A little bit of art journaling

I've been having great fun this weekend getting messy with paints and inks. I signed up for Kirsty Wiseman's Feel class hoping to learn a few techniques, and I haven't been disappointed. Kirsty streamed a live video last Wednesday, showing us how she'd put each page together, and also produced a step by step pdf guide. I had a lovely chat with some of the other people watching the video, and, once my order of Dylusions paints and inks came from Art From The Heart, I got stuck in with gusto! This is what I've done so far, I've stuck fairly close to Kirsty's originals (apart from the doodling on the first one), so there's probably quite a few of these floating around in blogland at the moment! 

Thanks for looking, hope you like my first attempts :D

10 Things About You - Circle Journal

I'm taking part in my first Circle Journal over on UKScrappers, and I'm very excited to get started! Here's my journal so far, which will be posted to the next participant later this week:I used acrylic covers and adhered patterned Kraft cardstock from Jillybean Soup on the inside of each cover. I then added the Prima felt flower,  October Afternoon journaling sticker and alphas from October Afternoon and American Crafts. 

The first two pages give the details of my theme and the rules (or lack of!) . I didn't want too much writing on there, so I put some of it inside a fold out card on the right hand page, which I covered with some Pebbles paper and a Kaisercraft rub on. 

The next two pages are my double page spread on my theme - there are enough blank pages for each of the other participants to add their own take on the theme. As mine is '10 things about you' I made the focus the numbers one to ten, and then added journaling to describe what each number means to me - for example, one is the number of years that I've been married to my lovely DH. I've used Papermania patterned Kraft cardstock, and then a mix of journaling stickers from October Afternoon and American Crafts. The numbers are all Thickers, except number 6 which is an October Afternoon sticker.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the ladies have put together - I have a feeling that some of the themes are going to push me out of my comfort zone, but I'm sure I'll have lots of fun!

She's One Crazy Doggy

I thought I'd play along with the Sunday layout challenge at The Studio this week. The challenge is a sketch designed by Amanda, which was perfect for these photos of Mojo that have been waiting for inspiration to strike!

I've used a mixture of My Minds Eye and Crate Paper on this page, and considering that I did it in a rush as I decided to play along at the last minute, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out :D

Christening Nameplate

My friend Carrina is an amazing baker - she recently received a commission for a cupcake tower for a Christening and asked me to create a nameplate to display in front of it. Here's what I came up with:

The background is a 6"x3" piece of greyboard painted white. I stamped the swirls using my Creative Impressions stamps and some black archival ink. I added silver dots to the ends of the swirls using dimensional paint. 

The flowers are handmade from white Bazzil card and a six petal flower punch, and finished off with a quick spritz of Cosmic Shimmer mist to give a sparkly pink sheen. I added two pearl topped pins behind one of the flowers.

The alphas are Basic Grey raw chipboard inked with Charcoal chalk ink and spritzed with white mist to give a silver effect. The date is handwritten on a Papermania metal rimmed tag and finished with two adhesive gems.

Carrina loved it - here's hoping her client did too!

(Shh!)

It's Sunday, which means this is the last post in my week of projects using my July DT kit from The Scrapbook Garden. All six of my previous projects throughout the week have featured the Glitz Design papers, MME diecuts, Prima flowers and Thickers alphas that were in the kit, along with plain cardstock. One of the items in the kit had me a bit stumped though, and that was this gorgeous glazed cardstock from Bazzill.

I knew I needed a design with lots of white space, so that the pattern on the cardstock would take centre stage, so when I saw Challenge 22 from Punky Scraps I knew I'd found the perfect sketch.

I only had scraps of the Glitz Design papers left, and wanted something that would contrast more strongly with the black card, so I went back to last month's kit and grabbed some of the Basic Grey 'Hello Luscious' papers.

This photo of Mojo is one of those where I already had a title in mind. I generally add my title last, so I arranged and adhered the rest of the elements and then reached for my Thickers - only to be disappointed when I realised that there was no 's' left! Cue major panic - once a title is stuck in my head I find it really hard to choose another one. So what to do? Cheat of course! I grabbed the '8', made a few cuts and voila - an S! Can you tell?

