So I sprayed it with pale blue ink (using Brusho powder) and darker ink using Procion Dye.  I would also have used a sand Brusho ink, but the nozzle was blocked (don't you just hate that!)


The Procion ink was very dark, so I blotted it with paper towel (and got a bit mucky to boot!)

Then I selected two acrylic paints, watered them down a tad and applied them with makeup sponges.  I sort of followed the 'corner, corner, side' technique to make a nice blended background.


Then I got some blue heavy body acrylic and mixed that with the pinks, to make an almost purplish blue.

I'm liking this.
I rummaged around in my collection of handmade print blocks.  These are the arches used in last years Horizons quilt.





 And then a bit more rummaging through the print block tins, and low, I came upon this gem!  A piece of polystyrene cut from a pizza base (I think).


And this is what the page looked like after the two stamp blocks had been pressed into service.


Another stamp block!  This one was a real fiddle to make.



And then I found these letter stamps.  I think I bought these in Hobbycraft.  They were pristine and new.


I used an ink stamp to load up the letters and print on the page.


And finally, I added some gold ink. (it had gone a bit congealed, but still worked).


Jewel like colours!


 The finished page.





And here is the super sophisticated Procion Dye spray ink bottle. (obviously I washed it out thoroughly first!)


And then, because there was a good play on the radio, which hadn't finished, I gessoed some old Christmas cards.  I am thinking small handmake book with these.



Definitely a very productive Wednesday.

Tomorrow I have to decide how much of the studio to pack and take South to Portsmouth for a long weekend.  Difficult, I always want to take it all!

Sunday was a day full of accomplishments.

After a hectic day yesterday when I went and signed up with half a dozen local estate agents and picked up my mixed media pieces from The Tree and Me exhibition, I had a bit of a play in the studio - nothing too taxing or creative, just a fiddle about. 

I have had some slightly unsettling news. 

Here is another one - that is another Paperartsy video.

I am not a fan of commercial stamps at all, but there are some very useful painting tips in this video.


I really like the standard of the videos from this company, and the painting tips are really useful.

This is more of a scrap booking channel I guess, but you have to be open minded and while I might not be a fan of commercial stamps, you have to admire the paint technique used.

In my last post I confessed to being just a little bit smitten with the look of a range of acrylic paints I found while mooching around the web.

And here is a just fabulous film that introduces all the colours.  Other manufacturers take note - this really makes me want to grab the plastic and hit the online store.

ps. I hope you can see this. For reasons that I don't understand, on my iPad I cannot actually see the videos embedded here.  On the laptop I can. Anyone able to explain that?

... and revisiting the past.

One of the very first forays into print I did yonks ago (it must be something like 5 years) and I did not really know quite what I was doing, but was in a very 'what if' frame of mind.

I started with a very simple print plate that I made sticking vaguely leaf shaped card pieces onto a card base (looking back on it this was probably a very simple collograph plate, but at the time that was not a term I recognised).  It is significant that I used the shiny surface of some packaging.

I printed using very 'wet' Windsor and Newton inks like these - painting them onto the card surface.  The shiny surface just 'held' the ink rather than it soaking in. A lucky accident because I was very green in those early days.


I printed onto A5 sized rag paper, but I had very roughly 'sketched' leaf shapes onto this paper with a wax candle before printing - this obviously created a resist and the white areas on the paper.

Here are a couple of those print runs.






Then I scanned them onto the ancient old laptop, and framed the originals (they hang on the landing in my 'home from home').

Now they have popped up in some work already finished. You can see them here,a finished mixed media embroidery in the Gallery section of this blog. (tissue hand coloured with a print block and with sweetie foils, then stitched with the prints collaged on. There is beading in there too!)

Despite a few little diversions and excursions, I am still progressing with the little peppers project. 

Can you breakfast on Haggis with fried duck eggs.