My New Studio...so far (Daily Behind the Scenes Blog 3)

Hi love

This is my third daily blog behind the scenes post, you can view yesterdays here. I'm summing up what I've been up to lately all in one week! Today is all about my new studio!

This is going to be a quick post as I'm v.busy today (in the process of making videos and writing for my list the newsletter I'll be sending out later today, if you're not on my newsletter list you can join here & get lots of my art goodies immediately!). It's also going to be a quick post as I don't really have enough pics to make up a studio tour yet, but I'll share what I have.

So at the beginning of October I took out the insurance required and acquired a new studio in a 1800s factory where lots of other artists/creative businesses are situated. 

I cannot believe it has been nearly two months already. I have only managed to grab a couple of hours there here and there every fortnight or so, so it doesn't feel like it's been half that time yet. Still when I took it I knew I'd be using it more in the spring and summer months than the autumn and winter - it is a trek to and from the space (about a 3 hr round trip) and the rooms are VERY cold in the winter weather, so I'll be going more when 8pm isn't pitch black, cold and raining and feeling like a total drudge to get to and from it. I'm definitely a summer person, when it's cold and dark outside I just want to curl up and sleep lol.

So with that being said I haven't spent much time there making it mine yet, but I have done some, here is the before:

here's a bit more of what it looks like now:

 (though not exactly - I haven't taken pics the last couple of times I've been so it's a little more evolved now):

The view is AMAZING, you can see city, towns, forest, even a windmill. It stretches for miles and miles...

I have set up things to make videos - new tripod and daylamps etc:

though so far all I've managed to use my desk for is some admin work =/ :

This is a very difficult space to photo/film as it is v.high ceilings and box like, so it doesn't convey well the real size and dimension, but I will try at some point once I've decorated it more fully. Hope you have liked the makeshift tour though,

see's you tomorrow

Jennibellie

PS my new class 

'Rock Your Online Shop'

is at a crazy Cyber Monday Week price, but the week is going quick, so ensure you go and check it out now if you are ready to make you handmade or artist shop *rock*:

Direct link here:

http://journalworkshops.ning.com/page/rock-your-online-shop

Weekly Ramble ~ That Dirty Hands ALL THE TIME Feeling

Hi guys

so if you're a regular visitor to my blog you may have seen my September posting has been a bit...sporadic. Last week's Ramble mentioned being MIA from art, and life, and that was true on soooo many levels. But I'm feeling more positive and focused and happy now as I look ahead to October, and hopefully this blog, Journal Workshops, my videos etc etc will reflect that too. It's time to make time for art again...well really I've already started with daily art projects, even if all I can manage is a 10 minute background here and there. 

But what I'm feeling is that excitement to get my hands dirty all the time again, which is a feeling I have missed & I'm so happy it's back, it's the partner to truely fabulously happy artful adventures and discoveries, and to wonderful pieces of art to which you feel a real connection...at least that's how it works for me.

So what have I been up to this week with my new found creative surge, well of course the Wall Project as mentioned in the last Ramble, here's some progress:

The finished mermaid...

nicknamed 'Shelly'...three guesses why lol

And if you follow my facebook page you may have seen this pic of the Postcard Wall in progess:

Well here it is complete:

I've still more to do on this project but will knock a vlog together to share here once works done so you can see all the glorious results, pictures don't really show them properly I think - probably because they are *huge*

And as for what else I've got coming, tonight I'm gonna pick the Monthly Challenge we will be doing in the Journal Workshops Group for October so I can make a video for that this weekend yaaaay =) so don't forget to head over there come the first. Also as I haven't 'done' much (online art world speaking) this month for my Monthly Newsletter I will be revealing a never before seen video ooooooooh....which makes a video sound far more exciting than it warrants I think haha but it will be exclusive for my newsletter subscribers on the 30th. Then September is done and then onto happy October & lotsa lotsa projects which I am really excited about, as I think I've mentioned ;)

So if you are subscribed to the Monthly Challenge Group or My Newsletter I'll be seeing you in video form before next week, otherwise I'll just be seeing you =)

Have a Happy Weekend

Weekly Ramble ~ MIA from Art

So I'm been rather absent this week from the online art world, from art...and heck it's just been one of those MIA weeks in life in general, if you know what I mean. The only art I've spent anytime doing is a revisitation to my Wall Project I did a Ramble on a few Rambles ago.

I've been painting bits here and there for a while,

like a batch of seagulls here:

a mermaid there:

This is how I just left my desk to come write this blogpost:

a fishtail and a sweepiebum (...my feet now feel cold un-sweepiefied!)

I've been painting when I can so that when I can find a full day to take out to finish the Wall Project (may be 7 walls down, 5 to go or something similar) I'll be ready but I'm having difficulty 'finding' a day. I remember one of my first ever blogposts was about how 'finding' time for creativity is often impossible (just like exercise, or anything else healthy but can be deemed unimportant-right-now in comparison to other things)...so you have to make it, so that's what I'm doing. I'm just going to paint like crazy the rest of tonight so I can go this weekend and do as much as I can, and that's why I've been MIA from other things. I've learned in the past few weeks that sometimes you just have to focus on the one thing and concentrate on that till it's done, which is difficult for me as it's not the natural way for my creativity. I like to create a lot of different projects at once, but that's just not working here so I'm central focusing now till the jobs done. I'm hoping that'll mean I'll have something new to report here next week, but to make that happen I'm gonna get back to it...and my furry feet warmer. 

I may post FB pics of the walls as they go up if you wanna see

Hope you have a happy arty weekend

and fyi if you're missing my arty absense from all things online related please don't forget about Journal Workshops - a place where creativity continues abundantly xoxo

Weekly Ramble #2 ~ Midst of Jennibellie Wall Project

Hi guys, so true to my words of my first Weekly Ramble blogpost last week I don't have a completed project to share, but what has been a very crazy couple weeks and a big-ass wall project! 

If you are a member of my Monthly Challenge Group on Journal Workshops you may have seen in my vlog at the beginning of this month that I have been making art not for anything online related (which is why my presence has been a bit thin, and hence another reason why I'm loving the Weekly Ramble idea) but for a centre specialising in Dementia and Alzheimer care. If you are not a member of the Monthly Challenge Group you can join it here: http://journalworkshops.ning.com/group/monthly-challenge and catch up on the challenges entirely in your own time, there is vids in there as well as lots of shared art inspiration! And if you are not a member of my Journal Workshops community you can join it here: http://journalworkshops.ning.com/ completely for free, as is all resources currently on there =)

So I will do a 'proper' vlog of this once all walls are done but here's a sneak peek of what I've been up to:

Before I started - but still a lot of work to get the walls to this state!

I started with the fishies! 'Under the sea' before 'Over the Sea', You Sea?!

Here is a small snippet of a video I made for a friend to show how I was getting on:

I've done the sea, I've done the sea, Woohoooooooooooooo

So now I'm on the upper bits of the wall:

Sometimes I stick painted elements

Sometimes I paint painted elements

And the particular wall came together into this:

What do you think? 

Still several walls to go...
after I come back from a short lil hol I'm taking next week woohoo!

As I say I will make a lil vlog once all of the walls (on this particular section of wall anyhow! I've a feeling I'm being roped into doing more haha) are done. 

So I'm out for this week and off to pack, 
I shall have internet where I'm staying (hopefully, cross your fingers!) so shall keep the blogposts coming =)

Pom-Pom Garland Tutorial

Hey guys, so I've had one or two of you say 

'when are we going to see a tour of your new studio?'

well my answer is...when I've everything exactly how I want it, 

so you're just going to have to wait (so ner :p) lol but you are getting to see tid bits here and there (like this post) and one good thing to come out of me taking my time & making my space all pruuuutty is...a tutorial.

And no this is the tutorial I gave sneak peeks of in my last post that I've been working on, this is just a freebie (not that the others not a freebie, but this is an extra freebie, see?!). This is why I think I'm gonna love my vlogging/vlog channel, just to show you these little bits and pieces that I otherwise might not have bothered sharing because they weren't worth the whole hoop-la of making a 'proper' tutorial.

So here is it a little chillaxed video (even in my scruffy 'paint top' - forgive me =D lol) with tips for making your own Pom-Pom garland.

Happy Sunday

A New Studio And New Girls

New Studio Sneak Peek...

I have a new studio

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!

No it's not my interior one, my little condensed hub of heaven will still be my main art room, but I will soon be having an outdoor space too which I have missed having a lot. Here's what my new room turned up like:

and here's what it's currently like, or a peek of it anyway.

It's a proper outdoor office space. It's waaaaay more expensive than what I was planning to have after my old little shed croaked it, but in the end with all options weighed it was the most sensible. To be able to use any outdoor space properly it would have to be insulated, sealed yada yada yada and I spent a fortune doing all that on my old shed that still let in bugs, still creaked my neck with drafts and still warped with damp. However much I loved it, it was ultimately a waste of money and would always have a limited amount of available uses.  This one however, well it is a contained unit, my friends even thinking of getting one as a guestroom it is that nice, I'd happily sleep in it =) (well when it's finished anyway). 

