My son's Easter cross video

My eldest son came home today and wanted to make a video to show how he made Easter crosses. He made one at school and I am so glad that he knows the real meaning of Easter and the fact its not just about bunnies or chocolates! I think his first video is fantastic despite his brothers distractions!!...click on this link to see it on vimeo or check it out to the right:)

tyvek bookmarks

Went to my friends Pats today and she showed me how to make tyvek bookmarks. Tyvek can be sewn through but is also very lightweight and durable. I learnt a great way to print images clearly on fabrics today too..just spread slightly watered down pva school glue over thin material let it dry then use masking tape to feed it through the printer taped to A4 card....it worked really well. I used some of my old dyed material to pva then printed and stamped some images on it..really took the ink well..finished the bookmarks with some sari ribbon.

Wherever I lay my hat that's my home....

I needed a prompt for my art journal and found out that the challenge over at Simon says stamp is "hats" and they are offering the winner a great prize so check it out. I came across 2 interesting characters in the paper..the lady on the left is Dorothy Young who died last week age 103..she was one of Houdinis stage assistants. The other face to the right is Arthur Fellig who they called "weejee" a shortened version of ouija due to his ability to arrive on a crime scene so quickly...I bet they both had such fascinating lives and found the "hats" that fitted them in life. Besides these newspaper clippings I have used various paints, pastels and one of my fav "latin writing" stamps on the background. Hope your having a mad hatter day:)

birds nest brooch pin, more flowers and skateboards

At the moment I am addicted to crocheting flowers and it has been such a lovely day to just sit in the garden crocheting listening to the bird song. I have got this brooch pin for sale in my Etsy and have made one for my mum and mum in law as its mums day this Sunday in the UK.


Here are some I made in all shades of pink for my friend Linda who is making lots of pink stuff to sell for the breast cancer charity.




Here is one I am wearing at the moment on my purple jacket..just love making them!




We had a lovely day yesterday by the river mersey skateboarding...it was great watching the river and watching the kids and Pete!! skate down the hill....No Fear:)

Crochet flowers and meeting friends

Here are my first crochet flowers on a felted piece I am working on..turquoise, blues and greens are such lovely happy colours arent they.


Mandy and Louise looking very glamourous


Met up with some art college friends today for lunch at the Pod..I hadnt seen Mandy for a long time so it was lovely to catch up. We are hoping to meet up again in May when Louise has a private viewing of her art at a posh West Kirby gallery.

Spring sunshine at last

Have been making the most of the spring sunshine for the last couple of days. Today I got the extension lead and put my embellisher on the bistro table outside and just enjoyed the rays of sun and bird song while embellishing some felt with wool roving. These panels are going to be either a bag or a cushion dont know yet as this is the first layer.


Have also been playing round with wax, watercolours and ink in my art journal. Hope its lovely and warm near you...

Frida meets Iggy somewhere in Mexico!

playing round with bright mexican colours and photos digitally

Original sketch using charcoal

I have started an art journal prompt about the outrageousness of Frida Kahlo over at the Milliande site (click the colour links to see info about the artist). Whenever I look at an image of Frida I am always struck by her intense gaze full of a mixture of pain and defiance as she led a troubled, painful chaotic life. I wanted to capture an intense gaze along with the mono eyebrow and I think my sketch is somewhere between Frida Kahlo and Iggy Pop..lol! Wanted to have a play with a digi layout with the sketch so here is one using some painted backgrounds and photos of trees all "colour burned" using Serif DSA 2..great fun.

Playing around with colour and altered matchboxes

Wanted to experiment with different "emotional" colours on my art journal pages today. I played around with dyes, collage images, pastels and paints for this one..the wording reads "give the grocer a wink and see what you'll get". Had a bit of fun combining a transparency of Frida Kahlo with a fish and sexy legs as couldnt imagine her winking at a grocer or could I? The colours of this page reflected my happy mood sitting in the garden crafting on a lovely afternoon.



On this page I wanted to do a mixture of black and red wax to reflect pain, sadness and intense emotions...the face is in a frame with a mantilla of black lace broken up with light at the top of the page. This is how I feel when I have a creative block and cant do anything like yesterday! I think its a good idea to put our "negative" feelings into our journals too.



I am taking part in an altered matchbox swap hosted by Palma on the Milliande site so had fun making these using some rose embellishments I have had for years but were just the thing for these little boxes along with charms, beads and dyed paper flowers.

If we had no winter then spring would not be so pleasant...

Carried on with my collaged panel today adding more layers with wax and ink. The words read "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome"...for the milliande spring prompt. Think I might add more layers to this..dont know yet!


My friend Linda is making lots of pink cards for breast cancer research so I found loads of pink paper to give to her and also made a start on some pretty pink cards for this worthwhile charity..really difficult for me to do plain simple cards but I have had a go and no ink or paint in sight!

aussie floyd and start of collages..

