paperDVIZHNIK.......New Challenge

Hello again. I say 'again' because I'm back here with another post; two in one week! I know that's pretty normal for most people but not for my 'sleepy' little blog that just happily plods along at a slow and steady pace. Anyway I'm excited to share the next challenge at paperDVIZHNIK. This month, it's a sketch. I guiltily have to confess that I'm not usually 'into' sketches; I tend to just do my own thing, BUT, when a sketch is simple and allows a lot of scope for interpretation, it makes the BEST starting point.

I think I must still be in New Year, festive mode because my page is all pearls and sparkle.

Layers of texture paste, gauze, more texture paste, water colour, Inka Gold, Foil Flakes, pearls and sequins.

Of course, I can't do anything without fussy cut flowers and tissue.

If you would like to join our 'sketch' challenge the details are HERE at paperDVIZHNIK.
I would like to say I hope your new year has gotten off to a bright and sparkly beginning: but sadly the events in Paris this past week have thrown a dark and evil veil over the beginning of 2015.  Sadly Paris, and indeed all of our beautiful world, has again been smeared with extreme hatred and intolerance. Freedom of speech ? Of course ! The right to offend race or religion ? No ! Nothing positive EVER comes out of insults.   Just my view.

Mixed Media Place.....Inside my Box Book

Hello friends ! My turn at Mixed Media Place has rolled around, so thought it might be time to show  some more of my little box book....it has pages now! Front cover is HERE and inside front cover HERE.  Here is page No.1

There are 20 pages all up ( 5 pieces of card, each divided down the middle, so two pages on each side, front and back ) The pages vary in size, so some can peek out from underneath, also makes it a bit more interesting to work on.

 I've used two beautiful Finnabair stamps, some washi tape and collaged tissue paper birds. Art basics Soft Matte Gel works beautifully for all collage work, even for very light and fragile paper like tissue.

Hand sketched  my saying in pencil first then went over it with a waterproof black pen, then added colour with watered down acrylic paint in a mini-mister.

The pretty birds were begging to be coloured in, so used some water soluble colour pencils. The ones I have are Derwent Inktense but any are perfect for adding soft colour. Lastly highlighted the page edges with some Distress Ink.

Page No.1 complete ! You can see there are a couple more finished pages peeking out from underneath.......................for later. All materials used for this project can be seen over HERE at Mixed Media Place and purchased from HERE at the Mixed Media Place shop.
Thank you for visiting :)

A New Year

Well hello ! Hope you have all had a nice Christmas and New Year break. I spent Christmas this year in beautiful Byron Bay.........never been there before.........can not wait to return. My studio desk is clean and tidy; just waiting for me, but I have to admit, inspiration has been a little hard to muster....I have been enjoying lots of walks, reading, family and social time and my "creative" brain has been dormant; it needs to be fed some inspiration, I need to wake it up ! I feel like the "sleepy, laid back vibe" of Byron Bay has cast a spell on me and I need to shake it off.  I do have some up coming projects that I'm looking forward to starting and I do also, have some news to share that is very exciting........ my very favourite Mixed Media Place is having a Design Team call. If you would like to work with the loveliest of people, have complete freedom with what you create and have access to the absolute best art / mixed media materials then come on, apply !

Looking back at the body of work I've created this year has surprised me. A couple of years ago, I never imagined I would be a part of any design team, but I have been! And they have been amazing! Hey, I have even been published in a book ! I have definitely grown as an artist, I have learnt so much and even tho there is always more to learn and I love to still explore and experiment with different mediums; I feel (most of the time ) huge satisfaction and joy from what I create......and all this, in part is due to working on design teams. Knowing that others have confidence in you, gives you the confidence to create the way you want to, to express yourself and your ideas your way, in your "style". Plus you are, at times, pushed out of your comfort zone....you have to educate yourself, experiment and take risks and this is how you grow as an artist. I would like to thank every single one of you who have taken the time to leave your beautiful comments for me over the past year. Compliments, reassurance and encouragement are always welcome, no matter who you are. If you doubt yourself; if you feel your work is too different, that it doesn't fit in to a popular or "current" style......don't. New and different is what inspires people, well it's what inspires me anyway. If you would like to be part of Mixed Media Place design team, have a crack. 
Talking of the past year, and looking back, here are some of my favourites from 2014 created for Mixed Media Place and paperDVIZHNIK.

Thanks for dropping by.

Mixed Media Place......Creative Gym #3

The theme for the December Mixed Media Place Creative Gym is .......Wings. So many opportunities for imaginative creativity.  I, personally have kept this one very simple, just a tag. For me, butterfly wings are the most beautiful.....fragile and delicate as well as being full of pattern and colour.

Water colour paper coloured with Distress Stains. Stencilled poppies, stamped, art basics Light Paste dabbed on then sprinkled with art ingredients Zinc Glass Beads.

Paste and beads coloured with Primary Elements and Silks Acrylic Glaze.

Tag made from 7 Dots paper and coloured with Distress Stains.

Poppies, patterned paper, embossed "mesh" stamp, all layered on top of tag.

All papers, beads, gels, pastes, inks and paints used are available from Mixed Media Place.

Thanks for visiting. 

Wishing you all happy holidays and a wonderful New Year.

paperDVIZHNIK Christmas New Year Challenge

Challenge No. 55 at paperDVIZHNIK is a seasonal one: anything to do with Christmas or the New Year, so, lots of scope to create, and it can be pages, cards, tags, home deco, any thing that expresses the season.

