Poppies and Bumblebees

A beautiful symbol of spring, there are poppies in gardens everywhere around here at the moment. This painting was inspired by photos of poppies taken in our garden a couple of years ago. I created layers on the canvas with tissue paper, scrapbook papers, acrylic paints, inks, and a honeycomb stencil, then painted the poppies, seed heads, and bumblebees with acrylic paints. The bumblebees were fun to paint. I think they help to add movement and life to the painting.

In the language of flowers, the poppy is associated with faith, remembrance, and consolation. The red poppy has come to symbolize the sacrifice of those who laid down their lives during the two world wars. According to folklore, if you sniff a poppy three times a day it will bring you luck. I have yet to test this!

 

Dragonfly Mixed Media Canvas

At the moment we are in the process of redecorating our living room and I decided it would be nice to have some new art to hang on the walls. I love dragonflies and had fun creating this mixed media canvas.

For the background I adhered a page torn from an old book of piano music to the canvas, then used paints, inks, and stencils on top to add marks and texture. Dragonflies, in nature, often have vibrant, jewel-like colours, and the canvas lent itself to lavish embellishing with buttons, lace, and jewels.

I added natural elements of burlap and pressed flowers, ferns, and leaves.

The dragonfly’s wings are adorned with pearls and seed beads to add a little bit of sparkle.

 

May you touch dragonflies and stars, dance with fairies and talk to the moon.
                                                                                                               author unknown

Owl Journal Page

This owl journal page was inspired by a recent Kelly Rae Unscripted video. I love watching Kelly Rae’s weekly painting videos and get lots of ideas for techniques I can incorporate into my own art.

First I painted the background, then stenciled on a pattern with ink. The tree was collaged with pages torn from an old magazine, then painted over with inks and granulation medium. I sketched the owls on to the page, cut out feathers from scrapbook papers and glued them down with Mod Podge. The leaves are cut out from scrapbook papers and outlined with ink. I used coloured pens for outlining, inks for shading, and paint pens for the moon and moonlight.

 

Fly Free

I created this canvas panel using the acrylic photo transfer technique. It is the first time I have attempted this technique. I used a photograph that Nick had taken of a monarch butterfly for the centre image, then added paint and mixed media elements around it. I was quite pleased with how it turned out, but I definitely need some more practice. I rubbed a little too hard and removed some of the image, but I like how it has a dream-like quality. I added a few cineraria and feverfew flowers from my garden to tie in with the nature theme of the piece.

Guardian Angel

Originally posted on my Wattle Lane blog http://www.wattlelane.wordpress.com

Angeline Dunwich, one of the characters in my Wattle Lane novels, is obsessed with angels. Her little home above the shop is full of angel figurines, angel art, and angel collectibles. She makes paper angels to display in the window of Wattle Lane Keepsakes, and she firmly believes that our lives can be touched by angels. In book three, Christmas in Wattle Lane, the reason for her obsession is revealed.

I, too, love angels. I love the idea of celestial beings watching over us and guiding us through difficult periods of our lives. When I was young, I used to see an old woman sitting on the end of my bed, knitting. I don’t recall if she ever spoke to me, but I do remember that I wasn’t afraid of her. I like to think that she was my guardian angel watching over me, perhaps an ancestor.

For this art journal spread I used scrapbook papers and acrylic paints for the collaged background, and I added a piece of old sheet music and a metal embellishment. I used coloured pencils and ink for the angel, with pressed flowers and tiny pearls on her dress. Her wings are made from a vintage lace doily.

Here is a close-up view of the details.

Patchwork Paper Hearts

I love making patchwork. There is something satisfying about cutting up pieces of fabric or paper and joining them back together to make something new. Patchwork quilts fill me with joy, pretty fabrics joined together to make lovely, functional pieces. Pretty scrapbook papers fill with me with just as much joy, and collaging these paper hearts was a good way of using up some scraps I had left over from other projects.

I began by tearing random shapes from the scrapbook papers. I glued them all onto a sheet of paper with mod podge, then glued little pieces of ribbon and fibres on top.

After the glue had dried, I turned the collaged paper over and drew random shaped hearts on the back.

I cut out the hearts and arranged them on a page in my art journal, on which I had already painted a background with watercolour paints and added a strip of paper lace. I wrote sentiments onto paper, cut out the words, inked the edges and added them to my page.

 

Mini Canvas Art

Lately I have been having fun creating mixed-media art on mini canvases that measure just 4 inches square. They have cute little easels to stand them on, too. For this trio, I wanted to create something light and breezy to reflect the beautiful summery weather we are having at the moment. I used watercolour paint, texture paste with a flower stencil, pressed flowers from our garden, butterflies cut from scrapbook paper, plastic mesh, some colourful fibres, and a few sparkly rhinestones for the centers of the stenciled flowers.

 

 

 

Halloween Mixed-media Art Journal Page

A Visit From The Ancestors

This page in my art journal was made using scrapbook papers, fabrics, chalk, paper lace, and a metal embellishment.
A while ago I was given some quilt fabrics. There were several black pieces with designs of silver stars and swirls, and were perfect for including in this project.

The All Hallow’s Eve scrapbook paper is from Graphic 45’s Time to Flourish collection.

