Something From Almost Nothing

Great news - a new Shimelle class - and something geared at stash-a-holics - how perfect is that ! I am so relieved to know that it's not just me that has an addiction to buying "stuff" ! So many girls from round the world seem to have the same problem - far more stash than we can ever get to be creative with ! Hoping that Shimelle's new Something From Almost Nothing Class will inspire me to use up some of my copious amounts of papers, ribbons, buttons & use my stamps more creatively - so watch this space for the rest of March !!

Snow Boys !

My sister sent me these great pictures of my nephews making snowmen back in January - just had to make a page for my scrapbook !

Mixed Media Mosaics

Well despite not blogging for a while I have been trying out a new craft technique - making my own mixed media mosaic tiles. The technique is taught in Laurie Mika's excellent book Mixed Media Mosaics and she combines really clear and encouraging instructions with some inspiring examples of her own work. I have great fun finding a way of using the Sculpy clay I had bought in a way that really appealed to me. My messy mat has a grid marked on it which made sizing the tiles much easier and it was fun adding the beads & charms. The most amazing technique was brushing the raw clay with mica powders for stunning colours & pearlescent affects.

The tiles represent the four seasons and are added to a box frame in which I have featured my new Owl stamp. All in all I'm pleased with my first attempt - even if my tile edges are a bit wonky ! That's one to work on with my next piece !!

Guardian Angel ?

I have been dabbling with the next page of my art journal this week - moving things about until I liked the final look of them!

The page was a coming together of inspirations. The theme was inspired by my finding a small white feather on the lap quilt on my sofa.

I have heard from somewhere that if you find a lone white feather somewhere unexpected that it has been left by your Guardian Angel as a reminder to have faith that they are there looking after you. It's quite a comfort to believe this at the moment when we are so concerned about Mum.

The style is a combination of ideas - I am reading "The Art of Personal Imagery" by Corey Moortgat in which she gives ideas & techniques for including pictures, images & photos into a collage style which has some personal meaning. I have seen quite a lot of what I call modern American or "Stampington" style collage but whilst it can be quite attractive it does seen a bit derivative & cliched with its wings & crowns and "inspire"/ "believe" & "journey/ discover" words dotted around !

But I decided to take it in the right spirit and take some of those very motifs and make a page about my Guardian Angel. The image is from Kelly Rae Roberts beautiful artwork in her enjoyable & inspiring book "Taking Flight" - the inking & painting ideas from "Personal Imagery" - so a bit of fun with some of the things I have been reading over the past few months.

Here's hoping that my Guardian Angel is here with us especially when we need her at the moment.

Not much crafting got done !

Well here we are back from our week in Spain & although I did take a crafting kit in case of poor weather confining us indoors - we were really lucky & the weather was pretty good - a couple of damp days but then 3 days of blue skies & sun to finish - so no crafting got done at all !!

Still nice to chill out, rest up & see friends & take some long walks. Including a sunset walk which turned into a moonlit stroll courtesy of a full moon in a clear sky !

What a difference a week makes !

We have at last seen the melting of the snow & on Friday my garden finally reemerged from 15 days of snow cover. Not much in comparison to those parts of the world that freeze for months on end - but the longest I have ever experienced !!Never thought I would be so glad to see heavy rain - but after 3 years complaining about the rain in Wales it was fabulous to see it defeat the snow & the roads & pavements become safe again ! Now we just have to wait to see which of our plants have survived the freezing temperatures & the snow .. that won't become clear for a few weeks I think.

We finally got to swim - yippee! And a walk in the Botanic Gardens where I saw my first snowdrops of the year - and even a few daffodils about to break bud. How miraculous that all that was waiting under the snow !

No time for crafting this week - but have prepared a project kit to make a mini book of our trip to Pembrokeshire last September - for when I get a creative slot come up !

Snow = time for crafting !

It's an ill snow storm that blows no crafter any good !! With Wales in the grip of the longest freezing spell in 30 years, we are just venturing out to do what is essential - and then coming back to our nice warm nest to huddle ! With the garden out of bounds - and the ironing done ! - there is time to get crafty !

So I have worked on the first 2 pages in my Art Journal. After a month Journalling my Christmas (and I was delighted to have kept up & finished this project & tucked it up for the year with a nice silver ribbon !!) I was ready to dismantle that project box (that worked so well - having all the likely stuff I would need in one box meant being so much speedier & less time wasted hunting about for things - note to self - do this again !!). I needed an antidote to red green & blue - so inspired by an article in Feb's Craft Stamper magazine - I wheeled out my new Invoke Art Heart Stamps & heart punch and went for a full on dose of sugar pink - layering onto mulberry paper & glimmer misting before adding the hearts. A nice bit of sugar-y sentiment to start off my Journal !

On my new page per day calender at work there is a little motto each day - and I loved the one for Thursday. "Great ideas need landing gear as well wings". How true - an idea just floats about as a fluffy cloud unless you actually DO something to get it into action. Hence the ideas floating about as clouds, then shaping up into more box shaped and then some grounding gear, some wheels & a steering wheel to drive the idea when I've got it landed. It was fun to take the phrase & work up the idea into something pictorial !