Work in progress....

I don't know about you, but I get a little bit twitchy if I haven't had chance to get a bit messy with my paints and inks. A little time for my art makes me a nicer person to live with I'm sure LOL! So I started this journal page last night. I began with pinks and oranges but it looked a bit too........nice. It needed something a bit more edgy so I added some green and then some even stronger green, and then some turquoise blue. And then to make the colours really pop I added some distress ink straight from the bottle and splodged it in with my fingers :-)  I have the evidence on my hands today to prove it.

The image came from Itkupilli. I know some of you find these images a bit too spooky but I LOVE them and if I'm going to journal about annoying things then I don't want it to look pretty. So now I get to write on it :-)

I have also been busy with some other things. Here is a glimpse of an easel card I will be doing at my workshop on Saturday using beautiful papers and images from Crafty Individuals:

And have you seen Teesha Moore's new blog post about drawing 4 fun? I couldn't resist trying it. FUN FUN FUN! This is an exact copy of Teesha's I have to say and it's unfinished but maybe I'll have another go soon.

On top of all the other everyday things, we have been stripping wallpaper off in our house this week (when I say 'we' I mean my husband has and I have helped by pointing out all the bits he missed) and the children couldn't possibly miss the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to draw on the walls:

And finally a belated thank you to Ann of the Flutterby Crafter blog for this award:

Do hop over to Anne's blog and have a look at the amazing things she can do with distress inks, metals and grunge board to name a few! She even does journal pages occasionally :-)

Bye for now.............

And the winner is......

Thanks very much to everyone who joined in my blog give away, and for all your lovely comments. I wrote all names on pieces of paper and put them in a bag. My daughter pulled a name from the bag and I can now tell you the winner is.......KATY......of Katy's Bloggeroo and Whispers, Wishes and Me blogs. Well done Katy, hope you enjoy it. Please e-mail me your address (click on the button in my sidebar) and it will be on its way very soon.

Thanks for taking part everyone!
Bye for now

More journaling and a day out.

Busy, busy week but I have managed to squidge in a little play time :-)  Here's a journal page I started a while ago while I was on holiday. I didn't have much arty stuff with me but I managed to create a background with neocolours and add a main image from Lisa's altered art and some other bits from Teesha Moore and Cassiscreations. After a heated phone call one day, I added some text over the mouth and made this page as a reminder to myself to keep my cool and to keep my MOUTH SHUT!

Another page using an image from Lisa's Altered Art:

And a page I finally got round to finishing. This was part of my on-line class with Nancy Baumiller where I have learned a lot about backgrounds, lettering and making funny people! I am also working on A4 size here which is huge for me and taking me well out of my comfort zone! This still isn't 'me' yet - it's very much Nancy's style (I guess that's what happens when you take a class!) but in time I think I will take these new techniques and make them my own. It's a fab class and Nancy will be doing it again in the spring.

I actually had a day out yesterday *gasp*. I rarely have a day off on my day off if you see what I mean. I went  to The Stamp Man and met up with Sarah from the Art of Moodling blog. Jill and Ian of The Stamp Man were very kind to us as we mooched around their shop for hours, stroking everything LOL! And Ian was very patient with us as we took over his packing table with our art work! Jill showed us all of her lovely samples in the shop that she has made and I got to see Sarah's lovely lovely art in the flesh. The backgrounds in her art journal are stunning and I have come home feeling inspired :-)  I also did a little spending in the shop.....oops.

Don't forget you have until Monday to sign up for my blog give away...see below....

Byeeeeeee

Time to share a little love.........

Well, finally I have some blog candy to share :-)   A little late for my bloggerversary but hey, it was the best I could do! My way of saying thanks for all your visits and comments, every one is really appreciated. So, here is a journal made by moi,  A5 size (approx 6 x 8") ready for you to fill with colour, random thoughts, paints, crayons, stamps and anything else that takes your fancy. It contains 15 pages (30 sides) some are watercolour and some are card, all bound together with the Zutter bind-it-all. All you have to do is leave me a comment on this post and in one week's time (Monday 23rd November) a winner will be picked. If you are a blog lurker don't be shy! Come join in the fun! I shall put all names in a hat and ask one of my children to pick one out (who needs random.org when you have two children with random tendencies in the house?!) I will post worldwide so overseas visitors welcome to participate. No anonymous comments please, I need to be able to contact you.

