Journal journey

My friend Hera and I went to the scrapbook shop today, I haven't photographed what I bought as I really shouldn't have been there at all and only went to show her where it was, honest!! On the way we discussed the kind of work we like doing (she's the Queen of scrapbooking!) and what we do with it all when it's completed. I said I'd started an art journal and having nearly finished the cover I've come to the conclusion I actually prefer single pieces of work that I can hang up or decorate the house with and put away when I make something new. I am also a big fan of mini screens, canvases and tag books.

The beginnings of another (last) page, I found I was ok to work on the cereal box so long as I covered it up!! which kind of defeats the purpose of it really, except that I still know what's underneath. I made a crepe paper flower with a flattened bottle top as a center. I plan to cut up the other pages to make tag books, there I've said it, eekk! I'll wire and hang the cover from yesterday, holes and all and perhaps add a few beads to the bottom with my new gad... I mean old old hole punch thing! I enjoy this kind of artistic evolution, of trying something to know whether it works for me or not and invariably finding a whole bunch of new stuff in the process.

Junk journal

I started the cover of my junk journal this morning, I've decided to make it with the family hamster in mind, she passed to the other side mid-nut during the recent holidays. I woke up last week to find her slumped in her food bowl, but as I said to the children she wasn't getting any younger and at least she went doing what she liked best, eating! Now we have a glut of cardboard boxes because of course they were the very thing I used to put in her cage, she was quite a character and is very much missed.

I'm thrilled with the colour and the way this card came up, I was regretting not sloshing a bit of Gesso on it first as it absorbed a lot of the blue, but in actual fact after I sanded it the brown underneath came through nicely and compliments what's happening above.

Carole, do you recognise the Muslin?? 'klein aber fein' as they say here 'small but beautiful' love it!

I originally transferred this image from a postcard for the recent 'friends' tag swap but managed to destroy one of the gals in the process and having run out of time I went for another idea. I decided to use it on the cover as I think the photo and the colours fit the sentiment quite well.

Rumpled knight to the rescue

Gone is the fish and in it's place is this rather splendid fellow on horseback riding out into the light to save the day. I found the image on http://karenswhimsy.com/ (look under Public Domain Images) this site offers an awesome collection of free pictures

I did a transfer using gel medium which given that the background was acrylic on paper probably wasn't the wisest of ideas. As soon as the paint was wet it all kind of 'moved' in it's own special way and getting the backing paper off was a whole other challenge, although I do like the imperfect outcome. I painted a layer of gloss onto the image to stop the whole lot falling off

This rather fab quote is from A.A Milne's, Winnie-the-Pooh and I plan to use it on this piece of work, don't ask me how exactly as I haven't decided that yet, it's rather fitting I think.

Latest trend!

The children went back to school this morning and in the space of 3 hours I managed to shop, get my hair cut and start a junk journal, well actually I cheated slightly by putting the junk in the general direction last night. Linda http://lindajos.blogspot.com/ and Nathalie http://nathaliethompson.blogspot.com/ are the inspiration for this one. I layered on a bit of Gesso and after a quick sand it'll be ready to go.

I found a cardboard post packet which makes a perfect cover. I bound it together with my slowly rusting through lack of attention not used for a while BIA but have a sneaking suspicion I might just pull the journal to pieces to work on it. I tend to like to work to the edges of the surface and having a springy thing in the way kind of bothers me and yep I should have thought of that BEFORE I bound it but hey it's the first day back and it takes time to get back in the groove!

And no my children don't eat chocolate filled breakfast cereal, I bought it for the packet, really, it's true, like buying wine to get the label, stop laughing ...

Tag swap

Just look at these beauties I recieved from Nathalie http://nathaliethompson.blogspot.com/ Linda http://lindajos.blogspot.com/ Carole http://kiwicarole.blogspot.com/ and Patty http://bitze.wordpress.com/ as part of a 'friends' themed tag swap. I've so enjoyed this swap right down to the envelopes which I've now put together on some metal rings. Each tag is so different and captures a part of the friend I've come to know and adore!

Both sides of the tag have been decorated so beautifully, thank you so much my friends.

Now, in respect of my own tags, I did say I was aiming for the end of the school hoildays, and well today is it, and they're in the post!! hoorah!

Trouble in Paradise

The Maries were waiting patiently for their envelopes when a small fracas broke out over the pictured Gucci shopping bag. Apparently they all want it but unfortunately there's only one, I've offered an alternative of black and white but being the fashionistas they are, they're not having any of it! They're due to leave in the morning and I plan to solve the problem by a lucky draw, watch out for your envelopes tag-swappers!

