April’s SBP for ANUK using a new-to-me technique using water-soluble oil pastels and gesso.

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With the weather the way it has been recently, I’m not sure if there’s going to be a slight chance of showers or heavy rain-fall. I don’t know what to wear, or whether to even get up in the mornings. Some days it’s really fine out, and others it’s well, you know… this morning when I woke up it was bright and sunny, then after lunch it started raining hard, and possibly hailing (I think), and this evening it’s been relatively clear and bright again. How bizarre. All this chopping and changing has made me want to make like a hedgehog and curl up into a ball and roll into the nearest pile of leaves.

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The Weekly Challenge on Express Yourself this week was to create a piece on the theme of Home. My piece was “Home Is where the heART is”, and the background was made up of all the different types of roads names that I have lived on in London. The very first was a Gardens, the next was a Road, then a Rise, an Avenue, a Place, a Park, then a Close, a Place again, and now a Crescent. I used one of Julie Van Oosten’s cute little houses chipboard pieces for the house itself.

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The theme for this week’s Challenge on Express Yourself is Numbers.

I used a selection of Glimmer Mist sprays from Katy’s Corner. I used Rum Raisin first, unfortunately the shimmer didn’t show at all so the colour came out a little flat. When that dried I attached some chipboard numbers with repositionable adhesive and sprayed again, with Golden Teracotta, this added a lovely sparkle to the piece. I then traced around more chipboard numbers and coloured in with Galaxy metallic markers. I added an additional chipboard number to add a little dimension to the page and used my Kandi Kane Applicator Wand to add some gems stones to the number 1.

I wasn’t overly happy with the end product here as the colours seem to make the piece feel ‘heavy’. Perhaps this is because the background turned out to be a solid colour so there is little movement in the piece.

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Upon reflection, I realise that it felt quite odd making this piece because it’s not my usual style at all, I think I usually end up with something that requires a bit more thought, from the viewer and is a little dark or grungey perhaps.

I think there might be something there for me about trying to create something that looks in the same ‘league’ (!!??) as lots of stuff I see online but ultimately feeling a little unsatisfied by it.

But then again, maybe that’s something for my next therapy session - ROFL!

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The first Weekly Challenge on Express Yourself was posted, members are invited to post a creation on the theme of Swirls & Flourishes and encouraged to note whatever stamps, papers, embellishments or collage elements were used.

Here I made a skinny page (5×3), not my usual style at all but I quite enjoyed it. I used stamps by Hero Art, Inkadinkado and Innovative Stamp Creations, Collage sheet by Lisa’s Altered Art and paper from Anna Griffin.

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a few tentative steps..

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Artful prezzies anyone?

Shortly before Chrimbly I gave myself a Bind-it-all machine, I was very restrained, and only used it once before Christmas, to make Emilia’s Chrimbly prezzie. Of course I forgot to get any pics of it before sending it on it’s trip to Poland, but I did manage to make a verrrry cool book with it.

I think I got the coolest gifts this Christmas. With any luck, they may finally kick my currently snoozing muse off her ever-expanding posterior. I received a wonderful stash of goodies, including some great books, some arty (Secrets of Rusty Things, The New Creative Artist, New Acrylics to name a few), but all wonderful. Miles also gave me a new copy of Ballet Shoes, as my childhood copy is long gone, and I was reminiscing about it.

I got to show off my Dremel Drill Press, to my father-in-law, (as he bought it recently for my Birthday but hadn’t had the opportunity to see it in action), along with the Dremel I got for Christmas 2006 (!)

We (i.e. Milesy) shifted around my art room this weekend, moving the desks and such. Although this means I have to do a whole heap of sorting to do before I’m 100% about it, I much prefer the general feel of the room now.

Anyhoo….. after much deliberation, I finally decided on my word for this year. Permit. I’ll say no more about it for now.

So, if you received any goodies, arty or otherwise, that you fancy bragging about, or if you’ve made an resolutions (or non-resolutions!) for this year, do let me know, won’t you? It’s good to know I’m not simply rambling to myself, although that might be pretty therapeutic too….

As I read Neil Gaiman’s journal entry this morning, I nodded and smiled, and and thought it fitting that I shared it with you.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

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Just because I haven’t posted in a while, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about you! To prove this, here are a few kewl links, that I thought were interesting or fun, or both, and hope you will too:

Free Rice, Holiday Card, Visuwords, Pixmaven, Alastair Lockwood, Dumpr, Craft TV Weekly

and where would we be without YouTube and the like? Miniature Earth, Giant Girl Doll, Altered Books anyone? and Suzi Blu

enjoy!

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I’ve been absent from so many important areas of my life for far too long, so today I bravely decided to read through all the blogs that I subscribe to, that had been helpfully collected for me by Google Reader. BIG mistake. Having not been online for just a little while has meant that I had over a gazillion entries awaiting me. I started to read them with all the best intentions in the world but then, sadly, I just hit the ‘mark all as read’ button. If your post was one of the ones that I didn’t get around to reading, I apologise profusely.

So many of the posts I did manage to read made me smile, and seeing so much creativity sparked something in me. By the time I got round to thinking about my own blog, I realised I couldn’t remember what it looked like! Quel Horreur!

However I did feel like picking myself up and letting you know what has been going on. Having thought about it though, I decided that just because I’ve been having a rough time, there was really no point making y’all depressed by filling you in on the minutiae of my life - trust me, it’s better this way - lol! I see my last post was quite some time ago, so you might have guessed that I’ve not been ‘in a good place’, for a while.

Thankfully, I seem to be over the worst. Yesterday was the first day in a looooong time that I actually chilled and relaxed without feeling anxious or guilty about not doing what I thought I should be doing. To me, that’s a good sign. Guilt-free day-time TV, whoda-thunkit?

I think I’m actually going to start pottering around my art desk and unpacking all the art committments that I have been so flakey with recently. I’ve got a feeling it may take me a little while to complete them all, so if you are one of those whose art has not been ‘worked’ by me or has been held up by my in-action, thank you for being so patient and know that there is light ahead, for me.

I guess it’s not just about reminding myself what my blog looks like, but what my life looks like too! I’m feeling thankful for everything in my life that I take for granted every day. Do you ever get the feeling that you just want to be thankful for your senses? Sitting here thinking about my senses, reminded me to be thankful for the wonderful way they connect me to the world around me

Smell: the heavenly smell of strawberries as I cut them up for breakfast

Taste: the sweet, succulent taste of the above-mentioned strawberries as I shovelled them hurriedly into my mouth, for fear that they would taste less amazing if I left them in the bowl much longer!

Touch: feeling the sun on my skin and for the first time in ages and not feeling uncomfortable, fatigued or the need to get away from it as soon as possible

Hearing: the sound of leaves in the garden being rustled by the welcome breeze

Sight: being able to read without straining my eye or wanting to itch beneath an irritating eye-patch

If you’re feeling thankful for your senses, post a comment and tell me what it is you’re thankful for.

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