Salamanda's Paper Adventures

Art Journal, GC136: Glorious Green

2012-01-29T17:35:00.000Z

This is my entry for the Glorious Greens (my favourite colour) at Gingersnap Creations GC136: Colour Challenge here. I have been following some of the prompts on the UKS Art Journey and this week we were to use packaging as inspiration. This was what I found...

We recycle most of our packing so had to root in the recycle bin. Toothpaste, nicotine patches and fly shoes reflects my week. Obviously the colour did not inspire me but the items did and are part of my hidden journalling.I am on week 4 of stopping smoking, the only me packaging is basics as I am allergic to anything with perfume, essential oils, citrus and too many more so no pampering products for me. The pampering was linked to the Fly box as it was my birthday this week and I was spoilt by my family.

I began by using modelling paste I saw in Lidl and spread it with my fingers over a double page leaving space in the middle. I then took a heat gun to the paste and got wonderful bubble texture.

I then journalled in an ever decreasing circle in the middle of the page and traced round the fly on the shoe box using Posca pens and acetate. I coloured the fly with alcohol inks and stuck it over my journalling.

I covered this with scrap paper and sprayed two colours of dylusion inks over the top.

Then it was my fingers and teal, yellow and white acrylic paint.

It was too boring at this point so I used the Birds on the Wire Stamps from Dylusions to cover the space. Because the background was so textured this gave an interesting effect with the stamps. Finally I wrote the word fly all round the border. I seem to have made a very green page again... Thanks for dropping by, I need to Fly now.

Gothic Arch Challenge

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000Z

This is my entry for the challenge at the Gothic Arch Challenge blog here. The theme is metallic fever and I have made a Gothic Arch Wall Hanging. After looking around the web at images or original Gothic Arches and finding a template on the Gothic Arch site I traced the template onto some metal and then cut it out. I wanted a circular shape at the top so after some trial and error I traced and cut out the shape I wanted. I used Pebble, Sunshine Yellow and Red Pepper alcohol ink on the metal.

I then created 3 card arches each a little bigger than the next. I used barn door and wild honey distress inks around the edges and then randomly stamped a paper artsy hot pick flower.

I found some images of butterflies on Graphic Fairy and cut them out and coloured with the colours above and spiced marmalade and then mounted them one on top of the other with pads to give some depth. I coloured a dragon fly charm with inks and stamped more butterflies from Tim Holtz and Paper Artsy onto the Graphic Fairy images. I then added the large butterfly at the front of the arch and gave it some metal feelers and two red bling eyes.

Finally I used some Tiny Alphabets from prima to create the title and added an eyelet and chain.

A Productive Crop - Scrapping, journalling and laughing

2012-01-22T11:56:00.000Z

I was at the monthly EK Craft and Crop yesterday and had a wonderful time, I even managed to create 2 and a half scrapbook LOs and a journal page and managed to gossip (I mean exchange fun information) with some lovely ladies. The hardest thing was not eating any biscuits or cakes as I am trying to avoid putting on any weight with my latest attempt at giving up smoking...19 days and counting.
I had taken last year's art journal and my newest one as Suzy is interested in trying out art journalling. It turns out a whole lot of people are interested in this. As I inked and splodged all over my layouts there were various comments about the mess I got into to, created and how it was not for them. Over on UK Stampers we have been discussing how there are no rules in journalling and if you want to be messy you are, if you want to be neat and graphic (see the fabulous graphic pages by Ephemera) you can be. The subject of what you journal is also fascinating and again we agreed you either do or don't. This is a bit of a ramble here but I am going somewhere with this. My biggest problem with scrapping has always been there seems to be rules and I always felt I was getting it wrong somehow. Yesterday I had this moment of insight (or madness) and agreed with Suzy that we don't need rules and why should it always have a title or journalling? I then happily created 2 and half pages that are heavily influenced by my art journalling adventures. I also bought some beautiful seam binding from Angela of Angel Crafts who brings her shop to the crop and some prima resist canvas (and nothing else if you are reading this Lens Guy...)
A little about the LOs. The first one shows our middle daughter aged about 8 (we never dated our old photos...) and my dad. I cut out out the blue cardstock using a borrowed stencil and then added some TH Kraft resist in the middle which I swiped with dylusion ink using a baby wipe. The title was also swiped with ink and the letters were a Prima Lush set.

This was layered onto a gutted piece of Kraft card. I stamped compass, binoculars and text from a Royal Langnickel set, added distress inks and then journalled. I used two beautiful colours of seam binding to provide a frame and a piece of the canvas resist.

The next layout shows our youngest daughter aged 3 or 4 following my brother-in-laws pet sheep back up to their house. I used a lost and found page and spritzed it with dylusions and distress inks.

A piece of 7 Gypsies card as a photo mount and then used seam binding to create a flower and ribbon strips. I also added a lovely piece of lace. The title was Tiny Alphas from Prima.

Finally and sorry it's such a long post... the journal page began with Claudine Hellmuth foam dot stamps and then I added Studio 490 Steampunk stamps and Lady Audrey from Octopode. There was a lot of ink and acrylic paint here too. The journalling sprung from the conversations we were having yesterday about how art journalling is scary and messy.

The little feet shape marks beside the boot were from a decorative easter chicken Betty was making tags with but she took the feet off and Anne suggested I should use it so I stamped them on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I always appreciate the comments people leave, although Blogger is back to being a little huffy at the moment.

Wall hanging

2012-01-15T19:37:00.001Z

I am setting a monthly challenge on UKStampers here. The challenge for this month open until 11th of February is to..."Use Metal, Material from old clothes, tissue and stamps to create a wall hanging. As is it January and it's a long time until payday you can't buy anything new - existing stash only."This is what I began with.

I always have a huge amount of jotters to carry to an from school and I had been using an M&S canvas bag featuring twiggy until it developed a huge hole in the bottom. I have used on side of the bag to form the top of my inking apron (more of that another day) and decided to use a piece of this and because it is such an iconic face to to use the Face but the mouth was a victim of the bag breaking. I had recieved an Art From the Heart parcel recently so used the red tissue paper from that to recreate her hair with texture and give her a more modern haircut.

I then decided to paint all over it with gesso as I wanted to change the colour...

As part of my Christmas money spending I had bought the Paper Artsy Grunge flower die and the Hot Pick HPXT02, partly because at some time in the past I had bought some metal and had no idea what to with it. I later discovered I should have brought tape and stuff too but improvised.

I cut out out the flowers and stamped them with purple stazon and then decided I wanted to add alcohol inks but forgot about mixing stazon and inks. The flowers looked great but I removed most of the stamping. This is one of the flowers I made using the silver but in the end decided copper tones would work better. Daughter wants this as a brooch.

I then took Claudine Helmuths dotty stamp from the domestic set and stamped a blue Dylusion background that I highlighted with black posca pen. I applied pink and purple dylusions to the hair with my fingers and then painted on some very scary eyes. I wanted to change the face and make her something else which she certainly is - a little scary I think. Daughter came in and asked if she could have the hanging for her room as seems to be delighted with it. Here is the bronze flower.

I punched holes and set eyelets with the cropodile and then used some of the idealogy chain I won for entering a Tim Challenge on UKstampers. If you would like to enter the challenge (which is monthly) please pop over to UKStampers, it is just for fun and no prizes but already some of the pieces in the gallery are fab.

Art Journal Page

2012-01-11T09:00:00.000Z

These pages have a simple sprayed ink background and my new stamps from Paper Artsy, Hot Picks HP1109. I used Dylusions burnt orange and blue sky for the background and added some extra colour to images using jade green.

I highlighted parts of the images and completed my journalling using a sakura white gelly roll pen.

It was a horrible cold wet day which inspired the journalling.

Gingersnap Creations GC133: Chestnut Theme Challenge - Use a Set

2012-01-08T19:25:00.000Z

This is my first entry for the Gingersnap challenge but when I saw the theme I thought of my new Alice Octopode Factory stamps. I created these ATCs for a swap on the Alice theme on UK Stampers. I had seen an example of a Triptych ATC and decided I had to try it.After working out how to create the Triptych I cut out some of Tim's Holtz's festive craft paper and then stamped each image onto cream card. I then created masks for each stamp and sprayed each card with a different colour. I used Dylusions Inks for the Queen and Mad Hatter and Cosmic Shimmer Chalk inks for Alice and the white rabbit page boy.

I am going to use the masks for another set of ATCs as I like how the colour went on them.

I used a key charm, pearl brads, ric rac and part of an old necklace to decorate the front of the white rabbit ATC.

For the front of the mad hatter I cut out the watch face and tape from a sheet of lost and found and added liberal amounts of crackle glaze and ink.

Because I kept thinking of the Looking glass and Alice I used some metal to cover the front and inside of her ATC. I added the eat me and drink me stamps from Octopode.

You can see more of the front of the Queen in these photos. I coloured roses red (of course) and added red velvet ribbon and hearts cut from paper and stamped crowns.

It's Finished - 2011 Art Journal

2012-01-04T16:42:00.001Z

At times I never thought I would finish this. When I agreed to enter the weekly challenge on UKStampers to create an art journal I did not know what I was letting myself in for. I have loved every minute of this process and have learned a great deal in the process but still feel I have a long way to go. I learnt that I favour colours in green and purple area of the colour wheel but also liked a little orange and pink. I used two pieces of cardboard from the back of note pads to create my covers by doing this...

After placing a layer of gesso on the cardboard I used my fingers (and hands) to apply teal and white dylusion paint. Lens Guy came in during this process and commented on the fact I was making a lovely guddly mess. He was quite right and that's what I have enjoyed about this process as I don't think there are any right or wrong ways to journal. I have loved some of my pages and others I have not been so happy with but that is all part of the process.

As green, orange and pink featured in the journal I decided the cover needed to reflect that. I had made the tag earlier this year using Dependable Dotty stamps from Dylusions but did not know what to do with it. Does any one else have that problem. I had some scraps of the glue resist background left and drew and cut out the words art journal. The little bit of orange ribbon links to a journalling tag at the back summing up the process for the year.

I have now bought a journal to journal in as when I started this last year I just used random sheets of paper that were approximately 9 x 7 inches. It was meant to be 6 x 4 but that seemed too small to contain my messy splodges. Having now started journalling in a book it is easier to contain in a book but means less unusual backgrounds to work on unless you stick them in but I could do that as there are no rules. Did I meet my goals I originally set? Yes apart from the smoking one... I stopped and started twice last year. I have stopped again (only just) but know that I am a bit of a repeat offender especially when stress at work gets to me. I thought I would share some of my favourite pages this year.

Thank you for dropping by and scrolling down through all these photos. I am going to keep on journalling this year, try and do more scrapping, learn to quilt, do more altered art and just have fun...

Stampotique SDC 45 Challenge

2012-01-04T16:20:00.001Z

I have finally finished my 2011 art journal and my last page is my wish for the New Year and my entry to the challenge. It's the last page in my journal, is double sided and has a flap for some secret journalling and reflection on my journal. My wish is more a comment on the art journalling process.
The first page uses Olivia, Oh Dear and Eric. I created a background using pink and orange dylusion paints and inks (on a gesso base layer) and then added extra detail with Teal. I stamped the figures onto card and coloured them using Wild Honey, Marmalade, Barn Door and Worn Lisptick distress inks and stains.
I coloured three postage tags with Dylusions white and teal paint and then sprayed poemegranate ink on top. I stamped Eric, Olivia, Angel Boy and Fran in blue Stazon across the tags. The other side of the tags is for my secret journalling. They fit inside the pocket under the flap.

