Day 3 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days

Today's ATC (artist trading card) is inspired by a quote by Ralph Emerson - "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year".  I try to live everyday being grateful for everything that I have and that everyday is a new beginning.

Inktense water colour pencils.

Have a wonderful day.

30 Paintings in 30 Days

Anita

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

Summer Of Colour 5 Week 6

We have come to the end of the Summer of Colour challenge which makes me sad.  The weeks have just flown by and in those weeks I've been lucky enough to have seen many creations by very talented artists.  

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the artists who have visited and left comments.  

The final weeks colours are 2 orange and 1 blue.  Here is my last canvas and a collage of all 6 canvases together.

Summer Of Colour 5 Week 5

This weeks colours are 2 shades of green and 1 pink.  I like this colour combination.  I've kept with the heart theme again but added another of my favourite elements - butterflies.  The heart was cut out of patterned scrapbook paper over which I applied one of the greens and some pink - you can just about see the pattern through the paint.  This was stuck onto the canvas with some gel medium.  The tiny butterflies are made using a punch and the large and medium ones are rubber stamps - I used some gelli print I had from a previous project.  To finish off I added some stickles glitter onto the butterflies.

Find out more about the Summer of Colour 5 over at Twinkle Twinkle Like A Star

Summer Of Colour 5 Week 4

The heart theme continues and this weeks colours lend themselves very nicely to it - 2 reds and 1 metallic.  I chose to use a primary red and cadmium red deep hue with gold accents.  The heart was cut made using some oriental text paper onto which I stenciled some gold flowers and added some red gems to the center.  I've stamped some random abstract designs around the edges of the canvas and added some red stars to finish off.  I may come back to this one at a later date as I feel it's still unfinished but for this project it serves it's purpose.

Want to see what other artists have created using this weeks colours?  Then head on over to TwinkleTwinkleLikeAStar's blog.

Summer of Colour 2015 Week 3

The colours for week 3 of SOC5 are 2 purples and 1 yellow.  I have to admit this isn't my favourite combination of colours because when applied over each other while wet will create mud - or at least that's been my experience in the past.    I did find a solution to this - if you seal either of the colours before painting over the top it will stop this from happening - I use a matt medium by Daler-Rowney.  

I promise I've only used one shade of yellow however when applied over the purple background it comes up darker than it does on white (stars in the middle of the heart).

Well here it is this weeks heart canvas in 2 shades of purple and one yellow.

Want to see more purple and yellow creations?  

Then head on over to Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star blog.

Tweet Tweet - Day 7 of 100 Happy Days

I've just been sorting out some of the greeting cards that I have and I found this one little birdie card all on his lonesome.  I made and sold quite a few before Christmas.  I had so much fun making them and each one was different in colour and design.  I wonder if anyone will claim him and give him a new home?  

#100happydays

We Have A Winner.......................

Thank you to everyone who entered my little giveaway by leaving comments on my blog post, my facebook page and even on G+.

So now to the winner.......................Congratulations to Louise Abbott who left a comment on facebook.  She gets to choose one of the Swarovski Heart necklaces and also gets the embossed heart greetings card.

Names in the box ready to be picked.

The winner 

The prize

Keep an eye out as I'm sure I'll be doing this again very soon.

Anita

Diwali Festival of Lights

#blogtoberfest14  day 16 - This time next week most Hindus all over the world will be celebrating Diwali - The Festival of Lights - I say most as not all Hindus celebrate Diwali as I found out when I was working out there a few years ago and depending on which part of India you are from Diwali is celebrated for different reasons.  

In the Gujarat where my family are from, the festival honours Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth - new businesses are also started at this auspicious time.  Diya's or lamps are lit in every household so that the Goddess Lakshmi will find her way to each house to give her blessings.  Another reason to celebrate is the return of Lord Ram and his wife Sita from an exile of 14 years.  You can read more about Diwali here.  

I haven't made any specific cards this year but I think my Gelli print OM designs can be made into cards and are suitable for the occasion.  I know many of the commercial cards depict images of the gods and goddesses and some of my family have mentioned that they would prefer to get something a little bit different.  

These are the original Gelli prints and below are the 2 cards I made by printing onto mat photo paper.

