Beanie's Giveaway

Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway here... http://beaniemouse.blogspot.com/2010/04/found-art-giveaway.html

I'll be pulling a name out of the hat on Friday!! And be sure I have a means of getting in touch with you too - I know there's one person there (at least!) that's forgotten to put an email address in!!!

Running, running, running!!

Last Sunday, when we came out of our house, we saw the the road had been taped off and there were lots of balloons hanging out. What's happening??!

Then we saw some people running along the road. Why??!

There's another one!! Andrea said it might be a thing called Brighton Marathon, and it's the first time we've ever had one here!
And it's going right outside our house!!

We walked up the road and saw lots of people standing by the road cheering and clapping!

There were more people running up here too!!

They were running in both directions - how confusing! I hope they don't get lost!

We walked a bit further and saw that some people had Big Signs with them!!

And we also saw a Music Band playing in a bus shelter!!
how funny!!!

We saw more Big Signs in this road too - and loads more people cheering and clapping!!

Those people had sparkly pompoms with them!!!

we walked a bit further on and found a Pig painted on a window!

Andrea goes past this shop every day on her way to work and says it's a Sandwich Shop called Grand Cochon, which is French for "The Big Pig"!!
I think Sullivan would like it here!!

They make sandwiches "on the spot" for you to take away with you!
Andrea says they're Very Good Sandwiches, too!

They even have a pig living in the shop!

His name is Seamus O'Pigster, apparently.

A bit further along, we saw a giant Ladybug in another shop window!!!!

Then we went home again - there were lots more people running outside our house when we got back.

I did the very first ever Brighton Marathon!!!

More Book Paintings!

Here's another book painting for Chapter Two!!

and another one!!!

Don't forget to sign up for the giveaway if you haven't already!!

We're famous!!

Some of my Favourite places to go (and some of Andrea's as well!) have been highlighted here

http://mmcamarketplace.typepad.com/mmca_marketplace/2010/04/places-to-visitwhen-inparis.html

We're sort of famous!!

A Found Art Giveaway!!

I've decided to give away some of the goodies I got in London - two of the zigzag papers....

and five of these A7 sheets of paper. They're made in Indian from Cotton Rag and are lovely to paint on!!

I'm also going to put some of my artistamps with them and maybe Some Other Stuff too!!

If you'd like to receive some Fun Stuff, write a comment here and i'll have a Prize Draw at the end of April!!

Free Stuff and what to do...!

Here's all the Free Stuff I got last time I went to London!!! Those brown paper bags at the front have all been turned into Artists books ready to fill up, and those cards on the left hand side with the yellow bag on it have been cut up into Postcard sizes ready to have stuff stuck on them!

Andrea even let me use the train and bus tickets!! (OK, so she had to pay for those, but we can still use them in found art and mail art!!)

Over the Easter Weekend, we found six CDs on the sidewalk near where we live!!! Some of them were a bit broken but that's OK!!

We brought them home and started shlepping Gesso over them....

..... so they're now ready for acrylic paint and raffia and stuff!!!

Beanie's Found Art Workshop Part Five: Artists Books

To make Artists books, you'll need a paper bag from a shop (that maybe your owner bought something from, and they put it in a paper bag for them), a stapler, a pair of scissors and a craft knife.

First of all, with either the craft knife or the scissors (whichever you find easier) you need to cut one long side of the paper bag.

So that it looks like this!!

Then you do the same thing on the other long side.

And then fold the whole thing open.

Then, fold over one long side to the other long side, and make the fold a nice sharp one.

Then, with the craft knife, slit through the crease.... and then side down so that you cut along the crease to ALMOST the end.

And then do the other way. You need to leave a little bit at each end not cut.

The bag should look a bit like this now!!!

Keep both long sides together, but start folding over the short edges so that they "join up". You're now "making the pages" for your book. Fold down each page as you go.

It should look something like this when you're done!!

Then get your stapler and staple the "folded over" end. I usually use three staples but you can use as many as you want!!

It's now ready to decorate with other found bits!!

