Come join our Doctor Who Dunnit Mystery Art Crawl #Doctorwho #CAC

I am an unknown Doctor companion.  There are 12 others.  Come see our art videos and hear our clues to figure out who killed the doctor.  Be sure to head over to Ian Garlands channel to guess who killed Doctor Who to be in with a chance to win a prize.  see below full instructions on how to play and the background story.  Each video will contain a video play list you can follow to find all the participating channels.  Click here to view my video, once you know how to play etc  There will be an (i) in the top right corner you can click on that for the full play list.

How to play:
 Solve the Crime and see Doctor Who Art
 Welcome to the Doctor Who Dunnit art Crawl. Meet the unknown Companions of the Doctor. They posses the clues to who MAY or who MAY NOT have murdered The Doctor. Here are their stories listen and solve solve the mystery of the timelords downfall. Each has witnessed an enemy, thwarted an attack, and posses a special art skill to save the universe. Travel through time and space to unravel the truth while seeing some great art and crafts. At the End of your Journey put your guess for the killer at this Link. ( link here) A special Doctor Who prize drawing for all who complete the journey smile emoticon
The CASE:
 The Doctor has been found dead in an interdimensional room. This room is full of robot wind up toys staring blankly in as if waiting for something or someone to awaken them smile emoticon Windows surround the room with Tiffany style glass picturing a bent gnarled tree. It is hard to look at them without an overwhelming feeling of dread. In the corner an impossibly ridiculous looking generator sits with flashing warning lights. There is a logo painted on Koschie and Deca clean nuclear Energy. The shadow Proclamation and the Sisterhood Karn work together to return the doctor to gallifrey in a special time lord urn designed to hold the time energy and return it to the Untempered Schism. Instead of his time energy streaming out art supplies fell out. Many impossible art supplies. You have been chosen by the Dark masses to listen to the testimony of the lost companions and determine what has happened to The Doctor


 If you are an artist/creative YouTuber and have a channel why not Join the Creative Arts Collaboration (CAC) Community (Fill out the member request form from our FanPage on Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/Creative-Arts-Collaboration-1633625676915038/app/190322544333196/

I hope you enjoy your trip though time and space.  Don't forget to share this with your friends :)

T x

Cancer awareness collaboration #thinkpinkart 2015

The Month of October was Breast Cancer awareness month.  For this reason the facebook group CAC (Creative Arts Collaboration), which I am a member, chose to do  #thinkpinkart event.  This event is now closed to adding new videos but the art videos created and uploaded between the dates 15th-18th October will be on YouTube for as long as the artists do not delete their videos and/or YouTube exists.  The purpose of this blog post is not so much to promote the event will happen but more to promote that the event has happened and that the content can still be accessed.  After all cancer awareness is important all year round.  It is also about my thoughts on three words that for me became a focus of my art for this collaboration (click here to see my video).  The three words I am talking about are Love, Hope and Faith.  I have heard these three words often as I fought my own battle with cancer 15 years ago.  I googled these words for inspiration and asked some of my Facebook friends to tell me what they think these words represent for them.  Here is what I came up with.

Love

"is thinking someone else is more important to you"
"this world seems to have very little love lately but yet be full of it"

The Dictionary definition of love : A strong feeling of affection.  A great pleasure and interest in something.

Faith -

"believing in something that is bigger than you.
"faith in god or whatever, faith is another word for trust"

The Dictionary definition of Faith is: Complete trust in someone or something. Strong Believe in doctrines of religion based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

Hope -

"I hope that the world is a kinder place for my kids"
"hope, wanting things to stay good or get better a lack of hope is depression"
"Where there is life there is hope"

The Dictionary definition of Hope is that it is a feeling that what is wanted can be had, a person or thing that the expectation is centred around. 

So hope is a feeling or an expectation of the future. My gut feeling is that hope is the most important aspect of living life to the full.  Without that sense of hope for the future what would we feel? why bother making the effort if there is no hope?   Hope itself is difficult to quantify as feelings and expectations are very subjective, are these feelings positive or negative in nature.  However, from what I can see in the quotes from my friends and the quotes found in inspirational quotes via google, a sense of positivity is the common theme.

So how can hope be found with cancer? This is a very difficult question to answer as not everyone survives cancer.  So I will not dwell on this too much as I do not wish to upset anyone needlessly.  However, as death the most difficult painful aspect of a diagnosis of cancer, I believe hope is one of the most important needs for those with the diagnosis.  As well as their family and friends.  I also think Hope is very individual and is tied into a persons expectation of the future so for example a persons hope may not be tied to their own personal outcome but could be that their hope is their children grow up without the risk of developing cancer.  So all our fundraising for cancer research helps to keep that hope alive by getting closer to curing all cancer. Alternatively by raising awareness it encourages early detection so therefore a greater chance of survival.   

Can you find hope without love and Faith?  Hmmm well I guess receiving affection from another will strengthen your resolve? Having love for another will give you a reason to look forward and have hope for either your future or theirs or both.  Faith, well if you do not believe you can do anything that will give a feeling of hopelessness.  Remember the dictionary defines faith as believing or trusting in someone.  That someone does not have to be someone else, it can be you.  So therefore if nothing else you have to have faith in yourself to believe you can do "something", "anything".   So I guess looking at it like that they are all interconnected and rather important for each other too.

