ART JOURNALING, SNOW ART AND OTHER THINGS

Well I saw Sandy Poppins this morning and she said - get your blog updated and I thought - do you know what I think I will!  Didn't think I'd have a lot to put on but pleasantly surprised.  This page was started some time ago but I didn't complete it, it's in my A4 art journal and I took it away to Center Parcs last weekend and finally finished it, me and my sister had an art journaling night on the Friday and we were both really pleased with what we finished off with! 

Other side of the page

Had a bit of filling to do on both pictures to cover up words etc, but overall quite happy with the finished results.

Now I know we've all had to deal with the hideous weather this last week and I've certainly done my fair share of moaning about it, due to school closures last week I decided to take my 9 year old with me to work and because we were literally snowed in on the estate we had no alternative but to make the journey by public transport and using those things called legs!  The round trip took 4 hours in total - absolutely crazy when you bear in mind I can do the journey on a normal day in 10-15 minutes each way!  However, we were greeted with an awesome sight at the bus stop - I've no idea who did it but it brought a smile to everyone who saw it!

At first I thought they'd used some sort of charcoal but on closer inspection I'm fairly sure it was spray paint!

A few people have said the one on the right resembles our only ever female prime minister - what do you think?

I just love the expressions - absolutely fantastic!

Warning - Change of topic LOL

A few of you may be wondering if I managed the Journal Your Christmas - simple answer - yes and here it is completed, I ran it until the 11th January (even though the prompts stopped on the 6th) primarily because I wanted to include our Center Parcs weekend away!

Did it end up as thick as last years? - You bet it did!

Now an A3 double page spread - apologies for the poor photography - I'm still tattooing my pictures have you noticed?

Close up left page

and right page

and an A4 one that's a work in progress

Orange isn't a colour I usually play with, but I'm loving this up to now, can feel some more painting coming on though.

Loving my art journaling at the moment, it's proving great therapy.  I've got my first ever circle journal heading off this week - quite excited about that - well I am now it's finished!  Didn't know if I'd manage it - I've chosen the top "Quotes to live your life by" or "Favourite Quotes" can't wait to see what it's like when it comes back! 

Done a photo order recently so need to kick into mini book making when they return! 

Hope everyone's got that Friday feeling! 

If you pop along and get to this point (presuming I've not bored you all silly before now) then leave a message I love knowing who has taken the time to read my waffle!

ART JOURNALING ANOTHER PINK BOOK AND FINALLY A COVER

Well after a rather eventful snow day and a lack of ability to actually go out in the car today we've been stuck in!  Goodness knows what it will be like tomorrow morning but I really could do with getting back to work!  Anyway enough of the weather if you wanted to know about that you could just turn on the 24 hour news channel for them to tell you its snowing. 

Anyway as mentioned in previous post I made two other 'Pink' books just before Christmas, one for my niece and one for myself, this is mine.  It's a mixed shape book based on a chipboard base.

The black 'frame' in the centre is actually a Maya Road minibook that was hinged together on thin jump rings, I loved the shape of it so dismantled to use as frames in the book.

Another close up of the inside of the book! I loved the photos they so lent themselves to the red and orange background which I created by using a baby wipe and painting acylic directly onto the chipboard, then stamped on the book with some new Tim Holtz stamps that I've got, before using my bind it all.  Here's the back of it in all it's glory...

and those gorgeous ribbons - next a close up of the cover.

As the original Maya road 'frames' were hinged with jump rings I had holes in the 'frames' - therefore I've covered the holes up with some punched hearts.  Another close up...

Loving this close up, yes it looks like a metal frame, but it's not it's silver mirror board, cut into a frame shape with my Big Shot, then but through my Big Shot with an embossing folder and then painted with cheap black paint, then wipe off the excess paint with a piece of kitchen roll, if you take the excess paint off in one direction it really does look like metal! 

Here the book is in all it's glory - can't you see why I loved making all three of these books. 

Now a bit of art journaling from inside my A4 book

I've had the pages prepared for some time but never finished it, I had a disaster on the photo page when I fought with a silver pen and lost!  However, I love the fact that art journaling means you can keep your mistakes!  So here it is in all its glory (plus you can see the real colour of the page)

I left it as it was, did a bit of moving around of the silver paint, a bit of stamping over the top and there you have it!  

For part of my sisters Christmas present I made us matching art journals - they are only small but quite sweet, the idea behind them is to generate a double page layout per month and then swap them.  We've chosen the word 'Positive' as the prompt for the entire book - this is my decorated 'Positive' page just inside the cover

I'm trying to go for more texture at the moment, hence the wired ribbon and this is January's double page layout, may still add more to this, so into layers!

I love it when I finish a page! 

Finally I've done the cover to my A3 journal - hurray!  It's taken an age to decide what to do, but some aged music sheets, with Tim's stamps and then a little bit of playing not to mention a large amount of red paint have meant that it is finally done.

And because you can't see the bottom corner due to my appalling photography here's a close up!

So there you have it, a few bits of art journaling to get me into the January mood!  If you stop by leave a comment I love to find out whose been along! 

A4 FIRST PAGE DONE EVER!

This is my very first picture in my very first art journal that I did a while ago, I am probably the least able person I know when it comes to drawing (I used to clean out the art room in my art lessons because I was so useless). The thing is as I've got older I discovered being 'arty' didn't mean that you had to be able to draw a fine portrait it meant using your creative side! So although my first art journal page was daunting it also broke down some barriers that I'd built myself! I did this page after watching many Suziblu videos on the internet - that girl is addictive. Now my more recent influence is most definitely Dyan from Art from the Heart and as I'm walking this path I'm starting to find my own style and it's kind of exciting and fun and enjoyable and varied! So I haven't used my 'character' again but I'm sure she'll come back into her own in the future.

This is the inside front cover of my journal, no words, just a gorgeous picture, Tim Holtz grungeboard wings, a torn up book (my favourite) and sum black stars!

Thanks for looking, I've got a few new pages in my A3 journal to share - but not got round to photographing them yet LOL!