Seuss's World

I let it slide again

2010-05-30T15:21:00.003+01:00

Thats right, I got caught up in the boring aspects of life like work and chores as well as the exciting things in life like gigs and hanging out with friends etc. What this meant was it hasn't left much time for artistic stuff although now that I have moved to Cardiff and am settled in I have been doing bits and bobs.

Anyway so to my one follower, thanks for sticking with me and for those who normally just pop in and out, please pop in again for I am back and I want to start posting again and reconnecting with the artistic online world.

I have some bits to post but my camera is playing games with me so I will have to add them in a different post. Anyway, hello I am back :D

Here's looking at you

2010-03-15T01:25:00.002Z

Howdy Y'all. I know this has not been updated much recently. Part of that is due to me having done less arty stuff with work knackering me out during the week and then alot pf partying at the weekends and trips back to London. However I am in America for a week, visiting family, so a little down time with give me some craft time hopefully.
So look at the guinea pig, hopefully it makes you smile and I plan to bring you craftiness very soon!

Monochrome ATC's

2010-03-06T12:19:00.003Z

Bit late posting about this, but here are my Monochrome ATC's which I made for the Monochrome swap with MixedMediaATCs. The idea of Monochrome ATC's had been in my head since I went to america and bought some great chipboard monochrome letters however when it came to making these ATC's 1) I couldn't find the chipboard letters 2) I think I had one of each letter so would not have had three M's. However the concept of what I wanted to achieve was still the same. I enjoy doing the weaving for the background and have done it in red and black for Pirate ATC's however it can be tricky.

I am unsure of where I have put the three I received for this swap however once I find them, I shall post pictures of them as well so you can see the other lovely peoples work.

Drums drum drums

2009-11-22T21:55:00.003Z

Thats right my drums inspired me saturday morning and having had a new rhythm magazine turn up, I got straight to work. The background of the page was already painted from the previous person but the colour seemed perfect and I had my most recent drum piece on a bit of paper and it all just seemed to fit.
So i mish mashed it all together, added in what I wanted to say and shazam a page was born. Its been a while since a page was born but I was happy whilst making it and super pleased when it was done. Hopefully this will stop the art block I have been happening but we shall see.

Pictures as promised

2009-09-11T22:20:00.004+01:00

I am reaching the end of my American holiday and have had a fantastic time. I have this weekend and then I head back Monday night. Canada was amazing, we did niagara falls for a day taking the maid of the mist into it, then we went on to Toronto which was a lovely city. So clean and it felt really safe. We took the bus tour which we were able to use the whole week which was handy. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum - a natural history Museum, the Shoe Museum, the Science Museum, Casa Loma - an interesting Castle, the CN Tower, hit a baseball game which was good fun and of course many places to eat and drink. We also followed the PATH which is a connection under alot of Downtown between different shops and hotels etc so you can walk the PATH where there are loads of eateries and little shops so you would never need to go out in the open. We took it as a fun way home from the Eden Centre - a big shopping mall.

As for my artwork, not done much more, done a little more stitching on the baby sampler and mainly been busy writing postcards although bought some great cute notecards too. So below is the card I made, making use of the spring papers I bought cheap. The animals are fun.

Then here is the ATC i made which I had fun making, the butterflies from the paper were fun so I had a little play with them.

I might do a bit more art play as I bought some halloween papers today for a dollar. I also drew and coloured a petite doll whilst I was travelling to Canada but I will chat about that when back in the UK and can upload photo's easier.

A Card and 2 ATC'a

2009-08-31T13:45:00.003+01:00

Thats right me and Cayleigh had our crafty morning before she went to work and I got to play with the new scrapbook papers I bought. I got them in sale getting 180 pages of spring papers for $9. It was awesome. What I wish I had realised was how cheap stitching stuff is here cos I could get threads for 40c rather than 70p back home. Must remember that for next time.

So yes, firstly I made a cool card with lots of animals cut out on it and it said hello. I am mailing it to my friend Nic in the UK today. And then I made an Unusual Alphabet ATC with a butterfly on it. I cut 2 seperate butterflies out and put one on pads on top to make it stick out. I used glitter glue to give some sparkle to the bottom butterfly and voila sparkly fun butterflies. (Yes I know there are no pictures, my cable for pictures doesn't work but I do plan to put some on my netbook and then upload however with no adaptor yet for the UK I am worried about running it out). Then one evening this week I also made a 2nd ATC, well part of one, I took black and white paper and made a criss-cross pattern and then an M on black and white in chipboard that I also bought cheap here. All I need is to combine and make my monochrome card :)

I am off to Canada today but I will update probably when I get back in a week.

In America

2009-08-26T16:19:00.005+01:00

Thats right I am here in lovely Leesburg where the weather is beautiful and I have already partially tanned/burnt from taking the dog for a long walk :) I am here for 3 weeks but don't worry, I still think craftiness will happen as my sister Cayleigh is crafty so I am sure we will get up to some bits and I bought along some stitching.

So just thought I'd let you all know that I am away sunning myself but I am sure you will still hear from me on here and hopefully still see some work from me. I know I have been less updaty recently and I want to get back into stuff more. First think I think I need to do when I get home is sort our and reorganise all my stash because it is a mess. However Sam should be all moved into the other room by the time I get back so might be able to find a small space in my room to have a bit of a studio area :)

Stitching along

2009-08-17T21:31:00.002+01:00

Thats right I am moving on a couple of pieces at the moment. I totally completed a piece which was a japanese doll for my friends birthday card. I thought it was awesome and I hope she did too although she hasn't mentioned it. I will text to see if she got the package.
Apart from that I am still working on the Noahs Ark piece which I have been working on forever as I take really long breaks from it. I am getting there bit by bit and I am going to keep pushing on with it because I have the frame and everything so I want to get it finished - plus I need to finish it before Glaeken gets too old to appreciate it :)

I am also working on a piece I bought in a sale at Hobbycraft which is like a travel/writing piece with the Eiffel Tower on it, a butterfly and a pen, its awesome! There was something about it, I think i will keep it myself but not 100% sure.

Then I have another piece to work on but have not started it yet, its a newtons law baby sampler for when my friend Frances gives birth. She is having a boy which is due beginning of December. I ordered the stitching piece but have not started it yet, I have some time yet so it is ok.

So thats it with me at the moment. Lots of stitching. I am starting in another journal round with the seren swap so that should be fun, only 3 of us in it at the moment but will be good to fill the rest of that journal up.

Apologies as it has been a LONG time since last post.

2009-08-13T17:39:00.003+01:00

Well nearly a month which is long to me and totally breaks my once a week new years resolution. Alot has been going on in my life and I am not quite through it yet but I wanted you who still read this to know I am still here, art moving along slowly and will be back to this more often.

I am now a single gal as my partner of 7 years Sam decided he no longer wanted to be with me. We had been engaged for 3 years and although being apart alot over the last 2 years had taken its toll and that we had been very up and down the last couple of weeks, I thought we were going to work on it and make it through. He kept confirming we were going to work on it but as you can see we are not.

So work has been busy which has been keeping me together to a certain extent as I had an important presentation yesterday but following that I have been rather an emotional shambles today, especially with the feedback of the Professor slating us yetserday on me. We are still going to be living together as with the house prices we cannot afford to sell the house and neither of us can move out at the moment. Trying to keep it friendly (he still wants to be friends) but people have helped me realise thats great for him but not for me and that I need to distance myself from him so am in no friendship mode as it hurts to be friends as it feels like nothing has changed. I don't know if he's realised we're not being friends but I kept to my own room yesterday watching "he's just not that into you" that obviously made me cry like a baby :)

So arts not so much happening at the moment although have been still cross stitching so got things moving along. I am to America for 3 weeks on the 25th August, staying with my family just outside DC and very much looking forward to it. Will be just the space and break I need.

So hope you are all well out there and I will hopefully be a bit more present on here.

Cockerel stitching complete

2009-07-21T22:54:00.003+01:00

Thats right, after starting something new I picked up at hobbycraft the other weekend back in London, sitting with my friend stitching whilst she was knitting watching Taken, we were discussing how it can be hard with long projects and you just have to get over the hump. Well the cockerel stitching has been close to being finished for quite a while and I just hadn't done it so when I got back I pushed on with it and finally completed it. So here it is for all to see. Now I just have to decide how I am going to mount it ready to take with my to give to Angie as her birthday present. I am thinking maybe a place mat or something. (Add in picture).

I am now determined to push on and complete the Noah's Ark picture I have been working on for like a couple of years because I have the frame for it and everything, it just needs completing! It is another hump that I will get over!

Note: Having issues getting pictures off my camera so will add this at later date.

Decided on my girl

2009-07-09T21:08:00.003+01:00

So I have decided to go with the mermaid. I haven't started colouring it yet because I wanted to trace it a few times so that I can experiment with it a bit. I like the hair but not sure how I will do the outfit (obviously it will get painted but I probably do some colouring on it first) and what accessories or sidekicks to go with it. So I want to be able to have a play with colours and different aspects.
However this does mean I am behind in terms of week as we are approaching the end of week 4 and I am only at week 2 as I haven't managed to get a piece of wood but I will over the weekend along with glaze and then background making fun galore :)

More Shading

2009-07-05T22:29:00.005+01:00

Thats right I have barely done any art this week so I did another girl and some more shading tonight. I like the idea of a Mermaid themed picture but I am not sure about her body at the minute. I am thinking I will do the background and then see if it inspires the girl. The next week is already up and I haven't done this weeks playing around with my background yet so I am a week behind which means I need to dedicate some time each evening next week to my background and then the next step. I am sure there are others behind as well though and Suzi did say would still be looking at stuff a couple of weeks after so will just keep pushing on and not get stressed about being behind. Otherwise it will just put me off rather than push me forward and I want to continue to develop. I can't believe how far I have come in 2/3 weeks so it'll be exciting to see how much further I can go.

Finally started shading

2009-06-30T23:08:00.003+01:00

only a week later than everyone else so am a week behind with the suzi class technically. But it does say we will still have 2 weeks after the video's go up so I am not panicing yet. So here is my first attempt at shading. Not the best as its got some colours showing through strongly but seeing as I have never done anything like this before I certainly don't think its the worse and am impressed i managed to pull together some elements of it. I plan to do some more shading tomorrow night :)

Not quite to plan

2009-06-25T21:06:00.003+01:00

In that I don't think I did the sketching I said I'd do Tuesday evening but that is because I got sucked in by Professor Layton on the DS. Its a game that consists of loads of puzzles whilst being a mystery quest at the same time. Its great - I love puzzles. Plus they are the types of ones where its logical but its not the first answer that jumps to your mind, you have to really look at what you are being asked.

Plus now I have less of a free weekend as I am heading back to London to see friends and family. But I intent to take my sketchpad and my netbook with me so I can watch the films on it and then sketch over the weekend as well. I might even take my sketchpad out and about with me to see if I am hit by inspiration from people on the street.

SuziBlu Video 1c

2009-06-23T16:52:00.006+01:00

Thats right I watched the rest of video 1b whilst doing a bit of sketching and have watched most of 1c. I even drew one of my petites with a body which didn't turn out quite right in regards to the clothes but its all exploration of new things. I did like giving her cat ears though and playing around with her t-shirt but originally I was going for a dress, then the top looked like a t-shirt so I played with that but she was still left with the dress like bottom. Jeans would have been better so maybe next time I will do that.

