There's a Storm (Lantern) brewing!

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all well.  I have been well out of my comfort zone this week with week 4 of  Wanderlust and no you have not missed week 3, its just that I have got a little bit out of sequence with the order I have been creating so my new journal page for this will follow soon.  So, what has got me twichy this week I here you ask?? - Still life painting that's what.  This weeks class was given by Teresa McFayden and she made it look so easy.  Here is my first ever attempt at something like this so don't laugh too loud ...

It was painted from the photograph I took below, and as it was being painted most of the time all you could see on the Canvas were large blobs of colour. I was constantly asking my nearest and dearest "Can you tell what it is yet?" and the answer right up until I was adding all the final detail was er! mmm! .... well No!

 

I have to admit that I am not sure where the colours came from apart from it all started off as a bright yellow background and then I decided that the book was going to be red the lantern grey and everything else just sort of got mixed up, toned down and shaded around them.

It was also my first time using a gloss medium to mix my acrylic paints and I love the way it gives a translucent look to the colour so you can still see what is going on underneath.

 

There is a rather thick coat of Gesso under there too which is what is giving the picture its texture.

For you Scots out there who are looking at my original photo thinking that wee dram looks a bit dark (It was actually coke!) I have tried to rectify that in the painting,  although the glass does look a little bit 2 dimensional.

 

I have got to say it was one of the hardest thing I have ever had a try at because trying to get the dimensions right was really tricky, yes the lantern is wonky, and the book is a bit big but I am pleased I had a go.  I don't think I am on track to be the next Turner or Lowry :)  but it just shows what you can do with a little time and using only 3 primary colours plus black and white paint. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to drop by.

Big Hugs

Mo x

 

Create Art

Hello everyone,

 

I hope you are all ok out there keeping warm and keeping those crafty hands creating:)  As promised I am showcasing my creation inspired by week 2 of my Wanderlust journey.  For those of you who don't know what I am talking about you can check out all the details Here, I must warn you however   it is a fairly picture heavy post with 18 pages to show you, I hope you enjoy.

 

Inspired by the very talented Kate Crane week two had us creating a travel journal from scratch using various objects around the house plus different paintbrush and pen strokes.  As always the actual how to is not mine to share as they belong to Kate and the Wanderlust team, but I can tell you I had great fun with this. Don't even ask me where I was going with the different pages, I just went with the flow and filled the pages with the techniques we had learnt.

 

For the cover I chose the words Create Art from the Andy Skinner serendipity stencil surrounded by Tim Holtz dot fade, the back was just kept simple with dot fade - no wording.

 

Page 1 & 2

Page 3 & 4

 Page 5 & 6
 

 

Page 7 & 8

 

 

Page 9 & 10

 

 

Page 11 & 12 getting very brave and bold with colour & design here...

 

 

Page 13 & 14

 

 

Page 15 & 16 (the page on the right is my favourite thus the wording) 

 

 

Page 17 some may recognise the die-cut from Tims mixed media set

 

 

Page 18

 

 

Back view with inserts for notes

 

 

Full journal view complete with extra tags for journaling in pocket

 

 

 

  Thank you so much for dropping by today, maybe you could let me know which page you like best.



 Mo x



January Tag

Hello everyone and Thank you for your lovely comments and welcome back on my last post. 

I am busy at the moment with the next instalment of Wanderlust but you will have to wait a little longer for me to showcase that as there are quite a few pages to complete.  In the meantime I thought you may like to see my take on Tim's tag for January.

It has been a while since I have made any tags so I was thrilled that Tim has decided to re-visit some of his well known techniques, even more so when he put together two of my favourites Chalkboard and Industrial metal.  You can find Tim's original via this link where he gives full details of how to achieve the look.

 I only have a handful of blueprint stamps, but decided to use my favourite stamp from the Nautical blueprint set, the Seahorse.

The background was created with the waves texture fade folder from the waves and bubbles set, I chose this as It reminded me of reeds on the sea bed.
By stamping two or three time, I was able to fussy cut and layer up for a little dimension.

 

 

Tim used the little screw head brads on the four corners as I have here and I added an extra one for the eye of the seahorse.
The tag was finished off with a little piece of linen ribbon.
 

Its so nice getting back to my crafting again, I really enjoyed making this tag. Hopefully there will be many more projects to show you in the coming weeks/months whilst Mr Mojo is staying put:)

Hugs Mo xx  

2016 A Fresh Start

Hello to all my Friends in Blogland, I have been away for a long time and I owe everyone a very large apology for my lack of contact throughout 2015.  I do want you to know however, that I did not stop visiting  and admiring your wonderful projects. So what happened??.......

Basically Mr Mojo left me one day  for no reason and never came back! - can you imagine that! well it was awful I can tell you and to be honest it got to a point that I was not entirely sure if I would ever get back into the swing again.  I owe a big Thanks to three people Anne, Jenny & Rachel who encouraged me to hang on in there as they were by far more confident than I was that it was just a matter of time and guess what, they were right. 

So, now here I am 12 months on having achieved our dream of moving house to the seaside (Norfolk) last October, a huge move from (Cheshire) and enjoying spending my time with my ever loving and newly retired hubby not forgetting one very spoilt doggy who loves his new walkies.

To help me get back in to the swing of things I signed up for Wanderlust  having read about it on Anne's blog. The first class was on 1st January and had us completing a journal page, a path I have never ventured down before but I gave it a go and this is how mine came out.

As Wanderlust is a year of online classes and tutorials run by Jamie and Kasia from Artist Trading Post, I have not done a step by step, but I hope you enjoy the pictures of the completed project.

 

The image that was running through my mind during the creation of this page was a house surrounded by the sea full of love and happiness. 

 

 

 Kaisia asked us to think of one word that describes us today, for me there was only one word that sprung to mind immediately and that was HAPPY.

The journalling reads "Its January 2016 and I feel HAPPY to enjoy life in our new home by the sea, making new friends and having time to catch up with old ones. Being Creative and enjoying fresh air walking the dog" and on the right hand side "Being with the one I love everyday. We laugh a lot and talk a lot, hug each other a lot living life to the full making the most of every day"





 

Just before I go I would like to wish you all a very HAPPY (allbeit a belated) New Year and promise to catch up with everyone soon.