Christmas She Art.....

Well, I did promise I'd be back soon with my Christmas She Art girl.....and here she is! I made the basic background with variety of blue and 'white-ish' papers and added some paint and inks for a bit more texture.

I then added some green paper trees and a bit of doodling...

The girl went on next......

......followed by more ink, paint, doodling, glitter paste, stamping, rub-ons.....

......some words, a little robin and a poinsettia button......until she looked like this!!

I really enjoyed spreading my wings with this one and putting all the techniques I have learned from Christy into practice. She is an amazing teacher and I would urge anyone to take her on-line classes....they are just FAB!!!

I love my little Christmas girl and hope you like her too!!!

Thanks for looking and leaving your lovely comments...

xxx

Altered Poison Bottle......

I've been absent from the Stampotique Designers Challenge for a while.....just because I've been busy doing other stuff, but when I saw the latest challenge, an Altered Poison Bottle, I had to give it a go!! First of all on Tuesday I had a clear out in the kitchen, and reluctantly threw away two cute little bottles. I have so much stuff already saved to alter that I really thought enough was enough. Of course, on Wednesday, I saw the altered bottle challenge, and a few minutes later I was to be found rummaging in my recycling bin, which was thankfully pretty full, and the bottles were retrieved!!
I had great fun transforming the bottle.....I had no clear plan when I started out, it just kind of evolved as I went!!
Here is the finished bottle and a few close-ups.

The tag was foil covered card, die cut then embossed. I stamped 'POISON' onto shrink plastic using Altered Alphabet and then stuck this onto the tag. The spider is from Spider Girl. I gave the tag the head and legs of Two Barrettes and added ribbons, twine and an 'Art From the Heart' heart to the bottle top. A shrunken Marci on the lid and green coloured water completed my bottle!

Thanks for looking.....

xxxxx

Lots to show!!!

I know I haven't been around for a while...lots going on, that I don't really want to go into, but I have still been finding time for a bit of crafting, just not much blogging. I haven't even been visiting....SORRY!!!! Hopefully things are improving now, so you should see a bit more of me!!
Thought I would share a variety of the things I have been doing over the past month with you...
First of all, another couple of She Art girls..

I have so enjoyed doing these...they are a doddle and I just love the speed at which they can be created!! Am working on a Christmas themed one at the moment, which is taking me a little longer as there are more of my own thought processes, rather than Christy's, going on. It is coming on nicely, though, so watch this space!!

I also completed the second page in my 'Circle Journal'...and here it is.....

I really can't believe I have avoided art journalling for so long....I am just LOVING it!!!

I spent a fabulous day at AFTH with Dyan making a HUGE canvas.......again, it was amazingly quick to create! Ian and Sam were staggered that I had finished it in the time I was out. Here are a few steps....unfortunately the colours don't show up so well on the finished piece :(

...and FINALLY!!! Had a great day with friends on the Ladies who Lunch Play Day.....we were a little depleted, for a variety of reasons, but made enough mess on the table for all the absentees!!! Ann was busy trying out her photography skills with her new phone...here she is taking a picture of me taking a picture of her!!!

Here is the fabulous mirror that was made on that day!!! Good old IKEA!!! Haven't done any metal work for ages and really enjoyed it!

Well, I'll leave you with that lot for now....but I also have my Dina Wakely classes to report back on, so I really will be back sooner!!

Bye for now

Jayne xx

Thinking time.....

First of all, thank-you for your lovely comments on my last post. I so enjoyed doing the She Art Workshop...so much, that I now have three completed girls, and many more going round in my head!!

This weeks challenge over at the Stampotique Designers Challenge is Black, White and a Hint of Colour. How could I resist?? I put my She Art and post-uni-send-off cleaning aside and came up with this....

As you know I love Moon girl and will use her at any opportunity! She looks so thoughtful and peaceful sitting on Great Moon, that I thought the sentiment from a Wendy Vecchi stamp was perfect. The background is created with Dylusions Sky Blue Ink sprayed over a mask, and a tiny bit of glitter on the wings gave them a lovely sparkle. Proud of myself for using stamped masks too, to make a one-layer card....took a bit of thinking about the right order to stamp things, but got there in the end! I also got my sewing machine out for the first time in ages, but found doing 'wiggly' lines a bit of a challenge......in my dressmaking days I was a strictly '5/8 " girl'!!!! I like the effect though, and think I will practice a bit more!

Thanks for looking, and for your kind comments!

xxxxx

Another new challenge!!!

Oh, yes!!! I am getting SOOOOO brave!!! Last weekend I decided to take the plunge and sign up for a She Art Workshop. I have been thinking about it for a while, and now I have plunged into journalling, I thought there was no better time!! The tutorials from Christy are so easy to follow, that I couldn't wait to get stuck in! I'm not going to write any more....just post my photo's!