I plan to watch the rest of that video tonight and do some more sketching as I was supposed to come up with the Doll I wanted to use for my painting by Saturday but being away from Thursday til Sunday hindered that. So I want to sketch some more in general before I move on to using the colours.
Because that is what Class 2 is which went online yesterday. I am off to the cinema tomorrow so that will leave me no time to sketch so Thursday will be when I start playing with my coloured pencils :) However I have a very free weekend at the moment so the plan will be to play to my hearts content.

More Suzi Blu fun

2009-06-17T23:45:00.009+01:00

Thats right, I have made my way through half of video 1b which I did Monday Night and then just sketched in front of the tv last night which was fun. And so I have more sketches to share.

So the first is what I was sketching whilst working my way through some of Video 1b, I also had a More magazine next to me so I flicked through that for some inspiration as well.

Then I was sketching whilst watching Hairspray on the TV and was trying to recreate some of their hairstyles which was fun. I might attempt to do something like that for my actual piece but I am going to have more of a play before I decide that.
I have been out drinking with a lady from bookgroup tonight so no sketching but hoping to fit some in tomorrow before I head back to London for the weekend

Journal Home Safe

2009-06-15T21:47:00.007+01:00

Finally my journal from Seren's group swap is home safe and what a treat it is. There were six of us in the swap in the end adn each artists pages are soooo different. I have taken a picture of a double page from each artist so you can see the difference. Its so exciting to leaf through and just touch and look at each page. I know that I will find something a little different each time. So thank you to Nadia Munarolo-Kurjata, Linda East, Karen Chew, Nathalie Davis and Seren. I have enjoyed this swap and although it took longer than expected, I would do it all again in a heart beat.

Video 1a

2009-06-15T07:42:00.002+01:00

So I did have a go at Suzi's first class but I only went through video 1a. I plan to look at video 1b and 1c tonight. They are nice to follow and you can have a little draw whilst following the video as well. Suzi is very personable on her video's so they are nice to follow. Anyway here is my first play yesterday, sketching along with the video.

Playing with paints

2009-06-14T19:45:00.004+01:00

Art evening on Thursday was fun although Nic put me to shame with her drawning skills. She recreated a drawing of Bumblebee from transformers and it was very good. She didn't end up painting it but is going to paint it in oils at home so I look forward to seeing it.

I on the other hand headed straight for the paints and just had a bit of play. I was going for the sea and although it could be considered the sea, my other half pointed out it also looks a little like mountains and I agree that because the peaks are quite high it could be seen as mountains as well. Clearly something to develop in the future.

The first of Suzi Blu's classes is up online and I am downloading them now although I am not sure if I will find the time to start playing today. I may try to have a little play though. For now I will go back to watching Chocolat whilst trying to let my burnt skin cool down from the sun getting it yesterday :)

I'm attending a workshop

2009-06-10T23:37:00.009+01:00

Thats right I have taken the plunge and bought myself in to a workshop - ok its an online workshop but I am very excited. I never done any official art and so this feels special. There are alot of things on the list to buy and I am not sure if I will buy them all. I will see what I think from the tutorial videos but I am getting the basics. And so at the weekend I ordered lots of nice colouring pencils for all the faces I am going to be drawing - I have joined SuziBlu's Petite Dolls class and they turned up today. They are special looking which I then had to put in colour order to look nice.

I also popped to hobbycraft yesterday and picked up soem basic colour acrylics in big tubes so that I have plenty to play with. I only have little tubes so I will save them for stuff I will do less. We are using them for backgrounds in the class so will be able to just much around and experiment. I picked up flesh colour as well - might need that. I also got a circle template and a sketchbook as we will be doing lots of sketching and then using it in our paintings.
So that starts next week and I plan to have fun.

As for tonight I watched Half Nelson whilst writing to penpals and it put me in a contemplative mood so got some tunes on the stereo and have been finishing off pages in a journal I have from a swap so I can send it home. Here's just a few pages from it.

Bring on tomorrow night which is art night with my friend Nic. I see alot of mess with my new paints happening. I will be sure to take pictures

Craft and Vintage Fair

2009-06-01T22:29:00.004+01:00

Thats right there was a craft and vintage fair in Chipping Sodbury which I popped along to. It was good fun, small but fun. I had a little wander round and actually could have brought lots of things but I have so much already so I kept myself under wraps however I did buy a couple of things.
One was a card which made me think of an online art friend so it will be heading her way soon. The other was some note cards and envelopes with pixies on mushrooms on them. I thought they were fab and don't have too many notecards as I do use them up so it was all good.

This was one of the stalls there. It was beautiful and I could have bought many things from it. However I did take a card, i took a couple from some of the other stalls as well so I can in the future check out their stuff online.
There was a couple of people who had come all the way from Cornwall which I thought was a long way to come just for a craft fair but I guess it depends on whether they do well and meet nice people or not.

Bring on the Pirates

2009-05-27T22:50:00.004+01:00

Thats right, some arty activity. I put on the Devil's Whore which is a tv drama about the civil war which is really good but I was only send disc 1 so now I have to wait for disc 2 to be sent to me.
Although that is not the point, the point is that I got some art done so I was at first working on a design for my next zine as I am in a swap on swap-bot and then I moved on to some ATC's to get to the point of finally finishing off my Unusual Alphabet swap.
So I got my bits out and started at it, finding the pictures I printed off the other day so got me moving with the Pirate ATC's and I made another zen atc. It is fun to do and something different. Doodling is fun. So with the button ATC's I already have that gives me two completed sets to be able to send out - yay! So a trip to the post office is planned tomorrow whilst spending the rest of the time revising in the library!

Sunny Weather on the Bank Holiday!?!?!?!

2009-05-24T16:19:00.003+01:00

Thats right it is a bank holiday weekend here in the UK and the weather is beautiful. I am actually out partly sunbathing (I am very pale skinned so tsking it easy) i9n the garden whilst updating my blog. The weather looks worse for tomorrow but in a way that is good as I have my CIPD exams weds and fri so I need to get my head down and revise as I have done some but not enough. But once I am in revision mode in the library I will be set. Then I can chill out on Friday with many drinks in the wetherspoons.

My Dad and his girlfriend have just left after visiting us for the weekend which has been nice. We spent lots of time in the sun, ate and drank as well as popping to a garden centre with huge pigs! I had a manic tidying session friday and saturday morn9ng after having doen bits during the week. And yes I threw stuff away. I am a massive horder who keeps everything because I might use it one day but that means I have way too much stuff in general so I was ruthless (with the help of my friend Nicci) and threw stuff away, gave clothes and books to charity and generally organised and out stuff away. So now you can actually see the carpet in the bedroom rather than clothes, magazines and writing papers. I am planning to keep it thid way although Sam does not beleive me but I will prove it to him.

What this means is that it has been quiet on the art front. When throwing out many fashion magazines I did rip some pages from them for images I liked and I stuck a few of these in the collaboration journal I have so that someone can then develop them. I plan to send it back this week so will try and find time to do a couple of other bits before it gets passed on and then I will keep my eye on it as images are uploaded to see what other people do.
So tomorrow is back holiday monday and although some of it will be revision and I am hoping to do some arting as I still have another journal which I am also going to send back this week. It will complete the swap and mean we can chat about whether we will do another round or not. I have a few completed pagges in it but a couple of WIP's as well so want to get them complete and you gotta have some breaks from revision otherwise I will go mad.

So updates in the next couple of days and this time with pictures.

Bits and bobs

2009-05-20T00:18:00.005+01:00

I've got a journal at the moment which is a proper collaboration journal where you can do anything you like on any page. It is actually quite odd as I am used to think about a page as a whole and kinda planning it. It seems odd to do bits on a page and not finish it. I am trying to just do bits and pieces here and there but it feels like I am not really creating anything. So here are a number of pages I have done bits on.
I did do one proper page as such with the tree and the tissue paper, but someone could always add to it. I have also done some writing bits on other pages which people can then create over.

ATC's

2009-05-11T23:07:00.004+01:00

Thats right, I actually did some ATC's. It was the last episode of Heroes for series 3 tonight so was watching that whilst doing it. Already had the backgrounds made so it was just actually putting the buttons on them and the rest.I think the button ATC's are fun, cos it had buttons in the background as well as in it :)

I also did a Zen ATC which looks nice. I couldn't find my silver pen but found my Gold. I actually like the effect of the gold better sometimes.
So I have actually pushed on with the ATC's which is good because want to get them sent out to people. I also printed some images off at work to make use in some of the ATC's.
Progress at last :)

And it gets worse

2009-05-09T19:50:00.007+01:00

After thinking woohoo I will do some more updating, I can see it has been probably a couple of weeks since my last post. I don't know where the time has gone and its not because I haven't done any art because I have done little bits and pieces. Admitedly I have been busy at the weekends and busy with work during the week but you can always make time for updating therefore I need to be better.
It was a busy couple of days Thursday and Friday with me working like 10/11 hour days both days cos we were busy with shortlisting. So I was so glad to get to the weekend. Today I bought a scooter (I will post a picture tomorrow). I would have preferred a motorbike but what I want to use it for, getting to the station quick for work, nipping here and there without worrying about parking - the scooter is going to be perfect because I can just get on it and go and leave my helmet under the seat. Its a Yamaha Neo's and I have named it Neil.
Then we spent loads of time digging big bushes out of our front garden to make an extra parking space.

Anyway on to the art. Here are a couple of journal pages I have been working on recently. I have done a couple of others in another journal which I will look to update about tomorrow. These have been done at random times, in random places whenever I have had a little time and been inspired. This first one I did when I crashed at a friends after a gig and woke up earlier than him. I had a magazine with me and when I saw this picture I had to journal it. There is something so great about the super woman picture and I like the shape of the person I cut out as it gives the writing a boundary. You can imagine you are the person who can't be seen.

This is a work in progress, I had something to say and wanted to get it down but the page is plain so I want to add to it but am not sure what yet. I will see when inspiration hits me.

This is me having fun with the inkpads I bought a while ago. I bought 30 small inkpads which were in sale and had not even opened them. So i opened them one by one and onto the page they went. I like the effect although unfortunately it went through the paper slightly. So it is a background but again I have not decided what to add to it but I know it when I do :)

Had been doing so well

2009-04-28T12:11:00.001+01:00

I really had been keeping up with my new years resolution and then April comes and it all goes to pot. That does not mean I am giving up, just that I am admiting I failed but am getting back on the horse.
Saying that I don't have any pictures to add as I am at work so no camera although I did make a journal page saturday morning so I will add that on as an update soon.

So little bits and pieces of art have been happening, many idea's not may being seen to happen but work has been busy as well as having assignments due for my CIPD which of course I leave to the last minute. So I handed one in last weds and my other one is due in tomorrow and I have ALOT of work still to do on it. But I still have work so ploughing on with work stuff at the moment and then going to stay late tonight in the office to work on my assignment as it should stop me getting distracted at home!

So apologies for lack of updates but once that assignment is in, that should change til we get round to exam time end of May. The rats have really grown and we gave five boys to the adoption centre so now only have 22 rats. The girls are all in the big cage with their mums and the boys are the smaller cage. We plan to sell them soon which will leave us with the three mums and we are going to keep one baby. Huskey's only girl as she very different colouring to all the rest of the girls therefore I have a soft spot for her. No naming has happened yet as don't want to get too attached to them when we are not keeping them.

