Worth - Playing with Neutral Colours

Neutrals are crazy popular these days, especially grey. I've been somewhat glued to Home Decor on Pinterest and everything there is grey and classic and lovely. So I'm playing with neutrals today.

"Our worth is the riches we give to the world."

Collaboration

Nolwenn and I decided to start a couple of paintings and then switch them so that I could finish hers and she can finish mine! We used acrylics, collage and stenciling. This is what the very beginning of her painting looked like. 



I really love the patterns that her stencils make, so I went in and pulled them to the surface with saturated colours!



When it was colourful enough, I drew a honeycomb pattern and began blocking off parts that weren't as interesting. It was difficult to choose.



I traced around the shapes with a border of golden "pearls" and added my usual personal touch ;)

Don't know if this it totally finished but that's all for today! 

Art Journal Video - Leafy Lace

Chunky Mini Journal Giveaway

Hey.

Hey, you.

I made a quick video tutorial about the simple bookbinding method I love to use. If you sign up for the monthly newsletter, a link to this video will be provided in the final welcome email!

But of course, in order to make a video, I had to make a book out of scraps and doodles and other fun things. I'm giving it away.

But it's not happening here. It's happening on my twin blog. So if you want to see more photos of the journal and maybe even win it, you should probably come join us over there.

Make a Mess

I sure made a mess this week! Auuugghh!

The common tip of keeping your desktop clean is such a good one. I feel so muddled just looking at this, and my calligraphy pen has been missing for days.



Today I'm destroying my last sketchbook and maybe only four pages had anything on it I wanted to keep! Some of the rest I've been chopping up and collaging on some tiny pages...



A mini book perhaps? A bookbinding video experiment? A small giveaway?  Where exactly am I going with this? hmmmm....

Aura

Butterflies again, butterflies forever. Finishing up a painting for a themed exhibition, otherwise I probably wouldn't have revisited this image again. That's the thing about themed shows - there's less of a chance of producing your best work.

That said, I'm pretty happy with how this one is going! It's a bit larger than my usual stuff so it probably won't pop up in the shop...

Art Journal Page Video - Window

Music: "Disco High" by UltraCat & "Ambient Cool" by Sunsearcher

Spread the Lava

My valentine finished for today! Yay!



It's a bucket of lava from Minecraft and it kinda looks "enchanted" but whatever you get it right???

We don't really do valentine's day (sadface) but there's an event this weekend with friends, so party, party! I'm making vegan rice krispies treats with strawberries and super-dark chocolate in them - mmmmm I hope it works okay.

While we're on the topic of relationships (sorta), this week I ended a 13-year bond I had with this pretty, little guitar. I'm a little bittersweet about it.



You see, I got this guitar on the last day I ever spent with my dad before he skipped town.  I consider this to be the only nice thing he's ever done. My grandpa bought this guitar for $3 because it is super old and damaged! But I really loved it and thought it was really beautiful with its tacky, 70s vibe. It was insane to play on and forced me to get decent really quick. The warping in the body amplified every screech and buzz, and the strings mangled my fingertips. Anyone else who played it usually hated it.

Here's a strange photo of us when I was a teenager. There are so many colours it looks like I'm sitting in a child's room!



So this week I decided it was time to pare down. I took my guitar to my old high school and left it with a teacher there. The best thing I could think of was to give it away to a child (of his choosing) who might be considered "high risk". My hobbies with art and music were such a comfort during those incredibly difficult years and I wanted to pass that on to the next girl... I hope that she loves it as much as I did!
...

If somehow that person ever ends up here wondering why I would wish upon her such unpleasant blisters - just push through the pain, man.  Oh, and that terrifying cracking noise the strings make when you tune them, it's totally normal. Don't take the strings off all at once because the bridge will fall off entirely. We may have glued it, but I don't remember. 

Wall Decor DIY

Our bedroom is the one room in the apartment that isn't "homey" and inviting. Well... except maybe the bathroom. This weekend we traded out our old 3/4 mattress for a queen and it is crazy tall! And it is super pain in the butt to arrange the room with huge furniture all around. What a project. Everything looks like it was just piled in there awkwardly, so I needed to put something pretty on to the walls.

 

I have a huge stack of unwanted canvas stretchers, so we pulled a few apart to make these little wooden "windows" and painted them white. On the back, I glued down some pretty scrapbook papers in the colour scheme I want for the room (I'm thinking grey and turquoise?).



Love the bird pattern!

Aaah! I can't wait to start working on the room, but there are some doors and trim to do left. The new bed is such an improvement that if it weren't for the constant unpleasant dreams, it would be incredibly difficult not to sleep in all day!

Art Journal Page - Colour Fresh

Music: "Ambient Cool" & "Movie Rythmn 1" by Sunsearcher (Frank M. Herrmann) http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sunsearcher/

Not many bright ideas this week, so I'm playing with colours. It also includes a quick flip-through of the new journals to get an idea of what the pages look like.

Work in Progress

Last night I attended an artist talk at the local art gallery. Their guest was Brendan Tang and he put on such a fantastic presentation! He works in ceramic sculpture, combining traditional handpainted ceramics with colourful robotics!


All of the places he's been and all of the things he's accomplished... it makes me feel so incredibly small. Check out the link and you'll see what I mean. Tattooed on the inside of his arm was the word "Yes". This is where Yes can take you.

Art Journals - Blue Diamond & Summer Flight

Two new journals are in the shop now. Here is lovely "Blue Diamond" with some sparkly yellow sequins on the front (the back is the same except without the sequins). 



This one is "Summer Flight"! Both also have the fun, multicoloured pages inside. 

New Art Journals - Lantern & Strawberry Butterfly

Last night I was crafting up a bunch of journal covers and managed to assemble two of them today! You saw photos of the first one "Lantern".



Here's another one called "Strawberry Butterfly." The colours remind me sooo much of bubblegum! 



I will probably do a quick flip of them on video later in the week. In the meantime you can see a few photos of the insides here. What is special about these books is that I used four different colours of the usual Stonehenge paper (white, natural, fawn, grey), but I also tore them up into different sizes!

I do remember liking the random half-pages that some of the first journals had - they were a bit fun and quirky! These journals had their quirkiness amped up a bit, and I might have to make one for myself when my current journal is full! 

Journal Page - Butterfly Beads

Music: "Whisky on the Mississippi", "Airport Lounge" & "Travel Light" by Kevin MacLeod