Summer is coming... but not today

We've had some wonderful weather already but today is overcast and windy. A bit miserable. But here is another art journal page I've completed.

This is decoupaged napkins again and the dragonfly is a rub-on transfer. I'm doing this in my pregnancy book. No, I'm not about to have a baby at 60! I have repurposed a second-hand book from the SPCA shop. It's a really weird book on pregnancy with old wives tales, recipes, strange bits of prose and the most unusual 50s style drawings. Think of it like Buzzfeed. It's just a whole load of different things flung together. On this page I decided to leave a bit of a drawing exposed. The top of the page is the original book page.

I've been playing around making some texture plates for my gel plate. These are cardboard letters that I bought somewhere, probably Warehouse Stationery, and then mounted on to foam core board. I love the look of text in mixed media art works but I'm too cheap to buy stencils. I figured that this would work on the gel plate since they are the right way round which when stamped into the gel plate and then lifted in a print will end up the right way round again. I picked out "happy birthday" first, reckoning on that being useful. Then I filled a board the same size as my gel plate with random letters, numbers and punctuation. Looking at the letters I had left, I could make "bacon", "cove, "zone" and many more but I thought "sun" would be more useful. Here's a fun game; add any other words you can see in the comments, just from the ones that are not on the happy birthday or the big mat.

Well, "sun" ended up being useful on the page above. Of course, if I had stamped it, it would have ended up the wrong way round. I had to ink up half my gel plate, press the stamp into the paint and then stamp it on the other half of the gel plate. Then I printed it on to the white layer of napkin I had pulled off the flower napkins. I cut as close to the letters as I could and then glued it in the book. The white of the napkin disappears when it dries.  I have small letter stamps which I found in the bargain bin at Spotlight. I used them to print "here it comes" in purple ink but I forgot to let it dry and I ended up with most of it on my hand. I went over it with a fine Sharpie instead. I've gone around the words with a glitter gel pen and added lines to the "sun" words. It doesn't show in the photo but nice in real life. I hope you enjoy my page and ramblings. I'll make a video next time - maybe!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

An art journal page using the weta threadpainting I did many years ago.

I trimmed the fabric around the weta leaving about 2cm all around. Then I decoupaged napkins, painted, stencilled and sprayed until I felt that it was all looking like one piece. The saying was added with Posca pens and highlighted with gold and silver pens.

There was a light bit at the bottom which looked out of place. The napkin had an image of brown ornaments with string. The light bit was a bit of string and that gave me the idea to add some jute. I think it improved the composition of the page as well so a lucky accident.

A little book made from index cards

I've been following Robyn McClendon on YouTube and was inspired to make this little book using index cards and my gel plate. I have also collaged bits of napkins and washi tape to some pages.

100 days project 2019

I finished my 100 day project about a week late (due on the 8th August) and then I made the book for it about a week later. I've been busy producing other goodies since then and never cleared my desk for long enough to make the video of the last section! Here it is - finally.

100 Days project 2019

I started the 100 days project for 2019 on the 1st May. So far I've completed 46 pages and it's day 48. Not bad going!

My project is to make a paper doodle or collage (most are more of a doodle) using gel print paper. I'm loving my gel plate! I have lots of A4 sheets just done on copier paper as I was trying out things and learning how to print on the gel plate. I have used prints for the background and also for the doodles. My only tools are a pair of scissors, some gum glue (doesn't dry as fast as others) and a bamboo skewer. No pens, extra paint or any other embellishment.

Here is the first 40 days. Please turn the sound down so you can't hear my washing machine!

Mixed media canvas and bits of nonsense

I started this blog on 1st January 2011 and the New Year is always a time to reflect on the previous year. I often think back to what I've achieved in my art work over the year and also take the time to read what I've written in this blog. I have not done much this year but I realise that there are some things I haven't loaded up here so I'll take that opportunity, for my benefit really! Also, reading through my blog I see I've mentioned things in my life that have not come to fruition. I thought I would address that here. That may get a bit personal so if all you want to see is art work, let's get that out of the way first and then you can decide if you want to read further.

A lot of my quilting work more recently has involved some surface design. I love messing about with stuff on fabric. I've been watching YouTube videos on art journals and mixed media techniques and decided to give some doodles a bit of a go. I had a small spiral bound notebook already so that determined the size, 100x150mm or about 6" x 9".

Here are the ones I made from Dec 2017.

Unfinished until I find my inktense blocks!

And then a whole year later, I made another one. I stamped the birdie with brown ink which didn't show well on the gold paint. So I stamped it again with black ink. Now the idea is to slightly offset the stamping for that 50s look. It just looked like how I see when I have a migraine! I tried again with slightly different colours and this is more of the look I was going for. I prefer the little branch I drew rather than the inked ground.

This was inspired by this video from Kim Dellow. There is so much inspiration out there. My question to myself is, why don't I just go for it. This didn't take long, turned out wrong and so I did it again. No big deal, right? I don't know what I'm going to do with them but that's not the point. The point is to be creative, even if it's only copying someone else.

The beginning of 2018 was incredibly busy. Sue and I used to be part of a Caribbean steelpan band in Auckland. Sue now lives in Waihi and I live in Tauranga, about an hour from each other. She is a very talented crafty person. We were asked to design five different costumes for a carnival parade and then organise and help make 20 of each. So 100 costumes in total! I'm going to do another post about that. I thought I could cut it down to 5 photos but I can't!

I did start and finish one complete art piece in 2018.

This mixed media canvas started with a base of stamped tissue. The metres and metres of fusible web I bought for the costumes came with tissue between. It has green writing on it but a great mixed media resource all the same! Then I've stamped, stencilled, added modelling paste, sprayed and painted. The image was from a magazine. The stamping on her cheek was done using a meat tray from either PacNSave or New World. I can't remember which but it's not somewhere I shop often. Lovely texture! Then I've added scrapbooking doodads and gold and white acrylic paint pens.

That's all the art work. Now, what has been going on in my life...

You know what, I wrote a whole load of crap and then decided that it wasn't me anymore. Why talk about what went wrong. Here's what has gone right in bullet point form.

• Mum and I moved to Tauranga 3 years ago.
• I bought a house just over 2 years ago and Mum lives very close in a lovely retirement village.
• Fox was born in Dec 2016. I've put a couple of photos of him up here already.
• I adopted a retired racing greyhound. Paris is just the most gorgeous dog and is getting me out and about. She talks to everyone at the park!
• I started singing with a choir, the recently renamed Scholars Baroque Aotearoa. This has been incredibly challenging but also a lot of fun.
• I've been at my new school for three years now and this was the first year I didn't try to leave! Ok, that's a bit of a downer but I'm actually looking forward to teaching with a new team next year. So that's good news.
• I'm feeling a lot better on the health front and finally managing to lose weight. I got a new fitbit for Christmas, a Charge 2, and discovered that I'm fitter than I thought I was. I've got a very fast recovery rate. That made my day!

I still love fabric and quilting but I've just found it really difficult to get back into it since the move down here. However, I am enjoying the mixed media art and I have ideas about how to put the two together. I'm looking forward to being more productive this year.