I decided to take a picture of myself to commemorate my birthday this year and to use it as my new Avatar. I wanted something in keeping with the photographs I post on the blog and this is the result. I posterised the shot with the Art Camera app and added some sparkle with the SpacePaint app, as I adore a bit of sparkle. I don’t think I look too bad for an old bird!! Especially if you stand a long way away from the screen with your eyes half shut!!!
Linda loves the beach and this morning we set off down the road to Tynemouth Long Sands. We sat on the sand and drank Chai Latte from a flask, ate Almond Thins biscuits, listened to music on the i Pad and painted and drew. I painted this little sketch in about 15 minutes and am really pleased with it. I haven’t really tried painting what I see outside before, so am keen to try it again… very soon.
A couple of years ago my lovely husband returned from a long walk with a pretty awful photo of an “Exotic Blue Flower” he had seen. The shot was so bad I couldn’t see what it was. I’m pretty good at identifying plants thanks to dad’s tuition and was totally baffled. Gordon suggested we take a drive as it was 5 miles away and so we set off on a trip to find his flower. It was quite a walk to the spot and when we got there I was laughing hysterically when I realised we had come to visit some blue nylon string embedded in an old tree trunk ! The string had obviously been used to position the log and then trimmed off after it was in the right place. When Jade and I went for our walk in the rain we stopped off to see our old friend the exotic blue flower which was still in full bloom 2 years later!
The original shot wasn’t very sharp, but editing it 3 times in the ShockMyPic app has turned a so so photo into this riot of green foliage. The little pink flower is very special to me, as it’s called Herb Robert (Geraniun Robertianum) and is the very first wild flower name that I learnt as a tiny child. My dad was born and brought up in rural Gloucestershire and knew all the names of plants, trees and birds. He took me for long walks and said I used to name all the flowers from my pushchair, he was obviously a very good teacher. I miss him very much sometimes as he was a fantastic friend and I learnt so many things from this wonderful man.
I was playing around with the Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paint that I was using in my workshops at the NEC in March and came up with this little heart. I was using a piece of canvas and Pebeo Cerne Relief in gold. I drew and squiggled with the outliner paint and whilst it was still wet was able to introduce several colours of the Prisme paint. I have used it quite thinly so didn’t get much of the patterning you get when you use it thickly, but I do like the way it looks like enamelling without having to be fired in an oven or kiln, it just gets harder the longer you leave it. Hope you like it.
I have spent quite a few hours this week getting to know my new i Pad 3. I have tried using my finger to draw in the Art Set app and wasn’t satisfied with the accuracy of the line. So I trawled amazon and found a reasonably priced stylus with a good review. It’s a BoxWave Compatative Stylus and only costs £7.00 and I have to say I am impressed. I started off by drawing a simple doodle on a white background and then edited it in Percolator. Percolator makes the colours more vibrant and turns a simple design into a thing of beauty. Hope you like it, let me know.
This is an etching I made more years ago than I care to remember! It was a fantasy flower influenced by studying biology combined with my fascination with fine line drawing. I do remember that making an etching plate in the shape of a flower took me endless hours of eating the plate away with acid and then filing it smooth so that it wouldn’t tear the paper when it was printed. After working the ink into the fine lines etched into the plate I applied a pink layer of ink to the flat plate before printing. I was very proud of the result at the time and I still am, all those years later.
I’m feeling rather tired as I have just returned from Liverpool where I was demoing at a Hobby Craft Show. I would like to say hello to all the lovely people I met there, and at Belfast the week before and also Newcastle Racecourse before that! As you can imagine I haven’t had a lot of time to create anything new, so thought you might like to see my original Satellite Cell Doodle which I blended with a smaller scale version of the same drawing. I would absolutely love to project it onto a large canvas and recreate the lines so that I can paint them in, in glorious colours…… a hint of turquoise perhaps? Hope everything in your world is great. Glad to be home as my lovely husband just bought me an i Pad 3, YIPPEE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have just returned from a visit to Belfast where I was demoing at a craft show. One evening we ate in a Chinese restaurant and I made friends with these lovely fish. I don’t know what was floating in the water but I love the way the little flecks caught the light. I edited the shot with Image Blender. Hope you like it.
