It’s been a busy time and with my back playing up I have not had time to get stuff done like I usually do and this annoys me so much, even more so because some of the stuff that I haven’t managed to get done on time involves gifts for my friends and consequently they are all going out late. In this Covid time, there are so many delays with mail that I really don’t need to be exacerbating this delivery time situation by posting things late! So I am very happy and relieved to say that I completed the cards and gifts that had to be posted and they have now been received so now I can share them here without spoilers! If you want to see the other posts in the birthday series, click here to see the jewellery and here to see the cards.
I have three friends who all have birthdays in August and they are all in our book club, so I was already thinking, why not make them something book related but then also personalised to them. So I decided that I would create a little mini painting for each of them and they would be in a series and each one would be unique but similar and contain their individual initial of their first name. You may have noticed that I said I had three birthdays to make for and yet I have four little bird paintings, well because we are all in the club together, I really liked the idea of us all being connected via these little paintings, so the fourth one is for me! So now when we all look at our individual painting, we can remember each other and how we are connected. Cool huh? This was actually based on a bonus lesson from Laly Mille (love her) as part of the Kaleidoscope course I signed up for this month and it was just perfect for my little presents. I haven’t really done much else with the course so far apart from watch some videos but this little extra video spoke to me and I knew it would be perfect for my August birthdays.
I taped my watercolour paper down on this desk blotter, and since they were birthday gifts, I wrote happy birthday wishes on all the cards (even mine!)
I collected all my potential materials
The completed paintings left to dry
Here’s a closer look at one of them which has Select Reading Club in the background. This is taken from one of my own collage papers.
There is an initial hidden somewhere in this picture but it’s very hard to see in the photo.
I added little pieces of tartan tissue paper to each one to remind them of Scotland
Edinburgh is also from one of my own papers and featured on one of the pictures
A chapter title page is used in this one as well as the letter F
Lots of gold and copper metallic splatters added to the background
I was able to find the perfect sized frames on amazon, despite some of the reviews saying they were the wrong size, they fit my pictures perfectly. They also came in padded bags which I reused as part of my packaging for each padding. There is another gift that went in with these pictures and the cards of course, but I will add those in a separate post.
Luckily I remembered to snap a quick photo of the four of them together before they were sent off to their new homes.
As always, thanks for reading!
PROJECT RECIPE:
watercolour paper
acrylic ink and paint
pencil
collage materials
bird stamp
6 x 6 inch frames
From stash: everything!
I started something new for April and continuing over summer:
Since we are all stuck inside and can’t leave the house, I thought I would try and do two things:
1. use this time to finish any unfinished projects
2. use as much recycled materials as possible (I do this a lot anyway) but also not to buy new stuff!
So, with that in mind, I will note the above on any posts, if applicable.
UNFINISHED PROJECT – NO
RECYCLED MATERIALS – YES – all the collage materials from my stash plus nothing new used, no new purchases!
Your cards are stunning Elle! Thanks for sharing your process.
In reply to your question on my Art Journal Journey theme, you can use tags, pockets or both 🙂
Thanks for visiting my blog,
Alison