Christmas Art Journalling

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas and are now ready to get down to some good arty crafty work.

I went to AFTH last Sunday the 18th, it was Art Journalling for the regulars with Dyan and we had another fabby day. We all followed the same theme "Christmas" with a few individual touches here and there. Dyan did a step by step class , first of all we had to journal our thoughts on a sheet of card which we then cut into long narrow triangles, we did the same with the AFTH Christmas papers which Dy gave us, these we glued on to an A4 card and cut into triangle Christmas trees of different sizes. In between we did the background for our pages using Dylusion paints and sprays. The border is from Dylusions "Further round the edge".All the faces,boots and hats etc are from Dylusion stamps. It was a really enjoyable day with good company and here is my version of what we produced. You can find Dyan,s web site by clicking on any of the highlighted words.

DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

I have a few friends with birthdays in December, this is the card I have made for them. The background is from a Jo Capper-Sandon project which was featured in Novembers Craft Stamper magazine, it's quite a fun way of making a background. The ink pads I used are Jenni Bowlin  and can be bought at Happy Daze, they are gorgeous colours. The image I love and is a Paper Bag Studio stamp, I stamped it on to a piece of card I had coloured,cut it out and attached with foam pads. The butterflies are a Wendy Vechi stamp which again were stamped and cut out to attach to the card. I love this card I think it is so feminine. Ann if you are looking this is not your card.

Out goes November in with December

Well that's another year nearly gone and I have kept up once more with Kate's challenge. Looking at my blog it seems that I don't do anything except the Art Calendar challenge, I do really I just never get around to Blogging my efforts. December's background was created using all Dylusion Sprays and paints, the baubles for jounalling I cut using the Cricut. Christmas trees are from Blonde Moments Christmas papers and the images are of course Stampotique. There is quite a lot of Christmasy gold on the background but you probably can't see it on the photo.

365 CALENDAR CHALLENGE

October isn't quite finished but I have just filled my last journal square so might as well post it on my blog along with November's pages already and raring to go. I haven't done much in the way of crafting recently but have managed to keep up my enthusiasm for the art calendar challenge organised by the wonderful and very, very talented Kate.

CAUGHT UP AT LAST

I did the background ages ago for my art calendar but then other stuff took over so I have only just finished it today.  I actually made a mess of my journal squares by starting the 1st on a Thursday instead of Saturday so I then had 2 squares spare at the beginning hence the owls and flowers. I am not happy with the page I was in too much of a rush but at least it is finished.
Background  paints and sprays by Dylusions

Images are all by Stampotique

SEPTEMBER FINISHED BUT WHERE IS OCTOBER

I am way behind this month but I do have an excuse as I organised a "Macmillan Cancer Support Coffee Morning" at my house, this took place last Friday and what a beautiful, hot, sunny day it couldn't have been better for this occasion. I spent days baking cakes of all descriptions so no October calendar pages and I am going to Prague on Thursday with my friend L'pool Lou I will just have to abandon house work tomorrow woop,woop and create my October pages but inbetween times here are Septembers for you to look at.

ANOTHER JOURNAL PAGE

This page is dedicated to the fact that all I ever want to do each day is go into my craft room and PLAY. Who wants to do domestic stuff when you can get all inky, messy and have fun. The back ground paints are Fresco Acrylics. The stamps are Basic Backgrounds by Dylusions. Borders are all from Crowabout Studio and of course the image is a Stampotique by Janet Klein which I stamped, cut out and coloured using my Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Drawing Inks. I did spray through stencils quite a lot using Dylusion sprays but Fresco paints didn't take the sprays very well as anyone else had this problem?

ROC'S SEPTEMBER JOURNAL PROMPT

A busy page for Roc's September journal prompt. For this one we had to use a "quote that moves you in your everyday life" Since I had the big C a few years ago I have tried to live everyday my way because it is my life and provided it doesn't hurt anyone that's how I live most of the time, so this quote is very appropriate. The images etc are all from Dyan's digi sheets and the background is made up of Dylusion paints and sprays. I have stenciled, stamped and splattered I also machine stitched the music sheets for the images to stand on. Hope you like it.

