Have your own style.(she was never a follower of fashion!)

Over at UK Stampers the journal theme for this week is fashion. I have never really been a follower of fashion ..rather spend money on art stuff! I dont like the fashion magazines and tv programmes which criticize what people are wearing as I think everyone should have their own style. So using the words fearless, controversy, signature style I had fun playing around with various magazine images and cut out painted stars on this page. The background is painted and I have added pastels and charcoal over the paint to give it more texture. I ran out of gesso so just used thinned down white paint to bring it all together.

While I was waiting in the van on the school run I did this quick sketch in 5 mins...its not bad and the moral is always keep a sketchbook and pencil with you for when you have a bit of time to spare.

sometimes the eye decieves journal page

I really like the collage work of John Stezaker who combines old postcards and photos in his work - so have featured a newspaper cutting of one of his works in this collage all about eyes and illusion. I have been thinking a lot about eyes this week about how we see the world and others see us. I went to see the black swan yesterday and although unimpressed by the film I liked the eye makeup and the theme about paranoia and eyes watching her..very like my fav Hitchcock films. The background is various paints, printed papers, stamped images, pastels and charcoal around little painted dots.



A beautiful handmade journal arrived today from Marit from the Netherlands..I won this as it was her OWOH prize. Its a lovely journal and came wrapped in tissue paper and vintage lace..big thanks Marit I will start filling this up soon.




I have started crocheting another blanket this week ..I am finding crochet easy as if you drop a stitch you just go back easily..and of course its purple..my mum gave me loads of purple wool that she found in her loft..its like an aladdins cave in my mums loft so now you know where I get my love of hoarding from!!




My weekly treat graze box arrived today too and this week it contains plums, fiery seed mix, honey fennel nuts and paper tiger crackers selection..delicious. Its always a lovely surprise at the end of the week so will have this later on with a glass of red and some dark chocolate too. Visit www.graze.com and to get a free box type in 6YNBLB13

Have a good weekend everyone..think I will take my kids to the woods again tomorrow as the muddy wet boots have just about dried out!

raindrops keep falling on my head

over at the Milliande site the journal page prompt is "singing in the rain" so wanted to do another teesha moore style page. Various paints, stamped images, charcoal and pastel painted circle cut outs for the background.

I did this page to take my mind off a weird occurrence this afternoon. I was cleaning out the guinea pig hutch and went into the garden when I could hear shouting and banging then all of a sudden this smartly dressed man climbed over my fence. All I remember was shouting at him to get out of my garden then he climbed over next door's fence and got away..had to describe what he looked like to the police who arrived 5 mins later..he had just burgled a house further up the road...so be careful out there.

Queen of Altered Hearts (The Altered Alice challenge)

Decided to make a very mad journal page for The Altered Alice dress challenge. I have used various pictures to make this queen of hearts with a ruffle of dresses around her neck, lots of painted paper hearts and scrollswork alice in wonderland stamps.

finished my first crochet project my yoga mat bag..want to try and crochet a blanket next

Sandstone rocks, trees & art

Just playing around with layers on this page..its called "sometimes only 10 layers will do". I dont think I will ever be a minimalist as I love having lots of things of interest around me to look at.


Two of my sons joining me doing drawings of Narnia and the Mario brothers


I just love these huge sandstone rocks..we went climbing on them this morning at a nearby woods that I had forgotten about as I last went there around 30yrs ago!


Plenty of twisty roots to hide in and make dens.. I can see us visiting here more often. Hope you had a good weekend too..what did you do?

Each friend...(Art Creations Friday)

Decided to have a go at a digi page for a change. I have used the image from the Art Creations Friday challenge and a photo of a door in the US taken by Kim with her permission. I have used the words for the quote challenge over at uk stampers "each friend represents a world in us..a world possibly not born until they arrive". Have a good weekend everyone.

Inspired by the woods page

Yesterday one of my sons found a beautiful skeleton leaf in the woods so wanted to incorporate it on a page with lots of layers like you see on a woodland floor. I have used some handmade paper recently sent to me from Kim in Arizona and some old ripped book pages and lots of paint and pastels. The words read "better to be happy with what you need than risk everything for more".

