A few latest cards

I have been making cards for friends and family - above is one for a special birthday for my friend Katy.  The background in pink glitter, but it doesn't show up that well in the photo.

This was for my brother-in-law.  

This one was for a colleague at work, using a new rubber stamp which Chris had treated me to from Noolibird.

She is a keen houseplant grower, so I thought she would like a houseplant inside...

...and some potted flowers on the back.

I am enjoying using my stash to make these cards and to tailor them to the recipient.
 

Wanderlust 2021 - the first four weeks - Reflections

I am well into my mixed media art journaling course and am loving it, even when it is a real challenge.  I will post about it once a month, as the course is split into monthly sections, each with a theme.

The theme was Reflection.  For week one, it was to think about a positive feeling from last year.  I chose 'being calm when surrounded by nature'.  The photo is one from a magazine and  I have had it for years so it was nice to be able to use it..  I chose greens and blues to to give a feeling of nature.

Week two was so much fun.  The title of this week was 'A Garden of Wishes' and the start of this page was journaling about things we are grateful for.  These would then get covered up with many layers.  Collage, acrylic paint, alcohol inks, watercolour crayons  and gesso were some of the media used.  It took several days to complete this page as layers had to dry, but the end result is so colourful.

Week three was the biggest challenge for me.   I don't enjoy drawing or painting people at all.  This week we had to think about something we wanted more of in the coming year.  We had to paint a self-portrait and then use the colours we'd mixed for that on the surrounding page. These were not colours I would normally choose.  I am proud that I completed this, but won't be rushing to do any more portraiture!

Week four was much more up my street.  Paper bags were used as the background, then gesso and watercolour, which was then bleached out using salt, to create some really lovely patterns.  We painted a dandelion head on one side and added collage and words.  Under the right hand page is a list of things I am looking forward to in 2021.  I also got to use glitter and sequins on this page too.

The theme for the next month is Ephemera, which I am really looking forward to.  I am so pleased I signed up for this course, as it is giving me a great focus and as the classes are shared on a Friday, it is something to look forward to each week.

Artistic endeavours

Back in March 2020, before the world changed, the powers that be at work decided we should have 'Wellbeing Wednesdays' all through March.  Lots of different activities were on offer, for both students and staff and I signed up for ceramics/pottery, which was an open session over lunchtime.  I went with a colleague and we had a great time.  She made a vase, while I started off smaller with some decorations, using biscuit cutters.  We added any patterns we wanted and then returned the next week to glaze them.  The lovely art technician had fired them in the intervening time.  I decided on white or clear glaze for the hearts...

...and the most gorgeous blue/green glaze for the sun, stars and moon, (which is much nicer in real life than the photos would have us believe) which I had left unpatterned.  This was my first attempt at glazing and the gentle painting activity was very enjoyable.  

I made one sun into a sunflower, which had to be yellow, of course.  These were then fired and given back to me.  Buoyed with my success, I planned a more ambitious project of a ceramic running hare, with impressed patterns on it and glazed in white, blues and greens.  I had also planned to make some gemstone dangles to add to it. I worked diligently on the design and found the stamps to make the patterns.  I turned up to work, looking forward to that day...only to find the campus was being closed, we had to gather our things and go home.  I have been working from home ever since. My hare remains in plan form and one day I hope to make it, but not at the moment.  I could make it in polymer clay, so that may be a possibility.

However, I have now started some of the activities from my Wanderlust 2021 course.  Above is a loose watercolour mandala design, which started out as circles drawn with a compass and just developed as I went along, after having watched a video.  I really enjoyed creating this as it was so meditative and just gently grew. I started off with the watercolour sections and then added the pen drawing a circle at a time.

 I added some glitter to a few areas.  I am going to make some more of these, I think, using some of my metallic gouache.

Artist's Trading Card (ATC) - July

 I decided that for this card, I really wanted to create something simple.  A lot of the other cards have been much more complex and while I have enjoyed that, this month I needed a change.  The background is acrylic paint and the butterfly and flower have been stamped in black and embossed  and then painted with gouache.  The flower centre has a bit of added glitter.

I had to check what 'gillyflowers' were as the rhyme mentions them and found they are members of the dianthus family.  While it is probably stocks that the author was thinking of, my dianthus in  the garden will do just as well, so I took some photos, cut them out and glued them on.
The gemstones are aquamarine, sky blue apatite, neon blue apatite, kyanite, tanzanite, sodalite and lapis lazuli.  The gemstone charm is ruby, as it is the birthstone for July.  Simple but pretty, I think.

