A Book of Note

I recently made this little Book of Note for a swap challenge - it was so easy to make using my Bind It All that I think I'll make a few more, they are handy to keep by you for little presents.

no new stuff but...

...I know some are asking how I got on - well the answer is fine.  After over 4hours of surgery I was sent home 2 hours later admittedly with a list of do's and don'ts and a couple of boxes of heavy sedation but I was just relieved to be back home.  I'm in plaster and bandages from my toes to my knee and not really allowed to do much at all but it is amazing how we women can improvise a bit and still manage to get things done whilst following the doctors orders, I even managed a little ironing last night.  Despite all the warnings of terrible pain to be expected I haven't had any, in fact only took the pain tablets for 24 hours.  It's a bit sore now but I am putting that down to the bones all knitting and healing.  Back to the hospital next Tuesday and I will be begging and pleading for a walking plaster - would get down on my knees to beg but that's not possible at the moment - not sure I'll get a lot of joy but you dont know if you dont ask.

The only snag is I cannot sit at my craft desk at the moment but am going to have a try at the weekend as it is piling up with stuff coming in from my craft group girls.  However I am not entirely wasting my time and have managed to knit a cardigan for Mya and a scarf for myself.  A big thank you to all who have been asking how I am and for all the beautiful cards - I will get round to emailing people soon.  I am sure my recovery is going so smoothly as I have so many people on my side, thank you each and every one of you.  Hopefully normal service will be resumed very soon and I'll have stuff to blog but for now I'll leave you with a photo of my pal who watches nervously every time I try out my crutches......

Sew...

I have just received my Joanna Sheen Haberdashery stamps and have a whole range of cards planned around these, sadly only time to make one for now so here is the Get Well card I made - and no it's not for me....hopefully my next blog will be 'live' and not pre-posted.

Just until I get back here..

...I've pre-posted another card.  I think my all time favourite colour combo is black and white with just a tiny splash of red so this card was really fun to make.  It's another one that was totally unplanned and just sort of materialised....

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together...

...well if all has gone to plan then I am back home today.

But don't you love it even more when there is no plan but it still all comes together.

Well that's this card then.  I had been wanting to make a crossover card for a while and finally last week cut the blank.  I really wasn't thinking straight when I just grabbed a random ink pad and inked all the edges - KHAKI, what the heck was I thinking and what was I going to do with that.  Ok quick search for some green paper and punched a bit of lace trim, ehm looking better but now what???  Rummaged through my folder of Tilda images and found 5 safari style images that I had coloured some time ago - perfecto!!!  Some die cut mounts and voila a card.  Hold it - need a bit more, ehm green buttons - yep looking good but..... too tired now will think in the morning.  Why do we get light bulb moments in the middle of the night - yes it needed a couple of sentiment tickets and I had some already coloured and cut just need to find them.  Now the card is finished and for once I am quite happy with it, wonder what you think...

While I am away....

.... due to surgery hopefully taking place today I can't be here - well not in body but I am in spirit, so I thought I'd make a few things in the week beforehand to be published during my absence.  I saw this gorgeous style of gift bag whilst blog hopping so of course I had to find the measurements and then this just sort of evolved.  I plan on adding a piece of jewellery to the centre as a pressie for someone special.   A couple of tips if you fancy having a go - firstly only use thin card for your 'base' - thick card doesn't crease nicely and paper is too flimsy.  I used the white card sheet that comes in the scrapbook clear folders.  Secondly make a trial bag up first as you can easily put things in the wrong place - my trial bag folded inside out and the tie was in the wrong place on one of the squares.  It is much easier to work out if you have a trial bag to look at.  Don't be put off, this really isn't difficult to make and there is very little measuring.

Ok here is the finished bag..

I used pearlised card in blue for the outside of the bag with blue ribbon to fasten.  The handle was cut from an oddment left over from the card I used for the panels and the flowers and butterflies were made from more oddments. Pink pearls finished things off.

A closer view of the bag front embellishment..

The bigger butterfly was cut using a Marianne die and the smaller butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch.

A side view showing the buuterflies on the handle and the side panel.

I used two sheets of Tim Holtz 12 x 12 double sided card in blue and pink to cover all the panels, blue on the outside panels and pink for the inside.  The bag only took one sheet of each.

A closer view of the side panels..

the little flower embellishments on the two side panels were cut from scraps of the Tim Holtz card again using 2 Marth Stewart punches and pearls.

