altered-ego

3 Days, 3 Canvases

I had the most glorious weekend off work! Pure joy. Now when can I stop working altogether?...

3 days in my art room, catching up with all sorts of music I've not listened to for ages. I grabbed 3 empty canvases and without any real thinking about it, just began to pull papers, fabrics and colours that met my mood.

 
"Let's get something nice for tea". In honour of my mother - who always loved something nice with tea. I used some dressmaking patten paper on the background which always reminds me of her.  

 
Sing your song to the wind and let it be heard on the other side of the world. I liked the idea of using "song bubbles" in the form of my hand-made buttons (using paper, fabric & metal) that would float on the wind. In this picture  I imagined that the good we do will spread good karma across the world to people and places we have no idea about and make them smile. I like using the harlequin stamps I made as well as torn music sheets and lace in the background.

 
"Teatime Treats" - another one of my tea & cake themed pictures. I don't know, one day I'll tire of them and stop doing them, but until then, I suspect that I'll see alot more cake in my artwork.  :)

Spring - little book

I seem to be in the mood for finishing thing I started ages ago - last year spring, in fact! Another little altered board book depicting various images of Spring.

I painted the little birds, then printed the original

 
 
   

Harvest Stole

Because I have 4 (!) different Harvest services to do at church this year (in 3 different churches), I decided I needed a new liturgical stole to mark the celebration. I like to use very simple images in the designs for my stoles and my sewing is very straightforward too, - no fancy stitchery here!

After fiddling with some images on the computer in PhotoImpact (I wish I could use Photoshop properly), I transferred them onto various pieces of fabric scraps. Once ironed onto Bondaweb (double-sided sticky stuff), I cut the pieces out,  arrange them on the stole piece and then iron in place. The just some zig-zagging around the edges of each piece in a co-ordinating colour thread is all that's needed to make it look pretty smart. I like to back the stole pieces with interfacing before stitching the two sides together. A bit of hand stitching at the top of the pieces completes the job. 

I have quite a collection of these liturgical stoles now. I wear them to help tell the story of the church seasons but mostly to add a bit of colour to my clothes.

 

 

   

New little Art Journal - "Being, day by day"

A few years ago I bought a kids board book from the charity shop in Canada for 15c. I began my mixed-media art journal and completed a few pages. I rediscovered the little book this morning and finally finished the remaining pages. This art journal is called "Being, day by day" and each page describes some of the emotions and feelings I go through at various stages through each day (in no particular order).

  Cover

  

 

 

I have a very sexy phone!

I am sitting in a meeting typing this post on my very pretty white iPhone 3G. I am delighted with it and have been playing with it geting to know some of the amazing goodies this phone can do. Having a 16gig of space for things it also contains a vast number of my CD collection. I love all the apps that can be downloaded - so many things you never knew you absolutely needed! Yay, I have a very prety phone :)

Creative Prayer Journal pages

Here are a few pages with very different themes. I had fun with each one.

 

 

 

 

Collage - some fun new techniques

I had such a glorious bank holiday yesterday. I sat in my art room all day and experimented and played, - all the while listening to Radio 4 (a sure sign of my maturing age).

In a few weeks time I am leading short course at my church called "Creative Prayer Journal". Over the 5 weeks of June I want to show them how to make their own prayer art journal using various techniques. The wonderful thing about this is that most of the folk would never have done anything like this before. I am still putting the course together and so am making a prayer journal as a sample. I'll put a step-by-step tutorial on here over the next few weeks. Here's the cover of my sample prayer journal:

  

I then went on to make a canvas using the same method as my journal cover. I do love Blackbirds and their song inspires me and always makes me smile. The canvas is 10x8 inches.  (click on image to see full size)

 

 

Sunday Postcard Art challenge - Black and White

Here's to the women who walk life's tight-rope with poise! My challenge for Sunday Postcard Art's theme of Black and White. Collage and rubber stamps on card.

New Pendants: Let us eat cake

Some new pendants just added to my Etsy Shop

Wearable Art - Birds series

I've had so much fun making these for my new Etsy Shop. All these little birds are hand-painted with acrylic paints (altered photos) and set onto a collaged and stamped background and set between glass and soldered.

Please visit my ETSY SHOP