Fall

I love the Fall.  I love the smell of the leaves, the cooler days, and the bright vibrant colours.  I love the photos that I get of the kiddos with the leaves as a back drop.

This photo was taken last year when the leaves were just starting to turn.  I made the kiddos go to a local park with me and do all kinds of artsy, fun and wacky photos.  There is no journalling on this layout.  It was done just to satisfy my need to create something yesterday. 

I started with some modeling paste and stencils to create texture.  I, then, stenciled a design using distress inks.  I wanted to put more modeling paste over top of the inking but not have the ink bleed through so I spray some matte fix over the inking.  It kept the subtle smudged feel that the distress inks gives when you apply it with a sponge applicator without the bleed through when you apply a wet medium over top.

The papers, I pulled out of my scrap bin.  Most of these were left over from making cards or other layouts.  The only new piece of paper that I either cut into or mucked up was the cardstock base.  The leaves are from Dollarama.  They are leftovers from the wreath that I made for our front door this year.  The crocheted flowers were made for me by a fellow scrapbooker and were part of a RAK.  I really wish I knew how to crochet.  These are really cute.  There are also bits of Prima embellishments, ribbon flowers from Fabricland, dollar store bling, and old book paper.  I just kept adding little bits until I had a layering that was appealing.

I am trying to decide if I am going to work on Christmas cards, start a new layout or continue working on the Christmas decorations that I am making for my mom and sister-in-law.  Either way, today is going to be a creative day spent playing.

Have a creative Thursday.

Happy World Card Making Day

Card making was my first foray into the paper crafts.  This was before I had my kiddos.  My cards were fairly simple often with a stamped or embossed image.  When they arrived, I made all of their birth announcements but it wasn't until I started to scrapbook that I really got into card making.  It was a way to use up all my scraps but it was also an excuse to buy all these great embossing folders and dies.

Over the past year, I haven't been making that many cards and if I do make them, I often forget to mail them to their recipients. *blush* My family can attest to this.  I don't know how many times over the last year or so that I have handed them their cards 6 months after the date.  I was always bad before but never this bad.

So to celebrate World Card Making Day today, I am going to try to make more cards and get them into the mail box going forward.

I have even managed to make two cards.  One is using up scraps of Graphic45 papers and stickers from some of the art journaling I have been doing lately.  The second is made from bits and pieces of paper from the very bottom of my scrap bin.  I am sure they have been in there for a few years at least.

Since I am feeling creative, I think I will go back and see if I can either make a couple more cards or maybe even a layout.

Happy World Card Making Day!

Art Journal Page

Another art journal page is done.  I had to abandon the page that I started with the black gesso.  I couldn't seem to get it to flow nicely.  It was creating a mental block preventing me from doing anything else.  It wasn't until I decided to abandon it completely that I was able to move on to something else.  Now that the creative juices are once again flowing, I figure that I will come back to it in a few months with new eyes.

This is the double page that broke the mental block.  I started by priming the page with a thin coat of gesso.  After that coat dried, I used a spatula to apply a thick uneven coat to provide texture.  Stenciled modeling paste added further texture.  After adding tea stain, inks, tissue paper, etc. to the background, I add pieces of ephemera from my scrap basket.

I am contemplating spending sometime making different hand made paper flowers....maybe a wall hanging or a framed piece.

Have a good Monday.

Paint Speckles

Paint speckles were the start for this art journal page.  It is not a technique that I have used very often so doing it as a background for an art journal page is a good way to work out the kinks for use in other projects.  Once the background was done, old book paper called out to be used and it was just a hop, skip and a jump to old treasure maps.

The map was stamped on the book paper with Archival Ink and Distress Markers were used to colour in the image.  All the left over bits and pieces from the previous art journal pages were used up on this page.

I have already started another page which I have slathered with black gesso.  I have never used black gesso before so this will be interesting.

Happy Tuesday.

Back to Art Journalling

After one layout, I am back to another art journal page.  Actually.....I started this one while I was working on the layout.  It was something to do while I was waiting for things to dry.

I was playing more with the texture paste that I made.  I was trying to see how much fine detail that I could get out of it.  It is still a bit too runny so I will cut down on the amount of water that I added to it for the next batch.

I used Graphic45 Botanical Tea and some Rebecca Sower Nostaligiques stickers that I found digging through my stash.  I have had these forever.

My cup of tea, once again, ended up on the page.  I am also trying to use up some old rubons that are starting to dry out.

