Bring it on!

It's here! August 2010! Now August is an important month in the life of me...I am going to be having a significant birthday! I shall be fifty. Half a century old! I don't feel like fifty. (apart from a few back problems)
In my head I feel YOUNG and that's what counts isn't it?

Anyway, I'm still keeping up with Kate's art calendar challenge, I've quite enjoyed it, even though I still feel like I want to tweak some of the pages to finish them off, I have faithfully logged snapshots of each day.
I keep going back and reading what I was doing at the beginning of the year - it has been a tumultuous year for us in lots of ways. My favourite Auntie fell in the icy weather we had in January and died four months later, Andy was successful at his BAP and will begin Ordination training in Durham in September so a move is imminent for us. My Dad was (scarily) rushed into hospital, our son came for a visit from Belfast, (we only get to see him twice a year so that was precious!) our youngest daughter started a new job, our oldest daughter finishes her training contract with her law firm in September, (it's taken her seven years hard slog to become a solicitor!)and they offered her a job "we don't want to lose you" they said! (Proud Parents we are)! So, I think besides being mucho fun - this art calendar has been great for recording some of life's ups and downs on a daily basis...

Here is July...



and page two...


August ready to go. All those arrows are pointing at THE DAY of CELEBRATION in our house!





I don't mind being five O you know, I'm lucky, and I feel rich in love!

Graffiti v Elegance

Look at this gorgeous graffiti canvas purse I made at Art from the Heart recently....



I had so much fun with the canvas, and what do you think to this Jill I'm really proud that I mastered the sewing machine when it came to stitching the lining... pretty basic alongside your fantastic mixed media pieces of course, but I shall soon be picking up my Aunt's bequeathed machine and intend lots of 'messing around' creating more arty pieces using gorgeous material like this... (I had a bit of a dilemma when it came to choosing my lining from the lovely pieces that were on offer!)



I added an abundance of gesso circles to get that graffiti look, here's a close up...



Now that was messy play, and messy play makes lots of mess! Yes, I make lots of mess! When I'm journaling, even when I'm designing scrapbook pages for my classes... so I shall soon be having to deep clean my work area to ensure there will be no 'contamination' when it comes to making the wedding invitations for our daughter's wedding next year. On that note, we had our first wedding shopping outing earlier this week - albeit, we were only choosing card etc, to make up all the paraphernalia that will be needed on that special day, we managed to pick up a few bargains from Confetti in Leeds



I had a go at making up sample cards (which I'm not allowed to show you because they aren't being sent out until Novemberish!!)
It was really strange doing elegant as opposed to my normal grungy, messy, hand staining look. But I do love how elegantly 'classic' they look. Now all I have to do is make them all, alongside the order of services, the table names, the table seating planner, you get the picture. At least I know I have lots of creative friends if I get under pressure with time...

New Stamp = Journal Page!

I teach scrapbooking at the Craft Box in Elsecar. On Friday, when I went to take the class, Lynn had just taken delivery of some Stampotique stamps.......I couldn't resist purchasing one (or two) She also has a sale of some Paperbag Studio stamps so a couple of those dropped into my basket too! And then there was the new stencils for my art journaling...
The downside of all this is that I spent more than I earned! That can't be good can it??!!

Anyway, I had a play with one of my new purchases, I altered her dress using an image from Dyan's Downloads and the borders are by Marsha of Tumblefish Studio, go here to check them out




I love this fish stamp which I bought a few years ago from Blade Rubber Stamps in London...



A close up of my new gal...



We are in the process of packing for our impending move in September but my art supplies are going to be packed LAST... I hope I can keep snatching a few moments to journal and of course I HAVE to create pages for my classes!

I'm up for this!

For a chance to win some Tim Holtz blog candy go here Looks like a bag full of goodies to me!

Bliss!

I'm feeling pretty peaceful today after another play date at AFTH. Lots of art journalers creating pages and chatting together and generally having a good old 'time out' from the mundane everyday stuff we all have to do. Olive even managed to put up with the Country music Dy had on today even though she didn't like it!

Today, Dy set us a challenge - we had to use some dressmaking pattern paper and a paisley swirl stencil - if we managed it, we got to take home some of the dressmaker paper...

So yes - I managed it - evidence!



Although this isn't the page I made - I loaded the 'photos in the wrong order!

This one is in my A4 journal...





Here it is - can you spot the dressmaking paper? Christine brought a bag full for Dyan- we loved it - some of the patterns had her name on - she has had them since she was a school girl - how amazing is that...just goes to show, all that stuff we all hoard does eventually come in useful for something!

