Seek, Gather, Create August 2024 - Week 1

 Hi All.

Seek, Gather, Create August 2024 is another Instagram challenge, hosted by Tina Hois, Laura Denison, Lisa Goddard and Casey Turner.

These are the prompts for week 1...

1. colour: gold

2. plastic wrap

3. something burnt

4. handwriting or asemic writing

Here's the page I created...

I used some gold Twinings Tea plastic wrapping and created a little pocket using staples, made a background with lots of teabag texture and PaperArtsy Seaglass Fresco acrylic paint. I burnt some lace trim which was slightly scary, and added some scribbled journaling, Tim Holtz people and Dymo text.   

I'm linking my page to Jo's Wonderfully Wild theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by.

Alison xox

ICAD Week 3

Hello All.

Here are my week three ICADs for Daisy Yellow Art's Index Card A Day Challenge.

Day 15 - Seaglass

 Day 16 - Alphabet.

Day 17 - Sunflower.

Day 18 - Xylophone.

Day 19 - Violet.

Day 20 - Tranquility.

Day 21 - Postage Stamp.

Thank you so much for dropping by,

Alison

AJJ - Spring

Hello All.

It's been a cold and busy Saturday here. We decided we would start leaving the heating off during the day, to use less of Russia's gas, to stand up to Putin. We're going to try and use the car less too, walk if possible, as fuel is now an extortionate price. It was busy because I've cleaned out both Elliott the guinea pig's and Josie the tortoise's homes. That kept me a bit warm 😁 

I've been in my art room too, creating a page for Valerie's Spring theme at Art Journal Journey.

I used some of my watercolour collage fodder, that I've been creating for The 100 Day Project. The blue and green circles at the top represent some of the different types of weather we can get in Spring, hail, snow, rain, and of course the rainbow and flowers are spring-like too, with sunny colours. Hopefully it will warm up a bit soon.

I hope you're having a good weekend.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

February Journal Recipe Day 17

 Hello All.

It's Day 17 of my February Journal Recipe Instagram collaboration with Shilpa, and here are today's prompts...

Colour - Sky Blue

Shape - Rhombus or Diamond

Technique 1 - Doodle in your shapes

Technique 2 - Add some scribble journaling

I used torn pieces of a security envelope, with the flower placed behind the envelope window.

I'm linking my page to Elizabeth & Bleubeard's What's your style theme at Art Journal Journey.

Before I go, here's Josie the tortoise. She came out of hibernation a couple of months ago, silly girl. Her brother Ollie is still sleeping.

And I noticed a heart shape on the tip of the wick of this tealight candle today.

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Friday!

Alison

JJJ - Days 10 & 11

 Hello All.

I've another couple of pages to share for Junk Journal January, keeping it short as my back is playing up today.

Day 10 - A splash of colour.

Day 11 - Stamp it out. 

I carved a couple of face stamps for my collection, and used those together with a couple of my other stamps, some collage, scribbled text, and found text. I think someone's been scribbling on the walls! 😁

I'm linking this page to Erika's Let's Face It theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

Kasia's Care December - Days 15-20

 Hello All.

I have the final few Care December pages to share with you today. It's been a wonderful reflective month, and these prompts have helped me to take some time for myself and think about what really matters.

Day 15 - Online Self-care. Take a look at the people and pages you follow online, and weed out the ones that don't bring you joy.

Day 16 - The Muddy Greys of Winter.

Day 17 - Acknowledge and let go of negative thoughts.

Day 18 - Winter Solstice. Plant something and watch it grow.

Day 19 - This is me. Take a selfie, be accepting and don't judge yourself.

Day 20 - Make a wish upon a star. Set an intention.

I hope you've found some time to care for yourself this month too.

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 48 - Roots

Hello Everyone.

Here is my week 48 page for Michelle/RaspberryBlueSky's 52 Weeks Art Journal Challenge. The theme for this page is 'Roots'.

 I started with a layer of collage and a light application of white acrylic paint, then I used a PaperArtsy Mini stamp 'La Porte Bleue' for my door, and sketched and painted the house and roots around it. It looks a tiny bit spooky, but that wasn't my intention.

I'm linking my page to Valerie's When one door closes, another one opens theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting.

Alison

A Gratitude Quote

 Hello All.

Day 14 of Gratitude Junk Journal had a quote prompt. 

'When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out, and the tide of love rushes in.' - Kristin Armstrong.

I collaged some teabag papers and scraps of book text, then gessoed over them. The marks are some I painted onto tissue, then adhered them to my page with matt medium. I love how the tissue becomes invisible. I've been making lots of this tissue collage, using up black paint from my palette. I always seem to squeeze out more than I need!

I painted the large heart, wrote out the quote, added black pen outlines and scribble writing around the heart.

Then I painted and added drips and splatters with diluted coffee. I also added some blue paint and gold acrylic ink splashes.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 18.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

Gratitude Junk Journal Day 8 with Gwen LaFleur

 Hello All.

My daughter was at Cop26 this week with her work colleagues. They are working on a project for sustainable aerospace. She saw some amazing stands and displays, and came to the conclusion that there should be more young people sitting at the table and making decisions for the good of the planet. It certainly appears that there is a lot of talk, but very little action!

