Rose in Winter

Today is the day that I leave for Australia to be with my youngest son for Christmas.

I just want to thank all my blogging friends for their support and wonderful comments. Thank you so much they are very much appreciated.
I will not be blogging much while away, other than perhaps the odd photograph. I hope to visit many of your blogs though while away and look forward to the inspiration.

Wishing all the very best holiday season!
This picture is a photo I took in my garden the other day, jazzed up a bit with some textures from Brenda Starr and Katmary on flickr, they can be found in the textures for layers group. Thank you both!
It looks quite cool printed out with a bit of glitter added, - feel free to use.

2 journal pages

We have loads of snow here in Edinburgh and that meant that school was closed both today and tomorrow, two extra days of holiday, yippee and more play time of course. 

Here are a couple of jourrnal pages. 




Most of the elements are from collage sheets by Tumble Fish Studios on Etsy. You can find them here

Birthday card for a special friend

I have not blogged anything for ages. Normally I don't blog my cards but thought I would make an exception with this one. It's for a special friend and I have to say it looks better in real than on the picture here.

I also have some exciting news. I was contacted by Stampington's Artjournalling magazine and they have accepted one of my journals. It will be published in the January issue.

Next Saturday I am off to see my son in Australia over Christmas, so probably will not be blogging much in the next few weeks.

This is the card

and this is the card with matching envelope
The stamp used on the card is by Oxford Impressions.

Take a Word "Moon"

Everybody loves the moon, the new moon, the full moon, the harvest moon and a blue moon. Here is my creation for the challenge this week.


Credits:
Background: Photo taken by my son. Textures Natalie Lif on Flickr. Images Teesha Moore altered by me.

One Sheet Mini Book

Here is a little mini book I have made out of one sheet of A4 (8.5/11") paper. I made it for a swap in my art group. The theme was free choice but it had to have quotes in it.

Making these little mini books is great fun! Here is a link to a really clear explanation (I think) of how to do them.
mini book

Front cover


page 1&2


page 3 & 4


page 5 & 6


Back cover

Take a Word "Angel"

The theme at Take a word is Angel. I called my Angel atc Inner Peace. The background is from Joes Sistah on Flickr.

Art, Heart & Healing

Like many people in blog world it seems, I have become a member of Willowing Ning site in order to participate in the free course Tammy is offering there.
Here is a picture I did in my journal after watching the videos of the first week. I did not follow exactly what she was just suggesting, but I incorporated some of her background techniques. For those of you who have not heard of this course yet, I put a button on my side bar.

Take a Word "Time"

As many of you will have noticed, there is a new challenge blog run by the clever ladies of the Three Muses.
Every week they will give us a challenge to create something with a word prompt. This week is it is "Time"

Time is something I never seem to have enough of (like many people I'm guessing). I decided to create a tribute to the Goddess of Time, asking her to grant me more. The piece did not work out at all how I had wanted it, but at least I had fun painting...

The Three Muses "Hats"

Time was rather short this week, so all I had time for was a rather boring atc with a hatted lady on it. Sorry not very inspired but I did want be part of the challenge and hope to be inspired by others:o)

5 x 7 journal page

This is the front and the back of a 5 x 7 journal I am doing in my art group.
SIDE ONE

The main image on this one is a freebee from Pringle Hill Studios which I altered slightly. Thank you Terri!
SIDE TWO

The main image on this one is from Digital Collages.com

Altered Domino brooches

Here are three dominoes I recently altered, just for something a bit different.
Of course they are meant for various friends.The images are from Charmed Memory Collages on Etsy.

Halloween journal pages

I seem to be in a Halloween groove. Halloween themes keep appearing in my journal. Here are the two latest ones. The sitting witch is from a Magic by Moonlight sheet, the other one is one of Land of Nods latest freebees, - I gave her a witch hat from a freebee Halloween collage sheet by Constancet on Flickr.The backgrounds are my own painted stamped and collaged.

Two journal pages

It's been a while since I have shown some of my journal pages. Here are two that I did recently.
The one that is mainly hand drawn (I used one paper artsy stamp)was inspired by Pam Carriker's Journal 365 workshop over at Creative Workshops. The iamges on the other one are from Teesha Moore as most of you will recognize.

2011 Calendar finished!

My vintage ladies beermat calendar is finally finished. Now all I need to do is bind it. Pfew, I'm quite sick and tired of vintage ladies by now at least for a while...The thing is I wanted all pages to be in the same style. Almost all of the images are from Lisa's altered arts.

The Three Muses "Vintage"

The theme at the three Ms is "Vintage" this week. Well more than half of what I make would probably fit this theme...
Anyway, decided to make a couple of ATCs, I had this idea of making twelve ATCs one for each month of the year and make them into a book. Not sure whether i'll really do it or not, but here are two "vintage" ones anyway.
Images are from Lisa's altered arts collage sheets. Back grounds are my own, crackles were done with Rangers Chrackle Accents then rubbed with acrylic paints and wiped off quickly. The rest is painted stamped etc.

