Sunday, January 31, 2010

I've been published in Craft Stamper!!! Wahey!

A quicker than quick post to tell you all that I've had an ATC published in the new issue of Craft Stamper, and it's Editor's choice for the month!!! A lovely big photo on a page to myself and I've won a prize too. I'm as proud as punch, although at first I couldn't remember sending it in.... The theme was Music and here's my winning ATC...


Background is acrylic paint. The music notes are stamps from See Ds, and the girl is from Stampotique. The background music stamp is an unmounted one that I'm ashamed to say I can't remember buying.......oops. The girl was stamped and masked, then background stamped and the girl highlighted with white gel pen. Printed words, and Bob's your uncle (actually, he is, but I call him Uncle Robert)...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Art journal- February pages doodle progress!!!

I've not been well for the past week, so not much in the way of crafting. However, I have been doodling happily away on my February art journal pages. The left hand page is 99% finished, just needs a little quote or something in the top left corner.






I've shown it in close up, because a lot of the work is quite detailed. I enjoy doodling so much, I find it satisfying filling in the blank spaces. I use a black fineliner pen, as fine a nib as I can lay my hands on. I haven't yet decided if the daily squares will be monochrome as well, or if I'll use colour on them. It might be difficult to resist, I love a bit of colour......

The right hand page is coming on as well- or at least I've made a start. I need to look back over my other doodles to get some more pattern inspirations, don't want to repeat myself!!!



I'm looking forward to a craft morning with Kay and Michelle tomorrow, always inspiring to spend time with other people who love inks as much as I do. I'm also working on some tags for a tag swap on Facebook, more about that tomorrow I hope.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Art Journal- February pages, first steps

OK, so I know how to stamp, and I know how to doodle. I stamped January's pages, so February's are getting the doodle treatment. It may not seem like much of an art form, but doodling can be really cool. Check out the galleries at Zentangle for evidence!

I spent a couple of hours yesterday planning out next month's pages, pencilling in where the daily squares would appear. I lettered the month in and started doodling the box frames, and finished the left hand page boxes in a couple of hours. I'm planning on starting the right hand ones tonight. This is very much a work in progress, the intention is to fill all of the white space with doodles.......



Doodling is therapeutic, it's great thinking up new designs and sort of going with the flow of the space you're doodling onto. I have some ideas for patterns I want to incorporate into the page, but the beauty of this technique is that you can just see where each doodle takes you, and you never make a mistake, it's all part of the design.

I have started to fill in January's boxes, trying very hard to come up with positive things. It can be quite challenging after a difficult day to think of something positive to record, but it's a good thing to do, promise! I'll post pics at the end of the month.

Doodlicious.

Friday, January 15, 2010

New stamp. Woooooooooo hoooooooooooooooo!!!!!

I've been feeling a bit fed up the past couple of days, but the postie has just cheered me up by bringing some DVDs I'd ordered and an ebay find! It's another of the Daniel Penney/Jill Torrente Stampotique stamps, a boy this time. Take a look....




How fabulous is he? He's called Bow Tie and you can buy him from The Stamp Attic. I can't wait to get stamping with him. Watch this space......

Saturday, January 9, 2010

A tidy desk!!! It'll never last......

I had definite plans to craft away today. I have a list of swaps that I owe and cards to make, but I was waylaid by tidying my desk and moving round the furniture in the dining room where my desk lives...... so nothing arty to show you, but a lovely photo or 2 of my newly tidy workspace. It won't last I said, and already it has stamps and Promarkers all over it.......


The string across the wall is to peg favourite bits and pieces on.























Did someone say too many ink pads???? Never!!!!!



 Another view. Look, you can see the wood!!!


A proper crafting day is now in order tomorrow.I deserve it after all that hard work today!


Monday, January 4, 2010

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

I've been adding a few bits and pieces to my Docrafts gallery, and thought I'd share a few bits here as well.


First there's this- made in December for my friend's little girl (she's also my little girl's best friend). It's a little 8x8" canvas. Painted, inked, stamped and embellished. Simples! Couldn't put it up before Christmas in case her Mom saw it....














This ATC is one of my entries for a swap (again on Docrafts)- for back to basics stamping, using just black and white. I've used a Stampin' Up dragonfly and clear heat embossed him to make him pop up a bit. I love my dotty stamp as well, so I used it on the flower too! Couldn't find any black ribbon so I took the scissors to the inside of my top and cut off the hanging ribbons......go on admit, it, you've all done it!!!!












