Just a little journal Splatting!

Today I've been playing .... and working.  Since I'm still being ultra cautious when walking around the house, no sudden moves etc, I thought I'd have a bit of a play.  But first I needed to finish prepping next Saturday's "Quick & Easy Christmas Cards" class at Alice in Paperland.  So I've finished cutting cardstock, typed up the instructions, added photos and printed it all off.  Since this is mostly done sitting down, I've also been keeping the heat up, trying to relax those injured muscles.  Definitely feeling better but scared I'll make another 'nothing in particular' move and I'll be in pain again.

Anyhow ....... after sitting for a while I really needed to gently stretch those muscles so I got out my art journal and distress paints and inks and got playing.  Because I don't want to get ink over things, I generally set up on my kitchen bench and just make sure the stove is covered, and so I stood up for a while playing.

First up I decided to "splat"  (should that have 1 or 2  't' s?), a technique I saw recently on Scrap It TV using distress paints.  I also discovered it also works very well with distress stains.

This was FUN!!!  Some splats turn out BIG some turn out small, but it was lots of FUN!!!

The exclamation marks make this splat come to life, hee hee.  I splatted with distress paints first, then dried them off before splatting with distress stains.  To splat with paints, add a couple of drops of water to the sponge head and then SPLAT, easy peasy!  The stains really don't need water adding as they are already fairly liquid.

I then turned the page and just 'painted' the two pages - I'm not sure if these pages will get used for anything else, but they are colourful and I like them just as they are.  I also added a little water spray, just for fun, hence the blobs on the 'stain' page - yes, they are meant to be there!

Hopefully, I'll get to work in the morning, but I'll be making sure there will be no heavy lifting involved.

Happy crafting!

Fofe & Mela

Hi there, here I am again, still nursing a sore back and feel like I'm walking on eggshells, but my back is a lot less painful today.  Lots of heat, rest and not doing too much.  Oh, and the house-elves, slaves and other family members are being super helpful with chores.  Thanks guys - love you all.

Over at Stampotique this week, the theme is 'washi tape' so I thought I'd play along.

First up I made the background from washi tape and blended various distress inks together.  Next I stamped Fofe and coloured him using distress markers, fussy cut around him and popped him onto dimensionals for added depth.

A length of washi tape folded together and looped forms a 'ribbon' for the tag.

I quite liked the idea of playing with the washi tape, so I made a second tag, this time with Mela as the centre of attention.

This time after laying the washi tape at different angles, I went around the edges of the tag with distress ink "peacock feathers".  I didn't want too much background colour as I felt she could blend in too easily.

A piece of green washi tape grounds her, and it was also used to make the 'ribbon'.

This was a fun challenge to use washi tape, as quite often I just don't seem to know what to do with it.  Many thanks to the DT members for their inspiration.

Fofe is my entry in this week's challenge at Stampotique

Happy crafting!

Agony!

Agony!  Now that's got your attention.  Unfortunately it's got my attention too, in the form of a really painful back that keeps going into spasms.  It's all I can do to walk just at the moment, so I think I'm stuck in this chair for a while.  I need heat on it but my heat sack is on my bed and I can't bend to reach it - eeeek!!  I'm waiting for #3 son to wake up and be my slave.

It all started innocently enough on Tuesday afternoon.  I came home with a slightly sore back that I really didn't pay much attention to, did normal evening stuff and went to bed.  Wednesday morning was up at 5.40am to see #1 son off to work, still a little sore UNTIL I SNEEZED!  It was 5.50am.  OUCH now it's not sore, it HURTS.   OK heat sack on, see how we go.  Hmmm, not too bad but I won't be a martyre, so I phoned to make an appointment with my chiropractor.  Walking was ok, and my visit to the chiro was positive, pelvis still in alignment, it's muscular.  Lots of heat, care and should be better in a week or so.

Yesterday it was still fairly sore but that was partly due to being pummelled by the chiro.  As the day wore on it felt better.

This morning, ahh it's feeling less painful.  Went outside to move car in driveway so I could take #2 son to train station in my car,  (first one was blocking 2nd one) no problem.  Went to get keys for 2nd car out of my pocket and AGONY, just like that - it sure doesn't take much!  When you've got a crook back, putting your foot on the clutch hurts, turning the steering wheel hurts, breathing hurts. 

When I got home again it took me a good 10 minutes to get out of the car and stand up, with spasms hitting every couple of minutes.  How on earth was I going to get into the house?  Very slowly hanging onto the side fence, then the ridges in the garage door and then brickwork on the house I got there.  Anyone watching must have wondered what the heck I was doing!

So now I'm inside, sitting here at the computer and wondering how I'm going to get through today.  I was planning on 'playing' at Alice's this morning but that is totally out of the question, so here I am in pain!  Getting out of this chair is going to be 'fun' but what do I do then?  Think I'll sit here for a while .........

