a new project started

Last July, Peter and I went to Venice for a few days. I've never been before and it was the most incredible experience - I'd no idea that such a place existed in real life! don't get me wrong, I've seen Venice in films like Casanova, The Italian Job, The Merchant of Venice, and so on but I suppose I imagined that it was all a bit Hollywoodised in the films. As we stept off the bus from the airport and walked over the bridge and I saw the colours, I was absolutely enchanted - the deep turquoise of the water, the mellow shades of terracotta, sage, saffron and warm grey stone in the buildings, and the beautiful skies which turned colour depending what time of day it was. Needless to say I took 879 pictures...which I'm now going to put together in a scrapbooking album, some watercolour paintings and some inks...watch this space... /jacqui

This month's window...

One of the jobs I love doing the most in the shop where I work is the window dressing. Here's this month's window which I'm going to be changing again soon as Easter is over... /jacqui

Sunday morning.....

Tomorrow morning I'm going to a little church in Nykil to talk about my paintings. I'll be showing 15 paintings from my exhibition "Ett Liv". It's out in the countryside so I've borrowed Gabbie's boyfriend's GPS so I get there on time.Here are a couple of the paintings from the series..."You are forgiven" (Du är förlåten) and "Adopted - who am I?" (Adopterad - vem är jag?)The church is called Smacka Betlehem if you fancy coming! / jacqui

a bit of scenography...

Had great fun yesterday morning painting some backdrops for the Pentacostal church here in Norrköping where I'm a member. Tomorrow they are starting a series on the book of Ephesians, so Henrik, the children's pastor, and I decided to create Ephesus as a "stage" for them to teach from. So using some thick corrigated cardboard sheets, lots of acrylic paint and water, I painted these pillars and ruins. We looked out of Henrik's office window and saw that the gardeners in the park opposite were cutting down all the dried grasses, so we ran over there and got bundles of the stuff! Also the hard winter has cause part of the fascade of the church to fall off so we are able to use some of the bigger chunks of rubble to position around these panels to make them look "real". Sad about the fascade but useful for our artistic creation. I'm not quite finished yet, have 3 pillars and a fountain to do around the pulpit, but that will have to wait till next week. Here's a sneak preview.../ jacqui

Is it too late to plant tomatoes?

One of the things I love about spring is planting stuff. Mostly vegetables but also a few favourite flowers, like nasturtiums and asters - bright coloured, happy things that look after themselves once I've lost interest and then multiply madly at the end of August. This year winter has dragged on and on and so I haven't even felt the tiniest spark of inspiration to start sowing seeds. I have a greenhouse so there's absolutely no excuse apart from the fact that I'm so lazy that I haven't cleared out all the dead stuff in the greenhouse yet, ready for planting. But these last few sunny days have got me thinking - I think I'll start with some lettuce and ruccola seeds at the weekend and I'll buy a tomato plant. Here's a tomato plant I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, which I subsequently painted in watercolour - love the orangey red (Schmincke's Permanent/Translucent Orange + Brown Madder) and the sludgey quality of Winsor and Newton's Green Gold. And can't keep my hands off the water-soluble crayons and pencils to add a bit of texture...try grating them onto wet watercolour and watch them melt! /jacqui

My girls

Well now I've finished the mini-book for tomorrow night's course. the back page was empty and I couldn't find a picture that was suitable until I went through some old photos and found this one from 1997, when Heidi was 10 and Gabbie was 6 - they were picking raspberries in my brother's garden in England. Scanned it in, played around with a photo-editing programme and this was the result. Back page complete. Here's the rest of the book I showed yesterday.

/jacqui

Scrapbooking Course

This Wednesday night I'm having a Scrapbooking course

at Gredelin and we're going to do a mini-book. I've chosen two different colourways - one a little more feminine and one with more masculine colouring.I've done one for everyone to see so they know what to do. Have used my own daughters (they're such an inspiration!!) and have played around a bit - here are the few pages I've finished so far... / jacqui

My new favourite product...

A few weeks ago I was on a course with one of our suppliers, Reprint, in Falkenberg, and I discovered this fantastic Ultra-Thick embossing enamel in platinum. You just ink the tag (or whatever)with clear VersaMark ink, shake on the powder, shake off the excess and heat - it melts like molten pewter - just gorgeous. Three layers and then stamp into it with a simple stamp design and magic happens. It goes really well with these botanical beautiful papers from Graphic 45. /jacqui

Inspiration!

Have you ever noticed how fantastic certain colours are when they sit beside each other? I was clearing up after cooking dinner last night and spotted these garlic skins and a tiny piece of cabbage - pure art! couldn't help but take a photo to keep them forever before they disappeared into the compost. This kind of thing really inspires me - especially in watercolour. Just think wonderful colours like Winsor and Newton's Perylene Violet, and Green Gold, Lukas Raw Umber and masses of water... I found an old watercolour I did of some beetroots a while ago - the colours go perfectly! Love it! /jacqui

Welcome!

I've wanted to create a blog for ages and now finally, I've done it with my daughter, Gabbie's help. I work in an art shop called Gredelin in the centre of Norrköping, Sweden and am surrounded by masses of fantastic art materials so I'm inspired every day. I've always drawn and painted but recently I've started scrapbooking, which is mostly because I'm in charge of the scrapbooking department in the shop.
Here's a little wallet which you can keep tags in with pictures of your loved ones. I love the paper and the colours. The paper's from Bo Bunny and I've distressed the tags with Distress inks, and stamped them with my own stamp collection (Sketchbook Stamps) which we have in the shop. It's really easy to make from one sheet of paper / jacqui