The photo below shows the flap open with the tags inside.

The other side of the page was given a layer of gesso and then I applied teal and pink Dylusion paints with an old credit card. I stamped Smushasha and Angel Boy and coloured with Distress inks. My wish or new goal for 2012 is to continue with art journalling and I now have a book to do it in rather than random bits of paper that I had to wonkily cut to size.

Those of you that follow the fab Kate Crane will appreciate that these pages have been influenced by her style.

I am going to create another post today which shows the completed journal which I am so pleased with.

Romping to the end of the art journal challenge

2012-01-01T18:26:00.000Z

More of my finished pages. I am working on my very last page of the 2011 journal today but still have more to do. I never thought I would get there but I have and I have enjoyed the process so much.

Toys and the changes over the years. I found a fab vintage cut out doll on Graphics Fairy blog which I added to a barn door distress stain background. I added adirondack silver dabber and then stamped images from a Lost and Found Set and a the time piece from Craft Stamper.

This was about Christmas trees and I found some stencils and blasted Dawn Bibby moonlit silver spray over them stencil - bit messy in places. Once I doodled around the images I journalled all over the page about our Christmas tree - I found there was lots to say.

The next page was lots of fun. I created a background using paints, pva glue resist technique I had seen in the latest Craft Stamper (the squiggly lines) and lots of shiny spray inks. I loved this effect.

We were to be generous with the stamping so I went to town with Tim Holtz bird and text stamps.

I added more wild honey and worn lipstick to the the torn text and to try and blend it all together. Photographing shiny pages never seems to work that well. I will have to give in ask Lens Guy for a lesson on this...

Finally a page on Christmas traditions.

Journalling into the New Year

2011-12-31T18:17:00.001Z

Have had a wonderful time so far with family and friends and lots of partying and visitors but today my craft room morphed back from spare room to craft room and I had time to play. I have fallen behind in the weekly challenge at UK Stampers but I am determined to finish. Here are three of my pages. The first page reflects on my patience or lack of it depending on the circumstances. The background was built up in layers of paint and gesso. The figure is from a range of dylusion stamps stamped directly and indirectly onto the page.

I wanted it to turned around to reflect the two sides of me. The page was all green and calm to begin with and then I used fired brick distress ink to show my angrier side.

The next page is about Horoscopes and Astrology - my star sign is Aquarius so I chose a watery them and one of my favourite Stampotique stamps.

New Year Resolution - buy some daylight bulbs so I can take more accurate photos and check colours. I used Dylusion inks and wild honey distress stains to build up a watery feel using torn paper for waves. I also stenciled some stars on. I don't believe in horoscopes but always read them if I see them.

The last one is monochromatic using Dawn Bibby stamps - she was the person that got me into crafting and even if it is not really my style now the stamps still work. This page is all about wisdom and wise old owl sayings...

I had to include one from Winnie the Pooh as my dad always read me these stories and I always think of that owl when I think of Owls.

Have a fabulous and merry new year and I hope 2012 brings crafty fun and inky mess to a space near you.

Where does the time go - flies by perhaps?

2011-12-21T19:16:00.000Z

This month has vanished in a flurry of stuff but I am just not sure where all my time went... anyone else feel like that? I finish for the holidays tomorrow and I can't wait. We took a group of pupils to see Hansel and Gretel today and I am beginning to feel a little festive but I am usually full of Christmas spirit at this time of year but the bottle of spirit seems to be empty. The tree is now up and I have posted some presents and perhaps when I finish tomorrow the spirit of fun and freedom will creep up on me. Aprat from working and making Christmas cards I have not been very inky. I made a batch of felt birds and created a hanging for my niece and experimented with envelope fold cushions from my son's old Tshirts (I found the tutorial for this on Joanne Wardle's blog here). These are versions of birds I have made before with slightly different decorations and colours of felt.

I sewed them onto velvet ribbons and added bells from an unwanted Christmas decoration and then then added these to more ribbon. It was originally going to hang vertically but I realised my niece had low ceilings in her room and it would be better hanging horizontally.

It was late and dark and I needed to post the birds when I took this picture but you get the idea.

The envelope fold cushions from old Tshirts are so simple even a novice like me can make them. I have a pile of old Tshirts the boys were throwing out so am going to make some more. I plan to embroider the bottom one to make it a bit more funky.

Tim's Tags - 1

2011-12-03T14:57:00.001Z

Here is my attempt at the first tag. It is very different as I am just using what I have (as per Tim's instructions) which includes a sizzix embossing folder, distress inks, flowers from prima, brads, distressed ink lacy ribbon. I punched some small holly leaves using a tonic punch and added them with some tiny bling around my lovely stampotique snow lady's head and on the page.

I liberally coated her in distress stickles for a glittery look. The glitter (not sticking very well to the letters) is Martha Stewart.

I don't have the banner (or any of the other dies) so I just tore a piece of craft resist and cut the banner edges and used picket fence and broken china distress. The fir type leaves are just a piece of card which I cut into a fringe. The pearl brads and red bling were in my box.

I like the effect. Note I embossed the wrong side of the folder and used lots of picket fence distress stain but decided I preferred the look of that side of the tag.. The falala was the closest Christmas greeting I had (sizzix die). I just enjoyed the process and thinking about how to create something inspired by the tag.

Christmas cards a mixed bag

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000Z

If you pop into this blog on a regular basis you will know that card making is not really my thing as I don't seem to have the patience or skills to be neat and tidy.. but I have been making a few.

TH resist as background, Stampotique stamps,

My children as my worst critics and youngest daughter commented on the above - well they okay mum but they're a little weird (that was the plan). You cannot send that to the grandparents. I know what she means so I have made some slightly more traditional cards.

Lets Build a snowman stamp, wobbly stamping and background papers from Levi Whitlock paper stacks

I found some Smirk papers daughter had used last year and cut them up to create new images and punched some snowflakes and then tried a one layer card.

A very mixed bag but at least they are homemade...

Journal pages

2011-11-30T16:55:00.001Z

I had a burst of creativity on Sunday in response to the stress of the inspection and managed 3 journal pages. The first one was about the first film I remember seeing and how it was my Dad's favourite film. After stamping a background with various stamps I doodled the vines and roughly coloured them with pro markers. My next page was about coincidence and after applying TH inks and distress stains in Worn Lipstick and Wild Honey I used Dylusions pomegranate ink to spray through a stencil and reverse print the stencil.

I then stamped TH butterflies and bird ready for my journalling. I had a lot to say this time and needed to leave enough space for the journalling.

The journalling is about a man we met in Canada who had previously bought a picture from Lens Guy to take to a relative in Vancouver. We met him in a gift shop as we were wasting time as our ferry to Vancouver Island was delayed.

Last page is all about inspiration which I get from Dyan Reaveley, Tim Holtz, Wendy Vechii, nature and all the wonderful blogs and forums that I follow, visit and drop by.

I stamped TH swirl with worn lipstick and then embossed with Ultra thick powder, swiped with worn lipstick and milled lavender. I used the fab stamps from Dependable Dotty and Lovestruck Lucy and journalled around the images.

AWOL but here's a rare scrapping layout

2011-11-26T13:37:00.001Z

I have been AWOL as the inspectors are coming to school and under pressure at work to have everything perfect and could you just write up that and this and... Just finished a 70 hour week this week - not something I want to do again. As our leader said when trying to inspire us..."They'll find what they find." Very profound and this was followed by, "It will be over by Christmas!" Stopping at that point would have been fine but our leader then asked the history teacher if that was the correct phrase for the WW1. With a passion rarely heard the reply was, "And they were wrong and it was followed by 4 years of attrition, destruction and the troops were decimated." To be quite honest I would rather they just turned up without notice as my teaching would be the same, my classroom would just be a little messy and my filing a little behind.
Anyway back to scrapping. I took last Saturday off and spent the day with the fab crew at EK Craft and Crop - lots of chat, laughter and some creating. I even managed some Christmas cards too.

I borrowed the TH Tattered Floral die at the crop to make the layered flowers, chipboard butterflies from Tando were inked and the floral paper had been in my stash forever and just had been to be torn to make it less pretty. I also used an acetate overlay I have had for years. The photo is of our middle daughter the weekend our youngest daughter was born. Their aunt had spent hours entertaining the four of them with face painting etc so they did not feel jealous of their little sister - but that has never been a problem. Middle daughter loves bugs, birds and the outside so the butterflies and robin seemed appropriate. The flowers and everything else have liberal applications of ink and doodles.

The journalling is on a tag tucked into the semi circle. I can see that art journalling does influence my scrapping layouts as I had no fear doodling a border around the photo and the letters and a few more flowers. The metal butterfly used to be on one of the girls shoes and I rescued it when the shoes were being thrown out.

Journalling Aargh and Just for Fun Challenge

2011-11-13T10:02:00.001Z

The challenge at JFF was to use your favourite colour, for those that pop in here regularly you'll know that for me it is green closely followed by purple. I choose green as it is a happier colour and I was trying to rid myself of the negative thoughts. I had been experimenting in my new journal with gesso and distress stains and created this checked background a few weeks ago. Yesterday feeling stressed to exploding point about work I decided to journal on the background and unusually for me I worked out and wrote the journalling first.

I drew round a cd three times and pencilled in my writing and then wrote it on the page using a pro marker. I feel like a headless chicken at the moment so using dylusions stamps (Lovestruck Lucy, Ruby Rainbow and Dependable Dotty)I stamped three heads and used the umbrella stamp to create spokes.

I coloured the heads with a paintbrush and Distress inks and then stamped the Dylusions circle stamp to give more circular energy. As you can see below Dependable Dotty has a strong influence over me at the moment.

I swiped more Distress Ink and some picket fence ink stain over the top. The distress inks are the Winter release (yes I gave in and bought them). Writing how I felt did make me feel better and helped get some of that screaming out my head. I then went to get my hair cut and I had a bit of a drastic change - influence I think, by my stamping and colouring of Dependable Dotty...

A major chop and lots of red, violet and aubergine. I think I like it but my son did comment that I was going a bit emo - you can always rely on family to say the right thing...

And here is another journal page on the theme of bitrhdays for UKStampers.

Just For Fun Art Journal Page

2011-11-06T17:02:00.000Z

The challenge at Just for Fun was to use your favourite stamp. My current favourite is Dependable Dotty by Dylusions as I just love the versatility and quirky feel of it. I have fallen behind again in the journal prompts at UK Stampers so typically I went for the last one, number 43. Am I social? Yes and No. With close friends I will let my hair down and have fun. If I have to meet new people I curl up inside with fear but usually you cannot tell as the more nervous I am the louder I become.

The background had many layers of dylusions paint, ink, gesso and stencil and more ink before I liked it but then it was quite dark. I did stamp Dotty straight onto the page and coloured her lighter but did not like it. I stamped her onto black paper and embossed with silver pearl and coloured with some aqua pro markers. I wanted a cartoon type feel to this image so did very basic colouring. The picture below shows what it was like before I coloured her and I'm not sure which one I prefer.

