Art journaling

This fall I started an Art Journaling group that meets once a month. My motives were purely selfish. I wanted to do more art journaling and thought if I had a regular time set aside for it that I would hopefully make more time during the month also. Our first meeting I showed everyone how to make a journal from one sheet of 22"x 30" 120lb watercolour paper like the ones I did here. This month we discussed and worked on backgrounds. There are so many ways to do backgrounds that it was hard to know where to start. After much thought before the meeting, I realized the method I use the most these days is the left over paint method. This just means that any paint left over from a project either my own or a students gets slopped into the art journal to be pondered over later. This method has been great to challenge myself with colour combinations that I wouldn't usually use. I tend to stick to my comfortable warm browns, oranges and copper. 
   So that is how this page started out. Another favourite technique lately is using stencils or masks. On this page I used paint with the stencils but sometimes I use inks or glimmer mists. I also used markers on this with the stencils. Just making some random shapes here and there instead of using the whole stencil. It got me thinking, how else can I use stencils other than the obvious!
   Once the background was complete I thought it had an airy feel to it, hence the 'how to fly' idea. 
   I completed the background during the meeting and left it out on my work table so I could play with it every once in a while over the next few days. So I guess the art journaling group really did work to get me going!
   Do you do some art journaling? What's your favourite background technique? Share it with me in the comments below.

Have you left your comment here to win this weeks tag yet?

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Handmade goodness and giveaway.

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? Do you buy or make all handmade gifts? I'd like to say that I do all handmade but I think realistically that's not possible although I would be happy to receive all handmade gifts I don't think others in the family are willing to go that far. I do buy and make as many handmade gifts as I can. It's so wonderful to get such unique and creative things and feels so good to support other artists. 

I find this time of year I come across so many talented people, that I would like to share some with you. So each Monday I'm going to feature some handmade goodness as well as doing my tag giveaway.

Kettle

My first featured artist is a very close friend of mine, Sheila Cain-Sample. She is a graphite and colour pencil artist who does amazingly detailed work. The "Kettle" above is my favourites. I never get tired of looking into her kitchen from days gone by.

Baby Shoes

These baby shoes are a drawing that Sheila did earlier this year. She has a special feature on her blog called "Draw with me" where you can follow along with her creative process and see this picture come to life. It's so interesting to learn what tools she likes to use and watch the creative process along the way. She also does custom Heirloom drawings of your own special items. What a great way to display an heirloom or give as a gift!

Sheila's prints make a great present for the person that is oh so difficult to find something for. She has a great selection of items in her Etsy shop to chose from. I know I've given a few of her creations to people and they're always greatly appreciated.

So that brings us to this weeks tag giveaway. This tag is full of texture and layers. The clock is a shaker I made by sandwiching some packaging together with beads inside. It reminds us to enjoy the journey which is what really matters in the end.

For a chance to win this tag leave a comment on this post or on my facebook page and the winner will be announced on Friday of this week. Good luck!

Do you have some favourite handmade goodies you'd like to share? Add them to your comment for us all to enjoy.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Handmade books and winner

 Last weekend I was able to find a little time to stop by a local show, something I don't get to do as much as I use to and I miss it. And of course I couldn't resist some of the handmade goodness.  You may remember last year I picked up a few of Mary Kritz's books (you can see them here).  This year she had an even more wonderful array of books to entice me. It was hard to choose but I went with the books that spoke to me first.

This is a Japanese stab binding book. The art work on the front just mesmerized me and I kept coming back to it.

Then when I looked inside and saw this lovely Japanese marbled paper that she had embossed gold trees onto I knew it had to come home with me.

 With so much of my own work, texture plays a huge roll, so when I come across something as textured as this book I could not pass it up. This is made with Lokta paper. I hadn't heard of this paper before but was intrigued to find out it is made from a bush from the Himalayan mountains. 

Here is a little bit closer view of the texture. To see more of Mary's amazing creations and to learn of an upcoming exhibition she doing check out her blog.

This weeks tag giveaway winner is Jennifer. Congratulations Jennifer I'll get that mailed out to you shortly.

Each year I think about and try to make and buy some handmade goodness for my Christmas giving and this year is no exception. There is so much wonderful talent out there I think we should support them more. So this year I've decided to do some sharing here on my blog. Along with giving away a tag each Monday I'm going to share some of my favourite handmade goodness that I've come across on line. 
See you Monday with this new feature.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Show set up.

This past weekend I was at the wonderful Handmade Harvest show. I get a lot of complements on my booth so I thought I'd share a peak at it today. It's taken me a few years to get to where it is now and it's ever evolving. I enjoy trying out new displays, changing things up here and there although the overall vintage feels continues to be my main theme. 

 For this show I picked up a new cloth but when I got it home I realized it was  a little too close to  copper coloured to have my jewelry show up well. I do that a lot. I love the warm copper colour so sometimes everything becomes the same tones and nothing stands out. Not a good thing when you're trying to show off your jewelry. I was determined to try the cloth so I brought some vintage linens I had and placed them here and there on the table so the jewelry could be placed on them. I think it worked well and will try it again at the next show. It helps to have the pictures to see after how things look too. The suitcase on the right was the Tin Man's grandmother's and is my favourite piece in the display. I had a few people at this show wanting to buy it!
 I get a lot of comments on my shutter too. It's a great way to display a lot of earrings. The Tin Man suggested I paint it white after seeing one I have at home that is white(well you know grungy white), so I plan to give it a white wash for the next show. I'll just put that on my to do list.

I had an extra corner at the end of my table to do a small display but had to make do with what I had with because I didn't know ahead of time that this would be available, so again the Tin Man came to the rescue and set up some extra suitcases that I had with to carry things. It made a nice extra little space for more jewelry.

Well that is my small tour of a show set up for Dragonfly Dreamers. I have a few things I still want to change up and try, like making a sign and changing the colour of the black necklace displays, maybe to burlap or antique linen. There is always something to think about.

What do you think? Any suggestions of things I can try?

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Angel tag giveaway.

This weeks tag for the giveaway is this lovely angel and butterfly. She's one of my fav's so I hope she finds a wonderful home. I'm going to change up the drill a little bit. Leave a comment here and/or on my facebook page and you will have a chance to win this tag or two if you do it both places. Good luck and pass on the love.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Nail art and tag winner.

Have you discovered nail art yet. I stumbled upon it earlier this year on Pinterest. I thought it was kinda neat. I picked up a few colours of nail polish to try out and next thing I knew I was hooked. I can't believe the things people are doing with their nails. It's so creative and a lot of fun. Here are a few things I've tried so far.

 This is what I'm wearing right now for my show tomorrow. Copper of course! To do this I started with the lighter colour and then I used some decorative scissors to cut tape to mask off the part that I wanted to stay light while I did the other part black. I used a Matt effect top coat. It was the first time using the Matt and I really like it. It tones things down a bit, very effective. 

 Here was my Halloween version. I had some technical difficulties. Sharpies didn't work so well, so I had to go get some black polish! I only had this on for Halloween day.

This was my first attempt at nail art with 2 colours. I discovered that a toothpick works well for dots. Have you tried any nail art yet?

On to the winner now. Sorry I'm a day late. I'm not sure what happened to Friday. 

AND THE WINNER IS: Cynthia from Galeria 46. Congratulations Cynthia and thanks for playing along. 

See you on Monday with the next tag giveaway.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Jingling bracelet.

As you probably all know by now, I'm in the midst of preparing for this weekends Handmade Harvest show. There is something about an upcoming show that really motivates my creativity. I don't know why. You'd think the pressure would inhibit creativity. So I usually try to go with it. I never feel like I have enough for an upcoming show, so I'm usually making things up to the last minute. My main focus yesterday was bracelets. 
I decided that the fairies must have been helping out because some of them started to jingle. The one above has a wonderful soft jingle as you wear it. I'm calling it Pearly Jingles. I know naming another piece. Maybe it's a new trend!!  Here is another one that I just posted on Facebook this morning. It has a little bit less of a jingle but definitely jingles too.

So the big question today is, do you like to wear jewelry that jingles as you move? Or do you despise wearing things that make noise?

Wendy

Ps: Don't forget to leave a comment on Monday's tag giveaway!!