Finished ........ I think!

Happy Friday .......

Happy Good Friday actually ......... I hope your Easter weekend has got off to a great start.

It's been a bit of a lazy day here ...... a late start, then a spot of lunch in town.  Good food and a cheeky glass of wine or two to get the weekend started.  

I'm hoping the weather gets a little better as the weekend goes on ...... we're having a family BBQ on Sunday.  I want to try out the new garden furniture, fingers crossed we'll need the brolly to keep the sun off, and not the rain!!! (Probably shouldn't have said that ...... oh well!)

I've been busy in the craft room this last week ...... Sweet Poppy are back on TV next week so I've been having a play with some of the new stencils for the show ........ if you love Lavinia stamps then there's something for you in the new releases.  Watch this space ...... I'll show you what I've been up to next week.

In the meantime, I've also been playing in my journal again.  I'm trying to get my desk tidy, and finish off things that have been lying around for ages.  We're also off on another adventure in the motorhome next weekend, so I'm trying to get my crafty calendar organised before we leave ...... as if that's going to happen!!!

One thing I've kept going back to time and time again, and never been able to get very far with, are two pages in one of my journals.  

Well .......... I've finished them (yeah!) ..... I think!

They started out as mop up pages, oooh, absolutely months, and months, and months ago!  

I've no idea whats on there, as far as product information goes, lets just say there's a little bit of everything gone on at some point!   

They were somewhere I used to clean brushes off,  put left over ink or paint, or even try out new colours of paint. 

I do remember having an idea of putting ink or paint in the centre of the pages, and then closing the book to see how it spread ....... I did like that!  I've no idea what colours, or inks I used ..... it's definitely pink though!

I can see I added some left over pieces of washi tape, old book pages and a little bit of embossing powder here and there .........

There's some texture paste on there, used with my favourite brickwall stencil.  A bit more ink and paint over the top, maybe even some gilding wax, and thats how the pages sat for such a long time.

But ....... a quick scroll through Pinterest whilst having a morning coffee, and I was all inspired again.  

I found some die cut hearts in my bits box and set about trying to match the colours

With the help of some scraps of old book pages again, music paper and washi tape, heat embossing and a whole load of distress colours, I think I got there in the end

I added a little bit of stamping onto the background using an old script stamp, and finsihed off with some paint splatters and a couple of chipboard sayings from Tim Holtz

I'm saying it's finished but, who knows I might go back to it again at some point!

That's the fun of journals ..... nothing is ever finished, there's always room for little extras!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day, and have a lovely Easter break

Cheerio until next time ........

Journaling is keeping me sane ......

Hello again ........ Happy Tuesday!

Just taking a quick break from cleaning the craft room, so I thought I would share some recent pages from my art journals.

I've been catching up with some online workshops again, getting messy with paints and inks and learning some fun techniques.

The following pages are from Tracy Scott workshops, done via Facebook.  I know I keep saying this but, if you haven't tried one of these yet you need to sign up! 

The workshops are done as Facebook Lives but, you don't need to watch live.  If you'd rather play along and work at your own speed then the videos are always going to be there on replay so you can watch, and rewind as much as you like.

The first two were monthly journaling classes ......  Fresh as a Daisy (which I think was March)

Done in one of my large Dylusions journals, so the flowers are very big and bold ..... love it!

And this one, which I finished yesterday (it's only taken me about a month!!) was from back in February ...... Autumn Leaves

Another large Dylusions journal, across two pages this time.

The tree is hand drawn and painted ..... I surprised myself there!  

And then the leaves have all been cut from a sheet of hand made collage deli paper (another first!) and attached over the top ...... really pleased with this one!

But, I think my favourite workshop done recently has to be the gorgeous Geisha ........ (still can't believe I drew this!!)

This was a three day workshop and worth every minute!  Tracy makes the whole process so easy by breaking it all down into simple to follow step by steps.  

OK, the finished one is not exactly the same as my practice sheet but, she's still beautiful!

Now she is big ...... I used my Dina Wakley Large Media journal for this one ..... it's about 10 x 14.25 inches, so lots of space to work on.  I got a bit carried away and did another double page spread, with a little inspiration from a JOFY project.  

The fan was part of the workshop with Tracy, and is attached with Velcro so it can be removed ..... clever eh!

Thanks for popping by ..... enjoy the rest of your day.

