April Craft Space Envy

I really like the idea of a display area. That is kinda cool. I could put all sorts on there. I also like the idea of using kitchen cupboards and tidying it all away neatly.

What's going on with me? April round up...

I thought I would start sharing abit of my life with you guys so you can see a bit more about the person behind the craziness. As I have said before, I am so nosey and like seeing what other people are up to so thought it only fair that I share part of me too! It won't be long and boring I promise you that. Just little snippets every now and then. I already do that to some extent but this is for the itty bitty miscellaneous posts.

My week started off so happy because a found whilst shopping one of my guilty little pleasures. I love this stuff but in the past I have found it so hard to find. It is quite low fat actually and as it is quite sweet, one teaspoon of this straight out of the jar is enough to satisfy my sweet tooth cravings. On toast with peanut butter it is even better!!!

Then in the post, my long saved up for and awaited tapes arrived from the other side of the World. How exciting to receive that mail with lots of pretty stamps on which I actually used on an art journal page. They aren't washi tape like I was expecting but glossy deco tapes. Oh well! They are pretty and cute and I love them so why not use them anyway. They are fairly transparent and stick well. A bit of matt medium over the top dulls the shine to give them the look of washi tape. I still like them so they are staying!

My hubby went shopping one lunch time at work for milk and bread and because he is so kind and thoughtful and romantic, he picked up these pink tulips for me. I love them not just for the kind thought but also for the beautiful inspiring spring colours. Thank you Mr B!

I finally got round to phoning up Waterstones and registering my loyalty card and I am so glad that I did because I found out that I had £15 sitting there waiting for me to use. Whooooppppeeeeee! I had to go into town anyway so of course I swung by to have a browse. As you know from a previous post, I have read the Happiness Project so I bought the sequel, Happier at Home. I also bought a book called Tender Morsels which is a darker re-working of Snow White. I then popped into the charity shop and picked up Yoga School Drop out which has been on my wishlist for some time for only £1. I love to read but haven't done much of it lately. I am trying to get off Facebook more and read!!

I have really been getting into the whole YouTube thing lately. I love to watch other peoples videos but not only that I have gotten really into recording my own. I don't know why but it is quite addicting and I am really enjoying learning something new in video editing. So come on over to my channel and watch some of my art journaling in progress!

That's it from me, for now!!

WOYWW - 24th April 2013

I haven't done a WOYWW for ages so I thought I would do one today. For a giggle as my desk is soooooo untidy and I mean super untidy. But that is the fun of it right? After all don't they say that the sign of a clean desk is a sick mind? Or something like that anyway. I like to think of it that it is because I have been creative. It is the sign that I have been busy doing something and well quite frankly that is OK with me!

So are you ready for the mess and chaos? There was no moving of anything this is exactly how it looks. Today. Right at this moment. A whole heap of messy stuff plus a canvas work in progress of a bunny! My signature lately is bunnies in this style. I just don't seem to be able to stop painting them. They pop up everywhere!

 

I told you it was super messy. It doesn't help that I have a small desk. Not for long though, whilst we still don't have a moving date, things are progressing along nicely and we will be moving house very soon I am sure. 

And if you would like to see how I create little bunnies like this, here is the vid I made for youtube last week as you may have missed it on my blog:

Happy Wednesday everyone and happy arting and crafting. I am off to see what everyone else is up to for WOYWW!

 

New Toothbrushes

I bought new tooth brushes for us today as ours were due to be replaced. This is an ordinary event in any household but for an art and crafter this is very exciting as it means that two tooth brushes (i.e the old ones) are now making their way into your kit to use to make lots of sprays and sprinkles with paint. Yay!! Happy Days!

Another art journal play

I am getting really addicted to just switching on the camera whilst I am creating in my art journal. Here is another video for you to watch.

My Life and My Inspiration

I love that Spring has finally made its way here. Now that the weather is getting warmer I have made a pact with myself to get out in the fresh air more and do more stuff. I love being outside and don't normally let the cold weather stop me but being a person only just getting over having pneumonia it has not been wise to play outside for a while.