Two of my favourite flowers are Alstroemeria and Freesia. I love the combination of the purple and orange together. Hope you do too, let me know.
I made this card whilst demonstrating at the weekend. I used a couple of Marianne dies, a Kreaxions die and an M-Bossabilities folder. I coloured it with distress inks and finished it off with Stickles glitter glue. I think the colours work really well together and had fun pinching and folding the papers to give it dimension. Hope you like it, let me know.
This is our family dog called Maddie. I was playing around with my latest i phone app called Camera Awesome and came up with this shot. I love the colours and antique feeling of the background. She is a lovely dog and adores being tickled, in fact she thinks that’s what all the humans in her life are here for.
Last weekend my lovely sister Marion and her husband Roger who is equally lovely celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Whilst still at the NEC show and rather late at night I made this card for them. The printed elements are made by Kanban and I found the other bits and bobs whilst shopping after my workshops had finished for the day. Marion & Roger were very pleased with it as they only had a few handmade cards. I was only 5 years old when I was their bridesmaid but can still remember my dress. It was yellow and very frilly, I thought I was the bee’s knees!
This is a shot of one of the 20 workshops that I taught over the last four days at the Hobbycrafts Show at the NEC . Everyone had a fantastic time and really enjoyed getting to know about Pebeo products. John Wright from Pebeo UK provided all the wonderful materials for free and the stand we were working on was hosted by Mark Tennant and his son Johnny from the Art Shop Skipton. We met hundreds of lovely people who were all very enthusiastic about the new Fantasy paints and I thoroughly enjoyed teaching everyone how to use them. The best bit is, we get to do it all over again at Art Materials Live in November. After I’ve had a long lie down in a darkened room for a couple of days I intend to put step by step project instructions on Creative Heaven for anyone who attended and those who didn’t.
Not a very attractive picture but my reality as I prepare to go to the Hobbycrafts show! I was once accused of being a messy crafter, I prefer to think of it as creative chaos. You never know when 2 disparate things laying next to or near each other spark off the next few ideas. Travelling south today when I get my act together.
Hi everyone. This week I will be teaching 5 FREE workshops a day at NEC (National Exhibition Centre) Birmingham for Pebeo UK. I’m busy making samples at the moment and here are a few pictures to show you how I’m doing.
I have painted these buttons with Pebeo Fantasy Prisme and Moon paint
The lovely Catherine was my assistant this morning and painted these acrylic fragments for me. We added a few star, hearts and some glitter as well.
I outlined a heart shape with Pebeo Cerne Relief and then filled the inside with Pebeo Fantasy Prisme.
I drew my outline with Pebeo Cerne Relief and filled the heart with Pebeo Prisme in two colours. I hadn’t made too good a job and it leaked out a bit so I went around it again to contain the leak!!
Catherine outlined the heart with Pebeo Cerne Relief and filed it with Pebeo Moon.
Catherine outlined this heart with Pebeo Cerne Relief and filled it with 2 colours of Pebeo Fantasy Moon.
For this little canvas board I scraped the Pebeo Studio Acrylic paint colours across the board with a palette knife, added Pebeo Deco Touch and finished it off with Gold Leaves.
Another little sample using Pebeo Studio Acrylic, Pebeo Deco Touch and some gold and silver leaves.
I love this little sample. I tried to make it look like a fantasy garden. I used Pebeo Studio Acrylic, Pebeo Deco Touch and silver leaves.
I used Pebeo Studio Acrylic with Pebeo Deco Touch and Gold Leaves. I used a palette knife to add some texture and added gold leaves to finish. I rubbed in the Touch with my finger around the edges to highlight the texture. The gold frame was created by applying dots of Touch and then I used a cocktail stick to drag the paint.
