Sad news

I have just heard the very sad news that Beverley Todd passed away on 24th December.

Beverley was our guest designer for the ongoing Arty Girlz recycling challenge and also a sponsor , she was a very talented lady and will be sadly missed.

My thoughts and prayers are with her family at this very sad time.

Freebies from Andy-carolan Illistrations

Andy from Andy-Carolan Illustrations emailed to let me know there's some great free toppers on there site you can find them here http://www.andy-carolan.co.uk/ go check them out there dead cute also there's a new CD being worked on for the new year.

Arty Girlz challenge Home ART

Merry Christmas Everyone

Thank you for visiting my blog it's been lovely getting to know you all

The Arty Girlz challenge this week will run for 2 weeks so you have until the 6th of January to post your creation ~ that is when we will be starting the new year off with a new challenge.

The challenge is to create something that you can display in your home...so it could be an altered frame, a canvas, a picture, even a Christmas ornament, anything you like as always the theme is open to interpretation

Here's my painting rubbish pic as always lol its not finished yet i was making a frame and its minus its finishing touches but with illness and people visiting it just didnt get done, sorry

charity shop find

I was walking past the charity shop in town yesterday and happened to glance in one of there bins out side and look what i found a bag with rubber stamps a new bottle of pva and glitter.

The first 2 stamps have not been used the first one is an all night media one and the second is an anna griffin one which i love and all the others are in really good condition.

Now heres the best bit they were wait for it ................................... £1.50 for the lot what a bargin.

Objet D'art challenge tag

The challenge over at objet D'art is the humble tag

Here's mine

small Art

The challenge we have set this week on Arty Girlz challenge blog is small Art.

so it could be an atc, an inchie, alter a domino, a topper for a card...anything goes as long as the size is no bigger than an atc (3.5" x 2.5")

Here's what i made its kind of a Folkart hangie type thing it looks a bit dark in the pic but its not as dark as it looks.

I glued 4 Jenga blocks together (the cheapo ones )its a bit smaller than an atc in size.

Paint Paint Glorious Paint

The challenge this week on Arty Girlz is to use your favourite medium on your creations.

so could be paint, designer papers, glitter, water colour pencils, anything that you love to use most in your creations.

I Love to use paint i just love the stuff

so here's mine a Butterly painting I do love to use acrylic paint as you can get a bit of texture with it aswell , I have put a mount around it and I am going to frame it for a christmas present It will be in a 10x12 frame when i get one im swining toward's a frame with a black edge but not sure yet what do you think?.

A couple of close ups

Arty Girlz challenge #63 Framed

The challenge this week over on Arty Girlz challenge blog is frames
As usual the interpretation of the theme is down to you so maybe you'll decide to alter a frame, use a frame around a photo on a scrapbook layout, get some wood, hammer and nails and make a frame.......the choice as always is yours.

My mixed media creation was done on a 6x6 canvas and i used a 12x12 designer paper from paper mania's nostalgia warm colossal pack to make my frame and leaving the rose's in as part of it, the indian girl image is from suzan the colours were a bit pale so i used oil pastles over the image to brighten it up i also used them on top of the paint and paper all over.

The picture is rubbish i just couldnt get a decent picture.

Isn't this Beautiful

Arty Girlz challenge # 62 your favourite colours

This weeks challenge over on Arty Girlz is to use your YOUR favourite colour/s on your creation. As always its up to you what style of art work you create as Julie and I hope to encourage all types of crofter's and artists to join in with our challenges. so pop on over there and have a go and join in .

This is mine its an 8x8 canvas board. My favourite colours are purple's and lilac's going in to blues. I used acrylic paint for the background I found an image of wing's on the Internet a while back and traced them on to acetate and cut them out to make a stencil. I had the heart negative already. I used purple acrylic paint over the stencils then used gel pen in black to add depth to the heart and wings. oh and a bit of Gesso here and there

It's not finished yet not sure what I'm gonna do but it just don't feel finished if you know what i mean.


I really do love hearts with wings and would love a Tattoo with a winged heart but we'll see ;-)

The picture isn't doing the colours any justice at all the heart and wings are a lovely deep purple colour but look blueish in the pic.

