Vermeer

Jan (Johannes) Vermeer was a 17th century Dutch painter and is one of my favourite artists. Although he was not a prolific painter (it's thought he only painted about 35 works of art during his short lifetime), his ability to capture the effects of light and his attention to detail within each work is amazing.

Probably his most well known piece is 'Girl with a Pearl Earring' which is an awesome interpretation of youth, beauty and innocence.

I have made this project using the one of Vanmeer's painting's that ranks amongst those at the top of my fave list. This is called 'The Lacemaker' and depicts an industry which was flourishing at the time in the Delft area where Vanmeer lived. I love the concentration on the face of the lace girl as she uses her bobbins to make a border for maybe a tablecloth or pillow.

My piece measures about 6" square and is made from mountboard. I printed the image onto linen textured paper - I like this paper for the 'oil on canvas' effect it gives. I used K and Co 'Madeleine' backing paper and then added a variety of cotton lace from my stash, including a small crocheted coaster/doily which I think once belonged to my gran! The oversized needle must have come in a button pack at one time (don't know how long I've had it.....) and I know the two cotton 'spools' (probably from the same button pack) are not strictly to do with lacemaking but hope I'll be forgiven.

The rose lace in the top corner was cut from a wide strip and the addition of 2 buttons finish my small mixed media attempt!

I am submitting this into Gingersnap Creations C65 - Famous Painter or Paintings.

and Play Date Cafe's Colour Challenge is green, beige and dark brown - and as one of my little 'spools' is dark brown I am entering this there too!

Dandelion Heads or is it Agapanthus???????

The Play Date Cafe as usual has come up with a gorgeous colour scheme this week and I'm really late posting this - the card has been made for 4 days and hopefully I'm not too late for the challenge!!!

The colours were a lovely muted mix of cream, mushroom, grey and brown so I used the last of my Penny Black stickers which included all of these colours (fortunately for me!) and picked out the mushroom and brown colour for the backing papers.

I was undecided if the flowers were dandelion seed heads or agapanthus but whatever they were I thought they'd benefit from some liquid pearls! A bronze metal flower with a pearl centre was mounted onto a cream fabric flower and I finished off with a mushroom colour organza bow.

Coffee Time

An apt card I think for the challenge at 'Play Date Cafe'!

This week it's a colour challenge and the colours given are Red, Brown and Linen. This image is a digi freebie and I wanted to make a basic card which would be suitable for anyone to receive or send, be it just to drop someone a note or for any other occasion.

Cream base card, layered with red card and then the brown houndstooth patterned paper (which i have had in my stash for ever!). I coloured the image with promarkers using the 'Ivory' one to colour in the sentiment and the 'wall' behind the coffee pot as I foolishly printed them out onto white card!

I added another 'daisy' from the new punch (getting my money's worth!) and some cream ribbon.

I think this is an 'OK' card - not spectacularly pretty or adorned with embellishments, but hopefully one that the recipent might appreciate.