I'm Coming Clean....paperDVIZHNIK Challenge #45

Challenge #45 at paperDVIZHNIK is "IN MOTION". Capturing or representing movement. 

So good to see Ausie gal Jasmine Shea is the dvizhnik special guest there this month, and her page is just amazing......totally encapsulates this whole idea of motion, both by the photo she's used and by the art she has created around it. Check it out HERE at paperDVIZHNIK along with the other fab DT work and how you can join this challenge.

As for my page; very clean, neat and tidy for me......no splatters and splotches or a million textural layers in the background (just a few dribbles). I find it fun and refreshing to sometimes work in a different style. 

But, there was a purpose to keeping this page "clean".....the images are of my daughter having a good old belly laugh.....throwing her head back then bending forward, cracking up at: well, I can't remember what; but I wanted the silhouette of her movement to be the focus of the page......hence the stark, white background. The circular swish of the yellow paint is meant to draw your eye around the images and high light the movement as well as act as a frame for the faces.

Lots of layers underneath tho; paper, washi, stamps, texture paste, acrylic paint, Indian Ink, chipboard and other embellishments.

Papers are a mixture of 7 Dots Studio "Cold Country" and "Nature Walk"

Chipboard 'happy' from Imaginarium Design kindly gifted to me by the sweet Natalie "Happy Daks" May. I have temporarily abandoned my beloved water colours for this page, and used only acrylic paint and Indian Ink.

I think I have to confess to being subconsciously influenced by the beautiful, fresh mood board from last month at Scrap Around The World with my colour choices..... thanks Di Garling

Movement is such a fabulous kick start idea for a page....please come and join us at paperDVIZHNIK this month. Details HERE.
As always, thanks for visiting today. Have a great week, and make all your movements fun, passionate, purposeful and rewarding !

Mixed Media Place........Emotional Challenge #7

During the past several months Finnabairs' Mixed Media Place has been throwing up some fabulous challenges. They haven't been your usual "sketch" challenge, or "color" challenge or "journalling" challenge........... they've been "emotional"challenges, and for me they have been the most meaningful and fulfilling challenges I have ever taken part in. There are some absolutely wonderful challenge blogs available to us, and we are very fortunate to have so many hard working, creative entrepreneurs around, who tirelessly run these blogs and constantly inspire us, but these emotional challenges at Mixed Media Place really make you THINK. They make you draw on so much more than just your design, color and technique skills. I try to give my pages much deeper meaning through subtle suggestive, and representative imagery. I am really sad that this is the last of these challenges, but of course that's what art journals are for, and I will continue to explore more "emotions" in mine.

This months emotion is "Stress". We have all experienced it. I looked at stress initially from a purely 'physical' perspective, rather than the obvious mental or emotional stress but found they are all connected any way.

We all put, at times and depending on what sort of work we do, considerable "physical stress" on our bodies...i.e. dancers, labourers, athletes, farmers etc. then if something goes wrong such as an accident or injury, then that in turn will cause us mental and emotional stress, so it's all related, one is dependant on the other.

Beautiful "Lost Letter" paper from Finnabair's Cold Country Collection is the background for this page. I've also used "Vintage Coal", one of the new Color Bloom Spray Mists from Prima. Also lots of stamping, texture paste and Distress Stains.

 

The concentric circles, and strong directional lines and arrows are representative of not just how we can "physically" be pulled every which way, but also mentally and emotionally.

If you want to push yourself mentally as well as creatively, join our challenge this month at Mixed Media Place. All the details are HERE, as well as lots of inspiration from the DT.

Some emotions visited in the past: Jealousy, Sadness, Tenderness, Fear, Calm and Courage.

Thank you for taking the time to visit today. Hope your week is totally "stress-free" !

Winter Blues

 Love these words.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be invited to a "scrappy weekend" in Mount Gambier with some absolutely lovely girls, who also happen to be amazingly creative. I was definitely "feeling good" when I created this art journal page that weekend.

Texture paste and hand drawn flowers using Tombow marker pens. I love these pens; I've had mine for years and they have not dried up and the colours are rich and vibrant.

Some gold flakes, just for fun ( actually I was trying to channel Louise Nelson who is the lady with the golden touch at the moment and who kindly gave me these gold bits to play with )

Texture, tissue and watercolour

Hand painted flowers, texture, stencilled back ground, dry embossed tag.

Here's the song and some great visual graphics based on repeat pattern and typography.

Thank you for coming by. I hope your summer or winter "blues" are only of the music variety and that where ever you are your staying warm or "being cool". 

Mixed Media Place and paperDVIZHNIK challenge #44

Hello !! High time I posted what I've been up to creatively. A new challenge at paperDVIZHNIK and a journal page for Mixed Media Place. 

The challenge at paper DVIZHNIK is a fab one, thought up by the very lovely Sandi Taloumis. 

A LO, card, tag, using black and white and ONE colour......but at least FIVE shades of that colour. Oh such fun, who doesn't love working with colour !? Details are HERE.

 Done some fussy cutting...whats new....done some stamping, embossing, stencilling, texturing, watercolouring and loved every minute of putting it all together on a piece of Prima paper.

Found the Dragon Fly stamp in a discount bin. It's made by Holly Berry House Originals whom I have never heard of but love the stamp.

An Art Journal Page

This art journal page was created for Mixed Media Place and I've used several of Finnabair's beautiful stamps, her paper, stencils and inks, all available from the Mixed Media Place on line shop. ( Finn's very lovely husband Andrew will pack and ship every thing to you quick as a flash ! ) This is quite a sentimental page as it reflects my happiness and excitement at being invited to join the Mixed Media Place DT but even more than that it expresses the freedom I then felt, that I could create in my own way, in my own style, not question what I was doing and that I would be accepted. I felt sort of "liberated" from my own creative fears and doubts. I know that sounds kind of "wanky" but that acceptance has made a world of difference to how I now create and how I think about creating.

