Introducing Agatha - My She Art Girl!

 I recently took Christy Tomlinson 'She Art Girl' online class.  I love how she builds up layers of background, and creates these 'art girls'.  My one, Agatha, is created on recycled mount board (6x12in) - I'm proud of the fact I didn't use a pattern - I just drew her, cut out the pieces and stuck them down - normally I would make sure the everything was symmetrical (like her dress and body shape) but ooh no this time I just stuck the bits down!  Very liberating.

I really like her boots! - she was going to have slouch socks too but, ahem, I forgot to stick them on before the boots! oops - nevermind - I'll just use them on another Art Girl.

 I like the fact that she doesn't have a face - if the face is wrong it can spoil an image - so best to leave it off. :o)

I thought I'd show you Agatha and her sketch - it helped to sketch it out so I could see where everything would sit on the canvas and how/if it would look balanced (I reeeeaaally like the sketch! - its just pencil on a board - I might sketch over it in pen & keep it...)

Yellow!....

... as in:
1. BANANA Frog Project of the day.
2. a colour I don't 'like'
3. the colour of the page I made for LSNED - Day 15

All the stamps used on the above page are Banana Frog - from the 'circus stories' and 'all about... journaling' sets.  I'm telling you this because Typepad wouldn't let me upload ANYthing over on the BananaFrog blog where I would normally put Banana Frog projects and information. ggggrrrr.

Yellow
I'm not a big fan of yellow.... - I don't wear it, I don't decorate with it and on the whole I don't craft with it... but this week (and last week come to think of it)(lol) I was in a phenomenally bad mood - seriously bad mood but I still had to make a page for my LSNED scrapbook - making a bad mood page didn't seem like a very positive thing to do so I set out to create a page that was so ridiculously sunny, bright and perky that it would be the polar opposite of my mood.  This is how the yellow page came about... it may be the only yellow page in the whole album - we'll have to wait and see...
I like how it turned out - threw on some of my favourite things (Buttons! couldn't resist).. and the page has sort of worked in relation to my mood: the colour is so not me that it makes me smile.
Who knew. lol

LSNED...

...LSNED = Learn Something New Every Day.
Shimelle's online month long class.  I took part in this a couple of years a go and my month started quite dramatically - but not in a good way! One of our tennants set fire (accidentally) to the decking in the backgarden! by 9.15am I had a burnt fence, a flat full of smoke and a garden full of firemen!
So you can understand my relief when September 1st this year was nice, quite and nothing really happened at all.
The biggest challenge I've set myself this year is to work on 12x12 sheets.  I usually make books, projects, cards & 'scrapbooks' that are much smaller - like 1/4 of the size!  But I'm finding myself more often thinking I want to use an image or an embellishment and finding that its too big for the page.
BUT....LIGHTBULB MOMENT!! followed by a chorus of HALLELUJAH!! lol.....
I suddenly realised that its not my embellishments that are too big - its my pages that are too small! O.M.G! Simple when you think about it.
So I bought myself a 12x12 album (blimey they're big) and here are my first pages.  I made myself laugh when I relooked at these - same small pieces but in the middle of a great big sheet! lol - BUT I really like how these look - I like that the pieces have room to 'breathe'...(I resisted the urge to doodle or draw a line around the edges - save that for another day!)
Everyone has different scrapbooking styles but I think I'm definitely in the 'less is more' camp (not a big fan of pages where there's so much on it you can barely see the photo or journaling)(though I do admire them)

This year I'm approaching the project in a much looser way - I haven't premade the pages, labelled the days etc etc etc. It doesn't have a colour scheme - though I will consider how the pages flow (how facing pages look side by side) and I'm not a strict scrapbooker - I don't mind if its not archival, lignin free etc etc etc... if I like something then its going to be included (within reason! lol))

 

AND, I will be using only supplies I already have (attacking the stash!).. well apart from the album and page protectors I had to buy... Damn it... Fell at the first hurdle! lol... OK, from now on - ONLY using supplies I have in the stash...

Oh and the other big realisation for me for this year is that every entry doesn't have to be monumentus, profound, hugely important or include a photo - this project for me is going to be about creating a page each day.  I really do think that you learn something new EVERY day - it could be really small, funny or trivial - but something is learnt every day.

