32 Art Trading Cards in just five days!

What a crazy month this has been

Last year I participated in one of the most fun events on IllustratedATCs - called a Halloween-Athon. I'm sure it's popular elsewhere but here we set aside four days in October to make and trade frantically. Last year I was extremely under prepared. I had to go to work in the early morning which made staying up late to keep up with American trading impossible.

This year however:

1. I took 5 days off work

2. I made about 20 cards beforehand (with the help of #Drawlloween prompts) - check out one of my last posts to see the prompts.

3. I drew out lots of outlines to simply paint later.

Halloween-Athon - ATCs Trading - Katie Hone

That didn't stop the calamity, that is my computer suddenly stopped functioning. I had a very panicked 12 hours where I thought some of my images would be lost forever. A massive sigh of relief when a disk clean up (which took 5 hours) got it back.

And my results?

52 cards made

43 cards traded

I am exhausted!

ATC art by Katie Hone - Halloween-Athon

Mailing list at the end of Halloween-Athon

Monday was great, I could slow down and get the packages ready which for some reason is something I really enjoy. 

I am looking forward to the coming weeks of mail art!

I also received a Secret Halloween package - another mail art madness I do at IllustratedATCs - here is my little Georgie playing with the dolls I received.

Georgie - Aged 2 playing with DADAology's Vampire art Doll

I like to share this art with Georgie - check out the pictures of when Georgie was weeks old, she got a bunch of ATCs as a gift for when she was born. ATCs on her just looked so huge!!

Art Topic List For Halloween, oh and Cookies!!

Hello everybody! I hope everyone is doing good.

Monday

I had a rather epic day with a new friend from work, she is all artsy and we had grand plans to do some interesting stuff. I was going to introduce her to Art Trading Cards, make origami things, this strange plastic bead you can melt down and mold which then hardens. Followed by an interesting dinner and cookies (we figured that would appease the Georgie girl).

How did we do?

We made dinner and cookies - hah!!!

Jody and I spent the whole day chatting and I showed my enormous collection of Art Trading Cards I have collected in two years. Georgie wanted plenty of attention and wouldn't go down for her much needed nap.

Georgie mashes up the mix

Georgie beats the dough into submission

Drawlloween Challenge

My topic list for Drawlloween

Oh this is such fun - for every day in October this year is a topic, we post everyday with our creations and with any luck I will complete all 31 and get a cute little pixel challenge trophy! Don't we just love pixel trophies!

Here is a sneak peak at a few completed ones:

Drawlloween - Ghosts - Eyeballs - Skull - Dragon - Devil --- Katie Hone

Someone you must go and look at

Clicking a few links and looking around the internet I happened to bump into a very good friend of mine on her blog! And it's rich with posts and ideas which, when I have a bit more time I will start reading through. Her name is Amy Weaver - you can find her blog at TheWeaversHand. She has traded some awesome pictures of my daughter, I'm not usually a great fan of collage but the way she uses mixed media is just incredible. Seriously check her out!

Moos made by Amy Weaver - Georgie Atkin 

Children's Books and Youtube Banners

Out of the woods and back into blogging. A new effort to blog at least once a week on either Mondays or Wednesdays.

What am I doing currently? A lot! Seriously I have every single toe and finger dipped into projects with one larger project in mind. Though the way to do this is actually to take my hands and feet out and stick them all into one big bucket... Ok now it's sounding weird! 

A children's book has been an idea I've had for ages but it isn't just me who says this. People from all over who have seen and received my art have always said I might be pretty good at this. I was never keen because I found the project a bit too large to comprehend. With a little help from time management apps (Trello is just wonderful) - I am now attempting to remove myself from small projects and really make a go at this.

Here are some images from an idea --- also found on Etsy:

Elephant and Giraffe at Breakfast

Elephant Skiing down a Volcano

Giraffe and Elephant Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Elephant Skiing on Volcano Original Aceo - Katie Hone

Perhaps I am falling at the first hurdle which is the story itself... am I really meant to write and illustrate, might have to put my feelers out for an author!

Scott Whitehill Youtube Challenges Channel - Art by Katie Hone

One of my other little side projects is aiding small time Youtubers with bits of artwork to help make their profile colourful and attractive. Make way for Scott Whitehill - he happens to work with me at the local Tesco and aims to make a channel about strange and wonderful challenges. Using some of his challenges has helped with my painting.... Eating candy vs insects - yummy!!! Go check him out, support is always a great thing! Do you know a Youtuber that needs a little hand in some fun free banner art? Send me a message!

