Use it up, Fill it up Instagram Challenge

I love a good challenge to get me making things so over on Instagram I've been taking part in Tiffany Goff Smith's Use it up, fill it up 2 challenge.  It's been great to use favourite gelli prints in my Salvaged journal, and in particular, to use this ornate coffee pot stamp that I've had forever and had never used!

I'm loving these little dies by Simply Graphic.  I was very happy that google translate worked as they are a French company, with a French website!

My gelli prints are results from Birgit Koopsen's '31 days of gel printing' Instagram challenge from last Summer.  Putting them in a book means I get to stroke them ...lots!!

stages of a journal page

For me, the more layers I have in my journal page, the more likely I am to have 'eek' moments when I really don't like it.  These pages had a number of these and although I'm ok with the end result, they aren't my faves; and that's ok!

I'm challenging myself to art journal every day and from the middle of Jan to the middle of Feb I incorporated Rae Missigman's 30 day art marks challenge.  Today I thought I'd share the progress behind a couple of those pages.

I started with a madly coloured page which I toned down using Dina Wakley's heavy body white paint through a Stencilgirl stencil.

I challenged myself to use colours I don't normally use for these pages, and I was also trying out a different process, following one of Rae's videos and trying out different layers ..

...which included different papers added as a layer.

Adding a focal point of my own creation, rather than basing it on a stamped image, was a challenge for me.  I chose to tear paper into a shape and at this point the flower was my favourite...

..but once I added colour it was the leaves I was happiest with!  More white paint around the images made them 'pop' a bit better from their busy backgrounds.

I'm particularly pleased with how this challenge got me using my own marks, rather than always using rubber stamps.  I carved some of these into stamps of my own and I'm loving using them in a variety of ways.

detail from flower page

I love how challenges take me out of my comfort zone and encourage me to try new things.  Rae is putting together another challenge for March but it's not too late to join in this one here

five layers of journaling

Still catching up on sharing my pages from my moleskine planner, inspired by the Original Documented Life Project and this is another of my favourites.

Art Challenge: Using at least Five Layers

The challenge was to use at least five layers and I was hugely inspired by the fabulous Art to the 5th Cardboard Crush workshop.

I painted up a strip of paper with a repeated mark and created five separate 'pages' that I then stitched together.

Each of the five 'pages' has five layers on it....

...and they lift up so are journaled on both sides.

I hope you get a good idea from these photos; it was hard to get good images of the way this page was put together!

I'm loving adding doodling to my pages :)

The above 'page' started off as a scrap of paper that I'd added some watercolour paint to.  I then doodled around a leaf shape and added some collage.

I'm not sure where this little guy came from - possibly an old lotto game.  I just loved him and decided he'd be happy in my journal.  I added art journaling to the other side of the card ...

Another page featured a verse from Documented Faith

I really can recommend this art challenge.  I'm loving it :)

some early spring cleaning!

I've been playing in a new journal  :)  I'd like to start including more written journaling so am practising!

It's also been my treat for finally sorting my craft room, not that it looks particularly tidy and organised in this general shot.  I used to have space in the cellar but once the kids moved out of the attic I got to move up there.  That was a few years ago and although I've blitzed it before it's never got properly sorted.

I'm forever turning these two tables around.  I have one for paper stuff and the other for stitching.  I have a sewing machine and an embellisher on there.

Last year my Mum bought me these huge boxes to keep my fabrics in.  Sometimes it takes a while to work out how best to organise things, but I think I'm there with them this time.

  

I bought the above mannequin for my corset and it's been standing empty for ages whilst I hunted for my corset, sure I'd seen it around somewhere.  It turned out I'd given it to one of the members of the corset swap a couple of years ago and she surprised me with it the other week :)  It still has space for work but I'm happy with it for the moment.

Around behind my paper workdesk is this lovely plan chest which was gifted to me by Paddy of Paddy's Stamping Place.  I use it as an additional workspace for my Big Shot and for working on other paper projects such as using Brusho.

I'm going to give the Documented Life Project 2015 a go, alongside Documented Faith and Take Me Deeper, this year.  I'm not great at keeping up with long term projects but a fresh start and all that!

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!  Thanks so much for all your support this year, Sarah x

2014: My Year with Stampotique

OK, where did that year go?  I can't believe I've been on the Stampotique Designer's Blog team for a whole year!!  I have absolutely loved it; such a wonderful, friendly group of people.

As it's Boxing Day here in the UK an appropriate final project for 2014 would have been an altered matchbox, but that only occurred to me as I wrote this post!

I decided to pick out some of my favourite projects from the year and was hoping to put them in a slideshow but couldn't work out how!  So you have a shorter collection of photos from over the last year.

I've never done one of those end of year looking back posts but looking back at these projects is making me consider doing one!

I've made tags, envelopes and journal pages and happily cut, stuck, stitched, sprayed, collaged, stamped, painted and doodled and had a wonderful time :)

I've also made some lovely friends and want to thank Carol, Jim and Kim for having me on team this year.

Thanks for sticking with me on this photo heavy post!  And thanks for supporting me through my Stampotique adventure :)

 Wishing you all the very best for 2015, Sarah xx

Oh Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...

... how lovely are your branches!

I love twiggy trees like this and would be quite happy with this as a Christmas tree, I'd just add white lights and some silver baubles.

Stampotique stamps used:

Oh...Tree  #6152  by Daniel Torrente

Text star with tiny star on side  #3027  by Jo Capper-Sandon

romantic text  #10028  by France Papillon