Wanderlust wks 5-7: Castles

Its been really fun on Wanderlust (a year long online class) the last few weeks.  The Theme for February is Castles and we have had to do all sorts of different things from watercolours to making our own journal. 

We  had to paint a castle in watercolour and this was a huge challenge for me because I am not an artist and had never ever done a watercolour before.  Yes I had used watercolours on my stamped cards etc but never to actually paint a picture.  I enjoyed it so much I did two in the end.  Here is one of Lindisfarne Castle which is on Holy Island in Northumberland:

and this is Huntly Castle:

Next we had to make a Castle Gates journal.  I used paper from my stash which I had had for a long time for the inside pages and then used the scraps in a paper patchwork for the covers:

We had to bind it using kettle stitch:

For this week's class we did a journal page using a photocopied picture of a castle wall which we had to colour.  We had to include a picture and words and add a story or journaling.  The castle walls spoke to me of prison, hardship, problems, etc.  And the lovely vibrant colour spoke to me of hope and faith and the power that Jesus gives us to overcome whatever comes our way:

I used a picture of my husband and kids on a walk in Wales.  I tore a hole in the page and added the journaling behind the picture:

The castle wall was printed on plain photocopy paper so we had to use medium first and then in between the layers of colour.  I used Portfolios:

It was really great doing this page and remembering all the times that Jesus has helped me through some very difficult and even impossible situations.  When I trust in Him He is always there to help, strengthen and give wisdom.

We've had a couple of other activities to do in our art journals but I'll save those for another post.

Blessings to you.

Wanderlust wk 4: A Life in your Hand

This week on Wanderlust, a year long online class, we had the wonderful Kasia Avery on art journaling.  First of all we had to do a collage using pictures from old magazines which spoke to us about ourselves and our lives.  Then we had to write down things about our past, present and future on a separate piece of paper.  We cut all the sentences and words into strips and selected from these pieces to make a poem which we stuck over the collage.  On the other side of the art journal we drew round our hands and doodled three sections representing our past, present and future:

I thought the poem would be hard but I am pleased with how it came together and it really does show where I am at.  Kasia encouraged us to do our own handwriting and mine is very messy!

The collage was fun to do and I noticed, AFTER I had finished the page, that the words seemed to go with the pictures quite by accident!  eg 'the flowers in my garden' is over the picture of the bouquet of roses and the 'going deeper' is over the spade:

The hand was really fun to decorate.  Loved doing the doodling and I coloured it with watercolour pencils:

For the border we had to scrape gesso and then medium and make patterns in it with a skewer.  After leaving to dry Kasia used distress crayons to colour it which I don't have.  I managed to resist rushing out to buy some!  and I used my Portfolios instead.  The idea was to work the colour into the grooves of the patterns.

This was such a great class and as well as all the fun creating it was good to think about our path, where we had come from and where we are hoping to go.  I feel I'm in a season of waiting at  the moment - waiting for grief over the loss of my Mum to pass; waiting for a hip replacement; waiting to be able to do the things again which I haven't been able to do for ages because of the state of my hips; waiting for spring.  However, God meets me and keeps me in the waiting so all is well, very very well :)

Blessings to you.

Wanderlust wk 3 Mandalas

Over on Wanderlust, a year long on-line class, week 3 was with Jennifer Lee who showed us how to make Mandalas out of paper cut into different shapes.  I love playing with paper pieces and glue so I simply loved this class. 

Jennifer showed us how to do two different ones.  The first was a manadala bloom using three different sizes of circle cut by hand rather than a die or punch.  I chose warm colours for this one after sifting through my big box of paper.  I made a backround with collaged torn paper pieces, with gesso painted over.  You start by placing the large circles all around the outside and then build the layers inwards, going with the smaller circles on each layer.  I added doodled dots and dashes to highlight.

We had to make a compass mandala out of paper pieces cut from maps for the next one and I initially didn't have a clue how I was going to do this one.  However, after raiding all our travel books and even an old atlas I got to it.  For this one we worked from the centre out.  The starting point was a circle with four large, long triangles placed around it.  Then I took out my punches and had a play.  This is what I came up with and it was so much fun to do.

