VALENTINE CARDS FOR THE GALLERY!

It will soon be Valentine's Day so I have made some cards to sell in the One Craft Gallery.  This year I have kept away from the traditional pinks and reds and tried some different colour schemes.  I have used screen printed or hand painted backgrounds and added hearts cut from hand painted papers.  In addition old maps and cut out lettering was collaged onto some of the cards below... 

CARDS FOR FAMILY AND FRIENDS!

Here are two cards I have recently made for family and friends, using simple shapes.  The one above, which is 6 inches square, benefits from the contrast between the layered, textured painted background and the smoothness and precision patterns of the papers used for the simple flower shapes.  A black marker pen and a silver metallic pen finished off the design.   

The above card is larger - 8 inch square and is a very simple heart design. It is for a nephew's wedding.  The papers used are handmade by me, and include some interesting recycled bits!  The only embellishment that I felt it needed was edging the two inner layers with some walnut ink.

RAINBOWS FOR NHS!

While the One Craft Gallery is closed, we have decided to decorate and reorganise, so we have all taken our entire stock out and decorated the window with rainbows and thanks to all key workers and the NHS.  This is my rainbow.  It is double-sided, made with a variety of papers and materials collaged onto cardboard, and has painted wooden hearts hanging from it. It was great to work in such vibrant colours and really lifted my mood!

SNOWDROP AND HEART WINDOW WINS A PRIZE!

Last weekend was the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival and Storm Dennis!  Despite this, it was a huge success and the festival goes from strength to strength.  At the gallery we had put together a hearts and snowdrop window to celebrate both the snowdrops and Valentine's Day. Our window won the prize for best dressed window at the festival, due in part, I am sure, to the enormous snowdrop and gorgeous cushions made by Liz Oliva - see top left pic.  Liz is a member of the gallery who makes fantastic hats...

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

My valentine cards this year are pure collage, using painted papers and text, with extra marker pen embellishment.  Each card has at least one heart that is outlined in a broken line simulating a running stitch which provides a focal point...

THE PERSONAL TOUCH FOR SAM & SOPHIE!

Last Saturday, I went to a wonderful family wedding in glorious hot sunshine.  Congratulations Sam and Sophie Thompson!  I made a card for the happy couple using my own handmade and painted papers mounted onto cream textured card stock.  The heart in the middle was created using my largest heart punch.  Sometimes the simplest ideas work the best!

The textile heart, with the added date which was taken from their wedding invitation, was made as a memento of their day.  I put everything in a hand decorated bag with matching gift tag to give a personal touch...

LATEST VALENTINE CARDS!

Here are my latest valentine cards.  This year, I have tried to give my cards an urban twist!  For the backgrounds I have painted layers using acrylics and black and white markers.  The idea was to replicate graffiti sprayed walls. On top I have added bright shapes and text.

The above cards are made by cutting up experimental pieces of artwork that I have done, but didn't work as a finished works of art.  Once they have been cut up and a few strategically placed shapes added, they have a new lease of life as cards...

The card above right was done as a commission.  I was asked to make a valentine card for a guy to give to his girlfriend with a Lisbon theme.  This is because they would be staying in Lisbon on Valentine's Day!  I took a fantastic copyright-free photographic image by Daniel Angele of an alleyway in Lisbon as my background, and collaged on the birds and bunting which has LISBON and the date spelt out on the hearts...

CUBE ART FOR VALENTINES!

I have been working on art for Valentine's Day, as that is the next event in the retail calendar.  It is good to have plenty of cards and small items to sell in the One Craft Gallery...

These art cubes were made with this in mind.  The one above has made use of old copies of the New Musical Express to add 60s song lyrics and typography.  The cube below has used some of my favourite punches and hand-painted papers...

SNOWDROPS AT NIGHT!

I decorated these wooden hearts with 'snowdrops at night' design, to sell in the One Craft Gallery and contribute to our snowdrop window dressing.  As I have used snowdrops many times as a motif, I decided that it would be good to show them at night.  White flowers always glow and look special in low light!

I started by painting the bare wood with black gesso.  When this was dry, acrylic paint was used for the night sky and foliage.  I then used painted papers to cut out shapes, which were collaged on with matt medium. The hearts were finished off with white paint splattered on with an old toothbrush and matt varnish.

I used the same techniques to produce this design (see above left), for a handmade birthday card for my mother!  

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE!

As it is Valentine's Day tomorrow, I am showing you the window dressing at the One Craft Gallery, that I did with fellow member of the co-operative, jeweller, Caroline Tetley.  We used old lexicon letter cards to spell out - 'All you need is love' and a red and white colour scheme. This included red hearts - some that I had collaged a few years before, using suitable paper napkins and old dress patterns!

RECYCLE OLD ARTWORK FOR VALENTINE CARDS!

One advantage of clearing up is finding old sheets of experimental artwork that can be recycled!

