Drawing

This afternoon DD and I drove over to Peterborough where she was meeting a friend for some girlie shopping time. After a bit of shopping I still had an hour before meeting up with the whippersnapper so I went into Peterborough Cathedral. There was a visiting choir practising for Evensong and it was like an oasis after the retail hell I had been partaking in! I lit a candle for a friend, had a wander and a think and then plonked myself down and did some drawing. This is the first spread in this notebook and the first of many I hope! I even let some blokie look over my shoulder without freaking out and running off shrieking! LOL

Decos

I've been struggling through some decos this week and these are four of them. I say struggling because I've gone off decos lately for some reason. :o( I think I'm just all deco-ed out for the timebeing, maybe I'll come back to them at some point in the future but for the moment they're not my favourite pastime. I've got three more to finish and then I'll be deco free for a while.



Inked background, stamped embossed violin, text.



Inky paper towel (from Traci Bautista experiments), text, image, foil.



Stamping on monoprint (Traci Bautista again!), alcohol inked backing from number plate number, foil, pen, text.



Encaustic wax background, image, text, ribbon, safety pins.

Hand Art!

Well, I've scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed my hands but they still look like this after yesterday's inky adventures! LOL Mind you, I'm not at work today like Becky is! :oD Might print it out and use in my art journal! It is a one of a kind artwork after all!!

Assemblage

I made this assemblage piece for my friend, Becky, whose birthday is tomorrow. I love the way the piece turned out and couldn't wait to give it to her! She opened it tonight while I was there and not only does she love it but all the family do too! :oD I was really pleased as this piece definitely came from the heart. That's the kind of art I want to make more of, the kind that feels totally right for me, that comes from inside and speaks my art "language" for all to see if that makes any sense! On a lighter note, when Becky asked her 12 year old son where they should hang the piece, his reply was "In the toilet"! LOL He did quickly follow this up with "where we put all the other really cool stuff we have" though! :oD I've had a fab day - Becky and I spent it in painty, inky heaven playing with techniques from Collaged Unleashed! I'm absolutely pooped but I'm feeling at peace with the world and like an artist with something to say!

Drawing

One of the Yahoo groups I belong to has started a project working on techniques that are out of your comfort zone and the first of the topics is good old drawing! I haven't drawn anything in ages although I've been wanting to try and get back to some regular drawing. Anyway, last night I plonked myself down in the living room and drew the fireplace while I was waiting for the breadmaker to finish! And here it is:

Altered Book

My friend, Kari, is hosting a new altered book RR on my Yahoo group. The theme is children's classics and is entitled Literatura Infantil. My book is Anne of Green Gables and this is my sign in page:



The paper I wanted to use wasn't big enough for the spread so I improvised with paint (not a brilliant colour match it has to be said!) and pencil! The players are all snuggled in with their Avonlea classmates in the school register!

This is the first spread in the book:



I wanted to do something simple to start the book off with, using my current favourite colour scheme of beige and black. I'm now wondering if it's a tad boring but I can always add to the spread when my book comes home later this year.

Also, can't resist sharing the dust jacket picture:



How lovely is that picture? I think I'll incorporate it into the covers when the book comes home.

Kilt Pin

Still on a kilt pin kick, this is another that I've made for a friend's birthday:



I had a job to get it laid out prettily on the scanner so it's not looking at it's best! I'm learning something every time I make a kilt pin so by the time I make some for the swaps I'm participating in maybe I'll have cracked all the little problems I've encountered!

Chunky Book Page

I'm running a monthly chunky book page swap on my Yahoo group and this is my page for January.

Background Papers

Had some arty fun with my friend, Becky, today! Collage Unleashed by Traci Bautista finally arrived at the library yesterday so we just HAD to have a play, of course! We didn't have a huge amount of time but we had a bash at the scraping technique, the first one in the book! These are the four sheets that I made:



They're brighter than the pic in real life. I think I may use some of this as backgrounds for some chunky book pages. We were just getting going when we had to pack up but we're planning another day of creative fun and frolics next Wednesday! :oD

More 2006 pieces!

Blogger is being temperamental and wouldn't let me add all the pics in the last post, so here they are:

2006 Review

I've shamelessly stolen this idea from my friend, Kari. :o) On her blog http://www.inkytinker.typepad.com/ Kari reviewed her art work for 2006 and posted some pics of some of it. So, I thought I'd have a look through my artwork for this past year as well. I started off by looking through all my scans and totting up what I'd created. I then had to sit down with a very stiff drink! I was stunned at the total! LOL This is just SOME of my output for 2006:

• 51 ATCs
• 7 greetings cards
• 86 collages
• 54 art journal spreads
• 28 assemblages
• 34 deco spreads
• 46 altered book spreads
• 5 entire altered books
• 93 chunky book pages and
• 7 other pieces that don't fit any of the above categories!

That lot totals 411 pieces of art! Bearing in mind that I don't scan everything I make and I also have artwork that I took digital photos of rather than scanning and they aren't included, I reckon I could be looking at near on 500 pieces of art which has absolutely floored me!! Anyway, while I pull myself together, here's some of my fave pieces from 2006:

Kilt Pin

This is the kilt pin I made for my friend, Elizabeth, for her birthday today. Now she's opened it I can post without spoiling the surprise! :o) The word on the altered button that's a bit obscured is "faith". This was my try out for a couple of forthcoming kilt pin swaps I'm in and I learnt alot from making it!

AB Spread

This is a spread in my friend, Laura's, nature themed AB that I created at my art group this evening. I have a bit of a bird thing going on in my head I think after the birdie mini collages and now this! LOL The background is acrylic paint over black gesso then I added eggs cut from a vintage encyclopedia page, whizzed round them with metallic oil pastels and then just added a wee bit of stamping. :o)

ATC

Finally got around to doing these house themed ATCs this afternoon, there's four and the only difference between them is the text (courtesy of Longfellow, of course!) in the bottom right corners, "broken stairways" is my fave and here it is:



My to do list has shortened to 22 with this one crossed off! Ho hum....

Deco

I have several decos to work on at the moment and this is one I've finished this evening. The theme is "where do you get your zest/heart/vitality?". The scanner didn't take kindly to the shiny silver heart so it looks a bit dark and the wording isn't very clear (it says "being myself"). On the back of the big heart it says "of all the things I am, the one that gives me my zest is...".
The background is watercolour paper.

New Year Assemblage

This morning, whilst up in my studio (well, if I'm going to be an artist it's about time I used the proper words! LOL) I was inspired to create a piece of assemblage to celebrate the New Year. The pictures I took are awful and this scan isn't much better but I wanted to share it anyway on this first clean slate day of 2007. :o)



As the pic is so bad, I feel a little explanation is required! So, the base is a piece of plywood (found in the outhouses) with some paint slapped on. attached to this is a sweet little cake tin with a lightbulb wired on. You can't see at all clearly but I have added the word "hope" on the lightbulb. Last additions were the verdigris screw and the wire with beads as a hanger. I wanted to make something with meaning (to myself) to start this new chapter in my life and I think I have achieved that, in alot of ways this piece sums up what 2007 is going to be all about for me and I'm really pleased with it. ;o) Just wish I had a decent pic of it to share - trust me , it's better in real life than it looks here!! Wishing everyone a happy, creative, inspirational, whatever you wish for yourself, New Year!