Gingersnap Creations Gothic Elements

This is the first time I am participating in one of the Gingersnap Challenges.
I made a 4 x 4 hanger for the current theme Gothic Elements.

2011 desk top calendar

I am making a 2011 little calendar out of altered beer mats. Here are the first 4 pages. When they are all done I will bind them together with a zutter machine.
All images are by Lisa's Altered Arts.

Altered envelope journal swap

front

back

There is another altered envelope swap in my art group.This month the theme is artist choice. Altering envelopes is defenitely a new addiction, I just love doing them and receiving them! For those of you new to this, once you have altered your envelope, (you do need to leave a space for the address) you send them "naked" to your partner or whoever you want to send one to. This "naked" means there is nothing inside the envelope other than perhaps a piece of card to keep it sturdy. The recipient does not open the envelope but keeps it shut to treasure as a piece of art for its own sake. Of course you could bind them into a book once you have a collection of them. Great fun and a nice change from ATCs.

The Three Muses "Music"

The theme at the three Ms is "Say it with Music". This is actually the back of the Chicken themed journal swap I'm doing but as the background has some music in it I thought I'd put it in for the Three Muses's challenge also.

"Chicken" journal page

In my art group we do a monthly 5 x 7 journal page swap. This month the theme was Chicken. Hmmm, not a theme that I found all that easy, but here it is, I gave it a slight Halloween twist, after all it is October...

The Butterfly Effect

I finally managed to make my butterfly for the Butterfly Effect initiative started by Two Dresses Studios. If you have not heard of this, click on the picture in the sidebar.

October monthly calendar journal

After a family crisis I finally managed to get some art time again today. This is my October page for a monthly calendar journal that quite a few of us are doing. Main image and pumpkins are by Tumble Fish Studio and are available on Etsy

The Three Muses "Art Envelopes"

I love mail art and altering envelopes is one of my favourites. Here is a Halloween themed one for this week's challenge. The main image is from a free collage sheet from Land of Nods studios. The sheet is called altered people, but I altered the little boy a bit further still.

Playing with portraits

Just playing around with some cool new techniques. The background to this piece was created using the gesso watersoluable crayon technque. My friends Roc and Terri just made a great new video demonstrating this cool way of making backgrounds. A great excuse to get the old Caran D'ache watercolour crayons out of their dusty boxes. I have had these for years and years and don't use them nearly often enough. You can see the video here

Experimenting with layers

At the moment I am experimenting with lots of different layers, there must be well over 10 in this journal spread. Acrylic glazes, stamps, pens, paper serviettes. Journaling to be added later.

Halloween Postcard

In my art group there is a post card swap evry month. This month the theme was that there had to be a moon on the postcard somewhere. I am still in Halloween groove, so ofcourse it turned into a Halloween postcard. Mostly hand painted with some digital brush work.

The Three Muses Printed Word

It's a long time since I have blogged one of my journal spreads, but here is a double page incorporating the printed word. I use torn book pages a lot in my art, so this was an easy challenge. I'm also posting the second side of my Frida journal page for an art swap. The main image is a new stamp I got from Happy Daze

Journal page swap

This is side 1 of a Frida Kahlo journal page swap in my art group.
The main image is from a google search totally altered. The background was done with painted deli paper. The central strip of paper was a gift from my friend Wanda. You can see her amazing work here

Halloween skinny number 4

Here is number 4 of the 6 skinnies I am making for a halloween swap. The background was created using deli paper which I was sent by the lovely Marilyn Rock. You can watch a video on how to do these kind of backgrounds here

If there is anyone who knows where you can get this kind of paper in the uk, please let me know, I love the stuff! I am also putting this in for the 3 Muses' challenge where Bev has chosen the theme "Numbers" this week.

Two more Halloween skinnies

Here are two more halloween skinnies I made for a swap I am in.

Monthly Candar Journal September

Here is my monthly calendar journal page for September. I am also putting this is for the Three Muses Challenge where the theme is back to nature.
Even though Autumn is now truly on its way I always feel that in September nature is at her most abundant. At least here in Scotland many fruits are only ripening now, we often seem to get more sun in September than either July or August and you can really experience the "fullness" of nature.

Sacred Heart ATCs

A while back I joined a Sacred Relics ATC swaps.It will carry on over several months and each month there will be another sub theme. This month's theme is Sacred Hearts. The vocal point of each ATC was meant to be a heart and of course the ATCs themselves had to have the feeling of sacredness, so no love hearts or anything.
Anyway, here is what I came up with for my three:

And the winner is....

Last week I did a mystery blog giveaway when I had reached my 400th post and 200 followers. The winner would receive a mystery gift. Well the gift is a original folk art painting my me on a plywood canvas. Here it is:


And the winner is: LINDA. The random number generator selected you, congratulations. I hope you like your little painting. I'll be in touch.

Thank you to everyone who left a comment.

Halloween Skinny

Here is my first Halloween creation for htis year. It was made for a Halloween themed skinny swap. Background Digital Collagesheets.com altered with the help of paper serviette. Witch put together out of various bits and pieces by me. Skull and bat Digital Collagesheets.com