Good Times

I have perked up from my gloomy mood I had the other day.  But if you scrapbook sunny, beach photo's from a lovely day trip, it's hard not to isn't it?    Slot machines and penny waterfalls aren't really my thing but but I figured if it was wet the kids could amuse themselves in the arcades and the day wouldn't be a total waste of time.  But when we got to Gt Yarmouth it was gloriously sunny albeit windy and so it meant the 'teens' could paddle and play in the sea while my friend Kelie-Marie and I could sit and watch, chat and berate when the 'teens' got wet.

Good times were had by all but boy does that sand get everywhere, I'm sure I am still finding it.

 As I was nearly three months behind the Document 2010 challange, I made some pages for August (I still haven't done June and July's but August pictures are much more fun).  Ice-cream shades, bunting and some shabby sanding was required to give the layout a seaside look.

Feeling Blue

I'm feeling a bit blue today, maybe it's because summer has ended, maybe it's the rain, maybe because a new term is starting soon......

Awww ain't she cute.

See these Penny Black stamps that I recently acquired at the Stamparama show?  Cute aren't they.....and I don't really do cute.  But I have really been taken by these, the little girl is cute but kind of funky too.  I think the one with her bike could be based on a cartoon version of me....no....don't you think so?  Well I have my trusty purple and silver bike, I wear bright colours, I have been known to try and eat my weight in cake.... but.....OK,  I don't wear dresses to cycle in nor do I have straight hair unless the hairdresser has been (see previous post).  But other than that it's me!......(mumble years) ago..... 

Any way these were too cute not to buy and I have made a variety of cards to sell at the Breast Cancer coffee morning I am organising at school.  Used a new Nestie to cut the stamp out and left it on to leave a white boarder while I inked around the image.  The stamps were coloured in using Promarkers.

And this one is my favourite, just look at her with her bright red flower in her hair especially matched to her bright bike......that's the sort of thing I would do....except my helmet would crush the flower!

By the way, I have entered her into this weeks The Stamp Man Challange Blog for easel cards  here.

Avoidance

Hmmm, there are many things that I avoid......ironing, cleaning ink from my stamps and making phone calls being a few.  But I have never minded my photo being taken.  Most of us have a friend or relative who doesn't like their photo taken.  Why?.....I really don't know.  Maybe they are not very confident with their appearance or just have an uncanny knack of blinking when the shutter clicks.  Anyhow Robert was avoiding the camera (and it was the new red one) when I tried to practise my skills at photography and come to grips with all it's hi tech buttons.  But for all his avoidance I ended up with a series of natural photos of my lovely lad.

The layout included Studio Calico patterned paper and Banana Frog alphabet stamps embossed with Seafoam embossing powder.  I am loving the yellow and turquoise together and find a graphic style works well with bold pattens and male photos.  And I always thought I was a shabby chic girl.

Sleek and Smooth

So here I am looking all sleek and smooth after a visit by my hairdresser.  In real life I am a curly girl who roughly resembles a character from the old cartoon series 'The Hair Bear Bunch'. In the series I recall a bunch of bears working a 70's disco look, complete with frizzy BIG Afros.  OK so I don't sport an Afro (though I did once wear a red Afro for comic relief day, but it didn't suit me) and although I do like some 70's music I have never worn flares!  But my hair is BIG, curly and unruly.  Unfortunately I don't possess the patience to blow dry and straighten my hair, so the only time I look like this is after a hairdresser visit.  You can click on the photo to enlarge it for a better look.

The layout featuring my gorgeous locks was inspired by the Chicken Soup Challenge Blog, for their week 6 challenge here.  A pink, scalloped layout with heat embossed swirls and lettering and a little pink ribbon....very girly for the curly girl.

Bad Girls Like Art Too

So here's my Art Journal pages 2 and 3.  The background colour for both pages have acrylic paint swished randomly horizontally and vertically across the pages.  I liked doing this style of  journalling on the 'Art' page and found it quite satisfying colouring in the letters with my glittery Sakura pen but I'm not too sure on the rabbit!  To be honest, I was being lazy and didn't want to print any collage images off as I just wanted to get stuck in, so both of these have been made with odds and sods.  Actually apart from the watercolour paper (which was half price in W H Smiths) I haven't paid out a penny extra to produce these.

The 'Bad Girl' page lists all the bad stuff about me, Yes, yes I know it's hard to believe that I am not perfect so if you don't want to be disappointed in me don't read it........hmmm, I bet you all do that now.

Going All Arty Farty

Yes, I am going all arty farty on you and dipped my toe into the world of Art Journalling. I can't say at the moment if it will become my favourite crafty obsession yet (I think scrapbooking will always win) but it certainly ticks all the right boxes so far.

I have often admired this art form and as it combines my love of telling a story (talking too much) and collage (sticking stuff down). I thought I would give it a whirl. The only problems I have to overcome is painting, I'm not too clever with paint. Oh yes, I can decorate the house quite well and without preparation or dustsheets, but that's another story......one that is discussed in one of my Art Journal pages. The problem is that I am not a patient person (I think all my patience is used up each day at school) and so the colours normally end up a muddy mess because i can't wait for it to dry. But I had a brainwave, I used the heat gun! Low and behold non muddy colours.

So drum roll please.......here is my first page, titled 'I like to make things'. I did cheat a bit and copied some ideas from an article on Art Journalling in 'The Craft Stamper' mag, but I am already thinking of my own ideas to use for future pages.

I hope you can sit for a while and have a read of the journalling and maybe be inspired to have a try too.

Just being us

The old mojo is not really working at the moment. I don't really know why, I desperately want to craft but keep coming up with excuses not to. When I do get my sorry a--e up to my desk I just seem to shift paper and stuff around and make a mess. So it was quite surprising to get this layout done. It was a bit of a first for me as I had no idea what I was going to do, no plan or image in my head. I was feeling brave and didn't shift the papers and embellishment around, lay them out before I stuck....I just seized the moment and randomly stuck stuff down.

Although it's not my best work I am still pretty happy with it. Especially the butterflies, glimmer misted, stamped and then crackle glazed. Oh a word of warning....distress inks bleed when covered with crackle glaze, but although you can't tell what the stamp was I like the result. For some reason the crackle glaze wanted to fall off when dried so a layer of glossy accents came to the rescue.

The layout didn't really have a story behind it but I liked the photos of hubby and I out on one of our walks and it set me thinking. While out walking, it's our time to relax, maybe share the odd in-joke but generally we don't feel the need to fill in the whole walk with conversation, being comfortable together....we are just being us.