OCTOPODE QUOTE CHALLENGE

Here is a journal page that I am entering in this weeks Ocopode Factory Challenge. The requirement was to use a quote, I have used one of Dyans quirky quotes, I love these as you can use them with any image. The images are from the Octopode Factory, I coloured them with Copic markers. The shiny pattern background is done using a stencil and texture paste, here it has picked up the background colours. I finished it off by sewing a piece of music sheet, this is one of the fabulously talented Kate's ideas.

A WONDERFUL DAY OUT

On Sunday I went with two friends Anne (L'pool Lou) and Margaret to the Needlework and Quilt Show at the Great Yorkshire Show Ground in Harrogate, we had a wonderful day. I am in to papercrafts not needlework crafts but when my friend Ann (Flutterby Crafter) asked me what I had bought I said I don't do sewing and material crafts but I have managed to spend a fortune and promised I would put it all on my blog for her to see. I don't know what I am going to do with it all. It was well worth going to see for the Quilts if nothing else, they are fantastic. At lunch time I found 3 seats at a table where there were already two ladies sitting, of course I began chatting to them and what an incredible coincidence one of the ladies was called Patricia Fernandes and my name is Patricia Fernandez, note the different endings, she is married to a Portuguese so Fernandes ends in S and I am married to a Spaniard and so my name ends with a Z. Ok I will show you what I bought, I had to take 2 photos as I couldn't fit it all on one.

AUGUST FINISHED SEPTEMBER BEGUN

I am not as in advance this month as I was with August pages but at last here is September ready to go. I chose an Autumn theme for this month with lots of leaves here and there. I punched small leaves from an old book page, that the lovely Kate gave me, for the days of the week. Kate of course is the organiser of the Art Calendar, you can see what it is all about over on her blog the Kathryn Wheel. I painted the background using Paper Artsy Fresco acrylic paints, the journal squares are from Basic Gray an Autumn selection of papers. The leaves are from Dylusions "Around the Edge" The little trees and the September are rub-ons. Finally I stamped the mushrooms and Gog Lin which can be bought from Happy Daze.

AUGUST ATC SWAP

This is an ATC I made for a monthly swap. The stamp, which is a Stampotique, is very appropriate as this is for 2 friends of mine. For the background I used Paper Artsy Fresco Acrylics  which are lovely chalky paints, very good for stamping on to. The background stamp is a Dylusions Basic Background which are really useful for all kinds of art work and I stamped this with a DI in Wild Honey. Using a credit card and a gold dabber I added some small circles and lines, edged the whole with a Krylon gold pen and that is it finished.

MINI JOURNALLING AT AFTH

I went to AFTH yesterday for a mini journalling class with the lovely Kate Crane. I met up with old friends and new and had a wonderful day. We got very inky and messy, it takes me ages to get my hands and nails clean after a journal workshop in fact I always take gloves to wear and inevitably forget to put them on.

We used Dylusion paints and sprays on the background, gessoed through stencils, made marks with credit cards and bottle tops pen tops etc. The image is from Stampotique which we cut out and put the acetate bee wings behind. The bee stamp is one of Jo Capper-Sandons . All the embellishments were very kindly provided by Kate, she even gave us Rub-Ons to use on our pages. The quote on my "green" page is from Dyan's new stamps Dylusions Quintessential Quotes.  My pink page has an image which I stamped on to an old book page, the stamp is from Cats life but I don't have a link for that. The large exclamation mark is a stamp which Kate has. The ink splat is another Jo Capper-Sandon stamp but on the green page I have used diluted black paint and a fine paint brush to splatter the paint. I had a wonderful productive day learning lots of new journalling techniques, thank you Kate.

ROC'S AUGUST CHALLENGE

Roc has a journalling challenge each month, this is my entry for this August. The challenge was to journal three words to describe self, I had difficulty with this part so had to ask a few friends to think of words to describe me. The background is done with Dylusion paints and new background stamps. The large borders and circles are from Dyans digi sheets. The image and ticket are from Tumble Fish Studio. The borders top and bottom I doodled myself.

