Traveling Art Journal

Back in September 2015 Ayala Art (aka Martha) hosted another traveling art journal circle where a group of artists would send their journal around the world from one artist to another and each artist would make art in the journal according to the theme requested by the artist.  This time we have 11 artists in the group from the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand.

Here are some pics of the art I have made.

My attempt at Frida Khalo for Ayala

My page in my journal - my theme is black/white and a dash of red

Woodland Girl

Day 7 - 29 Faces Challenge September 2015

I managed to find some time this morning to play with my acrylics and inktense blocks.  Although it's not a complete painting I'm happy with the shading - not perfect but heading in the right direction.

Find out more about the 29 faces challenge here. 

100 Happy Days Challenge Day #1

Day 1/100

Thank you card for one of my long standing friend who I don't see very often but when we do it's like we saw each other yesterday.  Artwork inspired by my friend Sarah from Wonderstrumpet.  Check her out she's awesome so is her art.

What is 100 Happy Days Challenge? You can find all the details here.

What's On Your Work Desk Wednesday #302

Time for some WOYWW and it seems Julia has passed the 300 blog post while I've been away in Arizona so this is my first post in 3 weeks - find out more at the Stamping Ground about details of WOYWW and how you can join in.

On my desk this fine Wednesday is a mish mash of painted dominoes, wire, beads and other paraphernalia to make up some art dolls.  These are for a swop over on ATC's For All.  

Here is the doll I made this morning.

This one I made last week. 

It's nice to be back home but I do miss having someone to art with.

See you all soon.

Anita

29 Faces Art Challenge Day 6

Day 6 of the #29faces art challenge - Acrylics on acrylic paper, background colour from cleaning off surplus paint off my brayer- need to go back and re-do the hair and add some texture it looks too flat.

Happy Friday 

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 296

It's a sunny Wednesday and time for WOYWW.  Pop over to Julia's blog the Stamping Ground to find out more and to join in.

Normally I only show you the bit of desk where I have my work.  However, today I am going to show you the whole of the desk.  Are you ready? Here we go .........as you can see it's full of stuff most of which gets used on a regular basis so it's silly having to put things away and get them out again.  The acrylic paints have their own place to live but I've been using them this week for the 29 faces art challenge  I'd started working on today's face last night but I prefer to paint in day light so left it looking a bit forlorn.  On the back wall is where I put up some of the art I have traded or collaborated in.  Those are inches on the black board and propped up against it are 2 canvas boards with some Moos/moo houses.  The green box contains papers and ATC blanks ready to be worked on and a few other nick naks on top that lives my pencil case  with my markers and other pencily stuff.  

Thanks for popping by and for leaving your comments.  I'm off to the gym shortly and then have a reflexology booked so I'll be visiting all the other blogs later to have a nosey at what's on everyone's desk  

Have a great day.

Anita

Oh and just a little plug for my earlier post where if you leave a comment you can be in with a chance to win one of my Swarovski heart necklaces and handmade embossed heart card.  Click here.

Create Art Every Day November Day 1

New month, new challenge.  November's challenge is to create art everyday - check out the details here on the Create Every Day blog.  I did this challenge back in May of this year and found it a little difficult to create something new everyday.  So for this months challenge I have decided to work on one piece of art which will eventually be left in a public space to be picked up and taken to a new home as part of "FLOOD the streets with ART".  The day of abandoning the art work is 28th November or as it's known in the USA as Black Friday.  There are nearly 4000 participants from all over the world.

So this is what I have started today and hope to work on everyday and have it finished for the 28th.  It will be a mixed media piece.  The colours aren't quite right as it's more pink than orange but that will probably change as I work on it.  It measures 12 x 9 inches.  

Anita

More Gelli Print Cards

Running late today as its the Hindu new year (2071) and we've had visitors and this is going to be a very short post.  

So here are the last of my cards made with the Gelli prints I made this week.  This time I've added some bottle caps along with the rubber stamping. 

Rubber stamped flowers with a flower head stamped and inserted into a bottle cap. 

These I've left as abstract pieces.

On this one I stamped 3 images in black ink and then added the bottle caps with the stamped image of the flower heads in a blue/green colour.