{3}

I've managed to squeeze one more layout from the Glitz Design papers from Ann at The Scrapbook Garden. I decided that the browns worked so well with the photo of me and DH at the beginning of the week, that I'd use another wedding photo for my final layout. This shot is of my three bridesmaids - my two sisters and my best friend.

I've gone against my own rule for this one and used what could be described as an obvious title! My excuse is that I wanted to continue from yesterday's post, and show how you can use every single last piece from a pack of Thickers, with titles that don't actually include alphas :D

I've used some creative Expressions stamps and Memento ink in Cocoa to add some swirls around the photo, and embellished with a ribbon bow. The ribbon was left over from the favours that I made for our wedding, so I thought it was a fitting layout to use it on.

The journaling reads "...bridesmaids, friends, confidantes. Two sisters and one friend who's practically a sister, I don't know what I'd do without these three..."

Hi!

As Ann's challenge for this month is all about using titles, I thought I'd show how versatile Thickers can be. You saw them on the notebook yesterday, and here they are today gracing the front of this card. I like to use every last letter and symbol if I can, and I love to use brackets - they provide the perfect frame for a short title, or they can break up a long title, or provide humour (see this layout for an example).

For this simple card I've used both sides of one of the Glitz Design papers, and the end of a Bazzill Just The Edge strip. I stamped the butterfly image with black archival ink, and then added the Prima Craftable flower, which I misted with spray ink and finished with one of the symbols from the Thickers pack.  

 I had someone in particular in mind when I made this card, so it will be winging its way to her soon - I hope she likes it!

Notes

I thought I'd do something a bit different for my next project with the Glitz Design papers from Ann at The Scrapbook Garden. I've been wanting to have a go at making my own notebooks for a while, so I grabbed a suitable piece of the 'Floral' paper and had a go!

I used plain white paper for the pages and bound them all together using ribbon. To finish it off I embellished with a Prima Craftable flower spritzed with Cosmic Shimmer mist and an adhesive pearl. I used the Thickers to add the title (note the wonky letters!)

I enjoyed making this so much that I decided to try out some different bindings with different papers, and came up with three more!

If you want a closer look at how I put these together, I've got a tutorial on The Studio Challenges blog :D

Only Smiles Beyond This Point

Ann really pushed me out of my comfort zone with this one - I never ever use pre-made titles on my layouts. I have a feeling that she must have had Mojo in mind when she sent me this one though!

The title is by MME, as are the tickets, but they coordinate really well with the Glitz Design papers. I've used Bazzill Dotted Swiss cardstock in Pepper as my background, and added two of the Glitz Design papers. A Bazzill 'Just the Edge' strip, the MME die cuts and some doodling in white gel pen complete this fairly simple layout.

 The journaling reads "Mojo is such a happy dog, you can't help but smile when she's around!"

A Study in Scarlet

Here's my second project using the Glitz Design papers from Ann at The Scrapbook Garden. I've had this photo sat in my 'to scrap' pile for nearly two years now - it was taken during a trip to Borneo in July 2009. I'd gone as one of three adults with a group of sixth form students to get involved in some community and conservation work. We were camping in the grounds of a nature lodge, and in a rare moment to myself I wandered around taking photos of some of the fantastic plants and flowers. 

As soon as I saw this paper, 'Poppies', I knew it would be perfect for this photo. (I know, I know, it's not a Poppy - but it's very similar, and I have no idea what it actually is!)
The title on this layout is a good example of my favourite kind of title - it's related to the photo but not in an obvious way; it uses more than one kind of alpha; and the alphas aren't straight.