The inside of the bag....

when the bag is opened up the panels lined with the Tim Holtz card are revealed.  I cut two doileys from thin white card using another Marianne die and coloured parts using pastel pink and warm grey 1 Promarkers, a small quote was stamped in the centre and two little butterflies made from a Kanban stamp were added.  The doileys were added to the two plain panels on the inside and 3 little flowers (made as the side panel flowers) were added to each side.  There is room in the centre for a small jewellery box but if you don't want to use the bag as a gift bag you could add some flowers to the centre panel.

A closer view of the 'doiley'

I have really enjoyed making this and it really is a lot easier than you would think so why not have a go.

Just for a while...

...I wont be here.  Going into hospital tomorrow for surgery and then have two weeks bed rest and a further 12 weeks on crutches so sitting at my craft desk wont be possible.  However I have a few posts pre-planned that will be appearing in my absence and this is a book that I altered over the past week - it kept me out of mischief and stopped me thinking about tomorrow too much.

It was Darren and Talya's birthdays on the 6th and they always take the girls out for a special day to celebrate.  This year they went to Gulliver's Land in Milton Keyne so I made a book of their day out.

and still busy playing....

... another card that just sort of evolved, it actually started with me fiddling with a piece of black card that I had cut two oblongs from using my cuttlebug and a Spellbinder die.  It suddenly struck me that as they were perfectly aligned (purely by accident) they looked like windows so I added the thin pieces of card to the back to make window panes, it then struck me that it looked like an Oriental Screen so I added a piece of pearlised vellum and then lightly stamped a blossom tree design on the vellum.  I lightly coloured the blossom tree with my Promarkers adding just a hint of colour to give the impression the tree was outside the frame.  The rest of the card just seemed to evolve from there, two very cute eastern Tildas and an oriental greeting.  All it needed to finish it off were some small die cut flowers and leaves and voila another card has occurred.

well I have now tidied up my craft room and put everything safely away for now.  I have preposted a few things to pop up on here over the next few days  but for a little while I am taking a crafting rest.  See you all again very very soon.

Keeping busy...

....having done all the normal daily things today - you know, mowed the lawn, hacked back some bushes, cleaned the kitchen, couple of loads of washing and ironing, cooked the dinner.  I also managed today to knit the back of a cardigan for one of the littlies and at long last decided to do something with a couple of cotton bags that had been in the back of the cupboard for years.  Here's the first one ....

I stamped the centre flower using a Stampin' Up stamp I've had for ages and never got round to using.  I inked it in Memento Black Tuzedo and then coloured it using my ProMarkers.  I dithered over what to add to finish it off, did it need lace, or some buttons???? No, neither of them finished off the look I wanted to achieve.  So I rummaged through some boxes of stamps and came across this set of butterflies and dragonflies, stamped and coloured them in the same way as the central flower, just scattering them randomly across the bag.  Added a few words from the same set of flower stamps and voila - one bag, completed.  Now have to decide what style I want to use on the second bag, decisions, decisions.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 21

and it's the final page - page 20 - my art journalling journey comes to a close and I have really enjoyed it.  I wanted this page which is about the future to be something different, something special.  I decided to swoosh different colours in streaks across the page to achieve a sort of rainbow effect after all we none of us now what the future holds no more than we know what is over the rainbow.  I added some random lines using the edge of a piece of card and bronze ink and a few bottle top rings.  I stamped out the words 'what will be will be' down the centre and then added a large velvet blue flower to the bottom.  It still needed a little something more so a pair of chipboard hearts and 5 bright coloured heart buttons completed the page I wanted to create.

I really think that I will return to my Art Journalling again and make another meanwhile this book is being put away safely for my sons to read years from now.  Thank you for joining me on my journey.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 19 and 20

and pages 18 and 19, nearly at the end of my journey.  These two pages are about my religion and blessings.  I painted the pages using - yes you guessed it - Adirondaack Acrylic Paint this time in Gold and the two peices of purple across the center are pieces of a tissue I used to blot the paint on the previous page.  I liked the effect of them so much I knew I had to use them somewhere.  Before painting the gold on I had laid down doileys so as to achieve a pattern top and bottom.  On the religion page I added my name in Hebrew lettering and then my name in standard lettering.  I also added the word Shalom in Hebrew to the bottom of the page.

