Diary of a Journeyman Crafter

A handmade Christmas

2012-01-12T00:15:00.000-08:00

I made a couple of gifts for extended family for Christmas.

* I made a card box and ten cards for one of DH's aunts.

*The two 'notes' gifts are magnetic photo stands that I covered with designer paper and cuttlebugged c/s and then put a magnet on the back of the post it notes. The little people are magnetic paper clips. These were for teenage girls & they really liked them. It was a bargain.. 16c for the magnetic photo stands at a Sam's Warehouse.

*The butterflies are tumbled tile coasters stamped on with one of my favourite stamps.. will have to find it and update this so I can give details of whose it is... they were stamped with stayzon, sealed with a matte varnish and little felt circles cut out with my cuttlebug stuck on the back. I gotta admit, I loved these and didn't really want to give them away. they were for a cousin in his 50's who really needs nothing. I hope he appreciated them.. it's hard to tell with men!

Art journal swap - Paris

2011-12-19T01:03:00.000-08:00

This is my spread in a friend's "Paris" art journal. I hope you like it! I was chuffed.

ATCs for Tilly Stampers

2011-12-14T00:05:00.000-08:00

I made these ATCs for a background swap with the Tilly Stampers group. Everyone made 9 ATCs with the same backgrounf, then we decorated each others. Then we get our own backgrounds back, all nicely decorated and interpreted in 9 different ways. I love this swap. They are so much fun. These are what I made with the backgrounds I received. Photo is a bit blurry because I took it with my phone which isn't a great camera

"The Enchanted Garden"

2011-12-12T01:56:00.000-08:00

This is my front cover of my art journal. The front is embossed with the cuttlebug die that looks like wrought iron gates (can't remember the name of it) and opens up to a scene with a path winding through the forest.

The title page. The theme is The Enchanted Garden... and my friends who are participating in this art journal round robin are welcome to interpret this theme however they choose.

The introductory story...

My sign in pages are mushrooms and I included a bunch of little fairies so each person can choose a fairy and put it where they like. I look forward to seeing this finished.

My double page spread. These were done with lots of layers of paint, serviettes, tissues, stamping, and I can't remember what else... it took ages to do but I was happy with it in the end.

A close up of left hand page

A close up of the right hand page

I am SO looking forward to seeing my journal when it comes home again.

Amazing blog candy

2010-05-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

DEbbie from the UK is offering a fantastic blog candy to celebrate her birthday. visit

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/its-my-birthday-blogcandy.html

to find out more and check out her awesome art work while you are there. Sorry, the hyperlink doesn't want to work for me today.

I will get bach to being creative myself one day... as my lovely 2.5 yo DD says "another day".. not sure when that "another day" will be though :)

Creating after a long, dry time

2009-07-19T02:36:00.000-07:00

I have been struggling something shocking to find the time or inspiration to create. But a friend requested cards for her DH's birthday and I had just received my new Tim Holtz stamps and they were calling out to be used. This is what I came up with. I know it's not very birthday like but I enjoyed making it.

You can't see it but underneath the man image is gorgeous faux batik paper made by following the instructions on Carol's blog I had a great time making a variety of different backgrounds using this technique and that helps get some of the "mojo" back. [Misplacing my gloss c/s that I wanted for another project certainly hasn't helped maintain my enthusiasm. I am back to being frustrated lol!]

One Sheet Wonders

2009-02-16T00:44:00.000-08:00

I've been having fun playing with various one sheet wonder cards. The cards are a jumble of a couple of instructions so I can't tell you exactly who I got them from. If anyone recognises it as theirs and wants to let me know so I can give credit, that would be great.

A Canvas to say Thank You

2009-01-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

In December I hosted a Secret Santa swap on one of the groups I belong to. The lady who played Santa to me did such a fabulous job catering to my likes and needs, so I decided I needed to make her something a bit more special than a card. I hope she likes it.

The background is a combination of yellow and burgundy acrylic paints, oversprayed with Starburst Stains in Batchelor Buttons and Heliotrope Purple Plum. I overstamped the background iwht Black Brilliance and then collaged over the top.

29 Days of Giveaway

2008-12-03T00:20:00.000-08:00

I am constantly surprised at the number of artists/crafters who are so generous as to give away their work.

There is a wonderful giveaway on Chrysti's blog - 29 days of giving in fact. The link is:

http://chrysti.wordpress.com:80/2008/12/02/29-days-of-giveaways-for-you/

I love one of the quotes Chrysti has used -

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” -Winston Churchill

I have been pondering the meaning of life lately and I think that quote sums up so many of my thoughts.

Pop on over to Chrysti's blog to see her gorgeous work and maybe win a prize in the process.