Using the different maps was fun:

Lastly I doodled a border the North sign:

I enjoyed the mandalas so much that I made another bloom one, this time as a flower shape in cool pastal colours:

I made another collaged backround and cut out the petal shapes in two sizes :

This was a really fun week on Wanderlust.  Its been a big help to have this to concentrate on - as I said in an earlier post, I lost my Mum at the beginning of the year and am devasted.  I've been really touched by all the messages of condolences and support, both from my friends in the real world and here on blogland.  Also on a Facebook craft group I belong to called Maremi's Creative Cafe which is a really great group where we can share all our creations whatever they are.  People are incredibly supportive, so come along and have a look.

I'm linking up  at:
Try in on Tuesday
Country View Crafts
Creative Every Day

Bye Bye Mum

My lovely Mum passed away early in the New Year and I am missing her so much.  She was 90 and all last year she was fading and had clearly had enough.  The last month her body started to pack up and we knew it was the end.  So we knew she was going to die and I thought I was prepared for it.....
But I wasn't!  I've been taken aback at how upset I have been - because I knew that she was dying and thought I had grieved and accepted it already.  I guess nothing prepares us for losing our mothers.  I am finding it hard to think that I am never going to see her, never talk to her, never share anything with her again - the pain of searing loss. 

When I was clearing away her things I came across loads of the cards which I had made her and which she kept.  I couldn't throw them all away so I hung on to a few of them.  This is the one I made her for her 90th birthday which she loved.  I sponged the backround with distress inks then stamped these Paper Artsy stamps which I love.

Grief is a painful thing and we've just got to let it run its course.  I take comfort in all the wonderful memories I have of her, of her kindness, generosity and love.  Also that I was able to pray with her towards the end and it brought her comfort and peace.

I'm entering this in the That's Crafty Feeling Blue challenge, very apt!
Also in the Country View Anything Goes challenge
Craft Stamper Take it Make it challenge
And Create with Joy

Thanks for stopping by.

Wanderlust 2018

I am really excited to have signed up for the Everything Art Wanderlust 2018, a year long journey in mixed media and art journaling hosted by Kasia and Jamie Avery with 2 guest teachers every month.  Its going to be really challenging and I can't wait!

I decided to make my own art journal for this.  I picked up an A3 acrylic paper pad from Hobbycraft for only £5!  I cut the pages down to size leaving several with flaps to make the pages:

I sewed these into an old book cover which I had painted.  I'll decorate the cover when the journal is complete:

Then I made an envelope to stick in the inside front cover.  I brayered several colours on a 12x12 piece of scrapbook paper:

I made a template from an envelope and used this to make the envelope:

I also added a few other pages using some papers which I  had in my stash made after taking Kasia' earlybird Dynamic Paper Painting class which was amazing fun:

We also had some freebie inserts to add to get our journals personalised and ready.  Here is my inside front cover:

I am so enjoying creating and sharing again after a long break.  Its good to be feeling better and able to do it again! 

I'm linking up at:

Art Journal Journey
Country View Challenges

Hello again!

Hello again, fellow bloggers and anyone else popping in.  Its been ages since I posted, a whole year and a half in fact!  Lots has happened since, both good and not so good.  Last year was completely taken up with my daughter's wedding, a very happy time.  I was busy making all the invites, then a post box and also all the thank you cards, all co-ordinated of course.  We chose different shades of blue and teal and a touch of silver and stamped dandelions....but because I was taking a break from blogging I forgot to take any photos 😞  Never mind.

This year has been a long struggle with several health issues.  I'm better now though I need to have a double hip replacement sometime, yikes!!  Managed to survive and keep positive most of the time, though there were some very dark moments.  However, its at those times that I find that God gives me extra strength and grace and a very precious comfort.  I look back and see how very close Jesus was to me and He still is!

Enough about me and on to the fun creating stuff.  Its Christmas time again, yay, and that means I have a big session of bookmark making which is one of my favourite things.  I give them as little gifts to friends. We've just had an unexpected dollop of snow here in the UK, great excitement because everything grinds to a halt until we get used to it and then its gone!  So the theme for this year had to be snowflakes mainly though I mixed it up with a few trees.

Here they all are:

I love taking just a few supplies and getting a production line going.  For these I mainly used distress inks sponged and spattered with water for the backround, then stamped with various snowflakes and embossed with my favourite snowflake powder embossing powder which has a lovely sparkle which doesn't show up in the photo:

I like to make them all slightly different:

And I love to add a little verse, again different ones - its fun for my friends to choose:

These are always such fun to make.  I may just have to do another batch!

