Don't Forget Me......

...............is a card made using my original artwork printed onto matt photo paper.  I've added digital elements to it using a free online software called picmonkey.  It's really easy to use and has some neat features.  To the original art I added some rubber stamping to the background and the main body of the artwork was hand-drawn and painted using watercolours.  It's now available to buy in my Etsy shop for £2.50 +£1.00 postage.  The card is blank for your own message.

Don't forget me 

It's Party Time Over At Handmade Harbour

It's time to get the party started (isn't that a line from a song?).  Anyway, it's that time of the week and we're partying over at Handmade Harbour so lets get our lovely sparkly outfits out and dance the night away..............well okay may be not quite so early.  I don't know about you but I'm so not prepared for Christmas.  I bought a couple of presents while I was out on Monday at the Christmas Market in Manchester so that's a start.  I finish work in a couple of weeks so I'll probably do most of it then.  

Have you started on your Christmas card making yet?  I know some people start theirs in January I think I'd probably forget where I'd put them if I started that early and everyone who knows me will think I'm not well :)

Well here are 2 different cards for the Papercraft Party over at Handmade Harbour.  I hope you like them and feel inspired to create your own cards with Wendy's lovely designs.  If you fancy joining in with the challenge and win yourself some digi stamps and a lovely badge to put on your blog all you have to do is create a card using one of Wendy's designs (not compulsory - although how can you resist some of the free digi stamps to wet your appetite?  

Whatever you decide to do I hope you have a lovely week.

You can find all the Christmas stamps here

If you fancy having a play with digi stamps you can find a couple of free images here

I do hope you'll join in the fun.

Anita

Lilac and Silver Christmas Trees.

It seems like ages since I used a rubber stamp in its own right.  So when I saw the challenge on the Artful Times Challenge Blog I knew I had to join in especially as the colour scheme is one of my favourites - lilac and silver.

One of the stamps I've used is from Penny Black called Xmas Constellation the other I'm not sure of as I'd taken it off the wooden block for better storage and the ink on the back where I had written the company name has smudged - if anyone recognises it please give me a shout so I can credit the designer.

This is the Xmas Constellation stamp from Penny Black.  I love all the swirls and fluidity of the design.

I liked this one for it's non traditional style again with the swirls - can you tell I like swirls?  

These cards are linked to the following blogs as well so why not pop over and have a nosey around at what everyone has been making.

Handmade Monday at Handmade Harbour

Creative Mondays 

Art Every Day

Artful Times Challenge 

Happy Crafting

Anita

Art Every Day and Gritty Jane's 40 Portraits

I've not really kept up with posting everyday for this challenge because I've been busy with a couple of commissions.  I have been creating every day and I'm including the commissions as part of this - I can't show you them as they are for presents.  I can however show you a couple of drawings I've done in the last few days.  They're what is described as whimsical and they are part of another challenge on facebook called "Gritty Jane's 40 Portrait Challenge". Fortunately there is no time limit on this one so no pressure to produce something everyday.  You'd think I had enough to do coming up to Christmas - but hey I like a challenge and I've met some amazing artists on my "challenge" journey.

#1/40

This one is in my altered book.  I gessoed the page but I found that watercolour and gesso do not like each other.  

#2/40

This one is on water colour paper and is painted with inktense pencils and neo colours.  The white highlights are acrylic and I've added some stamped images to fill in the background.

Fancy a challenge? Here are the links to both pages - 

Art Everyday Month -blog

Gritty Jane's 40 Portrait - facebook

Anita

Whimsical Landscape...............Handmade Monday #143

Drawing landscapes as a child was easy because it didn't matter that things weren't in proportion.  I'm in a drawing group over on ATCsforALL and one of the weekly prompts was to make whimsical landscapes.  Trying to work out proportions was interesting as the landscape I had drawn had quite a few 'hills' and getting the trees to be the right size was challenging.  What do you think?  Here are some pics from start to finish.

The original sketch

Adding colour bit by bit

The finished landscape.

Materials used- Faber Castell Polychromo pencils, white gelly pen. The darker outlines are made using a 2B pencil.

Pop on over the following blogs for more creative ideas - 

Handmade Monday at Handmade Harbour

Creative Mondays 

Christmas Is Coming - Handmade Harbour Paper Craft Party

It's time to start thinking about Christmas!! Time to get your list ready for buying presents and cards.  The Christmas market starts this week (15 November) in Manchester and I can't wait I always enjoy browsing the handmade stalls and chatting to the traders and partaking in a glass of warm fruity cider - I'm not a fan of mulled wine.  

I've been busy this week making cards to sell at Emerge 3Rs pop up shop in Manchester so if you're visiting the market you should pop in and see the lovely handmade items on sale there.  You will find some of my cards and jewellery there to.

If you like to make your own cards then why not have a look at Handmade Harbour's digi stamps they are so cute.  Here are some cards I've made using the stamps - you can find them all here in the Christmas album.

I'm off to make my list......

....Anita

Simple Yet Elegant Bracelets....#AEDM

It's been a while since I made any other than commission based pieces.  I had a couple of spare packs of mixed beads in my vast collection and which I hadn't had time to do anything with.  They lend themselves to making memory wire bracelets very well and every bracelet looks different due to the mix of beads even when using the same colour scheme.  Here I have 2 different shades one which has a copper tone and one which would look great worn with blue tones or even to dress up a denim outfit.