I shall still add to this page but I like it already, Mrs Blackett is very bemused about her hat....



And then I just used the altered original spray inks to start this background - aren't the colours just gorgeous?



Right, I'm off to mess around a bit more...

Play Dates for Grown Ups!

I've set aside some time for myself. I've written the dates in my diary (and I don't like crossing things out so it would have to be mega important for me to change these dates I can tell you!) Well the ME time is a few play dates at Art from the Heart.
I'm really loving the opportunity to get away from it all and play. I can't be interrupted by the telephone, I can't be interrupted by unexpected visits (we get a lot of those!) so while I'm at Dy's, I can allow myself to get completely absorbed in messing about...



Last week I posted a few backgrounds I'd made at the play day, today I started to build a couple of pages... I will still add to these two pages, but I like how they're coming together...
I don't know why the colour of the page below isn't showing true but I love these collage images from Dyan's downloads (see button on sidebar) and they are very appropriate for this page as we will be moving to Durham in September, so this page is all about that.




This one shows a new stencil I found - I used the altered originals spray inks to test it - pretty cool don't you think?



And this is a work in progress - I'm MAKING gifts for a few people that I know I won't see very often when we go to Durham and I love this paper from 7Gypsies....



Hope I have more pages to post real soon!

Phew! That was one HOT month!

I don't know about you but July seems to begin the countdown to Christmas for me...
The first half of the year is over and the next six months are upon us.
Here are my June and July art calendar pages... July is still in progress (I feel free to write that - see comment below!) I used Dyan's Altered Original spray inks and paints for the background which I will continue to work on throughout the month.





June came and went in a blink!





Well I thought I'd better bring this to your attention...



You are either very polite bloggers not to make reference or you didn't notice the spelling mistake about my 'pigrimage'!!! I was looking at my page after I'd posted on my blog and laughed out loud! (in my defense all I can say is that I was so involved in my desire to write neatly and make the word fit in the space I had that I made a mistake!!)
I did get a 'phone call from my mate Gill who seems to be the only other person who spotted it, she asked "What on earth is a pigrimage"!!
Anyway this is how I've had to amend it....



June has been a scorching month hasn't it? I'm not a sun worshipper at all but I have loved the sunshine - I feel as though we've had 'proper' seasons (so far!) this last year - a snowy Winter, a fresh Spring and now a hot Summer.

It's been a strange old month for me, busy on a few fronts, finalising work for College, (thanks for your words of encouragement last post) lots of hospital visits with both Mum and Dad who have had some poor health recently and are feeling weary of all the too-ing and fro-ing...



There is no stopping the onslaught of age and how it affects our loved ones and this year has been tough as we lost my Auntie to Alzheimer's just two months ago. I cannot, absolutely cannot bear the thought of losing my beloved parents. So whether it be in hospital waiting rooms or wherever, I treasure every moment I get to spend with them. Just writing that has been cathartic as I have been resentful because all my time seems to have been eaten up in hospital waiting rooms for the first half of this year - with Auntie Glad, Mum and Dad and myself. I'm looking forward to the next six months and better health for us all!

I'm also looking forward to more of this kind of therapy...

Art Journaling is one of my favourite things to do and yesterday I went for a 'messing around day at Art from the Heart and I got a whole day to play....



It was just wonderful to mess around with no pressure to complete anything...



Being in the company of other like minded people and listening to ordinary, everyday chitter chatter was just what I needed. I was telling Dyan how I flit about in my journals and so it takes me ages before I get a finished piece of work to post and she encouraged me to post 'works in progress' so here they are...



This one is waiting for spray inks...



This one for some words and more doodling...



And these, well I just don't know yet, but I love them even in this bare state. I certainly had fun with Dyan's new Altered Original spray inks...







My own set...



Dyan is really pleased with her inks...they have gone down a storm, if you love this kind of art I encourage you to get some here



Now I love the world of blogging and just to prove how friendly bloggy folk are check out this next photo...last Saturday Andy and I went to an all dayer (a Northern Soul all day dance extravaganza) in Bridlington and I was approached by this lovely lady who recognised me from my blog photograph... what a network of friends you make when you jump in (DO IT Janeyb!) This is chrisg



And as its been such a hot month, here is a photograph of Andy purchasing my favourite tipple at one of our favourite places...a coffee light frappucino - double blended of course! Try it and see what you think...



Byeeeeeee!