We all went into the city today..I was hoping to take them all to the narnia experience but unfortunately it was sold out again so we went to the museum instead. When we came out of there they all said "can we go the chippy again mum?" So, we went to the infamous lobster pot cafe and had some great chips and milkshakes..a fav haunt of locals you can keep your Liverpool one expensive cafes!


I then took them around my fav liverpool streets..bold st where we saw this mosquito on a hand sculpture...art is found all over the place in the city in some unexpected places. We then went past my fav egg space cafe which is great to go to if your arty and then past the barcelona where I used to have some of my paintings for sale many years ago and then past 69a where I used to buy all vintage 1970s clothes and is surprisingly still open. A great day out and we even found a inexpensive car park up near chinatown in oldham st.

Be Wild, Snowdrops & Treeingham Palace!

Over at UK Stampers the journal page challenge for this week is to use one predominant colour and some doodling. I remember I saw an exhibition by Mark Rothko which was dark grey with a tiny touch of orange so thought I would have a go at making a similair background for this page.


my favourite arch (an old orangerie)

secret passageway..kids built a chair with a load of found bricks

Treeingham Palace

Beautiful snowdrops

We all went to the nearby woods today which has excellent trees, old orangerie ruins and is one of my fav places to visit as its always an adventure. We found a huge tree which the kids called Treeingham Palace as it was their den and they had a great time climbing all the twisty branches then later exploring some old orangerie ruins and building a chair with found bricks..great day out and free!

follow your heart (inspired by Klimt)

I have been looking at paintings by Gustav Klimt and so wanted to do a journal page inspired by him. My friend Rukshana over at UK Stampers..(dont you just love her name) gave me some lovely gold indian papers so have used them for the wings and various circles on the angel's dress. I like the painting Hope 2 by Klimt with all the faces in it so have added some invoke stamped faces to my page. The background is one of the altered magazine pages I did last week and the dress is made from my collection of painted pages..check out videos how to do them to the right in the side bar.

Remembering Sienna

went to a print collage workshop at the weekend..decided to have a go at framing some of my prints for a change. I have got this one hanging in my kitchen..it reminds me of the narrow passageways in Sienna in Tuscany with the old rustic buildings. My kids are watching the first 2 Toy Story dvds which arrived today as its raining heavily...hoping it will stop later.

Valentines, Kites & broken trees..

running free by the Mersey...come on kites fly!

newly fallen gnarled tree blown down by recent storms


Happy Valentines!

Its half term this week so took the kids to otterspool by the river mersey this morning to a kite making workshop..its always freezing cold by the river and has lots of wind so they had great fun running round trying to get their kites to fly. We found a gnarled broken tree so had a picnic there then came home for tea and toast. My youngest did this lovely painting for me for valentines...love the colours and his enthusiasm for paint. Hope your all having a nice Valentines.

a weekend for gardening and art

Yesterday it was a lovely day so spent all day tidying up the garden and planting bulbs..moved my little serene buddha to a new bamboo home..she was with my sage plant as she is very wise!

today I went to a printmaking workshop..love brown wrapping paper to print on

I was hoping we would print on cloth but had fun making all these pages

Will probably alter this digitally and then print it out on fabric with more layers

I also went around the Tate gallery today and bought a great picasso and also a georgia o keefe diary full of prints. I really liked looking at the paintings by Jasper Johns and Sonia Delaunay. and their vibrant use of colour

she felt she had lost her way journal page

Today I met up with my old college friend Louise who is an animal artist..check out her fabulous art on her new blog here. We went to Warrington gallery and saw some excellent paper sculptures made from old books and some very architectural paintings influenced by Italy. I quickly did this journal page based on what I saw today at the gallery with a quick sketch of an arch with charcoal over a scraped painted background..have added some collagey layers made from altered magazine pages. I also bought some lovely pottery from a gallery shop that was having a sale..particularly like the raku inspired little dish.

blues of spring felted panels

Had a visit to Linda's blog Blue Eyed Girl and noticed she had some lovely felted pieces..so feeling inspired I decided to make a start on some with my embellisher which I havent used in awhile. I found some variegated wool roving to make the backgrounds and am currently using some lovely hand dyed threads to add details over the black stitching. Spring is definitely on its way and I love to see all the blue flowers that appear..muscari, bluebells etc. I am might make cushions or bags with these felted panels decide as I go along but will show you when I have finished. Got some great news this morning as I am going to be published again..this time in the Spring issue of Haute Handbags so will show you photos nearer the time...its been a good day:)

the mind becomes calm and tranquil...

