Some Recent Art Journaling

Hello All!

Sorry it has been a while! I kept meaning to blog but life has been busy lately, and I have been distracted with various things. That all said I didn't mean to put it off for so long! I will hopefully make that up over the next few days as I have loads to show you. Today I am going to start off with some recent art journaling:

This first one was an experiment of bold colours and lines. For the lady I used a magazine cutting which I then painted over and I tried to keep to black and white to match the boldness of the page. The whole thing I felt had a confidence about it and so I found the text from a magazine which was in keeping with this. 

This page is in my altered book journal and you may see some of the original text coming through on the right. I have been playing around lately with a lot of portraiture and this is one is a self portrait. Again I stuck to black and white and I think it works well here. This again has an air of confidence and is all about being self assured. 

For this one I really enjoyed playing with layering stamps, ink, pigment powders and tissue paper. I loved the yellow streak running through the page and this is what gave the inspiration for the text. To me the page has a warmth and feels quite happy and relaxed.

Finally this one, done in my small journal, is a bright warm very happy page about my recent family holiday to Crete. It was the best holiday we have ever had, we all had such a good time. The holiday was to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (we went to Crete for our honeymoon) and it couldn't have been better. It was a memory I had to journal about! The colours have a warm glow to them and the image is my youngest daughter paddling in the sea.

I hope you enjoyed these pages, I will be back with more very soon!

Bye for now xxx

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

New Gelli plate!

Hello all,

Just a very quick post today because I managed to have a play with my new round gelli plate that I got for my birthday and  I am feeling excited!

I forget how much fun gelli printing is! and I am loving the round one for all the fun overlapping patterns you can create. You may notice that I often put circles in my work, I am always fond of a good circle :) .... anyway here is my play!

I also used some new stamps to create the patterns. Hope you like it!

Bye for now xx

First ICAD of the year

Hello All,

Last night I sat down with a cuppa and had a play with my new stencil which is a crafters workshop, Rebekah Meier design  I really like this series of stencils, they produce some lovely results. I decided to do a quick ICAD (index card) with it:

It has a cheery feel to it but with the image of a wasp (I hate wasps, having stood in a nest at the age of 8!) I decided on the text "There is no need to be afraid" and overall it feels like it's a card to remind me to look at the bright side of things and not to worry too much! As well as the stencil I used acrylic paint, silver texture paste, irredescent blue ink, washi tape, patterned tissue paper, collage and text stamps.

I am going to try and do lots of ICADs this year and bind them into little journals. They are a great little format to work on.

Bye for now! xxxx

Using Paper Towels

Hello All,

The other day I mentioned about making collage papers and patterned paper towels. I thought I would elaborate on the paper towel technique as it is one of my favourites.

This is a page I did in my altered book journal last night using the for-mentioned paper towels. What I tend to do is that whenever I have used a stencil I clean it with a baby wipe on top of a paper towel. It uses the excess paint left on the stencil to create lovely patterns on the paper. Leave them to dry and voilà! lovely for adding to my journals (whilst not wasting a drop of paint!)
When I come to use them I use matt medium to stick the paper towels into my journals, though you could use PVA as well. As soon as you add the medium the paper becomes transparent whilst the pattern remains.

I also stamp on to paper towels and again stick them down using matt medium, which works well too! Both are fab techniques and really easy and effective, so give them a try!

Bye for now! xx

New Video

Hello All,

As promised my new video! This shows me making one of the mixed media tags that I made for July's art swap. In it I use a variety of techniques and mediums. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to leave a comment :)

Bye for now! xx

Monthly Challenge

Hello All,

The monthly challenge on journalworkshops.ning.com  for August is 'Windows and doors' I didn't start the page as the challenge but it must have been on my mind cause it just kinda happened.

I initially thought about cutting windows into my page for the challenge but as I worked on the background for this page I was really enjoying the colours which inspired me to add my new stained glass window stamp and then as I was sorting through some old magazines I found the quote and it all just fit! I really like how it turned out :)

Bye for now!

July Art Swap

Hello all,

I just received my art swap for this month from Fran in Essex. we had to make three tags, one bright, one pastel and one tonal. I always really enjoys making tags so this was right up my street! Speaking to Fran I knew she was not a fan of pastels and didn't like pink but liked steampunk and rust colours. She also told her favorite colour is blue so I tried to make tags that I thought she would like and get use out of. Here is what I made her.

Pastel Tag

Bright Tag

Tonal Tag

Fran emailed to say she received them and really liked them. I have made a video of me making the bright tag but it still needs a bit of work so I will hopefully post it up soon.

Now here is what I received from Fran:

I really like them, the colours are great and there is loads of texture on them too! It was a pleasure swapping with Fran! Can't wait for August's swap!

I am in Wales all next week but taking some art stuff with me, so I hope to get some journaling done!

Bye for now x x x

Housewarming Gift

Hello All,

Just a quick post today, I just wanted to share a little piece I made for my friend who recently moved house.

Really enjoyed making this one, I played about with my new stencils and Lindy stamp gang sprays which I really like, especially the glimmery shine the sprays produce. I'm pleased to say she liked it too :)

Bye for now x

June Art Swap

Hello All,

Today I received my swap from Kim in Virginia and so thought I would share what she sent and what I sent to her.

It is an absolute pleasure taking part in the art swap group, sending your work out into to the world, getting to know new people and the best part receiving parcels and not knowing what you are going to get! I love it!

The challenge for this month was to create an 8 x 6 journal page with something in it using the first letter of your name. I chose 'Laugh' as my word. Here is what I sent to Kim.

And here is what she sent me.

Can't wait to see what July's theme will be and who I will be partnered with!

Bye for now xx

Monthly Challenge

Hello all!

