Art Workshop

I was too tired last night to take pictures but feeling much better now. I had such a great time at the workshop, it was very intense and we covered a lot of techniques which were new to me - and I love trying something new, it's very good for me to go outside my comfort zone. And we worked on huge paper - another first for me - the materials were charcoal, inks, acrylics, chalk, and oil pastels. I'm pleased with the results.

Art course today

Although I'm totally shattered, I'm also exhilarated because the mixed media teacher is phenomenal and I really like what I did today. The course is 'Beauty and Decay - Nature and Regeneration and she had such a variety of items to work from including lilies in various states of decay, shells, seed pods, etc. We worked on large paper with charcoal, pastels, and ink, but it was how she demonstrated and followed our progress which was wonderful.

There's another tomorrow and I'll be bringing my artwork home so I'll try to get photos and post them.

Beads and ATC lottery

I drew the ATC lottery winner today and it's Cindy in Carolina - as soon as I get her address, I'll mail it.

I went to a bead shop for a browse and bought some  (as if I need to tell you LOL). When I got home, I checked ebay's bead listings, my goodness there are literally thousands and thousands of offers and they're CHEAP. Of course, that was me hooked and I did a bit more shopping!!

Brooches all finished

Here are the vintage brooches I made for a swap and an extra one for me to keep. I'm a bit clumsy with these wee beads so it took me a lot longer than I thought. But they turned out a treat!! There is one more but when I opened the pin it nearly fell off so it's being glued again - just as well it happened before I sent it off!   I don't know why these appear all different sizes - they're really all the same!

Bijoux Altered Tins

I've listed more of these bijoux altered tins on ETSY and have started putting away beads and things, ready for something new for tomorrow.

My brooches too are now finished but the glue isn't dry on the pins yet, so will post pictures tomorrow.

I bought a roller with 4 different heads and an inkpad - it was on a special price and now I know why! the inkpad is as dry as a bone.

Sundays are great!

I love when I don't need to go anywhere and just mess around (although I have a really sore throat and think I'm going to lose my voice - some might say that's a blessing :))

I have just to glue the pins onto my brooches and then I can take pictures (can't scan them because all the dangly bits go all over the place) - they were hard work but they've turned out fine.

I had started to make these into brooches but realized that they were far too big, so I changed them into little hangings. And the first three are on etsy, the rest will be for tomorrow, here they are:

Making jewellery

I was asked if I'd be interested in joining a private swap to make brooches/pins and in a weak moment I said yes. Well, I started off rusting little tins and separating tops and bottoms, made the backgrounds, and this is where the trouble starts!! It just wasn't right, I must have changed things around a dozen times before I decided to try something completely different and start off from scratch. But now it's going well, I know what I have to do and have them all laid out ready for the dremel (hoping I can drill of course without ruining it all). As soon as I have them finished I'll post pictures.

What a surprise ...

... I've been chosen to receive this award from the lovely Kat and I have to say that I'm very chuffed!! Thanks Kat!!

The hard part is choosing only five artists, whom I rate highly, to receive the award, where do I begin?? OK, here goes ...

Linda, JoAnna, Judy, Belinda, Gail

here are the rules of the game:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.

4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y Pico' blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award. (http://www.arteypico.blogspot.com/ )

5. Show these rules

Ciao ciao

A few more brooches for sale

I've added some new items to my ETSY store.

And I've made some ATCs for a Renaissance swap. I made one extra to keep but I'm not sure which one yet. It 'd be interesting if you tell me which one you prefer though!!

Lottery on Art-e-Zinecafe

This was such a great idea of Angie's for this month's lottery on Artezinecafe - we have to make a 1", 2" and 3" card all with the same image. So here are mine:

ATC Lottery No.2

I've decided to make this lottery go for 2 weeks to allow more people to enter, the only request is that the previous winner is excluded. So the next lottery date is Thursday 24 April and here's the ATC ==  good luck!!

ATC Lottery - and the winner is ...

Michelle -- (I used a randon number picker) -- just waiting for your address and I'll get it in the mail. Congratulations!!!

New Work and Facebook

As if I haven't enough to keep track of, I've joined Facebook now. I haven't done much with the personal info, not sure I want to. I see a lot of familiar names there, if you'd like to be a 'friend' just send me an invitation!

I've started making fabric brooches and the first 2 I've finished are on etsy if you'd like to have a look.

New artwork

Well the weather forecast was for snow and bitter arctic winds and I wakened up to a bright sunny day with blue skies and not even that cold, hmmmm!

Before I go into town this morning, I want to show you my latest ACEOs which are listed on etsy - here they are:

Nice Day and New ACEOs

Spent the day with friends, the weather was glorious and felt like a holidaymaker whilst eating my ice cream slider on the seafront. We chatted over lunch and put the world to rights LOL. Found some lovely vintage ribbon at a nicky-nacky-noo shop, even the paper bag is worthy of being included in my artwork!

I have a couple of new grungy ACEOs which you can find on ETSY -

ACEOs and charity shopping

I found an old dressmaker's wheel for tracing outlines and I've never seen one like it before - the wheel is metal with very fine prongs, I think it'll come in handy for marking paint. And also bought some ribbon fibre which was going for a song and I know what I'll do with it already!

I have been hankering after making some ACEOs so here are the first 2 which are just added to my ETSY shop: Valentina and 'When I grow up'.

Weekly Lottery on Thursdays

I've decided to hold a weekly lottery to win an ATC - all you have to do is leave a comment on this post before the first lottery date which will be Thursday 10 April. I'll draw the winner and announce it straight away on Fridays, and mail out. This week's ATC is SUSPENDERS. Good luck everyone!!