Trying new things

 This week, I decided to try some things I've never done before and some things I'm always comfortable with. Like I wrote last week, it would be easy to stick to certain mediums but I like to try other things too. 

One thing I'm not comfortable with is working with beads, especially those tiny seed beads. The piece I made with them is far from perfect but as first attempts go, it's a pretty good one, I think. It was a bit easier to work with the bigger plastic beads though I definitely need some more practice.

I've tried embroidery on paper before but it has been a long time so I thought I'd try a little heart on a mini tag. I'm really happy with this one and will probably do more of those with different colours and sizes. 

The rest is mixed media and doodling, my "go-to"s.

Keychain heart made with pony beads

Hanging decoration: tissue paper on cardstock, 
fishing wire with beads

Mixed media in altered book

Markers, watercolour crayons, acrylic paint, pencil
on cardstock (to be used for collage or punched shapes)

Embroidery on tag

Pen doodle, pencil shading

Seed beads on metal wire

As always, thanks for reading.

Sophie

Variety is the spice of art

 I decided to try different things this week. The hardest part of this project is deciding what medium to use on any given day. It would be really simple to stick to collage, drawing or painting, but I have so many different things I can and want to use in this project. This week, I tried to add a bit of variety. I already have a few things planned for this coming week and I hope it all works out. 

Watercolour, wet on wet technique.

Ink drawing over watercolour background

Small mandala drawing in ink pen

Ink doodle over painted book page

Scratch card

Perler beads magnet

Cardboard roll folded into a heart to stamp with acrylic paint.
Shapes filled in with watercolours. In altered book.

Thanks for reading!

Sophie

Collection of hearts

As much as I wanted to be a daily blogger, like I used to, the reality is that I’m not the person I used to be back then. I work more hours now and I have less energy than I had 10-15 years ago. Besides, the point of this blog is simply to make myself accountable to this project. So the posts won't be perfect and they will probably only be on Sundays but that's okay.

So here are this week's collection of hearts:

Washi tape collage

Doodle inspired by the layers in an onion

Hand-cut stencil for my art journal

Metallic acrylic over black gesso

Art journal page

Mixed media on a cardboard coaster

Mixed media on a wooden base

Thank you for reading. If you have any questions about the materials I used, feel free to write them in the comments.

Sophie

Weekend hearts

 A basic origami heart and a roughly quilled heart. There's not much to say about these 2 hearts. I followed the instructions here for the origami heart. And I improvised the quilled heart with strips of cardstock, though I should have used something thinner. I'll try to remember that next time.

Thanks for reading.

Sophie

Cat love

 Today’s heart was inspired by Pearl, my cat. It's not as if she doesn't have any toys; she has plenty, but I just thought I'd make her a little stuffed heart (with a bit of catnip inside). She seems to like it! It might not last a very long time but I don't mind. I can always make her more!

Thanks for reading! 

Sophie

Starting small

I decided to start this 365 project with something small and simple. Something that comes easy to me. Collage. Two collaged hearts in fact. Like most mixed-media/collage artists, I have a box (who am I kidding, many boxes) filled with paper scraps. Those leftover bits that are too good to be thrown away. So today, I opened the box and grabbed the first papers that caught my eye. They were all together, waiting for me to give them new life so I did just that.

I started by tracing two slightly different heart shapes on the red cardstock and then ripped pieces from the other papers. I used a brown ink pad and sponge to ink up some edges but left others plain. I glued my pieces down and cut away the excess before inking up the hearts' edges. Finally, I sprayed a bit of gold on the whole thing, for that little sparkly touch. Now I have two cute hearts to use in an art journal or on a handmade card or whatever else I like. Simple and satisfying. 

Thank you for reading!

Sophie