A bit of all sorts ....

The April edition of Craft Stamper (UK) is out in the shops now, so don't forget to get your copy. This month I have an article called 'Concertina Collage' using the ever-popular alcohol inks in spring-like shades of lemon, pink and green. Here's a couple of sneaky peeks...........

Yesterday I taught a journaling class at Art from the Heart (UK) to a great bunch of ladies. Despite the fact that it was quite early (on a Sunday morning!) everyone was raring to go! We focused on mini-journaling, which is as the name suggests, journaling on a small scale in a notebook or mini-Moleskine. Working on this scale is quick (great if you are pushed for time) and they make fantastic travel journals as they just fit inside your handbag.

Some of the ladies kindly agreed to me taking a photo of their journal pages and blogging it here, so here they are. Ta-da!!!!

by Sara

by Donna

by Trish

by Rachel

by Jill

by Ruth

by Anne-Marie

by Lesley

by Jayne

by Doreen

The gorgeous Jude, celebrating her birthday,

of course, we HAD to have cake :-)

Some of the ladies in the class showing off their gorgeous journals

Way to go everyone! More ! More!

On Wednesday 30th March I am teaching again at Art from the Heart - this time I'll be making an inky, stamped, stitched tag book (see the photo in my sidebar). We'll start with mini tags while we practise some techniques and then we'll make a BIG tag book using the yummy Tim Holtz tag die. If you fancy it, then have a look here for more details.

And finally, I just had to show you my *new* skirt - here it is. Don't you think I look like a walking Tim Holtz stamp? Hahahaha!

Don't forget, if you haven't linked your challenge calendar pages, it's not to late. Have a look here - the link stays open till the end of March. Byeeeeeeeeeee for now.

Carrot .... again ....

Carrot by Jill Penney for Stampotique

Inks by Dylusions

Have I told you how much I love carrot?! I can't help it, I just do :-)  This time he is making an appearance in triplicate, in my mop-up journal. When I took a workshop last August with Dina Wakley, she had this great idea of keeping a journal to use up any left over inks on your stencils etc. On this page you can see some left over stencil ink but I think you can also tell I had a bit of  a spill with the 'teal' ink! It all makes for a great, random, grungy background.

I added a bit of extra colour and texture with some paints:

And finally I added carrot but because I love him so much I added him three times :-)

Thanks to everyone who has added their challenge calendars to the link (here). I am slowly getting round to visit you all .... If you're not ready yet, don't fret, the link stays open all month.

Byee for now

A new month!

Paints: Moss and Mustard by Dylusions

Flowers: Cut from images by Tumblefish Studios

Stamp by Tim Holtz

Wayhay!! 68 people left a link to their January / February pages during the month of February, I am delighted that so many of you are keeping up with the challenge set by Jill and myself. Now, I think I visited everyone's blog (hmmm, sometimes that pesky little word verification thing catches me out.....) but if I didn't leave you a comment just give me a nudge ;-)  Hope you all managed to get round at least some of the blogs - there is some really lovely inspirational work out there and everyone's calendars are so different. Amazing! Thanks for joining in everyone, and well done if you are managing to keep up so far.

Anyway, how did it get to March already?! Can't say I'm sorry to see the back of February - it's a dreary, grey, cold, wet, muddy month here in the north of England and I for one, am ready for some sunshine and spring-like weather!

I found this lovely little quote and I have optimistically used it as part of my March page:

And I'm so convinced that spring is just around the corner I decided to add flowers to my page which I punched from images by Tumblefish Studios, and then doodled around to make flowers:

And just to prove that I did write on my February page and keep up to date, here it is all finished:

Don't forget to add a link to your blog post by clicking on mr Linky below. There is no rush, this link will remain open until the 31st March so you have all month.

Just before I go, lookie what I won. Woop woop! I won this off Rian as part of OWOH:

I am a massive fan of Rian's already and frequently use her images. Have a look at Rian's blog here (and she offers lots of freebie images too!) Thanks Rian :-)

Don't forget to leave your link here showing your calendar page for March, and your completed February page if you wish. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

It should have been me!

Image by Nancy Baumiller

Border cut from an image by Tumblefish Studios

Inks and paints by Dylusions

A page in my large A4 journal (12 x 8") about .... yup, you guessed it .... having to miss the Tim Holtz class at Art from the Heart because I had to go to work grrrrrrrr (You may be able to spot Tim's signature in the bottom left corner of the page, as I popped along to the studio after work and had a peep at what everyone was doing). I just HATE missing out on the fun.

I started this background when I was teaching a journaling class at Art from the Heart (so some of you may recognise it!). It sat untouched in my journal for a while and then I added a bit more colour - the new 'mustard' from Dylusions.

This is how it looked before I added any journaling:

And a couple of close -ups:

I cut the banner from an image by Tumblefish studios - it's a book cover from the gnomes set but it just happened to be the right colour!

Ah well, half term is nearly over. Got to go and make two Tudor costumes now, ready for a school trip this week ...............

Bye for now........

Stampotique Designers Challenge #25

Carrot by Jill Penney and Daniel Torrente

Sentiment by Jo Capper-Sandon

Over on the Stampotique Designers Challenge blog Monique has challenged us to use a technique on our creation. We decided to take it a step further and turned to Pat Huntoon of the Technique Junkie Newsletter. Stampotique is teaming up with the Technique Junkies team to create something using the Faux Barnwood Technique. We want you to join us this week and use the Faux Barnwood Technique or any of the techniques Pat uses on her website. 

*If you are a Technique Junkies subscriber and using a technique out of the newsletter, please highlight the name and issue you are creating from.

I chose to use Carrot for my faux Barnwood creation as I do like him.  He is just quirky enough to avoid being too cute for me! I coloured him with distress inks and then trapped him under a layer of mica which I randomly stitched.

This week there will be two prizes on offer and two winners. Pat Huntoon is giving away one of the Fancy Folds and Motions CDs PLUS a two year, online only subscription (2010 and 2011 issues) for one winner and the other winner will be receiving a $30 gift certificate towards stamps to the Stampotique store.  We will randomly draw 2 winners for the prizes before our next challenge on March 9th.

Make sure to stay tuned to the website as both the Stampotique design team AND the Technique Junkies design team participated in this challenge, and we will be sharing some creations using the Faux Barnwood technique over the next 2 weeks.

When entering this challenge please remember that as the second challenge of the month, this is Stampotique stamps only. Please link to the Faux Barnwood technique or the technique that you chose to use and remember to link to your post!

Here's a different view of my creation - you can really see the mica here:

When making the background I used cheap PVA glue from the children's section in the supermarket and found that this created the crackles really well. This is how it looked before I added anything to it:

Good luck! Byeeeeee