Play Day

On Saturday I had a fabulous time at Art From the Heart. I spent the whole day playing with paints and inks getting very messy. My fingernails will never be the same again! They are already weak and feeble but now seem to have absorbed significant amounts of Dyan's Dylusions inks and are stained round the edges in conspicuous shades of blue and green.

We made books starting with cream card and some lined file paper as the basic materials but using different techniques to decorate them first.

We used Dyan's paints in two ways: first rubbed, spread and stamped on like this...

 With a splatter of mica spray bling at the end.

And then we painted great big blobs of watery paint and let them run about on the page.

Plenty of white space left for jurnalling soV scary and not my favourite!

Then we sprayed inks. There is just something about this - once you get started it is impossible to stop. Every available surface gets coloured (and my slippers and sleeves although not on this particular occassion).

And finally Dyan's ghosting technique also with ink sprays.

See her video of how to do this here.

Finally we glued all the folded papers back to back to create a book to journal in. Hmmm, I don't think so. Although I may get round to doing some doodling in it I am slow enough at getting a page a month sorted out in my 365 day journal.


 This is what the "completed" book looks like.

Where does time go?

It's true what they say then, that time passes more quickly the older you get. I have no idea how half the year has gone by already - I blinked and missed it.

Still running behind with my 365 journalling - June isn't finished but at least here is the page at the start of the month all summery ready for the nice weather that has eventually arrived.

And because splodging and squirting is so much easier than writing July is miraculously ready to go before June is done! I am feeling suitably delinquent for procrastinating on the diffucult and playing with ink instead. We have lots of fledglings of various sorts feeding in the garden at the moment so this birdie theme was a must.

And here is another inky diversion. I made this little canvas for my son to take to Taiwan to exchange as a gift with is counterpart in the University Orchestra. Because red and gold are percieved as bringing good fortune I based the colour scheme around those colours and added the word music in English and Chinese symbols with gilding foil.

Unfortunately the planned joint concert arrangements fell through at the eleventh hour so he has decided he will keep it instead.

Busy but somehow not getting on with things

I am once again in that funny frame of mind where instead of getting on with things I have set myself to be completed I am procastinating by signing up to join in all sorts of additional crafty swaps. A lot of it has to do with my mind being busy with "real life" things. Today for example one of my team at work who has been with me for seven and a half years has taken voluntary exit under the public sector reductions. I have mixed feelings - we will miss her greatly but she has taken the oportunity to set up her own business to fit in with her lifestyle as a single mum of an adopted little girl and I can't help but admire her for having a game plan and acting on it. Way to go Julie!

And on Thursday we head South to take my son to Heathrow. He is going to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau on a concert tour with the National Youth Wind Ensemble so we are all very proud and despite the break from teenageness (he is 14 and more than a bit like the Harry Enfield character Kevin at times) it is far different from his recent school exchange to France where I could if necessary hop the channel and rescue him - from what I don't know - to going to the other side of the world.

So I've been cutting myself slack and opting to do some quickand easy stuff like these black and white ATCs.

These "Games" themed ATCs proved more difficult than I had thought. I didn't start them until the last minute, somehow I just couldn't get to grips with what I thought was an easy theme. However the football season isweeks away but in our house there is constant checking on Ceefax for the latest transfer news. Far more annoying than actually watching the ads in programmes but equally inspiring for a different take on the games theme. Dug out old stamps that got lots of use several years back for little boy's brithday cards.

And finally for now, a background paper made for another swap with lots of messy ink sprays, old book pages and gesso.

I will have to make strenuous efforts now to get my 365 journal upto date - likely to be into next week though before I catch up!

You'd better sit down...

I'd hate the shock of finding a new post to cause any accidents, and this is likely to be quite a long one given how long it is since I last posted!

One way or another I've been if not always too busy, then too preoccupied with other matters to get creative for a while. I've had serious ill health in my family (which continues but I am coming to terms with), redundancies and changes to job profiles and terms and conditions at work and my son doing his first GCSE papers all going on at once so my mind has been a bit all over the place.

I'm glad to say though that I'm starting to do a bit of crafting again and have kept going with my 365 day journal, although a bit sparse with entries. So here by way of a catch up...

My March page in spring colours and we did have some daffodils but not many other flowers by then.


April is music themed for no other reason than I liked the bright colours and have quite a few music related crafty bits because my son is a keen musician.

May in the early stages. I have to confess I had a blitz at the beginning of May to catch up a bit and then have fallen behind on the actual journalling. I will add some more over the long weekend though and get ready for June.

Also since I last posted I have made ATCs and a row of houses for swaps, and been tinkering with a few other projects that are work in progress too. Much to the annoyance of my partner and son the entire kitchen is permanently completely covered in craft stuff whilst I potter for short periods each day trying bits out, rearranging pieces etc.

The ATC swap had a music/dance theme. My partner sent me very elegant ballet themed ATCs in soft colours and decorated with lace. (Note to self I must get round to taking pictures so I can share with you). I hope my jazzy bright musical offerings weren't too much!

The row of houses swap required the use of a button somewhere in the design. These swaps are great fun because you get 5 houses back, one from each of 5 swappers so they are all very different. You can tell I still had the same stuff out in the kitchen when I made these because some sheet music crops up again. These were entirely constructed with materials that were selected at random from what I already had out in the kitchen. The dots on the roof are stamped with bubble wrap and coated in Matte Accents. I don't know why but I do not get on with that product. Often the result is shiny not matte and if I am heavy handed in application it sometimes dries wrinkly. I didn't mind here as I had no definite plan and just wanted texture. I added more texure too with stalks made from painted string.