Ennui

I have been feeling really bored and fed up over the last few days - nothing serious, you know the feeling, it seems to strike most people and the  grim weather hasn't helped. Although at the beginning of the summer I knew a holiday was unlikely and was resigned to it, I could really do with a change of scenery at the moment, but that seems unlikely. I have  friends to visit and when I feel happy to leave Mr T overnight and I can look at four different walls.  I was hoping we would both get away in September, but it is filling up with hospital appointments etc. May be in October. Anyway enough of me wallowing in self-pity, it has been a lovely day today, for a change and I have no ironing to do as I am still waiting for the washing machine to be fixed. So I thought I would make a few altered postcards to send to our friends. I have a drawer full of postcards bought from art galleries and exhibitions, some I want to keep, but some have lost their initial appeal, so I have 'up-cycled' them and they hit the post box tomorrow.

Have  great week (I am working on some more memoirs).

Saturday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE

...not that I think he is a follower of my blog, but Dave is a friend of 30+ years and of my husband for even longer. He reaches a significant birthday today and so we thought he deserved a bit of effort. MrT compiled a couple of CDs with a selection tracks that were number ones on his birthday from the fifties to present and we managed to find enough photographs of him - some of them very fuzzy, taken over the years to make the CD covers. Dave is a serious collector - books art, music, anything stylish and iconographic so I though I would compile a six decade set of images and make a zig-zag collage.  This took me rather a long time and almost became a chore instead of an act of love. I found  the images on Google, down loaded them and then printed them, cut them out and then assembled the collage. I made card front and back covers and covered them with a psychedelic print I also found on good old Google images. I enjoyed the finishing off process and I am sure he will enjoy the the gift. We won't be seeing him for a while and have no idea what he is doing today, having a big celebration, or keeping his head down, but either way we hope it is a good one.

Click the pic for a close-up view.

How far back do you remember?

Good bye November, Hello December

November all filled in. If you click on a day you can see all the details. The blank calendar is here

So here comes December...

One - gesso over two pages and then  squirt on acrylic paint and spread it around.

Two - get lots of green and add layers and patches of different tones, rub them in and rub them off again.

Three - Add a bit of printing with bubble wrap and sequin waste stencil in black and red and mix it all up.

(close up) - and a bit of paper doily stencilling in blue

Four- more stamping and adding lots more textures

Five - stick on the squares and label the days of the week - cut the letters for December out of 'optic' sticky back plastic - twiddle  about with gold and silver gel pens and I'm ready to go!

Give Away

"Marvin"

"Headdresses" (there are six of these)

"Meadow"

Here goes, I've never done this before, but I have 18 little 6x9cm cards to give away in three different designs (They may vary from the ones shown) so I thought that I would give them to six of my 'followers' who care to comment - three each, one of each design but lucky-dip as to which ones. After a week I'll randomly choose the six  and ask you to e mail me your address. I hope this is fair. If less than six enter I'll share them out accordingly.

I enjoyed making these and thought it would be nice to share, hope you think so too.

The little collage meadow cards were inspired by Angie Lewin, the headdresses by the Omo people and 'Marvin' by my cat who I love to draw.

A New Month Dawns

Along with Art Journalling I have discovered calender making - so I thought I'd share some of my efforts so far. So here are August and September...

If you click on the image you can see some of the detail - but I apologize for the less than brilliant photographs. These are in  A4 size Pink Pig sketch books.

Here is October with just Friday and Saturday to fill in. These are great fun - especially if you like doodling. Sometimes I feel like writing, or sometimes just a minimal bit of rubber stamping will do - 'cos on some days nothing much does happen.

So today I prepared November.

I layered the background with gesso, acrylic paint and watercolour pencil - and printed with leaves and my favourite sequin waste. Then I cut thirty squares from various coloured papers, made days of the weeks labels and the month title ...

... and I am all ready for November.

Trying something new

I have finished my photography course and now have time to give rein to all my other art projects. I try to do something everyday, but I still feel as if I am indulging myself and should be carrying out a domestic task so I try to do something worthy round the house or garden before allowing myself an art session.

I have been fascinated by the collages, art journals, art cards and so on which abound on flickr and numerous blogs, so determined to have a go myself. This little picture is made in a cheap 6"x4" photography frame with the glass removed. I covered the whole thing, frame and backing with torn news print and layered it with gesso, acrylic colour washes and neocrayon. The collage consist of some leaves I have collected from the garden, magazine and paper bits. The little girl comes from the suzie que flickr free download pages. Flourishes were added with felt paints and a bit of stamping ink. I wasn't sure it worked until I photographed it, but looking at this it I am quite pleased. I pressed the leaves by ironing them between cartridge paper and them leaving them under a weight for a couple of days. Traditionally pressing flowers takes several weeks, but this seems to have worked - only time will tell if they last. I have a nice selection to use.

Other things in my life

Now I am coming to the end of my second Open College of the Arts course I am thinking whether I want to start another one straight away. I feel I have gained a grounding in photography and perhaps can make my own way for a while. I also want to explore my other creative skills. The internet via flickr and blogs are a constant source of inspiration so at the moment I have many avenues to explore. I have started to keep an "Art Journal" which is really a sketch book-come-art diary, but with more completed works than a sketch book alone. There seem to be thousand of Art Journal keepers across the net. I have found it a great way to be able to experiment with ideas and by doing it in various books I am not left with umpteen pieces of art work to store. Also with a freestanding piece of work there is the question of whether it is worthy of framing and hanging whereas that never arises when it is in a book. Often in a journal the artwork is combined with words. some people use theirs as a diary to record their lives, others as a means of expressions. So I shall see, I haven't got to decide about OCA yet - just follow the flow.