It's nice to get back into the blogging atmosphere - I'd love to hear your comments :D

Also my Aceo Etsy store is now back up and running with a goal of keeping the shop full and exciting!

Creative Tuesday - Jam on Toast

Over at Creative Tuesday the theme this fortnight is "Hot Toast and Jam" - I of course can't ever miss the opportunity to bring out my pair of cute giraffes who obviously seem to like this for breakfast. I sit here and wish and wish I could have a pair of tiny giraffes... Anyone seen the scene in Despicable Me when they shrink the elephant... yes I would love that shrink ray :)

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO - Giraffes eat Jam on Toast

Pop on over to Creative Tuesday see what other people have made!

This item is also in my Etsy store - hop on over if you want to see where these critters also go.

Creative Tuesday - "I want to go to"

Every time I hear the phrase "I want to go to" I nearly always think of the moon.... so hmmm... I decided to draw all of the giraffe family hanging out on a rather Mars looking like moon (what with the bright red colours). Well we can all bend the rules a little!!!

2.5" x 3.5" Original Art ACEO - Giraffes on the Moon

 

 

 

 

Head on over to Creative Tuesday's little corner of blog land to see other inspirations for this fortnight's topic :)

 

 

You can find this piece of art for sale here in my Etsy shop.

 

I have also kept myself busy with this month's NFAC Theme: All in a Row

 

Check out my Elephants - Giraffes - Pigs

All on eBay now!

 

Minion Mashup

One of the swaps on ATCs for All that I've joined is Minion Mash Up which was to find a famous painting and put minions in them. Now I am an enormous fan of minions and I am thrilled to bits that they get a whole movie to themselves next year!!! Here are a few that I've done so far. I was tempted to stick to my ultra vibrant colors but rather experimented with trying to get the colors close to the original painting as possible. A very fun endeavor.

So here we have “Minion’s Mother” – inspired by “Whistler’s Mother”

 

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO - Minion's Mother

"Whistler's Mother"

A Salvidor Dali inspired mashed up painting inspired by “Sleep” 

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO - "Sleepy Minion"

"Sleep" - Salvidor Dali

My last one is for sale in my Etsy shop – inspired by “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus”. I absolutely love Dali and will probably keep using him.

"2.5 x 3.5" ACEO - "Metamorphosis of Minion"

 

"Metamorphosis of Narcissus" - Salvidor Dali

I've also been experimenting with different pen thicknesses with some great results. It helps that I've also acquired a tiny thin brush to do all the fiddly detailed bits!

Creative Tuesday - Birdhouse

I had a great idea once I saw this theme to once again shrink my cute giraffes so that they could go visit some bird houses of there very own. I don't think they found any birds as they've scared them all away. I don't keep a bird house at home but maybe I should, some of them are supremely adorable!!!

 

Here is my entry for this fortnight's theme:

 

 

2.5" x 3.5" Original ACEO

Head on over to Creative Tuesday to see all the other awesome bird houses/cages.

 

If you want to grab it for yourself - this item is listed in my Etsy Shop.

Creative Tuesday - SOCKS

It's been ages since I last wrote on my blog and I've decided to come back with some ultra cute elephants in socks (of course).

 

Inspired by Creative Tuesday's theme of socks I wanted to incorporate my love of elephants with such a fun theme.

 

 

Here is my:

"Casual Elephant in a Party Hat and Super Comfortable Soft Slipper Socks"

 

2.5" x 3.5" ACEO

 

And:

"Happy Stampy Elephant in his Fashionably Long Stripy Socks"

 



2.5" x 3.5" ACEO

 

Very happy to pop back into the blogging world again and hope to have fun with more blog hopping.

 

Check out all other awesome "sock" entries at Creative Tuesdays fun little corner of the internet :)

 

*Waving*

 

 

So I've just noticed that "socks" has already expired and I was too late, I think I just saw the theme and got so excited I went ahead with it anyway - no matter - no harm in linking it all up anyway and I'll check out the next theme!



Journal Pages full of Flowers

My first journal for me to fill has arrived.

All the way from Russia from Irina.

 

Firstly a thank you for the little bag of shells - yay.

 

Now the theme set for this journal is flowers, awesome and quite an easy theme which works well for me.

 

So I have recently got myself a large amount of stamps and as I've been sorting them to find foreign and British stamps I noticed a lot of bird stamps... Which gave me an idea for my first double page spread.

All of those birds and houses are tiny cut outs from stamps - I wanted to add a lot more things but I always worry that I'd over do it. So I left it at that. This was my painted page.

