It might be Autumn in my corner of the world but it's like spring with these blossoms and new additions to my shop!

Been busy this week working on my koi fish painting which I think is coming along very nicely, took a break to work on these new pendants which are now listed in my shop. I really love these different coloured ribbons they really compliment my pendants. Now I'm off for a well deserved ladies night and dinner and a gossip with a friend. Yay!!!

Sunday sketch Koi Fish

Hi everyone this weeks Sunday sketch is a Koi fish, I'm working on a new painting, which is Japanese inspired, I'm going to cut this one out and stick it on to the canvas then paint it!

Illustration Friday - Rescue

Well just a quick one this week, I resisted the urge to add colour for a bit of a change and just used some pencil and pens. Bit tired today as last night was a very exciting evening, my lovely cousin Clarey gave birth to her second little girl 'Willow' and I was lucky enough to be present and catch Willow as she came out. It wasn't a very long labour, 3 hours, but I found it hard to come down off cloud 9 afterwards so ended up having a late night. Clare was amazing she made it look far to easy and I almost want to do it again myself, ALMOST heheheh. Poor thing could have done with a bit of a rescue herself last night from the pain but she got through it like a warrior woman I'm so proud!!!

Final painting of Native American Lady

As promised here she is all finished, I think I'm quite happy with her. I decided to paint some flowers in the back ground and I added alot more detail on her necklace etc. I think I might put her in my shop if I can bear to part with her.

I shall be varnishing her with a spray satin varnish tomorrow!

Riley's drawing!

Not to be out done by his big brother Riley sat down this evening to practice his drawing. I was blown away by his little people, I especially love the one with the big ears so cute! I'm amazed that he's already drawing eyebrows. It seems that all of a sudden he's gone from scribbling to drawing actual people, and he's only 3. I'm so proud ;0) Not really sure what way round I should put it as he's drawn people all the way round so i just went with the flow :0)

Native American Lady, stage 2 and 3

Hi guys as promised here is my Native American Lady in progress. First of all I cut my sketch out and stuck it onto my canvas. Then glued some tissue paper around her. I cut her top out of the sketch as I thought it would look better painted on a canvas as it would be made out of canvas.

Then I painted her face and background, over the glued tissue paper in acrylic. I want to add lots more detail to this and give her some beads around her neck and perhaps something to the background not sure yet. I also feel that by painting over the sketch I lost some softness to her look so I'm going to try adding some shade and light to her face and hopefully soften her up a bit......I'm hoping to finish it tomorrow!

Sunday Sketches - Native American Lady

This week I decided to start work on my next painting of a lady dressed in traditional costume. So far I've done the Geisha and the Indian lady. This next piece I'm going to do differently I want to do it on canvas with mixed media as I'm having so much fun experimenting with different materials.

So this is my initial sketch. I've decided to actually stick this sketch on to the canvas and paint it on there along with some other materials. I really don't know how it's going to turn out but I think it's going to be fun working it out!

I shall post the finished painting later in the week.

I've been a bad blogger

Hi everyone, over the last couple of weeks I have been lucky enough to receive some blog awards from some lovely friends. Things are so crazy here at the moment that I haven't really had time to respond to them. With organising an overseas trip and birthdays, school things, etc etc going on, I struggle to find the time to be creative. So I apologise for my delay in responding to these lovely awards.

Firstly I received the sunshine award from Susan at Susan beth Studio and Amalia from Translucent Blue. Thank you so much guys. They are both such lovely blog friends and wonderful artists.

In the same week I also received the Kreative blogger award from my good buddy Deedra from Foxy blue and family too. Deedra's work is so inspiring, you must check all these wonderful artists out!!

Now I'm going to be a big fat cheat and just pass these awards on to all of my wonderful blog friends old and new!!! I've been doing this for a year now and have met, and continue to meet all sorts of wonderful people and talented artists. I think this experience is better than any class I could do and I'm so appreciative of the help and advice I've received from you all so thank you very much everyone I pass these awards on to you all because you deserve it!

Illustration Friday Expired - Meet zombie mummy

Zombie mummy is a character created by my boys, mostly by my 3 year old. It comes from a night when I was trying so hard to get some 'me' time and was putting on a face mask which happened to be green and the boys got a bit of a shock. Riley LOVES zombie mummy, it's so funny he now asks when she's coming and whenever I put the face mask on he follows me round the house telling me all about what he's been up to since 'she' last saw him. He's a right little character!

So for Illustration Friday this week I chose to bring to life zombie mummy. She might be well and truly expired but the boys love to give her a cuddle!!!

Behind - a new master piece by Rhys

This is something that my little man produced this evening, it was done in black marker pen and he sat for a very long time concentrating very hard. I think this is a beautiful piece and told him that it should go on my blog for you all to see!!!

Personally when I look at it I see dancers! What do you see?