Canvas covered with printed tissue paper

First layer of paint added

A bit more paint and spray inks

Basic body cut from book paper

Dress and boots added

FINISHED!!!

A few 'close-ups'!

Hope you enjoyed looking at her....she is going off to the University of Sheffield this afternoon with Bethany, so I'm off for one last look at her!!

Thanks for looking....be back soon

xx

Another Stampotique Challenge!!

Have to say ....I'm hooked on these Stampotique challenges!! I was thrilled to be a 'Designers Favourite' again last time with my journal page! My journal is now on its way to Scotland for the next lady to work in it, and I am awaiting a delivery very soon of my next one.

This week the challenge over at Stampotique is A Bookmark and has been set by the amazingly talented Kate Crane!

Here is my offering......

I tried taking photos with a variety of cameras and in a variety of places, but not one of them shows up the sheen that was on the bookmark :(  I created the background using acrylic paints, then stencilled the stars using Viva metallic paint. I 'splattered' a little watery, silver paint all over and then sprayed with Glimmer Mist when the paint was dry.

I stamped Great Moon onto some card I had roughly painted silver, then cut it out. I also stamped the image directly onto the bookmark and stuck the cut out moon and star on top of this one. The owl is stamped onto white card, painted with acrylics and cut out. The sentiment is computer generated and the second owl is perched on a piece of old book paper. My usual bit of doodling was the finishing touch!!

Here's a bit of a closer view...

I then laminated the bookmark and threaded a ribbon through the top....this photo is really bad, as I knew it would be, because of the reflection from the laminate, but I hope you get the general idea!

My bookmark is already in use....although this will be temporary, as I am already the owner of a beautiful bookmark, which was a gift from my lovely friend, Helen. Here it is......and I'm sure you will see why and don't want to replace it at the moment!!

Thanks for looking and for leaving your lovely comments!!

xxx

A Very New Challenge....

In my last post I mentioned that I had an exciting mission coming up!! As many of you know, I have been wanting to dip my toes into the waters of 'Art Jounalling' for a while, but have never been quite brave enough! The ever lovely Kirsty Wiseman did an on-line class in June, and I thought this might be a good place for me to start....still working on this one(!)....but as a result of it I have made lots of new on-line friends and 10 of us have joined together to form a 'Circle Journal'. This has made me get my finger out and finally give art journalling a go!!
 As this weeks Designers Challenge over at Stampotique is  Altering a Book Page I have completed the first page in my journal and entered into the challenge too! Two birds...one stone, etc!!

Background completed!

Finished page!

I am thrilled with my first attempt and have realised how addictive this is going to become!! Background is created with Claudine's paints and Girl with Heart Purse and Marci are coloured with Dylusions Ink Sprays Their wings are from Lisa's Altered Images. I chose the bravery and courage theme as, personally, this is a big step for me! 

Here's the front cover of my travelling journal which I will say farewell to on September1st, and welcome back in June next year!

I have decided to make duplicate copies of the pages I do for the other journals, so here is the cover of that one..

...and finally, several weeks ago I mentioned it was my lovely mum and dad's Emerald Wedding Anniversary.

Kirsty came over and took some lovely photos for us...I'm sharing this one of the three of us with you.

Thanks for visiting...and commenting!!

xxxxx

HOORAY!!!!!

Well...at last I make it back to The Land of Blog!!! We had a lovely holiday in France, but it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of crafting...it always does! At least I did better than last year...I didn't reappear till January after my summer holiday then!! LOL!!

I did do a bit of stuff whilst away. I signed up to Kirsty Wiseman's 'Me in My Moleskine' journal class, so I packed the things I needed to start on that....Bethany joined me with this venture and we had a good time working on our books together. We had a pretty major disaster with a bottle of Jade Dylusions (why is it always the Jade one??), but apart from that all was well. Ian refused to take us out for dinner that night as he said we both looked like The Jolly Green Giant/ Shrek/ Princess Fiona .......you're getting the general idea?? That was fine by me, as he was doing all the cooking anyway!!! (The 8lb weight gain was a downside to that!!) Hopefully our little journals will be completed soon and I will share them with you then.

Last Friday I joined friends, old and new at the 'Ladies Who Lunch' Play Day in Sheffield. It was great to see people again and we had a great time in the morning following Ann's (Flutterby Crafter) instructions to make bobbins...not quite finished this yet, it needs further embellishment, but it was fun to do...hardly any swearing at all!!!

After lunch another Anne (Liverpool Lou) showed us how to make a concertina box file using the cover from an old hard-backed book. I have to say there was plenty of swearing this time , as fitting the folded card together was a little fiddly to say the least!! I have finished this one, and am absolutely delighted with it....

Now I have somewhere to keep all those tags and other bits that keep falling off the end of my desk!!! Thanks to both Ann/e's for your fabulous instructions!

Thanks for looking....have another exciting mission up my sleeve, but more about that soon!!

xxx