It's the last day of March tomorrow ...... a quarter of the year done already!  A new month means new blog challenges so I'll be back again later in the week.

Cheerio until then ........

Galaxy Skies for my journal .....

Happy Friday ........

I hope you've had a nice week. 
This has been pretty much how my week has gone ......

I may not have done the housework but, I've been very productive in the craft room and, it's still reasonably tidy in there, which is a bonus!

March is fast approaching, so I've been busy getting some of my blog challenge projects ready.  And, I've been playing in my art journal again ......

Galaxy backgrounds and words from a song, for Februarys prompt on an Art Journaling Challenge  I signed up to, from the Mixed Up Creative Academy  It's a fab monthly challenge, you get a prompt and a video and the amazing thing is ........ it's free to sign up! 

I used Distress Ink sprays with a touch of Perfect Pearls .......

Stenciling, and a bit of ink splattering ......

And some song words ......

If you love art journaling check out the Mixed Up Creative Academy ..... there's a link above.  There's other stuff on there too, not just Art Journaling courses.

There was no housework done this morning either ....... I had the little man to look after. 
He's been off school today ...... he had a rather large verruca taken off his foot at the doctors yesterday, and it's made him feel a bit off colour.  He couldn't get any shoes on, bless him.  So he's been keeping me company ..... drawing.

Here's the result of my morning ........

She's not perfect but, she's not bad for my first attempt at drawing a face ........ I can't believe how she's turned out!!!  Next step is too add some colour over the weekend.

We've only 10 more days before we head off to pick up the motorhome ........ boy are the days going slow!
We actually handed over the money for it on Tuesday ......... that's the kids inheritance gone! 
This new baby of ours is not going to be cheap!!  I'm having fun kitting it out though ..... whistling kettle, jerry can and extra power packs so we can 'wild camp'.  New bedding and towels, not to mention all the stuff for the kitchen.  Makes a change from buying craft stuff I suppose. 
Whilst I'm looking at all the practical stuff .... hubby's decided he wants a drone!  Hmmm.

Thanks for popping by ...... have a lovely weekend.  I hope it's not too wet where you are.
We've got weather warnings in place and possibly ferry disruptions again Saturday and Sunday.  Roll on Spring!

Cheerio until next time .......

Baby .... it's cold outside!

Happy Thursday folks .......

It's been freezing out there today ..... brrrrrr! We still haven't had any snow ....... not yet anyway!  I do hope you're all keeping toasty and warm.

It's been nice and cosy in the old craft room though.  I've had the day to myself .... nowhere to go, no little man popping in and nothing urgent on the To Do list ..... it's great being up to date!
Ooops shouldn't really have said that ..... the postman brought happy mail this morning from the lovely Lucy from Sweet Poppy Stencils ......... lots of gorgeous new designs coming up.  Guess what's top of the To Do list for next week!

I made the most of today and caught up a little bit more with my journal ...... Creative Journaling 365 is very addictive!
Pages 8, 9 and 10 are all done ........ does that mean I'm only 2 days behind?  Whoo hoo!!

Page 8 ...... the other half of the Brusho page.  Remember I coloured both pages at the same time. Sprinkled Brusho onto one page, spritzed with water and then closed the journal ..... easy!

This page has one of my favourite sayings on it ....... I love it.  This version is from a set of Tim Holtz stamps ....... simply stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with a white detail powder

It goes perfectly with the Harmony Girl from Unity Stamps ....... another favourite

To finish off I added some tiny water droplets ..... stamped in Versamark and embossed in clear.  You can just about see them in this close up ..... they're there, but only when the light catches them

 Pages 9 and 10 are a double page spread ..... is that cheating?

The last few days I've spent quite a bit of time checking Estate Agent websites ...... hence the journal spread.  I've mentioned that we were looking to move in the next few months.
Now I don't mind looking for new houses .... when there's plenty to look at.  That's not the case at the moment unfortunately.  We've seen a couple of possibilities and we're viewing a few more tomorrow but have I mentioned I'm a little bit fussy ..... and not that easy to please!  Well come on ..... I need at least one room with loads of natural light!

We should really build our own ..... not ourselves,  but you know what I mean ....... it's just something we've never got around to doing. We've bought off plan before which was nice .... I got to choose everything that went into it ..... the floor tiles, the bathroom tiles and the bathrooms, the wooden floors, the kitchen etc. That was so much fun.