Award

The lovely pascale has given me this award

This is the message for the award. It is to be passed to 8 other bloggers for the sentiments below.
This award states that:This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships.These blogs are exceedingly charming.These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends,They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement.Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated,Please give more attention to these writers.

im passing it on to


Linda Serena sharon sally suzan Heather Debbie Trish

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Trish

These are te rules
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

But i dont play by the rules so if you want to be taged by me then feel free to post it up on your blog . this can be an open tag lol

quirky things about me

1. I dont like feet
2. I like quirky things rather than the normal stuff
3. I love elephants not so keen on mice
4. Im addicted to pringles and im really sad that i cant get the Bacon Flavour anymore :-(
5. I have a really bad reflux action so please dont be sick near me LOL
6. I hate jelly it make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #61 to use a quote or verse

This week The challenge on Arty Girlz is to use a quote or a verse on your creation.



Heres my card which is very pink LOL i have used papers from Paper Artsy a few prima flowers and glitter glue. The verse on the paper reads In all things of Nature there is somthing Marvellous

Inchie set Awfully Big Art Adventure

This weeks challenge over at Awfully Big Art Adventure is inches or a set of pop on over there for more info.

I made a set of inches on a 4x4 canvas.

I used Burnt sienna, Titanium white, and cerulean blue with a hint of gold i used a brayer to apply the colour to my canvas and used a heat gun to dry and also to blister the paint for texture.

Then i used the same colours on card stock used the brayer again to apply the colour when dry i cut out my inches and used see D's morsel stamps to stamp my images. I glued the inches to the canvas when everything was dry i gave it a coat of beeswax.

8x8 boxed canvas painting

Another canvas for my sons bedroom he loves abstract art so this is another one for his room its a bit wobble but practice makes perfect as they say and I'm defiantly gonna be practicing.

please excuse the messy craft room behind the picture hehe its an organised mess honest ;-)

Blog inspiration

The challenge this week over on Arty Girlz is blog inspiration, my inspiration came from Linda's Blog. Linda makes the most amazing creations on her blog and she has been making little works of Art On wooden blocks so this is my inspiration to create something on wood.

But i had a problem i didn't have any wood LOL so i had to improvise i did have these

some Jenga blocks so i glued 4 together and made this

I collages the block with papers that had ladies, tea pots , tea cups and writing on it. used different colours of paint over the top and rubbed some off to reveal a little bit of the images underneath then added the black and white image and went round the edge with a soft white pencil and a charcoal pencil to blend the image in. since i took the picture i have given it a coat of beeswax to finish it off . Linda has kindly added this to the Awfullly big art adventure blog as there theme last week was chunky block's

mixed media painting

For this painting i used a board canvas, molding paste for texture which was done with bubble wrap and an old credit card. acrylic paint, black and white images, and oil pastels.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #59 Hand Drawn Elment

This weeks Arty Girlz challenge is to have a Hand Drawn Element on your project.

Here my journal page im sure you will be able to see my hand drawn element's LOL

I have used one of my favourite quotes by Helen Keller.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched they must be felt with the heart.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge # 58 Fabric

The Arty Girlz challenge this week is to use fabric on your creations this does include felt, it could be something as simple as a little fabric flower or a whole quilt.

I love Caludine Hellmuths work its so fun and whimsical, and reminds me of when my son was small and we used to sit and watch a cartoons together one was called Angela Anaconda amongst others and her work so reminds me of the happy days of sitting and watching t.v with my son.

Any way here's mine it's kind of a poppet doll of my Aunt Rosie claudine Hellmuth style

I painted a 4x4 canvas yellow and added blue circles made by dipping bottle tops in to the paint and stamping them. For Aunt Rosie i printed a pic of her cut it across the shoulders glued it to water colour paper then tore a piece of text paper from a book and glued that from the shoulders down, when dry i cut it out painted it with a blue wash when dry you draw in the dress detail with a black pen. i gave her some yellow buttons then glued her to the canvas, my fabric element is the heart , i cut a heart shape out from blue fabric did some yellow stitching around the edge and glued it to the canvas.

Recycled hard back book,

on Auntys forum (link on the side bar) this months challenge is recycling so i have recycled an old hard back book that was being thrown away. The covers from hard back books the kind that have the dust covers and feel like canvas not the laminated kind is what i have used and they make great surfaces to paint on i use a lot of canvas boards and this is a great cheap way of using the same kinda thing and you can use the pages as well. (you can pick up cheap books in charity/thrift shops and car boot sales.)

