Teabag Art, Lovely Little Things!

Hi all,

This week I've been having a little play with tea bags and my gelli plate. It has been great fun and I'd love to do more, unfortunately I'm more of a coffee drinker. Will have to invite some tea drinking friends round!

This week, knowing how fantastic (sorry, that should be fantastically bad!) I am at finding time to blog, I decided to start using my long forgotten instagram account. Hopefully I'll post more regularly on there. If you want to see more come and find me @ sarahg5231 :-) 

Sarah
Xx

A leafy card

Hi all,

In my last post I talked about gelli prints, and how some of the most appealing prints are the ones from cleaning the plate. The same goes for the paper I use to clean off my brayer during a gelli printing session - lots of lovely layers of colour and bits of pattern where I cleaned paint off stencils too.

Yesterday, I needed to make a birthday card for my father-in-law. While searching for inspiration I found one of these clean up sheets and it was just what I needed to get the creative juices flowing.

I picked a few coordinating colours of Paperartsy infusions and enlisted my son to help. We sprinkled them onto scraps of dictionary pages and sprayed with water. Once they were dry we used a leaf die to cut some lovely leaf shapes.

I decided to keep things simple with a bit of stitching and a little outlining I  black to make define the leaves a bit more.

This was a great way to use up a clean up sheet and some scraps from previous work, and good fun as well!

Sarah
X

House bound

Hello and happy Easter to all!

We're not having the best one as my poor little boy has got chicken pox and is covered in itchy spots. We've had to abandon our family plans and are basically under quarantine for now. As we've been stuck at home I've been having another go at lino cutting, making a design suitable for a new home card for my sister and brother in law who have just moved house.

Up to now I've been using a softcut lino, but I'd run out, so I tried with some normal lino. It was interesting to compare the two types. I felt like my hand slipped more with this one and it didn't stay very flat so was a little harder to take prints from. However, the softcut is more rubbery and I've found it hard to get a clean end to each cut, so the traditional lino was better in this respect. I think it was also easier to get thinner lines. 

Anyway, once I was happy with the design. I tried to get some colour into the plain black and white print, but failed to get my patches of colour lined up and wasn't sure it really looked right. 

While staring at my prints in frustration I suddenly wondered whether I could use the lino cut as a stamp to take paint from a gelli plate..... yes I could!

Not sure it has worked perfectly, but I got something I liked better than the original prints. Some of the gelli prints I liked best are the ones I took mainly to clear the plate - I often find this is the case with gelli printing! You get some wonderful patchy prints with little specks of different colours. As always I have no idea what to do with them, but they look nice on my cluttered desk!

Thanks for reading,

Sarah
X

Spring Postcard

When you're learning how to get the best from something there is always going to be things that don't work so well. Thats ok, because it gives you something to play with that you don't mind making mistakes on - it was only rubbish to begin with so no harm done. Sometimes they even work out quite well! Here I have used one of my scrappier test prints from a lino cut to create a spring postcard.

The background is a gelli plate print using Paperartsy fresco finish paints through a stencil. The bunny / hare is the print from the lino cut (see my previous post Here ). Details were added using Posca pens. 

I'm entering this into the Country View Crafts Blog Challenge which has the theme of postcards (6x4) this month.

Thanks for looking xx

Carving out a niche

I have been doing various types of art and craft for over 10 years now, starting with card making and rubber stamping before moving on to mixed media art. However, I'm not sure I'm any closer to finding my niche, the technique or style that is really me and where I have something special to add. Maybe it does't matter as long as I'm enjoying it, and its always good to try new things, right? Still I can help feeling like I'm a little lost sometimes.

My latest techniqe is lino cutting. I last tried this as a school kid doing GCSE graphic design (20 years ago!!), so I've been quite pleased how well my first few attempts have gone.

I found carving a soothing process, at least once the fiddly bits were done.

Here are a couple of mothers day cards I made using the larger hare design. The background was a done with a gel plate print (acrylics and stencils).