And finally...... some tags that are works in progress.....



I made these after watching a Paperartsy tutorial on You Tube via their blog. Take a look it's fab. So, these are made using Ferro paste and stamping into it to get a raised effect. I used all Paperartsy stamps too. Once dry I rubbed darker colours of acrylic paints into the stamping and then followed it with lighter colours on top, so that the indentations stand out. The blue one has a smudge or two of silver Croco on it too, which is a Crackle paint I just had to try out...... So, my next move is..... well I have no idea what to do next. They need something else on top of them, but inspiration hasn't struck me yet!! Any suggestions?

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Art Journal- I've started!!!!

Hurray!!!! My art journal is green for go!  I'm sooooo pleased with myself. I painted the base colours yesterday and finished it off this morning. It's now drying happily on the table. I used a sketchbook, as the pages were nice and thick, but the ring binding is at the top (short edge) of the page, so it was a bit tricky to set out. Well, you'll see that a bit later on........

First step- create a background.


I painted the pages with white gesso for a textured base, then smooshed around some acrylic paints until I was happy with the effect.










I chose blue and white paint to try to get a bit of a wintry sky feeling. Looking out of my indow right now, the sky is a gorgeous blue and the sun is shining, but I know it's freezing cold too. So I watered down the warmer blue with a lot of white. I wanted some sunshine in there too, as a reminder that sunnier days are on their way, and also because this is the month where I get blinded on my way to work in the morning when the sun is sooooo low it glares through my windscreen......




Next step- decorations!


One must have element- the month! I love this See D alphabet- Typewriter font in Stazon Teal.

I stamped some bare trees across the bottom of the pages (Crafty Individuals stamps), in Stazon black and Teal, and added some spots by sponging through sequin waste in Distress Inks (Scattered straw and Faded jeans).

Excuse the 2 little squares, I'd started sticking them on before I remembered to take a photo.





I decided on a bit of ripped up book to accentuate the sun rays, and then added a couple more random sections- they're sponged with a little bit more of the Distress Inks.









Step 3 - Journal space

Like most crafters I have lots of odd bits of offcuts that I'm saving to use on something- well now I've used lots of them!! I ended up with 1.5" squares. i'd have liked larger, but they wouldn't fit......



So there are squares with cosmic shimmer mist on, squares that have been watercoloured with Distress inks and overstamped, all sorts of bits and bobs. I tried to use the same ones several times, to give a little bit of continuity, and chose a lot of the yellow and bluey green squares to tie in to the background. That said, it needed the splashes of purple and red to lift it.




So..... that's it. What do you think? I just need to fill in the 31 squares now. Next thing is to number them, and fill in yesterday's square.....can't wait!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Art journalling- some inspiration

Happy new year!!! I love the feeling of New Year's Day, with the whole year like a big white field of snow waiting for me to put my footprint on it. I've been blog surfing for Art Journalling inspiration and tips, and I've found some wonderful blogs to share with you.

Take a look at Jill Taylor's Third Age Musings and Sarah Anderson's The Art of Moodling. They're both using a calendar art journalling method that seems a little bit less scary than creating a page a day/week sort of journal. The work is in the preparation for this type of journal calendar page, with a little box for each day over a 2 page spread. Take a look at those blogs to see what I mean. So now I need to find or make a book to use and I'm away....

For some more fabulous inspiration, I heartily recommend Astrid's gorgeous blog with her stunning art journal- it's unbelievably gorgeous- yes I know I'm gushing, but go and have a  looksee and you'll see why.... Astrid's Artistic Efforts.

Ooh, and one last place to go for tonnes of inspiration- Kate Crane's blog The Kathryn Wheel- she's hosting an art journalling challenge, but that's a bit of a scary commitment for me, so I'm trying January first..... Lots of people have joined up, and the links to their blogs are on Kate's, so lots of places to visit!!!! I could blog hop forever! Kate also has the first part of a series on art journalling in this month's Craft Stamper. So much inspiration, I may burst. I need a blank journal book NOW!!!!!!

To finish, I'm stealing a quote from Jill's Third Age Musings blog, which seems particularly apt and reflects how I feel about today-


"We will open the book. Its pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity and its
first chapter is New Year's Day"
Edith Lovejoy Pierce