Hello there! Thanks for coming by to check on my doings – I love that you took the time!
Right now I’m taking an on-line course in a [for me] totally new way of art journalling.
By now you may be aware that I’m a kind of an ‘all or nothing’ gal – I work on things for hours, and sometimes even days, I don’t quit until it is embellished to death and the brighter the better!
As my kids tell me, in a loving way, of course 🙂 ‘You’re such a gaudy tart!’
I embrace my gaudy tartiness – my motto is:
“There is no such thing as too much bling!”
[If you require proof may I refer you to the post ‘The Adventures of a Prima Doll Stamp’. You’ll find it about 5 posts back]
I started this on-line course so happily, a new challenge, I thought, would be good for me. I like to learn and I feel I have become a bit stuck in a rut – This, I thought, is my chance to change things up, to take a step towards becoming the artist I dream I might be one day when I grow up …..
But the reality is somewhat different – for a start it’s just ten minutes a day. When the time is up, it’s up. Put down your pencil-paintbrush-spray-pen-whatever and walk away!
Walk away!
Oh, the indecision, the struggle – the sheer disbelief!
‘Really?’ ‘That’s it?’ ‘But I’m just getting started …’“But, I could just do ….’ ‘But …..’ ‘But …..’ ‘But ….’
It’s no good, I’m just talking to a pre-recorded video!
It is CHALLENGING!
Here is the first few days work; [click on the photo for an enlarged image]
If you look carefully you can see this is four days work – and when I look at it now I can’t see much difference between this and some of my previous journal pages that I have laboured over for hours ….
Try as hard as could I couldn’t help myself and I did spend a little more time on the last day. I added in the black circles with white centres all around the edges of the pages, the white daisies under the photo of the old chair and the clump by the tree, and of course I doodled the ‘Happy’ word after time up as well … well, you just gotta have some bling somewhere!
But, all in all, the colours are muted, the layout is simple, the embellishment is not 2D, the texture is simple. …. and I find I kinda like it …..
So, unlike the Leopard, maybe this gaudy tart might just alter her spots, just a little …..
The last few nights have slipped by in a haze of happy doodling ……. and it has slowly led me back to remembering how it feels to draw ……….
It’s ever so slightly painstaking. This cat started off twice the size you see here. The eraser was utilised every bit as much as the pencil and it grew slowly but steadily smaller as it began to resemble this snooty looking feline.
The journal I am using has tracing paper inserted between every page and I traced a cleanish outline so that I can use that as a pattern for doodling
I also finished the bird I had free-handed and then doodled all over
This is such fun – I feel like my creativity is beginning to move again!
Thanks for dropping by today, I do hope you are enjoying these doodling posts!
If you take a brief stroll around pinterest you will inevitably come across some clever, ingenious idea for using empty toilet paper rolls – I keep thinking I should start a board and just collect them all! Anyway, I got the idea for this project from pinterest.
With my latest hobby of doodling and zentangling joining in with journalling and sketching, it has become obvious I need to have a more mobile storage system for pens, pencils and assorted paraphenalia – I can then just doodle, journal or sketch away happily here, there or anywhere without constantly going looking for something I have decided I need.
Now, serendipitously [is that a word?], it happened that I had sitting in my craft room a disused cutlery basket dating back to at least the early nineties but possibly earlier – I have a vague recollection of purchasing it when I lived in the UK – it has wandered around the world with me since then, mostly unused but too nice to give away – you know one of those things that you keep thinking will come in handy one day…..
One day it and a toilet paper roll or two met up and voila – inspiration struck!
Last night I got out the paint
I painted inside and out and when they were dry I used an unmounted red rubber lace stamp and white acrylic paint [which I forgot to photograph] and gussied them up a bit. When the paint was dry each roll got a coat of glossy mod-podge and as it was well after midnight and Orlando was crossly telling me he needed me to settle down so he could sleep on me, I went to bed!
This evening I decided some of them needed some pearls to pretty ’em up a trifle more as they would be centre and front stage
Ready for their [slightly blurry] close-up
And the finished very handy mobile carry all
There are currently two mugs being utilised in there as well. They will probably be replaced by re-purposed cans, just as soon as I can eat the foodstuff currently residing in them ….
