Feeling a little bit rusty......

I haven't done anything arty in, what feels like, a million years :-( I've had so many things to knit and work has had me rushed off my feet!! I've almost caught up with the knitting but work will be busy now until probably after Christmas which is a bit depressing!!

I'd like to say the reason I've not done anything arty is because I've been knitting, but in all honesty it's not!! I find it very difficult to put down my ideas on to paper! It's like I have a fear of it going wrong or looking silly :-S I remember when I was younger I used to run up to the top of the Castles we used to visit in Wales! I'd drag my Dad up and look over and wave down at my mum.....I wasn't nervous at all.  If you asked me to do that now I would deffo think twice because I know what can go wrong and I worry that it will go wrong! It's the same sort of thing with my art.  I've spent so much time away from it thinking I can't do it, that it's silly that I've now started to believe it!

If anyone has any tips that would be great :-P

This is the last piece of art I created! I was looking in to zen tangles and zen doodles! I really like the colour (of course I do it's red ha ha)! I was getting creative block on the actual doodling bit though.....they were starting to look very samey :-S

Well that is it for now! I hope you have all had a lovely week :-)

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date (Summer of Colour)

I'm so late this week!! I have a million things to knit which seems to be taking up most of my time at the moment! I have two birthday presents that I really need to get a move on with!! I finally managed to find some time to sit down and think about what I was going to do for week four!! I LOVED the colours so there was no problem there! But I really wanted to to do something different each week!! So I thought and I thought and then I had a brain wave!!

On one of the lovely Blogs I've commented on during this summer of colour I have seen some really lovely zentangle style drawings! I'm really really sorry but I can't think of the name of the Blog just now!! When I do I will come back and link to it, or if you are reading this and you know it's you let me know :-P They usually do the zentangles in animal shapes which is just so damn cool! It might not even have been an actual zentangle but that is what it reminded me of and I love it!!

So I went on google and watched some you tube vids and decided to have a go.....well why not!!

This is what I came up with!I'm quite pleased with this! I obviously need some practise as this is literally my first ever attempt!! Me being me I couldn't just go for a plain old square like the you tube videos said you should start with :-P What do you guys think?? I'm deffo going to be trying this one again!!

So there you have it!! On to next week!! Man have you seen the colour?? I CAN NOT WAIT!! It's REEEEEDDDDDD! Totally my fave colour ever in the world :-D

I'm off to work now but will be having a nose at the rest of week fours art when I get back!!

Summer of Colour (Strawberry and Lemonade Punch)

Hi guys :-)

This weeks summer of colour challenge was again a bit of a challenge for me! Mainly because I just haven't had the time to sit down and think properly about it!! The easiest route seemed to be to go literal again so that is what I did!!

I kind of like the colours in this but its not as creative as I would like!! Last time I said I felt like I should apologise but I won't do that this time! I will pick out what I like best about it! I really like the swirly pattern (I like swirly patterns, what can is ay :-p) and I love how the yellow and green go together!! I used my Moleskine again which is good as its pages are finally being filled!! I would like to start using the back of the pages but I have this thing about doing that......I'm the same with notebooks haha!! I also used pencils! I need better quality pencils I think but the colours are nice!!

So on to next week :-) I've seen the prompt which is Wild n reckless sherbet! This is a very funky coloured icecream which once again makes my mouth water :-P The good news is I already have some ideas so hopefully I will be able to produce something I am more happy with :-D

On a completely different note.....here is a photo of my Cat Lupin.....

She was trying to sunbathe but having trouble what with the lack of sun :-P Ahhh isn't she the cutest?!?

Anyway I am off to look at some strawberry lemonade punch art :-D All this talk of ice cream really makes me wnat a bowl...yum!!







Summer Of Colour: Baseball Nut (Fail)

Hi everyone :-)

It was a close call as to weather I was going to get this weeks Summer Of Colour done!! I had real trouble coming up with anything and the thing I did do in the end looks nothing like the Baseball Nut ice cream picture that was posted :-( I was going to do another ATC but I decided to use my Moleskine in the end!

