ArtyFartyAnnie

 Oh dear! I'm really not doing very well at keeping up with my blog am I? It's not that I haven't been doing anything creative, it's just that I haven't made the time to blog about it and I'm annoyed with myself! :) Since I last posted on here in June, I have been very busy on my You Tube channel and Instagram, where I post videos and pictures several times a week, but this blog is more like a journal for myself, where I can record my arty-farty adventures to look back on later, so I'm going to make another effort to keep it up. To catch up a little bit, I'm going to post something on here every day, covering some of the different things I've been working on over the last few weeks and months - just for the record ... Wreck This Journal continues to be a favourite, especially when I feel like just playing. Here's one I did back in June, inspired by a page posted on Instagram by @clair96bel - The prompt was, "Use this as a test page for every...

 Hello and welcome to my craft-room blog,  Yesterday I tried another class from the Art Bundle For Good #6 - this one was with Jenny Buchanan from Blue Beach House Art and it was my first ever go at a seascape ... This was such an enjoyable class and full of tips about colour-mixing, blending and different brush techniques. Jenny explained everything really clearly and made the whole process feel so easy. We used acrylic paints in a fairly limited palette of pthalo blue, pthalo green, cobalt blue, hansa yellow light, alizarin crimson and titanium white. Here's a speeded-up video of my process if you would like to watch how it came together.  It's a long way from perfect (top of the wave isn't right, colour's a bit lairy and the seawash looks more like that caul fat they wrap around faggots) but I'm really looking forward to having another go by myself and I feel confident that practice will make perfect - or at least better :) Thanks for visiting me today, see you...

 Hello and welcome to my craft-room blog,  This week I've been enjoying getting into some of the classes from Art Bundle For Good #6. The first one was with Eulalia Mejia from South America and I had a wonderful time! I loved the gorgeous colours in this split complimentary scheme and it was fun to use several different media - Eulalia started with acrylic paint which I subbed with gouache to give me the range of colours I needed, then we added interest and texture by making lots of little marks with coloured pencils, finishing off by adding more details with paint pens.  Eulalia showed how to take just the three colours (pink/red, yellw-green and blue-green) and mix with black and white to create tones, shades and tints to give variation and interest. If you would like to watch a speeded-up video of how my version came together, click here .  I really fell in love with Eulalia's style and use of colour, here's a link to her website if you would like to check it out...

 Hello and welcome to my craft room blog,  It rained all day on Wednesday, which suited me perfectly, as I wanted to spend the day in my craft room finishing my Trash Dolls from the live stream on Sunday. Here you can see them all lined up for a group photo on my desk (after some serious tidying-up). They make me smile - I will definitely need to find them some space in my craft room, they won't be left languishing in a box in the garage this time :) If you'd like to watch a brief demo of the basic process and find out what junk I used for each of the dolls, check out this video on my YouTube channel . Meanwhile, here are some close-up photos ... If you feel inspired to make any of these yourself, please feel free to share pics on my ArtyFartyAnnie  FB page (you'll need to click on the Community tab to see what other visitors have posted). Thanks very much for visiting my blog today, see you again soon :) Annie xo

 Hello and welcome to my craft-room blog,  You know how sometimes you try to create something which just doesn't work out and it can be a real downer? You try to tell yourself that it's not the outcome that matters, the point is to enjoy the process and learn from it etc etc. - you know this, but it's still frustrating and can knock you confidence. Well, that's what happened to me the other day. So I had to get back on the metaphorical horse and create something I was happy with so I thought a lovely relaxing class with Tamara Laporte from Willowing Arts would be just the ticket. It worked like a charm - Tam makes it all so easy and when I was done I felt completely chilled and very happy with my picture ... The whole process was quite meditative, building up the picture layer by layer without having to think too hard. Perfect! Check out the Willowing Arts website , where you can find lots of classes, including some freebie tasters. If you would like to watch my speeded...

 Hello again and welcome to my craft-room blog,  It's been a while, but now that I've retired (again!) I'm planning to get back into blogging, amongst other things - it's such a lovely way to keep a kind of journal of my arty-farty adventures.  My You Tube channel is a relatively new passion - I love to connect with people all over the world to share our creative hobbies and inspire each other. On Sunday, my son Tom and I did a live stream, making Trash Dolls. Huge thanks to everyone who joined in and made the chat so lively and fun.  Inspired by the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, here's Queenie, all finished ... If you would like to watch a replay of the live stream, click this link . Also watch out for a follow-upvideo coming soon, where I'll show the whole process and finish a few more friends for Queenie :) Thanks for popping in today, see you again soon :) Annie xo

 My good friend Trina came over one day last week and we spent the whole day sewing - with machines! Trina does a lot of dressmaking and I'm always so impressed with her makes, but I hardly ever get my machine out these days, so we decided it was high time to dust it off.  Trina made not one, but TWO lovely A-line skirts (forgot to take a picture to show you) and I made up a bag using a kit I bought from Cloth Atelier at the K&S Show last year ... When you buy one of these kits, you are allowed to choose any two fat quarters of fabric from the beautiful selection they have on display. I decided to get two for the price of one, by using some scrap fabric from my stash - so this one was made from one of the Cloth Atelier fabrics and some material cut from an old top, and I still have the other fat quarter to use, so I can make another bag later.  My top stitching left a lot to be desired, so I cunningly disguised it by adding several lines of stitching along the handles...