Di's Visual Journal

I am going to pop some more new pages in here today. Hope you like them:-) Still having a problem with the flash, I think its because its quite dark inside today and  next time I will take the pictures in the light.

I have decided to start offering fun visual journaling classes in my home.

I have looked around and just can’t find anything like this on offer  anywhere near where I live, or even in Brisbane. I plan to make the classes very affordable and fun. A great few hours to socialise and  play and learn at the same time.

Winter is on its way and although we are very lucky here to not have too much cold weather, this season is a great time to play with collage, paint, pastals, water colours and textiles and yearn. YUM!

In the next week or so I will announce what the classes themes will be and how you can go about attending them. Just so you know I live in Caboolture, around 20 minutes drive from Chermside in Brisbane. Still close enough to access from the Sunshine Coast along the Bruce Highway.

More details to come soon. Watch this space.:-)

Hi,

Once again today I have been watching people make art on youtube. Although this is fun it can be frustrating as the sound is not always good or the music can be grating on you.

Its fabulous when you find someone doing something you havn’t seen before. I think I love these little videos so much because I am a visual learner.

I have chosen this video today, as it shows simple transfer methods to make wonderful interesting backgrounds that can be used in your art journals. I hope you enjoy it.

OK I have just found another one of her videos about bleaching background papers and what you can do with them. Its well worth the time to watch.:-)

Today I wanted to talk about collage and journal pages. I lately seem to work in my journal for days on end then don’t use it for a while. Then I feel a real need to journal again for a while. For certain times in my life,  I have managed to get a real great daily routine and journal every day. I intend to get back to that daily routine again as it feels really good.:-)

So, how about you? Are you able to be creative every day?

I recently saw some interesting information about embellishing the edges of your journal pages.

You could use beading or threads or macrame or plaiting. What about wire work, or using ripped fabrics, even ribbon or rope. Maybe cutting the edges into shapes or ripping them would be fun.

The covers are special to me. I usually wait till I am finished the journal before I create the finished cover. After I have finished the journal the cover ideas seem to come very easily for me. I decide if I am going to use fabric or collage . Its really the best part for me:-)

Thanks for visiting.

Di

Today I was checking out all the Mixed media art on YouTube. I found the following fabulous videos showing really simple ways to create spectacular backgrounds. I love the way she uses the glue gun for texture. How easy is this? Anyone could make one. I don’t think these would be very good for journaling but they would be wonderful on Canvas as an art work for your home.


After watching this I have found another similar one that I thought you would enjoy. I am a very visual person so some days I really love to watch others make art and after that I can add my ideas to theirs to come up with some original techniques. Enjoy!

Hi Everyone,   Wow! we are having some hot weather here in Queensland.

Today I am going to give you a few ideas of how to use tissue as a background. You can use it in your journals, altered books, ATC’s or whatever.

The background in the picture is from tissues I used to clean up my mess after playing with watercolor paints. Yes! you heard right….do not under any circumstances throw those cleaning up papers out. Dry them and stack them for later art work.


All I did then was coat the page with watered down PVA glue ( white glue). Next you quickly rip up the tissue into random small pieces then push them down onto the page.

Dip your brush into the watered down PVA and brush over the top of the tissue as well. Don’t fret as the PVA will dry clear.

Keep doing this till the complete page is covered then brush another coat of the PVA over the top. Now leave the page to dry.

There you have a wonderful tissue background for your pages.

Note: You can also use bought printed tissue for this or even use white then when its dry paint over it with acrylic paints or Lumiere for a wonderful leather look.

Have fun.

Happy New Year!

The picture is of Coco our cat helping me to create art by sitting on top of the case I keep my pencils and pens in,:-)

Have you been wanting to be more creative? Would you love to create art everyday but just don’t seem to be able to find the time.?

I have an idea for you. Get a large sheet of watercolor paper and using a pencil divide it into a grid. You can choose how big those sections in the grid are, but remember you will be creating art in one of them each and every day. So the smaller they are, the less frightening it will be for you,  unless of course you hate working small.

If you are brave you could make each grid space around 2 inches square. You can cut them all up and pop them in a box which is called your magic everyday art box. I would decorate the box and put some big doorknobs on the bottom of it to be legs.

Fill your box with the plain square then each day, find a small amount of time to paint, layer paper, collage with fabric or journal on. You will find yourself feeling a wonderful sense of accomplishment by having these remarkable tiny pieces of original art created each and every day.

What will you do with them all? You will use these arty grids in your bigger artwork. Its so wonderful to have art all ready for adding to bigger works. In fact many artists, especially those who work quickly have lots of different pieces of left over art work or textile art that they then add to their bigger pieces of work.

