100 Days of Watercolour - 59-65

Hello All.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Ours was very quiet, but we had some beautiful Spring weather and enjoyed a few lovely long walks.

Here are another seven of my little 10x10cm watercolour paintings for The 100 Day Project.

Day 59 

Day 60

Day 61

Day 62

Day 63

Day 64

Day 65 - The first of a new series with botanical elements. I sprinkled some salt on this one, then waited until it was dry before brushing it off and painting the leaf.

Thanks for coming to see my art today.

Alison

Art Journal Advent 2021 - Days 7-10

 Hi Everyone.

Here are a few more of my pages for Art Journal Advent. Some of the prompts are quite tricky, but I'm enjoying the challenge.

Day 7 - Pause. Looking out of the window at my garden calms and centres me.

Day 8 - Fulfilment. Walking in the countryside and bird-spotting brings me lots of fulfilment.

Day 9 - Boundaries. Sketching over the boundary lines, or are they fields separated by hedges?

Day 10 - Inner Strength. She looks like she has inner strength, but my thinking was that it's taken a while, but I'm now lots more confident in drawing faces.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Alison

GJJ Day 22 - Gratitude For Butterflies with Nicole Watson

 Hello All.

There aren't very many butterflies around at the moment, it's turned very cold here now. I did spot one last week though, when I was walking across a meadow.

The GJJ tutorial with Nicole Watson was very full on, creating a background of many layers, then creating some multi- layered tip-ins also.

Here's my page.

With the tip-ins opened. The quote reads "Don't be afraid, change is such a beautiful thing." said the butterfly - Sabrina Newby.

A close-up with the tip-ins shut.

I think this could be my favourite page so far. Let me know what you think.

I'm linking up to Leah's Art Every Day Month Challenge Day 30. It's been a great month, and I only missed Day one. I should have set myself a calendar reminder!

Thanks for visiting me today.

Alison.

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 47 - Enchantment

 Hi Everyone.

For Week 47 of Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal, the theme was Enchantment.

I dusted off some of my favourite Lost Coast stamps to create an enchanted scene in my art journal. It looks like they are having a party in the woods. Hopefully there's a pool nearby for the mermaid fairy to take a dip.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 29.

Have a great new week.

Thanks for visiting.

Alison

GJJ Day 21 - A Reason For Gratitude - Crying/Tears

 Hello All.

Here's another GJJ page, where the prompt is gratitude for crying/tears. Not all tears are sad, but I think my lady's tears aren't happy ones.

I'm linking my art to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 28.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

GJJ - Day 20 - A Quote of Gratitude

 Hi Everyone.

I love the quote for Day 20 of Gratitude Junk Journal. It's all about being grateful for what you have, and not complaining about the things you want.

A fairly simple page (for me), just a collage of Seven Gypsies patterned papers and some old book page scraps. A little turquoise paint scraped over with a palette knife, some quickly sketched flowers and outlines with my Stabilo All black pencil, then activated with water. I held up my journal to get some drips, and added some splatters. I stamped the quote out using my trusty Hero Arts alphabet set, then finished with some white acrylic ink splatters.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 27. 

I think my page has some Summer vibes with the flowers and the turquoise sky, and maybe the drips are a Summer shower, so I'm also linking to Chris' All Kinds Of Weather theme at Art Journal Journey.

I hope you're all having a good weekend.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

GJJ Day 19 - Gratitude For Food As A Love Language

 Hello All.

Today's offering is Candice Hunter's GJJ class, Gratitude For Food As A Love Language.

I used Seven Gypsies patterned papers ( the word Abundance came from them ), some images and words from a Waitrose supermarket magazine, and the cute robins were from some patterned pocket tissues.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 26.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

Final Batch Of Christmas Cards...I hope!

 Hello All.

These cards were inspired by some gorgeous Christmas cards made by Claire Snowdon for the PaperArtsy blog. I pretty much copied Claire's process, and made 16 cards like this. Hopefully I have enough Christmas cards now. This brings my total this year to around 70!

I'm linking these cards to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 25.

I'm also linking up to Try It On Tuesday's Winter Wonderland challenge.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Wishing all my friends across The Pond a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving.

Alison

GJJ - Day 18 - A Question Of Gratitude

 Hello All.

Day 18's question of gratitude was 'When did something recently make you smile, or laugh out loud?'

My page is about a walk I recently went on, with my two friends and their dogs. It was lovely to catch up with my friends, and the dogs had such a lovely time, playing and racing around the woods and fields. They really made me smile and laugh, and my spirits were lifted so much.

I used a couple of green acrylics and orange in my background, with a couple of my hand-carved leaf stamps, and splashes of green paint and gold acrylic ink. 

I printed a couple of photos that one of my friends took, and glued them to the page, adding some gold leaf ribbon, and journaling.

