A tissue, a tissue...we build a house!

So, with friends staying over the holidays it was guaranteed to be a busy, fun time, with no time for creativity- of the non-food or drink kind!

So I have been busy in the last week catching up for my swaps... 

Marilyn is hosting a "Winter Wonderland" ATC swap on Milliande's. I decided to try something new, rather than painting or collaging pictures. 

I loosely sketched a winter scene on watercolour paper, then proceded to paste coloured tissue papers in the appropriate places. Once I was happy with the arrangement of colours I overlaid scrumpled white tissue to subdue the colour and make it more abstract. 

After the gel medium had totally set I loosely went over the faint pencil lines with a technical pen to outline the house and details.

They're ready to post now, I hope the recipients like them.

It was a fun experiment which I may well use again in a future project...

Why not have a go yourself? All you need is a few scraps of tissue paper, some glue or gel medium and a waterproof pen. 

Halloween creative spree..

Halloween/ Samhain is just around the corner... and I've been making and creating lots of spooky themed bits and bobs for a few swaps on milliande. First there's our Halloween ATC swap, for which I did some textured webby cards with cute googly eyes...

I'd been working in a Pass and Paint journal on Willowing in a similar way so thought I'd make them together.. always easier when certain materials are out and ready...

The web is piped modelling paste, the spider is wound wool on ribbon- hopefully it'll create a bit of fun! The heart is stamped and painted clay.

The 3rd set is a Halloween House swap on Milli's, my first go at this format... great fun with collaged papers, sequins and stamped clay.

They've all gone out so hopefully they'll be where they should be by now- or very close.

Valentine's Day is on it's way...

Woohoo! I spent yesterday on my machine creating a piece of textile collage in reds... an eclectic collection of threads, organza, angelina, fabrics, sequin waste and mulberry bark dyed with silk paints. I had a number of postcards, ATC's and artpins to create so I thought I'd do them altogether.

Once I have got to a certain point I have to let Zac inspect it for interest and usability. Usually he'll just sit straight on it, indicating it's finished and now his! But not this time....

With further materials gathered, I stole it back and escaped to the comfort of my sofa to cut, print,  embellish and complete, with a few extra for later on...

 The postcards are for the Birthday Club that I host on Milliande's, and the ATC's are for the Birthday ATC  on Stitching Fingers

These hearts are for the February Artpin swap at Milliande's. The partners haven't been posted yet so I don't know where these will be going....

Halloween inchies and ATC's

Yes, I know it's a little early for Halloween, but if these little beauties are to get where they're going in time, we had to make them early. These are my latest inchie creations for the Needle Queens Halloween inchie swap at Milliande's 

They were great fun to make, I used up the baby wipes that I coloured while making some Halloween ATC's for another swap ( see below) and doubled them up with a heavy roofing fibre. The witches etc. were confetti just begging to be used!  The bigbird at the back was supposed to be a spider, but didn't really work out- he's more a moustacio'd gringo!

Tweedlesboth; white rabbit; Mad hatter; Malice and Cheshire cat.

These 5 cards were the hardest I've had to come up with so far...Alice in Wonderland meets Halloween! Another fun ATC swap at Milliande's. I'm not particularly happy with them, but they fit the requirements so I'll be thankful for that. Several members have diecut machines and  I am tempted to buy one- all those shapes in one simple movement... yet another dimension to my artwork...and all those textures....hhhmmm. They certainly seem to make creating ATC's a whole more dimensional.


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Zentangles and Doodling...

Wow- I've been doodling for years, but never once realized there was a whole cult thing going on with them...zentangles, with courses and instructors...

Here's one of my favourite sets, I usually work in sets of three. I don't always use colour after, but these just begged to be played with....

Doodling is great when I'm struggling for inspiration, or putting off a bigger project. I must admit though, even my doodles have to have a certain amount of  organisation and tidyness, guess I'm a chronic control freak after all...


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ATC's - a new exploration, for me, at least!

Having joined the Art swaps group at Milliande's I found a whole new world of small artworks, highly intriguing having spent the last few years growing in confidence enough to make my paintings BIG!
This really appealed to my "have an idea, must do it now" streak, by being small enough to complete in a reasonable time-frame.
And so another addiction began....
Here is my first group of ATC's, specifically for a "layered" card swap

These are on canvas, stamped with pigment inks, gel transfers, embossed copper, and beads. They were great fun to make, and several of them went round the world to Australia for the swap.


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