Summer art journaling.

After a short summer break I was back at it this week teaching my regular art journaling class at Art from the Heart. As I'm still in a summery mood I wanted to paint something to reflect my summer, and it has been a particularly warm and sunny one here in the UK.

Whilst I was in Anglesey I came across this fabulous lighthouse at Black Point. Isn't it amazing?! I wanted to paint my own version of it over a light colourful summery background.

And while I had the paints out I did a little abstract page at the same time. These colours make me happpyyyyyyyyy :-) 

The art journaling group did a great job and it was fab to see everyone again. Photos of their pages and the class in progress can be seen on facebook here.

Bye for now!

More mini books!

Mini book kit by Tando Creative 

As I'm sure you know, I really love all things miniature so these book kits available from Tando really captured my imagination. The kits actually come with a spine but I decided to doctor it and bind my books with tweed and hessian.

**I WILL BE TEACHING THIS AS A CLASS AT THE CRAFTRANGE BURNLEY ON 7TH SEPTEMBER**

Working on a small scale like this is such fun and a great way to use up all of your leftover collage bits and painty papers.

If you saw my last video for Gel Press using my finger painting technique then you will have seen these inner pages being created:

Video *here*

I used acrylic paints, distress crayons, stamping, gel pens, and a stabile pencil to colour the covers. Also, I love the work of Roxanne Coble of by bun blog, and she  draws little elements to add to her pages, so I tried drawing spindly hands to add to mine.  Check her out, she's amazing!

And then I used up some of my leftover painty papers and collage bits which have built up a bit over the years (!) to start filling the pages. There is a real mix of collage bits here but there are definitely some by Crowabout Studio B and Tumblefish Studio in there for sure:

Finger Painting - Part 2!

Part 2 of my finger painting video for the 'Print to Project' series for Gel Press. Thanks for watching!

*You can find part 1 here*

And just a reminder ... my videos are released in two parts every month for Gel Press. They can be found on the Gel Press page on YouTube, on the Gel Press facebook page, and right HERE - all on one page on my blog :-) Every month I update this page so you can always find the videos in one easy location. 

Finger Painting!

OOh I LOVE finger painting! To me it feels very natural to get your hands right in there and make a fun mess! In this video, part of the 'Print to project' series for Gel Press you can see me finger painting on the Gel Press.

Part 2 of the series follows in a few days.

Pebble Town!

Well, I've been away on my jollies so I've been absent for a while, but I am now back and well rested and raring to go! 

I've always liked funky little houses and have been drawing and painting them for ever. I think it was probably one of the first things I learned to draw as a kid. And I've been doing it ever since! 

I used to paint quite a lot on pebbles but kind of forgot about it until Michelle at The Hobby Room inspired me to start doing it again. 

When I came across these pebbles recently I thought they looked like houses, or rather, they looked like they could become houses.  In the UK a lot of our seaside villages have houses painted in pretty pastel shades and I really wanted to create a pastel village.

I opted for my fabulous DecoArt products for this little project; Americana Premium Acrylics, One Step Crackle, Gesso, Fluid Acrylics in Gold,  Antiquing Cream in Black, and the amazing Clear Pouring Topcoat.

So, here's a few steps of how I decorated my little pebbles and turned them into houses.

First of all a base layer of gesso:

Then a simple layer of pastel shades. I used white to create pastel shades but then aimed to go darker around the edges to make them look more dimensional.

I chose two of my houses to add one-step crackle to the roof. I added a thick layer with my finger (I find brushing can disrupt the crackle process) and then left it to dry naturally.

Once dry I added some antiquing cream to enhance the cracks. You can see in this photo that I also added some stamping to the houses. You really can stamp on anything!

And then a little more decorating. A seaside pastel village would have flowers and bunting!

I added detail and a bit more shading with a fine sharpie, pencil crayons, and a Posca pen in white.

To finish off my houses I chose to add DecoArt clear pouring Topcoat because it creates a beautiful glossy glass-like finish. As you can see I stand my pebbles on an old lid to raise them and allow the topcoat to cover all sides.

(This isn't fully waterproof so if you're planning to leave pebbles outside they would need a layer of varnish)

Ta-da! A village! Big thanks to Michelle for the inspiration to paint pebbles again :-)