Spray can stencils

So, new stash from the states means I need time to play!  

With this in mind I have been playing with my new stencils.

I thought I would try them on carboard and also watercolour paper.  

Both quite thick substrates so can take a lot of paint and water before  they buckle or start to dissolve.  I added some roughly applied gesso to the cardboard to help the colour 'take' and also flicked watered down gesso across the finished pieces and some water so they have a nice mottled finish.

As is often the way these pieces will probably be abandoned somewhere over the next couple of weeks for some unsuspecting passer by to chance upon.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Gregos and ArtAbandonment

Whilst I was on holiday in New York City I took some of my hand carved devil stamped postcards to abandon whilst I was there.

Most of you will know I am a big fan of street art (its hard not to be living in Bristol, home to Europes largest free street art festival) so NYC was such a brilliant opportunity.

I spotted this 'Gregos' piece and knew it was the ideal place to leave one of my red devil pieces.  Hopefully someone found him and liked it enough to take it home.  

Each piece has an explanation on the back about the Art Abandonment group (its worldwide) and how to contact us if you find a piece, but for the probably 100 or so pieces I have abandoned I have only ever heard back from one finder-but I don't mind as that's not the point of it, it is just a bonus.

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Wednesday?  Again?  Sorry but the days have rolled on by...I have been tardy in visiting desks as I was in New York all week (I know....New York!!!) which is why I missed the WOYWW crop (never missed one before!). We were celebrating our 20th Anniversary and hubbies 50th (which was back in the Spring) so decided to do a proper 'big' holiday-once I have downloaded the photos and pared them down from the more than 300 I took I will do a blog post!

So back to blog posts-on my desk this week are two new purchases from the states.  Some lovely mulitcoloured zebra stripe duck tape (I have the black and white one but never seen this blue/orange one) and also a set of 6 stencils (I have not seen designs like these before and they are right up my street).

On the bottom right are the green resin shapes I made a few weeks ago, not sure what to do with them but the resin was only £1 (marked down as it was leaking so has to be used as already exposed to air) but I managed to make an entire tin of embellishments for a £1 so I am happy with that.

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are once again randomly drawn-honest

"Tycoon Stuns Mob Boss Lawyer'

Say no more!!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

TH Birds

Just a quick update on my latest make.  Still on a challenge to use up stash I decided to use some of the stamped images I stamped from a previous WOYWW crop (waving to my 'enablers' Shaz and Helen if I remember correctly!!).

I stamped lots of images on plain card at the crop and later colour them in to use for a variety of different projects.

This project is unusual for me as it is quite a plain card and only one layer-but for me it works and I think it will be a good card for those occasions we all have where we struggle to find words for a friend but we want them to know we are thinking of them.

Kyla

Abandoned art

 I often leave small pieces I have created on my walks etc for others to find.

A few weeks ago I started to paint some left over cardboard I had and also some small canvasses and I don't think I have shared them with you yet.

For the canvass boards I used stencils and various 3D mediums from gels and pastes (again, using up old stash).  I added colour with sprays and paints, watering down some and flicking them across the canvasses and then adding some words with a posca pen (I love these pens as they seem to take on most surfaces).  I finished them with a light spray of a sealant just in case it rained when I abandoned them.

The cardboard was even easier I just drew direct onto the white acrylic again with a posca pen.  I drew a couple of my favourite Studio Ghibli charachers of Totorro and a soot sprite!

Once again I applied a light coat of sealant.

Some of these have already been abandoned, some I have yet to set free!

Kyla

WOYWW

Happy hump day.  So, what is on your workdesk this Wednesday?  

Mine is a bit different this week. 

When my Nan died and mum was clearing her stuff she came across lots of old x-rays that Nan had taken and rather than bin them asked if I would like them to craft/experiment with.

Needless to say I said yes.  Anyway I forgot I had them until I was in the room the other day and came across the envelope whilst having a tidy up (I know, and it's not even the first day of spring!!). 

I am not sure what to do with them.  I was thinking of seeing if alcohol or thinner distorted the image in any way (a bit like citra solv does with magazine pages) and whether I could stitch through some of them or transfer the images.

Not really sure, have any of you got any ideas?  If so I would love to hear them.

As to my "Man Bites Dog" cards this week 'General Slays Romantic Lover'-cheerful!

Happy crafting

Kyla

I got myself in a right jam

So, I tend to flit between crafts and since it is foraging season I have been making items ready for my Christmas gift hampers.

I have already started some Elderberry Brandy (it should be ready in about a month) but below is my first (and only as it takes a long time to make) batch of Blackberry jam.

It doesn't look much but it always catches me off guard as to how long it takes to make this!

  From picking bags of blackberries, de-labelling the jars and sterilising through to making the jam-it takes an entire afternoon for 6 jars!  To make sure there was enough pectin in the jam I added some foraged apples, cooking them down to a pulp with the blackberries.

All cooled and ready to add to the hampers come Christmas time!

Kyla

WOYWW

On my desk this week is my 365 Journal as I desperately try to get ahead and make my October pages ready for the start of the month (rather than a week or so late which is when I tend to finish them and then struggle trying to remember what I did to add to each day)! 

Now, my "Man Bites Dog" cards this week WERE randomly drawn!! What can I say!!!

Happy crafting

kyla

Shaving foam card

I finally managed to get another few minutes after work to finish the card I started by adding a couple of flowers and attaching them with brads.

It is only a simple card but I do enjoy using up scraps and love playing with shaving foam and inks to create different one-off backgrounds.

One card down-an entire room of stash to use up!!

Kyla

WOYWW

Finally I had some spare time to do some crafting, it was only 30 mins but it was great to finally get back into the craft room.

I have been spending time trying to use up old stash (I have bought very little new stash in the past couple of years) and this card is using up some offcut papers I printed with inks and shaving foam (the cheaper the shaving foam the better).  

I then matted the paper and added an embellishment in the centre.  Next time I get a spare 30 mins I plan on adding some of the flowers from my stash tin.

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Heiress Wife Runs off with Actor'-ooh!

As fellow WOYWWers are all across the globe I hope this week finds you all ok considering the various countries that are experiencing some awful weather at the moment.

Kyla