New Site Ready (I think)

I think Im done!

All info and links can be found on my most recent post on my blog:

http://trishbee.co.uk/

New Site

Currently working on my new website which involves a lot of html coding and uploading of pages and pictures! A lengthy process which should hopefully be over soon. Im almost finished, I just need to add those all important final tweaks and stuff to the site and put the bits and bobs on then I will announce it! Check back soon.

Update:
Ive just about finished adding a selection of my archives which I want to feature on the site so now all I have to do is concentrate on this blog and get my sketchbooking stuff on here! Once Im done I will be ready to go live!

Black & White ATCs

Made my Black And White Atcs last night with the black and white background I did in an earlier blog entry.

Heres the scan of my atcs:

What Is Art Page

Im currently working on Ms Peas board book for an altered round robin swap:) The theme of Ms Peas book is ART - my FAVOURITE subject! I love themes like this :) Ive been given strong hints to do a bit of sketchbooking type journalling and doodles on this page so Id best do as I am told!

This is what the book looks like at this stage, I havent added any journalling or major doodling yet as I was waiting for the glue and paint to dry first! I will do that this weekend probably :)

The background on the left hand side of the page is painted kitchen towel paper using purple and metallic paints. I added a piece of book paper to the right hand side of the book page and then went over with a light layer of gesso to mute down the text, then finally I added a wash of bright pink watercolour paint over the top.

The printed photograph in the page is of Frida Kahlo, a true inspiring artist! I added the words 'but what is' using my letratag. The 3 ART words are plain chipboard letters which I painted gold and stuck down. 3 stamped square faces where added.

I next used a black pen to dot round the righthand page and added white borders round the dots, next I outlined the join between the 2 backgrounds and added a dotted and lined border with my pen, then finally outlined all the words and pics on the page.

More scans as soon as Ive done the next step, heres what it looks like now:

Finished this page last night and added my journalling and doodling to it:

Path To Enlightenment Page

Ive just finished Maggis page for the altered board book round robin swap Im in! Maggies theme was 'journeys' - so this got me thinking....instead of going down the usual travel route I decided to go down the personal journey route because these are the most important journeys of them all!

I painted the page gold first, then I added some painted background pieces I did and a print out of a ruler. I then added the stamped image of the Buddha, and had a look through my stash of collage images and found the printed picture of another buddha and the smaller circular buddha too and stuck them on. Next I added the words 'discover your inner peace' using my letratag.

Then out came my pens :) I did a doodled border around the entire page spread, then I added some little swirl trees around buddha and some dots. Next I wrote on the words breathe and life as they seemed to kinda just go with the theme somehow. I added some more words around the buddha image and finally some hearts and I was finished!

Here it is:

Look On The Bright Side Page

This is another page taken from my Teesha Moore Journal Swap, the original page artist of this page is Annie!

Annies page is painted bright yellow and orange and features lots of lovely sunflowers, I dont know about you but to me sunflowers represent all things positive and bright! I decided to use the sunflowers as my inspiration and wrote on the words 'look on the bright side' in large lettering and went from there.

I added borders and lines and dots here there and everywhere! I also drew some small freestyle suns to fill in the gaps then I finally finished off the page by writing on various words and stuff which came to mind from the theme I was going with - reasons to look on the bright side.

Heres my page:

Princess Georgina Page

This is another page I have done for my sketchbook, it seemed fitting that I dedicate a page to my other fur baby who is no longer with us; Georgie :) This photo was taken just before she got really ill, she had cancer and had a huge growth on her head as a result of it which was the size of a tennis ball. If you look closely in the photo you can see the lump had already just started to grow then, we only noticed afterwards when she was gone:

Memorable Moments Page

This is part of my ongoing personal sketchbook challenge which I have set myself to learn how to start sketchbooking! Im working my way through my list of page prompts which I have listed and this page is one of those prompts, 'memorable moments' - pick an event from your life which stays strongly in your mind. I decided to pick a holiday I spent as a child in Great Yarmouth as it is such a vivid and strong memory that I have.

Heres my sketchbook page for this prompt along with photos of myself as a kid in Great Yarmouth!

News About My Website

Its not looking promising I have to say! Im a bit frazzled at the moment to be honest!

It seems that the website hosting that I was with have decided to do a dissapearing act and wont be coming back! Theres thousands of angry customers who like myself have all paid for hosting and now discovered that theyve been ripped off! I wouldnt mind but Ive been with this webhost now for 3 years and up until now the service has always been good! And now they've buggered off with my cash! At least it wasnt a humungus amount but it is the principle of the thing! Im so bloody annoyed!!

Still no use crying over spilt milk. Whats done is done.