The ancestor pictures are from Kaisercraft’s Betsy’s Couture collection.

The picture of the haunted house is from The Graphics Fairy, which is a great resource for free vintage images, crafting ideas and tutorials.

I love that in my art journal I can tell a story in pictures rather than words.

Autumn Journal Page

I love to pick up fallen leaves when we go for walks with Finn. The autumn leaves are such beautiful colours. There is just something about them that I can’t resist, although I am never quite sure what I will do with them once I get them home. More often than not, they will end up being tossed away again. This year, however, I was determined to use some on a journal page.

Although the leaves were already dry when I collected them, I pressed them under a pile of heavy books for a week to flatten them before I used them.

I painted the background of my journal page with watercolour paints, in autumn shades of golds, reds and orange. Then I glued a photo of Finn onto the page and surrounded it with the leaves. I glued the leaves down, then covered them with a layer of mod podge to protect and preserve them. I used scrapbooking letters to spell out the word Autumn.

In This Garden

As someone who loves both gardening and mixed-media art, I was thrilled to come across the book In This Garden by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. The book is a collaboration by 12 mixed-media artists on the theme of gardens. They were each given 4 panels to form a miniature garden, to decorate in any style they chose. The result was a wide variety of wonderfully imaginative gardens, including a New Orleans Junkyard garden, a community garden, Marie Antoinette’s garden, and The Prairie Rose & Sagebrush Garden. There are notes from each contributor on the techniques they used, and also favourite memories and observations about their own gardens. I love this book. I keep picking it up and seeing different things in it each time I look.

Angela Cartwright is one of my favourite mixed-media artists. When I looked up her website, I was interested to learn that before getting into art and photography, she had an acting career. As a child, she played Brigitta in the movie The Sound of Music.

This book has inspired me to make a mini album of my own dream garden to include pictures of my favourite things – foxgloves, birdbaths, scarecrows, herbs, butterflies, dragonflies, birds, sunflowers…

I’ve made the cover so far.

Today was good

Today was good
Today was fun
Tomorrow is another one

                             Dr. Seuss

For these pages in my art journal I was experimenting with creating backgrounds using watercolour paints and found objects. The wavy lines are made with corrugated cardboard, the circles with bottle caps, and the little square criss cross shapes are made by splodging paint over plastic mesh with a foam dobber. It’s great fun to see what patterns you can make with things you find around the house.

This morning when I was visiting my parents, Mum gave me a box of knick knacks to look through, random objects she has kept over the years in case they should ever come in useful, then forgotten about. I came home with a bag of goodies to use in my craft projects – old keys, wooden cotton reels, pieces of jigsaw puzzle, tiny light bulbs and little shells. I’m already planning what they’re going to be used for!

Things I love about winter

Cuddling up under a quilt
Comforting puddings
Heartwarming soups
Purple pansies
Snowdrops
Wattle trees in flower
Winter sunshine
Steaming mugs of hot tea
The sound of falling rain when I don’t have to go out in it
Thick, colourful socks
Knitted hats and scarves
A warm, flickering fire

The Witching Hour

Happy Halloween!

Gypsy Rose

Although I have been scrapbooking for several years, I have only recently fallen in love with mixed-media art. One of my favourite mixed-media artists is Suzi Blu. Suzi teaches online workshops, has tutorials on You Tube, and recently published her first book, Mixed-Media Girls with Suzi Blu. Before I discovered Suzi, I never believed I could draw and I had no confidence to pick up a paintbrush. She has taught me how to let go, have fun and create, that it doesn’t have to be realistic, it is okay to be flawed, and you will get better the more you practice.

The book takes you through the steps of drawing and shading a face with coloured pencils and paint, then drawing a folk art body and incorporating it into a mixed-media layered and collaged background using paint, papers, stamps, textured paste, fabric, fibres, dimensional embellishments and beeswax. The book is full of Suzi’s whimsical creations, with detailed instructions for each project. At the back is a gallery of her students’ work, and the book is accompanied by a DVD of Suzi demonstrating her techniques in her unique and fun style.

After spending some time practicing drawing faces, I launched into a mixed-media painting, inspired by The Gypsy Girl project in Suzi’s book.

Okay, so my dog looks more like a rat, but that’s okay. Like I said, it’s not supposed to be realistic. He’s part of Gypsy Rose’s world, she loves him, and that’s all that matters.

Coincidentally, the same weekend that I finished my painting, the gypsy fair came to town, so while I was in a gypsy frame of mind, I went along and absorbed the atmosphere. While I wandered around looking at the housetrucks and the wonderful crafts, I got to thinking, maybe I could become Gypsy Rose from my painting. I wonder if I could talk Nick into selling up, buying a housetruck, throwing caution to the wind and seeing where life takes us. Nick can turn his hand to anything. He could make things and fix things. I could write and make crafts. We could go apple picking in the summer. But then I thought, what would we do with all our books? And how would our beloved Cody adapt to life in a housetruck, at 14 years old with her stiff joints and kidney problems? And so I returned home with my colourful wind twisters and lovely handmade soaps and decided that maybe I will just continue dreaming for now, at least until the gypsy fair returns next year and the romantic notion of a gypsy life is rekindled once again.