So thats it for now, Work, College, Rats and some seeing people. I promise a more arty update in the next couple of days

too long since an update

2009-04-15T21:54:00.006+01:00

can't believe its been like over 10 days since an update. I had done so well with my once a week update for my new years resolution but I will keep at it. Mainly not very much on the art front has been going on and with Easter and us being away visiting Sam's parents I didn't really go online. What I did do was quite a bit of stitching so it is coming along nicely.

As for the rats, they are growing well too. Looking cuter everyday and part of us wishes we could keep them all but its not possible. Plus if you look at the cage suddenly it can freak you out if they are all at the front. Its like Ah. So much going on un-art related at the moment, trying to finish one assignment for weds and then one for the week after. Also got an interview on Monday for a role due the restructure of RM. Alot to think about and arts not getting a look in with all my time disappearing. Although maybe now is the time for Art to get some of my feelings out.

ATC

2009-04-02T23:52:00.004+01:00

I decided to make a Zen ATC before heading to bed because its relaxing plus its been a while so it was nice. I made use of some of the other coloured pens I have, because normally I only make zens in silver. But the blue really added to the Zen.

Been very busy at work so not much else been going on although I did do a journal page tuesday after getting back from an awesome walk in the woods but I am not completely happy with it so might add to it.

Cockerel Progress

2009-03-29T19:14:00.003+01:00

Not alot has been going on the art front round here as its been a super busy week at work. I have had a nice relaxing weekend though. Today I painted some backgrounds for one of the journals I have. The main thing that has progressed is the stitching I am working on. I want to get it finished so I can move on to another piece or move back onto the noah's ark piece to finally finish it. So my plan is to crack on with this although I am thinking about having some relaxing fun making a couple of zen ATC's.

However on the Rat front they are getting bigger. We cleaned them out today so got to have a proper play with the babies. Here is a picture of the oldest litter who have got fur and ears but cannot see yet.

bits and bobs

2009-03-23T22:04:00.006Z

Its fun making use of the leftovers and using the cut-off's of the photo's I used for the scrapbooking was super fun. There was something intriguing about the bits of photo's being put together. Its like you are looking in on something but you don't quite know what it is so you have to put it together yourself. Well thats what I think anyway but thats the beauty of putting it all together. What will the viewer discover!

Here is an update of the cockerel stitching, see bit by bit it is getting there, who knows I might be finished by the middle of the year :) Well hopefully sooner than that, then I can find a new piece to create. I need days and days of free time and no work to catch up on all the fun and arty things and turn some of my idea's into reality

Proper Update

2009-03-22T18:12:00.004Z

As said yesterday here is my proper update. I finally sent off that journal from my livejournal swap after doing a couple more pages. Its been a busy couple of weeks with us adopting 3 rats who are super cute, Sam buying a new car this lovely mx5
and then 2 of ours rats having babies. Well Nemi had babies on tuesday which was a big shock for me when I got home. And then Huskey developed a cyst so we took her to the vets saturday and noticed she was looking decidely round as well where the vet confirmed she was pregnant to and has given birth to her litter today. So there are many rats here. Because we adopted not bought, there was a limit to what pets at home could do but have lent us cages so we seperate Huskey before she had her litter and then when they get old enough we will split the boys out so we don't get any more. Then it'll be about finding new homes for them all.

On the art front I did finally create a scrapbooking page and I like it. It was nice to finally take the pictures from our roadtrip and make a page from them. I might do a second page but not today. Plus I have been doing more of the cockerel stitching, it really is slow moving but I am getting there bit by bit and apart from finishing some penpal letter tonight, I plan to do some more of the stitching whilst watching Lost :)

Quick Update

2009-03-21T20:20:00.001Z

Do have things to add and have been meaning to all week but I am free time tomorrow so a proper update tomorrow it will be. However excited as I finally bought the road trip scrapbooking kit I bought over a year ago and have found the photo's I plan to use with it so looking forward to having a go at putting together my first ever proper scrapooking page tomorrow :)
More to follow tomorrow.

Butterflies

2009-03-09T21:40:00.002Z

I do think Butterflies are awesome which is why I always get involved in swaps which include butterflies because I know I will always get an idea to run with. This time I made use of a giant poster I got from a newspaper which had lots of butterflies on them and what they actually were. So my ATC's this time round are nice to look at and educational as well :)

It seems like Sunday always end up being an Art day as Sam heads back to Swindon in the afternoon so I can completely free time with no thought about work which allow me to be creative. I just need to get myself in the habit of being creative in the week as well. I also did a journal page which I will post when I remember

Sorting leads to more mess

2009-03-05T23:09:00.005Z

I have a couple of days off work which is nice. Got leave to use up so took a couple of days. I was trying to sort through some stuff yesterday which only led to me rediscovering fab bits to use plus a couple of pieces of stitching I had started. So I decided to finish one of them which is a halloween piece. Its all completed not although there are supposed to be lots of french knots on it but I tried and tried and could not do them so I am leaving them off. Its look fine without it. I managed to do french knots well once for a Tatty Ted piece but rarely use them so then when it comes to doing them somehow they just don't work out.

I have also been doing a little journalling. Am planning to hit the post office tomorrow with many packages so wanted to get some things completed. One of which is Shirley's journal, part of the swap. I will be sending it on although have not received another one yet but thats good because otherwise I'd worry. Here is a page from it, I did a couple of others but don't want to give it all away cos I might not do anything else and then what will I chat about :) Although with the free time I am hoping to do some fun pieces :)

Slow and steady

2009-03-02T22:46:00.004Z

I have been plodding along bit by bit with my stitching and so it slowly progresses. So much for my at least one a month from the calender. Its nice to get one a day but how would anyone stitch one a day :)

Been doing little bits in this journal which is part of a swap in my penpal group on livejournal. I need to get it sent on but still want to do a couple of pages. So I need to find the time. Plus its finding time to go to the post office. Damn them and their being open only during working hours :) Got many packages to send which I need to pack up and get down there. Still haven't had a proper chance to enjoy my awesome scrapbook kit and the many other bits I have bought from hobbycraft recently. Maybe this weekend.

Awesomest kit

2009-02-23T21:33:00.005Z

I got some of the most awesome stuff. Firstly is this awesome scrapbooking kit which I picked up from CostCo when we joined at the weekend. It was worth joining up for that alone as it has sooooo many different pieces in it as well containing an 8" scrapbook and a 12" scrapbook. I had a look at some of the bits and plan to make some time to really think about what pages I want to create as I have so many photos. The question is when I will find the time.

Then my friends Jenny and Steve sent me awesome birthday gift, one of which was Watchmen Comic and the other was a make your own wire jewellery which looks awesome. I am already thinking what beads I could get to make great stuff and haven't even started making anything yet. There is this great bead shop on Gloucester road where you can get lessons in making jewellery and they sell loads of beads. Once I get the hang of it, I am totally heading there for some great beads.

Yesterday I watched Juno which was a great film, really loved it and whilst doing that I also continued with my cross stitch which was nice as it meant I managed to get quite a bit done and I felt like I really made use of my time by doing two things at once which was nice. Its not moving as quickly as I would wanted to work on at least one a month and we are nearly at the end of Feb. So much to do, so little time.

Mail in, Nothing Out

2009-02-19T22:03:00.004Z

It was my birthday at the weekend as that kept me busy with drinks out with friends saturday night and then family do on the sunday as I share my birthday with my Grandad and he turned 80 this year. So not much art took place but quite a bit of drinking and eating.

Mail had been slow recently but now we have fit february it has perked up again which is nice. The cookbook that the blindswap ATC girls had been working on finally turned up and a beauty it is too. So many recipes inside as well, I am looking forward to giving some of them a go.

Also from a penpal group on Livejournal we are having a journal swap and the first one turned up for me to work in. Its a good size so looking forward to just having fun with it. Shirley also included a little book for me which is nice. Its always nice to receive extra's.

Apart from that been chatting a little online with people, getting to know some of the people on Artistic Avante Garde a bit better which is nice. Its always good to get to know new people who you can share your art with and learn from. Managing to keep on top of updating my blog, not as often as I'd like but have been doing it at least once a week so keeping to my resolution so far :)

Colours

2009-02-10T23:19:00.005Z

Saw this on Janet's blog so thought I would give it a go. They didn't have purple so couldn't pick it as a colour and violet is not the same as purple.

Your rainbow is strongly shaded yellow and green.

What it says about you: You are an intelligent person. You appreciate optimism. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality. You're good at getting people to like you.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com

Journalling

2009-02-07T15:10:00.009Z

Its been a good art week as having finished my exams I have had some time to spend as well as having had idea's and wanting to try out new thins. So I took a couple of the backgrounds that I painted last Sunday and added to them. The blue one made me think of reeds at the edge of a river so I didn't want to add to much to this so instead commented on what I saw in it. The other page was created as I had been flicking through magazines and had seen some images I liked so had picked them out to possibly play with at a later date. This image of the girl appealed to me, there was something swedish feeling about it. I had just torn it out so hadn't really though about the words surrounding it but when I started looking at the article with it, some of the words I associated it with the picture so decided to make use of them as well.

This final page I had been wanting to try adding the extra of the picture myself through drawing and although it didn't it quite go as planned I still enjoyed it. And it is something that I will keep working on as I think it creates an interesting effect. I kept the other half of the page to help me draw the image but I did the grafitti myself. I had planned to put more grafitti behind it but were unsure what to put. I might use the top half of the picture for another page and see what I create for the grafitti behind it.

Shopping and Art

2009-02-01T18:57:00.010Z

This weekend has been an awesome weekend firstly because I had no plans, no commitments, nothing I had to do. That included any thoughts about college or work, having been off work for a week so no idea what I could worry about and having had my final exam Friday and had many drinks to celebrate it meant this weekend was all mine. So having started working on my cockerel I decided to pop to hobby craft to get the extra threads I need to complete it and ended uo buying all this stuff. As you can see I bought my threads but also picked up a book on rubber stamping which was on sale as were the 30 ink pads so hoping to have some fun playing around with all that at some point. Then picked up some ribbon as it was 3 for 2, plus are great for sending to other people.

So having been to hobby craft I go busy and made a couple of ATC's which I haven't done in ages which was nice. One is complete, and one is nearly complete. They are both so I can send returns for my unusual alphabet swap which I am very behind with.

Having had that fun, I spent some of last night and today continuing my cross stitch whilst we watched Hitman which was cool. And then I have done some more today. After Sam left this afternoon I decided to paint some journal page backgrounds which was fun. Its been a while since I got any paints out and I bought some new brushes the other day so having a bit of a play around was good. So they are currently drying by the patio doors whilst I had a quick flick through a magazine and got some great bits and pieces from it that I am planning to use for some journal pages of the future. I have quite a few journals on the go at the moment. I have one that is going between myself and Lia, I have a journal in a group swap so I am just working in the final one for that although we might start a new round. Can't wait to see mine. Then I have joined a journal swap on a penpal community on Livejournal which is just starting. Then I have a journal from an ATC group swap although this might be the last one as due to them having taken so long and been way-layed we are sending them back to the owners. So as you can alot of journal action has been happening all whilst ploughing along whilst watching tv with my cross stitching which is starting to take shape now.

Inspiration

2009-01-29T22:50:00.003Z

Thats right, amazingly now when I need to concentrate on revising and am not having to worry about work, now I am being hit by bits of inspiration and I don't have the time to think about following it. But I still keep doing bits anyway because I don't want to lose this inspiration. So this WIP I had previously I finished off with some writing today in the library.
I have been taking it with me to the library everyday so that when I take breaks or get hit by something, it is there to hand. And so some art has happened.
I have continued with the cockeral stitching as well so there has been a bit more progress with that as well.

