Ditzy-Craftymess challenge 1

Hi folks, today see's the first challenge from all of us at Ditzy-Craftymess go live you can find it here and be in with a chance to win a £10 voucher for Mei-Flower who have a lovely range of crafty embellishments suitable for all crafters.

For our first challenge we used the theme of anything goes and all the DT have come up with beautiful. unique and varied projects. Here is my example;

This is my week 2 A4 page for my project 2012 using Authentiquw papers and stickers. This week we had a visit with Auntie Hilary and saw her kittens again who had grown so much and we took a photo of my eldest (who turned 12 yesterday Happy Birthday no. 1 monkey xxxx) and my mum showing how he is nearly her height already :)

Please pop over to the Ditzy blog and join in and Mei-flower to see what gorgeousness they stock xxx

Art Journey prompt - Packaging

The 3rd UKS Art Journey prompt was to collect packaging and then to lay it all out and see what it makes us think of. My mind went instantly to recycling and how much we do as a household to try and do our bit we definately have at least double the amount of recycling to waste and with 2 cats, a dog and a child still in nappies (don't go there he isn't ready and I'm stressed about it!) I think that is pretty good.

I thought of burnt earth for this prompt I don't know why but the idea of yellow going to orange and then brown (it looks black in the photo my 10 month old camera is broken and going for repairs *sigh*) appealed to me and so I went with it;

After the painted double page (my first double) was dry I stamped with black paint using bubble wrap from the packaging and added circles using the end of a kitchen paper tube and added "tracks" using the side of a bottle lid both in beige. I added some of the triangular recycling signs in the beige paint and some doodling in black and white before the journalling.

I am quite happy with the end result and I think I am learning a lot but I have decided I need better paints I am running out of a couple of colours so I will be getting a better quality paint when I replace them :)

Thanks for popping by x

The Liebster Award

Many thanks to Sheleen over at Patchwork Apples for mentioning me in her blog I feel honoured xxx

Here's how it works (and I admit to hitting 'copy & paste' for this):

This award is given to bloggers with less than 200 followers, in the hopes that it will bring many new friends/followers.

Leibster is German and means 'dearest' or 'beloved' but it can also mean 'favourite'. The idea of the Leibster award is to bring attention to blogs with less than 200 followers. So, in the spirit of good fun I am passing this award on to five other bloggers. Please stop by and visit them.

The Rules are:

1. Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.

2. Reveal your five picks for the award and let them know.

3. Post the award on your blog.

4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people on the blogshare-other bloggers.

5. Finally and the best rule of all..........have fun and spread the love!
My favorites for this award are listed below. Click on over to their sites and take a look!

This was the tricky part choosing just five but I somehow managed it;

1/. Jackie at Scraps & Stitches - Jackie is not only a talented crafter but a good friend I have known for many years who is one of the most generous and kind people I have ever met xxx

2/. Sandra at I love all things pretty - Despite Sandra telling me off for crafting too much and trying to send me to the naughty step lol she is a wonderful lady with a kind and generous heart and huge inner strength x

3/. Anita at Inky Blossom - Anita is a very talented scrapper and I am often blown away by the gorgeous LO's she creates she is also a very sweet, kind and generous person x

4/. Sue at Me and Mine - Sue was one of my first followers and did so much last year when I first started this blog and joined UKScrappers to encourage me and make me feel welcome x

5/. last but by no mean least my beautiful sis Shell at Paper pieced memories - Shell is my closest and most trusted friend so much so that she is my Sis. I cannot say enough good things about her she is a wonderful person and most of her crafting is making cards to send out to deployed troops so they have birthday cards, anniversary cards and christmas cards to send home to their families while they are apart. I am her only follower and it would be wonderful if some others would follow her too xxx

That was TOUGH!

