Nicola Toms Designs

Paint Party Friday and Sunday Sketches 'I'm the king of the pond'.....

2012-01-21T11:03:00.000+11:00

Hi guys, first up this week is a little canvas I worked on. I decided I wanted to recreate my frog princess in this mixed media piece. I used Japanese papers, painted over them with acrylic paint. I felt like it give the painting a bit more depth and texture and it was fun to do something different.

I have added this little cutie to my shop as I think it would look lovely in a little girls bedroom :0)

I really took my time painting the sides of the canvas too! :0)

This sketch was another exercise I set myself, I wanted to play around with facial expression. This girl looks unimpressed with something ;0)

Lastly this is my latest piece in my frog series. 'I'm the king of the pond'....I'm sure I don't have to explain my inspiration behind this one? I painted this piece in gouache paint with some coloured pencil on top! :0) I really love how bright the gouache is, i would love to try it on watercolour paper next :0)

I'm finding my frog series a great source of inspiration, it's great to paint one of these when i'm lacking some inspiration or my muse has disappeared :0) They always make me smile too! ;0)

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend and look forward to catching up on what you've all been doing!

Paint Party Friday/Sunday Sketches!

2012-01-13T10:02:00.000+11:00

Hi guys

I've been combining my pieces for both challenges lately because I'm having a lot less art time at the moment with school holidays going on etc. So I think for the moment I shall be posting once a week like this just so I can keep up at least with the challenges.

So this week I have managed to create another froggy character! Today we have 'Marilyn Mon-Frog'!!!! :0) I'm already working on my next piece for the froggy collection and can't wait to share that one with you too! I think I might do a frog on canvas next :0)

I had a right little giggle painting this one :0)

This next piece I was able to squeeze in the other day in between shuttling my little ones to play dates and generally keeping them out of mischief! I was getting very depressed just walking by my art table this week and not being able to sit down and work on all the ideas I've got rattling around my head. So I thought I'd practice creating some expressions with just the eyes and eye brows. I'm going to start working on a book that I collaborated on with my cousin a couple of years ago. I finished a draft version but we weren't ready to move forward with it back then I needed to work on my art. I think I'm feeling ready to give it another go so really want to work on my character creation and facial expressions :0) (no this book is not about frogs ;0) but perhaps I should think about that for the future ;0) ).

I really enjoyed this exercise!!! :0)

Ok best dash off it's time to take the boys to another play date!!!

Paint Party Friday and and an early entry for Sunday sketches

2012-01-06T19:58:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great New Years and have recovered. I wasn't too bad this week, we had a big party on the weekend even the kids stayed up into the wee hours and we all lazed around the next day. It's still summer holidays over here at the moment so I've been busy taking the kids to play dates, the pool and keeping them occupied etc. I've even managed to get back into my exercise a bit 2012 is the year I get buff (fit)....well I'll try anyway ;0)

I'm including these pieces as my Sunday sketches too as we have two birthday parties this weekend and the husband is dragging me to a car show eeeeeeek.....so not my thing but when he told me that there was an air brush exhibition as well I decided to give it a go. So hopefully next week I'll have some pictures to show you and I might even be able to get some tips!!!

Ok first up is another in my series of frogs. I really love drawing these little guys as it really gets my creative juices flowing, and I'm thinking up all sorts of scenarios for them to be in :0)

This one is 'Disco Frog'

Move over Travolta!

This next piece is another of my experiments with the airbrush that I got for Christmas. I used the air brush for the skin, background and hair then added details over the top. I really do like the look of the airbrush it gives it a softness that I'm not able to get with a paint brush. I think though that it's going to take me a long time to be able to do details with an airbrush it really is tricky but I really am having fun trying new things!!!

Hope you all have a great weekend and I'll pop by over the weekend!!

Paint Party Friday - A new toy!

2011-12-30T16:22:00.000+11:00

Hi guys I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!! We had a lovely time down the coast!

The weather was beautiful!

The boys had a lovely time at the beach!

Splashing in the waves with their grandparents.

I even dipped in my toes! :0)

The boys collected so many hermit crabs, don't worry we put them all back ;0)

I tried drawing a sand frog :0)

Hubby gave me an airbrush for Christmas. I've never used one before so it's been like learning to draw all over again! I've been watching videos on youtube and trying to figure out how to use it! I'm struggling with doing fine lines so really need a proper lesson I think. I do however love using it for shading and managed to do a couple of paintings the last couple of days and experiment with it!

This one is on a canvas board and I really loved how it popped when I used the paintbrush on top just for the fine lines!!

This one was a practice run, just on paper and I realise that the paint really bleeds into the paper I just couldn't seem to make a fine line.

I have been meaning to paint this bag for weeks. I really love how the shading turned out I think it really gives it a soft quality! :0) I used the fine paint brush for the thin lines. I'm hoping that I'll be able to master this way of painting but I guess it take practice! :0)

Hope you all have a great New Years weekend and I look forward to visiting you all! :0)

Paint Party Friday - Frog obsession continues

2011-12-23T08:45:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, well Christmas is nearly upon us so I thought I'd better add my paint party Friday pieces before things got crazy.

My last post I put up some frog pictures as I've been obsessed with them lately, so many characters bouncing around in my head, so this week in between lots of Christmas preparation I managed to paint two more.

'Zombie' Frog must be my favourite! I had so much fun with this little guy heheheh. I'm a massive zombie movie fan so had a lot of ideas for this one! He's painted in acrylic paint and I've used a biro pen to outline him, I've never used biro like this before it works really well with the paint!

'Karate' Frog, I've used some inspiration from the original 'Karate Kid' for this one heheheh!!!

I wish you all a fantastic happy and safe Christmas and look forward to painting more of these little guys next week! :0)

Sunday sketches - Obsessed with frogs!

2011-12-18T16:36:00.000+11:00

Hi guys!

After creating my ballerina frog t-shirt for a little loved one I've had so many more froggy characters pop into my head and started sketching them! I think these little frogs would make lovely canvas' for children's bedrooms and I plan on painting them on a larger scale!

First up I got a bit festive with 'Santa Frog'

This one is 'Princess Frog'

I've got some other sketches I've been working on but will have to paint those another day!!! I seem to be heading back towards the childrens art at the moment I love creating new characters :0)

Hope you are all having a great weekend and enjoying the lead up to Christmas, now that school is finishing up and my Christmas market is done I'll be able to come visiting you all again! :0)

Crazy time of year and Sunday sketches!

2011-12-11T14:59:00.001+11:00

Wow is anyone else feeling swamped by the silly season? We've had Christmas school concerts, parties, end of year/school parties and yesterday my cousin and I collaborated for a Christmas market of our own. My cousin Clare is a hand bag designer who has a label of her own called Hforhandbag. She is an amazingly talented girl who is probably the most driven person I know :0). Check out her website if you'd like to find out more about her. We decided to collaborate and hold a mini market at my house. By invitation only. We set up in my back garden as it was the most perfectly sunny day. We had coffee tea and biscuits as well as jugs of iced water with lemon and mint to keep our visitors comfortable.

Clare's set up looked fantastic on my deck and she had a wonderful shady spot! You can also see my spot in the background.

Clare and her beautiful bags. Click on the HforHandbag link above to see more :0)

My stall on the grass! :0)

We were so happy with how it turned out, and had so much fun it was a really lovely day, lots of chatting, trying on of bags and jewellery with some soft jazz sounds in the back ground. I think we'll do another one of these in the new year for sure!!! :0)

I am so exhausted today and a little bit sun burnt (naughty me) but I'm looking forward to sketching up some new designs and ideas as the last few weeks have been spent preparing for our big day.

I have finished another t-shirt for another little loved one, this one is for 'Mermaid Sian'. My cousin's 5 year old is the most amazing young swimmer I've ever seen, she swims around like a little mermaid and really wants to be a mermaid one day :0) So I couldn't resist capturing that on her T-shirt!! I'm happy with how she turned out and even included her lovely little freckles!

Paint Party Friday/Sunday Sketches - Busy busy busy! Hand painted T-shirts

2011-11-25T23:04:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone, this week I've been working on my hand made T-shirts, if you didn't see my last post I am working on some hand painted t-shirts for some loved ones for Christmas. I did Queen Ruby! And the next one was this froggy ballerina for her little sister Willow.

Apparently Willow (who is 18 months old) is a huge frog fan so I couldn't resist turning one of my frogs into this ballerina! It is painted with fabric paint then heat sealed to set the paint!

I'm really happy with how she turned out and hope that Willow loves her too!

This next piece is for a friends little girl who is turning 5 'Bella' apparently loves My little Ponies especially the unicorn one so I couldn't resist incorporating that into her t-shirt. Bella is such a cutie I almost always see her with her hair in plats so I feel like she's turned out quite like the real thing :0)

This one was definitely a challenge in so many ways but I really enjoyed doing it!

I love all the bright colours I was able to use! I hope Bella likes her too!

My next project that I'm working on is a new canvas bag, this time I'm using my owls I've sketched the design so will work on that this weekend. I'm off to bed now but will catch up with you all in the morning! :0) Happy Friday!!!

Sunday Sketches - Christmas presents!

2011-11-20T20:03:00.000+11:00

Hi guys I've missed a few Sunday sketches recently as we have been away at a family holiday and I also had a market recently.

Finally this weekend I've been able to work on some Christmas presents for some little loved ones. I wanted to make them some special hand painted T-shirts.

First up is my cousin's little girl Ruby, she is 3 years old and full of personality!! Her mum told me that she thinks she's a Queen so I came up with this sketch!

She is of course the Queen of Hearts :0)

I liked my sketch so much I thought that I would colour it in and perhaps use a print for book marks etc :0)

Here is my finished shirt! I used fabric paints which I need to heat set with an iron tomorrow! I'm very happy with how she turned out!

This ballerina frog is for Ruby's little sister Willow, she loves frogs at the moment and I have a nice black t-shirt which I think this little beauty would pop out on! :0) Can't wait to paint this froggy!!!

This last sketch is for another little loved one! She is 5 and loves to swim and is amazing in the water! I've never seen a 5 year old swim like her before. She always reminds me of a mermaid so I've drawn this little mermaid for her and will colour her in with her beautiful dark hair and blue eyes!!!

I'm having so much fun with this project!!!

Paint Party Friday - The Romantics

2011-11-18T07:35:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, it's been a while since I last posted. We've been away at a family wedding, had a market as well as helping out at my little one's school, the lead up to Christmas is starting to get crazy already.

I'm now back into some kind of routine and I've been thinking about which direction to take my art next. When I started my art journey a few years ago (after a long break without creating) it was children's art and illustration that first caught my attention. Since then I seem to have gone in all sorts of different directions, jewellery, mixed media, figurative art. Lately I've been feeling the call back to childrens art. So after our weekend away I was inspired by all the love in the air at my little sisters wedding and created this piece with a few different characters that I've been playing around with.

'The Romantics'........

I created some dancing frogs a while back for an Illustration Friday piece and I felt like they needed to be brought out to play again. This one really needed a moustache heheheh

Really love the snuggly owls!

Ants in love!

I'm working on some hand painted T-shirts for some family members for Christmas so you should see some of these characters re-appearing :0)

I'm looking forward to catching up with you all over the weekend it's been a while since I've been able to blog surf etc and I need my fix! :0)

Paint Party Friday

2011-10-28T19:35:00.000+11:00

Hi guys this week I've been working on another canvas art bag and a mini work of art as well as my entry for the Creative Sistahs project I'm working on :0) I'm also preparing for my market next weekend, the first one since before our winter so I'm hoping that we do well as I've been working hard on lots of new pieces :0)

A spooky mini work of art just in time for Halloween

New wooden tile pendant 'Atmosphere'

This is my piece in Carmen's book inspired by summer holidays with my big brother :0)

Ballerina canvas art bag! :0)

I'll be popping in to visit you all this weekend hope you've had a great week!!!

Sunday Sketches - The Tom boy

2011-10-23T08:58:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, this week I wanted to explore my ideas for my canvas library bags, I created this piece with coloured pencil.

