So far behind!

Three weeks behind on Emily's challenges and counting. I've been so busy lately I just haven't even had time to think about it - grrrr! Work's been crazy, plus I've been preparing to put some of my artworks into a new gallery that's opening up in my neighbourhood. And of course I decided to redesign my business cards, which took ages:



(This image includes a bit of trim space, so imagine it with a couple of millimetres trimmed off each side.) I did the design using The GIMP, which is super-cool (and free), but sadly it doesn't do CMYK, so now I have to figure out how to convert the image so I can get it printed. Any advice?

By the way, the image of the girl is "The Tambourine Girl" by John William Godward (1906). I love pre-Raphaelite art and this image seemed appropriate. I've tinkered with it a bit - luckily, it's public domain now so I can do with it what I will. I think she looks cool with a tatt!

And now for a bit of sillinesss I found via Stiletto Heights:

Your Score: Katharine Hepburn

You scored 11% grit, 33% wit, 42% flair, and 23% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

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A girl could do worse than being Katharine Hepburn ;-) Which classic dame are you?

Art journal - week 23

I was hoping to get to this one earlier in the week, but it wasn't to be *sigh*. Em's prompt this week was "right now". Well, right now I am obsessing about art. Here's my card:


I've been wanting to try out some of the "tiplets" that Kal Barteski publishes on her blog. She writes tips for "pencil crayons" (coloured pencils), watercolour pencils and oil pastels, and they always look like so much fun. I have a nice box of pastels that I hadn't even used, so I decided to get them out and have a go as instructed by Kal.

Watercolour paper
Conte oil pastels
Stamp: Hampton Art
Ink: Stazon black
Transparency: K & Co.
Koh-i-noor HB graphite pencil
Staples

I took Kal's advice and covered the card with a transparency to stop the pastels from rubbing off everywhere, and I think it looks quite cool.

I'm hoping to get back into the Wednesday Stamper and One Little Word challenges this week, but I don't know how I'll go. Work is pretty crazy lately!

Art journal - weeks 21 and 22

OK, so I've managed to catch up again on these challenges - hooray for long weekends! I got behind on week 21, which was "your redeeming qualities/qualities you aspire towards", because I was waiting for my husband to tell me what he thinks my good qualities are. It took him a while to get back to me - I'm not sure what that says about me (or him)! Anyway, here's the resulting card:


Rubons: Foof-a-la (flowered journalling block) and American Crafts (letters)
Letter stickers: Making Memories
Stamps: Fontwerks ("He says") and Stampin' Up! (heart)
Ink: Stazon Black (words) and Timber Brown (hearts - I wiped some off with a baby wipe before it dried)

This one was really good because my husband took it seriously and gave it a lot of thought, and it was lovely to hear what he came up with :-)

Week 22 is "What would you like to learn?" This was a pretty easy one to answer. I've always secretly been an architecture nut, but for some reason (as yet undiscovered) it never occurred to me when I was at school at I could actually be an architect, although I suspect it had something to do with the old "I can't draw" thing ... I did one year of History of Architecture at uni as part of my Arts degree, and I really enjoyed it, but that was as far as it went for me.

More recently I have studied interior decoration with the vague idea that I could eventually become an interior designer, but now I'm obsessed with art, so that's my latest interest. So basically, if I could, I would love to learn art and architecture and just design and create my days away.


Patterned paper: Foof-a-la
Stamps: Purple Onion
Rubon: Kelly Panacci

The image I found on the website of the National Gallery of Victoria. It's the cover of a menu: the Banquet of the Mayors of France, 22 September 1900, which was held as part of the Universal Exposition. I just loved the image and it seemed appropriate. There are some great exhibitions on at the Gallery at the moment - now I just need to find the time to get there!

Art journal - week 20

This week Emily's prompt was "change". She talks a bit in her post about the changes her family is preparing for right now, and says: "i get very attatched to things and people and ideas and have to make an effort to embrace change when it comes my way." I guess a lot of us feel the same way.

I'm not going to write about the story behind this card - let's just say that the quote is particularly apt:



The quote is by Anais Nin: "There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

I love how this turned out. The paper is lovely to work with - so smooth and glossy. I just sanded the edges a bit to help everything blend a bit better.

Patterned paper: Rouge de Garance (from Blue Bazaar)
Font: Dobkin (www.dafont.com)

One Little Word: Go

There's a new challenge site that's just started up called One Little Word. The idea is to explore the power of words and create art based on word challenges. I'm a bit of a word fiend, and this sounds like a lot of fun!

The first challenge is "go", and here's my entry:



Mat board
Patterned paper: Basic Grey
Letters: Cloud 9 Design
Stamp: Wordsworth
Ink: Stazon
Sticker: Kelly Panacci

Art journal - week 19

Surprise!

That's Emily's prompt for this week. So here's mine:














I love that hand stamp - it always makes me smile! It's like it's coming out of a grave in a bad horror flick!

Patterned paper: Basic Grey
Stamps: Paper Artsy ("Do not look inside") and Stampers Anonymous
Ink: Stazon

Art journal - week 18

Emily's theme this week is "nature". I haven't had a lot of time to think about this one, so I was a bit stumped, but then I remembered that I have some gorgeous handmade paper incorporating a leaf motif, so I used some of that. The paper's white so it hasn't scanned very well :-(


Paper: Handmade paper from Creative Paper Tasmania
Stamps: Uptown Rubber Stamps (flower); Paper Pleasure Plus (butterfly)
Ink: Versacube Bamboo
Pen: Marvy Le Plume

The quote is from William Wordsworth.

I'm not overly happy with this one - I think it's lacking balance. But ... I actually used handwriting (!) - I'm feeling very inspired right now by Sabrina Ward Harrison and I love how she uses handwriting in her work. I also saw some amazing work last week from the design team at Blue Bazaar, also inspired by SWH.

Someone else whose work I'm loving right now is Kal Barteski. I found her blog via Ali's. Kal has some fantastic tips on her blog for using coloured pencils (or "pencil crayons" as she calls them - it seems to be a Canadian thing!). Lots of fun techniques to try ... now I just need to find the time!

Next up: I really need to finish my book for Shimelle's When I Grow Up class. I haven't made any progress on it for a couple of weeks!

Art journal - week 17 (and week 16)

Emily's challenge this week was "your bedroom". This isn't my real bedroom but I really liked it so it's sort-of my dream bedroom. It's got everything I like: it's dark and sophisticated, but it has some bright colour; it's got lots of wood (I love that mid-century modern look); plus it's got some bling (the chandelier) and a funky zebra rug. Would I ever do this to my own bedroom? Probably not - but it's OK to dream ;-)


Patterned paper: Cristina Re
Photo: From a Snooze catalogue
Word embellishment: Heidi Swapp
Ribbon - I really love this. It's brown satin with little black flowers - yum!

I had a great time at FreeStyle Downunder. It was very well organised and the classes were a lot of fun. I enjoyed Emily's classes the most (not surprisingly) - mainly because I was learning new techniques, rather than just reproducing something. It was great to meet Bek and her friends Jodie and Di, and I also finally met Philippa and Gabbie. I went to my first-ever crop and even started work on my book for Shimelle's When I Grow Up class. All in all it was a very worthwhile trip!

Anyway, here's my card for week 16. You can see the original here; this version shows what Bek added. I love it! She's used crayons to highlight the circles on the paper, and just added some simple text, but it looks really cool now. Thanks Bek!