29 faces.....may 29

so this challenge is coming to an end :( ive really enjoyed it and has made me make something nearly every day which is a good thing :)

martha posted a challenge the other day to do something different and i chose to not use any color just black and white. i had picked up these cheap montemarte charcoal pencils ages ago and decide to give them a whirl...

i tried sharpening them with a pencil sharpener....big mistake , they kept breaking...

i tried using a knife , marginally better but would lose up to 4cm on a pencil trying to get a nice tip...

in the end i used the broken bits of lead and then gave up ....

the only one i used on this was the white one, as my gesso has just run out :(

so now i know why they were cheap.

i couldnt sit for long today, its my pain face ((



id like to thank each and every one of you for all the loverly comments and the suggestions for little miss names [i still have some that need naming and ill be back to show you my book].

its been inspiring to see some of the wonderful faces and meet some lovely new bloggers...


THANK YOU !!!! this was fun and you guys made it fun !!!

29 faces may 27 and 28

heya guys, i started my roster today and have every second monday off which i must say is just lovely :) i shouldve been making stock for the market but got a bit side tracked catching up on faces which is much more fun.........
the above i splashed watercolors onto watercolor paper which got bit dark looking....then i splashed gesso to lighten it up abit...i liked how it looked like bubbles so decided on a mermaid with long flowy locks :] ive used a combination of ws crayons and peerless watercolors....

this one is done on a sanded tissuebox...... spray or dampen tissue card then sand lightly with a light sandpaper [ if you use course or put too much water on you will sand chunks out which sometimes i dont mind]. i block out face and body with gesso and then paint...

this little miss has a red nose....so many people sick with colds and flu at the moment....the bugs just seem to get nastier each year.....

thanks for all your well wishes and comments too, my back is improved but i cant sit for too long.....

29 faces may 26

little miss geisha sun .....

my attempt at a geisha...

i really admire those beautiful paintings that capture the images with such simple brush strokes...

i made ths one using a sanded tissue box........ such a beautiful design.

felt like id been hit by a truck this morning...hopefully tomorrow will be better...

Lucys 21st present...

Over the years, i have always liked to make the girls something each for their b'days or Christmas.... sometimes i run out of time but i gave this art journal pencil case to luce for her 21st as i knew she really liked charlies one......
this one was big, A4 size and made it more lucy by adding lots of different fabrics, denim, suede, sari silks, scraps from her quilt, what ever i could my hands on..... i did some free motioning and added some quilt wadding so its quite padded...

Ive used horsehair canvas on the inside :) i love its lineny look...
it took me forever to remember how i made the gusseted plastic pocket and went thru 3 lots of plastic :(
but at the last minute i figured out a way although its still different to Charlies...go figure !!

i got the binding on and then hand sewed all around the binding at the school market the night before her b'day...:)

double pocket for papers and journal....









luce LOVED it :)

i need to make me one now.....

29 faces may 24 and 25

Little Miss ???

i missed posting yesterday as my back was too sore to sit and paint or sit at the computer for long...I've been to the chiro tonight[i seem to live there lately]and feel much better....

Little Miss Piggy-Wiggins

i cant believe this is nearly over.....its flown and has not only been a fantastic learning exercise but also good discipline to find time to make something every day.....and ive met some new bloggers:)
i had a play around with my new peerless watercolors for this lil gal....they came in the post , a wonderful surprise from the lovely and very generous Lynne....the colors are really vibrant, im looking forward to more playing:)
i will have to have a major catch up of tags as i dont just seem to be able to fit the two in.......

29 faces..may 22 and 23

Presenting Little Misses Nellie and Melba...



thanks for all the lovely comments too ,my inbox is exploding and i'll have a big catch up on the weekend :)

29 faces may 21

funny little thing isnt she ?!!

29 faces....may 20

back again with a quickie post....

collaged background with gesso and oil pastels...
face is done with water soluble crayons...xx

sew party saturday...

yesterday was the sewing party for work and we had demos going for bags, block of the month, kids jammy pants and also the kids could make a no sew scarf or no sew tutu...

i demo'd art journal covers and self mitering bunny rugs.

when i went away on the Bacchus retreat, i made two bunny rugs for charlies friend who was having a baby......i thought she had told me it would be boy so picked boy fabrics... as you do...i must have dreamt it but as luck would have it she DID have a boy :)

see i just knew all along :)

these are the ones i demo'd ....
i found this video tutorial here...






i then made these two journal covers using a really simple construction method from these beautiful new fabrics at work.

front cover


back cover


front cover

ive bought more fabric so i can make some more covers for the market in june...it is such a beautiful vintagy range....

ill be back later with my next face :)

29 faces may 18 &19

hah! she looks like miss grumpy bum has the blues....



and this little miss is tired.....

i had a great time at sewing party , i will show you tomorrow......

its all catching up with me tonight...night night...xxx

29 faces.....may 16 and 17

you guys are just lovely, you leave me such wonderful comments and suggestions for names....:}
this week i decided to try some more ethnic type faces..... gives me the opportunity to play around with lush noses and sexy lips....
on the positive side i am getting the hang of layering watercolors but when ever i do big eyes they are always uneven....fortunately tho i think they add to the quirkiness....and i do like quirky...

little miss esther :) for doreen

i didn't get today's face done :(

i am involved in the sewing party at work tomorrow and did some prep for that instead...got some bunny rugs and art journal covers to make tonight but might have to have nana nap first. it doesnt start til 11am so i might even sleep in if my guilty concience about my dirty house lets me :(

29faces .....3 days worth...

so 3 more faces in my catch up today....

may 13th,....little miss MUM....for all the mums out there celebrating mothers day ...


you know i am loving all this experimentation.... i get to play around with different hairstyles,hair colors face shapes and eyes .....it is so much fun and I'm learning so much about water color along the way....

