A new challenge for 2011

I have embarked on a new challenge for 2011- a calender art journal.

I follow Kates blog over at http://thekathrynwheel.blogspot.com

and have loved looking at her calender pages throughout the year. She has decided to do the challenge again this year and I thought I would give it a go. I don't know whether I will always be on time with it but I am definately up for it!

Here's what Kate says about it:

"All you have to do is complete a calender page each month, and if you like, leave a comment on my blog at the start of each month so that others can visit your blog and take a peek. Don't forget you can also upload to Flickr too."

Here is my January page.

I have used Dylusion paints and sprays (that I got for Birthday and xmas-Yay!) and a range of stamps from Paperbag studios, invoke arts, We R memory keepers and my minds eye.

Kate has an article in the Jan Craft Stamper magazine showing you how to complete the Jan page and I used this as a base for my page as I was unsure of how to start! Now I know what I am doing I will be able to do my own designs for the other months.

I am also doing some freebie courses with Strathmore and considering Tam's new course over at Willowing.org- How will I fit it all in?!

TFL

Sami x

Last JOY post before Xmas!

Super busy here, like I expect everyone else is, so these will be my last JOY posts until after Xmas.

Day 20- met up with friends for coffee and to look at each others xmas journals

Day 21-YULE!! Up at stupid 'o' clock to climb up to the longstone to watch the sunrise, not that we could see the sun through all the mist and cloud! In the evening our group got together to celebrate Yule in the old tradition and then we all had a lovely meal together, cooked by Teresa and Martin which was FAB!! We wrote our hopes for the next year on a chinese lantern and sent it up into the sky.

Day 22- My birthday! A lovely day spent with family and friends. I had some wonderful gifts: Both collections of Dylusions spray inks, one set from hubby and one from mum and dad, a beautiful crochet blanket and a silver ring from my sister, some funky house stamps and a booful cuddly toy from the kids, a new moon calender and beautiful tree charm necklace from Teresa and Martin, a crochet scarf and candle from Paige and Trav and a witches calender from Dawn. In the evening Paige cooked a wonderful birthday meal for me and hubby and Zoe and Alan. The meal was fantastic and all homemade (P sure puts on a posh spread!)
Well, thats all for now. I would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas and a great new year!
TFL,
Sami x

Epic catchup!

I have spent the WHOLE weekend catching up with my JOY. I have been so busy this past week what with new puppy Oakley, a xmas party to organise and sick children that I had fallen way behind.

Day 8-prezzie list hidden in pocket so kids cant see

Day 9-bringing Oakley home and saying goodbye to Molly

Day 10- a Page for Molly

Day 11- Works xmas meal

Day 12- cooker got condemmed on Sun night..it was leaking carbon monoxide, thank the Goddess we had a carbon monoxide alarm in the kitchen. Of course that meant no cooker so we had to go and order one on Mon, an expense we could not afford at the moment, but hey, at least we are alive!

Day 13-Shelbys xmas concert

Day 14-Icy weather and thinking about all the things I still need to do

Day 15- The friendship groups xmas and Eid party celebration

Day 16-succuming to a commercial xmas??

Day 17-The new cooker arrived, Oakley got his first set of jabs and Shelby got sent home from school ill

Day 18- Snow started again today which has meant my Nephew couldn't get down to the Island for xmas. We are praying it clears up in the next couple of days so he can get here by train.

Day 19-Still snowing, still freezeing, still playing catchup all day!

Thanks for looking,

Sam x

Joy days 5,6,7

Falling behind already! Here are days 5,6,7

On the 5th, I spent the whole morning typing up training notes for a training session the next day-hence my thought of the day tag! In the afternoon we went to Paiges to visit our new puppy,Oakley. I put Willow in the kitchen with him to see how they got on and Willow was great with him. What she will be like when hes permanately at our house I don't know! We are bringing Oakley home today so I won't have long to find out!

Day 6- I didn't do anything exciting today but Eclipse was released on DVD so as soon as Hubby was in from work he was sent to Tesco to pick me up a copy! I was going to write xmas cards on the 6th but still have not got round to it! I hate the task and this year I have not made the cards and will be sending out cheapy ones-Im such a Bah Humbug this year!

Day 7- nothing doing today either so I have written about things I am grateful for. The photo is of my Dad, sister and me at my Dads 'remission' party in August, not christmassy in the slightest but important to me that he's here after everything hes been through this year.

