Bitten by the bug!

So,after sending my Art Journal CJ on its way last week I really missed it and wanted more! This led to me poking my nose on the UKScrappers Art Journey thread and decided to join in!
I've found a notebook that's been hanging around for ages and started on my intro page. I used Cosmic Shimmer as a background and stamped the border with a bit of doodling thrown in too. 
I'm beginning to feel obsessed! 

I'm going to pop this over at Handmade Monday which I've neglected recently and have missed.

Journal Your journey-Art Journal CJ

I've bitten the bullet and joined an Art Journaling Circle Journal over on UKScrappers.http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk I've wanted to try art journaling for a long time but just don't have the guts to do it!

Now I can't back out as I'll have a journal to complete every month!

My theme is travel-favourite quotes,places,journeys etc. 

Cover Page

Background is glimmer mists,stamps and doodled border. 

Rule Page

 This is a bit of a mish mash so I might redo it when I get the journal back!

Journal Page

I found the image of the lady on the motorbike and just couldn't resist it! Love it! The quote's a favourite of mine. All the images I've used are from Freubels-Freebies.

I'm looking forward to experimenting and learning along the way-just hope I'm up to it!

Fairy Doors

I saw a swap on UKScrappers for Fairy Doors and was intrigued! I've never heard of them before but it's such a magical idea to have a door in the house for the fairies to come in!
I made one for the swap and another for a friend's daughter. They're made on thick card, painted with acrylic paint then decorated with flowers and Stickles. I cut out the toadstools, coloured with Promarkers and gave them a bit of texture with Enamel and Glossy Accents. I really enjoyed making these and can see myself doing a few more!

This is the one I made for the swap...

and this was for my friend's daughter.
I did put a little fairy with both the doors but she was too shy to be photographed!(I forgot!)

ATC-Guitar

The latest ATC for the ATCs with Attitude challenge blog. As from this week, the blog is opening up the challenge to card makers too. I'll be hounding everyone to take part!

ATC -Fly

This is for the first challenge of 2012 over at ATCs with Attitude. I wanted to try an art journal-y thing as I'm about to start an art journal CJ.(something new for 2012!)
The design team were given two images to chose from and I chose this one because I liked her attitude!
I coloured over the ATC with oil pastels and stamped the borders down the side before adding some Stickles to the wings and glossing up her hair.
Couldn't resist the crown! 

Happy New Year!

I can't believe a year's gone by since I started this blog - and it's still going! I've had a great time keeping it up and running but the best thing's been all the new friends I've made along the way.
It's a wonderful community and I can't wait to see all your creativity in the year to come!


Happy New Year to all my followers! 

An ATC

This is my ATC for the latest challenge over at ATCs with Attitude. I wanted to do something sparkly so I ran glue over the ATC and sprinkled some glitter to make the background. I'm still picking it out from under my nails!

Christmas Card

I started off making cards with lovely paper,layers and embellishments but where did the time go?! I've ended up as usual having to make quick cards in one night. 

The background is Glimmer Mist sprayed directly onto the card over snowflake shapes. I stamped a few smaller flakes then added the sentiment. I really must be more organised next year(then, that's what I said last year!)

Project Runway CJ

These are the pages I did for one of the circle journals I'm doing at the moment, based on challenges from Project Runway (love that show!). The journal was based around blue and white denim. I don't have a lot of jeans-y type craft stuff so all I can say is thanks to my son for growing out of his jeans just when I needed to cut them up! Of course I had to use three of my favourite Stampotique characters!

The background is Tattered Angels and Perfect Pearls shimmer mists and the images are cut out and collaged on with good old Mod Podge!

I hope the owner of the CJ likes it because I had great fun doing it!

Get Well Card

This was made with one of my favourite Craft Stamper freebie stamps. The flowers were coloured with distress ink and glitzed with stickles.

ATC-Let It Snow

I'm so thrilled to have been chosen as a member of the Design Team at ATCs with Attitude.It's great to be setting off on a new adventure! This week's challenge is Anything Goes. The image of the snow globe on my ATC is from Floppy Latte's Digital Designs. I've never used a digital image before so that in itself was a challenge! I have to admit to having fun doing it!

ATC-It's Christmas!

