May & June

Hmmmm .......... what else have I been making lately?

Starting way back in July 2013, I came across the idea (thank you Kate Crane) of making a calendar each month in an art journal, and so my journey began.  I got as far as April 2014 and then stopped and really didn't pick up my art journal much after that either.  Last week, I thought I should look over what I had been doing and found this double page all ready to stamp the days of the week on, and as I had just bought a new Stampotique cube stamp with journalling squares, I was ready to stamp.  In just 15 minutes I had stamped the date, the squares and filled them in!   The background was done using Heidi Swap sprays and various stencils, so in real life it is quite shimmery.

Then I moved on to June 2014 .......

Using different green Dylusions sprays, I randomly spritzed and mopped and spritzed a bit more and mopped a bit more - I'm sure you get the idea of where I'm going with this!   To add some texture, I used Croco Crackling Colour 'Metallic Silber' by Viva through a stencil, putting it aside to dry and hopefully, crackle!   Once it was dry to the (gentle) touch, I then added the circles using a lid dipped into black gesso.  Just for fun (but unfortunately I don't think it shows in the photo) I also dipped another lid into Distress Crackle Paint 'rock candy' and left it to dry.   Next I stamped the date and different journalling squares (from the same Stampotique stamp) and filled in what happened on different days in June.

So, I have now finished a year's worth of calendar entries with journalling in the date squares, 

from July 2013 through to June 2014.  

I'm still wondering if I will continue for a bit longer or just leave it at 1 year???

Hmmmm ........... what to do, what to do???

Happy Crafting!

March Calendar Journal

My apologies for not coming back yesterday, but since today is the 1st of March, it's a more appropriate date to show you my page, so here 'tis:

I chose the colours because I wanted a more autumn(y) feel to the page.  I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out, especially after February's BLAH page.  I'm going to have to fix it because between January's 'summer' and now March's 'autumn',  poor February looks even worse then BLAH!

I started with spritzing water over the whole page, followed by  Dylusion Inks 'fresh lime', 'lemon zest' and 'cherry pie'.  The pages were then shmooshed together which gives a lovely blending of the colours and then dried off with the heat tool.

Next, using Distress Ink 'tea dye' and a stencil, I added portions of writing across both pages.

On the bottom corner using 'jet black' Archival Ink, I stamped "Relaxin' " and "Kitty", and in the top corner "Owl Tree", all Stampotique stamps.

The owls were given the eye treatment with little dots of gold Liquid Pearls as did kitty.  The days were punched using SU square 1 1/4" punch, and all letters and numbers stamped using stamps from my stash.

Thanks for visiting and hope you are having a lovely day wherever you happen to be.  Today's weather in Sydney is cool and damp, perfect for the first day of autumn. 

Happy crafting!

January Calendar Page

I've been playing in my Journal lately, trying to catch up with each month.  Does this make sense?  Anyhow, I was really pleased with January's page as I was trying to capture the feel of summer.

I started by spritzing the whole double page with water, then the bottom third with Dylusions 'Lemon Zest', the middle third with 'Calypso Teal' and the upper third with 'London Bus', then smooshed it by rubbing the pages together.  Gee I know how I did this but I just don't seem to be able to put it into words very well!

I wasn't at all worried by the odd bit of white space as if I use my imagination, I can see clouds in the lovely blue sky.  The other white shapes you can see in the blue sky are from using 'White Linen' through a Tim Holtz' stencil 'splatters'.  This stencil was also used on the yellow area with a bit more 'Calypso Teal'.

The daily squares were punched with my SU 'postage stamp' punch through shimmer paper, and the lovely young lady is a Prima 'Doll' stamp which I also coloured with Dylusion Ink 'Cherry Pie'.  The colour variation in her skirt is because the water pen I was using had some leftover colour ink in it and as the bright cherry pie I was picking up on the brush only was used, it got replaced with whatever colour was in the brush.  Just as well I realised and was able to colour her skirt accordingly.

I also finished February's page but it looks rather "BLAH" and needs something more added to get it out of the doldrums.

But (pause for effect) ....... I managed to get a page done for March as well and was also rather happy with how it turned out too.  I can't believe I'm actually up to date, for once!  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what I mean!

I would like to say "THANK YOU" to all my new followers and for those who leave lovely messages.  
 
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!