Drums drum drums

Thats right my drums inspired me saturday morning and having had a new rhythm magazine turn up, I got straight to work. The background of the page was already painted from the previous person but the colour seemed perfect and I had my most recent drum piece on a bit of paper and it all just seemed to fit.
So i mish mashed it all together, added in what I wanted to say and shazam a page was born. Its been a while since a page was born but I was happy whilst making it and super pleased when it was done. Hopefully this will stop the art block I have been happening but we shall see.

Pictures as promised

I am reaching the end of my American holiday and have had a fantastic time. I have this weekend and then I head back Monday night. Canada was amazing, we did niagara falls for a day taking the maid of the mist into it, then we went on to Toronto which was a lovely city. So clean and it felt really safe. We took the bus tour which we were able to use the whole week which was handy. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum - a natural history Museum, the Shoe Museum, the Science Museum, Casa Loma - an interesting Castle, the CN Tower, hit a baseball game which was good fun and of course many places to eat and drink. We also followed the PATH which is a connection under alot of Downtown between different shops and hotels etc so you can walk the PATH where there are loads of eateries and little shops so you would never need to go out in the open. We took it as a fun way home from the Eden Centre - a big shopping mall.

As for my artwork, not done much more, done a little more stitching on the baby sampler and mainly been busy writing postcards although bought some great cute notecards too. So below is the card I made, making use of the spring papers I bought cheap. The animals are fun.

Then here is the ATC i made which I had fun making, the butterflies from the paper were fun so I had a little play with them.

I might do a bit more art play as I bought some halloween papers today for a dollar. I also drew and coloured a petite doll whilst I was travelling to Canada but I will chat about that when back in the UK and can upload photo's easier.

A Card and 2 ATC'a

Thats right me and Cayleigh had our crafty morning before she went to work and I got to play with the new scrapbook papers I bought. I got them in sale getting 180 pages of spring papers for $9. It was awesome. What I wish I had realised was how cheap stitching stuff is here cos I could get threads for 40c rather than 70p back home. Must remember that for next time.

So yes, firstly I made a cool card with lots of animals cut out on it and it said hello. I am mailing it to my friend Nic in the UK today. And then I made an Unusual Alphabet ATC with a butterfly on it. I cut 2 seperate butterflies out and put one on pads on top to make it stick out. I used glitter glue to give some sparkle to the bottom butterfly and voila sparkly fun butterflies. (Yes I know there are no pictures, my cable for pictures doesn't work but I do plan to put some on my netbook and then upload however with no adaptor yet for the UK I am worried about running it out). Then one evening this week I also made a 2nd ATC, well part of one, I took black and white paper and made a criss-cross pattern and then an M on black and white in chipboard that I also bought cheap here. All I need is to combine and make my monochrome card :)

I am off to Canada today but I will update probably when I get back in a week.

In America

Thats right I am here in lovely Leesburg where the weather is beautiful and I have already partially tanned/burnt from taking the dog for a long walk :) I am here for 3 weeks but don't worry, I still think craftiness will happen as my sister Cayleigh is crafty so I am sure we will get up to some bits and I bought along some stitching.

So just thought I'd let you all know that I am away sunning myself but I am sure you will still hear from me on here and hopefully still see some work from me. I know I have been less updaty recently and I want to get back into stuff more. First think I think I need to do when I get home is sort our and reorganise all my stash because it is a mess. However Sam should be all moved into the other room by the time I get back so might be able to find a small space in my room to have a bit of a studio area :)

Stitching along

Thats right I am moving on a couple of pieces at the moment. I totally completed a piece which was a japanese doll for my friends birthday card. I thought it was awesome and I hope she did too although she hasn't mentioned it. I will text to see if she got the package.
Apart from that I am still working on the Noahs Ark piece which I have been working on forever as I take really long breaks from it. I am getting there bit by bit and I am going to keep pushing on with it because I have the frame and everything so I want to get it finished - plus I need to finish it before Glaeken gets too old to appreciate it :)

I am also working on a piece I bought in a sale at Hobbycraft which is like a travel/writing piece with the Eiffel Tower on it, a butterfly and a pen, its awesome! There was something about it, I think i will keep it myself but not 100% sure.

Then I have another piece to work on but have not started it yet, its a newtons law baby sampler for when my friend Frances gives birth. She is having a boy which is due beginning of December. I ordered the stitching piece but have not started it yet, I have some time yet so it is ok.

So thats it with me at the moment. Lots of stitching. I am starting in another journal round with the seren swap so that should be fun, only 3 of us in it at the moment but will be good to fill the rest of that journal up.