A few more pics of the cover:

Always good to have a fish lurking somewhere.....

And a few ribbons (I challenge the winner to keep these paint free hee hee!)

Images by Teesha Moore and Paperstreet. Papers by Crafty Individuals.

Now, here's a few pics of a little girl's birthday party I did at the weekend. Thirteen 8 year olds managed to complete these canvases in about 1 1/2 hours. Not bad eh?! The images came from the fabulous Lisa's Altered Art and don't they look gorgeous? :

I love working with children, they don't think too hard, they just 'do'. Sometimes I wish I could go back to that carefree way of creating instead of painstakingly agonising over every step.

Here's a close up of Charlie's lovely canvas with its autumnal colours:

And more of the finished canvases, all similar but all very different:

Ok, storms are battering the Uk at the moment so time to batten down the hatches. Bye for now.......

Happy Bloggerversary to me!

Can it really be a year since I started blogging? Can it really? Unbelievable! Before I take a little self indulgent trip down memory lane, here is my latest journal page. It is interesting for me when I look back because I see how my art has evolved, developed and changed, and yet I still seem to be journaling about the same thing!

And a close up:

The image of the fairground horse is from Itkupilli , the borders are Teesha Moore and cassiscreations.

So, one year ago I wrote my first blog post on the advice of my lovely bloggy friend Shelly and began it all with this ATC:

Since then I have made contact with many other arty, bloggy friends from all over the world and have been introduced to some fabulous art. There is some seriously inspirational art out there in cyber space that you are all so willing to share. Every visitor to my blog, and every blog comment makes my day. 117 posts, 80 blog followers and about 15,000 visits WOOP WOOP, er not that I'm counting or anything...........LOL

I am part-way through making a little something as a give-away, to celebrate the occasion but unfortunately I didn't get it finished on time! Story of my life.......always running slightly late for everything. Watch this space....

Shortly after I started blogging I discovered Art Journaling, and if you are a regular visitor to my blog you will know that now it is a major passion of mine. I just LOVE looking back through my art journals. I love the fact that they are mine, that I can take them anywhere (even on holiday) and that I don't have to try and please anyone else with them. It is art with NO RULES :-)

Even in the pre-blogging days I was already well and truly hooked on making and trading ATCs. Here is one I made using a photo of my sister with a wonderful scowl! (the photo is early 1970s)

And another ATC using ecoline inks and a Paper Artsy stamp, as well as some moos:

But sometimes, just sometimes, I make something which is not grungy and inky! Here is a book I made for my sister using the bind-it-all:

Even before I started on this inky, painty, altered journey I used to make things. Anything, I just can't sit still! Watching TV doesn't do anything for me, nor does playing board games. I like to have an end result, something to show for my time. Like this angel:

                                                 

and this bear:

Ah, it's funny how things change. You don't realise how much until you allow yourself a nostalgic moment, a trip through the archives.

Well, it's been a great year in blogland, looking forward to another one. Thanks to you all for your visits and your comments, you make me :-)

Doodling :-)

You know, I'm not really happy on a plane. Sure I'm happy enough to be going on holiday but I'm not happy to be in the air at 30,000 ft completely in the hands of SOMEONE ELSE. So, to keep me sane on the flight I have to doodle, doodle and doodle some more. This took me most of the journey on my recent trip to Spain and got me some funny looks off fellow passengers in the process!

These are two pages that I blogged earlier but finished last week:

And finally, this is a work in progress. I'm doing Nancy's Crowabout Collage Dreams on Paper class and it's pushing me slightly out of my comfort zone, which is good! I created this 'funny person' completely from magazine images. It's the first time I've done this as I usually rely on bought images and collage sheets. And I'm working A4 size here. That's HUGE for me! I'm waiting for the next installment of the class when we'll be doing lettering Nancy style.

