More pages...

Catching up posting my pages! This first one was for Monica's moon prompt at Bohemian Shadows. I've been thinking a lot lately about the balance between being myself, and having to do what I do for my job. Recently the two have collided, and I've been involved in the harsher side of the work I do which has left me feeling pretty bad! I wanted to tell myself that what has to be done has to be done, and you can't always please everybody when you have to do the right thing.

This second page is for this month's Art Journal Friday prompt ('time') at The Scrappy Tree. As I said yesterday, I've been having some problems finding enough time to get things done, or at least to get them done well - it was great to just scribble down some of the frustration I've been feeling and then gesso over the top! Very liberating :) As I keep telling myself, you can only do as much as you can do.
This last page is just for fun! I am totally head over heels in love with the Avatar movie at the moment, and as I just got the soundtrack it's been going round in my head a lot! I want to practise drawing some faces in my pages, so it seemed to make sense to have a go at a Na'vi! :) I liked the eyes, but the rest of the face - ugh! Going to keep practising! lol
Thanks for looking :) if you like using flowers in your work and you want to win a BUNCH of them, don't forget to enter the Spring Blooms competition at The Scrappy Tree, not much time left! You need to upload your pic by the end of today :)

Sitting down on a Saturday...

Been neglecting my poor little blog this week! And possibly last week as well, how rude of me :) Being busy is not an excuse I suppose, but it certainly makes things that little bit more challenging! I had time (or lack of it!) on my mind this week, so chose it as my prompt for Art Journal Friday at The Scrappy Tree this weekend - need to work out those issues!

Started today with a glorious bath from Lush - used one of their new bubble bars (Dorothy)...

...which made the bath all lovely and blue, like this...
... because I am a big kid, and as much as I love a bath that smells good and makes your skin feel good, I also like it when the water changes colour!

I have been working on a few things since my last journal post - will have a few journal pages to share tomorrow, but also made some inchies for a swap...

...and an ATC for National Craft Month at TST...

Haven't had time to do ATCs for ages!! Want to get some more going, and try some new things too - twinchies, thrinchies, fat pages and Moo's!!

Currently listening to my new favourite album, the Avatar soundtrack - I think the film is just so amazing that the soundtrack brings all those wonderful colours and images back in your mind. Here's hoping for some creativity to be inspired this weekend!

Ooh, and don't forget there's a paperbag album workshop on at The Scrappy Tree Ning site later today, from 10am PST (for us Brits I think that's 5pm) - live chat over there, so feel free to come and ask Kristin some questions!

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Mother's Day! And I wanted to wish my own Mum a very happy day :) this year she asked me to make her something specific - an altered tin with a fairytale theme - so I based her card around that theme too...

... and then decorated the tin with some of her favourite line of papers - DCWV Once Upon A Time.
She has pretty much all of this line, and the albums too! In 12x12 and 8x8 - I think if she can buy up all that's left in this line she'll be a happy woman!

Just wanted to say happy Mother's Day to an amazing lady - this year as always she has come through for us again and again, and we are so lucky to have her! Thanks Mum, love you xxx

This week's art journaling...

So I finally got around to firing up the scanner this week and putting in some journal pages to share! The first one, well I talked about this the other day - this is my happy page! I love the warm colours on this one.

This second one started out as a technique tryout - I wanted to try applying the paint in layers with a credit card (or should I say df's old clock-in cards!) and had several experiments trying to get a half-decent effect by applying paint through some sequin waste (this drove me crazy several times over until I figured out that you can't do it with a brush, you need to use a sponge, and you need to make sure you haven't got too much paint on it or you end up with a MESS).

Come to think of it, this page had all sorts on it! Collaging, stamping, hidden journaling, masking tape, Sharpies (I found these fantastic chisel-tipped Sharpies which I LOVE), I even used baby wipes with the acrylic paint to get some of the layers to show through better! Thanks Paula!)

