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Tuesday 30 June 2015

Lucy McSpirit



I saw Lucy's work a while ago and just fell in love with her picture of Macy (below) and the flowers that she paints.

Macy, isn't that a beautiful picture

Lucy has drawn for as long as she can remember and is her absolute passion. She used to enter art competitions at school, winning art trophies along the way. Then after getting A* GCSE (UK end of normal school exams) Lucy went on to study Graphic Design at Blackburn College here in England. The course explored a wide range of creative medium such as: Printmaking, Photography, Life Drawing and Visual Arts.

From College Lucy went on to Stockport College to do a BA (Hons) in Design and Visual Arts.

After College Lucy got a job as a Design Account Manager and as time went on 
and life was busy she didn't really do a lot of art. After 7 years and becoming pregnant Lucy decided to brush off her old art materials and began painting again. Her partner helped her rediscover her passion and love for art. 


I asked Lucy where she finds her inspiration:

Lucy: “ I use the garden as a lot of my inspiration, I find life so full of chaos people really don't stop to admire the beauty of nature that is right here on our doorstep. I find flowers incredibly beautiful and trees so fascinating. Hence a lot of my artwork revolves around that theme'

I love Lucy's floral art, flowers are a huge passion of mine and I really think Lucy captures these beautifully.  Especially the Lily, lillies are one of my favourite flowers.



Lucy has now found herself doing a lot of bespoke orders, family trees and murals (the fairy mural is beautiful – such detail).  A brilliant idea that Lucy had are her Colour Me In Rolls, brilliant for school summer holiday, lots of beautiful images, drawn by Lucy on a long roll to be coloured in that will keep children entertained for hours.






Colour-Me-In-Rolls, as a child I'd have been lost in that for days... infact never mind as a child, I'd love to get colouring this Alice in Wonderland Colour-Me-In-Roll.


So lets meet Lucy...

Please tell us your name, where you're from and how old you are?

Lucy McSpirit born in Preston but live in Lytham, 34 yrs

Tell us about your art now and what you do

Lucy : I currently provide a bespoke service, creating personalised gifts for people such as family trees and colour-me-in rolls for art party's with occasional portraits and paintings to suit ones home.

What is your earliest creative memory?

Lucy: I remember drawing a winter picture of children in the snow with snowballs and snowmen. I think my mum still has this picture! I was 5.

Do you ever suffer from a creative block and if so how do you get yourself out of it?

Lucy: Not so much a block but my mood can alter my focus, if I begin to draw and things aren't going my way, I take a break and come back to it. I want things to be right not rushed.

Who inspires you?

Lucy: My children inspire me, they are fascinated with everything I do and my daughter is always wanting to colour in my art party things. They love sharing their ideas. My partner Marc also inspires me, he's full of ideas of where I could go with my artwork and different perspectives are always inspiring. But nature is a big inspiration as I feel life is so chaotic people don't stop to appreciate the natural beauty surrounding us like flowers and trees. I love nothing more than soaking in the seasons and what beauty they provide us with.

What is your favourite piece of work that you've created?

Lucy: I'll always love my red poppy, it was my first painting I produced after many years of being in 'creative hiding' so to speak so has a lot of heart in it. My painting of Macy my daughter is also close to my heart. The family trees are a close favourite as I love illustrating with ink and the medium illustrates the beauty of a tree perfectly.

What are your creative ambitions for the future?

Lucy: I'm hoping to broaden my ideas with personalised gifts as I really enjoy it especially with how rewarding it is when I see the clients happy response to their gift they intend to give someone.

How do you silence your inner critic ?

Lucy: I'll always tell myself to judge it at the end. I think art can change a lot throughout the process and usually tell myself to just wait for the outcome once complete. You just know when it's 'finished' and 'ready' it's a gut instinct thing I guess.

What do you do when you're not being creative?

Lucy: I love gardening, baking cakes, going to restaurants and spending as much time as possible with my beautiful family.

Thank you Lucy for taking the time to answer my questions and allowing me to share your beautiful work.
If you'd like to check out Lucy's work you can find it at: 







Sunday 28 June 2015

What's Coming Up....


Hi all, hope life is treating you well or at least you're doing ok with whatever it is throwing at you at the moment.





I wanted to give you some little teasers of things that I have coming up for you over the next month or so.  I've been combing the internet for a whole host of creative folk.  I hope you've enjoyed the ones that I've featured so far, the lovely talented ladies Janette Lane Lana Moes and most recently Serena Bee if you missed any of them please check them out.