The other image had Dotty's other head and an image from a music magazine I cut out, gessoed over and then painted, journaled and doodled on. We were meant to include an invite so I made a tag describing my invitation to social hell. I felt it still needed something so punched some butterflies with the Tonic punch and used waste paper with ink spray spatters to back the butterflies.

Thank you for popping by.

Stampotique Altered Poison Bottle

2011-11-02T20:46:00.002Z

At Stampotique Maria challenged us to alter a bottle to a poison bottle and only use Stampotique stamps... hmmm... much thinking ensued. Here is the almost step by step approach, it just leaves out the swearing, smiling and general messiness that went on.

I began with an empty perfume stick bottle which I filled with sploshes of alcohol inks and gold mixatives but I found it hard to get it to go where I wanted it to go.

I coloured the lid with pro markers and alcohol inks and doodled some details on the lid with sakura white and glitter pens. It is a poison bottle but it also needs an antidote which I created and stuck to one of the perfume sticks.

In my bits and bobs box I found an old dried chilli and that seemed a great antidote to poison when wrapped with beads, ribbons, pin and the definition of antidote. I had to really think about how to get the stamping on and then staring at the glass bottle inspiration stuck - shrink plastic. There was a lot of unladylike cursing at this point as bits curled over too much and got stuck etc but I finally ended up with these pieces edged in alcohol ink.

Angel Boy, Oh Deer, Smushasha and Olivia (Eric had a major melt down and curl up)

I decided the bottle needed a stand so found the plastic protector from a stack of cd's added ink and stuck on some metal fasteners as feet. If I had taken photos in daylight you could appreciate how giving the bottle a base that is raised up helps the colours bounce. I then stuck my shrink plastic stamps to the bottle with glue, masking tape, glue dots, tape and more swearing as a curvy bottle and wavy shrink plastic make it tricky to stick. I also added another layer of ink to my shrink plastic.

Olivia perhaps suffering from Poison?

Angel Boy hiding under what began as a hideous flowery chipboard tag before I covered it in gesso, inks and my drawing of a wonky skull and crossbones - and another bead from that box.

Here you can see the shrink plastic poison charm above Oh Deer and a key and owl charm that were dipped in alcohol inks and added to the sign.

The curved bits hanging from ribbon on each corner are from a broken shell necklace in my bits and bobs box that I dripped red ink onto to make them look a little like blood. I enjoyed making this. I hope you enjoyed reading about it.

JFF Altered Tin

2011-10-12T18:57:00.000+01:00

This time the Just For Fun challenge was set by Von and her challenge was to recycle book pages or magazines so I decided to use an old copy of Living Etc magazine to alter a tin - to hold pens in. I used Dylusions and Tim Holtz stamps and mixed them up to create figures. I cut out images from the magazine to create furniture and splodged a lot of mod podge around. Yet again apologies for evening photos...I began by layering white gesso on the coffee tin. I then stamped the image above onto dictionary paper - in two sections and coloured with pro markers and stuck it on. I began to build up images using other stamps but for these ones I decided to stamp directly onto magazine pages to colour and create the image.

She has a dylusions head and legs and a dress I cut out for her with a sofa and cushions collaged behind. I liked an orange chair for the vibrant colour but added TH birds to perch on it.

This one's face was on a very dark image stamped on top of a photo of black kitchen units and the body was over a garden image. There is a chandelier cut out behind her and more of the cushions and couches.

My big mistake was applying my stamped and collaged images t to the white gesso as I had gaps and wanted a different colour as a background. It was a bit fiddly to paint around images.

Late last night I mixed a little pink acrylic paint with mod podge - but this morning I realised it was a little brighter than intended.

The final colour was green acrylic paint and mod podge. The finish is really interesting and layered but I don't think the evening photos show this. The umbrella was stamped over a two tone piece of magazine.

Apologies for showing another tin - my glitter tin was my first altered item and this is my second, I think the third one might be more embellishment heavy but as I pick up and move these tins all the time they need to be sturdy to withstand my careless handling. I quite liked using the magazine images to "colour" my stamps as the effects were often not what I expected.

Extravagant Art Journal

2011-10-11T21:37:00.000+01:00

Almost caught up with the prompts again. This time the theme was extravagance and I added some expensive ribbon and some very bling buttons from the ribbon girl.

I stamped the background with a shorthand text stamp from Paper Artsy and then that hair dying comb came in useful as I made white dots all over page.

I used Claudine Hellmuth's Dwelling stamp in purple acrylic and then stamped the second part of the stamp with embossing powder and silver pearl embossing powder. The journalling was written on black paper.

Art Journal almost step by step

2011-10-10T19:05:00.000+01:00

First of all apologies for the photos but I am not getting home in time from work to photograph in natural daylight. This page was in response to a UK Stampers prompt asking if we were lucky. Am I? Not in the conventional sense of winning money but in having a wonderful husband, fab children and great friends I am. I was taking photos as I went. It began with the lyrics of Kylie's song " I could be so Lucky" which I printed out and and randomly applied to the page. I added spiced marmalade and Dylusions lime green ink.

Deciding it was to bright I swiped on some white acrylic paint and using a ranger black medium pen wrote words like "lucky" and "flip a coin" on the page which I then applied Blonde Moments pearl pigments to.

I then stamped the dots from Claudine Hellmuth's dwellings stamp with embossing ink and more pearls. You can see all the layers in the photo above.

Next Tim Holtz bird and butterflies, some straight onto the page and others onto card - I also added pearls to some of these which you can sort of see. I cut some rough strips for journalling and added them too.

I discovered that if you dip a silver charm in alcohol inks and then perfect pearls the pearls stick and give a coppery effect. Finally I sprayed orange ink over the top and added a few acetate stars using free Craft Stamper stamp. The page looks great and shimmery on my desk and the photos do not really reflect how I see it but I need to resign myself to dodgy photos now that it gets dark at 6pm in Scotland.

Family musings and rare photos of me

2011-10-07T10:30:00.000+01:00

Family is something we all (mostly) have in one shape or form and when I have not been working I have been doing family stuff this past week or two, so less time to craft. Our other son was 21 last week and we had a party for family on the Saturday night and he then insisted we went to his club night as on the Sunday. I got to bed at 2.30 am that night and two late nights makes me a little tired. We really enjoyed it and for all of those who wonder what I look like the evidence is above. I hate getting my photo taken as I cannot reconcile the current "bit chubs" bespectacled person I see with the person in my head. My other son refers to people as a bit chubs and it perfectly describes my giving up smoking rounder shape and the fact that I eat too many biscuits and cakes.

It looks like I was horrified by Lens Guy's dancing - probably correctly - but I was also showing off the lost in the woods dance mood which is a bit of a family joke. I had meant to touch up the scary grey hair but was too busy entertaining family and working. Still needs done.

youngest daughter and son

Family also took over in the form of my mum this week as she had a fall last night and I had to go over and sort things out. Luckily she did not fracture her skull but one eye is totally closed and the other is going that way. I do have a photo of her, modelling the 10 rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson look, that I took to send to my sister so she could see damage but no one else should see it. Mum is now staying with us for next 5 days so Lens Guy can look after her when I am at work. I love mum and enjoy having her to stay but the wee selfish imp in my head is crying "bang goes your planned weekend of crafting..." I might manage a little if lucky. Thank you for dropping by.

Art Journal Page

2011-10-06T18:49:00.004+01:00

As I am yet again trying to catch up with prompts on UK Stampers weekly challenge here is week 37 - Laugh (just 38-40) to finish now... To save time I used a mop up page as my background.

Because I was thinking about Monty Python's parrot sketch which always makes me laugh

I decided to create odd stamped images using images from Dylusions and Tim Holtz.

I was going to use scrapping alphas but did not have the letters I needed so cut out the waste and then sprayed Dylusion orange ink over before removing the ink.

I stuck to the organey green colour scheme on the mop up page using the inks and distress stains to colour the images with.

Altered Tin, Just For Fun

2011-10-05T18:25:00.000+01:00

When I saw the challenge on Just for Fun Challenge blog which was "Anything But A Card" and the challenge on UK Stampers to use up some glitter stash I decided to try my hand at altering a tin. I've never altered anything like this before so it was very experimental. I have a pile of old coffee tins that I store pens, brushes, tools and stuff in and I decided I wanted to try and alter them. I painted the tin with three coats of gesso, very roughly, so there was a lot of brush stroke texture (not sure how to make it smooth unless I sanded it). I then glued Martha Stewart glass beads around the base and then splodged on distress stains in peeled paint and broken china. I used a christmas foliage stamp from Shady Tree Studios as I thought it looked like seaweed. I stamped Smushasha from Stampotique twice onto acetate and liberally applied large flakes of glitter from MS. I then stuck the together and suspended her from the top of the tin using thread. I painted vague fishy shapes in glue on the tin and added more glitter and round blob shapes became bubble in glass beads. I used free Jo Capper Sandon stamp from Craft stamper and glued more glass beads to back of these and then stuck on using raised sticky pads.

I enjoyed experimenting with this and my second tin of collaged stamps is now under way.

Back to happy bright colours with a tag

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000+01:00

This is much more back in my happy colour zone. My current favourite spiced marmalade and worn lipstick created the background with a water spritzed swirl. I used the fabulous Dependable Dolly Stamp from Dylusions whichI stamped onto the tag and another version onto dictionary pages which I cut out and coloured with distress inks. I then added crackle accents to the hat, tie,wings and legs and pieced them onto the tag. I painted the coat with a mix of distress ink and white acrylic paint and dabbed the face with some white acrylic paint. I found the heart in my bits and bobs box. Don't you just love that bird under her hat? I think this tag will end up on a journal page or on a card but at the moment she is hanging on my inspiration board.

Another experimental Journal

2011-09-19T16:00:00.000+01:00

As I was creating the black and white page for the stampotique challenge I was also working on a page for the UK Stampers challenge all about Risk which asked you to use colours or techniques you would not normally use. I painted the page with Black dylusions and stamped a Dylusions circle text stamp. I then went a little bit mad with white paint and my hair dye comb tool. I stamped Olivia and Eric from Stampotique onto a dictionary page using Red Stazon and then using a baby wipe dabbed on the ink pad to add softer details around the page.

I tore a piece of Lost and Found paper and added ink to the edges. I then stamped a variety of Dylusions hearts and an umbrella, plus a Lost and Found Typewriter, a hat and a TH crown. I journalled around the smaller stamps and then printed out other text onto photopaper using white on black.

I like this page but I don't think I will be getting the black paint out in such large amounts again as it is a little uncolourful for me.

A productive crafting day at the crop

2011-09-18T19:46:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I went to EK Craft and Crop hosted by Suzy and Audrey. Despite their being a slight crisis with the heating (not working) and a flooding toilet which meant we had to find the stop cock (which we did) it was a great day. The room soon heated up with all the hot air floating from numerous crafters happily swapping ideas, stories and laughs. I managed another double layout in my Paris album. I can't remember why I decided to make it such an odd size but the plan is to bind it all together in a book form so I think that's why I went with the American page size. although as I do not measure accurately don't hold me to that.

I also managed to make a card for mum with a great deal of encouragement from the girls as I muttered about not liking making cards as it required neatness and precision. Thank you Audrey for keeping me on track and mum did like it and I did almost get the house tidied and clean before she arrived for her birthday dinner... It helped that I had made the tag earlier in the week using TH Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick distress inks for the background and stamps from Lost and Found and Paper artsy. Suzy suggested the contrasting turquoise and I found a piece of ribbon that finished off and sewed some buttons on. Due to wonky stamping I had to stamp the sentiment again on turquoise.

