Keep Calm and Scrapbook

Title : 'This is the feelings part'

And now for more Art Journaling... the experiment continues! It dawned on me that the art journaling could be a good way to use up scraps and embellishments I wasn't using, but liked too much to get rid of. (I probably should have realised this before now??) Below are my latest effort...

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And last, but very much not least, my lovely eldest child sat down with me last night to do a bit of crafting. He's far more talented than me artistically and very sure about what he's doing. So much so that we ended up having a little row over where he should be placing his various elements. Fair play to him, he stood his ground and (begrudgingly) I have to admit he was right! So, here is the result of his efforts. All thought up and designed and produced by him completely. I've been instructed to pin it to Pinterest :)

Alright. I'm off to cook the dinner now - sadly the hungry hordes won't feed themselves...

Canvas

It was crop time a week ago in Donnycarney. I look forward to these days so much and I'm only sorry that the time flys by and it feels like we're there for about 6 minutes, not 6 hours. Lately some members of the group have started to do a little demo at each meeting. People take part if the demo takes their fancy. No pressure to get involved if it doesn't appeal.

This month Jackie offered to walk us through creating an altered canvas. She's a dab hand at them, so above average numbers arrived up on the day, plain canvas in one hand, paint brushes in the other. Well, let's just say it was a huge success. In fact one late arrival was worried she had the wrong day as she could hear no murmer of chat as she approached the room - when she walked through the door she found us all quiet, rendered silent with concentration!

Everyone's canvas was different, but each one was gorgeous. It was a total success. And we were all like excited children, delighted with our works of art. I just couldn't get over how much I liked my own. And high praise indeed, when hubby saw it when I came home, he said we should put it up on the wall!

So, here it is -

And a close up!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Double Trouble

I love printing out pictures. I get excited and imagine all the layouts I'm going to do. But of course I print out too many. So I always have a squillion waiting to be done. Recently though, I've been doing a bit better. Below are five layouts, all of pictures actually taken this year! And printed out in the last month! In fact a number of photos were taken in the last couple of weeks. I've never managed such a short turn around time :)

That said, I shouldn't get too excited, there is still about a decades worth of photo's to catch up with!

So, to the layouts - a couple of double page layouts and a lonely singleton.

Art Journaling... I think...

I've been seeing a lot of pictures of Art Journals around lately. Mostly on Pinterest. I'm always attracted to them, I think they can be quite beautiful. But I haven't quite drilled down to see what they're really all about. Are they meant to just look pretty, or is the idea that you actually record your thoughts and feelings? Of course I could quite easily find the answers to these questions if I could be bothered to do a bit of googling. But me being me, I decided to dive right in without having much of a bogs notion what it's all about....

Here are my first attempts -

A big mess or artistic genius? I'm veering toward the big mess side of the argument, and really, there isn't an original idea there either, but hopefully I'll gradually find my way. I'll keep you posted. (Sorry! :)

I Came, I Saw, I Scrapped

I mentioned in my last post that I've been doing some non-scrapping crafty projects lately. The children may be neglected and hungry but I'm getting a lot of my own stuff done...

One of the lovely members of the Donnycarney Crop Tarts taught me a great distressing technique that I hadn't come across before. Thanks Jackie!

I popped along to the nearest pound shop (euro shop?) and picked up a three pack of small canvases. I painted them green. I impatiently waited for them to dry. Then, I spread a layer of pva glue on them. Before the glue has a chance to dry, I painted on a layer of white paint. The thinner the layer of glue, the subtler the cracks will be. Me being me, slathered it on!

The picture quality isn't great - I just couldn't get the camera to take a good photo. For the record the words say 'Veni, Vidi, Scrappi' (I Came, I Saw, I Scrapped!... I did make up the Latin for 'Scrapped' but I suspect I'll get away with it :)

Some close ups...

I die cut the letters and butterflies with my ailing CraftRobo and coated them with crackle glaze. The letters were edged in white paint. I used a grey washi tape I have for the background behind the letters.

I'm completely delighted with it and it is now hanging on the door of my scrap room.

Keep your hats on - next post, 'Tríona Tries Art Journaling'. It'll be worth the wait. (Maybe.)