February's page

I've just finished this page for my Art Journal. Used lots of paint, inks,stamps etc.
My January page is a few posts down.

Craft Bubble and Papertake Weekly Challenge

I am part of a group on the Craft Bubble forum called Craft Mad and Loving It. One of the girls sets a challenge once a week. This week it is a sketch and the theme is "Standing Under". I would also like to add it to the Papertake Weekly Challenge as I added ribbon and pearls to highlight the image.

Here's the sketch

And here's my card.



Stamps: Tulip Oriental Garden
Papers: First Edition
Sentiment: Tulip Birthday Gifts
Borders: Martha Stewart punch

I coloured the images with Copics and added pearl gems and ribbon to highlight the image.

Diddydoodles

Just wanted to write a post about a junior challenge blog that my 8 year old daughter is a Design Team member of. It's called Diddydoodles and is the junior equivalent of the Polkadoodle challenge blog. My daughter Robbyn is thrilled to be part of the Diddydoodle challenge blog and asked me to make her, her very own blog. So if you have a quick minute in your busy day please would you go over and leave her a comment? She would be over the moon if you did.

You can find her blog here.

Robbyn's Place

thank you very much.xx

Polkadoodles Challenge

Friday again and it's time for another Polkadoodle Challenge. So this week the theme is

Tempt us with a template!!

Here's my card.

I have used Polkadoodle's Paper Boutique Vol 3 CD. I used the Country Cottage template and then I used a mixture of the papers from the CD and also printed out some of the images and coloured them with Copics. I inked the edges of the papers with distress inks.The sentiment is also from the same CD.

The other Polkadoodles DT members have made some gorgeous cards with templates. Why not take a look and be inspired to join in? You can see them all here.

Cute Card Thursday & Sketch Saturday

This week on the Cute Card Thursday blog we have the theme of......

You're a gem

A lovely easy one for you this week just use gems!!

so here is my card



Stamp: House Mouse- Happy Hoppers-Fancy Pants
Papers: First Edition - Daydream
Borders: Martha Stewart Punches
Card: Cordinations
Sentiment: free from a magazine

I've also made this card for this week's Sketch Saturday challenge. Here's the sketch.

365 Art Journal (should be 366 for a leap year)

Today I'm showing my 365 Art Journal. This is the first one I have attempted and I've gotta say I thoroughly enjoyed it. Got really messy but it was fun!!

Kate Crane was a big inspiration to me in starting this. Her work is out of this world, love it!!




The journal is from Asda and was only £4, bargain! I started off covering the pages with pastel pencils rubbed in. Then I went to town with acrylic paint, different kinds of inks, stamps, sequins. I even got my embossing gun out! The circles are cut with punches from Tim Holtz papers. The January is made from thickers and covered in metallic acrylic paint and then edged with distress inks.

The girl is a stamp which Cherry kindly stamped out for me and I coloured it in with distress inks.

Now I've got to try and remember what I did at the beginning of January so I can fill it in!!

Cute Card Thursday

This week's challenge for Cute Card Thursday is

Song and Dance

I've used a House Mouse pretending to be a conductor image for my card.

Stamps: House Mouse
Papers: First Edition-New Leaf
Border: Martha Stewart Punch
Flower: Tonic Punch
Leaves: Martha Stewart Punch

If you would like to come over and join us in the challenge you can find us here

An icy start

Just thought I'd pop this photo on to show you just how cold it is here today. Hubby took this at 9.30am as we were walking Milly along the shore.

Until you spread your wings ATC

I would like to get into the world of art journalling and thought after the last page I needed more practise. So an ATC might be a bit better to practise on. Well I tried to doodle on it but now I know doodling is just not my thing. So I think it's stamping for me.



Hard to believe but to start with I used a Tim Holtz ATC sized piece of card that was in one of his pads. I've inked it, painted it, stencilled it, just about everything you can imagine!!! The girl is from a digi kit by Wish Bliss Studio and is called Some kind of wonderful. I forgot all about these kits, I used to love using them in my digi layouts. They are ideal for art journalling. I made the saying using the computer and then just chopped it.

This will be one of a set of three.

Polkadoodles Challenge

Fliss's turn to set the challenge this week at Polkadoodles and she has chosen the theme of

Vintage/Retro

Papers: Polkadoodles Pretty Tuff CD
Stamps: Polkadoodles Magic neighbours
Sentiment: Polkadoodles Fairy Flutterby Babsie set
Card: Coredinations

I distressed the papers with distress inks and punched out the flowers with the same papers from the Pretty Tuff CD.

The team have made some gorgeous cards this week all very different but still fab. Hope you get some inspiration and join in with us. You can see all the cards here.

Art Journal

After seeing lots of these in several forums and liking the look of them I decided to have a go. Not a brilliant first page but a start!
My art journal will be with the theme of inspirational sayings.


I started off with a cheap book from Asda. It's pages are quite large maybe in hindsight I should have got a smaller one. It has a lovely soft grey cover and some files at the back. I think I'll be making some tags or ATCs to put in them.

I used distress inks, metallic acrylic paints, stamps, pastel pencils, Tim Holtz papers, tissue paper. I couldn't find my gesso so I used a glue instead.

The saying says " Spoken words fly away, written words last forever"

My desk now looks like a bombs hit it and my hands seemed to have turned a funny colour but I had fun and I think that's the main thing!!

Cute Card Thursday & Sketch Saturday

The challenge this week for the Cute Card Thursday blog is

You're having a laugh

Stamps: Murray and Ethel
Papers: First Edition - New Leaf
Border: Martha Stewart punch
Medium: Copics

I've had these stamps and sentiments for ages and have only just dug them out after about 2 years. They were in a little box with no info so sorry but I can't remember who they are by. Now I know Murray and Ethel!

If you go over to the Cute Card Thursday blog you can see all the other fab DT cards and hopefully join in with us.

I also made this card for the Sketch Saturday challenge and of course used their sketch.

A bit different

So I used to be into altered stuff a long time ago and then stopped and made cards instead. Now I'd like to do both so I made a very quick ATC to gently get me back into it. I aim to do an art journal soon.



I used a selection of distress ink pads for the base and then lightly stamped some patterns with the inks. For the main image I used black Stazon. The little sequins I got today at Poundland. A big bag for a .... £1. :0) I edged the ATC with some gold ink.

Stamps: Paper Artsy

When we moved back to UK from Germany I had to throw a lot of my craft stuff out. Grrr how I wished I'd kept it now , most of it was altered art stuff!!

Ladies who lunch

Last night I finally finished my cross stitch. It's a Bothy Threads kit called Ladies who lunch. I need to wash it, iron and frame it yet.

Project 365

Okay so I'm going to have another go at Project 365. Last year I tried it but only got to the end of March. This year instead of doing all 7 days of the week on one layout I'm going to mix it and maybe have just 1 photo a week for certain weeks.
Here's my 1st week of January layout.



Template:- Brine Design - Project 52 January Collection
Kit:- Pink Reptile 365 kit

Happy New Year!!!!

To everyone who reads my blog. I hope all your wishes come true for 2012.