Cancer research uk have recognised the need for hope and as such I hope my contribution to the #thinkpinkart will help spread the word and help to inspire people to raise funds to help others find not only Hope but Love and Faith too.

Please remember these are my thoughts on the matter, I urge you to draw your own conclusions based on your thoughts on yourself the world and others.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts.

 Until next time Take care T x

Marker pens and how they react on different papers.

Hi Folks.

Here is my latest experiment with my art supplies.  It came about when I posted a comment on this video done by Stacey Fell, who is an up and coming artist who posts youtube videos of her work, well worth a watch.  I gave some hints and tips about using marker pens.  I am no expert but I have been experimenting a bit with trying to use markers correctly.  I have referred to a book called Drawing and painting beautiful faces (mixed media girls) by Jane Davenport. She has a really good step by step guide on how to use marker pens.  Although Jane uses copic markers and I only have promarkers / flex markers, the technique remains the same.  If this is of interest to you, why not click on the link below and watch my video on how marker pens react on different papers.  I have used ordinary card stock, printer paper and both sides of special marker paper by daler rowney. I hope you enjoy this video.  Please feel free to leave any comments.  Perhaps suggestions of what my next video could be. 

Marker pens and how they react on different papers

Thanks for stopping by. 

T x

Hashtag Event September 2015

Hi Folks

Today I would like to tell you about the latest hashtag event on YouTube.  It starts 17th September 2015 and runs until the 20th september.  That is 4 days of creative yumminess :)  I have made a promo video which is now live on YouTube for all to see.  click here if you would like to watch my video, if you like what you see please give me the thumbs up and subscribe (if you haven't already done so) so you don't miss seeing my new videos.


The hashtag theme this month is going to be "fall" now for those of us in Europe it is not that we are having an accident theme, it is the season of autumn :)  For those of you who don't know what a hashtag event the best way to find out what it is, is to check it out.  Simply go onto YouTube and type into the search bar either #lovesummerart or #pawgustart  This will bring up a load of different YouTube art videos including some of the smaller up and coming art channels like mine :) There is mixed media, clay, watercolour, scrapbooking and card making to be found.  Too many more types to mention them all.   


The idea behind the hashtag event is to take back control of what people find when they put a search in for creative videos.  I don't know about you but I find it frustrating (until now) that I seem to always find the videos that are at least a year old and until I started to get to know some of the youtube creators and subscribe I did not seem to be able to find the most recent videos uploaded.  So putting in the hashtag gives us as creators a better chance of our audience finding us.  Especially small channels like mine just starting out and trying to find our audience. 


If you like what you have read/seen so far.  Please come back to either here on my blog or my YouTube Channel on the 17th September and I will announce the new hashtag for September. 

Thanks for joining me today.  Take care until next time T x

News and update

Hi folks

I am back, bigger and better than ever.  It has been a little while since I last posted and I also know I really need to get a better routine going.  I have expressed this on a couple of occasions I think throughout my time as a blogger lol but not really quite got the hang of posting more regularly.  Well, now is the time to get my butt into gear.  I am at a crossroads in my life and need a bit more creativity and fun in my life.  So I am putting in a renewed effort into my blog and formulating a better plan to get my blog posts a bit more regular.  I have started a YouTube channel as you may have seen on previous posts.  I hope you have popped over and had a look at the uploaded videos  :)



My best news today is that I have finally sold my house.  This means I will be less stressed out and have more spare time to work on my blog and YouTube



There are exciting events up and coming.  I am going to take part in an art collaboration where I will be starting the background of a canvas and sending it to a fellow artist, who will do the same for me.  We will then finish of the canvas we receive from each other.  Of course there will also be a video done and posted so watch this space for that.



The other exciting project I am going to be involved with is another hashtag event which is a monthly art festival on YouTube.  We all create a themed video with a hashtag. The hashtag will be kept secret until the morning of the 4 day events.  Watch out for my promo video with all the details for that coming soon.



Here is to a new routine and a fun filled life full of creativity :) Take care everyone and thanks for visiting ttfn x

oh oh, its official I am a youtube artist :)

Well, folks as if I thought it was hard enough to keep up with my blog.  I have just found a new distraction, oooops lol

I had been speaking to a friend of mine AnneJuli, in Australia and we decided that it would be a good idea to document in film my adventure out to art in the outside world away from all my supplies and the difficulties that might bring up. The video contains three very distinct sections.  Section 1 is me in real time speaking about my thought process on what I should take with me and what fits in my bag.  Section 2 is fast forward footage of my art work done in the cafe itself and the challenges I faced.  Section 3 is back home finishing my project with a voice over explaining what I am doing.  I filmed section 1 then went out.  Once I was out and about, to begin with I went to my favourite arty type café where you can purchase and paint ceramics.  They also have great food.  However, to my surprised they were not so keen to allow me to film me doing art, even though I explained I would not be capturing images of anyone else.  They said they would have to ask the owner.  I was a little taken aback by this but what really annoyed me is that they then didn't bother their backside to do so.  I will not name and shame on this occasion as I could see how it would possibly infringe on other café users rights if I was filming and picked up accidentally their conversation.  As I said it was more annoying to me that the person did not really bother to follow through with asking the owner so I ate, paid and moved on.  I then passed a place called Expression Art Studios.  At first glance I thought it was an art studio/shop but then I noticed it was also a place to sit and have a coffee.  Of course I went in.  I got a most welcoming response from James, who is a fantastic artist, you can find his work here :) Thanks James.  I then settled down got organised ordered and paid for a vanilla latte hmmmmm nice.  I did some arting in the coffee lounge of the art studio and returned home.   Here is the result of my efforts, with the youtube video link below. 