So that was a fun way to spend a grey, wet weekend!
Earthquake post script for those who are interested: There have been only two or three ‘strong’ quakes today, so it is quieter [which may or may not be a good thing] Some say Full Moon is a likely time for big hits. Time will tell.
Thanks for dropping by, I hope your week will be a fabulous one! 🙂
I am a Wellingtonian, although not currently living in my home city, my Eldest Daughter does. The city – and much of the North Island have been rocked by quakes this afternoon. There were 29 in the space of 75 minutes, six of them classed as ‘severe’.
From the moment I found out about this substantial event I have been light headed and slightly woozy. This is an unusual reaction for me, but it is the way I once reacted to the most severe quake I was ever in when I saw the concrete floor beneath my feet crack open and, in the shock, lost about an hour of time….. I was sixteen then, and though much time has passed by, the fear remains.
A children’s verse that I am very familiar with begins with the words ‘The earth is firm beneath my feet,’ When the earth beneath our feet becomes unstable I think we lose our most primal sense of security. When all else fails us, we know the earth will still uphold us.
In the last two years we have had the tragedy of the Christchurch ‘quakes, when a beautiful city, [another place I once lived] was brought to its knees. That city is built mostly on a large flat plain. Wellington is a harbour city, surrounded by hills. there is only one main arterial route in and out and right now the city is in chaos – not because buildings have fallen, but because, due to the number and severity of the quakes, the public transport system has been closed down. For all we know my daughter’s partner may well be trapped on a road, in a traffic jam, beneath a hill or beside the ocean [or both] inching forward as the exodus of the city takes place.
I have just checked Geonet again and there have been another 30 quakes in the past hour and fifteen minutes – including a cluster of seven strong quakes with one ‘severe’ in the middle of them. They began sometime after 2pm today and now as I write this it is 6pm, Friday 16th August, and my child and many of my friends are in danger.
The concern is that the continuous shaking weakens structures to the point that a light or mild shake will bring buildings and hillsides tumbling down. I have never known so many, so close and so strong in my life time.
The Earth is changing, she is vulnerable and there are people who still want to continue raping her. I have a bee in my bonnet about fracking – there are people here who are hell bent on continuing this practise despite the fact that there is proof it contributes to earth quakes. In a country built on a fault line why in God’s name is it even considered? I don’t understand the mentality that places instant wealth for a few ahead of the lives of millions of people and the life of our planet.
I am just venting and writing and praying that my family and friends are kept safe while the earth convulses. That’s all.
I’ve been teaching myself the art of zentangling – which, if you don’t know, is the practise of making little drawings or letters and filling them in with an assortment of patterns to produce something quite eye-catching. Typically the work is done with pencil and pen, and therefore black and white. I know some people work with exacting measurements but not I…. Oh no, I must do freehand – and I must introduce some colour also – just to see what it looks like you understand.
Here is a pic showing the page with the first four I did
[Please excuse the quality of the photos, I took them just now, at night, under the centre light….]
Far from perfect – very far! – but quite absorbing to do and almost meditative.
Today, while cat-sitting my daughters boy, I doodled away at this:
Again, as you can see, very far from perfect – but not too bad for just the fifth try – do you agree?
Now while I was playing around with all that, I also took a short [and totally affordable!] on-line introductory course with the one and only Julie Fei-Fan Balzer on lettering. I’ve always thought what she does is quite eye catching but never quite knew where to start to give it a go myself.
It is remarkably easy and very fun. She is a great tutor – no airs and graces and makes it up as she goes along, which is just like in real life and completely disarming….
I learnt to make several sets of fonts in my own handwriting [which I haven’t photographed so can’t show you right now] …. but the last exercise was to doodle out a little phrase with full embellishments. I copied Julie’s example as the phrase fits where we are seasonally and emotionally with my own little twist to it:
I’m really pleased, happy and excited to see where else I can go with this new style of writing, especially in my art journal.
So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past five days or so – all-in-all a most satisfying week!
Thanks for dropping in – always nice to know you’ve been 🙂
Here’s a double page spread from my journal that I did a while back. I was experimenting with overlaying book paper with paint, paint with stencils and stencils with stamps. I was determined to keep the colours subtle, not my usual bright and bustling, overloaded and bling filled persona at all!