This is a page in my art journal that I did last night. This is the Goddess Cerridwen. She is a Celtic Goddess and is concerned with education, arts, knowledge, intelligence and creativity. She is considered the patron of poetry, wisdom and grain. She is keeper of a cauldron of healing and inspiration. Drinking the brew from the cauldron bestows inspiration and knowledge.

TFL,

Sami x

JOY-Days 2,3 & 4

Well, I am just about managing to keep up with my JOY, but I don't know how long that will last!

Day 2

We woke up to 15cms of snow this morning! School was cancelled, buses were stopped so we had a bonus SNOW day!

The neighbours had sneaked out in the night to build a giant snowman, just like they did in January. Zoe (my little sis), Paige, the kids and me went up to the rec for some snowball fun.

Day 3

We went to my friends husbands surprise 40th birthday party last night.

A little bit about Yule (as the photos I took of the party were not very good!)

Day 4

Zoe, the kids and me, had breakfast at Spoons today and then went to a free wreath making session in the town.

Then we went to Busy Bee's for the kids to choose their xmas decoration. This is a tradition we do every year. The kids get to buy one tree decoration each and then when they leave home they will have a collection of decorations to use on their own trees.

We then went home and shoved my hubby in the attic to get the xmas tree down and spent the afternoon decorating it.

TFL,

Sami x

JOY-Day one

This year I am doing JOY-journal our Yule, rather than JYC! Still the same thing but as I am Pagan, Yule is my holiday! We still celebrate Xmas because of the kids and family, but Yule has more significant meaning to me.

Here is my front cover

This is my first page. There is a calender for Dec which opens up and I have written my goals for the season on the tag that pulls out from behind. On the tag it says:

This year its all about JOY-journal our Yule. This year I will concentrate more on journalling about each day-what I have been up to, what the kids have done, rather than using the same promps from other years-how many times can I write about my fav xmas song?!
This year I'm finding it hard to conjure up the xmas spirit. Whether I'm finally realising I don't have to concede to the comercial Christmas by spending a fortune on tat, I don't know!
My main focus this year is being with my family and people I love. Celebrating that my Dad made it through his cancer treatment and is now in remission and is still still here to have Xmas with us. To focus on the important aspects of Yule and Xmas, giving thanks, celebrating the return of the light and being with people who mean the most to me.


Day one page-waking up to snow on the 1st Dec-amazing!!

On the reverse of the date tags, I am writing my thought or quote of the day. This thought is about being proud of the work I have done with the Friendship group I run. Seeing these women gaining confidence, trying new things and really expressing themselves is amazing. The photo on the right is the self portraits the women of the group have just completed and which are now proudly displayed on the wall of the venue we use. Nearly all of the women had never painted before in their lives!

There is also a pic of my DD and my advent calender (twilight one of course!)

TFL

Sami x

Using masks and Xmas makes

I have been practising with using masks in my art journal. Some have come out well, some not so well!

I like the colours on this one but the masks have not worked very well! I also found that I loved the colours on the actual masks when I was finished with them so I have stuck them on the page as well.

I drew around my hand for this mask. Again, I like the colours on this one but wish I had resisted the urge to doodle on it afterwards!

This is my favourite one. I took the idea from a blog I found by Michelle Ward (I forgot to save blog to my favs so will have to find it again.) On her blog there was an area called Street team (I think!) where there were ideas for different techniques and challenges. I loved the poppy heads and it was weird because I used poppy heads on a page last week before I had found her blog. I drew the poppy heads by hand and cut them out to use as masks. I also stuck the masks onto the page afterwards as the colours on them were so nice. I stamped the dragonfly image and cut that out as a mask.

I also made this little xmas tree yesterday with instructions from Sarahs blog, http://stampinsarahiow.blogspot.com I used a mixture of old xmas scrapbook paper and grungepaper for the star. Thanks Sarah for picking us all up the poly cones!)

In the afternoon, the kids, my mum and me all went to my sisters to make some xmas wreaths. My mum had bought the wicker rings a while ago for a bargin 50p each! My sisters partner cut a load of greenery from the garden for us to use. We used garden wire to tie the greenery on but had to resort to the glue gun for the fir cones! Our fingers got all pricked by the fir (surprisingly the holly wasn't as dangerous!) and covered in sap that wouldn't come off, but I was really pleased with how they all turned out.

TFL,

Sami x

Bombshell stamps giveaway

Bomshell stamps are having a giveaway of one digital stamp and one rubber stamp. All you have to do is become a follower and place a link on your blog.

