Quirky Owls

This was a page in my art journal that began innocently enough as a layered background.

My next stage was to doodle and highlight before blocking in a figure, but as I sat on the couch, my mother was sitting to my right and exclaimed "What cute owls"! Then I could see nothing else....and the page took a different turn. 

I was inspired by an old Life Book lesson about Quirky Birds. Isn't it lovely to be inspired by art 2 years later? 

I doodled, and I glazed, but I just couldn't alter the background cos I love it. 

The outcome is not where I expected to end up, and not my usual subject matter, but they make me smile.

It will always remind me of that visit from my Mum ♥

Daily Journaling Week 14

I'm following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 14 : Write your name and embellish it (not inspired by that at all this week!) And from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE : Theme for the month has been Bloom. Prompt : make drippy collage flowers. 
I started by using a stencil and paints for my days of the week - pretty

This week has been very stormy as we catch the end of Cyclone Debbie....no worries at my house but I am sick of "drips" and not ready for full-frontal winter yet so decided I would go for messy blooms instead. I was inspired by Alisa Burke's floral finger painting on YouTube and this blog post as well. These in turn put me in mind of a Life book lesson I did last year called Expressive Florals - not fingerpainting, but loose and messy and lovely ♥

When I went back to look at it again, I realised that I had only attempted the bonus lesson (actually from 2014). So here I am inspired by {some of} the actual main lesson from Week 32 2016 called "Grow Free" with Tam. Began with a sprayed background and very loose leafy shapes

Spatter and finger-painting - loose and fun and drippy flowers achieved :-)

This is the finished spread - not one of my favourites, but a fun experiment and I'm calling it done ready for journaling my week

You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE

Creative Dreams for 2017

You can do ANYTHING, 

but you can't do EVERYTHING!

While I normally start a new year with big plans and a long list of projects that may seem impossible to achieve, I usually end my year with a "Ta Da!" list that never would have happened without the long list.... you've got to have a dream don't you?!
I know that creating is something that makes me SHINE so I'm making sure there's plenty of support for that! But be kind and realistic about what's possible for you. I was going to call this post creative goals, but changed it to dreams cos I usually have to review my expectations mid year and get a bit more realistic! January is dream time for me ♥ Everything seems possible....

ART JOURNALING
+ I am definitely IN with Effy Wild's Book of Days class for the year (link will take you to buying a full-year or first session option) Session One will take place between January 1 & April 1st. We will break in April, and Session Two will take place between May 1 & August 1. We will break in August and resume for Session Three which will run between September 1 & December 1. I find her style of teaching inspiring, and I adore her Facing Forward II class. The breaks will let me catch up and focus on other projects as well.

Effy's also co-host of Journal 52 (free weekly prompts for the year)
+ Documenting Life - I've had daily journals in the past, often in the form of a calendar journal, but in 2016 I just decided to include some memory keeping as part of my art journal.  I'm ready to go back to a separate journal for this purpose again and I'm going to follow the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. More about that journal soon....

+ I really enjoyed doing Life Book again last year. In 2016 I managed to complete 30 pieces of art from the lessons on offer, and In 2015 I completed 23 pieces of art. I went through a phase of feeling really disappointed that I wasn't getting to the lessons but now I've decided I'm not going to take on Life Book 2017, but will attempt to complete more of the lessons I've saved from 2015 and 2016 - plenty to keep me going ;-)

 + My Word of the year is SHINE - read about that in my previous post. I'm doing Ali Edwards' One Little Word again to keep my on track 

+ I also have Spirit Wings by Kelly Rae Roberts  (purchased because I just couldn't resist the bargain from her 10 Year anniversary sale...class now available for $99 lifetime access)

and Grateful HeART journal by Alisa Burke because I love her stuff and I got it on sale!

If you need some cheap and FREE online art class ideas check out my list HERE.
FABRIC and STITCH PROJECTS
+ I was gifted Sue Spargo's embroidery class on Craftsy 

+ More quilts to be made I hope - this one is waiting to be finished : 

+ Mixed Media fabric art projects - like my banner

As well, I hope I get the opportunity to teach again this year - I'll be taking craft club at school again at the very least. 

You can do ANYTHING, but you can't do EVERYTHING! On reading over this post I'm obviously going to try though...if I get half of this done by the end of the year I'll be doing well! Are your creative dreams as big as mine? ♥

Life Book 2016

I've enjoyed doing Life Book 2016. Even though the last piece I created was in October, I actually made more art than I did in 2015 which was my first year of this amazing year long offering. The online community is wonderfully supportive and I've connected with some special people across the miles. One of them is Zsuzsa in Great Britain. She blogs at InkyDinkyDoodle. We decided to do a wee parcel swap in December and both arrived in time for Christmas. This is what I sent her - with a taste of New Zealand in many of my choices 

In return, this was the pile of goodies I received. I am so VERY lucky.