I've got lots more ideas for these bags that I can't wait to get down on paper :0)

I've also been busy making more wooden tile pendants out of my prints, here are a couple of new ones :0)

These little cuties are now available in my shop for only $10 (including chain/necklace) until market my day :0)

The weather is finally warming up big time over here and I can feel summer in the air, yay!!!!! Perhaps I'll have breakfast on the deck this morning! :0) I'm looking forward to visiting you all this afternoon!

Sunday Sketches - Little Red

2011-10-17T07:56:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, I'm afraid my Sunday sketch is a bit late this week as we have had a massive weekend. We had a big birthday party for my youngest little man who turned 5 on Saturday. It was a lovely day with LOTS of children running around and eating party food. Our little man had a lovely time and we were totally exhausted the next day.

I wanted to share with you my 'Little Red' bag that I painted last week. I really like how she turned out and I think this one would make a great library bag!!! :0)

Paint Party Friday - My canvas bags finally arrived!!!

2011-10-08T08:18:00.000+11:00

Hi guys

Well this week has been quite a busy one with school holidays and a husband with the worst case of the man flu, you can imagine that I have had my hands full!

Finally my canvas tote bags arrived that I ordered a while back and have been able to paint one of them already. I wanted to paint a design that looked like you were carrying a painting around with you and so decided to recreate my 'Garden Angel' design.

First up I sketched the design on with fabric pen.

Then I set to work painting it!

I'm really happy with how this turned out and have so many more ideas for more bags. Our supermarkets over here are soon to be banning plastic bags so I thought this might be a nice way to remember to take my bag shopping with me. You could use it for anything really and I also have ideas to make some cute kids library bags with some designs on too.

The next step is to heat seal it. I will be working on more of these this week and adding to my shop :0)

The other thing that's been keeping me busy this week has been a school holiday project with my boys. We decided to make an animated movie so have spent days drawing and making characters then building a movie set. We took loads of photos the other day and I now need to put them into the computer with this software that I have which will put it all together. I think after a long time of taking pics we have about 3 seconds of film heheheh but the boys are loving it.

The opening shot with 'Sir Scardey cat'

The boys designed then made the characters. There is this crocodile/dragon and the spikey things are the 'dark lord's' minions hehehe

My 4 year old took over as set designer and made some beautiful flowers he also designed the crocodile/dragon.

The end shot where 'Sir scardey cat' and 'Princess Proud' are reunited!!!

We had a lot of fun!

A tiger print treasury and my September spread for the Creative sisters project!

2011-10-04T07:53:00.000+11:00

Hi guys,

Hope you all had a good weekend. It's school holidays again here at the moment so I'll have my hands full entertaining two boys for the next couple of weeks but I shall to continue doing as much art as possible. I'll see if I can get the boys to make some works of art too!! :0)

First up I wanted to share this cool Treasury that I have been included in on etsy. It's all about the tiger print and my tiger print inspired clay pendant has been featured!!!

There are some gorgeous pieces in this one!!!

Also I wanted to share my Spring inspired September spread for the Creative Sistahs project that I'm involved with. If you would like to learn more about this just click on the creative sistahs tab to the right of this post! :0)

Right I'd best head off and start entertaining these boys of mine! Hope you have a great week :0)

Paint Party Friday - Vampire inspired mini work of art!

2011-09-30T10:13:00.000+10:00

Ok so these mini canvas' are soooooooooooooo addictive!! I love painting as much detail as possible in such a small space! I've got lots more ideas in my head for more of these but here is the second in my series of mini paintings on canvas.

It's almost October so I thought some Halloween inspired art might be in order I love vampy girls, zombies and all sorts of things like that and I have been watching the new season of True blood and I think that inspired me even more (I love that show so much)!!!! :0)

I was thinking that if I keep creating ladies like this I need to start giving them names so I shall start with this one 'Angelique' :0) She looks like an angel but I'm sure those fangs could do some damage.

I LOVE purple I think it's up there as my most favourite colour!

I painted the sides black!

And of course I'm going to turn this lovely lady into a pendant!!!

Such a great way to brighten up a desk space!!

Just thought I'd show this pic of my hand next to the painting to give you an idea of size. The canvas measures 8cm x 10cm!!

I shall be adding Angelique to my etsy shop in the near future :0)

Hope you are all having a great week so far, yay for the weekend!!!

Sunday sketches - late entry, mini work of art

2011-09-26T13:49:00.000+10:00

Hi guys,

I'm a bit late with my Sunday sketch piece this week. It was my birthday last week and on Saturday night hubby and I had a child free night so went out for dinner and drinks with some friends, we had a lovely night with great company and great food but a late night. I'm still feeling it today hehehe so I didn't get on the computer much yesterday which is why I'm uploading my Sunday Sketch piece today.

This is my first of many 'mini works of art'. I've opened a new section in my etsy shop where I will be selling these cute little canvas' that come with an easel.

The canvas measures 8cm x 10cm.......

Here is a pic of it next to my hand so you can get an idea of the size. I think these little works of art would look great displayed on your office desk at work or at home, or even on the mantel piece! :0)

Hope you all had a great weekend :0)

Paint Party Friday - My August Creative sistahs entry and some other bits and bobs!

2011-09-22T19:52:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, it's been a couple of weeks since I last blogged or took part in any of my weekly groups that I usually participate in. We've just been flat out getting the house back in order after moving back in after our renovations, plus I had to sort out our office and my art space. Everything seemed to be so all over the place but finally I think things are back to normal and I'm catching up on my art. I haven't been creating as much as I'd like but hopefully I'm back on track.

This week I'd like to share with you my entry in Stephanie's book for the Sistahood of the travelling sketch book that I'm involved in. If you'd like to know more about this just click on the creative sistahs tab on the right hand side of my blog! :0)

This page is about August in Canberra. The writing says 'August in Canberra means wearing lots of winter woolies'.........I'm hoping that this will be my last entry inspired by cold weather as we are well into Spring now, hooray!!! It certainly was a long cold winter!!!

I used my water colour pencils and some ink for this little cutie and I really liked how she turned out! :0)

Now that I'm home I've finally been able to work on some more pendants so thought I'd share them with you! :0) Very proud of these!!

Here are some wooden tile pendants made from the prints of my recent paintings.

I love these owl bails they are so quirky! :0) These are the backs of the pendants covered with Japanese paper and varnished with a layer of diamond glaze. I really love these bails they are vintage bronze and vintage copper with matching chains! :0)

These settings are called 'vintage star' settings, but they also remind me of flowers. This top one is vintage bronze. I knew that my red and gold Japanese paper would look perfect in this setting.

This next one is shiny silver with some more of my Japanese paper.

My garden angel looks right at home in this one :0)

This last piece was made using a print of a mini painting of mine. 'Just Breathe in blue' :0) I think she works out lovely as a wooden pendant.
All these pendants are in the process of being added to my shop. :0) I'm making pieces for my next market in the beginning of November! But will also be making them available in my etsy shop :0)

Lastly I just wanted to share this photo of our gorgeous weeping cherry tree in full blossom!!! Hooray!!! :0)

Paint Party Friday :0)

2011-09-09T08:28:00.001+10:00

Hi guys just a quickie this morning as we are in the process of moving back into our house hurrah!!!!

This week I have been working on some ideas for some canvas tote bags which I want to paint. I'm just waiting for them to arrive and in the meantime been playing around with some ideas.

I thought some cute animals might be nice and a bit different from my usual stuff.

Right I'd better dash I shall try to visit you all as soon as we're all settled back in, we're also waiting for our own computer to come back from being repaired again so I might be restricted to a lap top which is very slow for a little while *sigh, ah well at least we're going home :0)

Sunday Sketches - A new lady and some Aceo's

2011-09-03T19:59:00.000+10:00

Hi guys

I hope you've all had a good week. I missed joining in Paint Party Friday this week, things are very busy here at the moment and I was flat out all day that day. We are now on the count down to get back home as our reno's are nearly finished. I cannot wait and neither can my boys. They miss their own rooms and back yard etc. I'm itching to get back into my studio as I've got so many new pendant ideas. Next weekend is going to be cleaning cleaning cleaning as everything is covered in a layer of dust *sigh nearly there!

I did manage to work on some new ACEO's and a new lady for my journal.

First up is my lady:

I'm working a darker style with this girl trying to get a bit of an edge.

I really love her hair. Now trying to work out what to call this piece any ideas? ;0)

Next up are some new ACEOs. I'm actually getting quite addicted to these little works of art and having some fun playing around with them. I've got lots more ideas. My zombie girl from last week has already found herself a new home which is very exciting! :0)

Really love the colours in this one

A blue Aceo version of 'Just Breathe'

I shall be adding these to my shop in the near future!

Tomorrow is Father's day over here and we have a busy day, my eldest's martial arts grading first thing (poor dad doesn't get a lie in) then a father's day lunch, I shall pop around to visit you all when we have a quiet moment :0)

Sunday sketches - more ACEO's

2011-08-28T09:52:00.000+10:00

Hi guys hope you're having a good weekend. Today I've got more ACEO's to show you.

Inspired by Natasha May's zombie girls last week I decided to try turning one of my ladies into a zombie :0)

I finally painted this card that I sketched up a week or so ago. My favourite part of the face is the eyes I just love drawing them!!! :0)

Another spooky inspired one! I"m looking forward to creating some Halloween art this year!! :0)

Lastly this is the abstract figure that I sketched last week that I finally painted! Can you tell I'm having lots of fun with these ACEO's? :0)

I look forward to catching up with you all this week and seeing your Sunday sketches!!!

Paint Party Friday

2011-08-25T20:11:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd post this weeks pieces a little early as it's Thursday night here and I know I'm going to have a crazy day tomorrow. We're just nearing the end of week 3 of our renovations and things are starting to take shape, will probably be another couple of weeks til we're back in and settled but the end is in sight. I finally received a delivery of new settings for some pendants and cannot wait to start making up some new pieces.

In the meantime this week I've been busy with making costumes for the kids for their book week parade. I think I had more fun making them than they did showing them off heheheh I think they had a good time though.

Riley (4) chose Koala Lou from his favourite book at the moment (An Aussie favourite) and Rhys (8) is Greg from 'The Diary of a Wimpy Kid'. He loves these books and is on number 3 right now in the series. I love it as it's something he's really keen to read!!!

Next up is this 'Vamp' from my journal of lovely ladies.

I wanted to do something a little darker and try to get a little edge to it. Perhaps next time I'll do a proper vampire or zombie? I have made a character called 'Zombie Mummy' that was fun but not quite edgey.

Lastly I just wanted to share this book mark that I will be uploading to etsy soon. I painted this picture a couple of years back but she is still one of my favourites. Here I used a print and laminated it then beaded it!!! :0) HOpe you've all had a great week and I look forward to catching up soon.

Paint Party Friday - ACEO's

2011-08-19T15:40:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys I have been working this week painting those sketches I showed for Sunday Sketches, I was also inspired by my chicken photos and couldn't resist creating this little character :0)

I bought some new gouche paint and these little cards last week. I've discovered this great new brand called "Mont Marte" it is so well priced which means I can try all sorts of new things as it's very affordable, I really like the brightness of the gouche and I don't seem to use too much like i do with acrylic.

This piece was originally inspired by a Matisse sketch, I just had to add colour!

Finally I added some black pen to my alien lady!!!

These ACEO's are rather addictive I'm thinking of putting them in my shop. I hope you've all had a great week.

Sunday sketches

2011-08-14T16:41:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, thanks for your lovely comments on my last blog post. Sorry I was a bit down that day but I'm not feeling so sorry for myself today. I managed to do a run this morning with the eldest (he's a great runner but would be even better if he didn't talk the entire time) heheh I don't know how he does it I"m red and puffing and he's a chatterbox!!! I guess you have endless energy when you're 8! I miss being 8! ;0)

We are still house sitting for my parents at the moment while the work continues on our bathroom. I have managed to get back into some sort of routine with the kids and thought I would try some sketching today. I bought some ACEO cards (I think that's what you call them) I've done a few things before this size but thought I'd give it a real go this week while I"m not at my usual spot in my office. I also bought some gouche paint which I haven't used for years and plan to paint these through the week.

