Inside the front cover....

So, here it is. This is the inside of the front cover I made for my art journal while I was at Dyan's workshop here http://www.afth.co.uk/ I have been to very few art workshops or classes in my life but I love going to Dyan art journal classes as sometimes I have to do as I am told (I'm not very good at that!) and try things that are out of my comfort zone but sometimes Dyan lets you get on and do your own thing. I used a variety of different letters for this including some grungeboard which I had never used before (shame on me!). I also used some distress inks and some Ranger paint dabbers before adding the letters to a background of torn text, gesso and Ranger dabbers again. The stamped house is by Paper Artsy and the wings are Stampers Anonymous.

I'm very tired today - working full time takes it out of me. 8.03 pm. Is it too early to go to bed?

Byeeeeeeeee

Nobbly knees

Ok, so let's just say I had a bad week at work! Phew! Sometimes the pressure is too much but I decided to let off steam in my journal rather than at my boss - always a good idea not to shout at your boss :-))) I took a photo of my own legs for this (check out the nobbly knees) which involved balancing my camera on a stool, setting the timer, running round to the front of the camera, panicking by now because the camera is beeping and threatening to shoot any second, lying on the floor and putting my legs in the air. All in a day's work. I used a couple of fish images from a sheet I've had for a while by Paperstreet on Etsy (fab images - a bit different), plus some circles I cut from a Sunday newspaper. It was hard to explain to my husband why I had to leap out of bed last night to look for my circle punch. I used a quote around my legs 'not waving but drowning' which is a quote from a poem by Stevie Smith and embedded in my memory from my school days.

Anyway, I headed to Dyan's studio at Art from the Heart http://www.afth.co.uk/ today for a bit of art therapy and general messy session with the paints, stamps and ink pads. I had a fab fab day and as usual was in a complete time warp. I finished the above page and also completed inside my front cover but I'll save that for another day as I'm not sure if it's finished yet. And by the way, for those of you who don't yet know - Tim Holtz will be at Dyan's place in February. OMIGOD!! Fortunately I managed to get a ticket and even more fortunately I can get there after work. As a school teacher I can't just take time off when I want and if I couldn't get to see the great man himself I don't think I could be held responsible for my actions....... :-))))

Bye for now

And now for something completely different....

So, something a little different from my usual grungy, inky offerings. I'm running one of my card making workshops on Saturday and have 18 ladies coming to make pop-cards, so ladies, here's a sneaky peek. Above is the inside mechanics of the card.........and below is the front:

These aren't too tricky and are really quite fab when finished. We have two of our regular workshop goers to thank for this idea. I bumped into Jackie and Judy at the Great Northern Papercraft Extravaganza last September. Meeting these two was goodish / baddish. Good because it's always great to see friends, but baddish because they picked out all the tricky looking cards at the show and said 'can we do this?' Hmmmmm :-))))))

Apologies for the shockingly bad photos but it's January which means no light. Even my trusty Ott Lite can't cope with the perpetual dark and greyness. For those of you living in warmer climates, January in England is a dreary month. According to The Sunday Times Newspaper, January 19th is the most depressing day of the year. I can well believe it. It's dark when I go to work and it's dark when I get home. Ah well, it can only mean one thing........ after we get today over with summer's on the way. Yayy!

Bye for now.

And the winner is.........

And the winner is................Lady Di of Queensland, Australia who said "Love your journal Kate and it still has those lovely bright and vibrant colours. I'm also a list person, feels like I achieve something with all the things I want done ticked off."The notebook will be on it's way to you very very soon.

I think next time I will have to make two things to give away as my two children have just had one almighty argument over who was going to pick the name out of the hat LOL!

Thanks to you all so much for dropping by and leaving a comment - very much appreciated.

Bye for now.

Introducing.......Mr Boombastic

Here he is - Mr Boombastic! I love this stamp by Stampotique and I have used him on a lot of different things. This ATC is a bit of a cheat because it's an updated version of one I did a while ago but I wanted to enter an ATC swap with a men/boys theme and this seemed to fit the bill (in my usual weirdy way!). I used versamagic chalk for the background with a bit of old text and a PaperArtsy stamp. A few dots from a splatter stamp and a few scrapings with an old credit card before I added Mr Boombastic himself. My usual messy stitching round the edge and a couple of extras - the crown and the heart and TA-DA! Finished.

I added the text 'Mr Boombastic' after printing it out on my computer. The words come from an old song from the late 80s I think, by a reggae artist called Shaggy. It went something like this...... 'She call me Mr Boombastic, tell me fantastic, call me Mr Ro.......ro.......romantic' LOL!

Thanks to you all for leaving such lovely comments on my blog give-away. I'll be asking my son to pick a winner on Friday so it's not too late to play.

Bye for now.