I feel the need to apologise for this :-S I mean really, what does this have to do with baseballs or nuts?? :-P On the plus side I like the effect I got by just outlining the ice cream in the middle and i love the swirly background!! The colours don't show up great but the pinks are supposed to be the sauce that swirls through the ice cream and the yellow is the vanilla! I chose yellow because vanilla to me screams cream and I don't do cream haha!! It kind of looks like a mishmash of sherbet rainbow and mint choc chip......... I used coloured pencils and a black marker on this! I love colouring with pencils although the ones used here were quite cheap and not blendable at all :-P

I have yet to look on the Twinkle Twinkle blog for the next colour prompt but I am excited! I'm hoping I can pull something a bit better out of the bag this time!! I'm just off to look at all the other fab pieces of art :-D See you at the other side!!

Summer of Colour (Mint Choc Chip)

Hey everyone! So to week two of the Summer Of Colour Challenge! This weeks prompt was Mint Choc Chip (my fave flavour of ice cream might I add)! I must be honest I found this one very hard! I don't know if it was because I've been having one of THOSE weeks so my brain just wouldn't switch on!! Anyway I went literal with this one so I should introduce to you.......

Mr Cool Mint.

I used my pro markers to colour him in! I'm not sure I really like the blue background but it fits in with the Mr Cool Mint theme ha ha!! I've never done an ATC before and I found it hard to put any extra detail on him :-S All in all I like the idea but I think it could have been done a little better!! Also I think his choc chips look a bit like acne hahaha!!

Oh well I tried something new which was fun, and I will deffo be doing more ATC's in the future! So on to next weeks colour.....I can't wait to find out what it is!!

In other news, my lovely friend Carmen sent me a gift.....I will write a special post about that....but I just wanted to say thank you to her.  We only "met" quite recently but I like to think we have become good friends :-)

Summer of Colour 2 (rainbow sherbet)

Whilst perusing my friend Carmen's fab blog (whoopidooings) I came across a post she did about The summer of colour 2! Now I've never heard of this but having read about it here and followed the links I have now decided that I will totally give this a go!!

You can find out all about it at Twinkle Twinkle but basically there will be a colour prompt each week and you make some art based on that colour and post it on your blog! I believe the colours will be based on ice cream flavours (yum I LOVE ice cream!).  You can do any art form that you like, I'm hoping to mix it up a little and do a couple of different ones but who knows what will happen when I get going :-)

This weeks colour was RAINBOW SHERBET (seriously the picture of this ice cream looks so nice I could lick the screen ha ha). I'll be honest I didn't quite get my piece finished but I wanted to post it in time so I have taken a picture of the almost finished piece!!

You can't see the colours so well on this photo but this is the best natural light I could find (damn you rain!!)! I decided to do knitting for my first piece as i had the perfect wool and my friend is after a pair of baby booties so i can kill two birds with one stone :-P The one on the right hasn't be sewn together hence why it looks giant compared to the other one!! I love this wool as it is self striping! This has had an interesting effect on the booties.....each bootie is slightly different colours :-P I'm hoping this will be seen as quirky ha ha!!

I really can't wait to see what next weeks colour is :-D I also can't wait to look at everyone lovely RAINBOW SHERBET stuff!! Let's face it, with weather like this we deffo need a summer of colour!!!

Celestial Sugar Skull!

I have not been on here in waaaaaay too long!! I would love to say it's because I've spent all of my time drawing but it's not! I've been working and trying to strip gloss of my stairs and knitting some bits......real life things haha!!

I have done a bit of drawing though, more Sugar Skulls of course! I do need to branch out one day but for now these work for me :-P

I wanted to do some sort of theme so I went for Celestial sort of! I'm not sure I hit the mark though, what do you think??

