Tuesday 28 August 2012

A week of crafting

Well I have had a blast, my two nieces visited me for a week and we did lots of crafting. Laura is 14 and Martha is 11 so they have lots of ideas and have always been creative. To start with we made smash books, to record our week together and for them to smash other stuff through the year. I forgot to take photos of those and I am only just catching up with mine. But here are some of the other things we got up too.

Tea lights, a make and take from Hobbycraft

     We went to a local pottery cafe.



This is my plate ready to be glazed and fired.
Laura's plate
 I took a stencils with me.







This is Martha's plate

We made chocolate cupcakes and then decorated them.
They tasted delicious.












Hubby and I ended the week by taking them home to Cambridgeshire and did an overnight stay by the Thames in Oxfordshire.

We happened upon the Chiltern Craft Show and spent a pleasant few hours wandering round in the sunshine. I made a sheet of linen paper and bought a sheet of denim paper! Can't wait to have a go at home, not sure that my liquidiser will like it though.




I made a file folder record of the weekend.

Thursday 16 August 2012

Hopefully this has worked

You Tube video-not showing on blog

I have been trying to upload my latest YT video into this post but it's not showing up in the post when I publish. I have an adlocker that keeps popping up! Any suggestions anyone?

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Bits and Pieces

I thought I would post photos of some of my latest projects.
 This is a birthday card I made for my niece. I made 3 sheets of background paper and then I photocopied them on to ordinary copy paper. They came out well and it means I can use them over and over.

 This is a journal page inspired by Klimt. I found an advert for cross stitch cushions, so I collaged some of the photos into my page.

 I used mixed media and lots of layers.

I took the pattern from the womans dress. I added a gold embossed frame to make the picture stand out.







 I discovered by accident that gel pen acts
as a base for embossing powder.



 Unfortunately it doesn't show
up that well.
I recently went to an art exhibition held by Hereford Cathedral School as part of the Three Choirs week. I was truly amazed by the range of different styles, the talent and energy of the pupils work. I am pleased to say there was a lot of mixed media work.

 I was also impressed by their drawing and sketching skills, especially of people.

Their portfolios were also on display to look through all of the inspiration and ground work undertaken to arrive at their final pieces.

I came home feeling inspired to revive my own drawing skills and analytical approach to it.

This is my very first quick sketch.


This is my second, this time the grids were very roughly drawn and I realised that I need more accurate grid lines to follow.





 This is a journal made from fused plastic bags then decorated using alcohol inks, mica powders and duct tape.

I am using it to store all of those small bits of art work, backgrounds, test pieces etc.
 this is a page in my junk journal, it is an acetate insert in a piece of packing. I watched a YT video using alcohol ink to decorate. I took it a step further and used sticker dots as a resist. I then used the stickers on another page.





 Apologies for the side on view. My daughter gave me a Klimt diary as a present and I never really used it until recently. I now stick all sorts of random bits and pieces in it. Bits that I cannot easily put into the bin or things that I don't really want to smash.  I find it works well.



 This is an unfinished page that I must have done a while ago and forgotten about. I was experimenting with texture paste and watercolours, I think.




Some of my current journals.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post.


Keep crafting, Hannah x