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

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 

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

A few more journal pages

I have been working on a few more journal pages in my little moleskin. I love Dy's new Dylusion border stamps. Not sure the gifts work but I stuck them on before the girl! The Octopode tree is cute and the wording says 'What would you like in your stocking?'.
I think the next one is far too true...
The right hand page had blue/green ink that had seeped through and looked awful. This page has a bit of mica and is now one of my favorites. Oh those were the days when I did dressmaking in a size 10 for me! The dress form stencil was free on a magazine. Stampotique stamps.

Finally two sayings from Tim Holtz and great Dylusions border and leaf stamps.

Where did the weekend go. I had most of last week off work but I'm still playing catch up. Have a lovely week.

Anne x

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

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.

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