This blog is a record of my creative journey. I love to share my passion for paper crafting so I design projects and then create tutorials and workshops to show you how to make them. Please feel free to wander around to check out all the things I share both here, in my ETSY shop and over on my You Tube channel. Thank you for popping by!
Here is a sparkly little Shaker Card Tutorial for you. This one features papers from the Graphic 45 Voyage Beneath the Sea paper collection but you could make this with different themed papers too.
The Journalling cards that come in this collection were the perfect choice for the fish tank background and the sentiment inside the card too.
I really hope you find this tutorial inspiring enough to give it a go yourself. Don't forget to let me know how you get on.
If you need any more inspiration for using up some more of the Beneath the Sea Paper collection you will find more Graphic 45 inspiration on this play list. Click here to see more.
Hi Everyone from a cold and rainy England today....well it is here where I am and it is perfect crafting weather! Every Cloud..........has a crafting lining LOL!
Before I get on with editing another video here is a little card making inspiration for you. This works for lovers of Graphic 45 like me who may have Precious Memories papers in their stash or who have similar patterned papers they can adapt. Equally you may have other papers from other collections that would also suit making a card like this one.
Here is the tutorial to show you how.
Whilst you are there you might want to have a look at other ways of using Graphic 45 Precious Memories papers like these which all have tutorials of their own.
Happy crafting everyone and thank you for popping by X
Here is my February page and tags for your inspiration. I rally hope you play along with me to create an Art Journal that charts your creative adventures as well as your memories for 2017.
February always reminds me of Valentines day and so I set about creating this romantic Ar Journal Page that has photos of hubby and I as well as a couple of verses that I found in old Valentines cards I sent my special Valentine!
This is the title page of the signature and you will see in the tutorial all the months will follow the same format.
As you can see I have plenty of room to capture happy memories like this one. Both these pages form pockets and I am creating scrapbooking tags to record special memories from each month:
Callum turned 18 in the month of February. Don't the years just seem to fly by?!
I also recorded a trip to Calke Abbey and a brand new Tea Room visit that had the most impressive display of yummy macaroons!
Remember you don't have to combine Art Journalling with Scrapbooking if you don't want to as this format will give you lots and lots of space for creative experiments!
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and find something to inspire you to play along.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend and thank you for popping by X
Just popping in to let you know my first tutorial in this series is now up! It has taken me a while and I will explain more in the video.
I really hope this series of videos inspires you to join me in creating your own Art Journal 2017!
So this page is inspired by the month of January and you will see I have created two pockets in which to be able to include scrapbook tags to remember things that have happened throughout the year.
I will explain the concept and the group I have created where we can share our journey. If you are not into scrapbooking then you can use the pockets and tags for more Art Journaling space instead.
I will be playing catch up over the next couple of months so watch out for February coming soon!
Apologies this video is a little late due to technical difficulties! My Computer has been in the menders not once but TWICE and I am just getting over the withdrawal! It is amazing how much I missed having access to my YouTube account! I have managed to keep filming though so all I need to do now is get editing!
So first things first. Time to finish off my 2016 Art Journal (not 2017 check out the tutorial to find out what I did!!). In this tutorial I will show you how I made covers for my pages and now I have two lovely volumes documenting some of my art adventures and memories from 2016 in my favourite colour too!
As you will know all my pages were inspired by Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016 series this year and I am going to miss playing along with him as he has decided after many years of creating tags full of technique and inspiration he is going to concentrate on other things. But every cloud has a silver lining and mine is that I am going to go it alone and bring the inspiration myself this year as I have had such fun with my 2016 Journal I want to share!
I am changing the format of the pages slightly but there will be an element of scrapbooking combined with a ton of mixed media art journal inspiration.
I am really looking forward to telling you more but first there is this tutorial to show you an idea for covering all your lovely art journal pages or perhaps an idea for creating a mini album which would work too.
Next up from me will be a short final journal run through video and then it is on to my Journal 2017 Series. I do have a little catch up to do so there will be two pages in quick succession but then it is my intention to journal a month in arrears around the third week of the month so this series will be finished and bound in January 2018.
I really hope you will play along with me so don't forget to subscribe here and on my You Tube Channel for more details coming soon.
Just a quick note to share with you my final page in my 2016 Journal! I hope you like it and that you are excited to play along in 2017!
Here you can see Tim Holtz original tag that set me on this creative journey. I love this paper patchwork technique. I have used it on canvases too. A great way to create a fun background and to use up the pretty patterned scraps you have been saving!
This was the other side of my tag. A photo I took last year when we went on holiday to Cornwall. A beautiful misty morning on the beach with a yummy hot chocolate to keep out the autumn chills!
So all that is left for me to do is bind my pages into a book - well two books actually as I think one will be a little too big.
For now I will leave you with this final page tutorial:
I will post the cover tutorial within a day or two and then watch out for news of my brand new 2017 Journal. I really hope I have inspired you to play along and create a journal of your own to capture your creative journey for 2017.