First ever canvas

2008-02-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

I am in the process of creating a canvas of my bub. It's the first one I've ever done and painting hte background really wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. I intend to modify the photo a bit so the green isn't quite so green and I am trying to figure out how to add words to it at the moment and what it would need to complete it. I'm sure I'll get there in the end.

This first pic is of just the canvas backgound. I am normally into more vintage or earthy colours but have recently decided I love pink and green together too so I thought I'd play with those colours for this canvas.

This is roughly where I intend to put the picture on. I will fiddle with the colours and I think I'll probably do an image transfer to mute it even more... not sure yet.

Altered Book for my baby girl

2008-02-05T02:03:00.000-08:00

I am still new to AB's and don't want to become a scrapbooker so I decided to make my baby girl an AB. These are pics of the first spread. It isn't finished because I want to add fibre and charms down the spine and I am planning on putting pictures of her on the fold out pink and white diamond paper, but want to do a year's worth, not just the first few months so it's a work in progress.

This first one is the left hand side of the spread, with a fold out flap closed. I used my cuttlebug to make the word 'love' - Hippie Chick alphabet.

Unfortunately my scanner isn't big enough to scan the full spread in one go. The background is lumiere's and acrylic paints.

This is page one opened. The scan doesn't show it really well but her little feet were inked and 'stamped' on the bottom rioght hand corner of this page.

This is the second half of the spread., with the flap closed and then with the flap opened.

The Generosity of the Art and Craft Community

2008-02-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks I have been amazed by the generosity of mixed media artists and rubber stampers.

There were the wonderful works of Tim Holtz, Bernie Berlin, Claudine Hellmuth, to name a few, to help out Bernie's "A Place to Bark" see http://www.aplacetobark.com

There are all the blogger's participating in the 'One World One Heart' blog giveaway.

And of course, I have to mention Catherine Matthews-Scanlon's "Art from the Heart" Giveaway. Catherine's work is just gorgeous. If you haven't seen if before I encourage you to drop in to her blog. On her blog Catherine is giving away two copies of her beautiful book. To find out how you could win a copy visit her blog at http://cmscanlon.blogspot.com/2008/01/giving-away-two-copies.html

Background Noise Journal

2008-01-23T21:15:00.000-08:00

Call me anal if you want but when I started my background noise journal I wanted to have facing pages with one page of instructions and one page of samples, so I left the first page blank. Well it was staring at me and daring me to do something... anything. I have never art journalled before and didn't know what to do, but I wanted to represent the concept of background noise, so I filled it with lots of doodles in black and white.

I finally got around to putting samples of my shining stones backgrounds in my art journal. This is what it looks like.

Colour Frustrations

2008-01-23T21:10:00.000-08:00

I am wondering if I am the only stamper out there frustrated when it comes to layering colours. I know the colour wheel and I understand colour schemes, primary, secondary, tertiary etc, but I really struggle with the various shades within that. What I mean is, for example, I know purple and yellow can look really good together, but I also know that some purples look awful with some yellows and I find picking what does and doesn't work very, very difficult. I wish I could say I was colourblind - that would be a good excuse - but I'm not. I just don't have a feel for colour. And it gets even worse when I have something like the shining stones backgrounds below - multiple colours to layer. I normally resort to the good, old trusty gold, black or white but I would like to be able to look at a multi coloured background and pick just one colour out of it and be able to find a matching layer. Anyone else feel this way?

Shining Stones Background Technique

2008-01-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

On Next-Generation-Stampers we are currently participating in a Background Noise Challenge. For details on this project, and the shining stones background technique, visit Trish Bee's Art-venture website at http://trishbee.co.uk/?p=307

Here are my backgrounds. They turned out a bit washed out, probably partly because my Kaleidacolor inkpads are drying up and partly because I used too much water. Hopefully I will have time to 1) add them into my art journal and 2) create something with the 'extras' in the next week or so.

This background was made using Kaleidacolor Creole Spice ink pad. I didn't have any perfect pearls or other mica-type products so I ended up using gold lumiere's watered down a bit.

This background was made using Kaleidacolor Carribean Sea with gold lumiere paint.

Altered Puzzle Pieces

2008-01-13T20:28:00.001-08:00

I thought I would start by sharing a couple of altered jigsaw puzzle pieces I made as part of a swap with some good friends.

I love the little boy image I used in this first piece. I just wish I could remember where I got it from. The frame is made with a Stampers Anonymous stamp. I had purchased it from the US for a specific project and waited and waited for it to arrive. At the last minute I changed my mind and didn't use it, so it was good to have a worthwhile project to use it on.

I really struggled with this piece. I think it was because the friend I was making it for is a very talented lady and therefore I felt I had to create the 'perfect' piece. I really wanted to do a time themed piece but after two failed attempts gave up on that idea. Using the watch face to hold shells came to me in the middle of the night and I was happy with this piece in the end.