Thorny Path

I had a trip to my local garden centre this afternoon and spotted this beautiful tissue paper.
It reminded me to enter the "A Vintage Journey" Challenge, which invites us to use tissue.

I began by gluing rice paper, my newly found tissue and some magazine pics to my pages, and gradually built up a painty background by rubbing and brushing.

Eventually, some of my images disappeared and I added some of my own painted flowers, some alcohol ink flowers and some printing with the edge of a credit card. I also printed some PaperArtsy roses by Tracy Scott.
I must admit that it went through a very grotty stage before it emerged like this.
I added some writing with a white pen  and found some Magazine words.
So, this is my entry for the challenge.

Tag Book For A Friend

I was inspired to make a tag book when I saw something vaguely along these lines by Robin-Marie Smith.
I set to creating painted pages and colourful gelli prints, which I tore up and added to the tags.
Not too much thought into their design, just gut feelings and lots of fun.
Next, I added some machine stitching and touches of black lace.
Finally I selected some life-affirming quotes to each tag. These are from the wonderful PaperArtsy range by Alison Bomber.
I chose the quotes for a friend who is going through a tough time and I hope that she will draw comfort from my little tag book.

Over on A Vintage Journey blog, the challenge this month is all about Books, so, I will post my tag book on there.

The Secret Garden

My journal page , inspired by the work of Laly Mille, captures for me, one of my favourite books. "The Secret Garden", by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
I have always been entranced by walled gardens and wonder about the hidden stories that gardens could tell from years gone by.
This piece is a fusion of magazine cuttings and my own painting. total fantasy as you can see and topped off with the little robin that guided the girl in the story to find the key to the secret garden.
The paint is all PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk.
So, this is my monthly entry to A Vintage Journey Blog Challenge which is all about Books.

Discovering Toni Burt!

This week, I have been studying the work of Toni Burt. Bit late to the party as usual, but her work both speaks to me and inspires me.
Here is a piece that combines the simple drawing of a face, some collage papers, stamping,watercolours and text.
After I created her face I started to weave a story for her. She has a very wistful look upon her face and it made me wonder what lost opportunities she is pondering!
I often veer toward a neutral palette, and felt that I could share this in "A Vintage Journey" challenge, which, this month is concentrating on a neutral palette.

Neutral Zone

Over on the "A Vintage Journey" blog, the theme this month is Neutrals, which suits me so well.
The design team have done us proud once again and have sparked my imagination.

I decided to collect together some magazine pics that were neutral but that also appealed to me. I had also imagined that the Tim Holtz dragonfly would look just right on my pages.

After gessoing my repurposed girls annual, I added fragile papers to my background and knocked them back with neutral tones. I wrote a few words of comfort to myself and arranged the pics.
I linked them with some circles , stamped the dragonfly , wrote some song lyrics which are soothing and created a frame.
I find that this kind of journalling is so therapeutic and helps to calm any worries that I have.

So, an entry for the A Vintage Journey blog challenge.

Vintage Heart

Sometime last autumn I enrolled upon a course that looked just right for me. It's on the Kara Bullock Art site and is called Vintage Heart.
It is all about recreating your old family photos in various media.
So, its taken me a while to watch any of it but I started this week.
WOW! Am I enjoying it!
The first, warm up class guided me through drawing ATC sized pics using pencil!
Here are my efforts. I so enjoyed doing these and became quite addicted.

Next, Ce Duff, the artist, guided me through a mixed media piece and I chose my beloved Auntie Joan as my subject!
I am really pleased with my efforts, it was a lot of work for someone like me that likes to be finished in a whisper!
Here she is.

And this is my photo.

So, onto the next project which I think involves figures and scenes.....squeal of excitement and nervous anticipation!

Learn To Be Silent

So, this is my third entry into the 5th Anniversary "A Vintage Journey" challenge.
The reason that I have kept playing was because I wanted to produce a piece that had some white space.
All too often I throw everything at my pages and don't know when to stop.
So when Jennie and Alison produced adorable pieces that had lots of breathing space , I needed to try.
I tried on my second entry but it didn't work out like that.

