TWO PEAS IN A POD!

Well it has to be said that my son and my hubby are like "2 Peas in a Pod" hence the title. In fact at the parent's evening we recently attended the teacher who'd not seen my hubby before was so thrown by it that she lost her thread, she hadn't clocked my other half on the way in, so when she looked up from her notes she was astounded and said how much they look alike! They also have the same sense of humour as can be seen in the photos!

The background paper was duly stamped before I added the photos. I have quite a lot of Vellum papers that could be turned into titles from stacks that I've bought, but I always think I can see the tape even when it's designed for vellum, so with the title on this one I scored it and folded it around backing papers to hide the way it was adhered and it worked lovely!

Had a manic weekend Friday night's project class was fab but hard work trying to squeeze it into the time we had LOL - even though I'm known as a fast scrapper! I finally left at 10pm with a half finished book but it had progressed enough to finish it at home! It was a fabulous class from Sandy Poppins in fact if you want to see the book in question pop along, it's on her blog together with photos of the classes she's been teaching!

Saturday morning was spent trying to sort the upstairs we'd made a huge mess whilst decorating sons bedroom - how does that work - you set to with something that should be simple and straight forward and manage to disrupt the entire house! Saturday afternoon was spent Christmas shopping, then today I've ventured down to my local Scrapbook shop for a good look around - I know I was there on Friday but 10pm was a little late for having a thorough look - so I went down with my son who thoroughly enjoyed himself helping Gill sorting the shop and even did a bit of serving behind the till - in fact so much fun that he didn't want to leave! Thank you Gill he had a great time! So busy busy busy and now a bag of goodies to play with! Mmm what to play with first!

'THE MAIDEN' LAYOUT

Well this is mighty strange - me posting a single 12 x 12 layout however, I'm really pleased with this one. I used some K & Company papers which I then stamped and coloured in on the edges. The photo was taken whilst on holiday, she was hidden amongst plants in a car park believe it or not and I think she's beautiful, hence a whole page dedicated to the same!

The swirl at the bottom was handcut from K & Company papers, the papers were double sided and the shape was actually on the page, but the colours didn't match the paper or the photos, so once cut out I turned it around and Hey - it works!

Well it's Friday - hurray! I went to work this morning for two hours and came home six hours later! Hey ho, in tray creaking less than it was! Still feeling run down and lack of energy is starting to do me in - well it would if I had the energy to get stroppy about it but I'm off to a project class tonight which means crafting which I love! Hope it's a good night - there's going to be 16 of us - so it'll be busy!

I DIDN'T START OFF WITH A FACE!

Another art journal double page, this one was hard work as a prepared it in advance and then didn't know what to do with it LOL. I used images cut from magazines, the 'face' was actually a photo of a planet - but swineflu has robbed me of the memory of which one LOL!

Must learn to stick images down better look at all those ripples - what am I like. The face was the main face from this year's pumpkin, my hubby found inspiration on the internet and I've used some of it to capture this year's 'face' forever in my journal! And yes that is Christmas gold stickles you see - they were on the desk next to me! Maybe the words 'step away from the sparkly stuff'' might be sensible!

Struggled with the title, I pencilled it in, then made it 3-d, then painted over it, then painted over it again, then mixed in some copper paint and repainted it - do you get it now I wasn't happy, then I repainted the 3-d shadow which isn't great but it'll do and finally I made my hubby prize the paint out of my hand!

Basic grey Journey stamp, Blonde Moments star stamp and then a Tim Holtz date stamp! Picture below shows more glittery stickles - maybe I'm just getting festive!

Close up of all those merged stamps, I stamped in saddle brown and expresso and the freehand painted border at the bottom.