Happy crafting!

Heart Throb & Teddy

Over at Stampotique this week, the theme is "Birthday" in honour of one of the DT's birthday. Happy Birthday wishes, Kim !!!  So, out came my newest two stamps, Heart Throb and Teddy.  I know there are much more recent stamp releases, but Stampotique stamps are rarely found here in Sydney.  I really can't understand why, so I think it's time for me to start ordering directly from the source.

For the background I used a combination of Distress Inks, 'peacock feathers' and 'shaded lilac', then using Dylusions 'diamond border' stencil I again went over it with  'peacock feathers' and 'peeled paint' from top right to bottom left corners.

Next I fussy cut Heart Throb and his Teddy, colouring them with Distress Markers to contrast with the background.  Using him as placement only, I then stamped "Hip Hip Hooray its your Birthday" using black Archival ink.  Before popping him up on dimensionals, a couple of pieces of washi tape were added to ground him.  Another piece of washi tape has been used for a 'ribbon'.

A little slit allows Heart Throb to hold Teddy under his arm, no escape for this Teddy!

You too can join in the fun at Stampotique.

Happy crafting!

Party This Way

Just a quickie post today showing another of the Prima "Doll" tags.  As you may have read in a previous post, I have decided to have a stall at our local school's Spring Fair at the end of October and of course I need to make (or at least think up - LOL) a number of items to sell.  I've found from experience that 'cheap & cheerful' sell fairly well, while 'interesting that takes time', doesn't.  People seem to think that handmade equates to cheap, when in actual fact it should be the other way around, handmade should equate to spend a little extra to get something unique and not mass produced.

As an added bonus for me, CASology's theme this week is "arrow" so I thought I would play along and enter this delightful party girl.

Happy crafting!

July Calendar Page

I finally got around to finishing a page in my Journal, something I have been thinking about for a while.  I've seen others in real life as well as on blogs and thought they were a brilliant idea.  "What is she talking about?" I hear you ask.  Answer - "a Calendar Page".

Now the reason I started with July (yes I know it's now September) is because the month started off with somewhat of a bang!  It was when I flew to Melbourne with Jenni & Jackie to attend the retailers day at Kaisercraft (actually two days, but who's counting?), followed by a couple of days away in the Blue Mountains with my BFF to pick up DS#1 from his Six Foot Track hike.  I wanted to be able to look back through this Journal and remember the things I have done this year, so July seemed like a good place to begin.

The stamps in the garden are a combination of Dylusions and JOFY.  Many thanks to Jenni for sharing her brand new JOFY stamps, they are just delicious and I know she ordered them specially, as this brand doesn't appear to have entered the Australian market yet.

The squares were punched using Stampin' Up's 'postage stamp' punch, the title is stamped in black Archival using stamps in my stash, and as ever Dylusion inks were used to colour the page.

So now that I've started on this journey, I'm going to have to continue otherwise it's going to look pretty odd having one calendar entry and nothing else.  I'm not sure how August is going to look, but I'd better think of something quickly before I forget what happened!!

Thanks for coming by to see what I've been up to, and you're most welcome to leave a comment (although if you leave a comment using 'Anonymous' please add your name, otherwise I won't have any idea of who you are) !!!

Happy crafting!
 

I've been a Bad Blogger ...

I've been such a bad blogger lately, the intentions are there (really, they are) but I feel like I've been just a tad busy while at the same time not achieving very much (sigh!).  Too many things to do, but they keep me out of mischief (hee hee) at least!  Actually, I need to stay home and stop going out!

Anyhow, yesterday I headed off to Alice's to play in a class that was being taught by Bianca Clarkson.  We made two cards that had a lot more layers and bits & pieces then I'm used to, but it was such fun.  Perhaps now I won't be so afraid to add lots of layers.

These two cards consisted of distressing, tea dyeing (with teabags), tearing, burning (water at the ready), stamping, hot glue gunning (not my favourite tool, but necessary) ...... as I said, such fun.  Thanks Bee for a really terrific class and thanks to my classmates for a fantastic morning.

So what else has been going on?  Ah yes, our local primary school (the one my boys all went to some years ago) is planning a Spring Fair at the end of October and I decided to take a stall, along with my BFF and another friend.  My part of the stall will be papercraft (what else?), my BFF is making some gifts with leftover fabrics from her patchwork projects, and my other friend will have some other handmade goodies.

I thought I'd better get going with what I would like to sell so I've started with gift card packs (above) and some doll tags (below).  Lots more to do in the next 6 weeks, but at least I've made a start!

I think it would be really useful if I were to make a list of what I would like to achieve and tackle things one at a time (or maybe two) so I can see where I'm headed, otherwise I'll be in a state of panic with nothing to sell when the Fair is upon us.

Hopefully I'll return to regular blogging (which is always my intention) very soon.

Happy crafting!