Craft Space Envy

This month's craft space envy...

Rudolph: A Christmas Canvas

I can't stop doing Christmas canvases, I seem to be a bit addicted. I don't know why but Christmas fills me with inspiration!

Anyway, moving on from the more vintage inspired Figgy Pudding I did here is one a bit more modern and cute but still with similar elements so that they can be displayed together.

I have another one in the pipeline too and goodness knows how many more, although we are starting to run out of Christmassy time really!

Anyway here is the full Rudolph and a few close ups...

I love a good bit of bunting in the Summer so I thought why not have some at Christmas too. I don't own a sewing machine so hand sewing has certainly been challenging but I have been enjoying it, it is something to keep me entertained whilst watching Christmas films and it is not too energetic for me as I can only do so much at the moment without getting tired.

Not bad for my first every attempt huh....

A cheeky little ornament

This is a little cheeky but I thought I would share it anyway. This is a wooden, shop bought plain Christmas tree decoration and I just jazzed it up with a rub on and covered and protected it with PVA glue. I like the simplicity and "rusticness" of it...

Christmas Mixed Media Art

I managed to create a canvas too... a little vintage inspired rustic mixed media piece. I am really happy with this if I do say so myself...

Here is the whole view and underneath a few close up views:

Christmas Cross Stitch

When I was younger, when Christmas on an annual visit, my cousin taught me how to cross stitch. I loved cross stitching and used to do it a lot. It is something that I kind of grew out of though and wasn't that bothered with as I got older. My hubby bought me a cross stitch kit to keep me occupied during my recovery and this is the result thus far. As you will see it is not completed and that is because I ran out of thread. Either there wasn't enough in the kit or I used too much somewhere. Oh well, I will buy more and finish it at some point but here it is, I still think he is cute:

Christmas Baubles

I love Christmas and the Winter season. I love snuggling up warm with a hot chocolate and a Christmas film and Christmas is also the time of year when I get most "crafty". Unfortunately I was taken ill at the beginning of December and had to spend a week in hospital and have been recovering on the sofa pretty much ever since so I really haven't been able to do much at all.

I have been able to do a bit though and I thought I would start to share what I have been able to create with you.

I love Christmas decorations and do tend to buy a new one or two every year. Well this year I decided to paint my own. This way I have totally unique and personal decorations to me and it also kept me from going totally stir crazy!!

We have a lovely paint your own pottery studio in St Neots called Crafty Monkey so if you are in the area you too can create something wonderful. I am a little biased as I do work there a day or so a week but it is a great place and they stock loads of items for any reason or season.

Here are the first three to share with you:

Craft Space Envy

This month's craft space envy.....

I seem to really love the tidy cubby holes!

Book Review - Painted Pages

My second book review! Painted Pages

I saw this book recommended on a forum but I can't remember where how bad is that! Oh well at least I am sharing the book with you now.

I have to be totally honest and up front and say that I am not a big fan of her art work. I am sorry but I am not. But then in the art world not all pieces appeal to everyone and people accept that. My stuff doesn't appeal to many too and I am totally OK with that. I am sure most artists are because they are creating stuff for a particular audience.

That said I really liked this book.

There was lots of content to read as well as techniques and inspiration and motivation.

I have a sketch book and most of the time the pages are blank because I just don't know what to put in the sketch book. I tend to just have things in my head or I sit down with a blank canvas and just paint whatever comes to me at the time. This book encourages you to use a sketch book and gives you great ideas and techniques to get you started and help you on your way. I had never thought to take it with me to a coffee shop and just write down colour combinations that appealed to me. I do now!

A definite read from my POV!!

Here is my video review...

**Please note this is my own personal opinion and I have created this review myself to share with others. I have not been paid, sponsored or endorsed by anyone to create provide this review** 

Explore You with collage

This week at college we moved on to collage to get us to look more at the shapes of things. When we draw it is easy to just get on with it but when we collage from still life we have to look more at the shapes so as to make the correct piece of collage material. I have to say I got on far better with this method and I had fun.

I started off doing  a collage of the still life in front of me and this is how it turned out:

And then I decided that I wanted to have some fun and do my own thing so I created this which is far more me as you can tell from the piece "Explore You"

Another share...

Okey dokes another share from my learnings at college...

This was created using dry soft pastels again another medium that I haven't used before. I really enjoyed using them actually and had a lot of fun.

I am not terribly great at drawing from an object in front of me. I find that I look at the object, my brain processes it and then I draw what my brain thinks it is seeing or wants to see not what is in front of me. It is so weird and I think the tutor is finding it as frustrating as I am. I think I will find it a lot easier when we move on to creating from imagination!

