Washi Tape - A Journal Page (Plus Mixed Media Houses & Flora's Bloom True E-Course)

I (along with the greater part of the paper arts world!) love washi tape and Cute Tape - where I have purchased the majority of my washi tape collection - recently had a giveaway.  I thought about entering but I have been away most of the last week with work and I didn't get around to it but today I thought I would make a point of using some while I was doing a journal page.  

Ever since doing Flora Bowley's workshop in March last year, I have been using up any excess paint on my palette or brushes on my journals.  I apply the paint very randomly and imprecisely and it provides a ready background when I decide to do some journaling.  This page has two washi tapes on it - the green text and the magenta birds and flowers (with silver dots in the background).  The rest is just doodling and writing using a less than perfect white pen on the painted background.  

And, while I am still on the subject of washi tape I found some in the Typo stores here in Perth just recently (not sure how long they have carried it but it was a pretty exciting moment for me). I bought the black and white measuring tape style and the green and white check - a very pretty two pack.

A few blog posts back I shared the results of the beautiful Aus Art Sisters Mixed Media Hanging Houses and I have finally hung them up in my "bliss box" (where I get to play with my beautiful art and craft supplies!).  Last weekend's effort fell off the wall so hopefully today's system will prove to be more durable!

Tomorrow the new Flora Bowley "Bloom True - Brave Intuitive Painting" e-course starts and I can't wait.  I had the wonderful experience of being part of Flora's March three day workshop here in West Australia last year but it left me hungry for more.  I've cleaned out my tiny little "bliss box" and made as much room as possible for BIG canvases and lots of messy paint.  I've checked all my art supplies and got out all the drop sheets and rags and mark-making tools I have collected over the several years of my fascination with surface design.  So you know what I will be doing when I am not at work or asleep over the next five weeks! 

PS If you are in Australia and have even the smallest urge to paint intuitively, I really suggest you get yourself to Melbourne in June for Flora's only Australian workshop in 2012. 

Zentangles - A Sampler This Time

 As mentioned a little while ago I have developed a zentangle addiction.  Doodling has always been a way for me to stay focused (for example, in meetings I am able to concentrate a whole lot better if I can do a bit of doodling) but lately I have been doing a lot of doodling at home and it is really quite meditative and calming.

I bought heaps of Strathmore Artist Trading Card (ATC) packs when Jacksons had them on sale last year so I have a ready supply of blanks in my ATC tin.  I like to do a zentangle ATC as a creativity warm up exercise whenever I sit at my craft desk (although often I just keep going on the zentangles instead of moving on to something else) but over the last few months I have also been working occasionally on this "sampler".  I haven't got into shading yet but I can see that will add a whole lot more depth to the designs.

I quite like having the larger size page to work on - again it is a Strathmore product - this time it is the A4 size mixed media journal.  They have beautiful quality paper, strong covers and a spiral binding.  A couple of weeks ago I bought a tiny version of the same journal so I could doodle ATC size pieces when I am on the train (30 minutes each end of the day) - I usually read or do addoku or killer suduko puzzles, but I thought it would be fun top have another option.

So now I am noticing patterns everywhere and I am trying to expand my instinctive urge to do swirly patterns whenever I have a pen in my hand!

Flow!

My painting for Sue Ettridge for the Nanga 8 December Exchange (30x30cm)

Happy New Year!  

Let's hope we all have a wonderful 2012. 

I only managed 21 posts in 2011 so I am not making any promises to myself about blogging this year - it will all depend on how much creative time I get and how creative I am feeling at those times because that is what this blog is about!  I am, however, doing the wonderful Flora Bowley's online Bloom True painting course in February so hopefully that will provide me with heaps of creative motivation.  Look here for details if you think you might like to give it a go too.

Christine Kane promotes a "word for the year" concept to replace the traditional New Year Resolutions and it has worked really well for me over the last few years.  I have been mulling over my 2012 word for a few days now and last night, sitting on the beach, watching the waves as the sun went down and saying my goodbye to 2011 and welcome to 2012, I realised that my word is going to be FLOW. 