I have already started the background for my next page set.  An old toothbrush and acrylic paint have made an appearance on my work surface.  Once again I am waiting for stuff to dry....maybe I should start another layout.

Happy Sunday.

A Layout....A Layout...I actually did a layout....

Happy dance going on over here.  I finally did a layout.  I bit the bullet yesterday afternoon and dug out a photo of my son from a couple of years ago and went from there.

The tie dyed paper is "colour diffusing" paper that I picked up at a local education supply store.  It is interesting paper to play with.  I used Dylusions Ink Spray and Adirondack Colour Wash sprays on it.  I, then, took a squirt bottle filled with water and created water blotches to help diffuse the ink more.  It is doubtful that the paper is archival but since I ended up using transistors, bits of wafers, and semi-conductors on the layout, I wasn't really concerned with the longevity of the layout.

Another technique I tried was to make my own texture paste with glue, white paint and talcum powder.  I followed the recipe on Gabrielle Pollacco's blog.  I ended up adding a bit too much water as you can tell by the arrows but I corrected it by adding more talcum powder so the dots turned out much better.

One other goal with this layout was to use some of my older stash up.  I ended up digging through some old Basic Grey papers that I haven't looked at in a couple of years to find this distressed numbered gem.  The background graph paper is from Scenic Route.  I must have bought at least a dozen sheets of this paper back in the day and I think I might have one more sheet of it left.  It is one of my favourite basics.

My dining room table is once again a creative mess.  I have another art journal page on the go and I have a few more photos that I have pulled out to work on.  Looks like Mojo has come for a visit and tends to stay awhile.

Happy Friday.

Things You Notice

I finished off an art journal page just a few minutes ago.  As I was standing over it, I thought that it looked pretty good.  I was happy with it so I proceed to take pics of it to post to Instagram and to my blog.  It wasn't until I was editing the photo that I noticed that it wasn't what I wanted.  My fluid free-flow edges that I was hoping for were not there.  On the right hand side of the page, I had managed to create a straight edge in the combined image.  How come I did not notice this while I was stamping or while I was humming and hawing over it, trying to determine if it was balanced or not.

I find that tends to happen to me quite a bit.  I have a certain perception of a work as I am working on it but it tends to change when I view it through the filter of a photo of the work.  I don't know if it is a mental block or if it is just the change of perspective that allows me to view the work differently.

I am not going to change this page at this point since I think leaving it as it current state is a good lesson on perspective.

Basically this page is mostly just playing with different stamping techniques and mediums.

I think I am going to take a break from art journalling for the rest of the day.  I think it is time to try my hand at something else.

Happy Thursday.

Best Intentions....

What do they say about best intentions....I had so many plans for the month of May.  I was finally going to take some time while the kiddos were in school and I was off work to get a number of things done around the house.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  The cold that I caught at the beginning of May is still lingering a month later and even though I have started on my to do list, it is woefully incomplete.  I think I have come to terms that it is going to be an ongoing battle instead of one all out conflict.  Whatever I manage to get completed is more than I had the day before.

Crafting has been slow as well but I have managed to make some headway.  I have finished an art journal page and started another.  For this page, I wanted to avoid the really wet mediums, such as paints and sprays, and went with layering inks instead.

I recently acquired a new Prima 12x12 stencil with a city map outline.  Using different colours of distress inks, I made it the central point of a two page art journal layout.  Another new Prima 12x12 stencil that resembled wood was used to add another layer of inking.  As much as I was avoiding wet mediums, I gave in for some sprays with a wonderful new Memory Box stencil.

I also dug out the modelling paste and a Prima 12x12 butterfly stencil.  Once the modelling paste was dry, I rubbed on Inka-Gold in green, blue and gold.  Pencil outlines helped to have the butterflies popped out a bit more.

Lots of bits and pieces of fussy cutting came next.  I was drinking coffee with cream today so the "tea rings and splatters" are actually diluted walnut ink.

I am trying to use up my scraps and old papers with the art journal.  Not being totally successfully with this but I am trying.  The new Graphic45 keeps tempting me -- especially the Botanical Tea collection.  As you can see, some of it snuck in here.

I am currently working on another page.  This one is messy.  Lots of gel medium, collage, gesso, sprays and inks.

Have a good Monday.

Happy National Scrapbooking Day

No celebrating by creating this year, I am afraid to say.  A wicked cold has knocked me flat on my back the last couple of days.  I did manage to get out of my PJs for a short time today to hit our comic book store for Free Comic Book Day and to take Pumpkin to her ballet class.