I'm not a fan of the obvious title, one that says exactly what's in the photo. Don't get me wrong, there are some fabulous layouts out there that have obvious titles, but it just doesn't work for me. I pondered on this title for ages, I had the layout propped up on the kitchen mantlepiece; complete apart from the title, taunting me every time I walked past. Most of the time I'll already have a title in my head before I even start to pull a layout together, but every now and then a photo will take a while to speak to me.
Longer titles like this one also mean that you can create interest by using different types of alphas - the tiny Adornit alpha stickers and Thickers are two types that I come back to time and time again. And just in case you needed another reason to love Thickers - the symbols that come in the packs make great flower centres :D

And the wonky thing? It's all about character spacing - with Thickers like the ones I've used on this layout, if you put them in a straight line the letters are just too far apart, and I just don't like it. I think it mirrors my own handwriting - my French teacher used to despair - there's nothing wrong with my handwriting at first glance, it's fairly neat and reasonably legible, but good luck trying to tell if I've spelled a French word correctly! I tend to run all of my letters together, so it's hard to tell where one letter stops and the next one starts, making it very hard to check my spelling - sorry Mr Morton!

Us

Hello! Welcome to a week of posts showcasing projects made with my latest kit from Ann at The Scrapbook Garden. Ann has given each of her DT members a specific week to showcase their projects on her blog, and this week it's my turn! I was eager to get stuck in to this month's kit, as it contained some gorgeous Glitz Design papers from the Love Games range, and the challenge was to get creative with titles, which is right up my street! 

For my first layout I decided to use one of my favourite photos from our wedding with the Tando Creative chipboard word 'US' that came in the kit, which I covered with one of the Glitz Design papers, doodled round and then finished with some adhesive pearls. Chipboard words are great for altering to give you a title that coordinates perfectly with the rest of your layout.

I also used a Tando Creative mask, which I spritzed with some Cosmic Shimmer mist and then outlined using a black journaling pen.

Some gorgeous Prima flowers layered up with an adhesive pearl finished the layout perfectly!

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll call back and see what else I've created with Ann's fantastic kit!

Lazy Summer Days

I've been following the UKScrappers 'ScrapFactor' contest, and one of the challenges was to scrap a layout without using patterned paper, so I thought I'd give it a go. I used the June kit from Sarah's Cards, plus a couple of leftovers from previous Sampler kits and a flower from Precocious Paper. 

I used a pale grey cardstock, splashed some red ink around and then added layers of ribbon, border stickers and journaling spots. I was feeling quite pleased with myself until I realised that the flower from Precocious Paper had patterned paper on it - oops! Oh well :D 

The Happiness Blog Hop: Make Time For Friends

Welcome to the Happiness Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from Scrapworthy Lives. This month we are focusing on the happiness that comes from friends, specifically 'Making Time For Friends'.
After some reflection on the theme I decided to showcase a couple of photos from our wedding last summer. One of the great things about our wedding (apart from the obvious!) was that it was a perfect opportunity to gather all of our close friends together. I'm incredibly grateful for the fact that I can count my two sisters among my closest friends, and this is reflected in the photos that I've chosen to show.
The girls:

The boys:

Being part of this blog hop has made me realise that although I do make an effort to make time for friends, I have a definite lack of photographic evidence! So from here on I'm determined to take more photos of my friends, no matter how much they may complain about it :D 
To enter Stephanie's giveaway on Scrapworthy Lives, be sure to comment below! You can earn one entry per blog. So that means if you visit everyone’s blog and comment on each of their blogs, you can get 9 entries! All entries must be posted by Friday 8th July at midnight Central Standard Time (Chicago, IL, USA). Stephanie will ship anywhere in the world. The winner will be announced on Sunday 10th July on Scrapworthy Lives.

Thanks for hopping with us! Your next stop is Pie for Breakfast :D

Here is the full list of participants in the Happiness Blog Hop:
Scrapworthy Lives
Scrapping Mojo (that's me!)
Pie for Breakfast
iStampScrap&Craft
Scraps & Sass
Take a Picture and Remember This
1200 Some Miles
Slice of Life
Our Life with Spiky Potatoes

Bella Blvd & Maya Road

Bella Blvd have teamed up with Maya Road and are showcasing some fabulous projects this week. And have you seen this amazing giveaway from them? How good would it be to win all that stash?! 
Great projects and great giveaways, what could be better?