Apologies as it has been a LONG time since last post.

Well nearly a month which is long to me and totally breaks my once a week new years resolution. Alot has been going on in my life and I am not quite through it yet but I wanted you who still read this to know I am still here, art moving along slowly and will be back to this more often.

I am now a single gal as my partner of 7 years Sam decided he no longer wanted to be with me. We had been engaged for 3 years and although being apart alot over the last 2 years had taken its toll and that we had been very up and down the last couple of weeks, I thought we were going to work on it and make it through. He kept confirming we were going to work on it but as you can see we are not.

So work has been busy which has been keeping me together to a certain extent as I had an important presentation yesterday but following that I have been rather an emotional shambles today, especially with the feedback of the Professor slating us yetserday on me. We are still going to be living together as with the house prices we cannot afford to sell the house and neither of us can move out at the moment. Trying to keep it friendly (he still wants to be friends) but people have helped me realise thats great for him but not for me and that I need to distance myself from him so am in no friendship mode as it hurts to be friends as it feels like nothing has changed. I don't know if he's realised we're not being friends but I kept to my own room yesterday watching "he's just not that into you" that obviously made me cry like a baby :)

So arts not so much happening at the moment although have been still cross stitching so got things moving along. I am to America for 3 weeks on the 25th August, staying with my family just outside DC and very much looking forward to it. Will be just the space and break I need.

So hope you are all well out there and I will hopefully be a bit more present on here.

Cockerel stitching complete

Thats right, after starting something new I picked up at hobbycraft the other weekend back in London, sitting with my friend stitching whilst she was knitting watching Taken, we were discussing how it can be hard with long projects and you just have to get over the hump. Well the cockerel stitching has been close to being finished for quite a while and I just hadn't done it so when I got back I pushed on with it and finally completed it. So here it is for all to see. Now I just have to decide how I am going to mount it ready to take with my to give to Angie as her birthday present. I am thinking maybe a place mat or something. (Add in picture).

I am now determined to push on and complete the Noah's Ark picture I have been working on for like a couple of years because I have the frame for it and everything, it just needs completing! It is another hump that I will get over!

Note: Having issues getting pictures off my camera so will add this at later date.

Decided on my girl

So I have decided to go with the mermaid. I haven't started colouring it yet because I wanted to trace it a few times so that I can experiment with it a bit. I like the hair but not sure how I will do the outfit (obviously it will get painted but I probably do some colouring on it first) and what accessories or sidekicks to go with it. So I want to be able to have a play with colours and different aspects.
However this does mean I am behind in terms of week as we are approaching the end of week 4 and I am only at week 2 as I haven't managed to get a piece of wood but I will over the weekend along with glaze and then background making fun galore :)

More Shading

Thats right I have barely done any art this week so I did another girl and some more shading tonight. I like the idea of a Mermaid themed picture but I am not sure about her body at the minute. I am thinking I will do the background and then see if it inspires the girl. The next week is already up and I haven't done this weeks playing around with my background yet so I am a week behind which means I need to dedicate some time each evening next week to my background and then the next step. I am sure there are others behind as well though and Suzi did say would still be looking at stuff a couple of weeks after so will just keep pushing on and not get stressed about being behind. Otherwise it will just put me off rather than push me forward and I want to continue to develop. I can't believe how far I have come in 2/3 weeks so it'll be exciting to see how much further I can go.

Finally started shading

only a week later than everyone else so am a week behind with the suzi class technically. But it does say we will still have 2 weeks after the video's go up so I am not panicing yet. So here is my first attempt at shading. Not the best as its got some colours showing through strongly but seeing as I have never done anything like this before I certainly don't think its the worse and am impressed i managed to pull together some elements of it. I plan to do some more shading tomorrow night :)

Not quite to plan

In that I don't think I did the sketching I said I'd do Tuesday evening but that is because I got sucked in by Professor Layton on the DS. Its a game that consists of loads of puzzles whilst being a mystery quest at the same time. Its great - I love puzzles. Plus they are the types of ones where its logical but its not the first answer that jumps to your mind, you have to really look at what you are being asked.

Plus now I have less of a free weekend as I am heading back to London to see friends and family. But I intent to take my sketchpad and my netbook with me so I can watch the films on it and then sketch over the weekend as well. I might even take my sketchpad out and about with me to see if I am hit by inspiration from people on the street.

