Time to say thankyou and goodbye....

 Hi everyone

Before we reveal the new challenge tomorrow, it is time to say goodbye to one of our amazing Design Team Members.

Sadly, our Lisa's life and other commitments have become too much and she needs to focus on other things.

We love her style - it's feminine and artsy and often made up of layers with so much to explore and find on each creation. She often uses fresh feminine colours but then rocks the grungy browns so well too! Her inspiration will definitely be missed.

Let's send her off properly with a reminder of some of her amazing creations.

Absolutely stunning

Which one was your favourite?

Lisa, thankyou from the bottom of our hearts.

So much love to you and yours.

Love from your Scrap Matrix family

xxx

Colourful kitties...... by Tam

 Hi creative souls

Tam back again with some colourful kitties this time.
Yep it had to happen!! 
Many of you know how much my kitties mean to me, so I just HAD to create an ode to them.

A trio of Colourful Kitties!

Purrrfect!

Let's take a look at how this came together....

I began by selecting my paint colours.

I chose Paper Artsy Paints in:

Cerise

Slimed

Banana

Cerulean

Twilight

Electric Violet

Southern Skies

I applied them pretty randomly to my page, adding in torn strips of paper from Art by Marlene Collage Paper and leftover bits from a Gel Printing Session.

I adhered these with TCW Matte Gel Medium.

Then fill in all the gaps...

Now I added some stenciling...

I went for one of the NEW TCW stencils.... TCW882 Fantasy Tile in 12x12.

I placed it down and then added paint through different sections using a sponge.

I constantly moved the stencil around, changing paint colours as I went.

I love that this stencil gives you 2 or 3 different looks.

I then added in some Dina Wakley white paint using TCW Brick Poetry Stencil....

the white really helps brighten it up.

I also added in some mark making - random brush marks.

As the paints are a mixture of translucents and opaques and semi-opaques you get some gorgeously interesting layers....

I then added more white paint using another new stencil TCW889 Dash 12x12.

This one does the mark making for you!

Love love love, know this will get a lot of use in future projects.

I then added in some stamping marks using Black Archival Ink.

I'd recently purchased this Art by Marlene stamp - Little Ladies and love the background stamps that are in this.

Ok, that's the background done....

Now time to create those kitties.

I roughly sketched them onto the page and then using the Twilight Paper Artsy paint, I painted around the edges....

Now that you've done the background, keep building up those colours.....adding extra shadows around the kitties.

This pushes the background back and brings the kitties to the forefront.

I added some markers to add details around the edges and to add in face, collars etc.

I also added a few touches of fluro paint using the Dylusions Tropical Sangria and Lemon Drop.

Eventually this happens....

For the quote, I used one from the Dylusions Bigger Back Chat Sticker pack. 

There were a few in there that suited cats, but this one summed it up perfectly....

Yep my cats to a tee.

(this is actually one of the things I love about them, their sense of independence, their air of not giving a hoot)

Finally, some flicks of white paint and a scribbly border....

So what colourful and quirky characters are you creating this month?

Here's our moodboard for extra inspiration, thanks to these amazing artists and their work on Pinterest....

See you over on the Facebook Scrap Matrix Shares Page where you can enter your project.

Much love 

Tam

xxx

A perfectly put together mess with Jen.

 Hi everyone! 

It's Jen here again. This time with another character for this month's challenge. 

Just a quick one this time. 

I was having one of those days were nothing was going right, so I turned over the page of my journal and just played with myPaperartsy Fresco Acrylic Paints.  I'm not sure what colours I used, although I think the green is either Gumboots or Beanstalk. 

 

I applied the paints with a dry brush, cleaning it off onto some paper towel when changing colours. 

 

Next I used TCW's Flower Frenzy stencil and sponged Snowflake over it.

 

I then grabbed my Archival Inks and stamped some of my favourite Paperartsy stamps all over the page. ( EM60, ETS24, JOFY76)

 

I had already stamped my Jane Davenport face stamp onto a srap of cardstock and painted it using Dina Wakley paints and added a few details with my pencils.  I had previously tried to used some gel-printed paper for her hair but just painted over it with my Paperartsy paint and added some details using the same stencil.  I decided she needed flowers in her hair, so I added some paint to the scrap cardstock and stamped a few for her.  I cut them out and glued them on.

 

Before I placed her head on the page I wanted to give some definition to her hair with some highlights.  I decided to use Tim Hotz Distress Crayons in Hickory Smoke and Picket Fence, but the Picket Fence didn't show up. I grabbed my trusty Gelatos instead and used Metallic Icing for a nice shimmery highlight.  I painted over the section that wasn't hair with Surf's Up.

Next I printed out my quote and stuck everything to the page.  Here she is... my perfectly put togheter mess.  I hope you like her. 

 

 

(Thanks to all of the amazing artists on Pinterest for sharing their work.)
 

That's it for now. I'll see you next time.

Jen.

>^.^<

A Fierce Colourful Creature.....by Tam

 Hi there everyone

Tam back again to share again..... don't you just LOVE all the colorful creatures that are appearing this month?

I do and want them all!

Today I've got another one...... this one is fierce and brave and powerful and.... yep you guessed it colourful....

Meet Malcolm, named after my Uncle.....

Did I have fun with this one!

When I created him, I'd been having a tough week - I'd needed to do something really brave and yes it had been hard.

When I sat down to create a colourful creature, this is what happened.

I love that my art is always an extension of what I'm feeling, a way to get things out, a way to heal, to process, to make sense of my world.

I used the following Scrap Matrix items:
white gesso 

 Dylusions Large Art Journal.

 JOFY90 stamp. 

As many of you know I'm a fan of using my stencils in ways other than what they are intended. 

This one I've used as fish tails, as hair, but this time I saw a mane.

 NEW Colorsparx by TCW 

These are pigment based watercolour powders, so they have a good depth of colour.

I added a few bits of each powder to a paint palette, and then added some water to create my own  custom watercolours.....

I used the following colours:

Fuschia

Gamboge

Scarlet

Cerulean Blue

Lime Green

Terre Verde

Turquoise

Wisteria

Yellow Ochre

Crimson

You can adjust the tone of each watercolour -  more powder will give a vibrant strong colour and more water will mean it is a softer colour. 

They are even more vibrant on watercolour paper.

Have a play and experiment.

 word stickers

Let's take a look at Malcolm in more detail......

So what colourful character are you going to introduce us to this month?

Can't wait to meet them all!

Much love 

Tam

xx

Jen's Creatures.

 Hi Everyone!

I'm sharing a couple of journal pages for you to enjoy today. A couple of creatures.

 

(Thanks to all the artists who have shared their work and inspire us.)

 

  I'm sure you thought that I would create a cat... well, one of them is feline but we'll get to him later. 

 A few of you will know that my surname is Giarraffa, and it's often pronounced jer-raa-fa, (it should be gia-raff-a).  Needless to say that the tall long-necked creature is often associated with the name. As it happens, Triple M radio currently has featured a giraffe in their TV ads.  He's rocking out to a Foreigner song and I immediately think of my youngest brother-in-law whenever I see it.  Inspired by this I created 'Gio' my singing giraffe.

 

He's a little wonky in places, (aren't we all), but I'm very happy with him.  Let me show you how I created him.

 

I started by gessoing a page in my large Dylusions Journal.

First I glued bits of book paper, collage paper and washi tape to the page.  I wasn't sure at this stage where I was going with this.  I printed an image from Pinterest and copied a rough outline of my subject.

I created the background using Paperartsy Fresco Acrylic Paints in Vanilla, Butter and Haystack by sponging them randomly over the page.  Next I grabbed Paperartsy PA Stencil 155 and sponged Cerise over my page, then using Mulled Wine and a whire Posca pen I added some accents.  

 

For my giraffe I used Spring, Beanstalk and Gumboots. The eyes were done with a mixture of Pitt and Posca pens.  I don't own any brown paint.  I'll have to fix that soon.  

 

Next to make the markings on his hide, I sponged two blues onto some spare card.  (I forgot to take a photo of these for my records so I can't really say which ones I used.)

 

I stamped the diamond from Papreartsy ETS44 stamp set and added some detail with my pencils and glued them onto my giraffe. 

My next step was to add some more leaves, because giraffes need something to eat.  I sponged Cerise over some more card and stamped Papersartsy Stamp Set JOFY71 and added highlights with Mulled Wine and white Posca pen. I then placed them on my page. I added the musical notes with a black Posca pen.

And he's done!

 

While I was planning this page and waiting for the paint to dry another animal appeared on the opposite page. I actually got distracted by him because I was having so much fun. 

 

He's my Sun Lion... mainly because of the bright, sunny colours of his mane.

The background was done by sponging Paperarsty paint over the page and adding some stencilled designs to it.

I'm pretty sure his face is done with Zesty Zing and Tangerine Twist paint and details again with Posca and Pitt pens. Then starting with the darkest colour (Cherry Red?) I painted some lines.  I think I used Coral next once the darkest was dry and then Tango, Tangerine Twist and Zesty Zing until I was happy. I think I was smiling the entire time. It may have been drizzling outside and he just perked me right up. 

Well that's it.  My two character creatures.  I've no idea what I'll do next. I guess we'll just have to wait and see... 

Jen 

>^.^<