Sunday 30 June 2013

Fair Warning



Fair Warning is what some auctioneers say just before they bring down the gavel on a sale.

So here's my fair warning before we start July.

There will be a great many blog posts during this month.   There will definitely be one post a day from my response to Passport to Art.

And then there are the memes that I take part in.  Messy Little Details and Rocking Your World Friday.  And also weekly there's Summer of Color.

Last but not least there's my response to 12 Months in View.

And there may be other posts about workshops I'm going to at Art from the Heart.

Please don't say I didn't warn you!

Friday 28 June 2013

Rocking Your World Friday

Rocking Your World Friday is a meme set up on Virginia's blog at Celtic House wherethose that join in link their Friday blog posts which list the lovely things we are thankful for in the previous week.

This week I am thankful for:

1. Getting a commission on Etsy for a handmade journal.

2.  Attending my local crop and being able to make the aforementioned journal.

3. The sun shone and there was blue sky on Tuesday.

4. Roger & I were able to go out for a long walk - over 6 miles - in that sunshine.

5. That I was able to take lots of photos especially of the beautiful wild roses.


6. My new washing machine arrived.

7. I am up to date with Summer of Colour.

8. All the blog posts for Passport to Art are scheduled and ready to go.

9. All the blog posts for 12 Months in View and my responses to the challenges are scheduled and ready to go for July.

10. And best of all, today I am going to Art from the Heart for the weekend.

Thursday 27 June 2013

Summer of Color Week 3

More Gelli Plate play this week!  With purple and lime green for Summer of Color.

Firstly I watched this video.

Then I made these printing blocks with 7"x5" canvases.  You can tell I don't always clean my stencils!




Then I started printing.





Because I put the black on they all got a bit dark and I ended up liking these best which were the mop up prints.

In the end I took this print and spread Lime Green Glitter Glue through a stencil.

I printed out the word LIME on some of the paper I had cleaned the purple off the brayer on to and cut the letters out.  Then I decided I would rearrange it and have MILE.  Then I added some writing and a few white dots.


Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Little Details

Carolyn has a weekly meme on Thursdays called Messy Little Details.  Find out about it here.  Why don't you join in?


You can't tell from this photo that I was on a vast expanse of beach and there all on its own close to the sea and far from the hedgerow was this fern.

Monday 24 June 2013

Art Challenge

On today's Art Challenge on 12 Months in View we were given a poem to use as inspiration for our page.

As you may know I've been on a bit of a roll using my gelli plate printed backgrounds and I thought this one looked suitable for the poem.

I found a piece of cardstock that was a dark colour but not totally solid or black and cut a keyhole shape out of it.  Here it is lying on a blank piece of paper.

And here it's over the background paper.

I stamped and stencilled over the background before sticking the two papers together and sticking them into my journal.  I wrote the poem out, firstly in black pen inside the keyhole and then in white pen around the outside.

Thank you for stopping by.
Bernice

Friday 21 June 2013

Rocking Your World Friday

Whilst looking through people's contributions to Summer of Color I discovered Virginia's blog at Celtic House.

She has a weekly meme on Fridays which rather appealed to me.  This is her description from her blog:
"Rocking Your World Friday is the moment to step back and take stock of your week, to work out the positives, the things that have made life more bearable and to celebrate these facts. Pop a post together, come back and link each Friday and let's share our positives around. It's a great therapy and stops life slipping through our fingers or spending too much time dwelling on the negatives. Not sure if it's for you - give it a go - you'll never know until you try!"

So I thought I would give it a go.

My silver linings this week:
Talking on the telephone to Andy & Naomi

A great evening out with Roger.

Dinner at Strada and having a 30% off voucher for it

Seeing and listening to Hugh Laurie with the Copper Bottom Band at Symphony Hall.

Discovering a new talented musician, Bruno Major, who was the support act for Hugh Laurie.

The supportive people I meet in groups on Facebook.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

 


Postcard Theology

The guest today on 12 Months in View is the Rev. Andrew Hall.  He uses the idea of meditation on bible verses, in this instance the Psalms, and combines it with art and creativity as a further form of meditation.  Oc course you can do whole journal pages rather than postcards but I like the idea of reducing the size of the paper you are working on.