ATC Challenge Blog is no more.Long live ATCs with Attitude and good luck to Caro, Leah and Abbie with their new site! The challenge this week is flowers so I couldn't resist a Christmassy poinsettia, cut off a piece of ribbon I recently got in a swap. And can you believe it - no stamping!!

Another Christmas card

I quite liked the layout of the last card so decided to try it in blue. Instead of stamping the trees onto the paper, I stamped them onto card to add an extra layer. I might stick with this style and make a few more seeing as I've left it so late!

Christmas card

I finally got a Christmas card made the other day. I used some backing paper left over from last year and some ribbon from a swap I recently did. The trees were stamped in distress ink. I'm so glad to have got started!

ATC-Inspire

ATC Blog Challenge this week asks for lace on the ATC. I used a piece of paper I had left over that I'd sprayed with Perfect Pearls and inked over some sequin waste in purple. I've been desperate to use my new Indigo Blu stamps so I saw my chance and took it! 

Christening Card

I made this for a brother-sister christening and decided to stick to good old pink and blue! The background is embossed and coloured with Cosmic Shimmer. The stamps are from Art Journey-perfect for the occasion!

I'm going to pop this on Handmade Monday.

ATC-You looking at me?

This ATC is for the ATC Challenge Blog, which asks for mermaids. I can't believe I haven't got any mermaid stamps- I need to put that right! I decided to use Newt, one of my Stampotique stamps and turn her into a mermaid by cutting out a tail. She was not happy about it!

ATC Challenge Blog

The ATC Challenge Blog this week asks us to make a vintage ATC. I used a stamp that I think is from The Stampsmith (damn this memory!),stuck it over a pink Shimmer Mist background and gold embossed the edges before adding ribbon. I couldn't get a good photo because of all the glare off the gold!

Take One Stamp maze book swap

This is Netty's swap over on UKScrappers and involved making a maze book and stamping images using the face stamp from last month's Craft Stamper. Of course I couldn't resist! I used my Big n Juicy and stamped the background with a crinkled plastic bag before stamping the face. I coloured the eyes and lips with promarkers and used Glossy Accents on them. Can't wait to see what everyone else has done!Love that stamp!

This is the front of the book but I might add a bit more decoration to it yet!

My own image stuck in and the empty pages waiting for everyone else's images.

My images.

Month of the year ATC

The latest ATC swap I'm in on UKScrappers is a months of the year one. My month is November, so I used one of my Paper Artsy stamps with old fashioned gents on and embossed some flourishes around them in an attempt to make flames. They look a bit dark on the photos but aren't quite that colour in real life!

50th wedding anniversary card

My friend's parents celebrated their golden wedding anniversary this weekend so I couldn't resist making a card. As it was an autumn wedding I used autumn colours in the card. We had a great time at the party-well, 50 years has to be celebrated with style!

40th Birthday Tag

I made this tag for my friend's 40th birthday. I sprayed the paper with Glimmer Mist then stamped the squares and coloured some in with promarkers - you can't really see this in the photo. The text was clear embossed before distress ink was blended over the top. Then I added a few flourishes and embossed a few in red. Couldn't resist the Stampotique stamps so I'm going to put this in their challenge this month.

The quote's taken from the great Bette Davis.

Another Art Journey ATC

As I had some more paper left with the crinkled ink background I used it to make another ATC. I stamped one of my favourite Art Journey stamps over it and coloured bits with promarker. I stamped the girl's dress again and stuck it over the top to give a bit of definition. This is for the ATC Trail on UKScrappers.

ATC- World Occupational Therapy Day

This ATC was made for my friend Kirsty's celebration of World Occupational Therapy Day on 27th October. I've worked with many Occupational Therapists over the years and have seen how their work can transform the lives of children affected by a variety of conditions and traumas.
The background of the ATC was inspired by Jo Capper-Sandon's article on crinkled plastic bags in this month's Craft Stamper. The stamps are Art Journey and I'm also going to put this in their monthly challenge.

Boys-ATCs

These ATCs are for the monthly Anything Goes swap on UKScrappers. I had a play with some Glimmer Mist on black paper, bit of gesso then added a stamped image and sentiment. For once they turned out just how I wanted! I'm putting these on ATC challenge blog too- a recent discovery!