I'm linking up at:
That's Crafty
Country View Challenges

Spring Follows Winter

Its ages since I last posted and ages since I did anything creative :(  I've had a flare up of chronic fatigue which hit me out of the blue and it sapped all energy and, almost worse, all creativity!!!  How can that be?  Always in the past when I've been in the middle of a chronic fatigue bout I've managed to keep creating - its what's kept me sane and going through it, knowing I would get through it.  So this time round I've been quite discouraged to find that all inspiration has gone. The times that I tried it ended up in the bin!!!!

I usually pray a lot too and derive enormous comfort and hope from knowing that God is with me, giving me grace and strength.  But this time, I've found that hard too!  Brain fog (a sympton of CFS) has been especially bad this time and its been hard to pray.  The wonderful thing, however, is that our God is faithful and gracious and He has been there every time I have turned to Him and prayed.  I may not have had the energy and strength to pray as much as normal but when I have drawn close to Him He has been there faithfully waiting to give me that comfort and hope and grace which I've needed.  I've felt the sweet touch of His Holy Spirit and the knowledge of His love for me.  And what amazing blessing that is!

So I've kept going knowing that just as Spring follows Winter, strength will follow fatigue and now I am getting better and stronger again.  Here is a journal page which is the only thing I have managed to do in the last month:

I used a page in my journal which already had the backround colour - leftover paint from one of my autumn colour projects.  I couldn't get enough of these colours back then and I still love them now!  I added stencils using sprays and sponged paint:

 Plus some stamping.  The script is a favourite from IndigoBlu and the grid is a fly swat which I saw in a shop for 50p and thought I could use as a stencil!!  Its actually better as a stamp:

Then I stamped flowers from a new PaperArtsy Kay Carley set:

I stamped in black:

  and highlighted in white:

I did this a couple of weeks ago.  It was fun to do and I think I can feel inspiration stirring.......

I'm linking up at:
That's Crafty - Stencils and Masks challenge
Creative Every Day
Craft Stamper

Birthday Card

I have been busy making invitations to my daughter's wedding which is why I have not posted or visited your blogs much recently.  I simply had to take a break and play this week and here is a card I made for her birthday.  

I love to combine challenges - sometimes they all go together like this time:
at Country View Crafts the current challenge is 'make your own backround'; at PaperArtsy it is wax; and at Craft Stamper it is 'text me'.  Ooooh, fun to do all three!  I decided to make a masterboard and brayered a backround - my favourite way of starting off and learnt from Leandra at PaperArtsy:

I added some stencilling and stamped my favourite script backround randomly.  For the wax challenge Leandra showed us how to use Portfolio crayons with a stencil.  I loved the sound of this so had to have a go:

You get this really cool effect when you heat set:

Then I cut up the backround for my card base.  I stamped some gorgeous PaperArtsy flowers by Sara Naumann (no 14), coloured with Portfolios which really do give a wonderful vibrant colour and cut out:

Finally, the sentiment:

This was such a fun card to do - thanks for all the inspiration!

I'm linking up at:
PaperArtsy
Craft Stamper
Country View Challenges
Create With Joy Friendship Friday

Scripture Cards Display Book

Last year I took part in the Glory Art Scripture Challenge where every fortnight there was a different theme with scriptures we could study.  I made scripture cards for my glory art and if you've visited before you will know how much fun I find them to make.  WARNING...... if you are minded to try them they are very addictive!  I had a whole pile of them by the end of the year which I knew I wanted to make into a devotional book.  In the end I made them into a very simple display book so I can have different scriptures (and art) to enjoy each day.

I mounted them on black card.  Initially I wanted to do them singly but there were too many :)

I used book rings to bind them together using my trusty Crop-a-dile to punch the holes several pages at a time:

Each page is double sided so that when I get to the end I simply turn the display around and start again to go through the other side:

For each challenge I made four ..... but sometimes five or six cos I couldn't stop making them :)

I kept to the same colours and supplies for each challenge so they would be a set:

I would often start with a masterboard and then cut up before finishing each one individually which gave a nice cohesive look to each set:

Sometimes I'd use texture paste which gave a lovely dimension to them but made sticking the strips of verse tricky!

The strips are often wonky .... but it is a home made book after all!  I never did learn to cut straight and they were too narrow to cut with my guillotine:

Of course I am doing the challenge again this year and shall have a whole pile more to make into something.  Why not come and join in the fun?

I'm linking up at:
Create with Joy Friendship Friday