A Parisian Birthday

I have been a very bad blogger! I can't believe the gap since my last post. I am working extra hours at present and am a little frazzled and short on time. I have been doing some crafty things, but have a number of works in progress. I finally finished something!!!!

It is my niece's birthday this week. She is doing a Graphics degree, specialising in typography and always like to try and weave word based designs into cards for her. Unusually for me this card was not entirely planned. I think I am gradually becoming more of a free spirit and letting myself go with the flow a little. My only planned elements were the backing paper which is from the Papermania Madame Payraud collection and the Eiffel Tower die which is a La La Land die. I added the tape stencilling to the backing paper using a Tim Holtz layering die. I added some Oxynite Treasure Gold onto the die cut. It was the first time I had used this colour which just looks dark brown in the jar, it actually gave a beautiful coppery rustiness to the Eiffel Tower which of course I forgot to take a close up pic of before I posted the card earlier today!!! I added some washi tape and then backed the die cut onto a panel embossed with a script Cuttlebug embossing folder, highlighting with Vintage Photo DI. The record card is stamped onto kraft using a Memory Box stamp and the little sentiment is stamped onto a wooden tag with a Darkroom Door stamp. I finished with some Industrial and Chit Chat Tim Holtz stickers, various other words that look like dymo tape labels, another of Hannah's favourite things. I finished with a black gem swirl. I love those and should buy them in bulk really!!! 

Last Thursday my friend and I made the journey up to Sandown Park for the first craft show of the year. I enjoy this show as it happens in the doldrums after Christmas. I bought lots of goodies as you can see from the pic below, my main indulgence these days is dies as they take up little space and there were some great bargains to be had on the day. I also got a couple of tubs of the lovely Prima hydrangea flowers which have always been a favourite of mine and were too good to miss.
 

This is another journal page in my ledger journal, just work in progress at the moment. I used all sorts of 6 x 6 backing paper cut into squares as my background before adding acrylic paints with a baby wipe. I used a lovely Artemio stencil which I ordered after doing a canvas workshop with Lin Brown at It's Crafting Time near Cambridge in November. The page is closely inspired by the design we did that day, but I will be trying to take it in a slightly different direction as it develops further. I plan to incorporate some words into the design. I just need to work out how I want to add them!

As well as my journal I have been doing some other crafty experimentation. On Sunday I wanted to put some new paper through it's paces for possible use with watercolours. It is a cheaper option, but good paper, so I thought it was worth a try. I bought the pad of Fabriano Ecological drawing paper at the London Graphic Centre on a recent visit. I cut a small bookmark sized strip and doodled leaves inspired by a zentangle project I had seen on Pinterest. I used a burgundy coloured Pigma micron pen, then added colour with my Peerless watercolours and then added shading with my Prisma coloured pencils. I finally added shading with some DI around the edge of the panel, matted onto brown card and added a tassel to finish my bookmark. Doing any kind of freehand drawing is unknown for me, so this is a real development and one I find hard to believe myself sharing publicly!!!

I have also been teaching myself to make African Flower crochet motifs. I am planning a rainbow coloured project with close colour blends in each hexagon, gradually blending across the colours of the rainbow. I am just trying to decide if I am making a blanket or a bag! Crochet is so good for something to keep my hands occupied while I am in front of the TV!

Last but not least, I am making some Christmas cards recycling this card that was sent to us. I have cut this one into 8 panels and I am in the process of making a variety of cards from this one. More on that later.

Apologies for this mega post. I really must try harder to keep up! Right now I am off to make some home made texture paste, using pva, paint and talcum powder using a recipe I saw on the lovely blog of Gabrielle Pollacco. It looks so simple and works brilliantly as she shows in this video. Apparently the bonus is the paste smells nice too.

Elaine x

Happy New Year - a chance for a new voyage of crafty discovery!

Happy New Year everyone! I always find I am amazed and slightly daunted when we reach the turn of another year so quickly. Despite the fact I know I don't really stick with new year resolutions, I always try to have some ideas of things I will try to do improve myself, both in life in general and on the crafting front!!!!

On the crafting front I really want to try to relax more into experimentation and art journalling is the territory I want to explore more. When I was on holiday in September, I found this old ledger and it seemed perfect for my plans. It is a little battered and has been used a little to keep records of sea voyages, but only on a very few pages. It it indexed and has lovely marbled end pages.
 

I started my first page yesterday and found it very daunting. I was led to my first theme by some words on the first page. I was about to paint them all out when I realised how appropriate some of them were to my plans and this led me to think about making a wave and ocean themed page to reflect my journey into journalling.
 

Now I know journalling is supposed to be very spontaneous and in a sense being led by these words was pretty spontaneous for me! Last year I took an on line journalling course Embellishing Edges and Text  and one of the things Valerie Sjodin uses to shape projects is a set of French Curves, so I used these to help me draw my waves and then colour them with my Peerless watercolour paints, adding some shading with Pan Pastels and my Prismacolour pencils. I added some ocean themed words with my Pitt pens. I did make a bit of a botch up and ended up patching a bit onto my page to cover up some lettering I didn't like much. My little perfectionist imp gives me a hard time sometimes.

I felt something was missing and made some little fish out of metal tape put through an embossing folder and coloured with Vintaj Paina inks and Treasure Gold paste before being stuck into place. I finally added some Imagination Crafts sparkle medium with my finger for some shine and I was quite pleased with the watery effect it gave and it dried beautifully flat too.

Anyway, this page is the end result, which I was tempted not to share at all as it is so far from what I consider to be an acceptable standard of work to open up to scrutiny, but then I would have failed at the first hurdle with what jounrnalling is all supposed to be about really.  
 

 

So I have at least started in my journalling voyage. I have been building up to it over the last few months with this book which takes me completely out of my comfort zone.

 

 

I think this is because I find the the ready coloured "blank" pages to inspire intereaction quite messy!

 

 

However, the book does have some useful prompts to get you to think about what you want to get out of journalling and get doodling in a relaxed way which I tried to do here!

 

 

 

Above all for me the point is to enjoy the freedom to experiment and play and I did feel a bit of that at times when I was playing with my different colouring mediums yesterday which is what this is all about for me, building confidence and letting go.

 

 

I have also ordered the first 4 Kate Crane art journalling DVDs which have been on offer over Christmas at a bargain price and I am sure I will get some great inspiration there too.

 

Whatever you have planned in your crafty endeavours for 2014, I hope you really have a great and fulfilling journey and  enjoy every moment.

 

Elaine x