more art journal pages

As promised, here are some more art journal pages from my workshop demo book.  The envelopes, tags, little books and stencilling are part of my Art Journalling 3 workshop which I taught at The Stamp Attic last Saturday, and will be teaching at The Cubby Hole this Saturday!

The last two pages are from Art Journalling 2 where we explore different ways of colouring a page.  They are both ready for any extra collaging, doodling, or splashing of paint that I might feel like adding!

It feels a bit weird sharing a whole journal with you, rather than just odd pages...very baring my soul... so would love to hear any comments you have on it [just click on 'arty ponderings' below to leave a comment]

latest USArtquest Parcel arrived :)

And here's a sneak peek of what was inside :)  We'll be posting our next USArtquest design team projects on Monday but if you'd like a hint of what they might be, have a little hop around our blogs as we're all posting an element from our kit!

I've been enjoying the art shows that are going on at the moment.  Last week I went to the graduate show at MMU, over the weekend I saw an A level/GCSE show whilst down at The Stamp Attic, and tonight I visited my childrens' school A level/GCSE show.  I'll post the pics another day as I realised I'd not posted any of my own stuff recently.  Here are the first few pages from my workshop/teaching journal :) [more tomorrow]

Elements

I'm so excited to be teaching at Elements in September.  It's being organised by Paddy Cosgriff of Paddy's Stamping Place in Prestwich, Manchester.  Paddy owns a quirky little shop on Butterstile Lane, Prestwich which sells the most amazing items for the mixed media artist.  I have learnt a lot from Paddy over the years and am so thrilled to be involved with  her first mixed-media crafting weekend. We've got such a diverse mix of ingredients within our project that the techniques being taught are very varied and up to the minute.

There are 6 tutors in total, and each tutor is focusing on a different 'element' of the piece.  Becca Balazs is working with fabric.  She owns  'Becca's Quilt Emporium' in Dorset and hosted our corset display last year (see my post here).  

 

Then there's Neet Hickson who will be teaching techniques with makin's clay.  Neet does a lot of  wonderful work with clay of all types, and teaches regularly at Paddy's Stamping Place.  

 

Kay Halliwell-Sutton is another regular tutor at the shop who does brilliant workshops with mdf pieces.   And last, but not least, I will be working with perspex, Paddy with metal, and my great friend Helen Jackson with mixed media.

I LoVe teaching workshops and have just come home from teaching for two days at Wendy's Stamp Attic.  I'll get those pics posted for you seeon as it was a fabulous weekend, and I found my cable - YAY!  It had been appropriated by my 15 year old son!!!

missing in action without a cable

I'm heading 'down south' and teaching at Wendy's for the weekend.  I was going to leave you with some pics from my zendoodling class, a new little friend, and my guinea pigs (they're for Lavender in Amsterdam - I do love how you meet people blog hopping!).  But the cable has disappeared that connects my phone to the computer so I'm afraid I can't share pics :(  I can share the link to the USArtQuest post though, leave a comment and your in with a chance of winning the Draw and Gild kit!

http://sarahanderson1.blogspot.com/2010/06/usartquest-design-team-launch-and-blog.html

But me quick, it ends Sunday!

PDCC#35: what a teeny tiny world we live in

If you're a play date cup winner you're eligible to be featured as a guest designer at the cafe, and this week we welcome

Lucy Abrams

Now one of the remarkable things that we discovered about Lucy this week, is that she lives 5 minutes drive away from me!!  Can you believe what a small world we live in?  And not only that, she's not long moved house and used to live 5 minutes walk away!!  We're sure we must have seen each other in Sainsbury's or Tesco [our local food stores for my US friends] lol

I love blogs :)

Lucy and I are both teachers, we both like to use stitching in our work, and both love Hero Arts designs, oh, and we both enjoy gardening.....but our work is rather different.  Lucy works very cleanly, I'm a bit of a messy, throw paint around kind of person.  I can't wait to meet up though :)

Ok, if you're still with me, I chose the play date colours this week. I realised we'd not really featured the colour brown in many of our challenges so had a browse around some art photos.  Julie and I both loved this chairs image.   I'm definitely in a canvas mood at the minute (which is good, as I'm teaching them  a lot at the minute!!)

I drew this seahorse earlier in the week for a zendoodling class and decided to use him again here.  I used brown, red and orange portfolio oil pastels for his body and enhanced him with stitching and beads.

Spray ink on the canvas, buttons, thread, lace, beads, feather and fabric all bring texture to the sea. 

I love adding these bits n pieces, it's so relaxing!

My Sophie is 13 today [Happy Birthday Sophe!!!] and she's had her eye on this piece so I'm wrapping it up for her birthday :)

And I'm going to leave you with Lucy's card, so beautifully neat and tidy :)

Don't forget to hop on over to see all the other designer's cards for this week - they are all FaBuLouS!!