Had a bit of a creative block this morning so just decided to mess around with paints on my journal pages..have made a little video too to go with getting past the white blank page syndrome! Had a look at Milliande's 2010 art journal prompts and for day 3 you had to put a circle on the page. As I was doing the backgrounds I was thinking of circles and the page just lent itself to a simple yoga pose against a warm orange sun. In yoga we often use the colours orange, sky blue then violet purple to represent various parts of the body so wanted to incorporate these colours around the circle.

Where there is love there are miracles and having a go at making videos

Over at Fibre Arts Mixed Media the theme this month is Love. I have made a combined journal page (2 pages merged together) to make this piece featuring torn papers, altered magazine pages, scrollswork stamped images over a painted background. The journalling reads "where there is love there are miracles..an ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge".

I have been playing around making some videos of art techniques..check them out in my sidebar. Here is the link to the one I did for the above piece..I am still new at this but its fun having a go!

when its raining buckets just paint..

having fun with lots of paint & new brushes



final painting Miro inspired..isnt it brilliant!



me playing round with black paint and doodles Miro style

we have had bad wind and rain here but not as bad as the poor folks in australia. I got an old table out of the garage and have been using that to paint on..my sons like it especially my 6yr old as he has got access to paints, brushes and paper so he can have a go at painting when the whim takes him..yesterday we had a go at painting in the style of Miro based on a little plate I have. I think his paintings are marvellous and much better than my attempts.

You only live once make it count miro inspired shrine (alter it monthly challenge) & Google art project

"Miro was among the first artists to develop automatic drawing as a way to undo previous established techniques in painting..represented the beginning of surrealism"

Ballerina II by Miro (1893-1983)

Over at UK Stampers the quote challenge this week is "you only live once make it count". I have incorporated this quote in a Miro influenced shrine tag. The painting I was looking at was Ballerina II by Miro and I love the simple colours and use of line on it...be sure to check out the Miro prompts over at Milliande. The challenge over at Alter it monthly is shrines so I have used some of my invoke stamps underneath a shrine I made out of clay the other week.

Google have launched an Art Project site this week which allows you to view art in galleries all over the world..so click on the coloured words to check that out.

My perfect day would be..(uks challenge)

Over at UK Stampers the journal challenge this week is "my perfect day". Well my perfect day would simply be:
waking early and watching the birds whilst drinking my coffee
going to the gym
messy art day with friends (like I had yesterday with Linda & Pat)
Eating a lovely meal
Not having to shout or moan at my kids who would be good all day- go to school without a fuss and eat everything on their plates and go to bed without moaning

I have used lots of Scrollswork stamps on this page and find the best way to apply stamps to painted journal pages is to stamp on white torn tissue paper as it blends in lovely when glued down.

So what would be your perfect day?

fabric journal cover inspired by Miro and great day with friends

fabric journal cover...this is going to be a Miro inspired art book full of Miro prints etc



me, Pat & Linda playing with paint and clay



having fun with paint





Linda called this shade violent pink..lol

Had a great day today as my friends Linda and Pat came over for a messy art day. I got all the paints and inks out and some canvas books. I have painted the front of my canvas book in a Miro style as the challenge over at Milliande is Inspired by Miro this week. I am pleased as Milliande got in contact with me and I am now a "firefly" on the site which means I am helping out with the art journal prompts..this week its the spanish artist Joan Miro.

influenced by Miro papers for UKS paper swap

love the way the papers have turned out..after


I used this blue and some pink boring paper ..before

Had fun today splashing ink and paint around listening to classical music with the doors open as it has been a lovely spring day. Over at UK stampers they are having a paper swap which involves getting a boring old 12x12 paper and making it new again with paints, inks etc. I wanted to cover mine with paints and black inks Miro style. I have taken photos of the paper before I cut it up into squares for everyone so I can print it out for backgrounds etc...pleased with the results..fun.