So, here is another part of the journey of my life, and a photo of my lovely Auntie Kit, out on a bike ride and enjoying a picnic. The photo looks very serene, so, I chose one  of Alison's quotes and also stencilled some words.
I have stencilled, and stamped and used crackle paint, also infusions , distress inks and gold paint.
The book print is a die cut that I had leftover from something else.
I found it hard to get a balance and I found it hard to stop!
But, happy and thankful for the inspiration from the design team.

If nothing ever changed...

Totally inspired by the wonderful creations from the “A Vintage Journey” team, I decided to create my second piece for the 5th anniversary blog challenge.

I wanted to create a journal page with some negative space instead of my usual kitchen sink approach.

I began by covering my double page with some floral paper and knocking it back with white gesso and ageing it with Vintage Collage Medium. The idea was to create something that looked like really old wallpaper.

I forgot to mention that my focal image was going to be a photo of my beautiful paternal Grandma. Annie Barnes.

Next I added strips of music paper and added some writing to my Grandmother telling her how I felt about her and of memories of her. 

I framed her photo with a Kraft paper diecut frame and added some diecut flowers.

I was searching for suitable words to fit in with my memories and came across this lovely quote about change and butterflies.. it is on acetate and was meant to be a rubbing which should be gilded but I decided to use the acetate piece. Same with the butterflies. 

I added Loving thoughts which is gilded.

To finish I scribbled a frame with brown inktense pencil and lightened the frame with Chalk Paint.

I really enjoyed creating this page but my idea of creating White Space went out of the window!.....maybe next time!

A Reflective Glow.

First of all, congratulations to "A Vintage Journey" in celebrating 5 years of this wonderful challenge blog. Have really enjoyed dipping into the mix of fabulous creations from the team and seeing the myriad of entries that you have sparked.

I began to think about my own journey and wrote down my thoughts for the future onto this page before I added anything. I wrote about wishes for the future for members of my family and for myself.
The image of the sun emerging from the clouds jumped out at me from a magazine and I had to add this to my piece.
As I assembled my papers, stencils, stamps and words, I became reflective of my family from the past and decided to find a family photo that would fit around how I was feeling.
So, I squished and stamped and rubbed and flicked and aged and blended and scribbled down more thoughts and I came up with this!
The tree is stamped onto acetate . I have used fresco paints, lots of fragile papers, stabilo pencil, uniball pens , excerpts from books and alcohol inks.
This piece has left me feeling calm and satisfied. Can't beat a bit of reflective journalling to soothe the soul.
So, I am entering this into the the A Vintage Journey challenge for March 2019.

She Walks In Beauty

While I was creating my last page to enter the new A Vintage Journey challenge, "Your Hearts Desire", I thought of another way of developing the theme.

My mind turned to a photo, which I have in a family collection, of a bride and groom. Unfortunately I don't know who they are, and there is no-one of my family left of this generation to ask.

I prepared the background with a mix of fragile papers and rubbed some pale creams and pink fresco paints in with my fingers, the idea being to blend together the background images.

I stamped a heart from Emma Godfrey onto a French Dictionary page, the page which lists Love words and aged it.

I fussy cut some flowers from my paper stash and made a copy of the wedding photo.

I added some diecuts which were left overs and found a poem which I thought was suitable. "She Walks In Beauty."

I darkened the edges of the pages slightly with an umber Neocolor crayon which I then moistened with a brush and water.

Happy to use this beautiful photo but sad that I don't know their relationship to me.

So, this is my second entry for A Vintage Journey Challenge.

Reach for the stars!

There was another extremely inspiring selection of art over on A Vintage Journey blog last week. This time the theme is "Your Hearts Desire".
So, another journalling page for me, inspired by the lovely artist Laly Mille.

I worked onto double pages in a girl's annual from the 1930's. some of the text is sill visible.
First of all I washed a light covering of Gesso all over, then glued down some strips of papers from Marlene's collection.
Lots of stamping and layering of paint followed.
I added some Vintage Photo Distress inks to give it a vintage feel and layered up quite a lot of drippage.
I stamped and cut out some Emma Godfrey hearts and aged them with Distress Collage Medium.

Finally, the crowning glory was a quote which Alison Bomber put together as a collection on one of her many sets of stamps from PaperArtsy. EAB07.
I seem to instinctively choose this quote quite often. Probably the new year and my emotions at the moment which draw me to it!

Here is some more detail which shows off some of the Carabelle stamps by Birgit Koopsen.

