Saturday 2 December 2017

First Etsy Sale!!

I've got to tell you I had pretty much given up on Etsy as a way of selling my things. I've been on it for four years and never had any success but today it happened! I finally sold my jigsaw Christmas wreath that I made two years ago! Sods law that I sold the same thing at 8pm last night to a friend! Just typical! Now I'm going to have to speed make another one! Cant complain though, jigsaws are obviously popular this year. 


Sunday 26 November 2017

Incredible Weekend - Intuitive Arts Course

What an incredible weekend I've had! I booked myself onto an intuitive arts course I heard about on the Facebook grapevine hoping to push the boundaries of what I've been doing and break into a more artful rather than crafty direction but I did not expect to take the incredible or intense journey that I have! I will try and explain the rollercoaster of emotions I have been on and show you my work in progress but I cant possibly do it justice so bear with me.

 So this is how I started out. Lots of freehand mark making and lots cool colours. I used pastel, markers, acrylic paint and tissue paper to make these random marks with things including my hands, a spatula, and a natural sponge. I sprayed the whole thing heavily with water to create drinks and runs in the paint.


























This is how I left the piece at the end of the first day. I decided to add in some more warm colours and used plenty of paint and water to create lots of drips, rotating the canvas each time.

I was so psyched at the end of the first day. I felt like I had had so much fun and was excited to experiment and progress to see what was hiding in my picture.
























 After guidance from Jane (the artist who was teaching the course) I added some paint from tester pots of house paint to create quiet spaces on the canvas. I used white as well as cream and blended the edges out with a cloth. At this point I still had no idea what the canvas was going to become or which way up it was going to end.


I rotated the canvas into a landscape position and added pinky purple circles with using a cue tip and peachy coloured dots also with a cue tip as well as light pink dots and smears with a natural sponge.

The canvas looked quite disjointed so taking advice again and homogenised everything with a while glaze which brought the piece together.


As I went out to lunch I noticed the larger of the figures looking out at me and then spotted the tiny figure reaching out too. This is the point at which I was reduced to tears. I had a miscarriage in March this year (2017) and what I saw was my lost baby reaching out to me across a body of water. However, Jane pointed out to me that there was clearly a road or pathway that my little person was pointing to.


This is how my work finished up. I could have carried on and on but I ran out of time. I added the dark border and dry brushed white paint on top to soften the edges. I added white house paint to the figures to pick them out of the background and when around the smaller one with white paint dry brushing the outer edges to create a glow. I also added a charcoal outline to both to make them pop. I also tried to make the divide between the figures more water like with oranges and yellows.

From the sound of my write up it sounds like I very easily made all of these decisions myself and easily but once I found my figure I felt very lost about how to continue with my work and got a huge amount of support and guidance from Jane to help me bring out the focal points.

Friday 10 November 2017

Simple Exploding Card

So tomorrow I am demonstrating at The Range in Stoke Gifford, Bristol with the new range of products from Docrafts. Included in the demo will be this very simple exploding card.




It was very easy to make. All you need is one sheet of 12x12 paper, a 6x6 card or a sheet of 12x6 card and some coordinating papers and embellishments. Rather than go through the process by writing it all down step by step I am instead going to link you to the YouTube video I watched when I learned how to do it as the lady who explains it does a great job. Happy Crafting, let me know how it goes in the comments below, I would love to see your take on this x

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqy0DsZnUPI

Thursday 12 October 2017

Sleepless crafts!

Is it just me or does anyone else get up to craft in the middle of the night? Here I am again, insomnia central and I'm just about to start faffing around at my craft desk! I'm sure no good with come of this as 4am doesn't seem like the most productive time of day! I'm shattered but I just cant shut my brain off. As soon as my daughter stirs because she has lost her dummy I'm wide awake and my brain goes into total overdrive! I start thinking about all the things I have to do! I've got two commissions I'm working on simultaneously and I want to make some more work to sell at my Christmas craft fairs in November and December plus I've got my own Christmas cards to make and if that wasn't enough I'm constantly reminded that I never get around to scrapbooking my daughters first year and she is now two and a half and I really want to start art journaling!! I know I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself over this but I just want to create so desperately. This situation is certainly not helped by the fact little monster has now dropped her nap completely and so is with me 24/7 and I don't currently have any childcare. If people could just buy more of my stuff that would be great and then I would have more money for the odd childminder day.....this is a complete pipe dream I know! It would be nice though. Anyway, signing out to go and make xxx

Saturday 30 September 2017

So many crafts, not enough time!

Hi All, so after three weeks as a stay at home mum I'm still struggling to find the time to post on my blog. Mainly because I'm too busy crafting! I'm currently working on making my own Christmas cards but I've also resolved not to buy another card from a card shop as I have so much of my own stuff I need to use! Ironically I bought two sets of Christian Christmas Card stamps in an effort to save money but have probably spent more than I would have on commercial ones! Oh well, I supposed I will save money next year (I hope!)

I seem to be pretty overwhelmed with commissions at the moment too. I've made a couple of wedding plaques as well as some new baby ones and I've got two with no end date on the back burner! I'm still trying to make enough art to sell at the two up and coming craft fairs that I've got coming up in November and December plus another demo and I'm keen to keep going with my YouTube videos too! No wonder I have no time. Eva has decided to nap no more during the day time too so I'm very restricted to evening work. If only I could get hubby to consent to a day of childcare then I might make a bit of headway although I doubt it!

Monday 28 August 2017

A new start

Hi all, sorry it has been such a long time since my last post. I have had 9 months from hell and haven't felt up to doing much both blog wise or art wise. Happily things are much better now! I have given up my teaching job so I can focus on spending time with my little person and this has meant that I also have lots more free time in the evening to work on my projects! I have tried to focus on getting a video up on YouTube at least once a week since the start of the summer holidays and I have posted the links to my new videos below. I am still working as a demonstrator for Docrafts and so a lot of these projects are based around the new Docrafts releases.

Unboxing video of the new July releases from Docrafts
Embossing folder techniques using the new embossing folders from Xcut and how to get more from your folders
Process Video - Layered Card using the beautiful and versatile new papers and dies from Docrafts
Scrapbook Process Video using the new Papermania Capsule Pigment collection from Docrafts
Scrapbook Process Video using mixed media techniques

Let me know if you like what you see and please subscribe to my channel to see more of my projects. If you would like to know any of the products I used then please drop me a message and I will be happy to respond.




Monday 19 December 2016

Intermittent but still here!

Hello all, I say all but I don't think I have anyone subscribing to my blog just now! I apologise anyway for the intermittent posts! It is a struggle to keep up a blog and to also hold down a teaching job, be a mummy to a toddler and also create art. I have been creating like a mad woman for the craft fair I was invited to on the 3rd December to sell my wares. I wanted to have some Christmassy things as well as my usual items so I haven't had much time for anything else. Sadly it was a pretty unsuccessful day. There was very limited footfall and in the end I made very little profit. This has definitely knocked my confidence. I wish I had the time to take more commissions but I just don't feel I can when I cant guarantee them to be ready by any certain time. Anyway, here are my new pieces, I thought they were a big improvement on my older work but maybe I was wrong.