artcafe - youtube video

 

 

 

I hope you enjoy my video.  If you like my video please give it the thumbs up so youtube will recommend it to others to watch.  Cheers T x

My very first Youtube Video is born

Hi folks,

I realise it has been a rather long time since I last posted.  Well that is mostly down to having to move house. I packed stuff away so I wasn't really doing much art and stuff.  Now I have moved and settled in I have decided to take the plunge and film, edit and upload an art video to youtube.  I heard about #lovesummerart, which is an art on youtube festival for want of a better description.  It was a collaboration of many different youtube artists to make a video doing a project, whatever that maybe.  It could be painting, mixed media, crochet or sewing so long it was something creative.  So if you go search on youtube and type in #lovesummerart you will get a heap of new videos with that theme.  I had been thinking about doing a video so thought ach why not.  So I did it.  admittedly I posted a little late but hey it is still there and I am sure there are a few people who will continue to type in #lovesummerart

So for this post I would like to present to you my #lovesummerart YouTube premier :)

#lovesummerart please click here


Thank you til my next post :) T x

gelli plate with a 4 year old

Hi Folks

What an absolute ball I had with my 4 year old grand daughter the other week with the Gelli plate.  First and foremost she thought it was absolutely hilarious that the gelli plate was A/ called a gelli plate (she loves jelly) and B/ it wobbled like jelly.  We had so much fun and we had not even started the printing process.  I am new to Gelli printing so we could have probably done so much more but I thought ok lets start small.  We used the brayer to spread the paint and stencils to leave the impressions etc I then thought "ach stuff it get in about it and use your fingers" :) So I gave my grand daughter permission to do just that :) The green and yellow print and the purple and mud print are fingers :) we had great fun indeed.  This is going to be a short post as we did not do as much art as intended.  I took my grand daughter down to the links market in Kirkcaldy.  I will post a pic for those who don't know what the links market is :) so the first picture is the gelli prints we did and the next one is the links market :)

this photo does not do the size of the market justice.  It is huge and runs all the way the main street along the prom in Kirkcaldy.  Apparently its the longest market in Scotland. :)

 

Until the next time, have fun creating :) T x

Art Journaling with a 4 year old

I have pondered how to do this for sometime, wondered how to keep my grand daughters attention and to encourage her to follow instruction without sucking the fun out of art.  I have looked on pinterest, oh my goodness I could get lost all day on that site lol but soooo glad I finally took the plunge and set up an account.  There is a wealth of ideas and inspiration for all sorts out there.  It really is like having your own electronic pin boards.  I have several categories to keep a better track on all I like and pin :)  So anyway I came across this article that spoke about the word side of art journaling and children. click here to read the full article. I was delighted to read that it is possible to encourage the word side of art journaling with children as soon as children can begin to form lines on a page.  This can be very early on in life.  There is, it would seem, no age limit.

Of course children are not going to produce professional pieces of art and depending on the age will not write sentences or even full words to begin with (if the child is not at that developmental stage of being able to write) But what they can do is form shapes and gain confidence in writing letters then words from practise in a fun way.  Certainly in Scoltand, children at nursery (children can start nursery at aged 3 in Scotland in some circumstances) will be encouraged to write their names on their art work they do at nursery.  I don't produce professional pieces of art either so as long as you can let go of pre conceived ideas of what your child should be able to do in a journal the more freeing and fun the experience will be.  I have three children of my own, all grown up now.  I used to love having art and craft sessions with them.  However I did not do journaling and that is something, if I had known about then, I would have done.  For me the bonus is I now have grandchildren so my intention is to start art journaling with each of them as and when they are ready to begin.  We will go at their pace and stop if they do not wish to carry on.  Having said that, they are my grandchildren so why would they not be artistic with fantastic imaginations? lol

I have had my first art journal session with my granddaughter aged 4.  Here are some photos of the mini art journal she made, with a tiny bit of help from me and jennibellie of course as we used the inspiration station free tutorial  click on the link to view the information video showing how to access the free class on jennibellie's journal workshop community.  Alternatively just go straight to jennibellie's journal workshop The inspiration station class speaks about having a single box full of inspirational art supplies as well as having favourite items to offer inspiration in times of losing your mojo :) This box is separate to all your other art supplies and what you want to make it.  This is ideal for children as it can be their own art supplies and items to use in their own art journal as well as make the mini journal.  I see this as a single box that will be easy to get out and use at any given time.  They will know exactly what they can use and it can be full of things that are childproof.  As well as things that won't matter if  they destroy them in the name of art :) They can even decorate it themselves, a project in itself :)

I have not organised an inspiration station box for my granddaughter to use yet but here are the photos of the mini journal made.

