New Year adventures week one

Hello.... A week gone from 2018 already - and I know it's early days but I did quite well doing some of the things that  I hope to achieve this year.  My digital page is a list of what I think would be achievable  and as the theme over at    AJJ  this month is 'New Year, New Adventures'  (hosted by Erika from BioArtGal ) I am linking to there.

 

The photography course book I have started to read is for 20 weeks

 but as long as I have completed it by the end of the year I will be happy.

I hope I learn some skills to improve the quality of taking photos indoors as I had 

awful trouble trying to photograph my white Steampunk tree and its coloured lights.

I was sad to take down all the Christmas trees and other bits as the lights

 were lovely and cheerful and made me forget the grey wintry days outside.

I have been playing my keyboards again - but not this one,

this is the one I started decorating last year which needed more doing to it.

I used a mix of alcohol inks, black and white Posca paint pens and alcohol pens.

I always say I have a bit more confidence sewing after a little drink

 but I'm not sure it works with painting ha ha.

First go painting people using that Hazel Soan book I had for Christmas.

And as for learning to sew (its on my list too)...I altered a waistband on my PJs - taking out elastic and machined it up with a cord instead. And for more sewing next, I hope to make one of those 'Travelers style journals' with a fabric cover, which may also come under learning a 'new craft'... My first attempt yesterday with a mini one of those was using craft foam and laminated paper but I don't think its very sturdy.

And finally..because the weather in the UK has been cold and grey and what with the dreadful flu virus going around, it makes me feel that I just want to stay inside and hibernate. 

So for exercise - with the aid of some on line videos I have been learning to .. no laughing please!..... 'line dance' .... yes really!  ... something called 'the electric slide'. 

Hope your new year and any new adventures are going well..

thanks for stopping by

Gill x

Darkness and light for AJJ and last of the Steampunk ornaments.



I'm loving Valeries fab theme this month at AJJ 'Light and Darkness'

 and really enjoyed making this page. I combined a piece of my artwork with some digital papers and digital elements from kits: The artists memories by G&T designs and 'A scrap of art' by Lynne Anzelc and added some digital effects. Finished off with some quotes. 

 



 

And I think these are probably the last of the new Steampunk ornaments I've been making. Sorry photos not good but the winter light has made it awkward to get a decent image ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tree is a sort of iridescent and white but when the lights are on make it look various colours.

 

 

 Thanks so much for stopping by.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Gill xx



'Once there was only Darkness' for AJJ and more Steampunk Xmas tree ornaments

Hello hope you're having a good Saturday...

It's another grey day here and just starting to rain.
I have a page for AJJ 'Light and Darkness theme' - being hosted this month by the lovely Valerie. Sorry about awful photo ...Grrrr!..I can never yet a page to lay flat and play nice when I want to take a photo, and also finding it hard to get decent photo because of the gloomy grey wintry days.



And as promised, below are a couple more Steampunk decorations..

 

 The snowflake was thick white felt before I painted it with

various acrylic paints to get the faux metal effect.

The nuts and bolts, and cog in centre are made from craft foam.

 

 

I turned the tree lights off when taking these photos, but for this years tree we

changed the lights from white bulbs with black wire to coloured lights and clear wire

as I didn't like the black lead showing so much. Not sure if I should have stayed with

white lights, but the coloured ones are certainly more warmer and cheerful.

 

 

 I knew the pack of mini bottles I had bought would come in handy one day -

not exactly steampunk but fits nicely on my quirky tree. Somewhere on the tree

 there's a blue and a green version as well as the red one below. They are filled with

glitter and either little stars or hearts and topped with a big jewel.

 

 

 

 

 

The owl is actually an earring and I got two pairs of them from a pound shop and couldn't resist using them on the tree as I love owls plus the colour goes well with the verdigris/patina on some of the ornaments. The ornament on the right was from last year. If you missed that or would like to see my original post you'll find it here original Steampunk tree 2015 with all the decorations I made last year.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Wishing you a lovely weekend.

Gill xx

Light and Darkness for AJJ and a Hot Air Balloon for the Christmas tree

Hi... its 8c outside and one of those gloomy overcast (and cold? unless its just me) days that make you just want to curl up in front of the tv with a good film or go play and have some arty messy fun... or maybe both :)

I'm linking up to the new AJJ December theme 'Light and Darkness'   hosted by the lovely Valerie.
My piece is a mix of real art and digital. The real art using Portfolio water soluble oil pastels plus a black Stabilo all pencil.

The original artwork  (see below) was not so dark, so when I was adjusting it digitally,
I copied and layered it 3 times and added some effects to it to darken it.
Then I added some digital stars and word art to finish.
 

 

 

A couple of days ago I promised to show some more
of the decorations I've been making for our Steampunk tree.
 

For this piece I used 2 dies (a clock and an air balloon) and the clock inners stamp from Sheena Douglass 'Time Traveller' Perfect Partners range.  The clock hands were Marianne dies and a Nestability scallop circle die used to cut out the stamped image.

 

To make things more sturdy each part has a layer of craft foam in the middle and card either side. Glued all together with Cosmic Shimmer glue.

I wanted to make the original air balloon different and slightly bigger so used the balloon under the clock and sandwiched it between the scallop circle of craft foam.

 

The faux metallic effects done using various metallic paints, matte eco paint for verdigris/patina and a little extra rub-on wax to grunge more. But because its for Christmas I added a little iridescent glitter glue for some extra sparkle and some little gem stones.

 

Thanks for stopping by today

and for any comments.

Have a great day and if you happen to have an excess

of sunshine  you don't need - please send it over my way :)

Gill xx

 

 

 

 



Stripes for MM&M and some baubles for my Steampunk tree

 

Nearly didn't make it in time for MM&M Stripes challenge as had a bit of a hectic month.

So I've created an all digital piece using a kit called 'Words to live by' by Kimeric Kreations.

One of the cool tools in the software I use are 'digital scissors' -I used this to cut up the blue digital paper into stripes. 

 

 

 

For MM&M

 

 

 

 

At long last Dave made some of Valeries super spice bars after she so kindly shared the recipe with us back in august - and if you haven't already tried these, I can thoroughly recommend them as they are really yummy!

 

The first attempt, Dave made an error and somehow left the sugar out so that wasted a batch and then he had no chocolate left to drizzle on top for the second batch. Not sure how we ran out of chocolate, that was bad planning! ha ha,  but even so, they were really lovely and also very nice with custard. 
 Great recipe - thanks Valerie x

October was spent finishing all the Christmas cards and November spent making more ornaments for our Steampunk themed Christmas tree. I'm done making them for this year now so now I need to clear up all the mess that is all over my 3 tables and a lot of the floor too.

 

 

 

The hooks on the front of my shelves were great

for dangling things that needed to dry.

 

 

 

I had great fun making 5 of these using silver baubles, metallic paints, green eco paint and fun foam.

 

 I will show some other things I made for the tree another time.

 

thanks for stopping by

hope your day is a good one

Gill xx