SUMMER OF COLOUR #2 - ICE CREAM INSPIRATIONS WEEK 5

It's not too late to check out Kristin's Summer of Colour 2 for an amazing variety of inspiration!  This week's inspiration "Wild 'n Reckless" sherbet.

Purple, blues and green - wow!  I'm still multi-tasking with my projects, these are the perfect colours (not as subdued as this scan appears)  to work into the Mermaid themed mini card swap with JoAnne of The Vintage Dragonfly.  

Images are from Steam Dust Studios on Etsy and are mounted on a background I created in Colour Love 101, not sure that you can see the beach I created at the bottom with Glossy Accents and sand, I embedded sea  charms and shell sequins from AlphaStamps, hotfixed Swarovski crystals and framed it all with a lovely blue green Twinkling H20.

SUMMER OF COLOUR #2 - ICE CREAM INSPIRATIONS WEEK 4

STRAWBERRY LEMONADE PUNCH (click here to check it out!)

Still working on my LetterLove 101 and ColorLove 101 classes from Joanne Sharpe, I decided to do a simple exemplar (fancy new word!) of a printed alphabet in my practice journal.  Nothing too perfect, took license with a mix of letters!  More play with the watercolour Inktense pencils (yellow and the outliner), first time out with a Gelato (pink chalk pastel crayon), Pitt Artist pens and Tombow markers.

SUMMER OF COLOUR #2 - ICE CREAM INSPIRATIONS WEEK 3

Well it is late in the week but I made it!  This week Kristin has inspired us with ...wait for it... "Baseball Nut" ice cream, creamy vanilla swirled with black raspberry ribbon and loaded with cashews..YUM!  As planned I have done a "two fer" as my friend Helene calls it by working this into another project.  ColorLove 101 - one of this weeks lessons is Spray and Play - and what fun it has been.  

I've created my journal page background with the help of ;  Glimmer Mist in Cherry Limeaide and Wheatfields, ColorWash in Cranberry, Prima and Glimmer Screen masks.  Vanilla, black raspberry and cashew!

SUMMER OF COLOUR #2 - ICE CREAM INSPIRATIONS WEEK 2

The ice cream inspiration Kristin has set for us in Week 2 is "Chocolate Chip Mint"! 

 My plan for participating has been to combine Summer of Colour II with the on-line classes I am enrolled in.  So this week it is  COLOUR LOVE 101!  Playing with new colour tools and old ones in so many different ways already and I am lovin' this class.   I wasn't sure I would like this colour family but indeed it does remind me of Chocolate Chip Mint hmmm maybe with marshmallows!

SUMMER OF COLOUR #2 - ICE CREAM INSPIRATIONS WEEK 1

Our inspiration for Week #1 is Rainbow Sherbet!  

My first plan (meaning this could change at any given time!) is to integrate catching up on any number of on-line classes I have enrolled in and not completed (how many of us are there?) with Kristin's SUMMER OF COLOUR #2.   One of those classes is LETTER LOVE 101 with Joanne Sharpe..a wonderful series of classes and indeed I have signed up for her new offering COLOUR LOVE 101.  I may never transform my lettering into an art form...a truth I accept but I am concentrating on at least making it readable and surrounded by something artful!

SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE - WEEK 9 ORANGE!

Kristin - thank you again for your fabulous Summer of Colour Challenge!  What fun I have had.  I apologize to everyone for not getting around as much last week and hardly at all this week!   I have a whole new set of blogs to follow and be inspired by.  I missed "yellow" and do hope to catch up on that.  While there is a week left of the challenge I am not sure that I will be participating so I want to say thank you to everyone now!  This is the first "real" journal that I have attempted and your feedback has been key to keeping me on track and working on my initial plan of creating backgrounds/pages for my Cuba journal.

This week I've used a small canvass as my focus, I purchased this at a studio in the Callejon de Hamel in Havana.  A project of Salvador Gonzales, sculptor and poet, this  two block area is where Afro-Cuban art, music and dance are given space within the community. This image is a familiar Santeria (the dominant religion) image.  

The background is a piece of Co'ordinations black/orange card stock,  I have sanded around the image to provide a simple frame and in the quiet area above.  The sacred heart is a metal image which I have done using the embossing techniques and supplies from Ten Seconds Studio.  The out most border is Spiced Marmalade Distress Crackle Paint. 

SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE - WEEK 8 PURPLE!

Purple is a favourite colour of mine but wow I have been seriously lacking ideas!  For the most part I have been doing some basic backgrounds as a starting place for doing a journal (with photos) of a trip to Cuba last May, by finding the Caribbean shade of each week`s colour prompt.

We found out that there has been a focus of resources in the area of art training and support in Cuba.  We saw the evidence of this all over Havana.  The craft market was huge but by and far the numbers of stalls displaying art pieces outdid those with kitschy tourist bits.  I purchased a number of small oil canvasses for six of the grands which I brought home and had framed.  The bright colours and fantasy creatures captured my imagination!   Talking to young woman who created these made purchasing them that much better.  There is a process for taking signed pieces out of the country.  Partly to keep important works in the country but to also have the Cuban artists credited for their work.  None of these are signed pieces and are meant for the tourist trade.  She was quite clear that she should not be credited for these but was delighted that I might use them in my own work.

I started with a shimmery mauve cardstock, which I stamped all over with a wild rose type flower using Dusty Concord Distress Ink.  I printed out scans of several of the small pictures, cut out the creatures and have collaged them onto the page.  I really was tempted to add glitter but as is truly is more reflective of what you see in Cuba.  My scans are more muted than IRL but I think you get a good sense of the vibrancy.

SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE - WEEK # 6 RED

It's week 6 of Kristin's Summer of Colour Challenge!  What fun this has been, do check out the submissions and consider joining up - 4 weeks to go!

Gave myself a real challenge this week, why not do something for the first time and put it out for all to see!  I guess that is along the lines of "go big or go home"!   I bought a 10 Seconds Studio metal embossing kit a few months ago and haven't had it out of the bag until now.  I had this vague idea about doing an embossed metal page with the elements to include some religious reference reflective of Cuba.  Lucky for me (!) there is a "Day of the Dead" mold that had included some icons perfect for what I wanted.

The major religion in Cuba is Santeria.  This is a merge of the beliefs brought by slaves from West Africa, the Roman Catholic religion and the traditions of the indigenous population.  There is a link to voodoo in this but I am not well versed enough to explain that!

Antiquing this in black would be an obvious next step on this piece.  However there is very little of that heavy Spanish look to be found in Cuba.  Am I brave enough to apply some blue and perhaps yellow paint to this?  Ha ha - not yet!  I plan this to be the cover for my journal (with photos) of Cuba.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK # 5 BROWN

Kristin of Twinkle Twinkle is hosting the "Summer of Colour" Challenge, have you checked it out?  The submissions run to almost every area of art, the inspiration is just incredible.  And you can still join in!

Last week the colour was BROWN!  I thought oh no, not a colour I am drawn to or use much.  I really think of it as one of the "non-colours" - I guess those are any shades that I am not attracted to. LOL   But afterall of that intrepidation, I am pretty pleased with my page.  Absolutely not my usual style and isn't that what a challenge is all about?

My inspiration is again one of my photos from a trip to Cuba in May.  This time a sunset taken from just below Morro Castle, which sits at the entrance of Havanna Bay and was built by the Spanish in 1589.  It is just opposite of Old Havanna but for this picture I have cropped out the skyline of the city which would be on the left.

I started with a sheet of paper made in France "Ecorce Cream", the linear wrinkles seemed to mimic the clouds and waves.  I have used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists and mists mixed from Perfect Pearls to replicate the sunset in this picture.  I enlarged the picture to a 5x7 so that it dominates the page.  Hard to leave this simple page alone but there you have it.

SUMMER OF COLOUR - WEEK #3 PINK

I am having such a good time participating in the Summer of Colour challenge!  (click on the title of this post, the name of the challenge or the blinkie on my sidebar)  Besides getting me started on pages for what will be my journal (with photos) of Cuba, the stunning work created by the other participants is such a motivator!

This week the colour is pink.  For my project inspiration it is the soft almost can't see it pink of the morning sky, the bright almost fushia of an oilcloth table covering and the soft pink walls in the home of the tobacco farmer Benito and the bright flowers of the flame tree against the pink stucco of the hotel walls in the Vinales area.

I started by putting down a covering of light pink mulberry paper, I stamped this all over with a rustic wild rose print in a mocha pink and added a bit of my favorite cheesecloth stamp in a pinky orange sherbet.  I used matte medium and acrylic paints in a light pink, a fushia and a coral to work in some softened areas.  Some paint spatters on top of that and then worked in some fushia and coral pieces of cheesecloth which was the headband of a straw hat I wore in Cuba.   Finally I covered the whole with melted beeswax (love the smell!).  I used my craft iron and a several sheets of plain paper to move the wax around and take quite a bit off.  The scan darkens the page quite a bit, I am quite pleased with the IRL version!

And my inspiration..

THE SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE - WEEK #2 GREEN

What fun I have had this past week in visiting the different submissions for Kristin's "Summer of Colour Challenge".   Click on the title of this post or the badge at the right to have a look!  Inspiration abounds!

My loose plan is to find a Caribbean version of each colour and create  basic backgrounds for my Cuba journal pages.   I'm quite pleased so far and this is leading my thoughts for next steps in quite a different direction than I might have thought.

As soon as the colour green was announced I knew that it was the green of the jungle and the palm leaves in Cuba that would be the influence for my background.

I gathered all of my green inks and sorted out a progression of the right tones.  Everything has been built upon the background paper which is Panama Jack, Rusty Pickle.   Some paint splatters to start, a favorite cheesecloth background stamp, the building up of the stamped leaves and then some jungle leaf patterned paper torn into bits here and there on several edges. 

And here is a sample of what inspired the background.

THE SUMMER OF COLOUR CHALLENGE - WEEK #1 BLUE

Click on the title of this post or the badge at the right to check out the details of this challenge and to see what everyone is up to!

I have decided to focus on creating journal pages for a recent trip to Cuba, at least this week that is what I decided!  I am going to start with creating the basic background pages, looking for "Caribbean" versions of each weeks' colour assignment and see where that leads.  I am hoping the "plan" will flow from there!

Except for the bottom right corner, I used VersaMagic inks.  I love the chalky smooth finish and the colours I had fit.  I pulled out all the blues.  I had to start with the colour of the water!  I really was enchanted with the architecture in Cuba, that dominated my pictures and  brought me to the next decision.  I built up the ink with several background stamps;  a weathered look, a gauze and a crumbling rosette.  Much of Cuba is under repair and the rest awaits it.  I found some Spanish text about Cuba, printed it out on organza and adhered bits of this to my background.  All of this got a coat of "Tide Pool" glitter paint from Tattered Angels. 

Just one picture which to me evokes the same mood.

I can hardly wait to see what everyone is doing and this next weeks' colour choice!  Kristin, thank you again for a fabulous challenge!