SDC38 Black white and hint of yellow colour journal page

2011-09-16T18:51:00.003+01:00

This challenge has taken me way out of my colour comfort zone. Kaz at Stampotique set the challenge "I'm setting you another colour challenge as you all did such a good job of the last one. This time it's to use black and white and add just a hint of another colour." I used my new journal for this and swiped black dylusions over the page with a baby wipe as I had been mopping up paint from another page (still in progress). I then used a mix of bottle lids to stamp circles with white and yellow acrylic on both pages. I then stamped Eric and Olivia onto the page and embossed them with TH Black distress powder. I used a Ranger medium pen to write my thoughts and embossed that too (I took a chance on you, worth the risk). I think my head must be full of Abba songs and advertisements as there are two well known catch phrases in there.

My stamped figures were blending into the background so I drew white lines behind them which helps bring them out and then I went a little doodly with the white pen. The facing page also has a Lost and Found Gramophone stamp on it. It is disguised within the white doodles. I used the last of the Tattered Floral pieces from the TH die to create a flower and leaves and added a paper ruler stem. Another part of the flower gave me the love heart balloon.

I'm off to the monthly EK Craft and Crop tomorrow so hopefully will have lots of times to play or finish stuff. I have about five different projects littering my desk at the moment and none are quite finished yet. Thank you for dropping by and I love reading any comments people make.

Just For Fun Challenge - Words

2011-09-07T16:43:00.002+01:00

Von set the challenge at Just For Fun to take inspiration from Words. As I had been making a bookmark for the Stampotique challenge I thought I would create another bookmark for Just For Fun. I used Eric, distress inks, and dictionary pages. On one side I stamped Eric directly onto a dictionary page coloured with distress inks and then stuck that to a piece of green tissue paper. I coloured him with aqua pro markers andpaper pieced some books for him. On the other side I highlighted the words "who said boys do not read books" from the dictionary definitions and stamped Eric over the definitions onto a piece of Lost and Found paper with Spiced Marmalade and Worn Lipstick distress inks. I also created another quick book using Smushasha from Stampotique. I am trying out a new Accelerated Reading Programme with my first year class (year 7/8) and am busy making bookmarks to encourage them to read. I've laminated them all to protect them.

Art Journal

2011-09-06T20:28:00.001+01:00

Just caught up again with the prompts on UK Stampers. The prompt was family sayings and the phrase "Willy Nilly" came from my eldest son as a small child and it has stuck around in family lore. Sayings are odd and can be misunderstood by small children. Many years ago Lens Guy was giving eldest daughter a lecture and warned her to "pull her socks up". She burst into tears wailing, "but I'm not wearing any socks". Eldest son, many years ago, was looking fore something to eat and had been told he could not have anything as dinner was going to be soon, he persisted and Lens Guy told him "You're on to Plums" Yup you guessed it, he retorted "But there aren't any." I uses Dylusions inks and my new Dylusions stamp Dependable Dotty with a different head and tried masking the skulls to create a bunch at the bottom. They don't have anything to do with plums, socks or... but I like them. The stripey effect came from the comb applicator for my hair dye - new it could be useful.

The second one was Dreams. I only ever remember my bad dreams but would love to remember the good ones. When Dad and my brother died I dreamt about them all the time but now 6 and 3 years on when I would like to remember them in dreams - nothing happens. This page went through many layers as it went wrong many times. I began with gesso and writing Dreams in gesso and then beging to spray with Dylusions inks. Stamping with masks and paints - not effect I had in my head and then because I don't have what I need to mout my lovely Lady Audrey Octopode stamp it all went wrong...

Out came the white Dylusions paint and the mess became clouds and I stamped Lady Audrey onto paper and then glued to page and tried to blend her in. It sort of works now but was not what I had in mind at all.

First pages in my new journal

2011-09-05T02:00:00.000+01:00

Although I have been completing my pages for the UKStampers journal I felt I also wanted to start a new journal. One of the reasons is that my UK Stampers journal is made up of many single pages that I am going to bind into a journal at the end of the challenge - that is if I can fit all the pages in my my binder. As I have been reading more about the process I decided it would be a little different in an actual journal so I bought an A5 sketchbook with quite thick pages and I have been using gesso on the pages before I add any layers.
These pages are very layered and I used stencils and bits and pieces that were lying around to build up layers. I also used my fingers to blend the dylusions paints which was fun and sprayed and rolled some ink layers too. I used the Dina Wakely Stamp and a selection of stamps from the Lost and Found Everything stamps.

I prefer this side as I think the colours and layers work better, but I do like the other page too.

I think I might come back to this page and change the colour of the journalling...

Stampotique Challenge Bookmark SD37

2011-09-03T16:33:00.001+01:00

Kate Crane set the challenge here at Stampotique time to make a bookmark. I stamped Oh Dear on Acetate and then coloured the background with Alcohol Inks. I then cut a long strip of TH resist Kraft paper, folded it in half and inked it with spiced marmalade and Worn lipstick. I cut an window in the resist paper and then mounted the acetate with some lost and found cream paper inside the window.

On the back I stamped Olivia and then stamped her head onto two die cut flowers from TH die and mounted them onto of each other. Finally I stitched all round the edge with two colours of embroidery thread and made a little tassle.

Art Journal Pages

2011-09-02T16:43:00.000+01:00

As you can I have used some of my new purchases. The first page was asking whether or not we are spiritual and I am not, I am much more of a free spirit summed up by the quote from Nietzche: One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I swiped on marmalade distress stain and then added Adironack Espresso randomly. I stamped the Dina Wakely Grungy Silhoutte onto the still wet ink so it blended into the page and then scribbled with a sharpie pen. I used my white pen to write the quote and stamped with paint and ink using the free Jo Capper Sandon stamp from craft stamper.

I'm not sporty but I do enjoy water sports and used to sail, windsurf and water ski. Now I am content to kayak around beaches watching seals and surfing waves. The second page is a succession of layers or ink, paint, ink and more ink and paint.

Once I had built up layers and used gesso to make shapes in the pattern I drew round some chipboard starfish and then sprayed through the waste sheet.

I stamped Smushsasha from Stampotique on the page and then on card and coloured her with aqua pro markers, cutting her out was tricky but it allowed me to place her hands round the distressed surfboard and keep some definition. I also stamped circles with the distress stains in peeled paint and broken china.

I used a glue lid to stamp white and black circles of paint and a card to add white paint lines - some of which I smudged. The title was done in aqua promarkers and sprayed with water to make it run. Finally I added the wavy journalling and a few more stamped circles over it.

Guilty Pleasures and work in progress

2011-09-01T20:54:00.002+01:00

We all have Guilty Pleasures and I came home from another hard day at the chalk face to find two. The lastest edition of Craft Stamper and a lovely box of goodies from Art from the Heart. Some of you might argue that these are essentials and do not constitute a guilty pleasure. However, we are trying to cut down on our spending so cannot justify these. Oh wait I can. I have stopped smoking for 7 weeks and 4 days so need a treat that does not pile on the calories. Just opening the box and seeing the tissue paper, string and hearts made me smile after a pretty awful day. For those of you who don't know I am a teacher (boo hiss, too many holidays) at a High School teaching English. We have been back for a few weeks now and with cuts leading to less staff, bigger classes and less resources we are all a little frazzled. But enough of the day job... what's inside?

Smushasha and Eric from Stampotique, Lady Audrey from Octopode, Dina Wakely Grungy Silhoutte, Dependable Dotty from Dylusions, more Dylusions paints, more TH distress ink pads and three of the TH distress stains from Ranger. I had to get them out to play. I have been working on a journal page about water sports and Smushasha seemed perfect. It's too dark to photograph the finished page now but as you can she is holding a surf board.

When I showed my daughter my new purchases she just looked at me and said "You are just getting weirder!"

On the occasional comments from pupils here is a response from a pupil asked to name a famous Scottish Inventor by one of my colleagues. "Sir, is Napier one?" (prounounced to rhyme with happier). Encouraging nod from teacher and pupil goes on "He invented Nappies!" Needless to say he struggled to make a suitable reply.

More ATCs in a similar vein

2011-08-27T01:30:00.000+01:00

When I was trying to work out how to create the ATCs for chain and charm swap I had a little play. I stamped Olivia from Stampotique onto shrink plastic and made holes. I tried colouring some (did not work) and on some of the others my holes bubbled and filled again. I used the Paper Artsy rule stamp on the the same background with Lost and Found dress form and bunting and added the paper fibre again.

I stuck her down (hole vanished) and then found the rabbit brad and decided I liked the surreal contrast of elements. Living free seemed right at that moment. The other one is a variation on the chain ATC but with different chains and brads. Really the same elements with a different chain and brads.

ATC Chain and Charm Challenge

2011-08-25T18:36:00.001+01:00

The theme for this challenge was chain and charm. As usual we are asked to make 3 ATCs for the UK Stampers swap and I decided I wanted them to be the same which I find makes it trickier. First I had to obtain some charms which I did from the lovely lady at EK Craft and Crop (but forgot her name...) then I went through the broken jewellery box for some old chain. I sprayed Cosmic Shimmer Chalk Mists onto the background and then stamped the key and rule stamps from Paper Artsy. Next I layered some thin tissue/fabric style paper, that I frayed, in pink and white. This gives a lovely tactile feel to the card.

I sprayed a small sheet of Lost and Found sunshine paper and stamped the typewriter. Then to be quite honest I was stuck. How would I put it all together and which charm should I use? I searched for apt quotations and sayings but nothing seemed right until... my return from a hellish 10 hour day at school yesterday. We have been back for 10 days and the pupils a week and any of their goodwill has worn off combined with a hellish timetable and various other factors. I came home drained and in a tired (Lens Guy would say foul) mood and that's when it came to me: Break the chains that stifle creativity. Inspiration! I used the Stencil Font, printed the text, sprayed and cut it out. I attached charm to chain and chain to ATC with a brad.

Art Journal Secrets

2011-08-24T18:31:00.000+01:00

This was another prompt on UK Stampers but I have put off this one for weeks as I did not want to reveal my secrets... Then I realised I could hide the journalling under the tag. This is a very grungy distressed page and I had fun trying out different techniques.
I placed a layer of gesso on the page and then added distress inks. Where the gesso was uneven it has created a much darker scratchy layer that I really like. I used Paper Artsy stamps and I think the student book-keeping one is going to be overused. I added a ledger stamp from same range on the side of the page but embossed and stamped it in clear ink.

I crumpled, stamped and embossed a tag with di and mahogany distress embossing powder and added to page with journalling hidden. I then decided to try embossing/stamping keys with some success and then added alcohol inks over clear embossed areas. Letters from TH papers with distress crackle and ink were then added.

The books goes to

2011-08-21T19:29:00.001+01:00

Random comment picked by youngest daughter (can't get to grips with random generator) goes to Sherry Edwards.

Scrapping and cropping

2011-08-20T15:53:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since I scrapped or cropped. I had a wonderful day with all the girls at EK Craft and Crop run by the fab Suzy and Audrey.
The photo shows youngest daughter and her friend at T in the park (and another of my felt birds sneaked into the photo. I used Bazzil Card and paper from My Minds Eye as the background. Then used up scraps of I love Elsie. At the crop I was able to borrow TH Tattered Floral Dies and scalloped edge stencils to make all the layered flowers.

