All of Me in June

I wasn't going to do a review of June cos I've been feeling a bit down about not making much completed art. And then I decided I'd gather as many photos as I could of things I've been involved with this month and it's a very happy list that has improved my perspective ♥  
My work life continues to bring new challenges and joys. I work at Carncot Independent school part-time as their librarian and part-time in administration, and get involved in other diverse ways as you will see. This month is my birthday month, and my friends and family know I love to extend birthday celebrations - it's just such a lovely excuse to catch up with the people that mean so much to me. Also my youngest son's birthday so he gets a weekend to celebrate ;-) 
This is a photo record of my busy month with lots of social interactions that make me happy. For you - a great month may be more time spent in solitude, in reading, in writing, in walking....What does a happy and inspiring month look like to you?
Began the month well with my Klimt in the Garden with Rumi : Autum art card Sunday 2nd June 

Monday 3rd - long weekend : quilt top completed and ironed ready for basting layers together. Didn't get the time to go further = on the list for my holiday jobs.

Gatherings made over weekend and beginning of week and taught art class on faces and image transfers on Wed 5th. 

Thursday was for gathering materials needed for Friday 7th Quilt Elective at school 

Saturday 9th : especially fun afternoon cos visited the craft market with my lovely Mum and 2 Aunties...and I bought some gorgeous earrings

Sunday we went for a river walk over the new He Ara Kotahi bridge - just down the road from where I live.

Tuesday 11th I helped out at the Carncot Year 8 speech competition in the evening - inspired to hear these talented students on the topic "If I could be....for a day"

Friday 14th was my birthday. Special treat to go to the Matariki Glow show at the Regent with Carncot's junior school

After school I got to celebrate my birthday at home with thoughtful gifts and my Mum to stay a couple of nights. That glorious embroidered pencil case at the bottom from Trade Aid may turn out to double as an evening purse. And we're going to WOW World of Wearable Art show in October - so excited!

Saturday 14th was further celebrations with all my lovely extended family that live close

and my brother has pre-ordered this for me : YAY - due out in August. 

Sunday 15th managed to complete this art journal spread!

Monday 16th - took my gelli journal to quilt house group and managed to begin a face

Tuesday 18th - supported Carncot students and videoed their performance in Te Pae Tamariki at the Regent.

Tuesday night - another birthday celebration with some special friends

They know me well and gave me such thoughtful gifts. The pen has the word "Shine" on it and the Wild Child scrub bar (palm oil free, soy free, sls free) label description is very cool - click on any photo to see it larger.  

Also on the menu that night, my friend made this stunning Klimt heart cake 

and then I was preparing again for Friday's school quilt elective 

as well as purchasing presents and organising birthday celebrations over the weekend for my youngest who turned 15 on Sunday 23rd. 

And then it was back to me again! Tuesday 25th was afternoon tea with a dear friend and a sweet posy from her garden 

and Thursday 27th with 2 creative friends at a favourite cafe that serves delicious lemon and white chocolate slice. The stamps and butterflies will be appearing in my work soon I'm sure. 

That night I was VERY lucky to be able to spend birthday money at the Farmers sale and get some great 1/2 price bargains that have helped fill some gaps to warm up my winter wardrobe in style.

Friday night I was brewing a head cold - lucky for me that after an early night and beginning this last season, I got to finish it on Saturday when I had to spend the day on the couch - silver linings! 

And here we are at Sunday 30th June. I've done some gathering and notes for my class coming up on Wednesday night about journal construction. I'll be sharing ideas and links here on the blog after I've taught the class. 

I've enjoyed creating this blog post today. It has really made me realise that I'm doing lots in my life that I love, and it really was impossible for me to find more time to complete art this month. We all have different seasons of creativity and for me this month needed to be about being inspired by events and filling myself up with love and support from my people.

If you're new to this blog, you've had a peek at some of the things that bring me joy, and be assured the tide will turn back to more art in July because I've got the class above to teach on Wednesday night, and then 2 weeks of school holidays from Saturday 6th July. As well as the free inspirations I shared in my previous post, I'm also going to be spending my first weekend immersed in this FREE event: 

See you again soon.

Some free inspirations.....

I've been celebrating birthdays this past couple of weeks - mine and my younger son's. In my life that means lots of fun outings with friends and family gatherings, but also lots of organising and cleaning up - add to that some major projects at work = not so much time to art. There's lots of online inspiration around at the moment, and I'm taking note of these goodies to check out in my school holidays in July. I do believe in seasons of creativity and obviously I'm in a place where I need to fill my creative well. If you're in the same position or just want to look at some arty inspiration while it's cold ❆ hello Winter Solstice ❆ I hope there's something here for you to enjoy.