So here we go:

As you can see it does look like a shoe but it doesn't quite look like the shoe that was in front of me!!!

What I have done at school...

I thought I would start to share with you some of the things I am learning and what I have done at art school!

So as you know I paint with acrylics all the time but this is about learning new techniques and new materials.

This is a drawing using only black drawing ink which I have never used before and which I found to be really hard to try and get all the different shadings it's pretty rubbish huh!

Craft Space

Where do you get to create? Do you have a space that you can call your own?

We have a two bed house and no room that I can do that in at the moment but I do have a dining room table and that is my space. Well at least it is when I want it in the day time and then I have to clear it away ready for dinner. Surfice it to say that I would love a dedicated space because it is so frustrating to keep tidying away only to get it back out again. It also means that when I want to make something I have to dedicate a day to it, I can't just pop in and out as I want to. It works for now.

I have serious craft space envy though and love looking at beautiful spaces on Pinterest. Man it makes me so jealous!

I thought I would start to share some of the beautiful spaces that I have come accross and make it a regular feature so we can all drool and wish together!

So the first one:

I just love the girliness and the pinkness of it all. Plus all those ribbons. Oh boy those ribbons!!

Art Abandonment

Don't ask me what I search for on the internet sometimes lol! I come across some really interesting things, and one that I want to tell you about today is "Art Abandonment"

You really must join the Facebook group to get in on the action and find out more.

In a nutshell it is people like you and me, people who love to create things but also like to make people happy. Artists and creators of things all around the World make something wonderful and then take it to a public place and leave it somewhere for a stranger to find bringing them a little bit of joy and happiness. I think it is a wonderful idea.

Most of the abandonments take place in the USA but some happen here in the UK too. In the group people who have found the pieces come along to say they have found it as well as those who have left it. It is a great community with some wonderful pieces for inspiration.

The idea is rather similar to Book Crossing but rather than having to enjoy it and pass it on again the finder gets to keep the art all to themselves.

The pieces people create range from paintings, cards, book marks, jewellery, sculptures, the list is endless.

Go to facebook, get inspired by everyone's art and if you are feeling like spreading a little joy go for it and abandon your art. (Remember to read the group details for leaving information with your piece!)

Is it any good?

I find my self asking that question all the time. Is it any good? Well I guess it firstly depends on "what is good". Who sets the barrier for that? Everyone has a different perception on what even constitutes art. Do you remember this famous piece from Marcel Duchamp in 1917?

This was a great controversial debate as to what can even be called art.

So why then do we find ourselves asking and questioning and disbelieving in ourselves all the time. Why are we constantly beating ourselves up.

I guess from my point of view you see so many wonderful pieces out there and you want to create great wonderful pieces that everyone will want to buy and spend lots of money on. I know part of me thinks this.

But then does it matter? If you enjoy yourself and have fun creating a piece what does it matter?

Book Review: Daring Adventures in Paint

I love to read and I love to look at others art too. I particularly love a well laid out book with beautiful photography. I could just look at the photography for hours and I regularly flick through books with stunning images time and time again. I thought it might be quite nice to share some of the books that I have read with you once a month so you can read them too.

So first up we have "Daring Adventures in Paint" by Mati Rose.

I came across this book on Amazon whilst searching for mixed media art books. Then I remembered that I had seen the name Mati Rose before and that she had some beautiful pieces she had created. I particularly love her little cute animals. I really want to branch out into painting animals and I love her cute and quirky style. Unfortunately there wasn't too much of this in the book which is a shame but it was a nice book anyway.

The book was well laid out and I loved all the photos. The real downside for me was the lack of content. Mati's work is lovely and the photos beautiful but there were very few words. I read the whole book in about an hour so it was a bit disappointing because I like to really savour a book. There were some nice aspects on techniques with lovely visuals. It was interesting to read about collaborating with other artists but I felt this could have been explored more.

On the whole it was a nice little book. I probably would buy it again just for the imagery!

And here is my video review...

**Please note this is my own personal opinion and I have created this review myself to share with others. I have not been paid, sponsored or endorsed by anyone to create provide this review** 

Back to School

I decided to go back to art school. I just felt that there is a lot to be learnt from taking courses, learning new things, meeting new people. Everyone creates things in their own unique way and it is always good to find out how people create certain looks.

It was really daunting for me as I am now in my thirties and I envisaged the entire class to be full of 16 years olds but I was really relieved when I walked through the door into the studio to find that it was mainly women of similar age and older. Phew! It's not that I don't like 16 years olds it's just that I didn't want to feel like the granny in the corner unable to keep up.

