Rolodex Swap

The lovely Laurel over at Paper & Scissors Rock is hosting a Rolodex swap for all the Ustream/Youtube regulars. Their is around 20 people taking part, here is mine. Backgrounds are done with Dylusions spray inks and various crafter's workshop templates, gold wing's are German scrap from paper artsy and stamp is from Stampington. Had fun doing these but by the end I had sore fingers from all the fussy cutting! Cant wait to see what I get back.

Recycling an Art Journal

A long long time ago, before I even knew what art journalling was I saw the most amazing hand tooled leather journal on I think Etsy but I'm not certain, could have been somewhere similar. I wont lie it was quite expensive but I wanted it oh so badly! They were made to order and took around 6 weeks to make, when I finally got the dispatched notice I was so excited, and it arrived, the smell oh my wonderful. The texture of the tooled leather against the smooth leather was divine, but the paper inside was a HUGE let down. You know when you were a kid at school and you had to use the toilette and it had paper that could only be described as kinda gray looking, felt like cardboard and painful to use, well it was like that. I have it pictured below but you cant really tell from that picture how bad it really is. When we went to York for the day with friends I came across a paper shop and impulse bought this most wonderful book of Indian rag paper made by Khadi paper's, I didn't really like the book it was a bit large and cumbersome so I hadn't used it yet. While moving rooms around (I am swapping bedroom and craft room) I came across the leather journal and figured since it was bound with waxed leather cord and signatures I could rip out the old paper and make new out of Khadi paper.

So after an hour or so taking the Khadi book apart and making pages I began to re bind the book, it was pretty easy to do until I had to tie the knot at the back, could have done with a bit longer length of cord but I managed in the end with a bit of fiddling and faffing. The new signatures have allot less paper in them but I only wanted a small journal and only intend on doing single page spreads and not double pages. Cant wait to get started in it but must finish the new craft room first as I cant find anything! Finished book pictures are below.

Latest Journal Page and Nikky from Polkadoodles

The totally fabulous Nikky from Polkadoodles was demoing at my local craft shop on Saturday, what she does with pro-markers totally amazes me, you really should go check her out! She very kindly let me have my picture taken with her for my wall! don't mind the hair I got dragged out of bed 20 mins before the photo was taken and didn't style it like it should be!

After watching a youtube on how to use colour wash sprays with gesso I decided to have a go, I have to point out that my journal is falling apart, it wasn't the technique that caused this but in fact loads of abuse on nearby pages, so don't worry your page wont split like mine!

Much fun was had creating the background!

The Save Daisy Crafty Raffle

I have just read about a lovely dog in very urgent need of an operation which will cost an arm and a leg and maybe a kidney to save the little ones life, this is no ordinary dog, it is the companion of a aspergers syndrome sufferer. The lovely Kirsty Wiseman has gathered together a massive horde of crafting suppliers to donate raffle prizes, you gotta go see this list its amazing and still filling up with offers! Tickets are £2, if you follow the instructions rather than hitting the donate button they will get the full £2 and not be charged a fee by paypal. Couple extra seconds copying and pasting is worth it!

I have got my tickets! Have you?

Please pass on the link and let everyone know we want to save this dog's life!

Sunday Art Journaling

This months Sunday art journalling at Art From the Heart saw Dyan teaching us about lettering and masking your journalling if you don't want others to read it, or even to read it back yourself! Also fancy lettering that will be a focal point on your page. It was a fab day, learning in the morning then following instructions left by the lovely Dina Wakley in the afternoon. Here is my finished page, finished it in the session too! I'm getting good at this finishing projects lark!

Postcard for Dede

Yayyyy I got my computer back! Again! Another issue cropped up with my PC causing it to totally loose the internet, luckily I can surf on my laptop but it is very basic and not really able to post to blogger on it, and I hear blogger has been having issues too so I am kinda glad I didn't have that to make me tear out my hair! So to make sure it is working I am making a small post with a picture of a recent item I have created for the lovely Dede's postcard exchange. Big post on the Dina weekend will be coming up shortly if this all goes well!

Bad News

Unfortunately today Freddie ran in front of a car and was hurt very badly, He was rushed to the emergency vet but was put to sleep straight away due to his injuries.

Feeling a bit patriotic

With all the Royal Wedding hype over the last month I was getting quite sick of it all so I made sure I was busy and away from all the hype on the actual wedding day, I went to the gym and had a training session with my personal trainer. But when it actually came round I came over all patriotic and a bit teary eyed for the happy couple and ended up watching most of it (they had it on the TV sets in the gym). Quite surprised at myself really as I never considered myself a Royalist, learned something new about myself that day.

My first page is to commemorate the wedding, I didnt really do much to it apart from print out 2 images, I think the images I have chosen say it all, love the little girl covering her ears for the WW2 planes flying overhead. Seeing the old Lancaster bomber in flight was a particularly poignant moment for me.

My second page shows the Lancaster bomber flying over the crowd outside the palace with Big Ben and The Millennium Wheel in the background. We certainly cant be beaten on pomp and circumstance!