Tile Stamping

Hello All,

This week I was looking at tiles with my hubby and saw that you could buy some sample tiles for 50p. There were some really interesting patterns and textures and I thought they could make really good stamps for art journaling so I bought a couple to try out.

Here is one of them. I tried with ink but the print was quite faint so I had a go with some acrylic and I really liked the result. I think rubbings might be good from these too. I will definitely be looking for some more!  I used this pattern on a page in my altered book art journal and the result was really quite effective. Here is the final spread:

I played around with layering paint and pattern allowing some of the original text from the page to show through. I finished with the circles stamps. I was recently looking at art foamies which are a product in the states that look fab, really big chunky interesting foam shapes and patterns used for stamping. I would so love to buy some but the postage to the UK is really expensive. I decided to try and make my own instead, using a piece of card, some craft foam, scissors and glue. I cut out 24 identical circles from the craft foam and glued 6 onto the piece of card. I then kept gluing the circles on in layers over the top of the previous until I had 6 stacks of 4 circles. Once dry I tried it out with some paint and you can see the result. Simple but effective! I will have to try out some more complicated shapes to see if it works.

I do enjoy experimenting with different art products but making your own and using an everyday object in a different way is really satisfying, it sometimes takes a bit of thinking outside the box but, like buying a bargain, when it comes out right it is even better :)

Bye for now xx

Sorting, Tidying, Pies and Rats

Hello All,

This weekend was not a creative one! Most time was spent tidying, sorting, getting rid of rats (grim!) gardening and making pie (yum) When I got around to some art work it was mainly to tidy up the edges of my canvasses.

I did put together a parcel of ephemera as part of this months art swap, which fit in quite nicely with sorting and tidying! And I did manage to start a background for an art journal spread:

Whilst sorting I came across this journal which to be honest I had forgotten about. It is made of brown paper so it is quite different to work with and the fact that it is ring bound creates a different feel to the pages too. It feels a bit disjointed so its not my favorite to work with but I decided to not give in on it and therefore made a start on a background by adding modelling paste through a stencil and adding different stripes of colour over the top. Next I added circles and splats. It felt right to leave some of the brown showing and I have left it as it is now. Where it will take me next who knows but I quite like it so far.

I am in France next week (can't wait) and apart from drinking too much wine, and eating too much cheese I hope to take some art stuff with me and perhaps do some sketching or mini journaling or something....I'll see what I have time for.

I will post when I get back!

Bye for now xxx

New art journaling page.

Hello all,

What a busy weekend. It was my nephews 3rd birthday so we all went to the Yorkshire sculpture park for the day. Luckily it seemed to be the first real day of spring and was lovely and sunny. The kids loved running about and I got to see the Bill Viola exhibition I wanted to see. I am not normally bothered by video art or installations but I saw his work many years ago while I was at Uni and it is mesmerising, you can't really explain why but you can't tear your eyes away. This exhibition didn't dissapoint and I really enjoyed it. Particularly the piece in the chapel which showed a blazing fire slowy turn to water and then almost to smoke. I recomend going down to have a look if you can http://www.ysp.co.uk/exhibitions/bill-viola

Also this weekend I managed to make a start on my next large canvas and finish the art journaling page I started last week:

I really fancied putting in a portrait and when I had added her it made me start thinking about what is confidence? Quite often it is a mask for many insecurities. When do we actually feel truly 100% confident?

Anyway bye for now! xxxx

Contemplation

Hello All!

The news at the moment is full of bad things, such hatred and violence. Watching the reports about Paris made me so sad, angry and frustrated. How people can do that to others with so little remorse. All the cruetly and evil on this planet stems from us. Human nature is a strange thing so full of hatred on one side and then again so much love on the other. Why can't we all just live in peace? Sometimes I am ashamed to be part of my own species.

I felt I needed my journal for this one, and whilst processing my feelings I was surrounded by my wonderful family and it reminded me of the good in this world. I hope the next generations learn to live in peace together and learn to protect this world from ourselves!

Bye for now xx

Finished Spread.

Hello All,

I managed to finish my spread that I posted a few days ago. I was going to paint a portrait in it but liked the background so much that, in the end, I decided to keep it simple.

The colours seems so sunny and happy to me and it made me think about this summer and all the fun we have had as a family. I love being able to spend quality time with my girls and they are growing so fast. It made me realise how precious these summers are whilst they are little and so I added a journal entry to remind me to soak it all up, savour the summers and carry the memories with me.

Hope you like it!

Bye for now xx

Shopping!

Hello All,

This week I been watching quite a few you tube vids and it inspired me to purchase a few new things. I found that a lot of people are using dylusion paints and the colours look really good so I have ordered a few to try and also a few fab stencils from www.stencilgirlproducts.com.
The other thing on the way is some mapped colorpeps smoothy crayons which all the reviews I have read say are very similar to gelatos (but cheaper) and that the colours are really vivid. Looking forward to it all arriving so I can have a play. I hope to make a new vid, trying out some of the stuff.

Also on you tube this week I watched a fab vid by Julie Fan-Fei Balzer. If you haven't seen her work, check it out, she is really good. Her You Tube channel is:

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYS7gznVtfxvVQsKOW1Jiww

The vid I watched shows Julie using some simple but very effective mark making. Mark making is something I like but more often than not forget to do. I decided to create a background in my art journal inspired by Julie:

I started with a gelli print, pealescent paint, brushos and modelling paste before adding stencils and my mark making. I think I am going to attempt a portrait or a figure of some kind over the top but not sure yet. I will post a piccie up again when it's finished.

Bye for now xx