Pastels and Unusual Alphabets

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

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

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

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 :)

Pretty Postcard

I got sent this beautiful postcard a couple of weeks ago. It is made with Alcohol Ink on Steel so thanks to Seren for sending it to me. I think its great and very different to get a metal postcard.

I finished up an ATC yesterday totally done in cross stitch. I have started the background ages ago and lost it and then refound it just as on one of my groups there was a cross stitch ATC swap. Excited and knowing it would be a good basis to start I finished it off and got it made into a proper ATC last night. Forgot to take a picture but will add it tomorrow. Just need couple more ATC cards but will do normal ATC's with cross stitch on rather than a whole cross stitch ATC. It has lots of little flowers as the background and says Flower Power in green. I like it!

Still lacking a journal at the moment and I miss it. It was nice to be forced (as such) to write something everyday and be creative. I enjoyed being in the rhythm and I am missing it now. Hopefully my next journal from the swap will show up soon. Plus seren was going to include a truly collaborative journal where I can be creative on pages already started. Looking forward to that.

Fed up of no pictures

As still haven't set the pc up at the house and therefore cannot make use of my new camera however I did find the charger for my old so it is working and I have taken a couple of pictures of postcards just to add some colour to my posts.

I have sent Nathalies journal off now and have done a couple more pages in the Good or Evil journal and am getting ready to send it back. I wonder what the person will think of the pages and I guess I will never know but we shall see. I am hoping my next journal will arrive soon but I have not heard back from Seren on whether she had already sent it out or not. I will know soon enough.

I have also been making some postcards for a valentines swap on my penpal livejournal group and trying to make sure I am all caught up on swaps. I still need to finish up my elements cards and send out to Julie. My idea's are there I just need to sit down and create them and maybe I can fit that in tomorrow night when I get back from the gym. So busy in the evenings seeing people, off out for dinner tonight.

There is a mixture of pictures here. The first two are free postcards I picked up probably from my gym or the cinema and I am sending to a couple of friends because I think they are fun and colourful. The third postcard is one of the valentines postcards I made. I made use of some stickers from paperchase.

The final picture is of a valentines postcard I received from this swap. This one is from nina and a very friendly postcard as you can see.

Busy journaling weekend

That's right I was a busy bee this weekend, working on a number of journal pages. I have 2 journals currently with me, one is Nathalie's from our journal round swap which is going on and I have a couple more days before I need to send it back and also the Good or Evil Journal which I have had far too long but hadn't done many pages in so wanted to do a few more before I sent it back.
So in Nathalie's journal I have done 2, 2pages spreads. The first I did is around the issues I have had with Sam this weekend and so I did one page with red paper, one page with black paper and then with acrylic paint, did a heart in the middle but with it being the corresponding colour on the opposite page. It was nice to get my acrylic paints out again even though I didn't do much painting with them. I only have a small amount so I don't do backgrounds often and I may start but its fun to do little bits. It gave a really good effect and I wrote in black on the red and silver on the black, crossing over for the hearts. It looks awesome and I will add pictures when I get the loading of my photo's on our computer sorted. It is annoying me not being able to put pictures up because makes the entries more interesting but don't want to not write anything until I have photo's!
The 2nd double page spread was using different scraps of paper which had been left over from other projects. I often throw the bits away but I feel its a waste but then you cannot sometimes see who they can be used so this page is a bit random but it is a celebration of those scraps! It was fun to make.

In the Good or Evil Journal I put light blue card as an underlay and then used acrylic paint to put a few clouds on the page in white. I then used my black journaling pen to put some sentences around the clouds. I thought the page looked a bit empty so wrote some things about why I liked clouds and drew cloud lines round them. Its a peaceful page.
I half started a 2nd double spread for this. Again light blue paper but then I bought some rub ons which had butterflies and bee's and such on and I am going to do something with these but not decided what yet.

