SUNNY SUNDAY

Hi everyone

When I started to write this week's post there wasn't much sunshine around, but I am a very optimistic person and hoped that by the time I published my post the sun would be out.  It is.

Where did last week go?  I planned to accomplish so much and actually achieved so very little; not too sure if this is because I know I have extra time about to be available compared with this time of year normally or am I slowing down!  Heaven forbid!  Think my mind is on holiday and has decided to leave working until September.  A good excuse and means I can continue to do as little as possible without feeling too guilty.

I went on a Calligraphy course on Friday and really enjoyed it.  I made some mistakes, got a few things right and know that I really need to practice a lot.  However, I feel it is something I can add to my card-making that will give a personalised finish.  I had a long list of materials that I had to buy for the course and being a dedicated Internet shopper, I worked my way through various stockists.  Unfortunately, the delivery time for most of them was too long.  I decided to look locally and went to the Godalming Art Shop, Bridge Street, Godalming - not only did they have everything I needed, gave me lots of help and advice, and didn't encourage me to buy expensive equipment, they also have a 10% discount scheme for just £5 a year!  As I purchased quite a lot from them I covered my membership fee in my first visit.  Even better, they stock a lot of the material, paper, card stock, embellishments, etc that I need for my card-making.  Thank you Alan and Charlotte for your help and advice.

The tutor on the Calligraphy course also demonstrated some decorating techniques using water-colour pencils.  the flowers she drew looked so good and I definitely have to have a go at that technique.  It's amazing how something that starts off so simple (spots, dots and lines) can end looking really beautiful.  Again, I feel it is is something extra I can use in my card-making.  I feel it is important to keep moving forward in the design and style process and I can't wait to add my new found skill to my cards.

I recently joined the U3A and spent some time today deciding what courses/subjects I would like to study this academic year.  So far I have decided on a calligraphy course as well as a bobbin lace course (I saw someone doing this at an event I took part in and the work looked beautiful); thought it would be a good idea to see how this is done and try to produce something myself.  I am hoping it might be something I could add to my cards.

In addition to calligraphy and bobbin lace, I am also going to enrol on a course called Starting Points - it is 'a practical course for inexperienced enthusiasts providing an introduction to approaches and techniques using such materials as pens, pastels, pencil, crayons, water colours and gouache paints'.  Rather reminds me of painting and drawing classes in school, which I really enjoyed.  Perhaps this may release the inner artist in me - again something different I can hopefully add to my card-making.

I just hope I have the time to fit everything in!  I shall be having a go at my Calligraphy exercises this week and if they are good enough, I might just be brave and post some pics on here.  So, watch this space.

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Have a good week - I hope we get some more sunny days.

Jill