A  simple Christmas tag.

Some dots for snow flakes, a sparkly twig, a significant date and a bird for peace.

"Kindness"

Give without remembering and take without forgetting.

Have a safe and very happy Christmas.

Mixed Media Place......."The Guard"

For this months project at Mixed Media Place I have worked on a 12cm x 28cm x 5cm solid wooden block. I love the solidity of this as my base. It can be hung on a wall or it can sit securely on a bench or table. It can support heavy embellishments, it can be nailed into and it is a fantastic supportive base to paint and collage over. I also love that it's not just the front that is worked on, but also the sides need to be considered and should relate to what is happening on the front; it makes me think, it gives me more opportunity to "tell a story".

Finnabair's art basics gel mediums are perfect for working with wooden blocks and collage.....art basics Soft Matte Gel and 3D Matte Gel have been used through out this project. Apart from their "adhesive" ability, they dry quickly. I've created an imaginary character, "The Guard" He has a head- dress of metal locks, clocks and the hands of time, and a paper "cape" adorned with keys, crosses and pearls, all symbolic of our personal dreams, desires, fears and insecurities.

I could go on about how all art should have some significant "deeper" meaning, but I also believe art can just be pretty, aesthetically pleasing or interesting. It can also be fun........do you like his "earwings"?

Sides collaged with patterned and textural paper and chicken wire chipboard coloured with Distress Paint and aged copper embossing enamel.

Paper, metal, and chipboard. Coloured with either Distress Paint or Ranger Patina and then embossed with Stampendous aged copper embossing enamel.

Paper "cape" made from 7Dots Wonderland "Follow the Rabbit" paper.

A full product list is HERE at Mixed Media Place and all products can be purchased HERE at Mixed Media Place Store.
Here's a quick 5min photo video, not a step by step how to, but just some images of how this project evolved. 

Thanks for visiting, wishing you a productive and creative weekend.

paperDVIZHNIK Challenge #54.........Spots and Stripes

A new challenge at paperDVIZHNIK...it's fun and easy; "strips and peas" or "dots and stripes" or "lines and circles" however you want to call it. Who doesn't love the fun of dots and spots (well, maybe not when they're on your skin). Circles, dots and spots always make me smile and there's a million different ways you can make them; "splatter" for starters. Strips, stripes and lines, maybe a little more serious, I'm thinking prison bars, but still the possibilities are endless. Put them together and what a joyous page of pattern you can create.

The usual ingredients...water colour paper, texture paste, acrylic paint, patterned paper, embossed stamps, washi tape and ink.

Thanks for visiting today. Circles can be fun but I hope as Christmas and the holidays draw near you don't feel as though you are "running around in circles".  Wishing you a productive and happy week.

On Inspiration

Recently I came across an article written by an amazing photographer......Cheryl Jacobs Nicolai; a proponent of photography as an art form, a writer and a teacher.
The actual article, on her blog, was written back in February 2014...it just rang so true and was so perfectly written.
Apart from being a wonderful photographer she is also a musician and that's where the article starts, but
her ideas, so eloquently expressed are true for all artists.
The article is HERE...so worth reading.
The two tiny collaged canvases below are mine, but all the words belong to C. J. Nicolai.

Stop looking at what others are doing.
Start looking at the world around you, and the world inside you.
Stop shooting(creating) with an eye on what you believe others will like, and stop judging the strength of an image(page, tag, canvas) by the number of comments and Facebook thumbs you receive.
Start creating photographs(art works) that are vulnerable enough that they scare you. Learn to be brave enough to share them, and to stand proudly behind them.
Start the long and painful process of learning to answer your own questions, and embrace the trials, errors, and frustrations you’ll experience along the way.

And learn that when someone tells you that you don’t sound like anyone else, it is a high compliment.

Mixed Media Place.........Creative Gym Exercise #2

This month at Mixed Media Place we're asking you to think in 3D....textures, embellishments, objects to be altered. Visit the Mixed Media Place blog HERE and be inspired by what the girls have come up with, amazing and beautiful. I thought 'literal', a 3 dimensional object, and one just happened to present itself to me in the bargain reject bin at a Typo store.....a broken, articulated wooden artists hand.

The base of the broken hand was easily fixed with art basics 3D Matte Gel. My idea was to have the hand make the peace sign........... The fingers are 'articulated' and bend and move up and down but they do not move sideways so do not spread apart. I had to insert a little block of wood between the two fingers to force and keep them apart. I'm sure someone with a more mechanical brain would have come up with a better solution. 

Now my fingers were all in the right place I was ready to collage. I used a piece of  Finnabair's paper from the Domestic Goddess range. No paint was used:  the shading or light and dark areas on the hand were created by just using lighter or darker pieces of paper, all stuck on using art basics Soft Matte Gell.

The hand was completely covered in torn bits of paper. Well, you know how much I love to collage and stick things down, but half way through doing this I was thinking omg, why didn't I just paint this hand !? I was peeling gel medium off my fingers for days after. Anyway, once this was done, time to embellish.

Some metal pieces all attached with art basics 3D Matte Gell.

Rubber bands help hold the curved metal in place while the Matte medium dries.

Some Finnabair Mechanicals, some flowers and some rub-ons and I've totally indulged my inner hippy.

Thanks for visiting. May your week ahead be chilled and full of only positive vibes.