I was making gelli plate prints for Summer of Color and was cleaning my brayer by rolling it on a spare piec of paper which ended up like this.  The flowers were from lifting the colour off the gelli plate with a stamp and stamping it on this paper to clean it.

I cut this paper into 2 pieces, 7 inches by 5 inches to be large postcards.

I read through the Psalms of Ascents and chose Psalm 121 first.  I was trying to think how I could portray God being the shade at my right hand and I remembered this palm tree stamp.


Then I chose Psalm 133.  Although the Psalm doesn't mention either the heart or vision this Psalm is often used about unity in the church so I used the Dylusions heart stamps.

I put both of them into my journal.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Thursday 20 June 2013

Little Details

Carolyn has a weekly meme on Thursdays called Messy Little Details.  Find out about it here.  Why don't you join in?


I like this photo for all sorts of reasons.  I like the monochrome colour.  I like the softness of the feather against the grid of the twigs.  I like the feeling that the feather is waving to me (which it obviously isn't!)

What do you like about it?

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Summer Book

On 12 Months in View today Carolyn shares her passion for children's books once more.   I knew that she was going to suggest making a treasure map and I have made one before through her Finding Fun series.

And I didn't particularly want to make another one.  And then when Carolyn announced the challenge one of the options was to 'make it a more personal treasure map and use it to show a life journey to a special point'.   This immediately caught my eye because it fits with something I keep meaning to do based on the book Personal Geographies by Jill K. Berry.

I have to own up and say that I have had this book since Roger bought it me for Christmas 2012 and I still haven't done anything from it.  Although I do pick it up every now and then and read bits of it!  Which is more than can be said for some of the books I own!

I made this background when I was on the Dina Wakley Gelli Plate workshop at Art from the Heart and I feel it has the look of a map.

I had used Dina's Mosaic stencil but the result looked like stepping stones to me so I outlined some of them to make a path.  I chose the years since 2006 when Andy left home to go to college in Australia and the some of the things that have happened since then.  I chose not to put the deaths of my parents on this map. I chose other things that have another significance.  I used some sticky-backed fabric letters for the words.  I can't decide whether it needs a question mark!

And here's a section in closeup.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Summer of Color week 2

Yesterday I showed you how I played with the gelli plate and ended up with these prints.
And then wasn't sure what to do with them!

Do you use Pinterest?  You can find me here.  I was pinning things yesterday and wondered whether there was any point as the whole thing was supposed to be about inspiration and I have rarely used the hundreds of things I've pinned to inspire me.  However yesterday I came across a doodle/zentangle sampler that I had pinned and realised the way the page was structured would be a great way to use the gelli plate prints I'd made.

So here it is: my orange and hot pink page.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Monday 17 June 2013

Summer of Color playtime

Week 2 on Summer of Color is Orange & Hot Pink

Continuing my Gelli plate theme I looked out some papers and the Orange, Terracotta and Raspberry Paint Dabbers that I have.  The Raspberry was the nearest thing I have to Hot Pink in acrylic.  I do have some Dylusions Ink in Bubblegum Pink but more of that later.  In the end I didn't use the map paper or the tree one on the end.  The three ready made pieces were from the Dina Wakely workshop I went on.

I put the Raspberry acrylic on the plate and this is what I found.  Shadows of last week's play.

Sadly the shadows didn't come out to play.

I played with the orange.



Then I messed about with using lots of different masks/stencils on the gelli plate.  Which is when you realise you really should have turned your stencil over!

And played some more.  I sprayed the Dylusions ink through the stencil.

And then got so wrapped up in playing that I forgot to take photos of the process so here are the finished pages. I also added some black and white paint.



The one on the left here is where I rolled my brayer to clean it and is possibly my favourite background!

So now I have all these backgrounds and have to decide what to do with them for Summer of Color challenge.  You'll have to come back to find out what I decide.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice