Art Journaling for Beginners

The title of this post refers to me :) I've been saying for a while that I would give journalling a try, after several years of suffering from anxiety and mild depression I was told that I needed to develop a more positive frame of mind. Having seen lots of examples of other peoples art journals over the past 6 months I realised that there are lots of positive messages stamps and stencils out there and also lots of lovely new crafting goodies to experiment with.

My main reason to start art journalling though is not just to try and give myself a more positive frame of mind, but to help put my feelings and thoughts into something that can show how I'm feeling when words don't always come easy. Must add I'm peri-menopausal at the moment and one of the delightful side effects is losing words and having 'dumb struck' moments, moments when you suddenly stop talking not because you can't remember what you want to say, you just can't remember what the damn word or words are that you want to use is.

I'd been thinking about keeping an art journal for a while now, but I kept chickening out because I can't draw for toffee, that's not true, I can draw a mean stick man lol! I've never classed myself as arty, I think I'm creative, I used to do a lot of cross stitch and I can do basic knitting and use a sewing machine. But to me, art is something that goes on walls in museums, its what talented people do who can paint, and shade and capture a likeness on a canvas, that's not me. Well that was how I thought until recently, now I'm firmly thinking that if it comes from the heART its ART whatever it looks like to others :)

So with that thought in mind I gathered together some of the new stash I got for my birthday last week, and opened my new art journal to the very first page, I first misted it with water then added some Crushed Grape and Calypso Teal Dylusions ink to the page in random squirts, then I used a paper towel to remove some of the ink. Next I took some stamps from Kaisercraft and stamped some text, I was a little wobbly these were training wheels and I was flying in the face of the fear that I shouldn't be playing with these things. I got a little bolder and used one of my new BoBunny stencils and some Wilted Violet distress ink to lay down the heART's, a message to myself.

Next I stamped and embossed the sentiment and used another of the BoBunny stencils and some Antique Rose Sparkle Texture paste to put some butterflies on the page. The butterflies are the symbol of my nervous thoughts, those "I'm crap at this", "This is a mess", "Stop doing it you obviously can't" type thoughts, but they also represent freedom to create and ART is in create as well. I had to stop playing for a little while so the texture paste could dry, when I got up from my seat and looked down at the page I said "WOW!" because I'd started something that looked good to me, and that's what matters, its my art journal, its not being judged by anyone and anything goes.

I've done a little on it each evening for a few nights, adding bits, like some stamped flowers, highlighting the butterflies, added some photos of me and some additional sentiments and its finished... Ta Da!

Well as finished as these things can ever be! The photos of me are rare moments when I stopped thinking what others might think, stopped worrying about potential negative consequences and let my inner child out, moments when I just did it, and do you know what, nothing happened other than I had fun! Putting this page together showed me a little something about myself, the whole point of the exercise, and yes I know its not up to the standards of some of the fabulous art journalers out there, but I'm pretty proud of my first page. Me using my hands, mind and heart to tell myself something that at 52 years of age I should already know, love yourself, adore your ideas and cherish every moment, every pen stroke and ink smoosh, it may not always look arty to others, but if it comes from the heART its never wrong :) Now my mind is full of ideas for the next page and the page after that...

Birthday Stash

Last week it was my birthday, and my hubby took me to Coleman's Craft Warehouse in Rushden, Northants. I spent a very happy couple of birthday hours browsing the shelves and availed myself of lots of crafting bargains. As it was January my craft basket reaped the sales rewards and I picked up some amazing bargains, and found almost all of the items on my wish list. They didn't have any art journals or posca pens, so an additional trip to hobby craft happened on the way home. I've got it in to my head that this year I'll try my hand at art journalling so I wanted to acquire some supplies for that, more on that in another post.

Back to Coleman's, if you live in the area and haven't been then you should visit STAT! I started out buying craft supplies at The Range and Hobbycraft because when I started crafting back in September 2014 they were the only places that sold crafting supplies that I knew of. I've since found lots of lovely craft shops online that I continue to use, but nothing beats seeing and touching the crafting goodies, it gives you a better idea of size, texture and you even see things that you may not have considered using before.

The staff at Coleman's are very friendly and helpful, they provide tea and coffee and biccies, if you remember to ask! Somebody (me) got so excited when she got through the doors that she started shopping immediately and forgot to tell them I'd arrived after emailing to say I'd visit and they said to tell them when I got there and they'd put the kettle on lol! There were so many wonderful things it was like Charlie's Chocolate Factory for the crafter. One a couple of the huge tables they have in the store there were lots of ladies sat crafting, it was almost like a social club atmosphere they chatted and crafted and looked to be having an amazing time.

I 'squeed' with joy when I discovered that lots of the Tim Holtz dies were in the sale, one of them, the Sizzix Bell Jar with Pedestal which I've been coveting for a while now was £7.50 the cheapest I've ever seen it brand new.  I found art journalling stencils in the sale, my favourites are the Bo Bunny 'Cascade' set which look to be silicon of some kind, they adhere to the paper as if you've stuck them down so you can work without the stencil slipping, bliss! I'll be acquiring more of these over the next few months.

There were stamps by companies that I'd never heard of before and I discovered new things to put on my wish list. I also picked up 5 of the Ken Oliver 'Color Burst' bottles of pigment colour, not tried them yet but it'll be interesting to see how they compare to Brusho's and he's just released some gorgeous new colours at CHA 2016 so if these work well I'll be availing myself of some of them :)

I also picked up a couple of the back issues of Craft Stamper magazine, I found it incredibly inspiring and interesting so I took out a subscription, as well as getting a good deal on the shop price I never miss an issue, it gets delivered to my door and the bonus was the bundle of IndigoBlu goodies that you got. Post on that coming soon.

Getting to Coleman's is a bit of a trek from Derby, that said its somewhere I'd be happy to travel to for supplies every couple of months. The one downside is they only have a tiny fraction of the stuff they sell in their online store, so you can't get everything you need from them online, like you can if you go to the warehouse.

The Craft Warehouse isn't open all week it's open Thursdays and Fridays 9am - 4pm, Saturdays 8.30am - 4pm and Sundays 10am - 4pm, there is free parking, and a room for “bored husbands” with sofas, television and newspaper and magazines. Although my hubby just sat at the craft table browsing the internet lol! If you get the chance to go, DO IT! I'll be posting some photos of some of the things I've been making with my birthday stash from Coleman's very soon. It really is an Aladdin's cave of crafty goodness and I can't wait to go back :)

Dancing for Pleasure

I'm so behind sending out my PIF Swap ATC's that I feel terrible about it, today I put both of them in the post to the recipients and I hope they like what they receive. Late in November I created an ATC for December and as you'll see below I managed to lose both that and the one I did for November, there has been decorating chaos, moving my craft room around and the usual shuffle of household items and furniture to fit the christmas tree in. They will turn up again no doubt, but if I'm honest I prefer today's creations instead :)

The photo above is for the December PIF and the word was 'Pleasure', I decided to go with the theme of 'Dancing for Pleasure' and dug around to see what I could find. I made the musical note back panel a while ago when I started experimenting with alcohol inks, the background stamp was another French find in the Summer and I used copper embossing powder to compliment the colours in the inked paper. The piece I cut this from was just sat in my 'maybe someday' box, today was its day lol!

The card was a special coated glossy card for alcohol inks, so it has a lovely smooth and shiny finish, I created the wording using the No. 3 Dovecraft Wooden Alphabet Stamp set which I simply stamped as close together as I could with some Tuxedo Black Memento ink,  then I used my ink dusters to create bands of Lady Bug, Tangelo and Dandelion inks and edged the cut to size piece by running it along the Lady Bug ink pad. I added the dancing fairy MDF shape with acrylic glue and when dry I 'painted' it using a Wink of Stella brush pen in Gold. Two orange adhesive gems at the top and bottom of the wording completed the ATC.

The above photo is my November PIF Swap, the word for the swap was 'Beautiful' and I chose the sentiment 'Beautiful Moments' and tried to capture a wintry sunset/rise, the photo doesn't show the holographic 'sparkle' on the trees that makes it look like a frosty morning or evening but it is a pretty effect. Like December I did another design for November but in the chaos that has been the past few months, I can't find them anywhere, so today I sat down and put my thinking cap on and came up with two new ideas.

I used my newly acquired ink dusters and Dandelion, Rose Bud and Danube Blue Memento Inks, the trees stamp was free with the Winter Crafters Companion magazine and the sentiment embossed in gold is from the Santoro Willow Sentiment Clear Stamp Set. I over stamped the trees when dry with clear embossing ink and sprinkled Papermania Holographic embossing powder over them. The final touch was an orangey gem from my stash to represent the sun.

Life is Not About Waiting For The Storm...

WOW! It's been over 2 months since I last blogged, life got in the way of blogging sadly, although I did do some card making, albeit not as much as I would have liked and I never made my christmas card target, I just about managed to make enough cards to send to friends and family, next year I'll do better, this I know because I've already made a start on cards for 2016 lol!

I was very lucky and very spoiled this year, for Xmas I was given lots of crafting goodies including sets of Presscut square and round nesting die sets, an inkylicious ink dusting kit, a set of 12 Brusho Crystal Inks, a set of 12 gelatos, various Tim Holtz dies, stamps and carry case and lots more besides, I did very well and was absolutely blown away at the bounty.

So for the past few days I've been playing with my new goodies and over the next week I'll share what I've been making, the photos in this post are my first efforts at playing with my Brusho Crystals, the "Wishes are the magic..." panel in the photo above was my very first play with brusho's, hard to believe that a little water and a sprinkle of the crystals could create such a colourful effect. I embossed the sentiment first using white detail embossing powder from the Cosmic Shimmer range, then applied the crystals in Purple, Emerald Green and Turquoise and spritzed with water. I trimmed and edged the panel with double sided tape to which I applied some Lilac Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter, the panel was stuck to a 5" x 7" card base that I embossed with a TOGA embossing folder I picked up in France in the Summer,  I used Peacock Feathers Distress Ink to colour the card before spritzing with my homemade silver shimmer mist.

My second panel was created with Scarlet, Orange and Yellow Brusho Crystal powders, again I resist embossed using a Tim Holtz stamp from the Good Thoughts set, the edge of the panel was highlighted with the new Distress Ink for December 2015 Candied Apple, my new favourite shade of red. I picked out the heart using Red Berry Sparkle Pen. I used the same glitter edge technique as I did on the card above this time I used Ruby Red Nuvo Pure Sheen Glitter and stuck the panel on at an angle, more to try to correct the fact that I'd stamped the sentiment wonky! The black heart adhesive strip feels like velvet as was a gift from my nephews and niece for Xmas, they gave me a few other crafting bits items including the dancing fairies in the card in the main image.

The main image cards were my second attempt at using the Brusho Crystals, the sentiment is from the same Tim Holtz Good Thoughts stamp set, the blue design used Leaf Green, Emerald Green, Lemon, Turquoise and Ultramarine crystals. I embossed he sentiment with Black Detail Cosmic Shimmer embossing powder, the panel was then trimmed and matted with a sapphire blue glitter paper and the mdf fairy  was glued in place and the wings were coloured using an Aquamarine Sparkle Pen.

The orange and purple card was made using Orange, Scarlet, Purple and Lemon Brusho Crystals, the sentiment was added again with Black Detail embossing powder and matted on to a piece of Purple Centura Pearl card, once the fairy was attached I coloured the wings with a Silver Wink of Stella brush pen. I'm loving the vibrant colours that the Brusho Crystals create, next I want to try stamping images and using the crystals to colour the stamped images. I also want to experiment with embossing pastes and wax to create resist and relief designs. I think 2016 is going to be the year I begin to experiment more with mixed media projects. Big, bold and beautiful colour combinations are on the horizon :) 

Creative Stamping Woodland Christmas Cards

Yesterday I finally managed to pick up a copy of Issue 27 of Creative Stamping Magazine with the free Woodland Christmas stamp set and I couldn't wait to get stuck in and play. These are four of the cards I've created so far using the set, and amazingly bits and bobs from my 'Maybe Someday' box.

I used four colours of Ranger Archival Ink for all the cards, some embossing powders and a couple of distress inks. The first card is mounted on an 8" x 8" card blank, so it gives you some idea of the size of the stag head stamp, and the background of the card was embossed with a snowflake embossing folder. I used the same embossing folder on all but the last card, where I used the dotty folder that came with my new Big Shot Plus Machine.

For the stag card, I stamped him in Potting Soil Archival Ink and used my water brush to paint with Distress Inks in Rusty Hinge and Brushed Corduroy for the fur, the inside of the ears were painted with Spun Sugar and the nose with a little Black Soot, the antlers I used Ground Expresso and then gave the nose a dab of Glossy Accents when dry. Once I'd stamped and coloured the stag, I built up the greenery around the side using Archival Inks in Fern Green, Library Green, and Potting Soil for the pine cones. The edge of the image was blended with a little Pine Needles distress ink.  Gold card and dark green spotted ribbon from my stash completed this project.

For the next card, I made a panel stamping the top and bottom with the same colours as above, to this I added the holly leaves stamp using embossing ink and Lindy's Stamp Gang Embossing Powder in Fiddlehead Fern Green, its a beautiful shiny metallic bluey green. The berries are also part of the set and were stamped in Vermillion Archival Ink. The Christmas Kisses die cut was done last year using an Xcut Christmas Sayings Die Set and sat in my 'Maybe Someday' box unused, I thought it would be perfect on the topper, and along with some dark green and gold organza ribbon from my stash and a couple of clear gems another card was born.

Of all the cards I made so far with this stamp set this Winter Wonderland Fawn card is my favourite :) The panel is partly an accident but it worked out beautifully, the fawn is die cut using my Spellbinders Deer D-Lites Die, I'd die cut it a few weeks ago when I got the die intending to use it on this years Christmas cards and it went in the 'Maybe Someday' box. So the accident? The blue background... When I was stamping the foliage around the edge of the circle I managed to splatter red and dark green archival ink in the centre, not a huge amount, but enough to stand out. So I decided to use some holographic embossing powder and the snowflake stamp from the set to try and hide it.