Anyway .... where was I ........ oh yes houses
I started by applying heavy white gesso through a brickwork stencil directly onto the journal pages. When this was dry (it didn't take long) I used Distress Inks to colour the background ..... I love how the gesso picks up the colour

Now to create my little scene ........ all the stamps, apart from one, are from a fab little JOFY set (JOFY 29) I stamped the tree and the fence, masking the tree trunk before stamping the fence, and then heat embossed with a clear powder

I then used Distress inks to add the colour

The house has been stamped onto coloured pieces of cardstock from my stash, and then fussy cut and layered
The house on page 9 is on card coloured using PaperArtsy's Infusions ........ little bottles of colour pigment mixed with walnut stain, that you use a bit like Brusho  ...... I've actually used them again in a different way for pages 11 & 12 but you'll have to wait for those, they're not finished yet!)
The house on page 10 was stamped on a pretty piece of card coloured using a stencil and Brusho's I think

There's little bits of an old book page on there too ......

The Home Sweet Home is from the JOFY set ...... a little bit of doodling there to make it look as though it's hanging on the wall

Another sentiment on page 10 .... this time from Inkylicious ......

And to finish off I stamped the keys (JOFY again) and doodled some more to make them look as though they are hanging over the page.

Well that's me done for tonight.  Time to snuggle under a blanket and catch up on some TV I think.

Thanks for popping by .... enjoy the rest of your evening, and stay warm.

Cheerio until next time ....

Pages 5 ..... 6 .... AND 7!

Happy Tuesday ......

Hope you're enjoying your evening.  Just had dinner which was delicious, even if I do say so myself, so hubby and I are chillin now ..... he's going after bad guys on his latest computer game so I thought I'd spend time with my blog buddies .....  we're also finishing off the bottle of red we opened ..... or is this the second one. It's been a long day!

It's also been a busy few days in the old craft room .... DT stuff to do, I've been playing around with a canvas, more about that later, and I've even found time to mess around in my journal.
Pages 5, 6 and 7 are done and number 8 has been started. Still not caught up completely but it's fun trying .....  we'll get there!

Page 5 ....... the prompt for the day was 'pinkish' ..... think I covered that one

Quite a simple page.
I painted both sides of my journal page spread using the same colours (PaperArtsy paints again) ........ this makes things easier I think.
I then used the Wendy Vecchi Heart stencil ....... both the outside piece, to ink the heart in the centre (I used Worn Lipstick Distress Ink for this) and also kept the stencil in place whilst I stamped the script onto the heart to give it a bit more interest.

I then covered up the heart in the centre with the inny part of the stencil whilst I added some detail to the background

 The words were stamped and heat embossed in white .....

And I finished off by 'splatting' distress stain straight from the bottle on the journal page .... love doing this!

Page 6 ..... the other half of the pink spread

Back to using old book pages again (something else I love doing!).

Stamped my blooms onto the book pages and fussy cut them ..... love these flowers from PaperArtsy!

I also used more of the stamps from the set to add some detail to the background

The large word is also on the set too ..... perfect finishing touch!

Pages 7 and 8 were coloured together, this time using Brushos

Before I started with any colour I used my stamps first, directly onto the journal page, with a Versamark ink and then heat embossed the images with a white detail powder (page 8 isn't quite finished so you'll have to wait a little longer to see that one)

I then sprayed the right hand side of the journal with water, sprinkled shades of blue Brusho on the top and then closed the book and let the pigment and water do it's thing.
This was repeated a few times until I got the colour and the coverage I wanted ..... mopping up any excess in between with a piece of kitchen roll.
Love how the white embossing acts as a resist to the colour ......

The paint brushes are a stencil, with white embossing paste, applied once the Brusho background was dry

And then I finished off with some more of those Distress Stain splatters ......

Hmmm ...... what shall I try next?!?

Thanks for popping by ...... enjoy the rest of your evening.
Apparently we've been forecast snow for the end of the week. On high ground that is, with a chance of it falling lower.
Not only that, the ferries may be cancelled again tomorrow due to bad weather ....... gales I think, so things could get a little exciting here towards the end of the week.  If the boats don't go then everyone will be panic buying again ..... the supermarket shelves will be empty.  Time to stock up on the essentials I think .... more wine?

Cheerio until next time .....