Any way here's what I did I cut the covers from the book I just use the front one for these 2 pictures. I painted the cover with gesso to prime it you may not even need to do this but I slap gesso on everything LOL so i used it. then I painted the cover with blue acrylic paints when dry I stuck some torn pages from the book onto the board and gave them a wash of blue. I cut the board in 2 and used one half for the first picture which I glued the images to then just used a bottle cap to make the circles just dipped it in paint.

for the second one I did or should I say I tried to do a charcoal drawing of a face over the top of the background she looks a bit weird but i sort of like her shes a bit like me not perfect and a bit weird

Gothic Arches challenge

The challenge this week on Gothic Arches is to use a patch work technique by kelly Rea Roberts.



I have just read kelly Rea Roberts book Taking flight and the technique is in there i hope i have got it right. yes i know i have used my fav image again LOL im so drawn to her.

you basically collage patterned paper patch work style onto the background of your work paint over the top and remove areas to reveal the pattern underneath. you can also add images and do the same to them as in the bird at the bottom.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #57 Blue & orange colour combo

The challenge for this week on Arty Girlz is to use the colour combo blue and orange.



I made a mixed media piece on a canvas board.

I painted the background blue added text from an old book which i painted orange and tore around the edges to this i added the image of BOB. then with the left over pieces of text i added that to the bottom. stamped the word Paris and Eiffel tower (stamps are from katzel krafts) when everything was stuck into place I used and old credit card dripped in white paint to make the white lines then painted a piece of bubble wrap white and pressed that into the surface. lastly I melted a blue waxed crayon and dripped spots randomly all over. Its a bit different and random just like me LOL.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #56 NUMBERS

The Arty Girlz challenge this week is to use numbers on your creations

I covered the wood with ink added stamps from paper artsy and added the image of the little girl. then used my cropadile to put eyelets all the way round and made a hanging loop from florist wire

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #55~Use Clip Art

The challenge this week on Arty Girlz is to use Clip Art in your creations, if you don't have any clip art do a Google search and take your pick there lots of great clip art images on the net, OR for this challenge you can use copyright free images from other sources that you may have. As always interpret the theme as you choose we welcome all crafter's and artists to our challenges.







A4 Mixed media collage


First I dripped water colour paint from the tubes on to A4 card then used and old store card to swish the paint across the card and left it to dry, well more or less i couldnt wait and got my heat gun out and hurried the drying a bit.





I cut the lady image out from a collage sheet from http://www.aisling.net/ i love theses images and use them a lot as you may have noticed. And glued her to the card the other images were on various Cd's that i have bought from eBay i and printed and cut them out and glued them to the card also. stamped some words in black staz on, then used a brush and gesso around the images and smudged it in to blend the images into the back ground rather than them looking like there plonked on top.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #54 RED

This weeks challenge over on Arty Girlz is the colour RED as always you can create what ever you like and interpret the theme how ever you choose.

I have made a small canvas board modern Art painting for my sons bed room actually this is going to be a set of 3 the red one is #2 of the set and the blue green one is the 1st one that i did and number 3 is a work in progress.

The boards come ready prepared i used Hard molding paste to create the textured sections, when that was dry i painted the canvases with Acrylic paint when that was dry i used silver gilding cream over the textured surfaces then glued silver washers to the textures sections.

I used flouriest wire to create hanging loops for the back by twisting and making a figure 8 so my son can hang the canvases what ever way he wants and the other end of the figure 8 acts like a spring and lets the canvas stand proud from the wall rather than tilting inwards.

They do look better in real life i just couldn't get a good pic :-(

whats going on???????

whats going on with Bloger this morning it said i had 3 comments clicked on there and i also had another6 from the 5/8/08 which is what 5 -6 weeks ago wonder why they didnt come through till now, has anyone else had this ? wonder what else has not come through hmmmmmmmmm.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #53 Autumn

This weeks challenge over on Arty Girlz is Autumn
so it may be the perfect opportunity to scrap those autumn photos or maybe you could use autumn colours such as browns, reds and golds on your creation....as usual use your own interpretation of the theme and use any format that you like, cards, Atc's, layouts, altered art, jewellery...we like to see all types of crafter's joining in with our challenges.



Here's mine An Autumn themed art journal page



I have just started an art journal and made an Autumn themed page I used paints in reds browns oranges yellow golds for Autumn colours and the image i over painted with greens,browns and added gold glimmer mists in her hair. stamped leaves and swirls in the back ground and used Gesso over the top. The scruffy writing reads.



Her name is Autumn, the leaves fall from the tree's and dance to the ground in her presence.

Everything changes as she walks natures path, browns,Golds, Reds, Yellows glisten in the morning sun. she will come every year to show her beauty as she walks natures path.



I really need to work on my writing I'm such a scruffy writer

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #52 Birthdays

This week's challenge over on Arty Girlz is Birthdays ~ why you may ask well............

