Silly Me Party Link

Hi Everyone

I am joining in on Sung-Hee's Silly Me Party. You just have to express yourself in a silly way in your art and put a word to each letter of your name. Hop on over to her blog to see what it's all about and add your link.

L - lock up your things if you don't want it to be painted on, doodled on, stenciled and stamped on
E - experimental
E - enlivened

C - creative
L - lover of books
E - Elucidator ( had to look up the dictionary for that one)
M - mysterious
E - Empathetic
N - never without something on my creative to do list
T - thoroughly addicted to creative expression.
S - spirited

Here is my "silly me" art contribution, so silly I didn't even centre my last name. It has a background of coloured pencils and then a black Sharpie, white gel pen and coloured pens over the top. This was a bit of silly fun that I have needed this week, thanks Sung-Hee.

So just a quick post this week and a nice quote about friendship. 

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Have a great weekend everyone.

Namaste
Lee

Stencil Challenge

Hi Everyone

I hope you have had a great weekend relaxing, creating and soaking in life.

I am posting a journal page as part of a stencil challenge and giveaway being run by Paula, the illustrious Journal Artista. Paula has inspired me since I first became hooked on art journaling with her in depth videos on You Tube and Ustream. This week she has put out a challenge to her followers and watchers of her Ustream channel to use Crafters Workshop stencils in your pages.

Well you all know how much I love these stencils, I don't think there is a page I have done that doesn't use them. So here is are my pages.

I started with a watery wash of Jo Sonja Ultramarine Blue. My first stencil layer was with one of my favourite stencils called Mini Cosmic Bubbles, sponged with Titanium White.

My next layer was a few scrapings with a credit card and Jo Sonja Brilliant Violet

I scrapped it so I would still be able to see the bubbles underneath.

 My next stencil to use was called Swirly Vines, the 12 x12 size and Jo Sonja Aqua. This was also sponged on.

I wanted to add some flowers, just because I love the flower stencils so I used Flower Frenzy (12 x12) with Jo Sonja Pacific Blue and the stencil brush.

So here we are... I'm not totally sold on it so....

I pulled out my trusty white gel pen and outlined the flowers. I liked where they were but I wanted them to stand out.

 Now thats better and heading in the right direction. At this stage I didn't want to make it too busy so decided that a title was needed. I found the appropriate quote and my new alphabet stamps from Image Tree called Brush Letters Lower Case ABC

I used them with Versa Magic Cloud White and then outlined them with my gel pen.

  I clean my stamps with baby wipes and these are the ones I have at the moment. Elmo baby wipes. There were none like these when my boys were young. I can see dry ones of these being used in a page later on.

I added some swipes with a round brush and a light violet colour on each petal of the big flowers and I also added some more spots using the Posie stencil and White.

Here is the finished page. I may journal on it later but I'm not sure it needs it.

Thanks Paula for running the challenge. I intended on having this finished earlier but I was cutting and then laying the carpet in my studio. 

My quote today is again from "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" regarding giving

"The universe operates through dynamic exchange... giving & receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe.

And in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives."

Have a great week everyone, I will be back later in the week with the unveiling of my art space.

Namaste

Lee

Progress report

Hi everyone,

So nice to touch base with you again. It has been a while but I know you'll understand when you see what I have been up to. 

I want to say thankyou to everyone that comes and visits me, I am grateful for this lovely community where we share ideas, encouragement and dreams. 

I hope you are dreaming big today...

Here is a sneak peak at my studio so far. I have been busy sorting, buying containers and storing my things just where I want them. I didn't realise how much "stuff" I had until I went to put it all in one place, suffice to say that the local op shop will be getting a nice big donation from me soon after I have purged what I no longer need.  For now, it is all coming together. This weekend we put down the carpet and put my desk in and a few other bits and pieces.

Last weekend I was busy teaching my first batik watercolour on rice paper class. It was a long but enjoyable day with everyone finishing their paintings.

 We used Atelier Interactive paints because you can reactivate them much like watercolour paints so we had time to lift off colour or blend edges.

