29 Faces - Day 2

The Party Hat, today's challenge drawing. More coloured pencils because I'm trying to learn how to use them. Sorry it's not a better photo, the light is rubbish today!

29 Faces Challenge

Well hello! I've been off the grid for a while but decided now would be a good time to try getting back into a bit of artiness, and to that end I'm going to have a go at doing the 29 Faces challenge this month. I don't do nearly enough drawing and faces are fun! So here is day 1: she's a little coloured pencil illustration on printer paper. Check out the link above to find more information about the month long challenge and sign up if you'd like to.

Just a Moment

I've belatedly joined Instagram having only recently got a smartphone and been dragged into the 21st century! I'm finding it fun to use and have started doing the 100 Happy Days project which is enjoyable and (sometimes) quite a challenge. If you haven't tried it, give it a go and let me know what you think.

Lots of stuff going on chez Every Colour at the moment and I don't seem to be getting a lot of time to make arty crafty goodies, though I did do a quick video a week or two ago where I muddled my way through a journal page - complete with goofy mistakes!

I'm currently quite obsessed with making notebooks and journals again. Having just discovered the wonderful world of Midori and the 'Fauxdori' idea - basically making your own version of these utterly gorgeous leather journals - I have been doing lots of research and dipping my toe into working with leather, something which is totally new to me.

Here's my first attempt. It's sized to hold Field Notes or A6 notebooks and I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. I also plan to make a traveller size and I'll post pictures when I do.

Waiting

A long time ago I bought a box of 6"x6" canvases and promptly forgot about them as other stuff got in the way. Well, I found them again a week or two ago and realised it's been ages since I worked on canvas. 

Paper or board is often an easier option for the sort of heavily textured and layered pieces I like to make now because it doesn't have that natural give to it that a stretched canvas does and I find it easier to print or stamp or collage on. So a challenge for myself here, to see what I can do!

New Video - A Series of Postcards

Finally, I managed to get a new video filmed and edited. I'm working on a series of small postcard sized pieces here. I find that working on several pieces at the same time is helpful for quieting the inner critic and allows me to work more quickly and intuitively so it's something I like to do regularly if I can. Hope you enjoy the video!

Blankety Goodness

I feel like I've been in hibernation recently with not a whole lot of anything going on other than curling up by the fire and dreaming of spring. Well, the days are lengthening and slowly, slowly the weather is improving so I intend to dig out the video camera and start recording some arty stuff again. 

In the meantime though, here's what's been occupying me over winter. The blanket above was made for my daughter as a Christmas gift; lots of greys and cream with just a pop or three of neon pink. The blanket below is a present to myself, the idea being to make something bright and cheerful for my bedroom. Well it certainly is, and I love seeing it whenever I go in there! If you'd like to make something similar, I got the idea, and the colour selection, from Lucy's Blog. And I love the little edging she dreamed up for it too!

Project Life and Journalling Cards

This is what I've been playing with this week. I made a whole bunch of cards to fit Project Life folders or just to use for journalling on. They were all printed on my 6" gelli plate and I'm just in the process of adding text to some of them.

Organise This

In another of those pieces of synchronicity which sometimes happen I've been encountering all sorts of things to do with personal organisers lately and I finally went, 'ok, I get it'. I need to work on changing some stuff in my life and (the horror!) getting better organised is part of the process. 

So here's my plan: I am old school, in that I'd rather use paper and pen to keep track of things than an electronic gadget, so I found this luvverley Filofax A5 Domino in a sale and snapped it up!

This is it when I unpacked it. Nice, huh? But I wanted to make it less 'officey' and more arty so I set about tricking it out with customised bits and bobs.

The landing page had to be something which would make me want to use the planner, in fact that is the whole ethos behind what I'm doing here. If I make it a happy, fun place to keep everything in then I will be much more likely to work in it. So, the page is a gelli print I cut to fit and then decorated with washi tape, paper flowers and little letter charms.

In the front I have a few business cards, paper clips, shopping lists and a variety of notelets and stickers to decorate my diary pages like so:

This week, being Valentine's, is all about lurve. It was pure fun using stamps, tape and stickers on these pages and just playing.

In my next post I'll share some more of this work in progress, and whether it's bringing any order to the chaos, so stay tuned!

Greetings!

Just been playing with my little 6" Gelli plate and a few blank greetings cards. I also added matching borders to the envelopes. The cards were finished off with a bit of stamping and homemade washi tape. Lots of fun!

A Little Bit Of Gesso & Ink

Making background papers is always fun - and useful too - so I put together a little video tutorial to share with you on these. They're very quick and easy to do, require only a few ingredients and will give you some lovely results!

I have been having some time off from creating to nurse my poorly dog who's got pneumonia but he is, thankfully, on the mend now so I thought I'd ease myself back into things with a little play time. Hope you enjoy watching.