For the blessings page I wrote out some blessings that I use on a daily basis and then the English translations.  I also stamped out a blessing onto some card.  I really enjoyed these pages.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 17 and 18

and it's pages 16 and 17 this time....  I am still on the subject of granddaughters and the left hand page is about middle granddaughter and the right hand page about my youngest granddaughter.  I painted the pages using good old Adirondack Acrylic paint in Sail Boat Blue and added a swoosh of the same paint in Purple Twilight to the top of the pages.  Rings were made using the tops and the paints.  Again I added hearts with a quote on each about grandchildren and the cello envelope with the tags showing their names and birthdates.  Again personal journalling on the back of the tags.  This time I also added both the girls initial to the page.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 15 and 16

and pages 14 and 15.   Page 14 is about me and my pets and page 15 is about my oldest granddaughter.  I used pearlescent water colour paint in aqua and peach to 'swoosh' squares of paint onto the pages.  I then divided the squares up using strips of book print.  For the pet page I water coloured some chipboard birds and added a few quotes about pets.  For the 1st granddaughter page I added a red heart with a quote about grandchildren and a cello envelope inside which I popped a tag with her name and date of birth on.  There is some personal journalling on the back of the tag.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 13 and 14

and it's pages 12 and 13.  It was easier to produce these pages, although I am not all together happy with the end result - I may well be pimping these a bit later.  The pages are about being a mother in law.  The pages were brayered using a pale green pearlescent water colour paint and a book print border added top and bottom.  I cut the shapes out of bright pink paper and arranged them along the bottom borders making a pattern.  The doll shape was cut in white card and then I doodled on it to 'roughly' represent me.  The house on the second page was made from a square of Tim Holtz scrapbook card that was just sitting on my desk and the windows door and roof cut from some cream card - I added some prompts and journalling.  The photo of the 'paper doll' page was taken before the journalling as that was extremely personal and not for public viewing.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 11 and 12

and it's pages 10 and 11.  I cannot say I enjoyed these pages.  The part of my body I hate are my hands, they are so misshapen from arthritis that they are not a pretty sight so drawing round them revealed these nobbly bent fingers.  But as my d-i-l would say 'suck it up and get on with it' so I did.  The theme for these two pages is motherhood so I decided to make them the hands of a mother.  I swooshed adirondack acrylic paint in Sunshine Yellow over the background and added a border at the top using some water colour paint in orange.  I mixed up a thick batch of paint in green and the orange and then popped finger prints all over the pages.  Around the inside edges of the hands I worte what motherhood means to me and then a few words of journalling.

the second page was produced in the same way.  The journalling tags that are hidden from view were easy to write - I never have any problems saying what my boys mean to me and how proud I am of them both.

Take 2 granddaughters.....

...a blank birthday cake, some melted chocolate and a few decorations (plus a few extra choccie bits for tasting as they worked) and this is what they made for their mummy and daddy's birthday....

not a bad first attempt for a 4year old and a 2year old.  The upside down hearts and excess chocolate was care of the 2year old.

Moments in Time

....had to take a small break from my Art Journal as I needed to make some cards for a friend and while I was on a roll I made some for myself from the Moments in Time range.  These were fun and I'm now ready to get back to my journal.....

The mirri card was so shiney in this one that there's actually a reflection of me taking the photo.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 9 & 10

and this time it's pages 8 and 9 - I have really been looking forward to these two as the art work looked such fun.

Page 8 and me and Music...

I did the heart freehand and was then supposed to fill it with scraps of book print that I had sprayed red.  However when my kit arrived it was wrapped in beautiful cerise tissue paper so I tore little squares of that to fill in my heart with.  I wrote around my heart what music is to me and then did a stitching border.  I doodled thought bubbles on the page adding some of my thoughts on music and then swished Adirondack Acrylic Paint in Pool over the blank background spaces.  I added a few prompts and my answers and some music peel offs to complete my page.  I think I am in love with this page.

Then it's on to page 9 - me as a wife..

again the word LOVE was cut from the tissue paper and the background swished with the same paint.  I wrote on a tag what my husband means to me and spritzed it with Cosmic Shimmer Mist in Peacock Green, added if with a double flower to the centre of my page.  Around the letters I wrote what my marriage means to me and then all that was left to do was add a few prompts and my answers and finally a couple of black peel off hearts.  Job done, page finished and one very happy Art Journaller.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 7 & 8

I am on a roll - 4 pages to blog today so thought I'd do two at a time.  Firstly pages 6 & 7.

For both of these I followed the class manual and added a free-style border and book print torn squares across the top.  I coloured my border in Adirondack Acrylic Paint in Purple Twilight and sprayed the book paper squares with Cosmic Shimmer Mists in Peacock Green and Purple Violet.  The flowers used on both pages were just some I had hanging around.

ok first the page about me at work.  Inside the board I wrote words that referred to my career as an accountant.  I used peel off letters to add the word WORK and then stamped a blank journal entry which I wrote in.

now on to me at play.  The word PLAY was from the same sheet as the WORK word but this time I stamped a blank easel and paint brush to give the feel of Art.  I wrote on the easel and inside the border I wrote all the crafts that I actually do - boy there are a lot of them.