Finally returned to work yesterday, not that I'm better I might add but the in tray was full to bursting! So yesterday was a very tiring day, I wonder if my energy levels will return - ever! Still struggling with mojo, but did discuss some new ideas last night with hubby and if we manage to get some chipboard I may just be able to start on them. One idea in particular I'm doing in triplicate so that should prove interesting because although I'm documenting one occasion I'm making it for various people - don't you love these cryptic clues! Mind you I won't be able to make all three the same I never can it just proves too boring so I always insist on varying them! I also need to sort a photo order out so I've got pictures for said present - quite giddy about it though. Also want to do an altered canvas, but want to incorporate a photo, I'm not good enough a painter to paint the contents of the photo, but don't want to make the canvas look like I've simply stuck a photo to it, so having a re-think at the moment!

ART JOURNAL - TIME TO LET ME FLY

Finally got around to photographing a couple of recent art journal pages in my A3 journal, I really enjoyed this page and love how I can keep returning to them and adding a little more until I feel it is finally done. I used some chipboard letters to create the title by drawing around them and filling them in, I initially wasn't keen on the uniformity of the letters - but they've grown on me!

I used a Tim Holtz time mask on the page and also used some vinyl stickers that can be repositioned so great for using as a mini mask on the page and inexpensive to boot. The large image on this page actually stopped midway up the hair - so I've had to paint in the extra bits - not something I would normally attempt but the growing confidence in art journaling means that I feel able to! Plus I know if I get it wrong I can keep going on it until I'm happy!

I've used both gold ink and broken china distress inks on this page with the masks. I've also painted the outfit as the original image was primarily black

Not doing very well on the mojo front at the moment, it seems to have left the building with the onset of the dreaded swineflu but I'm hoping it's going to return soon - if anyone finds it on their travels I'd love to receive it back! It's so difficult to photograph these pages so I've done a couple of macro shots to show some of the detail - I love it when the pages sparkle - not that you can tell from the photos!

The gold ink although not very strong certainly adds a further dimension to the page.

We had parents evening last night which is always a little daunting but little man's current teacher is great and really made us feel quite upbeat, such a change from the last parent's evening we had when we were told he needed to "toughen up" as he is quite sensitive. His new teacher has taken a different tack and as a result he's stopped being so sensitive and is taking more of an active part in class - just goes to show how important it is to get the right teacher!

CHRISTMAS BOOK JUST FOR ME AND A LITTLE RANT!

Well here's an altered children's board book, since I've learnt to dismantle and reassemble with my bind it all (courtesy of Voodoo Vixen) I'm much happier with the finished results. I grabbed loads of different papers, in blues and reds.

The original book was quite chunky so I've used inch and quarter wires (which I love) it still needs more ribbons on the wire. I've used red stickles and attached red and white flowers throughout the book.

Together with a few bits of ribbon

I tried to co-ordinate the pages so there was a 'torn' piece of paper on the opposite page to match - if you know what I mean.

I managed to use some papers that I would never think of using with a 12 x 12 layout - particularly the strange random snowmen.

And the presents

Love this page - very Christmassy

After I finished it I stood back to admire the work and then think - who am I going to give it to? Then thought - what about me, a little book for me to document something at Christmas - so this ones for keeps!

I'm currently on with a recipe book and I've just finished another art journal page. So still plenty to keep me busy!

It's the 1st November and I've woken up to a miserable grey sky and rain, other half is supposed to be putting the final shelf inside some wardrobes we've built this morning so I can start filling them, but apparently it's going to be sunny at 3pm this afternoon when said shelf has been scheduled. The room seems to have taken all week (I know it hasn't but it just feels that way) and we're still only part way through.

End of the half term week and my 9 year old has had to suffer the taunts of the kids in the neighbourhood just being mean, he goes to the nearest catholic school rather than the nearest school, so the kids around here don't know him from school and can be quite mean. It's difficult as a mother to stand back but I know he has to learn to fight his own battles - bless him - still doesn't stop me from wanting to step in or give the other kids a dressing down for being mean.