I want to experiment with accentuating some of my figurative ladies' curves.......

This pose was inspired by a Matisse sketch. I plan to paint it then I'll show you the sketch side by side so you can see there I got my inspiration from.

My favourite part of the face to paint is the eyes, I just can't stop painting those!! So I had to throw this one in there.

Ok, I don't know why but I felt like painting a green alien lady heheheh......I already started using the water colour paints on this one but plan to do lots more with pen as well!!

Lastly, I'm not sure about this one, it's my take on an abstract figure.....I will paint it though and persevere with it!

I guess the great thing about painting in this small size is that you can try all sorts of things as it's only in a small scale.

I also wanted to show you some little beauties that I have been looking after this week. They are such funny strange creatures. It's been nice collecting the eggs every day, you can really see the difference in the beautiful bright yellow yolks from the fresh eggs! I just have to make sure that my huge Malamute dog doesn't eat them!!! ;0)

This photo cracks me up!!! This chicken does not look impressed that I caught her on camera ;0)

I'm thinking that a chicken inspired painting might be on the cards with all these photos!!!

Hope you're all having a great weekend I'll be popping round soon!!! :0)

Paint Party Friday - Sorrow

2011-08-12T15:55:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, well we are at the end of week 1 of our renovations and we have survived so far. I even managed to work on this piece whilst house sitting. Unfortunetly we don't have access to a scanner at the moment so I"m going to have to take photos of my pieces for the time being.

'Sorrow' is another one of my ladies. I wanted to create some emotion with this lady. And I think I was feeling a little down myself this week, out of sorts with everything going on but also a bit sad as my parents have jetted off to Wales to go to my big brothers wedding and unfortunetly we've just got so much going on at the moment that I can't go. :0( Ah well thems the breaks I suppose I did get to see him last year when we went for our big trip and he made it over here for our mums 60th so I'm glad about that.

Hope you're all having a great week!

Sunday Sketches

2011-08-07T14:43:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys just a quickie today as we're preparing our house for our renovations which start tomorrow, eeeeek! I don't know when I'll get to paint these two but hopefully some time this week amongst the chaos!!! Hope you're all having a great weekend and I"ll try my best to make my way round to you all.

Paint Party Friday - Cheeky

2011-08-05T17:11:00.001+10:00

Hi guys, thank you for your well wishes last week, we're all feeling back to normal again thank goodness. I've had a busy week getting the house ready for stage 2 of our renovations (bathrooms) hurrah!!!! And I've been working on some new pieces. I sold 3 pieces through my on line shop this week which is very exciting for me!!! A wooden tile pendant ('Determination') a Japanese paper glass pendant and a ring that I made recently from a print of my koi fish painting. It feels so good to have them go off to new homes and it also means that I can make more things without feeling guilty hehehe.

Today I painted a new lady in my journal. I wanted to play around with skin tone and I also added a cheeky wink!! I really love painting these ladies and find that my favourite part of the process is decorating the hair and eyes :0)

The wink was a bit of a challenge but fun to do!!! :0) I shall be trying to get around to visit you all this weekend before the house gets crazy with builders knocking down walls etc!!! Hope you are all having a fantastic week! :0)

Sunday Sketches

2011-07-31T16:10:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, this week I painted my ladies from last Sunday's Sketches. If you would like to see how my lady with her eyes shut turned out I have blogged about it in my last post here

As for this post I've got my lady with the profile to show you. Not one of my favourites but a good experiment all the same!!! I think this week I'd like to tackle different skin tones and perhaps a full figured painting :0)

I did enjoy painting the hair on this one though :0)

Hope you are all having a great weekend! :0)

Paint Party Friday - 'Breath' and 'Innocence?'

2011-07-29T14:48:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,

Well after an horrendous start to the week, I'm pleased to say I'm back to feeling like myself again. Just in time for the start of term our house hold was hit by the worst gastro bug I've had in years. It completely knocked my husband and I off our feet, as well as unfortunately passing it on to my parents :0(........our youngest had it over the weekend but not as bad as us and our oldest managed to miss out completely. We are now calling him 'Superboy'!!! Phew!!! Today I'm feeling back to normal although my appetite has definitely shrunk which isn't such a bad thing for me but I'd rather loose weight in a less icky way!!

I've painted up two more ladies in my journal I'm really loving this little project I set myself it seems to have opened another creative door for me. So much fun!!!

First up was this page that I have called 'Just breath'.......

I really love how she turned out and yes I'm going to turn her into a very striking pendant!

I called this one 'Innocence?'......

She kind of reminds me of Bridget Bardot and a bit of 'Sookie Stackhouse' from 'True Blood'...I'm so into that show at the moment....(not to mention Eric Northman) ;0)

What I'm really enjoying about this process is that I'll have an idea in my head but each girl takes on her own unique personality as I start to paint her. I painted these two in the space of a few days but they couldn't be more different in character.......with each one I have more ideas popping into my head :0)

Last but not least I just wanted to show you one of my latest pendants which are proving to be quite popular. I sold my 'Red Lady' wooden tile pendant that I made last week, a few days ago as well as my 'Koi fish' ring!!! Such a nice feeling to see my pieces go to new homes all over the world.

This pendant is made from my painting last week 'Trust'......

Also now in my etsy shop :0)

Hope you all had a great week and I look forward to catching up with you all this weekend :0)

Sunday Sketches some new ladies to paint!

2011-07-25T09:02:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys well this weekend has been so cold and wet that we were complete hermits yesterday. Actually the day before wasn't so bad and my eldest and I even got to go for a run which was nice but yesterday was a real blobby day!!! I managed to sketch some ladies in my journal that I'm going to paint this week. Really enjoying this project I set myself and can't wait to see how my picture progress.

I wanted to try a profile this time as I really haven't done many. I really struggle to get the size of everything right. I'm going to paint lots of flowers in this one. She reminds of me of someone from Victorian times perhaps?

This on is on the next page and I wanted to paint someone with their eye(s) shut, like she is deep in thought!

I'm looking forward to painting these this week! :0)

Last up before I go I really wanted to share this amazing artist with you! Her name is Penny Hehir (you can click on her name to get to her blog). She is my mum and one amazing talented artist!!! Check out her newest portrait piece it completely blew me away!!! I'm going to try and get her to join us at Sunday sketches (she's quite new to all this blogging).....

Paint Party Friday, my new journal

2011-07-22T14:51:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone, if you saw my last post you will have heard about my new journal that I have started. I decided that I wanted to keep a journal for my lovely big eyed ladies so that I could keep track of ideas and try new things but to also have a finished book at the end. Normally my books are filled with all sorts of idea for projects, sketches and some paintings. I wanted to start a journal specifically for big eye ladies and to have some sort of consistency for my work. So this week I've been super inspired and painted a few lovelies. I posted my red lady in my last post and today I wanted to share the others.

First up was this naughty looking cutie........

I'm trying to explore different expressions.....

I made my red lady into a very cute wooden tile pendant and plan on doing the same with these cropped versions of the newest ladies so stay tuned!

It is our last day of the school holidays and after this weekend the boys are back at school. It's been nice having them home but we're all ready to get back into our routine now! Hopefully I'll be able to spend a bit more time catching up with my blog friends :0) Looking forward to seeing what you've all been up to this week!

The Summer of colour - red

2011-07-20T09:10:00.000+10:00

Hi guys as I was catching up on some of my blog friends this morning I came across Kristin from Twinkle Twinkle's Summer of colour challenge. I have seen my other blog friends take part in this challenge over the last few weeks or so and always wanted to participate but I've been struggling with keeping up with Paint Party Friday and Sunday sketches as it is. But when I saw this week's colour 'Red' I realised I had the perfect piece :0) So I decided I had to share. This week I've been working on a journal that I plan to fill with lots of my big eyed girls. The idea of this for me was to work on some new ideas, and also hopefully create some new pendant pieces, in the first few days I've come up with 3 new pieces and I'm so motivated. I've never kept a proper journal before as I usually get side tracked and fill it with half finished sketches and ideas. So with this one I hope to remain more focused.

I named this piece 'Determination' as I realised she had quite a determined look on her face when I'd fnished.

I decided this cropped image would look great as a pendant.

I received some new supplies the other day of wooden tiles and epoxy drops which I've never tried before I really do love the way this turned out! :0) This is bigger than a scrabble tile and quite striking with the colours.

I'm off to check out everyone else's red pieces :0)

Sunday Sketches and what I've been up to this week!

2011-07-17T15:12:00.000+10:00

Hello blog friends. I didn't get to post a Paint Party Friday piece but I have a few other things to show you that I have been working on this week. First up I thought I'd try something completely out of my comfort zone, oil pastels. They have been sitting on my desk for a looooong time but I've been reluctant to use them as I'm not confident. I think the problem that I have with them is that I find it hard to create detail. I tried sharpening the ends which helped a little but that also wasted a bit of them too. Anyone got any tips?

I decided to keep it simple as I was struggling with details so I created these two pieces. I really enjoyed creating the texture and experimenting with colours it was a nice change from paint :0)

Other things I have been working on this week are some pendants and rings made from recent paintings of mine I have added these to my shop!

I really love how these cute rings turned out :0)

The Koi fish worked well as a pendant too!

It's funny sometimes I don't realise that I've actually had a rather productive week until I look back on it and blog about it! :0) I also found time to finish an angel art box which I've had sitting on my desk for quite some time :0)

I used some of my Japanese paper to line the bottom of the box. This has also been added to my shop :0)

Last but not least I thought I'd show you a sneak peak at an oil painting I've been working on today. I've gone as far as I can with it I think today so just need to wait for it to dry before adding more detail. It's on a canvas board. I need to tweak the eyes for sure as she looks like she's staring pretty hard heheheh but I'm having fun experimenting again. I'll be popping over to visit you all as soon as I can. I've got two boys on school holidays at the moment so we've been going to movies and having lots of play dates so I haven't been on the computer as much lately so bear with me. Hope you are all having a great weekend :0)

Sunday Sketches - Koi Fish and a work of art made by my hubby! :0)

2011-07-10T15:25:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, Well I really didn't think that I would have anything to show this weekend as I've been working on a painting for my living room. Hubby has been nagging me for some art work since we had our house renovated last year. I finally made time to work on something and have had a really productive Sunday. I didn't get out of my pajamas til about 2 o'clock as I was too busy painting. Hee hee!!! Such a great feeling to get 'into the zone' which doesn't happen all the time so I thought I'd make the most of it.

So here is my Koi fish first up I have a work in progress shot. I used the tissue paper and texture paste then painted a few layers of colours in the background then drew on the Koi Fish with marker pen.

I laid down my basic colours for the fish and built it up from there. My inspiration for this piece comes from Japanese tattoo art. I just love it! :0)

I'm so pleased with this and really really enjoyed painting it. I've been asked to do a dragon for another wall (hubby has one tattooed on his arm) so watch this space I think I'll give it a go :0)

In the meantime Rick decided that he wanted to work on his own piece of art. I am amazed at the results! :0) For as long as we've known each other he's always maintained that he is not an artistic person but I've always seen him as being creative when it comes to food etc (as you will have seen from my previous posts about what he's been cooking up lately.) So yesterday he went off to the hardware store picked up some paint and 3 canvas' went outside in the freezing weather and created his first master piece :0)
I think he's done a fantastic job. I told him he did a 'Pollock' and I had to google him so that I could show him what I meant heheh then he said 'no Pollock did a me' ;0).

It goes really well with our decor in our house and gives it a really modern feel. I'm very proud of him and excited to see him trying something new and hope that my creativeness has rubbed off on him a bit. He's already talking about ideas for his next piece :0)

Paint Party Friday - Fire Dancer

2011-07-08T17:22:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys

This week I have been working on a painting for my lounge room (hopefully I'll be able to show that one next week). I managed to do this latest painting at the beginning of the week.

I used the same texture technique that I have been experimenting with but this time as I painted my layers this pretty temptress appeared ;0).