SuziBlu Video 1c

Thats right I watched the rest of video 1b whilst doing a bit of sketching and have watched most of 1c. I even drew one of my petites with a body which didn't turn out quite right in regards to the clothes but its all exploration of new things. I did like giving her cat ears though and playing around with her t-shirt but originally I was going for a dress, then the top looked like a t-shirt so I played with that but she was still left with the dress like bottom. Jeans would have been better so maybe next time I will do that.


I plan to watch the rest of that video tonight and do some more sketching as I was supposed to come up with the Doll I wanted to use for my painting by Saturday but being away from Thursday til Sunday hindered that. So I want to sketch some more in general before I move on to using the colours.
Because that is what Class 2 is which went online yesterday. I am off to the cinema tomorrow so that will leave me no time to sketch so Thursday will be when I start playing with my coloured pencils :) However I have a very free weekend at the moment so the plan will be to play to my hearts content.

More Suzi Blu fun

Thats right, I have made my way through half of video 1b which I did Monday Night and then just sketched in front of the tv last night which was fun. And so I have more sketches to share.

So the first is what I was sketching whilst working my way through some of Video 1b, I also had a More magazine next to me so I flicked through that for some inspiration as well.

Then I was sketching whilst watching Hairspray on the TV and was trying to recreate some of their hairstyles which was fun. I might attempt to do something like that for my actual piece but I am going to have more of a play before I decide that.
I have been out drinking with a lady from bookgroup tonight so no sketching but hoping to fit some in tomorrow before I head back to London for the weekend

Journal Home Safe

Finally my journal from Seren's group swap is home safe and what a treat it is. There were six of us in the swap in the end adn each artists pages are soooo different. I have taken a picture of a double page from each artist so you can see the difference. Its so exciting to leaf through and just touch and look at each page. I know that I will find something a little different each time. So thank you to Nadia Munarolo-Kurjata, Linda East, Karen Chew, Nathalie Davis and Seren. I have enjoyed this swap and although it took longer than expected, I would do it all again in a heart beat.

Video 1a

So I did have a go at Suzi's first class but I only went through video 1a. I plan to look at video 1b and 1c tonight. They are nice to follow and you can have a little draw whilst following the video as well. Suzi is very personable on her video's so they are nice to follow. Anyway here is my first play yesterday, sketching along with the video.

Playing with paints

Art evening on Thursday was fun although Nic put me to shame with her drawning skills. She recreated a drawing of Bumblebee from transformers and it was very good. She didn't end up painting it but is going to paint it in oils at home so I look forward to seeing it.

I on the other hand headed straight for the paints and just had a bit of play. I was going for the sea and although it could be considered the sea, my other half pointed out it also looks a little like mountains and I agree that because the peaks are quite high it could be seen as mountains as well. Clearly something to develop in the future.

The first of Suzi Blu's classes is up online and I am downloading them now although I am not sure if I will find the time to start playing today. I may try to have a little play though. For now I will go back to watching Chocolat whilst trying to let my burnt skin cool down from the sun getting it yesterday :)

I'm attending a workshop

Thats right I have taken the plunge and bought myself in to a workshop - ok its an online workshop but I am very excited. I never done any official art and so this feels special. There are alot of things on the list to buy and I am not sure if I will buy them all. I will see what I think from the tutorial videos but I am getting the basics. And so at the weekend I ordered lots of nice colouring pencils for all the faces I am going to be drawing - I have joined SuziBlu's Petite Dolls class and they turned up today. They are special looking which I then had to put in colour order to look nice.

I also popped to hobbycraft yesterday and picked up soem basic colour acrylics in big tubes so that I have plenty to play with. I only have little tubes so I will save them for stuff I will do less. We are using them for backgrounds in the class so will be able to just much around and experiment. I picked up flesh colour as well - might need that. I also got a circle template and a sketchbook as we will be doing lots of sketching and then using it in our paintings.
So that starts next week and I plan to have fun.


As for tonight I watched Half Nelson whilst writing to penpals and it put me in a contemplative mood so got some tunes on the stereo and have been finishing off pages in a journal I have from a swap so I can send it home. Here's just a few pages from it.


Bring on tomorrow night which is art night with my friend Nic. I see alot of mess with my new paints happening. I will be sure to take pictures

Craft and Vintage Fair

Thats right there was a craft and vintage fair in Chipping Sodbury which I popped along to. It was good fun, small but fun. I had a little wander round and actually could have brought lots of things but I have so much already so I kept myself under wraps however I did buy a couple of things.
One was a card which made me think of an online art friend so it will be heading her way soon. The other was some note cards and envelopes with pixies on mushrooms on them. I thought they were fab and don't have too many notecards as I do use them up so it was all good.