This is the almost finished version! I tried to use blue and yellows but I'm not sure the colour scheme is quite right! The silver is my beloved sharpie (I must get more of those) and the rest of the colours are my letraset pro markers! I love these pens so much!! I was once on a mission to collect all of the colours but I didn't even get halfway there.......maybe I can start again haha!!

I don't know if I should line the drawing with black or go for the dark blue.......decisions decisions haha! I always line with black as i like the very graphic look so maybe i should try blue for a change!! I also think I need to work on the skull shape. It's not looking too bad though!

In other arty news, me and my friend Katie (check out her website, she makes amazing paper cuts!) are going down to London in July to see the Summer Exhibition! I have been dying to do this for years so I'm sooooooo excited! The tickets are booked and everything! WAHOO! You can expect lots of photos from that trip!!

Anyway I hope you have all enjoyed your Diamond Jubilee weekend :-)

The Zombies are coming to get you!!

A little while back I decided I wanted to start painting wooden dolls! I got the idea after looking on line at custom painted dolls (vinyl and wooden)! Some of my faves are from Zombuki.  I just love the colours and designs! To be honest I haven't got the faintest idea where or how to start :-S

Well anyway I purchased some wooden dolls (which turned out to be smaller than I wanted, but I can't seem to find any bigger ones!), paint and paint brushes and gave it a go!!

The design I picked is that of a Zombie! It was my good Friend Carmen (from Whoopidooings) birthday so I decided to paint it for her! The hair turned out really well actually :-P And the greeny skin colour, I'm not too sure about the patches......it was supposed to look like skin coming off :-S

This is the little guy without a face! I put off the face for as long as was humanly possible as I am no good at all with eyes and things! I did it inn the end although I wasn't hugely happy with it!! What do you all think? I think he does look like a zombie, sort of!! If anyone knows where i can get bigger wooden dolls from please let me know :-)

That is all the arty stuff for today! I still have a few projects up my sleeve though ;-)

Sweet like Sugar Skulls.

Hello everyone :-)

I have been away far too long (I know I've said that before!), I am now playing catch up and its no fun :-P Its been a long hard slog in my "real" job for the last couple of weeks but I thunk things are settling down a bit now!! I've not been able to keep up with any of the drawing I started from Cameron's Blog :-( I do hope I can catch up a little bit!! The lesson's are such fun, I just need to set aside some time to really give them a go!!

I did manage to get some drawing done though, ok that's not strictly true! I drew the picture ages a go but I decided to take the plunge and colour it in!!

I have to say I'm quite pleased with this so far!  I love Sugar Skulls, I really find the colours and styles so interesting!! I'm hoping to draw more, maybe themed ones! If anyone has any ideas on themes i could do please let me know!!

It kind of looks like he has a moustache, maybe I'm subconsciously channelling Poirot here haha!! I think i need to take a step back and come back to it later and see if it needs any tweaking! Bit as the first thing I've drawn AND coloured myself in a long time I think it's gone quite well!!

That's it on the art front at the moment though :-( I must do better!!

And this photo is just because I love the necklace I'm wearing in it :-P Oh and the top!! Both were bargains! The necklace is from www.punkypins.co.uk and the top was in the Henry Holland sale! I literally LOVE Henry Holland clothes :-D

Hope you all have a lovely week!!

About meeeeeeee!

My friend Carmen from Crafty whoopidooings was tagged in a MEME thingy a while a go and invited her followers to answer the questions so i thought why not!! So here we go........

 1.If you could describe your life in colour, what would it be and why?Red......I love the colour red! It makes me happy and is nice and warm. I like to think that my personality suits the colour red :-)

2. Do you have any pets? If so, what are they/their names and why do they fit your personality?I have a black cat named Lupin after Professor Lupin in Harry Potter......and no I'm not a Harry Potter fan AT ALL but professor Lupin was my fave character!! She is slightly OCD (actually ocd...she grooms too much and gives herself bald patches!!), but the friendliest cat you will ever meet!!

