Concrete Collective

 We are very lucky to live in Bristol, it has a great art and independent community whilst being small enough to get across the city and being surrounded by countryside.

Last week we visited the Centrespace gallery, a small but fantastic art space down the smallest of back passages covered in great graffiti and art (quite a few ceramic wall plaques have been added over the years too,if I remember I will blog about them soon).

The https://www.concretecollective.art/ had a show so we decided to pop in and have a look.  There were some great graphic pieces, some inspired by New York (which we love having been lucky enough to visit in 2017) AND there was an interactive wall you could use their typewriter, stamps and inks to add a piece of art should you wish, well try and stop me!

This is the piece I did with one of my favourite phrases "When one door closes....open it again.  It's a door, that's how they work".  I have painted this phrase on rocks, postcards, cardboard etc so I thought I would use their typewriter to add the phrase (and my details of course).  It only took a few minutes but it was great to take part.

Here it is displayed on the wall.  The one below was from my husband and is a quote from the band "The Clash" (his favourite band) and seems ever more possible in these days of reality 'TV stars' and the such being treated with celebrity status .

If you have local gallery spaces where you live I recommend to visit often they are a mind of creativity and you never know what you may stumble across.

Kyla

Art Abandonment at Upfest

 The other weekend we went to Upfest in Bristol.

It is Europe's largest Street Art Festival and this year was the 10th Anniversary.

I will do a proper update of the art work once I have downloaded all the photo's but I thought I would post the art abandonment's and Free Art Friday drops I made during the festival.

This was a small stencil of a spray can on a brusho background

This was one of my hand carved stamps of a fire demon on a inked background

 and other one of my fire demon's but this time on a tag

my final piece was left at the suffragettes yarn bomb!

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

Speedy Recovery card

I needed to make a special card for some recently who had a nasty fall and broke her leg.

 

These embossed cards are quite large and I bought them from the charity table a couple of crops ago at the WOYWW meet up.  I have been mainly using them for weddings etc but I thought they would make a good base for this card.

 

I die cut some TH butterflies from board and coated them in some indigo blu flitter glue (love this tacky glue) and covered them with gilding flakes.

I stamped a sentiment and matted and layered it on silver card.

 

A feminine get well soon card and one perfect for the recipient.

 

Happy crafting

Kyla

WOYWW

Hello peeps, it is Wednesday again so time to share our Workdesks.

On mine this week I am preparing more small pieces for Free Art Friday and Art Abandonment.

I am making some tags with my carved face and "Good Times" stamped underneath and yet more of my devil stamp with "Smile" stamped on the side.

I am also in the process of making some more watercolour postcards with my Dignity and Tolerance 'country'.

So, why not show us yours?  Pop over to the Queen of Desks, the lovely Julia (link over on the right) and link up.

Happy crafting

Kyla

Free art around Bristol

 As part of the "Art Abandonment" project (search for it on Facebook if you fancy finding out more) I have abandoned some more pieces, this time across my home city of Bristol.

Bristol is an amazing city.  I have lived here for about 14 years and it is a vibrant city full of art (we have many galleries, art schools, the largest street art festival in Europe) and social enterprise (from an old police station turned into art studios through to state of the art digital centre and start ups, Aardmen Animation studio and we are also a cycling city) so I am hoping my abandonments go down well.

 This piece was one of my watercolour postcards, as shown in a previous post, based on a country/state with words such as "Respect", "Hope" and "Tolerance" which I abandoned at the Folk House cafe,  A fabulous cafe and centre that runs art and music courses.

 This tag (also mentioned previously, is made from a stamp I carved) with the words "Imperfection is Beauty" was left outside Forbidden Plant (a graphic novel store-which I may have popped into a made a new graphic novel purchase!)

 This one was on the bridge in the harbour-lots of lovers walk over the bridge and place padlocks on the sides so I thought it would be a great place to leave a piece.

and the final one was on Park Street on the approach to the museum just outside Cass Art and down from the Design Guild.

I hope if someone finds them they will contact the facebook group (there is also a generic gmail address on the labels) but I haven't had any reports to date of any 'finds' for any of the drops I have made over the summer, so I don't expect I will-but the art of creating and releasing is fun and something I think I will continue to do.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Free art

So, last week I explained the Art Abandonment (and also Free Art Friday) that I have started to take part in.  Last week in readiness for Sidmouth Folk Festival I made some more tags and decided that the festival would be a good place to set some free.

