Sall the Crafty Baker

 Hi, wow we've got so far as October already. The year just flies past especially when I am crafting.  The theme this month over at  Ikes World Challenges  is Monochrome and I instantly knew what I was going to do.  I had already decided I wanted to use more of the images I don't use as much as others in order to push myself creatively.  Thus I went with the Suffragete image.  The suffragettes wore Purple so I've chosen that as the only colour I would use. I have also coloured the hair, I couldn't bring myself to give her purple hair.  I made the purple marble paper myself, Spectrum Art have some amazing colours for you to check out if you want to make your own papers.  I've used Derwent Art Procolour pencils to colour the image and added a little purple glitter to make the image stand out.   I've also written my own quote:  "It takes someone of strength, courage, determination and most of all a passion to help others, to ensure their future is a positive o

 WOW what freedom this presented me with!  Mythology was a theme I couldn't not use and I hope you'll find something to fit it too and come join us at  Ikes World challenges I couldn't resist letting my imagination go with this one, I knew from the start I wanted to incoperate the traditional concept of mythology by using the incredible Greek Gods images but I also wanted to incoperate some of the modern ideas of mythology, including creatures from folklore and superheros.   The only way I could do this and push the boundaries of my imagination was to find a way to put them on a card rather than an art journal page.  So I made a pop up box card and used: Artemiss, Athena, Troll, Gnome, Mermaid, Fairy, Superhero lovers, Zeus, Cupid and an Angel.  All images are from Ikes Art and can be found in  Ikes Store  and some maybe in  Ikes Art Darker Images Store .   I've written my own quote, it's copyright to me ⒸSallie Baker 2022

 Hmm I appear to have really hit the jackpot with the themes over at  Ikes World Challenges  this year.  I think it's probably obvious by now that I really love being in nature and I don't mind admitting there are some aspects I find utterly fascinating and have a child like curiosity about. For this challenge I've used the lake image, which you can get from  Ikes Store  and I've just coloured it using Derwent art porcolour pencils.  I've loved spending hours sitting and slowly building up the layers of colour that nature manages to produce withouth much thought to it.  I couldn't bring myself to alter it in anyway so it's just been simply coloured and added to my art journal as if it were a photo.

 If your like me you will groan that it's July and Christmas is starting to appear everywhere yet at the same time I really do like to have my cards all made by now...the only thing left is figt boxes that I make.  So with a theme of Christmas I've made a gift box.   I've used the gift as a template and scored around it using my score board. I find this is much easier than measuring. I've then just made the lid a fraction bigger and magic a box stuck together with red DST.  You don't really need a score board for this method of box making just ruler to fold against would do. In the summer when I can have doors open and things dry quickly I make a batch of marble papers and along with stencils, gelatos, chalks and burshos these make my backing papers.   The image I've used is Beach Santa from the wonderful  Ikes Art Store  which almost went nicely with my blue marble papers. If you would like to join in and share with us some of your wonderful Christmas creations

 Oh no I hear you cry, not masucline!  I think that has to be the most dreaded theme around.  Having been REALLY zealous and done all my birthday cards for the year I was somewhat at a lost to what I was going to do but decided ulimately it was going to have to be an art journal page as that gives me a lot of freedom. To join in with the masucline theme pop over to  Ikes World challenges . I've chosen to use the Maori Mask from the New Zealand world series and you can get the image from  Ikes Store .  I've used a copper pearlescent paper and I've used metal embellishments to give it a more masculine feel.  I've used Derwent paint pens on the mask features, these are new to me but WOW am I impressed with them.  I find the dylusions paint pens don't flow very well and dry up quickly and easily but these are very fluid and don't seem to dry or clog up.  They aren't cheap but they are cheaper than when I was constantly replacing my Dylusions ones. I've added

 Oh dear, I don't mind glitter but honestly I'm not over good at using it in large quantities if I'm honest. I also saw this as an opportunity to use an image I may not normally use so I've used images from the Japan world series set which can be found at  Ikes Art Store .  To join us in the sparkle or shine challenge pop over to  Ikes world Challenges .  I've made an art Journal page and have coloured the Pagoda with Black glitter as well as adding glitter to the Japanese lady. I've then written my own quote: Everyone can take something postive and worthwhile from other cultures if only we let ourselves embrace them and their differences.  ⒸSall Baker 2022