Psychodiva's Collage and Assemblage

Back

2011-04-21T14:44:00.001+01:00

I have been ill- I had major surgery- now I'm back- more later :D

Ladies Wot Lunch

2010-02-06T13:58:00.000Z

Had a wonderful lunch with a friend who is a producer yesterday- met her at her office in Bristol by the river and walked over to Cabot's Circus to Giraffe - lovely place for lunch- friendly staff, good food, good company- what more could you want :)

Well actually a little more lol- she asked me to write two scripts for her, which is great! And thankfully I have time to do them as the subjects are quite huge- Medical Ethics and Philosophy and Society - so easy peasy then lol

Nah! I'll get it done - and in between I'll keep studying and crafting- oh and working too lol.

One of the best things at lunch was being regaled with stories of famous actor's funerals that she has been to - no idea what the staff at Giraffe thought of us laughing about funerals ;)

Wordle

2010-02-02T14:52:00.000Z

I went playing- to relieve the reading :)

Mixed Media Links

2010-02-01T20:19:00.002Z

Some links to aid the participants in the Artie Fartie CJ swap

Look to the right of this post and see the link to Milliande Art Community- loads of mixed media on there- I am a member as you can see- please join- it is for women only tho

Wikpedia Mixed Media

Mixed media Arts

Mixed media Monday

Tate Gallery

Mixed media Artist

Mixed Media Art

it is literally- using everything mixed in together in one piece of art :)

Artie Fartie Mixed Media CJ

2010-02-01T20:10:00.000Z

I have started a Circle Journal group on UKScrappers- having now got back onto the board after a long absence and finding no CJs or decent swaps to be found ! argh- so typical me- I start one myself. Although-- it is good to see that a couple of my original ideas for swaps are still going strong in other guises lol

Anyhoo- I hope to put pictures and details of the CJ on here as time goes on.

The name of the CJ? yes you guessed

The Artie fartie Mixed Media CJ

all stamping / mixed media / anything goes :) themes yet to be decided by particpants - should be interesting as i've swapped with most of them before and love their work- there are only two I think i haven't swapped with before :)

Looking forward to this!!!!!

I think I might just pop back and start a couple of swaps up too :)

Dottee Dolls

2010-01-27T16:06:00.001Z

I say I haven't been able to finish things- well tell a lie- I have been making Dottee Dolls- they are tiny and quick and easy to finish- altho I still have some beading to do- here are some I have done.

2010-01-26T23:08:00.000Z

Squiggly Piggly- my sisters soft toy from our childhood- I spent a couple of months mending him and making him the nice new coat- sis loves sunflowers so that's what he got :)

Pumpkins for sale at the farm up the road - the colours were amazing - which is why I carry the camera with me all the time- took this one on the way to work

My house in the snow- not deep nor very cold compared to where some of my friends live- but be gentle- I am Eng;ish- all we usually do is rain :)

The wonderful piece of art outside the library in the town near where I live.

What we think is a Fieldfare- rare to see in English gardens as they tend to stay out in the country- I live right at the edge of a town - across the road is nothing but fields and farms and woods- they must have been hungry in the snow to have some into the garden- we had a flock of around 6.

Recent photos

Back

2010-01-26T20:34:00.001Z

Well I'm back- through a rather circuitous route starting with my old haunt UKScrappers I have ended up at my old blog.

Since my Mum died rather suddenly in July I haven't been doing too much other than grieving and taking care of others, sorting out life, thinking and a little doing.

Today I started thinking about crafting again and realised that it has been a while since I finished a project- the last few months have been endless days of starting things and no finishing, a lot of wishing and dreaming and more grieving - much of which I have no doubt will carry on- but today I decided I cannot carry on without art- of some kind.

Recently I have gotten more interested in sewing - I have been making a lot of Dottee Dolls, putting fabric CJ pages on a wall-hanging and exploring lots of art-quilt sites. I think I might be doing some art-quilting soon :)

I have also spent quite a few hours wandering somewhat aimlessly around junk and charity shops- but coming up with a few bargains in my wanders- I will tell you about them as I go on through the days and start to make things with them.

I also went to Colorado again- and came back with a few finds from thr Flea Market just outside Denver - I hope to ge some more e[hemera on here for people to download pretty soon.

Finally- my dad has passed to me a small trunk full of old photographs of his family and I also, when going through Mum's things- found a lot of photographs of her family- I will be posting some of these treasures on here soon :) I hope you enjoy them.