So as you can see a good weekend for journaling. I got my arse in gear on Friday night and put together all the grab bags I owed on my blindswapatcs group so got them sent out Saturday morning as well as finally finishing all the rest of H cards and sending them out. I also re found an old cross stitch project I had been working on which I had planned to do for Sam's sisters little boy Glaeken, a nice Noah's ark piece. I start ages ago and as part of my finishing projects before starting new ones so I am working hard to finish this and then I can hopefully think about my new cross stitch project :)

New Work

Yes finally I have done some new work and although only a small piece it was a time consuming piece. Having read about people carrying mini journals in their bags with a selection of equipment and having some spare time whilst in sainsbury's where things were on sale, I bought some small mini books, a cd case of mini pencils, a super prit stick (even does card, plastic and such) and a 4 coloured biro to always have in my bag. Well I was travelling up to Bristol on the train a journey that took just under 4 hours rather than an hour and a half and i coloured all the little patchwork squares and then used my biro to make it look like patchwork. Being a sucker for a colour, i loved wprking on this piece, it was quite peacful to do (although kept nearly tipping all the mini pencils on the floor) and certainly made my journey not so boring, I think it looks cute and fun.

Fixed - Horray

Apologies to anyone who had been trying to view my blog and had been redirected to another page. I don't know why it started happened but it appears to have been linked to a link I had from another site which had been on there ages so who knows why it started doing it now. However I have fixed it now so you can enjoy this blog to your hearts delight!

New Year, New Start?

Which I am sure is what we all think when a new year comes round, it is a fresh slate, we will do all those things we'd said we'd do, we'll be better at things. I am the same but i like to try and mainly keep them in my head because I rarely do what i say I will. However I will share with you the few I have been thinking.

1) Finish a project because starting another to stop me being left with many unfinished projects
2) Be more adventurous is my art and stop worrying what other people will think - its supposed to be my fun so why worry!
3) Get out and do things more, time is ticking and even if its only a small adventure, its better than no adventure at all
4) Try not to horde so much stuff - I am in the process of throwing loads of stuff out with my move into the house we have bought so throwing away magazines and such that i'll probably never read (not any craft ones though)
5) Linked to that, start using the fun things I buy!
6) Try and see friends more - It always seems like you are busy and you think I could see them after work but i'll be tired but its about making that effort - it'll always be worth it once you get there!

I think that will do for now - I could go into try and be fitter and healthier but we all know that one never sticks ;)

Merry Christmas

Just popped on to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope you have a great holiday and I look forward to having you back on here in 2008 where I hope to post alot more and be alot more creative!

was I creative?

well I did work on some more christmas cards which I was very happy with and I had fun making them. The windmill cards are fun to make because I get to cut squares, then fold them a couple of times and then attempt to glue them all together to make a nice windmill. It seems to have worked so far so I am happy. It makes me think of a rosette and hopefully my family will like them. I did a couple more small snowman cards as well, I got some white wrapping at the weekend with something so I have been using that for a snow effect on the bottom. I think it just adds a little something to the card. I only need to make a couple more cards to finish my family. I was going to make them for close friends as well but don't think I am going to have time so I will buy some nice cards to send to them and still continue to make snowman cards. Then I will have some made for next year already done to send to my friends :)

I also did some work in the journal I have at the moment - I tried to not to worry about what other people would think of the work but just write and add onto the page what I wanted to add. In the end it was only squares of snowflake paper and sparkly card so it is still a sparse page as such with writing but I was struck by the idea from the paper and I just decided to go with it. I thought about taking some pictures but then realised the person who's journal it is might see it. Then it madew me think about how if you never take a picture of it, its like secret work that only the other people working in the journal and the owner will ever see. Part me thought thats sad because you want to share your work with others and the other part thought wow, it means if you see it you are a part of something special.

