Album and Hibernate

For the Take a Word challenge - Album

I thought  would create a stamp album. The stamps I already had and were hand created using a variety of paint techniques, collage etc [apart from the digital one the angel is holding], the album is made from a vintage postcard and the background was created from a photograph of some stonework.

For the Illustration Friday - Hibernate

I've recently painted a series of polar bear studies so I thought I would use one of those.

Watercolour Paint & fine liner

Moon

Digital collage from the Three Muses challenge - Moon

The face shape on the moon was from a penny black stamp, the vintage photo from my stash, the poem is one of Byron's.

I've got to hand it to you

I've used a photo I took at Hatfield House, I think it is Sir Walter Raleigh & Queen Elizabeth 1. He had a hand missing so I've replaced it with another complete with fan, and below the place is overrun with squirrels. The fan & squirrel images are from the Graphics Fairy.

Ferocious and Tassels

The theme for Illustration Friday is 'ferocious'. I had a spell of drawing weird creatures so I thought I would use one of those.

This week I've been having a sort out in the loft as we are getting some more insulation, actually it needed a good sort out anyway, but the insulation was the incentive. I evidently did tons of work when I did my City & Guilds & Degree, boxes of the stuff, so some of it has to go and I thought I would photograph it before I say tarar to it. Some I've already dumped, not photographed, some I'm hanging onto until I do photograph it and some I don't know whether I will actually part with when push comes to shove. Below are the photos of some tassels I did for City & Guilds [embroidery]

Doorways and Rolling Stamps 53-55

This is to take part in the Three Muses challenge which this week is 'Doorways'.

I photographed this wonderful doorway at Belsay Hall, Northumberland way back in 2003 and it was an entrance to a room full to bursting of linen.  The nurse wasn't there. Some more photos of the room and another doorway into it shown below.

More rolling stamps - the first & third are made from fun foam, the second from wallpaper

Anyone for tennis?

I did this digital collage for Take a Word, the challenge word this week is Male.

Unfurl and Rolling Stamp 52

I drew the flower for the Sketchbook Challenge - unfurl

I left the background white and thought I would try it in some real settings

in a bluebell wood

near a poppy field

near an unusual fence [I like this one the most]

Rolling Stamp 52 - this one is similar to number 46. I did this one first but the 'repeats' didn't match up at the sides,  I think it was a bit too holey and I'm not very accurate at cutting out. Number 46, shown on an earlier post, the side branches all join up for a neater edge.

Butterflies and Harebells

The butterflies and flowers is a lovely image from The Graphics Fairy. The flowers I've coloured in places and I've arranged it on one of my hand painted rolling stamp backgrounds.

Doodles & collage, turtle, birds & faces

Collaged doodle - the turtle is from a magazine, it's the Wallace & Gromit creature comforts turtle

I collaged the parts of faces onto bits of the doodle that I didn't like

Autumn & Mesmerizing

Three versions of Autumn for the Three Muses challenge

[altered photos, the interesting window in the version below was at Cragside House]

And for the "Illustration Friday" challenge - mesmerizing - I started off with a brush pen doodle and altered it in Paint.Net for a mesmerizing effect [well maybe it would be if you looked at it long enough]

Music & Rolling Stamps [48-51]

The Take a Word challenge this week is the word 'Music'. 

The vintage red music book belonged to my dad.

More rolling stamps -

three of them are made using textured wallpapers and the other is a scored wine bottle 'cork', or should I say plastic or rubber

I cut the wallpaper with pinking shears for extra texture [below]

Cragside House

My sister and husband came to stay for a couple of days. Yesterday we went to Cragside House in Northumberland,  a lovely Victorian house set in wonderful surroundings and built on a cliff ledge. The house was owned by Lord William Armstrong, a Victorian inventor and it has many early gadgets. It is also the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. One of the gadgets in the kitchen was the dishwasher shown in this advert.

He also planted millions of trees, some of which are the tallest in England.

This is part of a wooden panel in the house.

in the gardens there is a carved owl which is part of a tree

Egg-selent

Digital arrangement.

The bird in the envelope and the egg are from The Graphics Fairy

I've added some vintage text to the egg. The background is a collage of skeleton leaves {can't see much of these} and the other leaf [s] is one I used for printing with the other day.

Leaf Printing

I got together with some friends the other day and we did leaf printing.

I used emulsion [tester pots] for the actual printing, then painted over with watercolours.

The leaf below didn't make very good prints but I like the leaf with the paint on it.

I like the colours left on these two leaves from the paint.

I think I will do something digitally with all of these at a later date.

IF, frog scarf, doodle

My frog garden sprayer has grown himself a scarf [ready for winter?]

Illustration Friday - the challenge this week is 'boundaries'

Another brush pen doodle