Anita

What's On Your Work Desk? Wednesday 280

It's time for WOYWW or What's on Your Work Desk Wednesday - find out more about WOYWW on the Stamping Ground blog run by the lovely Julia Dunnit.  

I don't have very much on my desk today other than the remnants of yesterday's card making - some stamped images and off cuts of paper/card, a set of snowflake stamps from Oak House Studio which I used to make the background for the heart with and the embossing along the edge of the gelli print paper.  I'm hoping to make up the off cuts into another card topper.  You can see the card I made yesterday below.  I would have made a couple more cards but I got a bit obsessed with getting the photography correct or attempted to.  

My messy desk

Photograph I took today in natural daylight

yesterdays photograph using lighting

I'm off to peruse as many of the WOYWW desks.

Anita

Photography - blogtoberfest14 day 14

Is not happening here at the moment.  I am now obsessed with getting a white background without shadows and I've spent all day trying different settings different cameras (I have 2) to get a decent picture but out of all the ones I took today not one of them have come out anywhere decent.  I'm sure I've taken at lease 50 photographs and maybe a few more.  There's still too much grey but then maybe the white card wouldn't show up if the background was white.  Oh well upwards and onwards.  

Anita

Dilemmas and Tribulations of Product Photography

Day 9 of #Blogtoberfest14 and it's been a day of frustration.  My new website is nearly ready to go live and I need to get the backgrounds of my products to near white as possible.  I've set up a little stage on top of my printer haha yeah that is the only available space where I can get natural daylight and where I can set up the lights.  I think another day of frustration is about to happen tomorrow (Friday).  I was hoping to have got it set up and ready for the weekend but I don't think that's going to happen - we shall see.

Here is a picture of my 'stage' and a couple of pictures I've taken today.  

See ya tomorrow if I've survived.

Anita

Trust, Breathe, Let Go

I'm sharing this young lady again for Sunday Sentiments and also because she is one of my favourites.  I've used Faber Castell polychromo coloured pencils, acrylic paint, white and black acrylic posca pens and rubber stamped words on water colour paper.  It measures 15 x 11 cms.

If you fancy joining in the fun or just want to see what others are creating then pop on over to 

Inky Dinky Doodle -for Sunday Sentiments

 Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday

Shells in the Bush for Blogtoberfest14

Clairejustineo for Creative Mondays

Anita

Hearts, Hearts and more Hearts

Well all the challenges have finished and just in time for my holiday - yay Rochester NYC here I come.  I can't wait to meet up with my artist friends from AtcsforAll and iATC - both sites are related to Artist Trading Cards and other types of altered art.

The weekend will consist of making and trading art.  There is no schedule we just turn up in the art room and make art, get to know the other artists in person.  I very rarely end up making much art because I end up moving around the room chatting and having fun with everyone.  So with that in mind I make my art before I go.  One of the things we're making this time is heart art which just happens to be one of my favourite things to make.

My hearts are mixed media and are approximately 2 - 3 inches big,  I've used rubber stamps, paints, neo ll colours etc.  I've tried to make them different so that everyone gets a unique heart.

These are some of the hearts I'll be taking with me to Rochester.

A close up of some of the hearts.

This is the meetup I went to in January Mesa Arizona.

Last Week Of The Summer Of Colour 4 Challenge

The last 6 weeks have been great fun and definitely challenging - for me last weeks colours were most certainly difficult but I managed to make something with the colour palette.  

This weeks colours were one of my favourites Raspberry, Tangerine and a dash/splash or yellow.  I decided to go with another heart theme again this week as I've been working on some heart art for my trip to Rochester NYC in August.  It's not very big - approx 3 inches.  I'd just like to thank Kristin from Twinkle, Twinkle Like A Star for hosting a fabulous challenge and I'm sad that it's ended but will look forward to the next one. 

Oh and before I sign off a quick yay to me for winning last weeks prize from the challenge.  I didn't even realise until a couple of the girls pointed it out to me.  I'm having it sent to a friend in California who will then bring it to Rochester with her in August.  I can't wait to play with them.  Thank you again Kristin.

This weeks colours - Raspberry, Tangerine and Yellow

My heart art - Only a question of time.

The goodies I won 

Here all 6 together

Challenging Colours

It's week 5 of the Summer of Colour 4 challenge hosted over on Twinkle Twinkle Like a Star.  With only one more week to go I and some of the other artists are already getting withdrawal symptoms.  

