Thursday 28 July 2011

Heart Journaling

I seem to work better if I have a deadline to keep to so decided to join in with Heart Journaling.

Each Friday for 23 weeks a different theme is going to be posted to provide impetus for an art journal page and the photo of your page has to be posted in the gallery by the following Thursday.   This week's theme is Wings.

I stamped all over the page using a Unity Stamp and Coffee Archival Ink.  Then I sprayed with various colours of Dylusions Inks - the colours I don't use often!  Then I glued the sunflowers and daisies - actually you can't tell they're daisies!  These were paper napkins.  Then I  stamped the leaves with some of Dyan's stamps and added some white outlines and some stamped birds.

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Birthday Party

Art from the Heart ~ one of my favourite-ist places in the crafting world ~  is celebrating their 10th birthday in September.  Find out more here:


I'm really hoping that I will be able to get there that weekend.  I'm going this Saturday to do a class with Dyan.  Photos next week!

Saturday 23 July 2011

Adventure on a rope bridge

This week in Explore we have looked at ourselves, written about adventures in our lives and made our own embellishments based on maps.  On Friday, Shimelle's prompt included a selection of pagemaps to choose from to make a layout.  I haven't done much scrapbooking lately so doing a layout was an adventure in itself.

Mandy's embellishments and layout are really inspirational and I have been heavily influenced by what she had done.  I scraplifted her ideas and I hope she will be pleased with my results.

Her photo reminded me that I had photos that Roger and I took of each other on holiday in Northern Ireland in June.   The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge crosses a 30-metre deep and 20-metre wide chasm.  The bridge swings as people walk across and you can see through the slats to the sea below.

I was determined that I was going to do it and actually agreed to having my photo taken because I needed proof I'd done it.

Thursday 21 July 2011

Explore perfection

Today's prompt from Shimelle was about perfection.   And as my journaling says I reach for excellence in what I do rather than perfection.  In fact I made a mistake when I was writing and in the past I would have got a new piece of card to write on.  And in fact I probably would have done in striving for excellence but thought I would leave the crossing out as a reminder to myself!  In the past I would have drawn lines so that the writing was straight and possibly done it on the computer so that the writing was perfect.  

In addition it was suggested that we add a photo to our playbook that we were particularly pleased with and I really like this one that I took on Kirsty's course a couple of week's ago.

The other thing you will notice is that despite cutting everything to 6"x4" these cards don't match!  I may well cut them all to size when I've finished. It just depends how much it irritates me.

And the other thing is that the postcard pages I showed you are upside down in the playbook.  I punched the holes at the end that looked right but when I went to read it the rings are on the right rather than the left.  Just means I have to keep turning the book.  Perhaps that's part of the playing!  What do you think?

Explore days 2 & 3

On Tuesday Shimelle invited us to find a postcard and send it to ourselves.   I found this postcard from our visit to the Lake District in April.
 Our task was to write about adventures in our lives so I made a list of things I've done.  I didn't actually post it though!

And day 3 was about maps and to make some circular embellishments with maps.   I decided not to journal about this but to use a Tim Holtz stamp instead on some Paper Artsy paper.   I used an old map and a tourist map with some plain paper for the embellishments.

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Online classes

One of the many classes I've signed up to is Colour! Or is it Color? with Big Picture Classes.

And of course, it is COLOUR.

This week I'm attempting to catch up with the 3 weeks I've missed.  Week 4 is released tomorrow.  I signed up at the same time as my friend Nicki, so if you would like to see what I should have done have a look on her blog.

The pre-class activity was to make 6 tags.  Here are mine:
I'm not keen on the blue one, but it will do for now.


The blogs of a couple of my friends from the U.S. are well worth a look too!

Firstly there's my friend Paige who has been blogging every day since her 43rd birthday having set herself the task of writing every day for 366 posts.  She's now on #357.   If you want to see why she's doing it you will have to go back to the beginning.

And then there's my friend Kaere who is stepping out into online courses for the very first time.  So for all my journaling friends have a look at this: Planet You.   It's not an art journaling course ~ it's about the words!   Why not sign up with me?

Tuesday 19 July 2011

Ahead of the game!

Those of you that pop in now and again will have read my blog posts about the fact that I am behind with whatever course I've committed to, but today I'm going to reveal a first!
 
I am a week ahead of myself with the Color of Summer.   This week is red (and although this journal entry might well fit this week's challenge), Kristin has revealed that next week is:

PURPLE
(Monday July 25 - Sunday August 1st)

"But, luckily, he kept his wits and his Purple crayon."
- from Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955)

Will there be a bonus challenge with Purple?
Um. Hum. And let's be honest: this one's really for me ;) Should you like to give it a go, your Bonus! challenge for Purple week is to bring on the sparkle and shine . . . You may use anything that would stop a deer in it's tracks . . . fine glitter, chunky glitter, glass glitter, crystals, beads, shiny discarded embellishments (like the flip flop above ;), glass holiday ornaments . . . I could go on . . . you get the picture . . .


So here is my purple page:


And here are the words by Jenny Joseph that are journaled on the page:
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension
on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals,
and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired,
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells,
And run my stick along the public railings,
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens,
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat,
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go,
Or only bread and pickle for a week,
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats
and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry,
And pay our rent and not swear in the street,
And set a good example for the children.
We will have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me
are not too shocked and surprised,
When suddenly I am old
and start to wear purple!


I stencilled the numbers onto the page and then coloured them with a Sennelier Pearl Oil Pastel.  I sprayed Dylusions purple paints over the whole page and red on the hat which I found as clipart on the internet.   When all this was dry I drew over the numbers with Lime Ice Stickles.  I cut the flower with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.  