 

 

 

The shapes I drew for her and she cut out.  The stickers used are the stickers she chose.  The painting is all done by my grand daughter without interference from me.  I encouraged her to write letters on her pages, I am hoping if you look close enough you will see the letters and there are numbers in there too.  We had such fun so will be doing it again for sure and maybe this time we will get a box and organise an inspiration station.  Watch this space :) as my grand daughter is coming to my place on Wednesday :)

 

Thanks for reading and I hope you have enjoyed your stay and left with some good inspiration of your own to go art journal with your child(ren) :) T x

 

documented life project March 14th

Well, I have to confess I was struggling a little with what I can do for this page. I am now finished and sharing week number 11 of the documented life project click on the link to see the challenge for march 14th The art challenge was borders and the Jounral prompt was "borderline, feels like I am going to lose my mind"  I am still behind on the pages, but looking likely I will catch up very soon.  I have found more often than not that there are sooooo many cool techniques to try and sooooo many options that I am spoilt for choice.  So as usual I left it, did not worry about it until inspiration hit me.  It hit me when having an international adventure.  I have an arty friend in Australia, as well as in America but sadly she was unable to join our adventure.  We met on jennibellies journal workshops community .  Well, to cut a long story short, I happen to mention to my Australian friend I needed to go clothes shopping and that it was not so much fun going on my own. She offered to go with me as a joke but thought the distance would be an issue.  Well, in days of old it would have been.  However in this modern day with technology I could take her with me via the internet.  We exchanged a few photos and opinions and so shared a day of shopping and even coffee, even though my mobile threatened to shut down due to not checking I had enough charge lol.  So here is my version of documenting our adventure.  Perhaps one day my friend will allow me to share her version. 

 

 



The page is made up of two selfies we shared via the internet, when sharing a coffee. For the background I used my new gelli plate :) I love the combination of colours. The border round the photos represents them being on mobile phones, I used charcoal pencil (dark).  I used inktense pencils to border the parking ticket and moon. So that is borders covered.  Oh, I also bordered almost the full page with the journaling.  The connection to the prompt is............. although it feels like I am losing my mind, I am not as I have friends to help keep me grounded :)  There is a white camera icon in the corner of the frame to show it is a mobile photo.  These days mobile phones are all touch screen so no buttons to draw.  I could not think of anything obvious, short of drawing a mobile phone, to make it obvious it's a mobile phone lol.  Anyway, I was in costa having a mocha while my friend was at home having a coffee.  It was day time for me and night time for my friend in Australia.  I have incorporated my receipt from costa (the print disappeared the moment I used medium on it to stick it down) and my parking ticket into the page and added a moon to represent night time to balance the page up :) I felt it was still missing something so I drew in the edge of a satellite dish at the top of the page and drew in oval shapes going smaller towards the satellite to represent the mobile signal.

So thanks to my friend for allowing me to share my page.  Thank you Annejuli :) She is an artist in her own right and one day I will do an interview with her.  So watch this space,  I plan to branch out and do more with my blog.  :)

Thank you for stopping by

T x

Documented life project 7th March 2015

Today I would like to share with you my finished documented life project art journal page for 7th March

The art challenge is - as a layer element
The journal prompt is - surviving the elements.

I have been doing a lot of practising drawing and colouring faces.  I think all my practise has paid off.  What do you think?

 

 

The majority of this page was done in spectrum noir colour pencils. The background however is tim holtz distress paint.  The wind swirls were done with inktense pencils. The making marks part of this month are the swirls.  I first used pencil to mark them before painting with the distress paint.  I then went over them with inktense pencils using blue and purple then activated with water using a paint brush so that the swirls were made using more than one layer.  I am very pleased with this page. 

 

I find it interesting that the more I create my pages the more I am liking the different pages.  I did not think I could top the last page but ended up doing exactly that lol

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

T x

progress

Hi folks,

Here I am sharing a photo of my latest colour pencil drawing.  I thought I had better expand from draying just the face to the full figure.  I am reasonably happy with this next sketch.  I will need to take my time a little more and focus on the detail perhaps.  Maybe get the colours looking a little less like pencil and blend a bit more.  I am still very new to the colour pencil as a tool so I may not even be doing it right.  The spectrum noirs are advertised as being blendable but so far I am not seeing much blending going on.  Perhaps I need a blending fluid or they do a blending pencil perhaps it is time to invest in a blending pencil.  I shall do some more investigating on this one I think.  Anyway here is the picture.

 

 

I admit I think I have done better in terms of colour but not a bad first attempt at a full figure.  I used the draw simple shapes and angles then draw round them and erase lines no longer required technique.  The pencil I was using for drawing was not sharp enough to get the finer detail but I will work on that at a later date :) The practise I have been doing will go towards the art journal page I am working on.  I have a plan to use colour pencils to work on my page.  So I want to be a little better at using colour pencils before I attempt the next layer to the page :) So watch this space :)

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

T x



practise with colour pencils

Hi folks.  I have just purchased myself some spectrum noir colour pencils.  So have been practising with them.  Here is my first picture.  It is not perfect by any means but I think I have done not too badly drawing from my imagination on this one.  I am not very good without a picture reference so I am very pleased with how this one has turned out.

