Play time

Went to my friend's yesterday for a play day. I'm wanting to do an indian-themed piece so with that in my head, we tried out a few new techniques that have left us all inspired & wanting to try more.
Had to use melted beeswax again - it smells so lovely and gives a special look to papers.

I rubbed metallic paint through a sweet wee henna hand stencil onto some Trade Aid Handmade paper, and the other is a piece of serviette glued to a tag.

This is the cool henna hands stencil from Crafters Workshop designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer that my friend has. Used it for the next experiment too.
I've always wanted to try pushing modeling paste through a stencil:

Like this look, LOVE the next one

-- the texture is yummy. The modeling paste needs to be painted and I'll show you where this piece ends up.

Maggie Grey is hugely talented and experimental. This book has the added bonus of free online classes if you buy the book!

One of those classes guided us through our last experiments of the day. We started with paper castings - another Maggie Grey technique which I shared with you here - which we glued to pelmet vilene.

Then we added gesso and sprinkled salt onto that

Followed by a slightly watered down mix of Quink Ink, and finally highlighted with metallic rub-ons

Very interesting that we used 2 different brands of modeling paste, and one yielded a bluer tone than the other. Check out another example of Maggie Grey's using quink ink over white emulsion paint here. Cool huh?
What have you been experimenting with lately?

Bits and pieces

Been wanting to get back to the inky file folder goodness of the online Mixed Media Mayhem workshop which I began last year. During the week I managed to pull out the folders I've created so far

re-watched an online lesson or 2 - cos you have access to the class forever :-) - and glued some of my underpapers onto the back of one of the folders to complete another side

Loving the serendipitous nature of the papers created. They create themselves by having newsprint under and around your art as you spray, and by pressing the leftover ink from stencils onto them as well.

This week I've been inspired in the bloggy world by ::
Jacqui's gorgeous junk journal
Elvie's tutorial on making paper flowers (out of wee hearts - sweet)
Paisley Fever from Jane LaFazio
Lovely to see progress with Jude's Magic Feather Project - she has a couple from me.
And I've newly discovered the blog of Helen Lehndorf - I know her in person, but didn't know about her blog. She writes wonderful poetry - check out her book here

Her blog is a wonderful mix of articulate writing, gardening, photographs, creative goodness, op-shoppy finds and textiles. I'm now totally inspired by Mattresses in Second Hand Shops and this fair looks great.
Hopefully there's something in this post to inspire you...have a creative weekend.

Lovely books

I don't often buy books - working at the library gives me easy access to a fantastic variety, but lately I've had to succumb to some purchases.
This first is to feed my lettering habit.

Get a preview of what's inside here. As well as lettering it has great ideas for doodles including borders, flowers and other simple patterning ideas. It's good for me as a beginner doodler! Check out some of Joanne Fink's work here. She also has some great free video lessons and step by step drawing instructions here. 
This other purchase is going to be hugely useful for me

Here's a sneak preview inside at a couple of pages.

As you can see, many applications for quilting designs, stamp carving, doodling... you get the idea.

Highly recommended.
And my most recent fiction read was lovely - check it out at your library :-)