Finally I stuck some dies on top [the ever so slightly robotic looking lady is a 5 piece puzzle you can stick together however you want and the scrabble squares are also a die] along with one of my favourite John Lennon quotes………
Count your age by friends, not years
Count your life by smiles, not tears
Of course, right at the very end I had to give it a wee burst with some sparkly colour mist ……. just can’t help myself! 🙂
I find that now a bit of time has passed by since I last looked at this page, I quite like it………
Thanks for popping by, as always, it’s lovely to know you’ve been!
Now before we go any further I just need to tell you that I was never able to be a little girly girl when I was a little girl – and, as a result, I have never quite gotten past the frilly-blingy-dress-up-pretty stage – ’nuff said?
So here is the stamp – she’s quite a tall lass, standing about 20 cm [8″] and the primary colour used in the composition, Distress Ink ‘Peacock Feathers’ an absolutely delicious colour:
And this is what I did to it:
Sh is coloured with water colour pens and the dress is over stamped in a pattern by randomly plonking a small swirly type stamp over the four colour base. Even though the dress has a sort of bottom frill, i wanted more, so made the fabric look frill from paper coloured in the same way as the dress and then pleated and shaped to get the look of movement. It’s topped with a row of tiny pearls.
She looked a bit cold so I took a piece of narrow white cotton lace and turned it into a shawl. Later, the harsh white will be softened with a few dabs from the green and blue colour palette.
The next day I decided the black was too harsh and did this:
Tiny pieces of my encyclopaedia paper are glued down and brushed with some gold ‘Perfect Pearls’ which also made their way onto the gown The edge is treated to some ‘Peacock Feathers’ ink.
Now she needed to rest a bit while I had a think about where to go next – did she need to be affixed to a double layer of scalloped edged card? Did she like having flowers around her?. I often stand my half completed work out where I can see it when I’m doing other things. Getting a glimpse of it when I’m not focused on it, helps me know what is needed as a next step.
The little fella likes to get in on the action too:
She spent an evening out of the play room and when she went back in this happened:
I think she’s finished – but you can never be quite sure …… not until she is safely tucked up in her cellophane bag or gone to her new home!
Thanks for coming by 🙂 I hope you enjoyed your visit, do let me know what you think – constructive criticism is always appreciated!
The ‘tweaking syndrome’ continues – this card has undergone a couple of changes – a butterfly has been added, the edges of the card dusted with ink and the inside has also been prettied up. Just thought I’d show you what happened before it got put into a cellophane bag and then put away into the box of goodies that might one go to market ……
Earlier this week my blogging pal Char over on Lesie’s World put up a post titled Friday’s Five Favourite … Albums, which I meant to go back to and comment on [as is my want!] But I never got round to it due to the fact that I had far too much to say about what I was listening to, and why ………. I am so thinking of re-titling my blog ‘The Opinionated Woman’!
Any way, in the end, I decided to write this post – and I do hope you will follow the link and see what Char is listening to as well [when you’ve finished reading this] 🙂
When I am at ‘work’ in my craft room there is always something playing either music or audio books or inspirational talks – but it’s mostly music.
The soundtrack of my life is a complex, wide ranging, genre hopping trip going far back in time and then racing up to today’s chart toppers – at a brief glance you will see my CD and itunes collection includes Robin Thicke, Pavarotti, Faith Hill, Boyzone, Emeli Sande, Nick Cave, Van Morrison, Adele, Leonard Cohen, Kiri Te Kanawa, kd Lang, Matchbox Twenty, Placido Domingo, Bob Marley, Sting, Johnny Cash, Dire Straits, Bee Gees [pre and post disco only], Rolling Stones, Bruce, Eric, Elvis, Kris, various opera collections, some jazz, some folk music, country rock, country blues, all kinds of blues, and a bit of Mozart, Bach and Brahms, songs from shows, Irish music, Celtic music, Reggae music, Gospel music …… I’ve got New Zealand musicians and Australian musicians, music from years ago and the latest releases from the latest new comers……….. and that is a brief scratch of the surface, it just goes on and on and on.
