Bible Journaling: some Old Testament goodies (BJ-27)

Well, this evening’s Bible Journaling Session was due to take its inspiration from some Old Testament verses. Unfortunately, not enough people could attend today and the session has been postponed to Monday, 8th April. For those unfamiliar with Bible Journaling, using the provided templates and examples participants trace and colour into their own wide-margin Bibles, reflecting on the verse as they do so. There’s also a lot of space for chat, catching up and not forgetting a cup of tea/coffee/hot chocolate. The sessions are monthly, cost £5, and are suitable for artists and non-artists alike. More details are on my workshops page or by getting in touch with me. This month’s choice of illustrations are pictured below, and the templates are available as a free download from my online shop.

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Bible Journaling: Prayer

I’ve been asked by my Bible journaling session guests to teach them some coloured pencil techniques at our next class (10th October). Let me know if you’d like to attend and I’ll give you all the details. We’ll explore gradients, texture and shading to illustrate verses in our wide-margin Bibles on the theme of prayer:

A free downloadable PDF template for each of the verses is available from my shop, here.

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250,000 views – the giveaway

Completed quiltIt’s not long to wait before my little corner of the blogosphere captures it’s 250,000th view. I gave you a sneak preview of my giveaway a couple of weeks ago… and here’s the whole thing! I’m giving away an A3 quilt featuring 100% cotton fabric onto which I have hand drawn and shaded tangle patterns that I’ve published on this blog, quilted with cotton/polyester wadding and then hand bound with a black fabric binding. It’s labelled on the back with my name and the fact it’s my seventh quilt.

As mentioned before – all you have to do to win this giveaway is to be the person closest to the 250,000th view that leaves a meaningful comment somewhere on this blog (spam doesn’t count!). All you have to do then (Sandy F. take note – that’s twice now) is respond to the email from me asking for your postage details!

Just a little thank you from me for supporting me over the months and years 🙂

 



 

Liberty 100 – tangle pattern (and giveaway)

Liberty 100

This is my 100th published tangle pattern. It’s a step-by-step breakdown of a carved wood panel in one of the side rooms on the ground floor of the Liberty department store, off Regent Street in London. It’s quite an intricate, full pattern, but builds easily.

Liberty_w

In recognition of my 100th tangle pattern (did I mention that yet?), I’ve got five limited edition drypoint prints of my tangle pattern ‘Rokpool’ to give away. Each will be numbered and signed by the artist (me). If you’d like the chance to win one of these unique prints, leave a comment below indicating what you will do with the print if you win, and sign up for email updates for my blog if you haven’t done so already. Entries will close at midnight GMT on 18th January, and I will choose my favourite top five commentators on 19th January 2013.

IMG_3380_wThis is one of the print editions – each is a unique print of the same engraving plate and will be framed as shown (though see caveat below!). The print itself is 6.5 inches square. I’ve engraved, printed and mounted them myself, so you will be receiving a totally one-off piece of artwork. The giveaway is open to all, international or local, though I do reserve the right to send an unmounted print if the postage turns out to be prohibitively expensive!

And if there’s any of my tangle patterns you’d like a similar print of, let me know – I’m very happy to take commissions 😉

And you’ll be pleased to know there are more tangle patterns on their way – I’ll be publishing one each Saturday for the next few weeks.

UPDATE 19-JAN-13:
The lucky winners have been selected, and they are: Nana, Joyce Ford, Melinda Butcher, Sandy F and Kris. Congratulations, and watch your email inbox for details on how to claim 🙂

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100,000 views!

Hi all – this blog has just ticked over it’s 100,000 views in just 14 months of going live. And I think the person putting the time in today was Alice checking out my tangle patterns – thanks for all your comments, Alice!

As promised, I have a giveaway in honour of this momentous occasion. The lovely Tania at WOW! Embossing Powder has kindly provided a set of six powders in a handy carry case:  Green Glitz, Princess Pink, Red Glitz, Metallic Gold Sparkle, Blue Glitz and Indigo Super Fine. As a second prize, I’ve also decided to give away a signed, limited edition copy of my drypoint print.

All you need to do to have a chance of winning is to leave a comment anywhere on my blog between now and midnight GMT on 22nd May. Only one entry to the draw per person, though feel free to comment as much as you like! The two winners will be announced at some point on 23rd May. Good luck, and thank you for your continuing support 🙂

First Birthday Giveaway – the commissioned piece

If you remember, I had a giveaway at the beginning of March in honour of this ‘ere blog’s first birthday. The first prize was for the person giving the most comments and is featured here. The second giveaway was to the longest active subscriber to the blog at the 12 month point – and that was/is Shirley at 11 months and three weeks. I asked her what she would like as her commissioned artwork and this was her reply: “I have been looking through your blog and saw the ‘largest ZIA to date‘. I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch (until my eyes rebelled). Samplers was one of my favourite things. Would I be asking too much to have that as my prize?”.

Of course I couldn’t give that particular example away again as it was a unique piece for that particular giveaway. So I’ve created this one instead, including some of my new Faberge patterns and using my first attempt at a Celtic Knot. It’s a biggie again, being A3 sized, and took almost 6 hours to complete. Well done Shirley, I hope you like it!

Has it only been a year?

Hello! Today is the last day of the first year of my blog 🙂

And in my normal fashion, I’m celebrating this milestone with a giveaway! More on that in a moment, but first some first year stats:

  • I’ve had over 67,000 hits in one year – wow!
  • My busiest day was 22nd February this year when 783 views occurred in 24 hours
  • My Tangle Pattern gallery has been viewed 6,616 times
  • The top five most viewed tangle patterns are CB5, Raffia, Waterlily, Flower Whorl and ABC
  • 1,245 views came from people searching Google for ‘tangle patterns’
  • The post with the most comments during the year, unsurprisingly, was my third giveaway
  • I have 130 email subscribers and 13 WordPress followers
  • I’ve made 227 posts and there are a total of 664 comments

Phew! What a year! I’d like to thank you all for your support, comments and enquiries – they really do make a difference to my enthusiasm levels!

And now to the giveaway. In fact, two giveaways!

Both giveaways will be a commissioned piece of artwork (that’s postable) of the recipient’s choosing – it might be a bespoke card, a zentangle, a drawing – that’s for the recipient to choose with me. It’ll be your own special personal bit of blog 🙂

The first giveaway is to the person that has given the most feedback through the comments over the year – and by far the leader is…. Judy Gudeman! Judy, please look in your email inbox! I’d like to give an honourable mention to Dianne T and Lizzie Mayne as runners up.

And the second is to my longest standing, active, email or WordPress follower. All you have to do to win the giveaway is to comment on this blog – whoever has been subscribing for the longest and responds the quickest will win 🙂

As for my new followers, keep following! It won’t be long before I am celebrating my 100,000th view and I’m hoping to get some great prizes to giveaway.

Best wishes to you all and roll on the next 12 months!

Unique Giveaway #3 – the winner!

Hello all! If you entered my prize draw, you were one of  just over 50 people to do so – what an incredible response, and thank you for all your comments.

The winner of the mug and fancy saucer set is the author of comment number:

Congratulations, Sandy, you’ve won! Look out for an email in your inbox with details on how to claim your prize 🙂

[And you’re still in with a chance… if Sandy doesn’t claim the prize within a week, I’ll redraw]