Monsoon?

Jubilee-tastic!

It's all happening here! Our village is decked out with bunting and flags (needs careful inspection if you are a horse as I discovered tonight on my way to a riding lesson - Mary was most put out by the number of flags, bunting and people on ladders rigging up their decorations!)As I write this, my children are on the first leg of a weekend of adventure; they are been taken all the way from rural North Yorkshire to the big smoke - London in all its glory and no doubt thronging with people. My parents are very bravely taking them to watch the flotilla on Sunday, whilst Mr H and I indulge in a grown-ups weekend in Glasgow with Jude and Paul!

So, my page for this month pays homage to the massive celebration that is taking place in the UK this weekend. I must admit, I am fairly ambivalent as far as royalism goes, but I do like a good party, so enjoy everyone!

Stampotique Designers Challenge - Family

So, this week's challenge on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog has set by Kate Crane and is on the subject family. It got me thinking about the last family gathering we had recently when my husband's cousin was back from New Zealand and twenty one of the immediate family gathered for a noisy get-together. As is 'de rigueur' at these events, we had to have one of those awful family photos, where everyone stands a bit stiffly and posed, and as the photographer had had a few glasses of wine by this point, the latest picture featured quite a lot of wall, and not much family! I decided that the Daniel Torrente characters from Stampotique made an even motlier crew than we are, and I thought a police style line-up photo might be appropriate! I coloured the figures with pitt pens and a paintbrush, and used some dylusions spray inks on a gessoed vintage book page, wiping a little off through a stencil for a slightly grungier background. I created a frame from white card edged with black distress ink for an 'instagram' kind of look. The line up height markers are in black paint applied with a ruler.

Playing catch up!

I've been in a bit of creative desert recently, and I think like a lot of things, it's a case of doing more to be able to do more. I locked myself in my art room to do my May page, because otherwise, the month was going to be over and I would have done NOTHING! I'm not wild about this page, but it got my creative juices flowing and I have been like a woman possessed ever since, completing next month's page, doing a couple of journal pages and even prepping some journals for a kids class that I am running at artisOn in the summer holidays.

Even when you are feeling a bit 'numb' creatively, you can't help but create something pleasing with a stencil and some Dylusions sprays! This started as a bit of warm up, but I decided that I liked the less is more approach and kept it simple. There's been a lot going on in my life recently (isn't there always when you are a working wife/mother/daughter!) and some of the recent events have made me think about how I deal with situations out of my control, so this page is to remind me that I am going to change!

These are the journals that I have prepped for the kids summer classes. As a parent, I dread the 'holiday diary' that the children are encouraged to keep every summer holiday, but last year I took my two out to buy a notebook and rather than pages of dry writing, encouraged them to paint, stick and spray their holiday experiences instead. It was sooo much easier to motivate them, that I though I would run it as a class to see if other children might be inspired too!

Busy, busy, busy....

Every time I think I'm on a creative roll, someone pulls the rug out from under my feet and it's another month since I last posted! This time it's for a good reason. I have been doing a series of evening classes at artisOn, called making an art journal. We spent three weeks making a journal prompt notebook and then an A5 journal, and then the final week tackling the first page. Some of the participants had journaled before and some hadn't, so I think their creations were amazing! Above is a selection of their journals and first pages. Obviously, every good teacher has a teaching model, so I had to create myself a new journal (think this brought my total number of journals in progress up to five - more on this later)and then do a first page in it myself...

I'm in an avid reading phase at the moment. I tend to go in fits and starts where I hardly read at all, and then other times where I survive on a few hours sleep to fit my reading in - and I'm in a voracious mood at the moment! I made a collage sheet of images and text for course participants that could be used to either descibe the trepidation of tackling the first page, or the power of a good book. As you can see, I went with the good book - I have read the same three books three times in the last few weeks! This was a bit out of my comfort zone as a journal page takes me AGES usually, and I had to complete this in about 20 minutes - just goes to show what you can achieve under pressure (although I will probably go back and tinker with it...)

This is a wallpaper sample book that was given to me. One of the joys of artisOn is the selfless sharing of ideas and resources that goes on, everyone is SO lovely!I was given this book as a source of scrapbook style papers, but I was immediately drawn to its potential as an art journal. It's quite big, bigger than A4, but it has a carry handle - how cool is that! I have gessoed the first page and will see how it shapes up as a substrate, but I'm thinking that decent wall paper is a good a paper as any...

Stampotique Designer's Challenge

I wait for ages for the opportunity to blog, and then two come along at once! Taking of advantage of the school holidays (and fitting in some classic work avoidance), has meant that I have had some play time in my art room. This tag was one of those serendipitous finds (I think it was a demo piece from a class)which had found its way in to my scraps box, but has actually found its way back out again! The challenge this time, on the Stampotique Designers challenge blog, is to doodle:
Kaz says"Whether it's a few dots to highlight or a simple border, right through to drawing an accent on a stamp, I'd like you to do something freehand on your project."

I chose this Daniel Torrente stamp, Lovely Wings:

I decided that if I doodled a little extra detail in, I could make these beautiful wings into a monster. The caption was something that was said to me a week or two ago, so it seemed relevant on two counts. Here is close up of the little critter:

As you can see, I added eyes to the holes in the wings, teeth to the central hole to make a mouth and two tentacle thingys with some additional eyes. I then doodled some wavy lines of differing thicknesses for him to slither over. Great challenge, Kaz, I loved it!

April already

I have been away from all things arty for too long! It's because I have been wielding a paintbrush of a different kind. The ongoing task of finishing the building project has been dragging on, and Mr H and I decided that we needed a oush to move things forward. The hall, stairs and landing was such a mammoth job, it nearly broke me - in fact I still struggle to get my right arm over my head without wincing, but it is done! We have carpet and painted wood, replacing the rather yellowed varnished pine that was originally there. It's clean, fresh and so nice to have carpet that isn't stained with building filth, or dog hair! Coming out of the bedroom every morning gives me that little frisson of pleasure I would normally associate with a good journal page!

In the meantime, I have been squeezing in a bit of arty-ness, although being so pre-occupied with decorating has meant that I think my March page is possibly the page I like the least over the past three years of journaling! I'm trying to become less dependent on stamps and downloads and reawaken my love of drawing, so this was an initial foray back into the world of wielding a pencil probably since school!

At the beginning of March, I went to Art from the Heart to spend three days arting about with Dina Wakely. We created an amazing book (unsurprisingly mine is yet to be finished!)and as part of the process, we had to create a page to cut up later in the process. I loved the colours and the contrast so much that I decided to recreate the scheme for my April journal page. It's a bit busy, but I still like the boldness of it.