Happy Christmas everyone and a wish for the new year!

It has been way too long since I blogged, but then it has been pretty long since I did any art. As anyone with a job and a family knows; this is is a manic time of year, what with nativity rehearsals, last minute paperwork to get finished before the end of the year and then all the cooking,shopping, wrapping etc. Still, it is pretty much all over now, and I have managed to spend most of this afternoon at my desk, arty-farting about.

This is my page for the Stampotique designers challenge, which is to use Stampotique stamps to describe our dreams and hopes for the year ahead. This is Twinkie, who is trying really hard to juggle all the commitments I have. The background is painted in Dylusions lime and lagoon, and Twinkie is standing on Tim Holtz tissue tape. I printed the captions and numbers on the computer and coloured them with pan pastels.

Right, I'm off to finish my December calendar page before I end up starting next year already behind schedule!

November ready!

One of these days, I will get my calendar page in on time. Although I am working less, I don't seem to get any more done - how is that?
This is an homage to the fabulous Dina Wakley - on one of her courses, we did intuitive drawing and painting, and whilst I can't pretend that I particularly liked the piece I did on the day, there is something very therapeutic about painting random areas in bright colours. As a child I used to do this kind of thing with felt tips, and now I'm 38, but it still gives me pleasure...
You might notice that there is a slight technical hitch at the bottom of the page. My poor, long-suffering, moleskine has finally given up the ghost, and split down the middle. I have just enough space to get December in, and then it's on to the new, pink leather bound baby!

Poison

I decided to do something a bit different this week, as it is so long since I did anything non-journal-y. As you will no doubt have observed already, I have something of a passion for Stampotique stamps, so the challenge on their design blog every couple of weeks is something I have been meaning to get to for a while... The challenge at the moment is to design a poison bottle, using Stampotique stamps only. I happened to be cleaning out my spice drawer and found an almost empty test tube container that is used to store vanilla pods in. Seemed like a good place to start. After a few mishaps (i.e. the cork getting wedged in the tube just after I had filled it with green spray ink, and the fact that as a test tube, it doesn't stand up - doh!)here is my finished creation:

Goglin just seemed the obvious choice for guarding the potion, and with his little hands poised - I kept thinking 'my precious' all the time I was painting him! I added some beads and buttons to the rusted wire, the pointing finger button is a handmade porcelain button, made by yours truly...

I used upholstery tacks to attach a tag (and to stop the cork sliding inside the tube again, hmm hmm)and used a torn piece of old book page to break up the darkness of the green 'potion' inside.
Hope you all had a happy halloween everyone!

October almost over!

Yummm! Stroke my new, pink, recycled leather journal! I bought this to replace my A4 moleskine, which has all but disintegrated after two years of paint, ink and general abuse. I'm going to try and squeeze the last few months of the year into the old faithful, and then start the new year with a pristine new journal.
I'm not sure how it happens, but I always seem to be playing catch up these days. My only excuse this month is that my desk has been inaccessible as we have been shunting furniture around as we continue our decorating 'journey'. Boy, am I sick of it! But, we (that'll be the royal 'we' then)have finished all the rooms on the top two floors, and 'only' have the downstairs and the hall, stairs and landing left to do. Yippee! Bleuurgh!
Apart from all of that, it has been busy busy busy... I have been teaching at artisOn (great fun, and such lovely students - and such GREAT food!!). I have been on an upholstery course (also at artisOn)and have upholstered two chairs for our newly decorated bedroom. Here's a before and after:

I spent a fabulous weekend at Art from the Heart on a three day course with the beautiful, talented and generous Dina Wakley, which also involved the fabulous Jude and her husband and eldest daughter coming to stay.
So all of this is a build up to an excuse for taking so long to getting my October journal page posted! But, here at last, it is:
The stamps are Stampotique for the figures, and Paperbag Studios for the houses. My 10 year daughter came and took a look at the page just before I blogged it and suggested it needed sweets falling from the sky. I looked at her, looked at the page and decided that she was right, but I decided to make the dodgy character in the corner guardian of the sweets. I think this probably says something about our attitude to Halloween in our house. The kids, of course, love it. My husband and I are somewhat less enthusiastic. For him, it is a kind of begging, for me it goes against everything we ever teach our children about not accepting sweets from strangers! I guess we get the humbug award...

Granny's wisdom

This page is for Roc's monthly journal prompt, which is for 'what quote moves you in your everyday life?' This phrase is a favourite of my husband's Grandmother, who was married to a man whose favourite quote was 'better late in this life than early in the next'. I often aspire to the second quote, as I am frequently in danger of meeting myself coming back the other way, but as a mantra for life, I think that being lucky has so many benefits. I have a couple of truly wealthy friends, but I don't think that they are really, truly, happy. Don't get me wrong, we aren't on the bread-line, but we are far from rich, financially. We do, however, live in the most beautiful place, have our health, wonderful friends, a large extended family and kids of whom we can be proud. I think that's pretty lucky.

The page is created with Dylusions ink sprays, using a technique I picked up from Kate at the Art from the Heart birthday party last weekend. The images are from downloads I have been hoarding for a while, and I embellished the rich lady with a pearl necklace and a crystal bead as a diamond ring. She is sitting on a torn piece of lottery ticket, because let's face it, winning the lottery is a secret fantasy that many of us have!

A big week!

This week is a big week in our house for one person at least. My ten year old has to take her 11+ tomorrow and then again on Tuesday of next week. For those of you who aren't familiar with such concepts, this is a kind of entrance exam for the Grammar (High)school where she hopes to go next year. It's the most serious thing that has probably ever happened in her life, and at ten, it seems like quite a big ask when it is something that will influence her education for the rest of her life. She is very chilled about it, which surprises me, as I used to have to fight her tooth and nail to get her into school for a spelling test!I, on the other hand, am feeling quite nervous for her, but trying very hard not to show it!
The background paper for this page is a sheet of japanese newspaper that came as packing in a parcel of my husbands. It's a long story, but he is reliving his childhood with Airfix-type model kits of cars, and they keep appearing with the postman from various far flung corners of the world. As a committed scavenger, I saved the paper..
The stamps are a mixture of Paperbag Studios and Tim Holtz (for the stars), and the head and feet of the figure are from Lisa's Altered art, and the body is from an advertisement in one of the British daily broadsheets. I was covering a table at work with newspaper and thought, hmm, that picture of all those marbles could look good on a journal page...I'm sure my colleagues think I am slightly barking as I am often swiping things out from under the children's noses for my own creations!
As you can see,the page is dated the 17th August, as it is one of the backgrounds I did whilst on holiday. Don't know about you, but I just love the combination of colours, courtesy of Dylusions and jo sonja's.

September ready!

So here is the page I showed you previously, but all ready to go now! Since we came back from holiday, all I have been able to do is paint walls and learn how to wallpaper, but haven't done much on the creative side. The kids go back to school on Monday, so there's every chance I'll get to play in peace and quiet.