A little bit of playtime in my journal ........

Happy Tuesday ......

Well March is done and dusted .......... Hello April!  

We've got Easter to look forward to this month, a nice long weekend.  And, we're off on another adventure in the motorhome in a couple of weeks so I need to get things ready for that.  Fingers crossed the weather gets better before then ...... it's been quite the mixed bag here the last few days.  

One minute we're sat in the garden enjoying a lovely BBQ in nice warm sunshine then, a few days later ........ it's brrrrrr! back to freezing temperatures and SNOW would you believe!

I knew I shouldn't have changed my wardrobe over quite so soon ..... I needed my woolies again at the weekend.    Oh well, summer is hopefully on the way, it just may take a while to get here.  Now where did I put my boots!

It seems like it's taking me a while to get back to normal in the craft room too.  

I had to take a break last week from all the DT stuff ......... you know how it is, when nothing seems to go right.   The harder you try, the faster the rubbish bin fills up ........ it was not a happy place to be at all.  So, I decided to try playing in my journal, catch up with a workshop or two, and see if I could finish off a few half done pages to see if that helped.

A fabulous Tracy Scott online workshop seemed to do the trick .......... 5 very relaxing days, using nothing but a stencil, and coloured pencils ........ what do you think?

Meet Joseph ........ the Cat of Many Colours, and he was so much fun to create.

All hand drawn in one of my Dylusions journals using one of Tracy's shapes stencils, and then coloured with Prismacolor pencils

A few highlights with a white gel pen adds the finishing touch ......

I love him!

I've had my Prismacolor pencils for years and never really used them that much.  I found them quite hard to work with, and sharpening them was a nightmare ..... they're quite soft so you have to be careful.  But, after doing a couple of workshops with Tracy, and purchasing a new pencil sharpener, I am getting better with them, although I have a long way to go! 

I love how they blend, you have to have a bit of patience as it does take time but, the more you do it the quicker you get.  And the colours are so bright and vibrant, even on coloured cardstock.  Joseph above was done on Kraft card and he took 4 of the 5 online workshop sessions to complete so, on the 5th day we got to do a bonus project, which I drew onto grey card this time ........ still using the same stencil to create the shapes

I've still not got around to colouring it in yet ..... maybe I'll take it with me when we go away in the van!

If you haven't tried any of Tracy's online workshops give one a go, they are so much fun and so easy to follow.  Check out her Facebook page ........ Tracy Scott Creative Cafe for all the details.

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

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 ........

More art journaling fun ........

Happy weekend .......

How are you?  I hope you've had a good week.  

I've spent most of mine in the craft room since everything that was in the diary has been cancelled due to our lockdown!  We just need the weather to brighten up a little now then we can get out and spend time in the garden.

It has given me chance to catch up, and finish off a few online workshops though.  I'm really enjoying playing in my art journal at the moment, thanks to the  inspiration and amazing tuition from the lovely Tracy Scott.

I've been trying a little bit of Pattern Play using one of her latest stamp sets ........ which I then turned into a double page by adding a technique from Tracy's Index Card Art workshop  

Speaking of Index Card Art, this might just be my new addiction .......

All these were made on a 5 day workshop with Tracy back at the beginning of February.  Little pieces of artwork done on index cards ..... they are so much fun to do, and like I said, quite addictive! (Can you see the one where the idea for the journal page came from? ...... top of the picture in the centre)

Here are a few more I've done since ......

  

The top one on this photo was inspired by another Tracy Scott workshop, and the bottom one is Eileen Godwin inspired .... from another fabulous workshop I did, back in January I think.

If you like the idea of these little pieces of artwork then lookout for Tracy's Index Card Art II  ...... another 5 day workshop coming up in April.  

If you love paints and inks, stamps and stencils, and enjoy working with colour and lots of different techniques then it will be right up your street.  You can find all the details on Tracy's Creative Cafe Facebook page.

I've also been putting the finishing touches to these today ....... Lace Cut Pages

How cool are these ..... and all the cut out work is done for you, you just need to decorate them.  

They come as a plain white booklet ....... this one is #3, and it's a beautiful mandala.  You get one solid, double page sheet, and one that is cut out ..... just add paint, use stamps and stencils and lots of doodling.  I love them.

This is the solid page behind .........

This is the same booklet, just decorated differently .......

So many possibilities!

I still have one workshop piece to share with you, but I'll save that for another day.

Thanks for popping by ...... have a lovely weekend,  and to all you fabulous Mum's out there, Happy Mother's Day.  I hope you have a lovely day tomorrow.

Cheerio until next time .......