Busy, busy, busy!!

While things may have been a bit quiet here on the blog they've been absolutely the opposite in my life, it's been crazier and busier than ever!! We are very close to completing on the sale of our house which means boxes everywhere and nothing where you're used to it being which is maddening and time consuming to say the least. We had a trip to the hospital for surgery closely followed by a rapid return when infection was suspected. I don't know if I'm coming or going to be honest!
In the middle of all of this domestic madness we have had two new clubs start up. The first is in Sawbridgeworth and is being run by Tracey Camburn. Tracey invited me along to teach the very first club night and it was an absolute pleasure to meet this fab group of ladies. We had such a laugh I found it difficult to believe that it was the first time that they had met one another! The club will meet on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month - if you're interested then get in touch with me and I'll put you in touch with Tracey!
Our second club kicks off this coming Wednesday 3rd April in Southend-on-Sea. The club is run by Jackie Da Silva who is very well known locally as a papercraft teacher and designer. She has hired a hall and has plenty of capacity for anyone who'd like to join the fun! Jackie will also be previewing the two kits for next month and taking orders, it's great to actually see the papers, colours and themes of kits ahead of time so you know what sort of photos to search for. If you'd like to join in with the Southend-on-Sea club then let me know and I'll connect you with Jackie.
In the meantime I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter break and that you find some time to get creative!

Big sale tomorrow!!

In preparation for moving I need to have a good clear out of stock to reduce what we actually take with us. In order to do this we are going to hold a mega sale tomorrow (Saturday 23rd March) from 12 noon to 2pm.
There will be some serious bargains to be had in order to clear out loads of stock! All are welcome and there will be card making, scrapbooking and general craft deals to grab. First come, first served!!

Total Papercrafts March kit 1

Here we go with the double page kit for March using the Prima Engraver line!  We fell in love with these papers at the trade show a few weeks ago and were practically jumping up and down at just how gorgeous it all was.  If I could have I would have ordered everything so it was really difficult to choose!!  The kit has a 'memories' theme so its very adaptable for any kind of photo.  I used a single 6" x 4" landscape photo because I sometimes want to make a statement in my album based on just one moment - in this case it was this amazing snapshot of my sister and I on holiday together in Las Vegas.  I added a shot of teal to the black, tan and white colour scheme to lift it, its very simple to do something like this with just cardstock and it makes such a difference.  I also added a cool wood mounted Prima stamp to the kit and created fun pieces of 'tape' to embellish the design, its a super easy technique that you can use over again with different colours!

The kit contains; cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided patterned paper, wood stamp, tissue paper

You will also need; double sided adhesive tape, flower centres (crystals/pearls/buttons etc.), black inkpad, water spray

Keep an eye out for our second Prima kit for March coming very soon!!

Kit 1 for March - contents

Life is coming at us at 500 miles an hour just lately which amongst other things has meant I'm running to stand still with the kits! The first delivery of fabby goodness from the Craft, Hobby & Stitch show has just arrived which included this months kits. We have chosen papers from Prima for both kits in March and they are delicious!!
The first kit uses the Engraver line which is one of my favs, rich cream offsets beige and black with vintage designs including postcards, tickets and botanical sketches - yummy!! We have paired the papers with a wood stamp from Prima which is just gorgeous and you get another thing to add into your stash!
Hope you like what you see here - stay tuned for the sample page x

Life Book week 9 - overpainting

I missed out the week 9 class which was due a few weeks ago as I was struggling with it. I'm the type of person who either 'feels' it or doesn't and for quite a while I really wasn't feeling it.
The technique for the class was to take a magazine photo of a face and to gesso over it. You then paint over the faint image to create something that has a more pop-art feel to it. I don't buy fashion magazines so that was my first problem so I had to find something online and print it on a laser printer so it could be altered. The printed image wrinkled like mad when it was adhered to the watercolour paper and so that's when I stopped again! I finally forced myself to sit and finish this in one last push and it was surprisingly easy. I struggle with drawing realistic faces so having a reference image to work off made it very much easier. I could follow the placement of features and use the shadows that were there already. It was simple to create a natural real looking face.
If you find faces hard to draw and/or paint then you might want to give this technique a go. It's very simple and a good starting point for drawing. I'm pleased now I've finished mine, now on to this week's class!

