Toy parrot restoration!

Last weekend, the Other Half discovered his precious parrot toy had faded badly in the window. He had also seen a couple of stone chips in the paintwork of his car, but his parrot friend turning grey was more upsetting! As the resident Crafter, I promised to restore his parrot using textile pens. I don't think he believed it would turn out well...

Before...

and after!

So please see before and after! The pens used were normal Edding 4600 textile pens, a grass green one on the body and a bright orange one for the beak and feet. I will try and get a light green and a yellow pen as well but there were none in stock at  my local Hobbycraft today. Dry and set the paints on with a hair dryer on the medium or hot setting. This toy is probably all polyester mix faux fur, but the colours have set perfectly using hairdryer!

The Other Half was stunned with the remarkable transformation and very happy! And the parrot now sits on his desk, far away from the window...

Elemental dragons!

I've made some Fimo elemental dragons, from middle and clockwise: Earth Dragon, Fire Dragon, flying Air Dragon and swimming Water Dragon. I am going to lacquer these with gloss and attach semiprecious gemstone chips to their backs.

These are easy to make - I always find designs come through as you are playing with the clay. I think I am going to make some nice brooches this weekend, I feel in the mood for jewellery making :)

Art Journal: Mixed media WIP and Zentangles

I have been working on the drawing with me and my cat Elvis for some time, I added a felt heart today left over from making my Valentine's card :) This is a style inspired by Carla Sonheim's whimsical watercolours, I just love them. I am still working on this page, I keep finding things to add to it. The drawing is made with ink outliner (I use Sakura Pigma Micron 01) and coloured with a mix of Staedtler Karat watercolour pencils and Derwent Inktense pencils.

I have been working on my Zentangles too - I am still learning! I am not sure I will add to this tangle, I kinda like how it looks like some weird octopus...

You can see some of my nail art too in the bottom left corner.

Love letters!

I had these papier mache letters lying round for about a year before I got creative at the weekend :)  The L is decorated with Decopatch paper, the O is painted with Decoart Crafters Acrylic Dazzling Metallics in 'Festive Green', the V is decorated with ripped up newspaper pieces and lacquered and the E is painted with while acrylic paint with heavy brush strokes and has little pink felt hearts glued on. I hung it above the bed, but the Other Half is afraid the E will fall on his head in the night :)

Art Journal - Experiment with nail polish

This is my first really experimental journal page. I had this idea of using my favourite nail polishes in art, but wasn't sure how. But this seemed like a good idea and it worked out! It really glows on the black gesso :) I am really pleased.

I use a Moleskine large sketchbook for my art journal. Here I used black gesso as a primer as I didn't think that the nail polish colours would be as intense on white. I then used nail polish neat from the bottle to create the patterns. It will take a long time to dry properly. I will allow at least 24 hrs before closing the book again. I signed it using a Sakura Glaze 3D pen in Opal White. I might consider putting a gloss varnish on, maybe a spray version, but I will let it dry properly first.

Hello!

Welcome to what will be a space to share my mixed media art and craft creations! Hopefully you also have a passion for mixed media and we can share ideas and experiences :)

For now, I will go and tinker more with the layout and content but I will return soon with my first art journal pages! The gesso is drying as we speak :)