Some good news however, the server company who sublets the reselling package to my web host has temporarily unsuspended my website accounts for 24 hours to enable me to go in and back the much needed backups! Phew! Ive not lost it all afterall so I can breathe easy on that score. Im frantically backing everything up now as I type...

On the flip side it does means I now have to find some suitable affordable alternative website hosting AND upload all of my site again! A prospect I really am not looking forward to :( I think Im going to have to be brutal and prune some of my site back and upload my favourite bits as its an awful lot of files and images!!

Never rains but it pours - more like torrential downpour!!

Normality Is Boring Page

Another page from my Teesha Sketchbook stash, this one was created originally by Rena!

To begin with I went round with a black pen and I added lines, dots and borders to the design to make it stand out, and added some white highlights too.

The words 'quirkiness is everywhere' were already on the page so I decided to use them as my jumping point. Thinking to myself, the words quirkiness made me think of things outside of the norm - which gave me the idea for 'Normality Is Boring' - so I wrote those words on the page and I was away! The other words kinda followed on naturally with the theme. I just kept going with the doodles and swirls till I felt it was complete:

Da Vinci Tip In Page

Im signed up for a tip in swap where you make altered book pages, this months theme is Da Vinci! To be honest Ive been struggling to get started because I havent lifted a rubber stamp up since last month!! Im too addicted to sketchbooking at the moment.

Anyways the swap is due at the end of the month so I knew I had to get started on it very soon!!

So here goes!

First of all I folded a sheet of A4 card in half, then I watercoloured a background on using different shades of brown paint. I then got a brown inkpad and stamped Da Vinci style images over the card. This is going to be the backdrop for my tip in pages, Im gonna add some images and stuff to complete them. Meanwhile here is the scan of the first stage:

I think Ive finished this tip in page now, last night I added some images and some words to the page and folded it to complete it. Here are scans of both the front and back of my tip in page:

Front:

Back:

Friends Are The Flowers Page

Another Teesha swap page :) This one was created by our very own Ms Pea.

I decided to add some more doodles on the page, Pea had added a line of leaves on the left hand side, so using the same style I continued the leaves so that they would also appear along the top of the page too. I also drew on a couple of flowers to add interest and wrote the 2 large words flowers and garden in large lettering - Im enjoying learning how to do lettering I must admit!

Then using my letratag I added the words around the page to complete the quotation. Final bits where added by outlining the images and adding dots and bits here and there, basically I just kept going till I was happy with the overall feel:

Walk In Their Shoes Page

Here is another page taken from my Teesha swap stash, the original page designer is Kacy, this page was already decorated with a pair of high heel shoes so I decided to use that as my inspiration for the page theme.

I decided to draw on the quote 'Never Judge A Person Until You Have Walked In Their Shoes' - it just came to me while I was looking at the page and it felt right. Particually as its a sentiment I also happen to agree with 100% and always try to apply it on a daily basis.

I also added the words 'walk on with hope in your heart' along the top in slightly smaller lettering, another shoe/walking themed quote Ive always loved being a closet Liverpudlian at heart.

I added highlights to the dots which where already on the page by drawing around them, then decided to add even more dots (going blinking dotty at this point) I also added some hearts and coloured them in with a red pen.

Finally I felt the page was complete:

My Life In Numbers Page

Heres is another page for my personal sketchbook challenge, the idea for this was taken from one of my page prompt ideas where you have to list numbers which have played and important part of your life.

For my page I decided to write down different numeral events from my life and then I drew bubbles around them all. Then to add interest I drew lines and coloured them in to make it look like a mosaic stained glass window with gel pens:

Black & White Background

Im signed up for a Black And White themed ATC swap, for this swap the atc has to use only 2 colours - black and white! So I decided to set myself a personal challenge to see if I could make a background only using those 2 colours.

Heres stage 1 of my background which I admit looks a bit of a mess at the moment, it was created using a white and a black watercolour crayon. I will update this blog entry when I do something interesting to this background:

Stage 2 of the background is below, still doesnt look like much!

This background is getting more and more grungey like as I go on!! I dont even know if its finished yet!

A Royal Visit

Yesterday the Queen came to visit us and grace us with her presence. We recieved 'The Queen' dvd of the movie starring Helen Mirren. A fantabalous movie I have to say and Helen really pulls off the very essence of her majesty! Its amazing! Not only did she look like her, she became her too! I love Helen Mirren as an actress as she never dissapoints me, each and every one of her roles are believeable and down to earth. She really gets her teeth into her characters. I read in an interview with Helen that when she was dressed as the Queen for the movie and in character noone could look at her in the eye or make eye contact with her as they were almost afraid of her! Even her own sister couldnt look at her! Theres something about the sight of the Queen that makes British people come over all peculiar apparantly!