Not no more though! I am going to start getting back out there again and with either my camera in hand or my phone cam I am going to snap the things that are inspiring to me. I thought I would start sharing with you a bit of my life and what inspires me. I will label these posts so you can just click on the menu on the left and look at all my inspiration. I hope it won't get too boring! I love looking at what inspires other people and I am really really nosey so I love looking at other people's life and "what's in my bag" type posts.

So here is my first inspiration post. I was strolling through my garden and I was looking at the bushes and how much they have started to sprout new life when I cam accross this little ladybug just sitting, sunbathing in the sunlight. I would never normally put red and green together but when it happens in nature it just looks oh so right.

A Mixed Media Challenge

I went to my local office supplies shop and they had a load of craft "grab bags" for sale for just £2.50. I decided to get one and set myself a challenge.

The challenge was that I could only use items from the bag plus a canvas, glue, paint, pens and ink for stamping.

See what was in the kit and how I got on in this video...

The items in the video are for sale in my Etsy shop : )

Book Review: Collage Playground

I stumbled across Collage Playground merely by accident! What I love about Amazon is that it reccommends books for you by what you have looked at previously and I have found some of my best reads this way. I know they say that you should never judge a book by its cover, well with this one I did! Firstly I was attracted to the name, I like the use of "playground" and secondly I am a lover of vintage and liked the vintage style image on the cover. See what I mean...

I am glad that I judged it though as it was a good buy. I think I ended up buying it for only a couple of pounds from the market place so even better!

The book has lots of step by step how to's in it which I like because I often look at a piece and wonder how they did it! Whilst I wasn't neccessarily that keen on all the art work, the ideas and how to create things were certainly inspiring. There were techniques in the book that I hadn't thought of before like weaving paper. I would never have thought of doing that in my art work. I don't think you have to like every piece of artwork to appreciate it and the process that has gone in to creating it.

If you like ephemera and working with paper then this is certainly a book for you to get you going in your creativity.

And here is a 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**

Art Journal Page - seeing is believing

I just thought I would share another art journal page with you. I recently watched this video:

And I was really inspired by the style of her hair and also her hair being textured so I thought I would recreate something for myself.

I really enjoy glueing and sticking things down and I made a really random page of things stuck down that I had found on my desk. The result was a page that I had no idea what to do with until I watched this video. I decided to make the background her hair! I made a face shape with gesso and drew her face in. I love that it is still transparent. I then greyed out the result of the background and this is the result:

My Art journal process

Did I mention in previous blog posts that I am really in to YouTube at the moment? We have hardly turned the tv on since Christmas (bit of a New Year resolution to watch less rubbish). Instead we have been enriching our lives with other things like art, reading, actually watching things we are interested in and want to watch on YouTube rather than dross, reality tv and soaps and above all else we have actually had some conversations!! I know it sounds silly but we have actually talked which has enhanced our relationship.

So I have been watching all these wonderful videos of people creating their journal pages and so I thought I too would share what I do. So here it is. I would love to know your thoughts. Please remember to subscribe to my channel as I have plans to do more!

The way to start any day... Journal

For years I have kept journals either written ones or art journals. More recently I have favoured the art journals and haven't really been expressing myself on a written basis at all. I can't really explain why at all it has just happened that way. My husband keeps a journal periodically too. He used to write in it quite regularly and that filtered out and then one day he got inspired by the book he was reading:

And since then he has been following her tips. You need to read the book to get the full gist of it but basically she encourages you not to get bogged down in pages and pages and pages of writing but to only write a sentence or two to "sum up" your day. That tip works and he feels that it is a lot easier to manage and is actually helping and therapeutic. In fact the Author appreciates that we don't all have the time to journal so she has come up with the "one sentence journals". Fab idea!

In fact the book on the whole is well worth reading. I urge you to do so. I read it after him and was so glad I did as it has helped in all aspects of life. Please remember I am not sponsored to recommend books etc this is my own personal recommendation.

Anyway back to journal keeping.

Yesterday I was watching art journalling videos on Youtube and I came across this video in my suggestions feed and I watched it.

I felt really inspired by her. I have lots of journals for different things (I might blog or show you them sometime) but they have laid dormant for a while. Not today though. I was up fairly early and it was a nice day. The sun was shining in the what seems like the first time for a long time and I decided to make myself a cup of one of my favourite herbal teas and go and see in the garden with the rascals. It was whilst I was sitting there in quiet contemplation that I decided to go and get a journal or two and make an entry. And I did. And I loved it. I didn't write about my goals or aspirations but I did write about what I am grateful for right now and just a general update on my life as a lot has happened in the past six months (good and bad) and I thought it would be good to document it.

