Birthday girl:-)

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Yesterday I had a great day, a very dear friend of mine came around and we talked and talked. Actually I went nursing with her when I was 17 and we remained friends until we lost touch after I went to live in Aussie….18-20 years ago. It is a really interesting experience to catch up and rebond and find we have a lot in common after all these years. I feel this is going to be a very special friendship which is obviously life-long:-)

Today is my birthday and I am having a lovely day. Went out to lunch, with my hubbie, brother and Mum and it was wonderful. We went to a little place called “Melt”, in Waikanae and the food was “to die for”. It was just the best.

On the way home we stopped in at a  second hand place and bought a cute little side table with turned legs and flaps which makes it bigger. The flaps are not in good nick and I am not keen on them so they will come off. The other neat thing about the table is that it has a shelf………well its like a trolley really and it has a small drawer, its really cute. Can’t wait to get the white paint and it and shabby it up. OH and we got it for the HUGE sum of $10!

Came home and waiting for me was the Dec 11 issue of Somerset Studio I bought from ebay. Am going to sit down and devour that soon :-)

WE are off to buy the paint tomorrow and start painting the lounge. I cant wait to get that done now, as I can imagine that it will look so much better. WOOHOO HAPPY HAPPY!!!

Hope you are all having a great day too.

Di

Video Art Journal pages and more

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I got my new camera to day and did my first video tutorial, it was 26 minutes long. Then I deleted it by accident and cant find it in the recycle bin:-(

I sat down and did another. The page didn’t turn out like I wanted it to, so that sucks a bit, but I am not one to give up so I have it loading now. Lets hope it works. I am a bit disappointed that I don’t have a fast forward button and right now I don’t have the hang of the zoom button. Anyway I will learn as I go along. At least the picture is good. I recorded without sound, as I find it hard to concentrate on talking about what I am doing and concentrating on what I am doing…if you know what I mean :-)

I am watching the 2nd video I made and so sorry forgot to turn the sound off so you can hear my squeeky chair and all the banging. Oh and the worst part of the top of my arm is swinging around, I gotta change that angle next time. Thankfully this 2nd video wouldn’t load as it had an error So they say 3rd time lucky. I made a short video at a lower resolution and talked over it and it worked out OK. At least its watchable but its not really a tutorial, that I will do tomorrow.

 

While the first video was loading, I managed to get some plants in the garden, which is not at all like me as I love flowers, but usually leave the gardening to someone else LOL.It’s a gorgeous day here today and I couldn’t resist.

I see lots of arty people are at or going to CHA in LA right now………..wish I was there. I have never been to anything like that and think it would give you such a buzz. Maybe one day…sigh

Oh I wanted to tell you I got part of my birthday art supplies today, I bought 5 bottles of ranger color wash sprays and I love them. I also got a bottle of Tim Holtz crackle. I already have a couple colors  but I wanted one that would be a cream or white. I chose Antique Linen and was a bit sad that it is a pale green ???????? Not what I wanted at all. BUMMER! Looks like I will just have to send in another order. such a shame:-)

I’m on Pinterest and it is the most amazing thing to do, however its very addictive so you have to limit your time on there. I now have so many recipes to try and so many art tutorials to watch and also so many tips and ideas  and I love that they are altogether in one place. If anyone wants an Invite, just email me on di@dyzee.com and I will send you one.

I would love to have a conversation with anyone who is watching, sometimes you feel like no one is around, even though you know from the stats that you are getting lots of visits each day. Please leave me a comment.

 

Junk Shopping Sunday

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Today has been an “art free” day! However we did go hunting for second hand furniture pieces for our “Beach Cottage”. The first shop we visited is called “Junk and Disorderly”………………….love the name! It is in Foxton, a small town most people drive through.

Went to another place after that.but boy were the prices steep. However we did get a bargain at the first shop……….we got a fire guard to safeguard the cats from our wood burner…come winter. They were born in Queensland so have never seen a fire place in a house. It was so warm over there we didn’t need it. We have lit the fire here are Jesse was so curious and we were really scared she would get burnt, Now she will be safe.

I was fascinated by what was being delivered to the shop…………..the back of the truck was open so I took a photo. The had branding forks that looked like they might make good number stamps LOL I did manage to resist them though:-) However they did have a shabby looking farm gate which I wouldn’t have minded…………………oh I think I might have horder tendencies. I also saw a few of these trunks and wouldn’t mind one………..this was in quite good nic.

It was good to get out for a drive on a Sunday and I really enjoyed it. I’d love to hear from you if you’d like to comment.