From the look in her eyes I can imagine her dancing around a bonfire catching the eye of some lucky young man :0).

I look forward to seeing what you've all been up to this week :0)

'Riding the wave' has been included in this lovely Treasury on Etsy

2011-07-05T08:08:00.000+10:00

Hi guys just a quickie as I wanted to share this treasury that I have been included in! :0) Hope you're having a great week. I'm still making my round all the lovely Sunday Sketches!!! So nice to see what you've all been up to!

Sunday Sketches on the beach

2011-07-03T22:42:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, I just got back from a wonderful weekend down the coast with the family. We took the boys to the zoo and saw some beautiful animals, Tigers, Lions, Red Panda's, snakes, giraffes but to name a few. My favourites though were the chimps such beautiful creatures who were just as curious about us as we were with them.

This zoo was very special because of it's breeding program for endangered species and is one of very few in the world who's managed to successfully breed a silvery Gibbon. I will be going back again with the boys as we loved it so much next time I'll make sure that we take lots more photos!! I had a little time on the beach this morning to do this picture in the sand so thought I would upload it for Sunday sketches. I'm off to bed now soooo exhausted but will be catching up on all your wonderful work in the morning!!! :0)

Sunday Sketches - My Garden Angel

2011-06-26T14:44:00.000+10:00

Yes my obsession with Angels continues. After my textured painting that I did for Paint Party Friday (Previous post) I decided to complete a set of 3 Angels in the same idea as my butterfly series as I wanted to create a new header and experiment further with the simple figurative style as well as texture. For this one I added a couple of new little elements and the figure came out a little more realistic. I really liked adding the flowers and vines. I've also been experimenting with using these images for a new line of glass pendants. So stay tuned! :0)

These are a couple of sketches that I started out with.....

I wanted to try a different colour combination to the last painting and create the feeling of the angel stepping out of a beautiful meadow.....

I'm really getting addicted to these texture paintings!!!

After taking the boys to the museum this morning then out for a chinese lunch, then a walk around town to the bookshop we're all having a Sunday afternoon blob! The boys are reading and we're having a quiet coffee!! Bliss :0)

Paint Party Friday! Loving experimenting with Texture!!

2011-06-24T10:57:00.001+10:00

Hi everyone, I was so inspired by everyone's work last week that I really wanted to try something new. I decided to work on a piece from my angel sketches. I posted those sketches for my Sunday Sketch work! I've been really wanting to experiment more with texture.

Natasha's piece from last week really inspired me as she posted a video with it. I haven't tried the rollers yet but I'm planning on doing that soon. I did use tissue paper and then layers of paint for the background. I really want to work on my backgrounds to make them more interesting and I really love how this one turned out. So thank you Natasha for sharing your methods it's really helped me push through my creative block that I was having!!!

I really enjoyed making this one the texture really worked with the image especially the wings.

This last painting was done on oil paint paper with acrylic paint!

I look forward to popping around and visiting you all over the weekend :0)

Sunday Sketches

2011-06-19T16:57:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, well I've had such a lazy weekend. We didn't really do anything except hubby cooked up a feast last night, atlantic salmon, topped with homemade chile jam on an asian omlette filled with oyster mushrooms, shitake mushrooms and asparagus. And a bunch of bok choy!!! Phew!!!! I feel spoiled! Tonight I'm cooking a Vietnamese soup with noodles pork and asian veggies and hubby is currently making an apple dessert!!! Yummo!

I just had to show you these photos that he took of his cooking I have to say that I think he's a creative artist in his own right!!! Love the action shot below :0)

This is an action shot of him making the chile jam!

Love the bright colours in the ingredients.

The finished chile jam

Pan frying the huge salmon steaks. The boys shared one between them.

He even bought these new funky plates to serve our dinners on!! The boys were very impressed.

In between all that eating I managed to sketch up a couple of ideas for my next angel painting as I'd like to experiment more with that idea. (Take a look at my previous post for my latest angel painting) So hopefully I'll have a finished painting to show for next Friday's paint party Friday!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

Paint Party Friday - My Angel

2011-06-18T13:09:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys, Yesterday I finished this Angel painting and was waiting for it to brighten up outside so I could take a photo. Finally It brightened up this afternoon. It's sooooooo sooo cold here at the moment roll on spring!!!

This is my June spread for the Travelling sketchbook project! This is in Kat's book!!! June is freezing in my part of the world!!!! :0)

I'm off to take my boys to a birthday party this afternoon so will be round to visit you all later on tonight :0).

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

Sunday Sketch/Illustration Friday - Swept!

2011-06-12T19:58:00.000+10:00

Hi Guys, Today I managed to do a piece for Illustration Friday. It's been a while since I participated in this but when I read this weeks word 'Swept' this image came to mind. It's a bit of a whimsical doodle but was nice to just sit and draw whatever popped into my head, very relaxing indeed. I used watercolour pencils and black pen for this. I'm also entering this into this weeks Sunday sketches. Hope you are all having a great weekend! :0)

Paint Party Friday and our lovely weekend away!!!

2011-06-10T18:24:00.000+10:00

Hi Everyone,

(I took this photo outside)

This week I have been working on this painting. I really pushed through with this one.

(This photo was taken inside with the flash, quite a difference with the colours I thought)

At the beginning I felt like it was going through a real ugly stage and painted over things a few times and came up with all sorts of different ideas of what to put with the tree.

In the end I decided on this pretty girl and I'm really glad I did as I feel like she works really well with the blossom tree.

I used texture paste, tissue paper and some crackle medium in this to create the texture. (Although you can't really see the crackle, I learned through this painting that I need to do a thicker coat for it to work better, so I shall try this effect again.)

I've been a bit absent from Blogland this last couple of weeks. Last weekend Hubby and I went away for the weekend on our first weekend without kids in 8 years!!! It was a work conference which was held at a beautiful resort so after attending a couple of sessions we were left to our own devices and enjoyed a lovely party with great food the last night we were there!!! It was a great weekend so I thought I'd share some photos :0)

The view from our private balcony :0)

We enjoyed some quiet beers on the balcony

One afternoon we went on a lovely walk and found these beautiful beetles on this rose!

All dressed up for the party :0)

Hope you guys are having a great week!! :0)

Sunday Sketches My tribute to my Great Grandmother :0)

2011-05-29T15:23:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, well after feeling very uninspired I have finally got my mojo back and decided to give myself some new challenges. This week I wanted to work on a painting of my Great Grandmother. Agnes Margaret (she preferred to be called Margaret) was born August 27 1899! She was a very beautiful young girl with stunning bright blue eyes and blondy brown wavy hair. Margaret was a volunteer nurse in World War I. She lived most of her life in a beautiful big house on the coast in South Wales and loved to swim in the ocean and walk her dogs every day. :0) I remember talking to my gran about when she was a kid and the things she liked to do.
The painting I have done this weekend is from a photograph. I loved the sepia colour but wanted to keep the contrast of those beautiful blue eyes :0) I would like to do another one of her in her nurses uniform.

This is my Great Gran on her Wedding day.

This is the photograph that I chose to paint.

It's not a perfect likeness I know but I do like the tones I have used and the way the face blends with the back ground. I am thinking of using this in a mixed media piece and doing more with her but I'll have a think about that! :0)

Paint Party Friday!!! Finally I have something to post!

2011-05-27T14:32:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, I don't know what's wrong with me at the moment but I've not been feeling very creative and I've been neglecting my blog. I think sometimes in life I very focused and concentrate well on my art and jewellery or whatever I may be working on, and still seem to be able to do what I need to do in my normal day to day life. Things like the house work (boring), paperwork for our business (soul sucking) and all that fun stuff. But the last few weeks I just felt like I was drowning in everything. Really off balance and out of whack. I can't explain why but we have had alot on. Birthday parties, trips to the coast, etc etc. Phew!!! So I have been finding it increasingly harder and harder to sit down and blog and blog surf and even draw.

So yesterday I thought enough was enough and I decided to stop stressing about what I'm not doing and to play around with my paints and rediscover why I started this big creative part of my life again and why I love it!!! Thank goodness I did!! I decided to get back into my painting again as that is my first love. To work on my technique and to kick start a new creative direction. So I decided to try my hand at oils again and I really wanted to paint a portrait and work on my folk art girl style.

One girl in particular that has stuck out to me is Rose Byrne she is an Aussie actress and I recently saw her in a very scary movie 'Insidious' that one really scared me but I enjoyed it!! :0) I've always thought her very beautiful she has that fragile beauty, and reminds me of my 'big eyed' girls. I drew this free hand and then painted it in oils.

I know she's not perfect but I'm quite pleased with her. I've got a good idea for my next personal project which I'll hopefully get a start on this weekend.
The other thing that I was able to finish this week was my double page spread for Eva's book for the project of 'The sistahood of the travelling sketch book' that I am involved in this year. (you can click on the button on the top right of my page if you wish to find out more).

My spread is all about May, and here it is cold windy and full of beautiful Autumn colours!
I will be trying my best to visit you all over the weekend and catch up with your beautiful blogs :0)

Sunday Sketches - My trip to the coast!

2011-05-15T16:37:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone this weekend I went to the coast to visit family we just got back this afternoon. I had a lovely relaxing time. I didn't take my sketch book with me but found myself with time on my hands yesterday afternoon to do a bit of sketching. So did these two on some computer paper :0) The weather was so cold yesterday I found myself staring out of the window at the gum trees watching the leaves fly up everywhere so I was inspired to do this sketch :0)

This other sketch was inspired but a sculpture/ornament that my mother in law has. Very cute meer cats, it's so realistic I felt these cute little eyes on me whilst I was watching tele. I wanted to draw another 'big eyed animal' and they seemed perfect. So full of character!

Hope you're all having a great weekend. I'm hoping to do some painting this week and be a bit more productive. I'll try and get round to visit you all later!!! :0)

Sunday Sketches - My first double page spread in another 'Sistahs' book :0)

2011-05-08T18:05:00.000+10:00

Hi guys, first of all Happy Mothers day to all you yummy mummies out there!!!
I have been very spoiled today as hubby has been preparing a special lunch since yesterday :0)

He made homemade spinach and ricotta gnocchi with a slow cooked pork spare rib tomato sauce topped with pancetta parsley and parmesan cheese, mixed salad with olives and fennel etc and garlic bread. I'm very lucky that hubby used to be a chef in his past life, for 15 years to be exact and every now and again I'm thankfully reminded. We had both our mums here for the day as well as the dads and had a lovely lunch out on our deck as it was a beautiful Autumn day :0)

I wanted to share this sketch that I did yesterday. It is part of the 'Sistahood of the travelling sketchbook' which I have mentioned before :0). Last week I received Eva's book and this entry is about "May". In our part of the world it is now Autumn so May for me is filled with those beautiful Autumn colours. It's my most favourite time of year and I never tire of seeing the leaves change into those beautiful striking reds and oranges.

I really like this design and can't wait to paint it!

Hope you're having a great weekend!!!!!

Paint Party Friday 'Friends'

2011-05-06T16:37:00.001+10:00

Hi guys still on the owl theme I sketched this cute couple up this week and finished painting it today. I used some pastel acrylic paints which I really like, I might try painting on a black background next and see how they come out.
If you wanted to see how my owl turned out from last week just check my previous post. I'm enjoying dabbling in animals at the moment so who knows what I'll paint next. :0)

I shall try and visit everyone this weekend but with mothers day and all we have a few family get togethers. Hope you're all having a great weekend :0)

Back to reality!!!

2011-05-03T19:33:00.000+10:00

Hey guys, I feel like it's been forever since I blogged. It's only been about a week but I missed out on Paint Party Friday and Sunday sketches this last weekend. I've felt really out of sorts this last week or so and I think now that it was because I was stressing about this latest market I had. I've been working so hard on my jewellery and building up my stock with lots of variety and basically living and breathing it whilst also trying to keep two kids on school holidays occupied and happy. Then on Sunday hubby and I went off to do our latest market. It's a week before Mothers Day and we were told that this is the biggest market of the year and so had high expectations. It was very packed and busy and I did have lots and lots of people looking at my work asking questions and taking business cards and making lovely compliments. But it was my slowest market too. I'm not sure why but we just didn't do as well as I'd hoped. Perhaps I'd built it up too much and put too much pressure on myself? After talking to other market people I was told that it is just a very sporadic business and not to be disheartened. You can never pick when your big day is going to be.

