It's a teaser...

...this week.  I'm having so much fun working on a guest post for the fabulous Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, which she'll be posting October 21.  It will, of course, utilize Julie's stencils and my beloved Gelli prints.

Can you tell which stencils you'll see then?

If you're as stencil-crazed as am I, you'll be able to identify two of them immediately.  If so, email me for a chance to win one of the finished pieces.  Random draw for one of the pieces in the blog post will be made October 25.  

The last outdoor market...

was today, and the morning was perfect for it.

The Farmers' Market is always a feast for the eyes.  From black heritage tomatoes

to dark Coronation grapes (can you taste the pie?), everything is home-grown and delicious.

From spices

to vegetables,

the choices are staggering.

The colour is always amazing,

and so is the taste.  For the first time today, I wrapped my mouth around this Cape Gooseberry at Mike and Mo's stand. Nigel told me it was akin to a pina colada, and he was so right!  And the little lantern packaging it arrives in is lovely too.

I thought they were very clever to match their cloth to the produce, or was it vice versa?

There are makers of all sort, from recycled crates

to jams by the truckload,

and even the neck ribbons sing with colour.

 Brenda's lavender hits all the senses with that heavenly smell and textural display.

I think the sign here says it all - home ground and locally grown.  We can be justifiably proud of our local market.

Today I'm especially grateful to be living in the Creston Valley.  What's happening in your area?  Are your markets done, or just getting started?

Who has more fun...

...than artists?  I find it hard to imagine that anybody could!

Today I got to play with Art Foamies, thanks to the generosity of Emmie Roelofse, who loaned me some for use in upcoming Gelli playshops.  They're fabulous stamps - quirky, whimsical and easy to clean in soapy water (gotta love that!).

With 30+ stamps from which to choose, the decision-making process took longer than the actual stamping.

Using brayer cleaning sheets, I stamped with Staz On stamp pads,

tested the Handy Art fabric paint that Emmie uses (it may not be strictly legal, but it works a charm on paper too)

and used them with heavy-bodied acrylics,

I switched to Gelli-printed backgrounds and used fluid acrylics,

and then the Gelli plate (I stamped the one on the right after stamping into the paint on the Gelli plate...waste not, want not!).

I'm also intrigued that one's own designs can be made into a stamp...what could be more fun than that?  

Emmie's motto is 'If it doesn't move - stamp it!', and I can see why.  Heaven help me;  I'm terribly afraid that I've found another addiction.  

I have been working...

...honestly.  Although the studio has been torn apart from stem to stern for a deep cleaning, I've managed to finish a few small things:

'Recs & Circles; Amother Colour'  6 x 9" mixed media on paper © Win Dinn

'The Hole Story'  7 x 5" mixed media on mat board © Win Dinn

'Chasing the Blues' 8 x 8" mixed media on canvas  © Win Dinn

Really, when you consider that my studio looked like this a couple of days ago,

while I scrubbed the floors to a faretheewell (mostly on my hands and knees),

there aren't enough adequately descriptive words to tell you how happy I am to have a spanking clean space again.

So here's to some more creative time during this gorgeous fall weather.  Happy days!

Stencil crazy...

...Gelli crazy.

I've had fun these last couple of days, burning a new house-wrap stencil from a stencil-making disaster a couple of weeks ago (no, don't ask!),

and then doing a test run on the Gelli plate for some monoprint backgrounds.

From the initial ghost print,

to each of the layered prints, whether first pass or not,

 I was excited about the results.  As always, I love the texture created by the house wrap itself,

and the first print over another textured Gelli print has great possibilities (think giraffe!),

as does the ghost print over another Gelli-printed book sheet.  I'm not usually fond of subdued colour, but this one pleased me no end.

Even this high contrast print looks awesome after scratching back into the black areas (love those Golden open acrylics for Gelli printing)

 and the ghost print over a soft pink/green print is truly delicious.

I am well and truly hooked on the Gelli printing process, and looking forward to a fall and winter playing with it in Creston, Cranbrook, Fernie,  and Kimberley.  You can see a full list of these and other playshops here.

With applications from original monoprints to journaling to collage and more, the possibilities are endless.  Will you come and play?

It must be fall...

...because we spent a good part of the morning at the Creston Fall Fair.

I have fond memories of participating in these fairs as a child growing up in Alberta, so today's viewing was a huge pleasure for me.

We saw a painted horse skull,

 flowers & cacti,

 some fabulous Lego creations,

squash that made my eyes pop,

 and more vegetables than one could imagine (check out the beans, bottom left!).

 The fruit baskets were mouth-watering,

 the quilts were outstanding,

 and I was stunned at the work that went into these cards.

 There were goats,

 and sheep,

 and tiny exhausted cowboys.

 We saw rabbits

jars of seeds for the coming year,

and sunflower heads that made my eyes pop.

It was a fabulous reminder of what makes this valley so special.  I hope you live in an area where you can appreciate the bounty of this wonderful planet.