This last page was for this month's inspiration challenge by Julie at The Scrappy Tree. Using the colours from the image as a starting point, I glued on those lovely swirls which I tore out of some patterned tissue paper a friend had used as wrapping in a parcel (thanks Rob!). Added some Red Hot Chili Pepper song lyrics, some ephemera that arrived in a parcel of goodies from another friend (thanks Kristin!) - I have some great friends huh ;) - and some crayons, ink, paint and white pen!
I have some busy looking pages in my journals this week - guess it's a symptom of my untidy mind!

Some thoughts at the end of the week

Lots of stuff happening in work this week that I absolutely can't blog about, except to say that I really don't like this job sometimes! Difficult days indeed.

I've got some art journal pages to share once I scan them in, but I also posted a VERY quick domino tutorial over at The Scrappy Tree - fun little project for Craft Month! :)

I've been finding lately that I've been journaling some angry stuff; obviously this is something that needs to come out and I know that it's maybe bottled up stuff that I can't say to the people who should hear it. But I wanted some happy pages too! So the new pages reflect that a little :) I'm not saying there aren't more angry pages to come (I KNOW there are more in there!) but hey, rough with the smooth, right? Accentuate the positive :)

Not sure what this weekend's journaling will bring but given the crappy time in work today? It will be needed and it may not be all that happy! But it will be good not to have to pretend...

Easy Sunday...

So it's Sunday already at the cottage and it's our turn to cook the Sunday dinner! I have no idea what it will be today, my parents pick something and then whoever is on dinner duty gets to cook it :)

I have been working on some journal pages this weekend, some just trying some things out and others from prompts - if you haven't been there already, go check out the March art journaling challenge at artjournaling.ning.com. Daily prompts and lots of encouragement! Lovely place :)

So this week I have two art journal pages to share, one is a combination of two prompts ('doodle' and 'blue') from the March art journaling challenge, and the other is my attempt at drawing a face into my page! Still need to work on that face-drawing thing, lol!

I also want to send a big CONGRATS! to my friend Michelle - her scrapbook page was featured at Liz Qualman's blog today as she will be guest designing over there, so go check her out and leave some love!

Blog candy!

Spent much of today catching up on blogs and spotted these two great giveaways - go check 'em out!

Given my recent foray into art journaling, I very much liked the look of this book on acrylics over at blueskysunburn - if you want to get going with your acrylic paint, why not enter?

Recent posts here and at The Scrappy Tree have given away my love of Alice and her exploits :)Faeriemooncreations has some simply gorgeous Alice in Wonderland pieces to give away on her blog and would like to know which character you would like to be! The Cheshire Cat is my absolute favourite, of course!

Well believe it or not I have done some crafting recently - inchies, circle journal pages and some art journaling! I have yet to get my scanner fired up so for now I'm just sharing the inchies and cj. Our journal circle must be over halfway around by now, there are 16 of us altogether and the journal that I sent off this week belongs to a lady in Minnesota who just recently had my journal too!

The inchies are my first attempt at masking using stamps - I'm lucky enough to have met Julie through my crafting exploits and she chose the theme for this month's inchie swap (she is our master stamper!) so she was able to explain what I had to do! I like the effect very much, but was disappointed when I couldn't find the stamps I was looking for to do this project - always the way, huh??
It was a novel use of Post-It notes anyway!

Spending this evening with my dear df - he got his car fixed, tested and back on the road today so he has just got home from driving himself to the shops! lol

I'll be back with some art journal pages tomorrow - happy Saturday!

Scrappy Tree Stickles

Good morning and welcome to Thursday! I for one am glad again that Friday is just around the corner, oh yes! Quick post this morning before I head out to work :)

As part of National Craft Month, The Scrappy Tree is running a competition today to win some Stickles if you leave a comment on the blog with your three favourite craft supplies - ends today so get over there asap!

I also want to say congratulations to my good friend and fellow blogger Michelle, who has just been picked as a guest designer for her fantastic scrapbooking skills - will post again with more details when her pages are due to appear - congrats Michelle!!! Proud of you girl ;)