Hi! It's me!

   Well hello! Apologies for not posting anything recently - life just got a bit busy and I let things slip a bit here! I'm here now tho and I have two pieces of mixed media art to share with you this morning. These were made as gifts for two of my lovely friends who thankfully really liked them - phew! It's always a worry when you give a homemade gift. Family members are always supportive of my creative endeavours but sometimes they can be a bit biased in their opinions which is by no means a bad thing - creativity should always be encouraged - no matter what the media is - it could be crafting, painting, putting the shelves up or just making the tea! I'm a firm believer that if it comes from the heart then it will usually be a thing of beauty, integrity or sometimes both! So I was really relieved when the girls opened their pressies and saw what I'd made them! They were genuinely delighted! I'm sure neither of them will mind me sharing the images here with you all - it's all about inspiring and sharing here...
This first one is Angie's pressie...

Happy birthday Ange!!

And this one is Elaine's

   As you can see I seem to have a bird thing happening at the moment - it must be spring or something! We don't get as many little birdies in our garden as we used to - having three cats kinda puts them off naturally, but we do get families of house martins nesting above the bay window of our living room. They drive the cats insane with their darting and weaving and comings and goings all day long heehee! I'm pretty sure it won't be long till they arrive for their summer holiday here in Sunny Dundee.
  So, back to the creative stuff - the collages were put together in a similar way as the Dwell With Your Kind one in the previous post. These ones are a bit smaller - A5, and are on canvasses instead of board this time. Both incorporate vintage bird images printed from a laser printer - very important this bit as prints from an inkjet printer don't like coming into contact with any water based paints, inks glues etc. and end up a blurry mess. There's old book text layered in the background but it's the layer of gesso on top that enables the colours to slide about and play with each other. Those gel crayons are so vibrant and creamy that I'd be happy just to look at that on my wall! I always finish off my art with a layer of Golden Gel Medium. I prefer to use the one that dries with a bit of texture so you can see brush strokes and uneven bits - I feel it just gives a bit more tactility too.
   Anyways, I hope you like them too and if you're having a lazy day, why not indulge yourself in something creative. It's good for the soul dontcha know!
Go on, you know you want to!
Love Jak
xxx