 The stamp of the boy is from my favourite Paperbag Studio set and the sentiment from PaperArtsy.

More Hearts!

I couldn't resist making another heart card for the Less Is More challenge-maybe I am a heart person after all! I used my only other heart stamp which is from Stampotique.  

Hearts-Less Is More

This week, Less Is More's challenge is a one layer card with hearts. I'm not a heart person and can only find two  stamps with hearts on. This is the card I made using the first of those stamps and I'm hoping to use the other one later. The image is embossed with a small gem added.

Colour of eyes-Less Is More

This week, Less Is More challenged us to make a card based on the colour of our eyes! I thought this would be an easy one but I've struggled! Thankfully I had a birthday card to make so used that opportunity to have a go.
On the first I splashed Cosmic Shimmer paint, stamped the Art Journey image then masked it while I added the text-the fabulous En Francais from Stampin' Up!

The second one I used the free stamp off this month's Craft Stamper. I stamped it in Brilliance Ice Blue and added a darker blue embossed image. It didn't come out the way I'd hoped so I'll probably cut it up and use the images elsewhere!

Mini Book Swap

I made these for a swap on UKScrappers. They're 3 inches by 6 inches and as my mojo hasn't been up to par recently I made them all the same! The background is Shimmerz and a text stamp with Art Journey flowers and Umbrella Girl stamped over the top. Some of the flowers have Glossy Accents but don't really show up. The wording comes from a quote about Autumn by Albert Camus- "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." I'm putting this in the Art Journey challenge.

This is the front of the mini book.

And these are the ten!

Sketch-Less Is More

This week's Less is More is a sketch card which I struggled with and to be honest could have done better- I just don't seem to have much time or mojo at the moment! I used a stamp I've used before but this time split the image from the sentiment.

Seeing Double-Less Is More

I'm back-has anybody missed me?! Been a bit under the weather but am hoping I really am back on track now!
This week's Less Is More is double trouble-use two of something on a one layer card. I thought it was a perfect opportunity to use this month's free Craft Stamper stamp.

Less Is More- 3 challenge

This week the challenge at Less Is More is to combine three previous challenges into one card. The three I chose were embossing, ink and the colours of the flag (because this was the week I missed out on). I decided to use my new Indigo Blu stamps which are fabulous! The sentiment is embossed,the whole thing is inked and the colours are, well, red white and blue! 

ATCs

I made these a couple of weeks ago and then forgot about them until I posted them today! I made them at the Rochdale Crop with Cal's Stampin' Up stamps.

New Baby card

I went to visit my friend and her new baby today but when I got there I discovered I'd brought an empty envelope instead of the card! So in the hope she'll get to see it before the baby's first birthday I'm posting it here!

Things that move-Less Is More

This week's Less Is More is things that move, so I just had to head to one of my favourite Paperbag Studio stamps. Yes, I'm so predictable! I wanted to try the lemon juice background from this month's Craft Stamper which I've fallen in love with now. Would've worked better if I hadn't dropped the spray on the paper and got a huge blob of juice everywhere but in the spirit of embracing imperfection here it is!

Ink-Less Is More

I finally have some time to get crafting! Of course the first thing I did was the Less Is More challenge. This week's challenge is to use ink, so I couldn't resist.

Now I'm off to catch up on some blog hopping to check out what everyone's been up to!

Alice in Wonderland Tags

These are for a swap I'm doing on UKScrappers. I'm having a hard time fitting all the crafting in between the hols and visitors so please bear with me. I'll be catching up with everyone's blogs over the next week.

They haven't turned out exactly as I wanted but that's normal for me!

Candy from Lisa

A while ago I was lucky enough to win a box of candy from Lisa over at A day in the Life of a Craft Fairy. For some reason I haven't got round to blogging it until now. (brain is mush!) Thanks Lisa for some great crafty goodies.

Fruit-Less Is More

I have to admit this week's Less Is More has really flummoxed me! I don't do fruit, but luckily found a pear lurking at the bottom of the stamp box. I embossed it with Verdigris embossing powder which gives it a golden sheen you can't see in the photo. I need a bit of experimenting with this stamp to do it justice.