Surprise yourself

I was very happy to see that Glitz were starting up their blog challenges again as I really enjoyed joining in with the challenges last year. This year they have changed things up again and are going to post an image for us to use as inspiration for our projects each month. This is this months picture;
I decided to make a sketch from it and concentrated on the central image (mirror) the straight lines of the mantle and the soft "swags" of flowers. Here is what I made using the gorgeous Dance in Sunshine papers;

I substituted a picture of me for the mirror element and punched straight pieces of pp's to make a mantlepiece. Then I did plenty of fussy cutting to make swags of flowers and some punching of butterflies and flowers to keep it all soft. I used a sticker from the Glitz Love nest line which I mounted on some transparency and added one of my favourite quotes to it;

Every layer was added with a different depth of foam tape and pop dots to make the layout very dimensional;

As the journalling for this was very personal I added it to the back of the layout with just the title and a little journalling on the front. In case you can't read it it says, "You can do anything when you dream"

Thank you for popping by and thank you so much for all the lovely comments that have been left it really does mean a lot to hear other crafty people like what I do xxx

There are no Art Police

I wasn't very happy with my last Art Journal page. I am still trying to figure out how to get my backgrounds looking how I like them and wanting the idea in my head to be translated perfectly on the page which is probably unrealistic and certainly not happening at this time. I am working on my resolution to accept my mistakes and not trash them as they are all tools in learning but it is hard for a perfectionist to do that!

I have to say a big thank you to Leanie and Suzie who both inspired this page with their encouragement over on UKS Art Journey. The term there is no Art Police was Suzie's little gem and I hope she doesn't mind me stealing it lol. Here is my page;

I started by gesso-ing my page and then painted a black border roughly around the page leaving some white on the outside. I then added some grey inside and outside the black again painted roughly so their were differing levels of depth. I splatted on a bit of white paint and then used some scrunched up tinfoil to scratch the paint. I added some fuschia paint with a sponge and whitewashed a bit of book paper.

Once the book paper was dry I drew a face (yes me I drew it I am totally gobsmacked!) which I coloured with promarkers and then ripped around. I stuck the face onto the page and painted some white lines and used distress stain (picket fence to add some circles). I stamped soom harlequins with Black Soot distress ink and Sprayed using a mask in the top left corner with a pink cosmic shimmer. Once it was all dry I added my little journalling and I have to say I love the page :)

UKS Art Journey

I am taking part in the UKScrappers new Art Journey this year as I am fairly new to ARt Journalling I thought it might give me some ideas and help me develop my Art Journalling. The first weeks "Step" was to get your journal and included how to make your own, I am going to make myself one at some point but at the moment I just want to continue with the book I already have.

Step two was to try and abandon your preconceptions about your ability to draw/ your handwriting not being good enough/ and anything else that holds you back. We were alson asked to visit ColorLab to get a colour scheme that maybe we wouldn't have normally. This is the colour scheme I ended up with;

I created this page using the colours (roughly) and I added each colour in a different way to try and continue my experiments with texture. The green was painted with a brush, the blue with a soft sponge, the sandy colour with a brillo pad, the white was the gesso-ed areas that I left uncoloured added with an old store card, and the pink was alcohol ink added with a piece of felt.

I added my journalling by cutting up words and letters from leaflets and apart from feeling a bit psycho killer like for doing it lol I like how it looks. I then added some stamping and journalling and I focused my journalling on what I would like my kids to do as they grow to get the most out of every day.

Football Crazy (photo heavy)

I finally got round to doing the DLO for this months Scrapology Challenge. The challenge this months was to follow the DLO sketch (click the link to see the sketch) and use texture in your LO. I scrapped some of the many photo's I took during a trip to a local park originally to walk our dog Molly which turned into a kids vs dad football match;

I used some twine, hessian, chipboard painted and one of them smothered in glossy accents, stickers, stamping, dry embossing and de-bossing, tickets, fabric buttons and a vinyl cog so I think I have the texture requirement covered lol.

Here is a close up of one side;

and of the other;

The title stickers and the embossed wave which I inked (the messiness is deliberate honest lol I liked the distressing look it gave) and the stamping on the pp;

You can just see some of the debossed pp in the top right and the hessian and one of the painted chipboard shapes;

Glossy accented chipboard which I tried to paint the same as the football;

Vinyl cog, fabric button and fabric lollipop flower;

Lots of pics sorry but thank you for coming by and I hope you have chance to join in the Scrapology challenges are always very interesting and great fun x

The Stupidhero Squad

They are the Stupidheroes (not superheroes they are way cooler than that!), my three eldest children are actually Super Idiot, Potter Dimwit, and Toxic Tinkerbell in disguise I hope I can trust you all to keep their identities secret from the Evil Nerdquin and Mr Cool;

I have had these photo's for a few months and have been dying to scrap them but struggling with how to fit them all in. Scrapology came to my rescue with the latest sketch for their January challenge. This isn't my entry as I have some other photo's planned for the challenge but this LO was so much fun. I have included close up's so that you can see what each of them say's to terrify their enemies;

So remember whenever you are in danger fear not the Stupidhero squad will come to your rescue - Well as long as they get home in time for dinner and don't fall over on the way!

