a Circle Journal catch up - Free Art Friday - and more Lost Dogs

Phew - I've been busy recently, here's a little round up

First of all, two entries in the fabric circle journal I'm taking part in over at UKScrappers - there's only one more after this month, pity, I've really enjoyed it:

This one's theme was vintage fashion.  Not my usual kind of thing, but that's what I enjoy about circle journals, they sometimes push me kicking and screaming out of my comfort zone!

I was originally going to use an image transfer technique for the focal image, but, well, this is how it turned out!  Oops!

So I painted her instead, and she turned out pretty cute.  In fact I think I would have left the piece like this if I was keeping it for myself....

...with no further embellishment than the frayed edges on the fabric.  But it wouldn't have been enough for the circle journal requirements, there needed to be at least a little bit of needlework in there, so I added some lace and ribbon and other frou frou in line with the theme :)

Next up, this month's theme was Wings, and I was torn between an angel, a death's head moth, or Icarus.  As you can see, Icky won out in the end:

Again a combination of a painting (acrylics) and embroidery on fabric, which I've done a few of now and I'm enjoying the combo.

This is also my entry for Summer of Color 2014, week one.  The colour palette we were given this week was aqua blue, and yellow, with a pop of hot pink.

Not sure if you can spot the hot pink, so here's a close up - it's the thread around the wings:

Now moving on to another circle journal - the Stay-At-Home CJ over at Collabor-ART ended this month - and sadly so did the site itself, I've decided to wind it down as it has gone deathly quiet there over the last year as we've all moved onto other creative endeavours.

I'll be sorry to see it go, but at least it bowed out with a really great project - the S@H CJ has really been a lot of fun!

Here's my final entry - the theme was cogs, wheels and rust:

It's a bit busy!  It looks better in real life really due to the metallic embossing powder behind the heart and the patina in it....  you'll just have to take my word for that :)

And here are all my pages together for the full 9 months of the project....

....no idea what I'm going to do with them now .... maybe I will donate some to....

Free Art Friday

how's that for a seamless link?

Because I have somehow found myself "volunteered" to organise Swindon's very own chapter of Free Art Friday ..... how did that happen???

All the details about our launch event and how things will shake out in the long term, are on the Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/FreeArtFridaySwindon - please do check it out, I'm currently in crazy recruitment mode trying to persuade all my creative friends to join in :)

I've also been making lots of work myself to contribute to the big launch event - including 6 more "Lost Dogs":

And, for the kiddies to find, some stencilled My Little Ponies:

There's a ton more in the pipeline too, I'm hoping to contribute 20 or 30 more items to the cause - either for the Swindon drop itself or to swap with other artists and Free Art Friday chapters....so I'll continue to be busy busy busy!!!

Wouldn't have it any other way, though :)

Another circle journal update....

I've done a couple more CJ entries since the last time I blogged, so for the sake of completeness, here they are (apologies this won't be a wordy post, I am soooooo tired and my bed beckons :) ):

This one had a Shakespeare theme, so I did a portrait of Titania and her beloved Bottom from A Midsummer Night's Dream

The theme for this one was Innocence and Experience....

And finally, this month's "Bestitched" fabric CJ entry - the theme was 'bejewelled' .... which made me think of jewel toned fabrics and sari silks, and paisley motifs....

So I hand cut a paisley stencil (fiddly little bugger!):

And then sewed together strips of fabric in jewel tones as a base for the stencilling:

A smattering of sparkles finished it off

Circle Journal catch ups

I haven't blogged since last September??? Blimey!  Didn't realise it had been that long!

So - anyway - here's a catch up on my current CJs

First up, my first entry for a new fabric based CJ taking place over on UKScrappers.  My theme is tattoos, and I've asked each participant to make a 8" x 8" mini art quilt:

That blooming swallow took me two weeks to embroider, and not all the stitching is perfect, but I am fairly pleased with the end result.  I look forward to the next six months, some of the themes are going to be a bit of a challenge for me I think, but that's why I enjoy CJs, I like being forced out of my comfort zone a bit.....

Next, and I'm not sure why I haven't blogged any of these already, I've been taking part for the last few months in a very different kind of CJ over at Collabor-art.  It's called a Stay At Home CJ, and the basic premise is that each person taking part has made a background, and chosen a theme - we all have been sent colour copies of the ten backgrounds, and each month we all work on the same background, to the same theme, blind.  There's a big reveal at the end of each month of what everyone did.  And the big plus points are that 1) there's no postage costs or the worry of things getting lost in the post and 2) you get to keep all your artwork

Here are my entries to date, and links to the Collabor-art posts for each month so you can see what everyone else did from the same starting point:

Month 1, theme "for the love of trees":

Original background, by Lou

My entry - the quote is Emily Bronte if I remember rightly

Full gallery here

Month 2, theme "Beastie":

Background by Carmen

My entry - Cthulhu

Full gallery here

Month 3, theme "steampunk":

Background by Pat

My entry - this was a 2 layer hand cut stencil which rather annoyingly fell apart on first use, so this is a one off!

Full gallery here

And last one for now (I'm currently working on Month 5), Month 4, theme "song lyrics":

Background by me

My entry - the lyrics are from Cochise by Audioslave

Full gallery here

Phew, that was quite the update, I'll try not to leave it so long next time....