I have a problem

a creative problem and that is that I worry too much about my work and accepting myself to just create what I want. I don't actually consider and accept I am an artist, I say I do craft bits. I worry about how my work will look compared to other people's and the style of it rather than just going with the flow and coming up with whatever is in my mind. Even now as I have been working in a journal for a journal swap. I write what I want and put bits of the page and I look at it and think "what will others think, I bet they will think it is no good" because I have mainly written on the page, than been arty on the page.
I realise that this is a block to creating some good work because the idea's never make it out of my head onto the paper. I have abused them and then discarded them without even giving them a chance to take life. I am about to leave work and I am going to finish my christmas cards and then I think I am going to just see what Idea comes into my head and run with it. Just see where it takes me. I definately will need to just experiment more and have some fun whilst on my 2 week christmas break from work!
Anyway a bit of a download from my brain :)

Journals

I am currently in a journal swap with some mailart people and I currently have seren's journal and so I have done a couple of pages worth of work in it. I have some idea's for other pages I am going to do. I am off to Panto tonight and so think I will do a page on it when I get back this evening. It will be late when I get back but I know that all the memory and excitement of the panto will be there and thats what I will want to come across in my page. We are seeing Dick Whittington and I am going with a couple of work colleagues.
I will take some pictures of my work and post them up so you can all see. I have been quite bad in photogrpahing my work and showing you all so I aim to be better with this. I think pictures help and make it much easier to comment. Plus then you can see the colours.

Rushing by

Its the 12th already and less than 2 weeks until christmas. Woohoo. Bring on the present giving. I know this is not all what christmas is about but I love seeing what I am going to get for christmas and seeing other people's reactions to the presents I give them.
I spend the 2 days of christmas working my round different sides of the family so make sure that everyone gets some christmas cheer.
This means that yes I am still behind on crafty stuff however I have 2 weeks over christmas as I have taken some vacation time and so I am hoping to enjoy having some time to just relax and have a play in a creative way.

We moved into our house at the weekend and although I am not going to permanently in it until mid february it was great fun and of course tiring. Lots of moving of Sam stuff and heading round shops whilst we had a van hired to buy a bed and a washing machine. We were putting our bed together at 10pm at night on the friday so that we at least had a bed to sleep in.
It was sad to have to leave the house, after having put alot of work into getting the house, it seemed such a shame to not be in it. But I am heading back up this weekend. We are thinking about boarding the loft and doing some gardening work so that it looks less unruly.

Christmas is coming

Now we are in December I am excited, really starting to feel it now. We watched the Santa Claus on saturday evening which I had never seen and enjoyed alot. Always good for puttin in the christmas spirit. I will be watching Elf at some point because I love that film. Not sure if I own it on DVD though. I also need to do some serious christmas shopping as although was good and got some throughout the year, I have done like zero since and therefore I am behind. Need to get on it!

I did step up and do some more work on my Christmas cards last night and so have finished some. I moved on with some of my snowmen cards and I know have 2 big ones complete and 2 small ones. Thinking that I will be getting them out to my oversea's people. My homemade christmas cards are mainly going to family as don't have enough time to make some for friends as well. But did buy some nice winnie the pooh cards so they will still get cheery cards.
I also working on some snowflake cards which involves some folding technique that makes like a giant snowflake which is not too hard to make so I am enjoying making them. I only did one last night but I am planning some more as they will look nice.
I also did some work with some peel off's which I am not always keen on working with but I think in the end it did make a nice effect and although a simple looking card, I still think it looks nice none the less.

Have been busy working on my ATC's for the christmas garland in one of my ATC groups and I am behind as want to get them off in the next couple of days and need to stitch like 12 so need to really but all my spare time into it and get them off ASAP because Erika needs to get them completed and sent off to the overseas people at least so might send those I have done and then send the 2nd batch as quick as I can!

Christmas Cards

Thats right I have finally started working on my christmas cards and I got lots done last night.

I made some bases for christmas cards -

I made 2 cool snowmen which are going to be the main feature on some of my christmas cards. This was fun, I took the concept from a card magazine which gae me the main instructions and then made it my own a little bit - the main thing being that I am changing the background on which the snowmen will go on - they are quite big snowmen but they look so cute. I just need to work out how I am going to do their eyes. Shall I get some black brads? As you can see I didn't get black brads, I just used pens to make eyes in the end.