Our family of 6

I was happy to see My Minds Eye have continued doing their challenges this year and although the sketch was scary (eek circles!) I had to have a go;

I used Lost and Found II breeze papers and embellishments with just a little extra in the form of a bloomer added into the mix. I again cut a little slot in the paper to slide the photo through as I love the look of the paper going over the photo. The challenge was to scrap about something New so I chose this photo of us as a family of 6 just a day after Alex was born, I rotated the sketch and moved a couple of bits around to suit my layout but I think you can still see the sketch in the layout.

A couple of little close-ups for you of the embellies and the photo;

Colour wheel take 2

After making my lovely AJ page for The Craft Barn Colour Wheel Challenge and then remembering the challenge was for a tag I had to at least try making the tag didn't I? I am not as happy with the tag as I was my page but hey ho :)

I stuck with the triadic colours and added a bit of bling;

I started by colouring the tag with Wild Honey and Broken China Distress inks and then stamping with a script stamp in Worn Lipstick and distressing the edges by inking them with Vintage Photo. The whole tag was then spritzed with Perfect Pearl mist in Pearl which made the tag curl and I completely failed to get it totally flat again lol. I stamped some Wings with broken china and a heart in worn lipstick with the words in black soot onto some Kraft Resist and cut them out. I rolled a strip of craft resist around a paintbrush and glued it before colouring with Wild honey and then assembled it to resemble a butterfly. Finally I added the "butterfly" some gauze, a pin and a flower to the tag.

Take time to play

I have always loved the saying "You don't stop playing because you get old. you get old because you stop playing" so with that in mind and the latest challenge from The Craft Barn which was to use a combination of colours using a colour wheel I made this Art Journal Page;

I went for the triadic colours of yellow, bright blue and cerise. I just played about with the paints and colours and then stamped a few bits and added doodling making my blue paint drips into dandelion clocks :) I am quite happy with my big bright fun page but of course after it was done suddenly remembered the Craft Barn challenge was to make a tag lol :) Never mind if I get chance I will do a tag as well x

Project 2012 and some catch up

I wanted to do a type of Project Life (by Becky Higgins) album this year a weekly diary of sorts all in pictures with a little journalling. Although I love the concept I cannot afford the genuine products and didn't feel they were completely right for me as I love to get messy and so Project 2012 was born lol. I bought a plain Kraft lever arch file which the kidlings are going to decorate for me and some A4 superclear folders (£4.99 for 25 far cheaper than normal page protectors and they are acid free gotta love WHSmith). Also by doing this in A4 the card is cheaper I can get some use out of my 6x6 and 8x8 papers.

Last night I completed the first two weeks, I want to be sure to keep up to date so nothing is forgotten, here is the first one the second one I cannot share for now as it is for a DT challenge;

I have also done two more Art Journal pages the past few days, again one I cannot show yet as it is for a DT challenge but here is my "Textural" AJ page. I was experimenting with adding texture to the page and spread gesso roughly and used masks to get a raised area;

I added some hessian strands embedded into gesso to give a lovely texture (although it took an age to dry!);

Once all dry I splattered with different colours of paints, sprayed with some copper and blue mists and then added some rock candy crackle paint to the bottom of the page;

I love how the crackles area once dried highlighted the colours and made them appear brighter than the un-crackled area. My journalling is not meant to be blasphemous so please don't be offended I simply mean we should cherish all our time on earth.