I want to let go of my desire to control (and fix!) situations, to be liked, to please others, to achieve specifics.  To let go of fear. I need to be like water - to just flow with it, to wash around and over hurdles and to accept that ebb is part of flow. I want to let my creativity flow too!

Ciao for now & enjoy this first day of a whole new year!

Zentangles - An Addiction!

Yes, I am officially addicted - zentangles are just so much fun!  This is a selection of recent ATCs I have made in the zentangle style.  So far I haven't tried shading them - just black and white doodles, some with borders, some without.  

My favourite pens at the moment are Faber Castell Drafting & Sketching Pens (Ecco-Pigment) - they are technical drawing pens and come in a pack of four with sizes ranging from 0.1 to 0.7.  Absolutely wonderful!

What I think I like most is that you can just work on these ATCs in very small bursts of time - there is no excuse when you only have five minutes plus they are so transportable!  All of these ones are on Strathmore Bristol Smooth ATCs.   

Let me know if you love zentangling - perhaps we could trade???

A Mixed Media Exchange

My houses for the swap

I recently hosted a mixed-media "hanging houses" exchange on the Aus_ArtSisters group following the wonderful results from earlier heart and bird exchanges.  We had eleven participants in total and we all ended up with one of each of the other participants houses, all of which were quite different in style, material and embellishment!  My dining table looked rather glorious while I was sorting all of the 120+ houses that had arrived here.  

The photo at the top is a group shot of the fronts of the houses I made.  I wanted to do "bright and cheerful" and decided to decorate them all differently (reduces the boredom factor!) and then I personalised the backs with the recipients name etc.  The hearts on the front are blanket stitched felt for a bit of textural contrast.  

And here are my houses from the other ten participants (not all have blogs unfortunately) - 

aren't they all wonderful? 

Sue Smith's "tea" house

Margaret Cullen-Erickson's house

Lucy Leatham's "bird" house

Judy Timmins house

Bevlea Ross' house

Celeste Santin's house

Jacky Williams' house

Vanessa Henry's house

Kasha Rolley's house

Gaye Todd's house

And now of course I must find somewhere lovely to hang them all! 

Something Different...

Well so much for my intention to do some catch-up posts a fortnight ago!  Time really seems to be flying by this year - I really can't believe we are only a little over three months away from Christmas.

This painting is something completely different for me.  I painted it on my weekend in Denmark recently with my wonderful friends Sue Smith and Jhodi Bennett.  We were sharing some inspiration and different techniques and Jhodi got us to paint on big wood panels using what I call a grunge-y technique - lots of bright colours, scribbles and handwriting covered with white paint scraped over the top, and stencilling and splashing and dripping and sponging and sanding back.  Although I love "loose" and "messy" techniques in other people's artwork I am not naturally comfortable actually doing it myself, so this really was a stretch for me.  

I loved it though and I think it was because I saw it as "play" - I had no expectations and no feelings that it would matter if I didn't like the result.  It was a damp weekend in the bush weather-wise so this has had ants crawling on it and rain drops land on it when I didn't get back outside quick enough when the weather changed!  I can't wait to do more - probably smaller pieces though as it will be a bit easier for me to work on inside - the wood is such a lovely firm surface and I love the idea of being able to hammer in nails and add texture without worrying about the impact on a canvas.

Next post I'll share the results of the little hanging houses swap that I really hosted - they are so cute!

Beautiful Art Received!

This beautiful piece of artwork is from Vanessa ("Ness") Henry - she made it for me in a one-on-one exchange (my little quilt for her was the subject of my last post).  I just love it - it sparkles and has lots of lovely details and arty touches (very Ness!).  I have it displayed in my bedroom as it looks perfect there and I can look at it every day that I am home!

I can't believe it has been so long since I blogged but life has been hectic - we are planning a trip to France (in 2012) and as a result I seem to spend every spare moment searching for apartments, reading about France or googling images!  Very addictive, I must say.  I had a lovely "long" weekend away in Denmark a week ago with two beautiful friends and although I have had a week or so of leave the time has just flown!  I've also been working on and off over the last several weeks on some small "hanging houses" for a swap with the Australian Art Sisters group so I haven't had anything much arty that I could blog about.  I am intending, though, to do a couple of catch-up posts this week (as soon as I edit some photos!!).