Washi and Some Artwork

Hi everyone, I hope everyone has been enjoying some lovely crafting time.  As for me, I have been a busy girl.  I managed to complete another page in my art journal.  As you would know from my previous posts, I have accepted the 30 Day Smash Challenge set by the Facebook Smash*aholics group.  You can read about it here.  The full list has now been posted, you can check it out here.  Kellie did such an awesome job setting the list out in such a fun way.

Anyway, I worked on the Washi Tape page a couple of days ago but had not yet had a chance to post it.  So here it is.

I could not resist the temptation to create a page centred around Washi's origin which would allow me to incorporate a geisha girl.  I simply love Geisha's.   I wanted to keep it fairly simple so that the Washi could really show through.  I don't have a huge collection as yet, so I thought this would be the best way to showcase them.

I have also been spending a lot of time on youtube lately (LOVE YOUTUBE) and since I have just started art journalling, I have enjoyed learning from all the very generous contributors on youtube.  During my search, I came across a fabulous artist (one of many) Christy Tomlinson.  For any of you that do not know about her, she is a mixed media artist who has created many fabulous mixed media works including her "She Art" range.  She also has a series of online workshops that you can undertake to learn how to create your own She Art.  I am saving my pennies for that currently in the meantime however, I decided to give it a go myself.  Over the last two days, I have now completed four canvases.  They have turned out to be not only thoroughly enjoyable but relatively easy and really quick to do.  Here are the four I have completed.

I will be making lots more of these I think in the near future.  I hope that you all enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy making them.

As for now, its time for bed.  I have a dreadful cold and it always seems to be worse at night.

Until next time, get crafty.

Hugs,

Tash Daly

Witch Hats??

I have been having a great time today because I finally got a chance to work on my art journal/smash book (yes, I have combined them both).  I am SO loving art journalling and getting dirty with paint etc, if you haven't tried it you should...It is AWESOME!!  For me art journalling has become my new SMASH, a way of getting organic and creative yet at the same time, telling a story and documenting precious memories and capturing thoughts and feelings.  I am not very far in since I have only just started, but I hope this will be a very long and rewarding journey for me.

As I have commented in earlier posts, I joined a SMASH group on Facebook fittingly called SMASH*aholics.  They also have a blog, you can read about it and find their links here in my earlier post.  Recently they posted a 30 Day Smash Challenge, so today I decided that I would begin to work on the one of the first 10 items listed thus far.  I had wanted to work on my "All about me" page but unfortunately I was not happy with the background I had created for this particular piece and so moved on to prepare another which then had to dry.  As a result I decided to start on "My Favourite Thing".  I decided that I would make this page about my favourite thing today rather than about a particular material possession and I had one of those favourite things happen today that made me smile and was oh so worthy of a page.  As a parent one of my most favoured things is the innocence of children and their totally literal translation of everything we say.  As a result, they come out with the most fascinating and funny things!!  Today, I caught another one of these moments and I knew I wanted to capture it for future reference.  I hope that Lily, my 8 year old, will get a real kick out of reading back over this page in the future.  

Whilst driving home from my sister's shop today, we passed by some workmen on the road.  They were laying out witches hats and trying to direct traffic around their work area on the road.  A regular conversation broke out between me and her Dad over the witches hats as his work requires the use of these cones.  We made a couple of jokes and had a bit of a laugh which was neither here nor there, just stupid stuff really.  During this time, Lily was in the back of the car unusually quiet listening intently to our conversation.  After a short pause following the end of our conversation, Lily finally asked the question that had obviously been plaguing her for the last few minutes..."witches hats?? she asked, you mean as in Halloween?"  Such an innocent question but one that melted my heart and made me smile, for it suddenly dawned on me that she had been trying to rationalise the strange conversation about road works and witches hats and when I pictured what she must have been thinking it made me laugh.  

It is amazing that such precious and innocent moment can happen among the mundane hum drum that is everyday life.  I wanted to remember to stop and capture them as often as I could.

So here it is:

   

I was really happy with how it turned out since it is only my third art journal page.   I had so much fun creating this page, trying out different techniques etc and  still have SO much to learn.

The image of the witch is from The Greeting Farm called Hallo Witch and is a digi, I chopped off her hat and placed it below her on the road and gave her the other type of witches hat instead.  I hope you like it and that perhaps it may inspire you to give it a go.

Please if you any tips or a blog with all your art journalling goodness I would love to know about it and check it out.  Until then have a SMASHing time!!

Hugs,

Tash Daly