The book I'm giving away

2011-08-13T16:37:00.003+01:00

To celebrate 250 random posts I am giving away a book similar to the one I altered. If you are into altering books you will have lots of fun with this or you might want to give it to a young child to colour in. It's published by a French coming called PlayBac and it is lovely.

A very idealised view of Russia

Think Anna Karenina meets no poverty

There is a window through to the deer

This is a train window

Stampotique 36 - Altering A Book

2011-08-13T16:29:00.000+01:00

Wow this is my 250 th post. In celebration I will be giving away a book similar to the one I altered for this challenge. I will pick a random comment from this post next Sunday 21 August. Sorry there are a lot of photos in this post.
Valerie at Stampotique challenged us to alter a book. I had such fun with this one and ended up altering three pages in my book. The book was given to by my eldest son as he worked for the publisher when he was in Paris. I was going to give it to a niece or nephew but something told me I would want to play with it.
The book began life as this:

It has lots of different sized pages like the screen that is a separate page

This made me think of changing rooms which are not places I like going into to.

I applied gesso to all the pages as they are quite thin and for that reason I used a mix of dylusion paints, inks, glimmer mists and water colour pro makers.

I tried adding some texture with the gesso

Inked, painted and coloured some of the existing elements on the page

Lots of ink dripping on this page

I stamped Stampotique's Olivia on card three times and then added her head and three sets of legs to the dress, I stamped dylusions Ruby Rainbow legs and Love Struck Lucy onto card and added them. I wrote the journalling on the paper that I had used to protect my pages and stuck it down. "Does my body look okay in this?" and "Why am I the wrong shape?"

I outlined the original girl and changed her clothing a little. On separate pieces of cards I stamped Stampotique's Angel Boy and Oh Dear on card and added the wings and Oh Dear the page, then Ruby Rainbow in three layers. I also used my new stamps from Shady Tree Studios for borders and words. "Embrace your curves, bumps, lumps and imperfections!"

I used more border stamps from Shady trees and the number stamp from Paper Artsy. I drew a danger sign on card and added it to the page.

I hope you all embrace your bodies - or maybe you are that rare breed and actually love your shape.

The book I'm giving away is Colour Your Way Round Russia. I will post more pictures in another posting to avoid too many pics.

Mohican Bird Pin Cushion

2011-08-10T13:30:00.003+01:00

As I am still off the cigarettes but at the needing to stuff my face with cake and chocolate stage I am trying to keep hands occupied in evenings. Last night I made this bird pin cushion with a vintage lace mohican. The cushion is using up more of the old jeans and I used some of my felt and bakers twine from the Ribbon Girl. It is a present for a friend visiting today who has just started quilting and the bird is to match her quilt colours.

Journal Pages

2011-08-07T19:15:00.006+01:00

I spoilt myself this week by treating myself to some of the beautiful felt, charms and twine at the ribbon girl, bought Kate Crane's DVD which I have really enjoyed and somehow bought a set of cosmic shimmer chalk mists (I honestly don't remember pressing buy on that one). I rationalised the expense as a treat to myself for not smoking for three weeks. These two pages are influenced by the Kate Crane DVD and my desire to play with the chalk mists. They have a beautiful finish but try as I might the photo does not do them justice. I could ask Lens Guy to explain how to do it but then I might have to confess to the purchases...

I used an alphabet stencil and pink and orange glimmer mists to build up this background.

Yellow and blue and lots of drippage

I used stamps from Dylusions Ruby Rainbow and Love Stuck Lucy which I stamped, cut out and painted with glimmer mists. I then tried to create shadows around the image to "ground" it but as I didn't have charcoal I used pro markers with mixed results.

The things that made me smile this week included :my new purchases, winning stamps on Shady Tree Studio's blog hop, Lens Guy's face as I dragged him round the garden centre, catching up with old friends and last night deciding to experiment with my daughter's bright green nail varnish before I went out to a party and then discovering we had no nail varnish remover in the house...

The other page was all about Truth and for some reason I liked the combination of Tim Holtz skeleton with a dylusion hat.

In case any of you were worried that my craft space was too messy it is quickly reverting to normal

My next purchase is going to be a moleskin journal so I can journal properly. My UKS journal is a journal but as it is not yet bound I feel it is kind of cheating.

My oh so tidy craft room - blink and it will be messy again!

2011-08-03T17:48:00.000+01:00

My computer area

I have spent the last two days cleaning and sorting out my craft space and it is now a wonderful place to be in. I know it won't last because I am just not that tidy but now I can relax and find everything. Here's a quick tour round.

The old sofa is covered in a patchwork throw which was a present from my sister and numerous cushions and is now a lovely place to sit and contemplate the world or read a book. The first sets of shelves are full of books and are a useful place to show scrap booking layouts and canvases. I have glass doors for the Ikea shelves as I like the extra light that is bounced round the room from the glass.

I also have a glass table which used to be eldest son's desk. Glass is brilliant to work on as it doesn't stain and you can chip off the excess glue with a craft knife (something I do a lot as I am such an untidy crafter).

I keep a lot of pens on my window in a variety of old tins but so far have only had time to alter the old box my Pro markers are kept in.

The shelves above my computer are full of bits and pieces and if you look closely you can see I have now made a white felt mouse to keep the bird pincushion company.

I have two notice boards and these pegs around my computer for changing displays and photos.

Those of you who have been following the sorry tale of my glasses (eaten and destroyed by the dog) will be surprised to hear that the damage is not covered by our insurance - initially they told me it was and I went off to the Opticians and was told I needed new frames and lenses. As I thought I was insured I paid the £300 today only to be told by the insurance company that they got it wrong! I am not covered under building, contents or personal possessions for damage caused by animals. The man very kindly informed me that if I had stood on them, or sat on them and said that was what had happened I would have been covered. It just goes to show that honesty does not count for much in this mad world.

Stampotique Challenge Red Yellow and Orange and what the dog did next!

2011-07-31T18:58:00.004+01:00

When I read the prompt to use Red Yellow and Orange for the Stampotique challenge I just had to give it a go as it tied in with an idea I had for a journalling page about Wildlife for UKS. The prompt was about animals, pets and asked us to use an animal print so a (very impressionist) Tiger print was chosen for various reasons. As I had just finished reading "The Tiger's Wife" I was thinking about Tigers and would recommend it as a great read. You might be wondering about the tape down the side and the bite marks. That was our puppy, Jasper, aged 9 months. I was reading outside and popped in for a cold drink stupidly leaving the book on the table and came out to find it severely damaged.

I initially created layers with water coloured kitchen towels and and glued them to my page but it was too wishy washy so I dived in with liberal applications of dylusions acrylics. The first verse of William Blake's "Tyger, Tyger" was running round my head so I added that. I stamped Stampotique's Oh Dear and Angel Boy onto acetate and then added them. I also added some scrap copper metal that had been through a texture plate and some more paint.

WHAT THE DOG DID NEXT...

It gets worse

Since I photographed this I have added more journalling about what the dog did next (yesterday afternoon). I was dying my hair upstairs and my visiting mother was in the garden with the dog or so I thought. Unbeknown to both of us Jasper had sneaked up onto the work surface and stolen my glasses case with my very expensive varifocal specs - these are a sign of my advancing years. Now they look like this but how he managed to open the case I don't know.

For those that wear glasses you will understand how unusable they are now. It is a visit to the optician's for me tomorrow as with my old specs I have to take them off every time I want to read something and as a teacher that is constantly reading and looking up and reading again it just doesn't work. Not sure what the insurance company will say.

Art Journal - Me Myself I

2011-07-31T18:27:00.000+01:00

This prompt asked us to describe you in 5 words, use a fingerprint and the difficult one for me - rubs on and stickers. Like most of you out there I have a box full of stickers and rub ons but then never really know what to do with them. I wanted to keep more white on the page after my black experiments (more to come but latest layer still drying...)

Last time I used inks and the TH Mask I had mopped up the leftovers on the mask and printed onto the page to use another day and this was it. I then added some American Craft rub ons and 8 yellow fingerprints.

I used up some of the many alpha stickers to create my heading, loyal, messy, strong, creative and quirky. That is just how I feel today - ask me tomorrow or next week and it will be a different set of words. I also used some Moo Stickers and various random stickers. Finally I added some more lush dylusions inks.

Art Journal - Commitment, I'm still hanging in there, Afth 10th Birthday

2011-07-30T11:17:00.000+01:00

This prompt was all about Commitment - think Efemera wondering if we can all stay the 52 weeks. I had got quite far behind with this but I have another 2 in progress (taking ages to dry) and after that just two more catch ups until the next prompt post on Sunday. I used a dictionary definition from a 1950's dictionary and the meaning was all about committing a person to a place, a cause or to bind yourself to another page. Now the word commitment is constantly bandied about in terms of relationships and has now derivatives such as commitment-phobe. Oh dear wandering back into English teacher territory and I am still on holiday. I used a great deal of paint and Banana Frog's Paisley pattern stamps with more paint. I do love the dylusions paints and am beginning to run low on some colours.

The blue green background was one I had made a while ago when I was trying out ways to apply paint but I decided I did not like it and decided to act a coat of black paint.

I then stamped over the black and I was ready for my journalling - that is another thing that is running out - my white Sakura gelly roll pen which I always seem to reach for. Then I didn't like the dictionary definition left so pale so washed on some more paint.

The Paisley Pattern just seemed to lend itself to journalling around and I added in some more lines. I'm not sure about anyone else but I never seem to create the page I had in my head to begin with - it just sort of evolves. I take so many pictures to remind myself of what I do so I can look back over the ones that do and don't work. Just noticed some of the photos are landscape but it makes it easier to see some of the journalling - at least that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

One last thing I wanted to remind people that Art from the Heart have 10th birthday celebrations coming up and have lots of fun taster sessions. (Lens Guy are you reading this, hint, hint...)

A Bird Pincushion from old clothes - Just for Fun

2011-07-29T15:20:00.001+01:00

I am a bit of hoarder and hate to throw anything out - especially favourite old clothes that have developed holes through long wear. August is birthday season in our household with 6 family birthdays and I have decided to make some presents. Efemeraink's blog always features stunning creations and a few months ago I fell in love with this Bird Pin Cushion. She very kindly sent me a copy of her pattern and it languished on my to do board for a while. Inspiration struck when I saw the old clothes pile and wondered if I could use it to make a bird. The original was done in felt and there is a reason for this - linen, denim and stretch hoody material do not work in the same way.

As I have yet to get to grips with eldest daughter's sewing machine which she left with me before departing to Singapore for 2 years I decided to hand sew it. As I am also (yet again) giving up smoking I felt occupying my hands with sewing rather than chocolate would be a good move.
After cutting out all the pieces I realised due to the fraying on the denim wings blanket stitching two pieces together would work better. I need to work on this stitch as it is a little wobbly.

I did not have any bakers twine to wrap round the cushion so threaded a large scrapping needle with ribbon to create a similar effect.

The beak is a piece of foam and the ric rac crest evolved to hide some of my uneven areas and to make it easier to stuff the bird through the head.

He is a little different from the original and my sewing needs work but I love him and now don't want to give him to my quilting mother in law. I think I have caught the bug and went out and found some felt today and I have drawn a pattern for a mouse on cheese pin cushion which will be next and I have plans for an aviary of birds...