To enter go to http://bombshellstamps.blogspot.com

Sami x

Art journalling mojo

My scrapbooking mojo may have left the building for a while but my art journalling mojo has taken up residence in its place! I am really enjoying doing these journals and am trying to doodle something everyday.

This one has my fav poem on it. I covered the page with old texts and music sheets and then drew the face and the bird over the top. I then used my watercolour crayons for the background and some stamps to finish it off.

On this one I wanted to try using some masks. I have not had a lot of luck using masks on my other pages, the colour always seems to leak underneath the mask, but I have found what the problem was...I need to be patient and wait for the paint to dry so that the mask sticks to the paper! I covered this page with brown kraft wrapping paper and old text pages and then gessoed over sections of it. I cut the lady from a magazine and used re posisional spray to stick it down. I used watercolour crayons to paint the background, let that dry and then used Tim Holtz alphabet mask for the words and a compass mask and inked around them with distress inks and used some mica sprays. I drew the poppy heads on and wrote the quote on the ladys body. I am really pleased with how this has turned out and will be practising with masks some more.

Also, I only have two pages left to complete on the sketchbook project and then I can get that sent off. I am pleased I took part in the project, even though I am rushing the end pages slightly to get it sent off in time! I will post them when Im done.
Thanks for looking,
Sami x

Scrap with us

I have finally caught up with the weekly challenges over at the Wight craft circles Scrap with us challenge. I am not very happy with these latest pages, my scrapbooking mojo has gone at the moment, replaced by my enthusiasm for art journalling!

WK 36 Think pink

Me and my sis doing Race for life

WK 37 patchwork
Various photos of me

WK 39 scrap your friends

Zoe and Paige at Glastonbury Abbey

WK 40 scrap something scary

Scary zombie girl at the ghost walk we did at halloween! She freaked the hell out of me on the walk, she just kept appearing everywhere standing in the shadows with her head to one side like that!! Big cheat with this one as I used the poster that advertised the walk as my background, (sorry Paige I was trying to get it done quickly!)

Thanks for looking

Sami x

Wk 4 Art, heart and healing

Wk 4 over at Art, heart and healing was all about creating a needs angel. The focus behind it was asking the universe for your needs.

I did my angel in my art journal instead of A3 size, because I didn't have any good quality bigger paper!

We used texture gel on the wings and then painted over it.

I then painted an Angel for my friend as she is going to do my Reiki 2 attunement soon. I did this one on canvas and just did the head and wings. I got really stuck in with the texture paste on these wings as they were a lot bigger! I then painted over the gel and used an irridesent medium over the top to make them all shimmery!

I have really enjoyed Tam's free course. The amount of work and dedication she has put into a freebie is amazing and I have learnt so much. Tam is keeping the course up indefinately so I recommend you go check it out (link button on the right).
Thanks for looking,
Sami x

FREEBIE ART JOURNAL COLLAGE SHEET!!

I have been working on producing some art journal collage sheets. It started off for my own benefit so I could scan them and print images off to use again in my art journals and then I thought about offering one on my blog to see what you thought! I have had so many lovely, encouraging comments about my art journal work. When I started art journalling and was so unsure of what I was doing it was the comments from you guys that gave me the confidence to carry on with it!

So here is a freebie for you. This is the first one I have done, I have drawn and painted every image myself, I don't know whether you will like it or even want it, but if you do take a copy please let me know what you think and show me anything you use the images on!!

Paige has helped me test out how you can copy it so heres what to do...click on the picture so it opens in a new window then right click the picture and save image/save as. Save to your files then you can open it and print it out!

Thanks for looking,

Sami x

Art, heart and healing wk 3

Its week 3 over at Tam's Art, heart and healing course and this week we are doing the front cover of our board books, creating a celebration page and making an empaphy monstah!!

This is my front cover. The book will be a book about honouring yourself. We had to make a tag with our favourite quote on to attach to the book and I also added a couple of stamped tickets and a Tim Holtz silver disc.

This is my celebration page. I am really pleased with how the colours have come out but you can't really see it from the photo! This is a feel good page about all the things in my life that I need to celebrate.
I have not looked at the video yet to make the empapthy monstah, but I hope I have time to make one as they look really funky!
Thanks for looking x

Samhain blessings!

HAPPY SAMHAIN EVERYONE!

Some photos from last year.

Our beautiful Cocker spaniel Willow, dressed as Dracula!

Scaring the trick 'n' treaters!

Have a great Halloween, however you celebrate x