Monday 18 July 2011

Explore

Explore is a brand new course by Shimelle.  I love doing Shimelle's courses and usually start with a flourish and then tail off and sometimes don't finish.  However, this one WILL be different.  I aim to finish this class.

So, drum roll for day one.  Today's task was to make a playbook which could be of any size but I followed Shimelle's example and made a 6"x4" notebook.  I used black and grey cardstock and some patterned paper in similar colours.  We also needed to take a photo of ourselves!

The cover

 The pages
 The other sides
 The photo of me which I cropped to put in the notebook

And the journaling:

Explore ~ day one ~ 18th July 2001

Today is the first day of Explore - a new class with Shimelle and one I propose to finish.

I rarely appear in my scrapbooks or minibooks because I am the one behind the camera.  I really dislike having photos taken of me - I usually look like a rabbit caught in the headlights!  And an added difficulty in taking pictures in the mirror is that we only have 2 full length mirrors and they are in awkward places.

Currently I have committed myself to several online courses which enable me to take part in a variety of creative expressions.   Most of this is art journaling rather than scrapbooking.  I love to take photos but tend to take landscapes or photos of street furniture or parts of houses rather than people.  These don’t lend themselves to being put on a layout.

I signed up for the class because I love Shimelle’s classes , it sounded exciting, and I got a discount!

Summer of Color ~ Red

If you want to know more about the Summer of Color you need to go here.

This week's colour is red and I immediately thought of poppies, especially as Pippa had given me a paper napkin with poppies on.  I cut out the poppies and glued them on.  But first I layered the page with torn pages of music and print.  However because I gessoed them on rather than use Matte Medium, once I put the paint on, the underlying print has mostly disappeared.  I sprayed 3 colours of green dylusions paint and wiped them with a baby wipe.  Then I sprayed through a butterfly stencil. I decided to write the words of the famous poem In Flanders Field and realised that really the butterfly image wasn't relevant to larks.  So I stamped the birds on the wire across the top.  I stamped various plant images at the bottom of the page before apply the poppies with glue.

Saturday 16 July 2011

How exciting is that?!

I managed to make a favicon to match my blog.

Friday 15 July 2011

An almost finished online course

Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration!  I have finished all the pages in my Me in My MoleskinE journal.  However I still have 20 journaling tags to complete (start!).

Here are the rest of my pages. (You can see the others in an earlier post).   Be prepared for a lot of scrolling!








The next four pages don't exist in Kirsty's original design.  I chose not to do some of her pages and made these up myself.






And back to Kirsty's ideas.


I chose to use a very restricted colour palette ~ Broken China and Dried Marigold ~ rather than follow Kirsty's instructions.  In fact I didn't really follow the instructions much at all!  But I'm really pleased with how it turned out and would not have done it at all if it weren't for Kirsty's inspiration.

Summer of Color (colour!) ~ Brown

This is my journal page for brown.

It is a 12x12" piece of scrapbooking paper which I was saving (stroking) and didn't know quite what to do with.  I couldn't bring myself to stick photos on it and cover up the beautiful trees.  But for this page, I cut it up into strips and stuck it into my journal.  I inked the gaps with Aged Mahogany distress ink and wrote the scriptures in between.  I also stamped a few birds onto it.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Me in my MoleskinE

Regular readers will know that I am a bit of a Shimelle junkie ~ if not stalker!

I've added a new person to my stalking list!  Kirsty Wiseman.

I spent Sunday with Kirsty on the photography course and at home I am doing her online course Me in My MoleskinE.











And now Kirsty has a new course called 'Feel'.  And you know me, the addiction kicked in, (see July 12th's post) and I signed up.

Photography with Kirsty

On Sunday I did a photography course with Kirsty Wiseman in order to learn how to use my Bridge camera on Aperture Priority rather than Automatic.  A group of us wandered around Birmingham city centre and here are some of my results.







And this was an added bonus - shutter priotity

Tuesday 12 July 2011

ABC of Me

Last Thursday I went to Derbyshire with Pippa to do a workshop taught by Anneliese.  We were provided with an A5 sketchbook in which we made backgrounds and then added information about ourselves.   Here are the pages I've finished so far.

This is the cover.  I used a sheet of 12"x12" 'Life Stories' Kraft paper.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to add any other bits to it.
 The title page
 A & B
 C
 F
 H
 I & J

Some of the other pages are nearly complete and some really only have the background and the letter stuck on.

I am a new class junkie!

Last night I found a free Art Journaling course and got excited.    This morning I received an email from Shimelle saying the forum was open for her new class that I have signed up for, which provoked me to make a list of what I am already committed to with regard to courses - online or otherwise.     So here's 10 on the 12th.  Although I suspect I could probably find a couple more things if I thought about it long enough!

Soul Restoration 2 
Wk 3
Wk 4
Wk 5
Wk 6

Marit’s Summer Camp Art Journal

heART&soul photos

Summer of Colour

One Little Word:
July

SFTIO layouts: Independence

Colour! Or is it Color?

Explore

MIMM

ABC of ME

So I suspect I shouldn't sign up for the free class, but how long do you think I can hold out for?   

Sunday 10 July 2011

10 on the 10th

I've been out all day with the wonderful Kirsty Wiseman doing a photography course and I forgot completely about Shimelle's 10 on the 10th challenge.


I saw someone else's list of 10 countries they had visited and I thought I can do that!  But instead here are some of my favourite cities:

1.   Venice

2.   Florence

3.   Cordoba

4.   Bath

5.   Chester

6.   St. David's

7.   New York

8.   Vienna

9.   Saltzburg

10.  Innsbruck