 

So next I had a stab at some more collage and mixed media. I decided to go with my original theme for my journal and let Georgie the Sunflower say hello to Irina!

 

 

I am really pleased with how this came out, with collage I never have a plan, I just start in one corner and slowly fill the page out. The border was cut from a napkin I received many months ago. I'm glad I could finally use it. I really enjoyed doing this first step of the long journey. I have 3 more journals to see and decorate and look forward to seeing mine come back safe and sound.

My Art Journal reaches Russia!

I have pictures back from Russia to see what Georgie has been getting up to!

 

Here she has discovered Russian Ballet!!!

And here she's discovered Russia is a good deal colder than the UK!!!

These are so sweet - all of them from the lovely Victoria - you can find her blog here.

 

Thank you so much - now it needs to go to two more people and then back to me - yippee! I suspect I may have to do another Georgie journal!

To view Margaret's 4 pages - here.

To view my 4 pages - here.

Creative Tuesday - Forest

I have joined so many different swaps in the last month - where do I begin...

Well to link over to Creative Tuesday who's theme is Forest I have a swap that fits in nicely!

I got invited to a "People of the Forest" swap - animals were allowed but there had to be one humanoid at least on every card. For some reason I find when it comes to mythical or fantasy based characters I lack greatly in imagination. To achieve all of these I spent ages looking on the internet and seeing what I could try and draw. I came up with the idea of a tree ent - but is that a humanoid or plant??? Hmmm anyhow - the Mushroom Man is my fave.

Check out Creative Tuesday for other forest inspired art.

Blue, Blue BLUE!!!

Over at Artist's playroom the theme is Monochrome which once again is very conveneint because I have just done a swap called Strangely Blue. Now the rule wasn't necassarily that everything was blue - just that the main object was blue. However I have never painted something in just one hue and didn't see why the whole thing couldn't be...

Pop on over to see what colours other people chose - Artist's Playroom.

So I decided to pick things that are not usually seen as a blue object -

We start off with peas in a pod - aw

Peas in Pods - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

A couple of Halloween Pumpkins...

Halloween Pumpkins - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

This was just random - someone playing the guitar...

Playing Acoustic Guitar - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

Probably my favorite of the bunch is this wee Lego man!

Lego Man - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

 Next up a blue rose...

Blue Rose - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

Urm yes Mike Wizowski - who doesn't love this guy!

Mike Wizowski Monsters Inc - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

 A tiger...

Blue Siberian Tiger - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

Then we have an ever famous NOT red London Bus which can be found in my etsy store here...

Blue London Bus - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

And last but not least for all you Whovians! Which can also be found in my etsy store here...

Dr Who Blue Dalek - 2.5 x 3.5 Original ACEO

Phew - so many blue things!!

I reward you for reading such an epic post with a Georgie picture - she is giggling now and lifting her head right up when on her tummy!

Mondrian with a Twist

Not one to pass up another great swap - I got invited to Mondrian with a Twist. I suppose you already know that the twist is Giraffe and Elephant! Of course - because they like to explore the Art world!

Mondrian with a Twist - ATC

 

Here are the first four Mondrian's I did - after this they suddenly got popular.

 

 

I ended up agreeing to a few personal trades and then did these.

 

After that I decided on a new technique with the shading, by doing this it made them look richer with detail.

 

Here I have one up for sale!

 

And last night I did a Mondrian altered envie! Oh wow I've fallen in love with it and of course I want to give it to the person intended but I will miss it!

 

Anyone know if an altered envie might sell? I wonder... Would you buy one and what price?

Schooners, Clippers and Ships that Sail

Joined yet another swap (I think I'm signed up to about 8 at the moment) called Schooners, Clippers and Ships that Sail. The host was very specific, no modern boring ships. We want big tall ships with a hundred sails, well you get the gist. Interesting, this is sadly not one of those subjects I can go out and get my own photographs as reference - not sure I've ever seen one of these types of ships, do they still make them (except perhaps for Pirates of the Caribbean)? Great set to do, I did four for the swap and then did two more for Etsy because I think they're a good seller (I hope)!



2.5 x 3.5 ATC - Watercolour Colorful Ship



2.5 x 3.5 ATC - Watercolour Colorful Ship



2.5 x 3.5 ATC - Watercolour Colorful Ship

2.5 x 3.5 ATC - Watercolour Colorful Ship

2.5 x 3.5 ACEO - Watercolour Colorful Ship

This one can be found on my Etsy Shop here.

2.5 x 3.5 ACEO - Watercolour Colorful Ship

This one can be found on my Etsy Shop here.