So after feeling a little down about it I've decided to not let it stop me. I will have a break from the markets for a little while (it's cooling down over here now anyway so it's not something I'm keen to do through winter) and I want to get back to creating and painting and drawing as I've let that slip lately as I've been too busy.

I guess this is a constant learning curve.......
Anyway this is my stall on the weekend I feel like it was our best set up yet I really liked my signs and paintings and just the way it all came together so that's good!

One thing that cheered me up this week was Eva's sketchbook arriving!!! I'm taking part in 'Sistahood of the travelling sketchbook' this year and I sent mine off last week and received Eva's in the post! I shall write up a proper blog post about this when I've made my entry :0)

Lastly I thought I'd share my owl painting with you. I showed my sketch in my previous post for Sunday sketches and finally got to finish it today!!! It's something quite out of my normal work so was fun for me to do and got my creative juices flowing again! :0)

What do you think? A friend suggested I try painting an Owl and I thought it might be a nice change from a person, I might try my hand at more animals! :0)

Sunday Sketches - An Owl!

2011-04-25T19:39:00.000+10:00

Hi guys I hope you all had a great Easter weekend! We had beautiful weather and a lovely family get together. I feel like I've done nothing but eat and eat but I guess that's what family gatherings are all about ;0)

This week I've been finishing up my commission. I've had to paint two candles along with the Jesus painting that I did. I'm in the process of finishing those up so will share with you as soon as they are ready. I've also been working on my sign in page for the Travelling sketchbook that I'm involved in. That is finally ready to go and I'll be posting it on asap. We've had lots of public holidays this last week so the post office isn't open :0(

I've also been making lots of new pieces for my market that is happening next week. It's hopefully going to be a big one as it's a week before mothers day. Fingers crossed we do well :0)

I've also been trying some new things (as you would have read if you saw my last post). My cousin asked me the other day if I would paint an owl and I was keen to step outside the box and so sketched up this drawing on a canvas sheet. I'm loving those by the way :0)

This is what popped into my head! I'll be painting it this week and will show you how it turns out. I found the sketch came quite easily I hope I don't spoil it when I paint it :0)

This is a new piece that I made this week, I really do love this red sparkly clay that I bought recently. It's so pretty especially after a coat of gloss varnish!

This light blue is so bright and cheerful! I'm just so addicted to making these pretties :0)
I am trying to get around to visit you all it's just been such a busy week but I promise I'll get there :0)

Paint Party Friday :0)

2011-04-22T12:14:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone this week I've been trying to work on a couple of paintings just for fun. I wanted to do something different to the commissions that I've been working on and so came up with these two little ladies.

I bought a book with canvas pages in it. I haven't used one before and it's really handy as I like painting on canvas but don't have the room for hundreds of stretched canvas. Does anyone know if you can frame a canvas page or does it have to be stretched?

I painted this girl after being inspired by my cousins little girl. She received a costume like this for her 3rd birthday and I thought it was so cute that I was inspired to paint her :0)

This next painting was a little challenge I set myself. I tend to always go for lots of different bright colours in my paintings especially warm colours like reds and oranges. So this piece I decided to stick to some cooler colours and limit the amount of different colours. I quite like her :0) I also used some pencil and permanent black marker for some details :0)

Hope you're all having a good 'Good Friday' :0) and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has been doing this week. If you would like to see the other artists involved in Paint Part Friday just click on the link on the right hand side :0)

Finished commission and some new pieces :0)

2011-04-17T10:24:00.000+10:00

Hi guys thank you so much for your encouraging comments on my last post. I decided to tweak the painting just a little but didn't do too much more to it, I'm happy that it's finished now and plan to start on the next step of the commission, painting on the candles today! :0)

I've also been experimenting with some new ideas and designs in my clay jewellery and keyrings so thought I'd share my new creations with you too.

Love this matching set! The white clay also has sparkles through it so makes for a very pretty piece! :0)

I think this might be my new favourite piece. The clay and the vintage style findings work so well together :0)

And lastly these are my newest key rings!! :0) I'll be adding these cuties to my shop in the near future.
Hope you're all having a great weekend!!!!

Paint Party Friday - Commission

2011-04-16T08:02:00.000+10:00

Hi guys this week I wanted to share with you a commission that I have been working on. I'm not sure it's finished yet but I'm at that point that I am reluctant to do anymore to it if you know what I mean.

I was asked by my client if I could do a painting for his nephews Baptism but in my particular style. He has also asked me to paint two candles but I haven't started those I'll share those with you later.

The figure is Jesus holding a baby although I think each person could find something different in it.

What do you think any tips or suggestions?

I've never painted this sort of subject matter before so I'm quite outside my comfort zone but enjoying the challenge :0)

Sunday sketch and my first spread in the 'Sistahood of the travelling sketchbook'

2011-04-11T08:36:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone here is my very first spread in my Sistahood of the travelling sketchbook. The opening spread on our books are to be about us perhaps using our favourite colours, subject matter, materials etc. Then we'll post this off to the next person and then next month we start doing the calendar months and what they mean to us.

I chose a colour combination that I seem to be drawn to alot. Warm orangey colours and blue. I just love how they look together and often seem to use them in my work. I chose to draw a whimsical style picture with butterflies and flowers as they seem to pop up in my work alot also :0) I hope I'm on the right track with this :0)

My butterfly commission finally finished! :0) Paint Party Friday :0)

2011-04-09T11:09:00.001+10:00

Here is my butterfly commission all finished. I think they look so pretty all lined up together. I'm really happy with how it turned out as it's my first commissioned piece where I have used oils. The green butterfly (colour requested from client) was a bit of a challenge as I wanted to make sure the butterfly stood out, so I added more blossoms in the background. I reached a point where I wasn't sure if it was finished or not but didn't really think I should add anymore. I think I had just stared at it for far too long. Do you ever feel like that?

Phew!

2011-04-05T18:35:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone, I feel so terrible that I have neglected my blog over the last couple of weeks. I haven't had much time for anything arty since my brother and his beautiful partner arrived to holiday with us! I did however get to sit down today and work on my butterfly commission and create a few pieces of jewellery. I also was contacted about another commission. Which is very exciting and challenging as it's under a bit of a quick time frame and is a subject matter that I've never painted before. But I said 'yep sure I can do that not a problem' hehehe and now I'm going to start sketching ideas. It's a bit nerve wracking but that's part of challenging yourself isn't it?

I shall tell you all about this one when it's finished. In the meantime I'm nearly finished with my final butterfly which I can't wait to share with you. Just waiting for it to dry (its in oil) before I add the finishing touches.

We had a wonderful time at the coast. The weather is cooling now as we're well into Autumn over here but we were lucky with the weather down there and were able to play on the beach all day swimming playing cricket and having such a lovely time. I thought I'd share some photos :0)

This is 'Thomas' a bug called a Christmas beetle that Riley found on the beach. He kept him for AGES until we pursueded him to find him a nice new home in the bushes. They really are an amazing colour!

These beautiful plants were outside out cabins I think they are called 'Birds of Paradise'.

I really love the gum trees over here they are beautiful!

These are the pieces I made today.

Two earring pendant sets made from Japanese paper.......LOVE these designs!

This cute little pair of earrings was made with black gunmetal trays and pretty Japanese paper!

Some new pieces!

2011-03-24T14:44:00.000+11:00

This week is a very exciting week for me as we have some relatives arriving from Wales. I'm so excited to be catching up with them and to do lots of much needed socialising :0). We are going away for a trip to the coast at some point so I plan to take a sketch book and my Sistahood sketch book with me and see if I can get some inspiration at the beach :0) fingers crossed, in the mean time I made a start on my last butterfly and have had some new deliveries of supplies so I tried out a few new pieces.

First of all I received these cute earring trays with dome glass inserts. I had the perfect silver pendant tray so made this matching set with Japanese paper.

Then the same day I received my order with this chain and findings. I ordered 16ft of this chain so I will be able to make many little beauties, this is my first every bracelet. It is made from polymer clay which was been varnished.

Then I used the brass vintage style findings to make the bracelet. I love how the warm colours of the clay go with the vintage style findings. I attached a cute little bronze dragonfly charm with come lovely little red beads at the clasp.

This is my current favourite pendant. Just love these colours and it sits on my new chain.

Next up I made a cute matching set with my new vintage style setting. And a pair of vintage copper earring trays.

Then yesterday my new antique brass lobster swivel clasps arrived and I made some key rings out of some clay.

The heart and flower designs are hand drawn on.

I also received these cute little chair charms!

I think this is my favourite key ring.

So much to do so little time ;0) I've got lots more ideas for new pretties but wanted to share what I have been working on this week with you.

My sketch book cover for 'The Sisterhood of the travelling sketchbook' Sunday Sketches

2011-03-22T08:40:00.000+11:00

Finally had time to work on the cover of my sketch book for 'The sisterhood of the travelling sketchbook' that I'm taking part in this year. Read all about it at this post on Jaime's blog from Artsy Fartsy me :0).

I'm now thinking about my entry into this book before passing it on to the next person :0)

Paint Party Friday

2011-03-19T07:55:00.001+11:00

Hi Guys this is my first piece for Paint Party Fridays. It's a new weekly challenge site hosted by Kristin and Eva. Each week people will be posting a painting and sharing it with everyone else!

If you would like to find out more about this fun activity you can click on the 'Paint Party Friday' button on my side bar, and check out everyone elses beautiful work.

This week I'm showing my fun painting 'Day Dream Fairy' which I painted in mostly oils and some acrylics. I really enjoyed painting this one inbetween my butterfly commission that I have been working on. Check out my previous post if you haven't seen butterfly number two!

Hope you're all having a great weekend, I'm off to check out everyone elses beautiful work :0)

(Update: I just wanted to share how my little fairy dreamer turned out as a pendant too! :0)

She has just been added to my shop!

Butterfly number 2 purple! :0)

2011-03-17T11:33:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a good week so far, I thought I'd share with you my second butterfly in oils in the series of 3 that I am working on for a customer :0).

I'm really loving the vibrant colours of the oils and with each piece I'm feeling more and more confident with using them. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

The next butterfly I've been requested to do is green, I've been thinking about this one alot as green wouldn't have been my pick. I think on a blue background green will have trouble standing out like the rest but I do have a few ideas bouncing round my head about perhaps using a sunset and having the green one in the middle and just changing the background colour slightly in the other two (thanks to hubby for that cool suggestion). The other idea I have is to sit the butterfly on flowers showing no sky background so watch this space as I have no idea how it's going to turn out yet.

Any way here are some progress shots of the purple one :0)

I started by painting the background in arylic paint and letting it dry. I love the texture that this creates.

Then it was just a matter of layering the paint, letting things dry in between etc.

I'm really happy with the end result and can't wait to see all 3 together :0)

This last painting is just something fun that I was working on in between drying times. I'm going to have another go at this one before starting the final butterfly, I find it helps to take a break when you are doing a bigger project just to keep things interesting :0)

Sunday sketch and my first butterfly finished!

2011-03-14T09:20:00.000+11:00

Hi guys! Hope you all had a great weekend.

We are all back to our healthy old selves now after a very sick last week. I'm even feeling up to a run this afternoon so it'll be good to blow off those cobwebs.

First up is my Sunday sketch. I just doodled this in front of the tele, I don't particularly like it but it was good to just sketch something quite random heheheh I need to do more of this as it's a good way to think of ideas for future projects.