Once my final exam is over tomorrow and I have had many drinks, whilst recovering on Saturday I plan to use some of the time to develop some of the idea's I have had over the last few days.

Cluck Cluck

2009-01-24T22:25:00.004Z

Firstly I made a start on my cross stitching project that I showed previously. As you can see its not got far yet but I an working on it, my exams are weds and fri so then I will have more time for these sorts of things.

I also did a journal page today whilst watching Phantom of the Opera and catching up on correspondence. Got a thing about patterns but I did enjoy creating it, there is just something about the squares and the way they are made up of squares.
Apart from that its been all work and revision round here. But not for too much longer.

injured foot

2009-01-18T17:54:00.004Z

Thats right during a fun weekend in Cardiff, I have injured my foot. We were staying in a nice hotel and getting in their swimming pool Saturday afternoon I slipped along the edge of the step, you wouldn't have thought much of it, apart from hurting lots. And this is the current state of my foot. It doesn't hurt generally but maes walking a little difficult at times. But that didn't stop us heading out for some drinking that night and dancing at an 80's club called Reflex. All the 80's music was awesome so we had a good laugh and headed back to the hotel sometime past 11.

As for Art, none was done over the weekend although I did do some revision yesterday afternoon at the hotel. I need to do some more this evening as well as my exams are just over a week away. However I have a plan for some cross stitching. I got a cross stitch pattern a day calender which is awesome and I plan to complete as many as I can this year (well that I like anyway). So here is the first one I plan to do, Angie in America loves cockerals so I thought she would like this. I like to cross stitch for others otherwise my house would be way too full of cross stitched stuff :) Plus its nice to give gifts.

Good idea's wasted

2009-01-15T22:37:00.002Z

I have had some good ideas recently but no time to put them into action. Admitedly as usual they come at bad times like when I am driving, one of the best times to think. Thing is I know when I find the time, I won't feel the same about the idea. It won't have the same appeal, like the moment has gone, the feeling that went with it won't be there and in my mind I won't think it'll work so it never happens. Well maybe it will happen but we shall see.

Bit late for Christmas stuff ....

2009-01-11T20:06:00.006Z

But I was behind the whole way leading up to Christmas and I have a couple of small stitching kits so I am thinking work on them now and then they'll be ready for Christmas Cards next year :) Plus cos I am busy studying at the moment its small projects that I can just pick up and put down which is nice. This working and studying is hard work. But I have learnt a lesson from this first semester, keep up with everything during the term and start my assignments earlier.

So true to my resolution I have made time for a little art and to update this blog. But it is only the first week of the resolution so we shall see how it goes. Last night (and I mean late) I got some inspiration and started doing some stuff in my journal. Both pages are works in progress because on the left is just the background for something and the right was me spilling my mind on the page but I was to ass some colour to it. It was nice to be being creative again but no time for it at the moment. Need to focus on these assignments :)

New Year, New Art

2009-01-05T22:58:00.003Z

Hello to you all who actually still come here. Happy New Year. I know in the last few months my updating of this has been poor which is why I have made a resolution to update this at least once a week and this coincides with my other resolution which is to make time for Art as least once a week. Now previously I would have said that wouldn't be a problem but since starting this new role in Spetember, starting studying my CIPD part time in October and having a drum lesson once a week as well as trying to get to the gym, Art has not been given enough time. And thus my resolution has been made.

Me and Sam popped to the mall at the weekend which meant I got to pop in Hobbycraft and I bought a few bits which were on sale. I didn't necessarily need the stuff but it was all in sale so meant I got it cheaper than I would at other times throughout the year. Now I just need to find the time to play with it. It won't be this week as I have 2 assignments for CIPD due next wednesday and I have much work to do on them. But I will make some time at the weekend thus fulfilling my once a week goal.

I bought some lovely papers and a pack full of christmas stuff which was super cheap. Some new glue (I am running low) and some canvas panels (only small) as I do plan on getting out my acrylic set I was bought a couple of years ago to try and do some stuff with.

Completed the Christmas Book

2008-12-09T23:09:00.005Z

Thats right, I achieved my goal and completed my Christmas Book. Once I got started on it again, the idea's just kept coming and it was nice to just get absorbed in it. Here are some pictures.

My Book originally started with a Christmas theme however once I did the first couple of pages I realised that thinking of idea's for that many Christmas Pages would be hard however it did give me the idea to then turn it into a year theme book. So each page is a theme that is sometime in the year.

So you have valentines day, Spring, Summer, Halloween and then a couple of pages on Christmas. Then the actual outside of the journal has a winter theme :)

Where does the time go?

2008-12-09T10:39:00.004Z

I cannot believe my last post mas mid november, we're close to that in December! That is awful of me! So I am back, plodding alot with some christmas crafting when I get the chance. There is so much going on with work and studying and general house stuff that art has been taking a back seat. My plan for making Christmas Cards hasn't really happened, I have made 2, yes thats the same amount as when I last posted. I have a couple of WIP's but not enough to cover my whole family so some bought cards it is going to have to be this year which is a shame as I know they like receiving my handmade cards. I just don't know if I have the push in me to make some in time for last posting dates but I am sure I will try.

What I have done some work on however is a Christmas book swap which I signed up for. I am part way through mine but must finish tonight to send it tomorrow for last USA post. These are some of the pages. It didn't have to be a christmas themed book however that's what I fancied doing. I have made some raised embellishments and on another page are baubles which are also flaps but I haven't decided what to put under them yet. Its either gonna be pictures or some nice christmas phrases. I am sure I will be inspired by something (well I hope!)

Thats about it for now however I have done a couple of journal pages recently but I'll save them for another day. Maybe I'll have some more christmas cards to show soon or maybe the finished book.

Christmas Cards

2008-11-17T22:41:00.002Z

Thats right I actually started making my Christmas Cards after all the talk that I should do it and kind of picking out designs and such. I have a few works in progress however I do have 2 complete christmas cards that I did this weekend :)

I got the idea from a scrapbooking magazine where someone had made a tag/decoration for their tree from buttons which I thought looked cool so I decided to give it a go on a card and it turned out well I think. Luckily I already had quite a few red and green buttons but I did buy some new papers for the background. This is only one of designs, I am working on a couple of others but no finished products yet!
It made me happy to actually make some christmas cards, I just need to keep moving with it. But achievement helps motivate more achievement :)

2008-11-10T21:54:00.004Z

This is one of our gerbils, we adopted them off Sam's sister. They are quick little things and I did have the other one out to take a picture but it leapt from my hand and I spend 45 mins trying to capture it.

I finally found my camera cable (yep was in the front of my work bag!) and so I though I would do a quick share. This is a page I did in Lia's journal before I snet it back to her. More tissue paper fun.

I do actually have pictures of all the pages but I will save them in case I don't do anymore art this week ;p Also I don't know if Lia has received the journal yet and I don't like to spoil whats in it. Nothing better than the first time you see a page!

Busy busy busy

2008-11-10T16:50:00.003Z

Thats right as usual I have been busy and so my Art has suffered as has this poor blog. But part of it is a lack of time management which I have been studying recently in my CIPD course and so I plan to better at that. Plus I plan to try and update this more as I do little things even if they are only parts of projects and this will keep me in link with my online art buddies.

So today was wet day here in the UK and I got very soaked and cold due to no umbrella. I walked to work from the station to find the Mail Centre on Fire which meant I spent the next 40mins in the carpark before heading back to the station to get back on a train to Bristol. I was very cold and wet. But quick trip home for a change of clothes and then into Bristol Mail Centre to work.

In terms of Art I received my journal back from Lia at the weekend which made me a happy bunny. We had started so well with our work switch back each month but over the end of summer and recently we have both been busy. However both of us have swapped back which gives us a chance to work in our own journals again before switching again. I am going to plan some time in over the next couple of weeks to work in it so I can switch back again. Its fun to see Lia's work and the excitement when you get the journal with new work in is fun.

I have also been cross stitching recently but a pre-prepared pack. I bought a hello kitty bookmark which I am stitching for my friend Frances which I hope to send to her soon as a surprise.

I have also started my Christmas Cards (yes thats right) as the moment its just a couple of small things but I have chosen a couple of designs and painted the front of one card at the weekend to see how well it works. I am test running that design and I will see how the card turns out. So I will keep you all updated.

I don't have any photo's as I cannot find my cable at the moment to link my camera to my computer but once I do there will be some pictures to share. Hopefully I will find it tonight!

Love to all my arty friends and those I haven't met yet :)

Halloween

2008-10-05T18:48:00.004+01:00

I have started on some halloween art having started a handmade postcard swap on livejournal in a mail group I am in. Also I like to send candy to my family in the states and saw this great small box idea in one of card making magazines. So I have been busy this weekend making a couple of these boxes. I drew up my plan on a big of paper and then cut it out to check I had all the flaps and such I needed. The example in the magazine was about using die cut to make the box so had to plan it out myself (which I enjoy doing anyway).

It was supposed to have an acetate window in the box so that you can see the candy inside but that would have been more complicated and I worried it would take some of the rigidity out of the box as it is quite thin card.

Then this is my postcard. I bought a cat punch for 29p and I thought it would look good like a cat against the moon. So originally was going to do black cat against white but changed it as thought it would look better. However I might change it up as plan to make a few to send out even though we are only going to have one partner. Its nice to send people mail.

I am just hoping I find the time to make all the halloween boxes, 5 for the kids in America and 2 for my niece and nephew here in the UK. Better get working on it

Hmmmmmmm

2008-09-30T10:43:00.002+01:00

All I seem to talk on here about is the lack of Art I have done but then I don't want to write nothing and have you all disappear as its nice to chat and hear your comments. Since my House ATC's, I haven't done alot. I have been slowly cutting out circles to make buttons for an Unusual Alphabet ATC but I manager to draw and cut out 7 last night because I was trying to tidy up my house. Because I am living alone in it at the moment, I have totally been letting things build up, not putting them right away and such so it was a real mess. But I got lots done and the guinea pigs cleaned out so its looking better. Quick rush round with the hoover tonight will make it look even better. I have just been getting tired out and work and the travel so been wanting to do very little in the evenings. And laziness breeds more laziness and so it has continued. However I am trying to get myself out of this so hopefully more will come.

I did start doing a little bit of stitching over the weekend, we were visiting Sam's parents so I started on a hello Kitty bookmark I bought which I plan t send to a friend. See stitching has disappeared as well. I thought I would be good and not start anything new until I finished my Noah's Ark piece but it has made things worse as I have just been stitching nothing. I guess taking a break from the big pieces to do little pieces helped motivate me to keep going.

So I hope everyone else is well, the weather here in the UK was nice at the weekend but taken a big dip today. Much rain!

House ATC's

2008-09-21T18:52:00.005+01:00

Horray from some crafting actually being done. It was nice to do this and I think they are fun. Plus I am organising this swap so have been seeing all the fantastic cards which have been coming in. Gives me first picks on which cards I would like from the swap. It's nice to do something a bit different, not just the normal shape.

But I am not letting my crafting afternoon/evening finish there, I have lost on the tv, a bit of food on the stove and I am going to continue making things. Working on a couple of cards at the moment, making use of a cat stamp I bought a couple of weeks ago. I am sure I will add photo's later in the week.

