Me in my moleskinE - part 1

hi peeps, well the journey has begun and the idea is to make an Art Journal all about me.  Now Art Journals are meant to be journals that you have carried around with you and filled at odd times and using your own art to complete.  This as most of you know is completely out of my comfort zone as I like neat and organised not messy and inky so apologies in advance to Kirsty as I wont be following the class exactly I will have to put my own slant on things.  Some of the pages will be pretty much as Kirsty designed others will be completely different.  But to me that is all part of the journey, not to copy but to take the ideas and use them to make my style of art.  So you start out with a blank Moleskine journal and the journey begins. 

 

The journal sent to me was in the kraft colour and I am sorry but I really couldn't bear to put a coffee mug ring on the cover. However I did let it get a bit messy - for me that is. Ok here is the completed cover and I am happy with it which is what it is all about.

Now for some details…

I have inked the sides of my cover with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Brushed Corduroy and the then sprayed some Graphite Tattered Angels spray on, added a few drops of Merlot Tattered Angels spray.  The tag was aged in the same way but I then wanted to roughen the edges to age the tag a bit more, trouble was I didn’t have one of those Tim Holtz roughie thingies.  After a moments thought I broke a wooden lolly stick in half and attacked the edges of the tag with the rough edges of the lolly stick – it worked well.  I similarly aged the words ME in my MoleskinE and randomly glues them to the tag.  I didn’t have a suitable colour of raffia so coloured a white piece with my Brushed Corduroy stamp pad.  It still lacked something but couldn’t bring myself to add a coffee mug ring as suggested in the class.  Instead I stamped a ticket and aged it – I thought the word ART on the ticket was apt for my ‘Art’ Journal and that the ‘ADMIT ONE’ was just right as there are going to be hidden parts in the journal for the eyes of my sons only.  I then aged a grunge key as the book will be unlocking the inner me.  My cover is complete and I must now just leave it alone and not spoil it.

Now I can enter into my journal and continue the journey through my pages.

The Start of the Journey

...I am going out of my comfort zone and starting on a new craft journey.  Along with some other like minded ladies I am taking a journalling class with Kirsty Wiseman.  I will (hopefully) be creating a journal to leave to my children/grandchildren and it will be all about me.  I have never made anything about myself before hence the coming out of my comfort zone and it will all be made from a beautiful Moleskine book.  I am going to share (some) of my journey with you, the more personal bits which will be for my children's eyes only and hopefully only when I have left this earth and wont have to hide with embarrassment will be hidden in pockets.  So you will only get to see the mess ups I make of the pockets/cover/etc.

The journey has begun as my kit is here waiting on my beautifully tidy desk and just to prove that take a look at....

my beautifully tidy desk..

comfy chair all ready and waiting...



 all my card stock and papers neatly organised in files....

some of my dies mounted on a notice board.....

punches in drawers and promarkers in folders

Postman has been and left my parcel...



and inside my parcel is my kit....

now I can't wait to get started.... the fun begins tomorrow evening and I will blog my steps along this road.  TTFN.

Getting ready.....

.... trying hard to get all my crafting up to date as next week I am starting a new crafting journey.  I need to be able to concentrate on it and it would help if my craftroom was neat and tidy and I knew where everything is.  So I am having a grand clear up today and have just two cards to blog that I have made this week.  The first is a very important card as it is for my older son's birthday, so here is the card inside and out....

and then an equally important card for my younger son and his wife's 3rd wedding anniversary...

 

and the next generation of crafters...

....Mya is now becoming a keen crafter and these are the cards she made this week....

firstly two for fathers' day..

and then one for mummy and daddy's wedding anniversary next week...

and then as her mummy and daddy share the same birthday she made them a card each..

she has her own stamp for the back of the cards and adds her name..

she is a big Kanban fan but also enjoys stamping and my Ranger pens have now mysteriously disappeared into her craft box (along with quite a few other things).

Wont be long either before little sister joins the ranks, at the moment though little Miss Double Jointed is enjoying doing handstands and the splits - watch out for the 2024 Olympics.



A card for a special person

a very special person was going through my card stock recently and came across a card that she loved and asked if I would send it to her for her birthday as she would really like to receive it.  Well you can't do that can you, so I refused stating that I'd already made her birthday card (which I had).  However you also can't ignore such a request so I made another card in the same vein this afternoon which will be sent with her other card.

The front of the card...

opening the first sections of the card reveals tags in the side pocket and a pocket in the centre in which I can pop some pictures of the Queen's head (aka money) which is her preferred birthday present..

and then when you drop the centre flap down the full interior is revealed..

now all I have to hope is she likes it.

House Mouse playtime

I've started playing with my new House Mouse decoupage paper, don't you just love those little critters?  Here is card number 1..

wow, where has it all gone....

....if someone had told me 39 years ago that I would be spending the next 39 years with the man I adore, have two sons who make my heart so proud, two daughter-in-laws who I couldn't love more if I had given birth to them and discover the best thing in the world - grandchildren and be blessed with 3 beautiful granddaughters who are my heart living outside my body, then I would have never believed that I would be so blessed.   I am a truly blessed woman and I every minute of every day I say baruch hashem - long may this continue and here's to another glorious 39 years (well give or take a few).

A very happy 39th wedding anniversary to my wonderful husband.
xx