Big Idea Festival

The Big Idea Festival is on again from September 4th - 17th, 2012 and it's FREE!
It's is organised by Big Picture Classes and their classes and workshops are exceptional, imho.
I participated last year and had a lot of fun.
Just sayin'.
:D

Down Memory Lane

Just today I was reading Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's second post about favourite craft/art books. Her first post on this subject reminded me that I want to make books. And quilts. The second post reminded me that, way back in 2006, I did Elsie Flannigan's 52 Scrapbooking Challenges - two a week for 26 weeks. That's commitment!
Back in the day I actually won an autographed copy of the book - yay for me!
I was also remembering that I did some of my favourite layouts then too. And maybe some of my least faves as well :)
Here are a couple of my favourites.

Ooh, and then there's this one...

Or these...

Sigh! It's just too hard to pick a favourite.
What do you think?
The rest you can see in my newly formed Flickr album - 52 Scrapbooking Challenges - cos I did these challenges before I started blogging.

:D

Art on Print

The time passes a whole lot faster when Susannah is refereeing if I am sitting in a warm car and occupied with art stuff (or playing word games on my iPhone). This morning I had the privilege of being able to see the games, and Susannah, from the comfort of my car and being able to do some more art on print. This time I used an old hymnbook that Sophie-Lee, knowing me, picked up from the side of the road in someone's council cleanup pile.

The flowers were inspired by my-twin-who's-not-my-twin's daughter the other day. She had used black and white stripy circle stickers and then added her petals and stems. I didn't have stickers but I did have a black pen and a white paint pen. I love the effect.

Something that adds a whole new dimension both literally (but not physically) and aesthetically is the sense of a shadow being cast making it look 3D. I used to do it with watercolour paint but I learnt from Lori Vliegen when I did her "letterLAB" class how to do it quickly and easily with a 2B pencil and a paper stump.

I was reading Psalm 106 this morning. A thought that struck me was from verses 6-8. The Psalmist admits his sin but then calls on God to save him, not for his own sake but for God's sake. It reminded me of when Moses pleaded with God to not destroy the Israelites, not for Moses' sake but for God's reputation.

Habbakuk 3:2

Lord, I have heard of your fame;    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,    in our time make them known;    in wrath remember mercy.

That's all.

:D

Hooked on Inspiration

It is so easy, for me at least, to keep drinking in all the amazing inspiration, pinning here, posting there, sharing with friends and family or just storing it in my head for an unknown future moment., but never actually getting around to doing something.
Well the other day my twin-who's-not-my-twin and I got together to actually do something that we have been inspired by.
After a very quick, for me at least, perusal of my Art/Journal board on Pinterest I found this cute little artwork - sadly not attributed to anyone but Pinterest.
That was just the inspiration my twin-who's-not-my-twin (and her daughter) and I needed and that is what we went with.
Here are my renditions...

It was a perfect little book that had great chapter titles.

There may be more some time.
Or maybe not.

:D

Book Spine Poetry

Yesterday Annelise saw this post about book spine poetry and was immediately inspired to compose one herself.
Annelise showed me that same post and I was immediately inspired to compose one myself. I went straight to my art room Expedit (I had no desire to navigate the stairs to the main bookshelves) and started collecting and collating.

Who'd've thunk?!
I just love what one can do with words. (And numbers)

Here are my first attempts at book spine poetry.

 Love Life

How babies are made

Seven from Heaven

Gioie di una madre

(Joys of a mother)

 Yarns on women

The elements of style

It's not always black and white.

The lady and the chocolate

Sharing your story

Each new day

Living out loud

That's life!

How 'bout you have a go, eh? 

:D

Stats

Some time between last night and now 30,000 page views have happened on my blog (not including mine). I know that is not really very many if compared to a famous blogger but to me it's HUGE!

And...
I have viewers from 57 different countries around the world. How amazing is that?!?

Just thought I'd share. :)

PS I hope you find just a little inspiration when you visit and I'd love for you to say a little 'hello' in the comments - that would make me VERY happy.

Dead Right

There's this roundabout near our place that causes me just a little bit of grief. Here's why...
Drivers approach the roundabout as if they have right of way. They do not slow down, give way, or demonstrate that they even noticed that there was a roundabout.


Every time I approach the roundabout I think of a poem that my Dad would recite when I voiced my opinion about occasions such as the roundabout wrong.

Here lies the grave of Samuel Grey, 

Who died defending his right of way, 

He was right, quite right, as he strolled along,  

But he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.

Do you know the roundabout rules? It's pretty simple really - Slow down as you approach a roundabout, give way to traffic already on the roundabout if there is a risk of collision, and enter the roundabout when there is a safe gap. 


There is no rule about giving way to the right - none at all. In fact, there are no specific rules at all about giving way if you all happened to arrive at the a roundabout at the same time. He who hesitates gives way!!!


