Hello Springtime_Spring has sprung

The lovely Jo from Lets Art Journal  is hosting AJJ this month with the theme of 'hello Springtime'
This will be fun as Spring (and Autumn) is my favourite season both weather wise and nature wise. 
Last week I spotted the first butterfly this year - it flew by so fast I didn't see properly but suspect it was probably a comma. The Magpies and Collared Doves have been collecting nesting material. Some Spring bulbs are up and others I think are popping their head up to see if its warm enough yet.

Linking to AJJ a mixed media piece made in one of my A5 journals... acrylic/stencilled background, plus Neocolor 2 crayons, Banana coloured Papersartsy chalk paint, coloured pencils and butterfly and flower stickers.

All from me this time..

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Gill x

Yellow #4

Another piece for  AJJ  'the colour yellow' theme which has been chosen and hosted by Rike from Rike's art. 

This time I used some children's crayons on a rough watercolour paper as a resist and then watercolour paints over the top. Then to finish added a digital quote.

The last couple of days I have been making a large traveller's notebook to match the smaller version I made early last year.
I love these books as the folded pages are held in with elastic cord making it easy to add additional pages and swap stuff about. 


Finally finished this morning after silly little problems which probably could have been avoided if I'd planned better maybe.

Its probably just as well you can't see the stitching too close up as it is quite wonky in places - or 'rustic' as I will call it :)
Why is the stitching so wonky? well.. in the past I have found that I have more confidence to sew/use machine after I have had a glass of something :) Yesterday lunch time we had a nice meal and a lovely bottle of white wine between us and for some reason I did feel quite merry afterwards... so feeling confident I started to sew down the spine and around the cover. 
I thought all was going well but I hadn't got very far down the spine when all of a sudden I was very aware of how 'off' my sewing was ha ha. I probably should have took the hint and stopped for a while but I merrily carried on wobbling away with the stitching :)
At least it's finished and is usable and I hopefully learnt a lesson and won't do that again.

I've printed some calendar pages and additional pages and need to design some more templates for other things like tracking birthdays etc and print them out.

That's all for this time,

Thanks for stopping by.

Have a great weekend.

Gill x

Exploring yellow...

Another piece for this months theme at AJJ  'the colour yellow' which has been chosen and hosted by Rike from Rike's art. 
As yellow isn't a particular favourite colour of mine its been quite interesting and inspiring seeing how others use the colour.

This week I had a little play with my watercolours trying out different colours to go with yellow and quite like this result of using a mix of quin rose/quin lilac and claret. 
I finished off with some scribbled doodling in black to outline flowers.
I then scanned my painting and had fun with a few digital alterations and overlaid them on a pale yellow background.

 

my original started like this before adding the black scribbled outlines. 

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Happy Friday - Have a great weekend.

Gill x

The colour yellow 2

At AJJ this month The colour yellow has been chosen as the theme and hosted by Rike from Rike's Art

I had a few songs going around in my head when thinking about yellow but decided upon a fun piece to cheer up the miserable wintry days here.   
I painted the 'Yellow submarine - mobile home' and background ( see 2nd image) using Derwent Aquatone sticks and then added the rest of the elements digitally. I used a digi-kit called 'Fantasy mermaids' by Daisytrail. I made the little signpost which says 'Mobile Home for Sale or Rent. For details Apply within'. :)

Last post I mentioned about the decorating disaster with yellow and from comments received apparently I was not alone with that happening.... oh :(

I have since recalled another yellow disaster - where I got covered with green fly while wearing a yellow T-shirt. I was walking by the sea, not even in a garden, and a swarm of them came  across the sea from somewhere. My dear hubby just laughed saying they must have thought I was a flower  :)  - argh!!  

All from me this time..

Happy Friday, have a great weekend

and thank you so much for stopping by...

Gill x

 

The colour Yellow

Spring and autumn are my preferred seasons but it's February and it's a typical  miserable grey and cold wintry day here so I have been dreaming about slightly warmer days and happy spring flowers.

The lovely Rike from Rike's Art is hosting the colour yellow theme at  AJJ  this month and spring is the first thing that comes to mind (other than bananas and custard) when I think of yellow :) so I just had to paint some spring flowers.  
A mixed media piece using - gouache, acrylic inks and Derwent artbars.

Yellow isn't one of my favourite colours as we once spent a weekend,  many years ago, painting a double room a yellowy mustard colour with dark brown ceilings - when that fashionable. When it had all dried properly the colour was totally different than the paint chip sample and than we imagined - it was more of a bright custard yellow and not something we could live with.... so it all had to be painted again.... a pale green if I remember, probably on 2 walls and white on the others.

I finished the remainder of the cards I was making yesterday so I look forward to challenging myself with this colour this month and see if I can grow to like it more :)

the colour yellow theme at AJJ

Thank you so much for stopping by today.
I hope you have a great Friday and lovely weekend.
Keep warm and safe especially if you are somewhere cold and icy. 
Gill x

Geometric page and some cards

Hello

Todays piece is for Alison aka Craftytrog theme  'Geometric shapes' over on AJJ this month.

January appears to be flying by and as I seem to be running short of time at present, my page is a mix of a real and digital artwork. 

In my first post of the year I said I was hoping to be more organised - its taking time but I'm getting there. Having completed the main cards, I've been busy finishing off making the special occasion cards for the year and just have another two I am working on for October and then that job should be complete.
I have an A4 folder with plastic wallets for each months birthdays and my cards will go in there ready for this year. Here are just a few of the cards I have been making. 
Pretty simple cards really - but somehow they still seem to take a fair amount of time :)

Hope you're having a good start to the year.

Thanks for stopping by and 

for any comments which is always appreciated.

Will visit you a.s.a.p

Gill x

Happy New Year!

Hello....
Its the 2nd - so I'm a bit late..... but Happy New Year everyone - I hope it's a healthy and happy one with lots of creative fun too.
I'm starting off with a page for the lovely  Alison aka Craftytrog  who is hosting this month at  AJJ theme Geometric shapes
I used some new White Nights watercolours I'm trying out onto a gessoed page in my journal and hope the wonky squares, triangles and stars count as geometric shapes :)

I've not made a New Years resolution list as such this year as I looked at last years one and I didn't do particularly well. But other than the obvious things like trying to be healthy and fit I really want to be better organised especially with anything that has a deadline and complete those things as soon as possible. 
I also intend to start using my arty/crafty stash I have that has been just taking up space, sitting around not being used.
And I want to do more art.

 I have 23 cards made already for Christmas 2019, my Easter cards finished and most of my birthday and other cards for the year made also. Getting these done should leave more time for other things.
Wanting to use up some of my beads and jewellery stuff, I made a choker, bracelet and earrings set.

 

That's all for this time...
Thanks for stopping by
and I wish you a good week and 
Happy New Year
Gill x