So here is my start to the day.....

 

I am going to make a conscious effort to sit down with my tea every morning and write a line or two. I didn't set goals and aspirations today but I would like to start. I don't want to live a prescriptive life but it would be nice to have some direction too.

Both journals were purchased some time ago from Paperchase (my fav place for buying journals, if I don't make them of course!) Also in the picture is a pack of oat cakes and the pot of Oregano on the table!

I would love to hear about your journal journey and experiences.

What is the fuss about Frida?

I see all the time paintings and drawings of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and for a long time I have wondered why so many people are inspired by her and want to paint her. Some of the examples that I have see are:

By Heidi M -  http://heidimmcdonald.blogspot.co.uk/

http://timewithtascha.blogspot.co.uk/

http://danitaart.blogspot.co.uk/

The other day I was in one of the charity shops in my town and I spotted this book for £1 (which is about $1.53 USA) and I immediately thought of all those paintings of Frida. So I bought it and am going to learn all about her so that I can appreciate the Frida art all the more! Who knows, maybe I will end up doing a Frida piece?

My First YouTube Video - Handmade journal show and tell

I have been so inspired recently because I have been watching loads of YouTube videos and I am just blown away by the creativity of so many lovely folks out there. I decided that it was about time that I too got into the video World so here it is. This is my very first video so be kind.... please! I am all for constructive criticism though as that is how you learn.

This is a show and tell of a journal I made as a present for my Mother in Law's birthday. All is explained hopefully in the video.

I do refer to the people I have drawn inspiration from and these people are (in random order):

Jennibellie, Shannon Green, Yoliebean, Marianne Kensignton, The Paper Addiction, Ellen Bee

So click on their names to go to their YouTube Channels to check them out! You won't be sorry.

Art like a child and not just because it's your birthday!

My Birthday was at the end of February and my gorgeous husband took me away for a week for a relaxing break at Center Parcs in Elveden.  After the rocky road I have had with being poorly since December and my road to recovery, it was a much much needed break. Anways because he had bought me this as a present I hadn't expected to receive any gifts but on the day I had a little pile to open which was lovely.

My Mum and Dad bought me The She Art 3 workshop with Christy Tomlinson which I am really enjoying. I am not going to say too much about the workshop / course at this stage as I want to show you some of what I have been doing with that course in another post. My folks also gave me some pennies which I still haven't spent yet as I can't decide what to buy with them!! I keep flicking between oil pastels and Faber Castell Pitt Pens. Why are art supplies so darn expensive? I am trying to make my money stretch as far as possible. Shops don't sell what I want and then online I am crippled by the postage costs. Grrr!

As a little gift my hubby bought me a pack of tissue paper, pritt stick, pva glue and some bic children's water colour pencils. Just as a little jokey present but I love it all and all will be gratefully used. I think he bought me the pencils as he is fed up of hearing me moan about how much I want some prismacolours. I have such art supply materialism I really do! And he was so pleased with himself too with how much joy it gave me to open those presents and then how much joy I will get out of using them too.

I didn't open them for a while, well end of March actually due to one thing and another, my health mainly, I hadn't had the chance to use them and my art had taken a bit of a back seat either because I was poorly with my asthma again or because I was so engrossed in the She Art workshop. But crack them open I did. I was just sat on the sofa and fancied arting without getting messy so I used my pencils.

I had no idea what I was going to do. I think faces are so much at the forefront of my mind at the moment because of the workshop! I wanted to really test the colours and the vibrancy and started doodling with the green. I then thought it began to look like crazy hair so I started to draw a little pixie from the hair and here she is...

My husband giggled on seeing her boobies!! I intended to draw her fully clothed but just could not envisage what she would be wearing so I decided she was naked!

I used a smidge of water on my finger to activate the pencils. When used dry colour went down onto the page very well but you couldn't blend them, not until you wet them and then they blended so lovely and the colours became even more vibrant.

It just goes to show you that if you want to be creative you don't need to let not having expensive supplies stop you and some of the cheapest can bring you such joy!