Anita

#blogtoberfest14 Day 24

Gelli Print Cards - #blogtoberfest14 day 23

So I've been having fun with the Gelli Arts printing plate and I've now got quite a few pieces of prints.  Now it's great pulling all these prints but what to do with them?  Well the possibilities are endless you can use them as part of your mixed media artwork, or add them to your journal pages, make paper beads with them etc.  Here I've made mine into very simple cards with a little bit of rubber stamping added to them -apart from the first card in the row of 3 which I've doodled on to creating an abstract face and fish.  

I can't take credit for this simple yet effect design.  I was blog hopping last week and I came across Shabby Cottage Studio run by the lovely Gail Schmidt and she has kindly allowed me to use her design idea to create my cards.  Please do pop over and have a look at Gail's blog and her cards as they are really lovely, she's also created matching envelopes how clever is that?

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday #279

Hello, hello and good afternoon on this rather grey but dry Wednesday.  I'm a tad late posting this weeks WOYWW post - want to know more about WOYWW or fancy joining in the fun then pop over the Stamping Ground where all will be revealed.

On my desk today are 2 shop bought cards............yes yes I know but these are so cute.  Well okay I'll let you into a secret I'm not actually going to send them to anyone.  I bought them to use as stencils!!! innovative or what eh?  Want to know where I got them from?  Ahhh heck okay I like to share and I'm nice like that hahaha - Paperchase yep good old Paperchase.  There were a few other designs but I opted for these two (for now) and at £2.50 each you can't grumble.  It's a nice weight so can easily get some good use from them.

Well that's me for today.  I'm going to link this to #blogtoberfest14 for day #8 of blogging - find out more here at Shells in the Bush 

Anita

Travelling Journal

Phew what a busy week it's been.  I've had a day out just for me then a day out with some ladies for a networking lunch, Saturday I went to the Stitch and Craft Fair in Manchester and today I added my page to a travelling journal.  

What is a travelling journal?  We are a group of ladies from all corners of the world (UK, USA, Germany) who are collaborating in each others journal.  The idea is to make a piece of art in each others journals by posting them to each other over a course of a couple of weeks - in an ideal world this would work perfectly but as we are reliant on our postal system to get the journals safely to their next destination it we have had a few hiccups along the way but this has added to the experience.

Our journals measure 5 x 7 inches everyone has sent a page to be worked on by each member of the group.  Some have made specific requests, some have given an idea of what they would like to have for example their favourite colours.  But the main focus is to put our own mark on the journal.

Here are some of the pages I've worked on.

Anita

I'm linking up with Handmade Monday and Creative Mondays  I hope you'll pop over to these lovely blogs and see what other crafters are getting up to.

Take A Hand or Two or Maybe Even Five

Do you remember when you were little and you traced around your hands and then coloured them in?  Well this is the same thing only you now have bigger hands and the art is a bit more sophisticated.

Why am I tracing and decorating my hands?  Well why not it's just another shape of paper/card on which to create art and you might as well make it unique............right?

I've made these for a swap over on ATCsforAll (Artist trading card site).  It's nice to have an alternative shape other than your basic shapes.  I think they add a different aspect and design element and also makes you think about how and where to place your designs.  I can't wait to see what I get back in return.

So what do you do with them I hear you ask?  Well you can make them into an altered book, add them onto a ring binder or even hang them up as a mobile (hence the decorated backs) or string them like you would bunting. The possibilities are endless -I've had mine on my art wall before packing them up - I'm hand delivering these to the host of the swap..................yes your eyes aren't deceiving you - I'm off to Rochester NYC in a few days for a weeks holiday and art weekend with around 20+ artists.

So here are my hands all using mixed media - acrylic paints, neo II colours, rubber stamps, etc. there are too many to list.

Even the backs have been decorated.

See you all soon.

Anita

Pink, Apple Green and Dark Green

This post brings me up to date with the Summer of Colour 4 challenge which is being run by Kristin over on Twinkle Twinkle Like A Star 

The colours for this week is Pink, Apple Green and a splash, splosh dash or Dark Green.  I really like this colour combination and is one of my favourites.  The image I used was from Paint My Photo.  I really liked the shape of the fallen palm leaf.  I hadn't started this as an abstract but that is exactly what it has turned into if a little bit alien.  I have it sitting on my wall as I write this and I keep looking at it wondering where and how my mind was working whilst I worked this painting.  I guess sometimes you just have to let the unconscious mind take over.

Colours for week 4 Pink, Apple Green and Dark Green

This is the image I used a Fallen Palm Leaf by Andrea Muller 

 

Here is my version of the fallen palm leaf.