So what's in the pipeline, well at the end of each month (before the end of the following month) I will be sharing a post that will be title 'Inspired By.....'  In this post I'm going to attempt to not exactly replicate but create something certainly inspired by one of the featured artist the previous month (hope that doesn't sound too confusing!)

I will be posting the outcome, whatever the outcome.. some months I may do okay, other months probably not so much.  But, I know I will have fun trying and hopefully it'll inspire someone else to give something new a good go, regardless of the result being perfect (or not), you just never know when you'll hit on 'your thing'.

Coming up, I will be featuring some amazing little Portrait Sculptures, some Body Art, Handmade perfect Dolls and some beautiful Cookies, Felting.. so much to share with you.

Please subscribe so you don't miss out on any of these amazing people.

Thank you for reading and don't forget to look out for Tuesdays feature on the talented Lucy McSpirit!

Daily Quote


Thursday 25 June 2015

Meet Serena Bee

Meet Serena Bee...





Serena is a lovely lady from Montreal Quebec who I wanted to include around the time that I did Pocket Letters  and meeting Janette Lane (Pocket Letter Creator). My reason for wanting to include Serena is because her Pocket Letters are stunning I love her style.  There are a lot of Pocket Letter creators out there but there's something about Serena's that I love.

She loves creepy cute art and has recently had her first set of stamps made and sold through Brutus Monroe – they are call Deadly Desserts, and the reception and feedback for Serena's stamps has been amazing, they sold out the first batch and have had to make more such is the demand.
Here is a link to Serena's YouTube channel – this video is showcasing her Deadly dessert stamps, they're so cute!



Serena is a Mixed Media Artist, Journaler and loves her planners. Like Serena I have a few different planners. My favourite at the moment is a lime green dotty 'Messydori' that I bought on Etsy. Serena uses a Midori for some of her Art Journaling.


You can see a video of Serena's Journaling process on her YouTube channel, if you click HERE


Here are some examples of Serena's Journaling pages, a few of these are very new and we're among the first to see them!




So very very true! love the background.




You can see more of her Journal pages here on Serena's Flickr account.. HERE

The thing that I love about Art Journaling is that there is so much going on and Serena's are a great example of that, layers, mark-making, textures, different mediums - Acrylic, Watercolour, Washi, Pen, Ink, Paper, Embellishments, Quotes etc

I wanted to make sure that I showed you a selection of Serena's Pocket Letters as well – they show her style perfectly and are just beautiful and I'm a little obsessed with them (and pocket letters in general).


The first is inspired by Tim Burton/Night Before Christmas








The second combines Serena's love of mixed media in her Pocket Letters.. isn't it great, I love it.  Finally another Pocket Letter in Serena's unique style.

As you've seen by my other posts I do like to find out what I can about the featured Artist, so here goes...

Hello Serena :) ....



Please tell us your name and how old are you? (don't worry about the age if you don't want to)

My Name is Serena and I am 27 years old.

What is your earliest creative memory?

Serena: My earliest memory doesn’t come from when i was a toddler, but when I was maybe around 10 years old. I don’t remember my parents every giving me anything crafty to do. I remember discovering it on my own and going after it on my own; gathering and buying the supplies i needed to re-create DIY projects I found online or in books. I loved watching different TV shows that featured lots of fun crafty projects . I also loved art class is grade school because I enjoyed coloring.

I think my art now will continue to evolve as I grow and find my creative style. For the moment, I love to use bright bold colors but mostly pinks, purples, blues, black, and white. I also use lots of layering, glitter, and sparkle! I enjoy Art Journaling and mixed media. I enjoy creating ATCs, mini albums, pocket letters, cards, working in my Midori, altered projects and DIY projects such as home decor. I’m a little bit everywhere!


Do you ever suffer from a creative block and if so how do you get yourself out of it?

Serena: Yes, I think we all do at some point or another. When I’m in a creative funk, i like to emerge myself in as many crafts i can. I go on Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and even on Studio Calico’s member gallery ( You can find Studio Calico's Gallery HERE ) and just look at as many projects as I can and get inspired by what I see!

Who inspires you?

Serena: Honestly, my crafty friends and YouTube subscribers. I get inspiration from like minded Crafters as well. I also get inspired by some of my favorite scrapbook Designers and Bloggers as well.

What is your favourite piece of work that you've created?

Serena: I don’t think I can really pick one favorite, many pieces have a place in my crafty heart for one reason or another. But I do love my home decor pieces. I love my altered Halloween wall art. I also love my first Halloween mini I ever made. I have videos for all of these projects on my youtube channel.


What are your creative ambitions for the future?

Serena: My ultimate dream is to make paper crafting my career, there is nothing I wish more. I I want to start my own scrapbook company and start designing my own products, i have so many ideas. If I can live and breathe crafting for the rest of my life I would die happy.