Its going to be a busy week as I start my new role within Royal Mail tomorrow being Assistant Business Partner for South West Wales, Kate officially left on Friday for her maternity leave with nice presents. So its just me from now on whilst still keeping my old role going for a few more weeks. This is likely to leave me little time for fun on my computer whilst at work. But there are always the evenings.

Also we got another guinea pig following the death of Takumi about 3 weeks ago. We picked ourselves up a little ginger one as the picture shows and we have named him Dave. Yes I realise this is rather a human name for him (going with our other pig, Patch) but I suggested it as a sort of joke last night and its just seemed right.

So enjoy the art and the cute picture of a guinea pig :)

Christmas Cards

2008-09-13T16:40:00.002+01:00

I said about Christmas cards beginning of August and the most I have done is seen some cards I like the look of (from a booklet out of a card magazine) which I am thinking of making. Trying to go for not too difficult to make ones and one's I can make use of some things I already have, so can adapt the slightly.
Actually that's lie, I did buy a stack of Christmas papers 4" by 6" when I went with sam's mum a couple of weeks ago to this cool little stamping shop in London. It had loads of stamps and I did succumb to one even though I don't stamp often. It has 9 little frames which have different aspects of a cat in them. very cute and one I though I could use many times on different cards and postcards.
There was good variety and I was sure I could make use of some of them in my christmas cards.
I have done a little bit of work in Lia's journal but won't put it on here because I like to keep it secret until she gets it!

Lack of updates

2008-09-04T10:14:00.005+01:00

Apologies for no updates recently. Just been distracted by work and having a week off, plus one wedding and another this weekend. Life has gone into overdrive and the art has fallen away.

I don't like the fact the art has fallen away but I am lacking something to draw me back in. I have done a little bit of work in a couple of journals but nothing major. I am unsure what to do at the moment - there are just so many things in my life to get sorted out.

This ATC is one I created over a month ago but had lost track of which I am sending out to a friend as a RAK. It was fun to make as I like drawing in Silver on black. Its a nice effect. I have more images from this collection which are fun and which I had planned to make cards for but as you can see they have not been done yet.

Anyway I just wanted to update you all on the lack of art at the moment. I am off to a wedding this weekend so looking like their won't be any art created this weekend.

A single page

2008-08-15T12:02:00.002+01:00

Thats right, I have done a single page of art this week which I did on Sunday on the train back from London. However I have been preparing for a job interview this week so that has been taking up alot of my time plus we joined the gym which was nice. Anyway I had the interview about an hour ago and it went quite well so fingers crossed. It for a 12 month maternity cover in the Royal Mail who I already work for but its a development move and I'd be working in Cardiff.

Anyway so thats my reason for a lack of art and now I am back to London today for another Hen Do (My cousins this time - I had 3 possible things to attend tonight). So with the interview out of the way, more time for art and I do want to get back into it. So bring it on. I have agreed to host a house shaped ATC swap on a UK group I am in but the due date isn't until mid spetember so gve me time to finish off the couple of things I still need to do. Meaning I will be all clear on commitments (apart from the house ATC's).

So here is my single page. I had some fun colouring the background and then added the couple of business cards I had picked up from our Hen do trip - the Haymarket hotel where we had cream tea and the karoke bar.

still no art

2008-08-09T12:43:00.001+01:00

Nope, not been arting it up at all this week and now I am at my dads down near London for a Hen Do tonight. Should be good, champagne tea at a nice hotel, karoke and then clubbing. So I did bring my journal with me but doubt much will happen in it this weekend although might do some stuff in it on the train back to Bristol tomorrow. But thought I would just say hi to everyone. And no I have done nothing to with my Christmas cards yet either. But I still have it in my mind so not been totally forgotten yet :)

Christmas will soon be here

2008-08-05T10:00:00.003+01:00

I know that is a silly thing to be saying in August but come on, how quickly has this year flown by so far. Christmas will be upon us before we know it and so it makes me think I should be thinking about what I am going to do for my christmas cards this year. I normally don't start in time, wait until like November and then become busy with work and completely run out of time. I also often take on a few projects groups are doing and before I know it am swamped and really feeling the pressure. So I plan to dig out some magazines and see what inspires me for Christmas cards and start thinking about what materials I would need.

Heres an example of one I made last year. I had real fun making these snowmen and I would be tempted to make the again this year except I cannot remember who I sent which cards to and do not like to send the same one to people. But might make use of this for Christmas tags (which I don't normally make but if I am being good and starting early - there is a possibility).

No craft from Paris

2008-08-04T12:47:00.003+01:00

I did no crafting in Paris so there has been an absence of crafting recently. Last night I did some cross stitching whilst watching Catch and Release (I had seen it once already but wanted to watch it with Sam too). It is still the Noah's Ark piece which I find tough to work on, normally I would start doing a small piece and come back to the big piece but with my resolve to finish it before starting something new, this has not happened. I just need to get it out at all times whilst watching TV or something and keep working on it.So this is the last Round III Journal I worked in. You can't read the words but its just saying about the journey of live, growing as we go and learning lessons. It was nice to make use of some of the material flowers as often I am unsure of how to make use of these. When I saw the journal and then this paper I knew I wanted to make use of this paper so when I was hunting for how to embellish the flowers seemed perfect. A nice colourful page I think. Just a couple more round III journals to work on at the moment so I need to have look through and seem what inspires me :)

Where does a week go?

2008-08-01T23:52:00.001+01:00

We've lost another week already. I had a fab time in Paris, just relaxing and wandering the city, having a few drinks, eating in cafes, a bit of shopping as well as a trip to the eiffel tower (but not up it) and a cemetery full of dead artists. Lots of fun was had by all, I did take a journal with a plan to do some pages but never found the time.
I have done another one of the Round III Journals which I will add pictures beginning of next week.

What to do with all the Art?

2008-07-24T16:45:00.002+01:00

I do so much art and take part in all these swaps but I guess the ultimate question is what to do with it all. There is so much lovely stuff and I would like to display some of it but there is only so much space in the house and if I am to display it - How?
I have had in my mind for a while about making my own coffee table book with ATC's in it which would mean making the whole book myself and different pockets to display the ATC's - hopefully making pages in a theme to relate the the ATC's being displayed (I don't have a coffee table) but one of those kind of books people see and have a urge to flick through.
Apart from that I am unsure what to do with it all as well as the many postcards I have collected from penpals and such. I don't want to throw them away because that would be a waste but I don't think storing them forever is the way forward either! Hmmmmm

I did a journal page for the journals we are doing as an ATC group so that one is on its way to Belgium. I did take a picture but don't have my camera at work so will add the picture at a later date. The theme of the book was about the journey of life so I did a page with plants on it showing how we grow.

I am off to Paris tomorrow for a long weekend for a hen do and plan to take a small journal with me (yes I bought a moleskin) so it will be coming with me to capture any great moments or thoughts. My plan is glue, scissors and a couple of pens to keep me going. Don't want to be carrying too much stuff round!

Been quite a while since an update

2008-07-21T12:59:00.008+01:00

and for that I apologise. I had intentions to add those pictures the next day and even started a post but never finished it or added the pictures, last week was a very busy week with work and I was travelling all week hence no update but I have done loads of artwork which I want to share with you guys.

Firstly to the buttons which you were all expecting. So as you can see I had lots of fun making paper buttons and put them to good use making many things. First I made a background for an ATC not exactly sure what I was going to use it for but then inspiration hit me and an unusual alphabet ATC appeared which was nice as it had been a little while since I had made an ATC having founf they were turning out right so it was nice to make it without the pressure. I have quite a few unusual alphabet ATC's to make to send back to people but I am trying not to push myself on them otherwise I feel they are not turning out as well as they can.

I then made the postcard not totally sure what I was going to use it for and originally thinking I would send it to a penfriend but instead I used it for an original art swap on swap-bot - my very first on there which meant I only had to make one other for the swap (partly breaking my not signing up for anything rule but only a tiny bit) and I made a zen postcard for that which I will show later.

Lastly I felt I should share my button fun and so I made this journal page in my journal which is heading to Lia to work in as part of our round robin. They all just look so cute on the page.

Following on from this I have been doing alot of work in journals, finishing up Linda's journal and sending it on to the next person in the group as well as doing some work in my journal for my round robin with Lia and sending that off as well.

This page was painted quite early on in the journal being with me, it was fun to do as I don't paint with acrylic often and I haven't quite sussed out how to stop it bleading onto other pages and such. Luckily it only slightly caught a couple which were my pages so it didn't affect anyone elses work. It looks so nice that for a while I didn't know what to add to it and so I ended up just adding some words to it so that you could still see the strokes the brush had made and still feel the texture of the paint.

This is a page about how our trip to Afan had to be called off leading to us driving back ome from Wales and needing a plan B as we had days off work and we didn't want to waste them. Then the page next to it is about our plan B and how we went to cardiffd for a couple of days having many boozy drinks and wandering the city. I added some bits about the places we went from leaflets and such.

This page was inspired on one of my travels with work. I was thinking about how much I love to touch stuff and so I drew the bit in the middle whilst on the train and then added the rest when I got home making use of many different textures. This page is more about how it feels that how it looks. I touch so many things in shops and with the journals I have look at the and feel all the pages as I feel like its another aspect to them

This was the final page in Linda's journal, a farewell page to see the journal off. The stamp of the butterfly didn't turn out as well as expected and I drew over some of it with a silver pen however you cannot see that in this picture :)

Buttons

2008-07-06T21:53:00.003+01:00

This weekend it has all been about buttons but not actual buttons but paper buttons. I made an envelope a couple of years ago and I felt like making more paper buttons again. However this time I made an ATC background, a journal page and a postcard. Thats right I made an ATC this weekend - one about buttons for my unusual alphabet. I liked the way it turned out but then I didn't originally plan to make an ATC so maybe that was the key.
Due to having to come back from Afan due to bad weather (lots of rain does not mix with Mountain Biking) we ended up going to Cardiff for a couple of days which was cool. So when I got back I journalled a couple of pages about it.
Well I did a page about needing a plan B due to having to abandon Afan. I had already done a couple of backgrounds using ink pads so I could take the journal with me to Afan but obviously it didn't get used. I did take it to Cardiff but didn't write in it. However I did pick leaflets and such up from places we went so I could make use of them. Which I did when creating my page about our trip to Cardiff.

Pictures to be added tomorrow!

Ticking off the list

2008-07-02T21:34:00.004+01:00

Thats right I managed to tick some thing off the list which I had to complete. A couple of things sent out which I needed to send out but still things needing to be done. Hopefully I will get there in the end.
Still working in the journals and loving it. I did a couple of background for journal pages yesterday so I could take my journal on our trip. I painted a background with blue paint which slight dyed the strong holding it together but only for a couple of pages - need to figure how to stop it doing that. I also used ink pad to lightly colour a couple of pages - one side yellow, one side red.
I have done some actual pages in the journal though - I added another sketch to the bottom of the other page although it didn't turn out how I wanted but I left it in anyway - after all its development.

I did a sex and the city page from last week where I went to see Sex & The City movie whilst I was in Leeds for Work. It is the first time I have ever been to the cinema alone so its about that experience and how it made me feel.

Another page I did was some purple striped paper as a background and originally I was going to write on it but then I thought, no this will look nice as just a picture page. So I got out my silver ink pad and some hand stamps and left lots of handprints all over the page. I like the effect it created so decided not to add any words as I don't think it needs it.

