Frozen Peas

Here are two journal pages I made for a swap.  I made the backgrounds ages ago, but didn't know what to do with them.  In truth I liked them too much to use!  In real life they are brighter and the stars have a lovely mica sheen.

I love the quirky Stampotique girls and have to give them red eyes!  The quotes are Dylusions stamps and say 'change for no one and believe in who you are' and 'never be too proud to serve frozen peas'.  The peas one is my favourite; not sure why as I don't even like peas!

I am looking forward to Shimelle's Journal your Christmas which starts on Saturday.  Last year I made it to day 11 and filled the rest of the book with pages made by my younger relatives - ages 6 to 27!  I just handed over a box of lovely Christmas crafty things and some background card cut to 8x8.  They all dived in and had a great time.  I also added in a cross stitch Santa my mum made years ago.  The pages made by my relatives are my favorites and it was a great way to keep them busy while dinner was cooking.  Can't wait to do it again this year.

I hope you are having a lovely week.  Anne x

SmileRoundRobin

In January I sent off my circle journal out into the big wide World - well mainly round Wales - but you get the idea.  Here is a link to my introductory pages.  Now it's back in all it's gorgeousness, the swap is over, so  I can share the pages I made in everyone journals.

My first page uses Dylusion stamps and some discontinued printout houses.  I paper pieced all the leaves using paper I had painted and inked.

The lovely quote is "There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it"

As usual I had no idea what to do for page two.  The theme of trees was a bit of a challenge for me, so I decided to do a scrapbook page of the bluebell woods at the end of our road.

The next page used lovely paper from my monthly kit.

I think this was my favorite theme as it was the easiest!

I used my silhouette to cut the title.

Also used my silhouette to cut buckets.  The jars are from American crafts.

My current passion is making yoyo flowers.  I didn't like them when I was a quilter, but they look lovely on scrapbook pages.  Very easy just cut a circle of cotton fabric, do a running stitch near the edge (don't turn under a hem or it will be too bulky) pull up the thread and attach a button.



The quote is "Flowers that bloom in the Springtime, fade in the early fall. But the lovely flower of friendship, never fades at all."

Here is a close up of the flowers.

I keep using my favorite papers for this swap and I love the Graphic 45 background flying pigs paper as it is so quirky.

This time I used the flower border I was saving for a wedding page.

I doodled the song words between the rows of music.

I bought the heart in Aberystwth for a wedding page, but had to use it here as it looked a bit plain without.  Guess who bought the set of six types of wood shapes from Create and Craft?!?!?

Here is a close up of the figures made using a Tim Holtz die and Dylusion stamps.

I love the saying and it is so true of my friend Sara.

Finally a close up of my metal flower heart.  I'm still looking for another one, but so far the only one I've found was bigger.

This swap was great fun and really challenging.  It helped me use up lots of new papers and things I would likely have kept as they are 'too nice to use'.

 

I've been taking the tiles off the wall in the bathroom and chopping down bushes in the garden.  I think I must have a destructive gene as it's great fun and I can't wait for the rain to stop so that I can fill up the green bin, with my latest victims, yet again.

 

Have a lovely week, Anne x

JournalSwap

Is it just me or do swaps always seem easy when you sign up?  I'm full of enthusiasm and ideas but as the swap starts my perfectionism takes over and I find it difficult to even get started. 

After months of being on the naughty step - due to late posting - I am finally up to date and starting to enjoy this journal swap. 

Here are my pages from the last three months.  I used the ink, stencil and stamp backgrounds left over from the Dylusion cards shown on my last post.  The borders are hand drawn with posca pens.

Karin is my favourite Stampotique stamp because she has such a forced smile on her face.

The one on the right reminds me of me hiding away at home taking a year off work.  At the moment I just want to carry on having a nice quiet easy life.  Unfortunately, I'm too young to retire so I've had to stop relaxing and start looking for a nice new bill paying job!  Wish me luck... 

Twinkie is another favourite stamp as he looks like he is dancing very badly - like someones dad at a wedding.

Have a lovely day. Anne x 

ArtFromTheHeart

Last week I spent a few days in Yorkshire visiting my family.  I also fitted in two workshops with the lovely Dyan and got very inky, messy and Dylusional!

At the first workshop we made lots of lovely inkly backgrounds and then played with Dyan's stamps to make quirky cards.

Now you have to understand that I was having far too much fun socialising and stuff so I only made two cards; but I did take home lots of stamped images to make up the other four cards. 

 

I love this adverture saying and it is far too true of me some days, especially when I get behind the wheel of a car!  The frog image looks so cute peeping out from behind things.

 

I love Dyan's saying stamps so I treated myself to a set and then had to go back for the second - good job my hubby is not reading this LOL!  I need to get a job to finance my continued stash buying despite the fact that I already have enough to last a lifetime and beyond...

Have a lovely day.

Anne x

MyNewNoteBook

First a proud mum request :-D  It's my son Mike's birthday today and he has challenged himself to get his eBook in the Amazon top 100 today. Here is the UK link to the eBook please click the link even if you don't buy the book. More details and the US Amazon link can be found on Mike's web site

Now back to crafting.  I was reading Kate Crane's blog and decided to try making my own version of her inky little book.  I made a few pages but they just didn't work for me - too green! 

Instead I made my book with scrapbook papers, stamps and rub-ons.  I used fours sheets of scrapbook paper cut into 6"x4" pieces.  I dug out my beautiful, but much neglected, sewing machine and in no time at all had this lovely little book.

I cut two of the 6"x4" pages into three to form the pockets.  Sewed along what would be the top side of each pocket and then placed two pieces together and sewed round attaching the pockets to six of the pages.  I didn't use any glue.  The pages are a bit rough round the edges and the stitching is wobbly and just cut off at the ends to keep it from looking too neat.

I stamped randomly with a selection of stamps including Tim Holtz, Dylusions and Club Scrap.  The papers are from American Crafts and Lily Bee.  I used an old partially used sheet of 7 Gypsies rub ons to add a bit of extra detail to the pages.

 Here are the finished pages.  Click on the photo for a closer look.

This photo is close up showing some of the stamping.  I will add more and some doodling as I go along.

Finally here is my favourite page.

I plan to use the book to record three nice memories of each day, along with a bit of doodling and a few photos.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the Olympics.  I'm going to see the Basketball on Wednesday and I'm really excited :-D

More Journal Swap Pages

Hi, here are my latest journal swap pages.

The birds are just so funny.  They came from a Halloween set that I just couldn't resist (even though it was February at the time!)  The leaves are from my favourite Dylusions set, the grass is PaperArtsy and all the rest are Inkadinkado.

I used Dylusion spray inks for the background with an iridescent glimmer mist through a flower stencil on top.  I also stamped a butterfly over the background, but it's difficult to see as I used pink ink on the pink background areas, purple on purple etc.  The leaves and birds are stamped in black on scraps of scrapbook paper and then paper pieced.  I used my memories black ink that I have had since I started stamping in 1998 and it's still my most used stamp pad.

I made a simpler version of the bird page using scrapbook green paper as the background and colouring the leaves with pro markers.  They made fun birthday cards.

Anne x

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