Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside

Thank you one and all for the lovely entries to our last challenge, my choice, we had some lovely work as always and we now have a resource to draw upon when we have to make a card for a man.  Always good to have somewhere to go for inspiration and quite often these cards do cause us a bit of a headache.

"Oh I do like to be beside the sea,
Oh I do like to stroll along the Prom Prom Prom
When the Brass Band's Playing Tiddley Om Pom Pom"

Gosh that takes me back a bit - to being a child and having an ice cream whilst strolling along on a sunny day in my best cotton dress, white ankle socks and new sandals.

Thanks for that Von - yes, it is Von's choice today and she chose "Oh I Do Like to be Beside the Seaside" as her theme.  I have used the Victorian seaside stamps with the children on several times so I thought I would use something different this time.  Von had used Michael Powell's quirky bathing huts a short while ago so I plumped for his harbour scene.

Both Jo and I fell for these stamps when we saw them on a recent trip to Manchester but I didn't realise just how much colouring there was to this stamp.

I decided to use my new Pan Pastels and gaily went along smudging Blues, Magenta and Yellows into the sky and then, using the tiny tool, proceeded to colour in the houses along the front.  Not sure how I should have been using these but declined from using them on the boats and chose to use my Caran D'Ache watercolour crayons instead.  I was going to use my Gel Pen to colour the buoys in but opted instead for my Aquarelle pens - I must use them more often as I realise just how veratile they are now.

Hope lots of you are in the holiday mood and raring to go with Von's challenge.  It has been lovely seeing all the wonderful artwork that you all come up with week after week so here's to meeting up with you all again at the Artful Times.

I Like Playing with PP's

The back was a little easier yesterday, today not so but have just taken the tablets so fingers crossed I might get some crafting done.

Taken the opportunity to show you what else I did with my Pan Pastels so here are the last two samples in my book - now what can I experiment with next with them?

This first one was using them all over and then using a mask and spray ink on top.  The first one I did was a complete mess and I am not keen on this second one.  (I am not that good with spraying inks - doh!)  Then I  put some tissue tape in strips on top and went over with PP's.  Remember this is just a background and needs a focal picture on - perhaps I should have put one on in my book!

The second one was where I stamped some script on first of all and then went over in a very light colour.  I then added some bits of torn masking tape letting them overlap the script in places - it doesn't obliterate it.  Next I came in with other colours of PP's and finally stamped the flowers on.  This has to be my favourite of all the pieces I have done to date - but maybe that is because of the colours.

I have some stamped images left over from my workshop at Art from the Heart so I might do some experimenting with them - if I can think up some different techniques that might work with these chalks.

Hope these give you some ideas to get going with your PP's - remember to check out the previous ones by using the Pan Pastel link to my other work in my right side bar.

ps remember at 6 pm tonight there is the Artful Times blog entry on here and that used PP's again.