Been at it again…

 

Yes, more scrapping.  Think it may have something to do with a pile of “school” photo’s that have been sitting waiting to be scanned in, and that fact that once again my little craft space seems to be shrinking so I must use up my mountain.

This layout is one I created for a class I held at my local crop. Thankfully all the ladies that took part seemed to love it – big phew!

And after all that scrapping, I’ve managed to do a little art journaling as well. How could I not? 

One background ready to work on, all done with acrylic paints.

And a finished pages, stamped and doodled in my mini journal.

That’s probably going to be it from me now until December as Chris & I are off to New York soon for our annual “just us” break that happens to coincide with my 40th, and that means packing up my journaling travel kit to take with me.  I think that is going to be harder than packing clothes!

Thanks for stopping by!

A good bad photo

Rosie is asserting her independence this week in a way that, at times, has been painful.  Painful to me that is. She started out the week making her own sandwiches, or is that butterwich?  The aftermath was, shall we say, interesting and took some cleaning up.

I decided to take some photo’s of her to mark this new found independence. This is the only one that is out of focus, but a perfect moment catching that cheeky little face full of pride showing of her yummy “butterwich”. This is definitely my good bad photo of 2010.  So, what’s yours?

Are you sitting down?

I think I'm still in shock.  Last night I had a sudden urge to scrapbook, and here's the evidence.  

I've used the October Scrapagogo kit, with no inking or distressing, not a doodle in sight.  Totally unheard of for me! I have never scrapped straight from a single kit but I think I used a good chunk of it on this layout.  So, finally, with all the art journalling I've been doing, I've made a dent in the ever growing stash mountain. Hurrah.

Thanks for stopping by!

eeeyuk..

Bugs and diseases have hit our house again and it hasn't made for much fum over half term.  Neither has there been much going on on the crafty painty inky front so a very quick post to share what I have done.

This little lady may well be headed for my mini art journal, but the (cute) couple below are in an altered book I'm working on for the art, heart and healing course over on Willowing.

That's it for now.  Off to light the pumpkin we carved this afternoon!  Happy Halloween !

What's your current favourite?

I love finding new products to play with.  New to me that is, and it's even better buying them when you get service with a smile.   A couple of months ago I treated myself to some Tim Holtz tissue tape but I really wanted to get my hands on some Japanese masking tape, and here is one set I ordered from Papermash. Yep, I did order more than one set.

I just love it.  It's sheer and silky and is slowly appearing in my art journals and scrapbook pages. I received fantastic service from Lynne at Papermash, so if you're looking for some interesting tapes pop over and give her a visit.  There are some new Christmas tapes in store....

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

Another first...

A new page in my journal based on the second project from Art, Heart & Healing.   This one is is my art journal rather than the project we are working on for the course.

I've drawn and hand coloured the little girl and whats more I happen to rather like her.

One wonky eye and a Moustache

Neither of which I have in real life, well, I don't think I do, but here in my self representation (it's not a self portrait as it's not very like me, at all) I do!  What's more I don't much care.  I have thoroughly enjoyed creating the page for the class and as a result keep pinching Jamie's note book in the evening a doing a few faces. Practice makes perfect, or better at least.

So having completed my first page in my medium sized moleskine, and having done one in my small molkeskin, I decided to have another go but this time in my A4 journal. 

Biggest regret here is adding the necklace but tis done now.  At least she doesn't have a moustache! By miracle of all miracles I even managed to fit the stamped journaling around the hairline without suddenly having to stop or changed what I had planned to say.

 And finally, another play, this time in my sketch pad - or should I call it my experiment pad.  A simple line drawing having a go at doing a different style of face.  I haven't been brave enough to colour her as yet.  Having said that there are a few supplies I want to get my hands on first.

This week it's an altered book, with transfers and whimsey's.  I've been playing in my "experiment pad" for the drawing of the whimsey's but with it being half term it may be a few days before I get the chance to work on the book itself.

First one...

About two weeks ago I joined postcrossing.com and have since sent postcards to the USA, Bahamas, Finland, Russia and new Zealand, but today I received my first postcard. Yay!   It was so nice to see it on top of the pile of post we had delivered. 

This one is made from a photograph taken by the sender and has travelled 4645 miles from Texas.  I won't share every single post card I received - that could be more than a bit dull to you, but forgive me if I share the occasional one.

Willowing along...

Yesterday was the start of free Art of the Heart class over on Willowing.ning (there's a link over on the right if you'd like to join in).  The class runs for four weeks and each week is a different project.  This weeks project is an art journal page - see why I joined!

Part of the class is drawing a representation of yourself on the page.  I have never been much cop at faces, feet yes, faces, no, bodies yes, faces no.  So I had a little play in my mini AJ first and here is the result....

Not bad, but by no means great, but more importantly I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.  I'm almost done on the double page spread in my bigger journal, although (don't laugh too loud) I have wonky eyes and a moustache on that one....hmmmmm.  maybe my inner self is trying to tell me something I hadn't realised...I'm wonky or have a facial hair problem.  I've certainly never noticed the latter, and I'm sure Chris would have offered me his shaver if that had been the case, so it must be the former.

So after this expect to see more of "me" on my pages.  I love it because it's yet a different style.