I'm also taking part in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketch Books which is something special that is being organised by Jamie from Artsy Fartsy Me check out her lovely fun blog to read more about it. Basically a group of us 'creative sistahs' have joined together and we will each be buying a sketch/art book we'll each do a page and pass it on to the next one each month. The idea is that at the end of 12 months we should get our book back packed full of wonderful creative pieces from each artist! I'm very excited about this project as I've never taken part in anything like this before and I've already met some lovely new blog friends through it. I shall post my piece each month to show you guys! :0)

Phew! Lastly here is my finished butterfly in oils. I'm really happy with it, and will be starting the 2nd piece in the set of 3!!! I LOVE oils and can't believe I was nervous about using them for so long! :0) I have a question for all you oil users out there. Do you varnish a painting when it's dry? I have gloss varnish for my acrylic paintings but wasn't sure if there was something I should use for oils?

Bye for now :0)

When you least expect it! :0)

2011-03-12T13:50:00.000+11:00

Hi guys,

This last week has been a bit of a nightmare one. After the exhausting weekend with the market we got home to a very sick little man. Since then a horrible stomach bug swept through our family resulting in a trip to the hospital with my oldest little man as he was suffering awful stomach pains. Thankfully after catching it myself as well we're all back on the mend now and both boys are back to their usual noisy mischevious ways! :0) Phew!

So yesterday I finally started work on my newest oil painting.

I started by painting the back ground with acylic paints and just played around with lots of different colours. I didn't like the colour of the background but got some great texture when it dried. Then I painted this butterfly.

Then I decided that a blue back ground would work much better with the colour of the butterfly.

This is where I left it yesterday I needed to let it dry a bit so that I could work on the background a bit more.

I decided to post it up on my facebook fan page as a work in progress and someone has already snapped it up. I also told them that I was planning on doing a set of three butterflies in different colours and she wants them all and has requested the other two colours, it is very exciting for me and I'm looking forward to starting the other two today!! This lady is a collector of my work and has one of my most favourite paintings that I did a couple of years ago, my Geisha!

It's so nice to know that someone really loves what you do :0)

My first serious market! :0)

2011-03-06T18:53:00.000+11:00

Hi guys,

I'm sooooooo tired today. We were up very very early for our first 'real' market. This one is very popular in our home town and it's got a real country feel.

I think I learnt a lot from this market. I sold a painting and lots of bookmarks! They were my most popular item. As well as some hair clips made with the Japanese paper and some pendants (clay, Japanese paper and some of my own prints). I was hoping to sell more and felt a little down but after speaking to some of the other stall holders was told that it was a bit quieter than usual and that I shouldn't be disheartened as this wasn't a good example of what this market is usually like. So we are going to go back for the mother's day market in May (these ones only run once a month) which they said is very very busy. I'm happy with how it went today and enjoyed the experience. I've got some new ideas on what to make next from lots of positive feed back. And look forward to building more stock up for the next one with lots of variety :0)

My very talented cousin Clarey, lent us these 'walls' that her very handy hubby made for her. (she is a handbag designer and has done her fair share of markets.) They came in so handy and were great for displaying my paintings. I felt much more professional with my paintings hanging in the background and they showed up really nicely and would catch peoples eye.

I'm really happy with how they looked on the boards, my bookmarks were so popular I shall make sure that I have lots ready for my next market.

Hubby has been sooooooo supportive of my passion and is very passionate about my work too which makes things so much easier :0)

Thanks hubby :0).

I've got lots of ideas for my next market and how to make it bigger and better :0)

Bookmarks!

2011-03-02T16:19:00.000+11:00

This week I'm busy making some new last minute pieces for my market on Sunday and getting organised. I shall be taking a camera with me on the day so I can share some photos of the market with you all! I'm getting excited!

I made these bookmarks this week out of some prints of my paintings. I laminated then beaded them!

Illustration Friday Swarm

2011-02-27T09:58:00.002+11:00

Phew! Two posts in 24 hours! Feels good to be super creative again.

Here is my entry for Illustration Friday's 'Swarm'.

For some reason this is the image that came into my head, I wouldn't mind being surrounded by a swarm of butterflies! :0)

Hope you're all having a great weekend! :0)

I'd just like to add that I'm having a giveaway on my facebook page, so just click on the facebook link on the side of my blog to enter! :0)

My first oil painting finished Sunday sketch

2011-02-26T16:31:00.000+11:00

Hi guys thought I'd post pics of my finished piece. Because it has been a work in progress from a sketch that I submitted to Sunday Sketches last week I thought I'd submit the finished piece to Sunday Sketches this week :0) As you can tell from my the photos in my last post, I did another layer of colours over my entire painting. After I let the painting dry enough I was able to paint more on top and I love how the oils pop! I think this piece turned out better than I expected and I really enjoyed doing it! Using oils made me slow down alot and think more about what I wanted to do as I couldn't be in a hurry with the drying time.

It's funny I realised this week that I really like the smell of the oil paints and that it brought back a few memories for me. My Bampi (granddad) used to paint in his spare time he was actually very talented but it was something that he used to do now and again when he retired. I think he could have done alot with his talent in another place and time. But I think back when he was growing up being artistic and creative wasn't as encouraged as it is today. Painting with oils reminde me of him :0)

I'm looking forward to doing more of these, I guess my only real problem with oils is the drying time, it's not very convenient to leave paintings out on your desk to dry for days on end. What do you guys who use oils do with your paintings when you're finished? And how long do they tend to take to dry? My other thought was do I need to varnish it? I find with acrylic paint that varnishing helps make the colours pop alot more but I wasn't sure if I needed to do that with oils. Can you tell that I'm fumbling my way through this one? ;0) Hope you're all having a great weekend :0)

Some work in progress!

2011-02-24T20:26:00.000+11:00

I had a very productive day today and finally after about 18months of procrastination, opened my oil paints. I've been wanting to try them for a while but really didn't know where to start. But I have been inspired by my gorgeous blog friend Kelly Berkey's work as she recently started using oils so I thought I would give my second canvas a go. We both seem to be experimenting with flowers at the moment :0) This is from the sketch I did for Sunday Sketches a few days ago.

I painted my canvas with black acrylic paint and sketched the outline of the painting on top

I didn't really have a plan or know how different the oils would feel to the acrylics.

This is as far as I got with the painting today. I felt I had to stop and wait for the paint to dry a bit. I'm not sure what else I'm going to do with this but I know it needs something more. I want to outline the leaves a bit and include more detail. I really love acrylics and find them so user friendly but I have to say the oils are so bright and vibrant. The only thing that bothers me is the drying time, but it might not be such a bad thing as I think I tend to rush my paintings and it might do me good to work on this over a longer period of time.

I'd love to know what everyone else's thoughts on oils are and if you might have any tips for me. I shall post up more pics as I work on it :0)

Lastly I managed to bake these pendants up while I was painting today, I have since varnished them which makes the colour really pop. I drew a couple of designs on some of them too :0)

Hope you're all having a great week :0)

New flower painting!

2011-02-22T22:22:00.000+11:00

I managed to work on this one and finish it today! Well I think it's finished. I'm so picky with my work lately I want everything I do to be a 'masterpiece' and stress about it when it doesn't turn out the way I had it in my head. I know I should just stress less and just learn from each piece but it's hard not to spot things don't like in my work. Having said that I'm pleasantly surprised at how this one turned out. I've not painted many flowers on canvas and I'm glad I perservered with this one. I initially wanted a black background like my rose painting but I thought it looked a bit boring so I went over the black with a light layer of light blue and I quite like the texture it gave it.

I'm going to sign and varnish it! :0)

Now for the next one .......

Sunday sketches

2011-02-21T08:02:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone hope you all had a great weekend. I've been so busy doing a massive stock take of all my pendants for my upcoming market. I've been pricing them and practicing my set up. My lovely hubby made me some boards to hang them on which has really made a difference to how it all looks.

This weeks Sunday sketch is just a quickie from my sketch book, i've been wanting to do another flower painting but I've been really struggling, I've painted over one canvas 3 times now as I'm not happy with how it turned out. So I sat down and sketched up some different flower ideas. I'm hoping to work on the paintings in the next few days.

I should have at least 100 pieces by the time I finish my stock take and I plan on making as many as I can before the big day as I bought some really cool clay the the other day.

Here are some shots of my set up with my clay pieces! :0)

I'm off to check out all the other Sunday Sketches :0)

And the winners are.........

2011-02-18T16:59:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone well the One World One Heart event is over and I have managed to randomly pick the 3 winners. 132 lovely people entered.

The first one out of the hat was Doreen who just so happens to be from the same city as me! Congratulations Doreen you are the winner of the Japanese paper glass pendant

The winner of the next prize is Saskia. Congratulations Saskia you are the winner of my two glass bobby pins!

And last but not least the third winner is Regina. Congratulations Regina you have won my laminated print fridge magnet 'I curse my sweet tooth'.

Thank you everyone who entered. I enjoyed this give away sooooo much that I am already planning another so stay tuned :0)

I'm off to notify the winners :0)

Illustration Friday 'Sweater' and Sunday Sketch

2011-02-12T19:08:00.000+11:00

'May-belle, just LOVED to knit, she didn't really know why she loved it so much because she wasn't particularly good at it, but she enjoyed the challenge of wearing those baggy sweaters!!!' :0)

'May-belle' is a character that I sketched up a few weeks ago for Sunday sketches and I decided to give her a bit more of a personality, perhaps I should take her different places each Illustration Friday and see where it takes me. I like working on this character as it is completely different to the other things I've been working on lately so it's a nice change!

Busy week!

2011-02-11T10:42:00.000+11:00

Hi guys!

I realised today that it's been over a week since my last post which is unusual for me. I have to say though that with the OWOH blog hop going on and preparing my next big market in less than a month, as well as both the boys going back to school it's been a bit of a crazy week. Once I get into a routine (my youngest has finally started preschool) I shall be able to post more frequently again and I also plan to paint and draw alot more.

I wanted to show you guys some of the pieces that I have been working on in preparation for this new market I'm trying out. It's a real big country market and very popular in our city so I'm hoping that I'll do well there so that I can keep making these fun pieces.

These are also listed in my shop too :0)

My current favourite, Japanese paper in a vintage setting!

Hand drawn design on fimo clay.

Love these settings, marbel swirls in fimo clay.

I called this piece 'Jupiter' as it really reminded me of the planet! Love the antique bronze!

This is Japanese paper inside a black gunmetal pendant tray!

So as you can see I have been very busy. I'm currently working on another flower painting. I started painting it yesterday but I just wasn't happy with it at all so I ended up painting over it in black and starting again. Does that ever happen to you?

Hope you're all having a great week!!! :0)

Illustration Friday Surrender

2011-02-02T14:04:00.000+11:00

Hi guys this week has been rather busy as I'm one of many people taking part in OWOH which is a massive blog event. Be sure to scroll down to that post as I'm having a giveaway and anyone with an active blog worldwide is able to enter.

So I have had this piece sitting on my desk for a couple of days and thought I'd better show you before I missed this weeks prompt. 'Surrender' for me this week was all about letting my paint brush decide what I wanted to paint and push myself a little and step outside the box. I tend to do alot of figurative paintings and pretty ladies etc and this time I wanted to do something that I wasn't so confident with which is flowers. I took a photo of a beautiful rose in my back yard and used that for reference. And the funny thing is the painting turned out completely different!! I'm now thinking of painting a series of flower paintings!

One World One Heart giveaway!!!!

2011-01-31T15:56:00.000+11:00

Hooray it's finally here, the One World One Heart Giveaway!!! This is a wonderful world wide blog event
which is hosted by a lovely lady called Lisa Swifka from 'A Whimsical Bomehian. It is the event's 5th and final year so if you wish to take part click here to read more about Lisa and this wonderful event. I took part in it last year and have made some wonderful blog friends through it. It is basically a giant blog hop where people share their blogs and introduce themselves and you can find out about other creative wonderful people. It is also a giveaway as there are 'door prizes' in each blog!!!

I have 3 prizes to give away. My first prize is this cute little Japanese paper glass pendant that I made. I am very addicted to making pendants!!!

Second prize is two little hair clips that I made, one is from a print of a painting of a Japanese lady that i did and the other is made from Japanese paper.

The third prize is a laminated print of a painting of mine 'I curse my sweet tooth' which I have attached a magnet to the back so you can use it as a fridge magnet.

