ArtyFartyAnnie

 This week's lesson on Let's Face It 2021 was with Deb Weiers  and I really really enjoyed it - I loved the way the quirky face grew around the one collaged eye and seemed to appear almost by accident. I followed Deb's process and choice of colours and media more than I usually do and I think as a result, my picture turned out quite similar to Deb's original piece - usually I go "off piste" and little more. Anyway, I'm very happy with how it turned out and will definitely try this approach again. Link to a video of the process on my YT channel if you would like to see how this strange face emerged.  Here's the YT video - about four hours condensed down to less than 20 minutes ... Thanks for visiting my blog today, see you again soon! :) Annie xxx

 This week, Tom and I had a go at immortalising some of our TwitchTV friends, in the form of finger puppets. I think they turned out very cute, and we were especially proud of the accessories. Their bodies were made of scraps of fleece leftover from making full-size puppets, the arms are wired so that they're poseable, and their hair is made from combed-out knitting wool. They're about 8cm tall. Private_Paula (aka PP) is wearing a Cradle of Filth T-shirt (cut from an old full-size one someone gave me) and headphones just like he wears when streaming (made from a piece of cable tie, some heat-shrink tube, felt, and sequins coloured black with a Sharpie).  Zhorts is dressed as a train driver, not because he IS a train driver, but because he often streams train-related games. Also because we thought it would look cute. The glasses were made with wire and acetate and the whistle is a combination of a metal end-cap from my jewellery kit and a folded strip of brass sheet - both very...

 Macy came over again for a crafty day a couple of weeks ago and we made three little films for my You Tube Channel - PHEW!!! This one shows how we tried out an idea she found on TikTok - making beaded loops to attach to a mobile phone case which goes around your wrist and, well, just looks pretty ... We had a lot of fun doing this, and it was a great way to use up just a few of the thousands of beads in my stash. We already have requests for two more :) Thanks for dropping in, see you again soon.  Annie xxx

 These days, I often seem to end up squeezing in arty-farty time either late at night or early in the morning - life has been hectic recently, but if I don't get even just a tiny bit of crafty time in I feel all out of sorts, so I fit it in where I can. Anyway, maybe that's why this painting was SUCH a struggle - I was a bit tired when I started so maybe not quite firing on all cylinders!  After watching last weeks LFI 2021 class with Jenny Manno, I couldn't wait to have a play with my Pan Pastels. I love them as much as Jenny does, but I have a LOT to learn. The first three attempts went in the bin, so I was a bit down, but I persevered and eventually produced something I was reasonably happy with. Here's a little film of the process - I've whittle many hours over several days down to about twenty minutes ... It was an absolute joy to use the Pan Pastels with Pastel Mat paper - they're expensive, but the pastels will last for ages and the paper worked out aroun...

 I had a Guest Crafter with me this week - Macy joined me in my craft room to help me try out a giant Special Edition box of Sharpies which my son Tom bought for us. It was a special offer in a supermarket, only £9.99 for a box of 26. We watched some tutorials on You Tube and then made a couple of films of our own.  In the first film, we unboxed and swatched all the markers, then we tried out some of the tips, tricks and techniques which we found on You Tube to do some colouring and blending. Our favourites were the "chameleon effect" and the faux calligraphy. Here's our little film ... I was definitely more impressed than I thought I would be with how much we were able to do using only Sharpie markers. Finally finished my colouring page last night ... Macy's calligraphy was fabulous - we didn't manage to get a good photo of it, but you can see it really well in the film. Thanks again for being my Guest Crafter Macy, I'm already looking forward to the next tim...

I've been spending a lot of time with my son Tom recently, installing a new PC and camera set-up in my craft room, so that we can do a better job of streaming to TwitchTV and making my little crafty vids for YouTube. It's been a very challenging process for me (LOTS to learn) and I couldn't have attempted it without Tom's expert help and advice. We built the PC from separate components, and even choosing the separate parts and making sure they would all work together was a baffling minefield to me. My main criteria were that it needed to fit on my desk, look nice in my craft room, and that I would be able to work it - I left all the technical side of things to Tom. I was very chuffed that, with his guidance, I was able to put some of the parts together myself, but I wouldn't have even known which part was which. There were a few technical hitches, but it's all set up and working now. I just need to find more time to play with it! :) Here's a little film I po...

 Inspired by the wonderful work of Paul Cristina , I took the charcoal portrait I made a couple of weeks ago, cut it up and reconstructed it to make a mixed media collage. It didn't go quite the way I'd planned, as is often the case, but I had a lovely messy time - tearing, cutting, distressing, using lots of my hoarded paper scraps and playing with all kinds of pastes, paints, inks, crayons, pencils and charcoal. It took quite a while, coming back to it over several days, so I started filming the process on my old set-up and finished on the new set-up. I cobbled it all together, edited 20 hours down to 20 minutes and added a voiceover - so it's all a bit of a patchwork in more ways than one, but here it is if you'd like to see it ... And here's a photo of the finished piece ... Thanks for visiting today, see you again soon!  Annie xxx