Beanie's Found Art Workshop Part 4: Tags

Now, remember when we made that card, and we trimmed a bit off the side? Well get that bit of card and punch a hole in one end. You can use a fancy hole punch if you have one, or you can use one of those two ring binder hole punch gadgets if that's all you have.

Then either find a piece of ribbon or find two elastic bands and cut them so they're a elastic strip. Tie together the ends of the two bands so they're joined together and then thread one of the other ends through the hole in the card.

Then tie the bands in a knot on the other side of the hole in the card, so that the bands won't fall out. You can then decorate the tag with other found stuff and then tie it somewhere, like a tree branch, or a railing or a bicycle handlebar, ready for someone to find!!

Castles, Paintings and Wart-hogs!!

Today, Andrea said we were going Somewhere Special!!

First of all, we came to Hove Train station!!
I love those Du Barry signs!!

We had to get one train ......

And we got off at a place called Barn Ham.
I guess they keep piggies here...

Then we got on another train.

There's a castle over there!!!
Andrea said we were at Arundel!!

Wow! That's quite impressive!
Andrea said that people still live in that Castle and they charge lots and lots of money to go in, even if you just want to look at the gardens.

On the way into town we lost some stuff!!

And we met a turtle, like that guy that lives in Barcelona!

Gosh! They have the escape Route of Charles 2nd!!
That's a long way to run away though, 615 miles!!

That's the River Arun...

These tiles show a map of River Arun.... it joins up with River Thames in London!!! Gosh...

That's pretty...

We tied a CD here too!

And that's Arundel's coat of arms too.

Which way do we go???

We went past a very pretty lady wearing pearls!!

Wow! That's impressive!

Down here, they had Ghost Stories, but they wouldn't let us in because we were on our own!!

Dang it, Sullivan would've loved to hear stories about Ghosts and Zombies!

I hope they get to visit, then we could both go in together!!!

We walked past some allotments too, with lots of veggies growing!

Coo!! Some building, eh?!

I like Arundel, even in the rain!!

We brought some greetings cards to lose, too, and we wrapped them up in plastic bags first!

A cathedral! Let's go see!

Gosh!! A big dark tower....

And a cleopatra needle thing...!

We had a good look round the Cathedral but we didn't take any photos inside. we bought some postcards though, but then we started feeling cold, because we'd been walking in the rain and the wind.

So then we decided to look for somewhere to eat.

Now, that's a view!!

There's a Pink Dragon, like Dilly!! I wonder if they're related??

We found a cafe and we arrived just in time for an All Day Breakfast.
I People Watched at the window while it was being cooked!

We also had a coffee!!

And finally Breakfast arrived!

(Sullivan - Andrea said to tell you that it's Tofu or Quorn!)

After we'd finished eating, it had stopped raining, so we went and did some Window Shopping!!

We found an Animal Shop with a Wart Hog in it!!

He's one of Sullivan's relatives!

And a Mouse too! he looked very happy though!

I don't know what this contraption does but it looks like it's from a torture chamber!!!

And we left another card here tied to a bannister!

Gosh, that's a pretty floor!! Andrea says that the White Rose belongs to a Royal family (and the red rose belongs to another royal family, and one of them is Tudor!!! It's all to do with the War of the Roses but Andrea's not very good at that part of history!)

We went back into town again and saw this very pretty doorway made out of collage!!

(It's the same place we saw that lady with the pearls)

Down by the river, they even had remains of a Domincan priory!!

Then we noticed there was a craft Fayre so we went in for a look!

when we came out of there, we saw there was an art exhibition over the road!

We went to see that as well!

Hello! Meet my friend Tony!!!
He's an Artist you know!!!

And here's my other friend Jilly!!

We went into the exhibition and Andrea bought a painting. It had been very carefully wrapped up, and then because we were getting tired, we decided to come home.

Almost at Arundel Train station......

And we then waited for our train back to Barn Ham...

It'svery green round here....

And then we got another train back to Hove.

And a little walk down the road....

When we got back, I showed our new painting to all my friends and told them about what we did today!! It was very exciting!