I designed my first stamp set Deadly Desserts last month and the positive response I got from people has made me believe that my dream can become my reality."


What do you do when you're not being creative?

Serena: When i’m not crafting I am at work our out with my boyfriend. I also spend a lot of time on Youtube!! like, A LOT of time hehe. I also watch a lot of TV shows, I’m a TV fiend! I also love to travel.


if you were stranded on a desert island and could only take 3 art/craft items with you what would they be?

Serena: I would bring a camera/printer with a lifetime supply of batteries and refills so i can take pictures and document the beautiful island i am on. For that i will also need a photo or mini album to put my pictures in, and lastly, i would bring… lots and lots of stickers! I may be stranded in a beautiful place but i will be able to create a memory album of my stay there for years to come ;)

Tell us where we can find your work and your social media sites.

Serena: You can find me pretty much everywhere on social media.
Here are my links:

Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/serenabee
Instagram:
http://www.instagram.com/seresbee
Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/groups/serenabeecreative/
My blog
http://www.wondercrafted.blogspot.ca
Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/serena_bee/my-creations-%2B-tutorials/
Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/braciedesigns

Thank you for reading!

I have really enjoyed meeting Serena, I cannot remember where I first saw her work (I can't remember what I did last night, nevermind longer than that!) but I loved it straight away and I love it now.  We will revisit with Serena in the future to see how her dream of a life of papercrafting is going, good luck with it Serena, I hope it's a massive success for you and thank you for agreeing to be a part of my blog :)

If you've enjoyed this post please leave a comment below and if you want to meet more creative people please subscribe to my blog, many thanks and have a great day.


Had to post.........



For all you mutual Harry Potter devotees.... (Severus Snape is my favourite of favourite characters)


So tomorrow we'll be meeting Serena Bee! … see you then

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Today's Creative Quote


A Little Share

A Couple of Things I've Made......

The people that you'll meet on this blog are very talented and create some amazing things.

I wanted to show you a couple of things I've made, I did basic art at school, didn't do anything further than that study wise (I mean I didn't do anything more art wise, I did study other subjects of course).

Always had a creative mind though, always loved letter writing, writing in general, I attempted to write 2 books, love paper, pens, doodling, card, flowers (love making handmade flowers from: felt, fabric and paper) and just generally like getting messy with paint and ink etc.

I love to be see what others are creating, one of the main reasons for doing this blog is so that people can be inspired. 

I love to read creative blogs, watch YouTube videos and browse Pinterest to see and learn new techniques.

Also, I know my inner critic likes to scream from the roof tops, so sharing stuff for me is particularly hard, but creativity is for sharing and it is completely subjective. What one person likes another may not, doesn't make it less creative and it shouldn't stop people from sharing.  If you like it - great, if you don't move on, try again or try something else.

None of my stuff is perfect, but that's kind of the point, everyone is at different levels, but whether you feel it's perfect or not, you have poured your love and time into the stuff you've made, why not enjoy it.

So what am I sharing (get to the point!)..

I love Art Journaling but wouldn't consider myself very proficient at it. I did do the 2014 Life Book (most of it) online course so I may share a few bits with you when I hopefully cover online art courses.  I will cover online classes at some point because a) they're great for prompts and to accomplish something even if you are an accomplished artist already and b) you can join up with like minded people, discuss the class, techniques, see what others are doing and most importantly if you can't get out or you don't want to go to a class it's the perfect opportunity to create with help whatever the restrictions.



Anyway, for now here are a couple of things I have made for other people. The first I was asked to make for a friend of mine (Someone I hope to feature in the near future because she just oozes creativity), I'd made a similar one in the past for her new baby's nursery (prior to him being born) and she wanted one in the same colour scheme with his name on once he'd arrived. Also she wanted to show her love for moustaches so she drew this and I created it.





The second thing was also made for a friend, as a gift. So someone I work with (a very talented Photographer) bought a shell of a flat and basically spent months and months doing it up.

So when he was ready to move in I made a little mini album so he could store his before and after images in with any little journaling tidbits.

This is the type of thing I love doing, it's made from 6 square card blanks and envelopes, some card and embellishments. Something from very little. I tried to make it as masculine as possible.

There are lots of pull out pages and pockets to fill with pictures and journaling plus the odd quote or 2 because what is life without a quote here and there (love a quote!).


If you fancy giving one of these a go there are lots of videos on YouTube showing how to make an Envelope Mini Album.



Cute mini Dominoes with lettering










So that's that... up next we have the very lovely and talented Serena Bee, I cannot wait to introduce you to her and her vibrant beautiful work.