3. Where did you fit in in high school...jock, band geek, popular crowd...etc?
I was shy and quiet and hated being he centre of attention.  I made it my mission in life not to draw attention to myself.  I spent quite a lot of time on my own, no one wanted to sit next to me unless they wanted to copy my work! I was pushed over, had things thrown at me, drawn on.....I could go on! I am not one of those people who would go back and live there high school lives again......i was happy to be gone and still am :-P

4.How do you react in an emergency...fight or flight, go get help, the calm one???
I don't think I've ever been in a proper emergency but I'd like to think I would do my best to help!! In my head id be panicking like mad but sometimes you just have to do something you don't want to!!

5. If they were making a movie of your life, who would you chose to play you... why?
I literally have no idea at all......maybe you should ask my friends and family?? ;-P


6. Why is your best friend your best friend, what makes them so special?
My best friends are my best friends because they like me for who I am :-P I don't have to pretend with them!


7. If money was no object, and you were going to buy yourself something completely frivolous, what would it be, and why?
Oh don't ask me that, I am a total shopaholic!! I have a list as long as my arm of things I would like to buy!! haha!!

7. Three words that describe your personality?
shy, fun, creative

8. Who was your favourite teacher and how did they influence you?
I didn't really have any teachers that influenced me! I had teachers that I liked but they were just nice and kind to me! I did have an art teacher who was fresh out of uni and she was so cool! She made me see that art didn't mean I had to draw like the masters.....sadly I'd already applied to uni to do Psychology!!

9. What do you consider true strength?
To carry on through the tough times in life even though you just want to curl up and cry!

10. What is your favourite game? (video, board, card...any kind)
My fave board game is Disney Trivia because I nearly always win! My fave computer game is too hard! I love the Sims, but I also love Final Fantasy, Mass effect, Dragon age, Disgea.  My all time fave computer game is probably Fallout 3!

11.What season do you love the most, why?
Spring or autumn, when its warm and sunny but not so hot that my skin frazzles and I feel like I'm melting haha!!

So there you go! Feel free to answer the questions yourself :-)

Drawing Lab lessons 4 and 5!

So lets be honest, I've not drawn for like a million years :-P I really meant to draw every day but I guess drawing a little bit is better than not drawing at all!! I finally, FINALLY got around to following the next lesson on Paint Myself Pretty. You're supposed to go to the zoo which would have been soooooo good as one of my fave things to do in the summer is go to the zoo!! BUT I haven't really had time and up until today the weather hasn't been that great round here! Cameron (from paint myself pretty) used video footage but this just didn't work for me :-P I'm not very good at sketching and moving animals present waaaaaaaay too much of a challenge for me right now!! So I used photos of animals I've seen in the zoo in the past!!

As I say EVERY time I post a photo......I really need to get a scanner ha ha!! So there you have my attempts! I only managed two but I plan to do some more later on (after me tea ha ha)!! I picked the fish because I've never drawn a fish in my life.  On the photo its a lovely blue colour! It was going quite well until I had to draw the scale pattern on the fins etc......I kind of lost heart then :-P

I picked the frog because I love poison arrow frogs! They are so small and cute and the colours are amazing! As with the fish, I've never drawn a frog before and I have to say I'm quite pleased with this!! I wish I could get more detail with shadows etc but for someone who really finds this sort of thing SO hard its not gone too badly!! My fave animals are monkeys so I'm hoping to attempt one of them next!

I'm hoping the lovely weather we are having here will stay as I always feel way more motivated when there is a nice blue sky :-)

Just for fun I have a funny photo of my cat Lupin! We are having to mind some Roberovski hamsters for a bit and as I suspected my cat is VERY happy about this! She sits watching them pretty much all day! I have to say I'm a little worried she will attack them but so far nothing too bad has happened!!

Ha ha so there you go!! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend :-) I will be back soon!!

Sugar Skulls and other delights!

