Life Book week 6 - Courage

The Life Book project for this week was about creating an image to celebrate your courage. This is a positive process and not about focussing on the reasons you may have had to brave. The class was about creating a full figure drawing of a person in a brave pose with a fab technique involving masking out with both masking fluid and a stencil.

As usual, I didn't do the class exactly as the sample and chose to draw my figure swimming through the hard times. I saw her as refusing to sink regardless of what life throws at her! I used the stencil masking technique to create the seaweed. I used Dylusions and Tattered Angels sprays for the background which was a bit of a challenge as they can be so unpredictable. The hard thing was not knowing how they might be affecting my figure under the masking fluid. Looks like I have some underlying control issues!

After all was revealed I added some shimmer paint and stamps and was reasonably happy with the result. It's brighter than I'm usually comfortable with and not my normal sort of thing but its a successful drawing of a figure. Time to start listening to my fairy art mother who is telling me to stop being critical of my work and just enjoy it!

Life book week 5 - Game of Life

The idea behind the project for this week was to use the idea of a game board to represent the goals and challenges of the coming year. I originally imagined a game of snakes and ladders with achieving a goal moving you up a ladder and life's challenges bring the snakes. While this was a fun idea there was no way I could draw all of that!!
After a bit of thought I decided upon a siding 'Game of Life' style board and cut a piece of chipboard to create a firm base. I adhered watercolour paper and taped all of the edges. The background colour was simply a wash of watercolour crayon with gesso and then the technical challenge began. I drew up a grid of 1" squares on white card and then created a meandering path with lots of twists and turns. I cut away all of the squares outside the path to create a base and then covered this with 1" squares of patterned paper. I attached it to my base and added watercolour shading to create depth and dimension.
The board was embellished with words and phrases from Tim Holtz stamps together with printed butterflies.
The final touch was a pocket full of altered playing cards featuring goals for the year. I picked 5 things that I know I'll have to deal with this year and created a card for each one. I added a dictionary definition of the word on each card. It was interesting to read the different ways in which a word can be interpreted and I realised that the one reason I had picked the word wasn't the only way of looking at it. The other definitions were also goals and challenges that I wanted to address. I popped my cards into a decorated small pocket and added this to the top of my game board do that the cards will always be readily accessible.
I am so pleased with the finished piece and looking at it makes me happy to work towards my goals this year - bring it on!!

Life Book week 4 - Scales of Light

This class by Dion Dior really challenged me as we were asked to draw with white onto black. I had two issues 1) drawing and 2) no colour. The idea was that we gain an understanding of light and shade together with the power and emotion that light can add to a project.

Dion offered an easy option for those who find drawing a challenge by suggesting we draw around our hands. In discussing this idea with my sister, she came up with the idea of us each creating half of a double page where our hands form a heart in the centre of the page. I thought that was a terrific way to approach this project and to collaborate. I created one hand held in such a way that it forms half of a heart at the edge. Nikki will create her own right hand page to match mine with the second half of the heart and vice versa. It'll be a lovely way to keep connected and I will cherish having a piece of her art in my journal.

In the top left of the page I created a bird flying free. I then added a really positive and inspirational quote to the background. The bird really struck a chord with me and I really wanted to do something more with this concept so I created a larger bird. I filled the bird with lyrics from a song that had meaning for me.

So one class has inspired two layouts in my art journal and I've learnt so much about shading, light and using pencils. I am discovering so many art materials and how to use them. Watch this space for more to come....

Tunbridge Wells masterclass this evening

Following the awful weather earlier this month we had to reschedule the Tunbridge Wells masterclass to this evening, thankfully the weather has decided to co-operate today!  We will be creating a canvas wall piece which incorporates an album and shadow boxes, all created from scratch.  This is one of my favourite projects from the past year and it has seen a couple of incarnations including as a Christmas themed piece.  This version is much more adaptable to every day living and can be added to throughout the year.  The Tim Holtz ring binder mechanism means that its a snap to add more pages or to move things around in the album to suit your taste.

The kit includes; masses of cardstock, loads of patterned paper, a 12" x 18" canvas, chipboard, a whole pack of diecuts, lace, a Tim Holtz cash key carm, a Tim Holtz clip, a jump ring and full instructions.

You will not complete the project in the class so please don't worry about photographs!

To complete the sample design you will need; narrow double sided tape, strong wet adhesive, pokey tool, a bone folder/stylus for scoring and folding, black inkpad, black paint & brush (or paint dabber bottle), hole punch (cropodile or similar), circle punch (about 1" but size doesn't have to be exact), washi tape, Tim Holtz tissue tape or similar (not essential), decorative border punch.