So yay! Many people said on my facebook that the loss of my old shed studio was just making way for something bigger and better and I guess they were right =D

In spite of being super excited about that, watching it be built and going out shopping for cheap carpet tiles and blinds to fit it I have managed to do some art today too:

I have been creating with my new(ish) brush pen on floral wallpapers and come up with this little series I'm titling Wall Flowers (gettit?!). They are quite expressive work, done without pencil and created with quick fluid lines.

I'm also doing something I rarely do with my original art and that is putting them up for sale. My etsy sales over the last couple of months have helped me to purchase some bits for my new studio but I'm hoping these pieces will help me furnish it with a little comfort too. Their sale may only help me buy a rug or pillow or two but I have my heart set on some crochet, so any monies I get from it will go straight back into supporting the work of another etsy artist.

If you are interested in purchasing one of these works please visit my shop. There are only four and as I say I rarely sell my originals so if you want it you have to get it when you see it =)

thanks for visiting

much love

AEDM & NaNoWriMo Day 21

Today's creation for AEDM is this canvas:

Antique music sheet and lots of scraps. Obviously still a long way to go but think this is all the time I'll have for today, hopefully tomorrow I will have enough time to make progress.

Day 20's final word count for NaNoWriMo was: 4,128, finally, a word count and bum (yesterday's post explains) I can be proud of lol
Totalling: 22,378

AEDM & NaNoWriMo Day 6

Today's creation for AEDM is:

Ornament for a friend (blog-matching ornament too lol) made with packaging board decoupaged in scrap paper to strengthen. I love the translucentness of the skin, although it hasn't photographed too well :(. To do it I painted her with water-soluble crayons and watercolour pencils then took a piece of tissue paper and allowed it to absorb most of the colour, leaving only a hint. With the hair I scratched away the paint with a needle, to show the white paper in places beneath.

The top right hand corner has a hatpin, which are really easy to make yourself with a headpin and a bead, I then added an old broken bracelet to it for a fancy dangle. Also linking to Sunday Sketches, over at Blue Chair Diary.

Day 5's final word count for NaNoWriMo was: Zero, Unfortunately! Therefore total is still: 6282. I guessed it was going to happened at some point this month but a little disappointed it was so soon. But it was a day when family matters came first and I had to play Nurse Nightingale, as my mum calls it. 

I was hoping to get some words done once I got home but then Bonfire night settled the rest of the word shortfall, just look at these demon eyes:

It's my full-sized border collie, trying to fit into a space a jack russell would have difficulty with (under my bed), leaving a wave of destruction behind him. This is after a week of him trying to fit into a computer armoire, the boiler cupboard, a shelf of scrapbooks under my desk and so on and so forth, increasingly getting worse as the bangs grew more frequent leading up to the mass of noise last night. I cleared out everything under half of the bed to give him space to stretch out, then put the tv up to it's highest in my bedroom and my ipod dock blasting on max in my studio, trying their best to drown out the bangs that were terrifying him so much. But in doing this rendered concentrating on writing absolutely impossible, the place was reverberating! So no words at all but hopefully one slightly less distressed pup than what could have been.

Now I'm off to try and catch those runaway words back up, thanks for visiting J xx

Journaling, Outside the Box

Hi Guys! Last couple of days I have been making this home decor art journal. (Yes, it's a journal. It encapsulates what my feelings were at that moment, so by my reckoning it's a journal). Ever since I discovered bookbinding I have looked at everything from wool to wood, from metal to plastic to see how I can turn it into a journal. Now I'm looking at ways to journal outside of the box, or book in this case.

I am now editing a video tutorial on this, which I'll post on here once done, so if you want to make it pop back to have a peek. 

It's not difficult to make, I doubt you even need a tutorial but I'm making one for youtube so might as well post it.

It is made from recycled materials so you'll need:
3 same shape boxes
waste paper
some threading material - I used a belt but anything will work (long necklace/thread/string etc)
glue, paint, pens, embellies etc

Sorry about the bad pics it was late when I took them. Linking up with Paint Party Friday, Sneak Peak and for the first time Show & Tell Friday as I've always looked and drooled over the beautiful things shown over at My Romantic Home, toodles Jennibellie x

PS Only couple more days left to enter my giveaway & if you haven't already go do it as I'm secretly adding more to the goodies - something that will soon be in my Etsy shoppe but shhhhh only to be known to the winner :)