3 Year Blog Anniversary! GIVEAWAY!!

I cant believe it, its been three years since I started writing this little blog, and how my life has changed! I've been through so many ups and downs, silences and time of much to say...hopefully this blog grows with more time but for now I am really happy for the lovely followers I have at the moment! You guys make me want to write and art!

I mentioned on my facebook page that I thought it was time a lovely give away, so I ambled into the studio to create a canvas to give away! This is my first piece of art that I'm letting leave my hands...hopefully as I get my bits and bobs together, there will be more original art in my etsy store, as well as prints, badges, and a few surprises! all of this takes time!!!

so lets get to the actual item that I'm giving away

this little nook dweller came from the slaps of paint and collage papers one night when I was stuck for what to make, so I just painted...and before i know it, she popped out.

shes is a little tree spirit, who holds rainbows in her leaves to keep her from jumping into the dark lake! she is a lot like me to be honest.

to win this little forest beauty

All you have to do is leave a comment and be sure to leave your email address so we can get in contact with you.

Earn Extra Entries:  *Follow Little Raven Ink

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*Spread the love about this giveaway on your blog, twitter or facebook 

 

Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

 

Entries Close the 29th April 2013 

I will put everyones entries and bonus entries into a hat and have my little teacup humans draw a winner

 Goodluck!!!

xx Courtney  

 

Friday Pages - What I'm working on.

Well it's Friday and that means one thing! Friday Pages...Showing off what I'm working on between the pages of my little art journal! 

 

playing with my art supplies on video this page still has a long way to go before shes finished, but I am enjoying the crazy mess that's coming together at the moment!

 

playing with little creatures in amongst the paint and ink! this little love popped up holding onto the heart.

 

altering photos is my upcoming artgeeks prompt! turning ourselves into whimsy creatures to give a little fun to our photos! I am currently waiting for a spare moment to myself to get some self portraits sorted so you can see what works for this technique! so simple, and yet so much fun! 

and using some of my spare photos that I'd printed out and just having fun with colour and tapes! They are so simple, and yet these are some of my fave pages, the background is using Gelli plate prints I'd done in the past! 

speaking of which...here is one of my altered gelli plate images

and one of the previous images...before I started altering myself into a bunny

thats all from me! I'll have another friday pages post next week with some new work I've been working on! have a fantastic day!
I am thinking of turning friday pages, into a journal meme! so you can sign up on fridays, showing off your pages, I love a good page perve!
xx Courtney

Part two of my journal play video

enjoy the second part of my journal spread!

have a fantastic night
xx Courtney

around the nook

It's a little wet and windy here at the moment, and our zoo trip had to be postponed, the teacup humans were very grown up about the decision which I was surprised about, but they wanted to see the animals happy and not hiding from the rain. So here are some of my snaps from during the week on whats happening around the nook.

playing with ideas, as I create the notebooks and writing papers and digital download sheets filled with nook dwellers.

making sure that I don't get behind on project life, by having pictures printed daily so that they are a constant reminder that they need to be trimmed down and popped into my album, we popped out today to grab some grey ink, we had been running low and soon my images were much too bright! (like highlighter bright) so I relented and replaced the grey ink.

some of my custom 3 by 4 cards in these spreads, about our we try it Wednesday cooking, and the kids making puzzles. 

I organize my images in two folders in iphoto, 3x4 and 4x6 so I know what images are being printed and for what pockets, I found this much easier since printing at home can be wasteful in photopaper when it comes to varying sizes. 

with the school holidays, we tend to let the kids do more electronic treats. which end the moment school starts. One of the little mans fave past times, is playing skylanders on the ipad.

with the weather being awful, there is nothing better than curling up on top of a bunch of cushions with a book, I was half way through this before I stopped for some reason, so I took it from the bookshelf and began devouring it once more.

my inside desk at the moment...yes I have several desks out in the studio, but some days it is just much too hot, so we put up a little desk inside for me to use on things I'm currently working on. My gelli prints waiting to be cut up for my scrappy journal pages, my rabbit book, some books I'm currently reading and odds and ends.

and working on that commitment of being a better friend above is a custom writing paper and envelope I worked on...maybe these will come out in the shop! who knows.

