Huh?

Using your scraps!

OK.  You may or may not know that (ready for it......you may need to sit down), I'm going through the process of CLEANING OUT MY ART ROOM!!!!

I know!  Can you believe it?!?!?  Scary stuff.

Well...having the concentration of a flea, it is a L-O-N-G process and one that is fraught with distractions (because I have been finding the coooooooolest stuff!).

Some "stuff" is just too gorgeous to throw out!

So, I thought I'd challenge you to a quick way of using some of the best scraps so that they're out of your art room, and now useful!

OK.  Here's the process.

Set yourself a ridiculous time limit (like 20 minutes - no more!).

Grab some cool papers, flowers, buttons, ribbon that kinda sorta fit together.

Start ripping cutting tearing and pasting onto either a tag or a card or a layout or a canvas.

Here's my first lot.  This only took 10 minutes.

Now.  We'll turn half of them into some cool gift tags.

So...take a fabric scrap and tear it.  (Note the beautifully manicured hand.....I know...gorgeous!)

 

Thread through tag and knot.

Add a button maybe?

...maybe a bit of ribbon and you're done!

We now have some cool tags to use!

Again I want to stress...WORK QUICKLY....!!!  This will stop you over-thinking and get you into "the zone".

The next five, I'll do something a little more "mixed media-y" for those who want to go that step further!  I'll show you how to do that next week!

Let me know how you go!

Playing with Pardo Clay....

OMG I am the luckiest woman alive I'm sure!!!

The brilliant Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door now stocks Pardo Clay from Viva Decor and I was lucky enough to get to have a play with some.

Remember this?

This is Pardo Clay and it comes all rolled into these fabulous little balls!  Sooooo easy to use as each piece is just the right size! 

Anyhoo.....I had an old altoid tin that's been winking at me for a while now so I've rolled out the Pardo Clay and covered the tin, stamped into it with some Darkroom Door photography stamps and popped it in the oven for 20 mins. 

Here's the outcome!

and the side view....

Cool huh? 

You should see the colours the Pardo Clay comes in!!!  DIVINE - full of gorgeous, almost "glimmering" pigment.

I also played with the Aqua Aura colour and made this...

Too easy!!!

 

 

I love remembering

This is my latest canvas.

She's 12" x 24" and in a totally different skin colour palette than usual.

Having fun experimenting!

Back to it now!

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Pretty....

Having a feminine moment...

Having trouble getting any time on the 'puter with school holidays!! 

Its killing me!

More later!

Playing with a new product.....

....and I likes it!!!

Awwwww......

Thirteen and a half year old Mischka having a wee catnap this morning.

Its a cat's life here!

As you were!

Back into it!

Well I've settled back into reality after a wonderful New Zealand trip!

I finally attacked a huge canvas (36" x 48") that has been looking at me for a while and I'm really happy with the result! 

A little more "naive" than my usual portraits.  Sometimes I think we all struggle with trying to get things a little too "lifelike".  I loved having nothing to emulate, just to start creating and playing with colour. 

Hope you like it!

Yesterday I started cleaning out the black hole that is my artroom......(stressing "started"....).

Today I plan to get back in there ... but for creative purposes only! 

I'm going to start putting together some classes for my trip with Ngaire Bartlam to Perth at the end of August!  I seriously can't wait to get there to meet my WA peeps!

You can see all the details here!

Anyhoo....of the 'puter and into the black hole!