Another way you can use those grids is to get a friend to join you in their quest to create art every day, then at some stage, swap a number of them. Or what about making ATC’s using them?

Or just send an envelope full of them to an arty friend out of the blue as a random act of kindness.LOL

Anyway, if you like the idea.have a go and enjoy!

Hi, The Christmas Visitors have gone, the leftovers are being eaten and its nearly the New Year! Yesterday Wayne worked so I curled up and veged out watching the Sex In the City Movie……………had the best day, loved every moment. HAHA

I love this time of year, I ponder on what I want to learn and accomplish in the next year. Because I believe that anything is possible, it is an exciting time for me. I forget any negativity in the past and look forward to creating and discovering new stuff LOL.

Now I wanted to tell you about my journaling. I think you would have read my instructions for painting the pages of your journals in advance so you don’t have a blank page to stare at.


Recently I have stopped painting my pages and have discovered its just as much fun to rip up all kinds of papers and tissues and glue them onto the page and use that as a background. I have decided to try to keep some part of the page very plain so that its easy to journal on.

My next step is to start playing with glazes again. I love the way the glaze make the paint transparent. Its a great way to build up see through layers to give great depth to your page.  I bought a small bottle of Glaze in USA and used it up really quickly when I got home.  Recently, after quite a search I found a medium here in Australia that can be used as a glaze.

Can’t wait to get into it:-)

Catch up with you soon

HI, Finally I have cleaned out my craft room, its looking tidy and I know where everything is.woohoo! It took 3 days of hard work.:-) I have my sewing machine set up in there so I can access it easily if I need to sew, lovely!

As far as all my journaling supplies, they are all set up on a desk near my computer. I bought buckets for my pens, pencils etc and they are fabulous.

I also managed to buy a couple of containers that have lots of clear drawers for small items. These are just so handy for charms, tags, metal letters, poly clay heads etc etc. I have filled one up and have another on my sewing table waiting to be filled LOL


I think these things are the best. I saw them on Teesha Moores website in her studio. Now its easy to find all those little things you need when journaling.

I love the idea that these can be stacked as well.on top or beside each other.

I have been continuing to journal in my wonderful handmade book. I have been adding tags and extra large pages so each page is a surprise and I have started to hang threads and handmade beads on it as well. Heres my latest page.

It started off as a black and white page then it evolved.:-)

Gidday,

While I have chaos here in my craft room and my family room ( I am trying to reorganise both spaces) its been great to do little bits in my visual journal as the mood takes me. Yesterday I decided to change the pages size in my journal as I do love that look of surprise at having shorter and longer pages and pages with tabs on them.

I just glue different sized water color paper pages into the book. Now I can paint or collage on them and  add tags and extra pieces of paper and card as I feel like it. Ive pulled out stamps that I have never used before and I love those rub on letters so you can make up any word you like.


I also copied Teesha Moores idea for organising your cut out letters. They are now all organised under their letters in one of those plastic compartment boxes, Now I would like one with bigger compartments for faces and hands and all the other parts we need to make up a collage.

OK thats it for today, Enjoy!

I have a wonderful Hand made journal that I have written in in the past. I have this tendency to find and read journal pages later and rip them out as I have changed my mind about what I have written or about the things I though I wanted at the time.

This journal has black pages and the edges of the pages have been finished with a saw, which gives them the best edges ever!

Anyway, instead of ripping the pages out I have decided to do some visual journaling over the top.


I have also decided to use photo copies of my other art work and use them in different ways. Its a lot quicker and fun to see what you come up with:-)

I love the quote and have decided I need to extend my tribe! My art tribe is mainly in NZ, and I really miss not having like-minded arty friends  close by to me. The last one I had was Alana and she went back to live in NZ.:-(

I have many arty friends in USA and some in Australia in other states but I find a lot of them have now got jobs so they can make some money so don’t have a lot of time for art anymore.

If you love to do art and live anywhere around Caboolture, please get in touch as I am looking to form a fun group for playdays etc etc. email di@dyzee.com

I am doing more in my visual journal as I speak and will have more pages for you to see as I go along. I am also thinking of doing a large wall hanging with textiles.

OK gotta do more art. Talk soon. Leave a message if you can so I know someones really reading this LOL

Di

Image via WikipediaHi,

Just had a flying two week visit to New Zealand as my Mum fell and broke her hip. Ive been looking after Dad ( 88) while she was in hospital, then cooking and looking after them both after she came out.


My mum is amazing! She is recovering really fast and gets around pretty well on those crutches.

While in Nz I had a day with my wonderful friend Jill Maas and we went to see our friend Pania who is also a wonderful artist.it was so good to see what they were up to:-)

When I got home MY finished Journal from the Round Robin was waiting for me. I will take pictures of the pages and put them in my next posting here.

Have a great day

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was a vey creative day for me. At last I feel I am back in the creative zone. I had fun and did something very different.

This piece is truly mixed media with a wonderful textured surface. It is totally original and so is a One-off. It includes lots of different fabrics, papers,  trims, wood, metal studs and fringing. I have also beaded it with beautiful glass beads. And then to top it off the heart in the front has been crackled for an aged look.

I used one of those deep canvas’s not the thin ones. It measures 7.9inches X 9.8inches X 1.6inches deep. I have decided to make a series of these works and sell them. This one is priced at $US120 and shipping is additional. If you would like to purchase it please email me at mailto:di@dyzee.com and I can work out the shipoping price for you. Payments can be made by paypal.


I plan to make more in this series starting today so will let you know as soon as I have more to sell. Hope you are enjoying your creativity. Catch you soon

Love Di

Today I have had one of those days where I just don’t know what to do with myself. Usually if I have a day like this I go online and see what I can find to  get me inspired and to just take me away from myself for a bit:-)

The picture is a really gorgeous doll that Pam Grose designed and made and gave to me when she came to stay with me last time. I love her. Well them both really LOL

For a day like this I cant go past Teesha Moore’s blog. I was lucky today that she has been pretty prolific lately so I had heaps to see and lots of links to go to see other artists work. OH how I would LOVE to go to one of her Artfest or Artfiberfest’s. Im thinking I might get to work and use up all my wonderful novelty yarns making a srcumbled blanket for winter. Not that we get a lot of winter here but it may be fun anyway.


I’m still waiting to get my journal back from the Round Robin I ran. It can get frustrating at times when you organise somthing like this and the time line goes wayyyyy out of wack. Life just seems to get in the way for some. When it finally arrives I will add some more pictures of it to the blog here.

Im also having a realisation today that maybe I need to start journalling again. There has been a lot of family stuff ( extended) going on this week so that might be a good way to delve back into my creativity again. I took a look at the latest Cloth Paper Scissors and even that didnt get me going again. Usually my favorite magazine of all time LOL

Ok I am going straight to look for a journal I can play in. Catch you soon, love Di

Image by Chris Gin via Flickr

You may be wondering what on earth I am blogging about today.? Has it anything to do with art? Well Yes it does, but not directly. You see when I was into Art full time, I also needed to earn some money to keep my head above water and lets face it, you need plenty of money to buy all those supplies, the online classes and to be able to travel all over the place to those wonderful conferences.


As some of you may know, not only do I forcus on art but I am also learning Internet Marketing so that I can earn a passive income of , hopefully around $5000 per month. I am not there yet, but I do have a number of small and growing income streams working well right now.

A couple of days ago I came across this incredible program of learning how to make money with Blogging. It is run by a young Mum with children who has been paying off a large amount of debt. In ine year she has gone from earning nothing to now earning more than $5000 per month.

I joined her program, which is $13.95 per month, thinking I would try it for one month and if I didnt like it I would un subscribe. I am soooooo enjoying this program, its for complete beginners up to more advanced marketers. I really think you need to enjoy doing a bit of writing to do this for a job, but the benefits are huge, for example being able to work from home, have no boss, choose your own hours and then do art when ever you want as well!

Amy Bass who runs this program answers questions really quickly and seems to have the patience of a saint. I will be staying with her program for at least a number of months as it is teaching me so much of great value.

If you are interested in having a look to see what she says just click here.

Hi again,

So much for Summer. It was much cooler today and grey! I hate grey days, not sure if I have SAD or not but my mood plumits on not sunny days. Just as well I live somewhere tropical where it is sunny lots of the time.

Anyway I promised you the other art piece I made for Pams book so here it is.

I have a couple new ideas and have decided to make some smaller fabric collages to sell. Am making them now actually and I think I will call them “Inspirations”.


I am also wondering if now is the time to think seriously about teaching art again. And I am thinking about doing this in my own home. Maybe even do some more online classes on www.dyzee.com.

Its strange the way I go in cycles..I have been doing mainly Internet Marketing now since November last year and noe suddenly I have  a renewed interest in Art and Creating again. Internet Marketing is leaving me cold all of a sudden!

WEIRD! But I do tend to foillow what makes me feel  happy at the time. I am one of those people  who always has a happy life, but if using my creativity feels good then thats what I do:-)

I splashed out yesterday and bought myself a couple of those Copic  markers which are Made in Japan. I don’t buy a lot of art supplies these days but couldnt’ resist these and I think I will buy more. They said they have a lot more colours coming in so I will watch for them. They dry instantly and are solvent based not water based. Wonderful for journalling with a chisel one end and a pointed tip the other.

OK its getting late and time to go to bed.