Thank you for dropping by

T x

documented life project 28th February

Hi folks,

I am almost there.  I am almost caught up with the weekly challenge.  Here is my page for the DLP 28th February

The art challenge was - using at least 5 layers
the prompt was - give me a high five

 

 

I am rather pleased with this one.  As I have taken one more step to just letting go and letting my creativity loose :) 

 

The rhyming verse is mine (yeah I know its cheesy but I don't care lol).  Just go with the flow, get ink, paint, water & throw.  I am 5 again don't you know, go on have a go :) Now I see from my picture I had forgotten to put the & on the page at this point but rather than muck about and get another photo I decided to leave it and post this picture anyway.    The story behind the verse was that I had been chatting to another journaler friend of mine on facebook and I happen to say letting go and throwing the colour about on this page was like being 5 again and that's when it hit me.  I instinctively chose the age 5 and that was part of the prompt for this page and so the verse was born. 

 

Thanks for stopping by

 

T x

documented life project week 8

Well I have finally got round to posting this finished page lol This is the documented life project 21st February 2015 I have really began to embrace the concept of letting go and unleashing my raw creativity.  It is amazing what can be achieved once you get your page past that ugly stage, I have found that every page actually has one lol. The art challenge was repeating elements. The prompt was it's worth repeating.  I had a number of different ideas in my head and not one of them is on the finished product lol I started off with promarkers on the full background, in greens of varying shades some slightly bluer.  Then I sprayed dylusions ink.  The marker meant the ink just sat on top of the page (lesson learnt), however I thought of a cunning plan.  I decided to try something I had seen on youtube tutorials a couple of times here and there.  I put gesso on top again and used an old store card to spread it.  I really loved the effect.  It was lovely and smooth with no brush strokes (not that there is anything wrong with brush strokes) I just needed to try something different.  Well, this was certainly different.  The ink coloured the gesso a lovely green/blue colour.  What was left I wiped off onto another journal I had handy. I then saw some circle shapes and thought oooh they look like balloons in the sky.  I drew them on initially with a fine tip pen.  I then thought about a park and kids playing with bubbles.  The bubbles are a repeat element as well as the balloons.  Then I realised the bubbles where going over all the balloons and I wanted some bubbles to go to the back and brought the balloons to the front by decoupage :) It was not until this dried I then saw fish swimming, the wrong direction of course but none the less I saw them.  I did not change the page at this stage as I was committed to balloons.  I then drew on a small figure soaring high in the sky and balanced the page out with some stamped butterflies and dragonflies.  So anyway I hope you enjoy the page, perhaps I will try a repeat of the process and go with the fish the next time :)  thanks for stopping by T x

My first hand made journal

Today I would like to share with you my first attempt at a hand made journal.  It was made out of a variety of card stock that I bought at the payper box stall at the Glasgow craft fair in the SECC.  I was inspired by Jennibellies tutorial how to make a recycled journal out of cereal boxes.  Ok I realise my journal is not recycled but the video did inspire me to use what I had in my stash as I had no cereal boxes.  Then I discovered that I did not have any card stock left I had used it all so it waited until I bought more card.  I plan to make many more of these with better covers as I made this particular journal to gift to someone.  This person I work with and just before I left for home we got into a discussion about art journaling and how I had newly discovered it.  She expressed a desire to start and had been meaning to do more arty/crafty stuff.  I decided there and then that if I made and gifted her an art journal (albeit small) it might give her the gentle nudge she needs to bring out her creative side and have a go.  So without further ado here is my finished journal.

I am pleased to say that the person who received this book was delighted with it, so much so that she initially said "I cant possibly accept this" I of course replied "yes you can" lol.  She even noticed that the beads were hand made, again thanks to Jennibellie and her tutorial on paper bead making So thanks Jennibellie :)

Thanks for stopping by and reading this post. Hope you stop by again

T x

Not a bad haul for a days work lol.........

Today I was at the SECC in Glasgow at the craft show It includes both papercraft stalls and sewing stalls.  However, this year was a big disappointment.  There was even less stalls there than the last March show. Everyone was crammed into one hall and there was hardly any space to move, I was very irritated by this and left the hall early to have lunch then went back when I was in a better frame of mind lol, I think I needed my lunch.  Of course I still managed to spend a great deal of money :) as I was not  so much disappointed in the stalls that were there, just the show organisers and the show organisers.  I still loved what they had to offer, I just do not think it is worth the £7 parking fee and £9.50 fee to get in any more.  I have also just noticed that there is a whole £1 off for seniors wooptydoo.  That is appalling.  I did not realise that.  I did get given a flyer for another papercrafts show that is in both Glasgow and Edinburgh.  I may go along and see what that is like in the Edinburgh one.  See photos below for details as I have taken a picture of my flyer :)

 for further details here is the sincerely yours shows link

Thanks for popping by and reading my rant about the show today :)

T x

And todays project is..........................

A knitting needle bag made for someone I know at work to give to their mum for mothers day.  I hope they like it.  There will be a tote bag to match but for now I have only done the needle bag as that was more complicated with zips and the likes lol

 

As you can see the bag is fully lined.  I used the tutorial by Debbie Shore I just added straps.  I think this turned out not too bad considering its only my 3rd ever zip I have sewn. 

 

Thank you for stopping by.  I am off to the craft fair tomorrow so no doubt I will come back with loads of ideas for new projects both crafty and arty :)

 

T x

Documented life project February 7th

I have managed to catch up on the 7th February challenge from the  Documented life Project  The Art Challenge was - When not to stop, the prompt was - Don't stop til you get enough.

This page has turned out soooo much better than I ever expected. From this................

 kind of ugly right??