All you need to do is have an active blog and leave a comment on this post. I shall put all names in a hat and draw out 3 winners. This event closes 17th Feb so be sure to leave a comment and a way for me to get back to you if you win.

I shall tell you a little about myself :0) I have been blogging for nearly two years and I still get amazed that there are so many wonderful creative people out there who share so much of themselves. I have found blogging and reading other peoples blogs even better than an art class as people share techniques and ideas. I am interested in illustrating childrens books but since I have been blogging I've become interested in mixed media and jewellery (pendant) making. There are not enough hours in the day!!! I am married with two little boys who also love to draw so it runs in the family. I really enjoy visiting other peoples blogs and reading about their lives and creative interests it really makes the world feel not so big :0)

I look forward to visiting all the OWOH participants and making many more new blogs friends :0)

Sunday Sketches!!!

2011-01-30T19:35:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone!!

This is just a doodle I did in my sketch book this week I really wanted to push myself a bit and draw something different from the pretty ladies i mostly do, or the figurative work. So I thought I'd try a little character and use pencil and ink.

I shall be posting my One world one heart blog post tomorrow. I have some goodies to give away but haven't had a chance to take some decent pictures yet so be sure to visit again tomorrow! :0)

Sunday Sketches and Illustration Friday Dust and an interesting family discovery!

2011-01-23T11:55:00.000+11:00

Hi Guys, Here is my piece for Illustration Friday and Sunday sketches

When I painted it I changed the words slightly I nearly didn't include them in the picture but in the end I decided that it was nice to have a bit of a story. :0)

"She gave one last glance over her shoulder and said "eat my dust"......and they never saw her again..."

This was painted in acrylic paint and I used pencil and ink on top!

The interesting family discovery is quite exciting. As most of you will know who follower my blog, I'm from Britain originally, Wales to be exact but emmigrated to Australia nearly 18 years ago. I remember when I was a child that there was always this 'story' that I heard through my mothers side of the family that we were some how related to Beatrix Potter!! I always found it interesting but didn't really believe that it was possible, I guess I thought it was too exciting to be true. Anyway fast forward about 20 years and a family member of mine recently started researching our family tree on our mothers side (our mothers are sisters) and she had heard the same story as me about Beatrix Potter. She actually found out that we are in fact related to her!!!! Eeek!!! It turns out that we share a Great great great....(hehehe not sure how many greats) Grandfather!!! So we I think are distant cousins! I know it sounds like I'm a crazy person but I guess if we all traced our family trees back far enough we would come across some connection to somebody famous, six degrees of separation and all that. We had heard this story through my Great Grandmother and so my mother called her mother the other day and mentioned it to her and she said 'oh yes I remember my mum telling me that when she was a child Beatrix would write her letters and draw her little pictures'....wow! of course my mothers response was 'where are these letters now?' hehehe and she said she wouldn't have a clue! I'm hoping that my gran has hidden them away somewhere special and she is keeping it to herself but who knows........ it's all very exciting and nice to know that art runs in our family as alot of us are artistically inclined.
Last night my mother and I watched the movie 'Miss Potter' which starred Renee Zellwegger and Ewen McGregor and we really enjoyed it and found it very interesting. I never realised just how hard she had it trying to follow her dream and being told that she would never be able to do it as she was a woman.....and that was by her own mother, such a different world back then.

Anyway I thought I would share that with you guys and it made me wonder have any of you ever discovered some interesting family connections?

My Goddess and some projects with the kids!

2011-01-20T07:55:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone thank you for your caring comments on my last post! It really did mean alot!

One of my New Years resolutions is to do more drawing and painting as my pendant making has become my number one obsession but I also want to work more on my drawing. I started this blog, nearly two years ago and my focus was on illustration but along they way I seem to have become side tracked. Which has been exciting but I do miss my drawing time and I don't want to become rusty. So first up this is a picture which I sketched onto water colour paper then coloured in using water coloured pencils, then i used some fine liners to out line things which really made it pop! I'm calling her a 'Goddess' as I think that's appropriate. Anyway I enjoyed that 'doodle' and I'm planning on doing more drawings like this on regular basis! :0) The idea in my head for this piece was a girl floating happily in the water. I went swimming yesterday and I think that's where this came from :0)

This week I've been doing a bit of drawing and pendant making whilst looking after my two little ones. It's still summer holidays here so the other day I sat down with them and their fimo that they got for Christmas and we made some pendants together. They really enjoyed mixing all the colours together!

They made some fantastic pieces, the ones at the bottom are mine and the rest are theirs.

Whilst looking through my camera I found that my youngest had secretly taken some photos himself, very naughty but I couldn't help laughing at this self portrait. hee hee.

Lastly this is another of my beaded bookmarks that I added to my shop! This is print of my piece 'I curse my sweet tooth!

Hope you're all having a great week.

Sunday Sketch and a very sad week......

2011-01-16T18:52:00.000+11:00

Hi guys, well I guess wherever you are in the world you've probably heard about the floods in Queensland Australia. Actually it's now happening in 3 States that I know of, Queensland, NSW and South Australia, but basically up the Eastern side of Australia we've all had sooooo much rain.

Luckily for my family and I we aren't suffering from the floods but I feel so sad for the families who have been affected some of which have lost family members, it's so devastating. We are starting to hear stories about people that were hit by flash floods and they are so sad. The other morning I heard about a 13 year old boy who told rescuers to take his little 10 year old brother first. Unfortunetly when they tried to get the other boy he was swept away as it was too late for him. What a brave little man. Soooo so sad that story has stuck with me since. There are so many sad stories just like that I think that one affected me so much in particular because I have two boys of my own and the thought of that happening to them is too much to bear.

We will be donating to one of many charities over here that are helping the people affected by these terrible floods some of which are now homeless.

So this is the reason for my sad piece this week. I didn't intend to sit down and draw this paticular piece but it was just busting to come out. I haven't even thought of a name for it yet, any ideas?

Sorry for the sad post but it has been a very awful week for Australia and it's hard not to think about it. I'm very thankful that we have our loved ones safe and sound.

On a lighter note I've been very busy with more fimo pendants so thought I would include some in this post to brighten it up a bit. Hope you're all well and safe.

I'm loving these vintage settings and I'm so addicted to fimo!

I called this one 'Union'

'Zebra Print'

'Tiger Tear'

All these are now available in my etsy shop.

This last photo I took yesterday morning, after what felt like forever we woke up to a beautiful morning yesterday. I love these roses! :0)

Busy weekend!

2011-01-09T15:21:00.001+11:00

Hi guys, this weekend has been pretty busy. It must be that time of year but most people I know have been having big clean outs whether it be the garden, garage, or house. It's good to get things back in order after Christmas I think.

Yesterday hubby and I worked outside, he completely gutted the garage and reorganised things, took loads to the tip and sprayed the place for spiders. I threw away all the old broken outside toys and tidied up the kids play area. Sometimes I forget that I live in a country where you have to be a bit careful with the insects and such. Yesterday as I was throwing out an old broken toy I almost picked up a red back spider, the BIGGEST one I've ever seen!!!!

(nasty looking thing isn't it? But I guess quite beautiful in a dangerous way!)

They are very dangerous if they bite a child and can make an adult very sick!

Freaked me out it did, I'm not good with spiders at the best of times. Anyway I survived and now feel alot better that we've sorted out the back yard and it's a bit safer for the kids!!!

Then last night we took the kids to the local out door swimming pool and had a picnic and watched them play for hours in the new water park there! Such a lovely summers evening!! Today however is another story pouring down with rain and dark, this weather lately is very strange.

Made with fimo and set in this really cute vintage style setting.

I've been working on more pendants and I'm trying to list everything in my shop and reorganise my art space as I have things everywhere!!! So here are a few more that I listed in my shop this morning.

I called this one 'Purple planet' as it reminded me of some far distant planet!

This one is reversable and can be worn either way!

I'm going to try to work on my Sunday sketch a bit later! :0)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

New Fimo pendants!!! I'm so addicted!!!

2011-01-05T17:33:00.000+11:00

Just a quickie as I really should be cooking dinner but I really wanted to show you what I've been working on this last week. I've got loads more to show you and take photos of but thought I'd show you these 3 that I've just uploaded to my shop. I think Fimo is going to be my new obsession! :0)

Hope you're all having a great week and start to the new year!
oxox

Sunday Sketch and Illustration Friday - Resolutions

2011-01-03T08:03:00.002+11:00

As always after Christmas I feel alot wobblier (is that a word?) than I did a few weeks ago. My New Years resolution is to get back into my exercise routine which I have been neglecting these past few months. With my market stalls and Christmas etc I just didn't have enough time to do it all. But I'm going to try and prioitise a bit better and make it part of my daily routine again. I just LOVE my sweet foods, chocolate, cakes, lollies etc so I'm going to try to keep that as a weekend treat and not give in to my sweet tooth so easily :0)

I wanted to paint this too but haven't had a chance yet so thought I would post the sketch first and work on the painting today I shall show you how she turns out in the next day or so. If you click on the picture you'll be able to see her alot better, pencil always shows up faint when I scan it in.

JUST UPDATED: I managed to finish the painting today so I was able to include it in this post! I'm going to try to make a book mark out of this piece I think and use my new lamintor that I got for Christmas! :0)

What are your resolutions?

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-01T17:06:00.001+11:00

Well I'm nursing a slight hangover today but had a lovely New Years eve with a handful of close family and friends. It's been sweltering the last couple of days and we were sitting out on the deck last night in our summer dresses sipping on beer and champayne and doing lots of chatting and laughing!!! It was a lovely night.

2010 was quite a massive year for me. We had our big trip, completed the huge renovations to our house. We also had a very emotional year. Frightening at times. (a loved one was diagnosed with Cancer) but he has now been given the all clear. I guess this year has made me reflect on what is important in life and to be thankful for what and who I have in it. I look forward to 2011 and hope that this year is much more uneventful but full of love and laughter.

I've made a few resolutions, and probably like everyone else, a healthier lifestyle, more exercise etc etc I have alot of Christmas indulgences to work off ;0). Starting tomorrow though, comfort food is definately needed after a late night last night!!!!
I want to really push myself artiscally this year and feel that I have the confidence to take my art to the next level. So I hope to be able to knuckle down and concentrate on that too!
I hope you all had a lovely New Years and I wish you all a fabulous 2011.

These latest fimo pieces are some more experiments, I've got a certain idea in my head of how I'd like to incorporate my art with fimo I just need to do a lot of experimenting!!!

These are the fimo pendants after they came out of the oven!

I used permanent black marker to draw some simple designs on, then I sealed them with a waterproofing agent to protect the image!

I love the warm colours in this one it really made me think of a surreal landscape!

The great thing about these sorts of pendants is that no two will ever be exactly the same so you'd be wearing an original one of a kind piece of art!

These last two pendants are the same one, I'm wasn't sure which side I liked the best so I drew on both sides. I think the red might be my favourite! :0)

I really love this last one, it's so unique!! I couldn't get these patterns exactly like this again no matter how hard I would try!

More fun with Fimo and a surprise delivery!!!

2010-12-29T19:40:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying a fun Christmas break!!!!

Now that our visitors have left and things have calmed down a bit I managed to incorporate some creative time whilst looking after the kids!! :0) The boys got some fimo kits for Christmas from my parents and they have been itching to give it a go as they've seen me experiment with it lately!

Here is what we made today!

A snake made by Rhys aged 7 :0)

A little green head made by Riley aged 4

A funny little character for the top of my pencil made by me ;0)

These are 3 pendants I made which I'm planing on painting a simple image on. Haven't decided what yet but will post it up when they are done!

Then this afternoon whilst making tea there was a knock on my door and a Fed Ex guy handed me a package. How exciting!!!! A few weeks ago a lovely person from Staedtler in Germany (the people behind Fimo and all sorts of stationary and art equipment) left a comment on my post where I had made my first ever fimo pendants. They asked me to check out their facebook page and if I would like to share a pic of my fimo projects with them on there. There are so many talented people on there and some amazing fimo pieces!!! To my delight after I checked out their fimo page they contacted me and said that they had a 'little' New Years surprise for me and thanks for my contribution. This is what they sent me!!!

