Society Sunday - Inspired by Music

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I recently attended a concert to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the City Voices Cardiff choir, which is what has inspired today's Society Sunday picks.

"Lost in Stereo" is an unusual composition but very compelling.  I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I like it.  It definitely stood out from the crowd.  

Lost in Stereo Art Print

I love this piece - "Nature Guitar Record".   It makes me think of the harmony found in nature.

"Nature Guitar Record" Wall Tapestry

"Music" is a simple, but bold composition.  I like the duality of abstract and form.

"Music" Canvas Print

The composition in "Sight Reading" is so clever - the way the the placement of the birds looks like musical notes on a stave.

"Sight Reading" Framed Art Print

"Beat of Your Own Drum" is my new work.  

"Beat of Your Own Drum" Art Print

Get 25% off all wall art with the code ARTNOW (offer ends midnight PT 9th July 2018).

Society Sunday - Cherry Blossom

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I noticed some reports on the news about the arrival of cherry blossoms in Japan and its associated celebrations, which is what has inspired this edition of "Society Sunday".

My first pick is "Sakura & Fat Birds", featuring my favourite colour palette.  The artwork is clean and simple and the colours are fresh and vibrant .  Plus I love those plump birds!

"Sakura & Fat Birds" art print

Next up, a traditional Japanese-style illustration - "Cherry Blossoms - Pink".  Simple and understated, but very pretty.

"Cherry Blossoms - Pink" rectangular throw pillow

Do you change your home decor with the seasons?  I like the idea of that, but I'm a bit too lazy to actually do anything about it.  But if I ever got my act together I'd consider these window curtains featuring "Sakura Love - Grunge White".  They would be perfect for a Spring/Summer revamp.  The flowers are actually images of embroidered blossoms and branches which results in an interesting visual effect..

"Sakura Love - Grunge White" window curtains

Pretty, delicate, soft; that's how I'd describe "Cherry Blossom #3".  There's something so calming about this image.

"Cherry Blossom #3" art print

Cherry blossoms are generally pink, but in "Sakura Blue" the artist has rendered them in blue hues.  The colour palette and the ambiguous nature of the placement of the blooms, where one ends and the next begins, gives an overall effect of viewing the blossoms through water.  

"Sakura Blue" art print

From today (25th March) until the end of play tomorrow (26th March) PST you can get 40% off throw pillows, 30% off tapestries and + art prints and 25% off everything else with the code HELLOSPRING, so it's the perfect time to head over to Society6 and get everything that you need for a Spring revamp.

Redbubble Round-up

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I joined Redbubble about two years ago because I really wanted to create art and share it.  As my house is slowly being overrun with craft and art supplies, creating art digitally was a great way to express my creativity without needing lots of space and bulky supplies to do it.

I tend to be quite reticent when it comes to my art (which isn't a great strategy), so I've decided to produce a weekly Redbubble Round-Up where I'll be sharing what's new in the world of Merry Makewell Designs as well as highlighting other works that have caught my eye.

As I just uploaded a new sticker design to my shop, this week I'm looking at STICKERS.  Stickers come in up to four sizes ranging from around 100mm (about A7 size) up to around 30mm (about A4 size) depending on the design.  Buy any 4 and get 25% off or any 10 for 50% off.

First up is my new design "Choose Love Floral Heart".  This would be great on the cover of  a journal.

Choose Love Floral Heart

I love this "Autumnal Floral Book Stack" by Emma Mildred Riggle.  It would work for a scrapbook page or in a bullet journal or planner.

Autumnal Floral Book Stack

Another good scrapbook or planner option is this cute combination of vintage camera and old maps - "Travel".

Travel

You get four stickers in one with this cute set of flower doodles.  I  like that they're black and white so could be coloured if you wanted.

Flowers

And finally, "Lotus Birds".  It features two of my favourite things - flowers and birds - and the colours are perfect.

Lotus Birds

Perching Bird - Free Book Folding Pattern

I first came across book folding a few months ago and although some of the designs looked good, I wasn't really inspired by it.  Then recently I found a website where you could create your own patterns and as I love to do my own thing, I decided to have a go.

Using one of the punches in CraftArtist 2 Professional, I generated the following image, which I then converted into a book folding pattern with the help of the online software.

And here's the finished item:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially as a first attempt. Needless to say I've generated quite a few more patterns, which I hope to be able to share soon.  In the meantime download the Perching Bird book fold pattern here.