One I tied to the binoculars that are on the seafront

Another I tied to the fence at the top of Jacobs Ladder (the tallest point along the beach and some very steep steps up to the top).

 This one I tied to the railings outside Exeter Cathedral

Luckily all were taken when I walked past later, hopefully someone liked them and took them home (I thought they would make good bookmarks).

Full details can be found either searching Art Abandonment or Free Art Friday on Face book and full details of my 'drops' can be followed on my Instagram page (Kyla Cotterell) 

When I take a photo I try to include some clues in the photo as to its whereabout, but I think the pleasure comes in just randomly finding some art.  I know on the two occassions I have found art it was stumbled across and I loved the feeling of finding some art.

Happy crafting

kyla

A mini book make

 Hello, just a quick update as I realised I hadn't shared a recent make.

I made this mini book for a friend a couple of weeks ago (waves at Julia!) and used mount board for the covers stained with distress inks and some clear crackle paste.

 I made concertina pages which I decorated with distress inks and various images and quotes.

 Just a small, simple thing but great fun to make

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Misfortune stamp carving

 On an earlier post I mentioned that fellow coven member Anna bought me some 'misfortune cookies' and Doug (Shaz silverwolf's hubby) suggested they would make a good stamp so I thought I would give it a go.

First I hand drew an image based on the cookie and transferred the image using carbon paper onto a rubber (the fake £50 note...no I am not made of money but these large flat rubbers are perfect for carving and only £1 each).

 Then I carved the image out of the rubber

 I inked the stamp and made a few first impressions to highlight areas that I needed to tidy up and finish off carving. 

 and there you have it, my new stamp

Thanks to Doug for the idea, now I have a new one off stamp and used up some of my ever expanding stash!!

Happy crafting

kyla

Red, red wine....

Just a quick update, I thought I would stamp up some images from the lovely stamp Shaz gifted me at the recent crop.  I have been after a decent sized wine bottle stamp for AGES (literally years) and Shaz kindly gave me this one.

So I stamped it on card with memento ink and was really surprised at how fine, crisp and detailed the image was.

A quick blast with the heat gun to set the ink and I started colouring it with inktense pencils applied with a wet brush so that I got that 'fluid' look.

I set the colours with a quick spray (I normally use a spray sealant but I was being lazy so grabbed my hairspray!) and was really pleased with the outcome.

I plan on making some masks so that I can stamp the glass and bottle separately and also mask the words and the wine label-I will let you know how I get on.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A quick and easy card

Just a quick update on my latest card.

The background is actually tissue paper (covered in, I presume fake advertising) that I bought for £1 at the scrap store for about 1" thick of A4 sheets-bargain!

I then stamped a greeting (masking the flowers off the stamp as I didn't think it suited the card) and inked the greeting with distress ink which I flicked water over to lift off some of the colour.

I then matted and layered it on black card.

A nice quick and easy card.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A card for a gardener

Just a quick update on a card I made the other day for a friends birthday.

I used a die cut I made from one of Hettiecrafts dies she brought to the WOYWW crop (thanks Sam) and the background was a thick serviette that I used to clean up during my fabric dying session a few weeks ago, it had a lovely colour and reminded me of a heather hillside.

I stamped my new boots stamp on gold card, distressing the torn edges and added some butchers twine.

A perfect card for my friend Ju who is a gardener.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Multi layered scraps

Thought I would post one of my latest cards I made.

The background is an old 12x12 patterned scrapbook sheet I no longer like that I gesso'd, painted, wiped back, stencilled, stamped and collaged!

I then added an off-cut from an Angelina fibre die cut butterfly that I made for a previous card and attached it with coloured mini staples.

I added a butterfly with some foil adhered for a little bling and stamped a sentiment on the bottom left.

I got suitably inky and covered in paint so I was a happy bunny!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Burn your bridges

Hi, just a quick update to show you one of my latest cards

The stamped image is coloured with promarkers and cut out and the saying is printed out using the typewriter font (free).

I have layered it onto some paper from my offcut stash box (which is not looking too bad at the moment).