I also started a stocking card which is cut in the shape of a stocking. Only done the basic on it at the moment, added red in the middle and then over where the white and red meet put silver glitter glue across to make it sparkle and give a nice smooth cross over as such. I need to think about how I am going to jazz up the card - they had some ideas for it in the magazine I got the main idea from but I want to do my own thing - just need to work out what I think will work.

I still have not worked out how to jazz this card up yet but have not really taken the time either.

Finally an update

Yes I have been rubbish and I apologise to you all. Mainly its being busy with work which is my main access to the internet, I could give more excuses but why, they are excuses and no fun. So on to some fun stuff. This ATC is from Michael Leigh who sent it to me which was nice as well as saying how much he enjoyed readin my blog which was also nice. I did not realise he read my blog so maybe there are others out there who read the blog but never comment. It made me happy to know some people read this rather than me doing it for no reason.
In terms of me doing art, there has been some action finally. I finally finished the puzzle piece I was for Sissy, where she sent everyone out a piece, they decorated and sent back and she is going to put the puzzle back together. I just need to get to the post office to send it and I'll be all good. I have forgotten to take a picture of it though. Music on the background and different coloured punched notes scattered across it.
I also have finished my ATC's for the bonfire swap I am hosting on Mixed Media Group and I again have not taken picture but I have not sent these yet so I will add them in the next couple of days. I used thread to make fireworks on a dark blue background. It gives a good effect.

Finally I have made a start on my H letters for a our christmas garland which is where everyone has a letter and makes in this case 17 of these letters for ATC's exactly the same. We send out letters to the organiser and then they make up the garland with each of the letters and send one out to each participant for them to hang up ready for christmas. I am cross stitching my letters with holly on them as I am doing H, to give it that christmas feel. I am planning to mount it between 2 bits of card but then I haven't decided what other decoration to add to it. But means I am going to have get stitching quick to get them sent off in time for the 1st december so everyone gets their garland in time for christmas.
So I have finally found some time to do some art but it is not enough time!

Following on....

from the last post I actually did some of what I said I wanted to do. A miracle it seems but it makes me happy. I finished off my halloween postcards which can be seen. The pictures are not great as I only seem to find time to take pictures when its dark outside thus I have to use artifical light and it never quite looks that great. We have a spider postcard which I find amusing for the googly eyes. And then a general halloween theme card which I made using some great embellishments i bought from the art shop down the road when I went recently and have so far only used the one. I have much bigger plans for my halloween makings and yet here we are with very little. I also used the cobwebs which were sent to me as part of my grab bag winnings and I though gave it just what it was missing. These postcards are going to Zoie who set up the halloween card swap on my livejournal penpal group and to Cayleigh who made this awesome halloween postcard that I wanted so I offered a swap. These went in the post only today so they probably won't get there until after halloween but I hope they are appreciated anyway. And that is why at the moment I have not made any more because they would not get to the destination in time for halloween anyway! Maybe I will make some and keep them for next year. I really need to be thinking of my christmas cards as I worked out today it is only 8 weeks and 1 day away and I have not at all started them! AHHHHHHHHHHH is what I say to that! Plus I did some more of my halloween stitching but unsure if I will have it done by wednesday. I hope so because then I can put it up and make it halloween themed as such in my room.

No Crafting

I have not forgotten you my lovely readers, I have been very busy at work and this has impacted on my art work. I have had a couple of new pieces come through and I do want to put them on here which I will try and do asap. I have things to work on I just haven't done them.
My plans are:
A paper journal to work on for ATC group where there is a big group of us involved and its going to circulate so I have the journal I just need to start.
A 5/5 hand drawn ATC swap on a USA group I haven't traded on in ages
A 3/3 Bonfire swap which I am hosting on a UK Group
Some halloween postcards which I have started but need to finish
A letter postcard which I have all planned out I just haven't made it - the letter Q.
A couple of handmade postcards to send in response to a couple I have received
and finally a cross stitch piece i started for myself which is halloween themed which I wanted to have ready to put up for halloween but not sure if I will manage it now.
So that's what I am looking to do, now I need to find the time :)