I had fun with this sample. I cut out some flowers with Funky Foam and stuck them to cardboard. I then printed these flowers with Gesso and scored them with a cocktail stick. I added Pebeo Touch Deco paint to add some interest to the flowers.
These flowers were printed with my homemade foam stamps and Pebeo Studio Acrylic and Pebeo Deco Touch. I also added some cabachons for a bit of glitz. I made the leaves by cutting a flower in half.
Well I haven’t a lot of spare time at the moment. This has taken all afternoon to load these shots but I thought you would all like to see what I am up to. If you can get to the NEC this week come and say HI and stop to play at one of the FREE workshops, the show is from Thursday 22nd – Sunday 25th. Hope to see you there.
Love and light.
Sue x
This photo of a Spaniel was a commission for the landlord of our local pub when we lived in Norfolk. I drew him from a photograph and this is the photocopy I made to record him for posterity. My client was thrilled with it and said it looked just like him. I’d like to think that I’ve captured some of his personality. Wish I could remember his name….. Would you like me to draw your dogs portrait? Let me know.
Just wanted to say a HUGE thank you to all the lovely people who are following my blog. 19 of you in the last month plus all my friends who check in via Facebook and friends and family who have followed me for a while now. WOW! I’ve been suffering with intense dental pain for the last week and whilst I’ve not done much else apart from try to sleep whilst propped upright on the sofa and read a bit, all your visits to my blog have kept me going and have given me something to focus on. I’m off to teach 5 free workshops a day at NEC ( National Exhibition Centre) Birmingham next week for 4 days for Pebeo UK and am really looking forward to it. If you are visiting the Hobbycrafts Show I will be on stand D06, pop along and say hello and come and play in the fantastic workshops. Will blog about it on my return. I’ll schedule my daily posts whilst I’m away, so keep coming back daily if you are a regular or chance visitor. It means a tremendous amount to me that others are interested in my view of life and the things I love.
Love and light
Sue xx
These are all the lovely products I will be using in my workshops! I even got to choose the colours…. yes there is turquoise, shocking pink and purple included. If you have never tried Pebeo before don’t hesitate, their products are fabulous. Click on the photo for a better look.
It’s all their fault !! Today, rather than meet in my studio for our regular Tuesday morning session I met up with the lovely Leigh & Ann and we had a smashing couple of hours together in Hexham. Girl Trip, Girl Trip ! I gave them a thorough guided tour of all the charity shops where I acquired a couple of Wedgewood casseroles circa 1960’s, a rather nice cassette storage rack that is going to store some of my ink pads, and a bear. Yes you heard right a bear. Now I needed a bear like I need a hole in my head but the aforementioned ladies persuaded me that I needed her. She is a Charlie Bear called Polly. I had seen them on QVC but had never cuddled one before. Big mistake. I fell instantly and completely in love with her as you can see by the soppy grin on my face!! I took this photo after my return home this afternoon where I sat in the sun on the sofa and enjoyed looking at my stash. This is my new hair cut and I have used a new colour called Stockholm by Preference I like it a lot. Whats going on with my left eye I haven’t a clue but I don’t normally look like that…. it must be the sunlight or bear fluff ! I’ve just checked on e-bay and my £2.99 casserole dish is probably worth £25!
I’ve made an executive decision, tomorrow I’m getting my hair cut. Not the usual trim but I think I’ll have to sacrifice a good few inches of hair. I was looking at my hair in the sunlight and realised that the last 3-4 inches are split and breaking off. As my hair grows quickly this is about a years growth. I really take care of it and allow it to dry naturally most of the time. I occasionally straighten it and always spray it before brushing, but recently I’m finding it harder to deal with and twist up out of the way as it’s so heavy. I’m proud of myself for growing it so long, it’s probably the longest it has ever been in my life. I shall be sad to see so much cut off but I know in my heart of hearts it’s the best thing to do. I’m even contemplating going lighter still, there is a rather nice colour called Stockholm that is calling my name. Superdrug here I come….. that will only take two boxes now instead of three !!
Dragonfly Dreams & Butterfly Kisses 