More Karin This page is in my small moleskin sketchbook. I just think the stamp looks like she has a forced smile most of us have to adopt sometimes. I suspect today will be one of those days :-)

May 2010

Edited: It was Kate who started the monthly challenges. Her fab blog is here.
At last I've finished my May journal page and am quite pleased with how it's turned out, especially the hand drawn vine. I did find it highlighted just how dull my life can be, so as Dyan suggested I made up some entries! I'm not sure who originated this idea as I've seen it on loads of blogs.

It's June and amazingly I don't seem to have hay fever, so for the first time in years I have cut flowers in the house. They are gorgeous. The cream flower isn't part of the bunch.

Thanks and Stampotique

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I am rubbish at leaving comments so will try to leave more. I love looking at your art and am always amazed at the variety of ideas and the amount of talent that is all shared - for free. Thanks everyone.

I bought my first Stampotique stamp this week (ok I confess I bought 5 and have another 5 on back order - Yikes! good job I work full time!)


This is Karin and she stamps like a dream, even the very first image was perfect.

The backgrounds are the stencilled sprays I've used before and the hearts are hand drawn.
I have had an really busy week at work and have more early mornings and late nights to come. It's nice to craft to take my mind elsewhere, but I spend far too much time on FarmVille type games. I'm just a computer nerd at heart!

Have a lovely week. x

Scream

I always think yellow is a happy colour but this photo fits perfectly. Sometimes I think it would be good to have a sound proofed room where you can let off a bit of steam and have a good scream. The page was made at Dyan's workshop and the challenge was to cut images from magazines on my chosen colour. Yellow was not the best choice as if you look carefully a lot of the blocks are dresses so are long and thin. The background is a set of 7 Gypsies stamps all stamped at once. I may write on this, but for now I like how it looks.

Pieced Border

This is my first pieced border page made at Dyan's journal two weekend. It's coloured with watercolour pencils.

Work in progress

Here are two journal pages prepped and ready for writing on. I need to stock up on black pens tomorrow.

Finished at last

I started this page in August 2009 and only finished it today! I kept adding a little bit more each time I felt brave. Really pleased to have finished it. The stampotique images were destined for my little booklet but they just look right in here. I must get some of these stamps, especially the heads one which is so versatile and which I love giving red eyes. The backgrounds use masks.

This is a tag I started around the same time. Can you tell I cleaned my desk today! Yellow, orange and red are a great combo and can't fail to make me smile.

Boy Card

I know this boy card is a bit rough round the edges and is not to most people's taste so I may never send him to anyone - but I love him just the same and think I need this stamp, as he's a left over from my art journaling class with Dyan.

The background is spray ink and mica over stencils on old book pages. The circles are punched and the scribble lines added later.

Strange Booklet

At Dyan's jounaling class we made a booklet from three pieces of watercolour paper. We sprayed through stencils, we drew round some areas, we used gesso on top we stamped and we cleared the shelves of Stampotique stamps ;-)

Just in case the cover didn't look weired enough I made them have red eyes. Words are 7 Gypsies rub ons. This is still a work in progress as I have a few pages to fill.
They don't go with the rest of the book, but I wanted some shiny butterflies.

When I was young I used to doodle 3D boxes! and stars. These stars are drawn free hand on old music one of the ladies (Janet?) kindly brought along. The music was also spray painted.

This is the page opened up.

This time the hearts are drawn free hand. The girl on the right looks so like someone scary I used to work with! The white circles are gesso on a glue stick lid.

I don't have any of these stamps - YET! But how do I choose.

Left Over Ink

At Dyan's Journaling class we made a fab little booklet using spray inks and stencils. These are pages out of my large journal that I've used to soak up the waste ink.

The picture below shows what lovely backgrounds you get if you go over with a distress ink. The music on the left and the spider's web on the right were stencilled on at the end using more distress inks. They look better in real life as they shimmer due to the mica we mixed into the sprays.

Cards

For the first time in ages I made some stamped cards.

This image was given to me by the lovely Caz. I think I 'need' some of these Stampotique images. Somehow I've made this look very middle of the road rather than weird. The paper is Stampin Up and the things that look like pins on the right are a stamp - Unity I think.