Well, after that ramble through the last 6 months- see you again soon :)

For my mum

2009-07-14T20:26:00.000+01:00

My Mum died peacefully this afternoon with her family around her- this is for her- she taught me to spit, she taught me to rebel, she taught me to craft andf paint

Warning - When I Am an Old Woman I Shall Wear Purple
When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

By Jenny Joseph

My Time of Day

2009-07-04T11:55:00.001+01:00

My time of day is the dark time
A couple of deals before dawn
When the street belongs to the cop
And the janitor with the mop
And the grocery clerks are all gone.

When the smell of the rainwashed pavement
Comes up clean, and fresh, and cold
And the streetlamp light
Fills the gutter with gold

That's my time of day
My time of day.

1950
Frank Loesser

More junk to alter

2009-06-29T16:38:00.000+01:00

went on my monthly trawl through Devizes for some more junk to alter and found this little gem - the roof shows some progress already with me slapping gesso on it :)

I have an idea in my head about birds and flowers- not my usual dark stuff at all :) we shall see how it turns out.

I also found this flower press which, when I got it home, I found contained some wonderfully preserved pressed flowers and gr4asses that had been in there for around 30 years!

so I went ahead and experimented on a canvas- a little too crowded but I think it turned out ok? it looks better now I have put some paper butterflies on it.

Then of course I just had to make a card for my mum - who is currently in hospital :(

a little wonky but I think that turned out ok too- my daughter is always telling me I 'don't do straight lines!' I think she is right - but I call it artistic flair!

And here are some ATC I made recently for swaps

Altered Photographs

2009-05-26T00:26:00.000+01:00

I've been making some ATC for a swap- using a technique for altering photographs - you spray the photo with water and then rough it up with sandpaper- then stamp over it and play around with ink and embossing- e voila! we have art :) I do like the way these turned out- and it was the first but certainly not the last time I used this technique :)

Car Booting

2009-05-04T09:11:00.001+01:00

we spent most of Saturday clearing out the garage - finally we can get into it without crampons and a rope!!!!! anyhoo- on Sunday we got up at 6am and went off to the local car boot sale with two cars packed with goodies! we managed to sell a lot of old books and videos, a lot of old toys and some other junk and stuff that had just been hanging around in the garage for ages!

Hannah (my daughter) made enough money to go on a trip to the cinema :) Phil (my husband) and I made a little to go towards a new TV set :) which is cool.

While there we of course did the trawl ourselves- I found a rusty old oil lamp and a plaque / face mask of Bachus for the garden- plus some old metal rings and what looks like an old razor but when i finally got around to looking at it properly turned out to be a cigar clipper :)

Then right at the end I haggled with a guy who let me have a load of old documents from the 20s and 30s- a couple from the 50s- for £3! so I am happy :) I got into conversation with the bloke who asked what I did with the papers and I told him artwork and stuff to relax- he asked why I need to relax and I told him lol- why are people always so impressed by what I do for a living? it is not that bad- not as if I have to clean out toilets or clean up sick or put my life at risk like some people do.

I am also wind-burnt as we were sat in the middle of a field for 5 hours! freezing to death with cold wet feet lol I was sure I was going to go home with trenchfoot!

Today is a bank holiday so I intend to catch up on some ATC I am supposed to do and also a 'welcome to hell' pack I have to do for a swap :)

Tomorrow it is back to work- but not really as we are moving offices and I spent most of Friday packing y stuff up- so we are spending most of next week moving to the nice new place and settling in- only two appointments with kids and one meeting during the whole week- it will be like a holiday :)

I'm sorting through the ephemera but will post some pics of it pretty soon

Some more bookmarks

2009-04-21T23:25:00.001+01:00

These ones were made by me- the larger one for my friend Donna- don't look Donna I haven't sent it yet!!!!!

the smaller ones for a bookmark swap on ATCsforall :)

Inspiration for a bookmark

2009-04-21T21:56:00.000+01:00

These pictures are for inspiration for a bookmark swap I am running on UKScrappers :)

Blog Candy

2009-04-12T13:33:00.000+01:00

The Artistic Stamper has some blog candy up for grabs- see the link in my sidebar over there on the right :) you have to be in it to win it!!

Lovely things

2009-04-05T01:18:00.000+01:00

I went on my monthly trawl around the charity shops and my favourite antique/junk store today - and found the two Alice books- in very poor condition but still readable- and more importantly- the illustrations are still good! £1 each!!!!! and they date to the 1890s :)

Found some other stuff too- an old Dunlop touring map book - without a date but from reading it I think it is from just after the war? I will have to look further into it

Also some more Punch magazines from the 30s and an old textbook about Freud- I thought I would get that one as I am starting another course in October- Psychotherapeutic observational studies :) cool eh?

Anyway- I will get some pics sorted out for another Ephemera Download

365 Pictures

2009-03-18T20:18:00.000Z

One of my photos has been chosen for the 365 pictures creativity prompt feature on 'Creativity Portal' you can see the portal here and this month's prompts here - I find them very useful for pushing my creativity - go have a look :)

Mine will feature on 24th April :)

Ephemera Download #2

2009-03-07T15:30:00.000Z

Finally got around to scanning some more in- I had a bit to sort through- I'll try to put a few photos in with the various other ephemera each time :)

A work in progress

2009-03-03T19:27:00.000Z

Just a tease of something I have not yet finished- it is barely started and I tend to 'play' a lot before I am satisfied- we shall see :)

This is for a scavenger hunt I am in- the brief (as part of the list of things to get / do) is to make something that suits your partner's profile :) I'll let you guess- this is also not finished

This is a page from the Fabric CJ I am in- I was pleased with how this one turned out :)

A small canvas - again for a scavenger hunt type swap- the brief here is to make an artistic representation of what scares you- so see if you can guess what mine is about :)

Then we have three wonderful 'Row Houses' that I received in swaps this last few weeks :) I adore them and can't stop making and swapping them

More Ephemera Coming

2009-03-03T00:07:00.000Z

Right- I have a bit of time off work- so in between gardening, getting my hair cut, finishing artwork for swaps and stuff, cooking and going for walks- I shall be scanning in some ephemera and posting it here for you to download.

Also- we will be coming to the end of another little-house swap on UKScrappers and I shall be posting the pictures on here as usual. PLus some other artwork I have been doing- in between all this I want to write a long letter to my friend in the US :)

I'd best get cracking then.

Valentine Tags

2009-02-20T10:24:00.000Z

I have been running another swap on UKScrappers - this time for Valentine's Day- unfortunately the snowstorms delayed the sending of some of them so Valentine's day is long gone- but the wonderful swappers in the groups didn't mind too much- thank you ladies!

Here are all the tags- wonderful artwork on al of them- I loved looking at them all in real life and take great inspiration from all the different ways of interpreting Valentine's day.

Latest Ephemera Finds!

2009-02-15T14:35:00.000Z

Went out for a meal in my favourite Bistro in Devizes yesterday and while there of course we HAD to visit the best shop in the world- my favourite place in which to while away a couple of hours rummaging in junk :)

I found a set of 5 old medical books from what looks like the between wars years - late 20s to early 30s - they do not have a publication date on them but pictures inside help me to date it to around then.

They have the most wonderful diagrams and pull-out bits of bodies :) I shall no doubt scan some pages in for download here.

And then my DH found me some old 'Punch' magazines from the 1930s- wonderful illustrations and adverts in them- downloads to follow once I have read them all :)

It was a really good day :)

Darwin Day Bookmark

2009-02-07T18:47:00.000Z

I made this for a swap I am running on Swap-Bot - to celebrate darwin day :)

2009-01-25T19:32:00.000Z

This was an experiment to see if I could post successfully from my Picasa application to my blog- and I can! :)
the photo was taken today on a walk down the Kennet and Avon Canal at Devizes :)

Tag Challenge

2009-01-17T12:20:00.001Z

Ove ron Tag Your It! the challenge this week is to make a Tag on the theme of 'sugar candy kisses' - I'm going to getback in the game now that the holiday season and all it's busyness has passed- so watch this space :)

Ephemera Download #1

2009-01-14T19:40:00.001Z

Photos from an album I bought in an antique centre in Devizes- it was full of pictures of the same family and I guess it was from a house clearance- how sad :(

bookplates / illustrations from an old book- don't know what it was about - these were already torn out when I got them

the back of an old photgraph I bought

a nice mixed bunch for the first lot I think?

Ephemera Downloads

2009-01-14T12:08:00.000Z

One of my favourite pasttimes is to rummage through charity shops and antique stores- and of course 'junk' shops and car boot sales- I generally manage to come up with some pieces of old paper such as birth certificates, old books, old adverts, photographs etc etc.that I use in my canvases and other art work.

I want to share these with people so that they can also make art out of them so starting later today I will be posting on a regular basis some downloadable pictures of ephemera that I have collected. This will be an experiment to start with and if there are any problems with the quality or anything please let me know so that I can do something about it.

Right- I am off to start scanning :)

ATC

2008-12-26T21:08:00.000Z

I've been making a few ATC for swaps - here are just three of them - I'll post the rest later on

But I seem to have fallen into a certain style- maybe I will have to try to change it a little?

