Fragments course

 So I signed up for a few free courses last week and have started working on 2!

Fragments with Francisca Nuñes is proving to be a whole lot of fun …. It’s going to be a great place to keep all the little things that I don’t want to part with, tags & mixed media postcards that I have received…

So I’m going to share the covers and spine all done with recycling:-)

Outside of cardboard box: gesso + distress ink in Seedless Preserve & distress oxides in weathered wood & rustic wilderness, TCW Labyrinth stencil with old gold acrylic, Tim Holtz Tarnished Brass stain for the splatters.

Under paper on the inside with the spine reinforced by masking tape.

The Spine is a piece of heavy linen that I dyed on a City & Guilds course who knows when! On a later course i stencilled some gold paint on it. You can also see that the signatures have been sewn in using Caron thread (mulberry).

3 signatures made from papers collected/ made/ given by friends that I have been “precious “ about but no longer!

I’ve started to add some bits inside, in fact the 1st signature is well on the way to being done.

Halfway through the month & more!

 Well it seems like time is marching on ever faster, here we are more than half way through February already!

I have another CMP page:

I have done a few more pages in my “altered book “

Across on Facebook I’m also still doing Art Prompts Galore and this is the progress so far on the “156 prompts “ so 3 per week 

I can also now share the valentines card that I made using the new distress ink Scorched Timber 

I’m also working my way through 4 free classes that I signed up for but I’ll save that for another day! I’m off to medicate… pneumonia has been diagnosed….

Time marches on

 So the prompt for February’s first spread came out just after the recycling was collected thus ensuring that I did not have any cardboard to make a collagraph but ever resourceful I decided to go with a hand carved stamp I did a few years ago based on an earring that I had bought from an art student. 

I then used papers leftover from an online class + 1 strip (swirls on the left)   So I still managed to make this one about recycling!

I acquired an old hardback poetry book not long ago which I wanted for the cover for a project…. I decided that I didn’t want to waste the pages that I had removed and so decided that I would decorate the edges with scraps and add some coloured images. So far I’ve got 30 borders done & 2 stamped and coloured…

First one is a robin 

Then further into the book is a field mouse 

I have a Daisy border and know which stamp is going on there!

Into February already

 So let’s do the final Colour Me Positive for January where I used some Moos from my #100days of a few years ago 

And we can follow up with the first one for the shortest month….

I’m actually quite enjoying working on a larger format (A4) after the time that I spent on 5x8. 

And again!

 I’m on a roll!

Life Documented is fortnightly for a second year and here’s what I’ve done so far…

Week 1: prompt: use scrap paper to create a NY spread & create a slogan on your page too. Technique: use what you have to make a colourful spread. Quote: New Year, new habits… you’ve got this. 

Week 2: Prompt:  Keep it simple! Keep it focused! Techniques:  Use watercoloured or painted patterns - use ones already created or have a play with watercolours to create your own pattern/style - Quote:  What you focus on grows.”— Esther Hicks

Still January

 So Colour Me Positive is still a weekly prompt and so far I have kept it simple by using the quote and some colour/stamping for week 1

Onto week 2 with light brayered paint and a little stamping + a tag done a while ago 

Week 3 is stencilled background and an image from a magazine + stencilled quote 

Shockingly it’s 2024!

 I know… I have been absent for a long period and I am thoroughly ashamed of myself! I just have no idea what has happened to time, maybe it’s quantum science???

Anyway I hope you can bear a photo dump because that’s what I mean to do and then I shall have to see what happens with my reporting in. 

This covers the latter part of the year + a couple of cards I made for a girlfriend.

Part of the problem with blogging comes from the fact that the challenges all come from Facebook groups so I share on there within the relevant groups and then forget to come on here…. Mea culpa!

I shall try to be better with the blog this year.