An Art Journey Journal

After working five and a half days this week, I was very pleased to find that I had enough energy left to be able to play at my creation station for a little while. Last weekend I began work on my first Art Journal page and finished it off yesterday. A project that I've been wanting to try for quite a while. I finally bit the bullet, gathered supplies and jumped right in.

I've been following some amazing creative blogs and video tutorials of late of some very talented ladies, one in particular is a fellow Scrap Africa DT member and one of my favourite "arty" people, Marta Lapkowska - http://artistycrafty.blogspot.com.au/  (thanks for the tips and inspo Marta!)  If you get a chance have a browse through her very inspirational blog.  So here is my very first attempt at just mixed media, art journalling - no photos....eeek!

I went with the theory that "less is more" to start with, but my urge was to add more detail and/or elements. I covered the background with a serviette with music notes and also stamped extra music notes randomly. Here is a couple of close ups of the texture.

It was fun to use my Gelatos and throw around some mists in one of my favourite colour combos. I also used a black Faber-Castell Big Brush pen to outline the words and hearts.

Thanks for looking. This wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be, so I'm really looking forward to doing my next page :)

Scrap Africa Challenge #49

It's the middle of the month again and that means a new challenge over at SCRAP AFRICA.
This one is a little different in that it's a "pencil" challenge:

"The challenge is to use pencils on a project". Make a card or layout or even an altered project, as long as somewhere on your project you have used pencils.

To give you some ideas, here is a super article below that was in the Jun/Jul Scrap365 magazine last year.

For this layout "Group Selfie", my title and background flowers are hand-drawn with pencil. I then went over them with a thin, black Sharpie.

I've used some old Websters Pages papers and cut out two frames and layered them using 3D foam.
This is a photo of me with my gal pals when we had a recent weekend away in the beautiful Blue Mountains. We all celebrate our birthdays within the same month so it is always cause for celebration ;) We had a lovely time wandering the boutiques in Leura with High Tea at the Fairmont Resort, followed by a lovely dinner. The following day we stopped in at The Hydro Majestic at Medlow Bath (where this photo is taken) for morning tea & more retail therapy before driving home. You can see some pics at the end of this post.

Champagne was awaiting us in our rooms - gotta love that!

The beautifully restored Hydro Majestic. The views from here over the valley below are stunning!

 

Trying not to act our age :) I fell in love with this huge chair & wondered if it would fit in my car - but the girls wouldn't sacrifice their places for it - how rude!

Inside the magnificent foyer. I think we need to stay here next time.

                                            

Thanks for dropping by & I'd love to see you join in on this new challenge at Scrap Africa. For more inspiration you can go to their blog HERE

Nursery Wall Art...

I'm back again today to share with you a piece of wall art that I created for a lovely couple who are about to be first time parents. This is a technique I've been wanting to try for quite a while and it's a great way to use up lots of bits and pieces that I've had in my stash. The outside of this frame is approximately 11" x 11". I tried to keep it as gender-neutral as possible.

Once I worked out the pattern it came together relatively quickly. The fiddliest part was deciding on the embellishments, placement, fussy cutting and glueing.  The cute little wooden buttons are from Craft Queen. The lovely cream cabochen roses I can't even remember where they are from, because I've had them for so long. All the other buttons & pp are from Stampin' Up!. I stamped and fussy cut the little owls from the Stampin' Up! set "Aviary" - one of my favourites, and I added some little goggly eyes and mounted the owls with 3D foam. Here is a closie:

I chose some old chippie "ABC" letters and wrapped them in embroidery cotton. This was such a fun little project that I can't wait to make another one in the near future.  It would be fun to make one specifically for a boy or girl.  Anyway, thanks for looking and I hope I've inspired you to try this technique yourself, either within a frame as wall art or on your next scrapbook layout.  Have a great week!

Kraft+Plus April Challenge

Well hello again! so glad you found the time to call into my Blog today. We're finally receiving some much needed rain, even though it put a bit of a "dampener" on the Easter weekend. It was perfect creating weather so I took advantage. Here is the new challenge for KRAFT+PLUS:

Firstly I have to apologise for the dodgy photo of this layout, but the weather at the moment is not favourable for taking good photos. I really love the colours in this "Recipe" challenge!  I think I've included all the ingredients. I used one of the tags for the photo of me & my niece.

So blessed

I covered the chippie hashtag title (from Dusty Attic) with Perfect Pearls. The little Flair is from Studio Fourteen40, flowers & enamel dots are from D-lish Scraps. the brightly coloured buttons are from a local thrift shop.

Thanks again Sandra for another fun challenge. I love that I'm finally using all my Kraft stash :)

It's time to get your ARTastic on...

Okay so I'm back again with a new piece of artwork by Roy de Maistre called Frozen Music, as inspiration for the new challenge at ARTastic. Criteria: to use swirls in your creation.

This is such a great piece of art work don't you think? And who doesn't love a swirl or a flourish somewhere on they're creation!  This is a fairly old piece of emboss-resist paper from my Stampin' Up! days, so I pulled out the mists and inks & went to work on it. It already had some swirls on the paper so I just highlighted them with some perfect pearls.

I also used up some old rubon swirls and pearl flourishes. I used a photo of my family just after we met our girl "fresh" off the plane from London last December (minus her beautiful long hair).

You can interpret this challenge however you like, as long as you cover the criteria and don't forget to read the challenge rules HERE. And please let us know what your inspiration was from the painting. We'd really love to see your work :) TFL xx

Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge

It's been a little while between blog posts, I know. However I have been trying to do a bit of creating in the background while keeping up with my extended hours at work. And hopefully with daylight saving about to end here in the land down under, my energy levels and sleeping pattern will return to some kind of normal state. However, life marches on and here we are in April already!

SCRAP AFRICA have a divine new sketch for you to work on over the next few weeks:

Now I could have happily went with a pretty, feminine page for this sketch, but to really challenge myself I decided on masculine.

I love this Smile

I chose do my background in blocks with different stencils for a modern/hand drawn feel. The little wood veneer cogs are from Prima. Some of the labels, Flair and wood veneer title are from Studio Fourteen40.

So as you can see, you can put your own spin on this lovely sketch. And remember that you don't have to create a layout, cards, tags etc. are all welcome. So pop on over to Scrap Africa's blog and check out the wonderful inspo from the other Design Team members.