52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 17 - Rainbow

 It's week 17 of Raspberry Blue Sky's art journal challenge, and Rainbow is the theme for this week. 

I started with some collaged book and music papers, then added some brightly coloured handmade collage paper circles, and some of my handmade washi tape. I scraped some white gesso over the page, then used black India ink to write the song words, scribble around the circles, then add some inky splatters.

I'm linking up to Try it on Tuesday's Inspired by a song challenge, 'Sing A Rainbow' by Peggy Lee, and also Art Journal Journey's Inspired By theme.

Thanks for dropping by today,

Alison xox

100 Days of Stamp Carving - 78-84, and a Surprise for Sheila

 Hello Everyone!

I'm back today with my next instalment of my hand-carved stamps. It's getting close to the end now, less than 20 to go!

Some more mark-making stamps, another leaf and face, and a stylised tulip to add to the collection. I love them all!

I also recently carved a stamp for my lovely blog friend Sheila of Orange Esmeralda, who expressed an interest in one of my stamps. I carved another design on the reverse of the stamp. Since I used an eraser, there was plenty of thickness to do this. 

I can show them to you now, since the package arrived safely with Sheila yesterday.

I didn't want Sheila's Teddy friends to miss out, so I crocheted them all a little flower brooch.

And I made a special card to send to Sheila too, using some of my hand-made washi tapes.

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend,

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 16

 This week's prompt from Raspberry Blue Sky is Things that inspire you. So this is a perfect match with Art Journal Journey's Inspired By theme.

Hope you're having a good weekend,

Alison xox

Washi Tape Class with Birgit Koopsen

 I signed up to a great online class with Birgit Koopsen this week. She showed us some wonderful techniques for creating our own washi tape. What a cool idea, to be able to make tape to match your projects.

Here are the tapes I made. I used masking tape as a base, with PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Acrylics, various stencils, and stamps by me, PaperArtsy, and Crafty Individuals.

I used some of my hand-carved stamps on these ones...

I love these ones, I think they look a bit like graffiti.

And these ones were fun to make. I love the colour blocks!

Look out for them appearing in a few projects 😀

Happy St. George's Day!

Alison xx

100 Days of Stamp Carving - 71-77

 I thought I'd better catch you up with my stamp carving. Here's another week's worth.

I decided to cut the last one up, so number 77 is 5 for the price of one!

I can't wait to start using these in my art journal. A couple have already made an appearance.

Wishing you all a happy new week,

Alison xox

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 15 - My Art Journal Is...

 ...Somewhere I can be messy and playful.

Here's my art journal page for Raspberry Blue Sky's Week 15 theme. 

I used teabags, a gel print, some coffee painted card, and images from a magazine. I used some of my hand-carved mark-making stamps, then added white acrylic ink drips and splashes.

I was inspired by one of Erika/BioArtGal's pages, on which she added a scallop design to the top of her page, so I used one of my hand-carved scallop stamp designs, stamped onto white paper and cut out. I also used my 'Weird' hand-carved stamp, which was stamped on coffee painted card and cut out.

I'm linking my page to Art Journal Journey's Inspired By theme.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xx

100 Days of Stamp Carving - Days 64-70

 Hi Everyone! 

I should be getting the dinner on, so here's a very quick post of another week of stamp carving.

I really love these latest stamps, and I hope I inspire you to get carving yourselves. It's really fun and addictive!

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 14 - Abstract

 Hello All.

This week Raspberry Blue Sky has set us the theme 'Abstract' for our art journal pages. 

I decided to use some of my recent hand-carved stamps and some of the scraps around my desk. I picked some collage scraps with purple on them, which inspired me to pick the complimentary colour orange, and also some blue, which goes beautifully with both colours. 

I used my glass dip pen to add some scribbled writing and ink splashes, then decided to stand back and leave my page until the next day, to see if it needed anything else.

Although I loved the page as it was, it needed a focal point. I flipped through my art journal pages for inspiration, and found a page where I'd sketched a circle using black ink and a pipette. I love to let the ink drip.  😁

I then found some random words amongst my book page scraps. Perfect! Job done!

I'm also linking this page to Art Journal Journey's Inspired By theme. I can see the colours of blue skies and Spring flowers in this page too.

Hope you're all having a good week,

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Some Cards For Men

 Hello All!

I used to struggle with making cards for my male friends and family members, but these days I just grab some of PaperArtsy's Ink and the Dog stamps. They have some really great images. Here are a few cards I recently had to make.

I used Distress Oxide Sprays for some of the cards, washi tapes, and some gold trim that I've had for a very long time. There are some gold ink splatters on the card below, although it's not very visible.

This next card is a re-purposed one with gold trim and a birthday message added. It was originally a Father's Day card. That rugby team stamp is very handy for the rugby fans in my family.

I'm saving the next card for Hubby's birthday next month. It's ok, he never looks at my blog 😀

Thanks for dropping by today,

Big hugs,

Alison xox

Happy Easter and an Easter Garden Safari

 Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it!

Our church decided to hold an Easter Garden Safari this year, with 8 artists from the church creating art relating to a part of the Easter story in 8 front gardens (actually 7 because the last one was at the church). The route to view all of the gardens is about 3 miles, so not too taxing.

I was asked to be one of the artists, and I also volunteered our garden.  Here are some photos of my Easter Garden Art.

I used some of our collection of used beer bottle caps to create the flowers, then glued them to kebab sticks.

A close up of my mixed media artwork of The Last Supper, created on a paving slab. I cut out pictures of bread, and glasses and bottles of wine, to create collages for the bread and goblet.

This bible passage was my inspiration. I hope you can read it just about. It's Matthew 26, verses 26-28.

I created the bunting using collages of torn pieces of gel prints, then cut out the flowers using a template, and hand-wrote the letters with a black Posca Paint Pen.

Here are a few examples of the wonderful art created by the other artists from my church. 

I love this beautiful painting of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey!

This stunning piece symbolises Jesus washing the Disciples feet. It was created on the same type of paving slab that I used. The ripples on the slab work perfectly for the water.

The fabulous collage on the church doors is created with buttons and tiny glass nuggets and tiles.

A beautiful depiction of the scene at the cross.

A wonderful display showing Jesus' love for us all.

And a beautiful painting of Jesus praying in The Garden Of Gethsemane.

I must admit that although it was a great honour to be asked to take part in this wonderful Easter activity, the best thing for me has been seeing and chatting to the people and young families that have visited my garden over the last few days. I didn't realise how much I had missed talking to people face to face, at a distance of course! And it's so lovely to see the children's happy faces when I offer them a small chocolate Easter egg 😄

I hope you're having a lovely Easter weekend.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox