attempt at making my own...however they are a bit on the large size and it will not fit in a worn cover sleeve ;)

Did not have the chit chat stickers but it's a simple job on the computer to make something similar.

Even if I do say so.....I really like the way this turned out.

Bet my mother never dreamed what would happen in her life....not least of which was moving house approximately 50 times....due in the main to my dad's job!

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux
P.S. Thank you all for the congrats on a win in last months 12 tags...looking forward to those goodies ;)

Paint spray? It's brill!

To say my dress form had been in the elements for the past 3 years (and a bit), it had stood up to it pretty well.

Most of it turned out to have been made from galvanised metal so not much rust apart from this scroll work bit that was obviously made from something completely different!

Why make that bit not galvanised I asked myself?!!!

Anyway I got the majority of it back to a good surface and the spray paint did the rest...

...I even managed to avoid spraying myself although the surrounding area did get a fine covering...

...good job it's not a problem as we have some ongoing work...but afraid it is not going to be anywhere near finished for some time yet!

The dress form is now in the green house to avoid the worst of the weather and to let the paint really harden up a bit (it's not been nice at all over the bank holiday weekend here) and you can see in the background the tarpaulin at least has been removed now ;)

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux

IW 9 Man in Black!

Had some fun again for the ninth Inspiration Wednesday.

Did not have a face stencil so I made my own :)
Wasn't prepared to spend extra money on some special medium that, when painted over gesso, makes watered down acrylic react like watercolours....I just attached some watercolour paper to the pages and hoped for the best, in the end it was not quite a watercolour reaction...why I did not just use watercolours I don't know! ;) lol

Front of inclusion

Back of inclusion

What did I learn this time?
1. Love the contrast between the colourful side and the dark side! ROFL

2. I need to make more of my own stencils.

Thanks for looking.

xoxo Sioux
P.S. I've been trying to get this published via my phone but it wasn't having it! It's been saying it's publishing it for over 40 mins!!!
I am off out to meet my honey (it's the second anniversary of our meeting each other ;))
I'll sort it when I get back if there are two posts!!!!

IW First stage

Inspiration Wednesday number 8 9!.

I don't think I can give this the time it deserves until the weekend!

However, I have made a start on making a stencil of a face as I don't possess any face stencils!

This is something I have been meaning to do for a while ;)

I wish I could cut the image I did more intricately (I had to simplify it somewhat) but my scalpel knife won't allow it!!! LOL

Thanks for looking

xoxo Sioux