May 14th....this girl has been bothering me for days wondering who she reminds me of....

she is just a Little Miss at this stage :)

for some reason [ i think its tiredness] this week i have smudged lots of faces...it reminded me of high school and Mechanical drawing which i absolutely loathed ... i was hopeless at perspective and would always be rubbing big holes in my paper and smudging stuff....my cross stitch napkins faired no better , being precise just wasn't my thing and its taken tl somewhat recently to find that out ....

Lucy gave me some pastel markers for Mothers Day and i was just mucking about with all the colors...they are lovely to use , really soft and creamy. like a big flat crayon but almost painty...once blended i dry brushed gesso and then gessoed in a body....i thought it would be interesting to scribble/scratch the background and then when that worked i scratched the face out and got all these wonderful colors poking thru ....
May 15th.....Little Miss ????

29 face, May 12 ...

i've got a bit behind with my faces,ive kept making them but struggled with the posting of them....we had a big weekend with lucys 21st on Sat, mothers day on Sunday and then two looong days with work.....

We had a lovely night out with lucy



and the cake was a hit.....




so to my darling girl.......many many happys, love you heaps.... xoxo


Little Miss Lucy Locket.....


ive got heaps more to post about lucy 21st but will catch up my faces over the next two days and now its off to bed for me :)

29 faces may 11

its late here , nearly midnight and its been a loooong day..... i have put together lucys birthday cake , finished a sewing project, put 6 brooches together for a school market tonight [and didnt sell any !] i'm not long home after an ok evening moneywise but lovely catching up with Jenny who has been really sick but is on the mend now....

i wasnt going to post but will probably miss tomorrow and sunday with lucys 21st and Mothers day....and i didnt want to miss 3 days, not when i have been doing so well posting and painting...
jenny and i were discussing scanning as opposed to photograghing. both of us have to resort to scanning at the moment and the colors come out much darker....this ones quite pale in real life....


anyhow im off to bed :)

29 faces....may 10

sometimes i wonder if i will be able to keep finding new faces to draw, but somehow when i put pencil to paper a little face seems to emerge....and sometimes a story....

this ones Little Miss Color of Hope.... in response to all the poor buggers who have lost jobs this week alone....300 in melbourne, 150 in a nearby town, and the 120 TAFE workers in Bendigo about to go [thanks Mr Ballieu]. i think we are in for interesting times ahead......

thanks for all your lovely comments , i look forward to waking up every morning and reading them....

29 faces may9 a fishy tale...

Did you know that..........

when tiny little baby mermaids are born

they swim about the ocean floor like little tadpoles.......

their bodies are all snug inside their tails ........

so that the itty bitty fishies dont nibble on their fingers :)

29 faces ...may 8

gosh this ones got the sads.... i have been feeling crook today and took the day off but not miserable :)

one thing i learnt from making cloth dolls was that eyebrows are so important in the expression, angry, sad,happy, it was so easy to alter the look just by the tilt of an eyebrow.

i havent named her yet...any suggestions? Little Miss??????

i put together a collage of my 8 faces so far....gosh they are different.... not much consistency there !

may 1 and 6 are my faves and i hate may 4....:)


So why did no one tell me that Tim Holtz was coming to Australia ??? :) Are any of you going to his classes...??? i discovered it today but he's probably booked out by now .....:(
by all accounts hes a wonderful teacher ...

29 faces, May 7

meet little miss irky..... i wanted to have play around with some oriental eyes just to try something different .... i have also had an upset tummy today and am still feeling quite irky , funny that she turned a bit green too ;)

also just in case anyone wants to know, les asked if i used something to seal the oil pastels.....yes i do, normally a spray fixative but ive run out... i just used a matt spray varnish and it worked fine. if you dont use a sealer of some sort, the oil crayons resist all other mediums you try to put over top.... also i love that you get this wonderful translucency when you add the spray...:)

29 faces May 6

and another little face down :)

its turning into the highlight of my day :]

back on the prim thing again with oil pastels and paint background, ws crayons and gesso.

her little dress is torn from the liner in choclate boxes...

Little miss starshine......cos im feeling happy and excited about another little project ....


its funny how things evolve,like the names for instance...

i had no plan of what to do with my little faces but have made them into a book [ in bw cakebaking yesterday...4 cakes made, yey ] .
Think i will have get a bigger ring for later :)

They will also be diary for the month with little notes on the back...