Tangled Mermaids

Everywhere I look lately I am seeing mermaids and Zentangles, so for my 18th "29 Faces for September" I decided to combine the two.

I drew a very simple face and gave her pointy ears and "floaty hair". These strips of hair gave me the areas to "tangle" in...

 I took a fine nibbed pen and doodled like a maniac.

I have to say I was in awe of the people who practice this skill before I started...I am TOTALLY impressed now!!!

I chose a simple colour palette, 2 greens and 2 blues for her hair...

and combined them to colour the background.

After 2 weeks of quick sketching, this was an amazingly intense experience(though staring at black on white for 2 hours made me feel a little ill)

I am counting this piece for my "A Piece a Week" and my "Weekly Face on Wednesday"

Enjoy :D XXX

Sometimes I even scare myself!!!

For my next batch of "29 Faces for September" I decided (along with a group of other artists) to try a self portrait.....SCARY!!!!!

I had to take the only mirror I have off the bedroom wall and place it on my work desk lol. I was going to use photos, but I do like a challenge :D

Add to that mix "only doing 10min biro sketches and oil pastels (without an under sketch) and you have to ask yourselves...."what kind of masochist is this woman!!!??" 

 Face no.12 (piggy eyes)

 Face no.13 (sunglasses)

Face no.14 (hubby wanted to know why I'd given myself a moustache)

Face no.15 (looks about 90)

To take a break from drawing faces I then decided today I would get some cards made. I usually start with a blank card and no idea where I am going, but I wanted to make a good batch(32 cards in total). This is when pre-printed kits come into their own.

 I had bought a set of 32 printed Beatrix Potter cards(cos I loves anything BP). The artwork is soooo gorgeous I didn't want to put anything on it, but then they wouldn't be handmade cards to sell would they.

 I also recently purchased a whole 12x12 book of die-cut frames from Create and Craft, and a sentiment die by Tonic.

The frames are mirror card, but plain, so I put them through my embossing machine to "fancify" them :D

I also have BP CDs from Crafter's Companion, and used those to print out matching inserts for each card.

I used a mixture of sentiments cut from glitter card and peel-off stickers I have had FOREVER.

I love the clean and simple effect, a total change from my usual style of mating and layering. I used to think using pre printed card bases was a bit of a cheat, but I grew up and got over myself. Who wouldn't want to play with such fantastic images????

So now I have 16 6x6 and 16 A5 cards ready to sell on my craft stall....

and for Manon's Paper Saturdays Challenge lol

Enjoy :D XXX

P.S.    I did not pay the prices you will see in the links, I buy stuff randomly through the year when I see them on sale lol (hence the room full of stash)

On the face of it....

I don't appear to have been arting much lately...truth is I have been arting a lot!!! Which is why I haven't been blogging so much. 

I decided to join Ayala Art's for several challenges this summer, and now I am joining in her 29 Faces for September (again lol)

To add to the challenge I decided to use oil pastels, which are(were) one of my least favourite mediums....

so here are the first 5 faces I did for this month...

 (close up to show blending and paper texture)

I actually got to quite liking the speed with which you can work in oil pastel, but mine were way cheap. I have ordered a selection of other brands to try out(before buying the top range)

While waiting for these to arrive, I have changed up my style and am now working on quick sketches with Biro/Bic pen

This is a great exercise as you can't rub out lol, but a fabulous medium for "describing" fine curly hair :D

And just to be awkward, on one day I shared a page from my sketchbook, showing how I "collect" expressions from magazine photos

If this is too much for you to handle, why not join Darcy for her Weekly Face on Wednesday spot?

And all this while working on several other projects I will share at a later date (including card making *phew*)

Enjoy :D XXX

Singing for your supper....

So, knowing how much I struggle with these things, my lovely friend Magaly tagged me with this award. But being the awesome person that she is, she changed-up the rules before passing it on lol

So instead of sharing 7 random things about myself, I have to share some (and I quote) "sugary sweetness" that has occurred in my life recently.....

so I give you "PUDDING"

This was a lovely refreshing dessert I made last week :D

A meringue nest filled with strawberry ice cream, blackberries fresh from the garden simmered with a little sugar, poured over and a lovely heap of whipped cream! Doesn't come much sugarier or sweeter than that....and the warm syrup melted the meringue, turning it into chewy toffeeness :D

One specially happy thing that happened though this week, was receiving these fabulous Paper Artsy stamps from another friend Darcy

 They are called "mini" but each stamp is about 2 and a half inches in length :D

Thought I'd try using chalky paint for a change. These are test pots from a DIY store, £1.10 each so no major outlay there lol

Using a piece of heavy grey board (also Paper Artsy, which Darcy kindly included for me to play with), I did a quick "smudgy" background and then used the same paint to stamp the feathers with.

As the paint dried a lovely matt finish it was easy to stamp over with more PA stamps and Archival ink,

Before edging with Inka Gold wax in a green colour(have had it years) and a hint of black ink. 

The stamp set that the sentiment came from also has this wonderful image, which I thought would make an interesting topper. I stamped it onto some supersmooth card, painted with the same paints as the background, and cut out.

Before adding the topper, I wanted to make it stand out a little more. I stamped the same image in position directly onto the background, and used it as a guide to add a dark shadow.

 Finally I added some metallic gold pen details and glossy accents to the wings and clock hands.

I feel I should be adding something more, but I don't want to cover all the lovely feather impressions, so for now it is done...as am I :D

I would like to enter this tag for Manon's Paper Saturdays challenge :D 

Enjoy XXX

Working with others IS awesome!

Yesterday I told you I had been playing with my friend Jeanette to create original art pieces for each other.

Well this is the piece I sent back to her :D

We each worked on a background for the other to work onto(without telling each other anything about what we were using). We only knew what size piece we agreed to use...

and this is the scrummy, textured and painted background she gave me.

The scary part is making the first marks on someone else's work....but we both intended leaving parts of the background showing through, so I went for it lol

 Pencil lines sealed with medium to stop it blending, then a thin layer of white gesso to unify the background...

 and now it was just a case of picking colours from the base and building up layers.

 She just looked such a "bubbly" party girl :D

 I just couldn't bring myself to "lose" the bee on her nose lol.

 Every party girls needs bunny ears right, and a big butterfly bow ...

 I wanted to add something "behind" her to add a bit of perspective...

 so I picked out a big blousey flower...

 deepened the tone of the background with a thin glaze...

 and added highlights of white and gold

I just love this bubbly bunny girl, and am thrilled that Jeanette loves her too :D

I am counting her as my "Piece a Week" as though I painted her a couple of weeks ago I couldn't blog til we'd swapped.

And I am entering her in Manon's Paper Saturday Challenge

Enjoy :D XXX

Sharing pieces of our world

Well a lot of you probably know that I like to send out little pieces of my world to my friends in Etherland. I hate that I will probably never get to meet most of you in real life, so it is nice to send little bits and pieces of art or silliness just to know we have "touched" the same things. In my mind(which is a tad warped I know) this creates an energy link in the universe. We will always have that connection even when the WW Web isn't available...well this week Magaly sent me these !!!!!

and I love them all!!!

Another friend, Jeanette House, sent me a piece of art we have worked on together. We each created a background piece and posted them to the other to paint over. 

It was a fabulous experiment, and we had even used many of the same images and colours in our backgrounds(which was a bit spooky lol) I will share what I did with hers tomorrow, as I have been waiting til she posted her class video about it before sharing. PWYS class 09

All through last month I have also been playing with some other lovely ladies via Face Book and Ayala Art's Blog, where we have been doing something similar but with more people. Once I get all my pieces back I will blog about that wonderful experience too.

So if your feeling a little isolated, and in need of some happy mail, why not contact a blogging/FB buddy overseas and arrange a little project together. That way you can weave you own "interweb". Just remember to keep the pieces small and it will keep postage costs down. There really is nothing like holding something created especially for you by a friend :D 

Enjoy :D XXX