Apologies for this being so blurry. It's only 4pm but there is no natural light. Stampin Up papers, Unity and inkadinkado stamps. I'm trying to add few more layers - 4 on this. I could just eat this cupcake, but thanks to poking myself in the eye I've not put my contact lenses in today so no shopping for me. It's amazing what lurks in the freezer and cupboard when you look.

Have a lovely week. Anne x

Art From The Heart Journal Class

I did a fabby Journal 2 class with Dyan and will share some of the pages I made over the next few days. For now here is the page I made in my hotel roon on the Saturday night. I used a page of scrapbook paper for the border. The square top right was too white so I used it to test out my watercolour pencils. I liked the effect so used it in the page. This is one of my favorite pages, so guess who bought more of this paper?

This is a page I finished the same day. The brown at the top is where ink from the previous page leaked. You just have to go with the flow and not mind when this happens. This is another page from my small moleskin journal.

Random Colours

I'm trying to use random colours of ranger daubers on my journals pages. I think the page above works but the one below doesn't. I think it's because the colours are too dark.

Candles

This is a page from my small moleskin journal. I'm learning to love green

We had a visitor

Her name is Rosie and she is so so cute. She is also very noisy but with a face like this she can get away with anything.

Son and daughter-in-law also visited which was fab.

Cats are pleased to have house back to themselves today, but I miss them as they live 200 miles away.

Journals
Here are a few more journal pages. I'm looking forward to learning afew new techniques at an Art from the Heart workshop at the weekend. This page was difficult because it's A4 and I'm more a miniturist at heart.

Sharpie Marker Blog Candy - won by Virginia

Hi Virgina, congratulations on winning the sharpies

Anne x

More Journalling


I haven't done much stamping for a while. I've been baking, doing cross stitch and generally lazing about.


Here is one stamped card. The scene is made up of several diffent stamps stamped on water colour paper. I watercoloured using a water brush and markers.



I'm trying to get away from all my journal pages all looking very similar. This is a bit messy and reminds me of tree roots.
This is also done by dripping ink. I like the right hand page so much I think I'm going to leave it without words.
I seem to be drawn to pictures of chairs.

My latest page.

I hope you are enjoying journalling, if not give it a go it's great fun and a good way of getting rid of things that are doing your head in.

Have a lovely week. Anne x

More Journaling and a special thanks to Craft Stamper Magazine

I have not been online much the last few weeks. I had a treat in the post yesterday - lots of lovely sharpie markers from Katy's Craft Stamper blog. Big ones, tiny ones and all different colours. They will make a nice addition to my copics and pro markers. I will share what I make with them.

Here is a finished page that I started at Dyan's workshop. I love the white souffle pen, shame it doesn't show well on screen.

I haven't felt like journaling for a while. I kind of got all my frustrations out and then was lost for something to say. I have a new big journal and the pages seem scary! I might spoil them! So I've gone back to small pages for a while.

Today I started a fab journaling class with Julie Pritchard. It's great as it inspires me but as I'm not copying, my pages feel more like me.

This is in my lovely little moleskin. I'll let you know what they look like when they are dry and written on.

Have a fab week. Love Anne x

More Jounaling

Here are a few more journal pages.

I'm in love..........with Journaling!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to go to Heart From the Heart for one of Dyan's fab weekend workshops. This time it was art journaling - I loved it. It was an honour to share a weekend with so many amazing women. We laughed, we cried, we ate and we made a mess ;-) I would recommend it to any one. It was so popular that while we were there most of us booked into the next weekend.

Here are a few of the pages I've made so far. I am much happier than I come across on some of these pages and have now run out of rants so it works - don't get angry get journaling!

Scroll down Dyan's blog and you will see links to some of the other ladies blogs.

My pages are made with old newspaper which gives a lovely textured result. This is my work in progress rant page. Have a rant, cover it with gesso and sugar coat the result.
This is the first page I made. I was given the word rage and the colour red.

I love my white souffle pen.

I made this at a previous workshop and it reminds me not to take myself seriously.

My wireless has died and I have had to move the pc onto a small table near the phone. It means I can watch TV but it's killing my back! At least it stops me rambling on my blog. I've made a few more backgrounds so I just need to find a few images and get going again.