Catch ya later, LOve Di

Its spring here in Queensland and its starting to really warm up again Woo hoo!! Today is going to be a real hot one so I am into my summer uniform ( at home only) the sarong!

Yesterday I spent the day finishing my work in Pams Journal. Its been a while since I have played with textiles and I really enjoyed myself.

I love drawing faces and so that part was fun as well. Pam started her book by painting and collaging and she used the colours in the background of my work. The book flows really well so I thought I would continue with those wonderful colours.


The technique I have used is the same one that I used in my fabric book class. Its easy and comes out fabulous. You could use it to make bags and purses and all sorts.

As I was creating  yesterday, I wondered if anyone would be interested in buying these textile pieces. I love making them and may get some made as a test and see if they sell.

Please email me at di@dyzee.com if you think you may be interested.

I actually made two of these pages yesterday so tomorrow I will upload the other. Have a great day

Love Di

Hi again,

I am thrilled and excited because my friend and doll maker extrordinaire Jill Maas is coming to visit  and stay a few days with me next week. She lives in New Zealand so I don’t get to see her very often.

The picture is of a couple of her one-off dolls called The Party Girls.

Jill is really funny and we have heaps of laughs when we get together.

Jill teaches all around New Zealand and is teaching in Australia three times this year. The dolls she designs are real characters and  always  make people smile.


The last couple of years, Jill has published a wonderful calendar, with  her dolls and little stories. They are wonderful and would make a fabulous Christmas Present for art friends.

Jill bought me a copy of the latest and it is really lovely. She has some  really interesting dolls in it. I will get a picture of the front of it and put it here for you to see but if you cant wait that long just get along to her website and look for yourself.

One of my favorite things to do these days is go to You Tube and watch mixed media art videos. There is something so motivating to watch others “do Art”! So The movie here is of doodling into a mandella.These are so easy to make, all you need is paper and a black sharpie pen. I think you will find it very satisfying,

I love the music especially the sounds of the sea through out it. OHHHHHHHh I so miss being by the sea and one day, when ever I make some consistent money we will move back to Kings Beach and be by the sea again Woohoo. Anyway I have put this video up here so you can enjoy it too:-)

To day I am just not feeling into my Internet Marketing work as google has taken my Number I  spot away, in fact not only am I not Number 1 anymore,  but I can’t find my lens( squidoo web page) anywhere……….anyway you dont want to know about that. But its days like this that I creep back in to the Art. Back into the creative zone.


I have Pams ( Grose) book to do and that is the last one for me ! I am going with the color theme she has used thoughout the book, a sort of maroony purple with greens. I decided to do a textile piece today instead of messing with paints. So I cut up heaps of different fabrics into little pieces ( are we weird or not?)I have ironed them all onto interfacing the size of the page I want to create. And next I will sew them all back together again!

Ok gotta go. Enjoy the video

Love Di

Hi again guys,

Today I have a picture of my own work from my own book. For the background I actually used some paper towels that I had used to mop up excess paint when doing another collage.

These paper Towels have two layers so I just pulled the layers apart and then ripped up the toels into little pieces and  glues them all over the pages using diluted PVA glue. The glue dries clear and you get a wonderful water colour look to the background.The colors are very subtle but very pretty.


Although I have plenty of other work to do, in my head I have been cooking up ideas for my work in Pam’s book. Her book is the very best one in my opinion and I really just want to keep it LOL .

Anyway, in the next few days I will get on to it, then that the end of the round robin. I will be sad and pleased that it is at the end. Some of the books were quite difficult for me and I certainly don’t think I did my best work. However I did the best I could at the time so I spose thats all the matters really.

OK gotta go do some work. Catch you soon.

HI everyone,

For those of you looking for my coaching site, I have taken it down. I am not doing any coaching right now due to a very busy life and my focus on other things.

This blog will focus on any creative work I am doing. I may also write about other things that I think you may like as well. Because I havn’t been updating dyzee.com very often, I hope you will check in here as this will be the place that I check into.

As some of you will know I have been spending most of my time learning and putting my Internet Marketing skills to good use. I am working to make a passive income online. It requires long hours of work ( which I love) and a real dedication. I think the reason most people never have success at this is because they give up too soon. It takes time for sites to mature and for traffic to find you, but when it does , you finally get the rewards of having money in your accounts in the morning when you wake up.

The only Art work I am doing right now is a Round Robin with Pam Grose, Pearl Moon, Jill Maas, Carolyn Stephens, Lorraine Abenethy and Pania Molloy. I organized this round robin cause I thought it would be great to do a Visual Journal Challenge. How ever the work that is coming through is more a cross between an Altered Book and a Collage. Its still incredible though! The latest book I have received is Pam’s and this book is absolutely wonderful! The work in it is beautiful and breath taking.