Seasons Geetings

Hi there,

It has been a while since my last post. I left it promising to be back with my finished journal page. Just the little dog and a few finishing touches. However I seem to have lost my mojo over the past weeks and I haven't done a thing art wise even though I bought some new goodies from the Knitting and Stitch Show at Harrogate in November.

The only thing I have done is make some Christmas Tags to put on my families presents.

The second one is a design I created for 'Tag Tuesday' last year.

You never know, I might get a new mojo in my Christmas Stocking.

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

 xxx

A Sneak Peek

I am still working on the journal page mentioned in my last post. I was hoping to have it finished before now but it is still sitting on my desk. I have been working on the girl but I still have to finish the little dog and the umbrella.  So here is a little taster.

Hope you like it up to now

Bye for now x

A work in progress.

You may notice that she is leaning over a little. This is because when I originally sketched her, the idea was that she was bracing herself against the wind. You can just see her umbrella blowing away. I am not sure now that it fits in with the background but never mind.

Bye for now x

Today was a dull drizzly day but yesterday was a gorgeous sunny autumn day here are some pics I took whilst out walking the dogs.

This tree had steam coming from it under the warm sunshine. You can just about see it if you look really closely.

There is nothing like a beautiful autumn day

Bye for now x

The Girls

My latest journal page has the usual stenciling and stamping but I thought that I would  try out a technique that I haven't done for a while.

The image was from The Graphics Fairy and I transferred the image from an ink-jet print using Gesso.
I painted the page with Gesso and applied the image face down and burnished the back using a bone folder. Then I gently peeled away the paper leaving the image behind. (If  parts of the paper won't come away easily then you can gently rub it away with a wet finger.)

I like the effect you get when the image doesn't transfer completely. I finished it off with a piece of washi tape showing little birds on a wire.

Bye for now xx

New Journal Page

Her are a couple of pics of my latest journal page in the style of Roben-Marie Smith.

It is made up of old papers, acrylic paint, /brusho sprays,stenciling and the little bird is from some beautiful but quite expensive wrapping paper that I bought for my collage pieces.

Bye for now x

A Look Back at Textiles.

I am looking forward to going to The Knitting and Stitch Show at Harrogate next month and have realized that I have been neglecting my textile work recently due to concentrating on my Art Journal. I decided to look back at some things I have done in the past and came across a piece that fits in with my recent fascination with drawing faces.

This was something I did whilst practicing freehand machine embroidery.

I don't know what the squiggle is in the right hand bottom corner is. I think it may be part of a hand.

I was taught this technique at my textile class. You choose an image from a magazine and temporarily attach it to your fabric.I used low tack masking tape. You then you trace the image using the sewing machine. It sounds easier than it is. You than remove the image tearing it away from the stitching. This was my first and only attempt to date but it  would be good to have another go at this technique.

Here are some more pics of practice pieces of freehand machine embroidery.

They are mounted in a little handmade book and the pages were stained with Brusho and the design of the stitches was carried over onto the page using pen.

I also came across this little handmade felt picture I made of a little sheep.

I think it would look good hanging from a piece of wooden doweling or a twig rather than behind a piece glass. I must get around to mounting it.

Back soon with some more journal pages.......or maybe some textiles.

Cut and Paste

I thought I would do a bit of  a collage for my next page . I had an image from an old calendar  and I  had the idea of cutting it up to make a marionette on a stage but I am afraid it took a turn for the worse so after some head scratching and a total change of direction I ended up with this page.

Not one of my favourite pages but here are some close up images of parts that I like the most..

I like these semi circles of' 'painty' newspaper........

and I like this little robin which was on a strip of torn book page from an old book I found in a secondhand book shop.

Back with some more of my artistic endeavors soon............

And the winner is......

Me!

Yes I was lucky enough to receive  a lovely handmade postcard from Morag of 'Paper Rainbow' taken from one of her beautiful pieces of artwork 'Bhiornal' which she has used as her new blog header.

I thought it would be a print but I was pleased to see that it was a little original piece of art.

I have been doing some work in my art journal. The journal I am working in is my 'Dylusions Journal' which was designed by Dyan Reaveley

One of Dyans tips whilst creating a journal page is to clean  off any left over ink/paint that you may have on your stencils on another page. Therefore saving any waste and also creating a basis for another piece of work.
This page started off with the left overs from a Crafters Workshop flower stencil which had been sprayed with Brusho Acrylic Mist Spray.

I added a charcoal pencil drawing which I did on an old book page and some circles with black acrylic paint.

I would love to hear your comments on what you see on my blog so if you have paid me a visit please let me know your thoughts.

Bye for now. x

Another page completed in my art journal.

 I originally made marks on this page  with leftover paint from previous project. I then added the black and the orange. The bird was one of my own handmade stamps stamped onto another piece of paper and collaged on to the page. I then added some washi tape and some inked corrugated cardboard.

I love the randomness of the marks on leftover paper that is used to clean off your brushes or that you have cleaned your stamps on . I cut some strips from a piece that was lying on my desk and positioned them on a page that I had already  cleaned some stamps on and then  applied some gesso to. I don't know how the page will evolve but I liked the way they looked so I stuck them down.

 

I am not sure how it will eventually turn out but I just liked the way they looked so I thought I would go with it. All I know is that I want to keep it minimalistic.

Thank you for popping by x

 

A Little Birdie........

A little birdie told me I've been very remiss at finishing off an old journal page that I promised to post on my blog when I finished off the double page spread.
It started as a single page  but I then decided it needed to continue on to the following page.

Looking back I thought it was too dark so I have lightened the background and the body of the bird. I didn't like it much before but I think that lightening up a little and the addition of the second page has improved it.