I have entered this in the Just for Fun Challenge Blog - check out the inspiring ideas and creations here.

Journal pages in the garden

2011-07-26T17:45:00.003+01:00

It is such a beautiful day I just had to craft in the garden. Looking at the 5 prompts I still have to catch up on the prompt smell seemed very appropriate. The background from this page is very muted is what leaked through from the page on the other side.

I like the idea that when all the pages are bound together the journal will smell of lavender from my garden picked when I created this page.

I decided just to stamp blossoms around the edge, add some lavender and twigs and some of the Tim Holtz bird. I then added a layer of oil pastels to the background and created a floralish shape to journal about my favourite smells.

Art Journal - Celebrity, fame and homemade stamps

2011-07-26T17:34:00.001+01:00

Celebrity seemed to morph into fame as I tackled this one

Ambitious some of the time but very driven

I had fun creating these two on my hols as I attempt to catch up with all the weekly challenge prompts on UKStampers. The first one began with a background using dylusions paints and my fingers.I then emphasised the swirls with white paint and created a journalling space.

The prompt required a star stamp and having none I created one out of foam that brads were stuck into. It gave an uneven print with paint but I quite like that messy effect.

I used vellum strips to give more star like journalling.

The other prompt was about ambition - this made me think but in the end I decided I was driven and not ambitious (well only a little). This began with a drawing of a head from the Times newspaper that I added aqua pro marker journalling and water to. I also added a shiny finish by stamping with Claudine Hellmuth stamp and tore around the head and then reinked over top with distress inks.

Very messy but I think the inside of my head is a little like that

Trying to catch up with my art journal challenge - Random

2011-07-25T20:27:00.003+01:00

Random

As well as not blogging I had stopped crafting so last week I decided to get work catching up on the prompts from UK Stampers. I have missed 8 prompts but managed three so far and I am planning a day of craftiness tomorrow even if the sun is shining again. Five Random facts about me include the facts I love live rock music, colour, am unitidy, love the Wire and one you may not know...since my hip replacement 18 months ago I have grown two centimetres. Unlike others who may shrink in later life I have started growing in my 40's.
This one did not turn out how I imagined as I was using random scraps of paper left over from an ATC Swap and thought gluing them on with Mod Podge was a good idea. If you have ever tried to stamp onto a shiny slippy surface you will understand my problem. I like the crinkly effect on the page but the stamps and paint did not take too well but that is what I enjoy about this process.

Sorry I neglected my blog and hope you are still out there

2011-07-25T19:05:00.002+01:00

Sunset over the point of Sleat

Eek - not blogged for almost 8 weeks and I come back and Blogger has totally changed. I have been trying to navigate my way round. This is what happens when you leave your blog unloved and abandoned. What can I say? Life got in the way. My lovely computer went into melt down when Lens Guy tried updating the software and took weeks to fix. June was crazy end of term stuff (much earlier holidays in Scotland), the usual end of term illness, taking a school trip to Stratford and much more. At the end of the month we fled up north to Arisaig and apart from a trip to T in the Park that is where I have been. I have crafted a little but not a lot and I took many many photos. Apologies for all the photos but I just wanted to let you know I have been busy.

The sea really is that colour

Jasper loved the beach

Evening clouds over Eigg

Moon nights

T in the Park was fab even if I am getting to be an old rocker.

Lens Guy playing air guitar (should know better now)

Primal Scream - amazing

It was very muddy

Flares

Recognise this lady - oh if only I could look this good in my 60s

Youngest daughter and friend

Crafty posts to follow...

Art Journal page still using up mess on my desk

2011-06-05T17:29:00.000+01:00

This one I love. I began with a page out of a French children's crafting book and then added Distress Ink and Dylusions inks.

The sewing machine and dressmakers form were printed from Graphics Fairy and coloured with watercolours. I then stamped Stampotique's Olivia and cut her into three. I added the head to the dressmaker form and the body to some lace to be doll's clothes. I also added lace to the dressmaker form and sewed on some raffia as a sash.

I coloured the lace with pro markers. I created a shrink plastic geisha doll as my hand made embellishment.

I photographed this around my Grandmother's old Singer machine which is what she taught me on when I was only 7.

Art Journal page using what is lying on my desk.

2011-06-05T15:48:00.000+01:00

I have been neglecting my blog and crafting as work and family commitments and a summer cold have kept me out of my crafting room for weeks. I finally had time today to finish the last of my recipe cards (overdue) and decided to make a start on my art journal pages. I have fallen behind in the prompts. I set myself the challenge of only using what was out and lying around on my desk whilst I tackled these pages. Not so hard if you could see the state of this room. I have to step over piles of paper, ink, embellishments and general mess just to make it to the computer and there is little room on my desk. I convinced myself that by using up what was on my desk I would be starting to tidy up...
The prompt asked us to use a recipe and journal about food loves and hates.

This page already had paint splats of red and yellow from another page in my journal so I sprayed with Dylusions inks and masked some areas with cupcake shapes. The laminated recipe card was a spare from the recipe swap so I just added some ink and a piece of ribbon from my desk. The stamped cupcakes had been water coloured and then I added a very thick layer of Crackle Accents. I had made these for the recipe swap but felt they were too grungy for the cards. I stamped some more random cupcakes and added my journalling. The cupcake stamp was on a free sheet from a magazine but not sure what. That is something else I have to sort out. I feel much more relaxed. Now if I could only stop sneezing every where with this dratted summer cold life would be perfect.

Sneak peak of recipe cards and how I love my phone

2011-05-30T18:32:00.000+01:00

I have been creating some recipe cards for a swap on UKScrappers - still to finish as I have been away in the far north of Scotland for the holiday weekend. I have created seven cards each using the same recipe for whatever you like Biscotti - each one has a pocket to take the double sided laminated recipe card. The very bright one above is staying with me and the first one is going away as are the other six but I'll save them for another day.

Usually my iphone is surgically attached to my hand but where I was staying there was a limited signal and certainly not enough to access blogger, facebook or any of my other haunts. Four days without access may not seem a lot but it certainly made me realise how much time I normally spend surfing and interacting with people and blogs. We are planning to be away in this spot for a few weeks in the summer and I am already investigating ways to access the internet when away.

Vintage Affair ATCs

2011-05-22T20:39:00.000+01:00

I made these for the May ATC swap at UK Stampers with the theme of A Vintage Affair. I really struggled as I could not find any suitable vintage stamps in my stash and I am not allowing myself to buy anything until I win the lottery... or receive a massive pay rise. I found three images on Graphics Fairy and began creating backgrounds for them. I applied distress ink to some of TH Kraft resist paper and matched images and bits and bobs and thought I was ready to go... but wait no stamping - quick rethink. Does anyone else begin with an idea in their head only to discover the finished item is totally different?

I used TH Shabby French and Spooky scroll stamps on the backgrounds and then embossed and inked them some more. I also stamped over the images.

It worked quite well with this one and then I added the flower things that I had coloured with alcohol inks, a piece of inch ruler and little bit of text.

I also sprayed some inks on this one and mixed some Blonde Moments pigments to give it a shiny effect. The lace is antique (my grandmother's) and I then sewed on pieces of a broken bracelet.

I ended up redoing the background on this one by using dictionary definitions and adding distress ink and an embossed stamp. I added the image and stamped around the edge. More lace and then some buttons and ribbon. I made the ribbon flower and added it to. I like them all but think the first one is my favourite.

Thank you for dropping by - I always appreciate the comments people take the time to make.

Freestyle Tri Colour Competition sponsored by Craft Barn

2011-05-20T21:17:00.000+01:00

The Craft Barn is sponsoring a competition on UK Stampers using the colour swatch below. The piece of art was to use the three colours below and it must contain stamping.

I decided to make ATCS. I began by applying splodges of water colours to a paper towel and then dried it with a heat gun and stuck the paper onto my card.

I then stamped the cherry blossom stamp, butterfly and dragonfly (Woodware)

I also stamped the butterfly onto an old dictionary page, coloured with Sakura gel pens and then added Crackle glaze.

I coloured the blossom white and then printed out and inked Flutter By One day.

The bird and smaller butterflies were stamped onto Shrink Plastic coloured with Pro Markers and shrunk - I made some extra ones for future projects. I had lots of problems with the Ranger Archival Ink Smudging.

Sometimes we need sticky cakes

2011-05-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

There are times, like this week, when I feel like I am constantly running on the spot and getting nowhere. At times likes this only a bit of sticky gooey cake will do. These are Sticky Toffee Cupcakes from the Jamie Oliver Comic Relief book - I made them when I got in from work tonight. They are lovely and very bad for the figure but so good for the mood.

Scrapping with punches

2011-05-17T08:00:00.001+01:00

I began this double layout at the crop last week where the challenge was to use punches but just felt it wasn't finished. I punched a border at both sides using a Martha Stewart Lace Punch and placed the contrasting colour behind it. The mount for the photo came from 7 Gypsies and the journalling tag was part of that packaging.

I mounted this onto some of the contrasting paper and then onto a piece of an old french book given to me by Suzy at the the crop. She also donated the larger punched butterflies and I found the smaller ones in a tin left over from another project.

Unusually for me I added a little bling in the form of butterflies and flower centres as it was a pretty layout to compliment picture of my daughter.

I used more of the french graphics from graphics fairy to add details and the tiny butterflies. I also stamped a few butterflies using the Versamark Turquoise ink which I used to edge the torn edges with. The flowers are prima flowers. I am going to challenge myself to use more embellishments in clusters but whenever I lay them on a layout I tend to remove most of them.

Multi photo scrapping layout - Eiffel of A View

2011-05-16T08:00:00.000+01:00

I am determined to try and finish one album as, probably like many other people, I seem to jump from one project to another. I have been concentrating on my Paris album which is mainly hybrid layouts and in a 8 1/2 x 11 size as I wanted to try something different. I will use my Cricut to bind it all at the end. This album is also a thrifty album as I have bought nothing new for it and have been making a lot of the backgrounds. This one is no different. I knew it had to be a double page but did not have enough of the blue patterned paper so decided to use it on one side and then a strip on the other page. To tie the pages together I stamped a text based stamp from TH Shabby French all over both pages.

I didn't have enough letters for the badly punned title so used a old letter sheet to draw the title on with. I then water coloured the title and embossed it with Blonde Moments Powder. To make it more like the French blue enamel I drew a thin outline of white.

I created journalling tags and the camera, pocket and old style postcard from images I found on Graphics Fairy. I am trying to use some of these on most pages to give the album some kind of cohesive look.

I added some old lace, stamping, buttons and more of the blue paint which I also painted around all the photos to try and tie it all together.

It seems a little unbalanced and the photos are squint despite my best efforts but...

Art Journal Listomania

2011-05-15T15:43:00.000+01:00

Do I make lists? Endlessly. Electronically and on paper. Am I more organised - not really? But at least when I write a list I feel I will eventually tackle whatever is on the list. As you might have guessed this week's prompt was all about lists. I sprayed a thin layer of dylusions lime green, jade and blue sky inks onto the page trying to avoid the shopping list stuck onto the page.

