The sweetest nectar ....

Hello,

I've just bought my first dylusions art journal with black pages and couldn't wait to have a play in it.

I had been watching Gerda Van Dijk's You tube channel and she creates some fantastic journal pages in her black journal, so I just had to get one and have a try. 

Here's my first 2 page spread inspired from her work;

The birds and flower stamps are from Sheena Douglas stamp sets, stamped onto Sheena card, coloured with Spectrum Aqua and sparkle pens from Crafters Companion, then cut out and glued on.

The background was created using gesso, paints and stamps - Limor circles from IndigoBlu and wording stamps from Visible Image.

Then finished off with some doodling and highlighting using a white posca pen.

Challenges;

Stamps and stencils - Off to collage challenge

Creative artiste mixed media - #35 challenge

Art journal journey - A-z animals ( hope that includes birds)

Make my Monday challenge #65 Messy backgrounds

Simon says stamp- monday challenge- Grunge it up

We love 2 create- Anything mixed media

Happiness in dark times

I'd like to share with you the latest page in my art journal.

As some of you might know, I've had to take the last 6 weeks off work to move in with and care for my parents. I'm not going to go into details here but suffice it to say its been a stressful time, with little or no time left for art or creating at all.
I did manage to paint this journal page which lifted my spirits some what. I thought the words were quite fitting for me at the moment, although I'm having a hard time finding the light switch ;)

I used Golden high flow colours for the background and light burst, along with a sun ray stencil and a stars stencil, which you can just about see.

I coloured an IndigoBlu lightbulb stamp with Spectrum sparkle pens and a Posca white pen for the highlights, cut it out and glued it on.

I stamped the words from the same IndigoBlu stamp set and cut them out line by line and after trying them out in different positions settled on this layout.

I do hope any of you who feel you are in a dark place at the moment, soon find your light switch :)

I'm entering these challenges;
Stamps and stencils monthly challenge
Creative artiste mixed media challenge #35
We love 2 create - anything mixed media


Thanks for looking
Hugs Sue xx

Believe in the Magic

Good evening / morning/ afternoon depending on where you are :)

I'm back after a little break due to family illness and accidents, and I'd like to share a journal page I've been working on.
It took me a few days as I've had very little time for any art over the passed few weeks and I felt that I'd lost my mojo.
I got inspiration from watching a wonderful art journal and mixed media artist on You tube called Gerda Van Dijk.

Here's a quick rundown of how I created it, any questions please feel free to ask in the comments. :)

I started with the background, using distress oxides, in blue, pink and green. I used a deeper blue through a Indigo Blu circles stencil.
I stamped the mushroom house and fantasy pod houses from Crafters Companion on to seperate card and water coloured them, using Spectrum Noir glitter pens, then cut them out and glued onto my journal page.

The wording came from one of the same stamp sets.

I painted the bottom of the page with Indigo Blu paint and then used markers in black and white to draw the decorative edge, which I decided to carry on up the stems of the pod houses and around the windows too.

 I stamped the leaves, again from a Crafters Companion set, directly on the page across the top, and painted them in with watered down acrylics. I edged each leaf with a posca pen in green and used a white one to draw in a few highlights.

I am pleased with the end result and also feel that it has kick started my creativity again.

I would like to enter it into these challenges,
Creative artiste mixed media challenge - Anything goes
Altered Eclectics
More mixed media challenge- Anything goes and optional red
Stamps and stencils -off-to-collage
We love 2 create- Anything mixed media

Thanks for looking
Hugs Sue xx

Make Your Mark - 1st session

 I've started my New Year creative journey.
This is my 1st session on Life Book 2018, its called 'Make your mark'. Its just a nice little warm up exercise and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ive used lots of different mediums, watercolours, acrylics, patterned papers, pen and ink, tissue, in lots of layers, using lots of different techniques.

I am going to enter Country view challenges Jan2018 - Anything goes
Altered eclectics - anything goes
Mixed media monthly challenge- Ring in the New ( I have started my new Life Book 2018 journey)

If you would like to start your own Life Book journey, now is the perfect time to join up as there's 20% off. Just click on this link to Willowing Art 

Can't wait to start on my next lesson, 

Thanks for Looking

Hugs Sue x

Life Book 2018

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm not making resolutions as such this year, but have decided to just have fun and create some art thats just for me, such as journaling, etc. With this in mind I've signed up to Willowing Arts - Life Book 2018.