Last night we had a great time watching Australian Pink Floyd..we managed to get VIP seats at the front as one of the roadies is our long time friend who it was lovely to meet up with again. We had to wear 3D glasses for the second part of the show and the 3D pigs, watches, exploding sofas were simply amazing..you felt that they were right in front of your eyes!

I found some watercolour boards in the drawer today so have started to put paint and collage papers on them..I want to experiment with wax, ink and printed images for the next layer I think..so will show you them when they are finished.


I got a lovely packet in the post today from my milliande friend Mary..it was full of lovely die cut shapes including some fab bird foam shapes and the cut out bit included..all wrapped up in tissue paper which I can use as well..big thanks Mary.

Altered altoid mint tins

Finally got round to altering my collection of altoid mint tins with french text papers, beads from arizona, collage images from cemerony. twine and ribbon....perfect as little presents for someone special.


We have had some lovely spring weather yesterday and today so have been making the most of it..I have done a digi journal page for today called gothic springtime..it features a photo of some snowdrops I took last month.

dance in the rain...

I was just messing round on this page just putting any kind of colours down and pasting odd pictures that I found in my scrapbox plus the quote "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass..its about learning how to dance in the rain". My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who have suffered in Japan this week who have faced real storms not metaphorical ones.


Finished some more jewellery pieces that I started..this one is photographed on a coiled pot I made when I was about 20yrs so its very old!!

I subscribe online to the american simply handmade magazines and wanted a box to put in the pages that I print out...so altered my graze boxes and they are just the right size.

Today I was really pleased as the compost bin I started a couple of years ago has finally produced some compost which I have put on my fruit garden..I am growing blackberries, redcurrants, blueberries, rhubarb, gooseberries and raspberries this year...so it will be great when they are big and produce lots of fruit like my friends Kristin in Norway.

Jewellery for a change...

You know what its like..you go to jumble sales and craft fairs and buy old bits of jewellery and never make anything as it just gets forgotten about! Today I have made 2 keyrings, a little necklace pendant and a brooch. I have got a load of charms drying at the moment covered in diamond glaze and I have restrung my bracelets..you have probably noticed that I love wearing bracelets if you have watched any of my videos..check them out to the right. I went to the cinema this morning and saw True Grit...thought the young actress in it was excellent but I couldnt understand much of what Jeff Bridges was saying!...now I want to watch the old John Wayne version again..I love that bit at the end when John Wayne is riding the horse shooting the 2 rifles at the baddies!

Life is all about achieving balance

Over at the milliande community the art journal prompt is "I am..."..well I have lots of roles in life and it takes me all my time to balance them so this is what this page is about. Over at the Wednesday Stamper the challenge is to use a letter...so I have used the letter W as I was thinking about the International Womens Day and all the roles women have these days in the home and at work.


Blue Nude II by Henri Matisse

I was looking at the the work of Henri Matisse and like the way he used the outline of a woman in his series of paper cutout paintings so I have used some of my painted papers to cut out a figure who is balancing a bird and an egg..I like to use eggs as they remind me of another fav artist Dali. The little bird stamp is one of my scrollswork favourites

I have changed my blog background..isnt this just lovely for spring..click on the top left hand corner to see more free backgrounds

Blackbird large canvas

Decided to recycle an old canvas painting I had and make a new painting on it. Its quite a big canvas so glad I was able to fill it with images and layers. I had a request from the milliande art community to upload a video on how I do these canvases so I have done a tutorial video to accompany it and that should be uploaded in vimeo tomorrow..so here is the painting to look at for now..
Click on here to see video link on vimeo or look to the right for all my vimeo videos.

here come the birds ...

Went to my friend Pats today and had a great time messing round with paint and good chat with Pat and Linda. Pat suggested I have a go at painting on canvas for a change...so found these small canvas panels in my cupboard along with some flower stamps I had forgotten about..like you do! I have used various paints, moulding paste, stamped images, printed papers and pastels I had..really like the finished effect and I have got them in the kitchen now.

There is a set of notecards made from these paintings available in my etsy shop now..click on link to the right..ideal for framing.

may you have a life filled with happiness...

playing round with inks on these pages and the ghost technique of using masks with water..I used the inside of a graze box to make ghostly boxes in the ink. The frames are filled with various images under a transparency...the journalling reads "may you have a life filled with happiness and acceptance for who you are and what you are to become"..dedicated to my son.

Looking through The 20th century art book I came across "abstract head" by Jawlensky. Jawlensky believed that "colour was a means of appealing to the soul arguing that painting could be a visual music...he developed this idea into a series of works called songs without words".

I really like Jawlensky's use of colour and lines so had a quick play with pastels and this is my interpretation called"lines, curve and shade"...bit of fun. I had some happy news yesterday as I won some art goodies from the milliande journal prompts I took part in over january...its a great site why not check it out?