The list was created by my daughter before we went shopping yesterday for baking supplies. I stamped all over the page using Shabby Shutters, Faded Jeans and China Blue using a TH sentiment. The final one I stamped in black archival ink. I painted the TO DO Lists with water colours and doodled around and in the letters. I then created a mask and part stamped Angel Boy from Stampotique which didn't quite work on the different layers of paper. I journalled using three sakura gel pens. The colours are inspired by a competition on UK Stampers which were lying on my desk as I experimented with different ideas.

Scrapping and cropping

2011-05-09T10:00:00.001+01:00

I went cropping this Saturday (joining the cult as youngest refers to it) and had a great day full of chat, cake and a little scrapping. Unusually for me I was quite productive and managed to complete 2 double los for the Paris album and a single LO. This is the single page lo. I have a little tweaking and finishing touches to do to the double los over the next few days. I used a piece of Ranger Manila card and then stamped using bubble wrap and distress inks to create a background. I then added more distress inks. The pictures show one of the Paris Metro entrances and I decided that the bubble wrap background and elements should reflect this. The journalling is all about how well and frequently the Metro runs and the fact that my son would get very impatient if we had to wait more than 5 minutes.

He has always been in constant motion since he was a baby. To highlight the journalling I used 5 different embroidery threads to sew lines under the text. The text was written in black and then overwritten in white - something I do a lot of in my art journals. The doodled round the photos and added a selection of brads and eyelets. I used Rangers metal foil for the title which I drew freehand and cut out after rubbing a tiny bit of alcohol ink into.

Art Journal and no I am not a domestic goddess!

2011-05-08T19:17:00.000+01:00

This weeks prompt asked us if we were a domestic goddess or another type of goddess, use stamped wings and a figure. I began with one of the backgrounds I began last weekend and added watercolours to make me think of beach and sea colours.

I then added some of my extensive collection of sea glass, shells and feathers and my journalling explaining that I am the Goddess of Beach Combing. I found the figure below and added her to the page.

I stamped a boat and some birds and added a bucket and space cut out which I painted over. I also added some paint and pro makers to the goddess.

A very cluttered page as I do believe I could be the Goddess of mess and chaos too but it made me smile and I had lots of fun doing this. The Goddess wings were created stamping Dylusions Ruby Rainbow wings onto a piece of Kitchen roll paper that had been washed with watercolours (part of a batch I made a while ago) as I wanted it to look and feel more feathery.

The Octopus and fish were lying in my stash and I just added some doodling.

A card using watercoloured digital stamps

2011-05-05T19:25:00.000+01:00

My nephew is 5 next week and I was decided to use some of my SJ Musings Digital Stamps. The monkey is from Marvin, The robot and robot dogs from Meep Meep, the Scooter from Mod Machine and the bunting and cake from the Cake Set. I painted the stamps using water colours in a very simple style and then layered all the stamps up. It's a bit cluttered and busy but it is to appeal to a 5 year old. I layered the stamps on to striped paper and then water coloured another piece of card to act as a background. Cuttimg them out was a little tricky as I don't have much patience but I got there in the end.

Lens Guy Photo of the Week 4 and 5

2011-05-04T10:00:00.001+01:00

Silver Birch Trees at Camusdaroch, Arisaig

Torrance Linn Waterfall, Calderglen Park

Still trying to catch up after being disconnected and on holiday. Two photos from Lens Guy. As before you can go to his facebook page and like him here.

Stampotique Designers Challenge 29 - using a sketch

2011-05-03T18:07:00.002+01:00

This is my entry to the Stampotique challenge (Stampotique only stamps) which is a simple card with the sentiment "Always Late". It's becoming a bit of a family joke that I never send cards and presents on time. I often buy the present and make a card and then in my head I think it's posted and several weeks later it is still sitting on my desk.
I followed the sketch using Rangers Manila cardstock which I inked with Faded Blue and Chine Blue Distress Inks and a little Adirondack Espresso. I stamped Oh My Dear onto coordinations card and then mounted a piece of 7 Gypsies acetate onto the top of her.

I used the same coredinations card with stamped circles using a lid and the adirondack espresso ink. The ledger page is a journalling piece from 7 Gypsies. The word always is from Crafty bits and the definition of late is torn out of my large stock of old dictionaries. I extended the horizontal strip beyond the card edge as I liked the way it balanced the rest of the card.

Playing with backgrounds

2011-05-03T13:00:00.001+01:00

I had a little time so decided to experiment with some backgrounds using some of that leftover glitter and mod podge and an acetate sheet. The photo above shows the acetate after I had used it to print some backgrounds.

I had mixed some modge podge, ink and glitter in a round lid and then stamped the lid onto the actetate.
I then sprayed it with dylusion inks and each time took a print of the page to create a background.

Art Journal Celebration

2011-05-03T10:00:00.006+01:00

This prompt from UKS was linked to the wedding festivities and I seemed to deviate from the prompts which asked us to celebrate one event, use the letters RSVP and some sparkle. This time of year is tough for me as I lost my dad six years ago and my brother three years ago. This year I have been working on a positive approach and thinking about this prompt made me realise that I now try to celebrate life and live each day as it comes as we never know what might happen. It all began with a promo postcard I picked up in Fat face.

I just had to alter it a little.

I used Dylusions acyrlic paints in red and blue to extend the flag and then layered a coat of sparkly blue and white thinly over the top with some glass beads. I did stamp and emboss the hearts but they got lost under the paint layers.

The heart stamp on the postcard section was a freebie from Cards and stamping weekend. I wrote the word Life with glue and then added Martha Stewart vintage glitter over the top before adding my journalling.

Progress in the garden

2011-05-02T19:19:00.000+01:00

This time last year we began work creating a new garden in what was a muddy slope which you can see here. A year on a great deal of back breaking work we are beginning to see a garden. During these last two holiday weekends we created a rockery from the boulders we dug out the ground, began painting the fence green and I hammered wire onto the fence with staples and my craft hammer to start encouraging climbers. The work in the garden is also why the blog has been neglected as I only have so much time in the day.

I am hoping the very small rockery plants and climbers will be lush in a few years

The makeshift fence around the trees is to prevent our puppy Jasper eating the trees as he has already destroyed two small trees, dug up plants and bitten the heads of daffodils and tulips and then spat them out...

Art Journal Television

2011-05-02T19:03:00.000+01:00

My blog and crafting have been neglected over the last few weeks due to a combination of holiday, work and lots of sun in Scotland. We were away over Easter weekend and had no internet connection... since then it has been sunny in Scotland (quite rare to get a prolonged sunny spell) and I have been working hard painting fence panels, building rockeries and developing the now not so muddy slope (more on that later this week). I was also a little behind with my journal so had a happy afternoon catching up and playing. This prompt was on the theme of television.
The sky control is in the photo as it has revolutionized the way we watch and interact with our box in the corner of the room. Series links, fast forward and other features make us in control of what we watch and as result I watch less television but more of what I like.

We were asked to use tv listings as a background so I had to print one as did not have a newspaper as I tend to get most of my news through digital media. I used cardboard waste from embellishments to spray dylusions inks in a frame and then I used a plastic card to spread white dylusions paint through the squares. I was thinking about TV being a box and making us square eyed.

I then used the mini diamond stamp from Tim Holtz to create a border and the letters TV and the mini bird clouds to create distortion on some of the televisions.

Finally I added my journalling about the best ever TV series being the Wire, how I stopped watching soaps to get more me time, watching the daleks in black and white and the fact that Lens Guy and I didn't own a TV the first two years we were together.

Lens Guy Photo of the Week 3

2011-04-19T21:29:00.000+01:00

Here is the third one off photo in the weekly series. This is a photograph of a yellow tulip taken after it had rained. You can see more and find out more about his photography on his facebook page here.

Art Journal Travel

2011-04-16T10:41:00.000+01:00

this week's challenge was to use an old map background and journal about the best and worst places you have been to me. When I thought about this so many of my memories (good and bad) were about the journey to a place not just the place. I covered an old map of Scotland with a thin coating of white Dylusions paint using an old credit card and then used Distress Inks in Shabby Shutters, faded jeans and China blue to stamp travel related words and images.

I used the car from the Tim Holtz visual artistry set. This is a very muted piece for me as the journalling was the most important element this time. I stamped the word Travel using Rangers black archival ink.

A playful spring layout

2011-04-15T00:30:00.000+01:00

I had an hour to craft tonight so thought I would do a quick fun lo to playalong with the scrap factor contest on UK scrappers. It is a little slapdash but sometimes that adds to the fun. The challenge was to follow the colour scheme below.

As I was thinking about the fact that spring had sprung I decided to make my photos become the spring springs by cutting them into circles and then around in a spiral. I struggled with the colour scheme but had some pink card and an old piece of background paper in my stash. The hybrid elements came from a Peppermint Creative april showers digi kit (writing strips, rabbit and title block and elements).

Here it is without the flowers springing. The photos were taken in poor light so not sure if the full spring effect can be seen.

Spring in Galloway

2011-04-14T18:30:00.001+01:00

The house is surrounded by fields and noisy lambs

The tulips still look fab after a spring shower

Just back from visit to Len's Guy's family and enjoyed all the signs of spring - even though a bit damp and muddy.

On the way home we took the "goat" road through the Queen's forest. This is a lovely drive and the kids were cute but it is also very twisty and bumpy and designed to induce nausea in even the most seasoned traveller. However we did stop to admire the wild mountain goats and their kids who were super cute.

Last of the Hybrid scrapfactor Layouts featuring Jasper

2011-04-13T21:00:00.002+01:00

This Layout took ages and yet appears so simple.

Coordination’s Black Magic/Blue – Embossing Folder – di lavender and china blue ink. Cut into strips to make border. Made frames for photos. Sprayed with dylusions sky blue, pink and fuchsia

Cut out centre of page and mounted large frame onto lilac/black coordination

Hybrid – Created title using Miss Mint Vintage Mix Alpha, Printed out three balloons (changed colour) from OTS You Look Like a Monkey kit, drew round edge with white and stuck to page – added journaling details and ties in pen. Printed, embossed, inked and highlighted with white sakura pen

Using scrap paper sprayed with inks freehand drew arrows and stuck to card. Details added with black and white pens. Highlighted little balloon and write on small photo. Drew fine lines and journaled onto page.

Hybrid Scrapping Mirror Fun

2011-04-13T08:00:00.002+01:00

This is a double page LO and will be part of my Paris album. I created the background of the first page by printing out elements of french graphics from the graphic fairy web site and then distress inking and stamping onto it.

The second page used TH shabby French stamps which are embossed with distress powder. I didn't have suitable coloured alphas so coloured them with alcohol inks and promarkers. I punched the flowers out of Rangers metal and put ink on them too but it was a little too "yellow". One day I might go back and change it.

Hybrid Scrapping Layout in full pinwheel action

2011-04-12T18:00:00.002+01:00

With this layout of my nephew I was trying to mirror his constant action with the pinwheels. The photos were taken using the camera+ app on the iphone. The paper is from Scrapwithin Reach Carnival ride and the journaling page and coredinations black magic blue. Brads and buttons from stash.

Hybrid – OTS GBGD Monkey – journaling tag, text labels and monkey

Distress inks – lipstick red. Shabby shutters, faded jeans

Hybrid Scrapping Layout Juggling Me

2011-04-12T09:00:00.002+01:00

I gave sneak peaks of this but here it is in full now the audition process is over. I have to say I enjoyed the challenge of making 5 LOs. I like this one as it combines stamping and scrapping and an element of art journalling as I am now happy to messily write on my scrapping layouts. I used Dylusions Ruby Rainbow and Love Struck Lucy stamps, Stampotique Oh Dear Stamp and I coloured them with Pro markers. I have a long way to go with this am going with a cartoon feel till I improve.