This was one of the stalls there. It was beautiful and I could have bought many things from it. However I did take a card, i took a couple from some of the other stalls as well so I can in the future check out their stuff online.
There was a couple of people who had come all the way from Cornwall which I thought was a long way to come just for a craft fair but I guess it depends on whether they do well and meet nice people or not.

Bring on the Pirates

Thats right, some arty activity. I put on the Devil's Whore which is a tv drama about the civil war which is really good but I was only send disc 1 so now I have to wait for disc 2 to be sent to me.
Although that is not the point, the point is that I got some art done so I was at first working on a design for my next zine as I am in a swap on swap-bot and then I moved on to some ATC's to get to the point of finally finishing off my Unusual Alphabet swap.
So I got my bits out and started at it, finding the pictures I printed off the other day so got me moving with the Pirate ATC's and I made another zen atc. It is fun to do and something different. Doodling is fun. So with the button ATC's I already have that gives me two completed sets to be able to send out - yay! So a trip to the post office is planned tomorrow whilst spending the rest of the time revising in the library!

Sunny Weather on the Bank Holiday!?!?!?!

Thats right it is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK and the weather is beautiful. I am actually out partly sunbathing (I am very pale skinned so tsking it easy) i9n the garden whilst updating my blog. The weather looks worse for tomorrow but in a way that is good as I have my CIPD exams weds and fri so I need to get my head down and revise as I have done some but not enough. But once I am in revision mode in the library I will be set. Then I can chill out on Friday with many drinks in the wetherspoons.

My Dad and his girlfriend have just left after visiting us for the weekend which has been nice. We spent lots of time in the sun, ate and drank as well as popping to a garden centre with huge pigs! I had a manic tidying session friday and saturday morn9ng after having doen bits during the week. And yes I threw stuff away. I am a massive horder who keeps everything because I might use it one day but that means I have way too much stuff in general so I was ruthless (with the help of my friend Nicci) and threw stuff away, gave clothes and books to charity and generally organised and out stuff away. So now you can actually see the carpet in the bedroom rather than clothes, magazines and writing papers. I am planning to keep it thid way although Sam does not beleive me but I will prove it to him.

What this means is that it has been quiet on the art front. When throwing out many fashion magazines I did rip some pages from them for images I liked and I stuck a few of these in the collaboration journal I have so that someone can then develop them. I plan to send it back this week so will try and find time to do a couple of other bits before it gets passed on and then I will keep my eye on it as images are uploaded to see what other people do.
So tomorrow is back holiday monday and although some of it will be revision and I am hoping to do some arting as I still have another journal which I am also going to send back this week. It will complete the swap and mean we can chat about whether we will do another round or not. I have a few completed pagges in it but a couple of WIP's as well so want to get them complete and you gotta have some breaks from revision otherwise I will go mad.

So updates in the next couple of days and this time with pictures.

Bits and bobs

I've got a journal at the moment which is a proper collaboration journal where you can do anything you like on any page. It is actually quite odd as I am used to think about a page as a whole and kinda planning it. It seems odd to do bits on a page and not finish it. I am trying to just do bits and pieces here and there but it feels like I am not really creating anything. So here are a number of pages I have done bits on.
I did do one proper page as such with the tree and the tissue paper, but someone could always add to it. I have also done some writing bits on other pages which people can then create over.

ATC's

Thats right, I actually did some ATC's. It was the last episode of Heroes for series 3 tonight so was watching that whilst doing it. Already had the backgrounds made so it was just actually putting the buttons on them and the rest.I think the button ATC's are fun, cos it had buttons in the background as well as in it :)

I also did a Zen ATC which looks nice. I couldn't find my silver pen but found my Gold. I actually like the effect of the gold better sometimes.
So I have actually pushed on with the ATC's which is good because want to get them sent out to people. I also printed some images off at work to make use in some of the ATC's.
Progress at last :)

And it gets worse

After thinking woohoo I will do some more updating, I can see it has been probably a couple of weeks since my last post. I don't know where the time has gone and its not because I haven't done any art because I have done little bits and pieces. Admitedly I have been busy at the weekends and busy with work during the week but you can always make time for updating therefore I need to be better.
It was a busy couple of days Thursday and Friday with me working like 10/11 hour days both days cos we were busy with shortlisting. So I was so glad to get to the weekend. Today I bought a scooter (I will post a picture tomorrow). I would have preferred a motorbike but what I want to use it for, getting to the station quick for work, nipping here and there without worrying about parking - the scooter is going to be perfect because I can just get on it and go and leave my helmet under the seat. Its a Yamaha Neo's and I have named it Neil.
Then we spent loads of time digging big bushes out of our front garden to make an extra parking space.