Off sick still, well I went in to work but they sent me home again. I decided to do my monthly challenge since I am stuck at home and have the time. The monthly challenge this month is 'Tonal pages'  Creating a tonal page using a colour that you wouldn't normally use and using as many mediums in that colour as possible.

I generally steer clear of monotone, I like using a lot of colour in my work, so I decided to give it a try and here is the result:

I used stencils, stickers, sprays, washi tape, collage. gesso, stamps, oil and soft pastel, wax paper and black and white pens. I am really chuffed how it came out actually! I may be using monotone again!

See you soon xx

Self Portrait

Hello All,

Over the last few days I have been a bit poorly and stuck at home. I hate feeling ill and in the UK we are having a bit of a heatwave which just made me feel even more hot and bothered and unable to enjoy what let's face it is a rarity!

The only up side has been lots of time to get some things arty stuff done! I have been binding journals and planning my workshops but the made thing I worked on was this:

My parcel containing my spray inks and brushos arrived and of course I have been experimenting! This is a self portrait and I am really pleased with how it turned out! I started the background with a handmade Moroccan lattice stencil and by adding colour with the inks, brushos and acrylics. The portrait is done in acrylics!

Anyway thought I would share it with you all. I have lots on the go, more journals to make and a new monthly challenge which is to create a 'tonal page' plus more workshops! I will post about my latest workshop (which was yesterday in a bit)

Hopefully be feeling better soon! Bye for now x

Experimenting!

Hello All,

Busy busy busy lately and feeling really inspired at the mo. I have so many ideas I don't know where to start. In planning my latest workshops I decided to have a go experimenting with some wax paper. I have meant to do this for ages so I decided that if I had a go and it went well I would use it for one of the sessions. Wax paper is not really that easy to get hold of in the UK. It certainly isn't in every supermarket so I decided to just get some off the internet.

I really enjoyed the results so far, although I think I have only just scratched the surface. Here is a little ICAD I made with some of the results.

I also made a little video of this one;

I am still working on a little video of the experiments themselves, so should be able to post this in a few days.

I have also ordered some new equipment including some Brushos which I am really excited about and can't wait to start experimenting with these too! Busy Busy! See you soon xx

Experimenting

Hi All,

Last night I decided to put my planning aside and just have some time to myself experimenting with some mark making and having a play with some new stamps and pens that I bought recently. I am really pleased with how it turned out! Sometimes it just feels good to play around with the materials without anything in mind. I find it very theraputic aswell, I can feel myself relaxing as I work.

Earlier this week I received my parcel from Reeah and it's lovely! It was a real pleasure to swap with Reeah and we had a nice time, emailing and chatting about things. She also included a bundle of extra stuff, stickers, postits, pens etc which was a really lovely surprise! I felt like a kid at Christmas.

Now back to planning and commission work! xx

Birdie Bunting Video

Hello All,

As promised here is my new video showing how I made the Birdie bunting I made for the May swap.

 I hope you enjoy! please feel free to leave comments or ask any questions.

New monthly challenge for June is titled 'pieces of the puzzle' so I will get my thinking cap on about this one! I am also currently planning some more face to face sessions and must MUST get going on making my mini journals to sell at Dovefest festival in August! time is flying by!

See you soon!

May Art Swap

Hello All!,

I haven't posted for a while as I was away camping with my family and I was waiting until I had confirmation that my swap partner for May, Reeah from South Carolina, had received my piece.

The theme this time was banner/bunting and we had to create 5 flags of standard size, here is what I made!

The poem is by Maya Angelou and inspired the piece really. I chose some little songbirds and painted over them on mixed media backgrounds and added homemade paper flowers and some ribbon and lace.

Here is my response from the lovely Reeah:

From Maria Meade to Lisa Goddard

I received your swap package you sent today and I have to tell you  . . .       I JUST LOVE IT!!!
The birds, the colors, the backgrounds, I could go on and on but suffice to say it is just beautiful Lisa!  I thank you with all my heart. I showed it to my whole family and even my 15 yr old son likes it and he's at that age where he doesn't like anything I show him, LOL!
I will post the pics I took of it tomorrow.  It's late and I'm pooped for today, ha, ha :-)
Oh!  I can't go without telling you that I was just taken back by the hand stitching you did with the ribbon!  I was just blown away with that and the lace on the bottoms!  Just gorgeous.  I already have it hanging on my lace curtain that's on my window right next to where I sit in my Art Room.  The ATC is just beautiful as well.  I love it all and I thank you very much!!!
Big Hugs!!
Reeah.

 I have really enjoyed having Reeah as a swap partner and sending emails to one another, It is a great feeling sending my work across the sea and to have it so appreciated! I have also made a vid of me making these which I will post up in a bit!

Spring Dreams

Hello all! so here is the finished piece! I decided to use it as my monthly challenge piece, the theme of which was 'Spring Dreams'

 

The text is a quote by Brian Andreas which reads "The birds brought seeds and flowers and bits of brightly coloured string and placed them in her hair while she slept so that she would remember the wild joy of spring when she finally awoke."

I am really pleased with how the whole thing has turned out and it has inspired me to do more!

And another one!

Hello all, I decided to film my late monthly challenge page (create a mythical creature) as I wanted to try out the new camera and desk tripod. So here it is, another one already!

Please feel free to leave me a comment, it would be nice to get some feedback so I can carry on improving!

Better late than never!

Hello all! So I ran out of time on April's monthly challenge but decided to go ahead and still have a go. The theme was 'create a mythical creature' so this is what I came up with.

The name Dewrder is Welsh for courage, I came up with that because he seems to be clenching his fists as if trying to pluck up the courage or in an attempt to be brave!
The new monthly challenge theme for May is 'Spring Dreams' so I will get my thinking cap on for that one!