 

 ..............To This :)

 

 

 

I think I may be getting the hang of this art journaling fun :) I definitely let go of my need for a perfect page on this one.  I got myself in a right mess, using inks and pastels and pens and as well as starting off with the collage of different papers.  IT Was Absolutely Great Fun :) I had soooo much fun that I forgot, again to take more pictures of the process lol The words I wrote using my dip pen.  I am very glad I bought this tool as I love the way it writes and my lettering looks fab :)

 

Thanks for stopping by T x 

 





 

 



 

 





Documented life project - January 31st 2015

Wow, two posts in one week lol I have finally finished this page for the documented life project January 31st 2015 .  I have not fully documented the process of this page as I got lost in just doing it rather than thinking about taking photos every 5 minutes.  I can say it has taken me several weeks.  I would do a bit really like it then not be sure what to do next, as I am just learning how to do art journaling.  It also took me a few weeks to have a bit of under paper I actually had a reasonable amount of interest on.  So I took the paper and started to rip it into pieces to collage on my page, I had no idea at this point what I was going to do.  The way the paint had gone on the page it really reminded me of a mushroom shape and texture so the fairy idea was born.  The only part of the page that is "under paper" - the art challenge are the two small mushrooms/toadstools that the fairy is sitting on. The prompt  for this week was what lies beneath, well beneath my name ie the meaning is apparently Fairy Queen.  You could also say that fairies lie beneath the trees/plants at the bottom of your garden. So fairy theme it was.  I sketched the fairy on a separate piece of paper and glued her onto the page.  I think it turned out ok, considering I did think at one point, it looked more like an illustration rather than an art journal page.  So without further delay here is the finished page.............................

 

 

The text was written with my new dip pen set, using the 2.55mm wide tip.  I confess I am still wondering if there is more I could add to the page but I am declaring it finished for now :)

 

Update- After a lovely comment left by my friend over at bastelmania I have now entered my "I believe in fairies page into art journal journey march challenge all things with wings. Why not pop over to their page using the link I have provided and see what they are all about :) 

Documented life project - 14th February 2015

Well, a little out of sync but that is ok.  I have been playing catch up with the Documented Life project for a few weeks now and so I have a few to choose from.  I have almost finished the one for 31st January and when it is I will blog a post.  I confess I had started the page for Feb 7th, however once I got so far I thought it fitted the art challenge for Documented life project - February 14th - Cover up the good stuff instead. 

You see, I saw this and thought, I really like this a lot so decided that I in order to carry on I would have to "cover up the good stuff".

 As you can see from the above photo I was still trying to go with the page without covering up the flowers, thinking maybe I could blend the page together. I decided it was looking very ugly at this stage so I gave in and covered up and painted a girl using inktense pencils on the right hand page.

 

What you don't see in  the above photo is I actually did not put the white over the flowers on the left page to begin with, I was still in denial I think.  But eventually I just went for it covered up the left page with gesso. I then got out my one and only distress paint and started to add to the page, I also used my geletos to add just a tad more colour.  I then used more of my watercolour pencils (not the inktense, just cheap watercolour pencils)

 

 

In the above photo I think I am starting to get there and the page is no longer looking quite so ugly. yeah!!!!

 

 









So here it is, my finished page, though I am not sure the photo does it justice.  I added some extra flowers and voila :) I am rather pleased with this page considering it was rather ugly at one point.  It just goes to show that sometimes covering up is what it takes to make it look even better.  I will be adding some journaling but as it is going to be personal I thought I would post the above pic as the finished product :) So I hope you have enjoyed reading my rollercoaster ride that is my latest art journal page.

Thanks for stopping by

T

Interesting trip to Kirkcaldy Art Galleries

Hi folks

Today is not about what I have created.  Today is about my visit to view what others have created.  I visited the Kirkcaldy Galleries to see a Diane Arbus exhibition.  It was a small exhibit but there was a good number of photograph and certainly enough photos to get a flavour of Diane's work, in my humble opinion.  The gallery provided some interesting details of each photo on separate laminated printed sheets. I noticed in the shop there was an autobiography book for Diane Arbus on sale.  It might be worth a read???? It is not my usual type of book to read but there is always a first time, so who knows.

There was also a small area outside the art rooms where art students displayed some of their Diane inspired portraits.  

In the room next door was a small exhibition of other artists portrait work.  It was small but it was very interesting and inspiring.  I wish I could have taken photos to share as I was particularly taken by the sculpture made out of coat hangers.  However, I totally understand why I could not.  In fact, really when you think about it.  We go to exhibitions to pay attention, to look at items there, if we take photos we are hardly present are we?  I would encourage anyone who is in the area to go visit the galleries.  Today was my first visit and I plan to go back to other exhibits. 

Although I was not allowed to take photos of the Diane Albus exhibition or the other portrait exhibition.  I did ask permission to take a photo of the corridor of the other exhibit rooms, which I was of course granted.  I was rather inspired by the long corridor linking them all so to share with you all here is the photo I took.  I hope you like it.  I did spend a lot of time just staring up that corridor taking in the view before I then asked permission to take a photo. 

 

 

I also enjoyed when I spoke with the employee at the gallery to ask for permission to take this photo.  She was friendly and even after I took the photo was very interested in seeing it. All in all a really successful and inspiring trip to the gallery. 

