More junk journaling.

Paper Doll by Tim Holtz idea-ology

Keep Swimming by me! for Carabelle Studio

I do love a bit of no-pressure junk journaling, it is just so liberating. The page on the left was originally a mop-up page from a previous Gel print, and on the right, the two off-cuts were from a larger piece of paper that I have on my desk to catch any mess and to clean my brush on! 

The art that I haven't actually thought about or intended is often the best! Why is that??

I coloured the fish (and the Art Dolls below) with my *new* Ecoline brush pens which were a gift from a very good friend who knows me well! I picked up the ink with a waterbrush, and I like them very much - great colour :-) 

I taught this as an on-line live class on Facebook over the weekend. Who knew that in 2020 on-line live classes would even have been a thing?! This year has thrown us a curve ball and we're all having to adapt. It's been a huge learning curve for me, for sure (thank goodness for tech-savvy teenagers to the rescue).  It is fantastic to think that you can get together with a group of people on-line, over the internet, and create something together. People have been sharing their makes the group and it is wonderful to see!

After the event the class remains in the FB group to view, and I'll be adding an edited version too - with a bit less waffle from me! See it *here*

Art Dolls by me! for Carabelle Studio

#passthebrushart #passthebrush

I am absolutely delighted to be partnered up with my long-time on-line art buddy Ophelia Staton for an amazing and powerful event over on Instagram called #passthebrush #passthebrushart.

Ophelia has a similar love of colour, art journaling and she creates the most amazing colourful, expressive, abstract art. She works as a high school art teacher, she demos for Jerry's Artorama, and is a brand ambassador for Derwent. She balances all of this with a busy family life, she's definitely a busy, busy bee! We have been on-line friends for a long, long time, and it felt really good to get in contact in this way. 

Pass the Brush is the art version of Pass the Mic, and has been organised by the fantastic Dina Wakley and Rachel Juanita-Clarke Bellamy, and hosted by Tim Holtz. There is a staggering line-up of artists involved :-)

Ophelia and I are divided by the big pond and live in different continents, so we arranged an art journal playdate via Zoom, where we filmed ourselves making art and having a chat about art, life, friendship, race, inequality and above all, AUTHENTICITY.

You can watch out chat here, and see the art we make.

I hope you will be able to join in over on Instagram - there is a lot happening, lives, interviews, challenges, and fab give-aways. Please do support us in this :-)

Here are some peeks into the art we made during our Zoom .... It actually felt surprisingly like a really natural way to make art!

LIVE art journaling.

Thanks so much to everyone who played along in my 'live' art journaling class yesterday. I'm just about getting used to the weirdness of talking to myself in my little studio for a couple of hours now ;-) 

Some of the art work completed is already being shared in the group on facebook and it looks fabulous! The class is still available as a recording *here* (and I will edit the video and upload it for smoother viewing too!)

At the beginning of this year, who would have even thought that teaching art classes in this way would even be a thing?!

More LIVE classes coming up!

Sunday 12th July 3PM British Summer Time

All classes can be found in my Etsy store *here*

It seems strange to think that even just at the beginning of this year doing a live class on Facebook had not even crossed my mind, yet here we are in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and it has become the perfect, most accessible way to teach and make art :-) The on-line classes so far have been VERY popular and I think that moving forward, even after things return to some kind of normality, there will still be a place for the live classes. Thank you all for your fabulous support on these classes so far.

Here are a couple more classes I'll be offering in July. Another live art journaling class, and also - after a few requests - a junk journaling class.

Here are a few sneak peeks for the art journaling class......

And here are the details for the junk journaling class.....

Saturday 25th July 3PM British Summer Time (4PM GMT)

I have been junk journaling for years and years, and if you have done my Journal Soup on-line classes you will know I am VERY partial to a bit of recycled cardboard LOL! There are MANY ways to junk journal, to create junk journals, and to bind journal. This class will be the beginning of the journey and will hopefully inspire you to create your own in whichever way you choose :-) 

More junk journal love.

Since lockdown officially began over (100 days ago in the UK) I have loved working in my junk journals. There is no logical progression to these .. I flit about from page to page, add a bit here and a bit there. It's so unstructured and lovely!

Don't be alarmed by the quote I added - I found it in a magazine. I think some days lockdown can get to any one of us. We are living through such strange times.

I originally put blue on this page and I HATED it. So I scribbled over it with black and now I like it a lot more.

As part of one of my live classes over on facebook we made some till roll/receipt collage, and I added a bit to my page. A friend of mine - known as 'Sarah the Moodler' - on Instagram inspired me with this technique and she even sent me some till rolls to play with (don't you just love a good arty friend like that?!) She included a bit of her stamped college so I added that to my page too!