This weeks colour challenge was Royal Blue, Red and a splish, splash or dash of light blue.  Now lovely as the colours are on their own they were a definite challenge to me.  This really isn't a colour scheme I would ever choose to use.  But as this was a challenge I went a head and did some research and then played with the colour palette and this is what I came up with. 

I tried to keep the design element simple by using my all time favourite - hearts.  I used neo-colourII as the main colour medium.  Then I stamped the face and swirly leaf design in the light blue.  I still think it needs some other elements adding to it but for now I'm happy with what I've made and it fits in with this weeks challenge.

Red, Royal Blue & Light Blue

Rubber stamped images by PaperArtsy and Woodware.

To see what the other artists have created with this colour challenge why not pop over to 

Twinkle Twinkle like a Star 

Anita 

Catching Up - Photo Heavy

It's been a busy week with lots of new artwork made for trade, to sell and collaborations.  Those of you who have been following me for some time will know my passion for challenges especially if they are art related.  Why do I join these challenges and put myself through the stress of coming up with something that would be acceptable?  Well it's mostly to stretch myself and see if I can make something outside of my comfort zone.

So my latest challenge started last week on Twinkle Twinkle Like A Star (also see my previous post) called Summer of Colour 4.  I came across this on facebook (as you do) and I knew I had to join.  The colour challenge last week was Aqua, Yellow with a dash of Pink.  

The first photograph shows what I did initially but I wasn't happy with it as it just needed 'something'.  The second photograph is the finished piece.  I'm much happier with that version.  I can't wait to see what this weeks colours are going to be. 

  

1st Version

Finished piece

Finished piece but upside down - I like it this way up or should that be down :)

The other items I made are some Artist Trading Cards for trading in a swap I am hosting at a gallery in Altrincham Manchester UK.  I'm a volunteer there and have been given the grand title of ATC coordinator.  I've found that ATC's are not so widely known in the UK and not something that is known in the art industry - the concept of "trading" art is not understood and 'artists' don't seem to be able to grab the concept.  I think it's a great way of owning an original piece of artwork and the best thing is it is open to everyone and doesn't require lots of expensive tools.

Here are a couple of the ATC's I made this weekend.  The one in the middle I made into a Father's Day card for my dad as they are the perfect size to put onto a card.

And finally I'll leave you with a picture of a canvas I finished this week.  It's not very big and the colour is more minty green than blue/green.  The hearts and 'follow your heart' are both made with air drying clay.

Apologies for the long post but I wanted to do a catch up.  I promise my next post won't be as long.  Hope you've all had a good weekend.

I'm linking this post to Handmade Monday over on Handmade Harbour and Creative Monday's it's been a while since I participated in any blog hops.

Day 3 of 29 Faces Challenge

Day 3 of the 29 Faces Challenge and today we have an abstract style face. I thought I'd try a different approach to the challenge as I'm sure everyone is tired, bored or both by now of the whimsy style of my work plus it's good to get out of your comfort zone every now and again.  So here it is painted with acrylic paint on watercolour paper, outlines in black pitt pen................I've just realised I've not added any white highlights to the eyes.....oooppps. 

You can see other artists work over at the 29 Faces Challenge blog.

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

Day 4 of the 30 paintings in 30 days

So today is day 4 of the 30 paintings in 30 days and I'm already behind with my blog posts.  I'm slowly getting back into some kind of routine.  I have made the paintings for each day but as it got dark early I wasn't able to take any pictures until today.  Also it was the first week back at work.  Thursday was my first day back after nearly 2 1/2 weeks.  Yesterday I took my niece out and had a great time - we went to see WANTED Robin Hood at the Lowry theater Salford.  It was an alternative play to the original - most enjoyable.  

Here are my paintings for days 2,3 and 4.

Day 2 and 3 -these are similar to day one - I needed to make a set of these for trading.  They are Artist Trading Cards 2.5 x 3.5 inches in size.

Day 4 - Faber Castell polychromo pencils, acrylic, white and black pen, rubber stamped words - water colour paper. 15x11 cms

If you fancy joining in the fun or just want to see what others are creating then pop on over to Slices of Life blog.

Anita