About the only genre that I cannot give ear time to is that thing called gangster rap –
In short there is music for every occasion and every mood and sometimes there is the random play option [especially on itunes] which delivers an astounding variation of musical sounds……. one minute I’m rocking out to the sound of the late, great Clarence’s sax on ‘Thunder Road’ and the next I’ve got tears in my eyes listening to Cecilia’s version of ‘Amazing Grace’
Orlando has a preferred play list too – certain singers come on and I get hassled to dance with him – well I dance and he is carried about in my arms, purring and looking particularly pleased with himself and harrumphing in a happy kind of manner from time to time. For some reason he really likes Faith Hill and if I’m super busy I try to get to the computer and skip over her before he clambers up my leg …..
A couple or so years back, to celebrate my mumbly-mumble birthday we all had to make a play list of our top ten songs of all time. Then we had to make a presentation of said play list complete with reasons why each song had been chosen.
I tell you, we all worked at this task for weeks if not months! Me especially – after all it was my birthday and I had all those mumbley-mumble years of magical musical moments to sift through! [ooooh, alliteration!] And of course, I was over thinking it!
But in order to stay with the theme and keep this post under some sort of time control I will only give you the top five from my latest amended list, so here we go:
No 1: Eric Clapton – Layla
The weeping guitar solo in the original version has to be among the greatest riffs ever! I was still very young and romantic when I first heard this and it absolutely broke my heart. In the right space it can still do so.
For a live, but different version this is a good watch :
No 2: Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah
I love this song and collect versions of it. In my humble opinion it’s pure poetry and one of the greatest songs ever written. My ED took us to see him live in 2011 [on the occasion of yet another birthday] and I cried all the way through…..
There are so many great versions of this song – but kd’s is one of the greatest greats – do yourself a favour and have a listen to this:
No 3: Andrea Bocelli Con te Partiro
This one comes with a story: One day in Florence I was wandering down one of those narrow cobbled streets not far from the Duomo at siesta time. It was quiet and still, just the sound of my feet on the cobbles. As I approached the corner of the lane, from somewhere out of sight, I heard a beautiful tenor voice singing, his voice resounding and amplified by the tall stone houses and I stopped still, absolutely enchanted. Around the corner came a dark eyed Italian, short and rotund, singing this aria. He didn’t miss a beat as he looked at me standing there with my hands clutched across my heart. He kept walking and singing and I kept standing and listening. As he came up to me he winked and sang and kept on going. I turned and watched him disappear around the corner of the lane and as his voice died away I realised I was crying.
No 4 The E St Band – If I Should Fall Behind
I’ve never been to a live concert, but enjoy several of their live DVD’s. After an hour of rocking out it is always so lovely to get to this song and to hear all these beautiful voices solo. I think this is one of the great love songs – no crap about unending love – just the real stuff. If we should lose each other in the shadow of the evening trees …. wait for me.
Yes, it’s another one that makes me cry!
No 5: Delta Goodrem and Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu – Bayini
Gurrumul is a blind native Australian poet and singer who has a world wide following and is hugely respected by all who know him. I’m a fan of Delta’s she is a song writer, pianist and has one of the most beautiful voices out there. I love this recording and am taking this opportunity to maybe introduce you to something new 🙂
I realise there is nothing up beat or rocky in this list of five and I have lots that I love ….. these are all songs that either have made me cry or still make me cry – but the tears are ones that spring from the depths and experiences of living – and surely that is what music is all about?
I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my music collection. I have so many more I’d love to share, but life is calling and I must reluctantly leave the blogosphere for today…. Thank you Char for raising the subject and making me go there again, it’s been great fun!
Don’t be shy, tell me what you think of my favourite five – share yours too, write a post, link to You tube – give me more reasons to stay here… 🙂
My last post had such a lovely reaction from my few faithful readers and also brought a couple of questions via email from my non-Wordpress readers – that I thought I’d try a brief explanation of the different types of flowers I make and especially how I make hand rolled flowers.
I make so many flowers – mainly due to the absence of mojo – that last Easter I put some into a bowl and made a little centrepiece for my table. It still survives, mainly as Orlando has no interest in it due to the fact that these flowers don’t smell pleasing to him. They don’t smell at all.