I'm still working on how to get nice clear prints, but that will come with practice I'm sure.

Bye for now,

Sarah xx 

Lets have fun!

I won't lie, I find blogging hard. The words don't come easily and I will rewrite over and over again until I get fed up and say "I'll do it tomorrow! ".  Of course, I never do. There's always something else to do. However, when I know people have seen my work and liked it, blogging is definitely worthwhile. 

... So, although the time for new years resolutions has long since past, I resolve to do better. I've refreshed my poor old dusty, neglected blog and I want to show you what I've been up to.

I've already posted about my dabbling in block printing with lino cuts. Next up, a fun mix of collage, paint, posca pens and watercolour pencil that started simply with the plan of using up some scraps off my desk.

It's about having fun with the people you love.

Thanks for stopping by. I'll be back again soon, really I will....

Sarah xx

Still life with bottles

Wow! I just completed my first real painting on canvas, something that I think of as PROPER ART. Not that the mixed media bits I've done before haven't been art, but it feels different. I guess it's more traditional that's all. It definitely feels like an achievement for someone who never draws or paints 'things'. Any images in my work are usually stamped, stencilled, cut out from papers, or photos.

This was based on Teresa MacFayden's class on Wanderlust (see my side bar to find out more). I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one that much, but it was actually great fun and forced me more out of my comfort zone, which strangely felt quite comfortable.

I'm even quite pleased with my clear bottle - not bad for a first attempt I think!

Sarah xx

Just Jump In!

This is a journal page I created for a challenge on Wanderlust. It is based on a quote: "Sometimes what you're most afraid of doing, is the very thing that will set you free". 

I wouldn't say I was exactly scared of joining Wanderlust or trying new things, but sometimes I do need to give myself a kick up the bum. Having joined Wanderlust, I intend to really throw myself in, to give everything a go (as much as funds and time allow anyway), and share my work as much as possible. In other words, I'm jumping right in!

Thanks for looking,

Sarah x

 

Handmade Journal

Hi folks,

I have finally finished my concertina journal based on Kate Cranes class on Wanderlust.

I chose to journal song lyrics that mean a lot to me  - 'dream catch me' by Newton Faulkner.

"There's a place I go when I'm alone,
Do anything I want,
Be anyone I wanna be,
But it is us I see"

I might be alone in the craft room, doing what I love, but my husband and son are always there near the front of my mind and I feel so lucky to have them.

There is still plenty of space in the journal for me to add some family photos or more detail later.

I loved doing something a bit different to normal, but waiting for the paint to dry on each layer got a wee bit frustrating. I just couldn't wait to put it all together!
I have made a few mistakes with this one, but I'd definitely do another one using this technique.

Thanks for visiting,

Sarah x

Starting As I Mean To Go On

Hi All and a belated happy New Year! 

Anyone who has read my blog before may well realise that I'm a little sporadic in posting and seem to start every post with "it's been a while". I could blame my son for taking up my time (not that I mind!), but I think my problem really is that I have lots of ideas and when I do sit down to work, I'm stuck like a rabbit in headlights not knowing what to do first or how to do it.  So this year I've signed up to Wanderlust! This is a year long online course organised by Kasia and Jamie from Artist Trading Post. I hope it will give me inspiration, confidence, and the technical knowledge to bring my ideas alive. 

This is my first wanderlust art journal page - "flight". It represents the hope that I can take my learning and fly with it and also the fear that I am using art as an excuse to put off thinking about getting a real job again now my son is growing up and not long off starting school.

The first guest tutor on Wanderlust is Kate Crane. Although quite different to my usual style, I love her bright, vibrant work. I am still working on the project from her class, but I have used some of the ideas to make this birthday card for my friend. 

Obviously it would be unfair to go into detail about techniques etc. from these classes, so I will leave it as just pictures. If you want to join Wanderlust you still can. There is a link in my side bar. So far I would highly recommend it!

I hope to be back very soon (but no promises - I know myself too well ;-) )

Sarah xx