So that's whats happening around the nook.

enjoy the rest of your long weekend if you are an Aussie...and stay safe to the readers in the tornado cylone flood zones in Australia, my thoughts and prayers are with you guys.

xx Courtney

Friday Pages

The week is over, and Friday is welcomed with open arms and a little sigh, Ive been taking notes and crazily writing things down as I start work on the wonderful task of creating my own little journals/notebooks for little budding artists and writers, trying to encourage little ones to put down the gameboy and pick up a pencil..to be excited by creating something.

So watch out for that!
and in the meanwhile, I've been working a little in my journals, nothing huge but still making sure I made the time to do a little work in them.

Just going over some old pages that have sat dormant in my big journal, unfinished pages that have kind of been a pet peeve to me, so the other night I sat on the couch with my pens and just played with colour and mark making. The above photo is some of my finished journals in my life held by my darling man, and a deer hehehe because we all know how much I adore them.

creating little random creatures in my journals as I gear up for my new classes over at Artgeeks! the students have been waiting so long for my classes to start up again, and since the kids start school and daycare next week I am back to having two full days to record edit and upload videos for them...so I'm getting the ideas flowing.

and working on my rabbit book.

just playing with ideas of my little odd ball girls and a cute little bunny, just playing really, its play that gets my idea going, and right now, I need a tonne of them! this one was done on a scrap bit of paper but turned out really lovely so I'll tip her into the rabbit book.

and of course the little white rabbit I drew one night that I fell in love with! he was the first to appear in the rabbit book, so simple in his colouring, a black biro, and a light grey copic marker and that's it! but I do adore him.

this girl in the above shot, I'm not a fan of her, I kept her because its all process and progress, I drew her on a scrap bit of dictionary paper, so instead of putting her in a dark scrap bin, she got pasted into the rabbit book.

how are your journal pages going?
have a great weekend
x Courtney

Friday Pages.

It has been so very hot here the last few days, the heat sucks your creativity like a wilted flower!
I have been working on somethings, nothing ground breaking, but we must always create in order for new ideas to flow through us.
I have been working on my Scrappy journal that is a free class over on christy's ning site, I watched her videos drinking in every step as I usually do when Christy makes something fun and quirky...so I grabbed my glue stick and scrap bin and got to work.

here are some aspects of the pages I have developed from old drawings, to random odds and ends in my scrap tub.

my nook dwellers that I had drawn and discarded into the bin months ago, found new homes among these pages.

I have a bag of old postage stamps that finally had a use!
While I was making these, I decided I wanted to do some animal studies little journals filled with drawings and paintings of the one animal, then slowly turn them into a nook dweller, to give my hands that knowledge of an animals shape without using a reference. So I got some random junk together and make a little quick journal...my rabbit book.

just white cardstock and some old boxes that I cut down to size, little book binding thread and ta dah!

I even started drawing on the cover, which I may paint a little later...but I'm excited to go on this journey, to draw a multitude of animals till they tell me how they want to be drawn in dweller form.

after some tweaking, and a lot of unlady like swear words, I will be making some little handmade writing sets in the coming weeks...nothing like the above image, i was just seeing if I could do it myself, since finding a printer seems to be like finding a unicorn.

I am very excited.
xx Courtney

The Nook Dwellers.

Good afternoon my little ones,
It's been a few days since my last update so I thought I'd crawl out from my Desk and get a post done! There are big things shifting around in the nook... one being I'm embarking on opening a store in the near future, filled with crazy beautiful bright wondrous things. and in prep for that...I've been drawing like a woman possessed. 

there have been rainbows, and houses, vines and mice!

sweet little Deer

and little circus kittens.

and when I'm not creating the 'Nook Dwellers' as the range will be called, I have been playing on unstretched canvases for people to use in their mixed media, or for a centerpiece for a handmade journal...ideas are endless.

So do keep stopping by, and the nook dwellers start building homes in my notebooks and journals...as they creep so silently into your hearts...I've fallen head over heels for them.

It feels right...to finally know who I am, I'm the girl that creates rainbow worlds for things to live in...

and it makes my heart beat fast just thinking about it.

and it all started, with little lily...who kept telling me stories about a circus cat who wore pearls and read books.

She inspired me...

I hope the nook dwellers inspire you.

keep watch..they are ever so silent.

xx Courtney