Day 8 of Gratitude Junk Journal with Gwen LaFleur was all about gratitude for water. Gwen's tutorial had an ocean theme to it, which is very appropriate in these times. 

Here's my page. I used diluted coffee for the drips and splashes, and the ocean creatures are Tim Holtz stamps.

I'm linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge, Day 13.

I hope you're having a good weekend.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison

Gratitude Junk Journal Day 5 with Shawn Petite

 Hello All.

Here is my latest journal page for Gratitude Junk Journal. It was a wonderful class with Shawn Petite, with layers of collage and paint. It took me two days to complete!

The butterflies give my page a summery feel, so I'm linking it to Chris' All Kinds Of Weather theme at Art Journal Journey.

And I'm also linking my page to Leah's Art Every Day Month challenge Day 8.

I'm out with my walking group tomorrow morning, then getting my 3rd vaccination in the afternoon, but I'll try to fit in some art time somewhere during the day.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison

Artful August Day 22 - Marks

 Hello All.

Here's my Day 22 page for Rachel Greig's Artful August Challenge, with the prompt 'Marks'.

Some collage, paint, stamping with my hand-carved stamps and paint, some scribbled writing, a word sticker, and red paint splashes.

A few different types of marks, definitely my type of page, and I'm linking to Neet's Type theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

Artful August Day 13 - Rainbow

 Hello All.

Here's my day 13 page for Rachel Greig's Artful August, with the theme Rainbow. I think this was just a 10 minute page.

There's some 'type' on the collage in the background, and some asemic writing, a different type of text, so I'm linking to Neet's Type theme at Art Journal Journey. There's also different types of colours, cool and warm.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 29 - Mindfulness

 Hello All.

This week Michelle/RaspberryBlueSky's art journal theme is Mindfulness.

To begin, I enjoyed some mindfulness moments gluing down some collage on my page.

Then I used my fingers to add some acrylic paint colour. I added some fingerprint marks, and some very loose swirls and asemic writing. I'm still being extra careful with my tennis elbow. 

I added some watery white paint drips, then stamped my hand-carved pebbles to create a cairn, topping it with my hand-carved bird. I finished with some pieces of torn teabag paper, and white paint splashes.

This page reminds me of summer holidays spent hiking in the Lake District, and seeing the beautiful rock and pebble cairns people have built. I always like to add a pebble to them as we pass by. I'm linking my page to Alison's Summer Countryside theme at Art Journal Journey, and to Try It On Tuesday's Feathered Friends theme.

Time to rest my arm again now.

Thanks for visiting today,

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

52 Weeks Art Journal - Week 8 - Bloom

 Hello All. I'm joining in with Raspberry Blue Sky's 52 Weeks Art Journal Challenge on Instagram, and this week's prompt is Bloom.

I already had a page started with some paint, marks and collage, and I sketched a flower shape over this with black india ink. I added some scribble writing, splashes and the flower centre with white ink, and also some gold ink marks and splashes.

I'm linking my page to Valerie's Heavy Metal theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for visiting, I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Alison xox

Creative JumpStart Day 17

 I was so excited to see Iris Fritschi-Cussens' The Story Of Me lesson on Day 17 of CJS. I discovered Iris' work last year, and I really love her grungy style and edgy portrait art.

Here's my take on her lesson. I'm linking this page to Erika's Favourite Things theme at Art Journal Journey.

I enjoyed myself so much, I did another one! This one was for the 52weeksartjournal challenge run by Raspberrybluesky on Instagram. This week's theme was 'Note To Self'.

Happy Friday to you all! I hope you have a great weekend!

Alison xox

Creative JumpStart Day 16

 I have another page for Erika's Favourite Things theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Tania Ahmed's class for Day 16 of CJS involves gel printing and using book text, two of my favourite things. I also used circles, which are my favourite shape, and scribbly writing.

I really like the words I found, quite appropriate for the time of year. Also, we are still going out at the crack of dawn for our daily walks. The sunrise was lovely this morning, and we saw the sparrow hawk and heron up on the golf course again, which made it even better.

Keep safe and carry on,

Alison xox

Creative JumpStart Day 7

 Hello Folks! Mystele Kirkeeng was our tutor on day 7 of CJS, and she showed us her art process. This involved using a piece of her painted paper that she'd used up paint on I think, then finding an image on it to develop. Her painting was a portrait, but mine turned out to be a crow.

After painting in the crow, I used a pointed tool to scratch into the paint to add texture. I love doing this! I covered up most of the under paper, but you can still see bits of it if you look very closely. I used artistic licence with the crow's eyes by the way, they're not usually yellow. 

Watching birds is one of my favourite things to do, and we occasionally get the odd crow or two in our garden, so I'm linking up to Erika's Favourite Things theme at Art Journal Journey.

Have a happy and creative day,

Alison xox

Tradition

 Hello all. I have another page for Tracey's The Meaning Of theme at Art Journal Journey. It's an abstract page, but when I was creating it, I was thinking about our Christmas traditions. We didn't manage to do many, if any, of them this year. Church services, baking with my daughter, shopping with my best friend, Boxing Day with family. I scribbled a few traditions around the circles on my page.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Orangemen

Here's another page for Tracey's theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Happy Christmas Eve to you all.

Alison xox