What's on your workdesk Wednesday

My little grandson, who is painting a canvas I bought him for Christmas.

'Nana, the elephant is grey, and you don't have grey in your paint box', he said.

He is marvelling at the grey paint, having mixed a splodge of white and black!

I wish I had taken a photo of him at the wonderment on his face when he made this amazing discovery that you can mix colours together to get whatever colour you want!

 But  he is still looking as though he can't quite believe what happened.

After that, I showed him the magic of mixing dark blue with white to get a light blue for the sky.  Blue and yellow to get different shades of green.  He just loved the mixing on a plastic lid part.  In fact he seemed to have as much fun experimenting with mixing different colours as he did painting with them.

(I have to confess that I was rather proud that as he had just had his 5th birthday 2 days before Christmas, at how careful, and painstakingly he painted his very first printed picture.  Not a bit like his dad and uncle - who at the same age were sploshing on paint with great gusto!)

In the photo above we have dried the paint with an air dryer, and he is just putting the finishing touches to the tree - he wanted red cherries on it, so is drawing them freehand with a felt tip pen!

Definitely a mixed media artist in the making

I thought I would join in on the fun blog hop which is What's on your workdesk Wednesday.

Why don't you hop over here to join in

Art Journal Every Day 3

Well I messed up big time with this!

So I painted over the page and tried again

And again

And again

So spent more than 10 minutes on it.

But decided to show you anyway!

So instead of being on top of a rainbow - which I ruined (but only one page thank goodness)

This is totally different.  

I used oil pastel sticks as they are good for covering up 'stuff' as they are rich.  The only thing is, because they are oil based they are hard to write or even paint on. 

This is not finished yet.

For some reason I thought of the three brass monkeys.

'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.'

It's good to post things that go wrong I think.

Talking of which .........there is another one coming up

Art Journal Every Day. 2

Today my time was spent brayering over the page on the left hand side

Splattering the page on the right hand side with water to which I added a drip of bleach.

I like the effect!

Haven't a clue where I go from here!

Will let you see when I have done some more!

Altered Plywood Tissue Box

I had the blue metallic paint out to decorate the cheese box in the previous post - and yes, you know what's it's like - you want to paint everything in sight don't you!

So after a rummage in my stash, I retrieved a wooden tissue box which I had been saving for the day that I had some inspiration!

I painted it blue all over and it looked lovely, but plain.

Then I got out my stencils again and stencilled every flat surface!

Both ends

Both sides

And both sides of the top!

With a lovely pearlescent (childrens) tube of acrylic paint, which I brushed over the blue to give it a gorgeous sheen  when the light caught it!

Sadly it doesn't photograph well but you will have to take my word for it.

I didn't want to part with it really as it looked lovely in real life!

It has gone to a very good home though - to Haruko, my daughter in law, as one of her Christmas presents.

Art Journal Every Day

Quote of the day today is 'Fortune favours the bold' from Virgil - which is rather apt in my case as I am about to embark on 365 days of art journalling - joining in the challenge of 'Art journal every day' you can join in too - there's a link in my side bar!

Now you don't have to do a journal page every single day - oh no - I would fall by the wayside on the first day if you did! The idea is that you add a little something every day - why not hop over and read up about it - it sounds great fun.

I am number 150 on the list of those joining in from all over the world - and the list is growing fast!

On Julie's blog today, she has uploaded examples of work from different blogs and it's brilliant to kick start you into action. 

So after an hour and a half's walk in fog around the village, on a cold miserable day, it was just what I needed to get going.

When I took a look today I was inspired to have a go at using bright colours after seeing Reine's fabulous journal page.

So here is my 10 minute 'start' today.

Using Pentel Aquash water colour crayons on the left hand side page, I just scribbled some random colours.  Then decided to repeat the colours on the right hand side page using Necolours.

Look what happens when you wash over them with a water brush - magic!

I had just started to flick water onto the right hand side when my time was up!

Watch this space!

Finished the cheese now altered the box!

Here are a few photos of a cheese box I altered.  

Firstly I painted the box with children's copper coloured acrylic paint 

Then using a stencil, I dabbed all over with blue metallic paint

Then I repeated the process for the lid

Job done!

Tucked inside is a surprise - best not mention what it is as it's a birthday present.

It's a cracker

I hardly have time to sit down at the moment - like most mums and grannies - lots of baking and wrapping of presents, etc.

I did make some time a week ago to create this

It smells wonderful when you walk into the little room.  The combination of eucalyptus, pine, and rosemary is so refreshing.  It looks much redder and Christmassey in daylight.

I also bought a real Christmas tree as always from a farm - and braved driving down a narrow country lane, covered in snow, with only one track of tyre marks - that was last week.

I spent a couple of afternoons decorating it.  It takes so long, as every bauble and bit of tinsel brings  back memories of Christmas past.

Are you the same when you decorate your tree or home?

Have a good Christmas one and all, and may 2011 bring good health and happiness.