little altered me!

I am taking part in a fantastic art course over at willowing. For week 2 the challenge is to alter a childs book with paints and gesso and have a go at a transfer of a photo of ourselves at around 3yrs surrounded by "positive life wishes". I had a go again at gel medium transfers which I still have had no luck with! The ink off the transparency sort of mixed with the medium and went all blue and green..but I sort of worked with this and used it for the background. I then had a go at transferring a paper image with pva glue and this worked a lot better..thats the image on the right. I still liked the original transparency so sort of scratched it a little bit and painted white behind it. I was looking at the photo and realised I still have that look..see the photo I use on all my avatar profiles!! Be sure to check out the willowing art course as I have met so many art blog friends on there who are all joining in ..its fun and free!

felted scrapbook cover

I have got a little scrapbook album for all my digi layouts so wanted to make a cover for it using my new embellisher. Rather than plan what I was going to do I just wanted to do something autumnal..so have layered lots of wool, lace, chiffon, brown fruit netting and metallic copper threads. I really like the end result so now to work on the back cover and probably some threads and ribbons for the binding.



Here is another digi layout that I have done of my sons

inspired by nature (art creations friday challenge)

For my birthday I got serif digital scrapbook artist 2 and I have been playing around with it tonight. I have never done any digi scrapbooking before but I really love this programme as its so easy to use..you can download a free basic version of it at daisytrail.com. We all went to the local woods today despite the rain and had a great time playing around getting really muddy, looking at all the fungi and the beautiful autumn colours. Over at Art Creations Friday the theme is toadstools so I was really pleased that I managed to combine the photo into my first digi layout! be sure to check out all the other entries too!

creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes...

Thought I would share another painting that I have done this week...but this one is not perfect! Unfortunately I dropped an ink pad on the face and no matter how hard I tried to blend it in the paper started to bubble up so have just left it!! but when I think about it my face and hands are always covered with inks and paint as I dont think anyone can be clean if they like doing art!! Have a good weekend everyone..its rainy bad weather here but I am going to get everyone wrapped up in coats and brave it!!

Dreaming of Spring painting

Continuing with my painting phase I decided to do a face completely different with blonde hair and blue eyes. I think I prefer the facial proportions on this one as the nose looks better..still practising...

when life sends you darkness look for the light

I finished my painting today for week one of the art course over at willowing. I really enjoyed doing the background for this painting as I have used lots of methods I havent done before such as dripping paint, brayering white acrylics and blending the face with the background. As an exercise we had to write down lots of negative thoughts about ourselves and then gesso over them...using art to understand what positive messages were behind these negative thoughts. I wanted my face to look a lot older so have added laughter lines around the eyes and nose...I am another year older tomorrow! As part of this week's art we also had to add a positive statement and word to our portrait so I have chosen the word strength as I think we become stronger as we fight lifes battles. I am really enjoying painting so think I will do another one tonight with a shorter nose!

sketch before painting it..

The free Willowing art online course started yesterday and I must say the videos and pdf links are really good and professional. I have already learnt a lot..I did this sketch last night so am about to paint it..apprehensive! check out the course here

Tag book

I decided to make this tag book which features all my crafty individuals stamps. I havent used these stamps in a while and had forgotten about them so decided to make this tag book as a reminder. I am hoping to make some further books with my lost coast, paper artsy, invoke etc etc stamps instead of them just forgotten about in the drawer! I think thats the trouble with crafters in that we buy that much stash but we forget about it!

steampunk box

Used some more of my graphics 45 pad to alter this box. Painted the memo pad box black then edged it with gold ink. Have added lots of inchies to the top then added a tag and flower made with more rusty washers and a dial from a broken toy...really enjoying using this pad as I love the colours in it and it goes so well with my rusty collection of odds & ends!

vintage steampunk clock (three muses challenge)