A quick card that sums up how I think a lot of us feel at some time or another!!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Stamped images ready for colouring

Every now and again The Coven have a stamping evening and we stamp up lots of each others images.  It is cheaper than buying stamps and means that if I have a few minutes to spare I have a stash of images I can colour. Also, sometimes it is nice to just sit and colour.  I find it meditative and great if my mojo is taking a break.

This Greenhouse was coloured with Inktense pencils, matted and layered on some scrap green card, the edge of the card stamped with a swirl stamp and a flower added for texture.

A nice and simple card.

 Happy crafting

Kyla

 

A smiling soul

Hello peeps, just a quick update on a new card I made for a friend.

The saying just seemed to scream out for this happy soul to be used on the card!

I added a couple drops of glossy accents on the eyes and heart and a piece of ribbon to cover the join between the two pieces of patterned paper.

Nice and simple, but hopefully does what it says on the tin!

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

 

March 365 Journal Challenge

Hello peeps, I realised we are half way through March and I haven't shared my 365 Journal pages for this month!  

I have been following this on Kate Cranes Challenge blog for a few years now and it is great looking back and remembering the various events, big and small that happened.

In case you are wondering the black witches hats are on a Monday and are when I go to my Craft Coven get together-sometimes just a small picture is enough.

I used some gesso in the background as the inks were quite bright and this helped just bring it all together.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

Valentines snippets

Hello peeps, just a quick update to show you one of the latest cards I have made.

I love this stamp (I borrowed it off one of the Coven members) and thought it would make an ideal Valentines card!

The flower on the bottom right is actually a large paper hydrangea (it was about 8 inches wide!) that I bought at a garden centre in the sales a couple of years ago and cut each set of flowers off.  I ended up with 2 chinese takeaway containers full of blooms - bargain!

The patterned paper is an offcut from my scraps box but I think it all ties in nicely.

Happy crafting

Kyla

 

WOYWW

 Happy What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.  How has your week been?

After all the Christmas presents I spent the past few months making I can finally get back to trying to find some time to experiment and play.

So I decided to treat myself as its been AGES since I have bought anything crafty that wasn't from the scrap store!  So I bought a 1/2lb grab bag of lucky dips stamps from The Artistic Stamper.  You don't know what you are going to get so it is a gamble.

So on my desk I am mounting the stamps.  I use stick away to coat my scissors so they glide through the sticky stamp mount.  I also have my Hudl2 tablet that my hubby got me for Christmas.  It is perfect for listening to spotify or podcasts on whilst I am crafting.

 So what stamps did I get?

  I got 2 sets of letters exactly the same, whilst this was disappointing I decided to use one as a background stamp and the other set I cut up so I can use the letters individually.

I also got a large snowflake background stamp and Christmas star stamp (not sure if this will be used as its not one I would normally buy, but hey, that is the gamble).

There was a cute key, some script (nice size), some leaves, a circle of butterflies (I already have a good idea for this one) a saying "Art is Life", a bird (again, not one I can see using much-but you never know) and a paper doll articulated body stamp which I think will be great fun to use in journals.

 The individual letters were taking up quite a bit of room and I was worried they would end up getting lost so I came up with a cunning plan to store them.

This is old packaging from a cutting die and I cut it down to size.

The stamps stick on there really well and it takes up hardly any space in the drawer so problem solved! 

My "Man Bites Dog" cards this week are 'Lost Star Burns' which is an interesting one as the Mars Rover 2 was found this week and the late great Professor Pillinger who was synonymous with the Mars exhibition came from Kingwood in Bristol (my current neck of the woods).

So why not join us over at Julia's blog (there is a link over on the right) and have a legal snoop at desks across the globe!

Happy crafting

Kyla

Mens metal card

It is that time of year again when I have very little I can show as I am making Christmas pressies!!

So I thought I would show a card I recently made.  I stamped over some patterned paper, adding some die cut cogs and then used some metal from the ever trusty tomato puree tube which I cleaned, turned inside out and flattened before embossing is by hand with a ten second studio embossing plate.

I then painted it back with acrylic and when dry sanded it back to expose the pattern.

I added the final detail by doodling free hand around the card with a pitt pen, and voila a card perfect for a traveller or a man (lets be honest men are so difficult to make for!).

Right, back to making Christmas presents (and if anyone has a good idea for male presents I can make please leave a comment!).

Happy crafting

Kyla