Catching up in my Trip/Travel journal

Thanks to some bloke marrying some woman, we all got the day off work and school today - woohoo!  So I spent some time this morning playing catch up in my 2011 trip journal... I'm trying to document all our day trips and holidays this year, so we'll have something to look back at in the future to remember all the fun times.

So here's the page about our day out at Blenheim Palace - all very posh and regal, and rather appropriate for a day like today! 

None of us had ever been there before, and we weren't sure what to expect, but it was a fantastic place to visit, both the house and extensive grounds, not too stuffy and snobby and boring, if you know what I mean - and we barely had time to see everything there was to see and do everything there was to do.

Not very "arty", these pages, more just a download of memories.  But I did enjoy using my new Copic airbrush system (a birthday pressie from t'other half) to make the backgrounds, and doodling the little maze.

And yes, that's my third orangey/yellow based page in a row - I'm afraid I made up a little too much paint the other day, and I'm too tight to waste it!  But that's it all gone now.  No more yellow for a while, I promise :)

AJED : 75 / 365

The game's up!

And so, this is the end of the Take Ten CJ - and what fun it has been!

The theme of this last journal was board games, can you guess which game I chose to interpret?

Mousetrap, of course :)

I used to LOVE that game, must dig it out, haven't played it in years!

Actually, I say I chose Mousetrap, in actual fact it was chosen for me - as I am the last to work on this CJ and therefore the other nine games had already been taken.  But I think I would have picked this one even if I had gone first, I really enjoyed searching for just the right real-life imagery to represent all the game pieces - the old boot, the rickety stairs, the bath tub, and my favourite, the diving man :)

Here's the layout back in the book, with my sign in tag:

It goes home to its owner next week - and that's when my own book should come home also - can't wait!!!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Take Ten CJ - it's been a pleasure to host, no drop outs, no delays, no drama - perfect :)

No Waaaay! Really??

 

Woohoo!!  Now that Skullita is in the post and winging her way to the U S of A, I am back to playing in my art journal, I've missed it loads!

And I knew exactly what I wanted to do on my first page back....as I loved this fortnight's prompt from A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal:

 

The prompt: Really?!

The song: Tell Me Something I Don't Know by Selena Gomez (lyrics HERE)
Product/technique: speech bubbles

And it fitted right in with something I'd been wondering about recently....if I had the chance to go back in time and talk to my younger self, before my disastrous marriage, before various other mistakes I've made, what would I say to her?

The more I thought about it, the more I figured that she wouldn't believe a word I was saying anyway - especially if I told her some things about my life in 2011 - I've ended up a very different person than perhaps I would have predicted back then!  But I'm happier than I've ever been, so hip hip hooray for unexpected diversions from the plan :)

This page took much longer than it looks like it took - I spent hours making a lovely, involved, woven book page background, and then promptly covered it up so much you can barely see it, pah! :)

Luckily I took a photo of the background before I stuck and wrote stuff all over it, I love the look (inspired by Maryanne's cards here) - I must try this again, and next time maybe I'll leave a bit showing!

AJED : 73 / 365

Meet Skullita....

....she's the reason I've been AWOL from my blog (and from paper-crafting of all kinds) for a little while.

This young lady is a 12" x 12" quilt square, made for a very good cause - and she has taken me a looooong time to make!

I'm SO slow at sewing!  It's not only the hand stitching that takes me forever, it's the machine sewing too...at least twice I managed to sew the material on back to front and had to unpick the seams stitch by stitch, doh!  And the pieced starburst background?  You have no idea how complicated I managed to make that, and what a pain it turned out to be.

But never mind, it's finished now! yay!  and will be winging its way to Richmond, Virginia tomorrow to the Skull-A-Day HQ (oooh, my pal Jennifer lives there too, hi Jennifer :)  )

I hope this project raises tons of cash for Becky's Fund - and if anyone reading this would like to get involved, it's not too late - you just need to get your square to the organiser by the end of May, plenty of time yet....

A slightly late crusade - my forensic self portrait

Yet another outing for my self portrait stencil - I'm certainly making it earn its keep!

This page is in response to a recent Crusade from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team:

Due April 1st - oops!

The premise was nice and straightforward - document yourself right now in this moment.

This will be really fun to do once a year, to see how my preferences and behaviours change over time...

I was brave and used fabric and the dreaded sewing machine on this page, it behaved perfectly, I must use it more!


AJED : 72 / 365

Not Broken.

This page was pure and simple synchronicity....

I had this mask left over from my Guns n Roses page, and with its lovely black and gold spray paint treatment it was far too nice to waste.

Then came an unexpected free evening and time to work in my journal...and I spotted the latest three-part prompt from A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal:

THE PROMPT: Love
THE SONG: Not Broken by the Goo Goo Dolls
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Silhouettes

Everything fell into place pretty quickly from that point....I had the silhouette.....a "love" themed page seemed to fit the dancers, plus Jay and I have now been together two years so the timing is right....and "not broken" made me think of not breaking step - dancing in unison - a relationship in perfect balance.

I couldn't be happier, or luckier, to have found my perfect partner for the dance.  Happy anniversary Jay xxx


AJED : 71 / 365

Used to do a little but the little wouldn't do it so the little got more and mowah....

....just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than befowah!

Yay! I've been waiting for this CJ ever since we started the Take Ten circle, the Guns n Roses theme!  

As I am the ninth of ten to work in this book, I wasn't sure which songs would be left for me to choose from, so you can imagine how excited I was to find that my favourite G n R song ever ever ever was still available - squeeeeeee!!!! I got Mr Brownstone!!!!

I really enjoyed putting this layout together, mainly because on at least two occasions in its evolution it went HORRIBLY wrong, but I still managed to salvage it.

And that somehow is more fun than eveything going smoothly from the get go :)

The song is about the cheery subject of heroin addiction, hence the poppies.

I have just one more journal left to work on in this circle - with a board games theme - and then I'm all done.  It's been a LOT of fun, I'm going to miss it when it's gone!

Download the best from the best!

... the best 2010 projects from the best UK artsy crafty magazine, that is

Craft Stamper, which is the only magazine I religiously buy every month (I really ought to renew my subscription one day, but I'm still waiting for the perfect sub gift! :) ), has released a FREE downloadable e-zine with twelve of the best projects from last year.




Well worth a click: http://www.craftstamper.com/ezine - or hit the piccie. 

Enjoy!

(and no, this isn't an April Fool, the link won't take you to a Rick Astley video, promise!)

(although that would have been funny :) )