Thank you so much for coming by to visit today, I'm so happy you haven't forgotten me !

Mixed Media Place..."Tenderness" and Some Exciting News !!

The "Emotional" Challenges continue at Mixed Media Place. This month it is "Tenderness".

 Many descriptive words come to mind when defining what "tenderness" is. It is a way we respond to someone or something that is delicate or fragile, that is soft, hurt or easily damaged. Our world is a fragile place....land, oceans, vegetation, air, animals and people are continuously being destroyed, some at an alarming rate. My page is reflective of the damage we are doing to our world.

I have used an image transfer technique and high lighted these with stamping, embossing, texture paste and paint. 

We would love for you to play along with our emotional challenges. The details are HERE.

Finnabair's Cold Country paper "Secret Diary" made for the perfect background for these pages.

I have used the Image Transfer technique with photos I've taken in Melbourne alley ways and applied different mediums over the top.

My work is going to be published in a book !

Two of my Art Journal pages have been selected by the editors of CreativeMixedMedia and North Light Books to be featured in their newest publication; the Art Journal Kickstarter book, due for release in December. Yah ! I am so very happy and excited to have my work chosen. Details HERE. Have a great weekend.....with an equal balance of excitement and tenderness coming your way. 

PAPERdvizhnik New Challenge.........#42 Sketch

Hello. Sharing a page today made for the current challenge at PAPERdvizhnik.

I don't usually work from sketches. I tend to let the idea or the story in my head dictate the layout of my page.I've come to realise that this approach does not always work....too many ideas, thoughts and intentions going on in my head often results in too much happening on my page. It's still hard for me to know when to stop, and yet I look at some of my pages and think I haven't done enough, I should have added more....so here in lies the skill of making the perfect page: the ability to add enough details to make a page interesting, dynamic, rich, original and full of clear intent as to what the story or idea is, but, at the same time being beautifully balanced, co-ordinated and full of perfectly executed techniques AND also possessing that little bit of "unique to the creator artiness or signature style" that sets it apart.

I am starting to ramble, and what all that relates to really is this sketch. I love it because it's simple. It leaves so much to interpretation and imagination.

But, what I have ended up with has not a lot to do with the beautiful, clean, crisp simplicity of lots of white space, 2 images and a splash of colour. I so admire the work of Louise Nelson and 

Dorota Dolega who epitomise this style of elegant, rich, artistic, simplicity.

To begin with, my background paper, the beautiful Nature Walk from 7 Dots Studio is so busy; what was I thinking ? I can tell you what I was thinking..."I love this paper and I have to use it and I'll just tone it down a bit with gesso".

 I'm not unhappy with my page, I think it's interesting, it tells the story, it has some nice colour "pops".

I'm just saying that my final page is so far removed from my original "idea" of the page I wanted to create....why did that happen, how did I get lost, what distracted me, why is it nothing like what I intended it to be ?

Is this not the essence of creativity tho...the "process", not the end result.

Image source Jimmy Brown.

If you are still here, reading, after all that analysing, then thank you. I'd be interested to know does this happen to you ? Is your final page what you intended? I know we all create in different ways, but what's more important to you; the process or the end result ?

Lots of stamping, embossing and texture paste....the usual stuff.

Would love to see your interpretation of this sketch. Details at paperDVIZHNIK

Thank you for visiting today. May whats left of your week be productive; as opposed to just being busy.

Mixed Media Place............A Card

I have confessed in the past to not being a 'card maker' or enjoying making cards, but have to admit to thoroughly enjoying the process of this one, created for Mixed Media Place. Of course Spring is in the air in the Northern hemisphere, so this is a card to celebrate Spring, but at the same time a 'cheer me up' card as we, in Australia are about to start Winter and, also, I have just completed a 'gloomy' journal page so needed to work with colour and flowers and create something "pretty".

The background is Distress Ink that has been water misted and a Finnabair Doily stamp that has been embossed. In fact the front of the card has a total of 5 different Finnabair stamps on it.

Some small blossoms, also coloured with Distress Ink and other textural elements.

Inside is more Distress Ink, a little bird cut from a paper serviette and that beautiful doily stamp again.

See HERE for complete list of materials used.

All inks and stamps are available from Mixed Media Place

Thanks for visiting today. Wishing you a sunny week.

paperDVIZHNIK Challenge #41...........Symmetry

Challenge #41 at paperDVIZHNIK is SYMMETRY

A relatively straight forward exercise...each side of a central line needs to be the same. I have tried to add interest to the composition by including lots of texture and pattern.

SYMMETRY (Greek symmetria - "proportionality" from syn - "together" and metreo - "measure"). Regular arrangement of parts or forms relative to the center the main axis. Poise, accuracy, coherence parts united into a whole. Looking around ourselves, we observe many examples of symmetry. Flowers, leaves, fruits, human Figure, figures of animals and Insects, etc. 

Die- cut flowers and leaves.

Fun Prima Lace Sticker

Detail of two different masks used. One with white embossing powder, the other with texture paste. Coloured with Distress Stains.

Thanks for visiting today. If you have left a comment for me then I thank you, and am sending good vibes your way. Our lives need a little symmetry, a certain amount of 'balance', but not too much...we don't want to become too predictable; that would be boring and no fun ! Have a fun week that include some surprises.