Small and beautiful

I seem to be in the land that migraines forgot but cluster headaches relish at the moment.  With both kids out of the house today I have pretty much slept most of it, but I did have a lucid hour to eat and relax whilst trying to come back to the land of the living before this afternoons school run hit.   While relaxing I decided to have a play in my mini art journal.

The book I'm using is a small moleskine sketchbook which measures 14 x 9 cm.  Its got 80 pages in it apparently, at least half of which have now got paint on them. This is the first page that is now ready to journal on.

I think this could well be one of my favourite pages yet and I thoroughly loved working on a small scale.

Sheesh…

Oh Lordy, like life isn’t complicated enough.  I thought I’d use Windows Live Writer for this post as it’s often quicker than using blogger….  not today.  An update is available… Why or why did I just not say “good for you!” and ignore it?  Twenty minutes later and much faffing, I finally get to use it. Oh and MS – I prefer the old version.  Do you think that’s just my age and the increasingly sense of disliking change creeping in, or more of a if it ain’t broke don’t fix it attitude?

Anyhow…. finally to share with you the second page I have completed this week.  This is a sad little page recording how much I hate Sundays now as it’s the day Chris has to pack his bag and get ready for a week away.  Just one of those pages where I had to get it off my chest before it burst (do you feel sorry for me yet?  sniffle)



Yes, I know my writing ran out of painted lines, but I needed to write and lack of lines wasn’t going to change that. Plus, I don’t care and that is one of the many reasons i have taken to art journaling – it just doesn’t matter.

I also know I’m not the only person who’s beloved works away, and I’m lucky that he’ll be home for two weeks over Christmas, he was home for most of August, and it was great to have all that time as a family.  It was like Sunday morning every day.  Maybe I’ve been spoilt this summer and that’s why it makes it harder now.

Ho-hum, life goes on.  I feel the need for a good cuppa now.

Thanks for stopping by!

The time thief is about again...

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last did a blog post.  Chris has been working away the last couple of weeks and I swear he packed some of the hours from my day in his suitcase before he left.  I'm not doing anything other than being a Mother and a housewife but blimey!  

In the last couple of days though, once the kids have gone to bed I have managed to spend some time slapping a bit of paint down in my art journals.  Shame I've only had chance to take a photo of one though and this is it (rather obviously...)

This page has now been journalled on where the lines have been painted, but it's private journalling so you'll just have to imagine the finished page with my scrawl across it.  The quote is one of the many I've started to collect... "It's never too late to find out who you want to be".

Fingers crossed I'll get chance to scan the second page tomorrow and find the time to pop back and share it with you. 

How ever hard you try....

Since I started art journaling I have been collecting a few phrases as sometimes I don't want to pour my heart out on a page, but I still want to create something that has meaning to me.  This is one of those phrases "However hard you try you end up like your Mother" .  I would like you to note the stamping on the page though "results may vary" and "potential side effects".  I consider myself a very different creature to my Mother and wish to remain like that.

A few more learnings....

For starters, these quick pages are brilliant for me.  It's meant that once I've decided what my lesson for the day has been, I whip out the alpha stamps and ten minutes later the page is finished!

So, my lessons from the 3rd to the 6th then....

Oh - a day of deep cleaning some of the rooms in the house.  Far too long have we put this off.

On Saturday evening we went to the theatre.  Nothing too cultured you understand...we went to see Rhod Gilbert.  During the interval I was astonished by the number of mobile phones that appeared.  As soon as the word interval was mentioned by the support act (sorry - Andy something...he was funny though), a plethora of back lights appeared as people reached to switch on their mobiles.  I'm not sure what they were all going to achieve in 15 minutes, in fact a lot seemed to be playing games on them. What did people do before mobile technology? Oh yeah, I know - LIVED THEIR LIVES!

 Sunday - the perennial dilemma faced me in the form of a quick shopping trip to buy a new purse.  I think Chris thought I'd lost the plot but was glad I chose one in the end and didn't walk away with two.

By Monday I had relaxed and was fully enjoying a weekend without the kids. Oh how I miss peace and quiet. 

That's all from me for now.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'll do another LSNED round up at the end of the week.

So good so far!

I'm keeping up!  OK - so it's only day two but that's good given my track record with these things.

Yesterdays lesson then.  "There is no adult space in this house".  I was merrily minding my own business, happy in the knowledge that the TV was switched off (for a change), and I could hear no bickering.  The joyous sound of my two playing happily together was ringing through the house.  I then realised the sound wasn't coming from it's usual place, i.e. their bedrooms.

Our bedroom door was closed. O-Oh. 

I opened it to find Rosie rolling round on the bed, Jamie sitting in a moses basket (one that's usually home to Rosie's soft toys and in her bedroom) and our carpet transformed into a toy factory.  

My question is this... Did you ever dare go in your parents bedroom?  I know I didn't, and Chris didn't.  It was a sacred place, an adult only space.  You didn't play in it. If you were lucky you may have sneaked in the occasional bounce on their bed, but generally it was off limits.  Even now as adults it seems wrong to go in your parents bedrooms.  So how did this happen? The kids have taken over and we need to reclaim our space.  I don't think it's going to be a tear free affair.  Wish us luck!!