A few more pages from my Kelly Kilmer class

This spread did not follow any of Kelly's prompts, but was inspired by the image of the dancer - I have always had a passion for Flamenco dancing. I tried a few classes many years ago, it is surprisingly difficult to co-ordinate the movements of the arms and feet, as they are frequently moving counter to each other...

This spread was in response to a prompt that Kelly posted - Perfume or no perfume?

These pages were inspired by the images rather than a prompt

First pages for my Kelly Kilmer class

I have signed up for Kelly Kilmer's "A life Made By Hand Class". I have been lurking rather a long while since signing up, looking at the many wonderful pages that are being posted. Collage is a new medium for me, so I have been rather hesitant in starting, but the group is wonderfully supportive, so yesterday I took the plunge and posted my first pages.



The second page (on the right) is not really a collage, but as I wanted the text to be the main feature of this page, I felt the image spoke for itself and needed no further intervention from me.

Calendar-Feb10

I did well with my January calendar for Kate Crane's Monthly Art Calendar Challenge , only a few blank squares.

Here are my pages prepped and ready for February. The squares were masked off then I buffed on Permanent Red PanPastel with Phthalo blue around the edges. I just love PanPastels for journal pages they give the page such a lovely smooth tactile surface. I then stamped around the edges with a flourish and a heart stamp.

Gratitude Journal 19th Jan

Here is another spread from my Gratitude journal, again with a PanPastel background, this was using the colours Yellow Ochre and Red Iron Oxide Shade blended together, the pattern was drawn with an eraser.

Gratitude Journal

I am a great fan of Christine Kane's blog have been reading about about Gratitude Journals and felt that this was really the time for me to start one.

The idea is to take a small notebook and write out 3-5 things that you are grateful for every day. I thought I would add an artistic spin to this and decorate my pages first. I have used very simple and quick techniques, and will post a few here as I go along...



I chose a Moleskine pocket sketchbook for my journal as it is an ideal size. I wanted to keep the backgrounds quick and simple, so I am not deterred by having a page ready. This page has been created with a background of blended PanPastel and a border drawn with a Zig calligraphy pen.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all... It's about time I added something to this sadly neglected blog! I have decided to join Kate Crane's monthly calendar challenge, it was something I half-heartedly attempted last year, but didn't manage to finish. So I hope the support of a challenge will keep me going this time.



I decided on icy colours for January - to match the current weather - and a motive of clocks to represent the preciousness of time. The background was created by spraying a mist of aqua Creative Colourspray over Tim Holtz timeworks masks. I then masked off the calendar squares and buffed blue PanPastel over the page before shading each box with blue metallic coloured pencil. The lettering was done by hand.

And what exciting news for the first entry of 2010 - the arrival of our 2nd granddaughter safe and sound at 10am! Mother and baby both doing well.

Journaling buddies...

There are many things I love about Journaling, but one the most unexpected pleasures has been the wonderful online communities that I have connected with.

One journal keeper I connected with was Liz (Flickr name Borromini Bear) who generously contributed some of her work to my Travel Journal booklet.

A few weeks ago I was looking through her Flickr pages, and spotted a drawing of Vanburgh, the architect of Castle Howard in Yorkshire. She mentioned in her post that she was planning to visit the UK from Australia. I commented on her photo, asking if she was planning to visit Bath. Well, it transpired that she was indeed passing nearby, and had decided to stop off for tea at the world famous Bridge Tea Rooms in Bradford-on-Avon in the morning en-route to Wales. As I do the school run to Bradford-on-Avon every morning this turned out to be perfect.

So, this morning I had the pleasure to meet up with Liz, and Borromini Bear himself, we sketched in the tea rooms and swapped journaling experiences. Here is Liz in action (with Borromini in the foreground) -



So, if you have been hesitating to start that journal, JUST DO IT, you never know what may happen.

To see some of Liz's wonderful journal pages, and read a little about her journaling experience take a look at this wonderful book she had printed

Alphabet Frieze

Here is another of the projects that kept me busy over the summer. It is a gift for my granddaughter Amelia. The pictures are in strips that can be joined up as a wall frieze. Katie, her mum has also scanned them and is laminating them individually so they can be used as teaching cards.





They are painted with acrylic craft paints on watercolour paper

Now much art around here lately...

Well, I seem to have been engrossed in IT matters lately, so not much Art has been done. So I thought I would post one of my favourite videos. I just love the dancing on this, the movements are so fluid. I remember going to flamenco classes at The Dance Centre in London many years ago, it is deceptively complicated. The arm movements seem very straight forward until you combine them with what your feet are meant to be doing...

Anyway, enjoy, and let me know if you like it too.

Pembrokeshire Travel Journal

Had a wonderful week in Pembrokeshire - the first time I have taken a vacation in Wales and it hasn't rained all the time. We only had one really wet day, so were able to take advantage of the wonderful beaches in this part of the world. A couple of good surfing beaches too, so we had lots of fun body boarding.

Still working on my travel journal, but here are a few pages...

These were mainly done with Pitt Artist Pen, Watercolour pencils and a waterbrush, but some were watercolour paint.