Journal Pages 2 & 3

what can I say, started off with DI and torn book pages, then totally covered that up with CH paints, bit of pattern paper, lots of stamping some glimmer mists, sakura pens and some transfers and it's finished.  Not at all what I had planned, but I think I like the result.

Had a great weekend, hope you all did too.

SDDC Challenge 5

Over at Stampotique their challenge is to do a girly girl card, so here is my effort, using of course a stampotique stamp for the main images.

Birthday cards

had to make two male cards for this week, got this dreamweavers stencil last week at Ally Pally with male cards in mind.  Proceeded to spend every evening this week trying to get it to work.  First of all my embossing paste kept going under the stencil, (ideas on how to stop that would be wlecome), then used glitter which was too chunky and obscured all the detail, then tried adding perfect pearls whilst paste was still wet, not a good effect and nearly ruined my brush, LOL.  Then decided to just use mica paint through the stencil, would have looked great if it hadnt bled again, grrrrrrrr.  So ended up brushing it out and then had the idea to use black marker pen to outline stencil onto brushed background, used some sakura pens to block in and voila,it worked.  Hope my male rellies appreciate the effort I made. LOL

Close ups for those that want to look closer

ATC's for trading

been playing, had made some background atc's using Tims" bible" distress inks and his yummy stamps, before my visit to Ally Pally last weekend, then added bits and pieces from existing and my newly purchased stash to make a selection of ATC's which I would love to trade with some of my blogger friends, dont mind what you swap with, will be grand to have bits of your work for my newly formed art wall, let me know which one you would like, (ps rusty, the two i owe you are still being made)

Ally Pally 2010

Yesterday I spent the whole day craft shopping at Ally Pally what bliss.  Had saved up birthday money and anything I could scrounge so I could have a good spending session, started off really well at LB Crafts picking up the new paper artsy stamps and one of the dies, some texture paint and anything else I had to have, got to the till, whoops nearly a third of the budget gone already, but it is my fave stall so I knew I would not be able to be that good on it, Leandra is in Paris this weekend,  (which sounds interesting event wise, shall have to find out more about that, perhaps we can have a blog coach trip next year), so Linda Brown and Linda !! were demoing, left that till the end of the day to watch, had spent all my money (tend to take cash as much quicker to pay on all the stalls) but ended up having to spend a little bit of my overdraft on a few must haves after this demo and Linda Brown even kindly gave me the bit she had demoed for me, I was well chuffed with that and I got a paper artsy brooch for spending a certain amount, I cannot of course divulge the amount, LOL.

We then mooched around the event, trying to collect bargains where we could, one of the stalls was selling five packs of Pro markers for £5, what a bargain, which my friend snapped up, she is however more restrained than me and only bought two. Forgot to mention, met the lovely Rusty Cage at the event and hooked up a couple of times during the day and boasted about our bargains, Rusty found the pro markers first and five arty wooden stamps for £10, got their later on and couldnt get the ones I really wanted, (the ones Rusty got, grrrr),  but did allright.  Also got some Debbie moore image packs for £2, and the £1 stall buy 12 items for £10, got some clear squares some jeweled embellishments, a ruler, a tin for altering and the Laurence Llewyn Bowen dvd and book, even if its rubbish cant say no for a £1.

Searched around for ages for the best price on distress ink pads, and got 3 for £12 in the end from Samuel Taylor and some perfect pearls, which were demoed for me, whilst a very annoying lady (not the demo lady) told me how much better Creative Imagination stamps were than Paper Artsy, grrr, was very restrained and said that it was nice to have lots of choice and I had some from both suppliers, really wanted to wipe her face in the perfect pearls, because she was so loud, annoying and opinionated,all without any encouragement, there we go it takes all sorts, just hope you're not reading this, LOL.

Finally I knew I wanted some more Claudine Hellmuth paints, so spied them out and got them at the end of the day, really only had enough for 5, but reasoned in my head, that I was going to buy the others eventually so might as well buy them all whilst I was there, I'm sure you all understand that reasoning.  So bought all 10 I was missing, except when I got home realised I already had dash of Red, so still need to get one more.  How tempting to just pop back their today to swap it, dont think the OH or the bank ac would allow that.

Anyway had a fantastice day and am looking forward to stroking and playing with all my new stash over the next few weeks, and of course saving for the Craft Barn event in June.  Hope you all had a fab weekend too and enjoy checking out my new stash.

Some more of my journal and a sneak peak at my craft area

So this is the inside cover and page one of my newly made journal.

Close up on the inside front cover, I distress inked over the outer edges and then covered the middle with some lovely toning paper, which I then applied masks including the word Journal to and added more colour and definition using more distress inks, doodled on this and added stampings and crackle glaze, the MY has been altered using alcohol inks and the diamond glaze over the top, I like the soft effect I've achieved with this page.

Now with page one I added distress inks on the outer edges and then stuck a dictionary page down with the word Journal on it (clever huh), I highlighted this saying and a few other words with glossy accents and then worked more distress ink in and around the page to blend in, the idea being that the words would be super visible due to the resist of the glossy accents, my patience wasnt good though and I tried to work over it before it was dry, so hasnt quite worked as I wanted but there we go.  The lady figure is a paper mask i used on the outside covers to create a shadow effect, well I really like the shape of this lady and the mask had some interesting effects so used that, then added the first two verses from Pure Imagination (willy wonka and sky plus ad) which I really like and the words were quite apt for the first page I thought, then just kept doodling and adding to the page until I thought I had gone too far and went to bed, before I made it any worse. Wasn't too upset in the morning though, thought it looked allright, few things I wish I hadnt done but nothing too terrible.

. . . . . . . . . . and now for a quick peek at my tidied craft area, I like the one where you cant see my face the best, haha.  I dont look like that in my mind, but on photos I look like a sad fat old lady, boo hoo, have to do a journal page on that one.

Art Wall

Hi everyone hope you have all had a restful and peaceful easter, I ended up doing more tidying than crafting, it's that spring light highlighting all the dust and cobwebs.

One thing I did was create a box with all my letters sorted out alphabetically so all the die cuts and chipboards etc are all together, hopefully easier to find,then today I had a bit of a tidy up of the craft area, I steal a little bit more room each time, soon have it all, LOL.  Laughing on the other side of my face when I dropped my newly alpabeticised box of letters, grrrrr how annoying, could have cried but had to laugh.

Also created a little wall of art, it has some of my art and art I've been lucky enough to receive from other people and my Ralph Steadman autograph, from the school of Gonzo, no Id never heard of it either, had him in as a customer at the bank and he is a genuinely lovely chap and so interesting, so cheekily asked for an autograph,et voila.

Now the hanging cabinet was rescued from a charity shop and I spent a while trying to alter it, covered the whole thing in torn pages from a marvel annual, but then didnt like that, so gesso'd over and then played with inks and stamps to create an antiquey vintagey alteredy feel.  Used alcohol inks on alluminium tape to cover door frame and then crackle painted the background with the lovely bronze croco from Viva, black acrylic to highlight the bronze, my first attempt at altering something larger than a A5 card, LOL.  And a great place to keep some of the fat pages Ive received.

Also in the picture on the radiator is my very own spray box for glimmer mists etc, have rather cleverly got an old book that fits in it, use the back of book to stop it flying all over and use a new page each time so have some pre sprayed text pages whenever I need them

Now I am a little bit excited, cos its Ally Pally next Saturday, only 5 more sleeps, have saved lots of money and am hopefully going to have a great and frutiful trip, will try and photo my haul  to show you all, have a great week everyone, its only a four dayer.