Art Journey...

Hello and welcome back to my humble little blog. Today I want to share with you another Art Journal page that I've been working on this week. I decided to enter this one in the challenge at MIXED MEDIA PLACE Creative Gym #10 - "One important word".

My one important word at the moment is "Balance".  It is always a challenge finding the right Life balance in our lives. I aiming towards finding my work/artistic/family balance and it does take some planning to get it right.  Here is my take:

                            

The colours I chose for this are Coral, Seafoam and a teal green water colour. I experimented with the modge podge transfer technique using some old book pages. Also water colour paints, Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle, Gesso, texture paste, Inka Gold and Faber-Castell Texture Luxe "Gold". 

I really loved all the experimentation on this page. Some I'll use again, others not so much, but in the end I had lots of fun :)

 Thanks to the Team at Mixed Media Place for all the inspiration! Until next time....

Scrap Arica & the winter blues....

Hello again and welcome back. Today I'm staying indoors and sharing with you the brand new challenge over at SCRAP AFRICA. This mood board will appeal to almost everyone, but especially to those who, like me struggle with masculine pages. Thanks Denise once again for a fabulous Mood Board:

I really love the quote and I wanted to incorporate a part of it in my layout. What inspired me about this mood board was the timber and the rusty old ute.

Our DS finally found the perfect "project car" to work on in his spare time. He's a automotive repairer by trade so knows his way around a car and is looking forward to bringing life back into this old girl and giving her his own flavour. But most of all he's looking forward to the day that he can get it registered and on the road, looking like a brand new car.

I've used my trusty Kaisercraft pp and a couple of stencils on the background and "rusted up" the cogs. Once again I used my water colours to replicate the rust running off the cogs.

I really hope I will see your work over on the Scrap Africa blog for this challenge. Thanks for dropping by. Have a great week and for those of you in Australia, stay warm :)

D-lish weather for creating...

Happy Sunday all! I hope all of you who live in the Southern Hemisphere are taking advantage of the freezing temperatures to cosy up at your craft stations. DH cooked an amazing roast lamb and vegies for lunch today so I've been the crazy crafting lady, entering challenges and getting up to date with my DT commitments. Plus there is still enough time to do a bit of organisation for my weekend away at Camp Mojo that is coming up in 5 weeks - excited much!!

The lovely Amanda over at D-lish Scraps has set a wonderful Inspiration Board for us all to follow this month and I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of her "Just Add Paper" kits that ties in with the Challenge (makes it so easy to play along).

The sketch is optional, and I usually try to follow it, but this time I decided to go off on a tangent and see what happens. For the background I used paper from Echo Park and threw a bit of Gesso over it along with some stamping and mist splatters.

There is so much in this kit that I have anough product left over to make another layout or pocket page. I hid the journalling behind the photo on the large tag, tucked into the blue stripe bag. Also included in the kit is the lovely vellum shaker star filled with lots of little sequins, very cute I must say :)

I love this photo of the men in my family, all spruced up for a night out. It makes a nice change to see them out of their work clothes and doing something "fancy".

So thanks for dropping by and checking out my work. I hope you call into the D-lish Scraps blog and check out all the inspo or have a look at Amanda's shop HERE.  I'll be back tomorrow with my DT inspo for the new Scrap Africa challenge, so stay tuned :)

Sketchabilities #142

Hello all!  It is unusual for me to be posting to my blog mid week but I have this week off work and before I set of for some girly time with my DD I wanted to get my entry in for the current challenge over at Sketchabilities.  Besides it being one of my favourite sketch challenge blogs, and after having a term as one of Karan's Design Team members, I thought it was time that I got back on the horse so to speak. Here is the sketch:

And here is my take on the sketch:

I've used some yummy Kaisercraft paper and stickers for this page along with some odds and ends from various other companies. A bit of stamping and water colour on the background as well. The lovely little teapots are a recent find from http://uprintables.blogspot.com.au/ - a blog that allows you to download free printables to use for your own personal creations. I think they are very cute and perfect for my page theme.

This Kraft-coloured quote card was given to me with a little bag of tea from a Tea Stall at a local market.
So thanks for calling by, I hope I've inspired you to do some creating this week :)

Art Journey cont'd...

Just a quick post today to share with you another double page of my Art Journal that I've been working on for a week. Finally finished after all the drying time and interruptions. A good friend suggested that I enter this in the current SUMMER OF COLOUR Week 5 challenge at Twinkle, Twinkle like a Star blog  This is my first entry in this challenge and what I like about it is that you only have to use the specified colours, other than that you are free to create whatever you like.

When I found this lady in a magazine I decided to do something very feminine and whimsical. I layered the background with elements from some paper napkins using clear Gel Medium and then added some pink, green and gold Gelatos. Then I added some texture paste with a stencil and a script stamp. Once all that was dry I then used water colours with a paint brush.

I really love the water colours that I have. They are so vibrant!  I then added my quote and butterflies and went around everything with various pens. I added some perfect pearls to the lady's necklace and headband.

Once again I had so much fun with this process. I love all the experimenting and use of different textures. Keep an eye out for next month's ARTastic challenge, you may just see another art journal page that I created. Thanks for dropping by :) xx

Scrap Africa sketch Challenge #54

Hidey Ho, just popping back in to share with you the beautiful sketch that is up over at SCRAP AFRICA. Not only do we have a new, beaut Design Team (some of the most amazing scrapbookers from around the World), but our Guest Designer for this challenge is one of my faves, Cathy Cafun.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Cathy a few years back at the Brisbane Expo when I took one of her classes. A very inspirational lady I must say, so I was very excited to see her on our DT for Scrap Africa.

Once again our lovely leader, Denise has provided us with a truly beautiful sketch to follow for this challenge.

I pondered on this for a while and almost rotated it, but in the end I decided on one photo and some journalling. 

I've used Kaisercraft "Sweet Pea" papers for this layout on top of a grey cardstock with some texture paste and stamping on the background.

I have lots of Sweet Pea "collectables" left over from this collection. If you've ever purchased the "collectables" by Kaisercraft you'll already realise how much is in the packs. The bags seem to be bottomless! so great value for money :D

Anyway, it's always a joy to create a layout about my two favourite people. And I really hope you have a play with the sketch and post it on the Scrap Africa blog within the next two weeks. Thanks once again for visiting :)

ARTastic July Challenge

Hello folks! Sorry it's been a while between posts. June just slipped by without me noticing :( I want to share with you the fantastic new challenge over at ARTastic.  I really love this painting by Shirley Charlton called "Umbrellas, wet street".

Criteria: to use water (liquid) in some way on your page (ink, sprays, gelatos, water down paint etc).

I was inspired to use a lovely mist by Heidi Swapp called Seafoam and a Stampin' Up! ink called Pistachio Pudding (great name!). I used it to spray a little, spread splatts around and also I dabbed a wet paint brush into the bottle to colour in some of the hexagons. I used texture paste mixed with black paint for the background.

Here is a closie of my journalling and some of the misting & inking.

So as you can see this can be a really fun challenge. Just let your creativity take over and let your mind run free with some liquid, it's great fun! Hope to see your work over at ARTastic :) TFL.
PS. KEEP AN EYE OUT VERY SOON FOR MY TECHNIQUE TUTORIAL AT ARTastic.