Thank you for reading and please follow my blog so you don't miss any of the amazing artists I've already featured or those coming up.

Take care and until next time.......create, create, create! .. (went all Brucey there, that'll probably not mean anything to most people).

I'm off :)

Sunday 21 June 2015

A Quote A Day...


Lana Moes

Lana Moes


Artist and Freelance Illustrator.

Lana is someone who I came across while flicking through Etsy (just incase you are unaware of Etsy - it's a selling site for handmade items, Art, Art/Craft Supplies etc) anyway... I was browsing Etsy and saw Lana's watercolours - wow! they are beyond beautiful and have a genuine romantic feel to them.  I am genuinely in love with her work.

Since then I've spent quite a bit of time on her blog and shop, Lana is a very talented lady, her watercolours just draw you in, you can almost hear the rain when you look at the picture of the couple walking through Paris in the rain with their bright umbrella in hand.  Isn't there something really romantic about rain....or is that just me?








Lana's inspirations come from travelling and different cultures (very clear to see in her pieces).

Lana: "I hope that my creations can provide a special memory for people or take them on a journey to a new place"



It is very clear when you read about Lana that she is so passionate about what she does.

Lana: " Art for me is not an 8 - 5 job, rather a lifestyle. I'm very passionate about it and I love to inspire the viewers with my artistic vision"

Her Etsy shop was opened to sell Fashion and Floral watercolour paintings in 2012. Lana's work can be seen in various Hotels, Companies and Collections worldwide.


Another of my favourite pieces of Lana's is a watercolour in her Wanderlust collection, it's called 'Hollywood Drive'.. to me it evokes an image of years gone and the golden age of Cinema with a very classic image of a beauty like Audrey Hepburn in an open top car.



Also for me being from England and being patriotic I also love the 'London Love' watercolour too, the picture shows the walk up The Mall and you can see the Queen Victoria Memorial Statue and Buckingham Palace, reminds me of days where we have a Royal Wedding and the processions and the hoards of people lining the route.



Mentally I'm quite a feminine person I believe, so I also love her Miss Dior watercolour, I'd love a dressing table like that with a beautiful box with a ribbon around it, perfume in a beautiful bottle and flowers.. gorgeous!


I spend half my time dreaming of riding a pink bicycle with a basket on the front full of flowers (some people who know me will know this to be true).... just like this bike, it's like this lady is in my mind! 



I asked Lana some questions about her work and what she does, so let's find out a little bit more...

Hi Lana, tell us a bit more about what you love about being an Artist and your inspiration:

Lana - I am fortunate enough to reside in beautiful, sunny Florida. I feel absolutely blessed to be able to say that I am a person who is lucky enough to
make a living doing what they are absolutely passionate about... for me, that is,
and has always been, creating art.

My deepest inspiration and passion about art comes from travelling and experiencing different cultures.

I go to sleep dreaming about my art. I wake up and the first thing in my hand is a cup of coffee in one hand a paintbrush in the other. I can't wait to paint, and can never work within a normal schedule of hours. I'm very passionate about it and I love to inspire the viewers with my artistic vision.

I consider the "heart" of my work an ongoing series of romantic bliss paintings.

I love that passion Lana, what processes do you have when it comes to your art?

Lana: My work always comes from my own life experiences and emotions, and often reflects what I am thinking about at the time. I use the female figure almost exclusively because that is the perspective from which I view the world. Making art is for me a transformative process that helps me clarify and better understand my own experiences.

Presently I have been experimenting with mostly watercolors and acrylic (my favorite mediums). I especially like the challenge of painting with watercolors …. By it’s nature it is a spontaneous and somewhat uncontrollable medium. The outcome of a watercolor painting is hard to predict at the beginning of the process. I have to trust my instinctive and subconscious approach based on my art education and many years of experience with the medium.


What is your favourite Art that you're creating at the moment?

Lana: I’m very proud of my Paris and London inspired art and am happy that you see the beauty in it as well. Paris for Two featured in commercial use in WHBM Spring 2015 Spring collection. My Wanderlust inspired art collection is being updated and expanded weekly and the interest that this line is eliciting is exciting to me as an artist and an entrepreneur. My fashion collection inspires feelings of romance, beauty, and fashion and love.


I love how everything I feel when I see Lana's work is exactly as she perceives it herself and hopes that others perceive it too.


It's been amazing getting to know you and your work Lana, thank you so much and good luck with everything you do from here on.

If you'd like to check out Lana's work - I have a board on my own Pinterest

Click Here to get to Lana's Gallery on Etsy

Lana's Blog can be found Here

All Lana's pictures have been used with her kind permission