DT blog candy

I was recently added as a member of the Design Team for Ditzy Craftymess and we are currently running a blog candy giveaway;

Why not pop over and see what's going on our first challenge will be towards the end of the month and it would be great to see you all there xxx

My little jumping bean :)

During the last summer holidays we took our monkeys to Chessington World of Adventures. We met Uncle Marmar, Auntie Kaila and her niece Ria there and had a lovely day playing, visiting the zoo and going on rides. As Alex and Ria were both less than 1m tall there were a fair few rides that they were not able to go on and one of these was Tomb Raider and so while the big kids (hubby and brother) took the three not so big kids (Joel, Dylan and Kari) on it Kaila and I tried to keep Ria (3) and Alex (2) amused. Luckily there was a little minature waterfall and the two of them had a blast playing and splashing with the water and puddles. I managed to get some great pictures of Alex on my phone and this was one of them;

I had great fun playing with my photo editing software :) The centre picture is un-altered then there is one converted to black and white on the far left and one with the background black and white and the subject in colour on the left (see here for how to do this). The two on the right were made using a couple of grunge effects. I used the sketch for this months UKS House Challenge;

I wanted to keep this LO really grungy looking and so I used a mask to add some Black soot distress ink circles both on the card in a large size and on some transparancy in smaller circles. The inked areas were on the bottom left and top right of the photo's with the transparancy on the left over the photo and the one on the right under it. I also flicked some white and dark blue paint over the cardstock;

I used plenty of texture with netting, lace, burlap (or hessian) and a chipboard hinge which was painted blue covered with picket fence distress stain, painted with rock candy crackle paint and then covered with distress stain again;

I also got my sewing machine out and sewed all around the LO and across the top and bottom of the photos. I added a little row of tickets and a row of bunting both from the MME Kraft funday range. I love how the page turned out and hope you all do :)

I have also entered this in the Sarah's cards Ltd January challenge which is to do a LO about your crafting goals for 2012 or starting your goals for 2012. I posted an Art Journal page here about my 2012 goals and one of them was to do the UKS house challenge each month so it was perfect for the Sarah's Cards challenge too :)

Also entered in the The STudio challenge :)

Creative Craftworld January scrapmap

I was lucky enough to win the November CCW Scrapmap and Louise graciously invited me to be a Guest DT member for the January challenge. I was over the moon to win but even more so to get my first ever guest DT slot :)

Here is the sketch for January;

and the LO I made for it;

I used Crate Toybox papers, diecuts and stickers for this LO of my second boy being goofy and silly with me christmas 2006. At the time he wanted to be in the army just like daddy and used to practice marching and saluting lol. Please pop over to creative craftworld and have a go at the challenge and maybe have a look through the shop site it truly is a little aladdins cave of crafty goodness :)

A Secret Place and catch up

Yesterday I sat down to play a bit more with my art journalling. I had already pre-geeso-ed 2 pages and so I painted one with some watercolours and the other with spray mists.

On the watercolour page I added some hand drawn not too circular circles lol and then some distress inks using a sequin waste mask. I printed one of my favourite digi stamps and coloured it with distress inks and then added it and my journalling to the page;

I am entering this Art Journal page into the January Truly Madly Crafty Anything goes challenge :)

The misted page is just waiting for me to added the journalling :)

As for the catch up here are the projects I have done in the past few weeks that I was unable to share before now. First 2 pages I did for my UKS weekly challenge, I asked everyone to use old stash, circles and doodling;

Then I made this brag board for my parents for christmas;

I made 2 sets of candles one set for my parents and one for my MIL;

and finally a calendar for my MIL with acetate pockets so she can change the photos each month (or week or whenever lol);

You were inspired by what???!!!

I am the eldest of two children with my younger sibling being my brother Marc but that aside I do have a sister, my best friend in the entire world someone who is always there for me and who is so amazing that friend doesn't quite cover it so she is my Sis. At the end of November myself the littlest monkey and the biggest monkey (whose school was on strike) went to visit her and I got a photo taken of the two of us. This is the layout I have come up with;

and this is the lunchbox (yes you read that correctly) that inspired it;

I sanded the card made a great deal of use of my cricut and a mask I made and think it looks fairly similar to the lunchbox which is acually pretty funny lol

As well as the LO and the other art journal page in the seperate post I made this art journal page today;

This was pure playing about and experimenting with paints no idea behind it just see what happens and it may not be perfect but the more I play about the more I get other ideas :) I also made some other things today but as they are RAK's (Random acts of kindness) for two gorgeous ladies I cannot show you anymore here for now.