Journal Swap

I made the pages below for the first round of a journal swap.  The flowers and leaves are paper pieced.  The flowers are made with a rose scrapbook paper and the leaves from a painted background I made. 

Stamps: Dylusions, Stampotique and Hero Arts

Paint/Ink: Dylusions, Golden, Ranger and Stampin Up markers

It took a while to get started as I couldn't be as messy and carefree as usual.  Also I found it difficult to get a background card that didn't go all bobbly when wet.  I ended up taking pages from a 7 Gypsies journal.  Overall I'm pleased with them and will be sorry to see them go.

I need to get a move on as my next swap is due to be with the recipient on 6 April - good job I have an idea.  Now I just need to get off this pc and get started.

Hope you are having a lovely week.

Anne x

Where have I been?

I wish I could tell you that I have been somewhere lovely, but the truth is I've probably been working or playing FarmVille far too much!

This is the first card I've made in ages and it's called 'spot the stamping' as I made it for a stamping list and only manged to stamp the sentiment. This is my first play with the Time Holtz birdcage die and I chopped off the top to make it fit.

I have done quite a lot of messying around in my journals and I just love it. I often go back and add a few squiggles or colour in with my favorite red glaze pen. This is my favorite page this year. The 'lady' is from Octopode and the sentiments are from Dylusions. Dyan had the idea on her blog to use one word, one sentiment and an image. I did a few at Christmas (see below) and really enjoyed it so I've done a few more pages of sayings.

I made up a page on the pc of sentiments I like and the image is from Viva Las Vagas Stamps.

More Octopode, AFTH letters and computer generated words. Background is Dylusions sprays over random torn strips of paper - yum.

These are some pages I made around Christmas time. I like this one but the dark patch is a bit too heavy. Backgrounds are mainly Ranger daubers.

This is a bit darker in real life - sorry my photography skills are so lacking. Trees are from AFTH.

These pages make me smile.

I hope you have a lovely week.

Anne x

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.

Cheats Leftovers!

This is a landscape version of my leftovers card. This time I cheated as I cut up full sheets of PaperArtsy paper! The trees are from Blonde Moments. Normally I would add some bling, but the colours make it a nice card for a man - possibly my hubby. He doesn't read my blog so he won't know!

Christmas Cards

Here are a couple of quick Christmas cards. Well they would be quick if I didn't faff about so much ;-) hahaha!

The first uses Blonde Moments trees and word stamps, a lovely pearlescent embossed green card and my new Waltzing Mouse frame. The frame works with nestabilities, but here I just cut it out, mounted it onto pearlescent paper and cut that out a touch bigger.

The Tilda card is my attempt to add a bit more to a card - usually I will colour in and stick the image to a smaller square card with no embelishments. It's not easy to see on here but I stamped the red card with little stars.


Now I must stop playing Cafe World on FaceBook and go and do some real cooking...

Wish This is my favorite Leanne Ellis image. I always wonder what she is wishing for. Nice easy birthday card with a few quirky touches.

Wacky flower





Time and time again I find myself drawn back to this background and layout from Dyan's blog. The lovely quirky stem is from blonde moments and the other stamps from Stampin up. I am planning to go to the September mini Ranger workshop at Dyan's shop - Art From the Heart. I wish I still lived in Yorkshire then I could do all her classes...