Index Card a Day 2020 (ICAD) Week Three

The ICAD challenge is still going strong and I am managing to complete one a day.  Above are Dandelion; Robot and Mustard Yellow.  Stamps, stencils, paint and embossing folders have been used for these.

Here are Six Word Story (The sky brightened and she smiled); Pause (I cut the stamp from an eraser and it is based on the pause symbol in music - thanks to Chris for that idea); Birdhouse and Geode.  These are mainly paint and stamps, with a bit of glitter on the geode. 
I have had to buy some more index cards this morning as the second set I used had a blue line at the top and it was affected by water/paint (as you can see in the geode card).
On to week four...

Index Card a Day 2020 (ICAD) - Week Two

Here are the cards from the second week of ICAD.

The prompts were: Suzani patterns (I had to look this up - traditional embroidery from Uzbeckistan and Tajikistan); Bookshelf; David Bowie.

Tiramisu (featuring a photo of my Granny and her sisters when they were girls);  Brocade; Kite or Rhombus; Chamomile.  Just in case the Chamomile one doesn't make any sense, I used camomile tea leaves, which I added to texture paste and applied through a stencil and the tea bags were glued in strips.  I then added drips of acrylic paint and watercolour pencils for the colours, finishing with gold speckles and a bit of glitter. (I had this brainwave having watched a Youtube video where teabags were made into a mini journal.)
On to week three...

June Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 Here's the latest of my ATCs - for June.  I knew the focus had to be roses, not just due to the verse for June, but also because my garden is full of roses in June.  I used a sort of leaf stencil and green paint for the background and stencilled the roses using texture paste.  I needed to infill the roses with paint as the green showing through was just too distracting.  I coloured the texture paste, but ended up painting the roses as well.

 They needed a little something extra, so glitter was added as highlights.

The gemstones I used this month were all pinks and purples and I tried to get an ombre look.  I used rose quartz, lavender amethyst, kunzite, peach moonstone, pink opal and pink shell. The gemstone for June is pearl, so I added a pearl charm.

The back of the card features the verse and some die cut roses.  The new rose dies arrived the morning I was working on this ATC which was serendipitous, so I made good use of them.  I am pleased with the end result - June is all about the roses!

Art Journal page - grateful

I decided that I needed to reflect what is going on in the world in a mixed media art journal page.  Everyone's world has changed, but rather than focus on the negatives, I wanted to think about positives.
I used recycled cardboard packaging for the page which I gessoed.  I used acrylic paint through stencils for the swirly background and for the orange and yellow centre.  I cut out gel press prints for the strips coming from the centre.  The focal point house is a Lisa Horton stamp which I coloured with alcohol pens.

The windows and door have glossy accents to give them a bit of shine, although that isn't particularly evident in the photo.  I added some glitter dots to each of the gel press strips, just because!

I stamped the words using a mixture of Hunkydory and Visible Image alphabet stamps and they are all things I am feeling grateful for.  This page turned out quite similar to the image in my head (which isn't always the case!) and is a reminder of good things during a challenging time.

With this page, I am joining in with the Creative Stamper May 2020 'Take it, Make it challenge' 

May Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 

Here is May's ATC, continuing the challenge I set myself for this year - to create an ATC for each month of 2020.  I am enjoying this project very much, using lots of different techniques and media.  I used one of my favourite stamps (by Jane Davenport) which appeared in my art journal and which I knew I would be revisiting.

Here is the art journal page.

Chris suggested using small die cut flowers rather than painted ones, particularly as the card is on a smaller scale.  Luckily, I had just invested in some small flower dies - how fortuitous!)  I painted the flowers in gouache, using bright happy colours.  Leaves were added and then gold dots in the background.  The centres of the flowers have glitter in them and the lady also has glittery hair and ribbons on her dress. The gemstones are citrine, pink dyed shell, amazonite, carnelian, larimar, emerald and aquamarine.  The gemstone for May is emerald, so that is the charm at the bottom.

The back of the card has a lamb image and more flowers, together with the May verse, which mentions lambs.  

I think it is a happy, bright and cheerful card, which makes me smile.