I bought a graphics 45 steampunk paper pad last Saturday and was determined to make something with it and not just look at the paper! To avoid cutting up the image I have made a clock. My husband gave me a collection of old washers from when he used to have old vintage Triumph motorbikes so have glued them onto some old copper 2p pieces with some old fashioned numbers. I usually add loads of layers to everything but thought all this needed was some threads around the edge as the picture is very busy. Be sure to check out all the other vintage entries this week at Three Muses

spooky book (alter it monthly challenge)

I recently bought a selection of chipboard books to alter. I have used the castle one to make this haunted halloween castle book. It has little photos of my kids dressed up over the years..I have only filled the first couple of pages with photos as I want to add to it. For this book I have used various papers, collage sheets from Inka, stamps from scrollswork, threads and ribbons plus a couple of plastic spiders. We all love halloween and this year we are going to decorate the house on friday and have a whole weekend of halloween fun! The reason we like halloween so much is that it is a chance to dress up, have fun and meet the neighbours...I hate the trick or treat aspect though as some kids just use that as an excuse to frighten and cause trouble. Be sure to check out all the other entries at alter it monthly

Time

Bought a new journal last night this time A4 size. Decided to paint on the theme of time..I did this painting this morning at 6.30am before the kids got up!. I havent done a painting for a long time so need to practice more..but it will be nice to see at the end of the journal how my style has hopefully improved. Visited the happy stampers show today and got lots of goodies including a graphic 45 paper pad that I am just drooling over! My 5yr old decided to paint today and I just love the painting he did of me in the purple top!

altered bag from Asda!

Tonight I picked up a tote bag for £1 in Asda. As you can see it has a lovely picture of a perfume bottle which I have altered with fabric markers. I have written all kinds of fav sayings on the handle grafitti style..great fun making this quick project. Off to the Happy Stampers festival tomorrow so will take it to fill up with lots of goodies..have a great weekend everyone and lets hope this weather stays warm

Faith (mixed media monday shrines)

When I was at school I remember when we were all given photos of the turin shroud - a photo I have been fascinated by. I wanted to incorporate this image into a shrine so I have painted a mini canvas with a mixture of paints, red copper powder, beads, inked metal embossed leaves and a grungeboard painted crown. The word at the bottom is faith..I think it is so important to have faith in a higher power as well as faith in our own power to achieve success in life. I also like the George Michael song Faith..bet you are all humming that now!! be sure to check out all the other entries at mixed media monthly challenge

We love purple card ..wed stamper challenge

As you can tell from my facebook page painting link I love the colour purple. Purple to me represents a carefree attitude to life.. a bit wild and crazy which is what I would like to be! I thought I would join in wednesday stamper today and make this little card...as the theme is purple be sure to check out all the other entries. I have added some crochet to the flower and the words read.."as I get older I shall continue to wear purple..hope you do too!"

funky chicken won't you lay a little egg for me...

I wanted to make a funky chicken doorstop for my kitchen so here is my first attempt. I have adapted the pattern kindly sent to me by Corinne and have added some stitching on a heart..I think it looks a bit Scandinavian looking no doubt influenced by our recent trip to Norway. We have been watching the cool and crazy dvd again tonight which is about the norwegian male voice choir who live in very very cold conditions up in Finnmark which is in the far north of Norway...glad it never gets that cold here..

Free art journalling online course starts 18th Oct..

Just seen a free online course advertised called the heart of Art (thanks for the link Jo). It is run by an artist called Tam and looks great covering everything from art journal techniques, altered books, making a monster puppet, and painting an angel. The online course starts on 18th Oct and last for 4 weeks. The ning site looks very well organised with an intro video plus lots of art technique videos ...see you there if you join. Click here to have a look at what the course is about

gothic vintage celebration..

As you know I was very pleased to have an article published in Somerset Apprentice..so I wanted to make a pendant to celebrate it. As its nearly halloween I wanted to make something very gothic but also a bit vintage... I found this pewter rock guitar wings necklace in primark for £1! and I really liked the womans face peering above the wings. To this I have added a pic to a glass tile and some metallic painted grungeboard wings and a lovely vintage crown with a bead...a bit of fun! I have photographed it on top of my collection of rusty tins. The challenge over at
lots to do is vintage so be sure to check out the other entries...