I used SJ Journal panels from uk scrappers digi downloads and RPENN express yourself font and Shabby Princess Sweet Sensations fonts. Papers are DCWV Gorgeous page, Crate Paper – north pole, Basic Grey – Lily Kate, Chloe’s closet – accessorise. There were torn and distressed with Distress inks faded jeans, shabby shutters, pumice stone. Flowers from the Martha stewart flower punch.

Hybrid Scrapping layout inspired by art journal - Home is where the table is

2011-04-11T19:25:00.002+01:00

This layout came to me after I had completed an art journal page where the prompt was home. This was a hybrid layout for the scrap factor auditions. I like this layout but had put it into the hybrid category and only just realised that using fonts was not hybrid enough and I should have had another element on it. I used Heart stamps from Dylusions Love Struck Lucy and the Dwelling stamps by Claudine Hellmuth.

I sketched our table and paper pieced it using a piece of TH seasons paper and white card for the legs are coloured with pro markers. Papers: 3 bugs in a rug – double sided rhapsody and violet; SEI – sprouting spots; Coredinations Black magic lilac. Fonts – Pebbles white and American Crafts remarks raspberry. Home font Sweet Sprinkes Shabby Princess

Aida cotton and voile from stash, embroidery thread and needles were used for the heart and stitching.

I used dylusions paints to stamp with and blend the colours on the dwelling stamps

ATC - It's In the Mail

2011-04-11T10:00:00.002+01:00

These are for the UKStampers April swap where the theme was "It's in the mail". I had been wracking my brains over this one and then inspiration hit as I was sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine and looking at blue skies, green grass, yellow daffodils etc. I decided I wanted to use those colours and the ATCs should have a little envelope on them. Each one contains a ticket with today's date and a little stamped piece with trains, plane and boats on it as that it is how mail travels. I used TH Visual Artistry stamps for the birds and postmark (embossed). Royal Langnickel Journey stamps for the other images. I used a Tonic Borders butterfly punch and stuck tissue paper behind it. The backgrounds were made using Distress Ink in Shabby Shutters, Faded Jeans, Lavender and broken china.

The envelopes were cut down from bigger ones and the flowers came from my stash - think the yellow ones are Prima flowers. There's a message on the back of the tickets but that is to be read by those who get them in the swap. The ticket was in a digital kit from OTS TG called new beginnings and I added the date and stamped on it.

Lens Guy Photo week 2

2011-04-10T23:16:00.000+01:00

This is the second of Lens Guy's photos of the week. This work is a little different from his normal work but still captures what he does. These limited edition prints are part of a new promotional series and there is just one in each edition. To find out more check out his facebook page. For those of you not from Scotland Irn Bru is "made from girders" and is a very sweet fizzy drink that is bright orange. Some claim it is the other national drink - not me - but if you like sweet fizzy drinks give it a try. He has been taking these photos using an iphone and an app called Camera + which allows you to process and add details to photo. He finds it really hard to do as he does love all his lens and gadgets and metres. For all you scrap bookers out there I think this is worth a try but I am going to stick to the Hipstamatic app as I love the retro feel of the photos and the very random effects.

Art Journal Music using homemade stencils and stamps, Just for Fun

2011-04-10T15:03:00.001+01:00

First hi to my latest followers - I am still amazed that anyone drops by to see what I do and I appreciate all the comments and opportunities to see what everyone else is doing. This is also for the Just for fun challenge which asks you to use circles. If you click on the logo at the side you can pop over and see some great work.
This page taxed me as I do not have any musical stamps but after downloading a sheet of vintage music from graphics fairy I began to get going. The page was already showing bits of paints from other pages that had splodged onto it and when I think of music I think of the originial vinyl even though I love my iphone and digital music so that made me think of circles. My first stencil appeared which was moved around and liberally sprayed with luscious dylusions inks.

Once I had sprayed to my heart's content I printed out some large musical notes and used them as stencils and as stamps. The stamping was a bit haphazard as I did it with paint but I like the effect.

You can see both a stencilled and stamp painted example here.

Finally I added my journalling about Music.

I love music of all sorts and have quite eclectic tastes ranging from grungy metal to pop to divas to jazz and blues so a Top Five was almost impossible. However my final top five are all significant and remind me of certain times in my life (but that it is too personal to share...) Final choices: Nevermind by Nirvana, The Bends by Radiohead, Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian, U2 by October and Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd. First single ever bought was Terry Jacks Seasons in the Sun and I cringe as I write this as I still know all the words...

Art journal - Superstitious?

2011-04-04T14:00:00.002+01:00

Efemera at UKStampers challenged us to journal about our superstitions and use a charm on the page. My first reaction was I'm not... but then I remembered umbrellas and how I have a thing about not opening them inside.

I do knock on wood occasionally and cross my fingers. Why I really don't know. I did wear green to my wedding with Lens Guy and 17 years later we still together. I do avoid walking under ladders but that is surely common sense?

My charm was created from old pieces of broken jewellery and a heart button. I thought it looked suitably talismanic and could ward off evil?

I used TH mini umbrella man and the umbrella parts from Dylusions Ruby Rainbow. I even created a mask for the umbrella top which was much easier than I thought it would be. I then used the mask to cover the umbrella stamp when adding another layer of ink. The original background was created using mask pieces from the TH set.

A card and some journal backgrounds

2011-04-04T09:00:00.001+01:00

A bit of a twee card for me but I made the dress thinking of my mother and 50's fashion. Little bit pink for my usual style but she would not like a grungy stamped card. I was also playing with the dylusions paints, brushes and old credit card to create some backgrounds.

More Hybrid Scrapping

2011-04-03T18:00:00.020+01:00

Having created 5 Hybrid LOs recently I have been enjoying playing with this more. These pages will become of a Paris album of double page LOs using 8 1/2 x 11 pages which I intend to bind with my Cricut. Like many projects it may not ever be finished. I have created a concealed pocket on one of the pages as I have too many photos but not all should be scrapped so I have decided to place them on tabs in the hidden pockets. This began as a way of using up scraps from a previous LO which you can see a sneak peak of in the previous post. I created the background paper for one page using three images from Graphics Fairy that I then altered the colour on and printed out.

I also printed out journalling on the Carte Postale (this is going to be used throughout the album) and the Fleur De Lys (also all from the wonderful Grahics Fairy site).

I made some ribbon embellishments and added lashing of Lavender Distress Inks. My one concern is that on the one photo page I thought I was randomly placing and glueing the Fleur de Lys but now they just look off register - oh well it can't be helped - especially as I did not spot this until all was dry. I may find a way to hide this...

not so random more off register...

the hidden caption is above the black fleur de lys

Meet Lens Guy

2011-04-03T12:26:00.000+01:00

If you pop in here from time to time you will know that my other half is called Lens Guy as he is a photographer. He has decided to dip his toe into facebook. It would be great if you could visit and like him. At the moment he is promoting one off limited edition prints 1/1 on facebook. This week it is the photo of the mini above - the first offer will secure the print. Alternatively have a browse through the images of Glasgow and Scotland.

Scrapping sneak peeks

2011-04-03T12:12:00.003+01:00

This is part of a LO I created for the Scrap Factor contest that uses lots of stamping, sewing and paint. I really enjoyed this one as it felt like it used some of the best elements of scrapping and art journalling. As you can see I am enjoying playing with the Claudine Hellmuth Dwelling stamps at the moment.

Art journal and pin wheels

2011-03-27T20:42:00.000+01:00

I did not have much time this weekend to play with paper, paint and and digital bits and bobs as I was seeing friends and my mother was here for a visit. I did manage to complete the art journal page which was on the subject of Home is where the heart is. I created an acrylic paint background and then stamped with a pearl paint dabbler using the claudine hellmuth houses and then overstamped the detailed outline. I printed photos of our house and scribbled over them with permanent pens. The hearts were stamped using dylusions stamp and added to the page as was the journalling written on scraps of paper that had been sprayed pink.The more I worked on this the more I came to consider that our home is where our table is and this has given me the idea for my last scrap factor layout.

I also discovered how to make windmills/pinwheels and have been using them on another lo. The photograph is of my youngest nephew.

Scrapping feverishly and secretly

2011-03-26T09:40:00.000Z

I decided to have a go at the Scrap Factor Hybrid contest on UK Scrappers as a way of getting some more scrapping LOs done. I harbour no illusions about winning or getting through the audition stage but have enjoyed challenging myself to do these and that is what it is all about - having fun and playing with stuff. I have been busy scrapping, stamping, inking and tweaking computer images. I can't post the three completed LOs in full but thought I would give a few sneak peaks. I still have two to finish and a weekend filled with friends and my mother so not sure when they will be done. The deadline is friday. I have enjoyed putting my head on various stamps and all will become clear when you see the LO but one of the reasons is that I don't have many photos of me as I usually edit them out in horror at how chunky I am these days... and then reach for another biscuit. I have noticed that my work on art journals is having an influence on my scrapping work.

Stampotique SDC26 - Animal Insect or Bird

2011-03-18T18:57:00.000Z

Serendipity came calling with a Stampotique challenge to use an animal, insect or bird and week and UKS Week 11 Art Journal where we were to list five things that scared us, stamp with paint and use a scary colour for your background. This was great fun to do and I was even brave enough to sketch a few items onto the page.

I used yellow Dylusions paint as background as although I like the colour to look at it is one I would never wear or decorate with. I stamped the TH crow from Haunted Mansions with black paint. I was not sure what to do so ended up putting black paint on a piece of cloth and dabbing this on the stamp. It gives a very rough and ready finish.

Next I wanted to suggest open wardrobe doors - I have this fear left over from childhood about a thing that will come out at night if the doors are left open. I still have to make sure they are closed now. As I was thinking about being in bed at time I sketched a bed and used Stampotique's Olivia - head only to place in bed.

I began to paint in blocks the main colours using clashing orange and pink to add to the scariness of the colour. I tried stamping a cat using a freebie stamp and it was just a blob so stamped it again on a piece of painty scrap and added that. I began to write and draw my other fears and freehand (very brave) painted the I'm scared of letters. I then sprayed with dylusions fuscia, burnt orange and pomegrante, masking Olivia's head between layers. I got my trusty black and white pens and added more detail

The crow had to have an eye in mouth as that is part of my fear of crows. If they peck out lamb's eyes...

Snakes... enough said

Scrapping farewells

2011-03-16T19:25:00.000Z

We constantly seem to be saying hello and goodbye to our children as they experience life to the full. Our eldest DS, was home after 8 months in Paris, for a celebration of his birthday and then off on another adventure this time to Argentina. He's studying languages at university and has to spend this year abroad speaking French and Spanish. I am so envious and yet so glad we have encouraged him to be adventurous. This page tells the story of his usual chaotic packing and whilst I was sad he was going I did have a laugh as his 15 year old sister organised his packing and bossed him around. It worked and he got it all into his rucksacks.
I used a number of different digital kits from Owl Tree Studios - JLD Fresh Memories for the title and green paper, SKD Month brush and WBI Muse for the papers and elements. I doubled two frame ups around the photos and like the effect. The photos were snaps on my phone and tell a story rather than act as strong photographs.