As you can see from the detail image above, you can still see a few tiny spots of red (look at the snowflake just under the pine cone and the one under the deer's tail). I decided to give the whole thing a 'sky' background by blending Broken China distress ink over the whole circle, this is where I discovered the magic of archival inks! Once dry they are permanent and don't alter when you go over them with distress ink, I gave the background a light mist with my homemade pearl shine mist and left it to dry.

To finish the panel I stamped some snowflakes using neat Broken China ink, to create the darker blue snowflakes. I mounted the panel on to a circle of gold card and attached the deer to the front. I decided to go over the snowflakes on the embossed card in Broken China and give the card front a mist of white pearly shimmer mist to bring the blue of the centre panel in to the overall design.

My final card created so far used all the same colours of archival inks as above, but on the darker green branches I over stamped with embossing ink and added some Papermania Holographic embossing powder to add a little sparkle and shimmer. The sentiment is from the Woodland Christmas stamp set and I used embossing ink and Whispers Metallic Gold embossing powder to stamp it. I added some bling holly berries, I didn't have any red adhesive gems, so I used a Ruby Red ProMarker to colour some clear gems red. The panel was mounted on to a new Spellbinders 5" x 7" Holly Frame panel that I die cut using red holographic foil card. and was then mounted on to a 5" x 7" white card that I'd embossed the front of with an A4 dotty embossing folder.

I've also made some more panels using the stamp set which have yet to be turned in to cards, the heat gun (pun intended) is on now, because as well as making all the Xmas cards for friends and family and a batch for my local Cats Protection to sell, my future daughter-in-law has asked me to make 50 invitations for their engagement party. We're also making homemade gifts for all the adults, so lots to do and we're already over halfway through October, eeeek! I better get my skates on :)

20 Down, 80 - 105 To Go...

Having decided that I was going to make 100 cards for giving to friends and family for Christmas and realising that actually I'll need about 125 if I'm going to have enough for everyone, and have some to give to my local Cats Protection for their November fund raiser, I realised I better get a wiggle on. I little calculating and I discovered last night that I need to make 2 cards per night, 6 nights a week from now until the 12th December! Which left me with an OMG what have I signed up for feeling.

There's other bits and bobs to make as well as we've decided to make homemade gifts again for family. although not sweeties this year, something different with a herbal twist, but those gifts need tags, labels and boxes making. So I'm kind of grateful that the nights are drawing in, that means more crafting time. I will definitely ensure next year I'm card making for Christmas all year round instead of leaving it until October. Although I did try to make a start earlier in the year I guess, when I counted up how many cards I had I discovered with the 3 made last night I had 20 cards made. So all I have to do is make cards 6 nights a week, it shouldn't be difficult and some days, if I make some simple embossed, coloured and bought in toppers I can possibly make 3-4 a night.

I managed 3 last night using the free stamp set and embossing folder that came with issue 145 of Simply Cards & Papercraft, 2 of which are in the photo above. For the blue card, I embossed the image and coloured it with a distress ink blending tool, gave it a spritz of homemade silver shimmer mist and stamped the flying Santa and sentiment in silver embossing powder. I did use distress inks to paint the the church scene but I wasn't very happy with the end result, I think the weather vane should have been done in gold metallic pen or something, so back to the drawing board on that one.

The green deer card in the first photo is the first time I've stamped with distress inks, so far I've painted with them and used them with the blending tool and on the craft mat mixed with water to create backgrounds. I didn't realise you could stamp with them as well, doh! I like the soft delicate water colour effect they create. I did have a second go but I don't think I got the tree ink colour balance right. If these 'experiments' had turned out like I wanted I could have made 5 cards last night.

The above 2 cards were made a couple of weeks ago, I used my Justrite Snowfall Background stamp that I picked up cheap in the January sales, the dark blue was stamped with Blue Sketch distress ink then embossed with Papermania Holographic Embossing Powder and the aqua card was stamped using iZink metallic ink in Metal Green and once again I added the holographic embossing powder. The photo doesn't show the sparkle and shimmer very well, but its there.

The bauble was came free with the September issue of Do Crafts Creativity Magazine and is part of a Papermania 'Folk Christmas' stamp set. I used embossing ink and then silver embossing powder and then fussy cut the baubles out. Once cut out I went over each with distress ink to colour the image, Spun Sugar for the blue cards bauble and Cracked Pistachio for the aqua card. I even made my own card blanks for these two cards using a pad of linen card I got from The Range for £1.99 and a free scoring board that came with a card magazine a while back. Now I just need to find envelopes the right size or learn how to make them lol! There's always something new to learn and some new bit of stash I need to do it :)