OK so I have to be honest, I haven't been very arty or even very crafty recently :-( I'm just in one of THOSE moods where everything seems like its not going well but you can't think why.......does that make sense?? I haven't even done the next couple of lessons on Cameron's Blog Paint Myself Pretty yet :-( I WILL get around to that at some point!

So why the Blog post you ask? Well I have some older drawings I thought I would share with you for now!! The first are some little Whimsies I drew whilst following the Art, Heart and Healing over on Willowing's site! She also has a Blog here!! I had fun doing these, they came out way better than I was expecting! I can't decide if I should colour them in or not....what do you think??



I hope you can see them OK......I really should get a scanner! I actually have a scanner but it's A3 size so doesn't seem to scan smaller things in that well :-S Don't ask haha!!

The second thing I wanted to show you was my Sugar Skull! I absolutely love these! They come from the Tradition of Dia De Los Muetos or Day of The Dead.  Some of them can be a little odd looking but some of them are amazing! So colourful and interesting!! You can find out more about them online, you only have to google to find tons of stuff!

Here are some examples.....

And here is my effort!

I thought he was quite good until I looked at those examples I put on here :-S :-P oh well maybe he will look better with a bit of colour on him?? And maybe some more pattern? Eek!

And before I go here is a picture of my Craft room wall, it's a blank white wall that I plan to fill up with paintings etc.......

The calendars are a vintage travel posters from 1930's one and a Year of The Dragon Chinese scroll thingy! The painting is by my good Friend Carmen over at whoopidoo.....ings :-) He is taking pride of place up there!!

Anyway that is all for now, see you all soon!

What I wore today......

hello lovely people of Blog land :-)

I totally intended to do lots of blogging and lots of arty stuff this week but well you know how it goes.....life happens!! I was called in to work on one of my days off and work has been quite busy with various beginning of the year things!! Anywho I have to get myself back on track soon!!

I'm hoping to do the next lesson on Cameron's Blog tomorrow so I will be able to Blog about that soon! I'm quite intrigued as to what that will all be about!! It's been fun so far and completely different than anything I've ever tried before!

My lovely and amazing friend Carmen sent me a surprise gift the other day (thank you thank you thank you!!)! I was well chuffed, and slightly confused at first as my Mum txt me to tell me I had a parcel from Amazon......I thought to myself "But I haven't ordered anything from Amazon, god I hope no one is using my account....." DUUUUUURRRR! Anyway my surprise was a lovely art journal book called 'What I wore Today' by Gemma Correll.

It's such a sweet little book! I didn't realise it is actually like an art journal that you can draw in!! I wasn't going to draw in it at first but now I'm thinking why not!! You can follow Gemma on Facebook (Just search for Gemma Correll Artist) and she has a website (Here)! So if you want to learn more about her and her adorable drawings check those out!! I love her style, its fairly simple but so cute!!

Anyway that is all for tonight! Take care and I shall see you all soon, Hopefully with some new drawings to show you!!

Blind Contour Drawing!

The idea behind blind contour drawing (from what I could gather) is to find a picture/photo that you like and you copy it, the difference being that you don't look down at your paper and you're not supposed to lift your pencil off the paper!! In all honesty I really thought I was going to HATE this! I can barely stand my drawings as it is so to do something that is going to so obviously (in my head) not be great was not what I wanted to be doing!

But I gave it a go and you know what, it wasn't that bad!! The lessons I'm following on Paint Myself Pretty say to do this particular lesson with Giraffes so that's what I did! I do like Giraffes and it was fun trying to find cute pictures to use!



I honestly can't believe they came out so well! I know I haven't put any detail on them but I thought that was a step too far haha! Also I did take my pencil off the page to do the eyes etc of some of them which I know was cheating a little but we can keep it our little secret right?? ;-) I'm glad I gave it a go! I suppose it just goes to show that you just don't know how something will work until you try it for yourself and i should stop being so scared :-P

I enjoyed it so much that I plan to use the technique on some other animals I like......I'm thinking Panda's next! Who doesn't love panda's?!?

See you all again soon :-)

It's raining cats and........cats??