Of course now what is going on in my head is an idea to start to keep an "I visited............ today" journal.   I have taken an info leaflet from the exhibition today so I can put it into my book.  Not sure how I will do it but it is an idea in progress lol  so watch this space.  :)

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog today

T

learning something new every day

well, it would seem that for me the weekend has been learning curve.  Trying lots of new things.  I have already posted the big projects I have done on Saturday.  What I did not mention was that the techniques used for my flag was something new for me.  Well, I was also in a chat with lots of other crafty people on Sunday as well as Saturday and we were talking about beads.  Now, I had been pondering whether or not to try making handmade paper beads.  Well the enthusiasm and creativity I felt in that chat room was contagious and before I knew it, I was heading out to the shop across the road to buy cocktails sticks (which I couldn't actually find so bought bamboo skewers instead, which worked just as well only rather longer than a cocktail stick lol)  Anyway to cut a long story short I use jennibellie's tutorial on bead making and came up with the following

 

 

Now the bottom picture shows a close up of a bead I used original mod podge with some glitter sprinkled into and the other bead I used pigment ink to cover the bead then sprinkled embossing powder and heated as normal.  I think the result is pretty cool  I am sure there are numerous other ways to finish and seal beads so here's to my next lot of experimentation with paper bead making :) I am wondering what normal PVA glue would be like as it dries clear too.  I think I will try it next as I do not have the glaze Jennibellie recommends in her video

 

I hope you have enjoyed this blog post and come back :)

 

T 

Jennibellies birthday bash

Hi folks I just wanted to share with you my day.  Today I participated in an Art Day on jennibellie's journal workshops page.  This website is one year old and to celebrate Jennibellie organised a get together of all its members to have a fun day of creativity.  There were videos to watch and projects to try and lots and lots of chat.  I had such a load of fun.  I managed to do two projects today.  The first a journal page using the prompt "what does your heart look like" well of course I thought long and hard about this one.  I have had my heart bashed over the years and it feels a little broken right now.  However, as negative as that sounds I also have family and friends who are essentially bandages wrapped around my heart holding it together til it heals.  I have not done a photo tutorial of these projects I just wanted to share

journal page "what does your heart look like"

 



The second project was a flag, I used linen and put gesso on it to create a page to be able to use my new geleto steam punk colours :) I am rather pleased with the outcome.  Again no run of photos from start to finish so I will simply share the finished item.

 

 

I think this one speaks for itself, Tania's touch as I have hand made it :) and the hand because it is my touch so it is a print of my hand :) the rest is embellishments. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed having a look at what I have been up to today.  Please feel free to pop along to Jennibellie's journal workshop and have a look, may be even join :)

 

cheers T 

Hi Folks,

I thought I would take a bit of a rest from art journaling, not because I do not want to do it, but because my livingroom was becoming rather cluttered with art materials.  I also had a bag I needed to make for someone, who wanted it as a mothers day present.  I will have my own present to make soon so I thought I might as well get it made and out of the way.  This meant putting away the art stuff and getting out the sewing machine instead.  This post is really a show case of the bag I have just made today.  It took approximately 4 hours to make.  In writing this post I am thinking that perhaps I should have taken photos of the process and shared.  However, I didn't so I cannot change that.  What I can do is tell you all that the bag is of a simple lined shopping bag design and tutorials can be found on YouTube and no doubt pinterest.  So without further ado. I bring you my latest creation.



The red stripe at the top came about simply because I did not have enough material left to make the full thing in the same dog material. The tag reads -  Handmade with love.

Thank you all for stopping by T

week 4 documented life project (24th January 2015)

I confess, I am posting another not quite finished page and I know I said I will make more of an effort to finish my projects.  However, I have a very good reason.  I will explain later why it is unfinished.

Ok so Week 4 of the documented life project gives the art challenge of writing with the journal prompt of "words with friends"

This weeks challenge, I struggled with.  I simply did not get inspired, until today.  I had put gesso on my double page the beginning of the week even though I had no idea what I was going to do as I thought it would be a good place to start, I get fed up having an idea and not being able to get on with it for waiting on the gesso to dry.  It seemed sensible to prepare the journal for when inspiration struck, but it didn't for ages.  I had decided I was going to just skip a page and go back to it if the inspiration ever actually came. That was until today.  I came across a friendship quote which I liked on facebook.  It was in a Graphic design as many images of quotes are.  That together with a YouTube tutorial for beginners on watercolour crayons by JournalArtista I had watched a few days ago, the inspiration came.  It is funny at the time I watched the video there was no spark.  It was when I had thought, hmmm there are so many friendship quotes that I could not choose one.  It was this "could not" thought that turned into, why do I have to choose one.  The technique I had watched earlier in the week could provide some frames for a number of different quotes and I could choose my favourites.  So an idea was born

I started by painting with acrylics a background, using blue, red and white.  I have limited colours in my acrylics. 

I then took some postits and placed them on the page.  I watered down some gesso and gave the page a wash.  I then used a big music stamp and a branch stamp and stamped randomly across the page over the postit notes too.  Two of which were heart shaped.  When I lifted the postits, what was underneath was protected and left this effect - see picture below.

I wanted the shapes to be frames so I needed to define them a little more so used cray-pas oil pastels.  The white, two shades of blue a lighter and darker and red. 

