Artful Journal

As some of you know I attended a workshop at Art from the Heart with Tim Holtz last week, so it’s probably about time I shared some pictures with you of the journal we made.

 

Such a lot went into the covers. Art parts, sticky back canvas, die cut grunge board, kraft resist papers, distress stains, grunge blocks, alpha-parts and a small pile of idea-ology. I will be doing this again.

I have decided to keep my book as “a place for art”, somewhere to put ATC’s or little pieces of art I create.  I’m bad for not creating just because I can. Things have to have a place to go afterwards, or a use.  I don’t allow myself to just play as much as perhaps I should.  So this will be a journal full of "just because”.   There are lots of pocket pages to add in ATC’s and tags.

                    

And finally the back, with the date in alpha-parts and yet more idea-ology.

The kit we had was truly amazing with so much product in it and more than enough to keep this little journal going for a wee while yet.

Sadly I was a complete numpty and left my camera at home, but I have been sent some photo’s from some of the lovely ladies that were also at the workshop, so I have those, along with Dyan’s fabulously designed ticket to serve as a reminder of the afternoon.

I love it when

creativity strikes, or as the case may be at the moment, scrappy mojo hits!  As you know I’m re-scrapping my wedding photo’s and have ordered a pile of cardstock and a new album to keep them in when they are done. 

Last night I couldn’t wait for the new cardstock to arrive so I started this LO featuring some of my closest friends and based it on a sheet of kraft cardstock, but it didn’t look right, so I hunted through all my cardstock until I found a sheet that it did suit. Phew. This morning I finally found the CD with our wedding photo’s on and printed out a smaller version of the black & white shot.  ta-dahhhhh, all finished now.

I am really pleased with this one, another HUGE improvement of the original layout.  And Sarah – I am completely re-scrapping them, not scrapping them again.  The old papers are lying on the floor waiting to be used for scrap and stamping on.

revisiting

Over the weekend I decided it was time I had a clear out of my scrappy supplies as I have more paper than I can use, so I was hard on myself and now have a pizza box full of cardstock and patterned papers to take to my crop for rehoming. 

While I was about it I sat down with some of my old albums and have since made the decision to re-scrap my wedding and honeymoon layouts.  I know it’s nice to look at the progression of your style, but honestly, when I started scrapping I had no style.  Badly matted photo’s plonked in the middle of pages with very little interest on the page. Weddings are important, so I want to create pages that I want to look at, so above is the first new page.  Trust when I tell you it’s a thousand times better, although I’m not convinced I have finished with it.  We’ll have to see.

The next layout is another look back.  We ran out of ink in our printer so I had a hunt for a photo to scrap when I went to the local crop, that or sit and twiddle my thumbs!  I found this one of Rosie’s feet and finally finished the layout on Friday.

A little stash busting went on here with lots of brads, stickers and a feltie being used.  All of which I have had for a while.

        

That’s it for now.  Today is one of my rare kid free days, and I have tons to be getting on with while the house is calm.    Thanks for stopping by!

bubble bubble toil and trouble

What a week!  I've been around online, popping in here and there, but since Sunday I've been ill, mainly in bed, with the most horrendous tummy bug.  I'll spare you the details, but on the plus side I've had to punch a new hole in my belt as my jeans were falling down this morning.  I'm not quite out of the woods yet, but getting there.

A bad side to being ill is a distict lack of anything crafty.  I've been filling in my daily art journal calendar but that's been it.  Today, I decided to have a play around with my blog.  I *think* I've settled on a set of new fonts - like them?  Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a bit inky and create a new header so watch out for that one.

Next week however I'll definately be making up for a lack of crafting as I'll be off to Art from the Heart for an afternoon with Sir Tim! I am getting a little excited.  If you pop to Dyan's blog there is a chance to win a golden ticket to the morning workshop as well. 

Another attempt

Still going on the cat front.  What do you think?  Are they getting better?

The fluffy above and her brother below.

Seriously, I’d love to hear what you think about these shots, and any tips for taking photo’s of cats who won’t sit still.  I’ve already ruled out superglue, think that could be classed as cruel.

just a look

A little while ago I signed up for “the joy of love” over on Willette Designs  It’s free and runs throughout February.  

Today’s prompt is to capture a loved one at their best or worst, and after that photo I posted the other day I’ve been desperate to take shots of my cats. As always they don’t want to do as I want them. That’s cats though I guess.  As soon as they see me coming with the camera they run towards me and the shot I had planned in my head after watching them be completely still for ten minutes, has gone out the window.  This shot is as close as I’ve been able to get to the fluffy one.  A little out of focus but I will keep trying for that illusive shot! In the meantime I need to clean “nudge” marks off the lens and de-fur the camera.

Mini Journal

Paints & Ink Sprays: Dylusions.          Image: Tumble Fish Studio      

I love my art journals and although I’ve only been creating my pages since August 2010 I think I may be getting closer to my style.  I’m finding that I love brighter richer colours.  Colours that ordinarily I might avoid as I think of them as being too loud for my eyes.  I suffer from photophobia and I honestly think it gives me a fear of anything bright – colour included, but I’m learning to love them again.  Having said that this page is about the near constant headache I’ve had for the last week and my craving for silence. Light I can hide from, silence is not so easy to obtain in a house with a three and five year old.

Paints & Inks: Dylusions.  Images: Cemerony & Itkupilli

Another page from my small moleskine, this time in luscious red.  I think this page was also borne from my state of mind and lack of sleep down to these cluster headaches.  Ah well, tomorrow is another day!

Finally I would like to say a very big thank you to all those that have visited my blog in the last few days to view my calendar pages. I was amazed to see the stats!   Thank you so much for your visits and for your wonderful comments and here was me thinking of giving up my blog.