Tuesday 5 April 2016

Here there be dragons......

Last week my husband retired from work, and to celebrate we went away for a lovely weekend in East Sussex. Everything was perfect - glorious weather, a lovely hotel where we had a beautiful suite with a view over a llama farm (!), wonderful meals and visits to some fascinating and beautiful places.

One of the places we visited was the National Trust property Nymans - you can read about our visit over on Mark's blog, and I'm sure you'll be seeing lots of posts inspired by our trip on here - I've just reached out my Magnolia tree stamp, for example.

Inside the house at Nymans, I was fascinated by a small collection of stained and fused glass work which was displayed beautifully in the rooms each piece had been inspired by. Photography was not allowed, but you can see the artist Elizabeth Lamont's wonderful work on her website. The magical colours and silhouettes reminded me of encaustic paining, and when we got home I couldn't wait to get out my encaustic paining tools and waxes and try to recreate the atmosphere of some of the pieces.

For the two cards in this post, I used the lovely Linda Luckin dragon-serpent silhouette stamp, sadly no longer available, stamped onto glossy card using Stazon ink and then painted over using a hot iron and waxes in clear, turquoise, blue and purple. I finished each dragon with a little glitter in matching colours.



I am sharing these with:

The Male Room - Magic/Fantasy
Craft Rocket - Mythical creatures
Shopping Our Stash - Hidden or tricky element (encaustic painting)
Retro Rubber - Anything Goes (the stamp is around 8 years old)

19 comments:

Barb said...

Two magical cards. Absolutely stunning. Barbxx

Brenda in IN said...

Wow, these are just stunning. I love the look of encaustic wax and your colors are gorgeous.

Lori Kobular said...

Both cards are absolutely stunning! I have never seen this technique with wax before, but it is gorgeous! The backgrounds you created are wonderful and I love that stamp! Thanks for playing along with us at Craft Rocket Challenges!

Cara said...

What amazing patterns and textures you have created, you have definitely been inspired by your trip away. Cara x

Sandma's Handmade Cards said...

Jane, these two cards are both absolutely stunning. The Dragon- Serpent is a perfect fantasy stamp and you've framed it beautifully with the waxes. The colour palette is perfect too. These would definitely be in frames at my house! Sounds like you had a lovely weekend and I wish you a long and happy retirement X

Rocky said...

Wow, these are gorgeous. Perfectly magical cards for our challenge at TMR, thank you for sharing them with us.

Donna said...

WOWZWERS!!! Jane these are soooo gorgeous! Love the colours and the dragon!!
Thanks for playing along with our "April Fools" challenge at SHOPPING OUR STASH!

Di said...

Totally STUNNING Jane! So magical and I love the technique you used. I still have your seascape card right here in front of me in fact.

Hugs

Di xx

Stampsnob. said...

You nailed those edges pulled to center gorgeous TFS Craft Rocket Ch Lis DT

Jane Knudsen said...

Wow! I am quite fascinated with this card! The technique is amazing - I want to reach out and touch through the screen! Thank you for joining us again! at Retro Rubber!!

Mac Mable said...

Absolutely stunning. Fabulous technique and the colours are gorgeous. Sounds like a fabulous trip away and happy retirement x

Neva Cole said...

Amazing technique with wax! The dragons really pop with your choice of colors and design. Thanks for including Retro Rubber in your stamping fun this week!

Lisa J said...

Oh WOWZER! What a beautiful card. Cannot find enough words to describe this stunning card. Thanks for sharing with us this fortnight. Lisa DT Craft Rocket Challenges

Barbara Godden said...

I'm in awe of your work, both cards are stunning. Thanks for joining us at Shopping Our Stash for the April Fools challenge.

Maria Rodriguez said...

WOW!! this is an amazing card!!! Love the gorgeous colors around your Dragon, superb effects on the rocks and background. Just stunning.
Thank you for sharing at Retro Rubber, I hope to see you play again with us soon.
Maria Rodriguez

Debbie Mageed said...

Absolutely amazing! Not only is the technique unusual (I personally never heard of it before) but the stamp used is so unique as well. Love it! Thank you for playing along with Retro Rubber and hope you will join us again soon.

Deborah Frings said...

Wow! They are both stunning. I love the effect that you get with the encaustic waxes and the colours are just fab. The dragon stamp is brilliant. Thanks so much for playing along with our Magic/Fantasy challenge at The Male Room! Deborah, DT.

lauren bergold said...

oh wow, that encaustic painting technique is so AMAZING! what a dramatic effect! thanks for SHOPPING YOUR STASH with us this week! ♥

Vixykins said...

Great work Jane! I've been doing encaustic on and off for many many years, not often you see it around but I saw your entry on a blog so had to come and take a look x