That's me in the blue crochet hat and grey fleece, with my friend Louise. The dogs are Samson, Tilly and Pascal, left to right in the top photo.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge, Day 24, and also to Chris' All Kinds Of Weather theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison

Madonna and Child Christmas Cards

 Hi Everyone.

I recently had a sort out, and found some beautiful stamped images that my blog friend Lynne/Stampingandbeyond sent me a few years ago. The lovely Madonna and child image is by Oxford Impressions.

I decided to use the images for some more Christmas cards. I simply paired them up with some of my monoprints, and added some gold lace.

I'm linking my cards to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 23.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

GJJ Day 17 - Gratitude For Change with Karla Archer

 Hello All.

Karla Archer's lesson for Day 17 of Gratitude Junk Journal was Gratitude For Change. Her idea was that sometimes we start off with an idea for some art, but often it changes and goes off course. Of course there are other changes in life that are not always expected, and not always good.

Here's my version of Karla's art.

There are many layers to this painting, and as I used a palette knife to apply the last layers of paint, there is plenty of texture too.

I'm linking my art to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge, Day 22.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

I Love Paying Bills!

 Hi Everyone!

Gratitude Junk Journal's 'reason' for Day 16 was gratitude for paying bills. A strange one you might think, but I'm grateful that I always have the funds to pay any bills I need to, and I don't have any money worries.

Here's my page. I collaged some old invoices as my first layer. That saved shredding a few 😁

I'm linking my art to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 21.

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend.

Thanks for visiting.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 46 - When Life Gives You Lemons

 Hello Everyone.

For Week 46, Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal prompt is 'When Life Gives You Lemons...'

Here's my page. I would add my lemons to a gin and tonic ;-)

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 20.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

Gratitude For Freedom Of Speech with Birgit Koopsen

 Hello All.

Gratitude Junk Journal Day 12's class was Gratitude For Freedom Of Speech with Birgit Koopsen.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 17.

Thanks for visiting, and for all of the lovely comments you leave.

Alison

Gratitude Day 2 and Week 44 of 52 Weeks Art Journal

 Hello All.

I love it when I can combine a couple of challenges/classes in one piece of art. 

For Day 2 of Gratitude Junk Journal, we used a phrase or quote that someone had inspired us with, and that we adhered to. I thought of the phrase 'Life Is Too Short'. I can't remember where I first heard it, but it's something I say a lot.

And the prompt for week 44 of Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal challenge is 'Get Messy'. This prompt could have been made for me! Grin! I think that life is too short to make neat and tidy art. More grinning!

Here's my page...

I used a few pieces of collage I had in my collage fodder basket, including the half face sketch, that was left over from a class a while ago. I used a palette knife to scrape Seaglass Fresco Finish acrylic over, sketched some leaves, added some stencilled fabric strips and diluted coffee, wrote my quote, then added splashes of neon pink acrylic ink. I also painted the lips with the pink ink. So yummy!!!

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 5.

Here's a bundle of fabric collage fodder I made this week, using acrylic paint and stencils on strips of gauze bandage. I used a dotty one on my page above.

Thanks for dropping by!

A happy Friday to you all,

Alison

Gratitude Junk Journal 2021

 Hello Everyone!

This year's Gratitude Junk Journal course has just started, and the first class from Tiare Smith was to alter our journal covers.

Here's how mine turned out.

My cover has a summer's day vibe to it I think, with my hand-carved swallows flying in, and the orange flowers blooming. I'm linking to Chris' All Kinds of Weather theme at Art Journal Journey, and Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 4.

Thanks for visiting me today.

Take care,

Alison

Some More Christmas Cards

 Hello All.

As promised, here are some more Christmas cards I've made.

These ones were inspired by Leandra Franich's post on the PaperArtsy blog. They're very similar to Leandra's cards, but I added some round teabags and watercolour paint splashes to mine.

A close up of one...

These next cards were inspired by Anneke De Clerck, also on the PaperArtsy blog. They are pretty much a copy of Anneke's cards, I only had black wire to hand though, and the stars are Carabelle Studio stamps.

I'm linking up to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 3.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Alison

Rachel Greig's Artful August Challenge

 Hi Everyone.

I've found another Instagram challenge, to keep me arting after ICAD finished. Rachel Greig's Artful August Challenge has daily prompts, but you can choose what you want to make. I'm going to try and do daily 15 minute art journal pages. I quite like the time limit, and it means I can create something even when I don't have a lot of time. I've also created a junk journal just for the challenge, using a cardboard packaging cover, adding my pages with pamphlet stitch.

Rachel's prompt for Day 1 is Leaves. Here's my 15 minute page. I used collage, acrylic paint, black india ink, Stabilo Woodys, and book page text.

I'm linking my page to Neet's Type theme at Art Journal Journey.

Before I go, here are photos of my complete set of ICADs for Daisy Yellow's 2021 challenge.

June...

July...

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a happy August and new week.

Alison xox