art

Swap-Bot 2023

| Mary

This is most of my swaps for 2023 which I sent to my partners around the world on www.swap-bot.com

I enjoy creating postcards, using a freebie postcard as a base and collaging on it to alter it and suit the theme of the swap.

Sometimes I use a birthday, Christmas card as a starting point.

Magazines are also a good resource.

Enjoy!

Nathalie’s Studio CJS 2017 with Natalya Aikens

| Mary

When I saw Natalya’s video on her artwork using recycle material, I had to give it a go. As part of Nathalie’s Creative Jump Start 2017, Natalya’s take is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Stitch.  It was very inspiring. There are so much plastic shopping bags out there, wouldn’t it be nice to somehow reuse or recycle it.

The base was a light thin foam which I am sure was packaging. Then I glued layers of grey and red plastic bags that I cut into squares or rectangles. I drew a design on tissue paper and tacked it on the plastic layers. Then embroidered following the design. When done I tore off the tissue paper.

Next one I will add a bit of bling to it. Maybe some sparkly thread.

This one will go to a penpal as part of our recycling theme.

Thank you Natalya and Nathalie.  It was an enjoyable session.

www.nathaliesstudio.com

CREATIVE JUMP START 2017 WITH NATHALIE’S STUDIO

| Mary

Nathalie’s Studio

When I first heard that Creative Jump Start was happening again in January, I quickly jumped at the chance to register for 2017.  The 2016 CJS (Creative Jump Start) course was amazing with the talented artists showing many techniques in painting, drawing, mixed media etc.  Its so worth the money and its not expensive, really!  Every participant is inspiring and you learn heaps.  So do your self a favour and register as its not too late to do so.  2017 theme is Mix, Match, Master.

Here is my first take on lesson #1 with Marsha Valk.  In my versions I used Gelli Plate, Gesso, Sharpie pens, Acrylic paint, Watercolour paints, Tissue Paper, Stamps,  Gel Medium and Packing Tape. I dont have black gesso, so I used white gesso and then painted black acrylic paint over it. I can see that Sharpie pens are going to be my best friend!

Again, I am keeping all my CJS creations in a book.  I’ve recycled a Harcourts Real Estate booklet that can hold 16.5 X 23.5cm pages.  Perfect size for me to use in this course.  Pages are nice and thick.  It is glossy, but I use white stock card for my art and then glue it onto the pages.  I could also gesso the pages too.  I also decided to add pockets to the pages if I needed them to store excess embellishments etc for that lesson so I dont lose them.  Plus if I feel the art work needs more ‘mastering’ then I still have some of my supplies!

I just loved how the four pieces turned out.  Thank you Marsha!  Nathalie, thank you for having Marsha on the team!

Oh, I really should finish CJS 2016!  The good thing is that I still have access to those videos!

Lesson #1: A Head Full of Dreams – Marsha Valk

All I was thinking when I was watching the video lesson was “Moon”, “Stars”, “Cosmos” etc. The words on each piece are song lyrics and a quote.  Song lyrics from Cat Stevens, Madonna and Frank Sinatra. Quote from Carl Sagan.