June Workshops....

I'm teaching two half day card making workshops at Birds in the Barn (Studio 36) on 30th June and there are a couple of places remaining...

If you'd like to spend the morning or afternoon creating lovely cards with paints, inks, embossing powders and stamps then head on over to Birds in the Barn's website and you'll find all the details you need!

Hope to see you there!

Craft Stamper July 2018: Blog Exclusive

Over on the Craft Stamper blog - HERE - you can see the details and instructions for this tag I created for my article in the July issue, now on sale...

Thanks for stopping by...

ALBOTAT: Do It Now

A spread in my small Dylusions journal to 'document' what I've learned from the events of the past 18 months and that is to..

'do it now' 

ie don't put it off 'til tomorrow because you never really know whats going to happen tomorrow do you - whether its good or bad... so {try to} do it now, today... free up tomorrow by doing it today.

 This spread started off like this...

... a sketched page that had been in there a while and I wasn't sure how to progress it - but the empty space in the bottom left hand corner was perfect for adding words to!

This was a relaxing spread to create - lots of sketching and pencil colouring (Faber Castell Polychromos), the black pen I used is a Posca.

ALBOTAT: using up the scraps.

Sometimes when a project is finished the scraps and 'rubbish' left on the desk are too nice, colourful and interesting to throw away.. so its nice to make something out of them...

I don't tidy my desk very often so there were quite a few scraps on my desk from various projects & class samples and they tied together nicely - pink and green is always one of my favourite colour schemes!  I built this page in my art journal on a page where I'd glued a piece of starry tissue paper thinking it would be a great background for something at somepoint! lol and its a perfect background for this spread.

This took very little time - lots of gluing down, a touch of stamping and some neon pink scribbles and its done!

I encourage you to try this - gather the 'bits' on your desk and play with them - if they came from a project where the colours coordinated then it makes sense that they'll work again in another setting.. win win

Have fun!

ALBOTAT: Spring is blooming!!

This journal page was inspired by the garden and the arrival of spring and, hopefully soon, summer! (fingers crossed lol) Our garden has been getting more colourful by the day and I love the surprises it throws up.

I like to keep some white space on my journal spreads but on this one I scribble wrote all over the page on top of the original sketch

I really like how it looks when you paint over it - just about visible but not legible.. its not interfering with any added layers...

Once I'd finished reinstating the design with paints and a Posca paint pens - love those A LOT!!) I scanned it on the computer. I cleaned up the scan by removing any background marks leaving only the scribble flowers.  I printed it out on my toner printer onto a vintage book page - ooooh that was a good print!  such a great image it was hard to cut it up!! lol

I carried on sticking and colouring- I'd originally planned to stick the printed flowers over the matching ones on the journal page but decided the spread needed more flowers (are there ever enough flowers!) - and I also kept thinking 'its needs more colour'  - until finally, with the addition of swipes of neon pink gel pen, I was finished!

I really like that the pages are bright and colourful but also still have a lot of 'white' space.. space to 'breathe'.

Thanks popping by

Craft Stamper Magazine, July...

.. available in all WHSmith shops and independent craft stores now (and online if you'd rather get your creative fix that way!).. and I'm happy to have a project in there this month...

Its a really lovely summery issue - you won't be disappointed!