This is a good example as it has lots of different kinds of flowers made with different kinds of paper.
Some time back when YD and I made a trip to the local junk shop, we scored big time in the book section. We picked up some big books – almost A3 size – a cook book, a Kaffe Fassett knitwear book and a travel book. All glossy pages and fully and colourfully illustrated. The books were 50 cents each.
I also scored an old Brittanica Encyclopaedia [B] which is the mother-lode really, for 20 cents! These books were made to last forever, they are made with high grade paper and high quality inks. The pages don’t discolour or bleed or degrade with time. I use this book paper for all my pages that want to have words somewhere in them and I have not made a discernible dent in the density of the book yet.
The other three books are my suppliers for the ready coloured flowers. I have to admit that as a book-o-phile I was quite challenged at the thought of tearing pages from a beautiful book to make flowers, but once the first page was torn and the first flower made, I was on the road to hell!
The pic below stars a suitably autumnal flower made from the cookbook.
These glassine flowers are made with a die, nothing to it really just cut out and layer up:
But today we are primarily concerned with these little blue beauties:
You will need:
Book pages
Scissors
Tweezers or quilling tool
Pokey tool 🙂
Glue gun
Colouring agents: water based inks – I use Distress Inks; glimmer spray of some kind works well too, glitter if wanted
A favourite TV programme – and off we go! [Just fyi – I’m a late comer to Grey’s Anatomy. I’ve been watching for about a month and am up to series 3 – hooked!]
Cut your book pages into circles. The bigger the circle, the bigger the flower. I tend to make circles somewhere in the vicinity of 6 -8 cm [2 – 3 inches] Next you will spiral cut into these circles. It’s important to understand that the narrower the gap between spirals the flatter the flower will be. And it depends on how you want to use them – a high standing flower doesn’t work well on a card for instance, but looks great on a canvas…… I like to make my cut slightly wavy as it gives the top of the petal a more natural look.
The following blurry photo is my attempt to show you the cutting and rolling process:
There will be a small circle left at the end of your spiral cut, this is the base of the flower.
Using the tip of your tweezers grasp the outside edge of the spiral cut, with right side facing roll up the paper keeping the bottom edge as level as possible. I roll quite tightly then let the flower unroll a bit to find its happy place.
I make a big pile of flowers up to this point – and I maybe cut out a few dozen petal/leaf shapes as well. For the next step I retire the TV and return to the play room.
I hot glue the spiral cut flower to the base. Hot glue is best, it sets quickly before the flower can escape the shape you have chosen. Lately I have learned to add an extra layer of ‘petals’ to the outside edge. I flip the flower over and, making a pleat in the bottom of each petal, I hot glue an odd number onto the base, overlapping as I go.
Now I add colour. Sometimes I colour with a product like glimmer mist, but typically I use water based inks, swiping the pad along the top edge of the flower and outside petals quite strongly. Then I spritz with water. The ink will bleed and spread the colour. Don’t use too much water or you will have a soggy pile of wet paper pulp [yes, I’ve done it!] While the flower is still damp I like to use the tweezers and roll back the petals, especially on the outside of the flower. Denting, stretching and making little tears is all okay, it adds to the natural look. Leave the flower aside to fully dry.
The flower on the left has had the extra layer of petals added, you can see the difference, right?
Now I make leaves. I forgot to photograph this part. But it’s pretty easy. The left overs from the petals you glued on in the last step will now become the leaves.
I swipe some green ink on. Draw a centre spine and some veins with a green water based pen – I use Marvy’s but anything will do – then go back in with my water brush and bleed the colour out. I scrunch them up to and make a pleat before gluing one or two or even three to the bottom of the flower. The pleat is important as it makes the leaf stand up and have body:
Next is the fun part. BLING! You can never have too much bling, even on book paper flowers…..
I inserted half pearls into the centres and employed the wipe on – wipe off method with some glitter on flowers and leaves:
And then, because I could, I made a card, just for you! 🙂
As you can see from the photo, it’s dark and past my bed time. Orlando has already gone…………
So, wherever you are in the world, I wish you a good night – or a good day!!
The Contented Crafter 