It is actually lighter than this, but February light in my craft room is sadly lacking at the moment.

So, my entry in the "A Vintage Journey" challenge.

Every Great Dream...

This morning I sorted through my many Graphic 45 books and selected lots of inspiring pictures that I can add to my journalling pages.
These three were my inspiration which guided today's work.

I began by covering my pages with an assortment of fragile papers and united them with a wash of Burnt Sienna acrylic ink.
Next, I knocked it back slightly with a wash of white gesso.
Some journalling ensued in both black and white pen.
I stencilled some Graphite Texture paste hearts for added texture.
My three images were enhanced by heat embossing some Frantage Aged Gols Embossing Enamel around the edges.
For my stamping, I chose one of Alison Bomber's wonderful quotes from PaperArtsy EAB07 and repeat stamped it in Vintage Sepia Versafine Ink.
To finish, I added an affirmation by Lynne Moncrieff and Added some Wrinkle Free Distress Method Vintage Photo.
To properly conclude my piece, I used Alison's quote around the edges in Black Archival as a border.
I am entering this into the A Vintage Journey challenge, Put a stamp on it.
Their design team have been so inspiring and got me entering challenges again.

Art Therapy!

It feels like confession time. I haven't posted on my blog for almost 3 months.
I seem to have lost the plot lately and then flu over Christmas knocked me for six!
Anyway, today, I got out my much neglected repurposed old annual and set to!

Gosh, it was hard work at first as I applied layer after layer of writing, fragile papers, paint, and stamping.
It was soothing, but it just didn't feel right!
So, I kept going in the style of the wonderful artist that is Laly Mille. it gradually began to speak to me as I gained confidence!
This picture shows some of the layers including some scratching into the paint.

I chose some pictures from one of my favourite magazines and words that just chose themselves.
There are lots of stamps in my background but to finish off I chose some hearts by Emma Godfrey for PaperArtsy.
So, the whole process felt like soothing balm, or therapy, as in my title!

If I can remember how to link this to a challenge then I would like to enter this months' challenge on
A Vintage Journey. The reason that I am joining in again after ages is that I was really inspired by the beautiful work from the Design team, particularly Astrid, Alison and Brenda!

Portrait inspired by Frida Kahlo

This is a picture that I have had milling over in my mind since I saw an image of Frida that inspired me.

I began on a 20"x16" sheet of paper for acrylics, taped to my drawing board and sketched the figure.
I chose some collage papers by Marlene Meijer-van Niekirk and tore up pieces and added them to the dress and parts of the headdress.

Using PaperArtsy acrylic paints I painted over parts of the dress and added loose brushstrokes to the headdress.
I did some printing over the dress with Black Archival ink to tone it down as it was competing with the headdress. Also, a fair amount of scribbling with a Black Fudeball pen. Like scribbling!
Lots of adjustments took place with the face until I was reasonably happy.
Always room for improvement but I need to remember that it is all a learning process and I am not trying to achieve a photographic representation!

PA Baked Texture Challenge

Over on the PaperArtsy blog the current challenge is "Baked Textures"

I have thoroughly enjoyed following the designer ideas and have loved them all. 

I have played with Seth Apter's Baked Textures before, but when Alison Bomber used them to press her stamps into, I had to have a play.

I took a standard sized playing card and gessoed away the background and glued some sepia tissue which has letters and numbers on it.

I glued some musical notes across the middle and a Paper Doll and aged them with Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium in Vintage.

I rubbed an embossing pad along the edges of the card and dipped it into Seth's Patina Oxide and heat embossed. 

Using Alison Bomber's stamp set, EAB03, I stamped into reheated powders with Distress ink Pad Picket fence. 

The sentiment that I chose was "Without music, life would be a mistake."

I finished with a little extra stamping randomly in Black Archival Ink.

So, I am entering this into the PaperArtsy challenge.

Girl with sculpted hair

Having been influenced recently by the very talented artist Emma Petitt, I embarked upon my third portrait using her ideas.

I mostly use reference when I draw a face, unlike Emma and found a girl in a Sunday Supplement.
I began by prepping my background and drawing the girl with Derwent charcoal pencils.

The picture is quite large, 20"x16".
I used PaperArtsy Fresco chalk paints throughout. Also PA Grungepaste .
As you can see, there are some collaged additions too.