Memory wire bracelets - 

Art Every Day Month day 12 a different kind of creative today.

Anita

Handmade Monday & Art Every Day Month

Oooopppps I lapsed with the #AEDM the last couple of days but in my defense I have been busy making for Emerge 3Rs Pop Up Shop where I'll be selling some of my handmade cards and jewellery.  I've also been making cards for the Handmade Harbour Design Team so it's all go this week.

Here are some of the cards I've made for Emerge 3R.  The trees and abstract pieces are made from air-dry clay.  The design is made with a rubber stamp painted and with black and silver acrylic paint.

This cute robin has also made his way into the shop.  He's a digi stamp from Handmade Harbour and you can find him here #235 Robin with Stocking.  I like the way you can customise the design to make it look different every time you use it as you can see from the 2 cards above.

Pop over to Handmade Monday  Art Every Day Month and Creative Monday to see what other artists have been making.

Anita

Whimsical Landscapes & Day 7 of #AEDM

Thursdays are late start days at work so this morning before leaving for work I started a couple of whimsical landscapes.  I'm taking part in a daily drawing group on ATCsforAll  and this weeks challenge was whimsical landscapes. Now I can draw a hill and something on it but getting the dimensions correct on multiple hills/mountains is something I struggle with.  After some trawling through google images to get an idea of how other artists were placing their elements I made a start with these 2 drawings.  Bare in mind these are still work in progress and will change as I complete it.  

I also altered the mouth on the drawing from yesterday and took away the design on the dress.  I think it looks much better this way and think I will leave it as it is.  What do you think?

I'm popping over to Art Every Day Month why not join me and see what everyone else has been busy creating.

Anita

Quick Sketch.......Day 6 #AEDM

A very quick post from me today.  This is a sketch which I'm still working on I started it a few weeks ago to keep up with the daily drawing so I don't slip back into bad habits.  It needs cleaning up but I'm not happy with the mouth so I'm going to re-work it.  I added some of the background today in work.  It was too cold and wet to go out in my lunch hour.  Can't say I'm a fan of the cold and wet weather.  

I may take a few elements out like the bobbles on her dress I think it's to similar to the background.  Luckily it's only at the pencil stage.

Pop on over to Art Every Day Month to see what everyone else has been up to.  There's some fabulous artists out there.

Anita

Day 5 of #AEDM

Today is a work day so no art has been made.  I had intended to do a quick sketch but it took me an extra half hour to get home so that got put on hold.  However I did receive 2 "faces" in the post - well drawings of faces.  I'm in a round robin type collaboration with 3 other artists who did the 29 Day Face Challenge.  The host of the challenge made up teams of 4-5 depending where in the world you are and each artist starts off a painting/drawing and passes it onto the next artist.  So by the end of of the challenge we should all end up with a face which has been worked on by 4 different artists and their style of drawing/painting.

This is what came today and which I need to add to. Once everyone has got their original pieces back I will do another post showing the whole process.

You can join in the fun with Art Every Day Month or just have a browse through and see what the other artists have to share here 

Have a lovely evening

Anita

Christmas Card Robin with Stocking .......Day 4 of Art Every Day Month

I'm sharing this lovely little chappy with you today.  He's waiting very patiently for Santa to come and fill up his stocking.  Isn't he cute? 

This is a digi-stamp from Handmade Harbour #235 Robin with Stocking you can find him here.  I've painted him with Polychromo pencils and added some glitter to his hat and the branch.  The parcels and text are done on the computer.  I 3D'd the hat with foam pads to give the card some dimension.

Art Every Day Month Challenge can be found here

Anita

Art Every Day Month Day 3........Felt Brooches

I missed day 2 of the Art Every Day Month but I do have a good reason why.  I had a post on my facebook page asking if I'd be interested in putting some of my work in a pop up shop in Manchester.  So yesterday I went and had a look and met up with Lisa the lady who runs the shop.  It's lovely and has some beautiful handmade items.  I was so overwhelmed with the lovely comments I received about the sample pieces I'd taken in.  

So now I am busy making up stock for the shop -yep I decided to go ahead and give it a go.  The shop had a steady stream of customers coming in while I was there and when the Christmas market starts in a couple of weeks I can see it getting really busy especially as there is going to be a cafe set up outside and a host of craft huts which will lead from the main market at Albert Square to Spinningfields.

Today's make are some beaded felt flowers.  The flowers are cut with a sizzix die cut and the beads hand sewn into the middle.  I've gone for some pretty bright colours - we all need some colour especially as the days are now cold, damp and grey.  

Don't forget it's also Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour blog and Creative Monday. Pop along and see what other crafter's have been up to.

Stay warm and craft

Anita

Art Every Day Month November Day #1............Another Feather

Today is the start of a new month and a new challenge to create a piece of art every day for the next 30 days.  You don't have to create a new piece it can be a larger piece of art which you add to daily.  the idea is that you 'do' something creative each day.  You can read more about the challenge and join in at Create Every Day.

My art for today is another feather for the artist collaboration over on Avoxtar's blog.

This one is made on watercolour paper (2 layers to make it sturdy).  I've painted the background with Derwent Inktense watercolour pencils, added some design elements with black Pitt pens and white acrylic paint and white gel pen.  The flowers are a rubber stamp.  I've just got to add the ribbon which will be used to attach the feather to the bird.

Anita