Category: Art

Easter Card Bunnies Card Designs

Easter is fast approaching and thoughts are turning to chocolate …… and the Easter bunnies on this year’s card designs are turning to eggs, chocolate or hatching ones.Easter is a great time of year to be art journaling with plenty of inspiration for characters and colour. There’s bunnies, lambs, chicks of all sorts of birds and not to mention all the weird and wonderful ways you could combine them to create unique/unusual characters on your journal pages. What about an Easter dinosaur? Of course children’s characters are great in pastel Easter colours and dinosaurs are great children’s characters. Do you have a child who would enjoy creating an Easter dinosaur with you?

It’s Too Expensive!

Sometimes it really IS too expensive … but there are also other times when something’s value is higher even than its price point. Let me try to explain my thinking ….

Value and Cost are not Always Equal

A great example is Amazon Prime shopping. Although I know the prices are inflated I find the reduced stress of not having to navigate busy shops to maybe find what I’m looking for is often worth it. Sometimes cost might be far too high for the value you might place on an item for example, for me designer shoes cost the earth but do not have as much value as arch supports. Another example is the cost of a good holiday. If it rejuvenates you and helps you cope better with your day to day then its value is probably higher than its cost to you. Travel insurance is another good case in point.

Why You Should Buy Art …

Years ago I lived in Africa with my family for a few years. My dad loved the country and the wildlife with a special interest in the birds, having always been a keen birdwatcher. As a result we spent a fait amount of time visiting nature reserves. A peculiar feature of business there was that artists would sell their crafts and art at the side of the road. This is how my dad acquired a few nice pieces depicting birds and the landscape that still remind him of the things he loved about the area to this day.

Turning Your Art Journal Pages into Xmas Cards

Art journaling is a great way to explore your creativity largely because it can be very private: you make a page and then close your journal and no one else can judge you worthy or unworthy. But what if you want to share your art? I know I enjoy showing friends and family my art […]

The Colours Won’t Work

Just ‘picture’ this … you see a painting/print that you just love BUT it is in bright oranges, reds and yellows. You think and think about where you could hang it but all your rooms are in blues and greens. You decide you couldn’t live with something stamding out so much on your wall but it is with a wistful sigh that you leave the painting on the shelf. Of course you might decide to buy it on a card or product if that option is available but it might not be.

Art Journaling Fun Palaces Session

This year, 2020, I will be doing my first livestream, in conjunction with Fun Palaces, on Sunday 4th October on this page.The session will give some tips for art journaling without buying art specific supplies. This is to show how it doesn’t need to be an expensive hobby or take up a lot of space in the house.

The Mighty Salmon

This week I am inspired by the Atlantic Salmon that swims up rivers in Scotland at this time of year (October – November) to spawn. How they navigate waterfalls involves a lot of failing and trying again and they must do this repeatedly before reaching their breeding grounds. No wonder they are so exhausted after […]

What to do when it all Goes Wrong – Art Journal Mess Ups

This week I’m looking at a common dilemma and one that can actually stop people from trying art at all. What if I mess it up? It’s the main factor behind the infamous ‘fear of the blank page’. I think we are often conditioned, as children, to see our art as ‘wrong’ by teaching staff […]