Sunday 27 February 2011

Surfing Blogland

I found a new blog to follow today.  It's here.  And the lovely Jude whose blog it is is offering this amazing giveaway.

Saturday 26 February 2011

A quick post with some not so great photos

Yesterday I decided to re-organise my crafting space so that I could find things easily!  In the midst of that I was struck with inspiration for another configurations box.  So here it is.   I've used Kaisercraft and 7gypsies papers to line the boxes and the contents are to do with the Soul Restoration course I'm doing.

The finished box.
And a couple of close ups. 

Friday 25 February 2011

Configurations

I may have mentioned (once or twice) that I was going to Artsycrafty organised by the splendid Leandra of Paperartsy and Lin of LBCrafts.  And after all their preparation and my anticipation ~ it's all over.    Well it is for me, and they have about 2 hours left and then packing up of the venue.


Here is what we found on the table when we arrived.  Lots of yummyness.
 

Tim talked us through what we needed to do and here is my configurations box in the making.  Here are the papers stuck in.

And here it is all taped up ready to fill.


 When we got back from a coffee break this little bag of goodies had been put at our places.
And here were all the goodies inside!


And here's me, just to prove I was there!


I hadn't quite finished by the time the session ended so finished off today.  And here it is:

And a couple of close ups.


What a fantastic morning!  And there was still lunch and a session with Leandra & Lin to come.




Wednesday 23 February 2011

Collage Sheets

I thought I would try my hand at making art journaling elements that other people could download and use.  I don't own Photoshop or PSE so these are handmade ~ cutout from painted paper.  The first sheet is just how they cut out and which people can use as they are or doodle on themselves.


This sheet has been doodled on already. 
If you would like to use them, please do.  They can be downloaded here.  Please let me know what you think of these elements.  I am working on sets of stars, hearts and butterflies.

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Altered Journal

Did I mention the workshop with Tim Holtz before?   Possibly.  I went to the Artful Journal workshop at Art From The Heart.    And if you have read my blog before you will have noticed that the cover of the book I made last week has changed.    It said 'Give Thanks' before.  And it is my intention to make a gratitude journal but I realised this wasn't the book to do it in.  

Previously on newly creative (sounds like a TV programme on Five!) I also explained that I was making a book to record my Journal Workshop and the one I'm going to on Thursday at ArtsyCrafty.   I may have mentioned that one before as well!  
Anyway, to cut what is increasingly becoming a very long story, short I decided I wasn't much struck on the cover I'd made for my book so I cut it up and stuck the letters inside the covers of the Artful Journal.  Here's the 't' at the front and the 'h' is at the back.  
Btw, it wasn't 'th' ~ it was Tim's initials!!

Here are some photos of the inside pages.   I haven't done the writing yet in case I change my mind again.    


I 'borrowed' one or two photos from Mario's tweets, thank you Mario ~ especially the ones that had me on them!  That's my left arm!



And here I am again, with the man himself, Tim Holtz.

There are several pages left in the Journal to add all about ArtsyCrafty.  Come back at the end of the week to find out all about it.

And finally here's an update on the journaling background I blogged about on Saturday.   It now has a bit of zing to it.  Thanks Dyan for the tips.

Sunday 20 February 2011

How exciting ~ an award!

Today I was given a blog award by Sunshine Girl aka Nicola.  

The award is the
and there are a couple of conditions for the award:

You have been TAGGED and want to participate?Then create a post where you post the 'LOVE BLOG' image.You should also blog the persons link that gave you the award and inform her/him that you accept the award.You then choose 3 - 5 favourite blogs which you also link in your post, then inform each blogger that they have been tagged.

Dear bloggers:The aim of this action is that we bring unknown, good blogs to light, so I would ask you not to blog fellow bloggers that already have 3,000 followers.

As ever it is so hard to pick just a few blogs but I will pass this award on to:
Anneliese
Kai
Paige
Jackie

Thank you Nicola and hope those of you who read my blog enjoy visiting my online blog choices.

Saturday 19 February 2011

Am I Dylusional?

For this background I stamped all over the page with black Archival Ink using a Melody Ross & Unity stamp.   Then I sprayed some of Dyan's new colours of Dylusions spray inks and spread the colours across the page with a wet paintbrush and the occasional spritz of water. 

The I cut out the houses from one of Dyan's downloads and stuck them on


This next page is definitely a work in progress.  I first painted over the page with 3 of the new acrylic colours and then sprayed over the top with the inks and used the ghosting technique as well.   It's every bit as dull in real life as in the photo so need to work on giving it some sparkle - and no I don't mean glimmer mists!


Friday 18 February 2011

Didn't we have a fabulous time?

 What a fantastic four hours!  As you know (I think I have mentioned it once or twice!) I went to Harrogate to take a workshop called Artful Journal with Tim Holtz, hosted by the delightful Dyan at Art From The Heart.   When we arrived the room had been set out with tables for four or five people and at each place was a kit (sorry it's blurred!)

Inside the kit was an Art Parts book (Wendy Vecchi), pre-cut pages for our book which included some of the new Kraft Resist paper (yum!).  Also inks, ink blender, paint dabber, glossy accents and so much more.



Here's Tim demonstrating the finished article and then he handed round so we could all have a look.


During the session we got given other bits of kit including the new Alpha Parts, the grunge blocks (hidden under everything else in this photo!) and a set of salvage stickers.

Here are what was left of the 'loseables' after the session ended.

This is my cover using various of the 'loseables', the Alpha Parts and the Grunge Blocks.


And here are some of the inside pages now that I've stuck more bits down and inked and stamped some more this morning.




And here's a tag using the new set of Reflections stamps that I bought.


Back to yesterday.  At the end of the session Tim gave away some sets of stamps to a few of the participants.  Mario was the Random Generator.   He chose my number and I was given this limited edition bag!


And talking of limited edtions, Dyan made a ticket in her own inimitable style for us as a reminder of the day.  She had a limited edition of 60 printed, numbered and signed them.   Then she 'defaced' Tim on each individual ticket.   I was given number 1/60.  Thank you Dyan.

Thank you to everyone for such a fantastic day: Tim and all his team at Ranger; Dyan and Ben for organising it all.  And all the ladies that took part especially the ladies I shared a table with.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

The first day of the rest of my life?

 So, yesterday I officially retired. Not for the first time in my life.  I retired at 43 years old from teaching!  A few years later I worked as the church administrator and retired from that after 13 years.  In January 2010 I was asked to help set up a new local company and I left there yesterday ~ so now I am retired and today is the first day of the rest of my life.

And to celebrate I'm driving to Yorkshire this afternoon and attending the Tim Holtz workshop at Art From The Heart tomorrow.   I think I may have mentioned it before! 

I've been working some more on some of the backgrounds in my Brave Girl Art Journal.  I've added some stamping and some more pages using the ghosting technique that Dyan showed us.  (scroll down my blog to find the video)

This page has some birds on that was a free download from Chris 



I didn't like this page very much so I tried adding another layer of colour

 It may or may not be an improvement!

 This one is done with Dylusion acrylic paint rather than the spray inks.

With this one I sprayed the inks and then wiped them with a baby wipe so the whole page was covered.  Then I sprayed ink and then water so the ink would move about.  When this was dry I sprayed with water and lifted some colour off.


Then I used the ghosting technique - spraying water through stencils.


Off to have lunch now, and then Yorkshire here I come!