Back from Spain

Well I'm back from sunny Spain and it was sunny and really hot the whole time I was there, most days it was between 28 and 30c. I took a lot of my art stuff with me such as about 6 of my paint dabbers, my wonderful Derwent Inktense crayons, I just love these the colours are fantastic, loads of pens, pencils, glue sticks, scissors etc and of course my Moleskine journal. I bought 4 more of the Moleskine books while in Madrid, I'm trying to catch up to Dyan at AFTH but I don't think I ever will. I didn't have much time to do any of my journal although I did manage to do 2 pages. I went to the museums and saw what I was wanting to see, I will probably journal about these later. The first Journal page is about going to Spain and I have done it in the colours of the Spanish flag. I pinched an idea from Dyan and Kate Crane and stuck my boarding card on the page, we flew Easy Jet so the colours went perfectly. The second page I did was nothing to do with Spain, it is about breast cancer as October is breast cancer month. This is really important to me as I had breast cancer 14 years ago and was only give a 25% chance of staying a live and here I am full of life and enjoying every minute of it.

ESPANA

Tomorrow I am going to Spain for a few days with my husband, he will be there for business meetings so I will have some time to myself, great! The first place we are going to is Bilbao in the Basque province and I intend to visit the famous GUGGENHEIM museum there, I expect to see lots of Pablo Picasso's art work which I have not seen in real life before. In Madrid at the Reina Sofia Museum they have the very famous Picasso painting "Guernica" all about the Spanish Civil War. I intend to see that this time while we are in Madrid visiting family at the weekend, for those of you who don't know my husband is Spanish. So after all of that my journal page today is related to my visit to Spain, it is done in the colours of the Spanish flag and features an image of a water pitcher by Picasso. I intend to take some of my art equipment so as I can journal in my Moleskine book while I am there. Normally I take far too many clothes just in case but this time my bag is going to be full of all my necessary art stuff. I will let you know what my husband says as he always packs my case!

See you all soon.

A PLEASANT EVENING

A few of us spent a pleasant friendly evening at the Craft Den last Wednesday. The aim was to make a wall hanging from 3 CDs, it was so laid back and relaxing that I didn't finish mine in the class, too busy chatting, drinking coffee and eating gorgeous chocolate brownies all provided by Lynne at the Craft Den along with all the materials we used. So at about 10pm this evening I decided it was time to finish mine, so here it is.

ART JOURNAL PAGES

Today I had the most fantastic day at AFTH with Dyan. We were learning Art Journaling techniques, a step by step process which can actually be found on her August blog but learning there in the studio is 100% better. I don't think any of us wanted the workshop to come to an end I know I certainly didn't. Here are the two pages I did one is completed and the other requires some more work but I can't wait to do more. Of course while I was there I had to shop didn't I.

If any of you read Dyan's blog you will know I made her an Altered Art book about her and Art From The Heart which she was over the moon about, luckily today she didn't blub all over me when she saw me but she gave me a lovely prezzie which I am going to find very, very useful in my art journal work.

BREATHE ATC

Last night I made this ATC for my son as he is into Alternative therapy and Breath work is apparently one of them. I will be taking his two daughters to see him at the weekend so I will give it to him then. He will have no idea what an ATC is so I think I will write him an explanation to go with it.

2010 CALENDAR

On Saturday I went to a workshop at one of my local craft shops where we made a calendar using our Bind-It-All machines. It was quite funny really and typical of us crafters in that a number of us had the machine but it was so long since we used it (ashamed to say) that we couldn't remember what to do. Luckily Liz is such a good teacher that we were all successful under her guidance. The calendar actually took quite a long time to make as there was a lot of measuring of card and cutting out, the stamping didn't take very long and all the stamps were from Elusive Images. The lettering was done on the Cricut (hope I've spelt that correctly) this is one machine I have not bought, yet!!!!!

Sunday was spent at the "Great Northern Papercraft Extravaganza" in Harrogate. It was a wonderful day as usual. I kept meeting up with people I know from various crafting workshops and we had a great time looking at what each one of us had bought (like children). I spent far too much as usual but bought some wonderful stash and then came home and bought a load of Wendy Vechi stamps from the Stamp Attic. Just don't anyone tell my husband. I think I may have to go back to supply teaching to fund my "habit".

The Coke Can Experiment

This is just me having a play this evening. I got my husband to take the top and bottom off a can of cola (empty of course) lol, then to open it up into a strip of metal for me to experiment with. He very sarcastically asked if I wanted him to go to the chemist to stock up on bandages and elastoplasts, well actually they weren't needed. I then embossed the metal using 2 of my favourite Cuttlebug folders, coloured them with alcohol inks and when dry rubbed them down with the sanding block. I mounted the green one on to a tag using eyelets and the owl I mounted on to card using brads. I did try using Bostick glue but it wasn't very successful. Remember they are not supposed to be fantastic as it was just an experiment using a coca cola can.

FREEBIE STORAGE

I too made the little box which Joanne Wardle devised to store the free stamps which come with the Craft Stamper magazine. It is a brilliant idea as I never know what to do with them and just throw them in a drawer. This has made me organise them and laminate them. Unfortunately as I was doing this my grand-daughter who is a great fan of the Jonas Brothers (who?) decided to download photos of the group and get grandma to laminate them lol, well what are grandmas for!

I will be making another box of similar dimensions on Tuesday with Ann but this time I will be covering it in metal work, I am really looking forward to this. All the metal work equipment we will be using will be provided by The Craft Den.

2000 LEAGUES ATC

This is an ATC I have made for a monthly swap which I do with friends. In this ATC I am trying to delay the onset of Autumn/Winter. I used Adirondack stonewashed at the top and blended in Adirondack lettuce in the bottom half, stamped with an Elusive Images stamp using different colours of Stazon in strips. To give it some sparkle I have used tiny gems for the sea-horse eye and on the stamped shell, glued an authentic shell in the corner, glittery sand using scattered straw Stickles and cinnamon Stickles on the plant and finally Glossy Accents on the pebbles and strands.

"CRITTERS"

I enjoy making these little creatures, they are weird but I love them. I have given a few away especially to the young nursery nurses at work, they hang them on their bags. I have one the first I made and I hang it on my crafting tote bag. I make them from natural linen or canvas which I then paint with Claudine Hellmuth's gesso followed by Claudines paints, sometimes I spray them with Crafty Notions or Glimmer Mist. The mouth and eye area are splogged with white paint, buttons sewn on for eyes and mouth stitched. I whiz around with the sewing machine, stuff them and stitch up the last part. I prefer to punch a hole in the top or in a ear with my Crop-A-dile, put in an eyelet and use a Tim H ball and chain to hang them. I originally got the idea from a book I have called Canvas Remix by Alisa Burke, a wonderful book.