Wow!!!! What a lovely extra Christmas present!!! I'm so excited and feeling very inspired so thank you very much!!! Check out their facebook page here

Lastly here are a few more experiments, it's such a new medium for me but I'm really really enjoying it and it's fun to do with the kids :0)

For the Eiffel Tower I used a metal pendant and pressed it into the Fimo then painted it and varnished with a gloss varnish. The other is also painted on and varnished.

This leaf pendant is made from blue fimo painted with green acrylic and then sealed with a waterproofing agent that I bought the other day.

Lastly this heart pendant was made with a tan coloured fimo (I didn't have red at the time) so I painted it in acrylic then varnished with the fimo gloss varnish!!!

Hope you all have a great New Years take care :0)

In colour!

2010-12-22T08:17:00.000+11:00

Well the girl from my previous post for Sunday Sketches wasn't happy in black and white so I just had to colour her. It was the strangest thing she just wouldn't leave me alone til I brought her to life with some colour! :0)

Hope you're all having a great week and you aren't too stressed with the lead up to Christmas! :0)

Sunday sketches

2010-12-19T20:42:00.000+11:00

This is a quickie doodle that I did in front of the tele this evening. I feel like I've been neglecting my drawing lately as I've been consumed by my jewellery making. So I really needed to sit down and sketch as I was feeling a bit rusty, its amazing how quickly that can happen when you've had a bit of a break from drawing.

I also approached this face differently. Normally I draw the shape of the face first then fill in the features but today I started with the eyes and did the shape of the face after the features and I feel like she really took on a personality of her own. I went against everything I've ever been taught in a drawing class, hehehe I'm such a rebel! ;0)
The words read 'She didn't care if it rained, she was happy and that was all that mattered.....'
Hope you are all having a great weekend!

New vintage style pendants!

2010-12-18T13:29:00.000+11:00

Phew! I've got so many new ideas and avenues that I'm itching to pursue with my pendant making, there's just not enough hours in the day.

A couple of days ago I received some supplies which I have been eagerly awaiting. I thought these vintage style settings would be perfect for my pendants. I've only made two so far as I've been busy with the fimo too but I thought these turned out pretty cute!

The chains that came with the settings are slightly longer so I shortened this chain so it sat in the middle of the chest.

This pendant was made using a print of my painting 'Midnight Temptation'.

This is a shot of the back!

This chain is slightly longer .

This pendant was made using some gorgeous Japanese paper, the bright colours work so well in these settings.

I love the dome effect it magnifies the image beautifully! I'm thinking of giving this to someone for Christmas, I've got family coming from interstate that I haven't seen for quite some time, (don't worry I don't think she reads my blog :0)

This last piece is one of my newest that I shall be adding to my shop this afternoon, I love this little elephant charm sooooo cute!

So you can see I've been quite busy this week and I really should be getting stuck into the cleaning as we have family arriving for Christmas this week! Perhaps I'll just put it off one more day ;0) I'm off to fiddle with some fimo and do some drawing, I can't stop!!!!! :0)

New experiments- painted fimo pendants!

2010-12-15T17:00:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, we finally got our computer back this afternoon yippeeeee! So no longer having to use the painfully slow lap top! I'm hoping to go visiting all my blog friends again, after my eldests Christmas concert which we have tonight! (very excited about that!)

This afternoon I decided to experiment with some fimo that I have had for a while, now that our oven is finally fixed I was able to bake this afternoon, so I made some pendant shapes and painted them with acrylic paint. I thought it would be nice to make original wearable one of a kind pendants. These are the first few that I tried, and I only have black and white fimo but I think they turned out pretty cool. I've got lots of ideas about what I want to try next.

Illustration Friday Phenomenon and Sunday sketches

2010-12-13T09:44:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, thought I would create a Christmas themed piece this week as I really felt like doing something different from what I've been doing lately.

In some parts of the world a hot Christmas would be a phenomenon, but it's the norm in Australia! I grew up on the other side of the world so deep down I think that a snowy cold, even rainy Christmas will feel normal to me but I must admit, I do enjoy Christmas over here. It's all about bbq's and trips to the beach and summer holidays. I'm looking forward to doing just that as we finish up for the year at school and have the huge 7 week or so summer holidays. So this little snowman represents an Aussie Christmas!!! :0)

Illustratio Friday - Prehistoric and Sunday sketch!

2010-12-05T18:58:00.000+11:00

Hi guys, what a busy week it's been! Things are getting hectic at home as we approach the end of the school year over here so my eldest has been busy preparing for the school concert and we've had lots of excursions and school fairs etc. Our gardening business is flat out especially now that we've been under water for the last week. We've had so much rain in the last week, our dams, which were once as low as 33%, are now at full capacity. I've lived here for 17 years now and this is the first time I've seen them full and I've never seen so much rain. It's wonderful so have the life back in the country side and not be surrounded by dust. But it's also stopped the hubby from going out to work as the weather has been so bad. I think we've been in drought for about 10 years now so you can imagine how it's changed the country side already!!

Here is my piece for this weeks illustration Friday theme 'Prehistoric'. The first thing that came to mind with this word for me was just how prehistoric dragonflies look. So I googled them as I was thinking of drawing one. I do love dragonflies.....then I came across some information which took me in another direction, how dragonflies used to be very large, and this image popped into my head. It's just a quickie as we had another busy day today. My oldest boy had his grading for Tae Kwon Do, and so we went along to that, he did so well we were so proud and he even got awarded a trophy for his achievements over the last few months!! He was so proud too!!

I was supposed to be doing another market yesterday but due to our crazy weather it was cancelled, I'm hoping to do another one next weekend instead as I've been flat out making heaps more pendants which I'm also slowly adding to my shop. It's so addictive!! Here are a couple of shots of some of my newest pieces I've got lots more to add!

We are also having computer problems again, it's getting sent back for the second time to the warrenty people, so that's why I've not been blogging as much as I normally do or visiting all my blog friends. It's so frustrating, today it seems to be working fine but we never know when it's going to even log on in the mornings so we use it when we can. Hopefully this time they'll fix it properly! So annoying!

Hope you're all having a good weekend and I shall try to visit you all! :0)

Illustration Friday 'Savour' and Sunday sketches

2010-11-28T14:10:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, well this weekend I decided to work on a painting that I had sitting on my desk for a few days, I painted a canvas green and then let my imagination take over, I guess you could call it doodling on a large scale. I really didn't have a plan for this piece but I knew I felt like working on something more detailed than what I've been doing lately so I took Rose, a sketch from my previous post and worked on that idea more.

I've been so inspired by the roses in my garden, they smell so beautiful at the moment and look lovely. But some are already at the end of their little life span and loosing petals. So this girl is savouring the moment with Rose, and the beautiful smell! :0)

I have included some work in progress shots just to show you what I started with.

Even though I painted over most of the green I think the colour of the canvas gave the skin a nice glow.....

I started with a red rose but found that once I'd coloured in the rest of the flower it seemed to get lost in her hair......

I think yellow works well :0)

Hope you're all having a great weekend! :0)

'Rose' my finished piece, and Penny's Posts!

2010-11-25T14:26:00.001+11:00

This is how rose turned out! I used acrylic paint and inktense pencils!

I also wanted to share this with you, Penny's Posts . Penny is my mum and she is a very talented artist. She blew me away with her latest piece which is a portrait of my youngest son. I hope that she gets addicted to her blog like I am to mine as I'd love for her to share more of her wonderful work with everyone. I'm so proud :0)

An art box and work in progress

2010-11-23T20:30:00.001+11:00

Hi guys well this week has just flown by and I'm constantly feeling like I'm running out of time during the day. With a home business, two kids and my creative things I love to do I just never feel like I get enough done. I've been slowly adding pieces to my shop which in its self seems to take quite a while when you take photos and upload things, writing descriptions etc. I didn't get a chance to do something for illustration friday but I did manage to paint one of my art boxes that I mentioned in my last post. I've painted another version of one of my previous paintings and I really like how it came out. I will list it in my shop but I'll wait until I can take a decent photo, I find natural light so much better.

This work in progress is called 'Rose' and she was a sketch inspired by some photos I took in our garden the other morning. Our roses are out and blooming beautifully, they smell so gorgeous. I really love these photos and I'm going to try then out in my pendants too as I think they are so bright and pretty. The sketch is a sneak peak I shall show you the finished piece that I hope to work on tomorrow :0)

I thought you might enjoy some of the flowers from our garden!!

Illustration Friday Burning and Sunday Sketch

2010-11-17T13:32:00.000+11:00

Hi guys,

I'm a bit late with both entries this week but we finally got our computer back last night all fixed, and I was working on this new piece so wanted to share. I took some progress shots too as I quite enjoy seeing it from beginning to end!

When I saw the theme for this weeks Illustration Friday I'd already sketched the idea out onto the canvas so really wanted to get it finished, I really like how it turned out :0)

I've also included a shot of a couple of paper mache boxs that I have started to paint, I've just done the undercoat at the moment but plan to paint them with my current obsession with my figurative work so stay tuned, I've been uploading more pendants to my shop and busily making new pieces for my next market. So busy but really loving it, hope you're having a great week so far and I plan to visit lots of blog friends soon as we're back to our brilliant fast computer yay!!!

Just a quickie.....sorry I've not been visiting lately....

2010-11-14T09:44:00.005+11:00

Hi everyone, I'm sorry I haven't been visiting everyones lovely blogs as often as I normally do this week. We are still waiting for our computer to come back, it's been sent away to be fixed and we're still using the lap top, which we're really glad we have but it's also very slow and a bit annoying to use so I haven't felt like jumping on and quickly visiting my blog friends this week as it just takes so long to load pages etc. I shall try to catch up on all your work soon though and we hope to hear back from the computer place soon.

In the mean time I thought I'd show you a photo of my stall from last week. I'm due back to this market next month so plan to smarten up my stall alot more in the mean time. I want to display things better. I've been selling pendants and paintings quite well lately through word of mouth, my online store and the market so it's been fun seeing them go off to new homes.

I'm going to work on my Sunday sketch this afternoon and my Illustration Friday piece so stay tuned. And don't think I've forgotton you guys or that I don't appreciate your comments on my work, I just need to catch up. Can't wait to get my computer back!!!!!

I also wanted to share with you some new pieces that I have been working on. I'm stocking up my shop for my next market but they will also be available in my online shop :o)

Hope you're all having a great Sunday! :0)

Sunday sketches and Illustration Friday - Afterwards

2010-11-07T19:44:00.001+11:00

Hi everyone, yesterdays market was really good, although we had terrible weather yet again, it's so cold over here for this time of year, so the turn out wasn't as big as we'd hoped. I still managed to sell quite a few pieces and it was very good experience for me. I've signed up to do another one next month so I'm going to work on building up my pieces and presenting my stall alot better.

Today I just did a couple of sketches for the theme for Illustration Friday 'Afterwards'. When I thought about this word a few things came to mind. A lady on a train station platform after she's said goodbye to the love of her life.......a mother after giving birth to her baby, all calm and quiet and completely exhausted after a very long labour!

Hope you're all having a great weekend! :0)

What a week!

2010-11-02T20:34:00.002+11:00

Well its only Tuesday and we've had a bit of a shocker so far, the other day our computer died and then within an hour our nice new oven did too. Thankfully we have a laptop so I'm able to still check in on my blog friends and also work on some new prints for pendants in time for the markets this weekend. I'm really getting a bit nervous about it all which I know is silly as i've been working so hard on my paintings and pendants for so long now it's about time I did something with them. I guess I find selling online alot less scary than dealing with people in person. But I'm sure that it'll go well this weekend and I might even enjoy it ;0)

This new painting is called 'Dancing til Sunset' and I'll hopefully be making a new pendant out of it tomorrow, I really love the colours in this one so pretty :0)

So tomorrow I'll be making up some last minute pendants, varnishing some paintings and hopefully getting things ready for the big day eeek! I'll take some photos to show you this weekend!