I found these two pieces which were done several years ago.  I thought the colours would be ideal for Valentine cards, so I cut each one into four, and worked on them.  I added collaged papers - some my own hand painted ones, and other bits from magazines. I used matt medium to attach the papers. I then outlined the cards in black felt tip and mounted them onto cream card stock. The cards above come from the background shown on the right.

I did the same for these cards - background shown above.  Once the artwork was cut up, I looked at the shapes, lines and patterns to help me decide which way the design should go...

MORE VALENTINE GIFTS...

In the One Craft Gallery, there are plenty of handmade valentine gifts and cards for sale, in all sorts of mediums.  A display has been set up in the middle of the gallery with hearts of all sizes!

VALENTINE GIFTS

It is that time of year when thoughts turn to love!  I have recently completed a valentine's display in the gallery featuring lots of hearts, in all sorts of media. Amongst the display is this set of three wooden dishes, which I have decorated.

The insides were collaged using sheet music, a vintage New Musical Express paper, and a paper napkin.  The outsides were covered with plaster filler, before being painted in shades of violet.  The edges were painted with gold, which became distressed when I waxed the dishes - inside and out.

DANCING SNOWDROPS!

'Dancing Snowdrops' - mixed media on board (23ins x12ins)

As snowdrops were on my mind, I decided to do a mixed media artwork using the subject- see above, (close-up details on the top).  I used a similar method described in the previous post, but there were more layers of paint and papers collaged on to some flower heads and to form extra leaves. I also splattered gold and white acrylic paint, using an old toothbrush, as a finishing touch.

I tried to give the flowers plenty of movement  - so much so, that when I looked at it finished, it looked as though they were dancing!  On one of my early morning walks, I have just seen my first snowdrops of the year - a welcome sight as the first sign of Spring...

Sometimes I photocopy my artwork and use it in collages.  Today I needed to make a valentine card quickly, so I cut three heart shapes from copies of my snowdrop picture and collaged them onto a painted background, left over from another project.  I outlined each heart and the background with a black marker pen.  This was signed and then glued to cream card stock - a quick solution!    

LOVE AND HEARTS!

The One Craft Gallery is full of love and hearts!  Above is the recently created window showing some of the cards and gifts available to buy for Valentine's Day.

Here are my latest 'heart' canvases - they are both constructed using plaster filler.  The small green one (10cms  square), has the filler pushed through a couple of stencils, producing a raised effect which was then coloured with acrylic paints and finished with clear wax.

The other heart is gilded on top of lace which was glued in a 'heart' shape onto the 20cm square wooden panel.  The 'heart' shape space had been prepared by having a template placed on the panel and then covering the whole thing - sides and all - in plaster filler.  It has layers of acrylic paint and it too was finished with clear wax.

These small gift bags and tags were done by sticking punched shapes and cut out letters onto backgrounds which had white gesso dry brushed onto them.  Here's hoping the people of Shepton are feeling romantic...

LOVE AT TEATIME!

I have just completed some more Valentine cards with 'tea' as the theme.  I have used my usual collage techniques, but with these cards I have added homemade tags which were decorated with words cutout from magazines, and attached by punching a couple of holes into the backgrounds.  I threaded the ties of the tags through the holes and fastened them to the back of the pic before they were applied to cream card stock.

This latest decorated gift bag uses papers that I created by photocopying one of my woollen scarves!  I have found that scanning or copying fabric onto lightweight paper is a way of adding interesting papers to my collage paper stash!

The gift tag was created from a cardboard toilet roll - it was flattened, stuck together, cut to shape and a hole punch in the top and decorated in a similar way to the bag.  It makes a sturdy tag that hangs well and doesn't buckle!

LOTS OF LOVE!

I have been working on some more romantic hearts...

The base of the top three was a cheap frame with these 3 wooden hearts, which had their middles cut out for displaying photographs, hanging from it. I dismantled it and covered the hearts with plaster filler and sculptured a heart in each centre.  They were coloured with layers of acrylic paints with the words and markings scratched out of the plaster.  They were finished off with a soft clear wax furniture polish.

The bottom open hearts are also wood.  They were collaged with various papers and napkin tissue.  The words were stencilled on and the letters made raised by using a cerne relief outliner in black.

THOUGHTS TURN TO LOVE!

Now that Christmas is over, my thoughts turn to love as the next event to plan for in the gallery is Valentine's Day!  This year I thought I would make an early start, so I have just completed 12 heart cards.  My collaged Christmas cards sold really well so I decided to apply the same techniques to these.

I tried to get away from the traditional Valentine pinks and reds that I often use and tried some different colour schemes.  The starting point for the blue/green background was torn up pieces of maps and vintage New Musical Express papers.  I also used vintage papers for the orange/brown and inspiration for the colour scheme came from some animal print napkins.

Once the backgrounds had dried out I designed a heart template to cut out the shapes.  I then added words cut from old magazines, and stamped out hearts to each one - sometimes incorporating other colours including hot pink - I can't get away from it!  They were finished with details added with a fine black pen and mounted onto square cream card stock.