While I LOVE everything I was sent, and it makes me smile that we have got to know each other quite well through our art, I was especially touched by the very special concertina book she made celebrating some of our Life Book projects. These are our different interpretations of the same lesson. It's wonderful to see them together.

My art is on the left, and hers on the right

Go here to see all of Zsuzsa's Life Book posts. If you've never done Life Book before, I encourage you to have a go. I have learned so much from the different teachers and grown as an artist in so many different ways. There is something on offer EVERY week - which can be daunting, but is also wonderful - there is always something new to inspire.
Here are a couple of screen shots of my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. Click on the photos to see them larger, or click on the link to go directly to the Flickr album. See all my Life Book 2016 posts here.

Sign up for Life Book 2017 HERE and there's a 20% off coupon anyone can use this year!

Discount if you sign up before14th January 2017.  

Journal October with LB2016 : Chunky Versals

I've changed the way I do "daily" journaling, and now do my memory keeping on a spread for the whole month. I did that for September HERE and a fun lesson from Life Book 2016 with Martha Lever was the perfect way to head up my October pages. She taught her Chunky Versals lettering and this is what I did with that : 

After September, I randomly chose a spread a few pages on in my journal and started swiping off excess paint as I made journal pages. 

Then I started using prompts from Documented Life to build my spread. Week 1 : hide something under your art, Week 2 : start with a doodle - the doodled October heading is glued down over some private thoughts about October. 

Week 3 : Draw a line down the middle and create 2 scenes. Thought I would start by dividing the rest of the page and doing half collage and half paint, but couldn't resist adding the flowers on the painted half. Then decided I should add a face since they've been a focus for October

and Week 4 : repeat a pattern led me to create a flower similar to those created HERE.

Week 5 : Incorporate the first letter of your name finished that page. I just tore appropriate words from the top of dictionary pages, and then found some lovely words to circle in the background. They didn't start with L but deserved to be highlighted.

The other page of the spread is photos and imagery that speak to me of the month - some are obvious (changing my wardrobe over to lighter clothes, mixed weather, winning the ribbon in the quilt show) and some only make sense to me unless explained (eg. the 2 chairs by the table = lots of time supporting study with my eldest for his big NCEA exams due to start next week).

Here's the whole spread that captures my October. Hope you have a fabulous November.

Click on the photo to see it larger. Go HERE to see my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book this year HERE. You can see my Flickr album with all my daily journaling spreads HERE. 

LB2016 : Smiling heart

This was a Life Book 2016 lesson with Angela Kennedy. I initially thought I wouldn't do this lesson and would just watch the videos to see how she uses coloured pencils. But once I watched, I decided I wanted to try out a few of her techniques. 
First applied white gesso mixed with cheap black acrylic and made marks with paint brush. Quick and effective and a departure for me who loves a busy/collaged background but it's very dark (spoiler alert - I don't leave the background alone!)

After dry I can start sketching in the girls' outline but because the background is too dark for her face base I applied some more white gesso followed by some portrait pink acrylic. Face sketched and some colour blocking here. 

I've been using coloured pencils quite a bit in my faces lately for shading - a technique I've been learning from Effy Wild in the Facing Forward class. Angela has a slightly different approach, blending darker colours with a lighter pencil colour. Unfortunately I don't have light pencils, but I used transparent zinc white paint (as discussed here) for blending. I did some work with some of my water-soluble pencils too - the cheeks went a bit bright but were also saved with the zinc white. In the end, you have to use what you've got or you'll just end up buying endless supplies!  My face shading colours (Faber-Castell Polychromos brand) are 4 different browns and I also have a black and white (used on the dress, sleeves, heart below). The brighter colours (green eyes, pink cheeks and lips) are Derwent Inktense - once they are water activated they are permanent.  

Bit more face detailing and started to add some pencil into her hair too. Pretty happy so far but I feel she needs something else...

Time to add some sparkle. Metallic rub-ons are creamy and grab texture on the page. The metallic pen is a favourite Sakura Gelly roll.

Although I admire Angela's more simple style, my girl needed "Shine". Added gold through stencil to her dress and finishing background touches with corrugated card pressed in gold paint.

Click on the photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book this year HERE.
If you're wondering abou Life Book, Tam has just released a FREE Life Book Taster HERE. It's a FULL lesson from the beginning of the year and includes a meditation, videos that you can download and keep, plus fully detailed PDF. It's a great example of the kind of lesson you get from Tam - almost monthly. This is a photo of her project : 

and this was my version from January

Sign up for Life Book 2017 HERE and there's a 20% off coupon anyone can use this year!