Both pages looked a bit blank so I added the flowers just to jazz them up.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 6

and on to Page 5 of my Journal.

The page itself was quite easy to do (basically a slight revamp of page 4) however the hidden journalling was another thing - a nightmare - I hated senior school.

as I said this page is virtually the same as page 4, the border, yellow splodge and ripped paper corner were created as before.  This time I added 3 little tickets with suitable wording to the 'splodge' and then wrote on some of the new subjects I had to start learning.  I loved the graffiti wall from the previous page so that went in again but obviously with more suitable graffiti.  I doodled a few flowers etc and some prompts.  Finishing off with a chipboard word on the torn paper corner.  I completed the journalling, almost had my eyes shut to do that as I didn't want to read it but 'tis done and another part of my life put to bed.



Me in my MoleskinE Part 5

and page 4 - I'm on a roll today and two pages completed.  Page 4 is about me at Infant and Primary school, this was an easy one to write the hidden journalling but I sat for a while working out what to put on the page....

ok the border and the splash of yellow is as per the class manual, the larger dots on the border are painted with Adirondack Acrylic paint in Copper and the yellow swish is their Sunshine Yellow.  I decided to add some book print torn 'squares' and coloured them with a basic red watercolour paint, then I sat and struggled for ages.  The chipboard letters and numbers came to me quite quickly and were coloured using my ProMarkers.  I had selected the prompts I wanted to add but knew they weren't going to fill up that large cream space so firstly I 'dirtied' the space with some Antique Linen Distress Ink and then it suddenly hit me - GRAFFITI!!! So I drew a patch of brickwork and graffitied the words school days.  After that it was relatively simple to plays the prompts and answers and voila another page completed.  I made the journal pocket between pages 3 & 4 and added the tag for those pages.  I have a feeling that the next page - Senior school is going to be tougher, or perhaps I'll have a light bulb moment :o)

Me in my MoleskinE Part 4

and page 3.  This was a toughie, not the actual page but the hidden journalling.  Well I was warned this would be a therapeutic journey.

Ok here's the page...

and this one is about me as a daughter.  As it is opposite page 2 (thats a bit obvious I know) it had to have the same feel about it.  The border was created in the same way just using a slightly different pattern.  I made 'models' representing my parents and I using sizzix die cut dolls.  In the background I inked over a metal die of a heart and then coloured in the designs on them using my border colours.  Instead of a book print strip I tore two hearts from book print and added a few prompts and answers.  I wasn't keen on a few bare patches left behind so I scribbled a little border colour on them to complete my page.  The page was quite easy - the hidden journalling wasn't, but it is done and now on to page 4.

A Small Interruption to Play

I just had to interrupt my Art Journal journey and blog this photo.  My 4 year old granddaughter made this for me.  It is made using the same idea as painting by numbers except each number refers to a particular colour of mosaic tile.  The tiles are about the size of a sticky dot and bless her she did the whole thing by herself.  Obviously me drumming into her 'look carefully and get things straight before you stick them down' has sunk in.  A pretty good job and she obviously has the crafter's eye.

it now has pride of place in my craftroom.

Me in my MoleskinE Part 3

and page 2 (if that makes sense).  Page 2 is about me as a toddler..

well I did stick to the class layout for this page, but I did change the theme.  Firstly I drew a rough border and made a brick pattern which I coloured using a water pen and Stampin' Up Watercolour crayons from the Bold Brights tin in Glorious Green, Green Galore, Orchid Opulence and Lovely Lilac.  I then used a picture of me as a 2 year old and hand drew (very roughly) a body.  I dressed the body in the same style of clothes I'd worn as a 2 year old and as my head was from a black and white photo I kept to similar colours to add just a hint of colour to the clothes (again Stampin' Up Cray  ons in Very Vanilla, Going Grey and Charcoal). Roughly torn diamonds of a page of print were added down one side but I thought they looked a little boring so I punched a few stamps from the page and coloured them with Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Dusky Concorde and Milled Lavender.  The 'swish' of colour down the centre was a few lines of the Bold Bright crayons I'd used in the border and then washed over with a water brush.  A few prompts from the class were added and answered just to finish off the page.  I then made page 1 and page 2 into a pocket and added the tag.

Hopefully another page tomorrow.