THE BOOK MARK CHALLENGE SDC 37

This is my entry for the Stampotique Designer Challenge . The challenge this week was set by the lovely Kate of the Kathryn Wheel fame, she chose a book mark. Take a look at all the lovely book marks made by the DTs over at Stampotique. As it is the 2nd challenge of the month Stampotiques own stamps must be used that is easy for me as I have so many of them. So I decided on Weasel as he has a sign where I was able to write the word Books. I coloured him with Cosmic Acrylic Drawing Inks. The background is water colour paper sprayed with Dylusion inks through stencils and I stamped the word READ around the edge as a border, I used Stampotique Alphabities to stamp the words using black Archival. I hope you like my book mark.

AN ALTERED BOOK PAGE

This is a page in my A5 Moleskine, it didn't start off life like this. It was a scraped page using a credit card to paint with and the colours were red, yellow and orange, you may be able to see some of the colours still showing through. I have altered the page by using Dylusion paints turquoise, purple and blue. I have gessoed through a stencil and sequin waste. The background stamps are from the new Dylusion stamps called Basic Backgrounds. To make a border I have used 2 of Jo Capper-Sandon stamps which she designed for Stampotique and of course my 2 cute images are from Stampotique.  I don't remember where I found the quote.

I am entering this page in the Stampotique challenge 36 an Altered Book Page.

OH I DO LOVE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE

This isn't exactly beside the sea-side it's more in the sea but either way I do love to be beside the sea and always want to live there. I am entering this in the Happy Daze Challenge for August which is as the title to this post suggests. All the images are Stampotique and the fish are from Lisa's Altered Art. You still have time to enter this challenge as it does not end until 31st August.

IT'S THAT TIME OF THE MONTH

July is very nearly over and done with and it's not been a bad month in this part of the UK. Weather has been good and I have done all sorts of good things. I am ahead of myself too as I have August already to go. For those of you who don't know this is the Art Calendar challenge set up by the lovely Kate of the Kathryn Wheel, so just nip over there and have a look at all the gorgeous calendar pages. August represents for me Sea and Sand hence the colours I have chosen and those gorgeous Stampotique mermaids and octopus.

KATE'S WORKSHOP

Last Sunday I went to AFTH to a workshop taught by the fabulous talented Kate Crane. It was a fantastic relaxed day spent with some lovely like-minded people. There was some fabulous art work produced and here are the 2 pages that I completed I hope you like them.

The Three Wishes

This is my entry for Roc's July Journal Prompt which is "If you could have 3 wishes what would they be?". My friend Anne thinks I am being very altruistic because of my wishes being about others and not me. I really enjoyed doing this page apart from the writing as I don't like my hand writing. This was another page which I had done previously and didn't like the colours so I gessoed over it there were some hearts on the original and you may still be able to see them. I used Dylusion sprays, the borders are from Tumble Fish Studios and the flower faces and girl are from Octopode. I hope you like it.

A JOURNAL PAGE

A journal page at last, I am always moaning that I never get time to journal due to demands put on me from various corners but this weekend I was determined and I actually completed 2 double page spreads. This one didn't start life like it is now, the colours were a horrible, garish blue and purple with quite a lot of texture, I gessoed over the top, closed the book while wet quickly opened it again, et voila a lot more texture this is the result which I love. I did intend to journal on this page but it was impossible because of the raised effect of the texture. All the borders and image are from Tumble Fish Studio.

ANOTHER CREATION

I went with a friend to a Play Day at  Anne's (L'pool Lou) house recently. Anne is extremely good at Fabric crafts, she taught us how to make a "Slash Bag". I decided to make a large bag------big mistake as when you come to the slashing process it takes ages and you have to be very, very careful not to slash through all the layers. The bag is made with 4 layers of material sewn together diagonally and then very carefully slashed to show the underneath layers and it gives the appearance of chenille. I am going to use my bag to carry my journalling stuff when I go to Art Journal days at AFTH.

THE TORSO

A few weeks ago the "Ladies who lunch" had a play day and we chose to decorate a Torso. Ann (flutterby crafter) put a photo of them on her blog, at the time mine was unfinished but now it is. I haven't been able to blog it before now as my grand-daughter Isabel liked it so much she took it home before I had time to take a photo. This week she brought it back for me to photograph so here it is. Not a very good photo.

