Confessions of an art lover - Blog hop with a difference

Hello creative people,

A good few weeks ago, a very sweet scrappy pal and fellow DT Lulu Pooh Hussena Calcuttawala tagged me to join the 'Getting to know you better' blog hop. I promised to join but was unable to post on time. Then few weeks later, two more very dear friends asked me again - Karuna Chauhan and Bipasha K and this time I couldn't refuse. I admire each one of these three artists and their encouragement means a lot me.

Hussena is my go to expert when it comes to creating flower clusters. I love her shabby, elegant style of creating - I always go wow! she has tons of techniques up her sleeve to create that special effect which leaves everyone wanting yet another look at her project.

Karuna Chauhan - I owe a lot to this girl! When I started blogging in December last year, I was very new to scrapbooking, yet she trusted me and offered me a place in her very talented Design Team. Im very proud to be a Lulu Pooh and the love and encouragement from you and the other Lulu Poohs makes me flex my creative muscles and explore new techniques and medium. Thank you Karuna :)

And finally Bipasha - we all now call her the Prima flower girl. She makes magic with flowers! I came across her work through a Lulupu challenge and my jaws dropped - she had made an explosion house; valentine themed. Hopped onto her blog and was blown away by this girls creativity and amazing 3d projects.

My life in blogland has been very enjoyable thanks not only to these three friends but also all of you readers who regularly drop by and leave me sweet words of encouragement. Now onto some tit bits about me.

1.What am I working on right now?
I almost always have a dozen more ideas in my head than I have the time for. Right now, Im working on completing my DT assignments for this month and next. I can never work on one project at a time - that's the way my brain works :P plus mixed media work involves gesso, paints, texture paste etc that always take ages to dry (sp in winter) so while one is drying I hop onto the next project. I usually sneak in an art journal page or two and am also working on a glass painting. Here is a pic of what I worked on today....

2.Why do I create what I do ?

I have been creating art journal pages for many years now - back in my school days though I didn't know they were called art journals and I didn't have access to so many different mediums either - primarily worked with oil pastels and sketch pens (sharpies). 

At one time (15 years ago) my collection of sketch pens exceeded 100 - used to especially save the nearly dry ones as they are d best to shade :P Who knew a few years later someone would make copics and distress markers. Im sure there are many more products out there that I havent even heard of. This one below is all sketchpens except the yellow sky which is oil pastel.

I've also tried my hand at glass, tile painting, pottery, embroidery, mosaics and now scrapbooking. Sewing is next on my list ;)

I create because its my way of expressing and processing life, analyzing my feelings, internalizing the events that's happened around me and also my safe haven to face bitter truths.I just love using my hands to make stuff. 

 Click here to see how I created this layout

For a few years in between, I had stopped creating and when I wanted to start back again in 2013, I wanted to try something new and that's how I discovered scrapbooking.

Go here to see all the pages of this album. 



3.How does my creating process work?

For my scrapbook layouts I always pick a photograph first - usually my kids. Then I think of when the photo was taken and the story behind it. I choose my papers, colour scheme, embellies based on that. I can never use a background paper without altering it in some way. 

 

Click here to read how I made the background on a plain cardstock

Many times with my art journal pages and cards, I don't have a final image in mind - I take my favorite mediums and just have fun and invariably what I create will reflect whats going on in my head {..........there, I shared a secret :)}

Click here to see a pictorial for this card

When Im not doing any of these, I love experimenting and trying different techniques on tags or creating backgrounds. Sometimes Ill just fussy cut paper and an idea is born.

 4. What is my Signature style?

Hmmm...... mixed media..... but beyond that I'm not sure. I took out my last few projects and had a look - whats common is they all have gesso, texture paste, stamps, paints and decoupage (tissue paper)

Close ups here

Beyond that I dont know if I prefer shabby / vintage or modern. I believe that the more I create, the more Ill discover my style - just wish could find more time :)



Close ups of the layout here.

Thank you dear reader, for making it this far down my post. Now, I have two super talented crafters whose creations are a feast to the eye. I promise, you wont be disappointed, so take a few minutes more and check the links below 

Pritesh Dagur - She was our goto person for mehndi during college days - her designs were not only intricate but very unique. She was and still is a perfectionist. Little did I know she had a such a wonderful hidden talent and interest in quiling. Apart from her creative side, I admire Pritesh for her confidence and passion to excel at everything she sets her heart on. Did you know she holds a world record for quilling!

The second artist I want you all to meet is Divya Thallap of Yelling Yellow. Divya is a graphic designer, illustrator and mixed media artist. Each decoupage project she creates is a work of art. I found Divya on one of my FB art trail discoveries and instantly fell in love with her work. Although Divya doesn't blog, Im sure many of you would want to read more about what goes on inside her creative brain as an FB post.

I thank each one of you for visiting me today and really appreciate your comments - they make my day :) Hugs.

One of my all time favourite creations