Illustration Friday - Subterranean also GPP Street Team 'Grabbing a tissue'

Well I didn't think I'd make this Illustration Friday as I just couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do but the thing that was always coming to mind when I thought about this word was 'under the surface of the sea'. I love painting mermaids but this one is a bit different as I decided to try painting a picture over two different canvas'. I really enjoyed it and felt that it helped me to simplify things, I didn't need much of a back ground as I just wanted to create the feeling of movement like she was gliding under the water. I used lots more texture than normal with this and I'm getting quite addicted, I used tissue paper and texture paste with acrylic paints and had lots of fun slapping it all on!

I think I might pop this one in my shop!

I also just discovered another challenge site, Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team. This month they're 'grabbing a tissue'. If you would like to find out more about this site click here

(Sunday Sketch) Good news: My baby finally looses his first tooth, Bad news: He accidentally ate it!

Hi guys I just had to post this as I thought my little mans note was too funny not to share, I especially love the diagram that he included just in case!!

'Autumn' the fairy

Hi everyone, here is my new fairy which I'm going to add to my shop. I had so much fun with the mixed media on my last fairy that I had another go, using more tissue paper and patterned paper as well as inktense pencils and paint. I have also bought a varnish that is a spray on instead of a paint on as I was finding that it would smudge some of my mixed media pieces, these photos were taken before the varnish as I wasn't sure how it would turn out but it looks good and is just drying now!!

This week was very lucky and honoured to receive a few blog awards from some lovely people. Thank you so much, it's been a crazy weekend this weekend with lots of family gatherings as well as the inlaws coming to stay so I'm afraid I haven't been able to respond to them properly, I shall get on to that this week!!

My Geisha is going to a new home....

I just thought I would show you my Geisha painting now it's been framed. I have a buyer for her that happened to see her through my husbands face book. This lady is very excited to come and pick her up today, she loves Japan and anything Japanese especially Geisha's. I'll be sad to see her go but I'm glad she's going somewhere to be enjoyed, I think I'll have to paint another one now as she has proven quite popular through my pendants as well. I might try a different pose and different colours!!
Anyway thought you'd like to see her all framed as she looks so beautiful!!!

I have two photos as one shows how bright the colours are but there is a flash in the middle of it and the other one you can see the detail on the frame better....

New ribbons to update my shop!!!

Hi everyone, well finally I received some new bits and pieces to play with today. I have found an ebay site that sells these multicoloured voil ribbon necklaces. I ordered loads in all sorts of colours so that depending on the Japanese paper or the print of an original painting of mine that I'm using, I can use the appropriate colour to compliment the pendant. I like my boho style chain and silver ball chain but these ribbons I hope will add another option. I really like the ribbons and am wearing one myself now. It's interesting to see how a different necklace or chain can change the look of a pendant. Here are two that I added to my shop this afternoon.

Mixed Media Monday 'It's not all black and white'

This week really took me out of my comfort zone, I love colour so to create a piece where I have to restrict myself was hard work but I managed to incorporate quite a few colours into it in the end :0)

I used a canvas board then glued some scrap booking papers to it and painted over them in white so that you couldn't really see the colours but still the shapes. I just used black and white acrylic paint and painted over some of the scrap booking designs. I also used some black and white print for the newspaper for the trees in the back ground. I quite enjoyed creating this piece as it's quite different from my usual pieces.

The Tooth Fairy..........

I LOVE being a mum. Ok sometimes I might feel like pulling my hair out but it's times like this that I really really enjoy it and I feel very lucky! Rhys who's 6 nearly 7 is my oldest and finally, after lots of waiting (by him) he announced excitedly the other day that he has a wobbly tooth!! He is so pleased with himself and often wobbles it proudly when he thinks we're not looking. So that got me thinking that the tooth fairy is going to need to pay a visit soon!! Hopefully it won't take too long to fall out as he's very impatient heheheh. So what is the going rate for a tooth these days? Does anyone know?

For this piece I used some scrap booking papers and glued them to the canvas, then I painted over it in acrylic paint and used my iridesant paints to bring some sparkle to her dress and shoes. I also used my inktense pencils. I haven't painted over scrap booking paper on a canvas before but I really enjoyed!!! I think I might do some more characters like this, and I'm thinking of putting this little lady in my etsy shop!!! Happy Friday everyone!

Mixed Media Monday - Enchanted

Well it's been quite a while since I participated in Mixed Media Monday. Since my interest in making pendants has grown I haven't kept up up with these weekly challenges as well as I used to. This week though I was already working on this piece which I had originally started for Illustration Fridays 'Propogate', but didn't finish on time and really didn't feel that it was working for that theme. So when I saw the theme for this weeks Mixed Media Monday I was very happy as I felt it fit it perfectly. I'm so glad it did as it made me persevere with a piece that I wasn't very happy with but now I quite like :0)

I've used acrylic paints, some texture paste, butterfly stickers that I actually had decorating my light box and come copper metalic acrylic paint. I also tried using some new crackle medium but it didn't seem to work perhaps my colours weren't different enough for it to show up or it could have been the way that I put it on, I'm going to keep trying with the crackle medium though as I'd like to learn how to use it properly.