If you have a score board or similar you will find it very helpful but don't worry if you don't own one.

I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone at TW again tonight, it seems like ages since we last had a masterclass!!

Total Papercrafts kit 2 for January

Our kit deliveries have been plagued by the recent snowy weather and so this design came together at the very last minute!  We are using the Miss Match range from Kaisercraft this time, four fabulous double sided patterned papers, a Tsukineko ink pad and pearls for a really versatile page for the every day occasions in our lives.

We were talking at the Essex club last week about how we all have loads of snaps of nothing really special but of the every day.  They aren't the studio shots that are beautifully lit, not special birthdays or weddings but just pics of family together.  These photos don't need or even work well on themed papers and so I thought that this kit would be ideal.  The main colours are green, beige and peach (for anyone who hates peach, the reverse of that main sheet has a fab cream pattern).  The pops of black keep it looking modern and fresh.  There are title cards to cut out from the papers which include sayings about 'smile'. 'enjoy' and 'friends', just your normal every day titles that you can over and over again.

The kit includes; cardstock, 4 double sided patterned papers, Tsukineko ink pad in Willow, pack of pearl beads, white paper roses, a swirl template

The sample design uses a 6" x 4" portrait photo and a smaller snap trimmed to fit inside a Polaroid-style frame.  To complete the sample you will need a border punch, a text or other background stamp, needle and thread.  I also used a few scraps of ribbon for the tags.

I hope that you like the kit, dig out the 'ordinary' photos that you have and make them something special with this gorgeous kit!!

A huge milestone!

Yesterday was a very special day for us as it was Jack's 18th birthday. I didn't factor in just how emotional it would be to reach this milestone!
I am so fortunate to have such a loving and kind young man in my life and he makes me so proud in all he achieves. He's worked hard through school and did well in his GCSEs, he was selected as a prefect, he has won awards for outstanding achievement and also for outstanding contribution to school life. Jack is a shining beacon of hope for the future and I am so very proud of him.
As it was a special day, I was allowed to take some photos - I'm usually expressly barred from using the camera in his presence!! It's important to mark the important events and they don't get more important than this!!
Where did that sweet chunky bubba go? What happened to the hilarious toddler? When did I lose my chatterbox preschooler? Who is this young man of 6 foot 4" with the boomingly deep voice and chin stubble? How did 18 years go by so quickly? Crikey, it's scary!!
Well my darling Jack, you are an adult now. There are a whole new load of adventures and challenges waiting out there for you. Go and grab your life darling, squeeze the juice out of each moment and enjoy!! Love you Spud!!

Life book 2013 - week 3

This week's lesson was by Christy Tomlinson of 'SheArt' fame and continued the theme of new beginnings that seems to have run through the projects so far. She showed us how she creates a collaged background and I had great fun sticking down scraps of patterned paper, stickers, diecuts and ephemera including my Asda shopping receipt. It a great way to recycle stuff and I'm looking at junk mail in a whole new light!
The key to bringing everything together into one cohesive background is to scrape gesso over the whole page. This highlights the layers, mutes colours and adds texture. Once the gesso was dry I added smears acrylic paints, shimmer mediums and inks using my fingers. It felt really great to get my hands messy but I couldn't quite use my palm as a palette as Christy does! I stamped words and added swirls of alcohol ink and splotches of Glimmer Glam, anything goes with art journaling and its incredibly free. I just decided to keep my colour palette limited to yellow/orange/red with touches of green.
The main focus of this week was 'new blooms', creating new growth to take us into the new year. Christy talked about taking lessons we have learned over the past year into the new year to help us grow but become something slightly different. Like a dandelion sends its seeds out with all it's genetic code from its past but it still grows into something slightly different and unique. I don't tend to dwell on all of the personal growth aspects of the classes but I thought that this was a cool concept and so I wanted to incorporate a dandelion into my page somehow.
The video showed us how to create flowers using tissue paper and foil plus a few paints, sprays, stamps and stencils. The result was a fabulous sheet of foil covered with layers of colour and texture that we could use to die cut, mould or tear flowers from. I created shapes that evoked dandelion seeds to me and added fluffy fibres to add lightness. I made a main flower at the bottom of the page and then added three seeds blowing away in the wind and taking my dreams with them. It was so easy and fun to make these flowers and I can definitely see me making more in a range of shapes and sizes - I have three more sheets of foil ready to use! This week's class was refreshing and what's more, I'm still keeping up!