On the way home, we made a quick stop at my LSS so that I could celebrate by adding to my stash.  There were some really nice stencils, a few stamps, and bits and bobs that really needed to come home with me.  All of which are calling me from my perch on the couch under 4 layers of blankets to come play with them.  Maybe tomorrow.....

Have a good and hopefully healthy Saturday and a creative NSD.

Fussy cutting

One aspect of scrapbooking and art journalling that I seem to always fall back on is fussy cutting.  I not sure why I find cutting out bits and pieces from pattern paper so relaxing but I do.  Whenever I am looking at piece of paper, I tend to deconstruct it.  Trying to reorganize the various elements into other arrangements or layerings.

I love the Graphic45 violets from the Sweet Sentiments line.  I ended up buying 6 sheets of this paper specifically so I could fussy cut out the groupings and layer them.

The background is made up of gesso, gelatos, pearl mica, ink and pencils.  A number of different stencils were used with the ink, gesso and pearl mica to create the patterns.   The gelatos were just smudged on.  I am still playing with gelatos trying to figure out how to use them and what effects that I can get with them.

Even though this page seems a little unfinished to me, I am going to stop here for now.  I am not sure what to add next but the nice things about art journalling is that you add anytime you want and change it up.

Happy Monday....off to play some more.

Yet Even More Art Journalling

Zangles and doodling are something that I have been looking at for quite sometime but haven't really played with that much.  I keep stalking blogs and reading books but that is as far as it has gone so far.  I was perusing Valerie Sjodin blog yesterday and decided to give her style of doodling a try.  It reminds me of peacocks and butterflies.

I gathered up my sharpies, pencil crayons and stickles and this is what I came up with.  I also like cutting the edge of the paper to give visual interest to the page.  I am going to have to do more of that in this book.

Now that this page is finished I am trying to figure out what technique I should try next.  I don't seem to want to stop now that I am on a roll.

Happy Friday.

More Art Journal Playing

I am really starting to enjoy art journalling.  I like just playing and not worrying about the outcome.

For this page, I just took sections of dictionary paper and mod podged them to the art journal.  I covered them with a light coat of gesso, threw my tea bag from my cup of tea on the paper a few times.  I, then, inked over a couple of different stencils to create the background.  Washi tape, bits of pattern paper fussy cut, a rub on and some doodling finished up the page.

I am not really into the journalling part of art journalling so you will not see much on my pages.  I enjoy more of the collage and trying out different techniques side of art journalling.

I am thinking for the next page doing some cut out work.

Happy Thursday.

On a Roll

Oooo...two blog posts in two days.  I am on a roll. :-)

After I finished my card yesterday, I still had part of the dictionary page that I used for the card image left over.  Instead of filing it away for later, I decided that I would glue it in my art journal.  The next thing I knew, I had sprays, paint, bits of ephemera, washi tape and my cup of tea next to me....and soon all of it was on my page....even the tea.

Just playing like this seems to have unblocked my creative flow.  It is nice to have the time to be able to play again.  I have even started a second page today....who knows, I might even have another post again soon. :-)

Have a good Monday.

My Poor Neglected Blog

Alas, I am afraid to say you have fallen by the wayside lately.  Life has gotten away from in the last few months and crafting has been the furthest thing from my mind.  I have spent the last few months shutting down our office and dealing with all the employees that we laid off.  I, myself, will soon be looking for work as well.  I only have a few more weeks left.  It has been an incredibly busy few months and it feels very strange to be thinking about looking for work after almost 17 years at this company but I am looking forward to doing something different....just not sure what that will be yet.

It is not a doom and gloom situation.  I am leaving with a good severance package that is going to enable me to take the summer off with the kiddos and spend it goofing around and exploring our area of the world.  I expect to have lots of pictures and layouts to share.

After months of not doing anything, I finally finished a card that has been sitting on my dining room table since January.  It is a very, very, very late birthday card.  The person for whom the card is for is coming to visit in a couple of weeks and I thought it would be nice to have it finished for them when they arrived.

The image is from an old French/English dictionary that I discovered someone throwing out at work.  The paper is fabulous for art journalling and other crafting projects.  This particular image has to do with metal working with is perfect for the person who will be receiving this card.

It is nice to get back into crafting and hopefully I will have more to share here soon.

Happy Sunday and Happy Easter.