FREE Strathmore workshops

Strathmore Workshops. Info for FREE workshops in 2018 HERE. First workshop begins March 5th and they are available from launch date until end of December 2018. 

This has already been added to my complete list of cheap and free online artful classes HERE. You can always find the complete list by clicking on the link top right side bar with date last updated. Please let me know if I've missed anything.

#52stamps : Week 8

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. 
A few weeks ago I was thinking about what I'd like as additional background stamps and I shared these 3 stamps that I made and use regularly

I made a larger border stamp and uneven crosses in week 4

and this week I was inspired to create another scribbly circle. It was so easy and fun that I immediately used it on the journal page I was working on ♥

I'm reminding myself that one new stamp is all I need to meet the challenge, but when it's as easy as that it's tempting to make another....

Maybe I'll try something a bit harder next week...or not! Have to wait and see what inspiration strikes. You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

Book of Days : One Line Portrait

I've been looking forward to this lesson ever since Effy shared her first one-line-portrait as part of a flip through of her moleskine daily planner.

It's a fun technique which allows you to create a wonky, whimsical portrait - the emphasis is on loosening up and enjoying the process. I began on a page in my altered art journal which already had some messy drippage from previous lessons and drew my one-line portrait. I used a Frixion pen which has an eraser but can also be removed by heat.

Then added watercolour in the form of Twinkling H2Os - my paper is just thick old book paper, but I lightly spritzed the page with water before I started and am happy with how the colours behaved.

It's so soft and pretty I'm going to try not to lose that as I add other details. In fact this was where I got to with pencils and pens and little else....I love her ♥

Then it was time to add words. I was very moved by Kelly Rae Roberts' recent Permission granted post which felt like it was written just for me...

I am grieving and I feel so grateful to have art as medicine, an escape, something to delight my spirit, to give me joy, to let me shine, to play, restore and rest. Isn't the glisten of the twinkling H2Os lovely?

I gave myself permission on this page to be real and to embrace the imperfection here {even when my black ink pad fell on the face and I had to take a bit of paint corrective action! sheesh}. 

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE. 

Book of Days : Attend

I began this lesson a few weeks ago by falling in the love with the background I made and then not wanting to mess it up 

This page is about self-soothing : "Attend to your feelings through the act of getting them out of your body and onto the page, or create medicine for the feelings by creating something that feels like a ‘cure’ for what ails you. Tend your piece until it feels complete." Thanks Effy - that's just what I need right now ♥ 
So I began by sketching in my vase and I wanted beautiful roses so decided that the easiest thing for me this week was to use a couple of lovely stencils with gesso through them for the shapes

Then added some twinkling H2Os for subtle colour

Love how they are transformed with white pen outlining

A found word is one of my signatures....

We've received many lovely flowers and this feels like an honouring of the loving space we are being held in along with the love for my Dad.

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.

#52stamps : Weeks 6 & 7

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. 
We said farewell to my lovely Dad this past week. The service was on Valentine's Day and was the perfect way to honour a man who was always generous with his love and well loved by many in return. In love and memory of Dad, I decided to create some heart stamps - I only needed to carve 2 to be caught up.
I began with the inspiration of E E Cummings' beautiful poem "i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)"

This stamp was carved on the back of a stamp which you can play with to create different patterns

and I really like the 4-leaf-clover effect of stamping this heart in a round

I was then was inspired by a friend's carving of a few weeks ago to do a vertical line of hearts 

Those 2 complete my challenge of a stamp a week, but since I have a commercial heart stamp with some diagonal lines, I thought it would be fun do do one with rough horizontal bands

So now my heart stamp collection looks like this - a mix of commercial and hand carved by me ♥ 

You can see my post about the open heart stamp HERE and the triple heart HERE. I am glad to be back in the studio and sharing with you.
You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join in on Instagram.

I hope to be back posting again soon

We farewelled my gorgeous Dad with love on Valentine's Day. 

With love forever 💜

#52stamps : Week 5

The challenge = to share at least one new stamp made by me weekly in 2018. Here's what I made in January :

I am so happy that I started this challenge, and taking that photo is so motivating to continue. I'll end up with more than 52 by the end of the year at this rate ♥ 
Just one this week. One of my favourite stencil shapes that I have in a few different sizes is the tapa 

Decided it would be nice to have a stamp to complement them. 

I can't carve more of the edges off since it is the back of my open heart stamp. You can see all my posts about #52stamps HERE or you can join me on Instagram. 

Moonshine : Grateful warrior

We've had our first month of Moonshine lessons with Effy and I am only just beginning to understand the rhythms of the New Moon to Full Moon cycle. One of the things I love about this class is that you can dive in as deep as you like, or just make art that is meaningful to you. I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to all the info offered in this class both from Effy and from the enthusiastic participants, but I am happy to say that I have made my second piece of art inspired by this class. As we move from January into February I feel both strong and grateful. I was also thinking about the Week 5 prompt for Journal 52 : Courage. I need to honour my courage this past month. I loved the upturned face that I created last month (inspired by one of Tam's She Blooms lessons) and wanted to try that again. I thought hard about the symbols I wanted to include on this page and turned again to my art symbols dictionary which I created in 2016 to capture the colours and symbols that I use most often in my art, along with their meanings. I began with her hair - I wanted it, and by extension her, to become part of the beautiful night sky.

One of the signatures of my work is the use of text - I especially love found words. The beauty of using a recycled art book as my journal is that the text in the background can provide perfect words. I hadn't seen these until I was doing my initial blocking of colour ♥

I wanted to include a flower so thought I would use the New Zealand Pohutukawa - a flower of summer, it is both hardy and beautiful, and it is often found on the coast so associated with my beloved sea. I have a stencil to which I added metallic pen

Open heart - enfolding, courage, love

She is passionate and speaks up. She needed warrior paint on her face and I love the koru symbol (the spiral represents new life, growth, strength and peace)

Stars for SHINE and the Moon since it is such a focus for this class

And here she is complete

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. Go HERE for info about Journal 52.

Shine

When I'm short of time and just want to have some quick restorative art love without having to think too much, I pop into another prompt from Alisa's lovely class (details at end of this post). I had skipped a prompt which was to fill a page with one word. Then I saw Alisa's advertising for her new class "Poetry and Paint" 

and was inspired by her art (above) to make a word page of my own in my large journal. I was going to use "hope" as well, given the current circumstances, but I decided instead to celebrate SHINE (my word of the year). I began with spray, some ink and my hand carved stamp. I like how the text from my altered book becomes a background element as well

and over a few days I kept adding the word using different pens, lettering styles, and even collage, until my page was full. 

Coming to look at it the next day, I realised it was missing stars ♥

They added the perfect finishing touch

You can still purchase the Grateful HeART Journal class HERE.