Thats was fun I liked it. I have alos been working in my journal for mine and Lia's swap but I will post them once we next swap back as I like her to see them in person first.

Linda's Journal

2008-06-25T09:44:00.002+01:00

Linda's Journal Page 3
Originally uploaded by seussscat

Did some more Art last night. Firstly I made use of a doodle I made in a 2 day meeting last week. Even as I created it I knew I would probably turn it into a journal page. I wanted to be specific with my doodling - I had a feeling of what it had to look like and wanted it to look right. I did it ring by ring as such working out from the original HI. The joy of a 4 colour biro was especially handy. No green in this though, I didn't think it would look right. I also did a sketch before bed whilst Sam and Matt were playing XBox 360 (I surprised Sam by buying him an XBox 360 - he was not expecting it, A big Present for him) of one of Guinea Pigs - Takumi eating. It was quite tricky as he kept eating for a little bit, then going to get some water and then coming back plus he went to bed before I had finished however I had the general gist of the picture so I just finished it off. It was nice to sketch as its been a little while since I last sketched and even longer since I did it based on a subject I was looking at rather than just from my imagination. It turned out quite well - Sam thought it was a good sketch which was nice.

Journals but no ATC's

2008-06-23T12:02:00.002+01:00

I have been continuing in peoples journals as normal. I sent on Karen's Journal mid last week and so now I have started working in Linda's Journal. I have done 2 pages so far. One was around donating blood and I put my old blood donor card in the page. I finally got up to 5 donations in total and so I got a new blue card. I was really quite proud and this is what started the page off.
I also did a page based on reading someone elses entry in the journal. This was about how you really feel like you know someone by reading through their work in the journals and getting to see and touch them. Its such a great experience when you first get the journals and start reading them. I normally flick through at first to see the different pages and then come back to them and have a proper read, touching the pages and such. With this page, again playing with tissue paper, was doing this whilst watching fight club at like midnight on saturday. I seem to work quite well in the evenings (it was the weekend so wasn't mentally worn out from work or anything).

On the ATC front however, nothing is coming from me. I need to make some, I have unusual alphabet cards that need to be made and sent out but I have no want to make ATC's. I'm not sure what it is, I don't know if its the working on such a small scale, the fact my idea's haven't been turning out as I wanted them to or the lack of idea's (although for the unusual alphabet, I already have quite a few idea's written down). I'm just not sure what it is but I don't have the same feeling for them at the moment. I want to get my swaps completed and then maybe I will take a mini break from them or something - maybe by doing something else, my energy for them will come back. Who knows.

Will catch up

2008-06-16T16:06:00.005+01:00

Thats right I have promised myself I will catch up on all arty stuff I need to do e.g. ATC's, journals etc before comitting myself to any new swaps or projects, no matter how much I want to join in. I am a bit behind with some bits and I want to get them completed and sent out to people as I hate being behind. People are very understanding but it does not make it any better!

I am coming to the end of my time with Karen's Journal. I took with me when I was travelling around this week and although didn't get to work in it much I did get to do this page about travelling on the train so much. Limited materials to work with hence the simplistic nature of the page but I got what I wanted to say down. Then last night after getting back from NASS I had some fun with tissue paper making this page. I wrote about our time at NASS this weekend and what a great weekend it was. Apart from that its been quiet on the arty front what with lots of travelling with work last week and a 3 day weekend at NASS. But I will be sure to keep you up to date on how I am doing with catching up on my art!

sick and busy

2008-06-11T23:58:00.002+01:00

Hey all, I know not alot has been going on, not alot arty has been going on at all. I was feeling not so great most of the weekend, swollen glands, throat hurting, head pains so I didn't do any arting up (we were away visiting Sam's parents, I took a journal with me but no work). I briefly did a page a couple of days ago, mainly about being ill so nothing spectacular and I not really done anything since. I have been pretty busy with work too, lots of travelling this week on trains and such, Drum lesson Monday night, Aam met me at the station Tuesday evening and we had a couple of drinks down the pub and then I did some drum practice when I got home. Tonight was travelling to London so at my dads now. Tomorrow night is free but will be packing up bits for NASS before heading out Friday morning for our weekend at NASS (National adventure sports show) - www.nassfest.com. Its like a music festival but action sports instead so bmx, skate, mountain biking etc and some bands. We have never been before so should be exciting and just the 2 of us so quality time together. That has left art little time although I did write to a penpal! Sorry ladies and gentlemen - I hope to have something to show you soon.

Pictures!

2008-06-06T13:09:00.004+01:00

Thats right I finally took some pictures this morning and here they are to share with you. I have completed 2 spreads in Karen's journal so far. Firstly is a spread about a leaflet I got with my scrapbooking magazine about a scrapbooking event next weekend. I am at NASS that weekend but still eyed up what I would have gone to if I wasn't and what I though of some the classes being held.

This page was fun to make as I got to just rip up bits of tissue paper and then stick them on with glue. I was trying to be random in my patterning but trying to get a good range of colour which ends up not being so random. But I like the effect it created. I did this because it made me think of leaves and hence I drew all the leaves in green pen. That shade that looks blue is more greeny. It was fun to not write on the page but most of the time I do want to write. I also have plans to make use of tissue paper as background on some other pages but in different colour although who knows what I will write on them - that is the fun :)

I also worked in Lia's journal which is all sealed up in its envelope to send from the post office today however I did not take pictures because I wanted to surprise Lia. I forgot to take pictures at all but when it comes back to me after our next round I will be sure to take pictures for your viewing pleasure.

No Pictures

2008-06-03T11:39:00.001+01:00

I have been doing some good journalling work recently and I haven't taken any pictures so I can update you lovely people on them. This is clearly no good so my aim for this evening is to get out the journals I have been working in and take pictures of all my pages. Then I can add pictures and tell you all about the pages. So expect a better update tomorrow!

Journaling

2008-05-30T15:18:00.003+01:00

Mainly been journaling recently and have quite a few journals in my possesion at the moment yet I have not really take pictures of the pages I have done. I have Lia's journal as part of our journal round robin (with only 2 of us) which I will be sending for our next round this weekend. This page is from that. I have done other pages but don't want to put them all on here as want them to be a surprise to her.

I also received 2 journals from Seren for our larger round robin and so I am going to do 15 days in one and then 15 days in the next. I have already done a couple of spreads in Karen's journal but have not taken pictures yet so will do that over the weekend and post on here monday.

Then when I popped back to my dads there was another journal from seren but one from here collection to work in so now in a way I have too many journals to work in because I want to give them all a fair amount of time :) There was me complaining about no journals!

Memory Lane

2008-05-25T20:01:00.003+01:00

I was sorting stuff in my dads garage this weekend so I could bring it to our house and it was a walk down memory lane with all the stuff. I had so many pictures and such which I had cut from magazines and used to have on my walls. Now its not stuff to keep because its just cut outs from magazines and such but at the same time I didn't want to lose the memories that looking through it brought so I took some and started making some journal pages from it. They are mainly WIP's at the moment but I will add photo's in a couple of days and I'm sure I'll say more on them when I post the pictures

I did as I said

2008-05-16T23:06:00.004+01:00

and actually did some art yesterday. It was hard at first as I wanted to but didn't feel motivated and wasn't sure it would look right but once I got into it, it was all good. I first created an ATC from butterfly images for an image lottery on one of my ATC groups. I loved the colours of the butterflies and i did something a bit different but putting them on top of eachother to make it more of a 3d card but loved the effect. I just wasn't so sure about the background once I had done it, my card seemed bland but the couple of stickers I added made it look better.
Then using the scraps from making my ATC I created a journal page which looks like someones head with no face. Its odd but I liked the effect. It almost has a bit of a punk rocker look to it :)

Small rut

2008-05-15T08:36:00.003+01:00

I'm feeling rather unmotivated at the moment in terms of art. Part of this I know is because I am busy at work doing lots of data analysis which is turning my brain to mush and making me not want to do much. But I haven't done any art since the weekend and that was only a couple of zen ATC's in front of the TV, nothing major. Got in late from work last night and then had tons of ironing to do and by the time we had dinner it was half eight, quarter to nine and I just felt Bleurgh. I did a little stitching in front of the tv, thats quite relaxing but I didn't get much of that done either. Need to relax a bit and just go for it. Really I should at least be doing something in my journal, even if its mainly writing. Thats what I will do, I will push myself to at least do something in my journal tonight. Well another work day begins and lots more data analysis to be done, hello mushy brain :)

weekend zens

2008-05-12T16:01:00.004+01:00

I didn't do much arting (I feel more comfortable saying it now*) over the weekend. Here are a couple of zens I did. The sunshine one is ok, I do like the yellow sun. I like the 5 of Hearts Zen alot more, more effort went into to certainly. I think I feel that alot of detail should go into zen cards. Whether this is true or not is for each person themselves to decide, I guess in my mind, a good zen card has lots of detail but then I think other people's zen's always look better than mine.

*I had a discussion on here a while back about not being comfortable calling myself an artist and the work I do as art rather than craft. But when I went to write arting, it felt right, it felt wrong to put crafting because I didn't feel thats what I was doing. I felt I was creating art. Maybe I have turned a corner. Who knows. Bring on the Art!

Pats fab package

2008-05-08T15:43:00.004+01:00

Pat sent me though a fab package which had some many great bits in it that I still have not explored it all but want to do it when I really have time so that if I become inspired, I totally have the time to follow that inspiration. It was a mixture of my scavenger swap pack, my grab bag win and my yak pack win and she certainly spolied me. A nice big tin for altering, some stickers, paints, embellishments, images, ATC backgrounds and so much more. One big piece was a really big butterfly stamp which I just immediately wanted to use and thus the page above was born chatting about my great package. I liek the way the butterfly prints turned out as its like the butterfly is flying across the page.

been away for the weekend

2008-05-07T12:55:00.001+01:00

It was bank holiday weekend here in the UK and I also took the tuesday off so I have been away for a few days being adventurous. Saturday was mountain boarding which was great fun, sunday was driving to Wales, Monday was mountain biking in Afan Forest which was a great day although no one told us beforehand there was a 6km climb to get to the trails but the tiresome ride up was worth it as the trails down were great, then tuesday was drive home and chill out in Bristol. We did some great people watching and I had some great thoughts of inspiration but no journal with me so I just wrote down my possible idea's. Will be sure to take my journal next time I go people watching.

Under the Sea

2008-05-02T16:43:00.002+01:00

Real quick entry as have been mega busy at work and want to head home. Here are my 3 ATC's that I made for the under the sea swap on my UK group. They are all similar but I did hand draw the mermaid (hence they look a little different) and had limited time (been away with work quite a bit) but I like the way they turned out. So enjoy.

Circles

2008-04-29T09:06:00.005+01:00

Thats right I bought a circle punch. I was passing by hobbycraft on the way to a meeting in Greenford and I had some time to spare so I wandered in looking for one and I found a nice 1" punch for £2.99 but it was even better because when I got to the till, it was half price so I only paid £1.50. That made me very happy. Well I was busy over the weekend with my Dad visiting however I was up in Rugby Sunday night as I had an early morning meeting the next day and I had a little play with it. It was fun and I made sure to use lots of colours. Now I am thinking of all the other things I can do with it. Magazine pages and such, I could create such interesting patterns. I can see lots of fun to come in the future.

I also did a page on the way home from Greenford on Friday. This one is about weight and eating and I created the pattern to look a bit like a timeglass. It is a work in progress at the moment as I plan to add colour inside the patterns. This page was more about getting off my chest how I felt.

Zens

2008-04-24T15:26:00.005+01:00

Thats right I was zening it up last night and created my very first Zen ATC's. I decided to go a little bit different so used black card and silver pen. I really liked the effect it created. I have been worried about creating these before as I just wasn't sure what to create and was worried they would look rubbish. However I have seen many pictures with the rest of my blindswaps group having been making loads over the last couple of months and last night I just fancied it. I got started and really enjoyed it. Rather than worry about what designs I was going to do, I just went with the flow and followed my idea's as they came. This made it very peaceful and enjoyable. And so I give you my zen ATC's :)

Works in Progress

2008-04-23T16:40:00.006+01:00

So many journal pages I have started and that as such are works in progress. The first was created as a background as such and I have never put anything else over the top. It doesn't necessarily need anything else but I am sure I will.

The lady did not turn out as she should have at all. This was me experimenting with the pastels my friend bought me and I was going for a lady in a flowing dress with flowing hair - almost fairy like. It did not work, in that the whole overall look didn't turn out right and the face is awful. However I am not giving up on this page. I will do something with it, even if it is to write about how it didn't turn out right.

Then you have the garden one which I started as part of an illustration friday and since the deadline passed I have done no more with it. I love the idea when I first started as admitedly it didn't turn out as I had originally in mind I still liked it. I do plan to continue this and then to decide whether to add colour or not. I was umming and ahhing at the time as to whether I would and now I definately have more time to decide.

Finally this journal page is one I started on a train when I was on my way Coventry. It is part zentangling and part bits of conversation from the 4 american youths playing cards. I found aspects of their conversation funny and captured tiny snippets to intrigue the reader. I do plan to add a little colour to this. I only had my biro at the time so I did as much as I could and I have never got back round to adding the colour. Again this is something I will do.

Treats from the States

2008-04-21T14:11:00.003+01:00

I had family visiting for a couple of days from the states and Angie brought gifts for me. Some crafting treats for me. They all have sticky pads on the back so I am looking forward to making use of them in the future. Apart from that its been quiet in my crafting world. I have been busy, what with having a couple of days off to spend with my family, then 2 day meeting in Rugby with work and a birthday party this weekend in London. I was on the travel for 4 days and forgot to take my journal with me. So I got on with other things but no crafting. Clearly I will have to try and make that up this week :)

Journals

2008-04-11T14:37:00.002+01:00

I want to work in journals, I feel a need to work in journals and yet none are coming my way at the moment. Its been a bit slow on the swap I am on but I know one is heading my way. I have been looking on 1001journals.com and signing up for a couple more journals but the couple I had already signed up for are going nowhere. Odd because you would think I could just work in my journal and I can but somehow I feel more committed to work in a journal that is only mine to work in for a couple of weeks. To have one I can work in anytime does not push me to work in it. Admitedly over the last month I have worked more in my own journal but somehow it is still not the same. I am thinking about setting up my own journal on 1001journals, because it would be nice to see strangers work. But it seems to take so long for sign ups to take place and get going. One I signed up for is closed now, I was the last spot so hopefully the person will send it out soon.
I don't know what I would write in my journal - I see to shy away from writing person stuff in my own journal because then I'll have to look back at it and see it where as I have no problem putting it in someone elses journal and sending it off for people I don't know to read. Weird but not weird I guess. Who knows maybe I will work in my journal this weekend or maybe someone elses journal will turn up to work in.

Grafitti Postcard

2008-04-11T11:46:00.003+01:00

On my mixed media group we are doing a grafitti postcard swap at the moment. When I started I wasn't sure what I was going to do as my grafitti but I was going to have it on a brick wall. I started to colour paper brown to make a wall when my other half pointed out it wouldn't really work like that. So I drew my grafitti first and then drew the wall around it so it looks like actual grafitti on a wall. This is my first one, I wasn't sure what to do my grafitti and this is what first came to mind. As sam pointed out my lines are a bit too sharp for grafitti but I liked it how it was. For my next one though I am going to try and make it more rounded but will do the wall behind again. Its time consuming but it makes a really good effect I think.

Journalling it up

2008-04-09T12:52:00.008+01:00

I was journalling it up at the end of last week as it was just me in the house. The first page is making use of my pastels again. Then I did electro city page. This was making use of bits of a birthday card. I love the colours and the black felt on it so wanted to make use of it somehow. I had already cut an ATC background out of it which I have not used yet and decided to make use of the cut off's. I just started laying them on the page and it made me think of tower blocks and such. Thus electro city was created. The side bits are supposed to be liked bits of cloud coming out of the pipe.

Making use of a zen doodle I did on the train to Leeds over a week ago, I created my Zentangle page. I put the original doodle on and though about how I could extend it. I wanted there to be a difference between the

small page and the large page which lead to the using felt pen instead of pencil. I like the effect it created and the hypnotic feel to the page.

I haven't been doing much paper crafting/journalling this week as have been working on a cross stitch piece I am doing. A noah's Ark for my nephew's birthday in June. I started ages ago intending it for his birthday last year and just didn't work on it for ages so am getting on with it and getting it done.

Spring Inchies quilt

2008-04-02T10:32:00.004+01:00

Thats right my spring inchies quilt has arrived. So all those inchies I made have been put into everyone's quilts and now I have lovely inchies from all these other people. I really like the quilt, its very nice but I do wish I could see which are everyone elses. I am now not sure what to do with. Some people are going to frame theirs, I feel like it would make a good coaster but it is too big and I don't want to cut it up. Hmm somethinking will have to be done.

I also completed my Unusual Alphabet ATC's to send to Rixta and they are now on the way to her in Australia. I was having a look through all my card and such looking for an image to go on a great background I had found and instead found this paisley card. It inspired me to make a paisley themed card as P for Paisley certainly is unusual. I really like the colours, more interesting than some paisley you find :)

Journal Joy

2008-04-01T13:27:00.005+01:00

Thats right, I have started a new journal, this one to be used in my swap with Lia. We are going to trade our journals every few weeks so that we end up with a journal with eachothers work in. On my trip to cardiff yesterday I decided I would find a journal and after a small exploration found a great arts store that sold the perfect journal. Smaller than I have worked in before but perfect for putting in your handbag and therefore a take along plus makes it easier to send. Its got a feely cover which I like.

So to celebrate I got started straight away last night, doing a couple of pages plus the background for another. I wanted to have a play with my acrylic paints for creating backgrounds and although myfirst page didn't turn out a originally intended it has taught me a lesson on acrylics and this journal. Its a sketch journal really for dry use and the use of a paint on it had impact on the page. I think If I want to do that again in the future I will do it on paper first and stick into the journal for the background. The yellow you can see through the brown but then I was watering it down a little so thats probably why. I kinda like and dislike my first page as I think it could look better but then it is a learning experience. At the moment I have just done the otherside in purple acrylic but not continued plans yet.

I then was inspired to do my 2nd page by the starting titles of the mighty boosh. Was watching loads last night and loving it which created this page of fun. I found it fun to make and liked the bold colours with the white. The lines make a bold statement which I might use for a background in the future.

Unusual Alphabet

2008-03-31T12:13:00.004+01:00

I was away at a hen do this weekend so I didn't do much however I was busy creating friday night with my man by my side offering me some idea's actually. It was good fun. I created 2 Unusual Alphabet ATC's to send to Rixta and I am going to do the 3rd tonight so I will be sure to post pictures tomorrow. I did a geisha one and a mermaid one. I was impressed with my mermiad one as I drew it myself - based on a picture I had. Some learning points gained from it and going to draw another one and learn from the experience of drawing the first.

I also made a geisha postcard which I am going to send to one of my pen friends in the states. Probably Nina as I think she will appreciate it. I got an image from the Mary Dover sampler and then coloured in only parts of the image to create a nice Japanese looking postcard. Again pictures and a longer update to follow tomorrow.

Had a good time at the hen night and was very tired when I made it home yesterday late afternoon hence no crafting, just lots of watching House.

Organisation is key

2008-03-25T11:40:00.006Z

Thats right I have got a new organiser which is great as the 3 drawers I had just didn't hold it all and Sam wanted to get it all put away together so we bought a 7 drawer thing from B&Q and I managed to fill up 5 drawers very neatly with all my bits and pieces. Well it started neat and tidy but since I have done some bits with it, it is not so any more :) I will sort it out again. If I keep it tidy it will be easier to find things, it just when you are in the flow, tidiness is not on your mind. That was actuallyabout a week and a half ago but it has made a difference plus whilst sorting through I found some new stuff.

I refound illustration friday as Lia started doing some pieces for it and I thought I would have a go but as usual did not finish it in the week timeframe, so at the moment I see it as a work in progress as I am unsure whether I want to add colour to it or not - hmmmm a little thought and then I will see. I wonder what this weeks theme is, see if it inspires me :)

I finally got my 4 elements ATC's done, horray - i don't know why its been such a challenge, they are very late so thanks to Julie for being so patient, my idea of what to do changed many times and a hald made card has been discarded for the moment but I am happy with these pastel creations. It was fun to play with the pastels and I learnt a little about blending from Sam which was good. There a bit abstract but I like the water and fire ones the best because they are so abstract.

I also did a little work in my journal. Without a journal to work in at the moment I am trying to work in my own journal as much as possible anyway. I want to try and work in it most days, even if its only a little bit. So i found these trees from a card and I liked the way they looked so decided to do something with them. I did the background and the trees but then was not sure what else I wanted to do however when working on my element ATC's I decided to see if I had a white pastel and see what effect that would have. I like what it did because it is like they are invisible clouds. I think I am going to leave it as it is without words. I think it says more that way.

Spring fun

2008-03-19T09:52:00.007Z

Last night I decide to get in the spirit of spring and get moving on my spring postcards. In the end I made two. I bought a couple of years ago a 365 day calender about scrapbooking in that each page can be used to scrapbook. I had done nothing with it until this year and picked out a couple of pages to make use of in spring postcards. One had a nice flowery background and I took some tags from a craft magazine to spell spring across. I really like the effect it made and actually used brads rather than just glue them down. Just sitting here now I have realised I could have put hidden pictures behind them and you could have moved the tags to reveal them. I will use that in a future postcard - I like the idea.

My other postcard is a bit more random. I used another page, it has a flowery border and then took some pictures from a different page to put in the corners. I think found a spring chicken tag as such. That looked cute in the middle but I realised something was still missing. So i dug out some flowery confetti and put that like snowflakes on the page. After creating it I decided it would probably have looked better without the corner images but they were already there.

Finally I finished off an Easter ATC I had been working on. I only needed to glue the final flowers on it but I think they just added a final touch to the card.

Ideas

2008-03-14T15:16:00.003Z

I haven't done any more art over the last couple of days but whilst driving back from my dads I had a couple of idea's for creating journal pages. It was frustrating because I could see them in my head and I was driving so there was no way to put them down but as soon as I got to where I was going, I dug out my journal and just jotted down the idea's with a little picture so I knew what I was thinking about. Then when I get back home tomorrow I can get started on them. A bit different to what I have done before so I am quite excited about giving them a go and hope they turn out the same as I saw them in my head.