Recently my friend told me about a Blog called Paint Myself Pretty that was doing the 'lessons' from an art book with the intention that you can follow along and, post about it and link to the original Blog! So i thought why not?? (By the way you should check out the Blog as it's very pretty!!)

The first lesson was drawing cats..........

Yeah......If you ever needed proof I draw like a 7 year old this is it!! My cat has a giant head and looks like he might kill you if you met him in a dark alley!! I only did two as I got very disheartened by my efforts! That is the usual course with me and my drawing!! I have been known to childishly scribble on pages that aren't going right *the shame* Trying to be positive......I kind of like the body I did!! The page on the left is supposed to be what I wore that day........I'd rather forget that drawing happened ha ha!!

It occurred to me that I had once drawn a cat that I liked! He is more a character than a real life cat but I'm proud of him and that is VERY rare!!

I haven't finished colouring him in but here he is in all his glory!! I actually got the idea from a Digital illustration magazine I used to buy! He appealed to me as he has a moustache that reminds me of my fave detective Poirot ha ha!! I think it's safe to say I'm better at colouring than the drawing bit!!

So I'm afraid that is all I've had a chance to do this week!! It's not that I don't have the time, it' more that I don't know what to draw when I do have the time!! I still haven't completed the face on my little wooden doll either!!  I've tried out eyes on a piece of paper trying to find the best ones! I want them to be simple yet striking!! Hopefully I will get around to that this week.....wish me luck!!

Picking up a paint brush....

For a little while now I've been quite interested in the whole customised doll world! I've only really dipped my toe in but I've found some artists that I really love! One is Zombuki.  I can't remember how I stumbled upon her stuff but I'm completely fascinated by her dolls!!

This photo is taken from her website which is linked above! Isn't she beautiful? Then I discovered she also customised wooden dolls that are similar to Kokeshi Dolls! I love Kokeshi Dolls, ever since my boyfriend bought me one for my birthday (she was called delicate flower). Kokeshi Dolls are Traditional Japanese wooden dolls that are hand painted....

This is 'Delicate Flower' and she is from The Japanese Shop.  There are many designs and styles which have different meanings!! The idea of customising one of these really appeals to me! The dolls that Zombuki customises are smaller but very similar is style...

You can buy this little lovely from Ms Brigitte's Mild Ride. So armed with some wooden dolls that I purchased from Zombuki's store and some acrylic paint I gave it a go!! I should have taken more photos of the actual process but i took the photos before I decided to do this blog :-P Oh well!!

Here is my little doll body!! I haven't actually painted the hands or the feet yet but there it is :-P

And here is my little doll head!! As you can see there is no face.....I am scared stiff of messing the face up so I haven't even tried yet!! I want to do little simple eyes nose and mouth but I don't even know where to start! I've googled pictures of eyes and I think I've decided on a shape.....yet still she remains faceless :-P

And here is the doll all together! It's not exactly mind blowing but i don't think it went to badly for my first ever go!! Hopefully one day I will get up the courage to add her face and she will be complete!!

Acrylic paint is fun to work with, but I had no idea it was so hard to blend with! I don't know how well water colour would work but maybe i can give it a go!! So does anyone have any idea what or who my little dolly is supposed to be?? Let's see if anyone can guess :-)

Thanks for stopping by!!

My first ever Blogger Post!!

So this is my first post on Blogger!! I've spent hours (and hours) sorting it out and trying to make a nice banner for it!! I feel like I've lost a day haha!!

This Blog will (hopefully) be about my sad little attempts at Art! I've always wanted to be an "artist", ever since I was a little girl! Somewhere along the line I got a little lost and developed a fear.....a fear of doing it wrong or it not being good! I want to change that, i want to draw or doodle or just throw paint at a canvas and be proud of it because I did!!

So anyway here I am, I don't have any pictures or anything to show just yet but bear with me, I just need a little time!! So stay with me Folks.....it's going to be a bumpy ride :-)