This is how its advertised;

“Life Book, a celebration and honouring of YOU”is a year-long mixed media art class

organised by Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts.

Tam is joined by 34 incredible artists, crafters and healers who are all gearing up to share their art, crafting and personal growth techniques with YOU! With a holistic approach to creativity, self-development and healing, you’ll be creating several loose mixed media art journal pages per month which by the end of the year you will bind into a glorious journal (a Life Book)! This year you will also be able to try out other art crafts like art doll making, photography and jewellery making and we will also provide you with nurturing and nourishing personal development activities (like yoga and conscious dancing) to support any personal development you’re undertaking. Your final book with your art work in it will function as wonderful keepsake that you can treasure for the rest of your life!

I have started the 1st couple of lessons and I'm looking forward to learning lots, having fun, and not being too critical of my own art. (Also I'm hoping to use lots of my crafty stash that I keep buying , but never get round to using)

If anyone else is doing it, or has completed a previous year, please let me know I'd love to know how you enjoyed it.

Paperbabe rag tails

Good morning friends.

Last night I decided to have a go with a Paperbabe stencil. I got a few early this year and apart from having a quick go of 2 of them, I never seemed to find the time to try out the others. 

So when I found I had a couple of hours to do some crafting, I couldn't wait to grab a stencil and some acrylic paint and start to play.

I didn't have a plan, just went with the flow, and this is what I came up with, I really enjoyed using these incredible stencils.

  

Once I had taken a photo, I decided to have a play with it in the photo editing suite on my phone. I really like this negative effect, its cool.

I am entering this into paperbabe stamps challenge -63 - anything goes

Thanks for looking

Hugs Sue xx

Festive makes ...part 3

Here's a few pics of some Christmas decorations I made this year. I actually made lots more, but forgot to take photos before I took them to sell at this years craft fairs.

Thanks for looking and I will see you all in the New Year

Hugs Sue xx

Festive makes...part 2

As promised, here's some more of my festive makes from this years collection.

Countdown to Christmas chalkboards, these are just some of the designs that I hand painted onto wooden hearts that had been painted first with 3 coats of chalkboard paint.

This is a wooden advent that I bought the blank from Hobbycraft last year, but didnt get round to decorating till this year. It has 24 little drawers that you can put a little treat in and reuse year after year.

I painted with white paint, then a coat of crackle effect, followed by a pale blue paint. For the drawers I used the same paints and crackle just the opposite way around and added a mix of silver foiled and glitter number stickers. 

I added a little corner display of flowers, leaves and berries and some snowflake jewel designs. 

The santa sleigh and reindeer were painted with Viva decor ceramic white and edged with a touch of blue. I layered up the base with scrunched up tissue, pretend snow, mini balls and loads of sparkle. 

I'm really pleased with the finished piece, very pretty and sparkly.

Thanks for looking
Hugs Sue xx

Festive makes

Here's some of the projects I've been making over the last couple of months. They were very good sellers at my Christmas fairs and also in the craft shop were I display some of my makes.

I named the range Winter Woodland. It consisted of various designs on slate hearts, log slices and wood hearts. Lots of woodland creatures, robins, squirrels, deer, fox, and other birds. 

Thanks for looking, come back tomorrow to see some more of my festive makes.

Hugs Sue xx

IndigoBlu Retreat

A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I went on an art retreat organised by IndigoBlu.  On day 1 we did a face painting, using a stencil for the outline and then painted with acrylic paint.
I'm entering this into https://countryviewchallenges.blogspot.co.uk - November challenge - stencils

On day 2 we had a go at acrylic pouring, we loved it because you dont know how each one is going to turn out. Even when you use exactly the same colours, each pour looks different. When I got home I mounted some onto larger canvases and one in a frame.

On day 3 we made and decorated a mixed media box with 6 ATCs to go inside, I didnt get to finish it so I haven't taken any photos.

Big thanks to Kay, Alfie and all the other ladies for making it an absolutely amazing few days, I have already booked us on another weekend next year. Can't wait :)