Journalling into the New Year

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.

Tim's Tags - 1

 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.

Just For Fun Challenge - Words

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 Pages

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

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.

Stampotique 36 - Altering A Book

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.

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

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.

Stampotique Designers Challenge 29 - using a sketch

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.

Stampotique SDC26 - Animal Insect or Bird

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

Stampotique SDC25: Faux Barnwood Technique

My Double page  Week 8 Art Journal for UK Stampers is also my entry into the Stampotique Faux Barnwood Challenge. The Faux Barnwood Technique is from Pat at Technique Junkies and is great to do. I linked to the pdf yesterday so here is the website today and the technique for Faux Barnwood is here. I used Olivia and Oh My Dear stamped onto a dictionary page that was already washed with Dylusions Teal and White and then I used watercoloured pencils to give them a hint of colour.

 The purple background is all Faux Barnwood and the Teal page has a Teal barnwood piece and scraps of purple. I made the title and journaling with sharpies and sakura gelly roll and the the old pieces of book are from my collection of old and vandalised dictionaries that school was throwing out. The prompt for the UK Stampers challenge was BOOKS
1 List your top 5 books... what & why
2 Use a quote from one of them on your page.
3 Use an old book page as your background.

As I am such a bookworm I could not possibly narrow it down as I am a very eclectic reader and not a book snob - hate that. Read what you what and what makes you happy.