dare you meet Dominique Steampunk?

I did this drawing last night and wanted to do a gothic steampunk mistress..I have called her Dominique Steampunk. I have been checking out all the free art videos on the excellent Milliande site and have used the elastic band brayer technique along with paint and various clock stamps for the background. The theme for the whole of this month is steampunk at Milliande so be sure to check out this excellent ning site which is for creative women everywhere...

playing around with the melt pot (lots to do embossing)

better photo taken on my bistro table this morning which is full of ice

Today I went over to my good friend Pat's house and had a great day playing with utee and the melting pot. Now the melting pot is one of those buys that has been used about once since I bought it!! Pat made me a lovely flower for my birthday card using paper and utee so I wanted to know how. We had a great day melting all kinds of utee colours and pouring the utee into moulds, putting paper flowers into it & burning our fingers with impatience and consoling ourselves with good chat, homemade cookies and having a laugh! The birds that you can see are made using utee into a mould that Pat made from my brooch..arent they cool and I couldnt stop making them. Have just looked at the challenges and this week lots to do is embossing so be sure to check out all the other entries. Hope you are all nice and warm as its supposed to be -7 here tonight! Just noticed my husband has bought all the kids sledges today so hope it snows tomorrow...but not on the school run next week please!

Faith Christmas (lots to do fav techniques)

Meet Faith Christmas my Christmas angel painting. I think I might use this painting for my Christmas cards this year and maybe a Christmas tote bag too! The theme over at lots to do this week is fav techniques..well my fav technique is painting at the moment so be sure to check out all the other entries too...

serenity of the soul tote (now listed in etsy!)

I have been having fun today making little totes from my painting serenity of the soul. This recent painting that I did makes me feel all peaceful so decided to make fabric copies of it and make a little tote surrounded by favourite fabric, vintage lace, vintage buttons and hessian..I really like the shabby look of hessian and the texture of it along with the hand sewing using crochet thread. I wanted the tote to be a bit more substantial so lined it with some pale green hand dyed fabric. I have made two so decided to put one on etsy...

wacky tag (wed stamper hats)

Had fun making this tag with paint, doodling, stamps etc. The picture really made me laugh as its 2 women trying out guns with daft hats..I have added the quote "fairweather freinds arent worth having" but I am sure they are the best of friends! lets hope they dont shoot the sleeping cat! Hope you have a fun filled day. The challenge over at wed stamper is hats so be sure to check out the other entries..

Still crazy....

Its our anniversary today we have known each other for 24 years and been married 11yrs..we celebrated today by having a nice sirloin steak for tea followed by some of my homemade apple cake! I am not really one who likes going out for meals because of all the hassle of getting babysitters etc! I made this layout using my serif digital scrapbook artist 2 which I would recommend to everyone as its so easy! The photo was taken about 10yrs ago at a fancy dress party and is one of my favourites of the two of us. Off to digi scrap some more photos!

to read a good book...(art creations friday)

Had another play with my digi scrapbook artist using the painted backyard kit off daisy trail. Be sure to check out all the other entries for art creations friday...Hope you all have a peaceful weekend.

Alice birthday card (wed stamper stars)

I havent done stamping for awhile so thought I would combine it with some painterly effects I have recently learnt on the willowing course. I just love brayering white paint over stuff now and found this corrugated cardboard took the paint nicely. The background has lots of paint, watercolour crayons and stamps all blended in. This lovely alice stamp is from scrollswork. The theme over at wed stamper is stars so be sure to check out the other entries too.

Capturing the moon. final week willowing art course & take a word moon challenge

I have really enjoyed the willowing art course and for the final week we had to paint an angel with texture. I have painted this very dark angel who has captured the moon ...I have always wanted to capture the moon as it always seems magical shining in the black winter night sky. I have added gold paint and glitter to the wings..but it doesnt really photograph well. The theme over at take a word this week is moon so be sure to check out all the other entries. In case your wondering where you have seen that moon face before I have sketched it off a scrollswork stamp that I have. I think for my next painting I will use brighter colours and a happy theme as my last 2 paintings have been quite dark in nature..

for those who have enjoyed the willowing course I thought I would let you know that there are lots of videos about art journalling over on the milliande site especially under the group milliande minis..here is the link to one of them

Deranged eats negativity!