Gingerbread House Swap

2008-11-30T18:38:00.000Z

I have been running a swap on UKS for Christmas Gingerbread Houses- the talent of the people involved in the swap has been overwhelming- here are some of the houses- Unfortunately I had a bit of a gaff with my camera so i didn't get individual pictures of all of the houses- and the setting was too small- however- the village does look good :)

More Tags and stuff

2008-11-16T15:27:00.000Z

Another Tag for a christmas tag swap

My entry for this month's UKArt Raffle- the theme is 'circles'

Just slipped this on in- she will yell at me I'm sure- but this is my daughter in her Hallowweem costume- a Christmas Zombie

Christmas Gingerbread house for a swap

This is a box made from two pieces of 12x12 card - folded origami style - and decorated a-la Christmas stylee for a swap - it will be filled with 'stuff' for my swappee:)

Tag You're It! Challenge

2008-11-16T15:05:00.000Z

I have decided to join in with the tag You're It! challenges :) this week it is Red and Green- traditional Christmas colours- well I went for a traditional Christmas theme :) I think ?

Silent Sunday - At the going down of the sun

2008-11-09T11:53:00.001Z

Junk Store finds

2008-11-01T22:50:00.000Z

Went rummaging today and found these :) They are pages cut from an old book- pity it was cut up but at least I get to have them :) The ballerina is a postcard.

2008-10-19T19:06:00.000+01:00

The theme for this month's UKArt Raffle is 'Dark' - I'm afraid I went the expected route at this time of year and did a Halloween tag set :) not quite finished yet tho as i have to wait for embellishments to dry :)

Script ATC set

2008-10-19T18:57:00.000+01:00

These are for a friend

Autumn ATC set

2008-10-19T18:38:00.003+01:00

Just completed a set of ATC based on the theme of Autumn for a swap at Swap-Bot.com.

Hannah's Art

2008-10-15T14:14:00.001+01:00

more from my daughter Hannah over at her blog

Doors and Windows

2008-10-15T12:27:00.000+01:00

While over in Normandy last month I started a project taking photos of doors and windows to use as stock photos in my artwork- here are a few

the rest can be found on flickr

UK Art Raffle

2008-10-11T15:29:00.000+01:00

I just joined the UK art raffle- link is through the little logo to the right there :)

I feel like I haven't been very involved in arty stuff for quite A while now- too much work, too little time, too much having to learn new things for work. The only thing I am involved in right now is a fabric CJ- I forgot to take a picture of my previous page but the one I am doing right now will definitely be on here in a couple of days!

I have loads of photos that I haven't scrapped - and cannot get to the crop today because I have been on call to A&E for the last two weekends- and am on again at the end of the month - getting caled out early Saturday and Sunday mornings is really tiring me out when I have early and late appointments all week too! I hope to get some rest next weekend but I know I will wanto plant the shrubs and flowers I bought at Westonbirt last week- where we all went on a team day out and got absolutely soaked through!

Anyhoo- the UK Art Raffle is a great idea and will get me back into arty stuff again- I hope! This month's theme is Dark- so I'm off to do the Dark Arts :)

Bag and Matt

2008-09-21T17:14:00.000+01:00

Just took this picture of my daughter and her fiance -I rather like it too :)

Photography

2008-08-25T16:56:00.000+01:00

I finally got to do some photography the other day when we (Whisper and I plus x2) went down to Monkey World in Dorset- here are a couple of pictures that I am particularly proud of.

Printer Trays

2008-07-27T16:27:00.001+01:00

Just been to a car boot sale and bought 4 old wooden printer type trays :) watch this space for altering fun :)

ACEO

2008-07-20T17:48:00.000+01:00

I have now also listed some ACEO or "Art Cards, Editions and Originals" which are 2.5 X 3.5 miniature works of art just the same as ATC or Artists Trading Cards but for sale and not swapping. They are collectable miniature art and collages and can be displayed in frames on the wall or fit into trading card albums.

I have always enjoyed making ATC and now ACEO and have collected over 300 myself in about two years of collecting.

Taking the plunge

2008-07-20T15:20:00.000+01:00

I have decided to take the plunge and set uip a shop on Etsy. I have been doing collages and assemblage work for some time now as a way fo relaxing from on overwhelmingly stressful job- and I made so much I have nowhere to put it lol- so I thouhgt- why not sell it?

I'm still waiting to see if anyone will buy it tho.

Here are the first two pieces I have listed on Etsy