The next stage really scared me, as I had never painted dark skin tones before.
It got worse before it got better, and I did wrestle with the paints before I was happy.
I actually used a metallic paint on parts of the skin.....Copper!
I finished off with lots of drippage and some treasure gold on the numbers and around the frame of the picture.
I saw lots of bits that I would have liked to improve, but, I love her now!

Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold.

Over on the PaperArtsy blog right now is the challenge entitled Mint, Sage, Claret and Gold.
I have almost resisted the temptation to sing the well known song about herbs, substituting the words for this title!
I loved Darcy's intro piece with all the colourful stimulation, and have really enjoyed all of the contributions from the PaperArtsy blog team.
I was particularly enchanted by the book cover by Anneke de Clerck. I got out my gelli plates and had a play.
I used the recommended PaperArtsy fresco chalk paints, except that I substituted Gold for White Fire!
I created an A4 master board of background shapes as Anneke showed us, and used Emma Godfrey stamps from EEG14 to add greater depth. I stamped the flowers using some of the paints an also in Black Archival ink.
As we have the first dull day in ages, my colours don't really sing, but, in real life they do.
I love this technique that Anneke used and can see great potential for more master boards, and, am I allowed to use the "C" word........yes? Christmas cards!

Therefore, I am entering my work into the PaperArtsy challenge.

First Life Drawing in 51 years!

Last night I attended a Life Drawing Class in Chesterfield. I stumbled upon the advert for it by accident on Facebook.
It is something that I last had a go at in 1967, so, maybe it was time to have another go.

The class was run by John King who has a studio in Chesterfield and used to be a lecturer at the local art college.
I liked his relaxed approach and he immediately made me feel welcome.
I had managed to work myself up into a headachey state but felt very positive.
He began by introducing us to some artists work and suggested that, if we wished, we could try to work in their style.

Our first task was using Graphite sticks, to sketch very quickly, four poses on one large page. This was right up my street as I work quickly and I didn't have time to worry about my work. Think that they were 2min sketches.

Then two more quick sketches.

Next, using a small piece of charcoal on its side, 2 more quick pieces.

Then, the lights were turned off and John lit a huge spotlight and asked us to concentrate on just where the light fell onto the model and try not to draw outlines. Really liked this. 2 more quick sketches using White Charcoal.

This one, with the same idea was a 10 minute sketch.

Next, we had a small piece of card to print with and some black ink. These took about 10 minutes.

And finally, using the ink and card we drew the model and then, with the spotlight we added the light.
All interesting stuff. I shall be back for more next month, I loved it!

Treasure Box

The topic over on the PaperArtsy blog is "Enshrined", and there were some wonderful examples on the introduction by Darcy.
Their design team have come up with some wonderfully inspirational ideas this past 2 weeks as well.

So, I decided to create a box of treasures for my darling Rosebud, our 5 year old granddaughter.

I began by painting the box with fresco paint French Roast. the top was crackled with paste and then painted with assorted fresco blues. The sides I wrote messages and sea songs for Rose and then stamped and painted to create a collage effect.

I painted the letters with fresco blues and rubbed Treasure Gold into them and also around the edges of the box.

Inside, I lined the box with velvet.

The shells have been painted with blue fresco paints , and the patterns highlighted with Treasure Gold.

I added more treasure to the box, seaglass, small shells and some seaweed.
Rose came across it by accident yesterday and was enchanted by the contents and thrilled that the "Treasure" was for her.
The wonderment of young children is something that should be held onto by us all into our older years.
So, here is my entry for the PA challenge, enshrined.

Paper Dolls, Brave Wings.

Having some fun with my second entry into the PaperArtsy blog challenge which is Paper Dolls.

I had this notion that if I could find a nest, then some paper dolls could be at home in there. Maybe influenced by all the bird activity in the garden at the moment.

I used some TH collage paper for my background and rubbed an assortment of neutral coloured paints onto it with my fingers.

I used an assortment of fabulous oldies from PaperArtsy Hot Picks..HP1005, HP1506 and HP1601.

The girls are from TH paper dolls Christmas, which I painted over with clear gesso to enable me to paint over them to brighten them up.

Very Tongue-In-Cheek, this one, but great fun to create.

My second entry into the PA challenge.