Linda said...

do this, so I did and I have to say I'm very pleased with the results! A while ago Linda had a tutorial about how to remove colour from crepe paper http://lindajos.blogspot.com/2009/03/crepeing-back-in.html the logistics of which proved to be a tad difficult over here. Firstly our crepe paper is folded flat and secondly the colour took a long long time to come out leaving me with a waterlogged blob which I thought would never dry. Eventually, I worked out a way to carefully peel it apart and dry it in strips.

And the tag swap, well now Linda, Nathalie, Carole and Patty, here's photographic proof I'm on the job, the Marie's are just formalising their travel documents and they'll be on their way!

Blog break

Below is a fab nest made of scrunched up brown paper stuck to a circular piece of card filled with paper straw which was made by my son last year at Kindy, how much do we love our creative teachers?!! The eggs were crafted by my fair self using polystyrene shapes covered with tissue paper, gesso and acrylic. I never really know what to do with those poly things, they always seem so slippery to work with but are all the rage here, hearts, animals, flowers, you name it, they've got it.

I've decided to have a Blog break as the kids are now on holiday and I'm involved in the local holiday programme which will put paid to any creative endeavours over the next couple of weeks. I expect to be weeping and wailing with homesickness by the end of it as my part is all about New Zealand and we all know where I'd rather be right now, sigh... My lake of Zürich canvas has been rescued by a little bit of snipping and the fish has been released to swim another day. In it's place is the start of a rather impressive Sir Galahad bloke on a horse ready to fight the world (J stopped yet again by the 'big boys' because apparently he's too tall to still be at Kindy!!) Courage seems to be fast becoming my word for the year and I didn't even need to go looking for it, how about that. So I wish you all a great Easter break and see you in a bit, enjoy!

April 2008

Below are my weekly art cards from April 08. When I look back over the 2008 cards it's a bit like a visual journal, a small reminder of where I was and what was happening at the time. It's also nice to see the progression in my own work and the various elements that are really starting to develop. The cards remain in the box, and it'll probably take me the rest of this year to do anything with them but even so it's been a worthwhile exercise which I'd throughly recommend. As for these four, I'm not saying a word...

WIP

When I was younger my mother always told me I had to finish one project before I started another, but to be honest if I did that then I think I'd never complete anything. I often find if I leave something for a while a new idea or a further development will present itself which I kind of like. That said there are times (seldom!!) when I do actually sit down and do something start to finish so I guess both methods have their merits. Below is the tag book I started yesterday, I quite like how the colours are coming together.

The Lake of Zürich last week, inspired the piece below

And then it all ground to a halt after I added a stamp of a fish which bothers me somehow, hmm.. now this is an example of a 'it takes time' piece! I won't tell you to watch this space as it could be a while!

Influence

This morning I woke to find no Internet or Telephone connection, quite an odd cut-off sensation when I'm so used to reading the paper and catching up with blogs during my morning coffee. This left me with the 'tidy the house' option or something a little bit arty, I of course opted for the latter and came up with the beginnings of a tag book.

I recently bought some gorgeous embossed paper, although it doesn't take too well to having anything piled on top

I found this postcard at the weekend I love this image,she looks so sophisticated

Priority Post

Yesterday I was informed by the Post Office that it is no longer acceptable to write Priority/Airmail on the envelope myself and I must now use a Priority sticker, why? I have no idea, but to mark the downfall of my handwriting I scrapped a tag with the very stickers I should be using on my envelopes, childish I know, but secretly I'm rather pleased with the outcome!

An interesting experiment

I don't know about you but often I start something and I either don't know where it's heading or on the flipside it just takes on a life of it's own. This morning I got up and looked at Messrs Butterby and Wood and came to the conclusion that they needed a bit of colour in their lives, bring on the blue!

I bought a really cool 'signature' stamp from Hero recently, I can see myself using this one a lot

I repaired the holes from the seismic activity with a bit of texture gel, I need to get some white gel as I only have translucent and it took quite a bit to cover the damage. I also used my recently purchased needlecase and needles from Kiwi Carole http://kiwicarole.blogspot.com/ and after finding a YouTube vid on French Knots had a go.

I added one or two items to the invoice, buying a cranky old Hermes typewriter has it's merits afterall. Then to finish, a layer of wax, I so love that whole 3D effect, paint splotches and all

A lovely comment on the last post from Mixed Media Martyr, as kids we used to stand in front of the Seismograph in the Museum and jump to get it to make a zig zag, strictly forbidden but great fun. I also spent my library training in Karori which was one of the few towns in NZ that didn't sell alcohol (don't know if it does now?) and was right on a fault line, what a combination!! There was many a time we had to slide under our desks or go and stand in a doorway.
Nathalie, the jars are Italian, apparently designed to hold fabulous homecooked sauces ready for Al Fresco dining however in this house they only ever contain chocolate biscuits!