Holiday journaling and a blog award

I really took very little art stuff with me on my recent hols (yeah, I know, unbelievable isn't it?!) The good old neocolours come in very handy at times like this. So I made this page with very limited resources whilst sitting in the sun listening to the kids splashing about in the pool :-)  I recently went on a course called P4C or philosophy for children and it was inspiring to say the least. This was one of the things we talked about on the course - that your opinion is just ONE view amongst MANY others. Hmmmm, we're not always very good at understanding that are we?

Anyway, onto this:

I was given this blog award by two lovely bloggers the flutterby crafter and Tanya of Life is filled with pretty things, enjoy them!

The rules in accepting this award are:

Thank the person who awarded you.......THANK YOU BOTH  :-)

Copy the logo onto your blog 

Link to the person to your blog

Name 7 things that no-one really knows about you

Hmmmmmm I/ve been tagged a couple of times before so I'm not sure I've got seven things to tell. Here goes:

1     I hate housework but I'm slightly obsessed with hoovering and sweeping floors. I earned the nickname 'Mrs Mop' on holiday last week.

2     When I was little I had a very real but completely irrational fear of the roadsweeper. I used to run home screaming, shut all the curtains and hide until it had gone.

3     I used to be a brilliant sleeper but these days the conditions have to be right, very dark and very quiet. I have a pink fluffy eye mask that says 'fabulous' on it mwa ha ha ha. (Can't believe I'm sharing that one with you!)

4     I don't care for shoes, in fact I hardly own any and don't own a single pair of high heels but I go weak at the knees at the sight of new boots.

5     I like my own company. It's not that I don't like other people, really, I am quite sociable, but I also like being on my own.

6    I don't like shouting and arguing KEEP IT TO YOURSELF!

7    If I had to choose between art and music it would be a very very difficult decision.

Ok, I have to forward this on to 7 other bloggers. Hmmmm, this is always the tricky bit but I know that a lot of the blogs I visit already have this one.  But here goes, to bloggers who I visit regularly because they inspire me, entertain me, make me laugh . . . . . . .

Diana at Art'n'Play

Sarah at the art of moodling

Mary at A Splendid Adventure

Sarah at Sarah Haslam Blog

Katy at Whispers, wishes and me

Crimson Cat 05 at Life in the AZ desert

Cindy at Cindy's Place

Right, now I really must go and do some work :-(

Byeeeeeeeeeeeee

I'm baaaack!

Sorry about the absence of blogging this week but I've been sunning myself in 30 degree temps in Spain all week LOL! Read about it on the journal page above if you like. The first time I have been on hols with my entire family - all 13 of us - 7 adults and 6 kids all in a ginormous villa in the Spanish mountains. I think we were lucky with the weather 'cos it was hot and sunny every day, not bad for October. The children are all aged between 6 and 10 and they had a fabby time with each other and barely got out of the swimming pool. I even went into the pool on a few occasions (solar heated my ar*e!)

Here are a few pics from the week. For those of you in kinder climates remember that England can be very dreary at this time of the year; it's cold, wet, dark and windy. Unlike Spain! Check this out:

                                         

Look! Olives growing on trees! I usually only see them in jars........

                                           

I loved this little visitor to my sun lounger (as long as he didn't get too close...)

An here's the villa in the middle of the mountains:

                            

My 10 year old niece - we call her Mart - LOVES art and craft, she is my partner in crime. We spent a bit of time together this holiday just 'messing about'. We had limited resources with us but she really took to using my neocolours. The collage elements we cut out of her Mum's magazine while she wasn't looking! This is Mart's art:

                                       

She's got the hang of the funky, whimsical look don't ya think?

And finally, here is a finished journal page. I blogged this in its unfinished state but had some time for journaling while I was away.

                                     

Haven't had much chance to go blog hopping yet but hope to catch up with you all soon. Byeeeeeeeeee