No Kent club this Wednesday

Just a reminder for those that attend the Kent club that we won't be able to run the club this coming Wednesday. Sorry to let you down but hope to see you in a fortnight!

Storing loose journal pages

All of the classes for the Life Book class are created on a single sheet of watercolour paper which will be bound together to make a journal later in the year.  The downside of this is that I had a rapidly growing pile of art that had nowhere to live and it was making me uncomfortable.  I came across this birdcage a few weeks ago and it has been sitting on the side in the lounge just looking prettily empty.  For some reason the Life Book ages came to mind yesterday and I had a flash of inspiration that had me running to see if they would fit.  It was as if they had been designed to go together!!  Its so lovely that they have a proper place to live for the time being and that they can been seen - the colourful pages are quite intriguing and draw people in to have a closer look!  This loveliness now sits in pride of place on our sideboard in the lounge and I have to say it looks pretty gorgeous.
So the moral of this story is that I don't need to buy fancy storage specifically designed for your projects all the time, taking a look around what we already had meant that I found something that suited my needs perfectly and cost me nothing!

Whimsy angel

One of the things I'm enjoying at the moment is creating these whimsy girls in my art journal. They come fairly easy and are a great way for me to warm up into creating. They are also a way for me to express myself, get things down onto paper and enjoy making stuff.
While all of this art journaling malarkey is a bit different from scrapbooking at first glance, it's still 'cutting and sticking', playing with colour and design principles. I think that's why I'm also in my element here, it's coming from the same place. I also think its making me a better scrapbooker, it's inspiring me to create differently using different mediums and materials and that's exciting. So please indulge me through these art journal posts, there's so much fun to be had!!

Life Book week 10 - Heart Connection

This week on the Life Book art journaling course we celebrated the connections of our hearts - everything and everyone that we love and treasure in our lives.  Its hard to see but the background is made up of at least eight different layers and processes.  Within these layers is some really meaningful writing that you can just catch glimpses of is you look carefully.  I played with alcohol and acrylic paint to create amazing interactions, collaged with vintage book pages and sheet music, stamped, dripped, gessoed, stamped some more, added tapes, painted, sprayed - basically you name it, I did a little bit of it.  If you stop and look closely at the background in real life you can see each process but its so subtle it all works together as one.
The key technique for this class was creating little rolled love letters which were then formed into a heart shape.  As usual, I approached mine in a different way to Tam's sample in my construction and was really happy with the result.  Each one of those rolls contains a love letter to someone really special to me, they will never read them but that's not important here, its the intention behind this process that really matters to me.  I loved creating this and each step of the way gave real pleasure.  I added the gorgeous wide May Arts ribbon to tie my heart together - we have this in the shop in both the black/cream and the green/white versions (yummy!!).
Those of you who are eagle-eyed may have noticed that I've missed posting about the week 9 class.  This is because I'm struggling with it a little and haven't really got to grips with the idea behind the techniques.  I'll be working on it over the next few days I'm sure!

Feeling whimsical

I have no idea where this has come from but while playing in my art journal this week these whimsical girls have suddenly appeared! I've been playing with my Neocolor II watercolour crayons (which by the way are in the February kit 2!) and out of the page these girls have emerged.

My art journal is my place to just have fun. I don't teach anything that I create in here and the freedom I have to just mess about is a great way to unwind. I'm discovering all sorts of different mediums and learning how the react with each other. I can highly recommend it! It's also a fab place to stick all your paper scraps, I've created loads of collage backgrounds in this way. If the colours/patterns don't work for you then just paint over with gesso or acrylic paint and work off the texture of the layers that you've created!
I was someone who was told in school that art was about drawing realistic things and so when I couldn't do it I felt that I couldn't do art and wasn't creative. That's such a shame because now I see that's absolutely not true and I CAN do 'proper' art. 'Proper' art is about expressing yourself through colour, shape, feelings and just enjoying the process. There are no critics whose opinions matter, no teachers to please or exams to pass, it's just fun. So I can highly recommend getting out some paint and mixing it up with your patterned papers, stamps and anything else that calls to you and just play! Get whimsical!!