November ready!

Inks, paints and stamps by Dylusions at Art from the Heart

Basic Backgrounds DS020

Dependable Dotty DSDS011

Pondering Petunia DSDS012

Further around the edge DS015

Birds on a wire DS014

Well, who would have thought it? I actually have my November pages ready and it's only 3rd November LOL! This month is a homage to all things Dylusional (which is just as well as there is a very exciting announcement over on Dyan's blog today but more about that in a moment ....) I had my camera at the ready when I created my pages for this month so here is a little step-by-step.

First of all I painted by background using Teal and White, using a large flat paintbrush, leaving broad brushstrokes. I left quite a lot of white areas:

Over the lighter areas I added some Mustard paint by scraping with a credit card:

Then I reached for the Basic Backgrounds stamps. I LOOOOOVE these stamps, they are soooo useful. I used the same shades of paint and randomly stamped the letters, numbers and lego dots all over the pages. It's ok to use paint on your stamps as long as you clean it off straight away, it's what baby wipes were invented for! The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that I stamped some of my letters upside down ha! But, do you think I mind? No! I like them upside down :-)

Here's a closer look:

Then I added some spray inks and allowed them to dribble down the page, and also tipped the journal so that some dribbles went sideways. I used Sunshine ink spray, and then a mix of Teal with water, and added a little mica powder.

At this point I felt it still needed a little more so I added some scrapes of Lime paint with a credit card and a few touches and splats of black:

Here's another close-up:

I love the vine stamps from the Further Round the Edge set, so I stamped them around some of the edges of the journal and then painted the leaves in with Teal ink spray (just spray a little on your craft mat, add a touch of water and then pick up with a paintbrush):

At this point I like to see how it's going to look when I add the daily squares, so I rummaged through my paper collection and picked out some nice bright colours which I trimmed into squares of 1 1/2":

And finally I added a stamped image, using the body from Pondering Petunia and a head from  the Dependable Dotty set. Of course she needed a bird on her head so I reached for the Birds on a Wire set, and then added a few extra birds around the page:

Phew! All ready to be filled in. Don't forget, if you want to link your calendar page so we can all take a lookie you can find the link here.

Now, back to that exciting announcement over at Art from the Heart ..... Dyan has had us all on tenterhooks for a while, hinting at a big announcement, well now the cat is out of the bag! Dyan will now be a Signature Designer at Ranger no less! WOOOOP WOOOOP!  Well done Dyan! Have a look at Dyan's blog here for her announcement, and a look here for the official Ranger announcement. I love everything that Dyan does, and I also love everything Ranger so as far as I am concerned this is a match made in heaven :-)

Byeee for now ......

October Finished!

Giant Shroom by Jo Capper Sandon

Corie by Janet Klein 

for Stampotique

Well, it's that time again! How did we get to the end of October already? That means we are 10/12 completed of the 2011 calendar challenge. So, the big question is, who's still in?! I think some people that were in have dropped out along the way, but we have also collected a few newbies throughout the year.......... Well done if you are still hanging on in there and managing to keep up :-)

Here is my october page all filled in. If you double click (and I know some of you do LOL!) then you will see I have had a bit of a crap month, but the only way is up, so onward and upward. Sorry about the horrible shine on the photos  ... daylight is disappearing rapidly here in the UK and it's difficult to get a good photo.

And here is the month before I filled it in. Don't forget to link up below with your calendar, but don't panic, there's no rush - the link will stay open all month. Looking forward to visiting you all and seeing what you have been up to. 

I'm in!

Woop woop! Lookie at this! I am immensely proud to tell you that I have an article in the latest edition of Somerset Studio. And not only that, I got a mention on the front cover!

I just can't tell you how happy I am to be in this wonderful magazine. The article is called 'Journal your year' and focuses on calendar journaling, so if you have been thinking about this but haven't quite got round to it, now is your chance to grab a copy and get ready for 2012! In the UK you can get hold of a copy of this fabulously inspirational magazine here, or here. 

As you probably know I haven't been well recently and I'm still very much on the road to recovery. Illness takes its toll and your mojo takes a battering, so I really haven't done much art at all over the last few weeks. I want to but I can't muster up enough energy ...... I did however spend some time with the wonderful Dina Wakley and had a go at her whimsical birds. Fun!

This weekend saw some fine weather in the UK, so as a family we headed to the local coast for a stroll on the beach. The day was cool but sunny, the sun was low casting some great shadows (the clocks have just gone back one hour!) and the light on the water was wonderful. 

There is an old iron pier. Fabulous!

And look what nestles at the far end of the beach. Yup, it's the steel works!

And we went home with a wet, sandy, tired, but very content pooch :-)

Byeeeee for now .....

Altered poison bottle!

Tetewea by Daniel Torrente

Fly by Jo Capper-Sandon

Splatter by Carol's Collection

for Stampotique Originals

OOh! Maria has set us such a great and unusual challenge over on the Stampotique Designers blog. Here's what Maria has to say:

"I have a new fun and creative challenge for you all this week.  Are you ready for Halloween?  Well, guess what?  My challenge for you today is an: Altered poison bottle.  I have a passion for sweet/spooky bottles and I would love to see your creations using Stampotique stamps.  

WARNING:  Don't Drink, that's Poison!  Happy Halloween Stampotique-creatures!

I must admit that at first I just didn't get this! I couldn't really work out what a poison bottle was, but then I realised. Doh! It's any bottle at all, and you alter it and make it into a poison bottle. My little bottle was one of those air freshener bottles - you know - they have liquid at the bottom and reeds that stick out of the top to make the room smell good. You could use any bottle ... milk bottle, perfume bottle .. erm ... wine bottle (you must have plenty of those haha!)

I coloured Tetewea with Distress Ink and then cut out and added to the bottle with gel medium. I dripped melted wax around the edge to give it an old/sinister feel, and wrapped with rusted wire and waxed thread. I made a tag using Jo Capper-Sandon's 'FLY' word and aged it with the splatter stamp. I added it with a pin which was originally holding the price tag to a top I bought recently! I filled the bottle with water, washing-up liquid and a touch of red food colouring. If anyone drinks this it might make them fly!

Hope you will join us on this fun and unusual challenge; the details are all here on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog, and you will see some fab examples from the DT to give you some ideas. As it's the second challenge of the month it is Stampotique stamps only please, and as always there is a $30 gift certificate up for grabs for one lucky winner.

Byeeee for now ..........

Drawing in my journal ...

Here's another one of my hand drawn girlies in my journal. I created the background with layers of paints, gesso and inks by Dylusions, and then added touches of oil pastel here and there.... The flowers are created with a Crafters Workshop Stencil. I drew the image and coloured her with Distress Ink.

In this page she is talking to the bird - 'sing me a song ... but sing it like you mean it'. 

In other words 'if you don't mean it, don't say it'.

Or 'have a little more sincerity'.

Or 'don't talk cr*p'.

Winter is arriving fast here in the UK. It's getting colder and wetter, the nights are getting darker and the days are getting shorter :-(

Byeeeeeee for now