I have been playing around with this technique for a while but this is the first time I had taught it, so it was a bit of an experiment and I think it worked really well. We only had a small class which was good to start with and we all had fun waxing and painting and probably the only time I will say that I enjoyed ironing.

 here is what it looks like before we iron the wax off for the big reveal. A few people had heart attacks when i scrunched this up into a ball before laying it out.

Here is the finished piece.

 So no journal pages have been done but I have started a couple so it's not a total barren art wasteland. I tell you though I am over the sorting and moving things around, I just want to get into my studio space and start creating. More to do today so I had better crack the whip and get into it.

I hope you all are having a creative week. I have been trying to get around to visit everyone , there is so much creative inspiration out there at the moment I think I need 6 months off work just to try all the things I've seen.

My quote today is from the book by Deepak Chopra called "The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success" in the chapter - The law of Dharma or Purpose in Life. It goes like this

"Everyone has a purpose in life... a unique gift of talent to give to others.

And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience the ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals."

How can you help or give to someone today with the unique talents that you have been given?

Have a great weekend

Namaste 

Lee

Another step closer...

Hi everyone from a cold, wet Melbourne. We have just had the coldest day for 12 months and tomorrow we are not expected to go above 11C so I will be rugging up for work tomorrow. Winter is well and truly with us.

I wanted to show you a couple of photos on the progress of my studio so you can see I haven't been curled up inside all the time :)

 First the empty garage at last. A clean slate for my storage cupboards.

And today the cupboard shells went in.
Just waiting on the shelving brackets to arrive on Thursday and shelving to be built in between the two cupboards, and this weekend I should be loading the shelves up with all my things.

A friend is building this all for me after he finishes at this day job so it will be done in bits at a time. I am so excited and happy at this stage alone so I think I will be jumping for joy by the time it is all finished.

Meanwhile I have completed another journal page and begun a birthday present for my eldest niece.

So I started with a background of leftover paint which was a mix of Atelier Interactives Mars Violet and Carbon Black.










I then chose my stencil, another Crafters Workshop stencil,  but decided that I wanted the opposite pattern to show so I picked out a blank page on another journal and with Jo Sonja Lilac and a sponge roller,















I rolled the paint over the top of the stencil,











 Flipped it over on my original journal page and used my brayer to transfer the paint to the page

Here is the page on the left where I sponged over the top and the negative image on the right where i brayered over the top.

 Why waste paint I say and such a good way to get two uses out of the same stencil.

I really like the look of the one on the right; how the paint is not solid, giving a real textured look.

It needed a bit of shimmer so I put some Jo Sonja Rich Gold in a Mini Mister with water and sprayed over sections of the same stencil but with a different placement.












To give this lovely shimmery effect in places on the pages.















Next it was on to choosing a paper to collage and i picked a circle pattern out of this stack of papers I bought ages ago.

 I cut out the parts of the pattern I wanted and adhered it to the pages with Atelier Binder Medium. This is a great fast-drying medium that you can use for collage or to prepare the surface of your canvases so the gesso sticks better.

 

So here we are at this stage. I am liking where this is going but still have no idea of the title of the page. 

I found an adorable little owl stamp from Kaisercraft and used a sponge with Jo Sonja Yellow Green to add him to the pages.

This photo is a bit blurry but I then stamped using the same colour with this border of circles.

I picked the words for the page from a sheet of text from Kaisercraft, cut them out and decided where they would go on the page. I thought they would fade into the background so decided that I needed a bit of colour behind the letters

I used the small sponge brush with Jo Sonja Titanium White and then YellowGreen over the top. I just swiped them on the page without to much concern and then adhered the text with the Binder Medium.

So here is my finished page. I also added a bit of shimmer but drawing around the text with gold pen and adding dots on the circle paper in gold.

Well it is hailing outside now so it is time for a nice hot cuppa. I hope to show you soon,  the finished canvas for my niece; for now here is what I am up to.

I hope you are all having a great week. 

I leave you today with the quote from my pages

"Live today fully and you create a lifetime of meaningful memories"

Sophia Bedford-Pierce

Namaste 

Lee