Driving a Ford Transit Van into a roundabout can sometimes be a tad stressful - even though I start into the roundabout first, my vehicle is SO slow to get going that it might appear that a car that entered the roundabout after me, but without slowing down, had actually entered before me. This happens quite often and some drivers are so rude as to honk their horn at me instead of applying the rule of giving way to avoid collision. 


Generally, I tend towards not being 'dead' right! I have imagined printing a placard saying "Read the Road Rules" and attaching it to the roundabout sign.


Speaking of driving...
I used to think that driving games would be bad for the kids to play because I thought that they would apply the same recklessness to their own driving, not really understanding the consequences of having a crash. But going grocery shopping with Declan and Hudson has changed my mind!!!


I heard a man have a little chuckle when I complained to the boys that they could play computer driving games with such skill but they couldn't even steer my trolley in the right direction for half a second! Obviously, the boys' computer driving skills have not transferred to real life.

Do driving games help you to drive? I know not. 


So to come full circle...
Check out the roundabout rules for your country, state or territory. It might not change anything at all but at least you will know that you had the right of way even if you didn't take it.

Time to Think

Some doodling from Saturday.
When I am doodling my mind is pondering things - everything from parenting to punctuation*, sleeping to sermons, farming to pharmaceuticals (to name a few!).

*Today when Reuben and I were out and about we saw an ad on the back of bus that said, "Surf's up. Steak's cookin'!" And it had all the apostrophes in the right places. 
Then we saw a sign that said, "St Joseph's EX-STUDENTS REUNION". Not the worst I've ever seen but a little noted contrast .

"You could sell that!"

The other day I spent two and a half hours sitting in a cold church hall waiting for a guy to draw up a plan and quote for renovating the church hall kitchen. Fortunately I had my doodling supplies in my handbag - I had removed them earlier to lighten the load but thought better of it and bunged them back in at the last second before leaving the house.

The first thing that came to mind to doodle was a peacock (not surprisingly) - I liked the effect of two pen thicknesses in a previous doodle so I used it again. Later that afternoon I spotted a peacock on the cover of a magazine sitting on a little hall stand at a lady's house. I was instantly drawn to the colours and the gold lettering*. I showed the lady my doodled peacock and she exclaimed, "You could sell that!"

This was not the first time someone had said that to me so that got me to thinking. 
What I want to know is...
HOW? How could I sell my art work?
That's a giveaway - I'm not an entrepreneur. :(

Kelly gave me a delightful little book quite some time ago and I've just started carrying it around with me. It is just the right size to do a quick little creative entry now and then. I took it with me to reffing and the combination of doing art and sitting in a warm, sun-filled car helped make the 5 hours pass ever so quickly. Here's what I did.

I doodled this blue piece inspired by the wake in the little Pixar film (well, I think that is where I saw it) - La Luna.

Then I fished out my travel watercolour kit and fiddled around - I put the paint down first and sun-dried it. Then I left it as a fail cos I didn't like it. Then I came back to it and added then pen work. Now it's okay.

Same with this one.

Here are previous entries, some of which you may have seen before.

That's all for now.

PS Sorry about the dark photos - that's just the way it is at the moment.

*I am inspired to add gold highlights to my peacock.

Playing with Pastels Again (Still)

The other day I saw my blog post from about 3 years ago and thought to myself I'd really like to get those pastels out again.
Then... Hudson was looking for something - glue, I think - and he found the pastels. He yelled out "Mum, can I use these crayons?" and there was no hesitation in me saying yes.

Yesss!!! That was the start of some fun pastel play.

Here are some of the beautiful results - there are many missing because they were taken home, or to bedrooms to hang on the walls before I got a chance to take a photo.

Most of them were plain colouring in...

... but sometimes a technique was added. Caitlin, inspired by her big sister, Annelise, scratched a design into her artwork with a gel-less gel pen.

The technique on this butterfly was to colour one side and then press a design onto the other side with a pen. Even though this is a fabulous result, it occurred to Caitlin after she finished that she could have drawn the whole butterfly on one side and the pressed it out on the other. Another time - when she gets over the cramp in her hand.

We've brightened up the winter sunlessness of the downstairs area with these vibrant artworks. You can also see there a works by Declan, Hudson and Annelise.

 Then Susannah said, "That one up there reminds me of a peacock."
And I was like "A PEACOCK!!! I could do a peacock!!!"
In my head it was way different, but this will do, eh?

In my mind I had hoped to do some scrapbooking or glue napkins to my handbag to change it up a bit and was feeling a little bit defeated but then I realised that this was just the creative outlet I needed in the last couple of cold, rainy days. And it's given me something to blog about too. :)

:D

PS: Black just makes the pieces POP!!!