JULY

Blogger is playing tricks again and wouldn't allow me to post both photos at the same time so here is July in a seperate post.

Out with June in with July

The saying goes June is bursting out all over and some days it did and July has started well, nice warm, sunny days.My June pages are complete and are here for you to see and I did manage to prep my July pages on time but haven't had a moment to blog them till now. So here they are.

ATC SWAP

I posted an ATC  a while ago which is very similar to this one but  then I deleted it from my blog for various reasons. This particular ATC I made for my friend Ann Flutterby Crafter we do a monthly swap.This one was made using Tim's glossy card and alcohol inks. I quite enjoyed making this as I haven't used alcohol inks for a long time Here is a link to Ann's blog where you will find some wonderful art work.http://flutterbycrafter.blogspot.com/

SDC32 CLEAN AND SIMPLE

Here is my entry for the Stampotique Designers Challenge "Clean and Simple" chosen by the very talented Joanne Wardle. For my card I have used Stazon Timber Brown to stamp the images and quote. I stamped on to cream card and mounted it on to Kraft card. All the stamps used are by Stampotique.

A NEW METHOD OF ART JOURNALING

I spent a lovely relaxing day at AFTH yesterday, it was our regulars Art Journaling with Dyan. There were only a few of us, just how I like it. Dyan as usual set us a challenge which was a new way of journaling ( I never know if "journaling" needs 2 lls or just one) on a tag, it was brilliant as it makes it very difficult to read. We used Distress Stains but I only used them on my tag not on the actual pages. The pages were done in our usual way with lots of layers using Dylusions paints and sprays. The image I used is a new one from Paper and Gluestix.

MONOCHROME BIRTHDAY

I made this card for my son's partner it is her birthday today, well actually I made 3 the same as it is a blogger friends birthday today and another friends on Sunday. I got the idea from Jo Capper-Sandon's blog she made a couple of mono cards and posted them on her blog when I saw them I really liked them.

I used a Crafters workshop stencil with stormy sky DI, the balloon stamp I used are from Paper Bag Studios as is the image of the little girl, I just love this stamp. The floral stamp is a Stampotique by Daniel Torrente

Out with May in with June

It is a lovely warm sunny day here in West Yorkshire and it is the first day of June, lets hope the rest of June is going to be like this.

May's art calendar pages are complete and June is already to go. Where does time go we are already into our 6th month of Kate's Art Calendar challenge, I would link this to the Kathryn Wheel but I am useless at that kind of thing but I am sure you all know about Kate's challenge by now.

MINI JOURNAL DAY

I spent another wonderful day at AFTH yesterday. I went with my friend Ann (Flutterby Crafter) and we met up with another journalling friend Christine, we were there for one of Kate Crane's workshops on Mini Journalling. We had a fab time learning Kate's techniques for backgrounds in our tiny journals. We used Dyan's Dylusions paints and sprays, images and stamps which Kate brought for us to use and we got very inky and messy. We didn't know the other crafters on the workshop but they were a very friendly lot and everyone had a good time.

I AM BACK

I am back having spent a fabulous week in NYC and thank you to all my blogger friends who wished me a good holiday and it certainly was. I haven't done much in the way of crafting since I came home as I was suffering from terrible Jet Lag for about 4 days, no concentration and I couldn't stay awake. I am back to normal now (if I could ever be described as normal) so here is an ATC I have made for a swap I do with a friend I gave  it to her today so I am allowed to put it on my blog. The paints I have used are the new Paper Artsy Fresco Finish chalk acrylics, they are wonderful to stamp and write on and gorgeous colours. The cute image is from Paper & Gluestix by Amy Nieman. I think I am going to find lots of uses for this dolly image in my art work.

A TSUNAMI BUTTERFLY DOLL

On Friday I spent a lovely day with five crafting friends making a Tsunami Butterfly Doll. This was definitely out of my comfort zone but we were very well instructed by my friend Anne (L'pool Lou), she was leading the project and believe you me she needed all her patience as we were all complete novices and were continually making mistakes. We had a great time chatting, laughing, eating and drinking coffee. Anne made her gorgeous Tiffin, I made the soup, Flutterby crafter made scones and Jill made the most gorgeous lemon flan, is it any wonder we are all putting on weight. After these Play Day sessions I go home and take my dogs on a 10mile hike to walk off the calories consummed during the day. Here is my finished doll, I made her wings out of Fabric Paper which I made a few weeks ago again under the guidance of Anne (L'pool L). Anne is a very talented lady and we have learnt such a lot from her.

AT LAST

Hi, well at last I have finished my May Art Calendar pages, I was up until after midnight last night trying to get it ready to blog, it was worth it as I am quite pleased with it. Hope you like it too.

NEARLY THERE

Well just to prove that I am actually doing something here is the prepared May page of my art calendar.It is all done using Dylusions sprays and paints. I will show you the finished page hopefully tomorrow.

APRIL FINISHED

Hi everyone, I have not blogged for a while in fact haven't had much to blog I seem to be inundated with other stuff to do but at least I have finished my April pages for the Art Calendar although dare I say this I have not started my May pages.

Where I would like to live.

At the beginning of the year Roc over on http://www.whatsuproc.blogspot.com/ set up a monthly journal challenge, I managed to do the first on in January and not done one since until today. April's challenge is to do a journal page about where you would like to live if you didn't live where you live now and write a postcard to someone from that place. Well I have always wanted to live near the sea, I can only put that down to being born under the star sign Pisces. So here is my page completed. I have used all Dylusions paints and sprays I sprayed through some net and a pebble stencil as these are related to the sea. The fishes, bubbles, banner border and the fossil border are all from Paper & Gluestix. The small curly border is a Stampotique stamp and my large image is from the Octopode Factory.

My friend Anne spent ages last Friday showing me how to Link, I have all the instructions written down and fixed to my PC but I still have not mastered copying the URL, IT IS SO FRUSTRATING.

Here comes April

A few days late but better late than never. I am really happy with the background colours on this page although now I have put the journal squares on it covers most of it. I used Dylusions paint Mustard and Pink, sprayed with Sky Blue Pearl mica spray from Art From The Heart. I also sprayed in white which is a Crafty Notions spray. I painted with a gold dabber through a couple of stencils, did lots of circles in orange and white. My images are from Octopode Factory coloured with Copic Markers. The rain drops are from a Claudine Helmuth stamp. The days of the week I wrote on old music sheet and April is stamped on an old book page. I had better get on with May now seeing as time is flying by.

ANOTHER MONTH GONE

I can't believe how fast this year is going, I know they say as you get older time flies but this is ridiculous April already. So here is March completed for the Art Calendar Challenge that Kate of the Kathryn Wheel set us all. Now I must go and complete the prep of my April page, last month I was well in advance this month I am way behind.

A LOVELY DAY WAS SPENT

Yes I was at AFTH yesterday for a workshop run by the lovely Kate of the Kathryn Wheel fame. It really was a wonderful relaxing day expertly taught by Kate. We made Kate's Tag Book which you can see on her blog and also on Dyan's web site. We made a couple of colour wheels to start with which is a brilliant idea to teach you which colours go with each other, then we spent the morning playing, experimenting with colour using the sprays, punching out mini shapes to use on the tags and then putting everything together using the sewing machineThe afternoon session was devoted to making a book with 8 tags cut from Tim's tag die and using the techniques we had learnt during the morning session. So we actually made 2 tag books, yipee! I am showing you one I have finished and the other is yet to be put together which I intend to do today after all the usual chores. Hey! I have more time now for crafting as I have given up my teaching job, handed in my notice this week and informed all the powers that be. Well you have to give up sometime or I could see myself still working at 80, NO WAY!

A JOURNAL PAGE

Another journal page created at AFTH on the day I should not have been there. Art Journaling is this Sunday at AFTH I hope I remember to go LOL. The background on this page was created using the new Distress Stains and they are gorgeous and so easy to use, the colours here are Bundled Sage and Wild Honey. The borders, hand with pointing finger and spots are all from Dyan's downloads and the doors are a Stampotique stamp. Quotes are computer generated, I very rarely write on my pages and don't feel the need to write personal stuff although sometimes there can be a hidden meaning.