Long Time No See

Hello friends, - I called this post "long time no see", and it has been a long time indeed, - nearly a month.... There are a number of reasons for this, - being away from home, having lost my mojo and finally my photo editing programme having been broken, but that is now fixed (long story), - so really there is no longer an excuse (apart from that mojo is still away on a break), but hey ho, I have been there before, - so here goes:

It's a journal spread in my handmade water colour journal, (more details about that HERE, if you are interested). I used watercolour, Distress products, - crayons, Doxides and inks an also washi tapes, an Alcohol Lift Ink embellishment, some stamping and a Paper Doll received in a mail art swap on Instagram from the the wonderful Rox (Red Dirt Crafter).
The sentiments are stamped using some of Lynne's Affirmations from That's Crafty.

Below some more details:

This beetle was stamped using the print after using Tim Holtz's Alcohol Lift ink. I had planned to use the actual lifted image, but the background was too dark, so I will keep that for an other occasion.

Well, that's it for today. Thank you for your visit and I will try to become a better blogger again and do some more visiting you all too.....

Have a creative time with hopefully some sunshine in it,

xxxxx

Tag Friday at A Vintage Journey

Hello friends, it's a 5th Friday of the month and that means the team at A Vintage Journey are sharing tags they have made just for fun.
Here is mine:

I am heavily into junk journaling at the moment, so I created a tag that could be incorporated into my journal.

I'll give you a brief run down how I went about making my tag and then I'll show you how it fits into my journal.

So I started with a cast off tag after a session playing with my geli plate. I added some distress oxides using mostly blue tones and then did a few sprays with Distress Spray in Ground Espresso.

It was a bit too dark for my liking so I stamped a text background stamp in embossing ink and then embossed with Wow Opaque White EP.

I added some collage elements until I was happy with the way it looked, using some tea-dyed paper, ephemera scraps, washi tape a paper doll etc.

Below a few close ups, I think this style works best if you layers several layers of paper and tape over each other.

 I also rolled up some scraps of ephemera for the gypsy lady to sit on, I propped her up on the back with some bits of waste board.

I finished the back off also, as the tag will be fitted into my journal with washi, so both sides can be used and seen.

And here you can see how the tag fits into my Midori size journal. I call it my everyday journal, as I journal in it on most days.

Here you can see the front of the tag

The journal itself was decorated with more washi. Oh and if you are wondering, I always put a layer of clear gesso over my washi tapes, that way you can both stamp and stencil over it, and write on it easier too.

Here is the back with the right side page of the journal.

Alright, that's it for today, Thanks for dropping by and if you have not been yet, do check out the tags my teamies have created, plenty of inspiration there. All you need to do is CLICK HERE.

Have a great weekend

xxxxx

You've Got Mail...

Hi all
Hope life is treating you well! It's been rather quiet here, for two reasons, - one I've been busy with other things as you will see in a moment, but also, I have become rather tired of blogger and blogging to be honest. It really annoys me they have still not fixed the issue with comments no longer getting into our inbox, but also, writing a blog post takes so long... I much rather spent my time creating. And for sharing creations and getting inspiration from others? Well I thoroughly dislike Facebook even more, but I have recently grown to LOVE Instagram, which was the starting point really of today's post.

I have been hugely inspired by some of the amazing Instagram accounts with wonderful examples of mail art, pen-pal creations, travel journals etc etc. 

So recently I posted this photo on Instagram:

And asked whether anyone would like to receive one of these envelopes for their own journaling, swapping or pen-palling. Well, I got quite a number of requests, so set about creating all these envelopes:

Using washi tapes (a new addiction), vintage book pages, home made and purchased stickers, stamping, stencilling etc. It was so much fun:

Below a few more details and close ups:

Each envelope had a piece of tea dyed and hand stamped paper.

A little booklet like this, with two little pockets inside to hold some washi tapes.

A little bag, either  from clear Glasine or Kraft Glasine paper (the stuff Tim Holtz brought out years ago and was hiding in my stash).

Each little bag was filled with a collection of home made stickers, real and home made postage stamps, little tags and some wax seals, another new passion of mine.....(making them that is).

I printed the flower and rose papers and then fussy-cut them. I also printed some on tissue paper and then made the little stamps (using the Tim Holtz stacked postage stamp dies)

And finally a little blank greeting card with a home made stamp of sorts they can use either as a keepsake or send on to others.

Well it was a lot of work but I had lots of fun. I have decided to added this project to two different challenges:

Art Journal Journey, where the theme this month is Inspired by, and this whole project was inspired by Instagram

And Frilly and Funkie, where the theme is By Airmail. The theme was just so perfect for this and a lot of these envies actually went by airmail!

Well, that's it for now, thank you for taking the time to visit, have a great week and I would love to know your thoughts on the different social media platforms such as blogger, Facebook and Instagram.

Happy Creating

xxxxx

Jumping on the Bulletjournal train

Hello all and thanks for dropping by this very quiet blog... As most of you know I am away from home spending time with my grandchildren and blogging has had to take a bit of a back seat. But, whenever there is a moment I try to create something, and today I have something very different to share with you.

Those who know me well, know that I love planners and journals. I have used a variety of planners, shop bought and home made for years. There are an endless variety of planners out there and a huge planner community.

For a while now I have been watching the phenomenon of bullet journaling. If you don't know what a bullet journal is, you can find out about it HERE.
The more I found out about bullet journalling, the more I liked it, as you can adapt it to whatever works for you. It can be as clean and simple, or as colour, - and artful as you like and there are some amazing artists out there who are into this planning system and can give you great inspiration. Both Pinterest and Instgram are great to find them, there are also hundreds of youtubes. Basically all you need is a pen and a notebook to get started, but after that you can make it as fancy as you want.
Anyway, onto my pages, as I started this in October, the first page shows my October cover page. Cover pages are a bit of an extra really, but it's those creative aspects I really enjoy and that get me into the mood. Below some close ups:

I used coloured pencils, pens and some colourful washi tapes. While in China I found some amazing washi tapes on Etsy, really different ones from the usual brightly coloured tapes, if you are interested, here are some links:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/alicemolds
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/pikwahchan?section_id=11503157
https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/TapesKingdom

One of the things I love about the bullet journal concept is that I can practise both my lettering and my drawing, while at the same time giving some structure to my life, something I know I am going to need during retirement. So here are some further samples:

My monthly overview spread for this month, basically giving a quick view of the month ahead.

I also do weekly spreads and the one for this week is below:

Weekly spreads can contain lots of trackers, habits, sleep, water consumption, whatever you want, and ofcourse each day will have to dos and events listed too - that is the beauty of this system. You are totally free to make it your own and add what you like or find useful.

Finally people also add "collections", pages where you note down things you want to remember or keep track of. Below just a couple I have done so far, - I plan to do several more, but that will keep for another time...

No more forgetting birthdays with this list. Each month I can refer back to this and add the list of people to my monthly spread which also has a section for birthdays.

Well, that's it for now, hope my usual followers are not too disappointed that this is not my usual vintage mixed media stuff, but when I am back home again at some point next month, normal blogging will start again. Until such time, thanks for dropping by today, have a good week and happy creating!

xxxxx