Our new arrival....

Meet our new arrival , a beautiful whippet named Bailey. We didn't set out to get a dog - not at all - but Bailey needed to be rehomed urgently, and she is so gorgeous, what can you do?! We heard about her plight on Saturday and by Sunday she had moved in with us. I was worried that she might not settle but have a look at this ..... she seems quite at home!

You may have been wondering about my lack of art in the last week but somehow everything seems to have happened at once. You know I had an OFSTED inspection at my school recently (see previous post) well this is followed by another inspection the week after. Then of course we had the arrival of Bailey. Then we decided to strip the old wallpaper in the 'craft room' ready to redecorate (I am going to swap rooms with my son so more upheaval to follow!). I am currently working in a room that looks like this:

Do you really think I can find anything in this mess?!

Ah well, hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as possible .......

What a week!

'Nether' by Daniel Torrente for Stampotique

Paints and inks by Dylusions

Oooh, you can probably tell by this page that I have had a busy and sometimes stressful week. When things get a bit much for me, you don't want to mess with me that's for sure. Best to hide from me until I have got over myself......

I made this background with Dylusions acrylic paints and ink sprays, with lots of stencilling and splatting nd I chose to use 'Nether' because she looks how I feel. I decided to journal with my dip pen for this page, I love the way it scratches on the page as you write with it. The ink flow is unpredictable so you end up with a slightly wonky look.

I was tired at the start of the week - remember that I had just done three days of fabulous workshops with Dina Wakley (yeah, that's right, I'm blaming Dina!!) and I was going to enjoy a nice quiet day at home on my day off. And then I got the phone call. OFSTED!! (That is the School Inspectors for my overseas visitors). The mere mention of that word sends all teachers into a spin, and these days you only get two days notice. Yikes! 

In the middle of the OFSTED, I was interviewed by Mark Lipinski for a programme called Creative Mojo on Toginet Radio about my article 'Journaling on the go' in Somerset Art Journaling Winter 2011. It may have been late afternoon in America, but it was late here - bedtime - so just to set the scene I did the interview in my PJs :-) Dressed for the radio!! This programme is now available as a podcast if you're interested in listening to what I had to say ...

And to finish the week off my camera has broken. Grrrrrrrr. So, my photos today are looking a little different ... the colours are a bit stronger than they are in real life.

Right, I'm off, I've got a wedding to go to today :-)  

And by the way, just incase you're wondering, the OFSTED inspection went fine, nothing to worry about afterall, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

P.S. I see Blogger has been up to its old tricks again ...... sorry if your comment has not appeared on my blog or if I don't get back to you ... some of my comments have disappeared ...grrrrrrrrr.....

Stampotique Designers Challenge time!

Smushallaum and Octopet by Daniel Torrente for Stampotique Originals

Yes, it's that time again ...... time for a new challenge over on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog and this time Valerie has challenged us with a theme of 'recycled'. I certainly didn't have a shortage of items I could have recycled as I hoard all sorts of useful things just incase they come in handy LOL! I saved this label off a pair of jeans I bought recently because I liked the shape and the feel of it. Here it is in its original state:

Here it is part of the way through with a layer of paint and ink:

Following my weekend workshops with Dina Wakley I had some inked muslin left over so I decided to use it here, and also added a few beads off an old bracelet that I took to pieces (that's recyling, right?). I added a fairly random quote from a vintage dictionary page, something about lamenting and moaning ... (recycling again...) :

If you fancy joining in with this fun challenge have a look here for more details. As it's the first challenge of the month you may use any stamps (although it's great if you use Stampotique of course!) and one lucky winner will win a $30 gift certificate to spend at the Stampotique Originals store (and you know you would like that!). If you need more inspiration have a lookie here to see what the rest of the Design Team came up with.

So, what else have I got to tell you??? Well, tonight I will be on the radio, yup, that's right, the radio! If you like you can listen in here at approx 4.25 EST which is about 9.25 pm UK time, to a programme called Creative Mojo and see what I've got to say.....yikes! Wish me luck!

Fab weekend!

I've just had the most fabulous weekend making gorgeous grungy, inky, painty journals with the fabulous Dina Wakely at Art from the Heart. 

I have been looking forward to this for ages ... three whole days of getting messy haha! Dina showed us three different ways to make and bind our own journals and this is my 'stars' journal:

Loved doing this one..... and guess what? I used purple AGAIN! We painted the background over gesso and then lifted the paint to create texture, doing it several times to create layers. We inked and dyed ribbon and muslin to add to our journals. We cut windows (I did mine freehand to go for the 'wonky' look!), added bits of music, lots of stamping and finally the journaling.

This next one is my sunshine journal .. can you tell by the yellow colour of it?! We painted and collaged our background before drawing with a STABILO marks - all pencil. FUN! We bound this one with bamboo which I have never done before but will definitely do again.

This is my concertina tag journal .... although I didn't quite get this one finished (too much talking, laughing and eating) so will have to come back to this one.

And here's a view with the tags that I made for the inside:

Here are my arting buddies .... what I want to know is .... how come I always get stuck on the naughty table???

Sandy, Jude, Christine, me

And here is Sandy doing her best Shrek impression after a little accident with the green ink. YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DRINK IT SANDY!!

Dina is a fabulous teacher - inspiring, encouraging and yet completely relaxed :-) She also sings a lot, and I mean a lot! La la la la!! Thanks to Dina for a great weekend, and thanks to Dyan for looking after us so well.

And finally, the June issue of Craft Stamper (UK) is in the shops now. and lookie at this! I made it to the front cover with my envelope journal! Woop woop! Don't forget to rush out and grab your copy!

A bit of journaling...

Dweeze by Stampotique Originals

Inks and paints by Dylusions

Here's a page from my A5 Moleskine journal .... I think the journaling says it all! Don't get me wrong, I love a challenge as much as the next stamper, and a challenge really encourages you to try something different, but sometimes, just sometimes,  I get in a tizz!

This page started out life as something for the latest Stampotique challenge but it started to go wrong (although I have to tell you this was attempt no.3 .... attempts no.s 1 and 2 had already gone in the bin ha ha ha! At least I'm honest!). It was moving too far away from the sketch that had been given so I abandoned it and came back to it at a later date and finished it off with 'Dweeze' and some journaling done on vintage text. 

Thanks to everyone who has linked to their May calendars here, I am slowly but surely getting round to visit you all. Everyone's calendars are fab - they just seem to get better and better! If you haven't already linked up don't worry, the link stays open all month so you still have plenty of time.

Tomorrow I am going to do a workshop with the fabulous Dina Wakley who is coming all the way to England WOOP WOOP! Watch this space .......