Although I am usually quite good at cleaning my brushes after I work, sometimes, I am guilty of forgetting. When I sat down to do this page my brushes from my last project were still in the jar of' 'painty' water. (Is that a word? I don't think so but it should be cos the colour of the water was too nice to be called dirty.

It was a lovely shade of my favourite colour and as I had my camera handy I thought I would take a photo.

I just love it!

A Work in Progress

Time has been getting on since my last post so I thought I would stop by and show you a page I am currently working on.
 I am enjoying working on faces at the moment and thought it might be interesting this time to compare this page in it's early stages with the finished piece.

She still needs some tweaking before I apply the paint , although I do like the way she looks with the background showing through.

I would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to those of you that have taken the time to leave comments recently. They are very much appreciated.

Bye for now x

Something New

Hi,
Here is some pics of my latest journal page.

For a change I thought I would use a palette knife to paint the 'flowers', something I have never tried before. I think I need more practice.

For the 'flowers' I used a black oil pastel and then added some book paper.



When creating the background for this page I wanted to keep it simple so I started by using one of my handmade stamps and just applied 'loose' brushstrokes to the page.

Another double page spread completed in my Dylusions Journal. I'm on a roll.... lol!

Bye for now x

Hi,
 I just wanted to share some pic's of my latest page in my journal.

I am really pleased how she turned out. Hope you like her.

Bye x

Hi there,

It has been longer than I had hoped since my last post. I have been working on a couple of pages in my Dylusions Journal and although as I mentioned in an earlier post that it  was my aim, when working in this journal,  to be more 'free' in my approach to my work, not to worry about how the page  turned out. But I still find it difficult. Art should be an enjoyable experience and some times I can sit agonizing over a page for ages.

This was the case with both these pages here. The first one started out as something very different to the finished image as you can see here.

I wasn't happy with the way it was going so it became this:-

I still was not satisfied so I continued on to the next page to make it a double page spread which is till unfinished. I will post the finished piece in a future post.

On the second page there wasn't as many layers and changes to the original idea I just seemed to spend along time staring at it wondering what to do next.
The first image is how it looked at the early stage and the second is the finished page.

I finished of by outlining with a black sharpie. It helped the image stand out more for the camera but I think I preferred it before.

Here is how the little girl looked without the outline.

Well that is all that I have to share with you at the moment so if you like what you see I would love to here yourcomments.
Bye for now x

Hellooo!!

Hi everyone,
It has been a long time since my last post but I have been working on a few things in my Dylusions journal that I wanted to share with you. As some of you will know prior to taking a break from blogging I was starting to experiment with drawing faces and I have been including figures and faces in my mixed media work.Here are a couple of my latest pages.

Here is a close up of her face.She is painted in acrylics and I have outlined her features with black Derwent Inktence pencil..The background is made up of layers of book paper,stamps, acrylic paint and gesso. The butterflies were from my stash and were a free download image that I downloaded a while ago

I am in the early stages of painting  faces.and I am really pleased with her. I love her little round face and I think she looks like she has a personality.

I know I have been away for a while but I hope my regular followers have not forgotten me. I welcome any comments and will be back again soon with more journal pages.

Last Post

Yes. This will be my last post for a while.

My neck and back pain is back which means I have to take an enforced break from blogging as sitting at the computer just aggrivates it to much.

I also have to restrict the time I spend on creating so I am not a happy bunny.

Before I go I wanted to share with you my latest page in my little sketchbook

I want to send out a big THANK YOU to my regular visiters and hope that you won't desert me as I will be back blogging as soon as I can.

Bye for now x

Goodies from Canada

I am very PLEASED!!!! to say that recently I was one of the lucky winners of a giveaway by the very talented Kim Henkel. I love her work so I am very glad to be able to say that I am the proud owner of one of her creations, it is an original painting on teabag paper.  It came enclosed in a lovely card.

I have tried my hand in the past at creating something using teabag paper but I'm afraid it ended in failure. However, I thought I would give it another go and this is my attempt.

I used a graphite pencil, koh-i-noor dyebased watercolours,pan pastels and a sharpie pen. The teabag paper is very delicate which makes it very hard to work on. I am quite pleased how it turned out but I need a lot more practice.

Here is my latest page in my handmade sketchbook.

When I originally posted the page on the right you could see the start of this page on the left and this is how it turned out.
 This is Face#2 in my journey of drawing faces.

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to leave a comment, they are very much appreciated.

Bye for now x

Dylusions Journal

I have just become the proud owner of  a Dylusions Journal.

It was designed by Dyan Reavley especially for art journaling and if you take a look here you will see Dyan herself telling you all about it. I am so excited to start working it.

The way I work is very controlled and I want to work more ' freely', not to be afraid to put ink and paint down or be afraid of messing up and spoiling what I started. I plan to use this journal to try and achieve just that.
 
In the meantime here is the latest page in my pocket journal.

In this image you can see how  leftover paint and ink an be used to form the basis for another page.

If you are a follower of my blog and have not been recieving notification of my recent posts please leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks for visiting x

Paint on a Jar

Over on Carolyn Saxby's blog I was very interested in a project she is doing which is called 'The Jar Project'.

You put and object in a jar and photograph it to show the distortions created by the jar and the light shining through it. As it was Carolyn's 'baby' so to speak, I checked to see if she would be happy for me to have a go and post the results on my blog, and she very kindly said 'yes' .

I have a jar in which I clean my brushes and the neck of it is covered in different coloursof paint and I thought it would be nice top use that. The sun has been shining into my art room over this lovely Bank Holiday Weekend so I positioned the jar with a paintbrush in on the window sill and snapped away.

I  took these shots with my Canon Powershot and I was pleased the way they turned out.

I think these photo's are more about the paint and the jar rather than the effect the jar has on the contents (paint brush) but I love the colours.

Hope you like them too.

Thanks for visiting x