USArtQuest Design Team Launch and BLoG HoP!

Welcome to the USAQ very first BLoG HoP!  It's so exciting to have you join us :) [and a bit scary for me as I get to kick the whole thing off - that's what comes of marrying into the beginning of the alphabet!]  Just look at this yummy prize [and it really is yummy, those sheets of flake are A5 in places!]

This Draw & Gild Kit retails at $29.99 in the States, and I've not been able to find it in the UK.  They're shipping internationally with this prize so if you want a chance of winning this, get hopping, and leave each designer a comment by 11.59pm EST on Sunday 27th June [for those in the UK, comment by 5am Monday 28th June]!  In case you get lost, here is a list of the order you must hop

start here with me, Sarah Anderson

Suzi Blu

Lea Cioci
Jessica Griffin
Jan Hennings
Terri Sproul
Connie Vogt
Julie Ranae
USAQ Blog

I played with my new Shrooms with the 'Draw & Gild Kit'.  I never knew you could stamp with Duo  Embellishing Adhesive, but you can!

All you do is put some Duo onto your stamp [I did it directly from the bottle but it was a bit runny and I ended up with too much - try a sponge or a brush].

Stamp onto your paper [I had so much Duo on my stamp I was able to stamp the image twice - can you see it in the top right hand corner?] then immediately clean your stamp [I use a baby wipe] and wait for the Duo to become clear.  As Sue would say 

"If you see white, it's not right

If you see clear, it will adhere"

So once it's clear, lay some of the gilding leaf onto the tacky image and press gently with your fingers.

Gently rub away the excess with the texture sponge; I use a circular motion.

Et voila!  Beautiful gilded shrooms to make beautiful art with :)

Whilst waiting for my Duo to go from white to clear (I was in a cold cellar room) I had a play with the fine calligraphy pen - Oh My Goodness!  I LoVeD it!  More on that in the week.  Until then, leave me a comment, then hop on over and visit

Suzi Blu

Happy Hopping!

EDIT: to leave a comment, click on 'arty ponderings' below

thanks 

cute minions..these may replace toy story aliens in my affections ;)

another colour splash at the play date cafe

I think Colour Splash weeks are my very favourite challenge weeks at The Play Date Cafe.  I find them very enjoyable and undemanding.  I particularly love this week as Julie chose a splash of blue (one of my favourite colours)...

... which gave me the perfect excuse to give in and buy Stampendous' Agapanthus Cluster from The Cubby Hole. I aDoRe this image and have wanted it for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages!

 I coloured the blue flowers with my paintbrush and a watercolour pencil, an Inktense sea blue one by Derwent to be precise!  I've been loving the big bows I've seen on some cards lately and would have loved to have added one to this card but was on the last minute and didn't have any black ribbon.

But I did have plenty of gems to add to the card :)

We're really grateful to our generous sponsors over at The Play Date Cafe, and want to say a big thankyou to Limelight who are sponsoring this week's challenge.  They've giving away two yummy misting sprays, one a luscious pink, the other a chocolately fudge - such a gorgeous colour combo!  Check out their blog here

And don't forget to check out all the other pdcc designers' blogs for more inspirationgwith these colours - just use the links on my sidebar :) or head over to the play date cafe :)

moxie fab world challenge: I want to ride my bicycle

I came across this challenge whilst blog hopping for play date cafe.  I love these ladies on bicycles, they make me think of Mary Poppins, and when I did this doiley page in my journal I knew I had to have them cycling around the edge!

They are from the Mannequin Cafe set, which I bought on my last trip to The Stamp Attic.  Head over here if you'd like to join in with this challenge too :)

Gladys and Ethel went to tea

in a beautiful china cup.

They wore their hats

and chatted of cats,

looking forward to crumpets and toast!

Talking of  The Stamp Attic, my recent order came super quick.  I'm so excited to get these!

I can't wait to use those 'shrooms' in my journal [and they'll go particularly well with my project for usartquest - watch this space! ] and how cute are those quails?  The really make me think of next door's hens, who wouldn't oblige when I tried taking a photo:

They were much more interested in leftover spaghetti (which Lou next door is sure they think is worms lol).  In the end I put one on my knee for a photo, she looks like she's giving me the evil eye and saying 'put me down, I'm eating!!'

celebrating

Julie is sooooooooooo much better at remembering anniversaries than I am.  In fact, it wasn't until she mentioned her blogaversary was coming up that I realised I must have missed mine!!  Julie's got some goodies for a blog birthday giveaway over on her blog so head on over and "leave her some love!"

I'm off to look up treats for next door's hens who I'm looking after - well, I'm just putting off sorting out my craft room really ;)