Green up your art studio part 1

You can never be green enough , the world id gonna be in shambles if we go on ölike we are at the moment.So wasting all those recources and releasing so much co2.But there are some fun and easy things you can do to green up you art studio.And the best bit is that normally bering green means reusing so not spending a load of money.
Here are a few suggestions that you can do to green up your studio:

• Use old books in collaging and art journal pages
• Gesso over failed canvases(by failed i mean the art on them) and reuse
• Use an old cd as a paint palette
• Old brushes that are recked in some way and can no longer be used for painting make perfect glue brushes or you can sharpen trhe end and use it foe marking in wet paint
• look for a http://www.acminet.org/ LOGO ON YOUR ART supplies(neolcolour II has one)
• Paint art onto old objects
• Do art beads using paper mache
• Use the materials again in failed or wips projects
• listen to this podcasthttp://www.craftypod.com/2009/01/21/craftypod-84-crafting-green-whats-it-mean/
• go to paper phantom where there are lots of cheap and there fore better for the enviroment ideashttp://thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/
• alisa burke is always reusing stuff in her fab tutorialshttp://alisaburke.blogspot.com/
• use little fabric scraps to sew into art quiltshttp://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2010/01/boring-day-links-1.html
• collect paperscraps to sew togetherhttp://www.ihanna.nu/blog/?p=1042 or use in collages
• Store your paintbrushes and pens in a old jam jar or tin
• keep a junk box, in here put lots of random containers that you want to reuse , so for example an egg box, toilet rolls, intresting lids etc.
• take crafty notes on both sides of your paper
• buy recyled craft paper if possible
• sew your own tote bag to take to the art store, so you dont have to buy a new plastic bag

FOLLOWER UPDATE 2

Thank you scrowl scrowl!!!!
I now have four only one more!

9 Reasons why you should doodle

This is a rose doodle i did on top of a journal page.

"We can mourn because roses have thorns or rejoce because thorn bushes have roses." Abraham Lincoln

9 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD DOODLE

1.Its fun

2.It will make waiting for longperiods of time seem to pass a lot quicker

3.It will improve your drawing skills and control over your pen

4.You can do it on any piece of paper-no matter how big

5.You can do it any where(so alwys bring a pen and doodle on a recieppt or napkin if you don't have any paper.

6.It will make you relaxed

7.You dont have to be good at drawing to do good doodles

8.Doodling hepls you take in information-your mind processes things you are thinking about while your hands are in a mindless action

9.It helps you unwind before you go to bed

DOODLING TIPS

• Dont think about it to much, just sit in a comfy position, grab a pen and paper and just start.
• You can dooodle on anything, but it would be nice to have your own little notebook(tht is small enough to fit in your handbag)to carry round with you.
• You can use any kind of pen or pencil to doodle with, but i recommend finding a pen you love and buy a extra one(in my case the fine artists pITT pen) as it may get lost in the process of taking it any where
• if you find it hard to start check out daisy yelllow (see link below) for some fab mandala doodles and also check out sue doodles(http://suedoodles.wordpress.com/)
• Use a waterproof marker the you can upgrade your doodle by colouring it in witha water coulours
• Another way to upgrade it would be to collage around your doodle or to colour it in with another medium
• Doodling in neocolour is diffrent but fun!!!!
  

I have been reading daisy yellow a lot lately(http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/).On it you will find lots of prompts , quotes and links.So almost every post has high value.So go check it out.

Make art with friends

Today my friends came round. We didnt really know what to do , so we all sat down and started collaging.I grabed my art journal and they got some paper.Then we started cutting images and words from old magazines and used some papers from my patterned paper collection.The last thing we also used is neolcolour II crayons.Above one of my friends did her picture.



My other friend made a weird but cool collage body person and then played round with neocolour.While doing this we chattted and listened to music.Its so much fun doing art with your friends.You can get ideas from each other, learn new techniques of your friends.Have some drinks and biscuits handy and get everyone to bring some music.This could easily be done at a party to.




And last but not least here is mine.First i gave the background colour with crayons and then added images and paper.

So if youre bored just call your friends for a lil crafting/art(working):)

Boring day links 1

I have been planing to try my hand at art quilting for quite some time now and finally i sat down and created one.The heart says Ringo and Rosie in it , which are the names of my cats.






These are my coffee filters i painted.I got the idea from daisy yellow(see my sidebar).It was so fun to do.