Time for a bloggy catch up

I've neglected this poor old blog recently, haven't I....... no "Rocking Your World" or "A Year of Firsts" posts since March, and half the stuff I make doesn't get onto the blog any more either.

Sorry peeps, it's all down to wok craziness, it's been such a busy year and I've been working silly hours, so a lot of my free time activities, including keeping my blog up to date, have had to give

But anyway, enough excuses, here are a few things I've made recently that I haven't put on here yet:

First up, I've been taking part in the Summer of Color challenge this year - and a few of the bits you'll have seen already, but here are two you haven't:

Week one - colour combo Citron Green & Turquoise - I made a batch of gelli prints and then used one of them to make my dad's Fathers' Day card:

Week two - Hot Pink & Orange - I used on a CJ entry already blogged here

Week three - Lime Green & Purple - well purple always makes me think of chocolate thanks to Cadbury :)  so I used this combo for my Hollow Chocolate Bunnies book review artwork, already blogged here

Week four - Charcoal Grey & Pale Pink - I can't share that one yet as it's on the artwork for my next ARC book review, but watch this space!

Week five - Candy Apple Red & Yellow - I made something for myself to keep for a change.  I bought this wooden plaque a while ago in the Works for £1.99, and used it to make a bit of tribute fan art to the wondrous webcomic Romantically Apocalyptic

Any of you who haven't checked out RA yet - do it now!!!  Head for the archives and read it from the beginning or it won't make sense.  Well, it doesn't make much sense anyway :) But it is so funny and beautiful and just brilliant.  What are you waiting for?  go!   (but do come back here afterwards and finish reading this blog post :) )

The week six combo is looking likely to be Sage & Sepia, not sure yet what I'll do for that one....

What else haven't I blogged?  This ICAD portrait of my cat:

And this CJ entry:

(I cut that 4 layer stencil of the Krays by hand, it gave me a knife finger blister! more details over here)

I think there are probably other things I've forgotten to blog, but that's a reasonable attempt to catch up.....

Please avert your eyes if bad language might offend....

I've just realised that I blogged this CJ entry over at Collabor-ART but not on here....

So it's Desert Island Discs time again and this month I have Sian's CJ to work in.

Right from the very beginning when Sian first published her list of songs, I was hoping that one particular song would still be available when the CJ reached me - and it was - woohoo!

Like Sian, I have certain songs that I love to play at volume when I am in a baaaaaaad mood, my angry songs, and this track by Korn is very much one of them.  In particular, shouting along to the chorus is a great stress reliever!

Trouble is, there's a rather rude word in there, but I checked on the Collabor-ART Facebook group to see if anyone would be offended by me posting it uncensored, and nobody said not to, so here goes, brace yourselves :) :

The main image on this page was a real labour of love - it's a hand cut, 4 layer stencil of the band's lead singer, Jonathan Davis.  I am beyond chuffed at how well it turned out and how much it looks like him.

(original photo by user Cliseu on deviantART)

For comparison, as I expect that most of you probably wouldn't know him from Adam, here's the reference photo I used:

Now I am trying to think what else I can use that stencil for as it was a lot of work for a single use!  I thoroughly enjoyed making it though.

On the reverse side of the flappy bit is an image from one of the band's live album covers that fit the space rather nicely:

It wasn't until I'd finished all this bit that I realised I was supposed to use that area for my sign in and thoughts about why I had picked this song etc, oops!  So instead I wrote all that stuff on the reverse of a tag decorated to match everything else, and I tucked it in behind my main page:

So that's my own page done, I hope Sian likes it as much as I enjoyed making it

Next stop - tweaking the previous entries

I didn't do something to all of the previous pages this time, only the ones where I had an immediate idea of what I wanted to add

To Pat's entry - the Wonder of You by Elvis - I added a quick sketch of a someone extending a helping hand, inspired by the lyrics "you touch my hand and I'm a king":

On Sian's own entry for the love song Butterfly by Lenny Kravitz, I gave her girl a heart.  Well for a love song she needs one, right?

And to Virginia's entry, for Snow White Queen by Evanescence, I added a coat of arms to her warrior queen's shield:

Roll on next month, I am enjoying this CJ so much!

A post Christmas round up ....

My blog has been very quiet recently, not because I've not been making stuff, but because most of the makings have been for Christmas pressies and the like ....

But now the big day is over I'm safe to blog

First of all, a book made for my friend Michelle when she came over from the States in October:

The skyline is Venice and the beads are Venetian glass

A couple of birthday cards:

More cards, Christmas ones this time (only made a handful for posting for immediate family and my bestest pal, I'm pretty rubbish at Christmas cards):

A bracelet for Jay's mum as she liked a similar one I made for myself a while back:

Yet more cards, these were for my kids and other half:

(Minecraft / Snoop Dogg / Pokemon)

(Breaking Bad / Battlestar Galactica)

A bracelet for my Secret Santa (I know she has opened up her gifts and she has already sussed they were from me, I think, so hopefully this is safe to blog):

I think I will make myself one of these, it's a good way to use up the leather I have spare from bookbinding, and it's a different twist on a charm bracelet that I haven't seen anyone else doing (although I'm sure someone somewhere must have already had the same idea!)

And I also made her a green man stencil:

I think that's everything ..... as you've already seen the papercut tree I made for my cousins (and yes thanks, to those who asked, they really liked it :) )

Festive round up complete!