Laly Mille has a FREE 5 day video workshop in which she shares her favorite mixed media art supplies and how to use them. Read more about the contents of the workshop and sign up HERE. Another blogger, Catrina Giglio, has also just uploaded a video of her favourite supplies. I enjoy her work and thought you might like to look at hers too for comparison HERE : 

Tamara Laporte (Willowing) is also a great source of lovely free stuff. This week she's sharing some free lessons and some printable inspiration cards HERE, including this lesson available for a limited time as a promotion for her Ever After course.

Marit's Quirky Dutch Summer 2019 started on June 10th - all the information including previous years' posts are HERE. 

Jane Davenport's new FREE class has just launched : HERE.

There's a new FB group for people in NZ who love mixed media art journaling, altered books, artist books, making books and more. Come and connect here : MAJIC NZ (Mixed Media Art Journalers of Aotearoa in Cahoots)
And if you're a new visitor to my blog - welcome ♥ I also share on other social media : I post photos of my art on Instagram, and share links to blog posts as well as other inspirations on my FB Artist page. Check out my list of cheap and free online art classes HERE.  
Hope you can find a way to fit creative play into your week. 

Paint over collage and metallic watercolours

When I taught a class about Faces recently, one of the techniques I shared was paint over collage. Check out that previous post for details of the process.  I figured if I glued the magazine face I was demonstrating into my journal, it would be a page starter! 

She's on a double-spread so I can do a lot with her hair, and I was very inspired by a recent Book of Days lesson with Effy : (as seen on her blog HERE)

Really fun to combine both ideas and this is how mine developed

Added metallic watercolours over the top of both the watercolour ground and the black gesso. The photo does not do the glimmery shine justice. 

I love using the technique of good quality pencils for final face detailing (I use Polychromos by Faber-Castell)

and I used a White Uni-Ball Signo pen for the flower doodles in her hair

Left her for a day to see if she needed anything more since I usually add words, but she's telling me she's done.

You can still join us in Book of Days HERE. 

Teaching : Faces, Image transfers and useful links

I taught my monthly art journal class this past week and the topic was Faces and Image Transfers. I wanted to make sure that there was something useful for everyone, even if they didn't want to do human faces. Only a 2-hour overview class  but we covered a lot, so I thought I'd share some of what we covered here with links to the blog posts I've done in the past on these techniques. 
1. Transfer with a photocopied image - place face down on your receiving paper and rub from the back with nail polish remover (acetone). Works on good watercolour paper - results not guaranteed on other papers (eg. wouldn't work in my recycled journal)

2. Transfer with an image from your printer at home. Apply gel medium (I use 3D gloss super heavy Reeves) and adhere image face down without bubbles. When dry rub paper off with wet finger – gently. Demo with home printer (colour) and photocopy (black and white) Both worked. Great free images available from Unsplash. 

I should have thought about covering the background more on the right but will be interesting to see what I can do with this. I look forward to sharing how these finish up in my journal
These are some examples of my students' work with this technique - they make me smile

3. Paint over collage : my blog post HERE

and Tam's original free lesson HERE

This is also in my journal - I figured if I put the samples in there they would be page starters! 

4. Proportions of a face - in this section we also talked about different pencils including Stabilo All pencil and Dina Wakley's technique as seen in this blog post

Included some info about other watersoluble pencils for portraits as seen HERE

and how fun using just a charcoal pencil and a blending stump can be 

I thought I would reference here my favourite face artists so you can explore them if not known to you. 
I love owning this book by Tamara Laporte

and I will be getting this when it's released in August

Check out her Youtube channel for free inspiration HERE and if you join her newsletter HERE you get a free course called Art, Heart and Healing 

and also alerts to classes that are offered for free for a limited time. This one is currently through her newsletter as a promotion for her Ever After course : 

Jane Davenport's style is very clearly laid out in her book 

and she has a new FREE class coming up 24 June : HERE.

Description of the course : Making Faces is a unique collection of Art Supplies from the mind of Jane Davenport! In this free workshop we celebrate the global launch of the collection, we have gathered all of Jane’s videos and info for each element of the collection in this one spot to make a valuable reference and resource! Not sure how much will be about face making, but gives you a taste of Jane as a teacher anyway.
My other favourite teacher, and the only one I'm doing online classes with this year, is Effy Wild. Check out her Youtube channel HERE

her Free workshop which includes a face HERE

Artists for love (speed painting)

and this contour drawing HERE: 

And last for your inspiration, check out this selection of free tutorials that include some faces by some great artists : A thing called love - includes lessons from Toni Burt, Cary Cutler Scholes and Angela Kennedy - all of whom I've shared elsewhere on this blog. This is Cary's lesson : 

I love sharing my joy of art journaling and mixed media. If you're local you can ask me to come and teach at your club/group. You'll find the posts about classes I've taught under the teaching link below.