Above you can see my canvas calender.





Here are the links:

• http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/drawingmistakes.htm This is a cute little article about the 10 most common beginners drawing mistakes- even if you dont think your a beginner its very useful


• tips on making your drawings more professional- its all done to the pecile skillshttp://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/drawingmistakes.htm


• Why would you want to make drawing your pasttime?http://ezinearticles.com/?Pencil-Drawing-As-A-Pastime&id=420588


• http://thepaperphantom.wordpress.com/ a cool new site about art journaling i found
• http://suedoodles.wordpress.com/ a blog all about doodling

So as you can see i like drawing right now.Soon i will post some photos of my drawings and more art journal pages....

Help for haiti

I am sure you all know about the 7.0 eathquake in haiti last week.It was terrilbe for the peolpe their.The local time at which it happend was 4pm so lots of people where out and about.ane then the earthquake struck leaving nothing but destructionj in its path.Lots of houses as well as the presidential palace fell.Now lets just go and see what problems this will cause for the people of haiti.besids the obvious of them no longer having homes and having to live on the road.All their hospitals have been demolished along with the few medial supplies they had in thr first place.Food and water is getting hard to find.the water they do find will be dusty and they will drink it as they are thirsty.But this will cause a lot of digetsion problems as the water is not clean.There is help coming but haiti is so small it is hard for big planes to land and as a result of this the people are stealing what little supplies there are from each other.More than 1000 peolp are thought to be dead and the graveyards are full up.So they must make mas graves with up to 18 people in one.
But now to the good part, we can help!!!Donate any amount of money to any charity helping haiti and you make a diffrence!!!!On this website i foundhttp://www.writeclickscrapbook.com/write_click_scrapbook/2010/01/a-project-we-all-can-do.html a cool poster you can download and hang up everywhere. Download this or make your own and hang it everywhere!!!!!

Creative challenge:

1.Create something to sell to give the money to haiti

2.Give the money you would usally spend on craftsupplies to haiti

3:create a journal page about the situation in haiti

Buying materials to start embroidery

My grandma has came to stay and she is going to teach me how to embroider.So we wênt out together to buy the supplies.Here is what you need to get started.

Embroidery scissors

Embroidery floss(in a few basuc coulours)

Embroidery hoop

Embroidery needles

Something to embroider such as a napkin, handkerchief or tablecloth

Some chall to draw on your own images to embroider

And we also got a cute stencil for some simple shapes to draw on and embroider

A cool music video

one of the weirdest things i have ever seen, but in a good way ,u must watch

FOLLOWER UPDATE

i now have 3 out of my goal 5 followers.thanks amy!!And if there is anything you would like to see on my blog or any art journaling questions leave in the comments below

Stamp making fun

I had a lot of fun making stamps and here are the two others i made besides the one in the tutorial.i made one in a grided shape out of craft foam and one out of bibble wrap but other wise the same as in the tutorial(the post before this).Happy art journaling!!!!

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tutorial:Craft Foam Stamps

So its really fun and super easy to make your own stamps.This was my first ever attempt on making any, so i choose a really simple way to make them.First gather you supplies: an old hardcoverbook(i used my old maths book hehe) craft foam, scissors, stanley knife, charcoal pencil(or any thing else that will cut your hardcover book), masking tape and ink . oh and a strong glue

So to get started, cut the inside of your book from the cover, as shown above.




Above you can see the next step, cut the spine out.Next cut out a square from your bookcover using a stanley knife.Now put masking tape around any raw edges.




Design your stamp, as you can see it took me a while to get the heart shape right.




Once you get it right draw it onto your craft foam.Next cut it out.






Lastly glue to your cardboard back, aka your old bookcover, and try it out using ink.

Soon i will post more photos of what other stamps looked like(which i also made) so stay tuned.

HOW TO USE: in your art journal, who wouldnt love personal stamp in their art journal?

I love my new crochethook and my palette knife

What do you think of teh face above?I bought myself a palette knife and i am learning to use it.Well i am just experimenting really but its fun and thats all that matters.The way i use my palette knife is to just grab a dooleb of paint on to it and then to smear it to the page.




I am working on a little croched stripy bag....