Right, I'm off - got some creating and learning to do!

WOYWW

Morning!
Welcome to my creative bombsite... whats on my desk this week?? - 'stuff' and lots of 'this n that':

When I took this picture (came into room, took picture - no moving things about, no prettying it up) I thought it looked a bit messy but now I look again it seems quite tidy (comparing it to previous pics! lol). I can actually see the worktop!!!!!!

New stacking baskets - storing upwards - cunning use of space I thinks! (works on the walls of the workroom so why not the desk.. 'if in doubt get shelves')

Latest copy of ClothPaperScissors - lovely issue - very interesting (as usual).

Tags on top of magazine are for my journal/scrapbook for Shimelle's 'Learn Something New Every Day' (LSNED) class. (yesterday's bit of learning was why 'Teddy Boys' of the 1950s were so called. OMG - was all I could say - brilliant - Oh? You want to know why they were called that?... Well the 'Teddy Boys' were so called because their jackets and trousers were based on the clothes worn by men in the Edwardian Period, and what is the name 'Edward' often shorted to...Yep - you win a pize if you said 'Teddy' (actually, no prizes today, sorry) I laughed out loud when I heard it - soo simple and quirky - I seriously had no idea why/how they got the name! (and I'm a mine of useless information! lol) Best thing I've learnt so far this month during the LSNED project.
(btw I'm still chuckling when I think about it - so obvious when you know why!!)

Anyhooo, be gone with you - go snoop around the other desks :o)  Thanks for visiting.

Please feel free to follow my blog - I can't guarantee I'll supply you with useless bits of information (like the above) on each of your visits but there's always other stuff to see...

;o)

A Journey...

... or two - PaperArtsy style:
I recently received some of the lovely, quirky, steampunky new HotPick stamps. Here are pic's of all 6:

 

 1106                                                1107

 

 1108                                              1109

 

1110                                                1111

I made some quick pieces with the stamps - just wanted to play with the stamps - a card and a tag (the tag might get a bit more attention (its missing 'something', but I'm not quite sure what yet....). 

I had a lot of fun looking through a book and cutting out random phrases - I have quite a few lined up so expect to see more (I prefer to cut them out as they read in the book rather than make them up ransom style (or to read down the lines as opposed to across) )

(there's one that says 'the cops with curious hindquarters' that made me laugh out loud but as yet I have no idea where/when I would use that - but I'm saving it just in case.....)

My Mojo Monthly Interview

September I've been chosen as 'artist of the month' over at My Mojo Monthly, there's an interview I had with the lovely Sarah who is the blog's creative force & she has some really lovely work on there - you should definitely go and take a look (hit the pic' above to take you there).


Thanks Sarah, for asking me take part.

"its nice,.. but what is it? What is it for?"...

... which prompted the response -"its a little house... and it doesn't have to be for anything does it??" Which prompted a further discussion about whether 'things' have to have a purpose, or use.  Can't it just be an attractive/cute/pleasing-to-the-eye object. (in my head i was already thinking 'its something I made that's going to sit on the mantlepiece so I can look at it (proudly) and think 'I made that'. :o) )

Here's the 'house' that prompted the conversation:

I was at my parents house and my dad let me loose with his scroll saw (supervised I might add, lol) (& add 'scroll saw' to the birthday/christmas list) and I cut of some bits of wood that were there - wasn't sure what I was going to use them for but something'll come to me...
So, its a house - or a potting shed that time forgot and the plants took over.  The metal leaves are a Habitat lampshade that has been many things in our house but never a lampshade - its thin die cut metal and I've used it as a stencil & mask, I wrapped it around a coloured ball in the bathroom.... and now I've added it to a house..- actually these pieces were laying on the desk - they're the sort of fiddly bits and pieces that are hard to file and tidy away so end up in a corner of the desk getting in the way - turning them into a piece of 'art' seems a much nicer place for them.

Its a small piece - only stands about 8cm high, the base is stack of buttons, and its covered in Basic Grey papers & corrugated cardboard.
I can feel a whole lot more of these coming on...
Continuing of my 'obsession' with houses...