Monday 30 April 2012

Another month gone!

Here we are on the last day of April.  We seem to be rushing headlong through the year.

I have been keeping up with my Art Every Day Journal although as ever it hasn't necessarily been worked on each day.

The April calendar has been completed.
 Days 1 to 10



Days 11 to 22



Days 23 to 30

 I may come back to these pages and colour in the patterns.  I used Doodle Parts stamps by Dyan.

And the May calendar ready to start a new month.

Friday 27 April 2012

Pirate fun

Today is the first day of Finding Fun and what choices there were.

I thought it was too wet to go out and splash in puddles and I might have to buy some wellingtons first!

Anyway, another choice was to make a pirate map.  I've lost count of the times I set this as an activity when I was a teacher but never actually joining in.  And I remember dying paper in cold tea.  Fortunately, Ranger supplies a Distress Ink called Tea Dye so I was able to get much the same effect.

So here is my map:

Can you work out where the treasure is?

Finding Fun and some blog candy

Finding Fun starts to day with the theme 



And Nicola is celebrating her 300th Blog Post with a 

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Retreat pt 2

We spent the weekend at Dove Farm.  We had the use of two self catering cottages and a fantastic craft room.
Courtyard garden shared by the cottages

Dove Farm

Craft Room


There were plenty of animals to see
Hissing geese with goslings

Sheep

Lambs


Hens


Cats
Alpacas



Donkeys



And weather!








Monday 23 April 2012

heART&soul retreat

I  spent the weekend on a crafting retreat with four lovely Christian ladies, AG, AA, TC and Carolyn.

We were given A4 ring binders to keep all our weekend's work in.  So that was the first challenge since most scrapbookers use 12"x12".  Thinking & crafting in A4 (lettersize for my US friends) was a whole new experience.

On Thursday evening Carolyn challenged us to make a collage using words and pictures torn from magazines and based on 'God is Incomprehensible'.

On Friday morning we had a workshop with Anneliese.  We had asked if we could do some melt pot techniques and we made 6 ATCs based on Spring, Easter, Summer, Autumn, Christmas and Winter.



The theme for the weekend was The Character of God.  Each activity was based around one characteristic or name of God.

Carolyn introduced us to needle felting and I mad this piece based on 'God is Unchanging'.


In the evening we did a speed scrap.  This involved being given some instructions for the layout at 10 minute intervals.  I don't think mine would look much like the original sketch - it's more of a scraplift!


On Saturday TC gave us a small canvas to work on and I use 'God is Love' for my inspiration.  She had also given us a wooden cross to do something with over the weekend so I sprayed mine and then put modelling paste through a stencil to represent the 'true vine'.


In the afternoon we made cards to send to friends and I deviated from the folded cards everyone else was making and made postcards.


During the evening we did a round robin set of ATCs.  Each person started 5 cards and after 10 minutes we passed the whole set to the next person who added something.  The cards were passed to every person until the set got back to the original person.  We were allowed a further 10 minutes to finish them off.  We were then given one from each set.  It was amazing that though we had all worked totally independently how much the set of 5 cards matched.

On Sunday morning AG set up 3 activities for worship which included making a prayer bracelet.  I made one based on Psalm 23.

Our last organised session was to make a layout based on a prayer or a scripture.

TC had also organised lots of little challenges so that if you had finished the organised activity you had things to do.

I made a contents page for my folder

I made a shrink plastic bird and from another challenge I made a little tag book made from dinner money envelopes.  I stuck the shrink plastic bird on the cover.

And lastly I used up bits that were leftover from Anneliese's workshop to start this journal page.

Come back tomorrow when I'll share about where we were staying.

Thursday 19 April 2012

A Blog Award! How lovely!

  How exciting!  I have received a blog award from Rooby Whishes.  I won't go into full Award Ceremony speech mode but thank you Rooby and thanks to all my readers.  I really appreciate that you spend your time here.  I follow at least 75 blogs so choosing just 5 has been difficult.



Apparently Liebster I have now found out is a German word meaning beloved or dearest, so I am really  flattered to have been awarded it.

The honour of accepting the award is traditionally done in the following way:

1. show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog

2. choose 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving a comment on their blog

3. post the award on your blog!

So here are the names of  blogs that I LOVE to visit, I hope you will enjoy visiting them too, 
and maybe even become a follower, if like me you like what you see!







And do read Carolyn's Finding Fun blog post and join us in having fun starting tomorrow




Wednesday 18 April 2012

Still not finished

I went to Harrogate last weekend for a super weekend of getting painty at Art from the Heart with the extremely talented Dyan Reaveley.  It all started at 7.30pm on Friday evening and lasted through Saturday and until 4pm on Sunday.  Absolutely scrumptious.  And the food was good too!

The website described the weekend as follows:
There are sooooooo many mediums out in the market, how do you know what’s best to use for you. Others may recommend them to you, but you need to know if they will really suit you before you buy. This weekend we will be exploring as many art mediums and techniques as we can, so you can get a proper grasp on the situation. We will be working in an old book, which you will be able to keep as a handy reference for future art work. Mediums will include, acrylics, spray inks, Distress stains and inks, Pan pastels, Oil pastels, Inktense pencils and blocks, watercolour pencils. And you will also get to play with any new releases. All materials, lunch and snacks are provided.

What a fabulous offer!  Who could resist?  Well not me.  And please don't remind me that in my last but one post I said I wasn't going to do any more classes. 

We cut up papers  and put gesso on some.  And then played with various media just as promised.  Dyan was very strict!!! and on one sheet had to use colours we don't like to work with.  Please note I hate Shell Pink.  (sorry Ranger!)

On Saturday evening we were encourage to take our pages away and fold them ready for Sunday morning.  I took photos of the pages with my iPad in a dimly lit hotel bedroom so not particularly good views of the papers.



 

On Sunday we stuck all the pages together with some extra pages interleaved to make up a super book.

I stamped the lettering when I got home! And coloured them in with Glaze pens. If you let the ink dry between coats you can make it look like you've enamelled it by putting on 2 or 3 coats.

Then we set about decorating the pages and journaling and such.   The book is nowhere near finished.  It needs stamping, journaling, arty bits and anything else that comes to mind! 

In addition I might actually get round to doing the Tim Holtz 'Creative Chemistry 101' that I signed up for and stick the tags in this book so that all the techniques are together as a handy reference book.

Here are some of the pages from the book: