I've been Dyan'd and Dina'd

I so want... no NEED... to take a workshop with Dyan and/or Dina but I haven't had the chance yet so the next best thing is to browse (stalk!! heh heh) their blogs which inspire me sooo much.  Two awesomely talented girlie's... who could fail to be inspired by their fab art and journaling.  When I need an infusion of colour in my day I can guarantee they will have some to share and usually some fun and frolics too.  Go see!!

Anyhoo I've made me a scrapbook size journal and I played and played.... actually went a bit crazy thanks to those lovely squirty inky rainbow colours in a bottle that are Dylusions .... OMG I went so mad with them that NOW I've got none left ...weeps over my laptop :()

I've done loads of pages but can't share them all today or you will be here forever so I will share just some of them to start with.  Sorry bout the pants photographs... had to use me flash.

I allowed myself to worship the white space ....

and emulated Dina's gorgeous free flowing penmanship.

I splashed and sploshed, stencilled and doodled Dyan style adding a bit of me with a face

loved how the background colours made her so pretty!!

A bit of everything on this page...

love love love to doodle.

I abandoned the white space for this page... I felt the need to fill it....

faces are so much prettier in colour and I just had to try one of Dyan's texture techniques with a stencil...

It doesn't show up so well in my pic but OMG it's fab to stroke...lol

Thanks if you managed to stay with me 'till the end and I'll be back soon to share some of my other pages.
hugs
Chris xx

Mood in Art

I can't say that I've ever really noticed in the past how my mood has affected my sketching or crafting, but over the few weeks since I last blogged,  it has become apparent that it HAS made a difference to what I produce in more ways than I ever thought.  I know there have been times when due to the black dog snapping  at my heels I haven't been able to craft at all but since I began sketching it has become more noticeable that even though I'm not aware of it at the time... my faces take on my mood of the moment.

Over the past few weeks I have been feeling sad on and off for no particular reason and I have been trying to keep up with my art but all my faces seem to look sad too.

When they don't look sad... they look like they are falling asleep!!

Anyways I'm not looking for sympathy cos I've had some lovely days too... I was just wondering if YOUR mood affects your artplay and how.

On a HAPPIER note I had a visit from the lovely Sandra (Sandy Poppins) on Monday and OMG what a lovely sweet lady she is.  I already knew that from blogging but it was so much nicer seeing her in person.  She brought me some lovely goodies which made me feel wonderful as she had obviously spent a lot of time on them. 

How gorgeous is this fabby tag!!

 She also made me this stunning book  which I shall look forward to journalling in ... the colours are amazing especially in real life (my photographs don't do them justice).

 We chatted and giggled and ate cake and I had a wonderful time THANK YOU SO MUCH Sandra... you made my day!!
We spent  some time sketching as Sandra wants to draw faces and although we just did a basic face she was awesome and picked it up in no time and I have to say that her first face sketch was sooooooo much better than the first one I ever did..lol Only onwards and upwards from there.  Pop to Sandras' blog to check out what she did and her other awesome artwork too... you won't be sorry :)

Have a great weekend all
hugs
Chris xx

Why do it today...

When I can do it tomorrow.... is the mood I've been finding myself in.  I start something and then don't finish it.  Have done a gazillion backgrounds in my journal it seems but then sit and stare at them for ages waiting for inspiration to strike...or not!!  So the answer...... forget them and doodle....just because it looks pretty and doesn't need anything else.  Food for the soul... lots of grown up colouring in lol.

So here are the results.... loving florals...

and crazy shapes....

and a hiding pig...can you see him above.

Loving colour and letting it flow...

 then I can just stop and enjoy cos they make me happy as they are and I don't need the pages to do anything else but look pretty and maybe inspire me to do something else when I'm feeling stuck.

hugs
Chris xx

Revamped stool

Sometimes I find inspiration strikes from an unlikely source and when I doodled this page i had no idea where it would lead...

a while ago my pal Chriss gave me this stool for my DG's bedroom and the intention was to just paint it plain blue to fit in with the rooms decor....

but when I was looking through my doodle journal I had a lightbulb moment and decided to use part of the design from my doodle page to create a unique design on his stool for him.

I changed the colours to more masculine ones...pinks wouldn't have cut it I don't think lol

It took a while to do all the painting but I consider it a job well done and a funky bit of furniture beats a plain old stool any day in my book.

Thanks for looking.

See you soon

Hugs Chris xx

Pencil love

For the first time in a long time I managed to hold on to my interest in my sketch to completely finish it.  Clothes hair AND a hat...so happy with myself cos I usually do lose interest before the end.

I have lots of drawings I should complete and now I am thinking I would be so much happier to see them like this so I am trying to go back over past sketches and add to them bit by bit.
Hope you are having a creative week
hugs
Chris xx

I love girly things....

sometimes that means I like to draw and paint little cuties with shiny eyes and flowing locks....

sometimes it means that I drool over girly shoes, especially these below...

and sometimes I just have to have them so I can do girly dances in my 4" heels all around the living room...lol

The photo makes my feet look uber HUGE but I feel like twinkletoes in them and thats all that counts right!!

hugs
Chris xx

Sketching again....

I go from one obsession to another but sometimes it's only a matter of changing the tools.  Doodling or sketching... the only difference is pens to pencils and maybe a little bit more time and patience... so right now I'm jumping from one to the other depending on my mood.  I don't always finish a sketch for months... I begin and get to a place when I like what I see and then can't be bothered to finish it...lol 

Hair is usually the stopper... after I've been sucked in to the concentration needed to do the facial details I think urggghhh I've had enough now.  Don't want to finish the barnett!!  So I give my ladies a name and then tell them to go hide somewhere until I'm in the right frame of mind to give them a hairdo. 

I guess if I worked from reference photos it would be easier but I kinda like seeing who pops up from my imagination.  It's cool to see those features turn into a 'person'  even when sometimes they aren't as 'pretty' as I may have liked (although I do like this one). 

So for now this little lady will remain as she is... one day I may go back and finish her hair... may even give her a different hairdo altogether but I'm not promising...lol

hugs

Chris xx

The mojo has returned...

and this is the fairy who brought it back.  I thoroughly enjoyed doing this art journal page and I've been inking, painting, doodling and drawing ever since I completed it yeehaaaa.  So lots to share with you over the coming weeks... this is the beginning of what I hope will  be a long and fruitful arty spell.

The background was created with Dylusions spray inks which are totally lush and so easy to use.

I then used some gesso as a base for my fairy's face, arms and wings before adding acrylic paint.

I am loving re-using my Sakura pens for doodling and water colouring... they are so adaptable and oh so pretty.  Love the sparkle and shine.

See you soon
hugs
Chris xx

Remember Spongebob...lol

Okay I just know that you remember the lady who ate all the pies... dontcha lol !!   Well I'm still in reminiscing mode .... but this lady had a plan which was to be Faaaabulous at 50 so I thought I would share how she got  on even though the birthday came and went a long while ago..... she's still in her 50th year so I think the plan still counts.

She stopped eating all the pies and though she really isn't  the most energetic bod in the big scheme of things, she invested in some Zumba cd's and with the help of a lovely sister to keep her motivated she Zumbaaaaad her little heart out baby.

She grew her hair and dyed it brown to avoid looking the grey haired granny that she really is (although it's the pits when the roots come through aaaaargh).

and finally got into the elusive jeans that had been desperately trying to climb out of the drawer for a long long time.  Then to top it all.... she invested in new specs and an updo to help her turn into a LADY....pmsl      Shame.... shame.... shame she doesn't know how to act like one too!!

Now I know that what you really want to see is my getting down and crafty already.... but it isn't quite happening yet,  so luckily I found this... that I don't think I shared with you for some strange reason (although it was on Tando Creative Blog).

Using the elephant  from the Tando 'Go Wild ' set I made a little box frame.

The background, elephant chipboard and the frame were all painted with acrylic paints and I paper pieced the grass.

I'm trying hard to get back on the creative merrygoround so bare with me and hopefully I will have some goodies to share with you soon.

Hugs

Chris xx

Looking back...

before I move forward.  The latter part of 2011 was a difficult one for me but I'm hoping to move forward into 2012 with renewed passion for crafting and my art.  It was good to look back at some of the things I achieved last year so I wanted to share a few of these with you. 

I rekindled my desire for sketching...

and collage...

surprised myself how far my drawing of faces came along

(I always had a yearning to draw them well)...

discovered how to re-invent old artwork thanks to Pam Carriker....

had lots of fun on the Tando Creative design team

 using the wonderful chipboard designs...

discovered the fabulous dylusions downloads and inks....

had fun painting and combined it with some digital playing

and had a great time journalling with Milliande.

Who know what delights this year will bring but lets just say that if I achieve just a little of what I did in the first half of last year artistically... I will be a very happy bunny.   Onwards and upwards eh :)

Thanks for sharing with me

Hugs

Chris xx