Blog Revamp

2008-03-12T12:28:00.003Z

I am sure you have all noticed a few changes in my blog recently - like the creation of my very own title. I am having a little play and looking to try and make it how I want it to be rather than just how the template lays it out so it will probably change a few times other the next couple of weeks. Heres hoping you like the changes :)

Inchies and journals

2008-03-10T11:45:00.010Z

Been a little while since I updated because it appears I did not update at all last week - tsk tsk, plus I had things to talk about. So I got all my spring inchies done in one day, thats right 13 inchies in one day - I am not quite sure how I managed it but I did, I went on a theme as such making all 13 similar so I am guessing that helped. I have found inchies to be tricky before because of their small size but I just went with the flow this time and didn't worry to much and they came to me. I only have a picture on my phone (my camera had no batter power) so I will post a picture once I sort out getting it off my phone. But they all had bugs or flowers on them on either a green or yellow gingham background. They looked very cute and seasonal.

I also did lots of journalling work on Friday night. Having received 3 journals through the post from norma, sitting there when I got home from work that day and still having my own to complete (which I am glad I hadn't started as I thought we were making ATC's to go on them but not in this round) I felt I should get started so that I can send on to Katz as I felt like I had been holding things up (although wanted to send 2 journals together so had been waiting for them to come through). So Having had a flick through them earlier in the evening I had another look and was inspired to create in Vix's journal which was on friendship.

I found some background paper I liked, wrote how I felt about friendship in some of them and then thought about how to embellish, did the butterflies and then had quick search through my stash thinking what would fit. I had everything in but the kitten picture when I remembered about it and thought it would be perfect.

Then I though I better make my own so looked back through my papers and decided to cover it with musical paper. Thought be best to keep my page to the same theme but only a bit of paper left but looked better with the blue behind. Right from when I started the journal I kept thinking Money makes the world go around from Cabaret in my head so felt I should include. Once I had that done, my mind wandered to the music cat stickers I knew I had and bingo a page was created. Its not fancy but I like it.

Journal Page

2008-03-03T15:33:00.004Z

I did a small amount or artwork over the weekend. I was away and didn't really take anything with me however what I did take was my journal and a 4 colour biro. Working on the basis of zentangles which really is done on an ATC sized card/paper I purposely doodled in my journal. It was an interesting experience. I stopped and started a couple of times as I was travelling on a train and such but over the weekend I ended up with a finished page. At first my doodle looked like an eye which I wrote about but I had lots of balnk space on the page and I didn't want to leave it like that. So I decided to use a totally different colour (I had been using blue and black up until this point) and I started doing little squares in red. As you can see the finished project (photo to be added tomorrow) it ended up looking like a tunnel to me. I like the effect it created but hoped people can still see the eye. I was pleased with this page and I enjoyed creating it. It was quite calming which zentangles are supposed to be so from that perspective it was.

Pastels and Unusual Alphabets

2008-02-28T14:22:00.005Z

Last night as I was unpacking the bag of birthday presents I got from my friends I refound the pastels that my friend Adam had bought me. Immeadiately I wanted to play with them which is exactly what I did. I got out a journal I have only used a couple of times because I have not got into the swing of doing journal work not for a swap. Not sure why, maybe I should start trying to do it more. Anyway I haven't used pastels since I had an old set and used to draw on my walls at my Dad's - he didn't mind as it was wallpaper and he knew he would take it down one day but that was in my teenage years where you have all those emotions and you feel you want to make a statement. So I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but decided I would just have a play. I started just rubbing them on at first but it didn't look right and that's when I started blending it with my fingers. I of course ended up with different fingers for different colours and I can only really blend with one hand so I soon ran out of space but it was fun. I started with the background just thinking about enjoying using the colours and such knowing I would put stuff over the top soon, maybe some writing or something. The other page didn't turn out quite as I wanted it. I thought I would create a dreamy looking woman with flowing hair and a flowing dress but my drawing skills were not up to it, especially in pastel. The second I drew the high neckline I was like ahhhh no thats not what I wanted but I kept with it anyway and in the end turned out better than expected but not to what I held in my mind. Practice, practice will be the key.

Unusual Alphabet ATC's. I was glad to get these all done in the one night as I should have sent them yesterday but one day is late is ok. Well its not ok but its done now. I had thought about my idea's during the day and printed off the pirate and guinea pig pictures. The monster was a sudden inspiration upon finding the monster wrapping paper someone had wrapped one of my birthday presents in and thinking - AH HA. The pirate one was fun to make as I basket wove the background for it to give it a nice patchy effect which was realistic. Trying to stick squares on would have been a nightmare. That left with one left to do and i just looked at what I had and what letter I could do and thats where B for buttons was born from. I don't use my buttons enough and I do like them so it was nice to play around with them. So smooth :)

Plus I found the picture of the valentines postcard I sent and here it is. Couple of years ago I bought like a desktop calender which had pages you could use for scrapbooking everyday. And this is the first one I had used, Only took me a couple of years and I didn't use it for scrapbooking.

So thats it. I am off up to Rugby tonight with work for a conference tomorrow so I might take my journal with me to work on those pastels pages some more turning them from WIPs into winners :)

ATC's, Cross Stitch and more

2008-02-27T11:21:00.008Z

I got creative the other night and was busy finishing off cards, making news ones and working on a couple of postcards to go out to pen friends. Firstly these are my cross stitch cards which I made for a swap on MixedMediaATC_UK on yahoo. My cards arrived too late for the swap and due to lack of internet over the weekend I was unable to let Amanda know but we are going to do a one for one swap and so she will get to pick from these 3 cards. So the two she doesn't pick will be open for trade. Also I will have my all cross stitch card which I have yet to have refound yet. So if anyone is interested let me know, Always happy to do one for one trades. My favourite of these is the flags card. I like the though of stitching flags so I did this first not really thinking about what the background would be like but once stitched I decided that some different languages behind the flags would bring across the sense of other countries. I think the white paper is polish from a polish newspaper and the more brown paper which was a page I got sent, I think it is spanish but could not tell you for sure. I like the layering effect they gave and that is what inspired me for what I wrote around them.

Then we have this love theme card which seeing as were around valentines it is unsurprising I ended up making a love themed one. I love the material that I put over the top, again sent to me, probably in a grab bag win. You can't see it very well in the picture but I wrote love underneath in red which is what inspired me to call the ATC Hidden Love.

The one below is stitching meets doodle, I like that effect. I sometimes worry that doodle looks rubbish although I love to do it however I think

for this ATC it framed it nicely. Plus its what I wanted to do and enjoyed :)

I also made a couple of valentines card to send to Catherine and

Norma in the states in return for the lovely ones they sent me. Having got some vintage valentine images from the mary davis sampler I decided to have a try with them as I rarely use vintage images using more modern stuff but fancied giving it a go. I like the though of a secret admirer giving flowers. I loved the backgrounds for these, just images I searched out on google images and then printed out thinking how great they would be for back grounds but totally not knowing what was going to go on top of them at the time.

And finally on this creative night, although thinking about it I think it was over a couple of evenings. I made postcards to send to a pen friend. One was a valentines postcard which I don't seem to have a picture of at the moment - the question is did I take one. And the other was making use of some patterns I had printed off forever ago knowing I would love making a postcard from them and then losing them in the ether which turned out to be hidden in a work folder.

So that has been my creativity of late. Apart from that finished watching Season 3 of Lost and loved it. Might have to rewatch them as was really ploughing through them and I like to contemplate what I have seen and thinking about possible future storylines and how linked to previous stuff. Been playing with our new cute guinea pigs. Patch and Takumi. Both boys with black and white coats and such different personalities. Patch is bolder and easier to get a hold of where at Takumi is more jumpy and can run ever so fast, round and round the cage when trying to catch him. But both very good when you get them out, so loving them and spending time taming them. Bit of Guitar Hero last night, got it for my birthday so was loving the new songs to play to. Plus needed to chill after spending most of the day on trains travelling to different meetings. Yesterday was a long work day!

Pictures galore

2008-02-25T14:13:00.007Z

Thats right, having finally moved into our house properly and set up our PC i got the pictures off my new camera and thus I can share them with you lovely people. I added some pictures to a couple of older posts that I said I would add pictures so have a look back and see what wonders you might find (its only a couple of posts). Now I can show you the work I did in Seren's journal that I had around christmas time. I did quite a few pages before sending it off, although I did have it a little longer than I should have :( But I got it off after christmas which at least means it didn't get caught up in the christmas post.

Firstly I did a page based on the pantomime I went to see with a colleague at work. We went and saw Dick Whittington at the Hackney Empire. This was at he beginning of the first journal and so it was more writing than colour and art. At first I found it hard to encorporate art into it and at times felt that the page might be seen as boring as its only writing but I guess that is interesting as well as that is the insight into what the person is thinking. I just sometimes think the background might look dull.

I then created a page on butterflies - I love butterflies - I think part of it is you can make them so colourful and I am not sure what else it is. I like the shape. My writing is a bit rambling talking about how Seren's bubble page inspired me but in the end I wish I had cute out the shapes rather than colouring them in. However this did lead me to create the page on the other side so maybe not so bad after all.

This page made use of the fact that where I had used colouring pens for the butterflies on the first journal page that they showed through onto this side. It made me think of the fact they were faded and almost made them look more like real butterflies than the bold colours on the previous page did.

This is a page that never was. I had this whole plan about how I would write down all the songs I listened to on my ipod on my journey back from Bristol one weekend on the train. I normally drive so no chance to create however I was getting the train back this sunday and so I thought it would be a good time to create. I drew the IPOD bit in advance and then got it all near the top of my page for the journey however once on the train I realised I did not have my ipod and thus the page never became. Thats why its says "This page never happened".

This was me rediscovering some card and paper I had bought leading up to Christmas on one of my trips into ArtBase the little craft shop down the road from us which I try not to go in too often because I always discover fab things I won't necessarily use but want anyone thus spending money. I had though the sparkly card was awesome and that I would use it in Christmas cards which in the end I did but only after I had rediscovered it and used some for this page. I like the winter effect the 2 pages give and I made squares because I like the pattern they make, I have a thing for patterns and have always loved making different patterns by colouring half the squares in a 4x4 block to see how many patterns I could make. When I was younger I did so many pages on them. In recent it has been Lia who has helped me move my pattern love to a different medium with her love of 1" squares and I decided to use this on this page.

This was my final page in Seren's journal. This was just after New Year and so thats what my thoughts were on. I don't really like making New Years Resolutions as I never stick to them which means I then make them with no real faith however I felt I should try and make some differences. So I wrote down my idea's of things I would like to do or what I wanted to change.

There you go, finally some decent pictures uploaded and some info on some of the work I had been doing.

Cross Stitch ATC

2008-02-14T10:29:00.003Z

As promised here is a picture of my cross stoitched ATC. It was fun to make although of course time consuming doing all the little flowers but I like the effect it has given. I plan to make some other all cross stitch ATC's in the future as it is something different.

Actually I have an article in a cross stitch magazine about people making mail art envelopes all in cross stitch - the put nice pictures on it and stitch the address on and send letters or such in it. I mean I partake in mail art but had never thought of that. It is awesome but can see it would be time consuming. Plus you need to keep stuff in plastic inside incase the envelope gets wet. So I do have a plan to see about making one in the future, I guess the question would be, who would I send it to :)

Hmmmm so many plans. Once I am in the new house though, much time for bringing these plans to life. Today is my last day at work so I have cakies with me and I must get on sorting everything I need to hand over. Then tomorrow is my birthday - wooooo. I start my new placement on tuesday next week so get a few days off :)