Home Sweet Home

A couple of weeks ago on Create and Craft TV I watched a programme about Stampbord, which I'd never heard of before.  The demonstrator made a lovely night scene as though looking through a window.  Just by layering inks and stamping and creating texture, she produced a really lovely piece of art.  It took a lot of willpower not to buy up every piece of Stampbord on the show (those people really know what they're doing!).  I really wanted to have a go, and then I remembered that I had quite a bit of greyboard left over from a previous impulse buy.

Now, I'm a creative person, but I wouldn't call myself artistic.  As I've found since starting cardmaking, composition is a real skill.  So it was with some hesitation that I cut the board down to size and prepared to get started on my first mixed media masterpiece.

I used three pieces about 9 x 6.5cm (roughly 3.5 x 2.5in).  I covered them in patterned paper  and then painted the backs with white gesso.  I also applied a  thin layer of gesso over the top of the papers to mute the colours a little.  I then stamped and embossed the word "HOME" in purple on two pieces, then wrote  "Sweet" with a Versamarker (my new favourite thing!) and embossed that in blue.  I stamped then embossed a couple of bird silhouettes on the HOME panels,  On all three panels I used a flower and foliage stamp with silver ink, then over-stamped the flowers in a different colour.  I didn't like the way that it looked so I painted over the silver ink with Moss Green Luminarte Silk Acrylic Glaze.  Then I attached a few flowers made from air-drying clay and ran purple organza ribbon along the back to hold the three panels together and make a hanging loop.

It's quite pretty and I like the way it turned out, but it is very basic.  Having seen a few mixed media tutorials since making my wall hanging, I see that I could have gone much further with creating the backgrounds and layering, but then that's what learning is all about.  I've still got a lot of greyboard left, and I'm already thinking about my next project...

Hello Notecard

I wanted to make some notecards, but as usual found it difficult to start.  I've had the Flower Frame and Tree embossing folder set by Sizzix for a while, but since I got it home I've not really been sure about how to use it.  Well, thankfully inspiration finally struck and I came up with these:

I started off using plain Kraft card,  but the embossing folder didn't quite fit and it looked a bit odd so I decided to use it as a panel instead.  I picked out a few embossed elements to highlight, which was done with watercolour pencils initially, but then I tried painting with mica powders, which gave a much better finish I think (you can see the lower bird looks more crisp than the upper bird).  I had a load of 17mm white circles left over from when I cut a tray to hold lip balm tubes, so I stamped individual letters on each one and layered them up on mica paint-washed kraft and white card to mirror the swirl and for an interesting look. Finished off by mounting the panels onto a card blank.  I like the mixture of kraft, white and colours, but I prefer the white panel on Kraft more than the other way round.  What about you?

I'm entering the following challenges:

Colour Throwdown #338 - Use Green, Teal, Kraft and White

AAA Cards #37 - It's Springtime

Bare Naked CAS

Inspired by the challenge over on AAA Cards I have made three "bare naked" CAS cards. The first uses a stamp from the Hobby Art Owl collection - so sweet!  He looked kind of pensive to me so I thought the "Thinking of You" sentiment was perfect.

The second is along the same lines but I changed the stamped image and also the orientation of the card.  And of course roses and love are another perfect pairing. I'm also going to add this to the CAS-ology challenge.

And finally, I embossed 2 pieces of plain white card, stuck one on the front of the card, then cut out and inked a single butterfly from the other, stuck it over the top of a plain butterfly and folded the wings back. Finished of with a teeny sentiment from the Hot Off The Press dragonfly mini stamp set.

Hummingbird

I made this card for the CAS on Sunday challenge #42 - Sequins Celebration and Crafty Little Fairies - Sparkle and Bling challenges.  I got a set of adorable mini stamps by Hero Arts, including a lovely hummingbird set, which I've used here.  I then painted the hummingbird with mica powders - I love the shimmery effect, although it doesn't really show up very well in the photos. The flower was coloured with watercolour pencils.  

Now, when it comes to stamping and colouring, I'm as fresh as a daisy.  One of the things that I noticed was how the mica powder "paint" partially obscures the black, stamped outline.  If I was going to repeat this card, I think that I would try using an embossing powder, which would then act as a resist and keep the outline crisp and sharp.

I didn't read the challenge properly - I missed the part about "celebration", so I went back sand stamped "Happy Birthday" at the top.  I actually prefer the original version. What about you?