We got straight to it which was both great and again daunting. The teacher gave us a white A1 piece of paper and loads of materials and told us to just go with it. Make marks, learn how they work and how you can use them for different textures etc. What do you do in a class full of other people and a white sheet of paper staring back up at you. Argghhhhhhh!!! No pressure to create something good then!

Well anyway I got to play, I mean use, oil pastel sticks, carbon, charcoal and drawing ink, all mediums I have never used before. I'm not sure to be honest whether they will become a favourite, I am unsure at the moment but we will wait and see.

I quite liked the oil pastels, the way they were so rich and creamy and you can use them to blend together. I did find them easy to over blend and smudge though. They were a bit like using a wax crayon to be honest.

I can't wait for next week though and really looking forward to using new things and getting really creative so watch this space and if they are any good I will share them with you!

Getting started - How?

So how did I get into painting again?


Well there are a couple of reasons really and without getting too in depth and heavy the first one is life circumstance. I was going through a period in my life that was a little traumatic and I was suffering from stress and anxiety so I decided to start journalling. I have always kept a diary on and off since I was a teen. I unconsciously found myself doodling in that journal and over time it emerged into an art journal.

When I was creating I was happy. When I was happy nothing else around me really mattered.

First and foremost in life you need to be happy so I decided to be happy. And now I am. In some respects it is that easy but when you are in the thick of a life situation you don't realise it is.

I live in my head a lot. I am an over thinking. By getting stuff onto a page it gets it out of my head and that really helps. Alot.

As I said in the last post I am in a creative industry, I am a Photographer and Graphic Designer so I have to be creative in the "day job". Sometimes that is hard when you have to do it and other times it comes so easily. I do find though that in order to be creative you have to get creative. Creativity is like a muscle. You need to use it and stretch it all the time other wise it can waste away.

Getting started - when?

I started really going for it art wise in July of this year. My hubby's birthday was looming and we were going on holiday in August and he had said don't get my anything for my birthday as we will just do stuff on holiday. I wanted to give him something though. We are both very passionate about shopping locally and independently and neither of us like mass produce items. I decided that I was going to make him something and so make him something I did.

I went and bought a canvas and some paints and off I went. The end result was this:

It is a mixed media piece. The bottom layer consists of book paper and pieces from a magazine. The magazine pieces are all about yoga and chakras. We are both into our yoga so I thought this would be quite nice especially as you can see some of the text coming through. Layers were then built up with various painting techniques.

It is not one of my best pieces but I enjoyed making it and it has meaning to us and you know that is all that matters really!

Be happy. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Give a little bit of joy to someone else to share.

Getting Started... Why have I not?

I have always painted, drawn and well been a crafty sort for as long as I can remember. I think it is in my blood. I have had periods in my life where I haven't done anything and other periods when I have been full on with it all. This is a time of life when I am full on.

I have two reasons why I have in the past not been arty.

The first one is technically three things but I am lumping it together as one as it is basically all linked and that is: Time / Inclination / Inspiration. All three of those things have been lacking when I have been working full time for someone else, doing a hard slog at an office and driving for an hour home. Now that I work for myself I have more time on my hands and can be more flexible with me time and this has also opened up creativity for me.

The second is space. We have a smallish house and don't I don't have a dedicated area for it. Man I would love to though. Now I have more time at home, I have more time to clean so I have decided to just go with it and use the dining room table to paint on knowing that I have time to be able to clear it away later when I want to eat my dinner.

I am so blessed to work in this way. In my "day job" I am a Photographer and Graphic Designer and life is pretty good!

I'm Starting to Fly

I was so excited to find out that I had won a place on the Kelly Rae Roberts Flying Lessons Course. I saw the details on a blog and decided to enter never thinking in a gazillion years that I stood a chance of winning. How wrong I was because I did. I had actually totally forgotten about my entry and then one day a little email appeared in my inbox. OMG!! How cool!

I am so grateful for the experience. However my heart kinda sank because it came at a time when I was really busy with work and I didn't think that I would have the time to be able to do it. Luckily it is an online course that you can log in to when you have time. Phew!

So... I have started on week 1. EEEEEk! OK I can do this.

So if you are wondering what it is all about, well basically it's for people like me who create art but can't bear the thought of calling themselves artists because we don't feel we can or are good enough to. It is to help and encourage us on our art journey and inspire us to turn it into a business and sell our art.

Wish me luck and I will let you know how I get on!