This is the crochet hook i am using.It has like a padded area so when you hold it , it is softer on your hands.You should really try it sometime soon

Bubble wrap printing and a another art journal page

I got inspired to have a go printing withj bubblewrap , after i had seen this blog post on daisy yellow(http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/vividlife/bubbled-brayer-backgrounds.html).Then after christmas i had some left over from one of the presents i had got.So then I just went for it.I do not owm a brayer so i just put a rolling pin over it.I used acrylic paint (i guess you could also use ink).Once the background was done, i simply cut two heads out from a magazine and drew a body.Then i wrote down my new years resolutions(http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/12/creative-2010.html).



Above is just a close up of one of the figures, as you cant see her that well in the above photo.Her dress was draw with awhite gelpen(i love these, you need one too, yes you do).

This is just a journal page i created.The background is watercolour, then a sketch of my room in pencil and the journaling is using a pitt pen and a gel pen.

"Perfection is not the quest for the best,

it is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves,

the part that tells us nothing we ever do will be good enough-

that we should try again"

- Julia Cameron

update on my goal of 5 followers and links

Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I now have two followers yay!!!!!This felt victory/thankup crown goes to you followers(i made it out of felt).

And here are some fab site you should visit:

GPP Street TEAm: monthly art journaling challanges: www.michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/

Sunday scribblings:weekly writing prompt: http://www.sundayscribblings.blogspot.com/

Tips on keeping a travel journal:http://www.gonomad.com/traveldesk/0712/travel-journal.html

Journal writing tips:http://www.diyplanner.com/node/878

7 ways to unleash your creativity:http://www.designsojourn.com/7-ways-to-unleashing-your-creativity/

More from my artjournal

So here are some pictures of my latest art journal pages.I have left lots of room between the pictures and my writing as some very helpful forum attendars(does that make any sense) said i should.

The first two pictures are both from the same page, one is just a close up on the person I drew as you cant see her all that well.This page was made over christmas , so alot of it is just trying out my new art supplies.;)

The 3rd picture is a little bit of doodling I did with my artists PITT pens.But i hate the girls lips.I still posted it , cause I think this blog should not just be about me showiung off my art but also ma failures.

The last pink picture has some pink wrapping up paper in the background.I like how its gone with all the layers.

Happy art journaling!!!!

My December faves(art supplies)

This is a new monthly series i am starting.At the end of each month I will show you what my favorite art supplies of the month are and some ways to use them, which I think is cool.Cause then you can go out and get your own...If you have any questions or requests just comment below.So lets start;

1.Artists PITT pens

I love these pens and use them in almost every journal page i make.For writing, drawing , doodling and to do mandala doodle pages.I love the all of them but the essentials are just black in all four sizes.The colours are just a bonus:)

2.My little winstor and newton watercolour set:

I am really loving watercolours lately.You can use them for so much painting pictures, backgrounds , on paper and then collage it in...

3.A mini canvas and stand:

It is so cute , a friend gave it to me and I love it. But its just deco.

4.Palette knife:

You can apply paint in a cool 3d effect.And its lovely to create textures in the background and right now, i am working on a cool journal page where i have used a palette knife and a tipex pen to create a face.Post it when done.Mine is a 1018 conda.

5.A tipex pen:

This is such a cool thing, you can write and draw and doodle with it all over your page.

6. uni ball signo broad pen ;

in white(for doodling onto magazine cut outs and on a dark background and one in metallic pink just to doodle and write with.

7-A mini natural sponge:

This can be used to make backgounds and to ad depth.Like here:my collage bookmark tutorial http://makealifeandmore.blogspot.com/2009/12/tutoriallast-minute-pressiecollaged.html .

8.A cool . but weird double sided tape dispencer:

For sticking stuff

9.A flat paintbrush:

nr.6 da vinci-college 8740

for painting:)

So these are my faves in dezember.I will do another one at the end of january.

Happy art journaling!!!!!!

Why create in 2010?

Have you ever smellt the smell of freshly baked bread?Well then you know how utterly delicious it is.But imagine how smuch better it would tasteif you had made it yourself.And what about that new hat or that painting?Imagine if you had made these yourself .Food taste better after being hungry,well this is similar.I think whatever it is , it always tastes/looks/feels better if you have made it yourself.You also have the pride of saying:"I made it myself", if anyone asks.But another great thing is you can choose exactly what is used to make thefinished iteam.Then you also gat to have a fun time making it yourself.So by now i hope, i have got you raring to go.So do, go make 2010 your creative year.Doesnt matter what creative thing you do, just have fun!!!
Happy new year