Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree...

What do you mean, Christmas is finished? OK, so I only finished these yesterday but hey ho, if you want to do something similar you have a whole year to make them :)

Browsing through Pinterest (as you do) I spotted some green and white Christmas trees, very simple patterns - stripes, dots etc and thought I could make something similar. Unlike most other things I find on Pinterest, I got started straight away!

First off I cut some basic tree shapes from a cardboard box bound for the recycling bin. I cut two of each shape to give them a bit of thickness...

Then I tore up some of the brown packing paper that came in the box and stuck it all over the sandwiched together trees to give them some more strength and give myself a nice surface it work on...

Next I covered them in gesso and painted them with Limelight Fresco Finish paint from PaperArtsy. I then drew lines across the trees - after much indecisiveness I decided to make them all striped but to vary the width of the stripes on each tree. 

Each tree was then sponged with Hey Pesto Fresco Finish paint, followed by Green Olives. Not too much Green Olives though as this is more opaque than the other two paints and I didn't want to totally obliterate what was already there...

This was followed by some stamping using the music score stamp from Tim Holtz Mini Holidays 2....

 

 

And then some green ink splats...

 

 

And some snowflakes from the same stamp set, stamped using Snowflake Fresco Finish paint...

 

 

Next, to neaten up the light stripes I painted over them again with Snowflake and then Limelight paints again. Obviously if I'd been thinking ahead then I'd have masked them off, but I was kind of winging it!

I finished each section off with Tim Holtz rub-ons, Distress Stickles, gilding flakes, Perfect Pearls and doodles...

 

 

 

 

 

All ready to go for next Christmas lol

Paperartsy

Yesterday saw my debut as a designer for Paperartsy :)

I've been given the wonderful opportunity to do a few posts for them this year, which is very exciting and totally petrifying at the same time!

This is my first make and if you head over to the Paperartsy blog you can read more about it. 

ARC - A Game of Thrones

You may notice it's some time since I posted a journal page for the Artful Readers Club over on Darcy's blog. Real life has got in the way a little bit, along with a mojo block halfway through this page, which meant that it's been sitting on my desk for months, mocking me.

But it's here now!

 

My next book was "A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin.

 

The synopsis...

 

"Summers span decades. Winter can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plot, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men… all will play the Game of Thrones.

Winter is coming…"

The review...

 

For anyone that hasn't heard of A Game of Thrones, this book is the first in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. This is classed as fantasy, which is a genre I don't really read, but after watching the TV show I decided that I'd give the books a go.

I really enjoyed this book, so much so that I'm now on book 4! The style of writing is very easy to read, my only problem is the amount of characters in the book (which only gets worse as you get further into the books). I do struggle at times to remember who a character is and how they are related to everyone else but perhaps that's just me... What I do like is that each chapter is told from the perspective of a different person, which breaks the books up nicely.

I'd certainly recommend this book (and the TV series!) to anyone wanting to get into the fantasy genre, or even if you don't, it's still a good read.

 

The artwork...

 

As mentioned, I struggled with this artwork. I had a vague idea in my head but just couldn't get it to work on paper.

 

 

I started with a red painted background which was already in my book. I added a weirwood tree with some bubble leaves. I then drew out the sigils for houses Stark and Lannister. I had also drawn out the sigil for house Baratheon but after a lot of moving all three around the page I decided to leave it off. I finished the page with a city in the background and the quote "Winter is coming". I'm still not entirely happy with it, but decided just to leave it be!

 

My next book is "Call the midwife" by Jennifer Worth. Seeing as I still haven't finished it (distracted by reading more Game of Thrones books!) it may be a while before I end up doing a page for it.

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Artful Readers - July

Slowly catching up with my Artful Readers posts :)

In case you you don't what I'm talking about then check out Darcy's blog, but basically we have all chosen 12 books that have been sitting on our bookshelves patiently waiting to be read - we read them, review them and do some art inspired by them.

My book for July was "The Black Echo" by Michael Connelly.

The synopsis...

"LAPD detective Harry Bosch is a loner and a nighthawk. One Sunady he gets a call out on his pager. A body has been found in a drainage tunnel off Mulholland Drive, Hollywood. At first sight, it looks like a routine drugs overdose case, but the one new puncture wound amidst the scars of old tracks leaves Bosch unconvinced.

To make matters worse, Harry Bosch recognises the victim. Billy Meadows was a fellow 'tunnel rat' in Vietnam, running against the VC and the fear they all used to call the Black Echo. Bosch believes he let down Billy Meadows once before, so now he is determined to bring the killer to justice." 

 

The review...

 

I read this on the recommendation of my husband. I must admit it took me a while to get into this book but I think that was mainly due to having a newborn in the house so I was reading it in fits and starts. It's basically a crime story but there are some decent twists in it and Harry seems to be quite a complex character. It's not too taxing a read which is what I need at the minute! There are quite a few books in the Bosch series so I have the next couple waiting for me on my kindle, I guess that shows that I enjoyed it!

 

The art...

 

Again, like June's effort, this is pretty simple.

 

 

The black circle signifies the tunnels in Vietnam which are referred to throughout the book. Hollywood - the book is set in Hollywood :)

And a quote. Done!

 

August's book was "A Game of Thrones" by George R. R. Martin.

 

Artful Readers - June

Time for a catch-up! You read the title right, this is my ARC review and artwork for June! Check out Darcy's blog to see what this is all about.

 

I have a good excuse for being so far behind though...

This little lady (finally) arrived at the beginning of June :)

So, not a great deal of crafting going on around here, though lots of reading got done while I was waiting for her arrival so at least I was ahead with my books.

June's book was "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.

The synopsis...

"Enter a vanished and unjusr world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver...

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely on one another. Each is in search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell..."

The review...

I had already seen the film version of this book, but unusually for me I hadn't read the book first, so as I loved the film I made to sure to put it on my ARC list.

The book is very similar to the film, they adapted it quite faithfully. It may be my age, but I always struggle to believe there was such a divide between two groups of people due to their colour, and although this is essentially the theme of this book, it's written in such a way that you almost forget that and just want to hear about the lives of the characters...until something happens that reminds you of the division. I raced through this book (though I didn't have much else to do at the time!) and enjoyed every single page of it. It's a really easy read, but still thought provoking - if you haven't read it then I thoroughly recommend it.

The art...

As I've not had a lot of time to myself the artwork is pretty simple for this book.

I started off by covering the page in bits of map from an old AA map book then painted and stencilled over it with a mix of Fresco Finish paints. I added a picture of a Southern style house and added some JoFY stamped flowers. I kept them white as Miss Skeeter lives on a cotton plantation and I figured the flowers could (kind of) pass for cotton plants! A quote and some doodling finished off the page.

My book for July was "The Black Echo" by Michael Connolly. Hopefully I'll get that post up soon!