Mind you it's confirmed that my gut instinct to send him to a catholic school was correct with some of the vile comments they've come out with this week, my 9 year old has had to come and ask what they meant. The one that riled me the most and sent me off the deep end was the "Anyone whose over the age of 8 and hasn't got a mobile phone is gay!" - When my little lad came to ask what they meant I explained what it meant to be gay and then ranted that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay and that we have friends and family who are and whom he knows. I then went into rant mode about living your life by materialistic items doesn't lead to happiness - don't know how much he took on board but he knew I was cross. When they taunted him again he said "I know what gay means, it's when a man loves another man or a woman loves another woman" that shut the little toe rags up - but then one said "No it means happy" - another moment for me to jump off the deep end. So I asked him "So they were saying anyone over 8 without a mobile phone is happy?" the penny dropped! Honestly it's all just a little too much sometimes. Mind you they all apparently have a mobile phone, including one of them whose 4! I said "who on earth would he want to phone or text at 4!" to which my other half laughed "Can you imagine his texts at 4!" - do parents really think this is appropriate, particularly when we don't know the long term effects of mobile phones - obviously they do! It's definitely been a testing half term. Anyway end of rant - hope everyone's day is brighter than my grey one! Might go and do some of that Christmas shopping today - might cheer me up!

CALM AND SERENE VERSUS GRUMPY AND MISERABLE

I did the background a while ago and decided to use two very different images. Sometimes I seem to spend my life grumpy and miserable - aspiring to have happier, calmer more serene times! So here is my page to capture that. I'm not naturally grumpy or miserable so when I'm feeling like this things aren't great, just recently it's been other peoples decisions that affect me or will affect me if they follow their decisions that have led to my frustrations. Now I know what everyone will say - someone else's decision is theirs to make and I'll have to deal with it - but that just doesn't wash and leaves me feeling grumpy and miserable. I had a whole week feeling like this but now I'm just enjoying today, I'll worry about tomorrow when I get there.

I love the colours on the pages and the Tim Holtz stamp just finished it off lovely! Once again I found myself tattooing the female - this is becoming obsessive!

I was going to put some Dame Edna glasses on the old man but then thought better of it! I didn't feel happy or amusing - I just felt grumpy - so I left him just the way he was!

MATRIX INSPIRED ART JOURNAL PAGE

When the Matrix film first came out we loved it with a passion (still do really) we were so amazed at the cinematography that we insisted on going to the pictures several times to see it. We loved the hidden depths of the film the little bits that made you think twice, the correlation to Alice in Wonderland was also something that really appealed! So the red pill or blue pill question in the film resembling the Eat Me Drink Me scenario in Alice in Wonderland is a favourite scene! Sometimes the option to go back to the place where you don't know the full picture would surely be a simpler option (albeit blinkered) the pill that takes you into a new area of revelation is surely one to test you - even though with it, it brings new knowledge - so here's my page documenting the same!

I was fortunate (via dear husbands film mags) to find a picture of Morpheus sat on the formidable armchair when he gives Neo the choice, with a little discrete painting I managed to omit the writing that adorned part of the chair! I then used a female character from another film (Watchmen) to balance the double page spread. Some serious paintwork, silver pen and journaling quotes from the film and the relevance to my life made the page complete!


Close up of second page

Well what an awesome 24 hours, last night I went to see Pink at the Sheffield arena, with my hubby, my 9 year old son, my 10 year old niece (her first gig) and my awesome sister. We had good seats and the gig was absolutely amazing! A 2 hour stage set with various costume changes, dancing, acrobatics and live singing! The stage set was for her funhouse tour and therefore resembled an old fashioned fair. We were all on a high when we came out (and I wasn't too deaf for a change (used to Rock concerts which mean seriously ringing ears post gig).

Then today we went to Chatsworth to walk around the gardens and see the 'Beyond Limits' sculptures before they go at the end of the weekend. The day has been awesome, it was fantastic to be outside looking at art, enjoying natures colours at this time of year, spending some much needed quality time together. We all enjoyed the exploring and the weather stayed dry for us! Not been home long, but can't see it being a late night as we're all absolutely shattered!