ARTY GIRLZ CHALLENGE BLOG IS 1 YEAR OLD TODAY

To celebrate Arty Girlz first birthday we have put together a little prize for one of our participants to win. so pop on over to Arty Girlz and join in the Birthday challenge

We would like to thank everyone that has joined in with our challenges over this past year its been fun seeing everyones work and getting to know you all.


The challenge is to ....create something for a Birthday so could be a card or a gift, even a layout of a birthday ~ anything you like as long as its associated with a birthday

Heres my card I used lilly kate papers the image is from crafty individuals and the flowers are silk and paper.

Here you will find lots of images for you to use in your Art work just right click "save as" and save the image you want to your computer.

Feel free to leave comments it's nice to know they are being used and especially if you have used them on your art work, as i would love to see what you create with them .
Keep checking back as i will be adding lots more :-)

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #51 Home inspiration

This weeks challenge on Arty Girlz is to take inspiration from something in your home.

So it could be the colour of the object, the pattern, the shape, anything at all.

This is my take on the challenge

I started off with this Tack box thingie or is it an old cutlery tray ? I'm sure it has a propper name but i dont know what it is LOL I found it in my dads old tool shed and thought awwwwwww I like that

I gave it a good wash the pic above is after it was washed lol minus the dead spiders dirt and cobwebs..

I painted it cream have a thing for cream at the mo, when it was dry I sanded it along the edges for that shabby chic kinda look, then I painted the red flowers by hand with acrylic paint when they were dry I stamped the flourishes with black stazon all over (the stamps are autumn leaves.) I cut some nice coloured paper to fit in the sections in different colours. That's it done my inspiration was the big red flowers on the cup that's standing on top.

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #50 ALTER IT

This weeks challenge over on Arty Girlz is is 'Alter it'

so maybe you have a vase that needs jazzing up with some glass paints or a notebook that could do with a make over or maybe a photo frame? The choice is yours we can't wait to see your altered creations :)

I Altered a mirror The mirror was from Ikea and started life like this.

I covered the frame with moulding paste to give it texture (i love this stuff) while it was still wet i pushed the bottle into the paste on the right hand side to fix it in place, the bottle had bath salt in it at some point i liked the bottle so kept it.

when it was all dry i painted it with cream emulsion , when that dried i rubbed gold guilding cream all over the frame on top of the ripples.

Next i got some of the sea glass that we had collected on our travels rubbed guilding cream around the edges and hot glued it on to the bottle.

Then i rubbed some more guilding cream in to some more sea glass and tried to arrange it on the right hand side to look like a flower and stem, then hot glued the glass into place.

The finished Mirror

Arty Girlz weekly challenge #49 Summer

The challenge this week on Arty Girlz is Summer .

I'm away at the mo but will be back by tomorrow so i will leave my comments for you when I'm home.

Here's my creation

A 4x4 canvas I covered the canvas with molding paste to get some texture going then i sprinkled play sand all over it while it as still wet cut a small picture of my son at the beach and placed it on the canvas as well.

I added tiny shell's and pebbles with some crushed shells to the canvas as well while it was still wet. cut out the words and added them to. It need some thing to use as a hanger but i haven't found the right thing yet any ideas? and maybe i will add to it but I'm not sure.

Arty Girlz weeklychallenge #48 Add shapes to your project

Qucik note
Im away from tomorrow (22nd) until tues /weds of next week so appoliges if i dont comment on your blogs, i will catch up when i get back.


This week challenge over on Arty Girlz is to add shapes to your project.

This week challenge is sponsored by the very talented Andy Carolan who is a freelance designer who specialises in cartoon illustration and products for the card craft industry. Andy is proud to have produced many varied illustrations for Joanna Sheen’s popular product range.
Click the banner to visit Andy's website
Andy has also produced the fantastic Card Toonz CD Roms and has kindly provided two of them as a prize for one of our participants to win The CD's contain a collection of cartoon character toppers, backing papers and banners that will help you to celebrate any occasion in style
If you would like to purchase these fantastic CD Roms you can find them HERE

so pop on over to Arty Girlz and join in the challenge for a chance to win these fab CD Roms

Andy sent us both a CD rom to use in our examples this week ~ Thanks Andy :)


I had the card Toonz professional nuttyness cd rom. These cd roms are great fun and have lots of cute images backing papers ect. which are great for quirky fun cards for all ages.

I just printed off the images and 3d decoupaged them on the first one i used retanges as my shapes and on the second one i used scolloped circles.