 

Butterfly and Whiteout Art Journal pages

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Here I am again, with really paint covered hands :-) The first one I have called Butterflies.how original …NOT! I used to use bright colors all the time in my dolls and other work. However , now my taste has changed. I like more subtle colors. You could’nt tell by these pages though:-) I think I really will enjoy the new paint colors.

Here’s a close up

The second page is next. I had nearly finished it when I decided I didn’t like it………….so I covered it with scrap paper and started again. I like the white space ..however there is this need to want to do more to the page until it is ruined …………..so I stopped !!

I like the new paper size and I love the new watercolor paper.  Any questions for me?????

 

All the best Di

 

Another Mixed media Canvas

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Yesterday was a bit of a washout as far as making art was concerned. However, I still managed to buy some art supplies with my birthday money:-) I got 60% off canvases at a sale WOOHOO!! I created the canvas above to go next to the one with the flowers on it. They look cute together.:-)

I also bought some A3 sized watercolor paper pads that I can cut in half to make the size of paper I want. Sadly I couldn’t get them in a journal book. Because I want to journal on each page separately, I am going to try this and have them bound together later. I don’t know if this will be satisfactory, but will try it and see. Can always change my mind again LOL:-)

I have also ordered a few Adirondack Color Washes as I have never used it before. Here is a video of Tim Holtz using the color wash, just in case you don’t know about it.

I also bought a few paint samples to try out color on our walls. To start with  I painted some samples of the lounge wall and already , out of the 4 we have I dislike one of them. In fact I think I have already made up my mind which color I will use for that room. Mind you, its not some fancy color………..we have 4 shades of white:-) A couple are more creamy, one is beigey and the other one is more white. We will use one of the more creamy colors for the bathroom as I want to keep that warm.

OK I have plenty to do today and I want to get a couple art journaling pages finished. Please let me know if you are thinking about trying daily art journals, I would LOVE to hear from you.

All the best Di

 

 

Mum’s play day

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My mum comes to stay quite often now. She says she comes for inspiration ..LOL Here she is with my beads and sequins beading a heart she has quilted. I am so into hearts and now she is too. She has decided to redecorate her bedroom, so is making all new things to go in there.

She was enjoying doing something different as she really doesn’t bead much….however she is a great quilter. She is very different to me in that she works in a really traditional style while I am more comtemporary.

Its is great to be home and so close to Mum. She lives 10 minutes away by car. After all these years living in Australia it is great to be back with my family.

Daily Art JOurnal page

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Today has been an interesting one for me with my journaling. I think the most important thing is that I made some new realizations. I now understand that the page size I have been using is too small for me! I also now know that I need to buy good watercolor paper.

The journal page shown is painted on a SMALL watercolor page and I just wasn’t happy with it at all. However I did say that I was going to do journaling daily so here it is.:-)

Tomorrow I am going out and will buy the exact journal that I want. I have a list LOL…so I have a few other art things to find too. I love to use items I already have around the house, however, this will not work for paper.

New Mixed Media art on canvas

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I had a great time creating this piece. It was such fun. I am loving using the modeling paste too. What I learn’t is that you have to colour it first then use it. That way you don’t wreck your brushes trying to paint over it. I used it with a stencil and it creates a 3 dimentional look to the work.

The flowers are made from scrap book papers and buttons. I used the pic below for my facebook front page.

Art Journaling: Finding my own unique style

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Scroll down for a FREE online class and a video preview

More about finding your own style. I have decided to try to create a page a day and show them here on my blog. I feel that if I commit to trying new things and finding out what I love and what I don’t then I will eventually end up with my own authentic style in journaling. I remember doing the same thing with my dolls. I think its soooo important!

So to start with today I have 2 pages. Neither of them make me that happy, but I think I have to accept that to begin with. I used pattern tissue for the background on the first page, then as I worked I felt it became more and more too busy.

Last night I made some journal stencils from card. I have recently bought some of the crafters workshop stencils, but only the more complicated ones. So, I really like the idea of being able to make my own. I bought some acetate and tried doing some complicated ones that way, but that is difficult! I will leave it to the machines. I will make some smaller ones too, seeing these work so well.

I also hate wasting the paint when I use stencils so have started putting the excess paint onto tags that I can use later in other art.

This is the second journal page. Not thrilled with it either, but never mind , I will try again tomorrow.:-)

Here is a little bonus for you guys. A wonderful FREE online class with Traci Bautista. Heres a preview.