a touch of journaling

I don't know why this post didn't schedule before I went away camping, but still! A few weeks or so back I ended up at our local, large shopping centre, The Trafford Centre, with time to spare (that's what comes of taking my daughter and her friends and believing them that they'd only be an hour!)  After a bit of a mooch around Paperchase I decided to stock up on a little notebook and some washi tapes before sitting down in a coffee shop and creating a couple of pages.

I love cutting and sticking but although these pages are ok, they didn't really 'do it' for me.  I'm feeling a bit 'stuck' with my journal at the minute.

I think I'm just over thinking it all really rather than just enjoying 'playing'.

But I have established that although I love to cut and stick, splodging paint around is my very favourite thing to do!

We were going away, camping,  a week or so after this, and my husband always groans at the amount of different craft supplies I take.  My plan this year was to pack a little set of supplies so this gave me some clues when working out what to take this year.  My conclusion - paints, baby wipes, stencils... :) I'll start sharing some of the pages tomorrow.

What does your minimalist list of supplies look like?  And have you tried limiting yourself to them?  I'd LoVe to know.

another PDCC colour challenge, this time it's needle felting!

I did start a journal page with this week's PDCC colours but some extra colours crept in when a blue butterfly wanted to take part!

Then, following a bit of blog hopping this morning, I decided to get out my needle felting after seeing Jackie's wonderful pieces over at Dog Daisy Chains.  Jackie's base fabric is wet felted but I don't often have the patience for that and got out a few scraps of wool and fabric and my trusty embellisher.

The images were inspired by some patterns in my V&A fifties patterns book...

Jackie's work had really made me think of Angie Lewin's prints, jam packed full of imagery and texture.

Virago have recently republished some modern classics and as one was in an Angie Lewin print I had to read it!  I enjoyed it actually.  It was written in the 1920s and it turns out I own a book by this author - it's in my nice second hand books to recycle pile, or it was, I'm now intending to read it lol!

So, a happy hour 'dumpfing', as Twiglet would say :)  I'm not sure yet what this piece will become part of yet, but that's ok, it's purpose will appear at some point!

PDCC journal time

We've been home from our camping trip in Mid Wales for a few days now and I've been itching to get back to my journal instead of spring cleaning (a little late, but hey!) my craft room.  The play date cafe colours proved a perfect starting point.

This page is in a little A6 moleskine and after starting it very late last night I made a mess of one side of the page so tore it out, tore it into strips then glued them down this morning into a new starting point.

Rummaging around for some inspiration for what to do next I came across this word stamp.  I didn't want to put a heart on the page for some reason but a felted flower was lying around on my table and when I put this against the page it all clicked so I made a paper version to glue in.

It's back to rain here in the UK so these warm, summery colours are perfect to cheer up the day!

packing up at the Tatton RHS show

My talented sister used to design and build back-to-back edible gardens at Tatton but has now moved into the realm of growing and selling herbs there.  I'd been to visit the show on Saturday then got a call from my Dad yesterday to say his car had broken down so could I take him to the show and stay and help take down the stand.

We packed as much as we could into my sister's van, but struggled to fit my brother in law in there.

I knew I should have taken the Volvo estate rather than my little Fiat 500!

Packed to the ginnels we set off for home behind this little truck...I hope he was going far!

Whilst at the show this weekend I indulged my love of hydrangeas (coming home with 4!!!) and added a few things to my garden wishlist!

(actually a doorway like this was already on my list but

my husband said it wouldn't work; I've put an arch in now instead 

but LoVe this doorway!)

(and this statue of the Mad Hatter would look fabulous 

with my table and chairs)

Still on the lookout for an unusual water feature

and this recycled idea looks just the ticket!

I don't have roses in my garden because you have to look after

them and I'm best with plants that look after themselves.  This display 

was stunning though, with glass vases containing cut roses suspended from this gorgeous arbour

a cute womble in the childrens' gardens!

Apologies for the lack of postings here recently.  This is the busiest time of year for us teachers, plus I'm going through a bit of a 'pause' creatively, not sure what to do next and feeling a bit 'lost'.  Hopefully I'll get my creative shoes back on over the summer break.

playing in my journal

I've a lot of report writing to do this weekend

so decided to start the day with a quick play in my journal!

I sprayed through a couple of stencils with shades of green and a splash of teal, then turned the alphabet stencil over and printed with it.  I then inked up a floral stencil with distress ink and stamped with that too!

There's some Tim Holtz tissue tape in there, along with some stamping and rub on letters.

And finally, I found some architect paper that I used to stitch flowers onto using my sewing machine before cutting them out and gluing them directly to my page.  Voila!!

ps thanks for all the lovely comments about my article in Art Journaling :)

almost jumping up and down with excitement!!!

It's a tough week this week, getting reports and assessments finished at school, so I was so, so, so, so happy when I came home to this!

My copy of Art Journaling with my article inside :) :) :)

I'd seen the draft copy but it's quite different seeing it in print, amongst so much gorgeous work!

It's lovely to be featured alongside another northern journaler ;)  the lovely Kate Crane (who's work is on the front cover, how cool is that!) [edit: just discovered Gail Milburn's in here too!  So that makes three of us!]

Right, back to the report writing, will treat myself to a good browse later on!  Wendy, down at The Stamp Attic has copies of Art Journaling if you want to get your hands on a copy - I can highly recommend it ;)

a woolly gathering

Chris, our good friend Sarah and I headed 'up North' last night to Woolfest, Cockerham, Cumbria..  We stayed the night in Chris' caravan, where the view included a lake! [ It doesn't usually, it's just rained a lot (a month's rain in one day yesterday apparently!) ]

From there we made our way to the wool focused event this morning and had an aMaZiNG time :)  Woolly inspiration everywhere!

I'd love to be able to wear a hat like this one on the right!  Gorgeous!!!

I am definitely going to have a go at wet felting with other fabrics and bits and pieces included.  Every bit of nano felting caught my eye, I just love the wrinkled effect produced on the silk/organza.

I'm even tempted to have a go at some weaving after seeing this work by Eta Ingham Lawrie, it's just STuNNiNG!

One of the fab things about the event was that it included everything about wool, from the sheep (this is a Wensleydale - I have some curly Wensleydale locks but didn't realise they were exactly like that on the sheep lol!  Except mine have been dyed blue/green)  through carding and spinning to knitting/felting/weaving. It was great to appreciate the whole cycle.

Chris showed off her knowledge of wool by declaring "Isn't that blue leicester Sarah?  I'm sure it is!"  It was.  Who knew there were so many funky breeds.  I now have some black shetland wool to needle felt into penguins :)  I even got some projects started on the journey there and back -

granny squares on the way, 'big' crochet on the way back (but that photo didn't transfer from my phone for some reason so will share another day).

And now for bed, it was a looooooooooong day, but a good one.  Thanks Chris!