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Sunshine and Rainbows

Here we are at the beginning of April and because of the current situation, i.e. being on lockdown to stop the spread of this awful virus, every day has started to blur into the next. I’ve started to imagine it’s the weekend every day! We’ve had some fabulous sunny days which makes me so grateful to live where I do and have a garden in which to enjoy the sun. I know for a lot of people it’s really difficult right now!

People all over the world are making their own fun and creating a little happiness wherever they can. On social media I’ve seen lots of beautiful rainbows being displayed in windows everywhere, all sizes and formats. WOW! Embossing Powder must have had some amazing forward thinking as the new theme on their Facebook Fan page is Rainbow.

I created my rainbow from these beautiful colours from the Primary’s range, hand painting the brush stroke with the Mixed Media Embossing Brush from Seth Apter. I love how it turned out.

If you’d like to see more rainbow inspired creations or join the fun by designing your own colourful project, go to the WOW Embossing Powder Fans page on Facebook.

Have a good weekend and stay safe

Jaine xx

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Canvas Workshop

It feels like an age since I updated my blog but since life has slowed down slightly (due to the current situation), I’ve found a bit more time to do a few things I’ve wanted to do for a while!

I was fortunate enough to be able to hold a workshop just before everything closed down and self isolation became the norm. It was a requested workshop to create a mixed media canvas. I spent ages wondering which sort of canvas to create seeing as we’ve already done collage, texture and mixed media in the past and I really wanted to create something new.

One of my favorite artists is Flora Bowley. I bought her book a while back called Brave Intuitive Painting and love it.

Intuitive painting is the technique of letting go of your inner critic and letting your heart and hands do the painting. The results can be colourful and lively and full of spontaneous doodles and mark making.

I thought I’d let the others experience this for themselves and gave them the canvas and a few materials to get them started.

As watercolour is my favourite medium to use I created a watercolour background to start, letting the colour flow into pools on the canvas and adding some spray to help it move. If you want to add contrasting colour it’s best to let each colour dry first before adding the next otherwise you’ll end up with dirty colour which you don’t want. Once this was dry I started to add doodles and patterns with watercolour pencils. I used them wet and dry as I loved the texture from the canvas coming through. I further added doodles with white and black pens along with a snippet of text paper collage at the bottom.

It’s already pushed me to get out my art journal and start creating again so while I have some time I intend to make the most of it.

Take care of yourselves and if you’d like to create a canvas of your own you can find the canvas, watercolour pencils and more in the Basement Studio shop.

Jaine xx

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A Valentine Mini Book

I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently sorting out some of the hand bound books from market and art fairs so I can add them to the shop. This meant photographing and numbering each one before uploading to the site. It’s been a while since I made a mini book and this process made me curious to try out something new.

Meet the Square album. It’s a dinky little size at 10.5cm and the inside pages (all 14 of them) are made using Vintage Botanicals double sided patterned papers, originally bought from Paper Pen and Plan on Etsy. If you check them out they’ve lots of paper packs on sale and with my code JAINE10 you’ll get 10% off too! The cover has been covered and decorated with paper and embellishments from the February Sweet Treat box also from Paper Pen and Plan.

It would be perfect for a few Instagram photos and some journaling, personally I wouldn’t want too much to cover up those gorgeous pages.

This is a new binding method for me but I’m now inspired to create something on a bigger scale perhaps.

It sits on a shelf perfectly out on display rather than being tucked away between other books so in that respect it’s more of a decor piece than a simple album.

I haven’t decided yet if I want to keep it or add it to the shop but what ever I decide I’ll be adding to the family.

Happy Valentine’s day,

Jaine xx

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January So Far

Despite the on going clear out in the basement, my work table still looks like a bomb has gone off on top of it. It’s littered with projects I’m working on which you’ll get to see soon along with some new craft materials I found last weekend at Expo Creativ in Luxembourg, exciting stuff. I visited Lux Expo with friends taking public transport to get there for a change. Honestly, I have no idea why I don’t do it more often. It’s so cheap and painless and in March it’ll be free too so it’s a bit of a no brainer! We were pleasantly surprised to discover a few new craft stands as well as some familiar faces. We have to continue to support this local event even though it’s tiny in comparison with Frankfurt or Dortmund. It’s still the only event of its kind in the country. Lena keeps telling me I need to have a stand there too, maybe one day!

My A6 bullet journal and cover embellished with materials from the January box from Paper Pen and Plan on Etsy

I’m continuing to use my A6 bullet journal this year, it’s the only one I regularly kept up in 2019. I’m using one called Scribbles That Matter which I found on line and it’s great. I don’t get any bleed through with my pens and I’m mostly using a Micron pen for my doodles. This little one won’t be used with watercolour paints as it’s for carrying around with me and on the go planning so has to be functional and practical. It does come with a nifty pen holder but I’m reusing my hand painted cover so the holder gets lost inside, but I’m sure I can knock something up if I need it.

January kicked off with the first Facebook challenge of the year on the WOW! Facebook page. The new theme is Love, Valentine, Wedding etc so it was a brilliant opportunity to create some hearts. I’m not an obviously, all pink and red hearts sort of person so jumped at the chance to try out some new colour combinations coming up with these two cards. I simply can’t decide which of the purple colours I like best, Royal Crush or Persian Indigo, they’re equally gorgeous. Photography isn’t my strong point and I really wish you could see how wonderful they are. I love that little splash of colour on the top one created by simply dipping a piece of watercolour paper into Distress Oxide inks on my craft mat. It’s a technique I love.

Have a great weekend I hope it’s a crafty one and I’ll speak soon.

Jaine xx

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