Rusty's portrait... work in progress

Hi, I just thought I'd share a portrait I'm doing for Celeste. She asked me if I would do a portrait of her DH's dog Rusty when she commented on Kath's lovely boy, Buddy's portrait I did in July.
I asked her if she wanted me to do a colour portrait instead of the graphite ones I've been doing here so far. The last coloured pencil work I'd done was around 10 years ago or maybe more so I'd forgotten it is a much longer process to complete (around 16 hrs so far), but I'm getting there.

So for you Celeste, this is a peak of how your lovely wee dog's portrait is coming along .

 

I shouldn't be long finishing it now. I've worked on it more since this photo.

Hugs
Alexandra x

"Say cheese" and celebrations

What a whirlwind of a week I've had. Shopping, preparing for visitors coming and arranging a family party yesterday with lots of food for my DD's 18th birthday. I baked her a cake on Monday and put finishing touches to it on Tuesday.

She is a fantastic upcoming photographer and is starting an HND course in Photography this year, she loves photography and so I thought this camera cake I created for her was apt. The camera badge has her initials and 18.2day on it, in case you were wondering what kind of camera it is.

I had intended the camera strap to be made from a Catherine wheel liquorice strip, but after unsuccessfully looking for this in a few shops, weary feet and time constraints pushed me to compromise by using the strawberry laces instead.

It didn't give the finished effect I was looking for though, but tasted yum anyway.

Our other celebration yesterday, was that we also proudly attended our future DIL's Graduation yesterday morning before the birthday party.

Well done Clare!

Here is the card I made a card for her using the Geranium digi sketch I posted recently.

I coloured it using oil pastles blended with odourless mineral spirit on a compressed paper stump.

The photograph was taken at night with the flash on, so the colours are a bit paler than in real life.

Thankfully I've had a few days off work this week. I wouldn't have managed to fit all this in otherwise.

I've been very busy, and am feeling a bit tired after all this now, but it's been a very happy start to the week.

Unfortunately, I  had to attend a work related meeting in Glasgow today, but....

It's Friday tomorrow, I don't have to go to work. I've just a bit of tidying up, and some laundry to catch up on, then all going well, I plan to get my feet up, pencils out and relax with my sketch book.

I hope you have a good day tomorrow too.

Alexandra x

Hello and welcome to my new blog

Hi,

Let me introduce myself, my name is Alexandra, I'm Scottish & I've been married to Alan for 27 years. We have 2 grown up "kids" and 1 wee darling grandson. We also have two wonderful furry "kids", our lovely labradors.

Though familiar with visiting many lovely blogs, I've been a bit of a scaredy cat about starting my own. Have patience with me, as I'm sure I'll stumble about getting it wrong until I know what I'm doing (any tips will be gratefully received.)

I love creating when time allows me, I'm hoping to share my love of art and crafting through this blog, and in particular some of my cards and in time some of my art work.

For now, I just thought I'd introduce you to my beautiful girls, Amy and Piper.

Also, I created the card below a wee while ago, but it'll be new to you here, and I was pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd share it with you too.

The stamped image is from the Stem script Rose stamp from UK designer, Chocolate Baroque.

I stamped it onto a deep red card then used painting with bleach technique to highlight it, then added detail to the image with coloured pencils and a bit of distress ink around the edge.

The saying is by Albert Einstein and comes from the same stamp set.

I finished the card off by adding a few florishes and a pretty Wendy Vecchi stamped Grungepaper rose, coloured again with distress inks.

Please post a comment to let me know what you think.