She Blooms in Ink : side profile flower girl

Next challenge in Tam's She Blooms online class is a side profile portrait. I don't use the word challenge lightly! After a some sketching and un-sketching I ended up with this 

Began to add colour and OMG! It's all too strong and I really don't like it but I know hope this is my ugly stage and it will be better by the end....{everything crossed at this point!}

Worked on my face next 

and now I feel like the rest of it is worth further work to make it pretty. Very inspired by my word of the year. I fiddled for quite a while - pen work with the nib end of tombows helped her hair, and doodled details are both fun and unifying

Brayered some white to unify and tone down the background 

and gold in places for extra SHINE

White pen dots for light

Another learning experience for sure - and while frustrated at times, I love the process of working through challenges, trying new options, learning how to "fix" things and finally feeling happy with my finished portrait. 

This class is live between Dec 1st 2017 - 12th January 2018 and then reverts to self study. Life long access. You can register HERE. See all my posts about this class HERE.

#52stamps : Week 1

"Stamp carving is one of those things I always love to do but don't always prioritise time for." I wrote that to start this blog post and immediately a little voice in my head said "Would it really be that hard to create one new stamp a week?"....I thought about whether this was unrealistic and I decided I will give it a go. It would be so cool to have 52 more stamps to use by the end of the year. When will I do it? It's very portable - as long as the design has been transferred to the stamp (easily done at night) I can carve in the car while waiting for boys + I have a quilt group that meets weekly during term time on a Monday night and I'm always looking at things to do there so that's two easy options. I'll share weekly - hopefully you'll see at least one new one every week. It doesn't have to be expensive once you have the tools : this is mine

and I bought erasers from The Warehouse very cheaply : the pack of 6 small cost $1.50 and the 2-pack was $1 each. Keep an eye out in Dollar stores too to pick up larger erasers

See the end of this post for useful tutorials and inspiration.
As you do with a new project, I started off enthusiastically this week by carving more than one stamp. Because I'm taking Moonshine with Effy Wild I thought it would be really fun to carve some Moon Phase Stamps - inspired by this tutorial. 

Not perfect but cute right?....from the top : new moon, quarter moon, full moon, another quarter moon (I was trying to improve so tried design again - didn't need to!), one that totally didn't work so carved over it to create a pattern ♥, and a loose star. 6 stamps out of 3 blocks because you can carve both sides. Am inspired by some class mates so hopeful that next week you'll see the words SHINE and Magic.
I'm no expert, but if I keep carving #52stamps I might be better by the end of the year!
My favourite inspirations for stamp carving are Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Geninne D Zlatkis. Julie's just finished posts about her Carved December challenge and you can see all her stamp carving posts HERE. She's published a book and has online classes on this subject but I can't comment on their content. Geninne published this fab book (see my review HERE) 

and has a really useful section on her blog with stamp carving tutorials HERE. Please share in the comments if you have other artists that inspire your carving.
You can follow me on Instagram HERE and join in too. Let me know if you're doing that - would be great to inspire each other ♥ See my other posts about stamp carving HERE and my first ever post where I share some other inspiration HERE.

Another FREE online class : Soul Journey 2018

I like to share cheap and Free online offerings with you - you can always find the link to the classes that last all year or indefinitely HERE (and via the link in my top right side bar). I recently updated this list and shared at beginning of the month with my most recent finds, and I've just found out about another which looks excellent : 

What would you say if we were to offer a year long FREE mixed media course with some of the WORLD's most amazing teachers : two artists per month sharing with you their art, talent and inspiration. Once a week Annette Poacher, Elisa Ablett, Tanya Froud or Deena Otway (the group hostesses) will also share with you a tutorial. These tutorials are based around a quote/saying that we are calling soul starters. At the end of your journey you will have 52 cards that offer positivity, uplift your soul and give you something tangible to look through and connect with. Do you ever feel like your soul needs a kick start? Perhaps you are going through a tough time. Or do you want to belong to a fun group of like minded artistic souls who come together as a community just to support each other?
The class is run in a FB group which you join HERE. I think you'll recognise many of the amazing teachers

This is the first lesson for January :