Meet Deranged my wacky monster that we had to make for week 3 of the willowing art course. I have never made a soft toy like this before so decided to make it completely wacky and over the top. The striped material is off an old fav t-shirt that unfortunately got bleach over it. I have used the inside of a broken clock for one of its eyes and an old broken zip for its mouth. This is supposed to be an empathy monster which eats up all negativity! Well as long as he makes you laugh I have succeeded...

may we remember them...Three muses blackbird)

I painted this picture last night as I wanted to incorporate red poppies into a sad picture of a widow. Today is rememberance day when we remember all those killed in wars..please wear your poppy with pride and think of all those who have died in futile wars over the years.. The theme this week over at 3 muses is blackbird so be sure to check out all the other entries

Celebrating Me! (willowing week 3)

Over at the Willowing art course for week 3 we had to design a cover for our book and also do a celebrate page of all things we like about ourselves..I found this difficult as I am not a boasting type of person! For the cover I found a photo of me taken last year and have altered it with distressing and paints. The tag and the gold word karma are from tags off a teapot cover I bought. I think the words "Time is the key" are so important as we all need time in our busy lifes to reconnect with our creative self. I have used an old toy wheel for the circle stamps. The celebrate page has various pictures that I am proud to celebrate and is surrounded by painted tissue paper with copper powder added for a grungy look to celebrate grunge too.

May you have serenity in your soul (take a word angel)

Meet Serenity..my peaceful guardian angel muse that I painted today..have you got a guardian angel muse? The theme over at take a word is angel..so be sure to check out all the other entries.

Autumn felted scrapbook finished (FAMM challenge)

front felted cover with the felted heart, beads and stitching

back felted cover with stamped image, french knots and lots of texture

black and copper powder rustic cover contrast with digi pages

Managed to finish my felted scrapbook today. To the front I have added a felted heart that I made a while ago and this also has some salt dough beads..thought it really went well with the earthy tones of the cover. On the back cover I have stamped onto some brown paper which took on fabric qualities the more I scrunched it up....it reminds me of the heather. Both felted covers have lots of different material felted in using my embellisher eg. brown fruit netting, chiffon, wool roving, metallic threads etc. The inside cover is painted with copper powder added whilst the paint was wet..really like this copper powder and I use it on lots of projects a bargain for 50p! I like the contrast between the very tactile cover and the modern digi scrapbook pages inside. I have entered this into the Fiber Arts Mixed Media challenge which this month is favourite thing..great site to check out if your into textiles.

Little Sparkler (art creations friday)

Had another play with my digi scrapbook artist ..daisy trail have got a free sparkly sky kit which is what I used for this. Tonight it is Bonfire Night where we have just let off lots of fireworks for the kids to enjoy along with sparklers...so thought I would create a layout to echo all the sparkle...be sure to check out all the other entries at art creations friday...

birthday reminder book (take a word time challenge)

A new challenge blog has started called Take a Word and the theme is time. My friend gave me a little filofax but it had a very pink girly cover so decided to alter it..the diary is out of date in it now but I am using it as a birthday reminder book. I have covered it with paint, graphics 45 paper, rusty washers, rusty nail, vintage lace, painted foil and an old paint stained lid over the watch face. I tried out some of the TH clear crackle paint over the image but the effect doesnt show up that much! so think I prefer using utee and cracking it in the freezer. I found this new challenge site over at Sandys blog which is always worth checking out as she has some lovely art and always knows the latest challenges & workshops that are happening. Have just showed the book to my husband Pete and he can recognise all the washers even though they are covered in rust..one is off his old Triumph motorbike..happy days!!

Whimsey page willowing art course week 2 part 2

For week 2 of the willowing art course we are required to draw some whimsey figures. I have never drawn whimsey figures before so am very pleased at the way they have turned out. The page needed to be about a childhood trauma but I was lucky enough not to have a trauma involving abuse, death etc so I have painted one of my happiest memories from my own childhood. My best friend unfortunately moved house when I was very young so instead I used to play in the garden on my swing for hours watching the birds and dreaming or reading a book about fairy tales or imaginary characters from far off lands..grimms fairy tales was a favourite of mine along with alice in wonderland and hans christian anderson..

Willowing art course week 2 part 2 ..so far....

I havent posted for a while as unfortunately my computer wouldnt connect to the net!!! but arent husbands great when they take ages fixing it for you so that you are happy again. I have started drawing the whimseys required for part 2 of the art course I am following. I was a bit apprehensive about drawing these as I have never drawn this type of figure before. Thought I would share the first one I have drawn which I have surprised myself with as I quite like it..now to paint the rest....will show you it all when its finished.