Anyway on to the art. Here are a couple of journal pages I have been working on recently. I have done a couple of others in another journal which I will look to update about tomorrow. These have been done at random times, in random places whenever I have had a little time and been inspired. This first one I did when I crashed at a friends after a gig and woke up earlier than him. I had a magazine with me and when I saw this picture I had to journal it. There is something so great about the super woman picture and I like the shape of the person I cut out as it gives the writing a boundary. You can imagine you are the person who can't be seen.

This is a work in progress, I had something to say and wanted to get it down but the page is plain so I want to add to it but am not sure what yet. I will see when inspiration hits me.

This is me having fun with the inkpads I bought a while ago. I bought 30 small inkpads which were in sale and had not even opened them. So i opened them one by one and onto the page they went. I like the effect although unfortunately it went through the paper slightly. So it is a background but again I have not decided what to add to it but I know it when I do :)

Had been doing so well

I really had been keeping up with my new years resolution and then April comes and it all goes to pot. That does not mean I am giving up, just that I am admiting I failed but am getting back on the horse.
Saying that I don't have any pictures to add as I am at work so no camera although I did make a journal page saturday morning so I will add that on as an update soon.

So little bits and pieces of art have been happening, many idea's not may being seen to happen but work has been busy as well as having assignments due for my CIPD which of course I leave to the last minute. So I handed one in last weds and my other one is due in tomorrow and I have ALOT of work still to do on it. But I still have work so ploughing on with work stuff at the moment and then going to stay late tonight in the office to work on my assignment as it should stop me getting distracted at home!

So apologies for lack of updates but once that assignment is in, that should change til we get round to exam time end of May. The rats have really grown and we gave five boys to the adoption centre so now only have 22 rats. The girls are all in the big cage with their mums and the boys are the smaller cage. We plan to sell them soon which will leave us with the three mums and we are going to keep one baby. Huskey's only girl as she very different colouring to all the rest of the girls therefore I have a soft spot for her. No naming has happened yet as don't want to get too attached to them when we are not keeping them.

So thats it for now, Work, College, Rats and some seeing people. I promise a more arty update in the next couple of days

too long since an update

can't believe its been like over 10 days since an update. I had done so well with my once a week update for my new years resolution but I will keep at it. Mainly not very much on the art front has been going on and with Easter and us being away visiting Sam's parents I didn't really go online. What I did do was quite a bit of stitching so it is coming along nicely.


As for the rats, they are growing well too. Looking cuter everyday and part of us wishes we could keep them all but its not possible. Plus if you look at the cage suddenly it can freak you out if they are all at the front. Its like Ah. So much going on un-art related at the moment, trying to finish one assignment for weds and then one for the week after. Also got an interview on Monday for a role due the restructure of RM. Alot to think about and arts not getting a look in with all my time disappearing. Although maybe now is the time for Art to get some of my feelings out.

ATC

I decided to make a Zen ATC before heading to bed because its relaxing plus its been a while so it was nice. I made use of some of the other coloured pens I have, because normally I only make zens in silver. But the blue really added to the Zen.



Been very busy at work so not much else been going on although I did do a journal page tuesday after getting back from an awesome walk in the woods but I am not completely happy with it so might add to it.

Cockerel Progress

Not alot has been going on the art front round here as its been a super busy week at work. I have had a nice relaxing weekend though. Today I painted some backgrounds for one of the journals I have. The main thing that has progressed is the stitching I am working on. I want to get it finished so I can move on to another piece or move back onto the noah's ark piece to finally finish it. So my plan is to crack on with this although I am thinking about having some relaxing fun making a couple of zen ATC's.

However on the Rat front they are getting bigger. We cleaned them out today so got to have a proper play with the babies. Here is a picture of the oldest litter who have got fur and ears but cannot see yet.

bits and bobs

Its fun making use of the leftovers and using the cut-off's of the photo's I used for the scrapbooking was super fun. There was something intriguing about the bits of photo's being put together. Its like you are looking in on something but you don't quite know what it is so you have to put it together yourself. Well thats what I think anyway but thats the beauty of putting it all together. What will the viewer discover!

Here is an update of the cockerel stitching, see bit by bit it is getting there, who knows I might be finished by the middle of the year :) Well hopefully sooner than that, then I can find a new piece to create. I need days and days of free time and no work to catch up on all the fun and arty things and turn some of my idea's into reality