FFII : Week 7.5 Bonus lesson

Hope you've had a happy Easter. I've had some lovely catch-ups with family and then got some good creative time today ♥
We are on hiatus for a month from Book of Days, and it's a chance to catch up on some other art. Effy Wild is an incredibly generous teacher and although we were promised 8 lessons for Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear, there were a couple of bonus ones. This lesson was originally presented when the outcome of the US Elections was first known #artistsforlove. You may have also seen this shared as part of Journal 52 : you can get the time lapse video HERE. This is Effy's art :

I decided I just wanted to make a single page spread 

My outline - loving her already ♥

A layer of gesso and then Effy demonstrated a method of blending a Pitt Pen big brush marker with a copic. Since I didn't have a copic of suitable colour, but I do have the big brush Pitt Pen in light flesh, I thought I would try my Tombow blending pen and it worked well. 

Sealed with clear gesso (remember you can see all of this in the time lapse video linked above) then added coloured pencil with blending stump - I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos Red-Violet

Love how the orange from the original layers shines through on her bottom lip. Adding turquoise and gold...two of my fav's.

I like to include my word for 2017 SHINE in my work. This time it's not an obvious use of the word, but it's one of the reasons I added the gold, and why I decided on the affirmation  : because I don't want to just rush through these holidays, and because aspects of my word are to Notice and to Enjoy.

Here she is complete.

See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. 

Daily Journaling Week 15

I'm following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 15 : Monochromatic - use shades, tints and hues of one colour. And from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE : Add chalk or coloured pencil. Funnily enough, I had already thought I needed to do something different than floral themed this week, and hoped a face would fit the prompts somehow...When I went to Week 15 of the original 2014 prompts I found that a few of them had decided to do faces! Began by gathering my watercolour pencils to decide where I had the most shades of one colour - I have both Inktense and Graphitint. 

I've been so busy this week, I hadn't actually started this spread. It turned out to be a good thing. I had written an email this morning which I decided to print out and keep as a memory of exactly where I am as I start our holidays. Need a flap with a pocket to hold that. I used sprays for the colour here though 

Then it was time to make my monochrome girl - her hair makes the journaling spaces. All of this is done with the watercolour pencils blended with water. All my original work but obviously influenced by what I've been learning in Effy's classes ♥ Click on any photo to see it larger.

I wanted to include this lovely "Shine" quote from a recent Brave Girls Club email message

Added some more doodles with the same pencils and she's ready for the week's journaling

Here she is finished : 

I used various shades of green pens for the journaling. Here's how she looks with the flap closed : 

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE.
Today marks the start of 2 weeks of school holidays for my boys and me. I have a looong list of what I want to get done : a mix of creative, home and work-related. I am going to try and do house & garden stuff in the morning, creative fun in the afternoon, and work-related planning for next term in the evenings AND I have a large pile of good books beside my bed to read at night. Doing this spread was my afternoon creative fun today so I've made a good start :-)

Quilt Talk

Happy Easter Eve. I made this small applique block in a class with McKenna Ryan in November 2009. Seemed appropriate to head this post. 
I've had a busy start to April, but my boys and I are heading into 2 weeks of school holidays starting now - YAY!  I've been focusing on quilts this past week because I was asked to speak at Levin Town & Country Quilters last night. 

I gathered a pile of my quilts, and a few of my mixed media pieces 

Click on any photo to see it larger, and the titles following to get the blog post about these projects. ABOVE : top left Celtic Cutwork, top right Velvet night garden, bottom left butterfly star book, bottom right Gran's fairy shoes. 

Top left LOVE fabric collage, top middle Paper & Stitch collage, top right sari ribbon slow cloth, middle left On a Lark fabric folder, middle right daily journal 2017, bottom fabric banner.
I had a fun time revisting my past quilts and it was awesome to see them all laid out on display

The invitation prompted me to finally start quilting my Disappearing Nine Patch quilt which I began back in June last year! 

It's tricky sometimes to know what to focus on...

I had to show it to them in progress, but hopefully I'll be sharing it with you completed very soon. If you're new here and would like to scroll through all my posts about quilts I've made click HERE. 

As you can see I had a fun evening, and I'm hoping to be invited back by the club to teach some mixed media projects later in the year. Wishing you a happy creative weekend. Talk to you again soon.