Art Journal 2 (part 2)

 Here's the second instalment from my art journal.  Some pages really took on a life of their own and the one above is a good example.  I needed to add outlines and glitter around the figures and the white dots in the background before I was happy with it.  They are quite enigmatic figures - what are they waiting for?

 This page was just a background for ages.  I loved the colours but couldn't decide what to do with it.  Eventually, I decided to focus on just numbers. Chris and our friend Rachael both looked at it and said 'The Matrix', which is not something I had in mind when making it, but I can see what they mean.

Another reduction painted page, inspired by Niamh Baly on Youtube.

 The page on the left was all about the Tribal cat stamps, which I love.  Orange is not a colour I use much, but this was dictated by a gel print.
The page on the right was inspired by a magazine image, and I used watercolour crayons for the circles of colour in the background.

 On the left is a collage page which started with used teabags to give texture.  I added music paper and some butterflies as more collage papers.  Watered down acrylic and crayons gave the drips of colour.
The page on the right turned out more or less as I imagined in my head and the quote by Henri Matisse, 'There are always flowers for those who want to see them' was the inspiration.

Nearly there, well done if you are still with me.  

This was the most troublesome page in the whole journal and I had painted over it twice previously.  It had been glittery with stars, then was multicoloured with lots of mark making patterns, but I just didn't like it. I was inspired by some rust patterned paper and that became the focus, although you can't see it because it is up at the top, covered by paint.  The original glittery stars were coloured with alcohol inks to blend more with the rust colours.  

Finally, here is possibly my favourite page.  It was inspired by some loose watercolour flowers painted by Creationsceecee.  The stamp is one of my favourites too and a version of this may well be my ATC for May.  I like the bright colours and dots of gold.  The lady has glitter in her hair too.  I would like to revisit this and improve the perspective of the flowers. 

So now to start journal 3.

March Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 Here we are on the 1st March.  Storm Jorge (pronounced Hor-hay) has blown over, bringing wind, rain and hail.  Here is my ATC for March.  It is a little more subtle than January or February, but still has texture paste, glitter and foiling as surface decoration.

 The background is meant to suggest 'breezes' and the hare is for 'Mad as a March Hare'.  The gemstones are sky blue apatite, aquamarine, peridot, white moonstone, clear quartz and chrysoprase.  There may be some prehnite in there too (I really should note down what I use).

The back doesn't have texture and you can see the swirls which represent the breeze a little more clearly. The blue paint background has some white marks made using a tool meant for icing. There is a daffodil too, from a napkin.
I hope that March's weather is a little kinder to the country and indeed the world.

Art Journaling

 Way back in November 2018, I started work on an art journal, made from cardboard packaging.  You can see how I got started here.

These were my first attempts.

I used paints, paper and stamps.  I enjoyed the process, but then somehow I lost interest and 'fell out of love' with my pages. 

I added more colour to them, but I just wasn't happy and I couldn't work out why.  They got left for a while.  In the meantime, I watched journaling videos on youtube and then, one day, I had a bit of a revelation.  Here's what clicked into place:

• This is my journal - it's up to me what I put in it.  I don't have to show it to anyone if I don't want to.  I'm not going to be marked on the finished work.
• Journaling is all about layers.  If I don't like a page, I can just cover it with paint and start again.  I realised that my pages just didn't have enough on them.
• Pages don't have to have a theme - they can just be about colour, shape, whatever I feel like.
• There are no rules.

Suddenly feeling enthused again, I picked up my paints, stencils, stamps, acrylic paint pens, glitter etc. and set to work.  Here's what some of the pages look like now:

 Much better!

 This face is one of my favourite stamps and this is one page which didn't change all that much.

 It was lovely to be actually using some of my enormous craft stash too.

 There is a lot of glitter and sparkle on these two pages, but the photo doesn't really pick it up.

I think the pages look so much more interesting now.

 I still might add a little something to this front page - I just haven't decided what yet!

 I do like the mass of colour and pattern on the right hand side.

I may add some more to this page too.

I have started another journal and here are the first two pages I have been working on, again using cardboard destined for recycling.  Not finished by any means, but I am pleased with how they are looking.
I think I am getting the hang of this now (and am loving it again!)
There is a good introduction to what art journaling is here.
I have signed up to an online workshop which is all about creating a directory of papercraft techniques.  I am really excited about this as it will encourage me to keep crafting and will lead to a great resource for card making and journaling.