Christmas Alphabet

Hi

During December I made a 'Christmas Alphabet' book.   This was an idea I had stemming my alphabet game (when I can't sleep I pick a subject and find things to do with that subject for every letter of the alphabet (I may have mentioned this before) (eg:  countries: Albania, Belgium, Canada, Denmark etc etc etc you get the idea).  Then I heard a song by Dickie Valentine called the 'Christmas Alphabet' that is THE most retro, heartwarming christmas song I've heard in a while - it topped the Christmas music charts in 1955 (way before my time! lol) - look it up - its totally charming - I warn you though - its an earworm. I apologise in advance.

I made this book (5x7inches) as a way of working on a Christmas project without actually documenting christmas.  I got as far as 19 letters which I think is pretty good!  I stopped because I set a time limit - not because I couldn't think of anything to do with certain letters - though Q was, and still is, a bit tricky! (so if you think of something please let me know, add it to the comments.  Thanks!)

I posted all the pages on Instagram but I wanted to put them on my blog too - so here it is - my Chritsmas Alphabet! 

A: Angel

B: Baubles

C: Candles

D: Donkey, Decorations,..... ??

E:  Elf

F: Father Christmas

G: Gift

H: Holly

I: Ice Skating

J: Jingle, Jolly (I was struggling with this letter and then DH said 'er, how about Jesus?!' Oh my goodness how could I have forgotten the main reason for christmas!  Shamed, straight onto the naughty list.)

K: Kings ('we three kings of orient are....')

L: ??

M:  Mittens, Mistletoe, Mincepie

N: Naughty or Nice

O: Ornaments

P: Poinsettia

Q: ???

R: Reindeer/Rudolph

S: Snow

T: Tree

U:  Us (yes, I was stretching the christmas theme with this one but due to Covid restrictions (we're in Tier 4) it was just the two of us this christmas so I felt it was justified.

V: ???

W: Wreath

X: Xmas

Y: Yule log

Z:  was going to be lots of little Zs to illustrate sleeping - inspired by 'twas the night before christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse....'

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year!!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well hello!  

Its been a while... almost 6 months...  

In that time so much has been going on in the world hasn't it - I hope you are all doing ok.

I, like a lot of people, has had to adapt to these new circumstances - find new ways of connecting with people... new ways of teaching my classes etc etc etc. 
So I started offering my classes online (as many tutors have) through Facebook - its a fun way to teach but takes some getting used to - standing in my workroom/studio talking to myself/ the camera...  but I'm glad I offered these workshops - it connected me to some lovely people, gave me purpose and I hope it inspired people.

My plan for 2021 is to spend more time on my blog - its nice to write something more substantial than short texts that accompanying photos on Instagram....  aaah Instagram - I do love it but it is a time vortex!! ....very easy (too easy) to get sucked in!  In a good way, obviously!

aaaanyhoo - I'm going to start slowly getting back to writing my blog - I'm aiming for once a week to start with and see how that goes - its all about building a habit isn't it - good habit.

Thanks for stopping by, and all best wishes for the coming year.

New stamps and stencils!!

Well I'm embarrassed to say the least at how long it is since I last blogged!! Shameful. lol  I was really shocked to see that it was THREE months since I posted!! 

aaaanyhoo - to make up for it I'm bringing you new stamps and stencils!!  3 stamp sets and coordinating stencils!  Flowers, big words, phrases - sized for card makers and small journal pages....

On this stencil there is 1/4 of a tile design - this is going to allow for all kinds of fun creating tiled patterns - great for art journal pages and interior design projects...

Here are some I made earlier by stenciling onto chipboard squares.

I'm really enjoying seeing the pattern flowing with the line of dots... and how lovely would these look with doodling added on top of the colour!!!

Head over to the PA blog ( blog.paperartsy.co.uk ) where there are lots more samples, and at 19.30 BST tonight I'll be doing a FB Live into the group to talk more about the designs.

Take care

#the100daysproject 2020 #100days100circles Part 2

Nine more pages of #the100dayproject... I'm laying these out in threes as this is how I load them onto my Instagram feed... keeping it all pleasing and neat & tidy!

I'm enjoying this sooo much - I really like how one design can lead to another and I sometimes make several squares in one sitting - I can't help myself!  Good time management! lol

If you have any questions about any of the squares please leave it in the comments and I'll answer.

Thanks for stopping by

#the100daysproject 2020 #100days100circles Part 1

The start of April saw the start of the #the100dayproject  Its an Instagram project that each participant interprets in their own way - pick a topic and do it for 100 days.  Back in 2018 I joined in with my #100daysinthelifeofaline - this created a concertina book measuring just under 10m... You can see it the finished project HERE

I liked the format of that project - nice small pages (9.5x9.5cm) - so I'm using it again this year (I also think the two books will look cute stacked together on a shelf  lol)  but this year its all about CIRCLES!!

#100days100circles

Anything goes - as long as there is a circle involved! - painted, stamped, doodled, embossed, paper pieced, collaged, cut, stencilled, die cut - seriously - ANYTHING!! as long as its a circle - they don't need to be the same size (though I do like them centred)

Here are the first few days....

I'm really enjoying creating these little bite size pieces - I'd recommend taking part in the project... there's no pressure, do as much or as little as you want, choose whatever theme you want and most importantly (for me) is that its  FUN!  and relaxing - or challenging, its up to you!

Thanks for stopping by

Doodle something BIG!

I hope you are all keeping well.... In the UK we are in week 4 (I think, I'm beginning to lose track!) of the lock down.
I've been keeping busy and one of the things I was finding myself doing was clearing things out, destashing... prioritising...
This inevitably results in me getting distracted (in a good way!) and finishing projects.. or in the case of this BIG papermache letter  START & FINISH a project!  I bought it in New York a while ago (along with a matching M (for Matt))... I decided the time had come to decorate it - its been through a plane journey and two house moves I think it deserves to be prettied up! lol

I've laid it out here with a smaller a J I decorated a while back (its a wood shadow box design) - it was a sort of trial run...

This big J measures around 2ft from top to bottom and is about 2inches deep - its quite sturdy and suitable for stamping on to... so that's what I did!
I stamped all over the front and sides starting with the big images - my JOFY big doodle flowers were great for this!

I then filled in the spaces with smaller designs - leaves, flowers, cicles.  I left enough space between images for a bit of doodling, I 'grew' some of the images by doodling around the edges - you can see how in the photos below.

I stamped in Snowflake Fresco Finish paint because its a REALLY good white opaque paint, and added additional doodling with a Uniball Signo pen.
I like to doodle in white or black because those two colours are easy to match between different mediums ie black pen with black paint.. I think a blue or brown would be trickier to match up.

I enjoyed working on this project so much!  It was a little tricky to stamp over the edges and around the curves of the letter but the end result was worth it... thoroughly recommend giving this a go - you could doodle onto any object really.

Thanks for stopping by, stay safe.