Only one more page to go to finally finish this series of Journal Page tutorials for my 2016 journal where each month the inspiration has come from Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016 series.
I have had so much fun making pages instead of tags that I have decided to make and share a 2017 journal series where I hope I can become your inspiration - but more of that later. I have promised to get 2016 finished first so.........
Here you can see my original inspiration from Tim for the month of September and I chose to pick up on the patina paint effect and a resist technique.
I had lots of lovely messy fun with this one and you will see how the resist helped me keep my faces and borders clean - the same cannot be said of my hands and my desk!!
I hope you are having a fab weekend full of creativity. I will be editing movies from my son Callum's gymnastics club Christmas show. I am enjoying the process but boy does it take a long time! Callum is now a coach and a gymnast so he was as proud as punch of his little troupe of parrots dancing and tumbling to Rio. They were so excited but they left a trail of feather wherever they went! I am still finding them in my craft room and attached to my jumpers from the many hours spent sewing them to ribbon! Here is Callum in a reflective mood!
Then its on with the show. Here are the boys waiting to go on. The show had a fiesta de la noche theme incase you were wondering! Callum is the one with the blue joggers on! The boys from Mens Artistic danced the tango with the Girls from Rythmic and it was fab. It is wonderful to see them tumble so effortlessly during their routines. I am so proud of Callum who is now really coming on after his major knee operation. His confidence is coming back as is his tumbling.
So whilst I get back to the video editing I will leave you all with my tutorial. I hope it inspires you to join me this year when I launch my new series in February.
Just popping in with my December page before getting on with my next one! Not many to go now before I show you how to bind them all up into a lovely reminder of your art journaling and some memories from 2016.
I loved this paper patchwork look when he did it before so I picked up on that as my first inspiration for this page.
I loved the jingle bell holly too so I went with that as an extra embellishment on my festive page. Here is the tutorial that shows you how you can achieve a page like this one:
I hope you find something to inspire your next art journal page. Don't forget this patchwork technique could be adapted to all sorts of themes. It is definitely not just for Christmas!!!
My memory for December was about Christmas crafting and I know you will sympathise when I say I get so many ideas for lovely Christmas Projects but not enough time to actually make all of them!
Just incase you want to start now here is the tutorial for the project you see on my tag:
See you again soon with my final pages and thank you for popping by X
Hi Everyone and a Happy New Year to you and yours!
I would like to thank you all for the support and kind words you have given me in 2016 and I hope you will join me for another year full of creative possibilities. January will see me catch up with and finish my 12 Journals of 2016 series inspired by Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2016.
I have had such fun making my journal pages rather than tags this year and that has inspired me to go solo in 2017 which is just as well as Tim started the year by retiring his 12 Tags series after 10 years of fun and inspiration. I had so many people ask me to carry on in 2017 that I am happy to say I will!….but more of that later as I finish of my 2016 Journal.
So with clearing the decks in mind here is my August page:
I really like how this one turned out and there is very little ink in sight which is highly unusual!
I will be journalling about how I spent most of August this year up cycling furniture in one form or another and this is the sofa I recovered for Callum. I will get to the journalling as soon as I find my white pen which seems to have gone walk-about!
This was Tim's August tag and I think you can see I did my version of his Frameworks Technique and I chose to feature stitching rather than the Brayered Stains technique. I used stitching to add the stems to my pretty daisy stamps from the DaVinchi set of stamps from Rubber Dance.
Here is the video which I hope inspires you to create pages of your own. Watch this space for more news coming very soon about my 2017 Journal series. I really hope you want to play along and I am just ironing out the details aiming to start in February 2017.
Wishing you all more time to spend with family and friends this year and of course more time to craft! Thank you for popping by X
This month saw the return of the resist technique and an embossed die cut technique and this was Tim's original inspiration:
….and I had the perfect picture and memory to include on the tag for this layout. I love this photo of Callum proudly showing me the Giant Leaf he found!
I decided my Autumnal day was sunny but frosty too and added a little Distress Glitter to my pile of leaves. A bit like it was here today. I remembered to get out there and fed the birds although the blackbirds are having a lovely time munching on the remaining apples that are scattered around our apple tree.
Today Bibi, the lovely owner/designer of Rubber Dance Stamps, and I are launching a brand new collaboration in time for your Christmas crafting! Are you struggling to get started making your cards this year? Then this festive bundle is just what you are looking for.
When you make this purchase first of all you will be receiving a fabulous set of Rubber Dance stamps that give lovely impressions time after time. This set, as you can see, is very versatile with lots of lovely Christmassy images with so many possibilities. Frosty Friends was designed for Rubber Dance by Susanne Rose.
You will also be receiving 10 tutorials from me! I will show you how to create Gift Boxes, Baubles, Birthday Cards, Note Cards, Magical Treat Bags and 7 different Christmas Card Designs! Tons of inspiration and tons of techniques to get you ready for Christmas!
Just a small selection of the lovely projects we will make together. You will also receive a pdf with all the project photos, materials and tools lists and all the dimensions you need to create this bumper bundle of festive creations. I know that each of these projects will inspire you to make other creations too. What better way to make sure that you get the most of of your lovely stamps.
