Laura Rumble - Crafter

As I told you yesterday I was sent Thompson's Craft Supplies new mixed media kit as part of their sponsorship with Stick It Down .  It had a cute 6x6 canvas board included and boy did I have fun playing! Everything used was from the kit with the exception of thread, gesso and texture paste. I loved the beads, ribbon and exclusive sequin mix included with the kit. And the colours were lovely to work with. This made me realise how much I miss playing around and making stuff.  I'd like to shift my focus slightly away from scrapbooking and ensure I'm making time to just mess around with supplies with no fixed idea of the finished article. DISCLAIMER:  I was sent this kit for free by Thompson's Craft Supplies as they are sponsoring Stick It Down this month.

Oh boy!  I'm in love!! This is my latest piece for SpiegelMom Scraps - you can read all about it here. *sigh* Look at all the sparkle and texture! You can watch it come together here: I would like to share this at Inspire Me Mondays.

Oh, I enjoyed making this one... I know it's not an original concept - the four seasons artwork has been done many times before but I still enjoyed interpreting it my way.  I started out with a four pack of mini canvasses, each painted a different shade of blue. I then painted on a very unrealistically shaped tree!  I needed an even spread of branches to attach my button leaves to, so following the shape of a real tree didn't quite work!  I sorted through my button stash and pulled out blossom pinks and spring greens; rich leafy greens; and autumnal oranges, yellows, reds and browns.  I attached my buttons with matte gel medium, but any strong glue would be okay. My favourite touch?  The autumn leaves that have dropped from the tree! You can find a huge selection of buttons here ! Thank you for stopping by

Back in 2006 I saw a painting I liked.  It wasn't for sale so I decided to replicate it.  The first attempt was too pink for me so I have tried again... I cheated a used the outline from the first painting and flipped it, for my starting point.  I used watercolour pencils to map it all out and then filled in with India ink.  Details were added using a combination of the two mediums.  The canvas is about 60cm x 75cm. Linking up to A Sprinkle Of Imagination where I bought my India inks and Inktense pencils.

Some art to share with you all today... The canvas is 24" x 36" ish.  (The photos are taken on different days in different light, I struggled to get photos I was happy with.) Basically, I messed around creating texture and then added some paint.  I'm sure a different artist or an expert would go in to great detail and talk about technique and the thinking behind the painting.  I didn't really think about anything in particular, I just created with no goal or aim in my mind. I had fun.  I used colours that took my fancy not worrying if they matched or not. I tried to create as much texture as possible. And I added neon pink - just because! I think this is the way I need to paint.  To just paint instead of thinking. What do you think? It's hanging above my TV and I often find myself just staring at it! Thanks for stopping by!

So, if I've got this right this is the second to last in my mini canvas series.  (Links for the individual posts: love , smile , laugh , happy & wish ) This canvas measures 40mm by 62mm - dinky! I used some pieces of book page as a backing and about six shades of yellow acrylic paint!  The white is gesso, used to tone down the yellow to get it to fit with the series.  I added a few star shaped sequins and picked the word 'shine' as the message for this canvas. All there is to do now is type up the post for the last canvas and then I can share the finished series.  I love how it looks sitting on my shelf  :) Entering at The Playground because you leave such lovely comments and are a talented bunch :)

Hello! I have the next in my series of mini canvases to share with you today.  (You can check out the other canvases in the series here: smile , laugh , happy & wish . )  This canvas measures 74mm by 56mm. When I work with ribbon I save all the snippets I trim from the ends.  When I have enough of a mixture of textures, widths and sizes I stick them in a pot, mix them up and glue them to a canvas base.  It gives awesome texture to paint over, especially the velvet ribbons from Crafty Ribbons.  I glue on my trimmings randomly with matte medium.  In this case I didn't glue every piece entirely - I was enjoying the flicky-out-y pieces! I then coated the entire thing in gesso to give a good base for the ink to adhere to.  I used India Ink in three shades of red to saturate the ribbon covered canvas, working it in to every join and fold.  To match in with the other canvases in the series I toned down the over all effect by dry ...

Here is the fourth in my mini canvas series.  This one is 10 cm by 10 cm. I messed around with ink, acrylic paint and embossing powder and then layered up some bits of green paper, tissue and card. The word smile is on a piece of washi tape.  It's printed in white and just didn't work with the black lettering on the other canvases so I wrote over the word in a gelli glaze pen. You can see the others here: laugh , happy & wish.

I enjoyed making my little ' wish ' canvas so much I think I'm going to turn it in to a series.  Its always good to have an odd number for a series and there are seven colours in the rainbow so I'm going to plump for seven mini canvases.  Here is number two... This one is 40mm by 60mm - really rather diddy!!  I have used violet India ink, pearlescent medium, a stencil and a rubber stamp for the background.  I had a few offcuts of the same violet ink on some paper strips, so I cut and layered them, stapling them to each other.  I glued my paper stack on to the canvas and splattered the remaining India ink on top. I finished off by adding a 'happy' rub on.  I think all of my canvases will have a positive rub on added. I'm quite looking forward to my row of rainbow coloured mini canvases :) Sharing at the playground . Thanks for stopping by!

Yes please!! I love rainbows and I love butterflies.  This is my latest canvas... I used crafters acrylics, modelling paste and pearlescent medium.  The butterfly mask/stencil is by Finnabair, and is definitely one of my favourites. I'd like to enter this in to: Country View Challenges - Painty Artists Play Room My Craft Creations Craft My Life All Crafts Challenge I'd love to hear what you think... Thanks for stopping by

Here is a small mixed media canvas I've made. It is just seven centimetres square, so really rather mini! I played around with gesso, washi tape, water soluble art bars, matte medium and watercolour pencils on the background. I added three shaped buttons with a needle and thread. It was crying out for a word or two.  I don't really do words very well!  I looked at the rub ons that I had and decided 'wish' was the best fit.  I used my posca paint pen to highlight the rub on and then pushed it back in to the canvas by smearing the tiniest bit of gesso of the top. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out :) Thanks for stopping by Laura

It's my turn to share a project over at Crafty Ribbons Inspirations today.  I have a large ribbon canvas that I made at the end of last year to match my new duvet cover and curtains. I have used a wooden frame from a bought canvas but knocking up a do it yourself frame from wood would also work well. I had a great big bundle of ribbons to start with.  What I was after was lots of different widths and textures and I wanted a good percentage of the ribbons to be see through.  I hand dyed a few lengths of white ribbon and lace with India Ink to get the right shade of aqua.  Once I had found exactly what I was after I divided them in to two piles and started laying out my warp ribbons - the ones that go up and down. Once I had roughly the right pattern I started stapling them directly on to the back of the wooden frame.  The key is to get them nice and taut.  When they were attached I started working on my weft ribbons - the ones that go ...

Last year I was quite low in November and when I saw Carmen was running a Secret Santa I wanted to join in.   I had a look at posts from the previous years and decided I needed to join in.   So I did.   When the swap came through I discovered I was buying for the boss!   Well, you can’t get much scarier than that!   I did some gentle stalking and made a list (I do like a list!)   Here is what Santa parcelled up and sent off to Carmen: In return Ally was my Secret Santa.   I can’t say thank you enough to Ally .   I appear to have forgotten to take a before photo…   I unpacked the parcel and found beautifully wrapped presents.   10 !   Thank you Ally!   I put them under my tiny tree - here is the tree minus the presents… On Christmas Day I opened a few and as the day wore on and the ME started biting I put the others aside and opened them on Boxing Day. Here is what I was lucky ...