Aqua Blue, Yellow And A Splash Of Hot Pink

Here it is the first colour combinations for the Summer of Colour 4 Challenge.  Aqua Blue, yellow and Pink.  The 2 main colours are aqua blue and yellow with the 3rd being an accent as either a splodge, splash or as in my piece drawing the eye to the centre of the picture.

This is still a work in progress as there's just a little too much of the yellow for my liking.  Not quite sure where I'm going with it yet but it will be interesting to see the end result.

Aqua Blue, Yellow. Pink

My work in progress. 

If you'd like to join in the fun why not pop over to Twinkle Twinkle Like A Star 

Home Is Where The heART Is.

Home is where the heART is.  I'm one of the participants in a travelling journal which will take 12 months to complete - this is the 1st journal which has traveled from the USA.  It's quite a big page slightly bigger than A4 so it was a bit daunting to be faced with a blank page that size.  However once I had an idea of what I wanted to do it developed quite easily.  My favourite are the tubes of paint with the rubber stamped flowers which look like they are growing out of the tubes.  This has given me an idea for some skinny pages I need to make for a swap.  

Sharing this post on Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday

I'm Home!!!!

Hello Lovelies I'm back from the USA.  I can't believe how quickly the 8 days went.  I had so much fun out there visiting with my friends in Newport Beach CA first and then onto Arizona for the Artzona weekend which consisted of a total of 40 artists..........heaven.  I'm not impressed with our weather in the UK the cold and wet damp weather isn't for me.  BUT here I am until my next trip which may be not too far away - fingers crossed for August in Rochester NY with another group of artists.

So I'm keeping this post short and sweet to get me back into blogging again - I seem to lose the edge when I've been away for a while.

Here are a few pics from my travels - enjoy.

All artists together

Our dedicated art room

That's all for now I'll post more later on - I only took just over 200 pics!!

Anita

Working With Fimo Air Dry Clay

I've been playing with Fimo air dry clay today I've not used this before and found it to be quite 'wet'.  I used a Teflon sheet to roll it out but it still stuck it.  I think I need to either add some oil or corn flour onto the surface before rolling.  

I found it too wet for using with the molds as well - they didn't lift out as easily as other clays I've used in the past (elephant and key) - maybe if I left it out to 'dry' for half hour it would work better.

I did however like to mold it in my hands (hearts).  I found it malleable and easy to use.  

These will be painted with acrylic paint once they are dry and if I like the final result I will be making some more of the hearts to take to Arizona in January for ARTzona where a group of talented artists will gather for a weekend of art, art and more art. 

Oh and I used a cookie cutter for the gingermen - they are a trial run for a swap over on ATCsforAll called 'twisted Christmas .  Not sure I'll be using these as I have another idea using felt to make them with.

I'm linking these to Handmade Monday over on the Handmade Harbour blog. 

Have a great week.

Anita

29 Faces Art Challenge.

September is nearly upon us and I've been thinking of challenging myself into doing something for the month.  I came upon this site a few weeks ago but had completely forgotten about it plus when I first read the challenge I thought "no way am I going to be able to do this as I'm not very good at drawing faces".  

Funny how these things happen isn't it?  Because just this morning I posted on my facebook page that I should challenge myself in September and this afternoon one of my art friends posted on facebook if anyone was going to join the challenge.  So that was that sorted :)  

So the challenge itself is to draw a face each day for 29 days.  It was started last February which happened to be a leap year.  I've only just come across the article so won't go into it but why don't you pop over and have a read its very interesting 29 Faces Art Challenge.  As you can see from these Artist Trading Cards and Inches my face drawing skills definitely need to be improved.  

So who's going to join in the fun?

Bathing In Gin While Bowling

Yep that's the name of this digi-stamp - cool isn't it?  My very clever artist friends over on Wonderstrange Arts  create these drawings every week and post it on their blog for you and I to use for free..............yep that's right free :).  If you like quirky and different then this is the place to go. 

I know digi-stamps have been around for some time now but its only in the last couple of weeks that I've actually played with them and I have to say I do like how you can manipulate the designs to become different sizes or reverse images etc.  

Here are 2 cards that I've made with them - 

Very simple card with resized images 

A very quick experiment using printable transparency sheets

 The original image - Bathing in Gin while Bowling

Happy Crafting 

Anita