Here is my little advert to really get you in the mood to get started!
As the temperatures plummet outside I was inside making an April page for my Journal! Still playing catch up but still having lots of creative fun and I hope you find lots of inspiration in my tutorial.
This page was inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2016 series. Each month he takes two techniques from pervious years tags and combines them to make a new tag and inspires so many of us to play along. I have so many tags now from many years of playing along I am making art journal pages instead and there is a tag in there too!!!
You can see Tim's tag in this shot but you will see in the tutorial that one of my tags made way back in 2012 inspired this page too! I loved this faux mosaic technique using scraps of patterned paper and I am sure you will too.
Each of my pages has a coordinating tag and each holds a memory. As I was making this page the faux mosaic reminded me of china tea sets and my love of all things afternoon tea. I really like making them and am collecting lovely antique china to serve my celebration teas upon. This photo though is of a cake I would really love to know how to make. I think my skills are a little way off this standard yet though!
This is the finished page and I love how cheery it looks - it perhaps has a hint of frost about it after all! We were forecast a little snow this evening but so far only cold and rain. We even picked up all the leaves and doggy presents in the garden just in case we get to build a snowman! I guess we only have ourselves to blame if it doesn't snow after all ;-)
Here is the tutorial and I really hope it inspires you to try out the techniques and get creative. Thank you for popping by X
Here it is finally managed to get this uploaded. Life suddenly got a bit hectic….better ate than never!
Here is the finished piece and be warned - very messy painty hands can be achieved with this one! Fabulous ;-)!
As I said on my previous post this piece was inspired by the art and yummy products of Finnabair! Hope this tutorial inspires you to get creative. Thank you for popping by X
I hope you are all looking forward to a fabulous weekend. I will be posting another tutorial shortly but I couldn't wait to share what it is I will be showing you how to make!
I can't tell you what my hands looked like at 4 this morning! I did take a minute to peel it and wash it all off before I jumped into bed, promise! This canvas forms part of an audition for Finnabair's Creative Team and I was inspired by some of my lovely Finnabair products and I was so please with how it was going that I couldn't stop! I was so enthralled I didn't even realise the time!!!
As you know Finn has a wonderful way of combining unusual bits and bobs and combining them with art products to make unique and beautiful artworks and this canvas was inspired by her. I combined metal elements with paint and beads and glitter and suddenly a magical flower blooms!
I created my own texture paste by mixing rust mica powder with transparent 3D Matte Gel for lovely sparkly texture accented with Bronze micro beads and Midnight Blue glass glitter - Yum!
On the tutorial you will see how I used lace and pearl trims to make pretty textured borders. I warn you this technique is not for the faint hearted nor those that don't want to get their hands dirty!!! I am still picking off little bits of brown paint ;-)
As you can see I had a wonderful time and I picked a word that sums up this piece to finish the canvas.
So keep an eye out for the tutorial and keep your fingers crossed for me. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and thank you for popping by X
I hope you have all been having a wonderful summer. I have been busy and seem to have taken a little time off blogging and making videos but don't worry I have still been getting my fix of creativity! So before I get to this:
Just thought I would share what I have been up to as it has been very creative but in a different way! I have been helping Mum! I have been getting all painty and decoraty! It has been fun spending Mum's money ;-) Here is her bedroom all finished and looking lovely (if I do say so myself!!!!) We are now working on her Lounge so I will share that with you when it is all looking gorgeous again.
I have also been up-cycling and have a new chair in my bedroom. Here are the before and after shots:
Remember this one?
Well it now has a matching bedside table!
I loved doing this look and they look fab in Callum's room and help keep it tidy to…..ok well that may be a step to far for now ;-)
I have long been meaning to cover this Ikea sofa……..
……and then inspired by the most perfect fabrics I did this and I have to say even to an amateur like me it was easy peasy and I would recommend it to anyone as the sofa easily comes apart to make covering simple.
I have to say that this will probably be the only time it looks like this as it is mostly used as a cupboard!!!
We also had another trip to the hospital with Callum's knee and he had it stretched which I know sounds painful and it was but thankfully he got to sleep through it. Here he is all recovered and attached to a knee bending machine.
He has definitely been through it this year but he is doing well and is back in the Gym …….not quite up to tumbling yet but every day sees him getting closer. Fingers crossed and thank goodness for the talented surgeon and staff of the NHS!
So that was my summer with a few lovely days in the garden of course so now it is back to sharing the creativity and this one is a catch up page in my 12 Journals of 2016 series all pages inspired by Tim Holz's 12 Tags of 2016.
This was Tim's tag where he mixed two of his previous techniques to achieve this new look and this was the page it inspired:
As you can see it is a little more feminine than Tim's but the techniques are there only my version of them as you will see in this video:
I wish you all a Happy Sunday and hope you are finding time to create. I am hoping to get another page caught up as I am a bit behind this year…..well ok a lot behind lol!