To define the frames even more I used the black oil pastel to darken some of the areas I thought would be in shadow.

Finally, I wrote the journal prompt in the top middle heart and in the boxes my favourite quotes, minus one.  The bottom left heart I have put the definition of Friend.  The box that is blank.  I have a quote in mind but as I have exhausted the writing I know so far.  I have decided to leave the third quote for now until I am inspired with a different way to use writing, after all this is about a journey of discovery so no point in using the same old techniques I already know. One last thought to leave you with.  Despite researching lots of quotes I ended up deciding on three quotes that have special meaning and not just ones I like.  Believe me there are many I like.  One quote I have given to someone in a pocket card form and the other, along with the missing one, I have received from friends.  One on a plaque on my wall and one a fridge magnet:) I will keep it to myself which one is which, for a bit of mystery lol

So that's my page, the page I thought I would have to miss out.  Just shows you, inspiration can come at any time.  Now, I will go have a look at week 5s challenge and see where my imagination takes me to this time. I really could do with new colours though, mixing my acrylics, I have found, seems to result in rather mucky looking colours.  Thank you for stopping by T

experimental art journal page

This page is not a documented life page.  I have decided to use a old note book and upcycle it as an art journal book so I can use some of my art stuff and experiment with techniques and discover what works and what doesn't work with the cheap stuff I have bought. I do not have a step by step photo shoot with this page.  But what I cant tell you is I used pva glue to stick two pages together to thicken the page then used Gesso to undercoat the pages and then used watercolour pencils for the background.  I tried the cheap oil pastels I bought and also used mod podge to attach the paper hearts to see if it is as rubbish as I have been reading lately.  I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.  It has dried ok and not left a sticky coat.  So perhaps I didn't layer it on too much or it has dried well enough.  I then used my promarker pens to highlight the stuck on hearts.  I do not use these pens enough. I certainly paid enough for them so really need to use them more.

 

 

My fingers are in the bottom left side as I had to keep the book open, this book has a tendency to want to close itself lol Its a little pink and girlie for my specific tastes but that is ok, I was pushing myself out of my comfort zone with this.  The word Love was written with the square side to the promarker pen but the other writing was a sharpie pen. 

Thanks for stopping by

documented life challenge week 3

Finally, at last, I have finished my week 3 journal page. I have definitely thought too much about this page it has taken me almost 2 weeks to do.  It has gone so well, compared to my other pages, that I found myself worrying about ruining it. So here is a run down of how I did it.  The art challenge - colour wheel.  Journal Prompt " I found I can say things with colour and shape I couldn't say any other way"- Georgia O-Keef.

I have just discovered that I have not taken photos of the start of this page but started half way through, oh well, you will get the idea.  First I started by covering the entire page with Gesso.  Then on the left side I used acrylic paints and painted using black and white paint to establish a grey and colourless storm background.  Then on the right side I used blue acrylic to make a more colourful storm/rain scene.  I also added a little bit of dylusions ink spray in turquoise to represent the dripping water and stickles turquoise to make it reflective.   I then bled some of the colour onto the left side.  This part of my thought process was inspired by Lorraine Bell .   The pictures start where I decided to draw my dancer freehand on a separate bit of paper cut her out and stick her down on the colour side

 



 Once stuck down, I coloured in my dancer.  As I wanted to use colour I used my favourite colour RED, it made sense its the most contrast  colour to Blue I had and I wanted my dancer to stand out.

 

I then spent a long long long time wondering, pondering, hemming and hawing as to what I was going to do with the Quote I had in mind for this page.  It has taken me longer to decide than it took me to get my page to this stage.  I finally decided I just have to go for it and get on with it. 

 

 

 

The word life proved a little problematic lol I was inspired to do this quote by watching a YouTube tutorial by Einat Kessler I liked her idea of using white oil pastel.  However, I did not have any.  I decided to buy some cheap ones and also bought cheap pastels too.  The white pastel rather than the oil was much better at being white on the page, however the pastel was rubbing off :( I wondered about fixing it but did not have anything to fix it with.  I had read about hairspray as well as purpose fixative and also heard about steam fixing but decided, oooh I know I will try using glossy accent as this will give it some texture too.  Alas it did not work as well as I had planned.  It dulled the white to a grey.  So As I had bought an ink paint pen on the same day as the pastels I thought aha I will use that to outline it, it kinda worked but it just wasn't standing out like I wanted it to.  I had also bought another type of white pen so drew round the letters again edging the white ink pen.  This again kinda worked so I had to think of something else. So I used stickles crystal to add a little more sparkle in only specific areas.  I then left if there before I just made a huge mess lol

 

I was about to leave the page for a spell, again, while I decided how to proceed with the rest of the lettering.  However, I then gave myself a good shake and went for it and finished the rest using sharpie pens black and red and the white ink paint pen and what you see below is the finished results

 

 

So there you have it, the chaos that is my creative process.  I have to say I am rather pleased with this page.  It makes a nice change.  I am slowly learning to let go my idea that my page has to be professional looking.  I just need to let go and enjoy.  I am not saying I will be able to do that right away as it is hard to let go my need for a pleasing looking finished article but I will let go more often until I am more comfortable with this process.

Thank you for reading this post.  I hope it has been of interest and help to someone. It has certainly helped me :)

T